Foundations Part 5: Don’t Be Mistaken

Foundations Part 5: Don’t Be Mistaken

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Life Series, a podcast from King Garden Bay Baptist Church, where we gather together to experience God's love, grow in God's love, and give that love back to each other.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Matthew 5, verses 5. Our Samonic topic on this morning is look at your neighbor and say, Don't be mistaken. Look at your other neighbor, give him a little attitude, say, Don't be mistaken. Look at the one who, look at the last one who wasn't paying attention, say, Don't be mistaken. If we were in the States, we would say, Don't get it twisted. If we're in the Caribbean, we say, Don't take me for a fool. Don't take me. Don't be mistaken. Matthew 5, verse 5 continues our sermon series on foundations. Foundations is one of the most important things that we could have in our life. And Jesus now continues to be attitudes. As he's opening the Sermon on the Mount, he continues and is able to now be able to say, what is it that we're doing? What is it that we're trying to accomplish? One of the defining values of our world is the pursuit of success at any cost. We are being told that to get ahead by any means necessary, build influence, build wealth, pursue power. These are the things that have become iconic and the things that we try to covet as coveted aspirations. Celebrity has become one of the primary pathways for achieving our goals. In previous generations, people wanted to be a superstar. Everyone wanted to be like Mike or be in entertainment. But now everyone wants to be a content creator and want to have as much followers and want to make sure that people like and follow their posts, that people reshare it. And they want to pursue these things just to feel accepted. There's nothing inherently wrong with ambition and influence. These things are not the issue. The question is, what is it that you're really pursuing? When Jesus declared, Blessed are the weak, for they would inherit the earth, he was not, he was confronting what was existing at that time. See in the Roman Empire at this time, power, might, aggressiveness, being loud was the way of being. That if you had more power, more army, more money, more all this stuff, you were able to be in charge. That the people who were now sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to this message, were the broken heart of the poor, didn't have any power, didn't have any political connections, didn't have all these things, didn't get invited to the dinner parties, they didn't know where the secret societies were. They were just lonely people trying to make it by. And Jesus looked at them, at their faces, and said, Blessed are you that you just happened to be the meek and tell them that you would inherit the world. You have to understand that. Imagine what is happening at this moment, what is taking place, that at this point now, Jesus is now trying to understand, and people are trying to understand. How are you giving us this formula? This doesn't seem right. This doesn't make sense that you're calling us to be meek when everyone around in the Roman Empire is being aggressive, everyone is fighting battles, everyone is making noise, everyone is accumulating power, people are ganging up on each other. The Roman Empire is expanding not through negotiation but through wars. And you're telling me, Jesus, that you're looking at me brokenhearted, with broken fingers and nails and working hard and telling me to be meek. And I will inherit the earth, and everybody else around me is inheriting the earth through blood. Well, this was written over a couple thousand years ago, uh, but it still is relevant today. That right now, me telling you that blessed are the meek seems like Dr. Mike, you must be kidding me because everybody around me is getting ahead in the world, making sure that they can do whatever they want to pursue power. People will do anything for money, people will do anything for opportunity, people will do anything for religion or be able to do anything for any kind of status. Think about it. This doesn't seem to work that you're saying, blessed are the meek, and they will inherit the earth when right now the wars still going on, where thousands of people are being disenfranchised because people are seemingly taking over through missiles and power and wars and bloodshed. I want you to say with me, don't worry about it, it's gonna come back to you. Think about it. Jesus is now saying, You want to be blessed? Continue to be meek. And here's what your promise is that you will inherit the earth. Now you think about it, Jesus is now giving you the formula of how you inherit the earth in a proper way. Because before, he was saying, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? And now he's saying, if you bring become meek, you will keep your soul and inherit the earth. Now you don't see you seem to put these things together because some of you right now are thinking that you will continue to struggle in life if you continue to be meek. But I want you to be able to understand. Thank you for asking. Because we need to redefine and make sure you understand what meek means. Okay, neighbor said, Don't be mistaken. Uh, the Greek word for meek is pros, it it means a gentle, it describes strength that is restrained. Okay, neighbor says, strength that's restrained. That's the power under control. That's a person who has emotional intelligence to be able to know when to exercise their power. Uh, you have to understand that what Jesus is calling you to do is be able to say, trust the power that is inside. Don't worry about what's happening on the outside. But you're saying, Dr. Mike, you understand that the everybody in my job who just got promoted made sure that they swindled and talked about somebody and backbite somebody and stole with somebody, and they had extra late nights at the office with the boss.

unknown 6:43

Take your time. Take your time.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

I like this side now. I like this side now. This is why. Because this side, when I said that, they were like they got it. That people seemingly be getting ahead, that those who seem to be accumulating wealth are those who are robbing and cutting people down, that somebody who seems to be being promoted and getting being, and no, no, think about it. Think about it. If you look around the world, those who seem to be popular seem to be wicked, those seem to be celebrated, seem to be corrupt. Those seeming to be in charge seem to have no conscience. That we live in a world where this, what Jesus is saying, doesn't seem to add up. But God is saying, you want to be meek, you want to inherit this earth, be meek. Uh but you have to understand now, Jesus is now saying, Well, now I don't want you to know that meekness is not being a pushover, it's strength that is controlled. See, you have to understand. Anybody ever went horseback riding? Anybody? Back in the day, late, late, late, way back in the day, uh, we used to had somebody named Shadow, Shadow Stables. Uh, Shadow had stables. What Shadow used to do is that the retired horse, Lord have mercy. Let me just get through this. If you know me well enough, Auntie Pastor Reimer, I want to go over on a tangent. Uh, he used to take retired horses. We used to he used to take think about guys, listen, this is what used to happen. Give me two minutes. Uh, he used to take retired horses from a horse track that we had here in the BVI. Go figure. Um, uh and he used to take these horses that were powerful, running, and sometimes wild, and he used to bring them to his stable up in Mares. And they used to be there grazing for a bunch of months, and I used to say, Well, I'm learning to calm the horses down. And then every couple months, right around August, around this time, when the season is about to close, he used to take all the young men, including me, from King Garden Bay on the hill to ride the horses for free. We used to ride the horses from Mares to King Garden Bay, and you used to ride them on the beach and then swim them in the ocean. Sounds like a virgin. I I grew up in a great place. And what I realized is that the horses had the same strength that they did on the track, they just knew how now to restrain it. The horses, when I'm a little eight-year-old kid, understands there's no need for them to be strong and mighty and fast because we're just taking a walk on the beach. If this horse was to take off at full speed, I would be flung off, and everybody will say the horse done got crazy. Ain't no track, it ain't call for all this, ain't no prize at the end, ain't nobody in his back pushing it. Why is it acting like that? The horse is crazy. Think about it. Some of you don't know how to act under pressure and don't have any control and don't know how to meek, so you're like a wild horse acting all crazy at your job and your house, and it don't call for all that. God is saying you could be meek and get more.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Oh, that's an American one. Sorry, I ain't know that one. I know. What's it? What was it say? Something that catch anyway.

SPEAKER_04 10:54

All right, we'll we'll come back to next week. Because y'all don't know it, I don't know it. Let's let's just keep going. Now, here's what happens. No matter what happens in your life, being gentle, just like a horse, being able to be meek is important. The horse hadn't last has not lost one bit of strength, speed, or power. What has changed is that it's now directed and disciplined to know that it's in a different environment. You have to understand many black theologians all over the world, from Psalms 37 and verse 11, is where Jesus now is referencing in Matthew 5 and verse 5. Especially this significant understand that this psalm was written and understand that the wicked prosper while the righteous seem to suffer. God's response was that was not to encourage cowardice, but his call is to trust, to wait on God, and to refuse you to imitate the happenings and the actions and the behaviors of the wicked. Meekness now becomes a silent revolution that is taking place against what the world wants you to do and how the world wants you to act. This understanding has resonated all over in many traditions where weakness is often preached as a holy resistance. That I don't have to fight the way you fight. I must stand in what I believe as a holy resistance. Standing firmly in truth, enduring suffering, but not taking it for granted, confronting injustice without abandoning love, and believing that God's justice will have the final word. Some of us need to know that we need to stop fighting some battles because although it might seem like you're losing now, remember God has the final say. So I want to tell somebody in here when they say you're meek, look at your neighbor says, I'm not weak what it is, I'm under control. Look at your neighbor says, I'm not weak. I'm under control. I'm not afraid, I'm patient. I'm not passive. I'm just trusting my God. I'm not weak. You think I'm weak, I'm just under control. I'm not I'm not I'm not a pushover. I'm just choosing peace. Tell somebody, not in here. I want you to post on your status. Post on your status, because I know some of y'all are right now in the middle of the Bible app, so just slide over. I know I'm not just gonna give you permission to go to your WhatsApp because I know you guys don't open WhatsApp in church or social media, but right now you have permission to go to your status and say, Lit, lit, listen. I chose peace. That's why you got away. No, don't, don't, don't, don't post that. Don't post that. Let's refine it. We gotta work on it. I got I gotta work on it. We gotta work on it in a way that you need to let people know the reason why we don't have no problems is because I chose peace. Now, I'm sorry, let me speak to this side, church, because the the get some of the gangsters are over here, because y'all, y'all saved. These these people ain't saved but that long. Right now, some of you just got saved, things happened, you're like, boy, you lucky they have Pastor Mike's number because I'll tell you what, I'm gonna be meek because they're gonna call him, and I'm sure somebody's taping. So I'm but you know what? God is watching too. And I just gave my life to and did the baptism video, it's still being played at church. So I gotta wait till somebody forgets that I'm a Christian. You lucky I'm being meek because I'll tell you what, before the Lord came into my life and gave my tongue some control, I want to everybody in here. I have time today for you, you, and oh, oh, oh, we we I like you a long time. Think about it. If you're being real and authentic, that you know that God has given you power but also control. Meekness is not powerlessness or cowardice, it's power and strength under control with the trust of knowing that God is fighting our battles for us. This is why Jesus pronounced, Blessed are the meek, for they don't have to fight for every position because they trust the one who ultimately determines where everyone's goes. Don't fight for stuff when God says, I'm in charge of your inheritance. Right now, you're some of you are caught up in some family battles for land and money. Stop fighting for it. God is gonna repay you double what you think you've lost. Some of you are fighting for position. God is saying, Don't fight for it. What I have for you is even bigger and better. I need some people in here who are feeling that they need to know that your turn is coming. The first thing I want to say is that God will fight your battles for you. You have to understand you. Some of us need to understand that we how we win in this world is not to look like them. Well, your neighbor says, I'm not like them. I'm not gonna push people over, I'm not gonna hurt people, I'm not gonna disenfranchise people, I'm not gonna pursue injustice, I'm not gonna be corrupt, I'm not gonna be mean, I'm not gonna lie just to get ahead. How do you sleep at night knowing that what you got was at the blood of somebody else? How do you sleep at night knowing that somebody's hurting because you got a job? How do you sleep at night that your blessing is somebody else's curse?

unknown 16:58

Come on, God.

SPEAKER_04 17:00

There ain't no blessing. God don't bless you and curse the person that you thought. No, stop trying to bring God into your corrupt net nature of saying that God promoted you, knowing that you're the one that set the coworker up to get the job. Come on now. God ain't blessed that. And here's the thing: here's the guarantee why I say God will fight your battles for us. It may seem like they're pursuing, it may seem like they're prospering, but let me tell you, everybody has a day of reckoning. Look at your neighbor and say, get it right. Get it right. Don't be like them, don't try. You might feel like you're behind, but God is saying, I'm working on you. Look at your neighbor says, God is fighting for me. That means that every you have to understand that every battle does not require a response. Some of us need to learn how to be meek and mute. Some of the best strength that you could have is saying absolutely nothing. I'm gonna tell you, I used to like, see, sometimes when I was growing up, you guys know the family story that we have, the family story that I was a perfect son, and and Mitch always got in trouble. Amen. And and so here's the thing: what happens? Um, you've heard this story before. Uh, when I happened to was asked uh by the spirit of my own uh calling uh to move my father's truck uh and drive it and pick up my friend JJ and go on a little uh exploratory ride through the village. Uh I felt God calling me to do this uh at age nine or ten. And what happened is is that uh we got a little bit exuberant, uh, Minister Pastor Lech Ritter. And what happened is uh the the spirit of the Lord took over. No, it wasn't um, and I lost control, and I hit the car in a rock and totaled my dad's car. Amen. Yes, it I was like 10 or 11. Uh, we that was one of those family secrets that we didn't really want to tell the church, amen. Uh we just we just let it we just let that one, just let that, that's family business. We you we didn't let no one know. Uh we just you didn't see the truck for like two months. God is working on it, amen. Uh here's the thing. I was I'm not scared when when when I was growing up, I was never scared when my mom used to come in the house fussing, amen. I was never scared. Uh she would come in the house, and I knew what I just used to look at as the alarm to do what I was supposed to do. Uh, the time that I could have, I mean, you're home all summer. She wants you to take out some chicken and clean it, this and another, and all this type of stuff. And I want to play Nintendo. And so I knew that she would leave Go Vacations or social work or the hospital. And I used to like when she worked at Go Vacations because that was in East End. It used to give us extra time for the commute. So I was able to watch TV a little bit longer. And so now I used to say, she used to come home and she used to say, This house is atrocious. Turn off the TV and exactly, and I just be like, oh man, me and Mitch just clean up just like this and other. I wasn't really scared. But that time when I did that thing to my father's Jeep, and he came home. Just and my brother is a crook. I want to talk about that another time. My brother's there helping my dad, fixing it, looking at me like this. I was like, man, you're supposed to be on my side. Anyway, we'll come back to that. Make sure your brother's keeper, amen. At all times. And my dad came in the house. I went to my mom. I said, Did he say anything? She said, Not really. So I kept walking by him. And he didn't say nothing. He didn't say nothing for almost four days to me. I realized now, since I have my own offspring, that sometimes as a parent, you gotta be meek. Or else you're gonna catch a case. So mute. Sometimes your silence is your strength. Stop feeling that you gotta argue with every battle in your life. Sometimes when somebody's talking about you, somebody coming against you, somebody talking about your name, here's what you do as somebody who's understands that blessed are meek. You somebody comment on you on faith? Somebody fold you many times? Just stay quiet. I know, I know, that was yeah. You understand? Just just just just stay quiet. Here's what they're gonna find somebody else to talk about next week. Some of you are stuck fighting people, and here's what happens if you if somebody God is calling you up here at this point, you're fighting somebody down here. God is calling you here, but every time you know you want to prove that you're bad, you want to prove that you're right. So here's what you do: you come down to where they are to fight them, and here's not what's happening. You are fighting them at their level, and now you're stuck at a lower level than what God has called you to because you want to fight. So now you lose your platform, you lose your purpose, you lose your promise because you won't fight. What business are you fighting with some of the people you're fighting for? What business does it have to convince some people about what God is doing in your life? They didn't like you yesterday, they didn't like you today. Guess what? News flash, they ain't gonna like you tomorrow. Stop worrying about what people say you are, and we'll concentrate on who God says you are. So, what do you prefer? Second second thing, what do you prefer? This question is not just as simple. Do you prefer peace or prosperity? Wisdom or wealth, celebrity or contrite heart? Cash or creativity, popularity or peace. What do you prefer? Some of us are looking at me like that. Really? I risk it all right now. I'm sorry, you have to extend a grace and mercy towards me. That you're willing to pray prosperity and popularity and inclusion for peace. That's what it says. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. You are pursuing things that are not going to last. Do you want to be celebrating in the people's kingdom or God's kingdom? It's a completely different plane. You look at a different moral compass of what is directing your life has to be changed. I want to be around some people who value God's approval over man's approval. They may not like you, but God said, Here's what, I'm proud of you, son and daughter. I want you to continue to do excellent. I know nobody's coming up and showing up to what you're starting, but don't worry. Keep believing, keep trusting. I will promise that my promise that I have for you will be fulfilled. What do you prefer? Temporary gratification or longevity? Think about it. The people now who have ruined their entire families in the 30s and 40s for pursuit of land and money and position, and now in the 70s, they're home alone in their house by themselves. Because they've alienated the entire family in the pursuit of wealth. Yeah, it was good when you're driving that bands. Banana Benz is in your garage alone with a flat and no oil. And you have no family. Let me tell you something. Choose family first. I don't know who this is for. Choose your family first. What do you prefer? So being meek and inheriting the earth means I understand that my power, that my might, and the things that are coming to me will come. That I will continue to trust and wait on God. I refuse to imitate the wickedness. Here's the last thing about what being meek is is that I will be in a corrupt world, in a corrupt situation, and not allow what is happening around me to come inside of me. See what what what it means is that there are people around you that are evil and are bad, and if you fight them the way you fight, you become just like the people you're fighting. The reason why you don't argue with everybody, the reason why you don't fight like everybody fight is because you will become just like them, and then people are watching you. Well, you're the one arguing, you're the one fighting, and you don't look, you look just like the people you're fighting, and no one can tell the difference. So I want to just leave this with you. God will fight your battles for you. Don't be like them. What what what is it that you prefer? Do you prefer temporary gain or longevity? You don't get to being a legend by being shortcut and boycotting the process. I know some of you have been praying and waiting, and God is saying, Blessed are the meek, because here's what the meek understand is that God is fighting my battles for me. Now I understand I might look like I'm tired, I might look like I'm quiet, but I understand I have a comfort inside that I'm resting on the promises of God. Uh so what does that look like? It looks like I want to tell you, it looks like in your life, in the Bible, it says, people who realize that their time was coming. I want to look at your neighbor and says, My time is coming. I look at your neighbor and say, My time is coming. My time is coming. Um, being meek is a way to survive oppression, hate, downfall, rejection. Being meek is a way to carve through and be able to get what it is that you need in the world. Being meek says that I trust God in spite of what's happening around you. Being meek says, No matter what happens, God has the final say. Being meek is an ultimate expression of faith. They're saying that God has told me to act a certain way, to be a certain way, and no matter how you try to fight me, I will not become the evil that you're trying to put on me because God says I must be different. I must be the salt and the light. I must make sure I fight my battles a different way. I want to remind somebody in here. I'm sorry, I'm getting a little happy in my spirit. I don't care if you don't get it, but I hope you do. Uh, because there is a blessing in being meek that you have to understand, don't fight like everybody else. You have to understand that some of your battles, like we said last week, that most of your battles are gonna be won on your knees. I want to let somebody know that no matter what happens, they're fighting with you online. You need to fight online with God. You have to understand that you need to be able to go to God and say, God, I don't know how things are gonna end up. I don't know how things are gonna drop, but I am trusting God to be able to help me go through this. I'm just saying, no matter what happens, no matter what goes through, God says, I'm gonna fight my battles for you. My turn is coming. I wanna be able to remind you that there were some people in the Bible that were exemplifying meekness. There were some people in the Bible that exemplified me to see now. Daniel in the lion's den, being in the middle of a den with three lions around you, he couldn't fight with loudness. He had to be meek. His meekness realized that he continued to pray and be silent in the midst of his enemies. You have to understand, David realized that he had something on the power on the inside. He didn't come out like Goliath being loud and boisterous and all cocky. He says, No, I just got God, these three stones, and my faith. I don't have much to say. When we're gonna ready, we're about to go. And David took that rock and that sling, but it wasn't just the rock, it was the faith in the rock. He understood that God called me to this moment. He waited and watched. See now, David after Goliath now was anointed and had to wait and be meek and mild under Saul. This is gonna bless somebody. Somebody in here is working under some conditions and under some bosses that some people are literally trying to cut your will, your power, your inspiration down. But God said, remember David. He just continued to play his harp even when the arrows were coming after him. He didn't allow Saul's spirit to come in part of him sin. He understood what it is, the strength of being meek. Ah, but I want to be able to tell you in this world, there were people all over this world that changed the world by being meek. I could list their names: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tudman. They made these things by being meek. They didn't fight like everybody else. They said, we're gonna change the world by being steadfast, by walking silently back and forth. But I wanna be able to tell somebody in here. I want to remind you, let you know that your turn is coming. Look at your neighbor says, your turn is coming. Some of you right now need to understand that you have a foundation, know that your turn is coming. I I remember now. Uh sometimes I now I travel. Uh sometimes I travel, and and I now now in traveling, it is always interesting. Uh it's always interesting in my line of travel. Uh, what happens in my line of travel is now uh uh um the Lord has been kind. Amen. The Lord has been kind and and and now I don't really go to the gate that often. I don't go to the gate directly. Uh I I I chill, uh I chill, I chill in the nice little uh lounge that they have prepared for you. Uh and so I chill there, and I often now usually you sh show up to the gate, uh, the spirit of lateness takes over me. I show up to the gate five minutes after they start to board. And now when you show up to the gate, that there are people lined up, seeing Pastor Emeritus to get on the plane. The people lined up, people in group one, two, three, four, five, and six. Uh depending on the size of the plane, you might have seven. Uh and these people, sometimes you find the people in group seven are the people who are pushing you to go in the way. I remember I was there in the in Miami International Airport, and I I was just humble, meek, and mild. I just get there, walk in, and and now it's people are boarding, and there was a big line. There were two lines. There were two lines. One of them said priority access, and one of them said general boarding. Uh, and everybody was in the general boarding line uh because I was late. Uh, because I was late and taking my time and being gentle and not rushing and not feeling like I need to run to the thing because I knew what time the plane was gonna take off. I knew, Pastor, what time uh the the boarding process will start. I also knew uh that they had to go through six groups uh before they boarded. I also didn't worry about having a place to put my bag uh because I was secure. I just had my little nifty backpack, uh, like door or the explorer. I had my nifty backpack. I didn't have boots, he didn't have a visa. Uh so I had just kept myself there. And now at this moment, I said I walked there chilling, and now when I got there, I said, Well, I don't have to, I don't have to rush. Everybody started looking at me. I I then I was like, you know what? I don't feel like fighting. I said, I don't feel like fighting, I don't feel like fighting. So I sat down and I said, I saw people in different groups arguing with each other, pushing against each other, fighting against each other. It was it got so bad that people started to suffer like one of them like move, um, it's my turn. Are you in this group? And they were like this, you see my number. And I sat there because I had a promise. The promise also says that I have a seed. Also in my particular section. No one else could put their bag in my section. So I said, I had a choice. I could go in there and fight with these people and get on a plane, or just sit to the side, wait till they said final boarding call, and get up and show my ticket. So I heard those famous words, they said final boarding call. I got up and gave it to the stewardess, and she says, Hey Mike, thank you for being a frequent flyer with American Airlines. Your seat is still reserved for you. Would you like something to drink when you get on board? I says, you know what? I might as well will. I got, I went there, sat in my seat, put my bag up, and was chilling. This is a message for you. God already put a promise with your name on it, a guarantee with your name on it. Why are you fighting with people in a lower class than you when God has said, I reserve a first class seat with your name on it, and nobody can reassign or take your seat. Some of you need to be able to know that my turn is coming. I might not be bored when you're bored, I might not be called when you're called, but God said, if I continue to be meek, if I continue to know that you're in control, that I have a place reserved for you, I want to let you know that my turn is coming. I want to bless you, King Army Baptist Church. I don't want you to get well or wary in doing good. Continue to pursue righteousness, continue to be the light on the top of the hill, continue to be salt in the middle of the earth. I want you, King Garden Baptist Church, to make sure. Don't worry if a hundred people are not clapping with you. Do a good job anyway. Don't worry if you're not being chered on. Trust God anyway. Don't worry if the first customer having walked through the door, believe anyway. I don't want you to wait until the blessing comes. I want you to praise God in advance because he says, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. What that means is that everything that people are fighting for, God says, if I continue on this path, it's already mine. Well, if I already know it's mine, why am I gonna fight it? I can't leave this pulpit senior pastor Meredith before bringing this back to the person that exemplified it, that understood what it is to be meek. You have to understand what it means to have power under control. Imagine being Jesus sent to this world over 2,000 years ago, came down through 40 and two generations. Imagine being Jesus knowing that he was a son of God. Imagine being Jesus, leaving heaven and coming into this earth, knowing what he left and all the power. Imagine being Jesus in heaven when he walked around, people just looking at him, saying, Oh man, that's that dude that's that's God's son. Like you better walk out, watch out, and now come into the earth and people trying to persecute him, kill him, spit on him. Imagine him saying, I know I have the power, but I also have a mission to save those that are trying to hurt me. So Jesus says, I have to be meek because they don't know what they're doing. You have to understand he had the ultimate power, but had ultimate control because his mission was bigger than the mess he was placed in. Now, Jesus, now all day Friday, you imagine what it means to be meek being sent to a jail and being beaten for crimes you didn't commit. You understand what it means to be meek that you're hung up on a cross and crucified for over 12 hours and looking at the people who you helped, the people who you blessed, the people you perform miracles for. You imagine how much meekness and control it takes that you're looking and knowing that your father in heaven could send an angel right now and wipe everything out, but you have to stay on that cross and suffer for those same people who don't like you. Sometimes, if you're in leadership, you have to understand you have to suffer and be meek for those who curse you. You're gonna have to be able to be gentle and be able, even though you can destroy some people. God is saying, I gave you this power because I know you got wisdom. So now Jesus is there all day fried on his cross. He had to be meek, and he only said seven sayings from the cross. And now the last thing he said, he says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Well, that's the ultimate sign of being meek because God, at this point, Jesus is showing the ultimate example of what it means to be meek. He says, I'm not gonna fight you, I'm turning it over now to God. He says, I'm not gonna fight my battles, I'm gonna turn it over to God. Here's what I choose: I choose peace over problems. So I'm turning everything over to God. Some of you right now need to look at the problems in your life and say, God, I want to turn them over to you. It's not that I'm weak, it's not that I'm scared, it's that I trust you and says, God, I understand my meekness may look like weakness, but it's just a celebration to be able to get me ready for the next step. So now, Jesus now says, Into thy hands, I commit my spirit. Here's the thing all day Saturday, hey, hey, hey, all day Saturday, he looked like he was meek. Nothing really was going on, but there was an ultimate power taking place on the inside. So now, early Sunday morning. I want, I don't know. We're in a Baptist church, and sometimes we gotta make sure we take it back to the cross. Early Sunday morning, they said he got up with all power, and he had all power in heaven and in earth. Sometimes you need to stay meek for two days to save those around you so God could give you the Sunday blessing.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

So Stan, I want to just say this to you. Let's say that for me. I want to pray and let you go from here. But I want I want you to repeat this as we get ready to pray.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

I'm not weak. You can say it after me together. Let's say it together. I'm not weak, I'm under control, I'm not afraid, I'm patient, I'm not passive. I trust God's timing more than my own ambition. If you don't believe it, don't pray it. Because it's gonna be some times that you look like you're weak, but you are saying God says no. This is the way for me to inherit everything that I'm everybody else is chasing, to ultimately know that God has given me power to control. I resist the enemy, I resist the strongholds, not by fighting with my fist, but trusting with my mind that God has the final say. Some of you right now who in the midst of battles, who in the midst of struggles, need to get happy right now because God is saying, You are blessed. That's why Jesus pronounced.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Blessed are the meet.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

Lord, as we are here, gathered under one assembly for those who are present in the sanctuary and those online. God, we thank you that you're given wisdom for us to know how to fight. Thank you for the assurance of knowing what true blessings come from. We will not be like those in the world. We will live by a different principle. We will exercise restraint, strength, and discipline, knowing that our ultimate help, ultimate protection comes from God. So I know it's hard. I know it's hard, but don't lose yourself and your ethics and your spirituality and your morals in the pursuit of worldly ambitions. God says, trust me, and everything that you're fighting for, it'll be added. If you believe this prayer, say, God, God, I trust you with all of my life. God, I trust you with everything. I commit my life to you. I pray this prayer over you. I pray you will never get tired of doing good. I pray that you will never get tired of being a light in the midst of the darkness. I pray that you will be restored, and no matter how much they try to hurt you, manipulate you, that God will create a fence over your heart to protect you from the evil that seems to surround you. You are not weak, you are meek. And showing that God says, I am with you always, is only getting tough because they see you as a threat, they see your life coming together, they see you moving ahead without them. You don't mean them no evil, you don't mean them no harm, but God is saying to you, continue to trust me. I got you, I've never forgotten about you. And here is a final reminder. Blessed are you, you see me quiet? You who everybody passed over, you who don't have the army, God has a specific blessing with your name on it, and no one, look at your neighbor and says, No one could take that from me. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we say amen. If you believe that word, that thing blessed me so much. Thank you, God.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Thank you for worshiping with us today. If you'd like to go deeper in your walk with Christ, we invite you to contact us at 284-442-4222. Or email us admin at cgbbc.org. Visit our website at cgbbc.org. Be sure to subscribe and share this podcast so others can be encouraged and blessed as well.