In this sermon, the preacher reflects on a man who left behind a life of excess and materialism to live a simpler and more spiritual life. The man finds peace and paradise in a garden, but his anger and frustration eventually lead him to explode and question God. The preacher reminds the congregation of God's mercy and protection, referencing the story of the Israelites being led through the Red Sea and provided with water from a rock. The sermon also touches on the concept of poverty and the importance of humility before God.

Matthew chapter 5. When John wrote, I write to you young men, well pardon me, I write to you little children, I write to you young men, I write to you fathers, I don't think he was talking in a physical dimension, I think he was talking spiritually, about the children, spiritual children, young men in the Christian life, and then the older men. And if we have any aspirations at all spiritually, surely it should be that we come to maturity. And again, we do not necessarily come to maturity by living a long while. There are sure a lot of old fools around, and I say that respectively because I'm not one of them, but there are a lot of old people who've been in churches and all they've done is clogged up the machinery, they've got set in their ways, that a young and vigorous pastor comes along, he wants to change it, no, you can't do it. They don't know why you can't do it, except well my grandfather didn't do it this way, you know, and he happened to buy that stained glass window, and my uncle didn't believe it, and he bought the old church organ, you know. But the thing is that we come to maturity, I believe, by obedience. And that's a great old hymn again, trust and obey, there's no other way. I believe you can become 50 years old in five years if you walk in the light that God gives you. And you can be five years old when you've served God 50 years if you refuse to take light, and you refuse to walk in that light. Now if you're shooting for maturity, and I don't see any other thing to shoot for as Christians, then I would suggest that you saturate yourself in reading the sermon on the mouth. I believe it's the very epitome of all the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Again it is, in my judgment, it's the, um, what's the word you use, um, manifesto of the kingdom. The law of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is the royal rule and reign of love. And that's only possible as these wonderful things that are spoken of here in this charter are real in our lives. We began, uh, in case you're here for the first time, we dealt with prophet, uh, blessed are the poor in spirit. That's, that's the entrance to the kingdom. Isn't it amazing that God doesn't demand anything of you to enter the kingdom except an acknowledgement of sin, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't turn up your track record and say, sorry, uh, you, you passed, uh, you know, you, you can't come in for the entrance examination. You've sinned enough to damn a hundred people, nevermind yourself. He doesn't cut us off like that. It's true as the old hymn says, nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to thy cross I cling. I think again of the word of the Psalmist when he says, bow down thine ear and hear me. I'm poor and needy. Well, he sure wasn't poor intellectually. He was writing bestsellers, you know, he was writing Psalms and other things. He had a standing army. He lived in a castle. He had all the privileges of kingship. And yet he says, bow down thine ear and hear me for I'm poor and needy. Again, you remember in one of his best quoted Psalms, he says, this poor man cried. You know, on the law of averages, people in the world, material world, they're poor because they have to be. There are some who take vows to poverty that throw away millions of dollars or give away millions of dollars. There's a group of young men in, uh, in the state of New York that come off wealthy parents. You know, my dad has so many shares, he's worth five million, another ten million, another something else. And the boys refuse to take the money because they say it's not clean. It's exploitation. You can't get rich in a society like this and get it all honestly. And they wash their hands. They're determined to be poor. Now, there are other people who went into monasteries and convents. They said the only way you can be spiritual, you know, is to sleep on a bed, uh, just a piece of wood and have a blanket over you and have one suit and two meals a day and do this and do penances. And when you wake up at one o'clock in the morning, get out of bed and say your prayers, which they're doing some monasteries in America today. And they pray till two o'clock and then go back to bed and get up at five and pray till six. And they regiment their lives and, and they think this self-stripping, you see, is virtuous. But there's no virtue in it. Because it's not done as unto God, it's done for their own, to prove to themselves that they're, they're poor in spirit, when they're not poor in spirit at all. Uh, there was a man died a few years ago. He, he's one of the most brilliant men in the, in the Roman church of late, Thomas Merton. You may have read his book, Seven Story Mountain. It was his testimony. And then he wrote other books. And he used to be a playboy in New York. He used to go on West 44, 42, 44th Street there, where the legitimate theatres are. And at night he would, he would wait around and see pretty girls come out, chorus girls, you know, at one o'clock in the morning. And he'd say, hey, come on, my buddy and I want to take you to dinner. I'm a gourmet cook and I do this, I do that, I do the other. And when we, when we made a good meal and I always cook in wine and I do this, then we roll the rug up and we dance and you can take the bedroom and we guys, and there was never any sexual immorality. He just loved to entertain. He just loved to be with good intellectual people, he said. But one day he got fed up. He said, is this all I'm here for? And he came down to a monastery in Kentucky and he took a vow to poverty, took a vow to celibacy, which means he wasn't going to get married. And he took a vow to silence. He took every vow which would bring his body into total subjection. And he said when he went in, a man met him at the door. He was sure it was St. Francis of Assisi that had risen from the dead. The man had a tonsure, you know, they cut their hair there. He was bald and he had a great long gown to his feet and he had a cord around his waist. And he met the young man and he escorted him there, first of all, to the, to the table where he would eat in the refectory. And this is your place always. And you never speak now when you take this vow. Then he showed him the cell where he was going to live and then he showed him something else. And finally the guy takes the job, you know, and he has to walk with his hands together, four feet behind the guy going around the garden, you know, saying their prayers, their paternosters. And he said, this is paradise. Wasn't I an idiot living in New York, breathing in the fumes of automobiles? I'm just living for excess, for wine and riches and everything. I was an idiot. This is paradise regained. Oh, wow, wow. Quietness, birds singing, beauty, majesty, loveliness, you know. But one day the guy that let him in at the door that he thought was some fancy of Assisi, somebody tread on his toes, you know, metaphorically. Somebody hurt him. Bang! He exploded like a bomb. Woo! He got mad and he shouted the Lord I didn't even curse. Phew! The young monk said, oh, oh, I see if you've got it inside of you. You don't get rid of it by coming in a monastery. You don't get rid of it by sleeping on a plank or wearing a hair shirt that irritates you as though you've got a hundred bugs down your back. Or eating once a day and fasting one week in every tree. No, no, no, you don't cure the old devil, the old appetite in you like that. You can take vows to poverty. You can take vows to silence. You can take vows to having a single life all your life. You can take all these vows, but they don't do anything in themselves to you. It's a miracle that God has to work in us. That poverty is the way into the kingdom of God. There's an old song that says, I nothing have, I nothing am. Glory to the bleeding land. Is it amazing that God doesn't say, well, I'll consider you for eligible for the eternal kingdom after you've proved yourself for so many weeks or so many months that you live a righteous life and then you'll be a merit salvation. He doesn't ask that. He doesn't care how twisted, tangled, depraved, rotten, corrupt we are. If we come in penitence and brokenness and say, I'm poor, I'm nothing. I'm not trying to buy salvation. I can't merit salvation. Isn't it true as the word of God says that while we were yet sinners, and only you know what the sin was, I don't know. I wasn't a rotten, smoking, drinking, sex perverting sinner. I was a good Methodist sinner. I went to church all my life. I never went into a movie house till I came to America. See how you get corrupted by leaving your homeland. And I was over 50 years of age before I ever saw a movie. And it was a good one, so to speak, a king of 10 commandments, I think it was that we saw. Three tickets, that's where I went. But anyhow, it was very interesting to see it. But I was brought in a godly home where the word was read every day, where there was prayer every day, where the standards were set up very high. Man, I didn't have the track record some people have. But you see, the devil's got two great major attacks on people. One is, you're so good you don't need to be saved. You're so bad you can't be saved. Those are the two tricks he pulls. I mean, after all, you don't need to be saved. That guy that's a deacon in a church, the girls say he tells dirty stories in the office, and he lies, and if he gets angry, he curses, he has a blatant temper. And somebody says, well, the man down there, you know, he doesn't even go to church. He's so sweet, he's so gracious, he remembers every birthday, he greets you every time you're good. And if you do anything wrong, he says, never mind dear, everybody makes mistakes. And the guy says, can't you do it right? Well, lots of people are not saved, who are far nicer than folk who are saved. I don't like that, but I've got to be honest about it. Why? Because grace hasn't worked. Culture is a very lonely thing. I don't think there's anything better than scholarship on fire. As I tell them usually when I talk in theological seminaries, that scholarship on ice, keep it, stick it where it should be in the refrigerator. But a brain on fire for God, a Wesley, a Finney, or one of the great saints, that's great, that's great, I like that kind of thing. It doesn't mean that you have a greater advantage because you're intellectual, it doesn't necessarily mean that. God takes what we have. I'm sure there are lots of boys more brainy than the one that handed his fishes and loaves to Jesus, but Jesus took those things. But again, the way into the kingdom, it's a difficult way. It's the eye of the needle, isn't it? I mean, what? You're going to say I'm poor? I was, well, I wasn't preaching that time, I was teaching in the university, in the Appalachians there in Boone. It was a conference. And in one morning prayer meeting, the fellow leading it, he divided us up into groups, and then the other fellow that was leading this group said, have you anything to say? One lady says, can I give a little word of testimony? Yes, he says, I've been a good Presbyterian for over 40 years. I've always supported missions, I've taught in Sunday school, I've helped missions, and she went down the list of all her virtues, and she said, I've been a good, great, good, you know, 100% Presbyterian for 40 years. And I got saved six months ago. And Faulkner and I went, what? That's a bone you choke on. I mean, you've been taking communion 40 years, you've been a good worker, and suddenly, yeah, just a few months ago, I got really born again to the Spirit of God. I've become a new creation in Christ Jesus. I've got new desires, new appetites, new interests, new hopes, everything's new. Why? Because she had to come in helpless and say, I'm poor, and I need it. And then after that, what we get? Blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn. But, you know, we skip over that. Blessed are what? Blessed are the poor in spirit. What's the compensation for it? Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. We stress the first part, we don't stress the second part. It isn't something away, you know, something you can't get hold of, it's just beyond the horizon, it's two minutes inside eternity. The Kingdom of God is within you, Jesus said. And it's not meat and drink, but it's righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. Now, if we haven't got those, we're not born again. How can we be? The Kingdom of God, what do we pray? Millions of people in thousands of churches have prayed over and over again, thy Kingdom come. What do they mean? Sometimes I like to stop at the door and say, hey, you said the Lord's Prayer today. Tell me, what did you mean when you said, thy Kingdom come? Thy will be done on earth or in earth. You know that hymn, Breathe on Me, Breath of God? Edwin Hatch wrote it, good song, written in England. And he said, Breathe on Me, Breath of God, till I am holy thine, till all this earthly part of me. It's amazing what God can do with a handful of dust. I mean, you're not the prettiest group I've ever seen, but you're not the worst. But I mean, that's all we are, dust. We're dust. I am dust, you are dust. Can His Kingdom come and dwell in me while I'm still here in this, you know, as Shakespeare said, before you shuffle off this mortal coil? After all, that's what it's all about, isn't it? That the Kingdom of God is within us. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn. I've skipped that, I'll come back to it later. What's the compensation? For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. That was about as ridiculous as anything under heaven, wasn't it? Have you ever pondered, you know, to say these things in the framework of jets flying overhead and computers not too far away, you know, and all these modern techniques, to talk about this, I mean, we can lose a lot of the majesty and wonder of it, if we don't put it in its original framework. Here he's talking to his disciples, round about, there are other people listening. I'm sure the scribes and the Pharisees weren't very far off. Can you imagine them going home and talking and saying, you know what, this fella here, I was going to say this guy, they wouldn't, they didn't say words like that, they'd say, this fella, this new teacher that's come around here, he's a bit of a sensationalist, you know, he puzzles me with his miracles, but goodness, he sure puzzles me with his philosophy. I mean, what do you think they were saying in the bazaars? What do you think people were saying that were sitting around the pool of Ceylon, where they used to sit and talk? What do you think they were saying in the coffee shops or the wine shops of the day? What do you think they were discussing in the Sanhedrin? Do you think all that Jesus said just blew away on the wind like that? Don't you think people are puzzled? You know, if this fella's right, we're a million miles from truth. It's all right talking about the God of Abraham, but wow, wow, a God of Abraham's as far off there, and this God he talks about seems as far away over that way. What, what, what's he doing, this person? They never heard anything like this. After all, it's a fascinating thing when you think the temple soldiers were sent to arrest Jesus. And what happened? He arrested them. And not, not by laying his hands on them, he arrested them by his words. Where's the man Jesus? Why didn't you bring him back? I have, oh, oh yeah, that's right. You did send us. Oh, we forgot all about it. What do you mean you forgot all about it? Listen, did you ever sit down and listen to him? No, but we've heard all the rumors. Oh, I want to tell you something. Never man spake like this man. What did the scripture say? He taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. What did the scribes? The scribes went through a rotation. The scribes said the right things at the right time, at the right tone of voice, and it did nothing for nobody. But when Jesus speaks, they, oh, grace and truth proceed out of him. What he even said of the Apostle Paul, his words were waiting. They'd float in the air, somehow they were like arrows, bang, bang, bang. Whitfield used to say now to people when he really got to know anything, he'd say, you listen there, I'll shoot the arrows of God into your heart. And he, you know, he'd draw his hand back because that's how they fought in those days. They were gentle, you know. They shot with bows and arrows and he'd reach for one in his quiver and he'd say, this is, this is the arrow of conviction. I'm going to fling this arrow into you. And the congregation would all duck because they thought the arrow was coming. But you see, he spoke with truth. He describes a sinner as being blind and helpless and walking down a road and there's a chasm, he's going to fall into it. And he's describing this Lord Chesterfield, one of England's greatest men, was sitting there listening to Whitfield. Whitfield let him get a bit nearer, he said, ah, there he goes, he's going to fall into that eternal abyss. And then he interrupts himself three or four times and he says, and now he's just within a yard of going over that abyss and now and Chesterfield jumps up and says, my God, he's fallen over. Well, that's what you call having the congregation in your hand. You've captured their senses. You've lifted them out of the pews. They're not just saying, I'm glad we put this new lighting system in. Isn't this new rug lovely? We've needed this in the church. We noticed Mary Jane's hat over there. There isn't that authority, it seems. He spoke with authority. What's he talking about a kingdom for? Because he's the king. He's laying down the principles of righteousness. He's laying down the conditions of being a member in his eternal kingdom. And the gateway again is poverty. I have nothing. I have nothing. Bow down thine ear and hear me. I'm poor and needy. Then blessed are they that mourn. Mourn what? Because there's nothing to bring. Because they're poor. It was a hymn in the Methodist hymn book. I guess it's still there. And I don't know how it begins for once. But anyhow, I know it says this in the hymn. Blessed are the men of broken heart who mourn for sin with inward smart. And it doesn't mean that they're just mourning for their own sin. It means they mourn about all sin which is an offence to God. We all want the stress and the joy and the excitement. But sin is an offence to God and so they mourned over that sin. And there must be times when in your life you look back and remember some horrible thing in your life. You know you're saved now. You've got assurance you're saved. And that thing keeps coming up and you mourn over it. Oh God, I wish I'd never done it. I wish it could be eradicated from my mind. Why doesn't God blot it out? He blotted it out of his memory. He hasn't blotted it out of yours. Why? Because that's one thing that will help to keep you humble. If you don't watch out, you're going to fall exactly into the same pit again. You aren't changed physiologically. We haven't yet reached the point where we're going to fall into the pit again. And I've got to keep my eye looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Now he says, blessed are the meek. Can you imagine somebody saying, oh he's missed it this time. Where's this fella going to get with his teaching? Well every time you turn your head, all you hear is clank, clank, clank. They were living in total bondage to the robin. Arrogant royal men sticking their chests out, wearing their breastplates, having their helmets with a plume on it to distinguish what rank they had, and they marched around, they said you lift up my burden and carry it. Meek? Well that's not what we believe today is it? This is a day when you assert yourself, learn how to develop your personality, get your place in the sun, assert yourself. Blessed are the meek. Why everything in this amazing sermon on the mount is the very opposite of the world standard. The world says don't recognize any poverty, you'll get out and assert yourself, you're as good as a next John or Jane or somebody round about you, come on make your way. I think what we've done with this word meek we've made it a synonym for weakness. Now Jesus did not say blessed are the weak, he says blessed are the meek. Now some people are born with a natural disposition of meekness. All their lives they've been gentle and tender. They're not assertive, they're not arrogant, they seem to have been born with almost a natural trait of Christianity, or trait as we should say really, of Christianity in them, but not so. There's a meekness which is indolent, oh don't disturb me about it, don't disturb me, I'm prepared to let the thing go. There's a meekness that says well I'm for peace at any price, I don't agitate things, I mean things could be a lot better but don't let's upset, don't rock the boat. But the general attitude of the world is one of arrogance. What is it? The scripture says the lame take the prey, the world says the weak go to the wall. What do people in the world say? Oh it's a rat race. Other people say oh it's dog eat dog, dog eat cat and cat and dog fight. That's the attitude of the world outside. The attitude of the prince of peace is very opposite to all the warfare and all the clashing that there is in the world outside. Now there's no way in which you and I can make ourselves meek. Look at Galatians chapter 5 and verse 18 there. Galatians 5.18 But if ye be led of the spirit ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these? Oh mercy what a list. It'll catch us all out somewhere. The works of the flesh are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. The witch I tell you before as I've also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now that's the only kingdom opposite to the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Satan. Ours is the kingdom of light, theirs is the kingdom of darkness. Now what's the changeover? The changeover is in verse 22. That the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Meekness is what? A fruit of the spirit. It's the very opposite of the works of the flesh. I can work all those things out of myself that he's mentioned earlier. They're all, all the seeds are there, they may not be developed yet but you see the potential in you is the potential like everybody else. You didn't murder, no no no, but the seed was there, the possibilities were there. And I have to come repentant and broken and confess I'm poor and needy and I need outside help. I can't do this by myself. I'm so human and frail and fallible and weak that I have to come to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and confess my poverty, more than my sin. And then ask him to do that work, that sovereign work of grace in me. Not only to forgive my guilty past, which again may be enough to damn a hundred men, I need more than my sins forgiving, I need him to do something in me, not just something for me. You see, this fruit of the spirit would not be possible unless you go back to Galatians chapter 2, one of the best-known verses, where Paul says I'm crucified with Christ, not I was, I am. Crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Now if Christ lives in me, I don't have to strive to be meek. If the spirit of God dwells in me, he is the spirit of meekness. I don't have to come to him and say, Lord, help me to get through this day and grit my teeth. It's not that I just don't do a certain thing, it's that I don't want to do a certain thing. He's taken the appetite, he's taken the nature out of me to do it. Fruit is the result of what? You've got some trees, they're not going to bear fruit this year. But you can't argue the trees are not alive, you hope they are, I mean, what did you put in? 350? It'll be some rough going if 349 die, won't it? But hopefully they won't. But you don't expect fruit this year, maybe not next year, maybe the third year. You see, fruit doesn't come on a tree because it's alive. Fruit is the result of overflowing life. Now a tree will go home one day, it'll go all over. You're going to have a lot of work when those trees come up. Somebody's going to have to do some pruning somewhere. And we think of that in John 15, that I am the vine and ye are the branches, every branch that beareth not fruit ye take it away, and every branch that beareth fruit. Now we kind of think, look, I'm doing them all right. The Lord says, no you're not. You're growing too much of this, snip this off, snip that off, snip something else off. I need constant pruning, you need constant pruning. Why? Because the flesh will take over. Not carnal flesh necessarily, just my natural flesh. I'll do this naturally. The natural way is to take the line of least resistance usually. Blessed are the meek, what do they get? Well the scripture says, blessed are the meek for what? For they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is the opposite of toughness and being overbearing, domineering, pushing others on one side that you may have preeminence. What was the first call of Jesus in Matthew 11 28? Come unto me all ye that are labour and heavy laden, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Everything about him was meek. I've often said why, you know, Enoch, Enoch, way, way back before there were any Bibles, before there were any prophets, before there were any preachers, Enoch prophesied. About what? Well Jude says he prophesied about the Lord coming with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment. Imagine it. There's no Bible, there's no temple, there's no prophet, there's no sacrifices and Enoch is walking with God and God shares secrets with his friends. And he says to Enoch, centuries, millenniums hence, four or five thousand years ahead, Jesus is going to come sweeping through the skies with ten thousand of his saints. Pays to be in the know, doesn't it? God initiates a man thousands of years before. Well why didn't Jesus come like that the first time? When the Romans had spread their tentacles all over the world, they had the world like an octopus had it. My dear wife and I used to live in the city of Bath in England. The Romans were there in 55 BC. They made a, they made a great big bath there it's the only hot spring in England. And when you go in you see models or beautiful carvings all around. Tiberius Caesar and Caligula and Caesar Augustus, all the great monuments are there. Why Jesus had come one day, one night when when Caesar was going down Main Street, there you know when they had their torches up and people were shouting their hosannas which they used to do. And every time he conquered people what did he do? He put a chain around their waists and then he tied the last chain to the wheel of his chariot. And the greater the men were, the greater the humiliation. He brought kings and rulers and famous people chained to the wheels of his chariot, swept down the street. Imagine Jesus just coming in and blowing all that thing up. He didn't. Again as the poet says they were looking for a king. Then there's prophet as a king was coming and their idea of the king was majesty and glory and triumph and asserting himself and trumping his enemies down and breaking all fetters and rulership and he comes up bade. As the poet says they were looking for a king to bring salvation night. He came a little infant thing two spans long that made a woman cry. And everything about his life is meekness. You see we say about some people oh I wouldn't read what that man writes, I wouldn't read what that woman writes, oh I wouldn't, no I wouldn't. Why? Because he doesn't do it, she doesn't do it. What's the good of writing about meekness if you're arrogant? What's the good of writing about love if you're unloving? What's the good of preaching on mercy if you're unmerciful? But you see Jesus was everything that he talked about. Nobody could ever put a finger on him anywhere. He was full of mercy. He was full of compassion. And he said blessed are they, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. That doesn't look very much like being a truism in the day in which we live does it? But it is true. Because if you're really meek in spirit it doesn't matter how much you're robbed externally it won't faze you at all. And wait a minute, what is this meekness a part of? It's a part of the kingdom. Which is a present invisibly it's in us. Before long it's going to be visible. Jesus shall reign wherever the sun that its successive journeys run and his kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and this Christ. And he says and if you're faithful and you overcome you'll sit with me in my kingdom. See God doesn't pay all his bills right now. He delays his prizes. And yet if the kingdom of God isn't in there one of the features of your life and mine should be meekness. Now is it? I'm not saying it is or it isn't. I'm asking you is it? Is one of the traits in your life meekness? Or are you arrogant? Are you assertive? Imagine a little girl coming home from a party with her brother and mommy said did you have a nice party? She said no not very good. And little Johnny says I did I had a good time. Look what I got mommy and a huge apple. And mother looked down and her sister had a tiny one. Mother said well you got a big one didn't you? Yes mommy. Do you know what they did? They passed the dish round and Johnny grabbed the biggest that there was for himself. And mother said what would you have done if they had passed the dish to you? I would have taken the smallest. So Johnny says you've got it what are you grumbling about? You didn't get the point okay. Isn't that nice to think what I did? No no no come on. Meekness is not assertive. Meekness is content to be misunderstood, misrepresented. After all his eyes on the sparrow. Always think that and feel oozy woozy about it don't we and feel very nice and comfortable. But his eyes on the eagle too but his eyes on the sparrow. Look what the scriptures say about this meekness. Psalm 149. Psalm 149 and verse 4. That's next to the last psalm remember 150 of them. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautify the meek with salvation. Maybe we should call that spiritual cosmetics. Psalm 149 verse 4 he will beautify the meek with salvation. Look at Zephaniah chapter 2 and verse where verse 3 Zephaniah. That's there in the man of prophets after just before just after Habakkuk and just before what Haggai. Zephaniah 2 and verse 3. Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness seek meekness it may be he shall behead that ye shall behead in the day of the Lord's anger. But the point is you see we need to continually pursue this thing. You can have one day today you walk in meekness and calmness and then tomorrow there's a thousand irritations coming wait a minute. If you haven't taken time to be holy you see we assume well I'm filled with the Holy Spirit I'm gonna live a holy life as long as I'm here on earth. Oh no wait a minute. There are backslidings there are stumblings there are failures. You know what we do often at the end of the day we pray over our little spiritual tragedies or our big spiritual tragedies. Do you know why? Because we didn't take time to pray in the morning about them we're to try and take time at night and repent over them. And if we'd taken time to be holy and strengthened ourselves in the morning we wouldn't have fainted by the way. You'll get up some morning very tired and and you say well I won't take breakfast I haven't time I have to get to the office and somebody says no we need you to go down to so-and-so but there's a cow get out on the road and you go out and you rush after it or run after it and you have no reserves and there you are you're tired you're exhausted. Well the same thing if you don't replenish yourself. You read in the Old Testament that one of the secrets I'm convinced of this in the scriptures and out of the scriptures is to rise early. Joshua rose early in the morning. Jeremiah rose early in the morning. Some of the greatest writings that have been done for God have been done between four o'clock in the morning and eight o'clock. Wesley was always up at that time. Adam Clarke was up at that time. John Fletcher was up at that time. There's something about the freshness of the morning, the stillness of the morning. It's easy to sing say well the whole realm of nature man that's nonsense I don't believe God believes us. Why some of us could be out of bed an hour, two hours maybe before we are but we're just it doesn't matter much you know I mean I'm not gonna die today I have plenty of time. Now if you're sick or you're some other handicap that's different. But you see again discipleship means discipline it comes from the same root word. You know some of those boys you know they've seen pictures of these smart fellows with a buttoned up tunic you know a nice polished uniform and we only want a few select men at West Point you know you want to be one of the few and he sees that then he sees somebody you know or maybe a guy piloting one of those terrible new planes they have and you can't operate those you know after you're about 24 or 5 because you're not reckless enough but anyhow and he sees that and he says boy I'm gonna leave my job sure I'm gonna leave my job I'm gonna get a job there. And then he discovers that before he gets into that situation he has to go through boot camp and a few other things and gets sick of spitting polish and discipline. You know reading the Bible won't make you a saint. It may tell you how to get there but it won't make you a saint. Even reading the Bible you've got to do as a good book says. Be doers of the word and not hearers only. We have to exercise patience. We have to exercise faith. We have to exercise love. Otherwise there can't be any maturity. Okay look at James 1 and verse 21. Wherefore let part all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness receiving with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls receiving the word with meekness. Do you ever find when you're listening to the word something rises up inside of you you know. Something's rebelling against it. Something's opposing it. That guy thinks he's getting to me or that preacher thinks he's getting to me. Well maybe he is and that's why you're not receiving with meekness the engrafted word. 2 Timothy 2 25. 2 Timothy 2 25. Take verse 24. The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. So the teacher needs meekness as well as the listener. It must be in every one of us you see. You know that the gifts of the Spirit the scripture clearly says he gave one this and he gave one that and he gave one something else. It doesn't say that about the fruits of the Spirit. And by the same token I need I need whatever you need I need all these wonderful degrees if you like qualifications here in this chapter. I need to be humble in my spirit. I need to strive after what Jesus talks about a little bit later. The pure in heart shall see God. I need all these in my life I can't single one out. I think sometimes it's this whole teaching of Jesus here not just in the in the first verses right through the 107 verses it's like a string of jewels some of them flash a little bit more than others. Maybe some are a little bit more but you can't take one out that he's constructed them he's put them there that's why I say saturate yourself in it. In meekness instructing one another well tell me this do you like anybody to instruct you roughly or if you're a teacher or a boss or whoever you are around I don't know I ended up all departments here do you go to someone and say no that's not the way to do it or do you go up with gentleness and say I think it would have been better done this way. You know you don't have to assert yourself. I used to take teams of young men around England college students five or six or sometimes seven at a time and we were all the same there was no totem pole thing if a new man came in he came in on the same level he got exactly what we got to spend which was a dollar and a half a week and we walked the length of England we walked the breadth of England. We all had the same we usually had about one slice of bread for a meal and half a tomato sometimes we got rich we had an egg or half an egg in the morning and we marched 20 miles a day and we wore our shoes off we got baked in the sun and we all shared everything the same. Now I was the leader they call me the skipper usually and they say skipper can I do this can I do that that's if they you know were treading outside of the normal bounds of of our normal character of a day for instance I noticed we were marching through town to that street meeting I saw a bookshop I want you to know where I am skipper I'm going down to oh fine but you know there was a man that the head of all our groups and he used to say to me Len I don't know how you do it you can get men to do anything for you I can't get men to do anything for me. Now he bossed them about when he came on the Tank Crusade he came up well listen you're doing this and you're doing that you do the other. We had to sleep in a huge huge tent seated about 800 900 people that's where we slept we slept on the platform because we couldn't even afford a camp bed. It was three sometimes three or four of us in one sleeping bag can you imagine that? I remember three of us in my sleeping bag till one o'clock in the morning I got up and killed the other two but anyhow we used to have to live with trees and dirt and all kinds of stuff around. You know how I got the guys to do it when the rainstorm would come in the night you know and we hadn't loosened one of the guide ropes and you know those ropes were tight and I thought they were steel and then that peg hadn't been put properly and that steel that rope would tighten suddenly they go whoop and shoot that thing up in there and it would come down like that oh you thought the tent was coming in and sometimes water would run in and I always made it my job to be up and out of bed before the other guys could do it. I discovered what and I'm not faultless but I discovered this that the great secret of leadership is example not lecturing. Now some of you may stay here all your lives I don't know before long so you may be leaders in other areas. Is that the first thing it is? No I got the wrong. That's not the script I wanted. Anyhow let's take some examples of meekness. Again meekness and weakness are not the same thing. You know it says in Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 it says that Moses was meek above all men on the earth. Meek not weak. Have you ever tried to visualize when he's on the back side of the desert he's had 40 years of training you know God's had to dry him out read the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and it says Moses was he was trained in all and he had all the wisdom of the Egyptians. That's a great study that 7th chapter of Acts I believe is the longest chapter and you know what it is? It's a memorization by a young man who's going to die by the name of Stephen and you talk about meekness there. It says that this this young man was full of the Holy Ghost and he was full of faith and he was full of wisdom. This man's more about him than it says about Peter or anyone else and maybe he's only 19 or 20 years of age and everybody thought he was going to be what the Apostle Paul eventually became to be. He's our most brilliant Bible teacher. He's a marvelous young man. He has the most gracious disposition. He's a combination of Moses. He's a combination of Joseph. He's almost perfect. He's so loving. He's so gentle. He's not forceful. He's not arrogant. He doesn't assert his authority. He's such a lovely man and then he's going to be stoned and he gives a marvelous rendition. Do you wonder he had such calm? I guarantee if you could have touched something in his mind that guy possibly could have recited every psalm in the book and the first five chapters of the Bible like lots of devout Jews still do in New York. He was full of the Holy Ghost. He was full of wisdom and Jesus is made unto us wisdom. He was full of Christ He didn't say Lord stop all these people I want to live and serve you. Then somebody said while Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father when he saw this young man so devoted to him Jesus jumped off his throne and said hey come on I'm waiting for you. That's what it says. I see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father but he's sitting at the right hand of the Father. But Jesus says I see all my grace in the life of this young man and he's so patient that even if his life is cut off he hasn't even come to maturity in years. But you remember what he said? He's reciting about Moses and he says Moses was learning all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Can you imagine going down Main Street and all the soldiers stand and say your excellency Moses. He goes to bed at night and they fan him with ostrich feathers that was the only air conditioning they had. He had all the delicacies and then he runs he runs away. Why? Because he was afraid. That's what he says. He says he was afraid of Pharaoh. But Hebrews says he was not afraid of the King's commandment. What commandment? He wasn't afraid of Pharaoh when it came to saying listen as I say 40 years on the backside of the desert would you like to go back to the man who says next time I see Moses I'll tear him in bits I'll chop his head off make mincemeat of him. Have you ever visualized that he comes from the backside of the desert and he goes straight into the throne and he sees this great man Pharaoh with all his rich courtiers there and all his bodyguard and all the fanfare and he walks up and he says let my people go. Why man you're asking them to get torn to bits, turn the dogs on them. He was the meekest man in all the earth but he was strong as a lion. What does Jesus say? My yoke is easy I am meek and lowly of heart and Revelation talks about the wrath of the Lamb. You see the man in the street tonight that won't have the blood of Christ will have the judgment of Christ before life. He won't come tonight to a throne of mercy he'll have to see him at a throne of judgment and Moses has had 40 years. Nobody salutes him now. Nobody polishes his uniform up and says when I'm praying tomorrow his excellency Moses is coming you know his mother's the Queen I suppose you know that and he's going to be the next Ramesses or somebody he's going to be the next greatest ruler of the greatest empire richest empire in the world. I was looking through a book today that I bought cheap in a sale it was about twelve dollars and fifteen cents and I bought it for two dollars it's a brand new book on King Tutankhamen Amenhotep the second who happened to be the brother of the Pharaoh that messed around with the children of Israel and it shows all the treasures there oh oh you talk about folk doing things today we don't know a thing about jewelry compared to what they made. Put the pyramids together all the grandeur and Moses could walk down there and view the pyramids and they weren't steps like that you know they were just sheets of glass and when you went across the desert they blinded you in the Sun they were once polished like mirrors there's still some little bits left on the top and when you went across the desert they you staggered as though somebody had some awesome headlights there and Moses leaves all the grandeur and the glory of Egypt in a seven course dinner and servants to go looking after steers no no sheep you know you go out west if a if a sheep herder goes into a place where where the cowboys are they kick him out get out of here you stink with your sheep consider the lowest job in the world to look after sheep but you see God loves shepherds doesn't he isn't Jesus our shepherd isn't he the great shepherd of the sheep Peter says wasn't Moses a shepherd wasn't David a shepherd does a shepherd go and come come on get up sheep there kick it in the reds I once went out with a farmer on the west east coast of England he had three lots of sheep he said I'm going to check on the sheep can I come with you yes so we walked in the field there were no sheep here ah they're down over the hill there just just wait a minute put his hands up horror horror horror little heads looked up before long the rubbing round you know you're good oh mercy mercy smell a bit but and he looked round he said I'll have to check on that one that's so-and-so and this one that one's got maggots and this one how do you know because I'm the shepherd so we went away they followed us a while then he went through the gate went to another lot and they did the same hurrah hurrah hurrah swarm round it went in the next tree I said hold it a minute hold it a minute this is right I said let me say it okay I said in the field I said hurrah hurrah hurrah and they all looked up and went hmm went back and started eating again oh I said well I pitched it too hard hurrah hurrah hurrah hmm no they did not they went eating three tries three tries for an Englishman so I tried it a third time hurrah hurrah hurrah you know I don't know what they were saying I know it wasn't any kind of compliment they gave me they just were all groaning there why because I'm not a shepherd I don't understand and Moses has to get all the you know all the excellency out of him and all the stiffness out of him and he goes back on the backside of the desert and then he comes with an aching heart for his people the sheep of God's pasture they're in bondage and he goes up and says to that king listen you and can you imagine him going the second time and the third time can you imagine him saying this is your last chance after this is going to be trouble and you see when you see paintings you always see the firstborn you see the film the Ten Commandments and what do you see you saw women crying with little babies no they were the lastborn the firstborn with a crop of young men who were going to produce for the next generation and that's what they were fighting all the time these people are growing too much slay the firstborn not the lastborn I don't believe they slew the babies they slew the fine young men that were going to produce another race and yet Moses goes there in meekness fancy having to go but the Mike would I would like to do about Mike for 40 years going selling sheep you know not to a good auctioneer some old Arab comes up and says yeah yeah that was lame anyhow and let me feel it ain't as much flesh on it no I give you less than that I oh mercy after after saluting and living on in luxury and sleeping amongst fleas in an old tent and all the lousy things he had to do but at the end of 40 years he was pretty dried out and he was ready to go 40 years of meekness the meekest man in the world the angriest man in the world he said now listen remember that great God who has delivered us he brought us through the Red Sea and he brought water out of a rock they send you breakfast every morning and remember when you were all terrified and nervous and saying well they're gonna kill us they're gonna kill us and suddenly he took the cloud that was leading us and he put it behind us so the Egyptians couldn't see us huh isn't God merciful isn't God meek he gets pushed around by common folk like us and he watched over you now I'm gonna be I'm gonna upon that mountain peak for a little while I'll be back and when he came back what did they done they'd taken their earrings they'd taken the gold their wages that's what they got from the Egyptians and they threw them into a crucible and Aaron comes up with a lame tale well we threw all this and a calf walked out that's about as dumb as you can get isn't it we threw jewelry in and a calf walked out how stupid can he get and Moses came and as he looked they were not only made an image of gold they'd gone back to their Egyptian ways they were stark naked they were dancing they were calling on other gods and it says the anger of God was kindled against Moses and the anger of Moses was kindled against the people he was justified in his anger again there's a commandment be angry and sin not in the fifth of Ephesians it's not an anger that has bitterness it's not an anger with revenge it's an anger of sorrow so the other side of the coin is meekness the other kind of side of the coin is anger when I picked up today the current issue of Reader's Digest I read about the Afghanistan invasion I read about the Russians coming at night and getting hold of men in the street and putting bayonets through them and trussing them with bayonets and kicking them on the ground and tanks came and crushed the men flat on the floor till it was this color with human blood and they're threatening to do the same thing to Poland and we stand back and do nothing we whistle about human rights and I don't know all the answers for sure I don't know but I'll tell you what there's no meekness in this earth apart from the children of God it's a greedy world it's an avaricious world it's a cruel world it's an intolerant world it's a bigoted world I think sometimes a lot of that are spilled over into the Church of God too surely if there's meekness if there's long-suffering and that's what it's all about meekness entails long-suffering and gentleness I think of a woman that I knew she had six children and five of them was alert and lively and mischievous as any kid you'll find on earth and one was retarded I never saw that woman get cross in any shape or form with that retarded child she might be a little angry with this one you told me before not to do that you deliberately did it and this little things messing around doing something she said darling oh she switched like that you know because she got a child that needed more attention what do you do with somebody who's slow you get irritated about it I'll say Lord let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me how would he handled it you see this is what Jesus talks about one of the golden rules that Jesus lays down is as ye would that men should do unto you so do ye unto them do you handle everybody like you don't handle like other people to handle you in that situation is it the same Christ likeness there hmm ah yes you have to sit back and what does it say the scripture say I forgot the right one this time psalm 141 verse 5 listen to this this is tough to take unless you're really walking in the light let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oil which will not break my head hey what do you think you're doing correcting me yeah well yeah do you know how to prove whether you've got really meekness how do you how do you react when somebody rebukes you do you fight for an answer square off with them let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness if they're really doing it in the spirit of love it's profitable for me to get this correction what's the hardest that children detest correction do you detect it do you detest it well anybody can give it I could write a book with 500 pages on it I could write a book on holiness the same way but but what but how do I react to correction I've heard people say more than once yes well well she came along and corrected me but who corrects her well you know I've only lived in one fellowship where everybody lives together and it worked very very beautifully people say it can't be done yes it can it was a Bethany fellowship they've got thoughts like other people but they're one of the purest loveliest groups I've ever seen in my life and I've been around the world and met all kinds of folk you know if you join there this week if you're accepted on the staff there's no totem pole business you're coming on the same level as everybody you get exactly the same as the manager gets the president there's no difference in allowance if he borrows a car he has to pay so much to use it they have a staff meeting every week and the first half of it for an hour is worship and praise and so the second is now come on let's be honest with one another you know it's easy to sing a hymn isn't it and pour contempt on all my pride you feel real good when you've done it eh but it's when somebody else pours contempt on your pride it hurts isn't it hmm you know after all I mean I don't think you're a spiritual trying to make out somebody might say that and I'm not saying they're right in saying it but you know it's one thing to close your eyes and confess sin to a God who's merciful but but it's another thing to do as James says confess your false one to another did anybody ever slip up to you and say I want to tell you something I've been thinking hard thoughts about you I shouldn't have spoken to you the other day as I did I have no right to do that I mean you can help yourself to growing grace by gentle and a Christlike spirit and so what they've done at Bethany is the first half of the meeting is given to prayer and praise and worship the second half of the meeting is given to confessing false I I don't think you're wise in doing that and you know what they still have the same staff now that they had in 1950 when I went that's that's 31 years ago and and the main body nobody has left that main body they've had problems they've had difficulties wherever you people have problems like a brother said to me not long ago he said you know if there were no people around I'd be a saint now I've never tried to prove this but I've heard it said you know that the only way to polish a real class diamond is to rub it against another diamond you know some little boys got a thing a tumbler you know and they get little rocks and put it in and the thing tumbles down and they come and say mr. A have you seen they do you think this is a real opal or do you think it's something is it no I don't think it is but it looks very nice it's so shiny but you don't put diamonds in the tumbler like that you don't put the opals in a thing like that there's a special treatment if you're gonna get special results and sometimes put oh I wish I worked with so-and-so she's no no no you're too much alike you need an opposite to work with you huh I'd like to I'd like to be in the bedroom with that girl because she's so tidy in my bedroom isn't it oh well God has his own way of smoothing us down God has his own way of correcting us let the righteous smart smart me it shall be a blessing it should be like oil poured on my head did you think of that when somebody rebuked you or corrected you after all if there's nothing in you it won't come out will it and then there's the a difficult word there and I'm not sure if I got this right should I've been in such a haste today Philippians to know but you're gonna find it afterwards what I'm trying to get at is the yes I got it okay Philippians 2 and verse 3 let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves now there's a row sign of meekness isn't it well you say wait a minute how can I esteem somebody better than myself she really isn't better than myself he isn't really better than myself well it doesn't say you have to say they are it says you to treat them as though they are there's a big difference you can easily treat some of you as much you know better than yourself you treat them with more respect more kindness more love that they deserve it but what about somebody who doesn't well treat them as though they were really ahead of you in spirituality and in qualities of grace treat them as though they are better than yourself that's a proof anyhow that there's no arrogance in you that there's no retaliation look at first Peter first Peter chapter 2 and verse 20 what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults he take it patiently that if when you do well and suffer for it he take it patiently this is acceptable with God Peter is very clear to say look some of you complained about the treatment you get but wait a minute people in the world get exactly the same thing if you do a thing or wrong you have to get some correction people in the world but what if you've done your very best and somebody comes down on you and gripes about it and then you say well can you do any better or no no you don't no no no you take it with patience I know in your heart of hearts I've done as the best thing I could I'm sorry if it isn't up to the standard of somebody else you take it patiently verse 23 says of our Lord when he was reviled he reviled not again is that your attitude of mine when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously I esteem others better than myself meekness means I have everything under control by the grace of God but I don't have an arrogant spirit that I don't have an inflated idea of myself but I'm willing to take the least place and be considered the least but after all God knows the heart if you get misrepresented all right you better read Romans 8 I like that verse it is God that justifies and you know if you if you're really assured of that you'll have a meek spirit you won't worry that somebody gets elevated or promoted before you I was here before they came and they've got a better job that won't worry you at all God isn't going to reward you for what position you have here I have it he's going to reward us for faithfulness he's going to reward us for obedience he's going to reward us for Christ likeness I thought about something there I haven't thought of for years if you went to Manchester England you see those big double-decker buses and on the front the insignia at the front is like a shamrock three leaves and the name is Frank Crossley now Frank Crossley was a man who came into a deep experience of God through famous American preachers that he used to have over I'll tell you what he lived in suburbia in a day when they had beautiful carriages you know if you tell you I love you had one horse if you were rich you had two horses if you're rich you had a special fellow then he wore tops on his boots and a tall hat and this is all that this guy had he was very wealthy I was telling the Lord how much he loved him and one day the Lord said all right you love me so much yes the whole realm of nature you give up yet will you sell this house will you go live in the slums of Manchester yes and he did and he built a big auditorium which was called Star Hall S-D-A-R Star Hall and he heard about some men in America by the name of A.M. Hills and G.D. Watson and other great expositors of holiness and he paid their fare over to England and they used to have conferences there and he became a very Christ-like man he built a hospital for the poor leftist suburbia leftist servants left his riches and lived in a what we would call a ghetto and he financed it through his building at that time he didn't make double-deckers the buses because there were no buses around he made gas engines you know they used to buy a gas engine with a three-quarter motor or a five horsepower motor a 12 horsepower motor and they put a belt on it and then it drove your machinery well one day Thomas Cook the president of the college I went to but he died before I got there if he'd lived he might have died of shock when I got there but anyhow he died before that but he was going through a train station in Leeds and here's a man sitting and he has his head in his hands his elbows on his knees and he's sobbing he's sobbing away so Thomas Cook passed him and thought now that's not the right thing to do he went and sat at the side of him and he said put his hand on his shoulder he said friend could I help you you seem to in deep sorrow oh no sir it's the happiest I've ever been in my life well he said I never see the man crying in the train depot before because they're so happy what are you so happy about oh sir he said I've just been to Manchester you know that's a good way off I just got off the train I've been to Manchester to see mr. Crosby do you know about Crosby he said yeah I know Crosby he happens to be a personal friend of mine oh you know about him he said yeah oh I know him he said you know sir he's a real Christian he said he is mm-hmm how do you know well he said I went to see him and I told him sir my brother and I bought a gas engine from you and it isn't powerful enough and we've got behind we've got lots of orders but the machine can't keep going long enough and it just fades out and so we're gonna have to go bankrupt and sell all our business and try and pay folk off and and mr. Crosby heard this this fellow come saying this to one of his office staff so he's bring him in here so he told mr. Crosby the story again and mr. Crosby said well that's very hard on you isn't it he said yes sir it's my dreams have all gone I won't own my own business and I can't send my boys to good schools and this that and the other he said now what what horsepower is it so he said what it was say one and a half horsepower he said well he said so would you buy it back again he said no we I'm sorry we don't trade in use things at all oh well he said I've got no hope he said well supposing you're buying it now what would you buy would you would you need a five horsepower or a seven horsepower oh yeah but you see that's that's way out I can't do that it's a seven horsepower is beyond anything we have would it do the job he said yes well then he said why don't you accept a seven horsepower motor from me as a gift but when when do we ultimately pay no no no strings attached you see if you were sitting there saying my business is gone and I'm gonna be in debt for the rest of my life and and this that and the other if you were sitting there and standing if I was sitting there and you were standing here and I knew that you know I could well afford to do that and I didn't do it would you would you go away say well he's a miserly old thing no sir I wouldn't have said that I'd have said it's my fault we didn't we didn't think study the thing out properly I wouldn't blame you sir he said well that's a nice spirit but I'm gonna tell you this today we're gonna put that seven horsepower motor on the train it will be in Leeds tomorrow morning and that's all there is to it and the man said you know I've heard people talking about as you would that men should do unto you do ye also unto them but it's never happened in my life before I've learned something today he said I don't know how that man became the man he is but I want to be like that he was so gentle he was so kind you know that's the way we'll win others it's not by all our lectures like a famous London preacher went down the street and ladies fetching I want to tell you my husband got saved today when he came from work he did yes well that's wonderful I'll come and see him while he's gone on the night shift so mr. lax his name was lax LAX he went round the next day and he said well I'm so glad you you're really born again aren't you said yes I'm really born again he said that's great he said now I want to ask you which of my sermons was it that led you to the Lord I'd really like to know that he said it wasn't any sermon sir it was that two pounds of steak you brought three weeks ago when my wife was sick others brought her a few flowers and some said they were sorry but when you came in with steak we hadn't had any meat for a month and every time I see meat now I think lax of popular brought us meat lax of popular brought us meat just a kind action there are other ways God has of doing it I know but you see this is this is what people look for you can make all the excuses you like you can talk about the old man in you or either I have a proclivity to this I've always had a bad temper or I've always been bitter but you know the world outside won't let you get by with a single excuse it knows the standard of Christianity if we don't it knows what to expect from our profession and it should be our desire we'll have to come to it later where Jesus says be perfect even as your father no you can't be as perfect as the angels you can't be as perfect as Adam you can't have angelic perfection you can't have mental perfection but we can have spiritual perfection a true sense of the word that we have perfect love that casteth out all fear and we can have perfect obedience and this is what God is looking for and then finally the word of Peter where he says that we should have the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit that's like having a beautiful garment over you and people say oh I love that dress I love that garment you've got and he says this should be our constant wear the thing we constantly wear the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit that has no agitation that has no bad temper that has no resentment that has no bitterness well that's for sure we can't do that of ourselves it takes the blood of Christ to cleanse us and the Holy Spirit to indwell us and when he indwells the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness meekness father we thank you again for the possibilities of grace and we pray that this will not be the last consideration our lives but the first consideration that we may please you in all things do all those things which please the father I pray Lord about this fellowship here that the outstanding thing about it will be its meekness its holiness the beauty of the Lord our God being upon each one of us that when people come in here they may go to dozens of other places but may they have to say whether they come in the print shop or on the grounds or anywhere else that there's something about last day's ministry that I've not seen or felt before may they take knowledge of us that we've been with Jesus and we'll give you praise in his name amen thank you