Gentleness is ...

Gal 5:26

• Humble confidence: a humility without inferiority
  • Provoking - look what I have that you don't
  • Envying - look what you have that I don't
• Jesus is gentle (Matt 11:28-30)
  • He humbled Himself (Phil 2:5-8)
  • He weeps over brokenness (John 11:35)
  • Sympathizes with our weakness (Heb 4:15)
  • Saves to the uttermost (Heb 7:25)
  • Prays for us right now (Heb 7:25)

Gentleness does ...

Gal 6:1-2

• Confidently and humbly help others
  • Entrapped in sin
  • Setting the bone or relocating the joint
• "Restoring in a spirit of gentleness"
  • Have the conversation
  • Help them see the new picture
  • Call for the intervention
  • Provide a first step to take
• Keep watch
  • Level 1: anger they are not listening
  • Level 2: hurt they will not change
  • Level 3: inappropriately judging intentions and emotionally disconnecting
  • Level 4: marshaling resources against them
  • Mirror before magnifying glass
• Bear burdens together 
  • If we don't share burdens we can't obey
  • If we don't bear burdent we don't obey
  • If we bear burdens, we can become like Him