Back To Basics: Meekness

[Music] good morning north lake glad to have you here again this morning thank you for making the sacrifice of losing that hour of sleep unless you were responsible went to sleep an hour earlier and joining us here online or in person this morning so thanks for being here first things first if you're a guest it's your first time here first time in a while we always have gift bags i want to remind you this morning we have gift bags on your way out if you'll grab one of those and there'll be a card on the outside of that bag if you'll fill it out and just drop in the offering plate on our outside or exit table there on your way out that would be great so we could follow up with you see how you enjoyed the service those kinds of things turning in our bulletin to the announcements got a quite a few announcements on the left side of the bulletin there this morning just want to highlight a few things our men's bible study will be starting up on monday march the 15th which is tomorrow at 6 30 p.m as well as alongside at the same time as the women's bible study so those will be happening simultaneously in separate spaces you can imagine our easter egg hunt will also be on sunday april the 4th coming up so we need candy donations for that you'll see places where you can drop off the candy boxes around the church so if you want to bring some candy and donate that for our easter egg hunt that'd be great we have a women's spring conference coming up it's on saturday april 24th you can see the details there but i want to encourage this one to sign up pretty soon for our north lake ladies because we're going to open that up to some registration for other church churches women's ministry soon so you want to make we have limited space want to make sure you get your spot so north lake ladies go ahead and sign up soon and you can do that by signing up at the table in the back at the end of the service so back in the back corner miss andrea is back there and you can see her to get signed up for that spring conference also just want to note we're going to start up our helping hands on march the 28th so that's child care during the service up through for from infants to four-year-olds during the sunday morning service and then on april the 11th we'll start back children's church which is during the service and that's kindergarten through second grade so just mark those dates down on march the 28th like i said a few announcements so a couple more to go here we're going to have the lord's supper so that's palm sunday we're going to partake in communion together and that'll be streamed as well so for those of you that are online and you want to come by the office to get one of our little packets with the juice and the wafer feel free to come by and grab one of those and you can participate in that from home as well as those that are in person we'll do that together now finally there's an insert in your bulletin about a blood drive so the blood connection is a group that gathers blood for the local hospitals and they called us and requested if we could help them they're a little low on blood supplies in the area now and at the moment and so we said that we would help them out and do a blood drive here at the church so on march the 25th that's a thursday from 11 30 a.m to 4 30 p.m we'll have a little blood drive mobile unit out in our parking lot so if you're able we would love for you to register by scanning the little qr code on the insert in the bulletin and there's also some posted around the church if you'll just put your camera your phone camera on that it'll take you to the url and you can register there make an appointment and all donors will receive a 20 gift card that's what the blood connection likes to do just to encourage people for taking part in that so we want to serve our community in that way if you're able to give blood so you go ahead and sign up for that we'll mention again next week as well so that's thursday march the 25th and one other announcement i did want to make the note of choir practice we moved to four o'clock p.m today so if you're in choir that's moved up a little bit because we have a deacons meeting at five o'clock so if you're in choir the practice is at 4 pm today and it'll go back to normal at 5 00 pm next week all right that's all of our announcements this morning so as we turn to our worship time i want to read a few verses from the gospel of john to focus our attention on the lord john chapter 1 the gospel of john verses 9 through 14. the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own and his own people did not receive him but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of god who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth let's pray father this morning we're grateful to have the opportunity to worship you you who are full of grace and truth who came to this earth full of grace and truth who put on flesh in order to make a sacrifice to spend your own blood to give your own blood to cover us so that we could be healed we could have salvation and forgiveness in you so lord we thank you for forgiving us we thank you for making us new creations making us alive again in you so this morning i pray that you would renew in our minds that awareness of the fullness of your grace and truth as we worship you lord give us a sense of awe and wonder who you are and what you've done for us it's in christ and we pray amen amen well good morning it is good to have you with us let's stand together this morning and let's lean on those everlasting arms of jesus christ as we start our time of worship together what a fellowship what a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms what a blessedness what a peace [Music] safe and secure from all our arms [Music] oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way leaning on the everlasting arms oh how bright the path grows from day to day meeting on the everlasting arms leaning safe and secure from all alarms [Music] lasting arms what have i to dread what have i to be leaning on the everlasting arms i have blessed peace with my lord so dear cleaning on the everlasting arms [Music] he leaning leaning on the everlasting arms leaning leaning [Music] amen well what are we seeing about leaning on those everlasting arms it's stuff that it flows off the tongue well right it sounds great it's easy to say it's a lot of fun to sing but why do we really say we can lean on the arms of jesus we can lean on that because of the promises that are found in his word we can lean on him because we know he is the only way to heaven he is the only one who sacrificed on the cross and shed his perfect blood for the forgiveness of our sins we can lean on him because we can find truth in him find truth in god's word and that never changes so many times in our own life i'm sure we have changed our mind right some of us may be more than others have changed their mind we've changed our decisions and changed our stance on things and been influenced by the world and been influenced by people around us and neighbors and friends and people at work no matter where you are our influence should really be jesus christ because he never changes he was the same yesterday today and will be the same forever and because of that we're able to call him jesus christ our messiah he became sick who knew no said that we might become his righteousness he humbled himself and carried the cross [Music] love so amazing love so amazing jesus messiah name of the lord is [Music] the jesus messiah [Music] love so amazing love soul amazing jesus messiah [Music] the rescue forces jesus messiah lord of [Music] is the glory to you [Music] god messiah name above all is blessed emmanuel the rescue forces [Music] jesus messiah lord of lords jesus messiah [Music] amen you may be seated and i also welcome you to worship today so good to see you here if you have your bulletins look at the back page at our prayer list see a great prayer burst from james chapter four you do not have because you do not ask how many times does that happen to us expect the lord to give us something without us having to ask for it well that's part of prayers talking to our heavenly father you ask and do not receive because sometimes you ask for the wrong things you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures so focus upon the lord and serving him and he'll give you the desires of your heart begin today with praises hazel davis joined our church last week for baptism and we praise the lord for her and we got joanna don what 57 glorious years they they've celebrated here this morning i also want to remember uh those in our congregation and those who are loved ones who have not yet made professions of faith and ask who's your one who's the one you're praying for and seeking to lead to faith in jesus christ i want to pray for those in our church family you see the list there shirley grant is improving some but still in icu so be praying for her athelene mitchell fell and broke her foot and she'll be seeing a surgeon tomorrow to see what's next for her so be in prayer there ray stafford had bladder surgery this past week and of course matt williams the reason he wasn't here making announcements this morning he's tested policy for kobod so he's out for quarantine and i also want to add janine smith who had back surgery this past wednesday we want to continue to pray for our parents who are expecting children or extended family and friends under long-term care we've got a few you want to look at i think it's line four bobby pethal they're having to change her chemo medication because she was having some side effects from the earlier medicine so pray for her as she goes through that and of course judy ray is still recovering from her knee surgery i want to pray for our missionaries who are serving around the world today and we've been asked the international mission board to remember a new mission outreach for an unreached people group in the mountain communities of colombia south america so be in prayer for those today and continue to pray for our nation that the lord might revive us as we go the lord in prayer father we thank you for this day that you blessed us with a beautiful spring day i thank you lord for my brothers and sisters in christ who have gathered in this place to worship you and also those who are joining us online we pray lord that you hear us as we offer up our prayers before you we thank you lord that part of the great salvation that your son jesus won for us at calvary's cross is the ability to communicate with you and pray and speak to you and allow you to speak to our hearts through your word by the power of your holy spirit and also to answer our prayers and that's why we're offering up now the ones on our prayer list and also those private prayer requests are being lifted now we thank you lord for hearing us when we pray and answering us according to your good will and purpose if we pray this in jesus name amen [Music] well thank you amy for leading us in that meditation upon jesus if you have your bibles please open to matthew chapter 5 as we continue to study the beatitudes here at the beginning of the sermon on the mount by our lord and savior jesus christ matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 1 and seeing the multitudes he that is jesus went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth matthew chapters five through seven is the sermon on the mount we're doing the back to basics series here what does it mean to be a christian and jesus begins with these blesseds these blesseds these beatitudes are not things that you must do in order to get saved these beatitudes are the attitudes and actions of people who are saved by the lord jesus christ and what are the characteristics of one who has been saved well first of all we see blessed are the poor in spirit they've been put under conviction by the holy spirit and realize that they need god that they are not god all by themselves but there is a god and that they need him desperately the second thing we see is blessed are those who mourn saw that last time blessed of those who are under contrition by the holy spirit broken by the holy spirit to see sin as god sees it and your heart breaks with the things that break the heart of god today we're going to look at meekness it's going to be hard for us meekness means submission how many people like to submit anymore submission of your life to the will of god it means to obey god in all things not just church things but to obey god in all things but you know meekness and submission and obedience are not desirable characteristics in our modern and post-modern world way back in the 1550s the book of common prayer for the anglican church uh had the ritual for holy matrimony part of the marriage ceremony uh which referred to ephesians chapter five that said wives submit yourselves to your own husbands as to the lord so the ritual included the wedding vow for the bride where she pledged to love cherish and obey but then women won the right to vote in america in 1920 so there was a revision to the book of common prayer in 1928 and it drops anything about obedience and it reads that both the bride and the groom promised to simply love and to cherish one another and that pretty much changed all the traditional wedding ceremonies after that and here we are in the 21st century and still meekness submission obedience or not desirable character traits in our society for women or men for that matter meekness has come to mean weakness it means someone who lacks self-esteem somebody who can't help themselves if you're meek they think that means that you are weak you are passive you're the kind of person who lets somebody write welcome on your back and then allows people to use you for a doormat that's what people think of whenever we think of meekness but actually the greek word for meekness is prayutes which means to be tame it means to be gentle it means to be domesticated it actually means strength under control if you want to picture this picture a farm animal like a horse do you realize that a time horse is just as strong as a wild horse we don't think about that because you know when you see the wild horse running across the prairie with his mane and the breeze and all this kind of stuff we think of him as being super strong but we don't realize if you tame that same animal he'd still be just as strong only difference is its strength under control now he will take a saddle now he will run a race now he will pull a wagon now he will work for you have you ever tried to work a wild horse oh that's fun but anyhow that's that's not what we're called to do we're called to be that time horse the domesticated horse biblical meekness means voluntary submission obedience timing of my will to god's will and you still have all the same strengths that you had as an unbeliever only now your strength is under control under the control of the holy spirit well how does a christian obtain this meekness well the bible tells us this meekness is a work of the holy spirit the holy spirit brings conviction and convicts you of sin and convinces you that you need a savior and that's blessed are those who are poor in spirit the holy spirit also brings contrition he breaks our heart shows us the exceeding sinfulness of sin what sin is done and to damage the relationship between us and the god who made us that's blessed are those who mourn and then we see today that the holy spirit also brings submission he moves you to submit your will to god's will blessed are the meek galatians 5 chapter 22 and 23 tells us that meekness or gentleness is the fruit of the spirit you don't just come up with it by yourself this is a work of the holy spirit in your life well what does this meekness look like well meekness is described in psalm 37 which by the way jesus is quoting here in the sermon on the mount psalm 37 11 the meek shall inherit the earth for those blessed by the lord shall inherit the earth and i'm going to give that to you as a homework assignment if you'll drop that down in the margin of your bullet and say this afternoon i want to read psalm 37 please don't read it now kind of stick with me go on my sermon but 37 is a wonderful psalm if you hadn't read it and go through and see how many quotes that you've heard people say before it's an often quoted psalm and it'll bless your soul and also fill you in on what it means to be meek so psalm 37 but for this morning we'll look at the old testament example of meekness and is none other than the prophet moses numbers chapter 12 verse three said the man moses was very weak i mean meek more very meek more than all men who were on the face of the earth and by studying moses we'll learn some things about meekness first thing that you'll learn as you study the bible meekness means that you are available for god means you're available in exodus chapter three and four you remember after many years of troubles and trials and tests and preparations lord finally calls moses to serve him and says look moses remember the burning bush he said i want you to go down to egypt and tell pharaoh let my people go and of course if you remember after a list of excuses and 100 reasons why he could not do that he finally says yes he finally makes himself available to god and so he finally says to god i'll go where you want me to go i'll say what you want me to say i'll do what you want me to do and by the way that is the first step in being meek it's being available it's being throughout the bible every meek and humble servant of the lord has to make themselves available for god to use you for his purposes for example isaiah if you remember the conversion of isaiah the last thing he says is he walks away from the temple that day is here am i send me he made himself available to god i'll go where you want me to go i'll do what you want me to do. if you remember there was a virgin named mary and after she talked to the angel behold the handmaiden of the lord be it according to thy word she made herself available to birth the baby jesus the apostle paul after a hard start on his part he was kind of hard-headed and stubborn it took a lord a little while to get his attention but then he says what things my county gain to me i now count as lost that i may gain christ and he became a bond slave of christ he made he gave up everything that he'd planned to do when he grew up in order to be what god wanted him to be and that's what i want to ask you this morning is are you available to the lord can you get on your calendar can you get on your schedule have you already got plenty of stuff that you want to do in your life and i'll get with jesus when i get time is he available are you available for his call second thing we see in the life of moses is meekness means you rely on god after god called moses of course moses went and he learned to listen and rely on god in everything god blessed this him and moses performed miracles if you remember he prophesied the ten great plagues that were going to rise up against egypt he parted the red sea he was the leader of a nation of over 200 million people if you'll do the math uh in the book of exodus you'll figure that out and he also commanded an army of approximately six hundred thousand and i don't know does that sound like a meek person to you when we think of people who are accomplishing those sort of things leaders of that many people generals of that size of our army we normally don't think of somebody being meek because most of us let our power go to our head we get a couple of promotions and we start thinking we are god we become egomaniacs but watch the meekness of moses when his leadership was challenged if you read the the 16th chapter of numbers you remember that's known as corazorbe and coral was one of those guys among the israelites who got tired of following moses and decided to have a rebellion matter of fact he says who do you think you are to command us we are all holy the lord speaks through all of us we don't have to obey you um you know i mean if somebody did that to you and you were in the position of moses what would you do even moses own family turned against him if you remember aaron and miriam they said has the lord spoken by moses and not by us too so again he had the whole bunch getting together to try to overthrow the government and what do we normally do what would you do if you had a 600 000 man army standing by your side what how would you deal with this criticism this complaining um this uh rebellion well you could execute them if you didn't want to go that far you could throw them in prison you didn't want to go that far you could banish them throw them out of the country and if that didn't that seemed to be too extreme for you and do like us north georgia and say we'll just give them a piece of my mind you know something like that you know these people are rising up against me i think i'll do something what do you say moses did meek moses the bible says he fell on his face he fell on his face in front of these guys he didn't go hide and fall on his face right there they came up they challenged him he fell on his face and began to call on the name of the lord ask the lord to help him in prayer how do you handle criticism how do you handle opposition and controversy when you're right your authority your intelligence your existence are called into question what's your first response is it to fight quarrel get even pay back exact revenge but if you're meek you rely on god you'll humble yourself before him and that's the lord what am i supposed to do next that's what it means to rely on the lord thirdly meekness means you are teachable in exodus chapter 18 if you remember moses again was a leader 2 million people he was a general of six hundred thousand and he was also the judge he'd been up on the mountain he brought down the ten commandments he's the one knew how this law thing was supposed to work and every court case had to come before him in verse 13 of exodus chapter 18 it says moses set to judge the people and the people stood before moses from morning till evening talk about long lines this is worse than the department of motor vehicles i mean you stand stand in line all day waiting on moses to judge your case here well one day his father-in-law jethro what a name jethro jethro showed up and he was watching what moses did here and moses he said moses what are you doing you're wearing the people out you're going to wear yourself out so why don't you do something called delegation why don't you train some judges to handle the big the little cases and you can be the supreme court and handle the big cases but you need to delegate you need and how did moses handle it i mean what would you do if you had father-in-law coming in trying to tell you how to run your business and that's what that's what was basically happening here uh moses could have said look jethro i realize you're a priest over a handful of nomads out in the desert but in case you don't know i'm of a nation of 2 million people so won't you keep your opinion to yourself well is that the way that general moses did it no moses was meek he was teachable that means he could still learn something he listened and he learned from his father-in-law and he established a system of judges and he had different people so he didn't have such long lines when you had to go to court about something or there's some law that you didn't understand and again he remained the supreme court so he had fewer cases but anyhow everybody was happier and he didn't get worn out how do we handle situations like that i remember when i was a plant manager for gold kiss which is a farmer's co-op down in macon georgia i happened to be out on the dock one morning and there was a young truck driver uh trying to tell an older truck driver who had never been to this particular gold kiss store how to get across through this little town that he was going to and i never forget that old man looked at him said son i got more time in reverse than you got going forward i think i'll figure out i said well now there's an example of teachable you know but you know sometimes church members kind of got that attitude too i've been in church all my life i already know what he's going to say before he says anyhow but i just go to church as an example for the little people so that they uh so they know what they're supposed to know i remember when i was a much younger preacher it's hard to say that now but i've heard the old deacon say i've been in church longer and that preacher's been alive as far as that sunday school teacher goes i've forgotten more than he or she will ever know you know that's that's not meekness that's not being teachable got to be open and willing to actually learn some stuff the story goes that the great scottish writer sir walter scott they said he seemed to have an intuitive knowledge about any subject that you want to talk about he was he was just brilliant and somebody asked him how he knew so much and he said i've never met a man regardless of his station in life from whom i could not by a few minutes of conversation learned something that i did not beforehand know so i don't care how smart he is or how dumb you think he is so you talk to somebody for a few minutes and you know you might just learn something today see sir walter scott was a lifelong learner he was teachable the question is are you meek are you teachable are you a lifelong learner can the lord still speak to you through others whether that other happens to be older or whether that older happens to be or that other happens to be younger or whether that other person has a doctor's degree or whether they got a ged you know are you able to listen to people regardless of their station in life and allow the holy spirit to speak to you through other people number four meekness means you are bold in the service of the lord now wait a minute meekness and boldness how do those two go together because you know we tend to think of meekness as weakness but meekness again according to the bible is strength under control psalm 56 4 king david said in god i'll have put my trust i will not fear what man can do to me see there's the boldness is you're submissive to god therefore i don't you know really have to worry about people who are going to be my enemies who are going to try to destroy me so i have confidence to go forward in life because i have submitted myself to the will of god and you've got to picture moses so submission to the will of god that he walks boldly into harm's way can you imagine you've got this guy who god called him off the backside of the desert being a shepherd and he walks into the throne room of the pharaoh of egypt who has the ability to take his head off and say thus says the lord let my people go where'd that boldness come from it didn't come from inside of moses what it did it come from him submitting himself completely to the will of god and then having the confidence the holy spirit gives you courage to be able to go in and make your stand for the lord because you've given yourself completely to him and you're trusting him to take care of you so you remember the holy boldness of people like shadrach meshach and abednego you know when they were threatened to either worship the gods of babylon or be thrown into that fiery furnace and that's what nebuchadnezzar told them they answered him oh nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you for our god who we serve is able to deliver us from this burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hanno king but if not let it be known to you o king that we will not serve your gods nor will we worship that golden image that you have set up and there it is that's where the courage comes in that's where the boldness comes in they were meek they submitted themselves to the will of god but when it came crunch time they said we're not going to step back from this we're serving god you're asking us to do something there god does not approve of so here we stand and the question is are you meek are you so surrendered to the lord that you'll boldly stand for him regardless of the consequences and that's important too uh i get email all the time well brother danny i want to make a stand but can you show me how i can make a stand and not feel any injury from it the answer is no you make your stand you're relying on god and the lord will help you work this thing out and by the way if you're a christian even if we die guess what we win we win we just need to keep that in the back of our mind that our lord is not only lord over time he's also lord over eternity and so therefore we boldly stand and this meekness with boldness is desperately needed in our world today we need christian workers out on the job that'll stand up to their boss and say look i'll work hard for you i'll do anything to help you grow your business but i will not deceive i will not mislead customers my integrity is not for sale we need christian teenagers today who will stand for the lord and resist peer pressure say no to drugs and alcohol and abstain from sex until they're married and say i will not bow to this heathen culture i'm sold out i'm submitted to the lord we need college students if we're confronted by an atheistic professor say with all due respect so sir there is another theory on how this world came to be and it's called in the beginning god and he is alive and he is not silent and he has revealed himself to us he spoke to us in the old testament times by the prophets and in these last days he has spoken to us by his son jesus christ and here i stand we need people who are some boldness with their meekness we also need christian parents who are willing to stand up to this wicked and adulterous generation that you and i live in and boldly say as for me and my house we're going to serve the lord yes teenagers i know everybody else is doing it but guess what they ain't doing it in my house that's for me and my house we're going to serve the lord so meekness means holy boldness number five meekness means you are dependable in exodus chapter 40 that's when moses has completed putting the tabernacle together uh as the lord commanded him that's what it actually says nine times in that chapter moses did as the lord commanded moses did as the lord commanded lord ask him to fix it this way and he did as the lord commanded him god gave moses the plan for the tabernacle he did not add to it he did not take from it he did not change colors he did not make any architectural alterations he did not try to make it his own he did what the lord commanded him moses did as the lord commanded he was meek he was available he was reliable he was humble he was teachable he was bold he was dependable god could count on him question is what about you and me you know god has a plan here for living our life he has a plan for saving our souls he has a plan for doing church he has a plan for evangelizing the world the question is are we dependable enough to do as the lord commanded are we freelancing do we add do we subtract do we try to update it to our wonderful modern culture we say well god just doesn't understand the modern world that we're living in or this bible is out of date it don't seem to be going to the flow of what's going on in the culture today or are we dependable do we do what the lord commands six and finally but i'm nowhere near done meekness means you are submissive to the will of god you know most of us will submit to god's law if we seek some kind of immediate benefit for doing that lord i will do this because i think as soon as i do this you're going to bless me and so therefore i'm willing to do this thing i'll submit myself to your will as long as it seems logical as long as it seems reasonable as long as it seems fair but what if god's will does not show up with an immediate benefit what if it does not look like you're going to get an advantage out of it what if god's will doesn't even look like it's going to be how many of you know that life's not fair you want me to break it to you for those of you who haven't heard it yet life ain't fair okay but sometimes the lord's gonna ask us to do some things and it's just not gonna seem fair what the lord has asked us to do remember there's a strange story in numbers chapter 20. it's a story of moses and the people at kadesh and once again they were murmuring gripping complaining criticizing moses and god because here we are even though he's provided for them all the way across this desert here now there's no water and everybody's getting thirsty and so they're starting to whine about it so god says to moses speak to the rock instead of being obedient moses had had enough he was frustrated he was irritated so he lost his temper and he gives him this little speech here he said you bunch of rebels you complained all the way from egypt and i'm sick and i'm tired has anybody ever done the sick and tired speech i'm sick and tired of you bunch instead of speaking to the rock he took his rod and he hit the rock and there and so god went ahead and blessed him and the water came bubbling up out of the rock and he said there you want water you got water so everybody starts filling up their canteens and god takes moses off to the side figuratively speaking and he says because you did not believe me to glorify me in the eyes of the children of israel therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which i have given them what would you say god that ain't fair i've led these hard-headed people for 40 years across this wilderness all they've ever done is gripe and complain and i can't believe now you're firing me and not letting me go in the promised land this just ain't right i make one lousy mistake in 40 years and you fire me i'm just not putting up with this anymore moses didn't pitch a fit he was meek not one plea not one protest submitted himself to the will of god even when he didn't understand he said lord you're right i was wrong so lord if i'm not going to lead him who is going to lead them the lord told him joshua he said will you at least let me teach joshua what's next can i prepare him for this role that he's fixing to step into because your plan lord is bigger than mine that's submission that's meekness how many of you react that way whenever god's plan doesn't seem to make sense doesn't seem to have an immediate benefit it doesn't seem to be fair i mean it wasn't fair i mean who's been faithful to the lord all the way across that desert moses but you know what you never get seniority on god always remember that you never get enough seniority and say god i ain't putting up with it this time no matter if you've been a christian 100 years guess what you're still the servant and he's still the boss that's right so there's moses the bible gives us moses as a great example of meekness but get this the greatest example of meekness is none other than our lord and savior jesus christ when you get to new testament you don't figure out what meekness is all about watch him first of all he is available even though he was the second person of the trinity has existed before time ever was positioned at the right hand of god the father in heaven he was co-equal co-eternal with the ever-present almighty all-knowing god jesus was willing to lay all that aside lay all that aside clear his calendar come down and go to the cross to accomplish god's plan of salvation so you and i could be saved right folks that's availability i don't know if i'd have done that way up there in heaven far above it all would you have done it would you come down for a bunch of folks that probably not going to appreciate it probably more than half the crew is not even going to accept it would you have done it he was available secondly he relied on the father constant communal father that's one of the things you see as you read through the gospel he's always in prayer talking to the lord whether he's experiencing popularity and all the crowds are coming to him and cheering on him clapping for him telling how wonderful he is or whether he's being persecuted the bible says he rose up early in the morning how many of you get up and meet the dawn i'm not asking if you're a morning person even on the morning that the time changed how many of you got up met the dawn this morning and began to talk to your heavenly father that's what he did he rose up early it says and went aside to pray and he prayed about every detail of ministry think about that you realize jesus christ with all the power that he was given could get up on any given morning in whichever cardinal direction he chose to go off in there were people who needed him there were people who had special needs and things that he could there was healings that needed to be done there were demons need to be cast out they're hungry that need to be fed all this is going on he could went off in any direction but he didn't go off in any direction he started off with his heavenly father where do you want me to go today what do you want me to do today how do you want me to act today what is my attitude today do we start off like that i've always heard that if you don't start off praying you've got more to confess when you reach the end of the day start off saying lord what do you want me to do today that's learning to rely on the lord where do you want me to go what do you want me to say what do you want me to do believe it or not jesus this is what really gets me remain teachable even though he is the omniscient god and knows everything still as a human being when he laid aside when he emptied himself and came down he laid aside these things and so he had to learn like you and i learned and hear jesus who knew the bible we already know by 12 years old better than all the people all the leaders down at the temple nevertheless as his custom was he attended and participated in synagogue which is what we call church he gathered to worship the lord to listen to the reading of the word to listen to the preaching and teaching of the word and to sing the songs of faith and he worshiped god in spirit and in truth he remained teachable even though he knew all things since we don't know all things what do you reckon we ought to remain teachable so we could learn some things he was also very bold he preached the word of god with authority and with boldness matthew 7 29 he taught the people as one having authority and not as the scribes and the pharisees he humbled himself under the mighty hand of god therefore he could boldly teach the word of god and he didn't worry about his opposition whether it was jews whether it was romans or whether it's the devil himself and that's where we get the boldness from we submit ourselves to the will of god and then we don't worry what man can do to us we remain bold in the sharing of the gospel he was also dependable hebrews chapter 3 summarized this for it says as moses was faithful in all his house so jesus has been counted for more glory than moses why well john 8 tells us that he always did those things that pleased his heavenly father he was dependable the lord could count on him to fulfill his purpose in life and that was to come down here live and teach us how to live go the cross and die for our sins rise again third day offering eternal life and hope to all who put their faith and trust in him and all the people said that's what his purpose was that's why he came and he was dependable he didn't get off task how many times do we get off task last utterance from the cross was tetelestai it is finished what was finished the purpose that he came to earth for and that was to complete god's plan of salvation so that you and i could be saved he was dependable he did what god called him to do and he finished it he completed it he did what he came to do then finally he was submissive to the will of god regardless of his situation if anybody was ever justified to complain about mistreatment and unfairness it was jesus it's totally unfair that the innocent should have to suffer for the guilty it was wrong that jesus who had done no wrong should die for sinners still he went to the cross submissively praying father not my will but thine be done i wasn't standing around waiting to see if there was an immediate benefit granted there is a forever benefit to what jesus christ did on the cross but nevertheless he didn't have to have that immediate feedback and being told he was a good little boy for doing that he went forward and did what his job was to do and left the results to the lord so yes jesus is our example of meekness and it's only through repentance and faith in him and that we receive the meekness that comes from the holy spirit because ultimately that's where it comes from so you must repent of your sins pray to receive jesus christ he gives you the gift of his holy spirit and that's what gives you the meekness to be a follower of jesus christ and that kind of meekness is what paul was describing in the old ancient hymn from philippians chapter 2 that says let this mind be in you that was also in christ jesus who being in the form of god did not consider it robbery to be equal with god but made of himself no reputation he'd taken on the form of a bond servant he came to this earth in the likeness of men and being found in the appearance of a man he humbled himself and became obedient yes submissive to the point of death even the death of the cross therefore god has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that the name of jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that jesus christ the lord to the glory of god the father and all the people said amen that's what they did even back when they sung in the first century so jesus is meek and he calls us to be meek and he promises that the meek shall inherit the earth you say now wait a minute brother danny i'm kind of meek and i haven't inherited a whole lot of the earth yet and right now it doesn't seem like there's much inheriting the earth going on in the world right now but philippians 2 reminds us that there's coming a day when jesus shall inherit the earth and on that day every knee shall bow every tongue shall confess that jesus christ is king of kings and lord of lords and for those of us who believe in him he promises to share his kingdom with us when his kingdom has come and his will has been done on earth as it is in heaven amen so today if you're not a christian won't you respond to the lord's invitation listen to jesus invitation from matthew chapter 11 come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for i am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest for your souls let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for the glorious sermon on the mount the first and longest sermon that we have recorded in the bible from the lips of jesus lord help us to be obedient to come and seek you help us to be poor in spirit realize that we are poverty-stricken spiritually and that we need you we need a savior lord help us to mourn over our sinfulness and our rebellion against you and learn to see sin as you see it and allow the things that touch your heart to touch our heart lord help us to be meek even in a culture where being obedient being submissive is no longer cool we realize that in your economy it's necessary and so lord help us to be submissive to your will so that you can accomplish things through us like you did through your son jesus lord move among us now by the power of your holy spirit if there's someone here that's never trusted christ our savior lord we pray that they would respond today as the holy spirit speaks to their heart during this holy time and lord for those of us who've already made professions of faith help us to check ourselves as we go through that little list that we talked about this morning and see if we are learning to be a meek humble servant of you and we pray this in jesus name amen now's our time of invitation our altar is open if you need to come and pray if you've never trusted jesus christ as your savior i'll be standing down front and i would love to pray with you maybe you've already prayed um at home or somewhere else maybe somebody's led you to the lord at work or some other location but you never took the next step of joining the church and being baptized uh won't you come forward today i'll be standing down front and i'd love to talk with you about that maybe you've been saved and baptized and you moved to this area and you feel like the lord is leading you to come and join our church once you do that today again i'd love to talk with you about that maybe just need to talk to the lord about how you're matching up to the meekness that we described this morning and ask the lord for a closer walk with him think about these things as we stand together and sing our hymn of invitation won't you come [Music] it's so sweet to trust in jesus just to take him at his word just to rest upon his promise just to know the sith the lord jesus jesus how i trust him how i [Music] jesus jesus praises jesus oh for grace to trust him

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

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Id: 1ub-E2htbJI

Length: 57min 2sec (3422 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021