Blessedness of Selflessness

Well, I want you to turn with me this morning to the chapter we've been in, Matthew chapter 5, the Beatitudes, but investing in eternity.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And we started out saying, Blessed are those that invest in eternity.

And we started out with the foundational message that Jesus said, Blessed is your life, and useful is your life because you are investing in eternity.

And that's the whole purpose of the Christian life is to literally, my kingdom come in the Lord's Prayer, is to bring the kingdom of God's picture of what the kingdom of God is right here on this earth through living out what Christ's likeness really is.

Can I get an amen?

That's the whole purpose of this new series that we've been embarking on.

And we said in order to do that, then we must do what?

We must have something to invest.

We must make those deposits.

And we've been looking at the eight deposits that the Lord wants us to deposit in eternity or the Beatitudes.

It's really this whole Sermon on the Mount, chapters five, six, and seven.

And so we are now in the I love this one.

In Matthew chapter five, he says, Blessed are the what?

Meek.

Verse 5, for they shall inherit the earth.

Now, does everybody have an outline?

Everybody have an outline with me.

And for you that are online, you've got the outline.

And for you like my wife that cheat, and go ahead for you that have your embingies over here cheating, the outline and the things already filled in, so you just download it and bum, bum, bum.

And that's good.

That means you can pay more attention to me.

So that's fine.

I don't mind that.

We're in a different generation.

I meant you used to, when we first started using an overhead projector in my young 30s, people thought we were, oh, you're so advanced, so I can actually take notes.

And now my goodness, you just go boom, boom, boom, it's done.

So uh it is amazing.

But thank God we're reaching thousands of people.

I have pastors right now, preachers in Africa, that'll be watching us this week.

They text me all the time and email me all the time.

And uh Ben's dad, Ben's dad uh watches us all the time.

And uh uh our other pastor there, Ruben, he watches us all the time.

Our church plants there.

So it's amazing.

It really is.

And they always watch me.

There must be it, it's gotta be up at there's what, eight or nine hours difference, Ben.

Yesterday morning after I got through with my little word for the week, your dad collects in good preaching, preacher.

So I thought to myself, my goodness, he's up at 12 o'clock at night or something.

But uh anyway, it's just amazing how many people, and I know with the COVID, we've got a lot of our people that are watching us.

They just don't feel safe to come back, and I'm not gonna judge them.

Uh, you have to do what God tells you to do, and um, that's the way I feel about that.

Amen.

But we're looking at, I think, one of the greatest, and I really believe this, words in the New Testament.

In fact, one of the greatest words, hey, in the religious community.

In fact, I'm not so sure, it's probably the greatest individual word that the Lord used to describe what a real Christian is.

And it's the word, now watch, meekness.

Meekness.

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

What a powerful statement.

The word meek is hardly one of an honorable word today.

It really isn't.

Generally speaking, nowadays it carries the thought of not meekness, but weakness.

It carries with it the thought of uh spinelessness and people that will not stand up for anything.

But in the term meek, as employed in the Lord's day, however, was one of the great ethical words of the Greek culture.

I mean, it was one of the most powerful words, and it was defined in one word.

We would have to choose, and here's what they defined it as.

Ready?

Write it down.

Selflessness.

That's what it was defined as.

In fact, if Jesus was really speaking in person, he might have said it this way: Blessed are the selfless, for they shall inherit the earth.

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

And with this definition in mind, I want us to consider this morning three aspects of the life of selflessness.

This is going to be powerful, folks, because I'm gonna be honest with you.

I'm not a real meek person.

Imagine that.

That hurt.

But the older I've gotten, I've gotten sweeter.

I used to hate that word.

I'm not sweet, I'm tough.

But it's gentleness.

Meekness is gentleness.

So let's look at three powerful aspects of this life of selflessness or gentleness or meekness.

Number one, the principal virtues of a selfless life.

When he says, Blessed are the meek, there are at least three outstanding virtues gathered up in this one little word.

When I was doing this word study, I said, Oh my goodness.

You know what I was doing as I've been working on this message?

Hours and hours this week.

I've been going, ooh, ooh, ouch, oh, oh God, I'm a wretched, no good sinner.

Whoo! Mercy.

There's nothing gentle about me.

And then I started saying, God, forgive me.

Because this is the one word that means more to you than anything else.

Because remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 29?

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek.

For I am, let me listen, meek, gentle, and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your souls.

Wow.

I said, Lord, I really do want that in my life.

I really do.

And he said, Okay, preacher, here's how you get it.

Three things I want us to look at this morning under the principal virtues of a selfless life.

Number one, it's an attitude of yieldingness toward God.

Look at what David said in Psalms 25, verse 9.

Psalms 25:9

The humble or the meek.

He guides in justice and the humble, the meek, he teaches his way.

In other words, one meaning of the word meek here has to do with obedience to God's command.

And then I thought about it, isn't that what Jesus said in John 14, 15?

If you love me, what?

Say it with me, church.

Keep my commandments.

It's a term that was used in an animal uh situation where the animal would come to the point after training that they accepted the control of their master.

So it was submissive control.

And I thought, oh my goodness, am I, Lord, am I really submissive and allow you to control everything in my life?

And I knew I couldn't say yes.

Because that's not true.

And then I started, I made the mistake of asking myself, how much of that submission control do I really allow the Lord to have?

I'm not gonna tell you what I came up with, but it wasn't good.

Because, see, I think I know it all.

I think I can handle it.

I think I know what's best for me.

I mean, don't you think I know what's best for me?

I'm 67 years old.

I know what's best for me.

Just a thought.

See, the yoke precedes the learning of meekness.

It involves the entire dependence upon, hey, the believer, the entire uh dependence of the believer upon Christ.

It really does.

Such yieldingness is the first duty.

It is, and the highest virtue of man.

And indeed, this is the root of every other virtue.

If we don't learn meekness, we can't learn any of the other virtues.

Because, see, if you're not meek, and if somebody says, I don't like this, I'm not meek, I'm tough.

But if we are not meek and gentle, folks, listen to me.

That means then we cannot submit and allow Christ to control us.

Oh, is that not?

Hey, can we all say together, oh me?

And we think we're doing fine because we're just, yeah, we're being successful.

No, not if he's not controlling every part of our life.

We're not doing too well.

Whoa, that hurts.

So it's an attitude of yieldingness toward God.

Look at the second thing.

It is an hey, attitude of lowliness.

Now, what's this?

This is good, church, toward self.

Look at what Paul said.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

Oh, I tell you what, when I read that verse, the Holy Spirit said, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Just work me over.

Because I got to thinking about that now.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

But you say now, Pastor, I'm not selfish.

Pastor, I'm not conceited.

But here's the problem with that.

That's what I was trying to tell the Lord.

You know I'm not, and he never answered me back.

Because I am.

Because I sometimes will be so, should I say, strong that I do not allow Christ to influence my decisions.

I just decide, well, I know he's okay with this, I'm gonna do it.

Am I the only one like that?

Oh, so what does that mean?

That means he said, preacher, you're a little conceited.

You're right.

Hey, I've been in the ministry 40 plus years.

I know what I'm doing.

That's really being humble and meek, isn't it?

I don't need anybody to tell me anything, especially this younger generation.

Those young whippers snappers, they don't know nothing.

And that's a double negative on persons.

I got some good English teachers in here.

They get me every time.

But here we see it.

Here we see it.

Look, until we come to the point, meekness or selflessness is not so much what we bring to God.

Now, listen, or even something which God bestows.

It is rather the sense of us coming to the point, realizing that we are totally nothing without Him.

Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches.

He that abides with me and I and Him, the same shall bring forth much fruit.

But now notice what he says next.

But without me you can do nothing.

So until we come to the point that we realize that He is all things and that He wants to be all things in us, we're not meek.

We're not gentle.

You know what we are?

I'll take you out of it.

You know what I am?

Selfish.

I didn't realize how selfish I really am.

But I'm selfish.

God forgive me.

God help me.

Amen.

Amen.

Is that not what he's saying?

He's here's what he's saying.

Until we come to that nothingness, which comes only when we truly see how God is all and that allow God to be all in us.

Without this lowliness and humility, we cannot learn anything of God's purpose for our life.

Did you hear me?

Until we come to that point, we cannot learn any of God's purpose for our life because we are in control.

You want to know what the Lordship of Christ is?

He being in total control.

That's what it means.

And that's what we see.

In fact, Quintilian, the great Roman teacher of Orator, said of this of some of his disciples.

They would no doubt be excellent students if they were not already convinced of their own knowledge.

Hello! You know, we would be real good Christians if we didn't think we already knew it all.

Or if we didn't want to do it our way.

That's a better way of saying it.

Amen?

Or oh can we say it again?

O me.

There's a lot of omens today.

And we see that.

John the Baptist.

Remember John the Baptist?

Jesus came on the scene.

John the Baptist, you know what Jesus said of John the Baptist?

Listen to this.

This is powerful.

He said, There's no man greater than John the Baptist.

In fact, years later, when the name of John the Baptist was mentioned, people will still tremble at the power of John the Baptist.

But when Jesus came on the scene, you know what Jesus said?

I meant what John said?

John said, go tell him, go tell him that he must increase and I must decrease.

In John 3.30.

Do you remember what he said when he was asked, Who are you?

He says, I'm a nobody.

I'm just a mouthpiece.

Wow.

See, John understood meekness, gentleness.

What about the great apostle Paul?

He said, I'm the least of the apostles, the man that wrote most of the New Testament.

Oh, and yes, the chief of sinners, 1 Corinthians 15, 9, he says.

And so it was an attitude of lowliness towards self.

And now that's not saying you go around acting like, oh, I'm something humble.

No.

That's not it at all.

You know what it is?

It's a gentleness, a controlness, that you know that God's in control, and whatever happens, it's his will.

And you would rather him to be in charge of your life than you, because you know he knows what's best for you.

That's contentment.

That's peace.

You don't have to turn to drugs and pills when you have that kind of contentment.

Amen.

So, but look at the third thing: attitude of lowliness towards self.

It was an attitude of yieldingness toward God.

And then watch this: an attitude of gentleness toward man.

Paul exhorts us in Colossians 3:12, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering.

Colossians 3:12

Oh, listen to what Aristotle had a great deal to say about meekness.

When I saw this statement about Aristotle, I said, wow, what truth.

I had never really thought of it this way.

But it was the method to define every virtue as the, in other words, meekness is the virtue that God uses to, are you ready?

To balance everything between the two extremes.

When you have, for example, and I really like that, he Aristotle said, he says that virtue meant the happy medium between excessive anger and much anger.

Thus, the root meaning, listen to what he said, this is so good, of the word meekness suggests and is gentleness.

Now let me ask something.

How much of the gentleness attitude do you express?

Let's just start at home to your wife or to your husband.

What's the scale to one to ten?

Don't answer.

What about your children?

What about the people you work with?

What about your church people?

What about people you meet that you think that you don't like and they're arrogant and you know it and you think you ought not to be their friend?

Or you don't want anything to do with them.

By the way, it didn't say that.

Scripture didn't say that you're just to be gentle to the good people.

Well, that's not true, too.

Codes go to your family.

Sometimes you're not gentle to your husband and ladies, sometimes uh met men, and you're not gentle to your wife.

You know why?

We take them for granted.

Can we all say oh me?

You know what's funny?

We're more gentle to our animals sometimes than we are to each other.

I know you're guilty.

That's the first time I've ever been able to get you, Rosemary.

Usually, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey.

Is that not true?

I mean, you just having a fight with your wife and you're going at it, and all of a sudden you don't, oh, hey, baby, hey, hey, sweet boy.

Come to daddy.

And you just blessed your wife out.

Hello, you okay out there?

That's it.

We know it's true.

We know it's true.

David said this.

Listen.

David said this in one of the beautiful outbursts of praise.

He says, You have also given me the shield of your salvation and your gentleness, watch, has made me great.

Wow.

2 Samuel 22, 36.

That's awesome.

To be meek means we no longer protect ourselves.

Write this down.

To be meek means we no longer protect ourselves.

Are you ready for another old me?

It means that we no longer protect ourselves because we know there's nothing worth protecting.

Wow.

That hurt.

That was a dagger to me.

Well, I'm the preacher.

Doesn't matter.

What about Abraham, Moses, and David?

Remember that?

Abraham, remember Abraham?

He had the choice to choose the best land, but he subsided and gave Lot the choice.

He was so gentle to Lot.

And then what about Moses?

Remember?

Remember when Miriam and Aaron, his brother, came against him and was uh uh just, I meant viciously criticizing him for his leadership and all that, and Moses did nothing.

In fact, Numbers 12 says Moses was one of the most humble men in the whole Bible.

He did nothing, he did not retaliate against them, but God stood in and came in and took vengeance, and you know what he did?

He took up Moses's, hey, hey, cause, and guess what?

Miriam was cursed with leprosy.

Avenge not yourself, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

I will repay.

Romans 12, 9.

Oh, folks, that is so convicting.

And what about David with Absalom?

Remember when Absalom kicked him out of the kingdom and really was trying to kill his own dad?

And then Shemini, you remember him?

Yeah, I meant he came up and started cursing David, lamb blasting David, giving him all this.

And David's a group of about eight to nine hundred, they call them the rejects back there, really, with that had gone with him when he was kicked out of his kingdom.

They said, Let us kill him.

And David said, No, no.

It's God's will.

Gotta deal with him.

God will even bless us for not doing harm.

He said that.

And he did.

He restored the kingdom.

Amen?

So we see the principal virtues of a selfless life.

Number two, the permanent values of a selfless life.

Look at this.

Blessed are the meek again.

1 John 2.17.

In the final analysis, the only qualities which abide are those which are spiritual.

And listen to what John said.

John said, He who does the will of God abides forever.

And since it is the will of God that we should be meek, it, hey, hey, it makes sense that only this kind of life, hey, has permanent value.

Do you realize that when I, man, when I saw that, I said, Oh, God, forgive me.

God, teach me to be more gentle in everything that I do.

Teach me, this is who you are.

And make me that.

Make me that.

Please.

In fact, let me tell you how valuable this is, this meekness.

Number one, under the permanent values of a cephalus life.

God the Father prizes this quality of life.

When I saw that, I just started begging God, forgive me, God, for being arrogant and prideful.

God, teach me, teach me to be gentle.

In fact, he's writing.

Are you ready, ladies?

What's this?

In 1 Peter chapter 3, he's writing to wives who were finding it difficult to live with unconverted husbands.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

And Peter advised, watch what he says.

A gentle and quiet spirit.

Now, men, don't you start saying amen.

A gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God, because let me remind us, men, that those principles that he just said means and are directed to us just as much as to the wife.

And I know you didn't like that, and I just lost you as a friend, but that's okay.

This is, folks, look, this is a remarkable statement.

Peter is telling us that God prizes the meek and the quiet spirit.

Hey, if this was the only text that dealt with meekness, it would be enough.

God prizes it.

No, it's not just, oh yeah, do this.

This is one of his prized commitments and commitments that he just, it means more to him than you'll ever know.

Is that not beautiful?

And then we see, hey, secondly, not only does the father prizes it, but look at the second thing, the son portrays it.

Jesus portrays this quality of life to us.

He could say, Learn from me, for I'm gentle, meek, and lowly in spirit.

He who was God of very gods, being found, hey, in an appearance as a man, humbled himself and became obedient to the cross, even, hey, to death himself.

Philippians 2.8, throughout his life, he displayed this humility and this meekness.

Listen to what he says in John 5.41.

This is so important.

Let me say something that I realized after this message.

Probably this meekness, this gentleness, this selflessness is probably the most prized secret to the Lord.

Now let me tell you how I came to that conclusion.

I just didn't make that statement.

Are you ready?

Let me show you.

Here's what Jesus said.

I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

That's John 6.38.

John 5.41.

I do not receive honor from men.

Now listen to this.

My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.

I have not come of myself.

John 7, 16 and 28.

And then listen to what he says.

I do nothing of myself.

I do not seek my own glory.

John 8, 28 and verse 50.

These words right here reveal the deepest secrets of Christ, Christ's life and work.

And by so living, now ready?

What's this?

Oh, I wrote this.

I got a big star.

By so living and dying, his humility became our salvation.

His humility became our salvation in order that our salvation might become his humility in us.

He died so that we would take on his character.

And his character was not his own, it was God the Father's.

What illumination and insight.

Wow.

Follow me.

Take up your cross and follow me.

I thought about that verse, Luke 9, 23.

And I what he's saying is, take up my cross and follow me in gentleness.

In selflessness.

In humility.

Oh, I'm guilty.

God the Father prizes this quality of life.

Jesus the Son portrays this quality of life.

And look at the third thing.

God the Spirit produces this quality of life in us.

Look at what he said in Galatians 5.22.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

Now here it is: long-suffering gentleness, goodness, meekness.

A temperance that cannot be compared with.

That's what it means to be spirit-filled.

If you're walking in the spirit, hey, let me tell you, I've got a detector to let you know right now.

You know how you can do things, and if something goes wrong, beep, beep, beep, beep.

Well, you know what the detector is of a spirit-filled Christian?

You ought to know by now.

What?

Love, joy, pity.

All right, but what?

Hey, the detector is gentleness.

Make this.

Hey, if you're walking around like a bulldog in a China shop and not being gentle, you're not spirit-filled.

When you want to retaliate and you want to fight back and you want to, and I love to fight back.

I'm not weak.

You don't want to push me around.

That's not spirit filledness.

That's flesh.

That's flesh.

Spirit filledness is gentleness, meekness, calmness.

Amen?

And I know what you're thinking.

Well, preacher's not too calm.

I told you, I've had my lunch eaten ten times this week.

God the Spirit, are you ready?

Produces the quality of life.

Whatever the Holy Spirit produces in us is a permanent value.

And it has supreme function to produce in us the humility of Christ in order that we might become truly humble.

Listen to what M.R.

Dehan II says.

Remember the little devotional books?

Daily bread.

Anybody ever use them?

Well, yeah, that's our generation.

But anyway.

True.

Mr.

DeHon II says that when we are meek, we will bear insults without lashing out in a proud resentment or retaliation.

I don't like that.

We'll thank God in every now.

Watch this.

When he wrote this, I wrote this down.

We'll thank God in every circumstance while using every circumstance.

Alright, now watch this.

We'll thank God for every circumstance, okay?

Using every circumstance.

Ready?

Good or bad, as an occasion to submit to him.

Wow.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Boy, if our country and our leadership could really do this, we would have a whole different country.

And why can we do that?

Why can we submit to him in circumstances regardless if they're good or bad?

Are you ready?

You know it.

Romans 8 28.

Say it with me.

We know.

Say that with me.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

That's why we can do that.

That's why we can do that.

Whew! Man.

See, when we submit, it stems from goodness and godliness, which is a great strength.

And only the Holy Spirit can enable us to act and react in the spirit of meekness.

The last thing, not only do we have the principal virtues of a selfless life, the permanent values of a selfless life, but now get ready.

This is good.

The promised victories of a selfless life.

Look at this.

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

When you first read this, you kind of, what does that really mean, preacher?

Well, the principle here of the meek inheriting the earth can be illustrated.

Now, watch this.

In every era of life.

For example, in the animal realm, the mammoths, the big dinosaurs, have perished from the earth while the sheep still gaze on the hillsides.

How about that?

Isn't that good?

What about in a personal realm?

We recall Napoleon's famous testimony.

Listen to what he said.

The empire of Jesus Christ, built on love, has survived when kingdoms founded on force have toppled in swift ruin.

In the spiritual realm, we observe that he who does the will of God abides forever.

The promised victories of life of a selfless are two.

Number one, write it down.

The contentment of a present life.

Listen to Psalms 37 11.

Here's what it's saying.

Well, let me read verse then, let me tell you.

Man, this was enlightening to me.

The quiet, he said.

Here he says.

But the meek shall inherit the earth, same what Jesus said, but notice what else it says.

And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Whoa! Shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Here's what that means.

When you're walking in gentleness and you're submitting to the control of Christ, there is a peace of God that passes all understanding, that keeps your hearts and minds in and through Christ Jesus that cannot be, hey, provided by man.

There's a total contentment, folks.

So if you're running around worried about everything, hey, hey, hey, because it's you're trying to control everything.

Amen.

Owe me.

You know what?

I'm serious.

Listen to me.

I've had a heart searching this week.

Oh.

Susan's asked me a couple of times, you okay?

And I started saying, no.

But that wouldn't have been a general response.

So I just no.

I didn't say anything.

But do you understand?

Listen to me, church.

Listen to me.

When we're in control, we're out of control.

God just gave me that.

When we're in control, we're out of control.

We're not submitting to the Lordship of Christ.

And because of that, there's no peace.

There's no gentleness.

There's no contentment.

And then the second thing.

Oh, oh, oh, I oh, I about missed this.

Thank you, Holy Spirit.

Listen, listen to this illustration.

Sammy Morris was a devoted African Christian who came to America to attend school.

Although his pathway for service for Christ was not easy, his difficulties never deterred him.

But perhaps he had learned what Jesus meant when he said, be meek and gentle.

Are you ready for this?

He ended up going to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.

And he was asked by the school's president what room he wanted.

Now that would be pretty exciting, would it?

The president of the university says, Sammy, Mr.

Sammy, what room do you want on this university?

I just started weeping when I heard the answer.

You know what he said?

I want the room that nobody else wants.

Folks, I'm not there.

I want to be.

I want to be there.

I really do.

I want the room that nobody else wants.

The president said he had to turn around because tears were just filling his eyes.

And he was asking himself the question, would I have said that?

And you know what his answer was?

Mine.

No.

I would have said, What's the best room you got?

That's what most of us would have said.

I want the room that's gonna stay with me.

I want the room that nobody else wants.

That's it.

And the last thing, when you get to that point, the attainment of a future life.

You know what that means?

That means you got a life that's content, contented.

You've got a life of fulfillment, regardless of your rich, your poor, you're educated, non-educated.

It doesn't matter.

Because your submission and your loyalty is to Christ.

Not I, but Christ.

Say that with me, church.

Not I, but Christ.

One more time.

Not I, but Christ.

Every head bow, every eye.