Part 9 - Meekness Series

The Fruit of the Spirit

Part 9 – Meekness

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan

www.TawasBaptist.org

WELCOME

We are continuing our Series on The Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

INTRODUCTION

This week we are going to discuss one of the most misunderstood Spiritual Fruits that Christians are to not only acquire, but actively produce in their Christian lives.

Remember, when you claim Christianity with your mouth, you are proclaiming by your faith that you belong to Christ.

But we are told that your Faith without your actions is dead!

So your proclamation of Christianity alone is meaningless unless you are producing Christian Fruits.

There are many in the world today who claims to belong to Christ, but act like they belong to the devil.

No matter how loud their words, their actions will always speak louder.

Your fruits will ALWAYS show of which Kingdom you belong.

A tree is always known by its fruit.

And the scriptures tell us, like we read last week, that we are the vine and Christ is the branch, therefore our fruit should show that.

If we are producing any other fruit, we are not attached to the branch, who is Christ.

You can only produce Spiritual Fruit by the Spirit of God.

The Spiritual Fruit of meekness is so misunderstood, and this is partly because of our culture.

We live in a world that tells us just the opposite of what the Word of God says.

Imagine that.

When have you ever heard someone say, “If you really want to be successful in life, you should try being meek?”

Or, “If you want to rise to the top and get somewhere in life, display a lot of meekness along the way?”

Meekness is not a characteristic that we really desire.

But it is a characteristic of our Lord.

And we are to promote this Spiritual Fruit in our lives.

This world’s philosophy of success tells us that we need to;

1. Be assertive / Aggressive

2. Go for the throat / Do whatever is necessary

3. Use your power to get what you want

Society always portrays the ‘tough guy’ image as being essential and attractive.

So because of our culture and society, we tend to shy away from Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the meek…”

Meek in our minds is thought to be weak, cowardly or wimpy.

So what is true meekness?

Not as the world says, but as God says.

How do we develop that characteristic of our Lord and produce its fruit in our lives?

Meekness is not weakness; it’s a person who is controlled, gentle and forgiving.

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 5:5

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT AND UNDERSTANDING

When Jesus uttered these words, they were disputed and mocked.

The time Jesus lived in was not that different from the time we live in today.

Those who ruled the world then were the Religious Rabbi’s, the Superior Intellectual Greeks, and the Brute power of the Romans who practiced what was known as ‘Pax Romana’ which means Roman peace was a forced peace during the time period of 31BC – 80AD.

Today in our time we see a mixture of religious, intellectual & brute power which strives to gain kingdoms through assertiveness & aggressiveness.

The world misunderstood Jesus’ teaching 2000 years ago, and it has trouble grasping it today.

The world’s view of meekness as the dictionary defines is “lacking spirit or backbone.”

By that definition we suppose meekness to be, ‘Nice guys finish last.”

We see meekness as weakness

The world looks at the meek and fails to see the artistry of the Master.

It fails to grasp to true strength of someone who has submitted to the Spirit of God and is led by the Spirit.

Because we live in this world, and our views have been molded from birth, we need to redefine meekness.

We need to seek what the scriptures tell us about this Spiritual Fruit and discover why it is important in our lives and relationships with each other.

The Greek word used here in Matthew 5:5 is praus which means mild or humble.

This word basically refers to our humility before God, our total dependence on Him, our submission to His will and our hope in Him alone for our Salvation.

The freest man in the world is the meek man that loves being a servant of Jesus Christ, because he realizes he is not his own master, so he yields his passions as a bond servant to the Most High.

You see, meekness is humility.

To be meek is to be humble.

Why should we care?

1 Peter 5:5

“…God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble…”

Do you really want to be in opposition to God?