in your Bibles, been preaching on the fruit of the Spirit, If you have not been here, if you've missed some of them, I encourage you to go back onto the church website and look them up. The title of the messages is The Characteristics of a Christian. And each one of them enlisted, will be listed tonight as part nine of the series, the ninth message that we have preached dealing with the fruit of the Spirit, the work of the Holy Ghost in your life, evidence that the Spirit of God lives inside of you. I want you to understand what we're preaching on is the evidence that will give you assurance that you're saved. Because if you're saved, any man being Christ is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things become new. And if the Holy Ghost lives inside of you, the God who is holy and the Spirit who is holy begins to conform you to be holy. And that's the work he's gonna work inside you. And he's working to bring these fruits in your life. And if you're saved and he lives in there, there'll be evidence that he is there. And part of the evidence that the Holy Ghost is there is these are the things that he, is going to work in your life as a believer. If you start looking at these and you say, I don't have that and I don't have that and I don't have that. Listen, if you come up with nine of them missing, you're in trouble. I hope at least you got one. Okay. At least we got a starting point, a little bit of evidence. So the book of Galatians chapter five, look with me in verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit Fruits that we know that the Holy Ghost is there and He's gonna bear fruit. The Spirit of God's inside you is gonna bring forth fruit. What is it? It's love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Why don't we do this while I read the other verses tonight? I would hope by the time we're done with this series that you can quote Galatians 5, 22 and 23. I mean, I've read it to you enough over, and at least it's very familiar. If we start reading it, you ought to be able to kind of finish it, okay? So let's read verse 22 and verse 23 together. You ready? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Very good, y'all can read, hallelujah, in unity. If we'd have done that with a different version, it'd sound like utter chaos in here. Verse 24, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If you live in the Spirit, if you live in the Spirit, if the Holy Ghost is in you, then you're living in the Spirit. Let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. The things that we do in our life as a believer are not so that we could receive glory from men. Anything that you're doing in your life that looks righteous, holy, and godly, and you're doing it just to be seen of men, you're nothing more than a Pharisee. Pharisees did what they did only to be seen of men. That's why they did it. So we should not be desirous of vainglory. We should seek the glory that comes from God, and that's from giving Him glory. And then provoking one another. We should not be provoking one another, envying one another. We should not be saying, well, let me see if they're a Christian, I'm gonna do something and see how they respond. That's provoking one another. We shouldn't do that, we shouldn't do that. So tonight, we wanna preach on this through the spirit of meekness. Talk to you the best we can tonight about meekness. I want you to look, before we give you the definition of meekness, in Luke, I mean, Matthew chapter 11, okay? Matthew chapter 11. I want you to look in verse 28, 29, and verse 30. Whenever I started studying the fruit of the spirit of meekness and thinking about preaching on it, I mean, my mind immediately went to this passage of scripture. Matthew chapter 11, look at verse 28. Jesus speaking here said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Oh mercy, if you're not saved tonight, the turmoil that's in your life and the destruction and misery that's in your life, sin will absolutely wear you out. And if you wanna find rest for your soul, you'll find it in Christ. He said, come unto me, burden heavy laden, he'll give you rest. Sad for a sinner to live in this life with no rest and die and go to hell where there'll be no rest for all eternity. And so Jesus said, come unto me, it's a commandment to every man, come, come unto me. All you that labor and are heavy laden, you're laden down with your sin, wish you could get rid of it and wish you could get rid of the guilt of it and the remorse of it and get rid, hey, come to Christ and get saved by the grace of God. Let him roll the burden of sin away. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Come to Christ and get rid of the burden. And then he said, and I will give you rest. That's a promise. He'll keep his promise. Verse 29, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I would have loved to just preach. I've preached several messages out of verse 29 and verse 30. And when I read this, my mind goes to preaching those things, but I'm gonna preach on meekness tonight. He said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. What do we want to learn about Christ? I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Why? For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. We find out about Christ, he declares to us that he is meek and he is lowly. We know that sin, Satan is a hard taskmaster. Same way Israel was under slavery and the hardship of being bound in Egypt, being afflicted in Egypt. Satan is a hard taskmaster. Jesus Christ is not. And Christ says, I am meek and lowly of heart. If you'll come, just come. Christ said to me, take my yoke upon you. That yoke, I believe to be a double yoke. He's in it. and you get saved, you come and you receive him, you get yoked up with Christ. And I preach the message out of this passage on it's him doing the work in you. He's doing the work. Paul said, he's working in me mightily. And if you want to learn how to walk with Christ, then you've got to be yoked up with Christ. Get in the yoke and learn that hey, his yoke is easy. It's easy. He's not gonna put more on you than you'll be able to bear through his power and his strength. He's not gonna let you bear it yourself. And so his yoke, his burden is light. Satan's burden, I'm gonna tell you, Satan's burden is not light. Remember when you came to Calvary and you felt like sin, that you had the weight of the world on you and it was crushing you and driving you down into hell, it was so heavy? I'm telling you, the burden of Christ is not that heavy. And so learn of him, he is meek, we're gonna talk about that. He is lowly of heart and his yoke is easy, his burden is light. If you say, I just can't take this Christian life, it's just so hard, then you're walking in the energy of the flesh. I'm not saying hard things don't come. But I know this, that Christ, He said, cast your cares on Him. Them things that have got you burdened down, if you can't get rid of the burden, it's because you're not casting them on Him. Cast that care upon Him, because He cares for you. And so the Bible talks about His yoke being easy, His burden being light, meek. What does it mean to be meek? Let's read you some of the definition as we think about meekness tonight. And I also want to remind you that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 21, look at Matthew 21, let me just read it to you while we're here, verse five, Matthew 21, verse five, again, talking about the Lord being meek. As the prophecy of Zechariah chapter nine is coming to pass here, Jesus is coming off the mount, coming into Jerusalem, there's great worship going on. He's riding into Jerusalem, he said in verse five, take ye the daughter of Zion, behold, thy king cometh unto thee. How does he come? He comes meek, sitting upon an ass, and occult the fold of an ass. We're gonna talk about Christ being meek and how he came. Listen to me now, he didn't come riding in on a stallion. He didn't come in declaring that he was the king and he didn't set up great worship for him. He didn't call everybody together and say, now I'm the king, y'all get together and I want you to go before me, shout and pray. You lead the way before me and I want a bunch of you coming behind me and be sure you treat me like the king. Christ didn't have to say a thing. They did that out of natural response. He did not exalt himself, God exalted him. He was humble, he was meek, he was lowly in heart. And that's how God wants us to learn to be. If you walk with Christ, that's what he's gonna teach you, to be meek and lowly of heart. That's what he wants to teach you. And so meekness tonight, meekness deals with being mild in temper. It deals with not being easily provoked or irritated. It does also deal with the idea of given to forbearance under injuries when you're being attacked, you're being lied about, you're being assaulted, you have all these things coming against you that you just forbear that with a mild temper. Meekness is the absolute opposite of pride and arrogancy. To be meek is the absolute opposite of pride and arrogancy. When you study the word meekness, it's gonna deal with a couple things. One, it's gonna always deal with a spirit of submissiveness, being submissive, being subject. The definition says it has the absolute quality of submissive. Free from self-will, to be meek means free from self-will, to be piously, listen to this, humble, submissive, patient, unresentful. Now, I got to think about piously humble. What does it even mean to be piously humble? The definition means to be godly. to be reverencing and honoring God in your heart and in the practice of your duties as a Christian. It means to be habitually obeying his commands devoted to serving God. So humility, if we're gonna be meek and if we're gonna have the fruit of meekness in our life, the very thing that God has to destroy so that you could be meek is he's got to start destroying pride in your life. Pride. Job said that oftentimes God worked at these things with men to withdraw man from his purpose and to hide pride from man. The opposite of meekness is pride. We are born with pride in our heart. It's one of the evils in our heart, if you studied that. Pride is inside the heart. And what God has to do to begin to work in our hearts to be meek is a man cannot be meek till God begins to strip him of his pride. Until pride begins to diminish, meekness cannot come forth. And so you and I are born like a wild asses cult, the Bible said. Just rebellious by nature. By nature, we don't want anybody to tell us anything we don't wanna hear or we wanna do. We don't want to hear it. Our purpose. What does God do? God has to withdraw man from his purpose. Man that gets something in his mind that he feels like he's owed, or he ought to be able to do, or I feel like I ought to do this, or I ought to be able to do that, or I want this, or I want that. You know what the Bible says, and this subject we'll read tonight if we get to it, when man thinks himself to be something and begins to exalt himself and in his mind he feels like he's worthy and deserves something, I'm gonna tell you, friend, you're carnal. You're not meek. You're full of pride. Arrogancy has consumed you. And what pride will do is keep you from submitting to God. See, you know what meekness is? And the other thing, here's what meek, when you study meekness, because we have a verse in the Bible, I wanna show you this about, we see that Jesus was meek, but the Bible talked about another man who was very meek upon the earth. Let me read you the verse. Look in Numbers chapter 12. Look in Numbers chapter 12. Numbers 12 verse 3, the Bible says, I want you to get there Genesis Exodus and Leviticus numbers, chapter 12 verse 3, now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which are upon the face of the earth. Very meek. When it comes at that moment, that time of every man that was upon the face of the earth, there was no man like Moses. You know what you'll find about Moses? Listen to me. You'll be hard-stretched to find Moses disobeying the commandment of God. Submitted, come up on the mount, 40 days, don't eat, you're not gonna eat anything, you're not gonna have anything to eat, you're not gonna drink anything for 40 days. Up on the mount he goes. When he messes up, God says, come back up here. Doesn't eat and drink for another 40 days. I don't know about you, I said time out, call somebody else, amen? I mean, Moses submitted to God. Everything God told, when he told Moses to do at first, Moses said, I can't do that, I can't speak, and I'm not eloquent of tongue and all that. But Moses submitted himself to God. And you know what you'll find out about Moses? You know what you'll find also this thing about meekness? When you study somebody who has the fruit of meekness working in their life, they don't run around always defending themselves when they're attacked. Moses, you know what he did? I mean, man, he was attacked. You brought us up here to die. Moses is like, God brought you up here and you're attacking me? And you know what Moses, Moses didn't get in their face and said, stand up and I'll tell you what, you're just a bunch of rebels and you're a bunch of liars. Now he did later call them rebels. A few chapters after chapter 20 something, but a few chapters before that, God called them rebels. Moses said, let me tell you about, God told Moses, let me tell you about these rebels. So when he called them rebels, he's just telling them what God called them. Bunch of rebels. You know what their problem was? Submitting to God. submitting, laying down their purpose, submitting to God, trusting the Lord. And so Moses, every time Moses, you'll find the children of Israel coming against him. You know what Moses did? He went and fell on his face and said, God, you hear what they're saying? They're going to stone me. They're going to kill me. And Lord, you hear what they're saying? And here's what Moses would say, Lord, I'm just telling them what you said. Lord, do you hear what they're saying about you? How many times Moses, instead of arguing with them and defending himself, he just went straight to God and prayed about it and told the Lord, and you know what God did every time? Come to his aid and dealt with it. Meekness. You'll find that pride, pride is the opposite of meekness. And what happens in your life and my life, when things begin to happen, we want to stand up and preserve ourselves. We want to defend ourselves. We want to be sure they know that's not true. I'll tell you something, you can't go around defending yourself at everybody, everything they say about you. You'll be miserable. And see, here's what happens. People are gonna attack you. People may say lies about you. People even may just say hurtful things to try to hurt you. And if you respond to them and say, well, if they hurt me, I'm gonna say this to hurt them. You cannot combat carnality with carnality. You can't. So you know what you have to do when that happens? You deal with it with truth. Just give them verses. Give them truth. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what the Bible says. And we'll see those verses later. So we see that the Bible tells us here about Moses. Now, you know when Moses got in trouble, Moses stayed out of the Promised Land. How he ended up staying out of the Promised Land, Brother Blake just covered this in his class. In Numbers chapter 17, God told Moses, these people are rebels. Look at Numbers chapter 20. I want you to look at Numbers 17 verse 10. Look at 17 verse 10. And the Lord said unto Moses, bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to keep for a token against the rebels. He's not talking about Southern boys, okay? Against the rebels. And thou shalt Quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not. Now look in chapter 20. You can find in chapter 20 that what happens when you come to chapter 20, verse two and following, there was no water for the congregation that gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, spake saying, would God that we had died when the brethren died before the Lord, when our brethren died before the Lord. Why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? Like Moses parted the Red Sea. Like Moses led them out of Egypt. Like Moses is the one that's done all these things. And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, gather thou the assembly together, thou, Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes. What was Moses told to do to the rock? Speak ye. That was a command. And then he says, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so shalt thou give the congregation and their beasts drink. Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, hear now ye rebels. I heard a message one time, Because God told Moses that he kept him out of the promised land because he spoke unadvisably with his lips. And I heard a preacher say one time that God punished Moses and kept him out because he called him rebels. That is not why God kept Moses out of the promised land. That's a case God don't deserve the promised land. He called him rebels. That's not what it is, speaking unadvisably. I'll show you where he spoke unadvisably. He said, here now you rebels, must we fetch water out of this rock? Moses isn't bringing the water out of that rock. God is. God is the one bringing the water out of the rock. Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock twice and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beast also. Moses smote the rock when God told him just speak to it. You know what happened? Moses, these people, these people, over and over and over again, coming and coming. Miriam, you know what just happened? Miriam just died in verse one. I mean, we're not talking about, they just barely come out of Egypt. I mean, they've seen God's mighty hand, and they've come against Moses over and over and over again, and now Moses, here he is, he gets so frustrated with these people. Instead of speaking to the rock in anger, he smites the rock, not only once, but he smites it twice. Now the reason what kept him out of the promised land too is because he broke a type. He broke a type. Christ is only smitten once. Doesn't die twice. He died once to never die again. Moses smoked that rock, which is the type of Christ, the water. He said, just speak to it. I'm going to tell you, friend, let me tell you what happened. If you want to get saved, you know what you need to do? Speak to the rock. Speak to the rock. You want waters that acquaint your everlasting thirst? Speak unto the rock. You don't have to go up and smite Christ. He was already smitten for your sin. You know what you have to do? Cry out to him and the water of living water, the fountains of living water come forth unto your soul. So here Moses is. Though he was very meek and meekness above all the men of the earth does not mean that he didn't slip up here. He failed to have meekness, because you know what meekness would? Meekness would not have said, shall I fetch water? Shall we be the one that fetch water out of this rock for you? And smote the rock instead of speaking to the rock. So talking about tonight, the meek. Psalm 25, nine says, the meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. You can't teach rebels the way of God. If a man won't submit himself to God, you know, the Bible talks about, you know, submit yourself unto those that have the rule over you for they watch for your souls and may do it with joy and not with grief. If a man will not submit himself to God, he will not submit himself to a pastor of a church. Won't do it. And if a man's not living holy and godly and right in his own life and walking humbly before God without the church and just his personal life every day, if he can't submit to God, he won't be able to submit to the authority around him. He'll always buck it, he'll always push it, he'll always argue against it, he'll always have something to say against it, he'll always have something to say against authority, he'll be underlining current. And I'm gonna tell you, you know what it shows you about a man? He's not submitting to God. Because when a man will submit to God totally, then he'll submit to the authorities in his life. we got a generation won't submit to authority. No respect for police. No respect for their teachers. No respect, hey, no respect for other adults whatsoever. The worst thing you could ever let one of your kids away with is them tell another adult, I don't have to listen to you. I don't have to listen to you. Don't let your kids away with that. Don't let them get away with that, because they'll go around picking and choosing who they have to listen to. They don't feel like listening to somebody, they just won't. If they want to and it benefits them, then they will. This thing about meekness has everything to submit, because you know what happens when you get saved? You came to Christ, submitted for the salvation of your soul, and you know what God is working in you every single day after you're saved? To get you to submit your will to His will. That's part of the fruits a man saved when he submits his will to God, when he submits his will to the word of God and to what the commandments say and what the scriptures say. Now, I'm gonna just read you, don't turn here, I'm gonna read you a couple of verses. Psalms 147, six said, the Lord lifteth up the meek. He lifteth up the meek and casteth the wicked down to the ground. Lifteth up the meek. Let's look over in 1 Peter chapter five. Let's talk about this thing about submission here for a second, 1 Peter chapter five. 1 Peter 5, look at verse 5 and following, and then we'll look over the book of James, parallel verses to this. 1 Peter 5, look at verse 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. When a man is, you know what Jesus did? He walked in humility, clothed with humility. And he submitted himself to the will of the Father to always do those things which pleaseth the Father. And the Bible says if a man, God resisteth the proud, he'll resist the proud and he'll give grace to the humble. I've seen so many people mess their life up because they'd never submit. They won't submit to the scripture, to what verses say. Some people have their life destroyed because they wouldn't live, as soon as somebody told them to do something, if they were living somewhere, staying with somebody, and somebody said, hey, you can't do that. I'll tell you what, they have nowhere else to go in their pride, or make them walk down the road with nowhere to go. And then they'll call somebody, I don't have nowhere to go, or you're stupid, you should have stayed put, not let your pride mess you up. Walk down the road, and have to live in the woods, and hitchhike, and I'm not listening. Oh, that's turning out real good for you, buddy. Tell me how good that's doing for you. Pride going before destruction. Holy Spirit before a fall. And it's hard sometimes. Yes, your pride swells up, but you know what? God will work in you, and the Holy Ghost says, wait a minute, submit yourself. Submit yourself to that authority. Submit yourself. Don't let your pride destroy you. Right now, have a mild temper, because if you let your temper get the best of you, you'll be like Moses. He let his temper get the best of him, and he smoked the rock instead of speaking to the rock. Your temper gets you in a lot of trouble. Some of you used to have a title of being hot-headed, didn't you? Tell the truth. I would ask for a raise of hands. Some people, I mean, man, I mean, they're just hot-headed. Say something to them, just fly off the handle. You ever had them firecrackers that as soon as you light it, you better already throw it before you light it? You ever had those? I mean, when you, pow, like that. I know, I lit one one time as a kid, and I was trying to light it and throw it, and as soon as I lit it, that thing blew up. It lets you know. it blew up. You feel it for a long, long time. Some people in their life, they're like that. Just touch them. Just say something. Just look at them. That temper of yours, you know what? God wants to work and you take that thing away, because that's what's caused you a lot of problems in your life. It's broke relationships in your life. It's caused division in your family. It's caused you to lose jobs. It's caused you to lose relationships. It's caused you to lose friends. That pride, stop popping your mouth off saying stuff that you wish you can grab later and put back, but you done said it. Meekness puts a gate on your mouth. Pride just spits it out. Holy Ghost is there inside you saying, don't say that. Don't do that. Don't respond like that. Don't act like that. It's a mildness of temper. A mildness of temper. And so the Lord lifteth up the meek. Why does he lift the meek up? God resists the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. It's never the fruit of the Spirit for man to try to exalt himself. Never, no self, that's not meekness, self-exaltation. You know what meekness is? Self-abasement. choosing to humble oneself. And so the Bible deals with humble yourselves in the mighty hand of God, and when you, the way, hey, the way up with God is a way down. Go down is up, before honor is humility. Humble yourselves therefore in the mighty hand of God, what, that he may exalt you in due time. You know what humbleness does? Humble yourself, submit, do what God says do, and just wait on God for him to step in, and then God exalt you when he's ready. God will exalt you when he is ready to exalt you. God put Moses on the backside of the desert 40 years before it was time for Moses to be exalted. 40 years. Then he said, cast all your care upon him for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. How does he devour men? God resisteth the proud. Satan uses pride to devour men. Whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strengthened, settled you. Look in the book of James, while we're close, look at the book of James. James chapter four, verse six through 10. James 4, verse 6. I love this verse, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. How are we gonna get rid of this pride? Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Draw nigh to God. God doesn't walk in company with pride. Draw nigh to God, He'll draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, mourn, and weep. There needs to be repentance. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and here it is again, and He will lift you up. Y'all read in Matthew 5, verse 5, where it says, blessed are the meek. for they shall inherit the earth. Boy, the Jehovah Witness is trying to live by that verse, and I need to serve notice on them. They're gonna inherit nothing. The meek. Why the Lord talking about the meek inheriting the earth? Because if people are meek, and they're living on the earth, and they're meek, guess what happens? There's no war. There's no destruction. There's no division. Do you get that? There's no quarreling. Meekness will settle that. And the meek will inherit the earth. And someday that's gonna happen, thank God. That the meek are gonna, you know, there's gonna be a day, there's gonna be a day, thank God, for new heaven and a new earth. But you know what happens during the millennial reign of Christ? You know where the problem comes from in the millennial reign of Christ? It doesn't come from the redeemed of God. Does it? Doesn't come from the redeemed of God. You know where it comes from? All those other nations out there. are the problem. All those other nations that are on the earth, they end up coming up against Jerusalem. We'll be there ruling and reigning with Christ for a thousand years. But those that have been saved by the grace of God and redeemed and we're ruling and reigning for a thousand years, guess what happens? We'll never have a disagreement. It won't be, because you know what happened for you to get saved? You had to receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul. No, for a man to be saved, he's got to humble himself before God. He's got to quit arguing with God about how he's okay. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says that we know whatsoever things the law saith, saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. man quits defending himself, justifying himself, trying to say why he's really good and he's really not that bad, why he really doesn't deserve hell. And so what happens is God, in order for you to get saved, God had to shut your mouth. God had to humble you. If you're saved, it's because you humbled yourself to recognize you're a sinner and He's the Savior. I'm a sinner. You had to humble yourself and finally admit, I deserve to die and go to hell. I deserve it. And so if you're saved, it's because you receive the Word of God with meekness. You know what God wants for you every day after that when you hear the Word of God? Continue to receive the Word of God with meekness. Receive it with meekness. Don't resist the scripture. Don't rise up against the Bible. Draw nigh to God. He will draw nigh to you. Thank God for that promise. Look in Galatians chapter 6 with me. Galatians. Galatians chapter 6. Look at verse 1, 2, and 3. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. If you have somebody who is not right and they're not doing right and continually, as a pastor, the Bible talks about numerous times, a pastor has to have meekness when he is instructing those that oppose themselves, he has to do it with meekness. And I'll tell you why here in a second. But if you have a brother that's got a fault in his life, and you that are spiritual just trying to go to him and restore him and help him, Whenever you're going there, you better go in the spirit of meekness. Okay? You better go in the spirit of humility. Because you know what happens sometimes? Sometimes when you do, if that person is so full of pride, they're not going to humble themselves. Sometimes they'll say thank you immediately. They're going to go on the defense and start attacking. They're going to attack. And they're going to go start trying to attack somebody else. therefore it gets the light off of them. And then they're gonna turn around and say, well, I don't know who you are, I think you talk to me, let me tell you something about you. And then they're gonna try to start talking about you. And then you're gonna forget what you're there for, and if you're not careful considering yourself, you'll be in the middle of that temptation and you'll rise up and say, all right, bless God, let's argue about it. And then you know what's gonna happen? Carnality is trying to restore carnality. And it will never work. And you give scripture. How do you do that? Give them scripture, restore them. And whenever you're there, say, well, you know that, that might be so. And I'm sorry that you feel that way. But brother, I just love you and I'm praying for you. Here's what the Bible says, why you're in the situation. And you just give them scripture. Because if not, you'll be acting like a fool like they're acting like a fool. And so the Bible says that you are to bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted. See, verse three is where the problem is, why there'll be a contention. If a man think himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. Deceived, deceiveth himself. Look in 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. Paul is talking to Timothy as a pastor, one of these pastoral epistles in verse 24. 2 Timothy 2, look at verse 24. The servant of the Lord must not strive. Can't get into a fight over something or a huge contentious argument back and forth. But the Bible says, but be gentle unto all men apt to teach. Teach them what the scripture says. Let them argue with scripture. Be patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. if God perventually will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. The way you instruct them, listen to me, you got a brother with a fault, or he's talking to Timothy, you're talking to people that are opposing themselves, and they've got pride messing them up, and they're going the wrong way. He said, here's what you have to do. You've got to give them truth. And the only way that they can deliver themselves out of the snare of the devil is they have to acknowledge the truth. The truth is the only thing that's gonna make any man free. The only thing that's gonna make you free, the only thing that's gonna make me free from the bondage of pride that has you bound in something is you have to acknowledge the scripture. That's what's gonna help any man. And you know what he's gonna have to exercise in his life to get right with God? Meekness. And here's what you trust, if the Spirit of God's inside of him, the Spirit of God's gonna work to that end. in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves as God perventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him at his will. Look in Ephesians chapter four, a couple more verses, Ephesians chapter four. The mentality of the youth of America. And whenever I was a teenager, a young person, the mentality was this idea. How many times have you heard people say, I'm my own man? I'm my own man. I'm my own man, doing it my way. I'm my own man, nobody's telling me what to do. Somebody's always telling you what to do. First of all, on a spiritual level, God or the devil. And as long as you have that attitude of nobody's gonna tell me what to do, nobody's gonna tell me what to do, let me tell you something, you are on a path of destruction. And it will be very evident in a person's life, nobody can tell them what to do. They will self-destruct. self-destruct. We need the counsel of the Word of God and the counsel of those that know the Word of God. We need that counsel. And so the Bible tells us Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 1 through 6, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. How should we walk? With all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Why? For there's one body, one Spirit, even as you're called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. God said that we are supposed to be walking with lowliness. Is not Jesus, and meekness, was not He meek and lowly? Meek and lowly of heart. We're supposed to learn from Him. that we're supposed to, and if we will learn from him, then he'll rub off on us real good, that we'll walk like he walked. And so Proverbs, let me give you this verse. I'm gonna just read a couple verses before we're done. Proverbs 11, two, when pride cometh, then cometh shame, and with the lowly is wisdom. Proverbs 14, three says, in the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride. What that rod is, they strike with it. Striking with their mouth, a rod of pride. Proverbs 16, 18, pride goeth before, you know the verse, what? Destruction. You know why the Holy Ghost is working in you this thing of meekness? Because it's the absolute opposite of being full of pride. The reason why is because pride was already destroying your life and if you're saved and God doesn't work on you in that pride and get you to submit, you'll be saved and you'll mess your life up because pride will mess you up. Pride, pride go up before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride shall bring him low. Listen now, you in humility humble yourself low at the feet of the Lord Jesus and God will exalt you. But pride exalts oneself and what happens is pride then brings a man low in a destructive manner. in a destructive way. A man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. Look in Colossians 3, we're almost done. Colossians 3. Colossians 3, verse 12. Put on therefore, so every day of my life, I'm supposed to put on what? Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, that's what we are. Put on boughs of mercies, Kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. You know what's gonna help us keep unity? If the Holy Ghost is working meekness in each one of us. You know what's gonna help you? Listen to me now, you know what's gonna help you? in the workplace, having problems in the workplace, I know that your workplace is probably a bunch of lost people. A bunch of lost people. This thing about meekness is not only toward saved people, it's toward lost people. And you could be the very thing that diffuses it. You're the thing that's gonna make the difference. Don't get caught up in the workplace of all the gospel and taking sides with a bunch of junk and everything else, because you're gonna run your name and the name of Christ through mud. That's gonna come back and bite you. Let me tell you something, have meekness. In the workplace, they're gonna say stuff against you. They're gonna say stuff. They're gonna say things and the devil's trying to test you. So I'm gonna tell you what, if you lose that mildness of temper and you blow off and you blow up, they'll hold it against you for the rest of your life working there. Rest of your life. They won't let it go. They'll bring it up, they'll hold it against you. And everything you try to say to them about God, as soon as you do, that situation comes up and it is a wall. And they won't listen. but God put some meekness in our heart. It's when we choose to obey the Lord and walk in the spirit, we choose the path of meekness. Walking in the spirit means that we choose to be meek. 1 Peter, I'll give you two verses. 1 Peter 3, verse four, just cause the word is here, and this deals with, it's dealing with wives in this chapter. 1 Peter 3, verse four. talks about who's adorning verse three, let it not be the outward adorning and plaiting of hair and wearing of gold and putting on apparel. Let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. which in the sight of God is of great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands. So that meek and quiet spirit, God said, have that ornament of putting on a, not just a quiet spirit, but a meek spirit. Look in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, last verse and we're done, I'm out of time. 1 Peter 3, look at verse 15. The Bible says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. You know how we're supposed to answer them? In meekness and in fear. Now I got to meditating on that because the next thing says having a good conscience. When men begin to look at you and look at you and they begin to respect you, they begin to have some respect for you in your life because they see something different about you, and they come to you and they begin to ask you what is different about you, you better be sure you answer with meekness. You know what meekness does? I'll tell you the only good thing about me is Jesus. You want to know what made the difference in my life? Man, I was on a path of destruction. I was headed for an eternal hell. I was actually ruining my life. I was a sinful man or a sinful woman. I heard the gospel and somebody told me about Jesus, and I met the meek and lowly Jesus, and He saved my soul. His blood washed me, and His Word has been cleansing me day after day, and He's been conforming me to His image. I'm nothing, I'm a nobody. He's everything, and the reason of the hope that's in me is Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. I'm gonna tell you because if you're not careful, the devil will say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell him how great you are. Tell him how good you are. Why don't you get lifted up in pride and say, yeah, yeah, you wanna ask me a real, yeah, let me tell you about me. Instead of him. You start talking about you. and somehow start magnifying you and glorifying you and make sure they know everything wonderful about you. You know why you do it with fear, meekness and fear? Because if not, you'll realize that if you don't answer right, it can lead to your own destruction, lift you up in pride. This thing about the faith and walking with God, I'm gonna tell you what God does. God drives us to humility. I struggle with that, you struggle with that. We have pride in our heart. We don't have to try to be prideful, it comes natural. We have to strive by the grace of God under the influence of the Holy Ghost. Beg God and the power of the Holy Ghost in us to help us to be meek. Meek and lowly of heart. Every head bowed, every eye closed.