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Matthew chapter 5 verse 5 and before we read that, I'll just read it once again, Galatians 5, 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness That's when we're up to meekness, temperance against such there is no law So we're here tonight preaching on the fruit of the Spirit part 8 There are 9 fruits as you can see here, so we're toward the end now We're up to fruit of the Spirit number 8 and once again guys, these are the fruits of the Spirit These are fruits that the Holy Spirit wants to develop in your life And the greatest way to know whether you're walking in the Spirit, whether you're someone that's filled with the Spirit Is to see how well your life matches up to these qualities that we see here in Galatians 5, 22 and 23 Okay, and just like when we strive to be fruitful, you know, we want to go and win souls, what do we have to do? We have to plow the ground a little bit, don't we? We have to plant the seeds, we need to water a little bit You see, and the Holy Spirit is trying to develop this fruit in your life as well And the Holy Spirit will have to dig in deep, the Holy Spirit will have to plant those seeds, water the garden as it were He's going to have to work in you, the Lord might have to put you in positions, you know, some difficulties in your life In order to bring this fruit, you know, into fruition, into your life, okay? But the best way to know how well I'm doing spiritually is how well does your life line up to these fruits that God has shown us here in Galatians 5 But you guys are in Matthew 5, look at verse 5, Matthew 5 verse 5, Jesus speaking, this is from the Sermon on the Mount He says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth Blessed are the meek is the title for the sermon tonight And what a blessing to be a meek person from that verse there What's the promise that Jesus Christ tells us? If we strive to be people that are meek, He says you'll inherit the earth And of course we know about the millennial reign of Christ to come, the thousand year reign where we're going to rule and reign with Christ But a great way for you to determine how, you know, what status you hold, you know, what authority you hold, what power you hold under Christ during that time Is here determined about how meek you are, okay? We know there are many things, you know, that contribute to our position with God Things that contribute to our rewards in heaven, our mansions, you know, the greatness that we can have when we have Christ as our foundation But just being meek, okay? Just trying to work toward being meek and living a life of meekness Jesus says you're going to inherit the earth, you know, there's a great blessing to come, a great reward to come in the future And so that's the title for the sermon tonight is Blessed are the meek And again, this is probably one of those attributes, one of these qualities that, you know, is it really exciting? Is this going to be an exciting sermon about meekness? You know, I want a sermon about hatred, you know, I want a sermon about, you know, attack the false prophets, you know, attack the homosexuals, you know There's a time for all of that, okay? But you know what? It's easier, it's easier to hear a sermon attacking the false prophets It's easier to hear a sermon attacking, you know, the homosexuals, the sodomites, the reprobates It's easier to hear these things than it is for us to think, hold on, am I meek? You know, do I have these qualities in my life? Because when we go through these things, I'm sure there's going to be times you go, well, actually, you know what? I'm lacking in this area and that's hard to admit, okay? And in fact, you've got to be a meek person to admit I'm not great in some of these areas I'm really lacking in some of these areas, I need to change my life And the reason why it's easy to hear preaching against the false prophets is because it's easy to point fingers and say, yeah You know, look how wicked those are It's much harder when you have to do a self-examination, you know, and ask God, God, you got changes about me You know, I'm hardened, I'm stuck in my ways And I've noticed as I've gotten older, I had my birthday not long ago But as I'm getting older, I'm getting stuck in my ways a lot more You know, thank God, you know, I was able to get married at a young age and have children at a young age Because then I was able to adapt to that, you know But I find myself getting, you know, harder I'm reading my Bible and I'm seeing, you know, these are areas I need to work on And, you know, when I was younger, I could probably accept that a lot easier But now it's sort of harder, right? It's harder as you get into life And that's why it's challenging to do these self-examinations, but we must do it, you know And if you say, you know, I'm, you know, these qualities, these fruits of the Spirit, I've got them You know, I've reached the heights of all these qualities, you know I'm living, you know, every day with these fruits, you know I'm doing perfectly in these areas And if that's you, I want to shake your hand because the only person I know that has done that is Jesus Christ Okay, so if you're proud enough to say you've met these qualifications or these attributes Well, that's not being meek, that's being prideful, okay, that's being proud And in fact, being proud is the opposite of being meek, all right So let's start off and where can we turn to? Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, please 2 Corinthians chapter 10 If you do, if you get a dictionary definition for the word meekness, you basically end up with two definitions, okay You guys turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 And the two definitions, the first one is to be soft and gentle, okay, to be soft and gentle But I don't believe that's how meekness is covered in the Bible, okay In fact, one of the fruits that we looked at previously was gentleness, okay, gentleness, okay But the second definition for the word meek is to be humble or lowly, to be humble and lowly And I think you'll notice when you read through your Bible and you notice when the Bible brings up the word meek or meekness Quite often it's associated with being humble, by being low, okay And one great verse to look at is the one I just asked you to turn to, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1, Paul says, Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ Who in presence am base among you, but being absent and bold toward you So when he says that I am base among you, he says, you know, when you talk about something that's base or basic That's something that is low, he says, you know, I come before you as a low person In fact, he just mentioned he comes in the meekness and gentleness of Christ, okay So we see, you know, we've gone through the book of Corinthians, I keep saying that But again we see how strong Paul was with his words, he was very bold in his letter You know, he was criticizing them, he was rebuking them, but he did it out of meekness, okay He did it out of humility, you know, and he was there to serve the brethren And that's gonna be the key to serving your brethren, is if you can lower yourself If you can become meek, you can become that servant, you can humble yourself That's the key to being a blessing to your brethren Alright, now what I want to do is I just want to give you some practical tips of staying meek or being meek Okay, because it's not natural, it's very hard to be a meek person, okay And once again, if you come up to me and say, I'm just the meekest person I know That's pride, alright, be careful, okay, because pride is such a silent sin And it's so hard to see it in your life and we all have it, okay And so I want to help you, I want to give you, how many pointers have I got here I've got four pointers to staying meek, okay How to set your mind to be a meek person And turn to Philippians chapter 2, please, Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 But we'll start on this one because we're in church tonight, okay And point number 1, practical tips of staying meek is when you come into church Think that everybody else is better than you, okay When you've come into church, maybe you haven't even done that yet, okay But right now, in church, I want you to look around to see who else is here in the building And just set it in your heart, set it in your mind, everyone else here is better than me, okay Everyone else deserves to be served by me, okay Now look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 3, Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 The Bible says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind Let each esteem other better than themselves, okay I don't care if you are the greatest Christian in this church In fact, if you are the greatest, you've got to be a servant Okay, in fact, if you are the greatest, you've got to be a humble person I just want you, as soon as you come to church, before you walk into the doors, into every future service Is just say, you know what, every brother and sister in the church, they're better than me, okay They're better than me, the children that are believers, they believe in Christ, they're better than me Do you think that's hard to do? I think so I think so, it's easy to just say it in your mind, everyone's better Everyone's better, but then to come and actually practice that, you know And actually, you know, and say, you know what, what my brother and sister have to say is important And I'm going to give them ear, I'm not going to talk over them, I'm going to listen to what they have to say Because they're better than me, they've got important things to say And I'm going to lend my ear, I'm going to spend time with my brother and sisters in the Lord, okay Or, hey, how can I serve my brother or sister, you know I see that there's a need there, you know, am I able to help out in some way, some shape Look, if you can't figure it out, what you can do for everybody is just pray for that brother Brother, sister, is there anything I can be praying for for you today? Is there anything that you need me to be praying for this week? And some of those ideas will come to you during the Wednesday night services because we have our prayer meeting Hey, but that's the greatest way for you to serve, for you to, because prayer is not easy You know, prayer is laboring in the spirit, and if you can labor in the spirit for your brethren Hey, that's showing great service, that's showing great humility to your brethren You know, when I come to church and I have my sermons, you know, and this is what makes me sometimes afraid to get behind the pulpit It's because I keep thinking you guys are the best people in the world, you are sons of God How crazy is that? You've got the Holy Spirit indwelling in you, you know, you're the children of God You know, God wants to see you succeed, God wants to see you grow, God wants to see you mature in Christ And part of that maturity is coming to church and hearing the preaching What a fearful thing for a preacher to think about, hey, what I'm bringing to the table here The service that I'm doing to the brethren is, you know, it's part of their spiritual growth You know, but I do it out of service, and I'm thinking these are the greatest people on the Sunshine Coast And I better try to give them the best sermon I can do, you know, the best sermon I can prepare The greatest sermon that I can preach, that's my mindset when I come to preach You know, is that I need to preach the best sermon not because I'm the greatest preacher, but because you are the greatest people Okay, and so let's have that mindset, okay, when we come to church everyone is great Even the children, you know, I'm going to go and say hello to the children, I'm going to make sure before I leave I say bye to the children, okay, because I know they're the next generation, you know And this church will only survive if our children, you know, walk in our footsteps And they achieve great tasks, they do great works, they continue this church We're going to be gone one day, it's our children that are going to be left, you know, keeping things going So let's make sure we esteem other better than ourselves The second thing that I want to bring up to your attention, so the point one was When you come to church, think of everyone as better than you The second one is go to Matthew chapter 20 please And it's funny because I just preached on this yesterday at the church in Sydney But Matthew chapter 20 verse 25 The second point is view your positions of authority and leadership as positions of servitude And of course, you know, I hold the office of a bishop here in this church, I already mentioned That I see it as a position that I come to serve the brethren, okay But you know, we all have different positions, especially if you're a parent You know, we all, you know, have different positions of authority or power, you know Husbands, you're the head of your house, you know, you're the head of your wife and your children and mothers You know, you're an authority over your children, okay And you might have positions of authority in your workplace, things like that But hey, view your positions of authority and leadership as positions of servitude Now look at Matthew chapter 20 verse 25 These of course are the words of Jesus All right, so let's stop it there in verse 25, okay Jesus speaks of the Gentiles When he says Gentiles in this sense, what he means are the heathen nations Okay, those that are non-believers, those that do not believe on Christ He speaks about how they have authority, how they have power It says, look, those that, the princes, those that are in high positions They exercise dominion over the subjects, okay They're like lords over their subjects And that's how the world operates You know, someone's in a position of authority in the world And they think that everybody should be serving them You know, everyone should be, you know, beckoning at their every call That's how the heathen nations think, okay But then Jesus just flips it on its head when he comes to his kingdom When he says here in verse 26 I mean, that's hard, right? It's like, well, hold on, God I took a position of authority because I wanted others to minister to me I didn't take that position of authority so I can minister to others Because, you know, that's how the heathen think, that's how the non-believers think But we are not to think that way, alright Verse 27 And look, Jesus doesn't ask us anything that he doesn't do, okay He will never ask you anything unless he's done it first In verse 28 But to minister and to give his life a ransom for many Jesus, look, he came to be a minister He came to be a servant And even beyond that, he came to give his life To lay down his life for us, okay And to ransom our lives And so what I really want you guys to be thinking about Please take the idea of leadership and authority that the world has taught you Just renew your mind, get rid of that idea, okay If you want to follow Christ Christ has given us positions of authority and leadership, okay Positions of power And you need to see those positions as positions of ministry Ministry to those that you have the power over, okay That's, again, why my, often, you know, a pastor or a bishop It's called the ministry, it's called the ministry for a reason Not because I'm being ministered, you know Come and serve me, brethren, but because I'm trying to be the one to minister to you, you know And fathers, fathers, you're to minister to your wife You're to minister to your children Mothers, you're there to minister to your children, okay You're there to serve them You say, but what, do I, am I supposed to then, am I at the beckon of the call of my kids? You know, my kids say, Dad, I want to go to the, you know, to the park today Is that what you're saying? I've got to go and take them everywhere, do whatever they want No, okay You have the authority, you have the power You're the one that makes, you know, calls the shots, okay But when you do it, you do it with them in mind You do it to serve them, okay You know, when I come and prepare a sermon, you know, I'm not coming to you with a Kentucky Fried Chicken sermon I'm not coming to you with a fast food Well, I did give you guys Kentucky Fried Chicken at the soul winning mega marathon, sorry about that But when it comes to preaching God's word and feeding the soul, feeding the spirit, the word of God You know, I'm not coming to you with McDonald's I'm not coming to you with nuggets, all right I'm trying to put together a meal, some meat, some potatoes, some veggies, things that don't taste very good I don't like my veggies, but Christina shoves them down my throat, you know That's what I'm trying to do, sometimes I have to bring sermons that you might not like, but you've got to take it Okay, you've got to swallow it, it's going to be good for you I'm serving you, I'm not preaching what you want me to preach I'm preaching what's going to be good for you, okay And that's how we ought to be as parents to our children We're serving our children because our decisions as parents is to do the best we can for our family Even if our children, our wives don't want us to do that, but you know it's best for the family You're serving the family by making sure you're delivering the best leadership you can, okay Making the best decisions you can as a husband and mothers as well with your children You know, don't be a mother that thinks you can only make your kids happy by, you know, doing the things they want No, you do the things that's best for your children, that's you serving your children Anyway, let's move on to our next point, move on to our next point The next point I have, go to Philippians, we were in Philippians before, but Philippians chapter 2 again Philippians chapter 2, actually both these references are probably worth for us to turn to But go to Philippians chapter 2 verse 4, so just again the two points we've looked at so far When you come into church, think of everyone as better than you Number 2, view your positions of authority and leadership as positions of servitude And number 3, at every opportunity of interaction, ask how can I be a blessing to this person Whatever interaction you have, in church, at work, in life, just going about life Ask yourself the question, how can I be a blessing to this person, okay Now look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 4, Philippians chapter 2 verse 4, the Bible says Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, okay This is what's going to help you be a humble person, okay, is when you put the needs of others before your own needs And in fact this is what's going to just give you joy in life, okay, because when you're self-centered And you're always focused on your problems, especially the problems that you have no control over It's going to bring you down, but many times you know your brethren, your friends, your family are going through difficulties And maybe you can give that helping hand, maybe you can be a blessing to that person That's the opportunity that you should be looking for, okay These aren't opportunities of you and authority, but these are opportunities of you just as an everyday person in your everyday life How can I be a blessing to this person, you know, and there's many ways you can do things You know, how can I bless this church, how can I bless my family, how can I bless my friends, how can I bless my co-workers when I'm around them You know many times, you know, I don't like saying things, but a lot of times when I was in work I looked not just at my job, but I look at the jobs of others, and as I became more familiar with how my job interacted Or my work interacted with the work of others, many times I could see how I could make their life easier, okay Like I could take on something they're doing, and I can do it faster than they are, and that's going to free them up to achieve their goals And many times I did that, you know, and many times I did that, or I found a way where I could take a bit of their work And I could exchange a bit of my work to someone else, and by doing that it just made things a lot more efficient I could be a blessing to the company, I could be a blessing to other people, and sometimes, you know, you've got to find those opportunities And many times you're going to have to make that little bit of effort to do it, but it's always turned out the best You know, it's always turned out where people would look at those things and go, wow, that's awesome, you know And then I get positions of, you know, get promotions and stuff like that, right Because people could see that my mind was outside just my own world I was looking at the needs of others, I was looking at the needs of the business, alright Try to find out how you can be a blessing to others, go to Acts chapter 20 please, Acts chapter 20 verse 33 Acts chapter 20 verse 33, actually Acts 20, 35 first Because you guys are very familiar with this passage here, Acts chapter 20 verse 35 And then we'll read verse 33, but verse 35 for now, Acts 20, 35 Paul says, I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive That's a very common phrase, a lot of people are aware of that phrase in the Bible It is more blessed to give than to receive, and Paul says these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Did you know there's no way in the Bible that actually records Jesus saying that? Now these are words that Jesus told Paul at some other time, you know And Paul there records it for us here in the Bible And so we often talk about, hey, it's much more blessed or it's better to give than to receive You know, and looking for opportunities to give gifts to people, to be a blessing to people The Bible says you're going to be blessed by doing that It's better that you do that than you just receive Now it's a blessing to receive, I'm not saying it's wrong to receive But the greater blessing is to those that give, alright Now what's the context of this? Of course we can take that principle and apply it to many things But let's keep it within the context there, Acts chapter 20 verse 33 Paul says here, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel So Paul's not for the money, he's not serving the Lord for the money Verse 34, yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me Of course Paul was not a married man, he did not have a wife and children You know, he only had to worry about supporting himself But then he also had other people with him And he says with his own hands, that these hands have ministered, he's ministered He's an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ He's got great authority amongst the churches that he's planted And he says hey with my hands, my working hands I've ministered to my needs And then it says and to them that were with me So this is where we get the idea that it's more blessed to give than to receive And then he says I have showed you all things, how that's so labouring you ought to support the weak So Paul's saying hey I was supporting the weak And we know that Paul on the side was a tent maker That's how he made a living, he wasn't needing the offerings or money from the churches to go about doing his work He was supporting himself, he was supporting his fellow workers So one way for you to be a blessing, one way for you to be humble Is to support the work of the church Today we have the local church And you know I don't often talk about money But giving of your labour of your hands, giving your income is important to the work of this church Making sure that you come and you bring your offering, your tithes and your offerings to the church That's you taking a position of humility And being a blessing to, not to me, it's not for me, a blessing to the body of Christ That we have the work that needs to be done here to be a servant to others It's more blessed to give than to receive So the third point that I have here about remaining humble or remaining meek Is that at every opportunity of interaction ask how can I be a blessing to this person How can I be a blessing And the fourth one that I have for you guys, please turn to Colossians chapter 3 And this is the one, this is how I live my life If you ever wonder, do you have a verse that you live by, it's over here in Colossians chapter 3 This is what's really got me through life This is what's really helped me mature in the Lord This is what's helped me to be a godly father This is what's gotten me to be a hard worker All these areas of my life, it's found here in Colossians chapter 3 Colossians 3 17, the Bible says And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Give him thanks to God and the Father by him The Bible says here, whatever you do, whatever word, whatever you speak The things that you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Ask yourself these questions I don't know, think about today, the things you've done today Were you doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus? Maybe you'd be disappointed by some of the things you've done today Knowing full well, man, Jesus wouldn't even approve of what I just did today This is an area we need to work at Turn to verse 22, and this is actually the key that I live by Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 It says Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh Not with eye service as men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fearing God And whatsoever ye do, do it heartedly as to the Lord and not unto men Do it heartedly as to the Lord, whatever task you have in life Do it as though the Lord Jesus Christ has asked you to do it If the Lord Jesus Christ walked in right now and said, brother so and so, sister so and so Can you please go and sort out this issue? Can you go and clean the toilet? Let's say Jesus walked in and asked you that question Can you just go back there and clean the toilet? Which of you, if it's Jesus, would say, Lord, I refuse to do it? Or, get up and do it, but like, a really bad job at it, a sloppy job You know what, if the Lord Jesus Christ was asking you to do it, wouldn't you do it heartedly? Wouldn't you do it with all your heart and say, hey, this is the man who took on my sin Took it to the cross, has delivered me, has given me eternal life, okay? This is the man who's sacrificed for me and for the entire world And the loved ones that are saved that I know I'm going to meet in heaven It's because of this man, Jesus Christ Wouldn't you just do everything that you can heartedly for him that he asked you to do? Well, the Bible says here, whatever we do in life, we ought to do it as though Jesus Christ is the one that's commanded us to do that Okay, and do it heartedly, do it with all your heart, do it with all your strength, do the best job you can in your life Do the best you can You know, sometimes you might not be able to do things as well as you wish, doesn't matter Do it as best as you can, as though you're doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ And then verse 24, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ As a promise, okay, that is going to reward you for the service you do for him, okay? And this is the best way I've lived my life is because many times there are things that I've been asked to do by those in authority in my life And I don't really want to do it And then I just remind myself, I'm just Jesus, it's like, obviously if it's a sinful thing, you don't do it Okay, of course that's not going to please the Lord But something that you just, you know, someone's asked you to do it and you just don't think it's the best thing You don't think it's going to work, but hey, someone's in authority is asking you to do it I'm just like Jesus, I'm doing it as though you've asked me to do it, right? I'm doing it because I'm just going to put my head down and just in my mind, you're asking me to do it, I'm going to do it heartedly And that's been the best way to live my life Because I know even if I don't like doing it, there's a reward to come by Jesus Christ You know, even if this employer I don't like and that employee doesn't like me, doesn't matter I'm going to get rewarded for doing this job that Christ has asked me to do That's going to keep you humble, that's what's going to keep you in check with the authorities in your life Okay, instead of rebelling against authority, you know, that's going to keep you humble Is when you just think, you know what, Jesus is the one asking me to do this, I'm just going to go do it, okay? And of course, you don't have to turn there, but 1 Corinthians 10.31 And you say, to what point, you know, do I serve other people and those that are in my authority Well, 1 Corinthians 10.31 says, whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God Say, what things do I do for the glory of God? What do I do for the name of Jesus Christ? Everything, even when you're eating and drinking, alright? Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God Because God's the one that's giving you life, God's the one that's giving you the blessings to eat and drink Hey, do it unto his glory, okay? That's going to keep you humble Just remembering that Christ is above all, watching you, just put your head down, do the work that Christ has asked you to do So just as a reminder, those 4 points that will keep you humble, keep you unique Number 1, when you come into church, think of everyone as better than you Number 2, view your positions of authority and leadership as positions of servitude Number 3, at every opportunity of interaction, ask how I can be a blessing to this person And number 4, whatever task you have to do, see it as though Jesus has asked you to do it, alright? Now, if you guys can turn to Psalm 147 please Psalm 140, actually go to Numbers 12, Numbers 12, Numbers 12, Numbers 12 Because the reason we don't like being meek, the reason we don't like being humble Is because we think of it as a position of weakness, okay? A lot of people think of it as a position of weakness, okay? If I humble myself before other people, then people will take advantage of me People will take advantage of my meek disposition, okay? And I can understand that, so you put up the barriers, you become defensive, you become prideful, all those things But I love this promise that we have in the Bible, because yes, when you are humble, when you are meek You are opening up a little bit, aren't you? You are opening up to people taking advantage of you, so I understand it, alright? Now before we read Numbers 12, I'll just read to you from Psalm 147 verse 6 Psalm 147 verse 6, it says here, the Lord lifteth up the meek He casteth the wicked down to the ground, okay? So if you've been meek, you've been taken advantage by someone that's wicked Well the Bible promises us that the Lord will lift you up Isn't that the best thing you could ask for? For the Lord to lift you up And He will destroy, He will cast the wicked down to the ground, He'll do it, okay? So we shouldn't be afraid of being meek, okay? Yes, we could open ourselves up to being hurt, but if we are hurt, the Lord will step in and take care of it, okay? It'd be awesome, you know? You'll be asking, you'll be begging, hey wicked people come and hurt me Because I want to be lifted up by the Lord, I want to be exalted by the Lord, alright? And that's how people in the Bible have great attitudes when they've been persecuted for the name of Christ Is they know the Lord's going to step in, the Lord will balance the books, the Lord will settle it, alright? That's the best mindset to have But you guys are in Numbers 12, let's look at this about a very meek person, okay? Here in Numbers chapter 12 verse 1 And this is after Moses, you know, once again delivers Israel out of Egypt And it says here in Numbers chapter 12 verse 1 And Miriam and Aaron, so this is the sister and the brother of Moses Spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married For he had married an Ethiopian woman So Miriam and Aaron aren't happy that he's married this Ethiopian woman, okay? Verse 2 And they said, have the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Have he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it I love that, I love that, right? When people are speaking bad against you, the Lord hears it The Lord hears it, okay, the Lord heard it Verse number 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, there it is, it's very meek Above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, okay? So the Holy Spirit, we don't have Moses coming out and saying, man I'm such a meek person You know, he leaves it to the Holy Ghost to record forever in the Bible That Moses was a meek man above everyone else in the earth, okay? That's what made him a powerful leader, okay? Was that he was the meekest above all of his contemporaries And then verse number 4 And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam Come out ye, free unto the tabernacle of the congregation And they three came out I love that, you know, the Lord's come out and they come out, right? Verse 5 And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud And stood in the door of the tabernacle and caught Aaron and Miriam And they both came forth Would you be afraid if you were Aaron and Miriam right now? I mean, I would, I would be so afraid right now Verse number 6 And he said, hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision And will speak unto him in a dream So he says, look, if there's a prophet, I'm going to speak to them in a vision, in a dream, okay? That's fine, it's all good And then he says, verse number 7 My servant Moses is not so It's not saying that he's not a prophet, okay? But what God is saying here is that he's a great prophet, okay? He's greater than an average prophet He says, my servant Moses is not so Who is faithful in all mine house So he's about to say, I'm not going to speak to him in visions and dreams Look at this, in verse number 8 With him I will speak mouth to mouth Even apparently and not in dark speeches And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? You know, he says, look, yeah, the average prophet, I'll speak to them in dreams and visions But not Moses, I'll speak to him face to face I'll come and just make it plain to him That's how much God lifted up Moses You know, how much he loved Moses And then verse number 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he departed And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle and behold Miriam became leprous, white as snow And Aaron looked upon Miriam and behold she was leprous So the Lord just smites her with leprosy, you know For attacking Moses, you know, the meekest above all And Aaron said unto Moses Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee Lay not the sin upon us Wherein we have done foolishly And wherein we have sinned Okay, so I love that story Because we see that Moses, a meek man He's been criticized by his brother and sister He's probably not even defending himself You know, he's probably just that meek He's just like, he's just taking it on board He's just absorbing it And the Lord steps in The Lord steps in and lifts up Moses You know, talks about how he's a great prophet Greater than the prophets And I'm going to talk to him face to face And then he punishes Miriam You know, with the leprosy Okay, so listen Being meek is allowing God to step in and defend you Being meek is allowing God to step in and exalt you Okay, this is a great quality to have Who wouldn't want the Lord to exalt them? You know, if you want that, you need to be someone that is meek Alright, please turn to Luke chapter I didn't take down the reference Sorry guys, let me just I do want you to turn here Luke 18, I believe it is Sorry, just bear with me Luke 18 Oh yeah, Luke 18 verse 10 Luke 18 verse 10 This is a very common parable A very common story that Jesus Christ gives Luke chapter 18 verse 10 Because once again, in order for us to talk about When we talk about meekness and humility We need to talk about what the opposite is And that's being prideful, someone that's very proud And sometimes as we've been going through the fruits of the Spirit You know, like love You know, what's the opposite of love? Hate Sometimes the opposites are not sinful Because there is a time to hate As long as it's a righteous hatred As long as you're hating the things that God hates Sometimes the opposites are fine It just needs to be done in the right place We had joy, we had joy as one of them And what's the opposite of joy? Sorrow Sometimes we do need to sorrow Sometimes we do need to be people That are saddened by the wickedness of this world There's a time for sorrow as well in our lives You know, that's fine So some of these opposites are not sinful But when it comes to the opposite of meekness Which is pride, it's always sinful in the Bible It's always sinful, it's always wrong And this is the story of the Pharisee and the publican They go up to pray in the temple And if you remember the story, let's look at verse number 10 please Verse number 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray The one a Pharisee and the other a publican The Pharisee stood and prayed thusly himself God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess And before I keep reading I just want you to notice what this man is saying Let's take him at face value Let's say everything this man is saying is true In fact, I believe what he's saying is true I do believe here He says here, God, I thank thee You know, he's been thankful to the Lord Is that a bad thing or a good thing? It's a good thing, right, to be thankful He says that I am not as other men are He says extortioners, so he says, look, I'm not an extortioner Hey, that's a good thing, alright Unjust, so it's like I try to be a just man, that's good He's not an adulterer You know, even as this publican He points to that publican You know, because the publicans were known to cheat their fellow man He says, look, I'm not a cheater I don't try to take things that doesn't belong to me You know, I try to live a rightful way And then he says, I fast twice in a week In a week, that's great He's fasting, he's a man of prayer and fasting Hey, this guy sounds really good I give tithes of all that I possess He's tithing, hey man, this guy is awesome I mean, I'm just taking it at face value Okay, I mean, I would like to be able to say about myself That I can do all these things You know, so, my point is That what he's speaking about are positive things Okay, it's not that the way that he lives his life is evil Or weak or anything like that He's trying his best to live a righteous life Okay, but what was the problem? What was his problem? Let's keep going Verse number 13 Verse 13 And the publican standing afar off Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven But smote upon his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner I tell you this man went down to his house justified Rather than the other For everyone that exulteth himself Shall be abased And he that humbleth himself Shall be exalted So what was the problem with the Pharisee? Was it the works he was doing that was the problem? The works were fine His problem, his sin Was that he was exulting himself He was filled with pride Okay, about the great works You know, that he's achieved in his life You know And my point that I want to bring here guys Is that no one likes self promoters Okay And I've used this example before But I remember in my employment In my workplace My manager would say to me Kevin, you need to toot your own horn Okay Meaning that whatever I achieve The good things that I do in the workplace He says you've got to make noise about it You've got to blow a trumpet as it were And announce the great works that you're doing Hey, that's how the world works Honestly, that's how the world works That's how people You know, climb the corporate ladder That's how people get into positions of promotions They're promoting themselves And everyone thinks well I guess this person's so great Give him a position of authority That's how people get around in the world But of course that's not how we should live our lives Proverbs chapter 27 verse 2 says Let another man praise thee And not thine own mouth A stranger and not thine own lips Okay And that's the problem with this Pharisee He was doing great works But he couldn't help but blow a trumpet You know, and just pray I guess he's praying out loud Because it says even as this publican Right Just letting everybody know about the great works that he's done I've seen many Christians like this in my life Many Christians In the churches that I've been at You know Without, look It's one thing Look, look If I come up to If I go up to someone and say How long have you been serving in this ministry? You know, let's say I go up to a Sunday school teacher How long have you been serving in Sunday school? I've been serving for 20 years That's fine Because you're asking the question You're curious, right? But what if you're having a conversation about Something else And that person that comes up to you Just wants you to know I've been serving in the Sunday school for 20 years I've been singing in the church choir Since I was a teenager And I've been doing these things For the Lord No one likes a self promoter Okay And they're no different to the Pharisee No different to the Pharisee that we see in the story Okay Don't be a self promoter Please No one likes you When you do it Okay When you do your good works Do it secretly You know, as little people that need to know about it know Okay You don't need to go and sound your horn You don't need to blow your trumpet Why? Because you know the Lord is watching you Okay And when you feel like I don't know I'm trying to serve my brethren I'm trying to serve the church But I just don't seem to be getting anything out of it Well just remember You're laying up treasures in heaven You may not see the reward on this earth You may not see the blessing of that on this earth But you'll definitely see it in heaven Okay Keep that in mind Keep eternity in mind The Lord will balance the books For the service that you do He is the one that will promote you He is the one that will exalt you You know If you've gone around and you've helped your brothers and sisters in the Lord You know You've done something You've done them a favour You've helped them in a difficult situation Don't go around the whole church and tell everyone about it Okay I mean Because what's happening? You're seeking the praise of men Okay And that's your reward That's what you're going to be left with Whoever says to you Yeah great job for all the great work you've done There's your reward right there Great job It's gone in two seconds Okay When you could have just stayed quiet You could have kept it a secret And you could have got to heaven with that extra gold brick on your mansion Or whatever it is right Whatever the rewards are in heaven Which one would you prefer? The two second great job Or the reward in heaven which You know Moth cannot corrupt You know Where thieves cannot break in and steal Okay Have Be careful please I'm glad you want to serve one another You know But be careful Don't go around and promote And just talk about how much you've been serving the brethren How much you've been serving the church That's just No one likes you when you do that Okay I mean someone might say Well good work But in their mind they're thinking Man this person can really talk themselves up Right So please be careful Because I've seen this happening I don't want to be a church that does this Okay I've seen other churches Where people are just going around and bragging about how much they serve the Lord How much they serve the church Be careful And if you look at verse number 9 actually Luke 18 verse 9 People that are self promoters People that brag about what they've done for other people in the church And how good of a life they've lived People that brag about it What's really in their hearts? What's really in their hearts? Well they're in Luke 18 verse 9 Just before Jesus tells that parable, tells that story In Luke 18 verse 9 he says here And he spake this parable unto certain Which trusted in themselves that they were righteous And despised others People that go around bragging About how much service they do How good they are How much work they've done Jesus tells me here Alright That they despise other people That's why they're like that Okay because they want to exalt themselves They want to lift themselves up They want to be seen as someone above their fellow man Okay and they despise others When really your mindset should be no Everyone is better than me Okay and it's going to change the way you conduct yourself in your church Alright So if you guys can go to Luke Oh sorry look Proverbs chapter 16 now Proverbs chapter 16 we started with Proverbs 16 So we're just into our conclusion now Proverbs 16 You know why do we want this fruit of meekness in our life Why do we want to be humble, lowly people Why Proverbs 16 there's a few verses here that I want to look at Proverbs 16 verse 18 look at verse 18 Proverbs chapter 16 verse 18 The Bible says Pride goeth before destruction And an haughty spirit before a fall Do you want to destroy your life Do you want to be someone that is destroyed I'm not talking about the lake of fire here Though it's true that those that reject the Lord Jesus Christ Are full of pride and will be destroyed in the lake of fire That's true Okay but I'm just talking about our daily walk Our Christian life We can have lives of destruction We can destroy our church We can destroy our families We can destroy the joy that we have in our life And just destroy our reputation By being someone full of pride See pride goeth before destruction And if you're struggling with the fruit of meekness You better ask the Lord to help you You better ask the Lord to really develop this fruit in your life To help you walk in the spirit To walk in the fullness of the spirit Because otherwise you continue down your prideful ways You're going to be destroyed There's going to be certain destructions in your life Or at least four at the end of that verse It says an haughty spirit same idea A lifted up spirit a prideful spirit before a fall People that fall and fall dramatically It's often because there was pride at work there That's one good reason why you want to have the fruit of meekness Now drop down to verse 19 What's the second reason why you want to be a humble and meek person Is because people that are humble Will not want to be associated with you when you're full of pride You're not going to make friends with good people You're not going to make friends with humble good Christian people When you're lifted up with pride Because in verse 19 it says Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud You see people that are lowly People that are humble People that get spoiled As it were they have victories in life And they have great rewards And they don't want to divide their victories Their spoil with prideful people People that are good genuine humble people They want to hang around others that are humble like them Again verse 19 Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly What are the lowly? Again other people that are humble Humble good Christian people Want to be naturally around other humble people No one likes the guy that's full of pride No one likes him They think the prideful person thinks everyone loves me You know I talk myself up Everyone's... Maybe to your face But in their hearts they're thinking man this person Can you get out of my life? I want to be around people that are just normal humble lowly people That are seeking to serve other people Rather than to lift themselves up But the one that I really want you to think about is verse number 5 Because it says here in verse number 5 Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination An abomination to the Lord Though hand joining hand He shall not be unpunished So look There are a lot of things in the Bible that are abominations to the Lord You can be an abomination to the Lord How? By being a prideful person By not being someone that's meek and lonely And it says here at the end He shall not go unpunished You will be punished That's why it says pride goeth before destruction So this is a fruit guys we need in our lives We need to be people that are humble We need to be people that are meek You need to force yourself Force yourself to be humble You've got to do it Before you walk into church Whoever's in this building today They're better than me Force yourself to do it Just say they're better than me I'm going to enjoy their company I'm going to enjoy the things I have to say It's important This person is important to the Lord They're important to me I'm nothing That person will probably come with the same attitude Hopefully someone else comes with the same attitude You've come with the attitude Hey everyone's better than me Hey that person is better than me And they're going to lift you up They're going to show interest in you They're going to want to be your friend They're going to want to serve you It goes hand in hand If you're someone that thinks you can only get attention by being prideful You're an abomination to the Lord And your fellow brethren aren't going to want to be your friends They're not going to want to hang around you Because you're full of pride Let's leave it there, let's pray