I am not a big fan of telling jokes in my sermons, but in my sermon reviews they are fine! So, here is a little humor for you…
A grizzled old man was eating in a truck stop when three Hell's Angels bikers walked in.
The first walked up to the old man and pushed his cigarette into the old man's pie, and then he took a seat at the counter.
The second walked up to the old man and spit into the old man's milk, and then he took a seat at the counter.
The third walked up to the old man and turned over the old man's plate, and then he took a seat at the counter.
Without a word of protest, the old man quietly left the diner. Shortly thereafter, one of the bikers said to the waitress, "Humph, not much of a man, was he?"
The waitress replied, "Not much of a truck driver, either. He just backed his truck over three motorcycles."
Yesterday, we learned about meekness. Most of us have learned that meekness is power under control, which is true, of course. However, the main point of the sermon yesterday was that meekness very often in Scripture is the companion of truth, especially when one is proclaiming truth to those who have denied it.
Today, I want to take a little time to develop a little further that meekness is to replace our anger, which is why I shared this little funny.
The man in this story seems very meek while he patiently endures the mistreatment of the bikers, but he gets his revenge when he is out of reach of those guys! So, he is really not very meek at all. I think we all know this.
Meekness is gentleness. Meekness exercises self-control over the power of our words and deeds.
But my question for us is: why is what he did so bad? What is wrong with standing up for yourself? What is wrong with righting a wrong?
Here are two answers…
1. God tells us that He is the Righteous Judge (Psalm 96:13). He will execute judgment, not us (Romans 12:19). When we respond to mistreatment with wrath or anger, we are putting ourselves in God’s place and executing judgment on those who have hurt us. That is not our responsibility. We must remember that every sin will be dealt with, every sin will be punished by God. Either God’s wrath for a particular sin was poured out on Christ on the cross for those who believe in Him or his wrath will be poured out on each person who refused to believe in him. That’s it. When we return evil for evil, it is like double jeopardy. It is not our responsibility.
2. Our anger does not lead people to righteousness. Read James 1:19-21...
19Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
We must put on meekness instead of anger and wrath because our goal is to lead people to righteousness. Verse 20 states very clearly that our anger does not accomplish that!
In this context I am thinking primarily of us fathers and husbands. It is really easy to think that a little scary wrath goes a long way in leading our families to submit to our authority. But dads, you cannot force your children and wives into following your leadership. Meekness is what is needed. A gentle, loving prodding with the gospel, pointing them to Jesus is what they need.
So, let’s put on the meekness of Christ by his grace and trust God to take up our defense when we are wronged. Let’s gently love people to Christ.
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