3. How to Be Blessed Every Day - Meekness, Mercy & Purity

One of the greatest qualities that every leader needs is meekness, power under restraint. Learn how meekness postures your for for effectiveness with others. 

Early in Jesus ministry, he sat down and gave 8 keys to blessing in the life of his followers. In this series we examine some of those attitudes that Jesus linked with specific blessings and how they are awarded. In this episode, learn about meekness, mercy and purity.

Transcript

Hey, I'm Josh Hallmark, and I want to thank you for listening to one of the Oaks podcasts. 

Remember this message from Isaiah chapter 61:

 God takes the seeds of brokenness and turns them into Oaks of Righteousness, and that is you.

We've been talking about this for a few weeks now. This is week four, I believe in a series: How to be Blessed Every Single Day. Last month, we really have hit this idea of personal growth and how things that we can do and this is kind of the vein I've been speaking of out of trying to finish this series up today, because I want to move towards another topic. Another one of our core values is the church next month, which is more in the vein of honor. We'll talk more about that in the weeks to come.  Jesus gave us a sermon on how to be blessed. And so we talked about how important it is to, you know, I mean, instead of just robbing the self help book selection in the bookstore, wouldn't it be smart for us to go to the master himself, and see what he has to say about being blessed? as we've talked about a few things. Here's the verse we've looked at seeing the multitude Jesus went up on the mountain, sat down, started teaching, and he taught, he taught his disciples saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. There's the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek because they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. I'm sorry, both of those who thirst, hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be field. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God bless are those who are persecuted for the sake for theirs the kingdom having this eight different categories of attitudes to have Beatitudes, virtues to think about to consider. And then the blessings that come with those specific behavior sets, if you will, or those qualities that we embrace as we embrace those qualities. There's, there's things that come with that. And so we, what do we talk about already, we talked about week one was about being poor in spirit recognizing our near fundamental need for God. We talked about mourning, and about the importance of grieving our losses in life well, and because when we do that the Lord it positions us to be comforted. And then we talked last week about being a peacemaker. And how when we're a peacemaker, we're called the sons of God. And there's an inheritance factor there. There's an identity factor there when it comes to being Peacemaker. So that's what we talked about. And here's this one thought that I brought up last week and I'm really wanting to jump into this. I'm going to try to hit a few today, okay, instead of just talking about one subject I'm going to talk about I'm going to kind of, I want to get I want to get done with a series Okay, so, um, I can't cover the rest of the Beatitudes. So you're going to have this read those at home. let Jesus speak to you about that. There was something that we brought up last week that I want to revisit our I called it last week, two ministries that are going on in at the throne of God and I say ministry and quote, because it's not necessarily ministry in one case, we talked about this, this thing The Bible says we'll look at the verse in just a second that the accuser of the brethren is they and I accusing, and actually I'll just go to there's intercession. This is what it says revelation 1210, the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God day and night, so that the enemy's actually accusing us. And just one thing to know, he has been hurled down, you know, before this, it says, The kingdom of God has come. So he's been hurled down. I just remember that we have an announcement. Don't let me forget that and we'll do it in. But he says, The kingdom of our, our God, the kingdom of God has come therefore, the accuser of the brethren has been hurled down. So I want you to understand something that if you stand in the flow, this is I've been teaching this this week. In chapel we've been talking about encouragement. I've been talking about these two things, these two, these two different streams. There's the devil stream of accusation, and it says that he does it. Day and night. They are not there's a continual stream of accusation. And then but at the same time, by the way, that will end you see has been hurled down. So I'm just saying that's not an accusation is not a horse you want to bet on because it's going to be a losing horse, okay? So that you want to attach your life to things that are enduring things that will last forever This won't. And so. So there's the accusation. And then on the other side, the Bible says that Jesus is a high priest for us, and he's not he is touched by the feelings of our infirmities. In other words, he knows what's wrong with us. He knows the problems we have, and instead what he does he lives intercede, can you say lives to intercede so the devil lives to accuse or to make accusation? The Lord Jesus lives to plead your case. He knows what he knows about your income. distances, he knows about your insecurities. He knows about what's wrong with you. He knows everything about you. And yet he plead your case because he loves you. So these are these are the two streams. And I'm going to relate these to what I'm talking about today. So there's, there's intercession and accusation. And when I was teaching this, the kids and this helps me to teach this to young a younger crowd. I felt like I got a better way to say this. So there's accusation, and there's intercession, but it's really a little simpler than that. It's the stream of against and the stream of four. And what we talked about this week is you need to look down at your feet. And if you if the stream that you're standing in is just if it's pulling you in this direction of where I'm just against people. Like if you're talking about somebody, this is especially true in the midst of someone's when some in somebody else's imperfections, when you see something wrong with somebody, do you just talk about them, and you're against them. And this against flow it. If you're, if you're if that's the stream you're in, I want you to know that you're, you're partnering with the devil. I don't know how to say it. That's what he's doing. And you're doing it with him. And so what we taught the kids this week is just back out, right? You realize you're standing that strain back out, because the strain that the Lord wants us to be in, even in the midst of somebody else's issues, is that person might not be right, but I'm for them. I care about them, even our enemies we care about because Jesus died for them. Right? Especially our leaders, right? We care about them. We intercede for them. So the Bible says that they were for them. We're not against them. We're not against people. We're for people. That's What Jesus is, and so this week I want to talk about another. Another one of these Beatitudes actually three more but I'm gonna talk mostly about one okay? And it's this next one. Jesus has blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth you see, Blessed are the meek now you can see it in blue. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Let's talk about meekness for just a minute. Okay, now meekness, this is interesting. And let me just talk about what maintenance means. But here's what let's go back real quick. meekness is the it is the the quality to embrace. inheritance is the blessing to begin inheritance. Here the earth I love. You guys know this that, that I'm in a really estate, real estate. If there's someone's gonna help me get real estate, I think I might be interested in it right? All right. Just tell your neighbor I won't The earth is okay. But there's a quality that's required. Now let's talk about his quality for just a minute. What does it mean to be make? Um sometimes we think of the word meekness, we might just think of humility, which That's true. Humility or being lowly not being brazen or but I'm right. And another word was in the Bible, did you? Well, the Greek here is interesting. Actually. I didn't see the Greek I just read an article about it. So um, but what I read is that, that this word, meekness, actually The connotation is of a stallion look at your neighbors that easy stallion it's a stallion that is actually under restraint powerful. Oh guys, I'm telling you Whoo. So it's a stallion that's under restraint. Let's just think about a beast of war let's think about something. There's few icons as strong as a stallion. Right. And, and, and this idea is of strength that is marshaled that is restrained. And so let me just talk about this idea for just a minute. Number one, being meek means First of all, than I'm powerful, you cannot restrain yourself if you think you're weak. Here's the deal. We live in a world full of powerless people and when we feel powerless, this is when we act are worse. Usually when somebody has a fit of rage, or anger or they do something drastic it is because they feel powerless. And so you have to understand if if you are to be meek, you have to first understand that you're a stallion and you are so you say this when we say I'm a stallion. Okay? I know a stallion is a male horse, but you guys are strong, okay? You are strong. And here's the thing. Number one, showing weakness means I'm powerful. Number two, it means that I am restrained. And so number three, if you're taking notes, it means that Just because I'm able doesn't mean I sure I want you all to think about something. I just love this is that that meanness is actually a key to all human relationships, all business relationships, all organizational leadership, maintenance. I've been thinking about this this morning, about the kingdom of heaven, like the whole thing. God is actually the most powerful person in the entire universe. Yet he does not fry you with a light nimble. And he could, you know, somebody was one of my mentors used to say that, that God's sovereignty means that God can do what a God will pleases. But he doesn't. God actually is. This is the crazy thing about the Lord is that he is all powerful. Same mentor. I remember he used to say the saying, he said that power corrupts come about in humanity and people, that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But this is not true at all with the Lord. There is no one who is more powerful than God who restrains himself towards you. He governs this way, if anybody has a desire to be in leadership, if you have a desire to be a diplomat One day, the very idea of diplomacy is that you are restrained. That you're powerful, but you don't say something just because you can. You see, we live right now, in what I've heard described as a clap back culture. Sean Smith So that us is clapback culture. Man, you give me a say and I just come back stronger. Right? You, you, you cut me down I come, I come more swiftly. Right? And we love to clap back on each other on social media, right? Here's the deal. That will not get you the inheritance of the earth. Do you know who ultimately is going to inherit? Let me just say this, watch this. The Bible says that the New Jerusalem is going to come down from out of heaven and God is going to establish His Kingdom on over renewed earth. And guess who you think he's going to put in charge? It's God's people. guessing you think inherit the earth. It's not just God's people. It's the meek. I'm telling you there is something that is in the balance for all eternity. It is tied to your ability to understand that you are powerful, but just because you're there because you're powerful rather, you show restraint. Just because you can take a baseball bat and hit somebody in the teeth with it doesn't mean you should you have the power to do it. But you would never do that. Why? Because of meekness. You guys understand what I'm saying? The opposite of being meek is being reckless. And if you are going to be a leader that has any salt, you have got to learn to restrain your reckless words. The promise that comes with restraint isn't inheritance. This is real estate. Come on, baby. Tell your neighbor Come on, baby. Let's get breaching. Jesus is saying you'll inherit the earth. If you can master this look at your neighbor say easy stallion Y'all can borrow that one. I say that sometimes. Especially to teenagers, right? Especially they're trying to punch me or something. Easy stallion. I love this picture. It's like we are powerful people. We're not victims. Right? We're powerful. We have choices. And we can use those choices for good. Oh, man. So here I'm gonna give you a little quick. A little quick. This is a bonus. A bonus application, okay? When you're communicating with other people specially in writing. If there's any tension, read back over ginger. We do this as a practice now. Someone's mad at us or we're mad at somebody. And we're riding back and forth and we're really trying to shift our whole approach where we don't correct and text is it can go really bad can it wrong? It can, it can sound much meaner maybe than you even meant it to not not anything he did. But ginger now will reread a communication that we have with somebody and we take out the jabs. Don't tell me about you ever write somebody and be like, you think because you said something nice in the line one, that the rest of the crap that you said after that, they're just gonna somehow receive it. But you got to take out the jabs. You don't want to talk about jab, I'm talking about those right there. ones that are aimed right here, boom, or lower. Right? You got to take those out. If you desire to have any effect if you have a desire to be effective, it all. And speaking of Rob and those mean letters, you're awesome, just kidding. I feel like Rob is a letter that anyway, I felt really Rob really exemplifies this. Rob is pretty diplomatic in the way he says things. But he never just outright tells me something I need to change. He hints to it. That's maintenance guys. I can receive that. Right? Look, you've got to learn to handle yourself. Because you your God's goal for you is to rule the earth. A cool thought, when he renews the whole thing. God could totally scrap this project. But God's desire is to change the world. You understand that? The devil is here first, right? And then God put us here to rule over the earth. And he gave us authority over the years we gave our authority to devil Jesus Jesus went and got the authority back for us. That's another topic. But I want you to understand something that God is interested in what's coming. And so Jesus is saying, hey, look, there's a promise that's connected now and in the hereafter. And so God's people, I think he wants them to be noted for meekness. Amen. So let's remember our strains. Jesus is for us. When we make a mistake or something, he doesn't just slap us he his heart is always towards us. So let's apply this idea for against the devil is always against us. You know I had this thought the day actually, I journaled about this. I felt like the Lord was telling me that he loved me. He delights in me But, and young take this for whatever it's worth this is this was my moment with Jesus. I felt the Lord told me that whenever I get to heaven and whenever I'm whenever the devil that ministry shut down when he's hurled down, I don't know why the Lord's allowing him to continue to make accusation right now, but maybe maybe it's because he wants to Jesus wants us to learn to believe the right voice and, and give voice to the right voice instead of giving voice to the wrong voice. I'm like, it doesn't take any anointing for us. To repeat what the devil's accusing somebody of just saying, what was I saying it was going to be so amazing. Let's see. I remember okay. I felt the Lord told me Hey, Josh. Once this is over, and the accuser is no more not accusing anymore, that I We'll be able because the Lord's telling me, Josh, I delight in you. But it's not easy to receive that. It's harder to believe that. And what I felt the Lord told me is when the accusers gone, I'll have a lot more clarity to actually be able to hear those words. But they're coming anyway all the time. Does that make sense? And so but I think the point that I took away from that is the voice of accusation in our heads, is much stronger than what we realize. The devil day and night is making an accusation against the brothers and sisters. He sees your fault and accuses you because he's against you. Jesus sees your fault and intercedes for you because he's for you. And that's the side that we want to join in. Now, watch this. Let's look at the next one. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. And what is Mercy Mercy means that I don't give others what They deserve. Right. They deserve justice for what they did. And instead I give them mercy. And, um, but I would love to bring and I'm all about justice. God's throne is founded on justice and righteousness. So justice is a good thing. But mercy triumphs over justice, like, God, here's the deal. If you insist that everybody gets what they deserve, then God insists that you get what you deserve. It's kind of the way it works. Remember, Jesus said, Unless you forgive others, your sins, your heavenly Father, not forgive you. And whatever judgment you judge with, you'll be judged back with the same measure. So if you're judging and bucketfuls you'll receive in buckles. And so, mercy. If you think about let's go back over here, to the to the four stream, if you're standing in the four stream doesn't mean that you don't see something wrong with somebody but there's a bit that you have and the bent is mercy if you had to turn somebody in for breaking the law or something like that which is a legit your bid towards them is um for them you see the difference? Look if you are a person that is merciful I'm promise you that people give you the benefit of the doubt. But if you're always judging people I promise you that people judging you. But Jesus says here he connects the two bled it's funny because all the different ones um, they get different things right. But the one the mercy one, you get, give mercy and you get mercy. That's interesting, isn't it? I'll give you one more. Okay. Blood Blessed are the pure in heart. for they shall see God only understood The blessing to be gained here is the ability to see the Lord. Let's go back to the fore and again, let's just keep it in that that realm for just a minute. a pure heart is someone who is not full of impurity. Let's think about your heartbeat and space. Are your thoughts being space? And impurity? Usually we don't know our own impurity, it's hard to see you know, Jeff dollar says, we all have bald spots, and we can't see our own. Um, and impurity are things like selfish ambition. Some of us really want something. But we don't know why we want it. And it's like our Modus because God's ultimate desire is to give us what we want. Right? But there has there's a, there's a quality to it. There's purity When you think about, you know, the things I was talking about, like accusation that's impure. Just so you know, I mean, there's other things like immorality and pride, these things. When we, when we have too much of this, what happens is it inhibits our ability to actually see the Lord at work. Here's the deal. You can't see what God's doing in someone's life that you're judging. Tell your neighbor that was mind blowing. That was amazing. But it's true. see Jesus, what it had it was his ministry model. I only do what I see the Father doing. If you connect that to this, that means that Jesus actually was pure in The way that he saw all these people that he's ministering to, he's looking at these people. And he's not looking. he's not. He's not looking at them with a hidden agendas. What was his motivation? What was love, right? And so his love Jesus a four because Jesus was for people, he could see what the Father was doing. This is amazing. What if after today, the Lord cleans us up and we like say, I'm going to pursue purity and a pure heart. What if we all the sudden started recognizing this is one of my favorite things to do? By the way ministry I would say ginger probably agrees when all of a sudden we see God at work in somebody's lie. See, God's always working all your lives. But every now and then we catch it, catch a glimpse of it. it's exhilarating thing to do is I see that when we see the Lord and we connect the dots. Oh, this is something the Lord's doing. If we can pursue a pure heart that's the benefit and man it makes ministry a lot easier doesn't it? When we can see what the Lord's doing we see God that's pretty cool huh? Yep all right well here's our two streams now. finished early. It's amazing. where you stand with me is Annabel in here and bear Would you mind go into the keyboard for just a minute? So what's meekness? Power stallion under strength, power under strength being merciful not giving somebody what they deserve right They're all kind of related. Do you see how these these Beatitudes that there's similar similarities to being you know, poor in spirit is not not thinking more highly of yourself than you should and, you know, in mercy and a pure heart, how you approach people and how you know, anyway, being free from agendas. So, can we just close our eyes for just a moment? And this one I would love for us to believe for now, that God could switch us out of the against category into the four category. I mean, think about somebody that really annoys you. I'm not saying you have to be their best friend, okay. But what if you were for them instead of against them that much put you in the same category as Jesus. Like how the idea I'm gonna leave this in a quick prayer. And I'm just, I'm trusting in you guys to just sincere this up because I know you're kind of saying after me, but I want you to say it with your own voice. First of all, Lord forgive me for standing in any stream of accusation. I can disagree. I can disapprove without accusing. I receive your forgiveness. Now, Lord, help me to step in the stream of intercession Where I'm actually for people. Not just in your mind's eye right now, I want you to see the Lord. Just Just assuring you. It's just that easy. He's just ushering you out of one stream and said, oh, here, right here. This stream, this is your spot. That water feels much better. run over your feet, doesn't it? for people. Even the people that have disappointed me, I don't want you for them. God bless them and help them. Even people that have talked bad about me. It was wrong. When I'm not saying it was right but I'm for that person. I want them to receive healing so they don't have to feel that they have to do that to be okay. I just want you to stand there for just a moment you're in the stream of intercession in the stream of four. One of my defaults that I try to go to is that person just needs to know the Father's love. I believe that it's not just something wrote that I say but it is something wrote I say it's something that comes up. But I believe they need to know the father's law. Because if they knew that they might not act like their own child, look at me just one second. So you're standing in the fourth stream right? Watch this. Guess who you run into, in the fourth string is Jesus and He is for you. A lot of the accusation you hear it's accusation against you. But that's from a different stream you in the fourth string and Jesus just like he wants you to be for other people. He wants you to know that he's free. He sees you, the Bible says, As a father has compassion for his children. So the Father has compassion for us. He loves us. He delights in us. Wow. That means like he receives joy, from observing our lives, and seeing what we think about what we do and our abilities and our skills and our who we are He loves us. He's for us. Wow. So let's pray together. Let's say this wouldn't be our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Isn't that neat that Jesus taught us to pray deliver us from the accuser from the evil man Yeah, just bless you guys. I just declare over you to the Father loves you. He delights in you And I forget, I really forget that. But we need to be reminded, right? God is all powerful. But he will never, ever, ever abuse his power with you. And that's meekness. Isn't that something so good he's so weak he so good Lord, we thank you. And I just wanted to clear this over you guys for Numbers chapter six, may the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine on you and turn you. For more information about the visit the OIC dot o RG. Thanks for listening