Two Kingdoms: Week 4

We are in this message series right now called Two Kingdoms,

and we are looking specifically at Matthew chapter five and

the words of Jesus as Jesus.

Introduces us to the Kingdom of God.

And if you are new, if we haven't met, my

name is Andrew, and glad that you're here.

Before we open to Matthew five, would you join.

Me in a word of prayer so we can prepare

our hearts and our minds to receive what God has

for us. Let's pray, Father, God, thank you.

For your grace and your presence.

And God, we thank you for your word that we

can open the pages of the Bible and receive from

your heart. We can receive truth. And so God, we've

come here to receive. Would you meet us, would you

teach us also?

God?

Would you transform us, transform our thinking, transform our hearts. God,

with that in mind, would you silence distraction so that

we can concentrate on what you have for us. We

are anticipating hearing from you today and we pray all

of this in Jesus name.

Amen. Well.

I recently came across a few headlines and news articles,

and I want to share a couple of quotes with you,

and I want you to think about who might these

quotes be describing. Well, here's the first one. It says

he is the source of all the misfortunes of our country.

Another one says the world will be puzzled to decide

whether you are an apostate or an impostor A third

quote says your fame is built upon a series of

fortunate accidents. Can you imagine who these articles might be criticizing.

Do you believe that this is criticism about George Washington?

I know it's true. I was surprised when I learned this.

But these were articles and headlines written by his enemies,

his political rivals.

One of those was Thomas Paine.

They had been friends at one time, and then their

relationship was fraction and Thomas Paine became his political enemy.

But Washington endured this harsh criticism. I wonder, how have

you been criticized recently? What criticism have.

You heard or experienced?

Who was it that criticized you, who insulted you or

offended you? Was it somebody at work, a co worker,

a boss. Was it a loved one, a relative, a

family member, someone in your community who said those hurtful things,

and what did that make you feel? How did that

criticism feel it? Did you feel angry, did you feel afraid?

Did you feel hurt, wounded, maybe defensive or insecure?

What did that feel?

The title of today's message is called how to Handle

Criticism because we all experience criticism.

Psychologists have studied.

And learned that the human brain will.

Fixate on criticism.

It takes one piece of criticism to erase five positive

affirmations in the human brain. Your brain is wired to

ruminate on that negative, harsh criticism. And Jesus knows this,

in fact that Jesus addresses criticism in Matthew chapter five.

Take a look at verse eleven. These are the words

of Jesus. Blessed are you? When people insult you, persecute you,

and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because

of me. This is criticism, insults, false accusation, evil things, criticism.

We all face criticism, There's no doubt about that.

But what do we do with it? How do we

handle it? How do we respond?

That's what we're talking about today, and Jesus has something

to teach us about handling criticism. We need to look

a few verses earlier. Let me draw your attention to

verse five. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus says, Blessed are

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

those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will

be filled. Matthew five, verses five and six is the

primary text of this message that we're focusing on today.

It's the text that we're looking at. And I need

to tell you that these verses, this text has challenged

me more than any other scripture that I've studied recently.

These words of Matthew five and six have made me

dig deep, made me think critically, make me ask God

a lot of questions in prayer. It's been challenging to

me to study these words. And I'll tell you why.

It's all because of one word.

It's one word in verse five, this word right here,

the word meek. This word has challenged me in preparing

this message.

Because this word, it can be confusing.

It has a variety of meanings, it has a variety

of descriptions, and in my research, there is a variety

of opinions about meekness. Some will say that meekness is

a restrained emotion, others say it is controlled power. I

think Aristotle said that meekness is the virtue to be

angry at the right time for the right reasons about

the right things. Like there's these different opinions. Some confuse

meekness with weakness, because after all, the words rhyme, but

meekness is not weakness. This word meek is the Greek

word pra OUs, and we see this word used throughout

the New Testament. Jesus uses the word pra OUs here

in Matthew five he says, blessed are the meek, and

he also uses this in a few chapters later, in

chapter eleven, when he says I am gentle. That's prahus

and humble in heart. Jesus calls himself meek. I think

we would all agree that Jesus is no weak person.

And I think we might agree that Jesus is one

of the most heavily criticized persons in all of history.

And Jesus says that he is meek. Jesus is not weak.

Think about what he endured. He was abandoned by his friends,

he was betrayed into his enemies, he was falsely accused,

he was put on trial for crimes that he never committed.

They slapped him, they spat on him, they shoved a

crown of thorns onto his head, and they mocked him.

And then after they had beaten and flogged, and they

forced him to carry his cross, weighing over one hundred pounds,

up a hill to his execution site. And there in

front of the public, they stripped him naked, humiliating him,

and they stretched out his hands and his feet and

nailed him to the cross and hoisted him up to

die as a criminal. And hanging there, Jesus endured it all,

and somehow he was able to say, Father, forgive them,

for they know not what they're doing. That's meekness. That's

not weakness, that's incredible strength. And as we think about

this idea of meekness, we could talk about restrain power,

we could talk about emotions, we could talk about all

of the virtues of meekness. But today I want to

focus on one very practical element of meekness.

As I was talking.

To the Lord and praying, I asked what is most

helpful for us right now?

And here's the big idea, the main thought that I want.

To communicate today, that is Meekness is the strength to

handle criticism. Meekness is the strength to handle criticism. And

the best way I can describe this is by telling

a story. I've been in church ministry for over sixteen years,

and in that time, I've been in a lot of meetings.

I've been in a lot of church meetings. I've been

in a variety of meetings, strategy meetings, finance meetings, business meetings,

board meetings, all types of meetings. And in those years,

I think it is a conservative estimate to say that

I've probably been in about four thousand hours of meetings,

maybe more.

That's just conservative.

But let me tell you about the one meeting that

stands out the most in my mind. This one meeting,

there was about fifty or sixty of us pastors of

churches gathered together. It was a denominational meeting for the movement,

and the denominational leader was leading this meeting. And around

that same time, that leader had.

Made a decision.

There was a good decision, it was the right decision,

it was a biblical decision. But there was a faction

of pastors in the denomination that disagreed with that decision.

And so as we were at this meeting.

The leader began to address the group, and he acknowledged

that there were some in the room who disagreed with

that particular decision, and he was about to explain how

we were going to have a cooperative, productive discussion together.

But before he could finish speaking, someone in the back

of the room interrupted him and shouted and said some

language that I'm not allowed to say or repeat on

this platform, and insulted that leader.

And then that person stormed out.

And then a second person spoke up, who happened to

be sitting next to me, was the first time we

had ever met, spoke up and did the same thing,

hurled insults, accusations, criticized and questioned the leader's integrity and character,

and then he stormed out, after throwing his metal water

bottle against the wall on his.

Way out in anger.

So there was anger, there's high emotions, hot tempers, and

all eyes were on that leader.

What would he do? How would he respond?

His integrity had been attacked, his reputation had been questions,

his motives.

Had been attacked.

Let me tell you what I saw next is probably

the greatest demonstration of meekness that I've ever witnessed. That

leader stood in front of that group, and then he

gave the floor to anyone who wanted to speak their mind,

including those who disagreed, including more people who gave personal

attacks against the leader, who questioned his motives, who questioned

his integrant, who spoke harshly, And yet that leader did

not get defensive, He did not argue back, and he

never interrupted a single person. He let everyone share what

they wanted to share for an hour. He stood there

in meekness, and yet he did not change that decision

because it was the right decision.

It was the godly.

Decision, the biblical decision. That's what meekness is. And here's

that's what I've learned. Meek people crave righteousness, not power.

Meek people want to be righteous, they want to be

like Jesus. They don't want to crave power and control.

You see, in that contentious meeting, that leader was making

a righteous decision, a biblical decision. But in that meeting,

that leader lost control, he gave up power.

And yet he didn't get defensive.

Yet he didn't argue, and he stayed true to the

righteous decision. Meek people crave righteousness over power. What does

Jesus say here in our text. Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who

hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Earlier I described George Washington's criticism, How do you think

he handled his critics well?

By and large, he ignored them.

A friend of Washington's wrote him a letter and encouraging

him to defend himself publicly.

And here's what Washington wrote back.

He said, I'm sorry to find that you have taken

any notice of the scurless letter, the criticism. I had

resolved to take no notice of it. Washington's been considered

by history a great leader. He led the continental Army

that defeated the British. He was the first president of

the Constitutional Convention. He was the first president of the

United States. Great leader, but none of those accomplishments was

his greatest leadership moment. His strongest and greatest leadership moment

came at the end of his presidency. George Washington had

served two four year terms as president, and there was

no rule or law limiting a president to two terms.

That came over one hundred and fifty years later, and

many of his supporters and many people in the nation

wanted George Washington.

To serve a third term a fourth term.

He could be president as long as he was alive,

because he was so popular and well loved. In fact,

there were some who were so loyal to him. They

advocate kated doing away with the presidency and making him king.

But he wanted to be righteous, not just hold onto power,

and so after two terms he resigned and declined to

seek reelection. He turned over power because he believed that

was the right thing for a young republic to set

the example of a peaceful transfer of power. Meek people

crave righteousness over power. You don't need power to be strong.

Meekness is strength, even if you feel like you're not

in control.

Don't you want to be righteous? Don't you want to be.

More like Jesus today than you were yesterday.

I think there's some of us here.

We want to be righteous parents, righteous spouses, and how

we're leading our family. Someone listening you might want to

be a righteous employer or business owner leading your business.

I gotta imagine that there are some who want to

be a righteous student, a righteous classmate, a righteous roommate,

a righteous coworker. You want to reflect Jesus in what

you do. Righteous meek people crave righteousness. Look again at

our text, Look at our six Jesus says, blessed are

those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Notice these two verbs hunger and thirst.

This is talking about craving, desiring something like you're hungry

for it.

You're thirsty for it.

When these words were written in Greek by Matthew, these

verbs hunger and thirst are written in a unique way.

In proper Greek grammar in the first century, it would

be appropriate to use these verbs to say you hunger

and thirst for a portion of something. So I hunger

for some food, I'm thirsty for some water.

Nobody would say I am hungry.

For all of the food in all of the world,

or I am thirsty for all of the water on earth. However,

the way these verbs are written in Greek, they're written

that way to say hung and thirst for all of

the righteousness. Hunger and thirst for perfect righteousness, the best righteousness.

Hunger and thirst for God's righteousness. Meet people crave the

righteousness of God, the best righteousness. Last month, Pastor James

and I were traveling out of town. We were visiting

another church to learn how they do some specialized ministry

programs in our meetings that they were in the afternoon,

so we had the morning to ourselves. And both James

and I enjoy coffee. Well, let me rephrase that. I

like good coffee. James likes dark caffeinated water.

He's not picky. I mean he'll drink any type of coffee.

He'll drink diner coffee, drive through coffee, homemade coffee. He's

not picky. As long as it's hot, he'll drink it.

I'm a little bit picky. I am a little bit

of a coffee snob. I like the best coffee. I

want the best coffee that I can get. I crave

good coffee. And so we had the morning to ourselves

and we were gonna go find coffee. So the night

before I'd been on my phone looking for the best

coffee shops, reading reviews, looking at ratings, and I found

the one that I think had the best coffee in

the area. And so we drove to this coffee shop,

and as we were driving, James asked a logical question.

He asked, is this coffee shop on the way to

our meeting?

Well, not exactly.

In fact, it was a fifteen minute drive the opposite direction,

so we drove thirty minutes or more out of our

way so I could get the best coffee. Meek people

crave the best righteousness. They want the righteousness of God.

They want the best. They want to be like Jesus.

Meek people will do whatever it takes to be like Jesus.

And I believe that righteousness.

Is proven by how you handle criticism. Your integrity, your character,

your reputation is put to the test when you are

criticized harshly and unfairly.

And I believe that when we look at the words.

Of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount Matthew five

six and seven, his words give us a picture of

what it looks like to be meek and righteous in

the Kingdom. You see, the world will say things like,

defend yourself when you are criticized. What does Jesus say?

He says, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek,

turn to them the other cheek.

Also, that's meek and righteous.

The way the world says, get even with somebody who's

wrong you, Jesus says, love your enemies and pray.

For those who persecute you. That's meek and righteous.

The world says, take control and don't be taken advantage of. Well,

Jesus says, release control and if anybody, if anybody forces

you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

That means being taken advantage of. That's meek and righteous.

The world says, if you want to.

Be respected, you got to assert yourself. But Jesus says,

settle matters quickly with your adversary. A Sermon on the

Mount teaches us how to live meek and righteous in

the Kingdom of God, and it is the opposite of

the way of the world. Your righteousness will be proven

by how you handle criticism. Meek and righteous might be

coming clean about a mistake or a failure where the

world tells you to hide it, covered up, lie about it,

a meek and righteous personal own it. For a business owner,

meek and righteous might mean honoring the contract or the agreement,

the greed upon price, although things have changed and maybe

your profit's shrink. Meek and righteous might be allowing a

coworker the first choice to choose the schedule or the

best shifts that they want first. Meek and righteous people

live this Kingdom way the way of Jesus, and it's

tested by how you handle criticism. Now, it's possible that

somebody at this point might be wondering, well, don't we

need some criticism or some critical feedback if we want

to get better, if we want to improve, Yes, of course,

but I call that feedback. I think it's important for

us to distinguish the difference between feedback and criticism. We

need feedback, after all, the Book of Proverbs tells us

in chapter fifteen, listen to good advice if you want

to live well.

Here's the difference. Feedback can be helpful, but.

Criticism is unfair and undeserved. Meek people discern feedback from criticism.

For example, feedback helps you become more righteous. Criticism attacks righteousness.

Over the years, I've received both feedback and criticism about

my preaching. One of the best pieces of feedback that

I've received was years ago a mentor another preacher gave

me feedback and he said, Andrew, sometimes you're so intense

and that could be intimidating, so you need to try

and smile more. That's good feedback because that's helpful to

me in my ministry. I've also been criticized I remember

one time someone criticized me and they said, Andrew, it

seems like every time you preach, you always talk about

the cross. It's like the same thing every time. Well

I took that as a compliment. Actually, See feedback is helpful,

helps you become more righteous. Feedback is often objective. Criticism

is often accusative. See feedback is objective. Hey, here's the situation,

here's the facts, here's some advice. But criticism is usually

emotionally charged. It's personalized. Often criticism is a cute and

it uses a lot of charged you language.

You never, you should? You don't? You think?

You always like That kind of language is usually found

in criticism. Feedback heals criticism wounds. The best feedback I've

received is from people who want to help me succeed.

Once I criticized somebody in front of a group of people,

spoke harshly to them, and my words.

That I said wounded them.

Well, my friend Christine later that day pulled me aside gently, meekly,

pointed out my error lovingly, and encouraged me to apologize

because she wanted to help heal the damage, the wounds

that my words had done.

She wanted what was best for me. That's feedback.

Feedback is about helping you, whereas criticism is often about

the critic themselves. Good feedback is helping you get better,

helping you succeed. But often criticism is about the critic themselves.

Psychologists call this type of criticism projecting. A critic might

be projecting their insecurity when they criticize you harshly or unfairly,

or they might be bullying you with criticism to try

and make a power player or gain some control or

assert some dominance.

It's about them, it's not about you. We all need feedback.

Feedback helps us, criticism hurts and attacks. When we look

at our text, in verse five, Jesus says, blessed are

the meek, for what they will inherit the earth. There's

a promise. He makes a promise. When Jesus said these words,

he was not the first person to say these words.

He's actually quoting a promise in the Old Testament.

In Psalm thirty seven, we read, but the meek shall

inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance

of peace. So there's a promise here in the words

of Jesus. In the Psalm thirty seven. There's a promise

the meek shall what inherit the earth. God's promising an

inheritance to meet people. What is an inheritance based on

It's based on trust. If you are inheriting something, you

are trusting the other person to be good on their

word that you will receive what they have. You don't

own it, yet you're trusting them. Meek people trust in God.

Meet people trust God to handle their critics. The greatest

test of meekness is whether you will respond to criticism

defensively or not.

Meekness.

Criticism will test your trust in God, trusting that.

He will handle it. He will take care of it.

Criticism will challenge you.

It will tempt you to take matters in your own hands,

to fight back, to get defensive, or will you trust

in God. Let me give you an example. We find

here in the pages of Scripture. We read in numbers twelve,

verse three. Now, the man Moses was very meek, more

than all the people who were on the face of

the earth. Now that's some pretty high praise for Moses.

He's more meek than anybody else. When he was a

great leader, he led Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

He led them to the Promised Land. But if you

know Moses's biography, you know that he was not always

a meek and humble leader. Moses was born in Egypt

to an Israelite flat family. His family was slaves, but

through a certain series of events, Moses became adopted by

an Egyptian family, but not just any Egyptian family, Fairo's family,

the king of Egypt.

And so now Moses grew up as a boy with

his tension in his identity.

His relatives, his family are slaves, his blood is slaves.

But now he's growing up in this privilege of the

King's home. And it all came to a head one

day when Moses saw an Egyptian slave master beating an

Israelite slave, and it enraged Moses, and Moses seized the

slave master and he killed him, and he hid the body.

He let anger get the best of him. I also

wonder what else was Moses feeling. Was he feeling some

sort of insecurity or some shame that his relatives are

suffering and he's had this privilege, and maybe he needs

to prove something or assert some power. You see, when

Moses tried to take control. Everything got out of control.

When Pharaoh found out he wanted Moses dead, Moses had

to flee into the wilderness until God brought him back.

How often are we tempted to take things into our

own own hands? When you're offended, when you're insulted immediately,

Ego says, get defensive.

Protect yourself when you're wronged imediately.

Insecurity says you need to lash out when you're criticized,

when you're attacked, when you're gossiped about immediately. That defensiveness

says you need to get even, You need to speak

your mind, set the record straight. How often do we

try to take matters into our own hands. Meek people

don't take matters into our own hands, because meek people

trust God's hands to work it out. Later in Moses's life,

he faced some terrible criticism, some harsh criticism.

See Moses had a brother and a.

Sister, Aaron and Miriam, And one day they did not

like Moses's new wife, and they let their opinion be known.

Sometimes your harshest criticism will come from those who are

closest to you.

Numbers twelve, verse one.

We read Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had

married a Cushite woman. They said, has the Lord spoken

only through Moses? Has it He's spoken through us too?

But the Lord heard them. I want to point out

here this really wasn't about Moses's wife, because what does

Miriam and Aaron say?

They say, hasn't the Lord spoken us to? Can't we lead?

This was about power, This was about control.

Sometimes those who criticize you are jealous of what you

have that they don't have. And so what happens next?

And we keep reading? Then the Lord came down in

a pillar of cloud. He stood at the entrance to

the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two

of them stepped forward, he said, listen to my words.

When there is a prophet among you, I the Lord

reveal myself to them in visions. I speak to them

in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my house with him. I

speak face to face, clearly, and not in riddles. He

sees the form of the Lord. Why then, were you

not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the

anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.

Now, look closely at these verses.

Can you tell me did you notice what did Moses say?

Look closely at the text? What did Moses say to

defend himself against the criticism? He said nothing. He was silent,

because meek people trust God to handle their critics. One day,

I received an email that was full of harsh criticism,

unfair criticism, and it was surprising. I felt disrespected, I

felt hurt. So what did I do in response to

this harsh critical email. Well, I got to typing, and

I went line by line and point for point, explaining

why this person was wrong and pointing out their error

and proving my self righteousness.

And I hit sent.

And later I vented to a friend and complained and

told them that I had sent that off. And I

was expecting my friend to be sympathetic, but I'm surprised

when my friend just calmly said, Andrew, I wish you

had not responded. I wish you had just let it go,

even if it is unfair, undeserved, Just let it go.

That was good feedback for my friend. I was being defensive.

Let me tell you something about defensiveness I've learned in

my life. When I feel the most defensive, it's because

of some hidden insecurity in my heart, in my life.

Defensiveness is a coping mechanism for insecurity. When I feel defensive,

it's touching on an insecurity. Whether for me, it's about

being insecure about being a young leader, younger than my peers,

or it might be defensiveness about not having all of

the answers, or being asked a question that I don't

know the answer to. It might be defensive about making

a decision that turns out to be wrong and then

I have to backtrack. But those are some insecurities. And

when I get the most defensive, it's because of an insecurity.

Defensiveness is a coping mechanism for insecurity. Defensiveness is a

form of self righteousness, not godly righteousness.

So what do we do with criticism?

You know, so practically when we're in the moment, when

there is emotion and words and conflict, Like, how do

we handle in the moment? Briefly, just a couple of things. First,

speak calmly, Speak calmly. Your words have power. Your words

carry me, Your words can influence the situation.

Speak calmly.

We read in Proverbs fifteen a soft answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger. Have you ever

seen this image before? It says keep calm and carry

on now, long before the Internet memes, long before T shirts.

This was a banner.

Produced by the British government in nineteen thirty nine and

these posters were hung up all over London because at

that time Nazi Germany was threatening to bomb and attack London,

and so all of these posters were there as a reminder,

keep calm, carry on, ignore the threat, don't pay attention

to the fear, keep calm. Criticism could feel like an attack,

attacking your character, attacking your motives.

Keep calm, carry on, Speak calmly.

The former coach of the Indianapolis Colts was Tony Dungee,

and Dungee is famous for his calm leadership style. When

a lot of coaches yell and scream, a dungeonous famous

for speaking calmly even when he was correcting or disciplining

his players. He chose to teach them instead of humiliate them.

He once said that.

You don't have to scream to get people's attention in

a calm style. I believe that this is most applicable

to those of us who are parents. I don't know

about you, but if you're a parent like me, and

there's conflict, there's criticism when you're disciplining a child, teaching

a child, meekness just goes out the window sometimes and

voices get raised and emotions run high. But let me

encourage you. If you're a parent, take this advice. Take

a meek approach. Speak calmly when you're disciplining, when you're correcting,

speak firmly, but speak calmly. Look your child in the eyes,

look for a window into their soul to speak.

Truth calmly and see what effect it has.

A couple of months ago, I was walking my dog

in the neighborhood and we were walking down our street

and we witnessed some neighborhood drama. There was another dog

walker on the opposite side of the street. He was

walking his dog on a leash when another dog came

running up.

Without a leash.

It got loose, it got out, and the two dogs

were saying hello, and the owner of the loose dog

came running up frantically, and things kind of escalated, and

then the first dog walker started shouting at the other

dog owner, and then this one started using exclatives and

then insults and then threats, and it just elevated and

then they.

Were just arguing.

And the whole time my dog was sitting calmly across

the street, and I think I heard him whisper blessed

all the peacemakers. And after all of this verbal attack

and the verbal assaults, they left.

But it didn't stop there.

It all spilled over onto Facebook and the neighborhood page.

There is all this hate and all this violence.

I think the owners needed a leash more than the

dogs did. When you're facing criticism in the moment, put

a leash on your emotions. Put a leash on your emotions.

Name what you're feeling when you're attacked, when you're criticized,

when there's conflict, Name which are you feeling angry? Are

you feeling afraid? Are you feeling insecure or feeling wounded

and hurt? Name what you're feeling. Tell yourself, I'm feeling this,

and then put a leash on the emotions. We read

in Proverbs nineteen sensible people control their temper. They earn

respect by overlooking wrongs. Wise people put a leash on

their emotions. They put a leash on anger. They put

a leash on insecureity. They put a leash on defensiveness.

And notice what the last part of this verse says.

First part says, put a leash on your emotions. And

then what it says when you've controlled your emotions, when

you put a leash on your emotions, you will earn

respect by what overlooking wrongs. When you put a leash

on your emotions, you're able to forgive. That's what it

all comes down to. You can let go of the offense,

let go of the criticism. In a moment, we're gonna

have an opportunity to respond to what we've heard. But

I first want to close with one more story. Many

of you have heard me describe my grandfather. He was

a spiritual influence in my life. He was successful in business,

and he was very generous with his money. And at

the end of his career, he had one last big

business deal, a real estate deal, and he was investing

most of his personal wealth millions of dollars into this

investment deal because he wanted to take the profit from

this real estate project and start a trust fund that

would provide scholarships and education for people couldn't afford to

go to college.

It was gonna be his legacy.

Well, about a year into the project, my grandfather discovered

something terrible. He learned that the vice president of his

company was stealing money from the company and the project,

tens of thousands of dollars. He found out that he

was avoiding paying taxes.

There were tax crimes involved.

My grandfather also uncovered that the vice president, without my

grandfather's knowledge, had signed contracts on my grandfather's behalf, making

he and his company responsible for millions of dollars in agreements.

My grandfather learned that because of all that, most of

his personal wealth his investment was gone.

He was devastated, he was humiliated, he felt betrayed.

Well, the law caught up with the vice president and

he was arrested for fraud and tax crimes. But none

of that was going to get my grandfather's money back.

In order to get his money back, he would need

to sue this man in civil court, and his attorneys

said he had a great case, strong case, he would

win and collect damages. But my grandfather decided not to sue.

He chose meekness, He chose to forgive, and he also

chose to honor those contracts that have been forged because

he didn't want somebody else to suffer because of one

person's sin. It's probably the hardest thing that he did

in business. And on top of that, when that vice

president had his court hearing for his crimes, my grandfather

went to the court hearing and he advocated with the

judge to be lenient in his sentencing. You see, my

grandfather didn't want to prove that he was right.

He wanted to be righteous.

He wanted to live like Jesus would have us live

in God's kingdom. And so I want to invite all

of us to respond to what we've heard today. Would

you bow your head and close your eyes with me

as you're praying. I wonder if you've been holding on

to some criticism. I wonder if you've been holding onto

an insult. Someone's attacked you, someone's lives, someone's hurt you.

Would you take a moment right now and in prayer,

ask God for the strength and the courage to forgive,

and then I'll close us. Let's pray together, Father God,

we thank you that we have forgiveness for our sin,

and Jesus that our sin is away. You do not

hold it against us because of Jesus, and so got

to pray that you help us to extend that same

grace to those who wrong us, who offend us, who

hurt us. God, may we be the people you call

us to be, the meek people who reflect you, who

carry your grace into work, into school.

God, give us the faith to trust.

You with all that criticism and all those challenges. Help

us to walk by faith when we leave here today.

We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen, I'm gonna invite

you to stand with me, and we're gonna transition into

a time of prayer and anointing. I'm gonna invite our

prayer partner team to come forward. Our prayer partners are

going to be available to pray with anyone who would

like to receive prayer. The Bible tells us that if

anyone is sick, if anyone is hurting, to call the leaders,

the elders of the church. They will anoint and pray

for that person. So, if you need prayer today, come forward.

If you have an illness to diagnosis and you.

Want prayer for that, come forward.

If you've got a relationship that needs healed. If you've

got a work thing that needs a miracle, come forward.

We want to pray for you because there is power

in prayer. As we've talked about meekness and righteousness, we

know that meek and righteous is not something we produce

in our own flesh. We need the Spirit of God

to make us meek and righteous. I believe meek people

righteous people are anointed people anointed by the grace of God.

And so if you want more of God's anointing, more

of his presence, you can come down the Center aisle

and Genial connect you with a prayer partner, but you're

invited to come