Have you ever been tempted to lash out when someone disrespects you? Have you been tempted to be harsh because someone deserves it? Join us as Pastor David shares a study on Biblical meekness.

<p>Have you ever been tempted to lash out when someone disrespects you? Have you been tempted to be harsh because someone deserves it? Join us as Pastor David shares a study on Biblical meekness.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

The Beatitudes

David Shin

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed Are They that Mourn

Blessed are the Meek

Blessed are Those Who Hunger for Righteousness

Blessed Are the Merciful

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Blessed Are the Persecuted

We're continuing in our series today from the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached.

In the Beatitudes, the first part of the Sermon on the Mount begins with a repetition of blessings.

We began with, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn.

And Bible scholars have analyzed the Beatitudes for the past 2, 000 years, and have come to the conclusion that it's actually a progression, a ladder in the Christian experience.

It gives characteristics of what it's like to begin the Christian experience and grow in grace.

And when you look at the Beatitudes, you'll notice that the first Beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and the last Beatitude, blessed are the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, the promise is the same for the first rung on the ladder, as well as the last rung on the ladder.

And the beauty of the gospel is it doesn't matter if you've just accepted Christ today, or you've been a Christian for years, the promise of salvation is the same.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and the other beatitudes, they have a present implication.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted, indicating that we have present comfort, but the future ultimate fulfillment of that comfort is in the future.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

But the first and the last promise, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven is a present reality, meaning that we can all have the assurance of salvation today.

When we looked at the first few Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those that recognize that we are morally and spiritually bankrupt.

We're in need of God, and it is a blessing to recognize our spiritual poverty.

Blessed are they that mourn, indicating blessed are those that are truly sorrowful for sin.

As we said last week, we come to God and say, Lord, help me willing to be made willing.

Help me to be sorry because I am not sorry at all.

So today we are focusing on blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

I like this commentary from the evangelical preacher and theologian John Stott, and he said meekness is essentially a true view of oneself expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others.

When we see ourselves or who we really are, it translates into how we relate to each other interpersonally.

Now, when we talk about meekness, that's not a word that we use commonly today.

And I like the New American Standard version.

It actually says, blessed are the gentle.

So another word for meekness is gentleness.

And this is a characteristic of Jesus found in Matthew 11, verse 29.

Jesus says, I am meek, or gentle, and lowly in heart.

This is a characteristic that God wants us to have.

And as we accept Christ, there's an immediate change and transformation in how we relate to each other.

Gentleness is manifested not only who we are, but the way that we treat each other.

It's amazing today with the online culture, the internet, it is a blessing and a convenience, but it's also opening up a side of human nature that is very ugly when you look at it.

There's a program in which a part of the segment, you can actually catch it on YouTube, and I saw a few clips, they have celebrities get on there, and they read these social media liners, usually 140 characters or less, of what people are saying about these celebrities.

So these celebrities are actually reading these, and as they get on camera and reading these terrible things that are being said about them from people that never have met them before, and it is just appalling as they are reading these insults that are being said in the social media, things that you would never say to the person face to face.

Somehow The anonymity has allowed people to be very bold and lose any kind of civility in the conversation that is taking place.

And many times this has devastating consequences as well.

There is a phenomenon that is taking place called cyber bullying.

My heart broke when I read about Megan Meyer.

Megan was a young lady, a teenager, and as many teenagers she was struggling with self-worth and self-esteem.

Someone friended her on this particular social media website.

So she accepted the friend request and they started dialogue back and forth.

Later on, this quote friend, his name was Josh, commented on her wall and said, look, I don't want to be your friend anymore.

This affected Megan Meyer so much that she went off into her room.

Later on, her mom found her in the closet.

This cyberbullying is taking on more and more of a phenomenon as people are being cruel, saying things that they would never otherwise say in the online culture.

There's something called body shaming that is taking place as well, where people are making comments about people's physical characteristics.

And it is a troubling notion because any sort of common decency is being left out in the conversations and the vitriol that is taking place online.

Even in our culture of face-to-face dialogue, there is an appreciation of being forthright and straightforward.

And I believe to a certain degree we should be.

But it is getting to a place, you know, there's a balance to all these things in the pendulum where people are being bold and painfully forthright without any compassion.

And we almost applaud these types of straight dialogue that is taking place.

I believe that there is a time and place that we need to be straightforward and honest, but this never means that we should be cruel.

I read a quotation once that said, essentially, honesty without compassion is cruelty.

Honesty should never come at the cost of kindness.

And our culture today, when we talk about meekness and gentleness, it views it as weakness and having a connotation of being effeminate and lacking backbone.

But real biblical meekness is not weakness.

Now isn't it interesting that when we come to Jesus Just the way that we are with all our baggage with all our foibles with all our faults with all of our challenges And we come to him and he accepts us just the way we are that's the way the gospel works friends We come to him on all brokenness He says look just come then he works within us gives us an emotional distaste for sin but notice that the third progression in the Christian experience is that there is an immediate change in the way that we relate to 1 another.

We are gentle in how we treat each other.

That is the immediate manifestation of the gospel working in the life.

We are no longer severe and stern and harsh and cruel.

There is a transformation that works in the life.

So Jesus says, come, I will create in you a need to come to me.

I'm going to develop in you an emotional distaste for sin.

And then there's going to be a visible manifestation of how you treat each other, and it is going to be gentle not cruel meek Not harsh There's going to be a delicate side to us as Christians.

I want to read to you some antonyms of gentleness.

Cruel, harsh, hard, hateful, rough, gruff, unkind, sharp, caustic.

1 dictionary says that gentleness or meekness is the absence of harshness and sternness.

Sometimes we have to define things by what is not there.

And so it says, it is the absence of harshness and sternness.

Gentleness does not mean the absence of emotion or passion or zeal.

But it does mean the absence of meanness and sternness and harshness.

We can have passion for something without being cruel and harsh in the way that we come across.

We know that meekness and gentleness is not easy and there are certain moments that this characteristic is very challenging to portray in the life, especially as we rub each other and we come across different circumstances.

1 person defined meekness as gentleness under provocation.

How many of you have ever been provoked before?

I probably tell hundreds of these types of stories.

In the summers, I went to different parts of the country and sold books there.

I remember I was in New Jersey and I knocked on the door and through the glass door I could see the man coming and he had fire in his eyes, just the body language.

And so I backed up just enough and he came down in a rage.

He was coming quick and I could see that this man did not intend to do me good.

So he came over and as he came, he kicked the screen door and it just barely missed by my nose by millimeters.

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Series

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the Meek

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

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Recorded

Tribute To God

38m

Sabbath and the Divinity of Christ

1h 3m

Put Your Sword in its Place

45m

The Plan of Salvation

02 The Plan of Salvation

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Norman McNulty Weekend

Justification By Faith For Our Time

50m

The Disciples Who Gave Up Everything

33m

How To Receive the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit, Part 2: Conquering the Obstacles

49m

Lessons from the Life of Daniel

Lessons from the Life of Daniel - Part 1

47m

The Sower

The Sower: The Secret to Good Soil

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Raw

38m

Last Day Events

Armageddon and the Seven Last Plagues

1h 5m

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