Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Meek Shall Inherit | James Buntrock
This message unpacks the true meaning of “the meek shall inherit the earth” and challenges the modern idea of meekness as weakness. Drawing from scripture, language study, and vivid imagery of war horses trained for battle, it reveals meekness as power under perfect control — strength fully submitted to God. Listeners are reminded that meekness positions us to inherit God’s promises, walk in His peace, and respond quickly to the Holy Spirit’s gentle nudges. A powerful testimony of God’s protection in a life-threatening accident underscores the importance of listening to His promptings and boldly declaring His Word in moments of crisis.
We're going to get into God's Word tonight and I do have a message for you this evening the title of tonight's message. I've preached this before, but it's been a long time. The title of tonight's message is the Meek Shall Inherit. The Meek Shall Inherit.
Speaker 1:And we're going to begin in Matthew, chapter 5, in the Beatitudes, and the Beatitudes are kind of interesting. The theme of the Beatitudes right here is that there was a pronouncement of blessing, a description of the ones who were considered blessed because Jesus declared them blessed, and an explanation of what that blessing Blessing is. The word beatitude means blessed. In the Greek it actually means something more than just blessed, because blessing is one level, but it means supremely blessed, so much so that congratulations are in order, and so it is a high level of blessing. And so Jesus began here in chapter 5. It says and seeing the multitudes, he went up on the mountain where he was seated. His disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1:And before we go too much further throughout tonight's message, this is a little bit of a word study. It matters what words mean and some of the words that are used in the Old Testament. You know they're based on Hebrew words. It's translated from the Hebrew into English and our English language doesn't always do it justice. And then we have a similar thing happening in the Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek, so we've got Greek words that were translated into English happening in the Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek, so we've got Greek words that were translated into English. And then there are cultural references that help us understand what these words were and how they were used and how they were understood in that day, and our modern English language just doesn't pick up on a lot of this stuff, and so there's really a lot of neat things in the message tonight that we can pick up and learn and understand what the context was, what was going on and what the meaning of that word was so right off the bat.
Speaker 1:Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Poor in spirit, that is not somebody who is destitute and in an extreme impoverished condition. It's poor in spirit, and so it's talking about really humility right there. Blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you think about another reference in James, chapter 4, verse 6,. It says that he gives grace, but he gives more grace. Therefore he says God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so for the people who are humble or poor in spirit, there there's the promise of grace, or God's ability, or God's provision for them. And so Jesus starts out by saying blessed are the poor in spirit or humble, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's not for the haughty, it's not for those who build themselves up, but the kingdom of heaven belongs to the humble. The next verse blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. You know that's good news. If you're sad, there's blessing, an extreme blessing, because you get the opportunity to be comforted. And now we have the comfort from the comforter, the Holy Spirit, who is the chief Comforter.
Speaker 1:Verse 5, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And that doesn't mean what most people think. It means. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Those who seek after God are going to find. If you seek, you'll find. If you knock, it'll be open. If you ask, you can have it. And those who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all the things that they have need of, will be added unto you. And so there's multiple scriptures that back up what Jesus is saying here. The blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they should be filled. But we're going to focus on the meek tonight.
Speaker 1:Again, the title of tonight's message is the Meek Shall Inherit, and so let's talk about blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Does that mean they get the whole earth? Well, ultimately yes, but that word earth right there in uh, in the Greek is is land Blessed are the are the meek, for they shall inherit the land. Well, if you were a Jewish person of the day, you would recognize immediately that that is referring back to the promised land. There is a promise, uh, of the heirs of the saints, of the heirs of father Abraham, the covenant that God had cut um with, cut with his people. They had a promise to come into that land and have certain things, and so Jesus is saying things right here that immediately bring thoughts forward of the Jewish culture. Ah, he's talking about that land. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land, the promises of God. And so that's where their mind would go for this, and you know, in our language we read blessed are the meek. And I just I think, well, thank goodness, you know the meek, they're always getting the raw end of the deal and finally, you know, they never get anything. They never get anything. Good People are always taking advantage of the meek and finally they need to catch a break here. They deserve something, and so God, in his infinite wisdom, here Jesus threw him a bone. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit something. But it means something quite a bit more than that.
Speaker 1:Let's look over before we get too far. Let's look over at Psalm 25. And these are some similar scriptures here in the Psalms. I'm going to read one out of Psalm 25, verse 9, and then we'll flip over to 37. But in Psalm 25, verse 9, it says the meek, he will guide in judgment or in divine law or by his decree. And the meek, he will teach his way.
Speaker 1:Verse 12 says what is the man who feareth the Lord, him? Shall he teach in the way that he chooses or the proper way? Verse 13, his soul shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherit the earth. So we're talking about the meek, and those who fear God shall inherit the earth. Verse 14 says the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. So there are covenant promises to those who are meek this is the Old Testament here those who fear God and those whom he shows who is taught in his way, and he'll show secrets to them. And then there's an inheritance and a covenant that they have promises.
Speaker 1:So flip over to Psalm 27, verse 11, another place. It says but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace or shalom. The meek shall inherit the earth or the land and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace or shalom. So what does shalom mean? We talk about that from time to time. Shalom is peace and prosperity and health. It is those things. It's also harmony and wholeness. Completeness includes prosperity and it's welfare and tranquility. It includes prosperity and its welfare and tranquility. And so you know the word shalom, one word in the Hebrew means a whole lot of words in the English language.
Speaker 1:So it's good to know what we're talking about here, the modern definition of meek, if you want to consider that is. You know these are some comparative words, if you will Quiet, timid, passive, gentle, easily imposed on or submissive. That's what we think of when we hear the word meek. When somebody is meek, they're timid, passive, submissive. The adjective meek describes a person who is willing to go along with whatever other people do. It's someone who won't speak up when they're treated unfairly. They're just, you know, they're the doormat of life. Everybody walks on them and so that's a modern day thing there.
Speaker 1:But Jesus didn't use that type of word there. When he used the word meek, he used one that was very intentional and he used a word that was common in that time, in that place, in that setting, and it was one that people knew and respected and understood what he was talking about. Jesus, when he used the word meek, referenced it was a Roman reference. It was a term that was used in the military, in the Roman military. You think about the Romans and what fierce military they had. There was no doubt to those in that culture what he was saying.
Speaker 1:So the Greek word there is praos. If you're trying to spell it P-R-A-H-O-O-S. Those are not Greek characters, those are English characters, but that's a pronunciation of the Greek word praos. And what it was. Is it defined a horse that was trained for battle? The Greek word meek or praos was a horse that was trained for battle. A horse that was meeked was ready for battle.
Speaker 1:So they would bring stallions down from the mountains and they broke these animals. In other words, they broke their will and made them useful for different things. Some were used to move wagons and pull plows, some were raced, others were trained for warfare. The ones that were trained for warfare, these were the ones that were the fiercest of the horses. They had the fierce spirit, the courage, the power. They were out of control in the wild and they were just almost untamable. But when they were tamed for their purpose, they became useful to their master. And so these horses that were trained for warfare, they retained all that fear, spirit, courage, power, but they were disciplined to respond to the slightest nudge of the rider or the word of the rider. And so you think about what these animals were doing if they were trained for war. These animals, you know, they're running about 30, 35 miles an hour with their rider on their back and they're running into danger. They're running into a battle, into a scene that any natural horse would turn and run the other way. They would never approach that scene. So this horse is doing something completely unnatural and it's responding to the most subtle and gentle nudge of the rider. It's doing everything that violates its natural instinct to do exactly what the rider wants it to do. And so when they were no longer frightened by the arrows, the spears, the torches, it said that they were then meeked, or properly meeked, for battle. The horse was meeked for battle.
Speaker 1:There were other horses throughout history, different descendants of these, the remnants of these horses, the war horses you might have heard the term, the Lipizzaner stallions. Those would be horses that would be descendants of these war horses going all the way back to the Roman times. The Lipizzaner stallions you see in Spain and they're on display and they can do some amazing things. It's an impressive animal with lots of power, and yet you don't even see what the rider is doing to the horse. To make him do the things that the horse is doing, they'll prance at a special trot with a certain cadence, they can go into a gallop and they'll turn and spin, they'll rear up on their hind legs, they'll do whatever the rider wants them to do and you can't tell that the rider is doing anything to the horse. But the horse knows, because it's such a subtle instruction and the horse responds immediately.
Speaker 1:And so the Old Testament, the Hebrew words in those Old Testament scriptures, in Psalm 35 and 37 for meek mean perfectly obedient to and reliant on God. That's the context of that Old Testament word there for meek they're not after their own will, but they're after God's will. So they're humble and not seeking themselves, they're seeking God and submissive to God. So that's the Old Testament. There Again, the Greek, a simple definition of this would be power under perfect control. And there's a similar word that we have in our English language today prowess, which is distinguished bravery. You think about military valor and skill, an extraordinary ability. That's the English word prowess. But the Greek word praous is power under perfect control. And so, in short, meekness is not weakness, meekness is power under control.
Speaker 1:And when we're meeked for battle, when we're meeked for our purpose, following the perfect will of God, we've got the Holy Ghost on the inside of us and he's our sovereign. And we're here to please Him. We're here to please our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit sent His Spirit to dwell on the inside of us, and so you can think of that Holy Spirit as being the writer, the master, the one who's here to provide those subtle nudges, those subtle instructions where we should be immediately responsive to the Holy Spirit. He shouldn't have to shout at us and dig his heels in and yank the reins real hard to get us to do something.
Speaker 1:You know, a horse that's real ornery. You have to really yank him around and jerk the reins and get him to do something. And you know, I've been on a horse that tried to scrape me off on a low-hanging branch and they can. You know Brother Pete's over here, he's got horses and he's nodding his head to some of this stuff. An ornery horse can be hard to deal with. Let's not be hard to deal with.
Speaker 1:We need to be immediately responsive to the urgings and the nudgings and the communications of the Holy Spirit to our spirit. It's called being spirit-led. The Holy Spirit isn't going to rein you in, he's not going to jerk your reins. He's going to let you do what you want to do. And then that's when you end up finding your way into trouble. And the good news is is he didn't leave. He will never, never, never leave you nor forsake you. You know, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yea, though I try to scrape him off under a low-hanging branch. Yea, though I try to do my own thing and go left, when he's trying to get me to go right, he's never going to leave me.
Speaker 1:He is a very present help, and so we've got to keep a short account and be quick to run to him. And he's so merciful and so gentle and so kind. As soon as we can acknowledge that, ooh, I didn't do the right thing, I missed it right there. He was trying to get me to do this and I did that. He'll get that course corrected like that and you'll be right back on course, doing the right thing.
Speaker 1:And so another word here blessed are the meek, the powerful under perfect submission. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land or the promises of God. So another word here that we can look at is inherit. Jesus used the word inherit because anytime you inherit something, there has to be an heir. That means somebody is going to die and something that belonged to the one who died is being transferred to the heir, the rightful heir. And so you know, there's a little foreshadowing here. Jesus is talking about the things that we would inherit Through his death. He brought us into a place where we can inherit things, and so in this case we get to inherit the promises, we get to inherit the land, the promised land, and so his audience that he's speaking to would have recognized all of these things and associated them with the promises of Abraham. And again, you know, unless we're versed in this, we kind of read and skim right over this stuff and would have missed some things.
Speaker 1:And so let's put some of this together. So we read Psalm 25, and we read a few verses out of there, and then again Psalm 37, so that's Old Testament, but we've got kind of a bigger picture, understanding of what some of these words mean in the context of some of these words. And so Psalm 25, verse 9, the meek, he will guide in judgment, and so that's in his law, in his decree. And the meek, he will teach his way. Verse 11 in Psalm 37, it says but the meek, and let's insert our understanding of what that word meek means. Now, psalm 37, verse 11, but the meek, the highly trained, perfectly obedient people who operate with God's power, under perfect control, even in the midst of the fury of battle. And so those are my words that I've put in there. I've inserted what we talked about just now, our understanding of the Old Testament and the New Testament version of meek. Where that comes from? It's a military term. But the meek, the highly trained, perfectly obedient people who operate with God's power, under perfect control, even in the midst of the fury of battle.
Speaker 1:One definition shall inherit the earth or shall. And that word inherit there is more than just receiving something In the Old Testament. It's more than receiving something from an heir and somebody died. It literally means in the Old Testament to possess by dispossessing, in the Old Testament, to possess by dispossessing. So in the Old Testament, when they inherited the land, he will cause you to inherit the land. It was a possession by dispossession, so it required something on their side. There was something that belonged to them out front and they had to go and take possession of it. You can inherit something and it can belong to you, but until you go and stake your claim on that and grab hold of that, you'll never actually have it in your hand. You'll never get to enjoy the inheritance if you don't go get it and receive it. And so in this verse here but the meek shall inherit the earth, they shall occupy the promised land. By driving out the understanding here when you get to apply these meanings in a way that we just gloss over when we're reading here In Matthew, chapter 11, jesus made a statement.
Speaker 1:He said that the violent would take it by force, referring to the kingdom of heaven. He talked about John the Baptist. He said and from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force, and the Amplified, it says, as a precious prize, a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought, and most ardent zeal and intense exertion. So that's the Amplified right there, and so there's an element of going and taking what belongs to you. The kingdom of heaven suffers violent and the violent taketh by force. You know we're not going to have any measure of force where we can overcome heaven. These things are available to us. The promises of God are available to us, they belong to us, but they require us going out with our most ardent zeal and intense exertion and going after them and laying hold of them. They are promised to us, it's an inheritance that belongs to us, but we've got to go after it. And so let's consider the inheritance that Jesus left for us In John, chapter 14,. He's preparing his disciples here for his departure.
Speaker 1:John 14, I'm going to begin reading in verse 25. And Jesus says and these things I have spoken to you, being present with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring you into remembrance all things that I have said to you my peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not that the world gives, do I give. Let not your heart be troubled. The world gives, do I give. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. And so there is a promise of peace right here. So when I read that same verse 27, talking about peace, if I read that in the Amplified, y'all can put up the Amplified John 14, 27 in the Amplified.
Speaker 1:In the amplified, he says peace. I leave with you my own peace. I now give and bequeath to you. Right before he's getting ready to leave, he's ready to, to lay his life down and he's bequeathing he's. This is his last will and testament. I'm going to give you something and when I die, this is yours now. My own peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives, do I give you? Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.
Speaker 1:And so that Greek word peace remember the Old Testament word is shalom, the Greek word peace is irene, and it means quietness, rest, exemption from rage and havoc of war. Think about that the exemption from the rage and havoc of war, prosperity, security, safety, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, fearing nothing. And so let's go back to that imagery of the horse and rider. Jesus has bequeathed something to us. Jesus has bequeathed something to us and he has bequeathed his peace, his quietness, his rest, his exemption from the rage and havoc of war. We can be on an animal, or that animal can have its rider on its back and be driven into the havoc of war. There's trouble in this world. We can be going places where there is havoc, where there is war, where there is rage, and we can be in that scene and yet, at the same time, we can have peace and quietness and rest. We don't have to lack anything. We can have security and safety in that tranquil state of our soul, assured of its salvation through Christ and fearing nothing, because he is ever present with us. We can have that peace because it belongs to us.
Speaker 1:And so let's lay hold of these things, everything we're talking about here, everything that we go and get, and the kingdom of heaven suffers violent and the violent take it by force and possession through dispossession. This is all done by faith. It's all done by speaking His Word and declaring His Word, and then our actions align with His Word and we're acting on the faith, and faith has an action. And when you put that together, you can have the promises, you can have the land, the promises of what he has given us, he has bequeathed to us, and Isaiah and I'm getting close to wrapping up here, isaiah 54, 13. So we're going back to the Old Testament, now 54, 13.
Speaker 1:And we'll look at this in the Amplified, now 5413, and we'll look at this in the Amplified. And all your spiritual children shall be disciples taught by the Lord and obedient to his will. And great shall be the shalom or the peace and undisturbed composure of your children. All your spiritual children shall be disciples taught of the Lord and obedient to his will, or meeked for battle or meeked for his purpose, completely submissive to the Holy Spirit, who has given us instruction, who's given us a gentle nudge and you can speak this over your kids, if you've got kids in your household. We declare this over our kids and great shall be the peace of our kids because they are taught of the Lord. But I just like the amplified here that they'll be taught ones taught of the Lord, obedient to his will, meek for his purpose, inheriting peace. It's been bequeathed to us. They can have that tranquil state, assured of their salvation in Christ, fearing nothing. And so we can have. We ought to be meek for his purpose. We ought to be.
Speaker 1:Whatever fear we have doesn't matter anymore. Whatever natural tendency we have doesn't matter anymore. Whatever we think we're good at or not good at doesn't matter anymore. It's those gentle nudgings and gentle urgings. And you know we don't always get it right. Sometimes we miss those little things. And I said it earlier this evening and I'll say it again His mercy is there. His mercies are new every day. His mercy is there. His mercies are new every day. If you're a covenant person, you have his covenant kindness, you have his covering over your life, over your family. Wake up in the morning and declare these things, state these things over your family, start your day with this stuff, Understand what it is that you're claiming and laying hold of.
Speaker 1:The example I'll give is our daughter Thea. She was on her way home from school. This was in October 26th 2024. She was on her way home from school and on the way home she had a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit. That prompted her and she perked up and listened and she just had this concern on the inside. Something's not right, what.
Speaker 1:The thought passed her mind. What if I got into an accident? Well, the Holy Spirit was giving her a nudge, trying to prompt her to do something, and she didn't quite recognize it entirely. She recognized something's wrong and I have to do something, but she didn't know what to do. So she prayed and asked God for protection, and that was a good thing. And so she kept driving down the road and the feeling didn't go away. And she just kind of had that reoccurring feeling and thought, what if I get into an accident? And she didn't quite know what to do. Yet I prayed for protection. And so what does she do? She puts on worship music. She thought. Well, I'll just get in the presence of God. I'll just surround myself with the presence of God. He inhabits the praises of his people. So she turned on worship music in her car and sang along and I think she felt a little bit better. But that urging, that nudging was still there and there was something she needed to do and she wasn't quite sure what it was.
Speaker 1:She pulls into a turn lane where she had to turn left across oncoming traffic and the traffic began to stack up and come to a stop. And so when it came to a stop there was a little break between the cars and there was a nice person right there in the first lane, closest to the turn lane. Somebody waved her through and she turned in front of that car and into the second lane and didn't see the truck coming at her at 50 miles an hour and the truck impacted the side of her Kia Soul and folded that car in half around the front of that truck and on her side. She later we understand what happened. She said I don't understand because I saw the truck coming and I hit the gas and I went through the intersection and into our neighborhood and I was fine. That's what she remembered.
Speaker 1:The fact is that she was unconscious at the scene for some period of time. The fire marshal or the fire department came and the fire chief was there on the scene with her and they did bring her too and she was combative and showing every sign of traumatic brain injury and she had a minor scratch or scrape or cut on her head and so that was bleeding a lot. But the bigger thing for them was the traumatic brain injury. She had all the signs and symptoms of that and we got the call. Claire and I are coming home about a mile and a half from home and we got a call from the fire chief and we confirmed that that's our daughter and he said she's been in an accident and she was found unconscious and she's being life flighted. Right now. They're about to take off. That is a terrible feeling. We're running headlong into havoc and hell in front of us.
Speaker 1:Thank God for the Holy Ghost. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. We're not to speak fear, we're not to operate in a condition of fear, but we're supposed to operate according to the promptings and urgings and nudgings of the Holy Spirit. He was a very present help in time of need. We didn't let fear come out of our mouth what we let come out of our mouth. What came out of our mouth was God's word and his promises. The kingdom of heaven suffers violent, and the violent take it by force. We got violent and began to take those promises by force, lay hold of those things and declare those things and defy the devil of his opportunity to steal, rob, kill or destroy anything in our family. We lay it whole to those promises In the natural. I'm driving 100 miles an hour down 290. I spun the truck around and got on 290, and it's five o'clock traffic and I'm driving like a madman trying to get to the hospital and watching that helicopter fly over the top of 290, knowing that that's our daughter in the air, I'm watching her fly over the top.
Speaker 1:And when we finally did get to the hospital and went up to the whatever floor that was, to the level one trauma unit where they had her in the bed there and walked in and her words to us and really Claire was mom, I'm fine, mom, I'm fine. And we spent a long time there because they don't do anything fast in a hospital and Claire had all kinds of time to look all over that that level one trauma unit and see all the, all the kits that they use for just horrendous injuries and life-threatening conditions, and not one of those kits was needed or used on our daughter. And so Claire is in the room just looking and reading the name thank God we didn't need this kit, thank God we didn't need that one. And she's praising God and giving him glory and still laying hold of the promises because there's still our daughter in that hospital bed and we're just waiting on test results to come back. Short story five hours hospital time. We walked out of there. She had a Band-Aid, a Tylenol and a tetanus shot and no further symptom. We had to sit on her the next day to keep her from doing anything, because we just wanted to observe her without doing anything that might cause something else to go wrong. You know we were being very cautious of parents and she's like I'm fine, I'm okay. She slept that night.
Speaker 1:If you've ever been in a car wreck, that sound will keep replaying in your mind over and over. Those images will flash. Whatever smells you had, whatever you experienced in that car wreck, is something that people tend to relive over and over. It's a torment, and it's a torment by the devil. But what she surrounded her in the presence of God. She just got in the presence of God and he protected her mind, he protected her brain. She has no memory, no trauma of the event. Her memory was I was just fine. I saw the trouble coming and it missed me and I went through and I was fine in our neighborhood. That's her memory of it. And so she got back in the car and was fine to drive no torment, no problem.
Speaker 1:And so those gentle nudgings of the Holy Spirit are there to protect you, to save you, they're there to bless you, they're there to bring extreme blessing. That's worthy of a congratulations, that's the blessing of God and that's what the Holy Spirit does for us. And so let's be someone who's completely sensitive, and that's what the Holy Spirit does for us. And so let's be someone who's completely sensitive and meek to the Holy Ghost, where we don't have to have our own way, do our own thing. If we just submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God and, by faith, lay hold of the promises, we can have everything that this book says we can have. It's our inheritance, it's been bequeathed to us, it's paid for, it belongs to us, we have promises and we can have these things. And so we're not meek, we're not weak, we're not a doormat for life. We are highly skilled and completely submitted to the Holy Spirit.