Happy Are The Meek Series

What I’ve come to learn is that meekness is great strength under firm control.

When Tammie and I went to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, they had some Clydesdale Draft horses there. I don’t know if you have ever seen one outside of a beer commercial, but these horses are huge. They are about 7 feet tall, and weigh up to a ton. You stand next to them, and you feel very small.

Yet one of the owners told me that Clydesdale horses are one of the gentler and easily trainable horse breeds. She said that she thinks that it comes from them being so huge that they have very few natural predators that could take them on, so they don’t have to live in fear of anything.

Let’s apply that to what Jesus is saying here- that happy are those who are meek. What Jesus is saying here-

If you are a Christian, you have the biggest, baddest, warrior ever standing behind you. Not only is he standing behind you, Jesus fills you with Himself and gives freely of His strength and power to face your fears, enemies, and every challenge life throws at you.

We sing a song written by Chris Tomlin that says,

“I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind

The God of angel armies, Is always by my side

The one who reigns forever, He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies, Is always by my side”

God gives freely of His power, His strength, and His presence- but His power, Strength, and Presence need to be used appropriately.

I had to go out to our SUV when I was preparing this message and I noticed something-

The speedometer goes up to 140 mph.

Arr…arr..arr. Yeah…140 MPH. I haven’t tested that….yet.

I’m thinking, my 40 min drive to work could take less than 20 minutes if I just let the full power of that engine loose. I was thinking when I got on the interstate my last shift how much power I still had under the gas pedal when I hit 75. Now I’m wondering how fast it could really go…

But I didn’t try it. Even though I had the power to do more, I restrained myself and set the cruise to obey the speed limit.

Even though I had the horsepower to go faster- the law set the speed limit at 70.

That’s what being meek is- understanding that even though you have great strength available to you, you check that strength for the benefit of others, and most importantly, for the reputation of the one you claimed to worship.

That defines meekness, let’s look at the value of it in our lives-

II. Value of Meekness

At our first church, we had a visiting speaker who had a revival starting at his church started coming to our church to speak. Our pastor at the time was very revival oriented and into church growth, so he invited this guy in to bring that same revival atmosphere to us.

Based on how he was when I first met him, I was very impressed. Quite honestly, if he walked through the door this morning and spoke, then said he wanted to be the pastor here, most of you would want me to resign. He was very outgoing, had a magnetic personality, and was a dynamic and gifted speaker. I sat in the services awed by how much God was using him.