Kingdom Living - Those Who are Meek

We'll take your Bible and turn back with me to Matthew chapter 5 and like I said earlier In our scripture reading we will be in one verse verse 5 I think you see a pattern that is developed. We're just taking each of these beatitudes one at a time Taking our time dividing them and and letting this build all of these fit together flow together Christ purposely taught this in this order So we're just taking our time going through these beatitudes and we'll be in verse 5 this morning Although I will reference a few other passages and like always we encourage you to take notes If I reference another scripture just jot that down and you can go back on your own and study But we're going to be dividing verse 5 together this morning Now before we can get into verse 5 dividing verse 5 I feel that we must do some reflection on where we are here in the beatitudes Now this is a mental reflection because this will involve our thinking But this is a spiritual reflection because these are very very important spiritual matters Truthfully, these are very serious spiritual matters more more serious Maybe than we know and these things have been very burdensome for me since last Sunday We have before us in the beatitudes and not just with the beatitudes with the entire sermon on the Mount the Christian life Jesus is defining the Christian life and explaining the Christian life Well in verse 3 we have the key to entering the kingdom I've said repeatedly that no one can be saved or born again Unless they are brought to this place of utter Total poverty and spirit so verse 3 this poor in spirit is the key to man's salvation And then also verse 3 this poor in spirit is the fundamental and ongoing characteristic of the Christian life No true Christian can grow in their sanctification Unless they are humbly submitting themselves to Christ a slave to his master So verse 3 poor in spirit is the key to the Christian sanctification But in verse 4 specifically verse 4 this is what's been burdening me blessed are those who mourn We learned that this morning is the strongest word used for mourning within the scriptures This word is typically used when one is mourning over the death of a loved one Describes a grief which cannot be hidden this grief takes hold of the one that's afflicted and it will not let them go This can't they can't control this brokenness this heavy-heartedness You can use the word anguish that can't they cannot control this anguish even the tears And we could think of physical earthly examples that would fit this definition But this is not the morning that Jesus has in mind here a morning for a loved one a lost mother or father Or even a different tragedy in life this morning can be applied to anything that breaks the heart of God.

Yes But first and foremost this morning should be a morning over our sin It starts with a morning over our sin now listen people This poor in spirit in mourning describes a proper relationship with God You might be thinking Chris. Why are you still dealing with this morning? Shouldn't we be moving right on into verse 5 this meekness?

If we do not get all that the Lord wants to give us in verse 3 and in verse 4 We really can't move on properly And I have been burdened that this poor in spirit and then this morning I've been burdened that it has not impacted us as it should and I'm afraid that we may have hindrances in our lives Which can keep us from mourning for our sin as we should be If that is not the case then we are not poor in spirit Humble beggars before God and if we are not poor in spirit before God Morning over our sin then we are not the Christians that we should be and we will not be able to receive the rest of the sermon We will not be able to receive verse 5 remember Jesus taught this Perfectly and every verse builds on every verse it all connects together And so we must get all that the Lord wants us to get with each verse Now I want to quickly examine a few hindrances These have been on my heart really for two or three weeks And I'm gonna ask you to reflect on these mentally and spiritually and I pray the Lord through the power and the work of the Spirit will help you and this will lead us to just step off into Verse 5 the first entrance you me we may not mourn over our sin because we love sin We may not mourn over our sin because we truly may love sin You may have a sin or sins in your life that you love and you really do not want to let that go You might have a a secret sin and you might say it's a small sin and see you might hold on to a sin and it's an Unrepentant sin maybe year after year you try to repent of that sin But yet you do not fully repent of that sin and when you boil it all down you might just love that sin See if you love sin and hold on to sin you're not mourning for your sin The second hindrance is we may not mourn over sin because of pride see we may be Prideful and you may say to yourself.

Well this sin isn't that bad See that's a prideful statement or you may compare yourselves to others and say I'm not sinning like that one to my right Or that one to my left or my husband or my wife or my friend See those are all prideful statements and you might be holding on to your sin because you're in pride You're rationalizing and what you're doing is you're setting yourself up to be smarter than God That's pride and if you're prideful in your sin.

Well, well, you will not be mourning for your sin And then third we may not mourn over our sin because of despair now This one might surprise some of you you might be in a place of despair You have allowed yourself to fall into the pit of despair over your sin and maybe Circumstances this puts God powerless We're saying that God is powerless to help us in our despair in our circumstance And what's happening is we're rendering God powerless and then that leads us to not properly mourning for our sin And then the fourth hindrance you may not mourn over your sin because you're living on cheap grace See you might might have come to a place of of what what's called cheap grace You have turned the grace of God into a license for sin So you just keep on sinning you keep on sinning you keep on sinning and see you have cheap grace And you're not mourning over your sin and then fifth the last hindrance.

You may not mourn because you're procrastinating Procrastinating you just keep putting off repentance tomorrow. I'll repent tomorrow. I'll repent Oh tomorrow Tomorrow will be another day a better day to repent our friend And Lacey has a nice little statement about procrastination I heard him say it in this pulpit several years ago, and I've latched on to it and I'm quoting he says procrastination is the day on the calendar of a fool and That will prevent you from mourning now. There's so much more that I can say here What am I trying to show you if we're not mourning over our sin?

If we're not mourning because of sin that comes into our life, then something is wrong We're not that poor humble beggar before God poor in spirit well if we're not a humble beggar before God Mourning over our sin and our flesh and that which can always creep into our life Well, then how can we proceed in the sermon on the map? How can we proceed in what Jesus is giving us which is the Christian life?

So if you love your sin you better repent Oh if you've come to a place of pride or even in despair or if you're living on cheap grace and Procrastinating and I believe the spirit can take what I've shared and keep going with it according to your need You need to come to the place where God will break you for your sin Because we must be mourning mournful people over the sin that put our Savior on the cross Now take a step back with me as I move away from these hindrances with God's help I believe we can become very spiritually sober and I think you understand what I mean by sober sober Mindedness that God would grip us and grip our mind and grip our heart and bring us to a place even Rattle us to a place where we are very sober and serious There's a little phrase I picked up from the Bible commentator DA Carson the last couple of weeks He says that the Christian is to be the true realist Think about that realist and so what I'm showing you is we need to be sober in our thinking and the way we Think in our heart and mind and spirit and we need to be realists and see when we're spiritually Realists about our sin and our condition.

They're just certain things that we will Properly we must see that God is working right here at this particular time Let me explain what I mean God has put me here if you see that God has me for this day and this time Within these pages in Scripture in this verse in this word just for you This is a Holy Spirit appointed time If you see that look that will help you be more sober in your thinking and you'll be a realist as to this day in time We must see that the Holy Spirit of God is working in you and working around us and see if you realize That the feeling you have the haunting in your mind and heart. That's the Spirit of God.

That's God dealing with you You'll be more sober and you'll become more of a realist and you must see time and eternity properly Look time is fleeting time is going faster and faster and faster and faster and eternity is near Eternity is coming faster and faster and these types of truths when we're reminded of them will help us be sober and be that Christian realist that we need to be and with God's help we can be sober serious spiritual realists taking repentance and mourning over our sin very very serious because what does he say go back to the text Blessed that inner blessing that joy that spiritual work of joy that only God can do Blessed are the poor in spirit the humble beggar before God for they possess Kingdom living kingdom work the kingdom of heaven Blessed are those who mourn over their sin and the things that God hates and the things that God loves Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted by who the Spirit of God working within them and oh if the Spirit is helping you to be serious and sober and oh mournful and that humble beggar and a realist about these teachings here then We can take verse 5.

Oh then we can take verse 6 So what am I showing you here this morning? I want us to be spiritually serious and sober-minded I want us to be realists with the spirits help here this morning And then we'll progress on and move on with God's help. So let's turn our attention to verse 5 What do we have before us? Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth the new American Standard uses a different word than this word meek It says blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth two words, which mean the same thing Now with verse 5 we need to see a transition There is a transition Poverty and spirit this morning verse 3 and verse 4 that centers on man's relationship to God and himself I Said that morning flows out of poverty in spirit.

They are connected But this meatness or this gentleness in verse 5 this centers on man's Relationship to God and then to others see the progression. Let me say it another way this might help you being poor in spirit is first a necessary and Fundamental position before God and if we are truly poor in spirit Then naturally that leads to a condition of mourning for our sin that naturally results in a spirit of meekness and gentleness And enables us to relate to others properly and we will see this becoming Increasingly difficult as we progress through the beatitudes This takes more and more death to self death to sin This takes the Spirit of God working within us all of this is impossible without the Spirit of God in us Now in dividing verse 5 I'm going to take a very similar approach I will show you what this word meek is not I will show you what this word meek is I'm going to give us some biblical examples and then I will explain the meaning of this term inherit the earth This is breaking the verse down and then reassembling the verse I know it's random, but I go back to that illustration.

It's like that old CJ 5 I had that 1976 CJ 5 G listen when that thing was reassembled it looked a lot better Not that these verses are bad, but when we break them down and we reassemble them in this study I believe we see them the way the spirit enables us to see them and they look a whole lot different and a lot better So let's look at our first major truth in our outline It's very simple. What is this word meek? What is this?

Word me there now there's a lot of confusion as to what this word means now We have to be careful here We cannot allow the cultural meaning of this word to get in our thinking and so we'll start off with what it is not Then we'll move into what it is and then we'll get into some biblical examples So we need to see what it is not now for many people they see meekness or the term Gentleness the new American Standard they see this as weakness or or cowardice They imagine that if one is gentle they are weak now That's not the meaning others may see meekness as timidity or indecisiveness One who will not assert themselves at all now.

That's not biblical meekness either Another way some see meekness is one who is a pushover. They're a push around That's not the meaning either. So meekness is not weakness. It's not being a coward. It's not being a push around Well, that leads me to what it is We need to see what this word is to get a good handle on the meaning of the word We have to look at the word in three ways now even this will not be enough We will then look at a few biblical examples passages that will help solidify the biblical meaning in our minds Now first we need to have a basic understanding of how the Greeks viewed meekness Because that does come into play the Jews in this day and in Jesus day They were leaving it leaving in a in a Jewish world and very much a Greek world and it came into Their thinking the Greeks recognized certain virtues in life Virtues such as courage and generosity.

I think you know what I mean by Virtues and meekness was one of the virtues that they recognized in the life now to simplify the Greek Understanding of this word meekness in Greek thought meekness It was seen as something between anger great anger and the ability to show any anger But we need to move on we need to see how the word is used in the cultures day in Jesus day The word was often used to describe domesticated animals These animals were broken.

We know that term they were tamed We understand that term the animal accepted that they were controlled by a man or a master This would have been seen in common everyday animals that were everywhere in Jesus day the ox the donkey even the horse And these animals were broken. They were tamed. They were controlled by the man.

They were under the control of a Master so to the Greek philosophers and in much Greek thought meekness was being mad at the right time But never being mad at the wrong time in everyday use with Jew and Gentile Greek Meatness was seen as power under control just like a tamed animal their feelings their desires their emotions Their thoughts were under control, but there's another layer.

We need to see we need to see this word in biblical language in the scriptures this word is used mostly to indicate a submissive and a trusting spirit before God This is a spiritual characteristic which brings a man to humbly submit before God so this makes meekness a vertical virtue first Then it can be seen as a horizontal virtue Meatness is a vertical virtue first because man has to relate to God Properly and then second it is a horizontal virtue because man is always relating to others We see this we see this demonstrated in biblical leaders They are meek or gentle before God which enables them to stand before men So in the scriptures we see meekness demonstrated first vertically and then second horizontally So in summary, what have we seen here?

We have seen what meekness is not and then we've seen what meekness is It is not weakness. It is not being a coward That would be the way many in our culture see meekness simply as Weakness meekness is power under control but not just under control power under the control of a master Just like a horse is under the control of a trainer or the owner or the rider But the biblical standard helps us see it is vertical first in horizontal second meekness is power power under the control of God That's the vertical meekness is in power under the control of God as one relates to mankind and that is Horizontal this is meekness biblical meekness Now let's continue.

I want us to see our second major truth in our outline and it is the word who we've seen the what now Let's look at the who who are some biblical? examples Who are some biblical examples of meekness? Now to be honest with you there are many many Examples of great meekness in the scriptures examples are great because we can learn from the oven and learn from their mistakes And learn from their successes, so we need to be be good at studying these examples. I'm only going to mention a few the first Example in biblical meekness would have to go all the way back to Abraham.

He would be considered the father of the faith That's an accurate statement Meekness was one of the greatest characteristics of Abraham's life God first called Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12 now He was called Abram at that time later God changed his name to Abraham So if I call him Abraham and you're looking at your scripture in his Abram do not confuse or let that confuse you But God called Abraham and through his covenant with Abraham God promised to make him great God promised to give him the land of Canaan He was to give him a son and make him ultimately a great nation That's the Abrahamic covenant now when Abraham left his father and his country He went into the land of Canaan Genesis 12 records that his nephew lot came along with him But if we move on to the next chapter in Genesis 13 we see that a great disagreement rose up between Lot's herdsmen and Abraham's herdsmen now what happened in?

Chapter 13 verses 8 to 9 Abraham says let there be no strife or Disagreement between you and me what does he say we're family? Let there be no disagreement and he goes on to say it's not the whole land before you and he says Separate yourself from me if you take the left. I'll go to the right Now what do we see here? This is great meekness Abraham had the power Abraham had the covenant lot was just a tag along Abraham could have taken the best land He even could have sit lot back home to his daddy and his mama, but he didn't do that Does this show that Abraham was weak no because when lot was caught up in a regional war and he was taken captive By those kings Abraham gathered up his trained men and he moved out to rescue lot He waged war against the kings of the region and he rescued lot and his family his people and his possessions Abraham was no weakling.

He was no coward. He was no sissy He was power power under the control of God That's meekness In second we would have to examine the great man in the Old Testament Moses Moses now truthfully you might not be aware of what Scripture says about Moses and his meekness Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 says that Moses was the the meekest man on the earth What a powerful statement now in Moses We always see that he was he always had a very very low perception of himself Although he was educated in the ways of the Egyptians. He never put himself forward.

He always put himself down He always came before God feeling very inadequate feeling very unable always feeling powerless to be used but Moses was able to stand before Pharaoh the most powerful man on the face of the earth and to Continuously demand that he let God's people go Ultimately God ultimately used Moses to deliver his people out of Egyptian slavery Moses was a mighty man of God although he always felt inadequate and unable and Powerless to do what God was calling him to do I?

Give you a specific circumstance in Numbers chapter 12 Moses owned sister Miriam and Aaron who is his associate pastor by the way they opposed Moses They spoke out against Moses for taking a cushy like wife God then punished Miriam for speaking against his prophet Moses and God cursed Miriam with leprosy What does Moses do? Oh? He could have stepped up and said Lord get her I'm God's man your man, and she has spoken out against me She slandered by wife.

I don't care if she is my sister let the leprosy grow He didn't do that Verse 13 says that he prays and he asks God to heal her the English Standard says that he pled with God two times Now what do we see great meekness? Moses had the power and the position, but he humbly prayed for mercy Does this show that Moses is weak is he a coward to sissy and cowers down to his own sister?

No, he was a strong man for God, but he was a meek and merciful and gracious man power under control There's more We can't look at Abraham without looking at Moses We can't look at Moses without moving on to David remember David King David See is a unique story with King David David was anointed King and there was quite a bit of time between his anointing and when He took the throne and see David was me Because King Saul was always trying to kill David during that interim period David had been anointed as king of Israel and Saul was chasing David all over trying to kill him out of jealousy But in first Samuel 24 when Saul had gone into a cave to relieve himself There was David with his men They were hiding deeper in the cave and when saw was relieving himself David secretly slipped up behind Saul and he cut off the corner of his road After Saul left the cave David revealed what he had done to Saul He actually repented for touching the Lord's anointed King now.

Why did he do that? He knew that it was God's place to remove Saul David knew God had anointed him King But David knew it was only God who could remove Saul now does this make David weak was he afraid? Was he a coward and a sissy? No This was the same David who had killed the great fighting man Goliath with a simple stone in a sling He was no coward This was great meekness great humility.

This was big-time power the power of God in David under control We don't have time to look further there's so many more Zoom real quickly to the New Testament and I go back to a message that we looked at this summer Stephen Remember that great monumental layman for a great monumental work. He was a great humble meat man of God power under control and I challenge every one of you men to go back and listen to that message because Those are the kind of men we must have in the life of our church and then we fast forward to the great Apostle Paul We have a lot more about his meekness because we have a lot more of his life recorded in the scriptures now think about this in Romans 7 verse 18.

What did Paul say in me and in my sinful life? There is no good thing But then he moves on over into Philippians 4 13 and what does he say I can do all things through Christ Is that a contradiction? No Meekness power under control. So in all of these examples, what do we see very different circumstances? but one common spiritual characteristic or virtue Meekness gentleness, they were as powerful animals broken tame and domesticated by God And they were they were not robbed of their strength so as to make them weaklings No, their power was under the control of their master and that was their God. Oh They would be mad at times.

Yes They would be furious at times But always at the right things at the right time in the right way think about this. Moses was angry When he came down off the mountain after having received the 10 commandments and he found God's people Worshiping the golden calf and what did he do? He threw the tablets down and broke them He ground up the calf in anger and he made them drink it and he was mad at what God's people were doing Meekness power under control But notice what all of these men had Notice what they had I mentioned this earlier.

They had vertical meekness which enabled them to possess horizontal meekness They had vertical meekness which enabled them to possess great horizontal meekness now which comes first the vertical Now let's transition in the verse Remember our verse let's go back to verse five bless it all the meat for they shall inherit the earth Our third major truth is this phrase inherit the earth. What does this phrase? Inherit the earth. What does this mean?

Now this phrase can be confusing for some to be honest with you There's some that have made this a blanket promise for riches Now I hate to disappoint you But this does not mean that God's going to give you five thousand acres and five oil wells that won't run dry That's just not going to happen I know on a little vacation that my wife and I and our children had earlier in the summer We went out west and went to oklahoma to visit a pastor friend We visited a very famous ranch out there and within that family they possessed and controlled 500,000 acres I don't believe God's going to give us that but what does this phrase mean? Really?

It can be seen in two ways. It's rather simple First this does pertain to the here and now it does pertain to the here and now There is a sense in which we do inherit the earth god owns it all does he not? And we learn back in verse three that god owns it all the kingdom of this world belongs to god So in a sense all that god owns then we we own when he gives it to us in our possession God chooses to give to some christians a lot, but then god chooses to give to some christians a little now think about that God is sovereign.

He gives to some a lot and to some a little and listen I pray that god blesses you with a lot if you're a born-again christian according to his will and his plan So you use it for kingdom work? I heard a minister friend say it like this He said i've got several millionaires in my church He said oh, but I was there with them when they were dirt poor and I had to go to the bank with them So they could borrow the money and i've watched them walk with god and god build their businesses And then he leaned forward and he said they do a lot with what god's given them for the kingdom So there's a sense in which we do possess it here and now And so I pray that god will bless you according to his will in his plan according to what he wants to do through you But you might be like paul and we all have to add the attitude of paul because in second corinthians 6 10 Paul says that he owned very little but yet he possessed everything why because he was content with what god gave him And then second this pertains to the future This does pertain to the future.

Paul says that one day the saints will judge the world We will rule and reign with christ in the new heaven and the new earth And listen if I could fast forward to eternity future say a hundred trillion years from now at that time We will be praising our lord because this verse is being fulfilled in eternity future So in summary, what do we see? as true christians of the kingdom Poor in spirit mourning over our sin and that which is dear to the heart of god We are a meat towards god and towards our fellow man We inherit the earth and to a certain degree now, but definitely in eternity future Now I want to reassemble the verse This is our habit with each message.

Remember my approach. I know it's random. It's out of order I go back to the beginning of the beatitudes. I broke down This word blessed first then we moved to the end of the verse verse three And we broke down this phrase kingdom of heaven and we're carrying that all through these beatitudes And with each verse i'm dividing and i'm explaining the middle of the thrust of the verse And then i'm reassembling the verse Now with this reassembling with this verse I'm going to use something that the bible commentator william barclay says and i'm adding to it So it's some of me some of him and it's just kind of mixed together.

So this is reassembling the verse Oh the joy Oh the inner happiness Oh the inner blissfulness of the man who is always angry at the right time in the right way And never angry at the right time and in the wrong way. Now, let me pause That might surprise some of you Wait a minute pastor. We can't be angry. Jesus was angry when he cleared the temple Was he in sin? No Paul was angry when he wrote the book of galatians Why because of what was going on in the life of the church?

So oh the joy Oh the inner blissfulness and happiness of the man who is always angry at the right time And in the right way and at the right thing and he's never angry at the wrong time and in the wrong way and at the wrong thing the man who has every instinct and every impulse and every passion under god's control Because he is a god controlled man He has the humility to realize his own ignorance his humanity his weakness in his sin He is the man who is exalted before men. Here's the horizontal He is blessed.

He has an inner joy and a happiness and he possesses the kingdom kingdom work and kingdom life Now let's go back to the verses Jesus is there with his disciples One commentator said this was an ordination message. It's a good one He has all the jews there. He's explaining to them what the true christian life is Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek For they shall inherit the earth Now in conclusion as I move away from the the verse I want to make first some application To myself and then i'm going to move to some application For you.

I must first explain to you What this meekness looks like in me as your pastor. I think you need to see this For me and who I am and who god's called me to be with my talents with my abilities with my strengths with my humanity All that I am all that I can do all that I would do it must be surrendered to god I must be living as a humble beggar before god Surrendered to his lordship having and maintaining that poor in spirit Attitude and heart before god so that I could be the sanctified believer that god wants me to be every day Surrendering to his lordship remember the tame animal not weak tamed by the master And my ability my strength my power for the christian life But oh my ability and strength and power for ministry It must come from god the holy spirit of god working within me and the holy spirit of god Enabling me to do that which I cannot do But i'll take it a few steps further and i'll be a little more practical You might be surprised at this statement, but i'm not going to defend myself I Know there are people some that have come and gone have levied accusation against me But i'm not going to defend myself Meekness never does now i'm not going to say I won't fall into that tribe But i'm not going to defend myself God will defend me according to his will and plan Jesus did not defend himself, and i'm not going to defend myself But I want you to listen to this I'll defend you to the death I will defend you all day long.

Listen to what hebrews 13 17 says Obey your leaders and submit to them. See that's the prideful and the arrogant they'll stop there Obey your leaders and submit to them god's put us here as elders those over you in this position God's done this but notice what the rest of the verse says For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account And I will give an account for you and I will protect you and I will defend you and I will love you And I will serve you and I will guard you why because meekness always does that work for god's people? Why did moses come down off that mountain angry?

He was defending the work of god and the people of god. Why did paul write such a stern? Scholars say the most angry letter to the galatian church. Why he was defending them And I will always defend you Also, I will always defend this work Yes, the work of the church It has been entrusted to me and other elders here and leaders here.

Listen I'm to keep watch not just over your individual souls But over the work of god's church and I will defend the church and I will work hard for the church And I will work hard for you and your family and your children and for the health of the church for the years and generations To come and I will defend the church that he's given us If I go to our sunday night study richard mayhew What would what does jesus say about his church?

We see that each letter is written to the leaders of the church and they were to work in the church and defend his church And i'll take one step further this might surprise some of you I will get angry I will become angry. I will become angry and I do become angry in a godly way when and if someone or something comes against you And this work when bad doctrine comes into your life when bad influences come into your life It angers me. I hate it.

I don't like it Why because I love you and I love this work and listen meekness true meekness is not weakness It is becoming angry at that which god becomes angry at Again moses It came down off that mountain He had the very tablets of god god wrote those 10 commandments with his finger And he threw them down and broke them and he took that golden calf and he ground it up And he made them drink it and he was not in sin. He was defending the work of god angry Again paul writing to the galatians.

It's almost like he's angry at every line Why the bad doctrine and the false teachers had slipped in and they were perverting the work And he was defending the work and defending the church and defending those that he loved and listen god's men will become angry And not sin in that anger You might be surprised we have defended you and we've protected you far more than you know Now I'll move on from me I want to mention two extremes and then I want to give you some guidance two extremes and then some guidance We cannot be you cannot be I cannot be this is for all of us. We cannot be hot-headed That's not what i'm abbacating.

We can't react in anger. We can't react in frustration We can't react in sin hotheadedness will always lead to sin Listen if you have to go back and you have to repent for how you've blown off if you have to go Go back and repent to other people that's hotheadedness That's not being like paul and moses. No So i'm not advocating hotheadedness If you react in the flesh if you get mad and you react in frustration and out of control And you have to go back and you have to go back and go back and repent That's not biblical meagness But the other extreme you can't be a pushover Some people are weak and cowardly and they won't stand up I've seen people they won't stand up for for that which is lost They just don't want to look at their son or their daughter They don't want to look at people and say I love you, but i'm afraid you're lost and you don't know christ And they're just wishy washy with all that and it clouds the water and it confuses people We can't be a pushover i've seen leaders in the life of the church They're just pushover when it comes to men abusing the work of the church And they won't stand up and they'll come back behind you later two or three years later and whisper and they'll say i just take the way Things happen.

No, that's not meekness. That's weakness. That's being a coward. We can't be pushovers. We can't be weak and cowardly And look i'm going to work backwards If you are not meek and strong before man, then you have a meekness problem with god First, let me state that again If you are not meek yet strong before man, then you have a meekness problem with god Now, let me turn it back around if you're poor in spirit that humble servant before god If you're mourning over your sin and you're truly meek before god God will give you a power a power that you do not have for godly things yet You will be meek before others you will be meek before others and god will use you Power under control and if you do not have power to stand up for godly things If you react in anger or out of your emotions or out of control with no self-restraint And then if you're weak on the other hand you have a meekness problem Now I go back to the end of the verse remember the end of verse three Theirs is the kingdom of heaven that's applied to every one of these And those of us who are living in the kingdom we're thriving in this world.

We're doing kingdom work Listen, we must be meek before god and then meek before man. Yes power Yes strength, but yet humility and kindness and submission You see that delicate balance? meekness gentleness So what do we see this morning? I'll hold on to the same Title that we've been looking all along looking at all along kingdom living those who are meek Let's pray and let's commit all that the lord has given us to him