WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
DAN THE MAN
Danny Trejo plays some of Hollywood’s toughest characters. You may have seen his mean mug in some of the most famous action movies…usually as a bad guy. Danny has been in movies like Predators, Desperado, Heat, Con Air, and most recently the Machete franchise.
He makes a great bad guy in movies because he has a look to him that makes him look nefarious. He also has a past—one of gangs and prison. But he has changed in real life. He has said, “Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else.” What he means is that he looks for ways to help others because he wants to repay those who were kind to him to get him to where he is today. He seeks to not take credit for anything he has done but to give credit elsewhere.
In August of 2019, Danny witnessed a car accident in Los Angeles. The car had collided so greatly, that it had been overturned. He ran over to the upside-down vehicle and discovered there was a baby trapped inside in its car seat. So, Trejo tried to climb in through a broken window but he was too big to reach the seat belt. Danny and another motorist named Monica Jackson worked together from the other side of the car and were able to get the baby free.
They both downplayed their bravery and heroism. Trejo said, “The only thing that saved that little kid was his car seat. Not me.”
THE MEEK
This morning, we are moving into the next beatitude that Jesus preached. This one is not about bravery, but about where we place the credit when we do and experience good things.
Let’s read our passage from Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
THE MEEK
Meekness. The first thing about meekness we need to understand is that it does not mean weak. Meek does not mean weak. This is something I think I hear in every sermon about the meek. Every preacher makes sure to establish and explain that this does not mean that the person who is meek is weak.
Meek means someone who is anything but weak. A meek person is a gentle person. Someone who is strong in Christ. Someone with a humble strength. A person who has this meek quality has shown a surrender of themselves—that it is not about their power but about God’s power. They have surrendered their right to take credit for the things that God has done.
What we know about Jesus is that he would be considered meek. He drew attention to this aspect of himself. What did Jesus say about himself? That he is powerful and mighty? That he can take on all the people who wanted to kill him and he could wipe the floor with them? No, he spoke of his ministry to the people and said in Matthew 11:29:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
What else was said about Jesus? The Apostle Paul spoke often of Jesus and where his preaching came from.
II CORINTHIANS 10:1
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!
Paul served with the meekness and gentleness of Jesus. He wants them to know where his boldness comes from. It comes from Jesus—not Jesus’ power or strength of force, but his gentleness.
As for what Paul wanted people to seek out in the way they lived? Things like holiness, godliness, love, and gentleness.
I TIMOTHY 6:11
But as for you, O man of God, flee these [evil] things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
And for those who would be a servant in the Kingdom, gentleness and meekness are qualities you should have.
II TIMOTHY 2:24-25
24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
We don’t attack those we disagree with and badmouth them…even those we are correcting. We do it with gentleness so that someone might repent and come to know Jesus better. We are gentle with sinners as we would want people to be gentle with us when we sin.
What does Paul say about Jesus in his life and ministry as he walked among us here on earth?
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus humbled himself. He treated his being part of the triune God as nothing. He emptied himself and became a servant.
Meekness is something we should strive to be because Jesus was meek. His disciples were meek. But as we said earlier, meekness isn’t weakness. Jesus was not weak.
Meekness is also not passive. Meekness doesn’t mean someone never gets angry. Jesus got angry. He watched as people treated his Father’s house with contempt by making it a marketplace to take advantage of the poor. It caused him distress and he overturned the tables they were using to sell doves and exchange currency.
He called down “woes” to the Pharisees for the ways they mistreated his people. He called them names “dogs” and “vipers” because that’s how they acted. And Jesus was not unable to defend himself, but chose to lead the life he led on his own accord. So Jesus was not weak, but he was not a pushover either.
Think about how the beatitudes are written. They kind of progress from one to the next. If we read them in this context, we read that if we are poor in spirit, we realize our spiritual helplessness. Then we mourn sin and now turn to God. These are the meek. And we read this a few minutes ago, but again:
MATTHEW 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Being meek develops this new attitude about my life. Am I learning from Jesus? Am I gentle and lowly in heart like Jesus? The meek are grateful for the way God watches over us and guides us in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit guides the meek. The Holy Spirit is not only active through the reading of the Bible. The Bible says differently about the Holy Spirit. The Bible says when we are baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are filled with the Spirit.
ACTS 2:38
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We also read that the Spirit intercedes for us in all our weakness.
ROMANS 8:26-27
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
The meek realize their need for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and intercession in their lives. He speaks to God on our behalf when we cannot (which if we are honest is most of the time).
The Meek are humble. We accept what life gives us. Not seeking to be raised up on a pedestal.
IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
When the great Chicago fire consumed the Windy City in 1871, Horatio G. Spafford, an attorney heavily invested in real estate, lost a fortune. About that time, his only son, age 4, succumbed to scarlet fever. Horatio drowned his grief in work, pouring himself into rebuilding the city and assisting the 100,000 who had been left homeless.
In November of 1873, he decided to take his wife and daughters to Europe. Horatio was close to D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey, and he wanted to visit their evangelistic meetings in England, then enjoy a vacation.
When an urgent matter detained Horatio in New York, he decided to send his wife, Anna, and their four daughters, Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie, on ahead. As he saw them settled into a cabin aboard the luxurious French liner Ville du Havre, an unease filled his mind, and he moved them to a room closer to the bow of the ship. Then he said good-bye, promising to join them soon.
During the small hours of November 22, 1873, as the Ville du Havre glided over smooth seas, the passengers were jolted from their bunks. The ship had collided with an iron sailing vessel, and water poured in. The ship tilted dangerously. Screams, prayers, and oaths merged into a nightmare of unmeasured terror. Passengers clung to posts, tumbled through darkness, and were swept away by powerful currents of icy ocean. Loved ones fell from each other's grasp and disappeared into foaming blackness. Within two hours, the mighty ship vanished beneath the waters. The 226 fatalities included Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie. Mrs. Spafford was found nearly unconscious, clinging to a piece of the wreckage. When the 47 survivors landed in Cardiff, Wales, she cabled her husband: "Saved Alone."
Horatio immediately booked passage to join his wife. En route, on a cold Decem¬ber night, the captain called him aside and said, "I believe we are now passing over the place where the Ville du Havre went down." Spafford went to his cabin but found it hard to sleep. He said to himself, "It is well; the will of God be done."
He later wrote his famous hymn based on those words.
“Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’”
The meek are content with life and do not treat it as though they deserve more.
INHERIT THE EARTH
What does Jesus say the blessed meek receive? They inherit the earth!
The world tells us that we have to take all we can now. Take advantage of what you can get because this is all there is. What you have is your status symbol. Having the best shows you are successful and worthy of honor.
The world is telling us its survival of the fittest. If you are doing all you can to make a lot of money and build up a portfolio and have the nicest things, you are worthy of honor and people will want to be like you!
The world says in order to do that, work hard. Work every day. Don’t sleep! Get up early and be the last to go to sleep. Sleeping is for lazy people. Keep up with those Joneses! No, do better than the Joneses. Make the Joneses look like weak and lazy losers.
Why? You deserve it! Go on and get it! You are enough and that is what matters. Your happiness is the most important thing. No. You are not enough. God is enough and He will supply all your needs. Your holiness is the most important thing. The attitude of God owes me is the attitude we have discussed the last few weeks with the attitude of the Pharisees. They thought they were doing everything right and sinners were not worthy of their time or attention. But it was the Pharisees the Jesus took issue with.
The meek recognize their need of Jesus in everything and they seek that. What did our scripture reading say this morning?
PSALM 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
A.W. Tozer says it this way: “Being meek means a person has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything.”
We aren’t to this part of the Sermon on the Mount yet, but Matthew 6:33 says,
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
How are you at meekness? Are you living a life devoted to Jesus where you recognize none of your life is from your power, but from God’s?
CHALLENGE
Who in your life needs to see meekness modeled? This week, find a way to give your time to someone who is considered lower than you in status. Not out of obligation. Don’t do this to become prideful. Serve someone this week because you love Jesus. Do you have a neighbor or coworker or a friend who needs you this week. I can think of people here today that need a friend. People here who have recently lost loved ones. We have people on our prayer list who could use an ear to listen and hands that can serve. People who have had surgery and cannot use their hands well yet. Suzie and Brent have a meal site for helping with meals right now. I know we can do that.
INVITATION
