The Meek

I opened the sermon with an illustration of an anonymous origin. Just so you know, it stands in contrast to what you and I believe and hold near to our hearts. It stands in contrast to what we see in Scripture. We know that Jesus Christ came to this earth, and He literally flipped the world upside down, both with teaching and also with giving His life and that perfect sacrifice for mankind. I'm going to read it straight forward as it has. There's a purpose to this, and when I read it a second time, I'm going to read it from the bottom up. So we're going to read top down how it reads and then see how it twists when we read it the other way. And there's a point to this, so I don't think I've lost my marbles or anything or leading you astray. But notice, it opens by saying, I will live my life according to these beliefs. God does not exist. It's just foolish to think that there is an ever all-powerful knowing God with a cosmic plan. That an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world is a comforting thought. However, it is only wishful thinking. People can do whatever they want without eternal consequences. The idea that I am deserving of condemnation because of sin is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power. The more you have, the happier you will be. Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose in a world with no God. There is freedom to be who I want to be, but with God, life is an endless circle of guilt and shame. Without God, everything is fine. It is ridiculous to think I am lost and in need of saving. Obviously, we would definitely not agree with that statement. And so I'm going to read it in reverse and watch what happens. Keep in mind how Jesus came and he flipped the world upside down and with that brought light to darkness.

Reading from the bottom back up to the top, I am lost and in need of saving. It is ridiculous to think everything is fine without God. Life is an endless circle of guilt and shame, but with God, there is freedom to be who I want to be in a world with no God. Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose. The more you have and the happier you will be is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power. Because of sin, I am deserving of condemnation. The idea that people can do whatever they want without eternal consequences is only wishful thinking. It is a comforting thought, however, that an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and the suffering in this world, that there is an all-knowing God with a cosmic plan. It is just foolish to think that God does not exist. I will live my life according to these beliefs. Do you see how it's interesting? You read it one way and it says something completely different when you read it. In reverse, so many times in life, we view life circumstances from a perspective that is our own and is shaped by our own experiences. And what is often the most difficult thing to do is to see our circumstances from an opposite perspective. It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult, but oftentimes it is really hard to change our perspectives after they are initially made.

So many times we go through life and we experience something, and immediately, just as God designed us and as our minds are created to work, we begin to evaluate. Is this a good situation? Is this bad? Is this going to serve good in the long run? Is this going to be a trial that I'm going to have for a long period of time? And all of a sudden we start creating in our head a scenario of how this is going to play out. Sometimes we're right. Sometimes we're nowhere near what the end result is going to be. And just like this illustration as we read through it, we can create a perspective that is nowhere near where God wants us to be. Jesus came again as he did so much in life, and he flipped the world upside down and brought light to a dark world, just like reading this in reverse brought light to the same passage. When we go through these difficult circumstances and our perspectives can be formed, it can't help but be reminded of a passage from Isaiah chapter 55 that reads, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Back in February, I shared a sermon with you as we begin to looking at the beatitudes recorded in Matthew chapter 5. The word beatitudes is a 15th century word that means ultimate blessing or supreme happiness. And what we see at the beginning of Matthew chapter 5 are the blessings that God wants to give us. But if you and I read through this list, I don't think we would wake up the first day we read through it and say, Yeah, these are the blessings I want to receive from God, because these are different. They go contrary to the way we think, just like that poem and that read writing, reading it one way and reading it the other way. It takes us to switch our minds around to see that these are the blessings that God wants us to receive in life. And if we receive these blessings from God, if we will embrace them, we will be happy. But again, if I took this list that we're going to start to look through and continue working through today out to society around us and share this list with others, I don't think that they would have the perspective that Jesus Christ wants us to have about these blessings.

When we read through this list again and continue working through this list, I think we'll recognize how far our thoughts are from God's thoughts at times in our life. What we normally consider a blessing is probably not the way that God wants us to have a blessed life. Obviously, we need food. We need His physical blessings. We need a roof over our head. We need to be able to stay warm in order to survive. There are certain things that we can't do without in this world and on this earth without it. The Day of Atonement is one of those great holy days that shows us how short and how little energy we have after just one day of food or without food or water.

And so we realize how dependent we are on God and His blessings. But like the writing I used in that opening illustration, we need to reverse our thinking when it comes to many things in life. We need to think in an opposite way to align our thoughts and focus with God's thoughts and His focus.

So today, we will continue looking at the passage, often referred to as the Beatitudes, as we continue to reflect on the true blessings that God desires for us to receive. Let's go back to Matthew 5 and beginning of the chapter here in verse 1. We'll review just very briefly what we've already looked at, and then we'll get to the third beatitude that Jesus Christ records here in Matthew 5, again in verse 1. It says, "...and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.

Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The poor in spirit, those who humbly recognize where they stand before God, those who recognize what we're made of, of flesh, of dirt of the ground, who recognize we do not have inherent into us today eternal life, that's a promise that comes in the future when Jesus Christ returns. We recognize we make mistakes.

We recognize we've hurt people. We've recognized we've hurt God. And so those who are poor in spirit, it says, the blessing is that theirs is the kingdom of heaven, that we will receive that blessing from God when we recognize how poor in spirit we are. Verse 4, he says, "...blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." And when we looked at that, we recognized that there is a lot of sorrow in the world.

There is a lot of hurt and pains, whether it's physical health issues we go through, whether it's the loss of a loved one, but greater than just physical loss or physical pain or sorrow in that way. God wants us to refocus our thoughts and our sorrow on the state of the world around us. It's not hard to just look outside our walls and in our communities, and even the impact that sin has had in our own lives.

That is what God wants us to mourn as we go through our life to recognize the gravity and the impact that sin has had on this world. And he says, "...the blessing as we mourn and as we sorrow for these things is that he will provide that comfort that we need to then get up and to keep facing life and to keep going down the path that he asks for our lives." And this brings us to the beatitude that we will spend our time in today in verse 5.

"...blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Now, meek or meekness is one of those words that we have in Scripture that is actually very difficult to fully define in our English language today. As we know a lot, sometimes the words will be one-on-one to how we would explain it today. But this word meekness, when we look at it from dictionaries that we would use today, it misses the mark because trying to translate this word into English is not an easy task, and it's hard to fully wrap our mind around the meaning that God has in Scripture for this word.

Don't write these down, but from Oxford English Dictionary, it defines meek as quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on, or submissive. And so, as we read through these definitions, you'll see, well, that's part of meekness. Well, and that part can apply to meekness. And you're right, certain aspects can, but it also misses the mark in some different ways. From Merriam-Webster's dictionary, it defines meek in this way, enduring injury with patience and without resentment, not violent or strong. And so, there's some other problems with that definition as well. It goes on to define meekness as the quality or state of being meek, a mild, moderate, humble, or submissive quality.

Now, again, we could say that certain elements of these definitions fit the bigger picture and the spiritual importance of meekness, but these definitions alone fall short, especially when referring to a lack of strength.

Meekness does involve gentleness, but that is not the extent of the attribute. Meekness does involve submission, but the question is, who are we submitting to and why? At times, meekness means being quiet, but not all the time. And to be clear, meekness does not mean weakness.

That's a definition that maybe people have used or you've heard it said before, that though meekness means weakness and so it's not a trait that is admirable or quality that we'd want to have in our lives, that is 100% wrong. Weakness is an absolutely poor definition of the word. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, it's a mouthful, but from Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary, it says this about the word meek and meekness, in its use in Scripture in which it has a fuller, deeper significance than in non-Scriptural Greek writings, it consists not in a person's outward behavior only, nor yet in his relations to his fellow men. Rather, the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting. This meekness, however, being first of all a meekness before God, is also such in the face of men, even of evil men, out of the sense that these with the insults and injuries that they may inflict are permitted and employed by him, speaking of God, for the chasing and purifying of his elect.

I'll add to that a little bit in saying that sometimes we encounter evil people, right? I think we've all been hurt by someone who's taken advantage of us. We've all been at the hands of someone whose thoughts were not of a good motivation towards us, and we've suffered because of other people's ill will or their malice, even. And at times, we've had to dig deep and to recognize that God is bigger than all these other people. He's bigger than the events that we go through, and he sees that there is strength in following him. And we're going to talk a little bit more about this because I'm not saying that we should just be abused or be in situations where we're constantly abused. That's not what I'm getting at. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But when we consider meekness, what we see demonstrated in Scripture goes much further than what we often see reflected in society around us. Again, this is that teaching that Jesus shared that flipped the world upside down, and for us, it should have the same effect.

Now, some have been confused when it comes to meekness because they say, well, isn't this the same as poor in spirit? Well, as we looked at in February, and as we referenced again today, poor in spirit is how we think and how we look at ourselves. We recognize that we have weakness, we have problems, we have faults, and we need to make and maintain a mindset where we empty our mind of ourselves, right? Because it's so easy to be constantly focused on ourselves, right? We have a lot of things to be focused on. We have needs, we have family that we might be supporting, we have jobs that we have to go to in order to be able to make money in order to work in the society around us with how it functions. We have these things that we need, and we have a mindset that often is on ourselves because there's things we have to do. But then our minds, as we all know, goes much further than just those things that we need to focus on. It goes to selfishness, goes to pride, goes to grab and hold of our selfish motivations and the things, our natural inclination to think so much of ourselves and what we want. And more times than not, we obsessively think on ourselves. There are so many, if you think about it, I was thinking about it this morning, how many times I used the word my or I when things aren't going the way that I want them to do. It'll go the way I want them to go. Like, I'm not happy, or I don't feel good about this, or this is not my idea of a good time, or I mean, we could go on and on, right? The eyes and the my's that come into our mind so often in life, they come out from almost the morning, the moment we wake up. What is my day going to be like today? We take ownership of it, and there's not necessarily a wrong thing with that. It is we have to make choices. But isn't that normally how we think? Right from getting up in the morning. I want to do this today, or I need this from you today. Or my happiness is not going to be your happiness if I don't get my way today. Right? The what is that? What is I'm sorry, this is going to get me in trouble. Happy life is a happy life. Isn't that the adage and the joke sometimes? Right? And so we naturally have this thought, this this motivation where we obsessively, we don't like to acknowledge it, and more times than not, we don't realize we're doing it unless we're really trying to be sensitive to this. We obsessively think about ourselves all day long. And I'm putting my hand up, right? Because like I said, I've prayed that God would bring a message together, a series of messages that I could also learn from this spring as I work towards and as we all work towards Passover. And each one of these these beatitudes has hit me between the eyes as well. And so know that I'm talking to myself as much as as I'm sharing this with you. But to flip it on the other side, which is what Jesus did, and to consider the strength of meekness, meekness is different from being so occupied with ourselves. Meekness does include an aspect of humbly looking at ourselves, like we should, like being poor in spirit. But the bigger aspect of meekness is in how we interact with others in this humility of mind. I'm going to repeat this again, because it's really important to understand the difference between the two and understand the distance that meekness goes.

It does contain an aspect. Meekness does contain an aspect of humbly looking at ourselves. But the bigger aspect of meekness is in how we interact with others in this humility of mind. Meekness, again, is not weakness, as it is sometimes viewed, but rather, meekness could be defined as strength under complete control. This is one of my favorite definitions for the word, and one of them that I can keep on the forefront of my mind. Strength under complete control, especially when it comes to our emotions. And this is where it gets me. Now, I'm not an emotionally out of control guy, but I do, as you know, have my emotions. Sometimes I can be sensitive to a prayer request or things like that. Or I can be upset about something I believe is wrong spiritually, not just wrong because it's affecting me, but we need to fight against this. Or this isn't the right thing to do. Strength under complete control is an important aspect of meekness, especially when it comes to our emotions, because we all know that often our outward behavior is directly influenced by our emotions. And meekness is a direct reflection of one's character. And this is why it sometimes is difficult to look at ourselves in that mirror. So Jesus is teaching about something that goes to the core, to the inner part of the human body, and to our mind.

I've always... One of the things I kind of... One of my... I don't know if it's a guilty pleasure, but one of my fun things to do is to watch reality TV shows about police officers and their jobs they have to do, like the old school show Cops. I don't know if you remember that. They have a newer version. I think it's called On Patrol or something. And it's where they are filmed. Somebody's riding alongside in a police car and talking to the officer, and then they pull up to a situation. And so many of these situations go sideways quickly, or you just see a side of humanity that often we're just like, I'm so thankful God has given me a better direction to go in my life.

But the point I want to make is you see these officers who are in a position of authority. They have sometimes they're big people, too. They've worked out. They have the tools and the resources to get the job done. And often you see the other person on the flip side, though, is out of control.

Their language towards that officer is out of control. Their actions are out of control. And deep down, you just kind of want that officer to go grab them and just throw them in the back of the car and be like, we're done with you, right? But so often you see the patience in that officer just stand there and almost take it. They'll still say, nope, you need to follow these commands. You need to do what I'm asking you to do. But so many times the other person's belligerent back towards them. But they continue to show that strength. I view it strength under complete control.

I witnessed this one time in a courtroom. Now let me preface it by saying I was not there for a bad reason. I had not done anything wrong. I could tell you the story in more detail afterwards. If you have any questions about why I was in a courtroom. But I'm sitting there and the judge asks one of the people who are part of the case. This is like a not as I guess it was civil, right? This is where they see case after case in the morning and type of thing. And they ask the person the next case is called and they ask the person, are you present? And that person gets up and says, yes, Your Honor, I'm here. And they just immediately start going into their civil case and and why their neighbor is this horrible person in this situation that's going on. And they go and the judge is just sitting there patiently listening for about like 30 seconds, 45 seconds. The person takes a breath and the judge interrupts and says, we're not there to try the case yet. I'm just seeing if if we have everybody present. And so she stops talking and the judge asks the other party, are you present? And the party says, yes, we're here. And so the judge says, but the but there's an issue with with one lawyer not being there and things like that, the representative not being there. And so the go, the lawyer goes back to the the First Lady again and asks her another general question, just saying, I don't believe we can proceed today. And she immediately goes, starts at the beginning of her whole case again, and just starts telling this whole story, rambling on and, and pointing the finger and everything else. And I'm waiting for this judge to like lose his mind. And he just is patiently sitting there. And he listens to her. And she goes on for another minute, minute and a half with this whole spiel. And then at the end, he goes, ma'am, we're still not at that point of being able to start the case. And in fact, we can't have it today. And so I was just shocked at this, this man's patience of just sitting there when he has all the control of the room, he has every right to interrupt, he has every right to shut her down. And he has every right to like maintain control in his courtroom, which he did, it never got out of control. But again, that's that strength under complete control. It's even recognizing at times that we become beaten up by the other party. Not that I'm again, we're going to talk about removing ourselves from certain situations in a moment. But more times in life, when we are at the hands of another person, and they're out of control, their emotions are all over the place, they're upset about this or that. It's not truly we're in an abusive situation, it's just that someone else is having a really bad day. And we have every right in the world probably, to put them in their place, right? That's what we would think from a physical stance, right?

They are so out of control, I need to let them know. They are so out of control and wrong that I have to set the record straight. And at times, this is where meekness has to come in to our lives. This is why it doesn't make sense, sometimes even in our own lives, the power and the need for meekness.

Another misconception of meekness is that your submission to another person is of the greatest importance. Meaning that if I practice this humility of mind, right, if I practice the strength under complete control, to the point that I fully submit to others, that God has placed in a position of authority over me, then this is what God would want me to do. But we, and this is where we have to fix that mindset, because we are not to submit ourselves to another person if this goes against God's word or it causes us to sin. Has anybody ever had a boss ask you to do something that you really know you shouldn't do? Unethical. Unethical before God and unethical before man.

I remember having, I think I've shared this with you before, but I can't remember, so forgive me if I have, but I had a boss one time ask, we made a mistake. This is before ministry, so it's not Steve Myers. You don't have to worry about that. It's nobody in the church, right? I had a boss in my former profession that we had made a mistake with doing analytics for one of our clients, and I was responsible for the data collection and also voting it and also doing the analytics, and I made a mistake. We made a mistake as a company with the analytics side of it, and we presented this to our client. They caught the mistake and then wanted to know what happened, and so I'm going through and I'm dotting my I's and crossing my T's, and all of a sudden I realized, oh no, I did this wrong. This is on me. So I let my boss know and everything else, and one of their things that they wanted me to do was to blame it on the data which we received from a third party saying they sent us bad data, and I said, but that's not what happened here, and they said, but what happens if a client's upset with us? What happens if we lose the client then? And in my mind, I was like, what happens when the client figures out that the data's fine and I'm the one that lied about it? And I told them I can't do that, and they said, well, you're just going to have to face whatever comes down the pike, and I said, I will, but I can't lie about this. And so knowing that I was going to present this to our client, letting them know that I made a mistake, but I also let them know how where I caught it and the pieces I'm going to put in place so I don't make the mistake again in a future analysis. That's all that they wanted to hear, right? So many times we're patient with one another when somebody does something wrong or gets something happens, right? But we just want to know, I'd rather this not happen again, right?

And so meekness is not submitting to the person to the point that we then sin before God. That's not meekness. That's actually weakness in the way that we operate as a Christian. So that's another misunderstanding or misconception of meekness. But I'd like to pivot just a bit as we consider meekness again from another viewpoint, because there is this power that is present in those with this character trait, but this power can be misused at times. Some will use the example of Jesus making a whip and running those who were selling and trading in his father's house in the temple. They'll use us as an example of meekness, right? And it is an actual example of Christ being meek, right? Strength under complete control. The things that were going on in God's house were not right. Christ had every opportunity or every reason to be angry, but he was angry without sinning. We know that. He was always meek in all of his doings. He was never not meek, or he would have fallen short of the stature that God expected him and that he carried his life by. And so some will say, well, then I need or I have the opportunity to then be angry at sin to the point that I now go and fix other people's lives. Or I go and tell them what they've done to me, because if I don't acknowledge this, or if I don't help my brother, then I'm not being meek. I'm just being weak.

Jesus, again, was always meek, and it applies again here in this situation. But meekness, again, goes back to how we interact with others. It goes back to how we humbly view ourselves first, and then how we let that humility then lead how we interact with others.

Going back to that situation where someone's falling short within our family, within a baptized, converted member, we could pridefully think that we need to go fix this person or help this person because we know what they should be doing and they're not doing what they should be doing. We have more Bible knowledge. We have more understanding. We have more years of life.

We're in a position, maybe, where we feel we should go and do this. But is it out of pride?

Is it out of arrogance that we feel this? Or do we carefully and thoughtfully consider that we have all started off learning at different places? Or do we consider that we all have sins? We all have faults that we're struggling with at times. And sometimes it's faults that nobody else knows except for us and God. Do we keep that in our mind? Do we keep that mindset on the forefront if we feel we need to go and address a situation? We have the biblical strength and we have the knowledge, but how do we use it? Turn with me to James chapter 1 and verse 19. James 1.

Be careful if you pray a prayer before Passover and asking God to show you some things that you can make improvements on in your own life. We all do. We all pray that prayer, and then when he answers it, we're like, oh, that's uncomfortable. Ah, that hurts. And often that's exactly what we need, especially at this time of the year. So know that as we go through these passages, you guys could all just disappear, and I would keep giving the sermon because this sermon's for me as well. Notice what James says here in verse 19, and consider it with this mindset of meekness and this mindset of how we control our tongue, our thoughts, our attitudes.

James says, So then, my beloved brethren, notice, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. It doesn't say that the wrath of man sometimes doesn't produce. It qualifies it just with the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So many times, we are so slow to hear another person and to understand a situation, and we're all guilty of that. Sometimes we're already thinking faster than we are, than we should, on what we're going to reboot that with or how we're going to reply back to the person. And sometimes we're very fast with our wrathful words.

And so James is saying, we've got to switch this and flip this upside down. We've got to be swift to hear, but then slow to speak, slow to wrath, in order to be righteous before God. He goes on to say, therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness, strength of the complete control, the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. And this is where so many times we get tripped up on our own problems, right? Because we can point out other people's weaknesses, other people's problems. But James is saying, you've got to deal with this first. You've got to deal with your mind, your own motivations, your own problems.

We can't just be hearers only, but we got to be doers. We got to take God's word and plant it into our own hearts and make changes here first. Verse 23 says, For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, and notice a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. It's so easy to look at ourselves in a mirror and to that vanity that that pride creeps in, got our hair where it needs to be, we look pretty sharp. Things are in place. We're ready to go out, but never really look beyond the outward rate to recognize, man, I struggle. There's some darkness in my life that I'm not happy about. This is what James is talking about. This is where we got to look at ourselves first. We got to recognize and see ourselves for the way that we are. Then we can hopefully be useful to others. But James isn't done here with talking about this meek attitude. Turn to chapter 3.

The very beginning, we're going to look at verse starting in verse 13, but the beginning of James chapter 3 talks about taming the tongue. So you can see how the two go hand in hand with James chapter 1. But notice verse 13, he says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works again are done in the meekness of wisdom. So there are times where we need to take a stand. There are times where God says we need to help a brother. We need to care for them. We need to try to help them see there's another way that they can carry their life. That's part of the works that we do. But he says, do it first and foremost in the meekness that strength under complete control of wisdom. Where does this wisdom come from? We know the truth comes from God. First and foremost, James pivots in verse 14 again a bit. He says, But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, essential, it's demonic. So if we're leading with envy, if we're leading with pride, if we're leading with self-seeking, as he says, he doesn't hold any punches here. He calls it earthly, essential, demonic. He says, For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. I can't help but think back to some stupid arguments I've had with people over the years. Just dumb arguments. No point into it.

It bore no fruit, and it all originated from me. It all originated from a heart, a motivation, pride, selfishness, arrogance. It can keep filling in all these definitions, right?

Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. That's all it bore, was just ugliness.

James flips again a little bit in verse 17. He goes back to kind of the core of what he's getting at. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

That one verse we could spend the rest of our lives trying to fully internalize, right? I mean, the words he uses here, the wisdom that is from above, because this is God's wisdom, is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And then he says, now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. We don't have to go, and this is where I'm going to flip it a little bit back to what I said I'd get to in a moment. We don't have to go around in our interactions with others seeking peace only for the sake of peace. God has established a way that we should live life, and that no one should just be ran over or abused or taken advantage of all the time. But James is talking about receiving with meekness the implanted word, and having our works done in the meekness of wisdom.

Again, this is about strength under complete control. This is about seeking peace because it's the right thing to do. But there are times where we have to excuse ourselves from certain situations because it is not healthy for us to remain in those situations. I get that.

Sometimes we could blast our fellow brother or sister caught up in a temptation or weakness of mind or body. We could even ask them, do you not know what God's word says about this?

And we would be 100% right in repeating what God's expectation is. But it would probably be this attitude would not be where God wants the attitude again to come from.

If we went around fixing everybody's—I'm going to put it in quotes, right? Because we can't fix even ourselves. God has to fix us. But sometimes we get in that mindset where I can fix this other person. I can fix my spouse. I can fix my children. We even, like I said, think we can fix ourselves. But it would be from a mindset where we are showing that we lack the discipline to be gentle and merciful and to show the righteousness of God. Let's go on to Galatians 6.

As we saw what James wrote, let's go see what Paul wrote in a similar vein about this meekness. Galatians 6 and verse 1.

Because we are given instruction by Paul to go help our brother when they're caught up in a spiritual matter. And notice what Paul says here in Galatians 6 and verse 1. He says, brethren, if a man is overtaken by any trespass, notice he says, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. King James says of meekness. There's an interesting aspect to this that if we don't read it carefully, we can miss. Notice what Paul says, those who are spiritual restore. He doesn't say everybody in the congregation, because he recognizes some within his hearing and reading of this letter, they weren't approaching the other person with the right heart, with the right motivations. He recognized that sometimes there's pride that grabs hold of our lives. And he's saying, if you're not spiritual, you're not the person to go say something to another person in this way. Because he says, make sure you're checking yourself. Make sure you're right with God first. And those who are spiritual restore such as one in a spirit of gentleness. Why?

Because those of us who are working and letting God work on us from the inside out, those who humbly see ourselves how we are, those of us who would lovingly go to our brother, we're going to do it in the right order. And we all should be able to do this. This isn't a cop-out that says, well, I'm just not that person somebody else can know. We should all be working to develop this meek attitude and this spirit of gentleness, the spirit of meekness within our lives. But if we know that we're not at that place, pray about it and bring it back in. Because there's been times that I haven't been in this place and I'm ready to just go let somebody have it. I'm ready to tell them all their faults, all their problems, all the ways that they've hurt me. But deep down, I know that things are not right here. And that's a dangerous place to be in because we're going to run ourselves aground. We're going to wreck the car because we're not spiritual in that moment. We're selfish, we're carnal, we're letting so many other things grab hold. Paul says, make sure you're spiritual if you're going to go address an issue with your brother and any trespass. He goes on to say, considering yourself lest you also be tempted, tempted to run aground. He says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. There are times where we have interactions with somebody and they do something that's just not right. But if that person is truly trying to more times than not make improvements on their life, if they're trying to go a better direction and they're just having a weak moment, Paul's saying, let's bear with each other. Let's be patient. Let's fulfill the law of Christ because so many times we deserve more than we get from God, right? I think we could probably say all the time. And yet, God is long suffering. He's patient. He doesn't give us what we deserve and we praise Him and we thank Him for that. And so we have to be able to do this towards another person as well. We have to. We'd be amiss if we didn't consider Galatians, since we're here in Galatians, Galatians chapter 5, the passage just before what we read in chapter 6, and what Paul wrote about the fruit of the Spirit. Because starting in verse 19, we see the aspects that are not of the fruit of the Spirit. Notice verse 19, now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery and fornication and cleanness, goodness. I think most of us would be like, nope, clear there.

I'm doing okay. Idolatry, sorcery, nope, that's not in any part of my life. And then we get to that middle passage and we kind of have to pump the brakes a bit because then he starts talking about hatred, contentions. Are there jealousies in our life? Are there outbursts of wrath?

This big one here, is there selfish ambition?

Are there dissensions or heresies? Another big one, verse 21, is there envy?

Thankfully, I don't think we have murderers, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom. What are the beatitudes again? They are these perfect blessings for life, right? Ultimate happiness, supreme happiness, these blessings that God wants to give us, and what are the end results of the kingdom of God being in his family?

He's saying, even if, I mean, we're not going out murdering people, we're not worshiping false gods, we're not fornicating, but hatred, contentions, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, envy.

It's those who just continue to practice that lifestyle and that way of life, those who feel there's no need to change. I'm do this. They've hurt me. They're going to get what they deserve. He says they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus flipped the world upside down because what we just read is the opposite of blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are humble. This list that we just read through is the opposite of that. These people are not humble. These attitudes are not showing humility. But then he gets to verse 22.

On the side that this is the fruit that should be developing in our life, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, which is sometimes translated meekness, self-control. And against such, there is no law. Against such, it means we're free from the we don't need the law because we're practicing this. We've internalized God's way in our life. We're living righteously before Him. The law is not needed. It can be put in a drawer because we are internalizing who God is, His character, and His way.

The hard part with this list is there's not any qualifications. It doesn't say bear long with one another or treat one with kindness if they treat you with kindness. It doesn't say be meek with others when they're showing meekness towards you. And so this list, it's tough to read, right? Because we recognize there's still so much room for all of us to improve. And that's the point. And that's okay. That's what God is wanting us to recognize. He's wanting us to see. That's why we He gives us the Holy Days every single year. He doesn't just give us the Holy Days every five years or every 10 years to review. He says every year, take this time to consider the example of your Lord and Savior. Take this time to consider the life that He sacrificed and the motivation that was in His heart, why He did the things He did, why He's going ahead of us to prepare a place for us. Consider every aspect of why God wants us to be in His family and why He's done so many good things for us so that we can then develop that character, that nature within us as well, so we can develop this fruit that bears and that people can see and that we can even see at times. And it doesn't mean we don't mess up, we don't slip up. Obviously, we do. But this meekness, this aspect of meekness, is so important to God. Let's look forward to Ephesians chapter 4. Paul again mentions this aspect of meekness. Ephesians 4 in verse 1.

I've got to hurry up. I'm sorry.

I've got to stop talking so much about myself, right? Ephesians 4 in verse 1, he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called, with all lowliness, that humility, right, and gentleness, which is also translated in some translations meekness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Then he goes through the section of ones, which I love. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you're called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father all who is above all and through all and in you all. Paul again is talking about we have so much more in common than we have that should divide us. We have so much this oneness doesn't just mean oneness when the person is doing everything the way that they're supposed to. It's walking along alongside with our friends, with our brothers and sisters in Christ and saying, I'm here. We're walking forward. We're staying one. We're not divided. We all fall short. We all mess up, but we're going to go forward. I'm not going to let this divide me in a similar list, but to a different audience. He says, let's go to Colossians 3 and verse 12. Paul again speaking here, Colossians 3 and verse 12. It's a similar message. He says, therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, again, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must do. Why is Paul repeating this in two different letters to two different churches? Because they all have the same problems, right? They all have human nature. They all have issues, right? That's why God's Word is so relevant for us still today, and it will be forever, because we're a group of people with our own issues, our own problems, and at times they're ugly to see in one another, and they make themselves apparent.

But there's a way out. There's a way forward. There's a way to humbly recognize we fall short, and there's a way to humbly recognize our brothers and sisters fall short, and we keep walking with them.

I was going to read a passage from James. You can put it in your notes if you want. I'm sorry, from Peter, because James talks about this. Paul talks about it. Peter also talks about it. 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 8 through 17. For the sake of time, I'm probably going to cut this out, but he says in a similar way the same things that Paul writes. Why would James write it? Why would Paul write it? Why would Peter write it? It's because these issues affect us all, and these issues remain part of our life, and they will until the day we die, but this is why they're so important to continue to go back to. It's why God says if we will develop this attitude and this mindset of meekness, we'll be in this kingdom. We'll inherit the earth and all that God has for us when his kingdom comes down to this earth. Again, there are aspects where we're not to be a doormat, we're not to allow ourselves to be abused. Don't take this too far, because healthy boundaries are good boundaries, and they're important to understand and they're important to have in life. So there are times where we need boundaries. We're not to be a doormat. We're not to be abused. But more times than not, we're not talking about that level of abuse or those situations. We're talking about where we're suffering or being persecuted, maybe even for something good that we're doing when someone else is attacking us or when somebody else wants to cut us down.

And when we can take that patiently, that's meekness. And this is really hard to do. Turn to Luke 6 and verse 27.

Here in Luke chapter 6, Jesus gives us instructions that are you want to talk about flipping the world upside down. This goes contrary to anyone who does not have a relationship with God, because this is the way that they lead their life. This does not make sense. In their mind, they will never understand the depth of this passage unless they give their life to God, unless they begin turning a new chapter in their life, because this is so far the mindset of our human nature. And that's exactly why Christ gave us this passage here in Luke chapter 6 and verse 27, because we will spend the rest of our lives trying to internalize this and to make it real in our lives. Luke chapter 6 verse 27, Christ says, But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Talking about flipping the world upside down, right?

This is meekness.

He says, bless those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you.

Again, this is meekness.

That we would pray that God would help someone's attitude change towards us, or for us to have more depth of understanding of why is this person behaving this way.

They know better than to do this. Something else is going on in their life.

Sometimes in college, we have bad roommates, and their attitudes are out of control.

Kelsey has a bad roommate again, doing some crazy stuff and saying stuff that would just be like, who does that? Who says those types of things? We tried to point out to her, Kelsey, we don't know what that person has been through in her life. Obviously, the majority of people don't treat and don't say these things to another person, do they?

So something bad has happened in her life. We should pray for her.

She needs help. She needs prayers.

And if God would shine his grace on her to fix maybe a part of her life that is so broken, that's not a bad thing to pray for, right? Because he's shown us his grace so many times by helping us when we didn't do anything to deserve it.

Can we pray for others?

Recognizing what they did is not good, what they did is not right, but can we love our enemies?

Can we pray and do good to those who maybe even hate us? Because more times than not, we're not dealing with somebody who truly hates us. They're just having a really bad day.

Christ goes on in verse 29 and says, To him who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also.

And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back.

And just as you want men to do to you, and this is the kicker, you also do to them likewise.

Verse 31 summarizes everything there is to do with meekness.

Because there are times we wake up out of control. There are times, life situations, and our pride, our self-righteousness, our arrogance, grabs the steering wheel of our life and drives us straight into the ditch. And then we want to get out, and we want to point the finger at why everybody else is.

We want to get out and point.

Why it's everybody else's fault that we drove in the ditch.

I told you this was as much for me as I could share with you.

He goes on to say in verse 32, But if you love those who love you, what credit is it to you? For even sinners love those who love them. He says, if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is you? For even sinners do the same.

He goes on to say, If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that for you? He goes on to say, If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that for you?

For even sinners, lend to sinners and receive as much back.

He says, But love your enemies.

Do good and lend, hoping for nothing and return, and your kindness and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.

For He is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful.

There are a lot of bad people in the world, and yet they wake up with the sun shining on them a lot of days.

There are some really bad people who do not deserve rain to make their crops grow, but even our Father looks on their life and says, and has pity and says, I'm going to give them the rain. But they haven't done anything to deserve, but because I'm a good God.

And there's times where we have to be merciful with others, just as God and we praise Him is merciful with us.

When we do these things, these incredibly hard things, the blessing from God is the inner peace that we have in our heart that comes from being meek. That's the real blessing we walk away with.

We walk away knowing I did what my God wants me to do in this situation. Was it hard? It was so hard.

Was that person deserving of it? Nope.

But I have inner peace that I was in control, that I managed my emotions, I managed my words, I managed my thoughts. I brought it all in, not on my own power.

But because God is doing something powerfully in my life, and then we have that inner peace that is priceless, right?

There is something powerful that we feel when we are in complete control of our emotions and actions and situations that would normally present a huge challenge for us.

There is peace knowing that we are demonstrating an attribute of God. God, again, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

I've spent a lot of time on the subject of meekness today, probably because, well, obviously, I put probably in my notes, there's no probably. Obviously, because this is something that touches my heart.

I told you last time that once we reviewed these beatitudes, that it's important for me to personally take these to heart as well. Let's close in Timothy 1 Timothy 6 and verse 6.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 6. 1 Timothy 6.

Paul writes to Timothy and says, Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. That's just the truth of the matter.

And having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. We need these physical blessings of life. There's no question about that. But the problem is when the pursuit of these blessings become our mindset over the blessings that God wants us to receive. This is the beatitude. This is what He wants us to inherit, His kingdom. And He says, if you develop these character traits of me, and we don't get a pick, I like number one and two, meekness. That's hard.

We don't get a pick which of the eight that we want to internalize. We need to internalize all. He says, but those who desire to be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destructions and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. We could put in the searching and only looking for blessings, physical blessings in our life, expecting those and only seeking after those.

And He says, some have strayed from their faith and their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. That word meekness again.

And He says, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called, and have confessed to good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

There's sometimes in life that we wish, I think, that Jesus would have gave us an easy bar to cross, right?

So you're doing a high jump or a hurdle. You want it all the way down, right? Because that's not hard to get over. And I think many times our human nature wishes Christ would have set that bar really low, because, hey, I can actually achieve that.

And this is, again, why Jesus flipped the world upside down.

He says, you want to live a blessed life, then take these attributes and internalize them. Work on these character traits, and there's an inner peace that will enter your heart that is beyond understanding, beyond comprehension.

And so thank you for letting me share part of my journey with you. Thank you for letting me share these beatitudes.

We're 3N. The other ones are great, too.

We're going to have a lot of fun as we continue. I hope this will continue to be an edifying series as we get towards Passover here in just a few weeks, because if we can continue to work building these attributes in our life, nothing's going to stand in our path between now and the kingdom. Nothing's going to stand between our relationships with one another.

Nothing's going to stand between eternity with God.