Powerful truth. Thank you, Ethan and Christine, for that. Father, help us now as we turn to your word, the word of God, the hope of the world. And I pray that you give us deep understanding in it today. Fill me as I preach. Give us ears to hear. May we all be more like thee because of our time here this morning. In Christ's name, amen. We've been studying the Beatitudes. Lessons from Christ's most famous sermon foundational principles for the kingdom of Christ We've talked quite a bit about that today. We are looking at this verse Blessed are the meek Blessed are the meek. And in today's message we hope to learn what the biblical definition of meekness and how to practice it so we can be truly blessed. The word meek is found 17 times in the King James Bible. The word meekness is found 14 times. This verse harkens back to Psalms chapter 37, which says, So as Christ often did, he's quoting the Old Testament. I love it when the living word quotes the written word. Jesus Christ, of course, the living word, quoting the eternal word of God. and praise God for that. And as he often does, the Lord quotes the verse and then gives us a deeper understanding into what the verse means. Remember, much of the Sermon on the Mount is a reset button for the Jewish folks. They had the Bible, they had their commentaries on the Bible, they had all these principles that they had taken from the Old Testament, but they had actually veered far away from what God truly intended. For example, he told him a little bit later in the same message, the Bible says, thou shalt not murder, but he says, I say unto you, you've murdered already in your heart, if you have hatred for your brother. that was a reset button that's like whoa come on that's extreme jesus said you say thou shall not commit adultery but if you look on a woman lust after in your heart you've committed adultery already so jesus is pushing a reset button he said you know you should take care of your parents but you're doing it this way you found these loopholes you think are in scripture and so much of this Entire sermon on the mount is jesus planting a new flag saying this is my kingdom I have come to fulfill the law and teach you what god originally intended For you to know I love the fact that jesus is the fulfillment of the law and of course the messiah that had been prophesied for thousands of years who would finally come and shed his blood once for the sins of all the world. Every Old Testament sacrifice was a shadow, a symbol of He who was to come. And Hebrews tells us the blood of bulls and goats could not forever sin atone, but the blood of Jesus Christ, He who died once as the Lamb of God, paid for the sins of the world with one sacrifice. And praise God for that. of Jesus giving deeper understanding to the eternal truths found in the Old Testament. All the virtues found in the Beatitudes are different, but they're connected. And I believe Jesus, as he does all things purposefully with intention, he gave us these Beatitudes in order. We started with blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And if you missed these, of course you can go back online and check them out. We talked deeply about what does that mean? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? What does it mean to have the kingdom of heaven? But the underlying idea there is humility. And humility is the way to God. Pride causes God to push against. He resisteth the proud. but he gives grace to the humble. Humility opens the door to everything God wants to give us, and then faith actually is the action that while we walk through that door, receiving what God has planned for us. Everything starts with humility. Humility is the basis of all Christian behavior. Humility is not mourning. But humility leads to mourning. And mourning leads to humility, doesn't it? The second beatitude we talked about, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And then we talked today about blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. A meekness is a word that most people today are not familiar with, so we have to take time to define it. Meekness is not mercy, for Jesus says in just a little, a few more verses, blessed are the merciful. So meekness cannot be merciful. Meekness cannot simply be humility. Meekness is a visible virtue of humility. Don't miss that. You can't be meek without humility. Meekness is humility in action. And so let's talk about that this morning. In order to understand this potent verse and all that it means, we have to define a few key words. First of all, reminder each week, what does it mean to be blessed? Divine blessing is an act of God conferring some good to a person, place, action, or thing. God can bless you. God can bless your family. God can bless your home. God can bless your business. God can bless a church. God can bless a community. God can bless a nation. But it is a supernatural blessing that God confers or gives to this person, place, thing, or action. What is this blessing? This blessing is the favor of God, usually expressed by power, increase, protection, and joy. How many of you could use some protection this week? You need God's blessing. How many of you could use a little bit more power to get some things done, a little bit more authority, a spiritual authority? How many of you could use some increase in the bank account or the car lasting a little longer or anything, any type of increase? Jim's back there saying, please, Jesus. He barely made it to the men's retreat the other day in order to avoid an accident. He pushed on the gas and his car complained quite loudly and made a home, made it back here today. Listen, all of us, we've all got needs and we need blessings. I remember one time speaking of cars, I was in Northwest Indiana, I was in Bible college, broke. I mean, I had nothing. And my car stopped, and we pushed it over off the side of the road, and I began checking it out, and I pulled out the dipstick, and it was white and frothy. All of you men know what that means. They said, that's a cracked head. Your antifreeze is in your oil. It's done. The engine's done. So I'm sitting by the side of the road. Thankfully, as an oasis in a wilderness, there was a Mexican restaurant right across the street. And so when you don't know what to do, go eat a burrito, amen? And so I went over there and ate a burrito, and I'm like, Lord, I don't know what to do. I went over there, and it sounds crazy, but I went over there and popped the hood again. I put my hand on the engine, and I said, Heavenly Father, I need a car. This car can't be broke. I'm trying to get to work. I'm trying to serve you. And I prayed a prayer, and I shut the hood. And like a naive child, I went back and sit in the driver's seat and turned the key, and it started. And I drove that car for another two years. You say, was it broken? I didn't ask any more questions. I never wanted to see the oil again. All I knew was it was moving. But this is the blessing of God, and each one of us could give amazing examples where God stepped in and did God-like things. So this increase, this power, this protection and joy. Boy, we live in a heavy world with heavy things and never has there been more pressure put on the individual. The information that comes to you wondering what to do, what's true, what's not true, what should I say, what shouldn't I say? The finances, the work, the technology is just ever present pressure pushing on you and it's easy to get depressed and crush under that. But what about divine joy? where you can smile through it all. Joy isn't based on your circumstances. Joy is a gift from God. And you can have joy in the midst of the darkest days of your life. Who doesn't need that? This is the blessing. Blessed are they. That's what we need, this blessing. But here in this portion of scripture, blessed are the meek. Now that's not a word you hear a lot. You probably didn't talk about meekness at work this week. You probably didn't talk about meekness at Walmart. When's the last time you heard something called meek or meekness? We gotta understand what it is. Here's Webster's 1828 Dictionary definition. Meekness, softness of temper, mildness, gentleness, forbearance under injuries, and provocations. Oh, that's high-level Christianity, isn't it? Meekness. I want the blessing, but I'm not sure I want the meekness. That's tough. But meekness, humility, and action is what brings the blessing. So meekness is humble gentleness. Meekness is a gentle response with power under control. Meekness is treating people around you well while you are personally suffering. That's meekness. Lord, I want the blessing. I'm not sure about this meekness thing. You can't get the one without the other. Now let's learn a third important word. The Bible says here, blessed are the meek. Why? For they shall inherit the earth. What does that mean? Well, there's a lot of things it means. But let me give you the idea of inherit and then tie it all together. When you inherit something, it's basically something that has belonged to someone else is now given to you. You didn't buy it. You didn't pay for it, there's not a loan on it, somebody else had it, and they transfer it to you. You typically, upon death, they transfer it to you. Let's put all these definitions together, and I wanna give you just a layman's simple sentence about what this verse means. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Here's a simple way to understand that. God will supernaturally increase the humble who are willing to surrender to his will, carry themselves courteously, and gently respond to injuries, giving them everything they need in this life. The three things I said there are all part of humility and all part of meekness. but when it says they shall inherit the earth that means a lot of things but the thing that The application for today is, listen, Jesus says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I'm going to give them everything they need in this life. If you think about our world, it's based on all the great stories and the movies and the classics. It's based on willpower. It's based on someone coming against great odds and just by their own strength, By their own stubbornness, by their own willpower, they conquer and defeat. They pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They work hard. They might kill them, but they're going to conquer. And if you're not careful, we as Christians carry that attitude into this life, that it's all up to us, and I've gotta fight for it, and I've gotta make it happen. And listen to me, don't be mistaken, you should work hard, and you should hold strong to your principles, and you should never compromise what's right and true, and you should always speak the truth, and there are things worth fighting for. However, Jesus is telling his people, It's not up to you in my kingdom. Because if you want to be blessed, I'm looking for the meek, and I will make sure you get everything you need. Isn't that a blessing? Oh, dear friend, how much pressure and weight it takes off of you when you realize it's not up to you. You don't have to figure it all out. Do you ever get just tired where you're like, man, I don't know if I can make it anymore. I just don't know how much longer I can take this. I just don't know how much more I can get out of bed and struggle and we're under this debt, or this situation, or this relationship, or this difficulty here. And boy, there are days when it's like, hey, we're rip-roaring ready to fight. Boy, there are times of life when it's like, I just don't know how much more I can take this. I don't know if I'm gonna make it. What a blessing it is when you can take a deep breath and realize that you are a part of Christ's kingdom. And he is the king. And he has the power to look at you and your life and give you everything you need. Remember, in God's kingdom, it's not the supernatural ability to fight and rebel that's prized. In God's kingdom, it's submission that's the true way to show strength. And I submit to you this morning that it takes more strength to submit to God sometimes than it does to fight against your enemies. Blessed are the meek. God will supernaturally increase the humble who willingly surrender to his will, carry themselves courteously, and gently respond to injuries, giving them everything they need. Meekness causes us to seek the Lord. There's a verse in Zephaniah chapter two, verse three, I won't have you turn to it, because some of you aren't sure there is a book called Zephaniah, and there is, it's in there. But Zephaniah chapter two, verse three, seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. So here there's judgment pronounced upon Israel and God's answer was not to go fight, to go work it out yourself. No, your only hope was to seek God and seek meekness. Because when you surrender to God, He can protect you when everything else around you is falling apart. Look at Matthew chapter 11. We'll look at a few verses here and then I'll give you some main thoughts. Matthew chapter 11. Great passage of scripture about Christ. The Bible says that Christ is meek and lowly. Matthew chapter 11. The great verses, verses 28 through 30, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's not talking about rest like sleeping or rest in the absence of movement. It's talking about rest for your souls. When's the last time your heart was at peace? When's the last time that the world, you may have been in the midst of the storm, but you were calm on the inside? to me all ye that labor and heavy laden, you're busy, you're carrying heavy burdens, I just need a break, come to me Jesus says and I'll give you rest. Look what it says in verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am what? Meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest under your souls. What's he saying? You come unto me, I'm gentle, I'll take care of you. I'm not gonna punish you. I'm not gonna chastise you for not being strong enough and smart enough. I am meek and lowly. And ye shall find rest for your souls. He goes on to say, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Notice the yoke is an instrument of work. The answer is not to quit. The answer is to start doing the right things with the right partner. If sometimes we're busy going about the wrong thing or going about the right thing in the wrong way, and Jesus said, why don't you come get in a yoke with me, and we'll get busy doing the right thing in the right way, and you're gonna find a rest in action, peace for your soul. Galatians chapter five, let's look there. Great portion of scripture about the Holy Spirit. Verse 16, this I say, then walk in the Spirit, capital S, talking about the Holy Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth or fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. It's talking about that spiritual battle inside the Christian. When you get saved, there's a part of you that's born again. It is cleansed. That's the part of you that's going to go to heaven. but that part of you, that redeemed part of you is still wrapped in this robe of flesh that wants to sin. And so now there's that battle, the spirit, and he wants to go to church, the flesh doesn't. The spirit wants to pray, the flesh doesn't. The spirit wants to read my Bible, the flesh doesn't. The spirit wants to tell somebody about Jesus, the flesh doesn't. And so there's this constant battle. And the Bible says so that you cannot do the things that you would. If you're not careful, you get paralyzed and you get stuck not figuring out how to do the things you know you should do in following Jesus. He goes on to mention the works of the flesh, 19 things that if you let your flesh run rampant, that's what your life's gonna look like. But then he says in verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, there we see it, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. This is what your life's gonna look like when you yield to the Spirit. Boy, if we could just learn to walk in the Spirit, the Bible says we would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Meekness is a Christian virtue. And notice, meekness is not something, all these Christian virtues, the fruit of the Spirit, these are not things you can get by trying harder. You can't get peace by trying harder in your flesh. You can't get joy by trying harder, or love by trying harder. This happens when you surrender to the Holy Spirit. That part of you, inside of you, that redeemed part where the Spirit lives, now He can work through you. And these are things that God does through us as we yield to Him. It's a Christian virtue. The Bible goes on to say we must share our faith with meekness. 1 Peter 3.15, 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 with meanness, oh that's not what it says, with meekness and fear. What if someone came to you today and said, why do you think you're going to heaven? You should have an answer. Why do you believe the Bible? Why do you think you're going to heaven? We need to have answers for these things. And we deal with people in meekness and fear the fear of the Lord. So we've got an idea of kind of what meekness is. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I want to give you five basic thoughts about meekness. What does meekness look like? How can we live meekly in our daily lives so that we can find this blessing as found in Matthew chapter five, verse five? I'll go through these, most of them rather quickly. Number one, meekness is the gentle and courteous dealings with others. Meekness is gentle and courteous dealings with others. Meekness speaks to how you carry yourself, how you handle others. You ever seen somebody walk around and they're just like walking around like they own the place? You know, a guy walks in, that's not what it's talking about. If Jesus walked in the door right now, he wouldn't walk in strutting. He would catch your attention for other reasons. Jesus would be approachable. I believe if Jesus walked in the room today, he'd walk up to you and say, hi, my name's Jesus. Look you in the eyeball. Nice handshake. That would be appropriate in all our culture. The Bible teaches that true wisdom manifests with good behavior and meekness towards others. Look at James, James chapter three. We'll look at a verse or two under each of these thoughts. James chapter three. Look at verse 13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Wouldn't it be good to know how to find out who's wise? Wouldn't it be good for you to just be able to look at a room or meet some people and say, oh, that person's got God's wisdom? How do you recognize them? Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation or behavior his works with meekness and wisdom. In this way, meekness speaks of how you treat one another, how you deal with one another. You know, a truly wise person, someone who's trying to live like Jesus, they're not harsh, they're not mean, they're not short, they're not curt. There's a meekness to them. Think about words like courteous, humble. Here's an old word for you, affable, open, transparent, easy to get along with, good manners. Please, thank you. Meekness is not prickly. Meekness is not quick to anger. And one way that we show meekness is in our dealings with others. Look at Colossians chapter 3. The Bible commands us to put on meekness as the children of God. Colossians chapter three, look at verses 12 and 13. Verse 12, put on therefore, this is something that we intentionally should strive to make a part of our daily lives, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies. What is that? Speaks of compassion. So bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. So what does that do? And we have, when we have these traits, how does that change our behavior? Look at verse 13. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. You say, well, I don't like them, then forbear them. You know, you don't have to like everybody, but you have to be kind to everybody. I just don't get along with them, so be a good Christian. Forbearing, that's putting up with things that you wouldn't rather not put up with, and forgiving. And all that comes from humility and compassion. So if we're gonna be blessed, if we're going to have this supernatural blessing, we need to be meek. What is meekness? Number one, meekness is the gentle, courteous dealings with others. Number two, meekness is submission when you have the power to choose for yourself. Well, don't miss that. Meekness is submission when you have the power to choose for yourself. Do you know, it's not submission when the prisoner does what they're told in prison. They're in prison. And sometimes Bill will tell you, they often don't even do what they're told in prison. Can I tell you something? If you're a child or a teenager here, the real test of your Christianity is what you do when you no longer have to listen to mom and dad. You're not a good Christian because you obey your parents because you don't want a spanking. Or because you obey your parents because you need a place to lay your head tonight. The real test of your Christianity, the real test of your heart for God, is submission when you have the power to say no. When you have the power to say, I'm gonna do something different. See, meekness is gentle submission. Meekness is quiet surrender to the will of God. You know, sometimes we obey sputtering. My God wants me to do this, and I guess I'll do it, and I don't wanna like to do it, and I'm gonna have to do it. Now, you should still obey even if you're sputtering, but that's not meekness. Meekness is quiet surrender, gentle surrender. Look at James chapter one, back to the book of James. Meekness is submission when you have the power to choose for yourself. Sometimes people ask, why did God give us free will knowing we would sin? And that's a great question. And the answer is he wants you to choose to serve him. Why did God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden? Because God didn't want to make robots that had to follow him. He wanted to make people created in his own image who would choose him. Just like I'm glad my wife married me, But I'm glad she chose me, I'm glad she didn't have to. There's nobody sitting there with a stick, you better say yes, you better say. She chose me, and I chose her. And God wants us to choose him. So he gave us a free will so we can choose our own path. And we find this truth in James chapter one, look at verse 21, talking about the word of God. James chapter one and verse 21. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. Superfluity just means a word that means it's unnecessary. Unnecessary acts of naughtiness. And receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. See, God gave you a Bible and he gave you a free will. And you can look at the Bible and see what it says, and you can choose to rebel against it. Or you can look at the Bible and receive it with meekness and say, you know what? Nobody's going to make me do this, but I want to humbly surrender to God, so I will. And that's meekness, and that's what God blesses. Meekness is submission when you have power to choose for yourself. I want you to think, just get a mental picture, the difference between a raging flood and a gentle stream. A raging flood comes with a rush and overflows the banks that were meant to hold it in. I have never seen a flood do anything but damage. Destruction. And when you and I, when we disregard meekness and we get filled with ourselves and we're gonna do it our way, we cause an awful lot of destruction, don't we? But compare that to the gentle stream flowing gently, peacefully, staying within its banks. And that gentle stream provides water for the flowers in the valley, provides water for the animals that come up and drink. The gentle stream is highly useful. The raging flood is deadly. And I ask you this morning, are you the flood or the stream? Meekness is saying, well, I want to be the stream today, bringing peace and joy and help through God to all that come my way. We said meekness is gentle and courteous dealings with others. Meekness is submission when you have the power to choose yourself. Number three, meekness is gentle leadership when you have the power to make someone's life difficult. Meekness is gentle leadership when you have the power to make someone's life difficult. A lot of people misunderstand meekness for weakness. And that's not true. Meekness, and this is a good definition that I often think of when I read my Bible, meekness is power under control. Sometimes very powerful people are meek. The Bible says, and we'll look at this in just a moment, Moses was very meek. But he was also very powerful. Sometimes people with power turn into tyrants. Just because they can. You know, one of the tests of your Christianity is whenever you do get a little power, what do you do with it? You become a little tyrant? Or you become like Christ in that way? Look at 2 Corinthians. Oh, you're right here in James. Look at 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy teaches us this truth that when we are in positions of authority, that we should use meekness in dealing with people. Second Timothy chapter two. And look at verse, look at verse 24. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be what? Gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. Boy, there's a job description that you won't get many applications for. gentle, patient teaching. Look at verse 25, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. You know, when people get into sin, they don't just hurt other people, but they really hurt themselves. The person you're hurting the most is you. Sometimes when I We do a lot of marriage counseling over the years, and sometimes I'm sitting with a couple, and they're fighting and bickering, and they won't even bring down the temperature to be able to talk. And I'll begin pleading with them. I'll say, look, please, I'm gonna leave here in a few moments, and I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna walk in. My dogs are gonna come up and lick me. My kids are gonna say, hi, Daddy, thanks for being home. Did you have a good day? I'll give them a hug. I'll go in to see my wife and give her a smooch. but none of that's gonna help you. You're only hurting yourselves. By not listening, by not following the scriptures, by not surrendering to the Lord's will, would you please just bring it down, have a hearing, you're opposing yourselves. You know, the person that fights for the right to use drugs, they're hurting themselves. The person that fights for the right, I'll be immoral if I want, you're hurting yourself. I don't have to follow Jesus, nobody's gonna tell me what to do. You're hurting yourself. I've known two men personally who've looked me in the face over the years and said, nobody's gonna tell me what to do, I'm gonna go join the Marines. And they did. And I'm like, you're just hurting yourself. What do we do? Sometimes as servants of the Lord we have to be Strong, we have to speak the truth very strongly, but that's not where we start. We start with meekness, gentleness. In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. Why? If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Because it might just be that God would change their mind. I could say, go ahead. Go ahead, continue in your sin, you'll find out, you'll see. But that doesn't help them. And so we give them an opportunity because maybe God this time will change their heart. And then verse 26, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. They often don't know that they're the ones who are in the trap. They'll say, oh, you Christians, you're so strict. It's so hard. Just a list of rules. And they don't know that they're the ones in bondage. And we're the ones who are free. Meekness is gentle leadership when you have the power to make someone's life difficult. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul says, So the apostle Paul in that portion of scripture, he goes on to say, listen, and in 1 Corinthians as well, do you want me to come with a hug or with the rod? Do you want me to come with meekness or do you want me to come in power? And we always start with meekness, and sometimes you have to get to the hard and the authority and all of those things, but we don't start there. Meekness is power under control. I often think of meekness as using the appropriate amount of strength to get the job done. You know, if there's a fly buzzing around my house, I don't go get the 12 gauge. You can kill a fly with a 12-gauge, don't ask me how I know. You can kill a fly with a 12-gauge. It's unnecessary. Just go get the fly swatter. I like one of those things, you know those things that are electric? Those electric paddles that go around electrocuting bugs. Sometimes it would be enough to say, hey, don't do that. Why would you yell whenever, no. Meekness is using the appropriate amount of strength or authority to get the job done. All right, number four. Meekness is gently leading those that have gone astray. We talked about that. But look at Galatians chapter six. It's just a little bit different slant. Galatians chapter six. Meekness is gently leading those who've gone astray. Galatians chapter 6 verse 1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. There are times when people get off track. There are times when a brother or sister is heading the wrong way. We ought to always deal with that with meekness. The Bible says, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. And I often try to teach you, truth is a hammer. You can kill people with it. Truth doesn't care who you are, doesn't care your story, doesn't care your circumstance, it will squash you. And truth alone would have sent us all to hell. But thankfully, mercy, the truth is you're a sinner, but God gave us mercy. And the truth is someone may be wrong, but they need some mercy. They need some meekness. And that helps us as we deal with that. Number five, and lastly, this is probably the hardest to practice. Meekness is a gentle response with power under control when attacked. You could say meekness is a gentle response when attacked. but I make it a little bit more wordy to remind us just because you can blow someone up doesn't mean you should. Just because you could win a verbal argument doesn't mean you should. Just because you do know facts that are true that could really hurt that person and keep them quiet doesn't mean you should say them. Just because you could affect that person's situation doesn't mean you should. And one of the hardest things we do as God's people is respond in a Christ-like manner when we're the ones being attacked, especially unjustly. I want to show you Moses, Numbers chapter 12, as we finish. I want to show you Moses and what impressed God about Moses' meekness. Numbers chapter 12. Moses had a lot of people come after him while he was leading the Israelites. There's nothing harder when family attacks you. Of course, Christian family, but I mean, in this story, Moses had already stood up to a lot of things, but now his family's coming after him. His family would still be slaves in Egypt if it wasn't for him. His family would have starved, thirst to death in the wilderness if it wasn't for him. Look at Numbers chapter 12 verse 1. And Miriam and Aaron, that's Moses' sister and brother. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. So his wife had died, he'd remarried, and they had a problem with that. Verse two, and they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses, hath he not spoken also by us? These are scary words, and the Lord heard it. You know he hears what we say? I don't care what God says, I'm just gonna, and the Lord heard it. Better be careful. And it goes on to say, verse three, this is parentheses, God just telling us who Moses was. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. So God sees Moses, Moses doing the best he can under the circumstances. Moses had incredible power, he was basically a king. If he wanted you to die, you were gonna die. If he wanted you to be outcast, you were gonna be an outcast. He had incredible power. But he kept that power under restraint. And a lot of the things we talked about, dealing courteous with people, dealing with people when you're in leadership, not making it hard on them, all of these types of things. Moses had no equal, he had no rival. but he didn't abuse his power. But in this situation, his own brother and sister, who he had asked to be part of his leadership team, and God allowed there to be part of his helpers, they get upset at Moses, and the first thing they do is say, God doesn't speak just by Moses. You know, who does that Moses think he is? He's not the only leader. You know, he's not the only pastor. He's not the only preacher. He's not the only one that has God's wisdom. He's not the only one that can read the Bible. He's not the only one that can pray. They're basically just demeaning the leadership and lifting themselves up. And I'm sure Moses was praying about, God, what do I do? This is my own brother and sister. Moses was probably bleeding on the inside. But notice what happens. Moses didn't have to do anything. Because verse four says, and the Lord spake, what's the next word? Suddenly. You ever just going about your business and some, hey! What just happened? I was like, what just happened? Just going along, hey! And God suddenly speaks. This was not God saying, Moses, all your brethren. It's God saying, hyah! And so God speaks suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam. Now God didn't usually speak unto Aaron and Miriam. He usually spoke to Moses, and Moses told everybody what God had to say. So he speaks suddenly unto them, come out ye three to the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. You better believe they did. And do you think Aaron and Miriam strutted out? I guarantee you they came out like this. They were, now they were meek. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of Tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forth and said, hear now my words. Like God saying, you better listen to me. Why did God have to do all that? Moses was meek. Moses could have punished them himself. Moses could have come down hard on them. But I believe Moses had humbled himself and was seeking what to do in spite of his great power, and God stepped in. That is a principle throughout the whole Bible. Proverbs says if you have an enemy, be nice to them, and it's like heaping coals of fire on their head. Why? Because God steps in. But the Bible also tells us that sometimes we step in too early and want to fix it, and God says, oh, it looks like you've got this. One of the hardest things you and I will ever deal with is when someone's coming after you, when they're blaming you, when they're saying things that aren't true about you, when they're questioning your integrity and your heart even sometimes further, really trying to hurt you, trying to break up your family, trying to hurt your marriage, trying to get you to lose your job. And the response is, we just want to, who do you think you are? Meekness is power under control when attacked. The Bible says this, when Christ was reviled, he reviled not again. And we won't turn to it, but 1 Peter 2, verses 18 through 25, teach us how to suffer when we're wrongfully accused. One of the crosses we have to bear as Christians is you're gonna be misunderstood. You're gonna be falsely accused. And there are times to stand up. There are times to speak your mind. There are times to back off a scorner. You know, there's a lot of complex things in the Bible. You treat a scorner and a fool differently than you just treat someone who's a decent person saying something they shouldn't say. There's all these things. But the guiding principle is, I'm gonna start with meekness. My knee-jerk response is not gonna be to fix the problem myself. My knee-jerk response is gonna be to go to God and seek his wisdom. Does that make sense to you? As we finish, think about this. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. What does this mean? God will supernaturally increase the humble who willingly surrender to his will, carry themselves courteously, and gently respond to injuries. God will give you everything you need. That's high-level Christianity, isn't it? That's tough. But that is the principle of God's kingdom. Meekness is a gentle and courteous dealings with others. Meekness is submission when you have the power to choose for yourself. Meekness is gentle leadership when you have the power to make someone's life difficult. Meekness is gently leading those who've gone astray. Meekness is a gentle response with power under control when attacked. But most of all, meekness is doing what Jesus would do if he were in your shoes. Amen? Let's bow for prayer. Father, this is high-level Christianity. And we're glad that you treat us in this way. We pray that you'd help us to respond with meekness. That we, Lord, could, through thy Spirit, live as you would live. And boy, the flesh loves to rebel, the flesh loves to fight and argue, the flesh loves to exert control and show our power. May we in thy spirit seek to follow you. And then if we have to deal with situations, and sometimes we have to, if we have to show strength, if we have to fight, if we need to make difficult decisions that affect people's lives, we're doing it with your blessing and leadership and not as a knee-jerk reaction in the flesh.