The Reward of the Humble — Friedel Stegen

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that thou wouldst be in our midst, speak to our hearts, and speak in such a way that we may understand that thy name may be glorified. Amen. I'd like to read a verse out of Matthew 5, chapter 5.

The Blessing Promised to the Meek

Matthew 5, verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. In another translation, I read this. God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, submissive and humble, for the whole earth belongs to them.

This is one of the most difficult things for us human beings to do. To be meek. To submit. To be humble. Let us only take that word for the moment, to be humble. If a person is humble, he submits and he bows to correction.

Mutual Submission and Christian Humility

Because in Ephesians 5, verse 21, we read, submitting one to another in the fear of the Lord. That means to submit, to bow, to humble yourself one to another. And that is the most difficult things for us human beings to do.

To submit, to bow, to authority. Because we always want our way. And we'll fight for our way. And we'll even excuse our ways. Because we don't want to submit to the next person. And that is something which the Lord is trying to teach and to teach us every Sunday.

And if we don't submit to the word of God and to submit one to another, it becomes, a Christian life becomes fearfully hard and impossible. If I submit to my brother, to my sister, there's no problem.

The problem only arises if I can't submit. If I fight for my rights, if I think I am right, and that the next person is wrong, I will always end up in confrontation with the next person. By that I don't say that we've got to submit and bow to sin.

But that we learn to submit to one another. And to respect my neighbour, my next, my brother, higher than myself. That I bow to the authority of my brother, my sister. That I bow to the wish of my brother, of my sister.

And that is terribly difficult for us. And that is a problem with us Christians. Wherever we go, wherever we are, and whomever we talk, we will always find a person defending his right. And that's why we get so many conflicts between Christians.

Humility Under Difficult Authority

Because we don't want to humble ourselves. This morning I spoke to some young people. And we also came onto this subject that we've got to humble ourselves. And we realised that it is most difficult just to submit, to bow, whether I understand it or not.

To bow under the authority of my parents if I feel they don't walk, they aren't Christians as they're supposed to be. And then if they tell me something, it makes it difficult. And there to bow, to humble myself, makes it very, very difficult.

So much so that I start getting a grudge in my heart against my parents. Because I resist submission to be meek, to be the lowest. And to me, that is my desire and my prayer every day, O Lord, that I may be meek, that I may be humble, that I'll be able to submit, that I'll be able to respect and honour my brother, my sister.

I will try to vindicate myself some way and try to put myself into a better light than I actually am. And that is the problem with us Christians. And that is the problem with the wives. A wife can't submit to her husband.

Wives, Husbands, and Submission in Marriage

Because she feels I am more spiritual than my husband. And it makes it so difficult for a wife to submit, to bow, to be humble, to honour him as Sarah honoured Abraham and she called him Lord. And that is the problem in marriage today.

That the wife doesn't want to submit to her husband. A wife always knows better than her husband. And she says, well, I know my husband. I can't bow and submit to him. And I looked up in the Bible and I couldn't find a place where the husband, even if he's how impossible, that the Lord says you needn't submit to your husband.

And that is what you wives have got to learn to be able to submit to your husbands. And if you've learnt that, to submit to your husbands, then you needn't have any meetings for women only. If you'd only obey the word of God and humble yourselves, submit to your husbands, things will change.

Because the husband loves his wife. But if he sees that his wife doesn't submit, doesn't bow, doesn't honour him, he'll get rebellious. Why is it that always those women who are meek, humble, those that are according to the word of God, that their husbands are good husbands and husbands that follow the Lord?

And that is a great, great challenge to our wives, that they submit, that they bow, that they honour their husbands. That a wife will learn not to say but. Because the wife, no matter what the husband says, the wife knows better.

There's always a but in her life. And a woman will always have the last word if she's not humble, if she isn't meek, if she isn't gentle, and if she doesn't submit to her husband. Because it breaks the husband down that he becomes a person who doesn't want to know anything about the word of God, about the gospel.

That the word of God goes that far and says that a woman should win her husband without words. One of the young people said, there are only a few women, according to the Bible, here on the mission. That a young person, an unmarried person, has the discernment to see who is submissive to her husband and who isn't.

Marriage, Family Order, and the Example to Children

And that is a terrible thing that should be said about us here on the mission. I'm talking to the people of the mission now. How much in the congregation in the Christian world you will always see that the woman rules the house.

It's seldom that it isn't like that. And that there's nothing more grievous, there's nothing more degrading for a husband if his wife doesn't submit and bow to authority. And that's why the Lord says, blessed are those that are meek.

Those women who aren't meek and submissive to their husbands and are living a life according to the word of God, you will see that their children will do exactly the same. Their children won't respect, they won't obey, they won't honor if the relationship between the mother and the father isn't godly, isn't biblical.

And that's why you see so many disobedient children amongst us. That's why you see so many naughty children amongst us. Because they are fed by the mother who isn't submissive, who doesn't honor her husband, who doesn't call her husband lord.

And that is so important. If I want to earn respect in front of people, I've got to submit, I've got to bow, and I've got to be humble towards that person. If I want to win a person, I must respect that person and honor him higher than myself and that I am humble with all my heart and that I will honor him and that I will call him lord.

Because I don't do it for my honor. I don't do it for myself. I do it because I fear god. Lest I sin. Lest I do something which is against his will. Because it costs nothing to submit, to bow. But the devil somehow has got hold of us and he doesn't want us to be humble, to submit, to bow, to be the least, to honor the next person.

The Reward of Meekness and the Words of Jesus

Oh, that I may be, that my whole life will just talk meekness, humbleness, the least of all. For the whole earth will belong to them. The whole earth, that is the blessing, that is the reward of every person who is meek, who is humble, who is the least, he will inherit the earth.

This is what the lord Jesus himself said. Not Paul, not Peter, not John, or any other godly man. This is what the lord Jesus himself said. Blessed are the meek, the humble, the lowly, those that can submit and humble themselves.

The whole earth will belong to us. That's what the lord Jesus wants to reward a person with if he is meek. And that's why I challenge you, wives, old wives, young wives, is that your life? Is that the life you live?

Is that how we see you? Is that how the young people see you? As a submissive wife, as a wife that is the least, a wife that honors her husband, that will never backchat to her husband, but that she'll be the least.

And I repeat, the lord says it is easy for a woman to win her husband if she does it just without word, if she's lowly, if she's meek. I don't want to expound on that very much more because it is so, so clear to everyone.

Because I see over and over how difficult it is for a wife to submit to her husband. Oh, she's far above him. She knows much better. She'll always backchat. And she doesn't know how terrible it is in the sight of God and in the sight of man.

And somehow we forget that. Somehow we don't take notice of it. Or we're busy with other things, we try and we read the word of God and we say, the word of God says this, the word of God says that, the word of God I expound oh, and I'm a wonderful preacher and I can tell people how to behave, I can tell people what to do and, and, and there is no meekness.

Unity Through Submission and Love

If I submit to my brother, to my sister, if we submit to one another because we fear the Lord there'll never be an argument there'll never be a fighting. I don't remember I've been with my brother my brother for 40, 45 years since the beginning of the revival but I don't remember one instance where I couldn't submit to him.

And I'm saying this on behalf of my brother that I don't think that he will say that he can remember one day where he wasn't prepared to submit to me. There has been a perfect oneness amongst us and that's why we can walk together that's why we can work together and if he does something, I've got an amen in my heart to that.

And I, I am sure that it's exactly the same from his side. But if that would stop I would lose out. I would lose out. I would start finding fault with my brother. I would start seeing his shortcomings.

I would start seeing his mistakes and that is the trouble with us. We're busy with the mistakes of others. We're not infallible but to me the oneness is so great and so high for the Lord Jesus that I am prepared to forsake that which is important to me.

Because I fear my Lord. I don't want anything to come between him and me. If I allow something to come into my heart against you, brother I have lost. Because I'm getting the Lord against me. The Lord won't be with me anymore.

The Lord won't be able to use me anymore. And that's why I want to be on guard that there might be nothing in my heart against anyone. Because my relationship to the Lord is so important that I'll gladly submit.

I'll gladly bow as long as I don't lose my connection to the Lord and my Saviour Jesus Christ. The Lord's word says Love. What does it do? It covers a multitude of sins. If my relationship to the Lord.

If my relationship with the Lord is correct. Then I gladly submit and bow to the one I've got to submit and bow to. That is so, so important. That we don't lose that. And I'm reminding you wives of the word of God and what he has taught us in this revival.

Children Obeying Parents

Why do you leave your appointed place of God? Why do you leave the place where God has taught us to be meek, to be the least to be humble, to respect to honour our husbands, to call him Lord. How is it possible that I can resist my husband?

And look down upon him. And expect my children to be God-fearing children. How can the children obey their parents? Children, obey your parents in all things. For this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Do you hear that children?

Do you hear that? That you obey your parents. That you don't do something against the will of the father and the mother. Children, obey your parents in all things. For this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

And we want God's blessing. We want a reward, as we heard in this week. We want a reward from God that his name will be glorified. We seek that blessing. And that's what I wish each and every young person if I've still got parents that I obey my parents.

Because I want to bring pleasure to God. That is so important. Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. If you work for somebody. If you are in the work and employed by somebody.

Obey them in all things. Not with eye service. As men pleases. But with all your heart. Fearing God. Because I fear God. Because I want the best for the Lord. Whatever I do, I'll do with all my heart.

Serving Employers as Service to the Lord

If I'm employed by somebody I will do it with all my heart. Because I don't do it for the one for my employer I do it for the Lord. Because I want to be blessed. I want to be rewarded by the Lord. And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.

Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. That is what we should do no matter what we do, no matter what work we do no matter who employs us that we do it heartily to the Lord that he may reward us with his inheritance.

Winning Others Through Humility and Compassion

And the Lord Jesus himself said Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit. The whole earth belongs to them. Wherever I put my foot it'll belong to me. Wherever I say something it'll belong to me. And when I speak to people they will belong to me.

I will win their hearts and they will belong to me. I needn't talk bad about the other person. I needn't find fault with my brother. I needn't see the wrong in the next person. But because I am humble and meek and respect, that we respect one another and that I think higher of my brother than myself, I will win the whole earth.

That I haven't got time to speak bad about the other one. Oh, but that my love towards that sister and that towards that brother will be so godly that it'll cover a multitude of sin that I won't see the mistake of the next person but that I'll be humble and that I'll be able to uplift him that he might get closer to the Lord.

If I talk evil about a person. If I talk behind the back of another person. If I look down upon a person will I ever bring him closer to the Lord? No, it'll only separate me from him and I distantiate myself from my brother.

But if I honor him and respect him and submit to him and lift him, I will win him and he will be one for the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'll never win him by finding fault on him. I will only win him by submitting, by bowing, by honoring my brother, my sister, and I will win him.

I'll win the whole earth. Enough to think about? Go home take your Bible, read it and find out whether that what I have said here this morning whether it breaks down or whether it's up building. If somebody submits and bows and respects and honors me that person's won my heart.

I'm sure if I respect, if I honor if I lift you up if I submit to you you have won me. And it's exactly the same the other way round. And I want to be meek. I want to be the servant of all. I want to be the helper.

I want to be the humblest of all. That is my aim, my desire. Oh Lord, for your sake that I may be the least that I may humble myself. And what does it matter what I think, what my wishes are or what I think is right.

That'll all go away, only one thing will stand. And that is the Lord Jesus. And that is my prayer. Oh Lord Jesus, I've got a compassion to others. Oh, when the youth was here and this hall was just about filled with young people, the compassion that goes out to them, that you cry to God, that you humble yourself, that you become the least that you become the servant of everybody for the sake of Christ that you might win them for the Lord that they may receive the reward which God has got for them.

Closing Prayer for Meekness and Godly Influence

Let us pray. Lord, your word says, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed is that wife that can submit, that can bow that can honor, and that can call her husband Lord. Blessed that woman that respects her husband and never betrays.

Oh may our lives be pleasing to thee. Lord, we see a world ending in destruction. We see a world going lost and you yourself, Lord Jesus said blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the whole earth.

The earth belongs to us and the people that are in the world belongs to us if we are meek and may that be true of our lives that the glory of Jesus will be seen in us. Be merciful to us and grant each and every husband, wife, child servant to be meek to be the least.

Amen.