Gentleness: Ruth

Sermon Summary:

This powerful exploration of gentleness challenges us to reconsider what true strength looks like in our faith journey. Through the beautiful story of Ruth, we discover that gentleness is not weakness but rather tamed strength—power under the control of the Holy Spirit. Ruth’s decision to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi, leaving her homeland and embracing a new God and people, demonstrates firmness wrapped in compassion. What makes this story even more remarkable is that Ruth, a Moabite woman—an outsider—becomes part of the lineage of King David and ultimately Jesus Christ himself. This reminds us that God’s redemptive plan includes everyone, and that our everyday acts of loyalty, kindness, and gentle strength matter eternally. We live in a culture that celebrates loud voices, anger, and division, yet we are called to swim upstream. The challenge before us is clear: will we allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate gentleness in our hearts so that our actions reflect the character of Christ? When we get bumped by life’s challenges, what spills out reveals what we’re truly full of. The fruit of gentleness requires intentional partnership with God’s Spirit, transforming our natural inclinations into supernatural grace that draws others to Jesus.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• Gentleness is not weakness but tamed strength—it is “anger on a leash” and power under Holy Spirit control
• The book of Ruth demonstrates how God works in the lives of ordinary people in everyday circumstances
• Ruth, a Moabite woman, exhibited hesed (love, loyalty, kindness) and is part of Jesus’ genealogical line
• The incarnation exemplifies gentleness—God entering the world as a baby born in Bethlehem, not in Rome or Jerusalem
• Jesus described Himself as “gentle and humble in heart” and rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, not a warhorse
• Gentleness has three key characteristics: strength under control, submission to God’s will, and service seeking the good of others
• Whatever fills us internally will spill out when we are bumped by life’s circumstances
• Modern culture desperately needs Christians to model gentleness in a loud, angry, divided world
• John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, exemplified gentleness while achieving extraordinary success—his players remembered him most for his gentleness

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Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript:

All right. Thank you so much. Worship, ministry. Okay, so who do you have? Argentina.

Or spain?

How about that? Well, I just want y’ all to know I’m ready.

So if you need to know, I am ready. Okay. And I’ve learned so much. Okay, we’ll see what happens. But, well, it’s good to see you.

We’re glad you’re here. We have had a very busy week. The Guevara’s today dedicating their baby, obviously. This is Gabe and SATA and Isaiah, Lucas and Levi. This is their last Sunday with us.

They leave Thursday to head back to Sierra Leone. So if we see, if you see them, bless them. And the Finks are here as well. So we have these three families that usually are not all here at the same time that they’re here. This time we had a retreat for them up in kind of in McKinney.

Cindy and I were able to go and it was a great time. The Houstons also are part of that retreat with us. And have y’ all ever left McKinney, Texas at five in the afternoon to drive back to Arlington in the pouring down rain? We did it. And you know, here’s the thing.

We’re Baptists, so you can’t lose your salvation, you know, no matter how you behave in the car. It was mostly Cindy, to be honest with you. But, but, but it was, it was an interesting little drive, let me just say that, to get back home. But we had a great time, this retreat with our workers and we’re grateful for them and praise God for them. So you know that we are still on this journey together where we are learning about what it means to flourish together.

And it’s a three year journey at least. It’s probably going to stretch into five, I would just guess, I’m not really sure. But this leg of the journey for this year, our theme is Transformed on the Jesus Way. But and we’re still connected with these leaders from Harvard and from Baylor, these researchers in the Global Flourishing study in particular, Flourishing and the church piece of that study. And we’re still making references to the survey, the research that we did and the results from the survey that we engaged in as a church last fall.

And I want you to know the leaders of this endeavor. There are about 80 of us from the churches here in the US that are pilot churches, churches in Europe as well as Italy and Germany. And we’re going to be at a retreat in October in Italy as we’re going to be compiling the information and learning what it means based on what we’re learning from real data about how do Christians flourish, how do churches flourish, and how does that flourishing spill over into the local community? And so it’s really been a fascinating study for us, and so I’m grateful for it. And you know that each season of the year we choose to focus on a different facet of our overall theme.

And so this season for the summer, making a difference has been our theme. And what we’re doing is we are studying the Fruit of the Spirit. So it’s a nine week series. And you may remember that I asked the ministerial team at our church to help me put this series together. And what we’ve done each week is we’ve highlighted a different Fruit of the spirit.

From Galatians 5, we’ve chosen a Biblical character that we believe exhibits that particular fruit in their life in some way. And then we’ve looked at an example of Jesus as we’ve tried to make our way through it. And so the point is if we’re going to make a difference, we have to be difference makers. And so that’s really what we’re trying to learn. Having the Fruit of the Spirit manifested in your life through your actions is one of the ways that you make a difference in this world.

And so that’s really why we’re engaged in this study. So with that said, let’s look at our fruit for the day. The fruit that we’re going to study today is gentleness. And the person that we’ve chosen, the Biblical character we’ve chosen, who we believe exhibits gentleness, is Ruth. So if you have your copy of the Old Testament, let’s look at the Book of Ruth.

It’s interesting. You know, you and I, as Christians, our Old Testament, as we call it, has been heavily influenced by the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. And so in the Septuagint, Ruth is placed in the historical section of our Old Testament. So you find it next to Judges and eventually Samuel and Kings. In the Hebrew Bible, it typically is located in the writings section, which is a different section of what we would call the Old Testament.

The Hebrews would just call the Scripture. But because of the Septuagint, it’s placed in the history section. And so that’s where we have it in our Bibles. Okay, so let’s look at this text. Ruth 1.

We don’t know everything about the context of the Book of Ruth. We’re not sure when it was written. But we do know the era in which the events that are written, occurred. The events occurred during the period of the Judges. Okay.

And so let’s just look at Ruth 1. In the days when the Judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So we’re setting the context of this story during the time of the Judges in the life of Israel. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. Now, Moab in the ancient world, it was located east of the Jordan river and east and south of the Dead Sea.

Today, that area would be known as Jordan. Isn’t that fascinating? After our interactions we’ve just had with our new Jordanian friends, this is that region today we would call Jordan. So the man’s name was Elimelech. He’s the husband, if you will.

His wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were kind of a hard name from Bethlehem and Judah. So they went to Moab and they lived there because of this famine. Verse three. Now, Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.

They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other named Ruth. After they had lived there about 10 years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died. And so Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. So then we’re going to pick back up in verse 11. But what happens is Naomi hears the news that the famine in Israel is over and there’s now food available in Bethlehem.

So rather than staying in Moab, her husband has died, her boys have died. She decides to go home. So she tells the two girls, y’ all just stay here. You’re both Moabites. Moab’s your home.

I’m going to go home. You stay home. So we pick up the story in verse 11. So Naomi said, return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me?

Am I going to have any more sons who would become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I’m too old for another husband. That’s kind of just an interesting statement, I thought, anyway, I’ll just let that one go and not make a comment on it. But she says, even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and gave birth to sons, would you wait until they grew up?

Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters, it’s more bitter for me than you because the Lord’s hand is turned against me. At this, they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother in law Goodbye. But Ruth clung to her.

Look, said Naomi, your sister in law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her. But Ruth replied, don’t urge me to leave you or turn back from you. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay.

Your people will be my people and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I’ll be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

So again, quite a fascinating story. Some scholars have even asked the question, why is Ruth in the Bible?

What do we learn from Ruth? It is such a sweet love story, but why is it in the Scripture? What’s the point of the Book of Ruth? Well, theologians have debated that. Biblical scholars have.

Let me tell you what many, many Old Testament scholars would say. If you look at chapter two, verse 12, where Boaz is speaking to Ruth, he says, may the Lord repay you for what you’ve done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. A lot of Old Testament scholars say that’s the point of the Book of Ruth. It’s about the sovereignty of God and how if you will honor God, you’ll be blessed by God.

And that’s the core message of Ruth. Now, the Book of Judges is the official story of the history of Israel during that era. The Book of Judges contains the official true transcripts, if you will. These are the leaders of Israel. This is what happened.

This is how Israel made its way through this season of history. But the Book of Ruth has a certain charm to it. And the reason for that is the Book of Ruth is about ordinary people just living their everyday lives. It’s not about the official story of the Judges and all the wars that Israel fought and the battle for land and all of that. That’s not the story of Ruth.

Ruth is about how God is at work in ordinary people’s lives in the everyday. So can I just stop and say, aren’t we glad how many of y’ all consider yourselves just ordinary everyday people? That’s how I would see myself. Aren’t we glad God works in the lives of just ordinary, everyday people? That’s what’s happening in the Book of Ruth.

It’s just God is at work in the life of this family who is just going about their everyday life. Now, there’s some interesting things about Ruth. As I said, Ruth is a Moabite well, who were the Moabites? Well, they were the descendants of Moab. Well, who was Moab?

If you remember the story Lot, when he escaped from Sodom and Gomorrah, his wife was turned into a pillar of salt. You remember this story? And then Lot’s two daughters were afraid that the family name was going to die out. And so they got their father drunk and engaged in an incestuous relationship with him. And consequently, those two girls each had a boy, one named Ammon, one named Moab Ammon, and his family would grow into a large tribe, if you will.

Moab’s family, the same. They both had huge pieces of property there adjacent to Israel. And sometimes they dealt. Israel fits the Moabites and the Ammonites. The Moabites occasionally could accompany, occasionally could be friendly to Israel.

Ruth was a descendant of Lot. She’s a descendant of the family of Moab. And as I said, she’s living in what you and I would today would call Jordan. In fact, while we were engaging with our new Jordanian friends, one of them said to me, they said, you know Ruth in the Bible? I said, yeah.

He said, you know, she’s Jordanian. And I said, well, I know that. I’ve read about her. And. But.

But Ruth is a fascinating person. She demonstrates some beautiful qualities in how she lives her life. In fact, one of the words that you find in Hebrew in the book of Ruth is the Hebrew word hesed, which means love or loyalty or kindness. And the Bible says about Ruth that she demonstrated that that quality of chesed. Another fascinating thing about the story of Ruth, you know, when you read Samuel, and David ends up being anointed king, and he becomes the greatest king in the history of Israel, there’s no genealogy given for David, which is a little different than normal.

Typically, when you’re referring to a kingly family, there’d be some type of genealogical information given. We don’t get that. But guess what? We find it in the Book of Ruth, because Ruth, eventually, when she gets to Bethlehem with Naomi, she’s going to marry Boaz. You remember the story.

And then she and Boaz are going to have a son, Obed, and Obed is going to have a son named Jesse, and then Jesse’s going to have a son named David. So King David is a descendant of Ruth, who is a Moabite. What’s even more fascinating than that, y’, all, is not just King David is a descendant of Ruth. Guess who else is? Jesus.

So a Moabitess gets written into the script, into the Great Plan of redemption. In other words, the message from God is this. This message from God is for everybody. Even someone like Ruth gets written into the script. It’s a fascinating story.

Well, why are we studying all this this summer? What is it that we’re after? Well, here’s. Here’s really the bottom line. We’re after intentional discipleship.

That’s really what’s at play here. And what that means is that we believe God’s spirit is at work in us and through us and in partnership with us to accomplish his kingdom’s mission. So studying the Fruit of the Spirit, hopefully is encouraging you, challenging you, informing you to where you can understand that there’s a role that you play in this. You partner with the Spirit of God, and then the Spirit of God produces in you what you can’t produce on your own. Okay.

You know, Billy Graham, years ago, he said that human beings have two deep spiritual needs. He said the first one is forgiveness and the second one is goodness. And Billy Graham said, forgiveness is taken care of through the cross. So when Jesus dies on the cross, offers himself up as a sacrifice for our sin, forgiveness is now available. But Billy Graham said that’s not enough.

You don’t just need to be forgiven, you need to be good in order for that to happen. He says the answer for that is Pentecost. The Spirit of God was given. And now you and I have the Spirit of God indwelling us, and he transforms us and changes us so that we can be good. And that’s what the Fruit of the Spirit is all about.

It’s about transforming us into the very image of Jesus. And so this whole journey this summer is about intentional discipleship. Okay, well, all that said, let’s talk about this Fruit of the Spirit. That’s our lesson for today. Gentleness.

Let me show you a definition one of the Bible dictionaries has for gentleness. Let’s just look at it. Gentleness or meekness. Sometimes the word meek is used to translate this Greek word. You know, when Jesus says, blessed are the meek, it’s the same root word that you have in Galatians 5.

So gentleness or meekness expresses interior strength under Holy Spirit control. Far from timidity, it is the poised disposition that gladly submits to God’s will and channels power for another’s good. It therefore belongs to the cluster of virtues labeled the Fruit of the Spirit, standing in needed contrast to human anger, rivalry, and self assertion. I want you to notice gentleness is not weakness.

Gentleness is tamed strength. So Oswald Sanders and His comments on the fruit of the Spirit. He says gentleness is the most unpopular fruit of the spirit. He says it’s the least desired one because nobody wants to be gentle. It seems like it’s a misunderstanding of what gentleness is.

Even though the Bible commands us to be gentle, the apostle Paul says in Philippians 4, verse 5, Let your gentleness be evident to everyone. Paul also says in Ephesians 4, verse 2, he says that you and I are to be completely humble and gentle. So what is gentleness? Gentleness is tamed strength. Oswald Sanders says it’s anger on a leash.

In other words, it’s the ability to somehow bridle your strength. It’s not about being weak. One of my favorite coaches, I think, is the greatest basketball coach who ever lived is John Wooden. And John Wooden has said numerous times, it takes strength on the inside to be gentle on the outside. So let me ask you a question this morning.

How gentle are you? What kind of gentleness is on display through your actions? How much gentleness is being cultivated in the interior of your life? It’s, I would submit, as a challenge because it’s not natural equipment. It’s.

One theologian says it’s exotic to us. In other words, it’s foreign to us to be gentle. And I’ve discovered through the years, it’s actually hard to do. So. Where do we find the best illustrations of gentleness?

Well, I would start with. In my opinion, I would point to the Incarnation because God’s decision to personally visit planet Earth through the person of his Son, I would contend, as an example of gentleness. I want you to think about it. How did God invade the world? I mean, this is the most important mission in the history of the world.

The grand plan of redemption. How does God enter the world? How does he do it? A baby. I mean, can you imagine anything more gentle than a baby?

And just think about the humility, how God chose to do this. And where was the baby born? In Washington, D.C. obviously, most important city on the planet, right? Well, in that day, it would have been Rome, right? He would have been born in Rome.

Was he born in Rome? Well, then Jerusalem, surely, right? I mean, the capital city. No, where was he born? In Bethlehem.

Think about that. I mean, remember the wise men showed up and said, well, where is he? I mean, obviously he’s in Jerusalem. And Herod said, I don’t know where he is. And they asked the scribes, and the scribes said, well, we think Bethlehem.

And then, not only that, y’, all, where did he grow up? Alabama. I mean, think about it. I mean, not Alabama. I’m sorry, Nazareth.

I mean, people, can anything good come from Alabama? Some people ask that question, can anything. What did they say in Jesus Day though? Can anything good come from Nazareth? I mean, think how gentle the incarnation is.

I mean, God shows up on earth in the form of a baby. You know, we’ve just experienced that in our little family.

Let me show you another photo this morning. There’s our sweet daughter in law, Adrienne and Gideon, the big brother. And then look at sweet little Jeremiah. How gentle is that? Isn’t that a sweet little guy?

And he is. He’s precious and he’s. I think about just how gentle God must have been to invade the earth through his little baby boy named Jesus. You know, it’s not just Jeremiah, Adrian. We’ve watched Adrian throughout her pregnancy.

She’s faced some challenges. And you know what we’ve seen in her gentleness? She had to make decisions. You know, she’s protecting a baby inside her womb. So there were times when Adrienne would say, well, I’m not going to do that.

I’m not going to eat that right there. I’m not going to engage in that activity. Why? Because she was weak? No, she’s strong.

She just gentle. It was for the good of someone else. And I admire that so much as I watch these girls who get pregnant and have to care for this child in their womb. We saw it illustrated beautifully in our sweet daughter in law. We watched her be very strong in a gentle sort of way.

Well, that’s what gentleness is. It’s taming strength, not weakness. You know what’s interesting about Jesus is Jesus didn’t stay a baby. I mean, he grew up. And when Jesus became a man, he still demonstrated gentleness.

What did Jesus say about himself? You remember Matthew 11, verse 29? Jesus said, I am gentle and humble in heart. What about when Jesus was being ushered into Jerusalem, welcomed as a king? Remember that story in the Triumphal entry?

Well, how did Jesus arrive in Jerusalem? On a white horse as a. As a conquering general? No, that’s how he’s going to return. But that’s not how he rode into Jerusalem.

Remember, Remember what happened. The Bible tells us that he. He did this. Look at what the text says. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets.

Say to daughter Zion, see your king comes to you gentle, riding on a donkey. Even in his high moment of being recognized as king, he came in gently. That’s just who Jesus was. In fact, one of my favorite stories in the New Testament is John 4. It’s Jesus encountering this Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.

And Jesus knew everything about her. Do you remember the story here was a woman who had five husbands. Now she was living with a man she wasn’t married to. And Jesus encounters her. And how did Jesus treat her?

Do y’ all remember? Did he immediately condemn her? Did he point out her sinfulness? No. All he did was ask for a drink of water.

Remember that? And then the next thing you know, he starts explaining to her the complexities of the indwelling presence of God. So much so that a wellspring will rise up inside of you and you’ll never be thirsty again. Then the next thing you know, he tells her point blank that he’s the Messiah. And she’s so transformed by this conversation with Jesus, this Samaritan woman leaves her water pail at the well and runs into town and tells everybody about Jesus and points them all to Jesus.

And the next thing you know, the whole town comes out to the well to meet Jesus. So here’s another woman in the Bible telling men and women spiritual truth about Jesus. Come on, y’ all talked about Mary Magdalene last week, didn’t we? This Samaritan woman, what a powerful statement. But I love the gentleness of Jesus in his conversation with this woman.

So with all that said, here’s what I want us to do. I want us to learn three quick lessons about gentleness, because I want to rescue gentleness, because I just don’t think it’s well thought of today. Here’s the first thing I’d say about gentleness based on that Biblical dictionary definition. I want you to think of this when you think of gentleness, strength. Because the attitude and the ensuing actions that are associated with gentleness actually emerge from, I believe, an inner strength that’s made possible only through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit at work in your life can produce this. It’s strength under control.

This is powerful, if you will. The strength is gentle when it manifests itself. I love this story of Ruth and Naomi. Ruth marries Naomi’s son. Her husband dies.

Naomi’s husband has died. Her brother in law has died. And then Naomi says to Ruth, okay, I’m going home. There’s food to eat in Bethlehem. I’m going home.

You girls, you stay here in your home. And Orpah says, okay, kisses Naomi and leaves. Ruth says, no, I’m not going. In fact, Ruth says, I now am connected to you. Naomi and she says, so I’m going to go where you go.

I’m going to be in your family. As a matter of fact, I’m going to die where you die. I’m going to live where you live. Your God is now my God. Your people, they’re now my people.

Ruth wasn’t rude. She was just firm. But she was very gentle in her conversation with Naomi. And Naomi listened. And Naomi said, okay, I’m going to let you come with me.

And she did. And the rest of the story is a beautiful story of love and faithfulness and loyalty and kindness. She was firm but gentle. You know, I mentioned John Wooden while ago. John Wooden.

As I said, he’s my favorite basketball coach. He’s incredible coach and human John Wooden. Someone asked him one time, where did you learn this quality of gentleness that you exhibit in your coaching? He said, well, I learned it from my daddy. He said, my daddy was a strong man.

He was a farmer. He said, but I watched my daddy teach other farmers how to tame their horses, and I watched him teach me how to do that. He said, my dad taught us that you could tame a horse without berating the horse, without being mean and angry. You could actually, with gentleness, train a horse. He said, as a matter of fact, one time in their town, they had dug some gravel pits, and the people that owned the gravel pits asked the farmers.

They said, we don’t have the machinery to get the gravel out of these pits. Could some of y’ all help us bring your horses and wagons and haul the gravel up the hill? And he said he and his dad went one day to do it, and there was another farmer, a young farmer there, and his horses wouldn’t budge. He said they got partway up the hill. And he said, this farmer was beating the horses with a whip.

He was berating them. And he said his dad looked at him and said, hold on one second, son. Let me go teach this young man if I can. And he went and asked the young man, can I just show you how to get these horses out of this pit? And he said, I wish you would, and handed him the whip.

And he said, his dad, he said, I don’t need that. And he went around to the front of the horses and he began to talk to them and stroke their face and their noses. And he said, the next thing you know, he very gently grabbed both of the bridles, and he just walked up the hill, and the horses followed him all the way out. John Wooden said, I’ve never forgot that. To watch My dad teach somebody how to be strong and gentle at the same time.

So gentleness is not about weakness, y’, all, it’s about, it’s about strength that’s under control. I would also say about gentleness, there’s a quality of submission that’s evident when you and I are displaying gentleness. It manifests itself in the absolute submission to the will of God. Again, Jesus to me is the best example of that. You know, when you’re reading your New Testament and reading the Gospels, here’s what I’d say about Jesus.

He could do whatever he wanted to do. He could have treated people any way he wanted to treat them. The Bible says he was tempted in all points, just like us. Jesus could have lashed out. How did Jesus respond to temptation?

How did Jesus respond to the anger of the people around him? Jesus demonstrates a powerful quality of submission to the will of God. Over and over we’ll hear from Jesus. I’m here to do the will of the Father, submitting myself to the will of the Father. Father, forgive them.

They don’t know what they do. Father, take this cup from me. But if you can’t take it from me, your will be done, not mine. Over and over and over, we see gentleness on display in the life of Jesus. And I would say to me and you, that’s a powerful challenge to us.

Because every single day you’re tempted to lash out in anger and rage. We all are, you know. Cause here’s the problem, y’, all, whatever you’re full of is what is going to spill out when you get bumped. It’s kind of like that server in a restaurant who’s got a tray like this over her head and you can’t tell what’s in it. Then she gets bumped.

And when she spills it, well then you see it all. It’s the same way in life. Whatever you’re full of, I can promise you some way it’s going to manifest itself and you get bumped by life and that’s what spills out. So my question is, how often does gentleness spill out of you? You see, it’s a product of the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

It’s the work of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. And gentleness is an option, but we have to choose it. Jesus did. And the last thing I’d say about gentleness is I just believe the word service sums it up. Because gentleness seeks the good of others.

It’s the antithesis of self centered, anger laced behavior. What was Ruth after her own good? I don’t think so. She cared about Naomi. She said, I’m going to go with you and make sure you’re taken care of.

And she ministered to Naomi and she made sure Naomi was cared for. Naomi guided her. But Ruth’s heart was for her mother in law. She wanted to make sure she was cared for. In fact, in Ruth, chapter three, verse 11, the Bible says Ruth was a woman of noble character.

What a high compliment. In fact, in verse 10, it says she displayed chesed goodness, kindness, love, gentleness, if you will. That’s who she was. Well, here’s what I would say to me and you today.

If you want to truly demonstrate gentleness in your everyday life right now in this culture, you’re going to be swimming upstream. Because if there’s ever been a culture that doesn’t care for gentleness, it’s this one. This is a loud, angry, divided, mic drop culture. That’s where we live every day. I would argue this culture could use a good dose of gentleness from some Christians to show people how to really respond to situations, to show people how to really exhibit the character of Christ in the midst of a crisis.

This culture needs it. They need those evidences, if you will, of gentleness. Will you be. Will you be the one to do that in your sphere? You know, I mentioned John Wooden today a couple times.

As I said, he’s my favorite coach of all time. I got a photo of John Wooden. Some of you, some of y’ all may not be familiar with him. Y’ all do know John Wooden, right? You know, he was the first person to be inducted in the Naismith Basketball hall of Fame in the US As a player and a coach.

He was the head coach of UCLA for many, many years, but he was a high school coach before that. You know, he won over 600 games as a college coach, over 80% winning percentage. He went on one stretch where his team, when he was at UCLA, they won 88 games in a row. They won 38 consecutive NCAA tournament games. They won.

He won 10 national championships, Division 1 basketball, seven of them in a row. There’s just never been anybody like John Whidden. I told his story in the first service, and Coach Maxler came up and told me afterwards. He said, I’ve read the. He said, have you read the life story of John Woodland?

I said, I have. And he said, well, he was my. He was my model as a coach. He said, have you ever read the story about his first job? I said, no.

And he said, Very first job, John Wooden got away from his house. He was taking out trash for a company in his hometown. And he said one day one of the men at the company ran over a puppy and told John Wooden, well, just take the puppy and throw the puppy in the trash. And John Wooden quit and went home. He said, I’m not going to work for a company that treats animals like that.

He was just a kid. You know what’s interesting about John Wooden, when his players were asked about him, what stands out about John Wooden to you? Now? Granted, this is maybe one of the most winningest coaches ever. I mean, can you imagine today, how much would it cost to hire John Wooden as your coach?

In today’s dollars, if you won 10 national championships, seven in a row, you couldn’t afford to pay him.

But you know what his players say about him? You know what they said about him? The one thing that stood out, Gentleness. Isn’t that fascinating? Gentleness.

In fact, here’s one of the things that he used to say all the time. There’s nothing stronger than gentleness. That sounds like Jesus to me. So I wonder, me and you, I wonder about gentleness in my life and in yours, is it on display? In order for it to be on display, it’s got to be cultivated.

That’s where the spirit of God comes in. But in order for the spirit of God to see it manifested, that’s where we come in. And so let me encourage me and you, let’s spread some gentleness in this culture and see how God uses that magnet to draw people to himself. Because I believe that’s what he’ll do. May it be so.

Let’s pray together.

Well, Lord, we love you. We thank you for your love for us. We thank you, Lord, for the power of the gospel and the fact that it’s relevant and just a story like Ruth’s. I mean, ordinary people just living their ordinary lives, and yet you are powerfully at work. Because that’s where we live every day, Lord.

We’re ordinary people. We’re just living our daily lives, and we believe that’s where you are on display. So I just lift up these people to you today, Lord. I just pray that we’ll find our way on the Jesus way, that you’ll find us faithful and that this fruit of the spirit will truly be cultivated in us. And today, gentleness, Lord, that somehow we’ll fight through our temptations to be loud and angry and frustrated and vindictive and vengeful and that somehow we’ll find our way to gentleness and that it’ll be a testimony of your work in us and through us.

That’s our prayer. In Jesus name, amen.