Blessed Are the Meek Pt.1

Introduction:

I remember pretty vividly the first boxing match I watched and the events leading up to it. We did did not watch boxing much (because any fight worth watching was going to be on pay-per-view and those were expensive), but occasionally, someone in the church would pay the pay-per-view fee to watch a fight and invite my dad to watch. Usually when this happened it was to watch a Mike Tyson fight, who if I remember correctly, my father was not too much of a fan, or to watch Julio Cesar Chavez.

Julio Cesar Chavez is still considered the best Mexican boxer of all-time, having an impressive record and having held several titles (defending one world title a record setting 27 times), and he was very popular when I was in elementary school. I remember in 1992, the first boxing match that I ever watched, was between Julio Cesar Chavez and Hector "Macho" Camacho. I remember the buildup to that fight. For weeks, there were interviews and the two fighters' promoters were doing a great job of building up interest. There were those that sided with "Macho" Camacho and were rooting for him, but most of the people I knew were rooting for Chavez, as I was.

I remember as a 6 year-old thinking that I did not like how loud and boastful and antagonistic Macho Camacho was. Even as a kid, he just rubbed me the wrong way. In all the interviews I remember thinking he was so stuck up and cocky. Julio Cesar Chavez struck me as a humble kind of guy, very dedicated and passionate about the sport and being the best, but humble. He was known to have come from humble beginnings, and what I remember, he remained very calm in the interviews and promotion events.

Well, fight night finally arrived and a man from the church had paid for the event and invited my dad to watch it. There were a few other members of the church there with their families, and some of my friends too. I watched and held my breath as 12 rounds went by. In the end, Julio Cesar Chavez won by unanimous decision, retaining his title, and Hector Camacho was soundly beaten, a cut over one eye, and the other eye swollen completely shut. The loud mouth had been silenced, and that is what made me happy.

I became a die hard Chavez fan from that moment. I knew little about the sport of boxing except that it was so exciting and drew out passionate discussions among people.

That fight was probably the single most influential event that drew me into an obsession, and to this day I enjoy watching UFC fights and MMA fights.

One of the guilty pleasures that I have is watching an underdog really hand it to a cocky fighter. It satisfies this weird need for justice deep within. Whether it is Mohammed Ali, Floyd Mayweather, Macho Camacho, Tito Ortiz, Conor McGregor, or any other cocky, loud mouthed fighter, there is a sense of justice that gets satisfied when I watch clips of them losing, especially if they are beat by someone that is quiet, humble, and meek.

That is what we are going to talk about today, not boxing, so much, but meekness.

Turn with me to Matthew 5 as I catch us up on what has been happening with our study on the life of Christ. We are about a year and a half into Jesus' earthly ministry, Jesus is in Galilee in the area of Capernaum and a multitude of people are following him, Jews from Galilee and Judea, and people from the regions of Perea, Idumea, Syria, and Samaria.

As this multitude is following Jesus, we find ourselves at Matthew 5 in a section known as The Sermon on the Mount.

We have seen that this first part of the Sermon on the Mount called the Beatitudes deals with Jesus' teaching on how to be happy. I want to emphasize that this is not circumstantial happiness. This word, "blessed", means to be happier than happy. To be supremely and divinely happy. It is more akin to the word joy, in that it is a spiritual quality, but Jesus did not use the word for joy, he used the word makairos that means, really happy. It actually means happier. So, as we read through these verses in a moment, when we come across the word blessed, I want you to think, "happier than happy." A deep, spiritual happiness that can only come from the Lord.

Follow along as we read Matthew 5:1-12.

​1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set [position of authority while teaching], his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before.

So our focus today will be on the 5th verse, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Meekness Explained

Before we step into the depths of the application of this verse, we must first define the word meek. I want to open this section by stating emphatically that being meek is not synonymous with being weak. If you have grown up in church, you are probably familiar with this, but the world's system does in fact view meekness as weakness. When I looked up the word "meek" the first thing that came up was this: Meekness is the quality of being quiet, gentle, and unwilling to argue or express one's opinions. The example given? "All his friends made fun of him for his meekness."

There are no virtues that are looked favorably upon by the world in the definition of meekness. The meek never win. To rephrase a common saying, in the world's viewpoint, "Meek guys finish last." If you finish last you are a loser. The world thinks of strength in terms of power, ability, aggressiveness, and being self-assured. The more you assert yourself, the more you express yourself, the more you showcase your strengths and abilities, the more likely you are to succeed. This is contrary to being meek.

And if you grew up in church you have probably heard the definition of meekness as given by Warren Wiersbe. He defines meek in a way that is probably the most commonly used by preachers the world over. He writes, "Meekness is not weakness, but power under control."

The Jews in Jesus' day were not interested in meekness. Remember? They were under Roman control, and they wanted a Messiah that would come in victory. A powerful Messiah that would take the fight to the Romans, overthrow their oppressors, and lead them to victory. But right away, the third line into this sermon, Jesus says, "That is not my way of doing things. That is not the Kingdom way, and that is not the characteristic that the citizens of my Kingdom have."

See, in Jesus' time there were three word picture that were used to describe meekness. The first was of a medicine. This medicine, when given in the proper doses by a skilled physician was helpful to lower a fever. It was a meek, gentle medicine.

The second one was a sailors term that described a gentle wind. I know it is hard to imagine any kind of wind being welcome in the cold weather we have had lately (although thankfully we have been above freezing for the last few days), but if you will go back to summer time. This last summer was hot and humid. The overwhelming smell of corn was in the air some days, and there were days when there was not a very good breeze. But how welcome was it when that gentle breeze would start to blow and soothe the sweat and humidity?!

But the third term is probably the one that we would be most familiar with and it was the idea of a horse whose will had been broken. Here you have a colt, a young horse, who has a lot of potential and a lot of power, but it is unrestrained and uncontrolled. It remains that way until a skilled horse trainer takes it and breaks his will. The horse does not lose its strength; the horse does not lose its power. What happens is that that colt's strength and potential are now harnessed and under the control of the horseman. Until a trainer meeks the horse, all of that potential and power is wasted. We still use the phrase, "meeking a horse" to describe the process.

So the idea behind meekness is not weakness, but having great power and bringing under control.

I want to get into exactly what the Bible says meekness is and how it is described, but before we do that, I want to go on to explain first what it is not.

Meekness is not natural ability nor a natural quality or disposition. We know this because this characteristic of being meek is expected of every Christian. Not some, not most, not just pastors and deacons, not those in leadership roles or mentoring roles, but EVERY Christian. So it cannot be a reference to a natural disposition. We will give examples of meekness in a moment, and in none of those examples, except for in Jesus Christ, do we find men that were naturally meek.

Meekness does not mean to have a spirit of "peace at any price." A meek person is not one that avoids confrontation or compromises truth to ensure there is never any disagreement. The apostles were all meek, and yet they stood firm in the truth, confronted others that did not agree with them with the truth, and most of them were martyred because they would not compromise their beliefs. Theirs was not a false, peace at any price, kind of meekness. It was true and authentic.

Lastly, meekness is not an outward behavior. It isn't what you do or don't do. If I get cut off in traffic, and my natural reaction is to flip someone off and yell and cuss at them, and all I do is mutter the cuss words under my breath, I have not been meek. Actions and responses are not the essence of meekness, though our actions and responses to others will be affected by the quality of meekness. Meekness is not holding back what I really want to do.

Meekness is observed in my life when I get cut off in traffic, and I don't even have the thought to cuss at that person or show them the digitus medius manus (the middle finger).

So what is meekness? "My limited power surrendered to God's control." - T. Gillit

It is a character trait developed in us by the Holy Spirit. It is part of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

It is an absence of pride. Meekness is rejecting the popular psychology that says, "assert yourself," and, "express your personality." But we cannot get to that point until we have first become poor of spirit. It is only the poor of spirit that can be meek, for he has seen that he brings nothing to the table. It is only the poor of spirit that can lay aside pride and be meek.

In fact, it is because he is already poor in spirit that the meek one does not have a struggle with laying aside pride.

Meekness Exemplified

Throughout the Bible, we find many examples of being meek.

We have personally studied the life of Abraham and seen meekness in action in his life when he, as the patriarch of the family, allowed Lot, his nephew, to take the first pick of land when they separated ways. He allowed Lot to take the most fertile looking lands even when Abraham had the right to choose first. He allowed Lot to assert himself over Abraham.

Moses- Moses is called in the Bible the meekest man on the face of the earth. He had a lowly conception of himself. When the people rebelled against God and against him, Moses could have accepted God's offer to become the patriarch of a brand new nation, yet Moses begged God for mercy upon the people of Israel.

David - Take into account when David was being chased by Israel's first king, Saul. Saul had been a good king when he started his reign. He was humble, but pride and greed and power corrupted him. His constant rebellion against God's commands led to God rejecting Saul as king and even stripping the kingdom from his successors. Instead, God told the prophet Samuel to go and anoint another man as the king of Israel. This man was David. David was at first beloved by Saul. However, because of jealousy and envy, Saul became hostile toward David, who had become his most loyal servant, and tried to kill him. So great was the fury that Saul felt toward David that he led his whole army on cross country treks trying to find and kill David.

David could have asserted himself as rightful king. David could have assassinated Saul several times. David could have started a revolution made war against Saul, but he did not. Meekly, he submitted himself to God's timing and to the rule of a man who hated him and wanted him dead. Meekly, he still served Israel and Saul.

Stephen - Come to the New Testament and we have the examples of Stephen- the first martyred Christian, described by the Bible as a man of great power. He was taken by angry mobs for preaching Jesus; they stoned him, and his last words were not words of condemnation or warning. His last words were "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!"

The Apostle Paul - Another man of great meekness. He was a Roman by birth on his father's side, a Jew by birth on his mother's side. These afforded him great privileges which he did not exploit for personal gain, but only ever used these statuses as methods of spreading the Gospel. In several occasions, had he just mentioned that he was a Roman, he would have been spared beatings, yet he counted those things as an honor for the cause of Christ.

And of course, we have Jesus Christ. He is, after all, the one that said, "Come unto me all ye that labor, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." I hope you have seen it already, but I hope that you will continue to see it more and more as we study the life of Christ. He did not assert his equality with God; but humbled himself and became as a servant. He did not defend Himself when accused falsely. He did not demand that the multitudes worship and adore him. He did not condemn others who reviled him or even those that executed him. He had the power to do all of that. NO! He had the RIGHT to do all of that, and yet was meek all the way unto death. Even though he is the second person in the Trinity, equal with God the Father, he submitted himself to the will of the Father. He said, as we are learning in our Wednesday night studies, "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; the works that I do are not of myself, the Father that dwelleth in me, he does the works."

Jesus is the ultimate picture of meekness. Absolute strength, absolute power, absolute authority surrendered to the will of the Father.

Did Jesus have to do that? No. He chose to do that. Why? Because he is our example to follow.

Meekness Externalized

You and I, if we we are saved, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. The Holy Spirit produces certain characteristics in us, one of which is meekness. It is possible to resist the Holy Spirit's work in us, and anytime that happens it is a result of pride. Sometimes we do not realize when pride has built up inside us until far too late. So the Bible tells us what meekness looks like so that we are aware of what to look for in our life when we self-analyze and examine ourselves.

In fact, "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" seems to be the only Beatitude that is a quotation from Scripture. It comes from the 37th Psalm. This psalm will quickly inform us on the qualities of meekness.

Psalm 37: 11

11 But the meek shall inherit the earth;

and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

37:1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers,

neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

When it comes to evil in the world, there are some reactions and responses that are common. One of the most common reactions after seeing evil and evil people in the world is worry. That is why this psalm tells us, "Fret not because of evildoers." People worry, what is the world coming to? What is going to happen because of all the evil and corruption in the world? This psalm tells us, "Don't worry, don't be anxious because there are evil people in the world doing evil things."

The other response is envy. It is one of the things that Solomon pointed out in Ecclesiastes, one of the vanities of life, that evil people prosper while the righteous often suffer.

But we are told here to not envy the wicked.

Why should we not worry about them nor envy them? Because they will soon be cut down.

37:2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,

and wither as the green herb.

However, those that trust in the Lord, those that are meek will inherit the earth. Not only that, but they shall delight themselves with an abundance of peace.

They Shall Inherit the Earth

(TAKE TIME INTO ACCOUNT, SKIP IF NECESSARY)

I want to make a little interruption here and talk about inheriting the earth. Just like we have seen the "already but not yet" concept of the Kingdom, the fact that the Kingdom of God is here, present in every believer because every believer is part of the Kingdom of God, but is not yet fully established here on the earth but will be someday. The same thing applies to this inheriting the earth. The Bible clearly states that Christians will one day reign with Christ, ruling in his kingdom and judging even the angels. That has not happened yet, but it will someday. However, there is a sense that those that walk in meekness have already inherited the earth.

Let me put it this way. What is the thing that all the great and ambitious conquerors wanted? What did Alexander the Great want? What did Julius Caesar want? What were the goals of people like Kublai Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin? To conquer the world, to bring the world under their dominion. They were all evil, and have all been cut down as the grass, but even though each of these people were able to establish rule over great chunks of the world, none was as satisfied as a humble and meek Christian is.

The meek are satisfied by Jesus. They are so filled with the him, the prince of peace, the Spirit of peace, that they have no designs on anything. They have no ambitious goals of pleasing themselves for they are absolutely satisfied in Christ.

Let's illustrate it this way. Someone who is absolutely full of food can walk by the most luscious buffet and not take a bite to eat and be happy. They may acknowledge the delicacies set before them, but when they are fully satisfied, there is no desire to feast on anything else. So is the meek man or woman. They may acknowledge that there are pleasures in life, but in being fully submitted to the Lord, he has given them a delightful satisfaction that nothing in this world can add too.

So going back to Meekness Externalized, what are the qualities of these meek people that will inherit the earth?

Psalm 37:3-11

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;

so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

4 Delight thyself also in the LORD;

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

5 Commit thy way unto the LORD;

trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,

and thy judgment as the noonday.

7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him:

fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way,

because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

8 Cease from anger [if you worry about evil, you will become angry, and we see that a lot today. There are many people that are angry at the evil doers], and forsake wrath:

fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

9 For evildoers shall be cut off:

but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:

yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

11 But the meek shall inherit the earth;

and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The meek person is a person that TRUSTS in, Delight in, Commits to, and Rests in the Lord.

Meekness is not our behavior. Meekness is the result of believing, trusting in God. We do not make ourselves meek.

So this is where we get this definition, "Meekness is my limited power surrendered to the Lord."

No matter what is going on in the world today or in my world today, I trust in the Lord, I delight in the Lord, I am committed to the Lord, and I am resting in the Lord.

Meekness is the spirit of someone who is completely surrendered to the Lord.

Over 14 times in the New Testament we are commanded to be meek.

Meekness will manifest itself in how we relate to different things and people:

In our relationship to the Word of God - James 1:21-22 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness [descriptive word for sin] and superfluity of naughtiness [an excess of wickedness], and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. This is written to people that are already saved. If they are already saved, why would they need to be saved again? Well, Salvation is God's word is dealt with in three tenses. First, the moment we put our trust in Jesus as the Son of God who came and died on the cross for our sins and rose again, and we receive Him as our savior, we become saved in that very instant. This is justification, a one time transaction wherein God justifies me of my sins, he removes the penalty for my sins.

But Salvation is not just a one time thing that happens, it is also in the present tense. The Bible tells us that after that initial justification of salvation, we are being sanctified day by day. It is in the present tense. So I was saved in August of 1998 from the PENALTY of my sin, but in a very real sense I am being saved from the POWER of sin over me. As I grow in my relationship to the Lord, He sanctifies me more and more. This is salvation in the present tense. (He's Still Working on Me). But someday, we will be completely perfect when we meet the Lord and are forever dwelling with Him. Future tense.

So here, James is not talking about justification, he is talking about the present sanctification of the Christians he is writing to, and he tells them that it all begins with how they relate to the word of God.

We are to internalize it (the engrafted word of God). When you come to church on Sunday and Wednesday, you are going to hear the preacher say a lot of things. But my hope is not that you leave out of this place having heard a lot of things from me, my prayer is that you would hear from God. That God would use some passage of scripture, some statement, some truth, or some illustration to drive His word into your heart and that you will internalize that. It may be something that encourages you when you are discouraged, or something that speaks to a sinful habit you need to stop, or something that you need to start doing. But when God takes that word and internalizes it in your heart, grafts it in, it is up to you to receive that work MEEKLY.

How? Well, let's look at the next verse:

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

When we are subjected to God's word - devotions, songs, preaching/teaching of his word- then the Holy Spirit takes that word and presses it into my heart, and this is the opportunity to take my own power to do what I can do under the control of God and become a doer of God's word; then I will grow into the character of Jesus Christ.

Don't miss this next part: If you fail to receive the word with meekness and become a doer of God's word, then, according to the parable of the sower and the seed, your heart will become harder. You will find it more and more difficult for God's word to become internalized and grafted into your heart.

This is the only way we grow as Christians.

Let me give you an illustration about receiving God's word with meekness as opposed to refusing it with pride. You can see this happen all the time at youth camps.

In our 15 or so years of youth ministry Tahsha and I saw it many times.

Preachers would get up preach what God had laid on their hearts to preach, and throughout the week, invitations were given at the end of the services for teens to respond to God's word.

We were blessed to see this response happen many times with teens being saved, turning away from sin, and committing their lives and futures to the Lord. These were the ones that received the word of God meekly.

But we also saw teens pridefully resist the word of God. I remember watching a one of my teens named Seth every night of camp for 5 nights. I believe Seth was saved, but there were certain things in his life that he was rebellious about, and there were areas of his life that he refused to give to the Lord. I had been praying for him and talking to him for a long time, and then camp came along. Seth went to camp with us, and all it took was watching him for just a few minutes during each of the services to know that God was working on his heart about something and that he was fighting it. You could see it on his face.

During the invitation times we stood, and those that had felt God deal with them in one area or another were invited to come forward and talk to either their counselors or youth pastors. Many did, but Seth did not. He white-knuckle gripped that seat in front of him every night, and when we left camp his resolve had held strong: not once did Seth give in to what God was dealing with with him. And it changed him.

Seth became a different, colder, harder person. And I can tell you without a doubt that he became less and less happy every time I saw him.

So how do I receive with meekness the internalized word of God? You respond to it. The reason we have invitations is to give the opportunity to respond to that word of God. And you might say, "Well, I can do that here in my seat. I don't know why you invite people every week to come down to the altar or come and pray with you."

It is an act of meekness to recognize that God has placed us within a body, whose responsibility it is to provide accountability for each of its members.

It is an act of meekness to come to the altar and say I am not so proud that I can't admit I need counselling or prayer or advice to deal with this problem that I am having, to deal with this sin that I can't seem to shake, or to navigate an decision that needs to be taken.

But week after week, month after month, invitations are made right after the sermon, and on one hand I can count the amount of times someone has come to the altar to pray, to talk with me or someone else, or to deal with God in a way that provides accountability.

Sunday after Sunday, service after service, there are those who respond with uplifted hands saying, God has dealt with me on some level or another. And when the invitation is given, not a soul moves forward, but we remain in our seats in pride.

If GNBC is going to be known for anything ,let it be known as a group of people that authentically and meekly respond to God when He speaks.

We are going to stop here, but we will dive into how meekness will manifest itself in our relationships during the Life Group time.

Invitation:

A few weeks ago, I started the sermon with a question. I asked how many of you would be willing to respond to God's word and His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. I asked this question, "Who would be willing to say with an uplifted hand, 'If God points something out in my life that I need to adjust or that I need to enact; if God points out a sin that I need to confess and forsake; if God points out a wrong perspective or mentality that I have had then I will be willing to adjust in whatever way God wants,'?" And many of you indicated this with an uplifted hand.

How are you responding to God's word? Who have you talked to? Who have you shared with the conviction that God has laid on your heart and made yourself accountable to them?

Pride rejects the need for such things, but meekness craves it.

How are you responding to God's word? How is your commitment to responding to God's word holding up? At this time, I am going to invite you to stand, if you can right where you are. As Tahsha sings the song Speak, O Lord, I am going to invite you to come forward. If you would like to talk with me or pray with me about something, I will be happy to do so and I will be available.

But I want to specifically invite those that raised there hands saying, "If God points out something through this series, then I will respond and adjust in whatever way he wants from me," to come to the altar and pray to the Lord and once more make that commitment to Him.

What you will be doing with this is making it a public decision. People will be able to know that you who are here at this altar have made a commitment to God to respond meekly to His word. And those that come with you will know that they are not alone in this decision either. In fact, it would be a great thing for husbands and wives to encourage each other to make that commitment together, to come together, and to pray together.

Yes, you can stand alone there in your place and say that prayer, or you can listen to the words of God in Ecclesiastes that say, "Two are better than one, and a three stranded chord is not easily broken." Every person that comes to the altar to make that commitment to the Lord becomes one more strand in that chord. Will you come this morning as Tahsha sings?

I will invite you to stay just an extra 30 minutes. For those of you who do not normally stay during Life Group, I am going to ask you to stay. In the grand scheme of things, how will waiting a little later, until noon, to go home negatively affect you or your family? But in the grand scheme of things, how could this spiritually affect you in a positive way if you were to stay a little longer?

If there is any area where I believe every one of us, myself included, needs growth in, it is this area of Meekness, so I invite you to stay just a few moments longer.

You might think you don't need it. Please allow me to show you in the most loving way I can that that attitude is contrary to meekness. Why should I discuss with others? Why should I try to dive any deeper into applying God's word to my life? Those are all prideful attitudes to have.

Life Groups

Anything that stood out?

Why is it be important to respond to invitations?

Why, in your opinion, do people not respond to invitations?

How does "the meek shall inherit the earth" contradict the prevailing philosophies of the world?

We talked about Meekness affecting our relationship to God's word. What other areas will meekness affect? Family, other Christians, Work relations, government

I hope that you are seeing how these Beatitudes arranged. They are arranged logically, as being poor in spirit leads us to mourning over our sin, which enables us to be meek, but they are also arranged in an ever increasing level of difficulty. It is relatively easy to think of ourselves as being poor in spirit, as being completely unworthy to stand before God. It is relatively easy to say to ourselves like Paul said of his own self, "O wretched man that I am" as we mourn and grieve our sin. Those first two Beatitudes deal directly with how we relate and approach God, but this third one, meekness, though it does deal with how we respond to God, it also deals with how we respond to others.

Like I said, it is relatively easy to see ourselves as poor in spirit and to allow God to point out sin in our life, but it is so hard to let others do that.

All of us prefer to condemn ourselves than to allow someone else to condemn us. I am fine admitting when I am in sin, but don't let anyone else confront me with that truth!

The thing is, we are in a relationship with each other here. Meekness takes effect in this area not only in our home with our spouses and children who need to have the freedom to point out sin and faults as brothers and sisters in Christ, but among members of this local body, and members of the family of God. And this is why meekness is hard.

It leaves us vulnerable. It leaves us open for others to point out sin in our lives. It leaves us open for others to point out selfishness, bad habits, and questionable activities in our lives. And there is not a person that enjoys when that happens.

True meekness doesn't just open you up for the pastor or pastor's wife to tell you about things, it opens us all up for anyone to tell us things.

So far, in the first two Beatitudes, I have been looking at me. Now meekness requires me to allow others to look at me. This is more humbling and humiliating than everything we have seen so far, to allow others to put the searchlight on me instead of just myself.

But the meek person is never sensitive about themselves. He is not overly concerned with how others see him, for the meek person is submitted to following the Lord and is concerned only with how the Lord sees him.

The meek person is never defensive. We all know about getting defensive. We all know about making excuses for our behavior or our attitudes. This stems from a sensitivity of self. And trust me, as a pastor, I see it more often than I would like. But when we allow God to develop meekness within us, we no longer protect ourselves. We no longer worry what others say about us. What is there to defend if indeed we have reached the conclusion that "I bring nothing to the table"? If I reach that conclusion, then I understand that there is nothing worth defending. This is why David said, "The Lord is my shield and my strength."

The meek person is never pities himself.

A Person who is meek is patient and long-suffering even when suffering unjustly.

Peter writes that there is no credit to the man that suffers for his faults. But if we suffer when we are doing what is right, and we take it meekly, that is praiseworthy in God's sight.

The person that is meek is teachable. It means we are ready to listen and learn. It means we have such a poor idea of ourselves and our own capabilities (this thinking is enacted by being poor in spirit) that we are ready to listen to others, and above all, ready to listen to the Holy Spirit.

The person who is meek holds no grudges. This is a selfish hold on the idea that someone has wronged us, but remember, the meek person is one who never pities himself nor takes the defensive. If we need defending then we leave it to the Lord. "Vengeance is mine" said God, after all. And if it is his, then it is not ours.

The person who is meek does not stay angry long. Psalm 37:8. They understand the verse that says, "Be angry and don't sin; don't let the sun set on your wrath." If you have to wait several days to be able to talk to someone because of how angry they made you, you have a meekness problem. If you have a problem with that being pointed out, you have a meekness problem.

If we are truly meek, then we leave ourselves, our rights, our cause, and everything in God's hands with a quietness of spirit. This will be abundantly illustrated as we progress through the sermon on the mount.

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