Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at some scripture from Matthew Chapter 5 but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
Many years ago I started getting chickens so we could have fresh eggs in the morning for the family. I thought it would be something really good for the family to eat. I had never done it before so I had to learn on the job. I started out with a flock of about 30 chickens and we used to buy corn and oats and mix it all together in a bucket. We would go outside and let the chickens run in the yard. We started to sprinkle all that corn on the ground by our feet and immediately they would surround you. There were so many at your feet it felt like you were going to fall over at times .
I remember coming home from the grocery store one day and as I pulled up in the driveway I saw my son coming up by the stairway. He didn’t have any food in his hand but as he walked down the road to the pickup, all of those chickens were practically single file behind him. It was really neat to see. Jesus taught people to come follow me and I will make you Fishers of Men. To truly become a follower of somebody else you need to have the quality of meekness. If we’re going to obey and submit to God’s will in the scriptures you got to be meek.
Matthew 5:5 – Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
When somebody is meek they are submissive. If you are meek you are going to have the quality of being obedient. It teaches us in the Holy scriptures that Moses was the meekest of all men and look at how God blessed him and used him.
Numbers 12:3 – (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
Moses humbled himself under the mighty hand of God and had a great desire to please God and to do his will. If you do have the quality of being meek you will be very submissive. To become a follower of anyone, you have to become meek and submissive. Somebody who is meek is overly compliant and very yielding and tame. The word docile is a very good synonym because it means to accept anothers control or instruction. As we spoke about the other day it means to be submissive.
Think about all the kids that go to school each day and you have certain children in the classroom who are very easily taught because they are a submissive and docile pupil. They are truly wonderful children to work with. They are easily led and managed.
Out at our home one year somebody brought us a dog that they couldn’t take care of. It was already a few years old but it was almost completely untrainable. It was completely wild and rebellious and no matter how you tried to help that animal, it just would not listen. Eventually we had to give it away to somebody else. The lab that we have today is the true meaning of docile. She is very quiet and submissive. You can speak very softly to her and she will do whatever she is told. Somebody who is docile is easily taught and handled.
Think about some children riding home on a school bus but on the way they cannot be controlled in the back of the bus. The bus driver pulls over and makes them sit in the front seat so he can keep an eye on them. A docile person is completely opposite. They are very easily handled and that is what meekness is. That is the quality that Moses was filled with. Meekness is being ready and willing to accept being controlled by an authority.
Some other synonyms are manageable and compliant. It’s being submissive and teachable ready to accept instruction and direction; yielding to control or supervision direction and management.
Have any of you ever ran a business before? Maybe you had a few employees. Which ones were your best employees? Wasn’t it the ones who readily did the things that they were told by you to do? Were the best employees the ones who didn’t argue and fight with you?
Someone who is meek is overly compliant. When somebody is compliant they are inclined to agree with others and to obey rules especially to an excessive degree. They’re ready to obey and willing and eager to please.
You see, all these qualities are intermingled with the word meekness. I use Moses as an example today because it teaches us that he was the meekest of all men. God likes and blesses meekness. Moses was very very obedient. When you are compliant, it means that you yield and bend to the wish and will of another. In order to become a follower of what Jesus taught that’s a quality that we need. We need to become meek in our hearts.
How can anybody follow anything without submission and a meek heart, whether it’s a pet, a child at school or someone who professes to be a follower of Christ?
Another definition is to yield oneself and to be tame. What kind of pet would you really like, a mild mannered one or a wild one? Would you like it to obey you when you teach it each day? Would you prefer if it rebelled against you? Think about that. What do you do with a dog who will not obey and doesn’t listen who is completely unmanageable and wild? They have to be kept in a kennel or tied up.
There are great blessings that come through obedience and a meek heart. Think about the freedom somebody can have when we do or told.
Like I have said before, a child who isn’t going to listen in the classroom is going to end up getting sent to the detention office or else if serious enough of an infraction, they can be removed from school.
Meekness is a very great quality for a person to possess. We want to be meek submit to the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and listen to the things that are taught to us in the church. We need to accept them wholeheartedly and obey them. If we make a mistake along the way we want to confess it and get forgiven for it and move on. God allows u-turns. A U-turn is a correction just like taking a different course in an airplane.
Matthew 5:5 – Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 11:29 – Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Remember that the Lord Jesus is absolutely perfect. He has always done the will of His Heavenly Father. Following the lord Jesus requires that we are meek before him.
Psalms 25:9 – The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
1 Peter 3:4 – But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
Meekness is being easily taught and instructed. It’s being submissive.
As a parent don’t you find it frustrating, sometimes even grevious when you’re trying to help a child but they don’t want to listen to what you’re showing them. You’re trying to show them an easier way to do something because you care about them but they do not want to submit to what you tell them. That is the opposite of meekness.
Submissive means being ready to conform to the authority or will of others meekly and obediently. Just as a parent should want to guide you on a better path, God’s way is the best way.
Another definition is inclined or ready to submit or yield to the authority of another unresistingly or humbly obedient.
In order to follow something or the teachings of scripture, you have to be meek. You have to be submissive and yield yourself to the control of somebody else. Jesus laid down his own life for us at the cross and loves and cares for us deeply. Just knowing the fact that he shed his blood so that we could be forgiven with God should cause a person to walk in humility and meekness toward him.
Becoming a follower of Jesus is about self denial. It is about doing God’s will rather than your own. Not everybody who claims to know Jesus is going to enter into heaven someday. It’s prepared for those who do the will of the Father in heaven. Heaven is a prepared place for people who have prepared themselves here upon the Earth.
John 10:27 – My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
even the apostle wanted people to come follow after him because he was a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. He was trying to guide them into the truth in Christ. Remember Abraham was called the friend of God.
John 15:14 – Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
What makes a person submit to the teachings of Christ? What makes someone become a follower of the Christian faith? What causes somebody to do the will of God rather than their own? It is a direct result of meekness in the heart.
Look at the example of a meek woman in the following passage of scripture.
Luke 10:38-42
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Remember, blessed are the meek. Each of us need a meek obedient heart if we’re going to grow in the Christian faith. We are going to need spiritual food from God’s Word. We need to seek after it, just like our hungry birds out on….
…….The Chicken Run.
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching tlkjbc, or by going to hipcast, buzzsprout or amazon, or by getting our entire podcast feed directly at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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