Good morning.
Hopefully you can hear me.
Before we begin, I want to make an apology to one person in this room.
And that is to Travis Conger.
Because Travis Conger is running the camera today.
And this is a really big stage.
And when I have a really big place to walk, I like to walk.
And then when he's back there, he's just kind of moving every once in a while.
Today will be the most active day of his life.
So I know you can't see me because you're behind that brick wall in the back.
But just know that my apologies now.
I love you.
Good luck today.
Ending the series on the upside down blessings.
And the upside down blessings are talking about the B attitudes.
One of all time in the Bible.
And it's a collection of ideas.
And this is not just a one time thing that Jesus preached.
Jesus preached this multiple times.
And Matthew would put it in, in Matthew 5, right after he just got done talking
about all these poor people, all these, uh, you know, invalids, people
who the refuge of the Roman Empire.
And then he says, Jesus went and taught them, blessed are you.
What an amazing concept.
What an amazing thought.
Because Jesus doesn't look at all the outward appearances.
Jesus judges the heart, and you'll see this with these upside down blessings.
Now, last week Marcel gave you, uh, a kind of a, a brief snapshot
of the, the context of this.
So I don't feel the need to, and if you didn't get the, the, the, uh,
the handout, I know it's put on the church app, so please go read it.
But I do wanna stay, take just a moment and read through the.
And that is this, Matthew 5, 3 8, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all
kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.
For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Upside down blessings.
If I was writing these blessings, I don't think I would have
mentioned a single one of those.
I would have said, blessed are those who are important.
When everyone wants to listen to them.
Blessed are those who are wealthy.
Who can afford to do whatever they want.
Blessed are those who are good looking.
When people want to run after you.
Blessed are those when people don't want to say anything evil about you.
Blessed are those who never struggle.
Those would be my blessings.
That's not the blessings Jesus is talking about.
Because Jesus, again, sees this world not for what we see, but for the
spiritual battle that it contains.
Today I'm going to be focusing on this one.
Blessed are the meek for they don't hurt the earth.
Now, when these were being divvied up, and I was asked to give on the meek,
I knew that I wasn't at the meeting when people started choosing these.
Because this would not be the one I would have chosen.
At all.
I mean, when the word meek?
Think about it.
When's the last time you've been like, That brother, so meek.
I just love you sister, you're so meek.
So what comes to mind?
I want you to sit and think for a moment.
What comes to mind for you?
Just take a moment and think about that.
What comes to mind when you think meek?
Humble?
Timid?
Weak?
Shy?
Self control?
I mean, when's the last time we put this on a resume?
You know, we're at Hire Me, I'm Neek.
We don't.
What I thought of him.
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon the little child.
I know, it's old, I get it.
But that's what I think of.
This little poor little goofy dog.
You know, I'm sure Wesley was just trying to find something in line
with child and he went with mild.
But meek and mild.
Who likes mild?
I
don't like mild.
we think, Neat?
We don't think it.
Maystreet, you'll get big images.
You don't think it.
And that's a shame.
But
sometimes
when we want to give you a scripture that God speaks about his own people.
Here it is in Jeremiah See how you behaved in the valley, consider what you've done.
You are a swift she camel running here and there.
A wild donkey, accustomed to the desert.
Sniffing the wind in her craving, in her heat, who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves at mating time.
They will find her.
Whoa!
Yeah, we bet again.
What an insult.
And what he's saying?
My people are not meek.
That's what he's saying here.
You are not meek.
You are a wild donkey.
An unbroken horse.
That's what we're saying.
That's what it means to not be meek.
And we see this all over our society.
It's celebrated.
In fact, there's an entire genre of television built on this.
Would we have reality TV if people, all the contestants and I
don't mean to insult this woman.
I have no idea who she is.
Famous cat meme.
Um, but this is what it means to be uncontrolled.
Unrestrained.
Just, whatever comes out, comes out.
No concept of, you know, controlled strength.
Which is what meek means.
Meek means controlled strength.
It's not that the horse is weak.
It's just not controlled.
To be meek, it calms your passions.
It tames the temper.
It manages the impulses.
It brings order out of the chaos of the human soul.
This is what it means to be meek.
Not running wild.
Not whatever you think you say.
And we hear people say this all the time.
I'm just speaking the truth.
No, you're just being rude.
You know, but it's what I feel.
That doesn't mean you've got to make me feel something too.
Controlled strength.
That's what it means to be meek.
This is an image of meekness.
Strong horse.
But tempered.
Broken.
Managed.
That horse can easily destroy that little girl.
But instead, because it's controlled, it's appreciated.
It's loved.
And it
can be in the same way, meek, like this horse.
Charles Spurgeon says this about meek.
He gives these words to help define the qualities of what meekness is.
He says to be meek is to be humble, is to be gentle, is to be patient, is
to be forgiving, and to be contented.
These are the qualities of someone who is meek.
Let's look at the opposite of what these would be.
Proud.
Brutal.
Impatient, Unforgiving, and Dissatisfied.
Does anyone want to be those?
Does anyone want to have a relationship or a life partner
or someone who represents that?
No.
To be meek is to be humble.
It's to be forgiving.
It's not that you don't have the power.
It's that you recognize that, you know what?
I choose to be gentle in this moment.
It's not that you haven't been wrong, but I choose to forgive.
It's not that the world's going all your way, but you choose to be content.
And I figured if I'm gonna go on an unpopular idea of meek,
I might as well go all the way.
And that is, meekness is submission.
Wow, there's a word that no one likes.
I figured if you're gonna go all, gonna be unpopular, might as well just be the most.
Meekness is submission.
When's the last time you liked that word?
People are now taking it out of marriage, uh, vows.
Because we don't like the word.
It means your mission is submit to something else.
And in this case, to God.
Boy, we don't like submission.
I barely like saying it.
But yet, to be meek means we must submit.
And what do we submit to?
We submit to God's word, we submit to God's will, and we submit to God's people.
Let's look at some scriptures on these concepts.
Therefore get rid of all moral fault and evil that is so prevalent and
humbly, or meekly, accept the work planted in you, which can save you.
That moral fault is prevalent.
It's prevalent to not be meek.
It's prevalent to not be forgiving.
It's prevalent to be brutal.
It's prevalent to be dissatisfied.
But instead, humbly, meekly accept the Word.
Why?
Because it will save you.
And I don't think it just means that it will save you for the next life in heaven.
I think it saves you now.
That's why it says, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Because you think about what it would be to be in a relationship
with someone who is a meek.
Why do you think the divorce rate is so high?
To submit to God's Word.
Meekly.
Humbly.
And the more things in there I don't want to do.
Because there's a lot of moral filth that's in me.
But as you read it and you understand it, you realize it's the only way to live.
Let me give you some examples of what meekness will not sound
like when it comes to this.
This may be what God says, but not what I want.
Example of not being meek to God's Word.
I know God says this.
I know God says I need to forgive, but that's not what I want to do.
I know God says that I must be humble.
That's not what I want to do.
You're an unbroken horse.
A wild donkey.
Or worse yet, this is what I want, so it must be what God says.
So I'm gonna do it.
A lack of meekness.
This is what I want.
So I'm gonna make God's word match what I have to say.
You're a wild horse.
Let's just submit to God's will.
Trust Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding
in all your ways, submit to him and he'll make you pass straight.
I have it in all your ways because, man, I would love it to say sometimes,
occasionally when you agree with it, when you feel like it, when it suits you.
I would want to say that.
In all your ways, submit to Him.
Submit.
Meekness.
This idea that God tells us that we are to submit to His will.
And submit to God's people.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
In my mind, this might be the hardest.
In my mind.
Because I don't like a lot of people.
I'm just being honest.
At my wedding day with Daniella, Marshall looked up my last name,
Ennis, and it means Ireland.
Or, in Ireland, it means, um, island.
And I'm like, that is me.
I am an island.
I would be happy to be by myself.
I'm good.
And so to submit to one another.
To submit to God's people, which means we must have relationships
with God's people to submit to them.
So, if you're the autonomous Christian out there that goes, I'm by myself, I'm good.
How do you submit if you don't have relationships?
Because these relationships will test you.
They tested Jesus.
Do they not think they'll test you?
Submit to one another.
Submit to God's people.
Now, I do want to give one caveat with this, and that is, this is the only
one of the three that is conditional, and here's what I mean by that.
The other two, there's no conditions.
God's Word, God's Will.
But this one, if someone's asking you to do something contrary to what
God's Will is, then that's different.
Even Paul speaks on that.
But as far be it for you, in aligning with God's Word and
God's Will, submit to one another.
So, what does this look like?
I'm going to give you four people in the Bible that I think are
awesome examples of meekness.
And I just want to give you a brief backdrop on the story and
then show you why these guys were lifted up as being meek.
First is Moses.
In case you don't know his story, I'll give you a brief, brief, uh, context.
This is the guy that he was a part of, raised in an Egyptian
household, despite being Jewish.
He sees, uh, an Egyptian hurting a Jewish man.
In his wrath, in his temper, he kills that, uh, that Egyptian.
He flees, and God will work on his heart for the next several decades.
And God will tell him, you're gonna go back to these people,
and you're gonna bring them out of Egypt, and into the Promised Land.
And he was like, wait, me?
I don't know if I want to go.
And God goes, you.
You're going to be the guy.
And so he does.
He risks his life for these people.
He speaks before Pharaoh, and he gets them and brings them out.
Out of slavery.
And through the desert.
And while in the desert, these people look at him and go,
why you brought us out here?
You brought us out here to die.
We were better off as slaves.
And they started grumbling and complaining against him.
And then began to worship other gods.
Now, if I were Moses, in my lack of meekness, I'd be like,
God, get rid of these people.
These people are terrible.
I'm gonna go back to my island and abandon them.
But the Torah says that Moses was the most humble, in Hebrew, meek
person on earth at that time.
Because his response is this.
But now please forgive their sin.
But if not, then blot me out of the book you've written.
Wow.
Not only is he saying to forgive them to God, but he's saying, God, if you're not
willing to forgive them, blot me out too.
Because I want them saved that much.
Wow.
And he wasn't doing it to people who were praising him.
He was saying that about people who were grumbling against him.
What it means to be meek.
Let's look at another person in the Bible.
An example of meekness.
One of my favorite people in the Bible, David.
In case you don't know this context, David is considered one of the greatest, if
not the greatest, king of all of Israel.
He rises up as a young man chosen by God.
He will conquer Goliath in God's name.
When Saul, his king, tried to attack him, he never retaliated.
He never killed Saul.
He humbly accepted that God would lead him where he needed to be.
And then in his sin, when he finally becomes king, he sins greatly.
And then, God's wrath will speak.
And what will happen was, his own son will take the throne from
him for a moment, and for a time.
And his own son will plot to kill him.
And David would have to flee Israel.
And he's fleeing with the royal guard and his loyal followers.
And as he's fleeing, this guy Shimei, the guy you see with that, about the throwing
arm right there, will throw stones and dust at him all along the journey.
This guy Shimei was a member of Saul's household, family.
And the entire time, he's just chanting him, You murderer!
And just throwing dust and dirt.
And Abishai, his royal guard says, You know what?
How dare this guy insult the king?
Let me go kill this dog and cut off his head.
If it were me, I'd be like, That sounds like a good plan.
I think that's a good way to go.
After all, I'm king.
How dare you insult a king like this?
But David was meek.
He was humble.
His response.
It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me His covenant
blessing instead of His curse today.
He doesn't say, hey, yeah, that's a good idea, go kill that guy.
He says, you know what?
It may be.
Maybe God will see what I'm going through and restore to me.
And I like the word maybe.
Actually, I don't like that word.
But it's a good word.
Maybe.
Because that means not saying, God will definitely do this for me.
I don't know.
I don't know if God will.
I don't know if God is going to have that plan for me.
I don't know.
But I want to trust that God will do what God wants to do.
And maybe God will have mercy on me.
And I will not act on my own accord.
What it means to be meek.
Another guy that is very well known in the New Testament.
Paul.
Also a man of meekness.
Paul, one of the greatest missionaries.
If not the greatest missionary in the New Testament.
Most of the New Testament books were written by him.
As he will plant church after church after leading Antioch.
And many of the Greek speaking and Gentile churches were
created and established by Paul.
And yet, when he's put on his first trial, no one will come and stand beside him.
And speak up for him.
No one.
Despite all of his efforts, despite all he did for the Church in Rome, for the Church
in Corinth, for the Church in Ephesus, for the Church in Philippi, for the
Church in Galatia, no one stood by him.
Not one.
And what's Paul's response as he writes a letter to Timothy?
He says this, At my first defense, no one came to my
support, but everyone deserted me.
May it not be held against them.
What it means to be meek.
is controlled.
I recognize that, you know what?
This hurt.
But I humbly accept this position, and I forgive those who hurt me.
I wonder who's hurt you in this room.
And I wonder if you've forgiven them yet.
Because we've seen three great examples of this.
But the last is the most significant.
And that is our Lord Jesus.
I want to paint a picture of you, of a man in a garden, a couple men, three men
are sleeping on the side, and this man is laying on a rock, sweating profusely,
crying out passionately, recognizing that his time of life is about to come
to a brutal end, for sins that he did not commit, but for sins that I committed.
And here he will lay, in prayer.
And his response?
Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.
Yet not my will, but yours be done.
Is there any greater example of what it means to be meek?
A man who could have called ten thousand legions of angels at his
side, humbly accepted the position of whatever God's will was.
And as we prepare for Communion,
I want you to consider Jesus on the cross.
And the words, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
As Jesus was up on that cross, he could have called on God
and said, God, let's end this.
But instead, he looked down on all of us, at his weakest, And most difficult time.
And says, Eric, I forgive you.
Because I don't realize you knew, you didn't know what you were doing.
And he said the same to all of you.
And he said the same to those who were attacking him then.
This is what it means to be meek.
Blessed are the meek.
For they will inherit the earth.
Let's pray for communion.
Father, as we come before you, And we lift up your name, we do so with our
bowed heads, recognizing God that you have given us so much, but you've done
so in a way that responds to your love.
God, Jesus could have done anything, but he came down here as a, as a lamb
to be slaughtered, as a representation of what it means to be meek.
And what it means to live in that upside down blessing, that we can be saved.
And Father, as we lift up this time to you, and we lift up our hearts to you,
and we take the sacraments, the bread and the juice that represents your
body and your blood, we do so, God, knowing that it is because of your love
that we've been called to this life.
And Father, I pray that we walk meekly with you.
Controlling our impulses, controlling our tempers, controlling our own will,
and submitting it to you, to your word, and to one another, in honor of you, and
in appreciation of your son's sacrifice.
And we pray this in your son's name.
Amen.