Wretched Radio | Air Date: April 4, 2022
Segment 1
Are you in the fight?
What fight should we be in? Galatians 5 lays out the battle that should be raging inside each of us.
If we fought the Galatians battle more, we would have few battles inside our local church and on the internet.
Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the spirit and you should not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
You are a dualistic being. You have one new nature – to be a spirit-filled believer.
What’s the battle inside of you? Your flesh.
We used to feed the flesh all the time. Increasingly, we need to be starving it.
We can listen to and be led by our flesh or the Spirit.
We sometimes tend to love the fight.
Essential or non-essential disagreements should all be handled with respect.
Segment 2
Sometimes, we all have a propensity to not be very nice.
There is a repeated theme in the New Testament Epistles “Be Gentle”
Are we exhibiting and bearing that type of fruit or do we love contentions?
We don’t have to compromise our theology by being more gentle. This is about being more Christ-like.
The conversation between Presbyterians and Believers Baptism folks models this love and gentleness.
Are we looking our for the best interest of others? Are we serving one another? Our true model for this is Jesus Himself.
Matthew 5…Jesus preaches “Blessed are the meek”
Meekness is the opposite of being out of control. Meek doesn’t mean squishy, it means I’m not contentious. It means that I’m nice.
It is very easy for us to not be so gentle and be theological bullies.
Ephesians 4:1-6.
Segment 3
Prepare for some left hooks and uppercuts. The Bible stings and sometimes it intentionally lands a knockout punch.
Even when he was rebuking Jesus was always exuding gentleness.
Proverbs 6:16…one who sows discord among brethren.
Proverbs 16:19…Are you feeling the weight of this? God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
1 Peter… all about gentleness in the face of persecution.
1 Timothy 3:3…gentle, not quarrelsome. Quick to pardon failure.
2 Timothy 2:24-25…a servant of The Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all.
Romans 12:3-5…think of others as better than yourself.
Segment 4
We see commands in the New Testament over and over again to do something we’re not bent toward.
We’re told to be gentle. Jesus was and we’re supposed to be like Him.
Titus 3… be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility. If you approach someone gently, your conversations tend to last much longer.
1 Peter 2…love one another fervently with a pure heart.
1 Peter 3:3…gentle and quiet and spirit.
We can have our convictions and fruit of the spirit. This isn’t either/or and both/and.
People who exemplify this are Ray Comfort, Emeal Zwayne, and Justin Peters.
1 Peter 3:8-12…have compassion for one another
We need to be hyper vigilant toward ourselves.
Colossians 3:12-15…put on tender mercies, humility, meekness, long suffering.
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