The Fruit Of The Spirit Is Meekness

It's not a holiday for many people. I'll tell you, this covid is something and all the sickness going around. So we just need to keep everybody on the prayer list in our daily prayers, for sure. We need to do that. Well, this morning, if you would take your Bibles and turn to Glaciers Chapter 5 Verse 22, fancy that like weeks now, maybe it's verse 23, I think today, actually, so we're going to look at the fruit of the spirit. And today, the title of the message is the fruit of the spirit is meekness. Now, most of you probably got a King James Bible. Well, today I'm on, I'm going to go out of the King James Bible today. We going to read from there instead of the new King James. So let's look at the Galatians 5 verse 23. We going to put it up on the screen here. Galatians 5 and 23. There it is. And this is what the Bible says, but the fruit of the spirit is love joy. Peace, longsuffering. Gentleness goodness, faith. Maintenance. So today we going to talk about meekness. And I remember all of these characteristics that we're looking here. Love joy. Peace, long sucking. Jim's Gonna State maintenance temperance. All of those. The Lord says if you'll walk in the spirit, these will be prevalent in your life. What I want you to understand this morning is none of these that you see mentioned here. Can we achieve on our own? You say? Well, I'm going to love better and I'm going to rip my teeth and clipped clipped my fist. And I'm going to love more or I'm going to have more joy. I'm just going to make myself have more joy that may last for a week or two. Then after that, something's going to happen and you're not going to have any Joy. This is only for the people who are allowing the Holy Spirit to control their life. Then you can exhibit these characteristics and I will talk more about living in the spirit and walking in the spirit. After we finished, after we finished Temperance. I'm going to have a couple of sermons to close out, this series on that. So today, we're going to look at meeting is now if I study the fruit of the spirit is such a high standard. When you look at all these here for us to try to reach. But again, we can't do it on our own efforts. It's only as we come to the word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to control us. Can we do that? But meekness seems even more hard-to-reach than some of the others. You say well, why is that? Well, when you think of a meet person when you hear the word meekness, what do you think of weakness? Someone's meek? Is week, at least in our culture today? Maintenance is weakness. You can say May mean. Lacking backbone. Humble. Gentle. Quiet.

Some people say, a meat person is a person who lets others run over them. They just turned the other cheek, no matter how many times you slap them. They're going to turn the other cheek. That is meekness. That's kind of someone who's kind of soft. Someone who don't have a lot of Backbone. In other words today, when we use the word meet. It's not really in a good conversation. I don't think. But here's, here's the, here's the deal. The Bible says that the meat person is the person who is blessed blessed are the meek might have had the Bible. Also says that the meat person is the one who's going to inherit the Kingdom or inherit on the earth, the kingdom.

And rule the Earth. If we're to understand the word maintenance, the way the word of God presents it. We going to have to learn a little bit more than what we know of that word today. So, let me give you a little background and then I'm going to give you a definite definition up there in just a second end in the old days in the Greek days when this was written the Bible. Meekness was used in several different contact. One of them was was simply this. It was used when someone would soothe someone that was very angry or bitter. And other words, proverb says a soft answer turns away wrath. So it's the ability to, calm someone down who's really angry. Another way. It was used. It was used for ointment. That would go on a wound that would help the wound heal matter fact in those days. It was called me cointment. That's what they called it. And then, in another way, it was used in 1st century was it was used of a whole a wild horse? That was broken. And they said the horse became Meek because now you can ride it. So what I want you to see, if I want to put up the definition of this word meekness in, here it is. I get y'all get to say the word again. Don't y'all like this? All right here. It here. It is. In the Greek. Here's how you pronounce it. Protease. Can you say that has protest? It means humble considerate. General? Here's what it means, in the context of the Bible, not our day, but the context of the Bible, the ability to speak and stand for what is right. In a spirit of humility gentleness and love and I noticed something here for someone to have the ability to speak and to stand for what is right. That shows strength. Nothing. Nothing weak about that. There's nothing weak about a person today. When the Bible is attacked or Christianity is attack or our nation is attacked for being such a, a sorry Nation. There's nothing wrong for Christian. People are whomever to stand up. Stand up for the Bible, stand up for Jesus. Stand up for Christianity, stand up for our nation and speak. The truth in love is nothing, right. It takes a strong person to do that. And then down here. I put meeting this is strength and power. Under control, that's what it is. Maintenance is really strength and power under control. It's the grace that brings strength and gentleness together is what it is. So you say a person who who will stand up for what is right, who will speak up for what is right, but they do it and a humble considerate General Gentle Way. That's what meeting is in the Bible means. Now there's two people in the Bible. Only two. That the Bible says, were meek. Jesus was one, anybody know the other Old Testament? Old Old Testament back kind of at the first. Who do you think was the other person? The Bible called a meat person? Well, we'll look at it here in numbers 12 verse 3, Left. The first point, Didn't we going to see meeting this in Moses? Look what the Bible says meekness in Moses. Now. Look at this verse now. The man Moses was very Meek above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth. Moses, as a perfect illustration of the fact that meekness is not weakness. Have you? Do you remember an old Tesla? How angry Moses got when he come down from the mountain with those tablets and the people there was try to hide them a golden calf and he broke them tablets and he slew, some of the people, he was glaringly and openly angry yet on other occasions. He was the most compassionate, man. You could see the same Moses who in righteous anger broke. The tablet was the same Moses, who spoke to God for his people in. This is what he said, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray Block me out of your book. Here's a man. That was so angry, the people for, for formulating that golden calf. He also said, forgive them their seeing. If you don't block me, he was willing to die for the people. He said, block me out of your book. He could rise up with white anger, white-hot, anger against unrighteousness. And then in the next moment, just as be compassionate, and loving and is willing to put his own life in line because the love he had for his people. That's what meekness is. Meekness is strength and compassion fused together. In a balanced personality, that's what it is. It's not spiritless. It's not spineless. It's not anemic. When you study the life of Moses. You see that meeting. This is the word that defines these two virtues. The tension is not the absence of anger. It's the presence of anger in the proper setting. Is it okay for you and me to be angry? Yes.

Righteous anger but and that's the problem, most time what we get angry about is someone says something up and and he just flies all over us and we want to get them back and we get angry. It's personal anger. Did you ever notice in the life of Jesus? When someone when they quit them and all he said, he said he didn't say a word. He he never became angry because he was personally mistreated, but he did become angry, and we going to talk about that today. Here's what. Meekness is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. Always angry at the right time. So that's neatness in Moses. Well, let's go to meet this number to meeting us in Jesus. Now. We going to put up some scriptures here. And we're going to start with Matthew 11:28 to 29. This is what Jesus says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for. I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest. And to your souls, this is what Jesus said himself. I am meet. Remember when Jesus rode in Jerusalem, the beginning of passion week. What did he ride in on? What what a donkey? Is there? Anything they need more meat than that riding in on a donkey. If you will. Under control the king of glory, the king of power riding on a donkey under control receipt you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presents and base among you. But being absent bold towards you, notice how he put maintenance base with means this. Nothing base and bold in the same sentence. That's what makes sense. It is bold speak the truth in love, but it's also humble and gentle. That's what meeting this really is. One of the things that I hear a lot of people say, And every time I do, I just kind of have to bite my tongue. Is they want to talk about how Jesus in the Bible is painted as week? They want to say, well Jesus lately. He just let people run all over him and he died on the cross friend. Jesus was not a weakling. He, he was a strong powerful, man. Jesus was, he was not some weakling matter fact, the scriptures give us three times that the Lord became angry. Now, this is not just, you know, just well just a little bit maybe, you know, kind of taken back. This was white-hot, anger that the Lord became and I want to discuss a few minutes and times when Jesus was angry, because the Bible says, it's possible to be angry and do not send and anger, is only a sin when it's done for the wrong reason and then the wrong way. So I want to give you three instances, it will put them up here. On the board. Back the other way. Chief, the point to yeah. There you go, maintenance in Jesus hears. The first Anger at the indifference of religion. All right. Now I'm going to, I'm going to show you first here in a few minutes. And Mark and Mark. We're told there's a time when Jesus went into the synagogue. And he saw a man with a withered hand. The Bible says, in the Pharisees were in there and they were looking at Jesus, and they were trying to catch him into a sinful act. You see Jesus was going to heal this man's hand. But the Pharisee said they, they were saying their self with. He feels, he has broken the law of Moses because you cannot work on Sunday on the Sabbath. And so, so what is he going to do? So, they focus their attention on the external things and they miss the real purpose of the miracle that Jesus was getting ready to do because they had the privilege to see the Lord. Of Glory at work and instead they chose to debate the finer points of pharisaical Law. And when Jesus saw that he was angry and I want you to look at it and Mark chapter 3 and we going to look at verses 1 through 5. And he entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand? So they watched him closely where the he would heal him on the Sabbath. So they might accuse it. So this is a Pharisees. They will accuse him if he heals and he said to the man who had the withered hand step forward. This is Jesus speaking, then he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or to kill, but they kept South and when he had looked around at them with what anger, Being grieved by the hardness of their hearts. He said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out in his hand was restored, as whole as the other. He looked at me in anger. Why? Because Jesus wanted to help someone on the Sabbath. They said, if you do that, they were more concerned about their rules and regulations than they were of helping. Somebody is what they were not. Let me tell you what I'm thankful for this morning. That there is doctors and nurses. Working in the hospital. Today. I'm thankful that we have Care on the Sabbath. I'm thankful that some people work 12-hour shifts on the side, but I'm thankful for the fireman. I'm thinking for the rescue squad and all who will come to my house on Sunday. If I have to just to knock over a drop over or something like that. They will come. And they will try to help me. I'm thankful for that. So we have to be careful before when we ride by someone's house and see them out there because they're pump knocked off and they need water. We see him working. We ought to be careful before we say where they will be in church. They ought not to be doing that. Best Buy recycle. That's legalism. That's put in your convictions upon someone else and say and you should live and think just like me, that's what the Pharisees were saying here. So I wonder how much the Lord when he sees the indifference that's going on in our religion today. When a lot of people in church play around and want to play Church games and fuss over the carpet in the organ and the piano. But there's people right outside the doors dying and going to hell. Meanwhile, we want to debate the finer points of church governing whether or not we can have a woman Deacon or whether or not you need to preach from this version or that will debate that make this and do all that. But yet, we're not keeping the main thing, the main thing, there's a lot of indifference in religion today, and I think it's important that we understand. That is absolutely right for Christians. To be angry at the right time. Anger is not weakness. Anger is strength. We've Christians have lost the righteous anger against evil in our day. Did you know in California? That they're going to start paying hardened criminals money to not shoot people. That's exactly what they're doing. They're letting them out of prison and say if you promise not to kill anybody and shoot anybody. We're going to pay you money. We have lost any righteous anger at evil and instead we want to. Pay him for it for not committing it info. Until we are able to understand that, God means what he says. We are to have a righteous anger against moral evil. There's there's nothing wrong with that. We ought to be angry for the 75 million babies that's been murdered in the mother's womb since Roe v Wade, we ought to be angry at that. We ought to stand up and we ought to speak up. Speak the truth in love and stand up for those unborn children. We ought to do that. See, that's a neat person. I mean person is power and strength. With humility and love and gentleness. That's what we need to do. This is what Jesus was doing here. He said I'm going to kill this man. If I don't heal this man, he may die. I'm going to kill him. What's wrong with doing? Good on the Sabbath and we ought to burn inwardly at the moral corruption that surrounds us today. All the all the homelessness and all the racial divide and and all the wokeness that we see in our culture and all the people that run our country, that hate our country and want to bring Marxism and communism in our country. We also burn with anger over that. Not go out and shoot. Someone speak the truth in love, but we ought to stand up and speak up, but we're so easily pacified. So easily taught. That is not right to speak up. If you are in the minority in, this is exactly what this crowd of people is trying to run our country wants us to do is just to stay silent. And what they want to do is they want us to see all this gay marriage and same-sex marriage, and they want us to see this and they put it on TV and they want us, they want to normalize it. They want us to say, okay. It's been going on so long. Everybody else is doing it. I'm okay with it. That's exactly what they want. And this is what I see this happening right now. All you have to do is just go to different churches and look in the Pulpit of what they're preaching. That's all you have to do. It has become normalized. In this is what the media, and this is what the secular humanist want us to do anger at the indifference of religion. We have to be angry at the moral evil in our country. Well, there's something else. Jesus was angry at He was angry at the end of discretion of religion. Now. Remember when he walked in the temple and they had table set-up and they were selling things. Do you remember that? Okay, so and this was a high priest. He didn't take on take kind of taking over all the little Temple shops there to set up an operation to, to rip off the Jews. So, the Jews would bring their sacrifices into the temple for feast days. And Aunt has had his men out there, inspecting. The sacrifices. So they would say weird, you get this Sacrifice from where I got it over here in this pain or out and around home or something. Oh, no, it's it's, it's log can't use that. You have to buy you a sacrifice. I animal a dub or something over here in one of our pens and they would charge them great prices to do that. And then, of course it did not. It was Emperor, they would say. So they had to buy a new sacrifice at the shop there of the high priest. What did Jesus do? Let's look at it. Matthew 21:12 through 13. Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out. All those who bought and sold in the temple and overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who so does. He went in there and he just clean house and he just push them over there in the chair. And he overturned everything and he said to them, it is written. My house shall be called a House of Prayer, but you have made it a den of Thieves. He was Angry white hot anger, at the indiscretion of religion. He clean out the whole operation. So nobody did a thing to stop him either way cuz he wouldn't a weak man. They going to pay attention to Jesus. I wonder what he would say. If he would come back and saw some of the craziness that goes on, in our country, in the name of Christianity Today. I think the Lord would be angry, and if the Lord would be angry that, I think we ought to be angry at it as well. And that is anybody who stands up and will not preach. The gospel in any Pulpit. He is angry about that. We ought to be angry about that. We ought to be nice about it. Stand up. Speak stand up. Strong and stand up and speak against what is not right, but do it with humility and gentleness belt one time, one of the time he was angry. He was angry at the ignorance of religion and I guess who we got angry at this time. Peter. That Peter had a problem, we would call it. Maybe he had a case of foot-in-mouth disease is what Peter had once in awhile and Jesus was explaining to his disciples that it was time for him to go to the cross in Peter always seen kind of the open his mouth and then kind of put his brain in gear afterwards. And so here, Peter opened his mouth and he said the Bible says he began to rebuke the Lord. He says Lord, this will never happen. You look at it, Matthew, 16, 22 and 23. Look at this, then Peter took and talk about Jesus and begin to rebuke him. So be it far from the Lord this shall never happen or be unto thee. In other words. You're not going to go across and you're not going to die. We have you here. We will protect you. Look at that, but he turned speaking of Jesus, and settings and Peter, get thee behind me Satan. He called his own disciple stating. He says, Thou Art An offence under me for about favors, not the things that be a God, but those that be of men. Is a pair. You don't you don't even know what you're talkin about. I've been telling you for 3 years. I'm going to the Cross. I've been telling you what my purpose is on this Earth. I told you my purpose, I was born so that I could die. And now all the sudden you were here telling me, no, that's never happened to you. He said, Peter, what in the world is wrong with you. He said, he said, you have the mind of Satan. He said you get behind me cuz you care more about the things, then you do the things of God. Satan didn't want Jesus to die on the cross. Cuz he knew if he did he would resurrect and he come by there and he would be it would be over for him. And Jesus was saying the Peter Peter, your own Satan side here. You're trying to keep me from what God sent me for and that's not going to happen. But Peter didn't want to lose the comfort of his master and we understand that, but because of his ignorant of how the Lord was here, the Lord became angry and called him called him out as Satan. So meet us in. Moses. Number one in Jesus and let's close today and talked about meeting us in believers. Only give you verse here and we don't we go look at three or four versus James 1. Verse 21, meekness in Believers. And I look what the Bible says. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. That means that the spirit of meeting us helps us know. That we don't know it all. It basically is what he say. It hear. It opens us to the truth of the heart of God. You see when you come to study and consider the word of God. We need to come to the word of God. With a spirit of meat. We have strength and power but it's not enough to allow us to comprehend the things of God. So we need to come to it with meeting at Lord, unless you're Holy Spirit, teaches me and and tells me exactly what this word means to me and my contact friends. If we can't do that. We will never understand what the Bible truly means. We have to come to the Bible where the spirit of neatness. Someone said the maker of those who quietly submit themselves before God to his word and to his rod. We had to submit to his word into his Rod, meet his brains a person. Into sweet communion with the Holy Spirit as we study the word of God. So when we come to the word, we need to be meet. Look at Galatians 6:1. Now, this is very important right here, brother. If a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual. Restore such as one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, you know, someone that's caught. And seeing right now, this saint is just overtaken them. You who are spiritual, you who are saved, you are in the church. Need to go to that person and gently but firmly, tell them the error of their way, but you go in a spirit of meekness, but why, why can't I just go in there and then slap the tables. Are you idiot? Why are you doing this? Why can't I do? It, says McCall's, consider yourself. Because you could be tempted and you may fall the same way. It's only by the grace of God. We're not out here just doing the things. This world is doing it just by his grace. So when someone is caught in a fault, Someone is doing something, you know, that spiritually wrong, especially if it's someone in the church you go to that person in a spirit of meekness and gently rebuked them knowing the whole time that could be you in that position. It could be any of us in that position. So never is someone more in power. I think about this never is someone more in power when they know someone has done wrong. If you know someone today that is doing wrong or done wrong. You are never more and more power over them. Then you are at that point and it's never is the temptation to wield this power greater than when you confront someone that, you know, have done wrong. That's when you just kind of want to Lord it over because, you know, they're at fault. But friends. The Bible says, we can't do that. That we have to come in a spirit of meekness. We need to know the true meaning of meekness, which is power under control is what it is. Think of it like this, when you think of your children, if you have children, maybe or grandchildren, neatness is the spirit which makes correction or discipline.

A stimulant and not a depressant. You remember your mom and dad? This play me? I do. They get that. They get that switch after me, then go out there and I'll see my daddy right now. Breaking that switch off at, Bush out there. Come in my way. He didn't strip all the leaves off of and everything. Come in my way. Now. I'm dead. You know, when he laid out on me, that was kind of the press under. That was kind of depressing for me. But when we discipline our children, what I'm saying is make it a stimulant and other words. Don't break your children. Don't where they are afraid of you or think that Mama or daddy is mean to me. You don't do that. You explained what they did wrong, and you explain how they sinned against you and stand against God and then you discipline them appropriately. And then you hug her neck and tell them that you love them. That's what you do. Never make discipline a depressant where you just beat him half to death, and walk off that not going to happen. That's not going to work. We cannot do. That would look what Timothy said or Paul Road? 210th e 2nd, Timothy 2, 24, and 25, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. After teach patient. And meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if Godfrey Adventure would give them repentance to it, Knology of, of the truth. So, what's he saying here? So often when we opposed to something, the first thing we want to do, we want to jump in and say, okay, if you want to fight, I'll fight, we'll have a battle right here. You've got one, but the Bible says that we are to respond and counteract opposition with gentleness and nice Hudson. Taylor was a missionary to China. And one day he was waiting on a riverbank for a boat to take him across the river. And that day. He happened to be dressed in Chinese clothes. Well, they were about 10 people in line waiting to get on boats as well. And he said about that time. This gentleman the Chinese young man who was dressed up. He looked kind of enrich looking clothes, came up and came up to him and just knocked him in the back of the head and knocked him in the mud. And man said I'm coming up here front because I've got somewhere, I've got to go and push them down because he thought he was a Chinese, man, cuz he was dressed, like a Chinese never looked at his face. Husband said he wanted to get up and knock him in the next week. He said, but the Lord wouldn't let him do it. He said he wouldn't let him do it. He said he looked at the man. The man looked at him and said, He said, you mean you a foreigner and you're not going to fight back. And he said, Mr. He said go ahead and he said, get in the boat. He said, that boat is my boat. I own it. He said, but I'll take you wherever you want to go. He said he got in the boat with him. They started sailing across the river and he started telling about Jesus before they got the destination to Mammoth safe. You say because he was Meek. He was, he was gentle, you see. One more virus in will close. Look up 1st. Peter 3:15 says, But sanctify, the Lord God in your hearts and be ready. Always to give an answer to every man that asked if you were. A reason of the hope that is in you and I want you to look at what this says here. You are at the store and someone comes up to you and they're crying and they're having a bad day. And the car is broke down and they need help. And their child is sick. Everything seems like it's going wrong and it says, we are to be ready. Always to give an answer to every man. The ask you a reason of the hope that is in, you, we are to be ready. Always to tell people why Jesus means so much to me. We need to tell them. The reason of the hope that is in it and it says always be ready to do that. Now when we do that, how should we do it? It says, with meekness and fear with meekness, and fear. We need meet this when we confront people with the gospel. In that something that God, that he says considers meeting this part of the Spirit-filled life. There's nothing more beautiful than to see a strong powerful person. Demonstrating compassion and love for people in life. There are unafraid to stand up for, what is right in the stand up for truth in a humble gentle, and loving way friends. That's what meekness is and we ought to be. Always ready to give an answer of why we can be so hopeful. And so positive, even when life falls apart, and reason is because we have Jesus, that's exactly why. So I leave you today and say this, that the fruit of the spirit is meekness. The fruit of the spirit is taste, the Fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the spirit is the ability to stand up and to speak up for what is right in a spirit of humility gentleness and love the fruit of the spirit is maintenance. Amen. Let's pray for