Restrained Power Series

PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS: RESTRAINED POWER

A. Walk up to a group of BOYS playing basketball or baseball and ask what quality each of them would like

to possess, and you’ll get answers like: “To run fast.” “To jump high.” “To be strong.”

1. Not a single one of them would answer, “I’d like to be MEEK and GENTLE.”

ILLUSTRATION:

As a kid, I always enjoyed going to my cousin Michael’s house, because he had boxes and boxes full of COMIC BOOKS?every comic book imaginable from Richie Rich to The Green Lantern. But not only did I like READING the COMICS, I liked the ADS found in the back.

For $1.00 you could buy X-RAY GLASSES to enable you to see through WALLS (you can

IMAGINE what TEENAGE BOYS thought they could do with those things).

You could buy SEA-MONKEYS?just pour this POWDER in a FISH TANK and hundreds of cute little SEA-MONKEYS would appear and build their own CITY (at least according to the AD).

My all-time favorite AD was for the CHARLES ATLAS BODY-BUILDING COURSE. Remember that AD? There’s this 97-pound weakling on the BEACH (sort of like a Barney Fife PHYSIQUE), and he’s sitting there with a GIRL and along comes a BULLY. And the BULLY PUSHES him around, KICKS SAND in his face, and GOES OFF with his GIRL. And the little

WEAKLING can’t do anything about it.

So, the AD says, “Are you tired of being pushed around? Are you tired of having sand kicked in your face? Just write to me.” And so, you could write to Charles Atlas and in 90 days you could become a MUSCLE MAN and start PUSHING BULLIES around. Charles Atlas made a lot of MONEY from that AD because he APPEALED to the MALE EGO. No REAL MAN wants to be PUSHED around!

COMMENT:

Think about this! I wonder how much MONEY we could make if we were to place an AD that said something like this (BRING UP AD), “In just 90 days, you can become a MEEK person. Are you tired of PUSHING people around? Are you tired of always WINNING the fights? Well, just write to me and in 90 days you can become MEEK and MILD.”

I doubt that we would even make enough MONEY to pay for the ADVERTISING, because most of us think that MEEKNESS is WEAKNESS and we don't want any part of it.

B. MEEKNESS is not WEAKNESS.

ILLUSTRATION:

One cold February night, a STUDENT named Paul Keating was WALKING home to his Greenwich Village apartment in New York City when he WITNESSED two armed MUGGERS robbing an OLD MAN. Keating had every reason to AVOID the problem?he DIDN’T KNOW the student, NO ONE would ever KNOW that he SAW the CRIME, he was OUTNUMBERED, and there was no PERSONAL GAIN for taking such a RISK.

Yet, despite the obvious, he ran and JUMPED on the MUGGERS. The student ESCAPED and ran for HELP. Moments later, two SHOTS rang out and the MUGGERS fled. Keating lay

DEAD.

The Mayor eulogized Keating saying, “Nobody was watching Paul Keating on the street that night. Nobody made him step forward in the time of crisis. He did it because of who he was.” His girlfriend said, “Paul wouldn’t hurt anybody. He was the MEEKEST man I know.”

1. Obviously Paul Keating’s MEEKNESS didn’t make him a COWARD.

a. In fact, ONLY the most COURAGEOUS can be MEEK.

COMMENT:

The MUGGERS certainly weren’t COURAGEOUS. They GANGED up on an INNOCENT college student. Yet, I’m sure they would BRAG about their COURAGE, their STRENGTH, their POWER to strike FEAR in those they MUG and TAKE what they want from whom they want.

Undoubtedly, they would SCOFF at the idea of MEEKNESS. “Those who are MEEK are WEAK” they would think. But the one who was indeed MEEK, Paul Keating, was COURAGEOUS enough to put his LIFE on the LINE?and, in fact, GAVE his LIFE?to save

another.

b. I wouldn’t consider Paul Keating WEAK, would you?

2. Both King David and Jesus Christ EXTOL the quality of MEEKNESS.

a. Psalm 37:11- “…the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.”

b. Matthew 5:5- “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

COMMENT:

To the world MEEKNESS means TIMIDITY, WEAKNESS, COWARDICE. That is not at all what David and Jesus mean by “MEEKNESS.”

3. Jesus is not saying, “Blessed are the COWARDS, the SPINELESS, the FEARFUL? people who

let others RUN ALL OVER THEM.”

a. “God did not give us a spirit of TIMIDITY (fear), but a spirit of POWER . . .”- 2 Timothy 1:7a.

b. MEEKNESS is a quality of STRENGTH and POWER.

c. The MEEK are POWERFUL because they won’t RUN OVER PEOPLE even if they are ABLE.

MESSAGE:

I. MEEKNESS IS POWER UNDER CONTROL?GOD’S CONTROL