Coveting Meekness - [Matthew 5:5]

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According to Bill Farmer's newspaper column, J. Upton Dixon was a fun -loving fellow and he said he was writing a book called
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Cower Power. He founded a group of submissive people.
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It was called Dormats. Dependent organization of really meek and timid souls.
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If there are no objections, he said. Their motto was, the meek shall inherit the earth.
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If that's okay with everybody. Their symbol was a yellow traffic light.
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The writer said, Mr. Dixon sounds like he'd be a lot of fun, doesn't he? And then he said, what is disturbing about all of this though, is that many people assume that the ridiculous idea behind Dormats and Cower Power represent the quality of meekness found in Matthew chapter 5, verse 5.
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Is that what it means to be meek? Yellow light? Cowering? Let's find out.
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Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew, please, as we continue on the verse by verse, word by word, syllable by syllable, trek through the
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Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached by Jesus Christ our Lord Himself.
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Last week, we were dealing with meekness when it comes to unbelievers, meekly approaching the throne of God, as it were, requesting salvation.
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This week though, I want to take a little detour and ask this question. Should Christians who are following the
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King, the Lord of Lords, also act meekly? And if so, what does it mean to be meek?
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Kind of like mousy, would that be meek? We realize we're inferior in front of others?
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Or is it like A .W. Tozer said, a meek person is one who recognizes
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God's estimate of his own life and responds to other people properly?
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My goal today is going to be able to teach you what the Bible says about meekness for Christians as we look about the meek one and look upon the meek one,
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Jesus Christ. And I think you'll say, that's a beautiful quality. That's a wonderful quality.
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That's precious. And I want to be more meek. Did you see the title of the sermon today in the notes? It's coveting meekness.
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Have you ever coveted meekness? Oh, I need to be meeker. Let me ask you this. When was the last time you prayed,
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Lord, I'd like to be meeker? When was the last time you saw the new
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Russell Crowe movie talking about how great it is to be meek, biblically? Not too many of those.
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We don't talk about this very often. But Jesus himself was meek, and we as kingdom citizens, as it were, following the king, need to live in meekness.
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I could ask this question, and sometimes this is to my own chagrin. If you were to ask yourself, if you looked at the pastor, you look at the elders, if you look at anybody else, if you look at your spouse, or how about if you look at you, and people were to ask someone about you, when you think of that person, give me five characteristics, and they would say, meek at the top of the list.
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Well, that person's meek. Is it because they're not meek, or is it because we don't understand what meekness is?
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Or maybe a little bit of both. But to catch us up, let's go back to Matthew chapter 5, verse 1.
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When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down in typical rabbinical teaching style, his disciples came to him.
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There were some followers by nature of their being regenerate and redeemed by God.
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There were other disciples who were just following him, wanted to learn of him, but weren't necessarily redeemed, or they weren't what we would call
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Christians today, this side of the cross. And here the king of kings comes into the territory of the
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Romans and declares, here's what I require to have you live in my kingdom. If we were taken over by a kingdom 2 ,000 years ago, here, or if we were taken over by Nazi Germany in the late 40s,
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Hitler could impose upon us, this is what I require of you. This is what I want regarding your money, what you may do, what you may not do, but I'm in charge now,
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I have the power. We don't really think like they did 2 ,000 years ago, but when the new army came in, there was a new emperor, the new king, and he said, this is what
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I require for you living in my kingdom. And Jesus was no different in regards of those standards, he was different in his approach, of course.
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And he gives beatitude number one, blessed are the poor in spirit, and all these beatitudes are not kind of happy, feeling, emotive.
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This word blessed is the opposite of curse, the opposite of woe in Matthew 23.
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This is God approving these kind of people. God looks at a person and says, I approve you, what kind of approval does he give for those who are poor in spirit?
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Those who are dependent upon others, those who realize, I have nothing before God, I'm bankrupt spiritually,
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God, I can't cooperate with you, God, I need to receive from you. I come with empty hands. Nothing in my hands
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I cling, simply, I don't cling or bring, nothing in my hands
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I bring, simply to the cross I cling. They're desperate.
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Lloyd -Jones says, these crush you to the ground. You look down and you say, there's only place I can look is up, and God be merciful.
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And the promise is, they get the kingdom of heaven. There's and there's alone.
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Second beatitude, if you look in verse 4, is the emotional counterpart. First one is more intellectual, now this is more emotional.
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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This is building on and connected to the last beatitude.
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If you just pull a beatitude out and kind of camp on there, you're going to get messed up because they are in sequence. Jesus just didn't pull them out of the middle of nowhere.
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They're sequential, they're logical. So we realize that before God we offer nothing. It's going to have to be the grace of God.
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Grace meaning demerited favor, God's going to have to give me everything. And then now we realize, I'm a sinner and I'm mourning.
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Remember with 2 Samuel chapter 11 and Psalm 51.
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You could just sense the emotion, you could almost taste the emotion when David is saying, God, you're going to have to forgive me.
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Personal grief over personal sin. And then thirdly, we see in verse 5, blessed are the meek.
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This is the third facet of this diamond of repentance. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
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Beatitude 1, I know I have a need. Beatitude number 2, I've got guilt and sorrow over my condition.
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Beatitude number 3, I'm not going to justify myself anymore, God. I'm not going to say I deserve the front row.
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I'll be in the back and if you promote me to salvation, as it were, it's going to have to be your decision. Pink said this is taking their place in the dust before God.
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We realize what we really are and we say, Lord, you're going to have to save me. Your glory should be done, not my glory, and I'll accept whatever you want.
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But I'm begging you, I want your salvation. I'm throwing myself on your mercy. I can't forward myself,
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I can't have any power of my own. I realize who I am. So that's the context of salvation.
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Now let's talk a little bit about Christians. Once we're in, should we still act meekly? What is meek?
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What does it mean to be meek? Boy, it's so hard because there's multiple definitions for this word. Greeks thought it was servility and kind of crouching.
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You know, if you kick a dog enough and you step over him, what do they do? Kind of crouch. Let's turn ahead to Matthew chapter 11 to help us with our description and we can find out that Jesus is described as meek.
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This is amazing. Almost as amazing as when Noah was described as the meekest person in all the world.
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But there's one who is meeker. Matthew chapter 11, using the same Greek words, Jesus is meek.
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Let's just jump in in verse 27. Matthew 11. All things have been handed over to me by my
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Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the
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Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. And Jesus is describing
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Himself and He's saying, I know the Father intimately, He knows me intimately, and nobody can know the intimacy between the
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Father and I unless I decide to show it to them. If I decide to reveal this intimate knowledge and this intimate relationship, this intimate love, the triune love of the eternal
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Godhead, if I decide to let them know and to reveal it, if I pull the curtain back so they can see in, then they can see in.
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But I'm the one in charge here, and I'm the one who reveals this. And then He says something very amazing, and we know the verse.
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Come to me, all who were weary, struggling and toiling.
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You've been tired before, spiritually just tired, and heavy laden, overburdened like a beast of burden.
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I read the other day that the straw that broke the camel's back was 1 ,907 pounds.
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It finally broke down this one camel. He was loaded like a beast of burden. I've been overseas and I've seen ladies just stack up stuff on their back and just carry that, and here, spiritually burdened and spiritually tired.
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Jesus said, yes, I reveal this to you, but at the same time, not only the sovereignty of God in revealing, but also your own responsibility.
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Come. I'm the one, like Jeremiah 31 says, who satisfies the weary ones and refreshes everyone who languishes.
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The Pharisees would put the heavy loads on. You do this, and you've got legalism and self -righteousness and everything else, and what does legalism do?
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It just crushes people. And Jesus is saying, you know, you're underneath these Pharisees and scribes and hypocrites.
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By the way, I loved it when the lawyers came to Jesus and said, you know, you're always slamming the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and everyone else.
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Why are you doing that? And then Jesus said to the lawyers, woe to you lawyers as well. You're just heaping on things.
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Here's salvation full and free. You think God loves you more, Pharisees, because you do something?
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And then he says in verse 29, what a gentle Savior, precious
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Savior. Take my yoke upon you. How you would disciple another animal, you'd put a yoke on there, the one animal to the left would know what to do, and the animal on the right wouldn't, so you'd put the yoke on there, and here's one animal almost discipling the other animal.
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How do you plow? How do you move? What do you do when the whip happens? What do you do when you stop? And Jesus says, let me give you some personal discipleship.
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Let me just bear the load. As the senior animal, as it were, would bear most of the yoke and bear most of the difficulty.
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So to hear Jesus said, let me just bear this for you. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, for I am what?
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The exact same word found in Matthew 5, 5, meek. I'm meek, I'm gentle, I'm humble in heart.
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You'll find rest for your souls, and he quotes Jeremiah chapter 6. You'll find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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Jesus, the meek one, Jesus, the humble one, Jesus, the one who at any time at Calvary could have said, by the way,
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I can call every angel that I've ever created into my defense, and if one angel, last time
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I checked, killed about how many Assyrians? 188 ,000?
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Is that right? 185 ,000? Can you imagine all the angels at his disposal, and Jesus said,
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I'm not going to forward myself. I'm not going to push ahead. I'm not going to be the one who's self -promoting.
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I'm going to be the one who sits in the back, as it were, and say, God, it is not my will, but thy will be done.
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Not about military might or human ingenuity. Not the easy way out. I'll just capitulate to the satanic hordes and Satan himself.
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Why go through all the Garden of Gethsemane? Why go through all the crucifixion? Why bear your holy wrath,
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God, when I can just deviate this easy shortcut way? And, of course, Jesus submitted fully to the
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Father's will, yielded in a meek way. Let me show you another place where Jesus is called meek.
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Go to Matthew chapter 21, if you would, please. Matthew chapter 21 shows the gentle Jesus, as we saw, kind of the gentle revealer of himself, and the one who would take our yoke, the one who would get us away from legalism and self -righteousness of the
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Pharisees, and anybody else who's trying to burden us with you have to do something for salvation. Jesus said,
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I do salvation, you receive salvation. Something that's done, not what you could do. So to hear
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Matthew 21, verse 5, talks about the gentle Jesus. You ever sing that song,
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Gentle Shepherd? I'd sing it for you, but it'd be really special music if I did.
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I can't wait to get to heaven and just sing like mad. You ask why I sit in the front row. Well, I sit in the front row for many reasons.
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One is just so I can just sing to the glory of God and you can't hear me. Say to the daughter of Zion, see all this in bold,
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Old Testament quote, Behold, your king is coming to you. When the king comes, what does he do?
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He's on the white charger. He's triumphant. He's high and lifted up. He takes no mercy on anyone.
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He takes no prisoners. The old regime is out. The new regime has come. Well, certainly
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Jesus will return on a white charger, won't he? But when he returns the second time, it won't be meekly.
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It'll be as a victor, as a conquering king. But the first time he comes, as prophesied in the
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Old Testament, your king is coming to you gentle, meek.
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How meek? Mounted on a donkey, even of a colt, full of a beast of burden. 1
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Peter 2 .23, talking about the meekness of Jesus and being reviled, he did not revile in return.
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While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.
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One man said, Christ does not bind us. Learn of him to work miracles. Excuse me,
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Christ does not bid us to learn of him to work miracles, to open the eyes of the blind, to raise the dead, but he would have us learn of him to be meek.
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Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 10. Now I, Paul, myself, urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
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Jesus is meek and gentle. I'm going to act the same way. It's a virtue. And what
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I think we'll do with the rest of our time is we're going to look at five or six, three or four, as many as we can get to.
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If I tell you five and we don't get to five, you're going to say, well, where's the last one? So we're going to just look at several manifestations of meekness found in the
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New Testament. So you can say, Jesus is meek. We're called to be meek like in Colossians 3, those who have been chosen of God, put on meekness, among other things.
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Give me examples of meekness so I can see how that applies in my life and that's what I want to do now. And we'll look at the first one being, meekness should manifest itself in your evangelism.
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In other words, are you meek when you evangelize? Are you meek when you evangelize? That just sounds weird, doesn't it?
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It's just weird to me. Because I have the skewed view of meekness if I don't direct myself to what
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Scripture says. Are you meek in your evangelism? Why don't we turn to 2 Timothy 2 and let's see another example of this word meekness and how
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God, through His apostolic messenger Paul, tells people to be meek.
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Meekness for Christians. Now when
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I first became a Christian, 16 years ago now, I was everything but meek in my evangelism.
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I was what we would call hardcore. I had a boss and my boss knew I became a Christian and he thought it was that latest thing
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I was into, you know, the latest fad, and you kind of get over that and these fads come and go and now it's
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Christianity. So he'd get in the car and we'd have to ride together for a week and so for the first part of the day we'd talk about business and weekly activity sales reports and how to close customers and the
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IBM selling points. I can still remember them today. Summarize the situation.
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State the idea. Explain how it works. Reinforce key benefits and close. So you have to work through that. You analyze the sales calls and you talk about how you can get the order.
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I remember I used to listen. I think his name is Brian Tracy and he'd say, say to yourself before your sales call,
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I'm a good salesman. I'm a good sales rep. They're not going to say no to me. And people probably driving by Cedars -Sinai
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Medical Center in Los Angeles would see a guy in a suit bowing down. They thought I was praying. I wasn't praying at all.
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I was saying, I'm a great sales rep. I'm a wonderful guy. I'd say to my boss, you know, there's a tape that I want us to listen to and we're in the car.
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We might as well listen to it and I'd just turn on that tape and I'd get the most ferocious, horrific, hellbound kind of sermon
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I could put on there and I'd tell him, you, and this guy was, in a worldly sense, meek and mild, and I'd say,
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Ben, you're going to go to hell. And everybody who's smiling is thinking, you know what, that's how you used to evangelize when you first got saved too.
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I mean, it was fire and brimstone and of course I would say, well, Jeremiah's fiery too and so is Isaiah.
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But it's amazing to me that Paul tells a leader and certainly if the leaders are supposed to do it, we should learn from the leaders that when you evangelize, you should be meek.
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2 Timothy 2, verse 21 talks about useful vessels prepared by the master for good works.
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And then he gives an illustration of what one of these good works for this kind of vessel should be and he goes to verse 24 and he says,
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The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wrong, wronged with what?
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Gentleness are, there's our word again, meekness, correcting those in opposition. Can you imagine somebody is opposed to the gospel, they're opposed to Jesus, they're an enemy of God and we're supposed to approach them with meekness.
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Well, certainly Jesus did that with sinners and so too are we, that God may grant them repentance.
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Let's just dissect this a little bit. The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome. First of all, we're not representing ourselves, are we, when we evangelize?
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We're standing in the stead of someone else and God has said, you're my slave, here's what I want you to do and among other things, be meek.
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You're a servant, we're subordinate, we're supposed to do what God wants us to do. It's not our ministry.
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I don't know if you have any notches on the front of your Bible for people that you've led to the Lord, but I'll show you my notch area right here, okay?
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There's not a one. Why? Because I didn't lead anybody to Christ, I didn't save anybody, I didn't get anybody to say the sinner's prayer because I'm supposed to go out and preach the gospel.
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Who's supposed to save? God's supposed to save. Now, if you have things in your Bible because you minister to them and you wrote them down to pray for them or something, that's fine.
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Send the emails to info at BBC staff so Steve gets them and not me. But my point is, we are bond slaves and we can't save.
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Did you notice the passage, even in verse 25, says that God may grant them repentance. Our job in evangelism is never to save souls.
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Did you get that? It's not your responsibility, it's not your ability. If your number one goal is to save souls and you come with us at Christmas time and we went caroling in a housing development,
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I don't know what you call it, I'm trying to think to be politically correct, let's just call them what I grew up calling them, the projects.
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We went there to this housing place and we preached the gospel there and we sang, we gave out tracks and nobody came to us and said,
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I repent, I believe. My life's turned upside down. I did hear, by the way, that we were the talk of the school the next day and how everybody in the projects were laughing at us because we were going door to door giving out cookies and preaching the gospel and they thought it was all so funny.
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Look at those weirdos from BBC coming over. I'm glad we got some response. I'm glad.
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That's coming up for the next sermon on being persecuted for righteousness sake. So was that a good night or was that a night that we just thought, you know what, nobody got saved.
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Let's come back to the church and debrief. Debrief, you know, did anybody get saved? No. I'll have some hot chocolate.
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I know, me too. I love to teach people, when you go evangelize, you don't evangelize for their salvation.
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Now God is by nature a Savior and God by His ordination says, I save people through the proclamation of the word but whether we eat or drink or we evangelize, we do it to God's glory.
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We want to glorify God and so if God says, I want you to be meek and I don't want you to be quarrelsome and I want you to be kind to all and I want you to be a teacher,
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Elder Pastor Timothy, your job is not salvation, your job is to deliver the good news in the way
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I tell you to deliver it. It's good for me to hear and He says right there in verse 24 with kind of a command -like word,
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He says, you must not. It's necessary that you should not. You ought not.
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It would not be proper if you would do it that way. Not to be quarrelsome and harsh and overbearing, kind to all.
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It's a word used in 1 Thessalonians of an attitude of a nurse taking care of a child. Skilled teacher, able to teach.
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Patient when wronged. You're going to get wronged but you need to be patient and forbearing. You need to literally bear difficulties without resentment.
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Latin proverb goes like this, gentle in manner, resolute in purpose. In evangelism that's true.
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Our goal is in verse 25 with gentleness, correcting, teaching, instructing, disciplining.
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As it were with our words, those who are in opposition, those that stand against you and say, you know,
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I'm not going to move against my position against you and against the gospel because I hate both. I stand in military array against you.
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That God or if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.
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And then amazingly in verse 26, people who were not saved are in this condition that they might come to their senses.
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You know what that means? That they might sober up. Satan's got them in some kind of demonic inebriation and they're just walking around like drunken sailors spiritually not knowing what's going on.
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It's their own sinful nature. Yes, Romans 3. But there's also a sinful demonic inebriation that Satan's got them literally here that they need to escape and come to their senses.
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Escape is more like the word trapped. But here escape, coming to their senses, it means to become sober, to come to one of your senses again.
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One man called it diabolical intoxication. Now if you meet somebody who's drunk and you want to try to get them to sober up, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.
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Oh, offer coffee, this or that. But people are walking around, they're enslaved to their sin.
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Satan's blinded them. Satan's inebriated them. They're in this satanic snare.
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You can't save them. What can you do? You can teach them with gentleness, meekness.
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They're going to wrong you. You don't wrong them back. They're held captive. Same word used in Luke 5 where Jesus said,
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Peter, you're a fisherman and you're going to catch men. Satan has caught the men. How do you get them out of the clutches of Satan?
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They're trapped and they're doped up. You say, well, that's all for leaders.
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2 Timothy is a pastoral epistle. How about this one? You don't have to turn there, but I'll just read it. 1
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Peter 3, verse 15. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with meekness or gentleness and reverence.
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Isn't that amazing? Now I think it's different. If a cult comes to your door and they're proselytizing you,
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I think it's time to get the M80s out, spiritual M80s. You don't get the little lady -fingered things out.
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You get the M80s out and you say you're a false prophet coming to my door and I won't even give you water or say goodbye to you because goodbye is a contraction of God bless you and you need to repent right now.
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You may not utter one word at my house. You may repent and believe in Jesus or you may go.
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I think that's fair. But when it comes to people that we know in our lives who aren't obviously wearing a false prophet sticker on their bicycles and are going door to door, then we want to be gentle with them and meek and kind.
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Jesus certainly when He saw the cults and the false teachers and self -righteous people, He was after them with the force of accursed and woe and damn.
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And then for people who realized that they were sinners and realized they needed the grace of God, how was He acting with them?
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How was He dealing with them? Towards them? Meekness and gentleness. Verse 26 goes on to say having been held captive by Him to do
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His will. Whose will is that? Satan's will. People are walking around as unbelievers. I've got free will.
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I can choose. I'm autonomous. I can make any of my decisions. And we meet those kind of people and we realize
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God's got to grant them repentance. They're slaves of sin, slaves to Satan.
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Satan's caught them. Satan's ensnared them. They're going around as pawns for Satan and doing what Satan wants them to do.
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What are we supposed to do? Speak the truth and what? Love. We're meek towards them.
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Boy, it's convicting. In my notes I say you can't give them repentance but you can give them meekness.
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And it's so nice. If we realize and have a true estimate of ourselves that we belong in the back, that if it wasn't but for the grace of God we would have been in the same condition and we were in the same condition, right?
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And God was gracious to us and merciful to us, then we don't have to somehow try to get to the front of the class as we preach to defend ourselves and you said that about me, well,
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I'm going to show you. Nor do we have to say I'm going to beat you in this argument. You think you're pretty smart?
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I'm smarter. And everything you say I've got the answer. And tonight at the service
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I'm going to talk about how we use Scripture to preach the gospel and defend the faith. We need to get back to at least what
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Billy Graham likes to do and he likes to say the Bible says. The Bible says. The Bible says.
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We don't have to win. We just use the word and rely on God. That's what a meek person does. Very interestingly this week
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I read something from Sojourner's magazine. Quote, When people on the streets are asked what is a
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Christian? What do they stand for? On nearly every occasion words come back such as anti -abortion, anti -gay, anti -feminist, anti -welfare, anti -this, anti -that.
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Words like harsh, self -righteous, intolerant, or mean -spirited. Yet another poll of people ask what they think
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Jesus was like almost universally returns with words like compassionate, non -violent, peacemaker, and reconciler.
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The article says, How do we explain the contradictions here? Either the popular conception of Jesus is mistaken or we in the church have been following the wrong agenda.
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I think there's a lot of truth in that. How do we go about evangelizing? We must evangelize.
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We are the ones that God has ordained to tell the good news to other people. It was somebody that told you the good news and we have that good news and we don't hide it under a bushel.
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We proclaim the truth and we will let the light shine on the top of the hill, on the top of the mountain, and to everyone we can we preach the gospel.
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But we don't want to be ones if they want to say we're not tolerant, if they want to say we're not accepting of sin, that's fine.
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But we want to be the kind ones. We want to be the meek ones. So I could ask you the question, are you meek when you evangelize?
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Number two, the second manifestation of meekness, the first one was in our evangelism, the second one is at the home, in the home.
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By the way, these could all be prayer requests because we all realize that we are needy people and I never can measure up to meekness but I know one who does.
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And so even though we fall short today, we're always remembering what Jesus did with his life and his death and his resurrection.
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Jesus is perfectly meek and it takes meek people to get into the kingdom, perfectly meek people. How can
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I get into the kingdom if I'm not perfectly meek but I have one who stands in my stead, on my behalf, in my place as a vicar, as a substitute and God says
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Jesus was perfectly meek even though Abendroth isn't and never will be. I'm going to look at him like he's meek because I've seen the great substitution.
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There's been justice served. By the way, when you look at snow, it just stuck in my mind now every time
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Luther would look outside and yesterday, remember, you could hardly see any snow, right? I thought all the snow is gone.
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It's just kind of fog everywhere and there'd be all these dung heaps back in Germany and we probably have them here but they're just covered over and there'd be dung heaps and you look at a dung heap on a
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Saturday like yesterday and you just see the dung. It's fertilizer and you use it for your garden and then the next day like today you wake up and you go outside and you look at the dung heap and what do you see?
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It's beautiful. That dung heap is beautiful because there's this much snow on it and it's just pretty and white and clean and Luther said that reminds me of my justification.
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God looks at me, the spiritual dung heap, no longer as who I was or who even sometimes
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I am but He looks at me through the gaze of another. The beautiful robes of Christ's righteousness, clear and pure and white are draped over that and when
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God looks down, He doesn't see me, He sees His Son in whom He's well pleased and we come to God today as Christians.
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If you're a Christian, you are positionally meek because Jesus was meek and now Jesus is your meekness but as Ephesians 4 says, we want to be more who we are.
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If God says we're meek in Christ, positionally by practice we want to be meek and so here's a good way to practice meekness at home.
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If you'll turn to 1 Peter 3, we'll take a look at that and this is not going to be something that you read in Better Homes and Gardens, Vogue or Cosmo.
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It's going to be right from the inspired words of Peter himself, an apostolic messenger of Jesus.
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Certainly there are places and times for husbands to be meek but this particular word here used is used in this case of the ladies being meek at home.
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I don't say this because I think we've got a bunch of ladies who aren't meek but if you do a word study on meek, you'll find this just as I did.
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Wives being meek and gentle at home. 1
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Peter 3, verse 1. In the same way you wives, in the same way what?
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In the same way as husbands and wives looking to Jesus, the suffering servant who was submitting to his father's will.
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In the same way you wives, here we go, is it even in the Bible? Be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, whether you've got a
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Christian husband or a non -Christian husband, that they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives. As they observe your chaste and respectful behavior, your adornment must not be merely external.
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By the way, is it okay for ladies to dress up and look nice or do they always have to look drab and Amish? He says, well, maybe some
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Amish don't look drab. I don't know, maybe you're Amish. I don't know. Plain is what I was looking for.
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It must not be merely external. It's okay to have a little external adornment but it shouldn't only be braiding of hair, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses.
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Beauty is only skin, what? Deep. Verse 4, but let it be the hidden person of the heart.
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Stuff that no one can see except God, of course. The imperishable quality of what?
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Something that lasts. What's going to last forever? The imperishable quality of a meek or gentle and quiet spirit, which is what?
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Frowned upon in the world. Which is scoffed at by the great scholars at now.
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Which is precious in the sight of God. Scholar David said, it was a virtue especially prized in women.
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In biblical perspective, the term indicates a person who does not attack back. She waits on God to judge in the end, knowing
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God is just. The person can suffer evil without bitterness and vengeance. That tells us a lot about not just the wives but the husbands they were living with.
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Instead of stomping around and withholding affection and rebelling and resenting, here is a thing that's going to last for the longest, not fleeting like clothing, not fleeting like our face, but the unfading part of a person is something that is actually used of the word
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Jesus. Display the same meek, gentle spirit that Jesus did while he was on earth.
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Now does that sound condescending? I don't think so. Honoring God and pleasing Jesus Christ, lasting for eternity.
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You say, you don't know my husband. I don't have to know your husband because it's still precious in God's sight.
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The meek wife says, according to Thomas Watson, God sees what is best for me, whether a fertile soil or a barren.
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Let him checker his work as he please. It suffices that God has done it. It was an unmeek spirit in the prophet to struggle with God.
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I will be well to be angry to the death. And here the wife forgives and forbears.
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What's the opposite of meekness? Contentious. It's better to live in the corner of a roof than in a house shared with a what?
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Contentious wife, contentious woman. Here's the quiet attitude of godliness, not bitter.
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You say, that doesn't work. I've tried it. Well, here's what I also hear. I hear people tell me that spanking doesn't work either.
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Therefore, I don't spank. I hear that all the time. It doesn't work. Well, are we now pragmatists at church?
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Oh, that works. Then let's do it. Or does it tell us about your view of God's word? It tells me to do that, but I don't want to do it.
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Or does it tell me you're not doing it properly? I've been meek at home and nobody sees.
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It doesn't work. And here it says, it's precious in the sight of God. We put our hope in God.
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Let me ask you this question. Abraham, I want you to go to a place
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I'm not going to tell you where to go. I want you to go. By the way, you're going to be a great person and a great nation and your name will be great.
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Okay. Got to go home and tell the missus. Sarah, Sarai, what's in a name?
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It's time to move. Where are you moving? Don't know. God told me.
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Oh, yeah, I bet he did. By the way, God told me I was going to be great.
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You're going to be great. He told me my name would be great. Can you imagine that whole interaction?
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That whole interaction between the meekness of Sarah who had her hope not in Abraham and how good he was, but in this great
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God of the universe. And so how can meekness be manifested in Christ? Because Christ was the one saying,
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I know the plan and I know the one in whom I believed and I have faith in God. He's on the throne.
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And so I can just act in a way that I don't have to try to be harsh or sarcastic or condescending or say, my dad would never do that or you're a fool or you can't do this or that and give the evil eye.
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No, it's just this resignation to the goodness and kindness of God even with this illustration. Look at verse 5.
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For in this way in former times, the holy women also, those women who were set apart from the rest, hoped in God.
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Instead of with the external adornment, they used to adorn themselves being submissive to their own husband. Thus Sarah obeyed
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Abraham, calling him Lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
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So do you see the point? As Sarah had to defer to Abraham and she responded to him in meekness, okay, you're told to go there,
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I'll go. We're told that your name is going to be great. I'll go. Can you imagine what she could have done? She could have said, no, I'm just not going to do that.
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I've been a Christian for longer than you, Abraham. Well, not a Christian, but just for illustration's sake so you can identify.
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You're not as mature as I have shown myself to be mature. You've made a bunch of other really stupid decisions in the past and look where it's got our family.
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What does Sarah do? She's hoping in the sovereignty of God. She's hoping in the promises of God. What a great illustration of meekness, just like Jesus did.
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John Paul Sartre said, Man can count on no one but himself. He's alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets for himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.
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Oh, what a pity party that is. But the meekness of a woman at home says, you know, my husband's dope.
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Well, I guess that would be sin. You can't do that either. My husband's less than Christ, but I still have to follow him anyway because I know the
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God of the universe who's controlling my husband with personal control.
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You don't have to be afraid. See that in verse 6? You don't have to have any terror.
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It has nothing to do with this, but I'll just say it so you remember the word. This person doesn't have to have any fear or terror or pitocin.
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We use pitocin for other things, but that's the Greek word here. It's terror. Those who have been unjustly wounded like Christ are at home.
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Those who have been overlooked like Christ are at home. Those who are meek will mount up to God and believe in His good hand.
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God will be the vindicator. Well, Jesus was meek when He evangelized.
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Jesus was meek when He hung on the cross, and we've seen how meekness should manifest itself at home.
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And now thirdly, probably lastly, number three, if you'll turn to Galatians 6, meekness should manifest itself in restoring sinners in the church.
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How should we learn about meekness? Let's see that we should be meek towards one another when one of us is caught in a sin.
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Galatians 6. You could call this a topical message on meekness, but it's still expositional because we're taking a look at these things in context.
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Galatians 6. First in evangelism, second at home, thirdly in the church.
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Let's back up a little bit to chapter 5, if you will. You know this, the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of the flesh. It's amazing.
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By the way, are the chapter divisions in the Bible? Well, they're in our Bibles now. Were they in the original text?
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No. And sometimes, I just, when I read the Bible, I always think, what's the link between the end of 5 and the beginning of 6?
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Why is that there? It could be a new thought, but if it's linked, what's going to happen? Sometimes, can you believe it?
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They put a chapter in the wrong place. And so if you read the flow of this, it's just very much more impressive.
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Galatians chapter 5, verse 16. We'll just pick it up there. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
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For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
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If you're led by the spirit, you're not under law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality.
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It's a big vice list. Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
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Of which I forewarn you, and just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice as a lifestyle, such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
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But the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness.
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What's the next word? Gentleness, meekness, self -control. Against such things, there's no law.
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People that act like that, you don't need a civil law to do that. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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If you live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Christians, true or false, are to live spirit -filled, spirit -led lives.
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It's certainly true. Pastor, tell me, what does it mean to live a life of love and peace and joy and gentleness and kindness and self -control?
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If I were to live a life like that, how would it show itself? If I plant seeds in the ground, what would sprout up?
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And you know what he does? How you restore sinners in a church and what you do with your money.
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Look at how chapter 6 just flows right there. You want to show the first thing he tells you to do after what the fruit of the
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Spirit is? Brethren, if anyone's caught, enslaved, ensnared, has their foot in a spiritual trap of sin, in any trespass, this isn't just miss -the -mark kind of sin.
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This is, this is, God says, you know what? No hunting. Don't go on my property. And you go, forget the sign.
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We're going anyway. This is not just I missed the mark. It's sin of omission. But when somebody in the church says, you know what?
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Here's the line of sin and I'm going to cross that anyway. I'm, you're not going to stop me. And then they do it and they keep doing it and they keep doing it and they become enslaved to sin and now it's habitual.
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How do we treat them? We treat them with the fruit of the Spirit is how we treat them. You who are spiritual, it doesn't mean leaders, anybody who's walking in the
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Spirit, restore such a one with a censorious temper.
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How could you do that? I expected more out of you. I knew you'd let me down.
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It just sounds weird, doesn't it? It sounds so wrong because it is wrong. Restore such a one in the spirit of, there's a whole word again, gentle, meek.
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Hey, this could happen to me. But for the grace of God, I would have been the one ensnared. And the word restore has to do with putting it back in joint again.
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Putting something that's been broken. If you've got broken bones and you've got to put it right just back in there. My brother, when he was little, really little, five, six, seven, sometimes you pick him up by the arm.
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What would happen to his arm? Come out of joint. And we couldn't figure out what to do. The first few times you had to take him to the doctor, you know, you go into the car like that and he's screaming and I'm in trouble and that's when
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I'm trying to sit behind my father because it's hard for him to reach around the back of the car to pull my hair out in that particular seat.
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So we always call that one. We didn't want to sit over there close by. And you know, here's my brother like that. And then the doctor just takes that elbow and turns it just right and goes...
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I fell on my bike this week and killed my knee and I was sitting in there yesterday going, my leg, my leg, what's going to go on and what am
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I going to do and I shouldn't pick up new sports at 45 years old, etc. All of a sudden,
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I got up and I heard my knee adjust itself. And I thought, we're having a healing service around here, man.
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Do I believe Jesus heals today? The answer is absolutely yes. But not through self -proclaimed healers.
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I thought, Lord, thank you. Just that little pop. And people aren't thinking right and they're in a trespass and everything becomes clouded and then they're questioning
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God and all kinds of things happen. And we, with anything but a love of fault -finding, with anything but the spiritual gift of I caught you and I'm going to expose you.
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We, who come along, we don't say, you know what, I'm going to ignore it, sweep it under the rug, doesn't matter, there's sin here, the leaders will find out about it.
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But no, we come and restore and put them back into joint again spiritually with a spirit of gentleness, meekness.
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I was sitting in the back, Jesus promoted me to salvation, I didn't earn any salvation,
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I've been in worse sins than you have been, I've thought worse things than you've done in the last week, all kinds of things,
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I just don't want to have some kind of fury and passion and anger and I'm after you.
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I want to try to be gentle and restore you because if you look at the rest of the verse, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted.
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It can mean a lot of different things but certainly we need to make sure as Christians that we don't think, you know, that sin's above me.
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We also need to make sure that if somebody's caught in a sin and you're getting them out of the pigsty that none of the dirt gets on you as you're tempted even when you're rescuing them.
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That's why we need to be spiritual. You can't have a carnal man go rescue somebody out of pornography because they're going to go ahead and make you stumble if you're not careful.
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When somebody's trapped in sins, we're gentle. You see verse 2 there, bear one another's burdens.
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The foot's hurting, we hurt. Therefore, thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
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May I also say, thereby also fulfilling Galatians chapter 5, walking in the spirit.
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That's what spiritual people do. That's what love is. If anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself.
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He deceives himself Well, there's two more that we didn't get to but maybe next week or maybe we'll just move on. Learning a little bit about this, here's my response.
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My response is, Lord, I can't be meek like I ought to be meek. Lord, it's impossible. That's why
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John MacArthur wrote, the only ray of hope in man's spiritual darkness is the sovereign grace of God which alone can rescue man from his propensity to lust for evil things.
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And similarly, the only thing that can help us as Christians to be more meek is what? Let me give you your marching orders, church.
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This week, get up earlier. This week, try harder.
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This week, get 18 people to hold you accountable to be meek. Is it okay to get up early sometimes?
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Yes, the unrighteous go to bed early and get up early. Godly ones stay up late and sleep in a little.
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It's okay to get up early. It's okay to try. But these are really prayer requests. These are really, God, I can't do it on my own.
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Give me somebody to evangelize and I would like to be meek. Let me be meek towards my authorities in life.
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Let me be meek towards others who get caught up in sin. And let it be like Moses with us in Exodus 33.
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If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. God, we can't do it without you.
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But that kind of meek attitude, God says, I bless and I approve and I'll give you everything including the land.
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He's a good God, isn't he? I want to be meek like Jesus and humble. And I know you do too.
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Let's ask God for this blessing. Lord, thank you for this day. We rejoice with the psalmist who says, the
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Lord lifteth up the meek. Thank you, Lord, for that promise. The psalmist also said, for the
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Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Lord, you've granted us salvation full and free.
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Thank you that our sins are gone, taken care of, we'll bear them no more. And so, Lord, this week as we bear other people with sin that they might be caught up in, when you give us the privilege of being an ambassador and a steward to preach the gospel to others, and Father, even in the home, whether it's husband or with in particular the wife in 1
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Peter 3, would you grant us, would you grant them just a quick reminder through the scriptures about the meekness of Jesus Christ, the gentle one.
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And Lord, he has many attributes, but he certainly is gentle and meek. And to think that he never promoted himself, he never tried to gain for himself, it was always about the
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Father's glory. And we would ask by your Spirit's power that we would be after your Father, we would be after Father your glory this week in our church.