Happy Are the Meek
CCCAG September 17th, 2017
Scripture- Matt 5:5
Growing up in the city, you learn a few things very quickly. One of the things you learn is that you do not mess with the police. When I was living with my dad, Kenosha would use foot patrols in the high crime areas, and we lived in one of the worse neighborhoods in Kenosha at that time. The police officers they assigned to be the foot patrols were not small men…they were all well over 6 feet tall and pretty mean looking. If they came up to you on the basketball court and told you to go home, it was “Yes sir” and you ran home. There was no doubt they were the law. That was my view of law enforcement- big tough guys you don’t mess with.
As many of you know, I would spend the summers in Hayward with my grandparents, and my grandfather was a reserve sheriff’s deputy at that time. Reserve deputies were used during special events, sick calls and vacations to supplement the full-time department. One of the big events every year in Hayward is called Musky Festival. It’s a weeklong event where people go out on the Chippewa Flowage and try to catch the biggest Musky’s they can find, and back in Hayward there is a large fair type event going on for the whole family which includes fishing displays, carnivals, games, and food.
I was there with my grandfather, and he introduced me to one of his fellow reserve deputies, a man who was a full-time native police officer on the La Courte Oreilles reservation named Joe Crow. Joe was one of the largest men I have ever met. He was over 6’5” and weighed well over 350 pounds. He was very intimidating to look at, but when he started talking to me, I was surprised to hear how gentle his voice was and how nice he was to everyone he interacted with. I’m used to cops being very bold, in your face, a “You WILL respect my authority” kind of attitude. But Joe was very laid back, very nice to people, and to me it seems like he didn’t have the right personality to be a cop.
In my 12-year-old way of looking at things, I looked at him and thought, “For such a big guy, he seems like kind of a wimp. This guy wouldn’t last 5 minutes back on the block in Kenosha.
I also found out through talking to him that that Jesus was very important to him and he was one of the few Christians on the reservation.
My grandfather had to go and take care of some underaged drinkers in the beer tent, so he left me with Joe who was posting at the main gate. Joe was there to show a law enforcement presence and to enforce the rules. Basically, this is a family event, so dress and behave yourself appropriately.
As I was sitting there talking to Joe about native culture, about 20 people rode into the parking lot on motor cycles. They looked and act pretty rough from the time they climbed off of their bikes, and looked like a bunch of thugs. Men with no shirts who looked like they hadn’t bathed in week, woman who barely had any clothes on at all, tattoos everywhere- basic motorcycle gang type stuff. They get in line to buy tickets, and they are being loud, profane, and semi threatening and intimidating to the other people around them.
Joe told me to stay behind the fence and went to confront them. I heard his soft voice asking the people to calm it down, put some clothes on, and they were more than welcome to come in and enjoy the festival. One of the larger bikers got in his face and shoved Joe back and said rather profanely, “What are you gonna do chief?” (woo woo woo indian slur).
Joe stepped back up and advised them that he would have to arrest them if they touched him again and very politely repeated his request that they either obey the rules or leave the area. One of them grabbed his uniform, and things got real very quickly.
The first thing that happened was the hand that grabbed Joe was quickly bent in a very unnatural way and the owner of the hand was on his knees screaming. Then the other men in the group charged Joe. The first man went flying backward from a front kick. Then Joe released the man on his knees and jumped about 5 feet into the air with a spinning heel kick and knocked out the next person charging him.
The other men who started to move toward Joe were quickly moving backward now. Joe calmly said, “Who is next?”. The rest ran back to their motorcycles and drove away.
After the ambulance came and got the unconscious guy and the broken wrist guy, Joe came back over and sat beside me and started talking about native culture again. I said, “Wait a second Mr. Joe, you just took on a bunch of bikers and kicked their butts. I didn’t know you knew martial arts- I’m taking Shoto-Kan right now and would love to talk about that with you.”
He said, “Johnny, I’m black belt in 4 different styles of karate, but I don’t like talking about it because it makes people nervous and uncomfortable around me because I’m so big, so I just keep that part of my life to myself”
Joe Crow emulated to me a beautiful attribute of Jesus that I want to talk to you about this morning- meekness.
To put meekness into the perspective of what Jesus was trying to teach us in His Beautiful Attitudes, consider what has come before the verse we are going to read today because these beautiful attitudes build on each other-
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are those who mourn, and now-
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”
Matt 5:5
Prayer
Big idea-Early in my Christian walk I went out and did a lot of door to door and street evangelism. One of my first times out, someone asked me how you can tell if a person is a Christian. I launched into a lengthy and convoluted response that probably didn’t make a lot of sense.
Most people here are thinking, “John, we experience that every Sunday!”
If I were to answer the question today, I would boil it down to this question- “Do they exhibit meekness?”
Let’s begin today by defining this word
I. Define meekness
We all have a mental picture right now in our heads about what meekness looks like in a person, because the English Language doesn’t really have a word that would have matched the word in the Greek for what Jesus was saying here-
What meekness is not
A. Meekness is not weakness
I have a little bit of a confession- I can’t stand weak men.
I’m not talking about physical weakness- I’m talking about men who will not act like men. Men who fall apart as soon as some type of stress enters into their life, and get blown over by the slightest breeze of adversity.
I admit that my upbringing probably colors my perceptions a bit, but when I meet a man who acts feminine, it just rubs me the wrong way.
I had that initial thought about Joe- here is a huge guy who wears a badge and he is a huge wimp. Then I found out he could literally tear me apart if he so wanted to but he chose to be gentle.
That is why meek doesn’t automatically equal weak. That’s what our culture would try to tell us- You need to stand up and get yours.
It doesn’t matter how many people you need to step on
It doesn’t matter who you have to hurt- your whole job in life is to make as much money, own as many possessions, or fulfill your dreams no matter what the cost to others, or even yourself.
That is why pride is the opposite of meekness, and pride is the worst of all human attitudes, because it is the root of all sin.
However, Meekness is not being a doormat. It’s not about letting others walk all over you and just being a passive wimp.
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.
Then I attended a pre-service leadership prayer and planning meeting with him. Very quickly, I had a check in my spirit- his manner and personality was very condescending and even demeaning toward those who were “not at his level of anointing”. The persona on stage wasn’t matching up with what I saw when I was alone with a few other leaders. Pride in his abilities, pride in his church’s growth, and pride in his following seemed to be his driving force than being like Jesus.
Our church continued to have him in as a guest speaker, and we heard less and less about Jesus, and more and more about his spiritual anointing and how to get it. For a while, there was talk of us becoming one of his satellite church’s that would maintain local control but be under his ministry.
Then the scandal hit- he was caught having affairs with woman in his church.
What lead to that- pride
Pride is the opposite of meek.
Pride seeks to promote your needs and wants, while meekness lays down your needs and wants for the benefit of others.
That’s the eternal value of meekness- that your abilities and strength are being harnessed by something external to yourself so that they can be channeled into the right conduit.
Illustration-
Twin pipes-
Your abilities, strengths, and talents are going to flow out of you- that’s an essential part of being human. For better or worse, for good or evil you will show what is truly in your heart through your actions and often how you use your gifts.
It is like you are the water tower behind the high school, and water tower has a pipe coming out of it with a valve that will feed one of two pipes that represent how you interact with the world.
The pipe on the left represents your flesh and need for your pride to be affirmed through people recognizing how great you are. When you look at that pipe, it’s rusty, dirty, has several holes in it that causes it to leak and allow contamination to the water.
The pipe on the right represents the person who is meek- who gives their strength, their power, their talents to Jesus to harness for eternal benefit.
That pipe is solid, clean, and pure, and lets your talent, power and strength flow in a pure way that nourishes others and points them toward God.
The pipe on the right is the only one that will give you eternal reward.
Paul illustrates this point in 1 Cor 3 (Living Bible)
11 And no one can ever lay any other real foundation than that one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 But there are various kinds of materials that can be used to build on that foundation. Some use gold and silver and jewels; and some build with sticks and hay or even straw! 13 There is going to come a time of testing at Christ’s Judgment Day to see what kind of material each builder has used. Everyone’s work will be put through the fire so that all can see whether or not it keeps its value, and what was really accomplished. 14 Then every workman who has built on the foundation with the right materials, and whose work still stands, will get his pay. 15 But if the house he has built burns up, he will have a great loss. He himself will be saved, but like a man escaping through a wall of flames.
I hate to think of how much of my life and work for Christ will burst into flame on that day, but I know that as I let the Holy Spirit develop this beautiful attitude of Jesus within me, that my offering to God in appreciation for what my savior has done for me will survive the flame, and bless not only God, but those I served on earth.
My family, my friends, my church, and my neighbors.
That leads us to the last point- the reward of meekness.
III. Reward of Meekness
We look at the reward at the judgement seat of Christ, but there is a reward that we can have every day- and that is the character of Jesus being shown through us.
We can do advertising, we can do outreaches, we can do give-a-ways or provide services to help our community. All of these are good and should be done.
But nothing will grow this church like all of us showing people Jesus through how we live our lives, and the attitude we approach difficulty with. Jesus promised when HE is lifted up, He will draw all people onto Himself.
So we need to all lift up Jesus in our lives. We need to allow HIM to discipline our hearts, our minds, and our spirits so that what is flowing out of us will bring great glory to our Savior and King.
Secondly, there is a second part of this verse- “For they will inherit the earth”
The last chapter of the bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. God wipes away every vestige of evil from creation. At that point, you and I will inherit this new creation
But
God will not give this creation to a person who is not completely surrendered to Him.
You and I were not designed to be free moral agents. Humanity was not designed to live apart from an outside source of strength, influence, morality, or power.
Our created nature is one that needs a power source. Which outlet you plug into determines the course of your life.
If you plug into God, you will know and enjoy great blessing, great joy, and the endless blessing of God as you live for HIM and then walk into an eternity filled with so much that the bible says that eye cannot see nor ear cannot hear, nor mind cannot comprehend what God has in store for us.
However, if you choose to plug into the worlds power sources, which is really plugging into satan’s, you will reap destruction.
Someday we will be judged on how much we allowed God to develop this beautiful attitude in our hearts. It will be the deciding factor that governs our reward, and perhaps even our salvation.
All Stand
I leave you with one of the most frightening verses in the bible. It’s the one that makes me lose sleep and really evaluate my relationship with God and my motives for doing things-
I’m going to read Jesus’ words from the Living Bible Translation Matthew 7:21-23-
21 “Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in heaven. 22 At the Judgment many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we told others about you and used your name to cast out demons and to do many other great miracles.’
23 But I will reply, ‘You have never been mine. Go away, for your deeds are evil.’
The deciding factor here- meekness. It judges the source of our thoughts, the source of our attitudes, and is the deciding factor in our actions.
Challenge question
Is how you are living and serving glorifying you, or Jesus?
Conclusion/Altar Call
