August 1, 2010

Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life

A basket of fruit: Gentleness  a gift of the Spirit (Part 9)

Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life

Title: : A basket of fruit: Gentileness, a gift of the Spirit (Part 9)  Text: Galatians 5:22-24

 

Former President Bush desired to make this a ‘kinder and gentler nation". Why? There must have been some need for it. It couldn’t have been just a political sound bite. Sadly, it’s not.

 

We need to look no further than our own homes. Children are natural wrecking balls. They love to rip, tear, smash, slap, punch, grab, pull and push whatever they can. And when toddlers get in the vicinity of a dog/cat or infant, what do we need to say to them over and over again? ‘Gentle, nice...be gentle!’ Gentleness is not natural to us...and we see it when we get older too.

 

Fragile: Handle with Care. Have you seen these words on a box? In an ideal and perfect world, we wouldn’t need to slap those stickers on our boxes when we ship them. But, in the real world, the words Fragile: Handle with Care mean nothing because our boxes are still dropped, thrown, kicked, smashed and stacked more than 5 high. Then when the packages are delivered, they are often broken and damaged.

 

I wonder if God placed a Handle with Care sticker on us, if we would ignore it like the Post Office and UPS/FedEx does? How many people have crushed hearts and broken spirits because they have been treated badly by someone?...maybe even by you!

 

You know what I’m talking about:

·       being rude,

·       tactless,

·       brutally honest,

·       discourteous,

·       hurtful and uncaring

about the feelings and circumstances of others.

 

Healing of the human heart takes a long time when damaged by uncaring people. Sometimes... only God can remove the hurt and restore the broken heart.

 

Transition: Oh how we need to be gentle people. Open your Bibles to Galatians 5:22 (pg. 889 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we’ll find Gentleness, the 8th fruit the Holy Spirit places in our Spiritual baskets.

 

Galatians 5:22-24                Gentleness

Read: Galatians 5:22-24

 

A. Understanding the fruit

What is gentleness? What does it mean to be gentle?

 

It does not mean ‘wimpy’ The NT Greek word most often translated gentle/gentleness means ‘power or strength under control.’ It’s best described as an animal that’s been trained...like a wild horse tamed so that someone could ride it. Strong and powerful, but under the control of it’s rider. For the Christian, gentleness is power under the control of God.

 

The Life Application Bible defines gentleness as : humble, considerate of others, submissive to God and His Word.

 

Someone once said: Gentleness is loves touch.

 

What does Gentleness look like? We only have to gaze upon Jesus to see it perfectly displayed.

 

Read: Philippians 2:6-7  ‘Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.’

 

The power of almighty God, the heart of a servant.

Read: John 13: 1-5 

 

The power of almighty God, the heart of a servant.

 

Read: Matthew 11:28-30

 

Did you hear that? Jesus described Himself as gentle and humble of heart. That’s good news! Sometimes life is hard and all of us, if we were to be honest, are quite fragile. We’re breakable, so we often need to be handled with care...gently.

 

Many run from frailty by building strong walls to protect then from the cruelty of the world ...to protect their hearts from being hurt.

 

Jesus, in this text, is telling us it’s OK to let Him in, to let Him gently touch the places we hurt, to tenderly penetrate our walls, because He is gentle and will be gentle with us.

 

Think about this. Jesus could have demanded and forced our allegiance. He could have led us with an iron fist... because He is God. Instead He wooed us to Himself

·       by His love and tenderness,

·       by being willing to serve us, help us,

·       show compassion to us, heal our broken hearts, and help carry our burdens.

Jesus is the perfect example of what gentleness looks like.

 

Here’s my take on gentleness: Gentleness, is having the power of God alive in your life, and the Holy Spirit, to show you how to use that power, to tenderly care for others.

 

Why is gentleness so important to have ripening in our spiritual baskets?

 

Read: 1 Peter 3:1-7

 

The context here is marriage, but that’s often the very first place gentleness takes a hike. We just stop being nice to each other.

·       A simple example: we no longer say please and thank you to our spouse.

 

AND GOD IS NOT PLEASED WHEN WE DO THAT!

 

How is God pleased, according to this text? By being gentle. Peter is addressing the wife, but it extends to husbands and to all Christians. How do I know that? Let’s read on.

 

Read: 1 Peter 3:8

 

Treating each other with gentleness, pleases God...it pleases God! Are you getting this?

Transition: OK...how do we cultivate the fruit of gentleness in our lives and thereby please God?

 

B. Growing the fruit

Again, there are many ways to do this, I have come up with just a few.

 

1. By gently confronting and restoring sinning Christians.

 

Read: Galatians 6:1

 

·       Someone’s caught in adultery.

·       Someone’s caught stealing.

·       Someone’s caught in a lie.

·       You found out a woman in the church had an abortion.

·       It came to your attention that a young man is involved with pornography on the internet.

 

We are surrounded by exploding lives, hurt feelings lives, broken hearts...do you see it? Are you willing to look? Do you hear the cries of the suffering? God does and He’s saying to us

 

‘When you see people who are caught in sin,

·       like the woman at the well,

·       like the woman caught in adultery,

·       like Zacchaeus.

·       Or like the young man hooked on pornography

·       The man who stole from his workplace

·       The young woman who got an abortion.

 

When you see people like this, church, be gentle! Be careful with their lives...just as I have been careful with your life. They’re fragile, they’re easily broken. But they can also be restored. So treat them with gentleness.’

 

2. By being submissive to God’s will.

Remember gentleness is power under control...God’s power under God’s control, in our lives...not under our control. That means we must submit to His will in all things.

 

Read: Philippians 2:5-6 ‘Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,’

 

Even Jesus submitted to the will of the Father.

 

3. By being considerate of others.

Read: Ephesians 4:1-2 ‘As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in

love.’

Read: Philippians 4:5 ‘Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.’

 

We need to have tact, to be considerate of the feelings and circumstances of others...with all people but especially with our spouses.

 

Husbands and wives do so much injustice to each other, treat each other with such a flagrant lack of gentleness, that I’m surprised our divorce rate isn’t 100%.

 

Our walk with Jesus is not worthy if we are inconsiderate of others, if we do not treat others gently.

 

4. By being forgiving

Read: Colossians 3:12-13  ‘Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’

 

If we’re going to truly forgive people, we need to do it in a spirit of gentleness. That means we give up our right to be angry and for retribution. A Spirit controlled believer will only be able to do

this by God’s grace.

5. By the way we share Christ with others.

Read: 1 Peter 3:15 ‘But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect’

 

This means we can’t beat people over the head with our Bibles. Belittling them because of their sin or failure to respond to your witness, is wrong, it’s not being gentle nor is it showing respect.

 

6. By speaking gently to everyone.

 

Someone once wrote: ‘Lord, make my words soft and gentle today because I may have to eat them tomorrow.’ One of the best ways to cultivate gentleness in our lives is to watch what we say and how we say it.

 

Read: Ephesians 4:29 ‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.Eph 4:29

 

Even when people speak harshly to us, we are called to respond with gentleness.

 

 

Read: Proverbs 15:1 ‘A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.’

 

Parents and teens know this all too well. So do husbands and wives.

 

Husbands ask yourself

·       ‘Are my words building up my wife or are they bruising her sense of worth and dignity as a woman created in God’s image?’

Wives ask yourself

·       ‘Are my words encouraging my husband or are they extinguishing the flame of God in his life?’

 

Conclusion

 

·       Are you a gentle person?

·       Have you treated others with gentleness?

·       Have you spoken to others gently?

 

God wants to use you to be the gift of His gentleness to others, to lead them to Him and to build them up in Christ.

 

So, is the fruit of gentleness ripening in your spiritual basket?