WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.879 Okay, we're going to go back this evening to the Beatitudes, and we're going to look 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:13.120 at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 5, but we'll read the first few verses of chapter 5. 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:16.879 Again, it's part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes which we're going 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:19.640 through one at a time. 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:26.160 And there will deliberately or otherwise be some overlap with this morning. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:32.719 I'm making my confession already, but I hope that's a meaningful and spirit-filled or 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:38.679 spirit-led overlap because there is a similarity in the themes between anger and meekness as 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:40.560 opposites in many ways. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.439 So Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, seeing the crowds, he went up on a mountain, and 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:51.039 when he had sat down his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:55.079 saying, and we've looked at these first couple, blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs 00:00:55.079 --> 00:01:00.879 is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, blessed 00:01:00.879 --> 00:01:05.200 are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:09.519 And we're looking at that last of the Beatitudes that are on the screen there, blessed are 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:14.879 the meek for they shall inherit the earth. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:20.840 Now there is within each of us a longing for permanence, absolutely unequivocably. 00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:29.400 There is a longing for permanence in our lives, and we often live as if we're permanent, as 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:31.000 if we will always be. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.359 Even though that we know we're going to die someday, we live as if we're not going to 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:37.520 die. 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:44.200 We live as if we are permanent beings, and we find non-existence or impermanence very 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:49.840 difficult to comprehend and very difficult to understand. 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:54.159 And so in this life we look for that sense of permanence in everything, don't we? 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:59.840 We look for it whether it's in a relationship or in a marriage or in a house that we can 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:00.840 call home. 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:06.480 You know how good it is to be in a house that you call home, that sense of permanence is 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:13.159 great going away in holiday, but you come back to a house that you call home, and you 00:02:13.159 --> 00:02:21.439 recognize how good and how precious that is, or friendships which are permanent for you, 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:25.560 friendships that you might not always have in terms of seeing people, but when you meet 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:33.800 with them again there's a sense of permanence about it, and we equate sometimes that permanence 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:35.120 with the people that we know and love. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:39.800 I watched a film last week, it's a great film, if you can get over the violence, shouldn't 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:42.159 really say that after speaking about anger this morning. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:51.439 But it's a war film and it's a film called Fury, about a tank guy, Brad Pitt I think 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:52.439 is in it. 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:58.240 But it ends up basically that he's the only guy that survives this attack on this tank 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.680 and the war and American forces it in Germany. 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:10.199 All his colleagues who were always there all die in the last battle as it were, apart from 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:17.199 him, and the end of the film is him being taken into a first aid truck and being driven 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:18.199 away. 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:25.799 I felt a great sense at that moment of the film is meant to end with him having a sense 00:03:25.799 --> 00:03:34.919 of guilt about leaving these colleagues that have fought with him to die and to rot in that 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:38.919 tank and around that tank while he moves away. 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:44.879 There's a great sadness, a great pathos about that moment, but it's as if he's abandoning 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:49.839 these people who he thought would be his permanent friends, always there, come through 00:03:49.839 --> 00:03:56.239 many a battle and yet there's that guilt of moving on and the impermanence of that moment. 00:03:56.239 --> 00:04:00.000 It was very powerful, I'm not sure of that, what it was meant to convey but that's what 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.159 I got from it. 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:08.000 And very often we put all our energies into self-preservation, whether it is through relationships 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:14.240 or career or legacy or keeping healthy at all costs because that's what matters. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:19.240 And that for us, and for many people today who are not believers who don't have a Christian 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:29.399 faith, many people will be focusing their lives in an all-consuming way on permanence, 00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:35.319 on maintaining their health and maintaining their youth or maintaining their lives at 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:43.959 all costs and God may get relegated or not be considered at all. 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:49.199 And sometimes we can act like that as Christians and use God like a genie that we take out 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:53.839 of the bottle and allow us to live the life we want, the way we want it and preserve the 00:04:53.839 --> 00:05:02.439 way we are without recognizing his concept of permanence. 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:11.439 And that is because of the sin of pride and pride within us always drives us towards autonomy, 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:19.959 always drives us away from dependence upon God, always drives us towards being self-made 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:26.800 and somehow, if not theologically and not even philosophically, but practically denying 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.519 our mortality and the truth of God's word. 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:32.879 And that is what pride does. 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:41.000 Pride always seeks security and permanence its own way, usually through reaching the 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:42.799 top of the pile. 00:05:42.799 --> 00:05:50.879 It's assertive, go-getting, it's self-confidence, it's ambitious, it's often making a legacy 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:52.120 at the expense of others. 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:58.719 Now, a great practical example of that, almost a parody of that, would be the candidates on 00:05:58.719 --> 00:05:59.719 the apprentice. 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:08.400 They would be a perfect example of people who are seeking their own success with their 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:20.440 own heightened egos and blowing their own trumpets to a kind of in a almost humorous, 00:06:20.440 --> 00:06:21.520 unrealistic way. 00:06:21.520 --> 00:06:26.640 I'm not sure what they genuinely think about themselves, but it's anything, but it's the 00:06:26.640 --> 00:06:29.160 opposite in other words of meekness. 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:33.800 What you see in a program like that and what you see in a lot of people's lives is the 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.640 opposite of meekness. 00:06:36.640 --> 00:06:41.440 And that's what we're going to be looking at this evening, because the message of the 00:06:41.440 --> 00:06:44.440 gospel of Jesus is very different. 00:06:44.440 --> 00:06:51.840 It's different from the ideological thinking of many of the colleagues, many of the philosophical 00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:58.720 foundations that people have in life and of secular philosophical thinking for sure. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:03.600 But it's also something we battle with in our own hearts is the reality of what Jesus 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:06.160 requires of us as followers of Him. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:11.680 Because remember, the beatitudes are the blessings He bestows on those who have already put their 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:15.960 trust in Him and how they live their lives, how we live our lives, how you and I live 00:07:15.960 --> 00:07:17.440 our lives. 00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:23.560 So the Christian is to be someone who displays meekness in their life. 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:28.160 And that's the command, that's the blessing, that's the beatitude that we have here, blessed 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.080 our the meek for they shall inherit the earth. 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:35.720 It's a characteristic, as we've seen with, we've mentioned earlier, like the fruit of 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:40.480 the Spirit, it's a characteristic that should be in every believer. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.080 It's a mark of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:46.240 It's a mark of a transformed life, just as the fruit of the Spirit is. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:50.520 Not just the odd one in here now and again, but all of them to a lesser or to a greater 00:07:50.520 --> 00:07:51.520 extent. 00:07:51.519 --> 00:08:00.240 And that meekness comes from confessing, as believers, our weakness before God and relying 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:06.240 on His strength to keep us from falling, as we illustrated a little bit with the children. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:11.680 It's accepting His diagnosis of failure and confessing that. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:16.279 And that's why it comes after the first two beatitudes, which speak about that attitude 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:22.359 of mind, which enables us to be meek, so you've got the poor in Spirit and those who mourn. 00:08:22.359 --> 00:08:28.000 And we've looked at them, and we've seen how these spiritual characteristics enable us 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:32.120 then to become people who are meek. 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:37.759 Now meekness in the Bible is not, as the title of the sermon suggests, weakness. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:44.480 Meekness is a great characteristic, it's a great word, and it's, and you know this, 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:47.720 and I know you know this, and I've told you it before, but I'm just going to tell you 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:51.960 again because it's good to be reminded of. 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:54.039 It means self-control. 00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:56.800 It means controlled strength. 00:08:56.800 --> 00:09:05.800 Meekness is being in control through the power of the Spirit of our lives and of our hearts 00:09:05.800 --> 00:09:07.480 and of our emotions. 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:14.879 It comes from the concept of taming a wild horse, breaking a horse so that it becomes 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.960 something that is domesticated and can be ridden. 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:22.759 Not just a horse, it could be any animal, I guess, but we normally think of horse. 00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:26.159 Those of us who are a certain age here will remember, I don't think any younger people 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:31.639 here really watch, you don't really see many cowboy films anymore, but the cowboy films 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:38.199 where you know the cool cowboy would come and go and get on the back of an unbroken horse 00:09:38.199 --> 00:09:45.000 and they called him the bucking bronco, and he would break that horse by riding it and 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:46.600 it would become tame. 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:49.919 And that's where the word meekness comes from. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:54.840 It speaks of restraining our passions and controlling our passions. 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.919 It means being able to, and this is what it fits in quite well with this morning about, 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:03.079 because this morning we looked at temper and losing our temper. 00:10:03.079 --> 00:10:08.719 Meekness is about being able to control by this power of God, our temper and our passions, 00:10:08.719 --> 00:10:13.199 and when we're opposed or when we're maybe rebuked or corrected, we don't need to be 00:10:13.199 --> 00:10:14.199 defensive. 00:10:14.199 --> 00:10:18.679 We don't need to always be on the defensive in our lives. 00:10:18.679 --> 00:10:19.679 We don't rage. 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:21.079 We're not easily provoked. 00:10:21.079 --> 00:10:24.599 We're not impetuous, hasty or flighty. 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:31.560 We have this meekness, this strength of self-control that comes from the living God. 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:37.800 It means being able to forgive and treat others calmly because we know how God is treated 00:10:37.800 --> 00:10:38.800 us. 00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:43.879 So it must, it comes from, it's not a natural characteristic, it's a spiritual one that comes 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:51.320 from our relationship with God in Christ and what we've received and the grace that we've 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:53.000 received. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:11:02.320 It would involve not being unduly opinionated or forceful in how we share our opinions and 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.639 our thoughts. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:12.639 So it really, meekness speaks about in gospel terms, submission and obedience to God through 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:19.200 Christ, obeying God, and submission and service to others. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:27.560 That's what meekness is, it's revealing a willingness to obey God even if it goes against 00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:33.280 what we want to do maybe ourselves and also a desire to serve others in our lives because 00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:42.160 of that control of who we are in Christ that enables us to serve others, better even to 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:50.439 suffer for doing right than to sin and submission and meekness reflects that. 00:11:50.439 --> 00:11:56.519 God's will is, I know I'm sorry, I'm repeating a little bit from this one, God's will and 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:01.079 not our will primarily in the Lord's prayer and the needs of others before our desires, 00:12:01.079 --> 00:12:09.839 that servantheartedness, calm and controlled, not easily blown off course, willing to change 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:15.960 in order to stay on course following Jesus doing His will. 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:20.399 So there's two things it's not, so if we see that it's a controlled strength, this meekness 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:29.639 that's spoken of in the gospels and in the Beatitudes here and in the Bible, it's not, 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:34.400 it's not, there's two things it's not as well, it's not weakness, okay? 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:41.639 I think the concept of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, often along with it seems to have 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:48.079 the underlying impression that Jesus is just weak, spineless in some ways, but it's not 00:12:48.079 --> 00:12:53.879 weakness, it's not sentimental to be meek, it's not soft. 00:12:53.879 --> 00:13:01.679 Meekness, as I say, it's controlled strength, you think of a, I'm scared of horses, they 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:06.959 are big brutes and I'm kind of scared of them and you wouldn't say a horse at any stage 00:13:06.959 --> 00:13:13.039 at any way was kind of weak, even though it may be controlled and there's a, there's 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:22.319 a great strength as we'll see, but it certainly isn't something that's often championed in, 00:13:22.319 --> 00:13:27.159 say for example in Hollywood or in films, you would often get the opposite, wouldn't 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:33.959 you, in terms of heroes, you know, Top Gun, the second Top Gun just come out, it's the 00:13:33.959 --> 00:13:35.439 classic, isn't it? 00:13:35.439 --> 00:13:41.679 Classic hero, he wins everything, he's powerfully strong and he's got good stuntmen and all 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:47.439 these things and you know, everything works for Mel Gibson, who is it? 00:13:47.439 --> 00:13:48.439 What's his name? 00:13:48.439 --> 00:13:49.439 Tom Cruise. 00:13:49.439 --> 00:13:52.559 Tom Cruise, yeah, I knew that, I was just checking, you weren't asleep. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:57.279 So, that's the normal picture you would get in Hollywood, isn't it? 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:03.159 It's kind of the opposite of meekness, but I thought of, there's a great example of meekness 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:10.719 in Hollywood, I don't know if it's Hollywood, in the film industry, because it's a true story 00:14:10.719 --> 00:14:19.239 and it's a true story, again, it's a war film about Desmond Doss, who was a pacifist, a 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:28.759 Christian, who went, was determined to fight for his country as a medic, but there was 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:35.159 a big struggle because obviously he wouldn't fire a gun, but anyway, he went. 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:42.840 And there's this great story of this meek character saving 75 people's lives by going 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:50.560 again and again and again the battle of Okinawa to retrieve them at the danger to his own 00:14:50.560 --> 00:14:51.560 life. 00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:58.840 It's a great example of meekness, of controlled strength, of serving God and serving others 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:02.399 before himself without firing a shot. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:07.080 That selfless inner strength that came from his faith. 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:13.920 So it's not weakness, strength, controlled strength, like an excavator, Lachy, you'll 00:15:13.920 --> 00:15:20.360 like this one, an excavator, you know, if you've seen the buckets of these massive machines 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:28.000 and they can move tons and tons of earth, but in the right, driven and operated in the 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:34.759 right way, it could pick up a duckling, these massive buckets with the controlled strength 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:36.400 of the operator. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.959 And the skilled hands at the controls. 00:15:39.959 --> 00:15:49.279 And that, you know, a muscly, strong dad holding a newborn, controlled strength. 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:51.600 It's not weakness. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:52.759 It's not weakness. 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:54.720 Nor is it a natural characteristic. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.199 These two things, it's not, it's not a natural characteristic. 00:15:58.199 --> 00:16:02.840 You know, you can be an introvert, you can be an extrovert, you can be a physical giant, 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:05.079 you can just be a wee thing. 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:11.120 It doesn't matter about your natural characteristics because meekness is a gift from God, it's a 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.320 blessing that comes from Him. 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:15.040 It's a beatitude. 00:16:15.040 --> 00:16:21.720 It's what He gives to those who are His, and we are to display that in our lives. 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:28.040 And the motive for it is how Christ has dealt with us, and we respond in that meek way as 00:16:28.040 --> 00:16:30.879 a result, and we live in that way. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:32.920 There's two examples. 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:38.799 One, we read about Moses, and we read in Numbers 12 verse 3 that he was the meekest man who 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:39.799 walked on earth. 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:44.839 And that is, that's an amazing claim for the inspired scriptures to make. 00:16:44.839 --> 00:16:46.679 He was, and what, was he weak? 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:48.559 No, he wasn't weak. 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:51.240 He was a leader of a nation. 00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:53.799 But he prayed for his rebellious people again and again. 00:16:53.799 --> 00:17:00.000 And in the story of Miriam and Aaron where he may have acted very differently, God was 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:06.480 interestingly, as we looked this morning at God's wrath, God's wrath was poured out on. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:14.440 And Miriam, because of her sinful, rebellious spirit against Moses and against God, and 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:21.640 God judged her with leprosy, and Aaron pleaded on her behalf, and Moses pleaded, please God, 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:25.960 please heal her, please heal her. 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:34.079 Using his strength not to destroy Miriam at that point, or to say, well, you know, you're 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:38.880 getting what you deserve, but rather to plead for her forgiveness, because he himself knew, 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:42.079 and had experienced forgiveness and so was meek in his life. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:43.079 Isn't it great? 00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:44.559 He's so close to God. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:49.279 It's an amazing description we have there of him with God that, you know, God spoke 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:54.480 to others in dreams and in visions, but God spoke to Moses as one face to face. 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:56.120 There was this great friendship. 00:17:56.120 --> 00:17:57.279 He knew God's shining face. 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:00.839 He came down from the mountain reflecting that face. 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:06.279 He knew God's grace in his life, and he knew not to be defensive, because God had placed 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:09.720 him in the position he'd been in, nor to seek revenge. 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:19.599 But yet, what incredible resilience, strength and courage as he led the people of God. 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:21.079 So Moses is a great example. 00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:26.240 If you want to know what meekness is, read the story of Moses, but also, of course, Jesus 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.679 is a great example of meekness as well. 00:18:30.679 --> 00:18:40.119 The infinite God, his incarnation, childhood obedience, fact that in his rejection, he didn't 00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:44.399 call down the angels from heaven at any point. 00:18:44.399 --> 00:18:47.919 Silence before Pilate, his strength, his faithfulness to the cross. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:52.840 We saw this morning his forgiveness of the murderers that had placed him there. 00:18:52.840 --> 00:18:58.240 His obedience to the Father, yet not my will but yours be done. 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:08.800 The sweating of blood, the cry of dead election, internally and externally absolute meekness 00:19:08.800 --> 00:19:11.279 we find in Jesus. 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:14.920 First Peter 2, verse 20 says, But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:20.320 commendable before God to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you 00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:22.680 an example that you should follow in his steps. 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:26.080 Okay, we know he's a Savior, but he's also an example. 00:19:26.080 --> 00:19:30.600 He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth. 00:19:30.600 --> 00:19:33.640 When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate. 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:35.480 When he suffered, he made no threats. 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:43.120 Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:47.919 Great picture of meekness in action in our Savior. 00:19:47.919 --> 00:20:00.319 So just in conclusion for us as we think about meekness, how do we display meekness and receive 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:02.399 this blessing of meekness? 00:20:02.399 --> 00:20:06.319 Well, we do so by imitating Christ. 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:08.159 We're called to do that. 00:20:08.159 --> 00:20:12.919 We're called to suffer injustice for doing good. 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:20.120 But always to seek revenge, never to seek revenge and not always to seek justice, but 00:20:20.120 --> 00:20:22.680 leaving that to God. 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:30.800 Enduring an entrusting judgment to God, we recognize that, dying to sin. 00:20:30.800 --> 00:20:35.560 So we imitate Christ, but we also, we wear meekness. 00:20:35.560 --> 00:20:38.440 Colossians 3, 12 is similar verses from this morning. 00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:42.480 This morning we looked at the negative verses that included anger and wrath and sin and everything 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:43.480 else. 00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:47.039 So this evening, we're talking about this morning, what we put off. 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:49.279 This evening, what we put on. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:56.480 So put on then spiritually, wear the clothes as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:04.360 hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another. 00:21:04.360 --> 00:21:08.960 And if one is a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:10.680 you, so must you also forgive them. 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:16.600 That's a great, a great, very simple description of meekness for us all. 00:21:16.600 --> 00:21:20.519 Nobody here doesn't understand that. 00:21:20.519 --> 00:21:23.759 Nobody here needs that explained theologically. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:29.000 We just need to do it in the power of the Spirit. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.960 You don't need some great kind of exposition. 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:38.480 You simply, and I simply need to do it, to put it on. 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:40.120 We need to wear meekness then. 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:46.039 We also need to hear the word with meekness, the way we open the Bible, the way we come 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:52.119 to church under the word of God, the way we hear God as He speaks. 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:58.319 James 1.21, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:05.879 I think in the A.V. it was the most beautiful description of the superfluity of naughtiness. 00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:12.040 Put aside all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word 00:22:12.040 --> 00:22:14.000 which is able to save your souls. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:16.360 So we listen to the word with meekness. 00:22:16.360 --> 00:22:19.200 That is not high-handed. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.280 We don't say, come on, God prove it to me. 00:22:22.280 --> 00:22:23.440 We listen with meekness. 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:25.440 We listen with submission. 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:26.880 We listen with eagerness. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:32.120 We listen with hunger because of who God is and what He has done for us. 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:36.959 And we find that our lives are therefore transformed because we do so. 00:22:36.959 --> 00:22:37.959 So we wear meekness. 00:22:37.959 --> 00:22:38.959 We imitate Christ. 00:22:38.959 --> 00:22:41.119 We hear the word with meekness. 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:46.000 We live out obedience with the meekness of God's wisdom. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:50.279 And again, it's beautiful how it's all brought together. 00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:55.639 James 3.13, who is wise and understanding among you? 00:22:55.639 --> 00:23:00.799 By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:09.119 So God's wisdom is not necessarily intelligence, but it is the wisdom that enables us to live 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:17.200 out and understand how He wants us to live and display it as a fruit of the Spirit. 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:19.480 Galatians 5.23, we recognize that. 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:25.200 It's one of the fruit of the Spirit, that gentleness or gentle force could be a way of 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:28.480 describing the gentleness of the fruit of the Spirit. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:29.480 Show that. 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:30.480 Go on. 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:33.160 Tomorrow, show it. 00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:34.160 Live it out in your life tomorrow. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:36.279 I don't know where you're going to be. 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:38.599 I know where I'm going to be and I'm going to have to live it out. 00:23:38.599 --> 00:23:40.880 You live it out tomorrow. 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:42.759 Live out meekness. 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:48.400 Show yourself to be different from your unbelieving colleagues and friends and neighbors by responding 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:57.680 with meekness rather than responding in a naturalistic and sinful way. 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:05.160 And when we do so, we're reminded as we go right back to the beginning about permanence, 00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.600 blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. 00:24:08.600 --> 00:24:13.680 In other words, we're gifted what we cannot earn. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:17.480 Spend our small futile lives trying to make permanence. 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:21.759 The only permanence that comes is from trusting in Jesus Christ and following Him because 00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:26.320 He gifts us the earth. 00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:35.359 In the life, our deepest longing, what we strive after most we can't obtain without 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:36.399 Christ. 00:24:36.399 --> 00:24:38.159 He gifts us it. 00:24:38.159 --> 00:24:43.399 He gifts us this earth, this world, this rock that St. Columbus is built on. 00:24:43.399 --> 00:24:44.399 He gifts us it. 00:24:44.399 --> 00:24:45.399 It's our home. 00:24:45.399 --> 00:24:51.799 Yes, it's right for us to care for and to steward this world, but the environmentalists 00:24:51.799 --> 00:24:57.599 generally have missed the main point that there's only one way to save and redeem the 00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:06.519 planet ultimately is by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and recognizing that He has inherited 00:25:06.519 --> 00:25:08.319 that world to us. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:11.159 It's our planet. 00:25:11.159 --> 00:25:21.039 The desire for that permanent, earthly, physical soil that we call home comes from the heart 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:33.279 of God and it's good, but it's a misguided desire that has burst a thousand wars. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:39.920 And currently we're seeing it in the world and we live, but we will inherit the world 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:47.279 as our home, as a promise from God because that will be the home within dwells righteousness. 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:49.519 And that is what we can look forward to. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:54.480 And that is what enables us to be blessed this evening. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:26:01.639 When we live for Christ, when we obey and serve others, that's where true life is. 00:26:01.639 --> 00:26:05.480 That's where we find peace, contentment and happiness. 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:12.119 Make your gaze on Jesus, make my gaze on Jesus because then that's the blessing that 00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:16.879 enables us to live like Him and know fullness of life. 00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:19.760 Will not find it anywhere else. 00:26:19.760 --> 00:26:20.760 Amen. 00:26:20.760 --> 00:26:25.000 Father God, we ask that you'd help us to live for you and love you. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.120 Forgive us when we don't see it. 00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:37.400 Forgive us when we believe it theologically or intellectually, but when the rubber hits 00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:53.480 the road we self-preserve or we sinfully self-righteously judge or we show that we are out of control, 00:26:53.480 --> 00:27:00.160 that we don't have that meekness, that great strong control of our passions that the Spirit 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:02.200 enables us to have. 00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:09.519 We thank you that you do forgive us and we thank you that you don't give up on us. 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:13.960 And if there's anyone here this evening, Lord, who feels like giving up on themselves as 00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:23.920 Christians, may they hear your word and know your promises and believe in your faithfulness 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:27.480 and trust in your provision and not give up. 00:27:27.480 --> 00:27:34.880 May they hold on and stay close and see transformation and change. 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:36.480 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:58.480 Amen.