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Kingdom
attitudes–Meekness
(Mt
5:5)
Adrian Warnock
Meekness
• Am I meek?
• What will
happen to the meek?
• How can we
learn meekness?
Am I meek?
•
Not
weakness
Can anyone think of an example of
meekness in a modern film/other culture?
Has anyone been inspired by meekness
in another?
Has anyone here read Terry’s autobiography ? Does anyone plan to after Adrian’s recommendation?
•
Not hasty anger but humble receiving of Gods word (James 1:19-21, Prov 15:1-2,
Phil 4:4-7)
Do you tend to think how the word applies to others or how it applies to yourself? When was the last time you changed in response to either a sermon or bible study (Answering this Sunday just go will definitely bless Adrian!!!)
•
Not
foolishness but wisdom
– Who is
wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in
the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in
your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth (James 3:13-15)
Do you feel fraught? That your activities seem to
demand ALL your energies- is it possible this is because you don’t have the
meekness of wisdom?
•
Not
personality
Do you tend to think that meekness is about ‘personality’? How much do we buy into the lie that there is nothing we can do to change the way we are?
•
Not
bitter or jealous
•
Not
selfishly ambitious
•
Not
boastful
•
Not
false
•
Not
rebellious
•
‘Let
your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of
a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s
sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped
in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands
(1 Pe 3:4-6)
•
Is
wholly fixed on God
–
the opposite to self-assertiveness and
self-interest.…it is not occupied with self at all.
–
a person who viewed his own role in relation to
God as that of a servant and who thus quietly and gently subjected himself to
God’s will.
Am I meek?
Martyn Lloyd Jones- ‘The man who is meek
is not even sensitive about himself. …. he no longer worries about himself and what
other people say…because we see there is nothing worth defending……
The man who is truly meek..… is never sorry for
himself. He never…says, ‘You are having a hard time, how unkind these people are not to understand
you’.
He never thinks: ‘How wonderful I
really am, if only other people gave me a chance.’ Self-pity! What
hours and years we waste in this!
…To
be meek, in other words, means that you have finished with yourself altogether,
and you come to see you have no rights or deserts at all. You come to realize
that nobody can harm you….When a man truly sees himself, he knows nobody
can say anything about him that is too bad.
You need not worry about what men may say or
do; you know you deserve all and more.
Once
again, therefore, I would define meekness like this. The man who is truly
meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they
do and treat him as well as they do.
(Dr
Martyn Lloyd Jones)
How do you respond to the above
quote? Is it true? Do we live by
it? How can we begin to do so?