Blessed Are The Meek

Points

Love Movies

Noticed

We do this

Sad

Jesus:different way

Read

Inherit

Meekness

Backward

Different Power

Current=meaningless

God=Eternal & Secure

Choice

Only Faith in jesus

How do we become meek?

Submit to God

Invitation

Prayer

What do I need to know?

Blessed

An unearned gift from God.

Meek

Primarily submitting to God and recognizing our lowly place. Also being gentle and kind to people. Meekness is not weakness.

Inherit

In the new Earth, we rule eternally and securely with God.

Why do I care?

We desire to have power and a high position.

What do I do?

Submit to Christ and follow His teachings

Hook

I’m a big movie guy I love watching them and I love the movie theatre experience.

I’ve watched a lot of movies and I’ve watched all different genres. One thing I’ve noticed is that in a ton of movies there seems to be one really successful or powerful person. Maybe they are super rich or the king or queen of a country and we see often that they are cruel people or they’re kind of cold and just chase money or power.

A lot of times that is the reason they have got to where they are. They cheated or lied or they betrayed somebody. In order for them to have power and be successful they have to do these bad things and become bad people.

I think sometimes we can do this in our own lives. We think that if we want to make the team we have to put on this personality or persona of arrogance and be solely focused on the sport. Or maybe its something like we’ve been hurt or betrayed by somebody, so we feel like we can’t be trusting to anyone anymore. We put on this cold personality and we build up these walls around ourselves and that’s how we maintain our power.

Transition

I don’t know about y’all but for me its so sad to see that thats what it often times takes to gain this power or success. I mean obviously I want success. I don’t want to feel like a failure and I don’t want to feel powerless, but I also don’t want to give up being a good person and treating people right. I wish there was a better way.

Scripture

Defining

Jesus gives a very different image of what success or power is and how to achieve it. Matthew 5:5 says,

Matthew 5:5 ESV

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Now this is some really weird language. What does it mean to inherit the Earth and what does it mean to be meek. Can someone really own the Earth?

To inherit just means to receive something. Basically, one day in the future Jesus will return to Earth and He is going to get rid of all the evil in the world and then God will rule the Earth and those who have put their faith in Jesus will rule with God. The Earth will belong to God and His people.

So what does it mean to be meek? Meekness is not just something we do, but it is a kind of attitude that we embody in every aspect of our life. Someone who is meek puts God above themselves and lives humbly. They are gentle, kind people who are slow to get angry.

One important thing though is that meekness is not weakness. It does not mean you let people walk all over you or disrespect you. All people deserve a certain level of respect, so you can still stand up for yourselves.

Explanation

But this feels really backwards. Doesn’t it? I mean how in the world are gentle and kind people going to inherit the Earth and have all the power that that comes with when the people in power now had to abuse and be immoral to get there.

Jesus is talking about a different power here. He doesn’t mean that if you become humble you’ll be voted president or become the richest person in the world.

Instead of showing a different way to power and success, Jesus shows a different type of power and tells us how to achieve this one. Jesus knows that he will return and that the people who abused and used people to get their power will no longer have any power when He wipes away all the evil in this world.

Jesus knows that the power and success these people seem to have is actually meaningless. It is hollow and fragile. At any moment their kingdom could topple. They could lose their money or their position of power and they are left with nothing, but Jesus offers us an eternal power.

When we rule the earth with God, there is nothing that can rival us. We are completely secure in God’s kingdom because we are protected by God Himself.

Transition

So this leaves us with a choice. We can seek the power right now which is very limited and fragile or we can choose to be gentle and kind in this life and inherit the Earth when Jesus returns.

Application

Invitation

So what should we do? If the meek inherit the Earth, how do I become meek? The first and most important thing is that meekness is about submission to God. And the gift of inheriting the Earth is only for people who have genuine faith in Jesus.

Without faith in Jesus, there is no hope for a future power or inheritance. There is just this life and the power and success that you can find here, which we’ve seen is fleeting and can vanish at any moment.

So this is also a call from Jesus. He’s not only telling us that the meek inherit the Earth. He’s also telling us that if we desire this gift then we have to submit our lives to God. That’s an invitation to the person who doesn’t know Jesus and doesn’t have a relationship with Him and also to the person who does believe in Jesus but is not submitting their life to Him.

Submission to God

But what does it mean to submit our lives to God? To submit your life to God means to recognize His kingship or His authority in our lives and to obey what He has commanded us to do. We do this because Jesus has our best interest in mind, but we as humans oftentimes are deceived and make bad choices that end up hurting us.

But Jesus knows whats best for us and He wants what is best for us, so when we follow Him it is not giving up our fun or our happiness. It is choosing to accept that we are not perfect and we need Jesus to lead us.

And if you have submitted your life to Christ then being meek looks like staying humble and being kind. It means we follow what Jesus says in the Bible and we live out our life like Jesus has taught us to.

Prayer