Frankie Mazzapica - The Reward For Messing Up
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is, "The Reward for Messing Up," the reward for messing up. I don't know about you, but my life is riddled, it is peppered, with moments where I just thought to myself, Frankie, I don't know why you messed up, why you said that, why you did that, but that was so stupid. Nobody plans on being stupid. Nobody wakes up and says, "I'm gonna do something stupid today. At my first opportunity, I'm gonna say something stupid and just find something to mess up". It just kinda happens and then you back up and you just, "Why"?
And some of those moments have a collateral effect. It's like rings, like, you throw a rock in a pond and it's got these effects and it's kind of overwhelming. But the Bible says this, there is a reward attached to those moments where you feel like you have messed up, and not just messed up where you ruined your day. Sometimes, our mess ups, our trips, our falls, our rough patches happened 10, 15, 20 years ago and we just can't seem to let it go. It still haunts us. But the Lord says this, "I have a blessing attached to that exact moment". That's what we're gonna unpack today, but let me lay a scriptural foundation straight away.
In Matthew chapter 5 what we see is that Jesus is looking at a multitude of people. He's looking at thousands of people. And when he saw the multitude, this is verses 1 through 5, when he saw the multitude, he went up on a mountain, and when he sat down, the disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and began to teach them. As he was looking out to the thousands of people, he saw people in different seasons of life. And so, he said that there are people here that are poor in spirit, but theirs is the kingdom of God. I talked about this category of people two weeks ago. But then he looked out and he said, "Blessed are those who are mourning because they will be comforted". And then the third category, the category that we're gonna talk about today is he says this, "Blessed are those who are meek because they will inherit the earth".
I have three major points for you. The first one is how meekness comes. It's a reward, this is the title, when we mess up. Then, I wanna talk about how there is an inheritance that we receive when we are meek. And then the third point is going to be how meekness, those who are walking in meekness, are friends of God. Many people know God as a Savior, as a deliverer, the one that has rescued them out of seasons and troubles, but there's also people who have met with the Lord as a friend, and that is reserved for those who are walking in meekness. Let's define meekness right out of the gate. Meekness is someone who is gentle. They comfort other people and they are humble.
Let me jump into the first point that meekness comes to those who mess up. There are some people, they are born meek, they are born kind. They just seem to be humble. I'm thinking of a friend right now, it's like everybody has always liked them their whole life. Have you ever met somebody like that? It's like, "I bet you you have," and I've said this to people, "I bet you you've lived your whole life without one person not liking you". And they always do the same thing. "Oh, well, you know". And I tell them, "Me? First grade, I had a problem with somebody. Second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. Today grade".
I've always got some...this meekness, for me, is a process. It's an ongoing process. Someone who is not meek wrestle with pride. It's a thread of arrogance, see. "You don't talk to me like that. You don't look at me like that". It's, "I deserve better from you". There is an aggression for someone who isn't meek. In aggression, different ways to fight. Now, I'm half Brazilian, half Italian. I can write a book on how to fight. A book. The Lord is working on me, but I can fight by freezing you out for a year and a half. No talking. You're not in my life. I don't see you. None of y'all have ever done that before. This message is not for you. It's for the person next to you, okay? That's who it's for. In aggression, sharp words. This is the contrast of someone meek, but the Lord says this, "I have a blessing for those who are meek, and so I'm gonna create these moments to help you become meek".
And in these moments, these are the moments where we mess up and the blessing that comes out of it is meekness. I'll give you an illustration. My son plays basketball and about, I wanna say, a year ago or so, he was playing and I became the dad that I swore I would never be. Have you ever been there? Before I had kids, I was like, "My kids are never gonna look at a screen. They're never gonna look at an iPad, they're gonna do math problems and read. They're gonna go take a second language whenever they're four years old". I've bombed in that category. Yeah, I've completely bombed. When they were little and crying, I'm like, "Give them a screen so that they will be happy".
And so, as time progressed, I genuinely believe I've been a great father, but there was this moment about a year ago where I became the father that I never wanted to be. He was playing basketball in a basketball tournament where you play multiple games and while he was playing, I was coaching. As a dad in the stands. I'm coaching, I'm yelling at him, "Shoot the ball". Then, "Don't shoot, pass. Don't pass, shoot. Play down there under the basket. Play over there by the three point line". It didn't matter what he did, I wanted him to do the opposite. I was just constantly, constantly coaching him. He came up to me after the second or third game and he said, "Dad, like, you're making me nervous. It's like, I'm afraid to shoot, I'm afraid to pass, I'm playing scared". He says, "I just can't take it anymore".
And at that moment, every thought that I was thinking, just listen to me. I know more than you know, I was playing basketball before you were born. At that moment, all the pride, all the ego fell off me like this, like, just weights, boom, and I became so sorry. My spirit became so humble and I looked at him and I said, "Luke, I'm sorry". You know, one of the three magic words. The three magic words is, "I'm sorry," "thank you," and, "please". And I said, "I am sorry". He said, "It's okay". So I said, "I'm not gonna say another word". The next game, he went out and played better than he had in months. Scored more points, got more rebounds, he was having fun, giving people a high five. And at that moment, my mess up actually took me towards this humility and meekness.
Has anyone here ever done anything where you back up and you think about what you did, you think about what you said, but you can tell in your heart that you're more meek, you're more humble, you long for the Lord to make you into a person that you cannot make into yourself. He takes mess ups and says, "Hey, this was actually allowed to happen to you because now you are just broken enough for me to be able to use you". Do you believe that? In James 4:6 it says, "I oppose the proud. Those of you, you're aggressive, I oppose you. You think you're being aggressive to other people, I'm being aggressive to you. Every single door is gonna close. You're gonna live your life like a hamster on a wheel. But the humble, I'm gonna raise you up".
And it's the mess ups where we back up and we find ourselves humble. Meekness is strength and power that we have, but it's under control. I've got a candle up here, and this flame that's flickering, if it were out of control, if it was blazing, it could destroy everything in its path. It would turn walls and buildings into ashes. But because the flame is under control, the strength and the power that it has, because it is under control, there's this calming feeling being around a candle. If it's a scented candle, you walk into a room and you appreciate that it's there. It's a controlled strength. Where someone, there's the parallel. I could just be like the Tasmanian devil. I can talk faster than you. I'm smarter than you. I can steamroll you. I can get distant from you. But I am controlling all of this, choosing to remember that I am a broken person.
But this is the best place I can be because the Lord is beginning to harness my strength to use it in a very particular way to when people are around me, they feel comforted, they feel warm. We're not pretentious anymore, we're not arrogant anymore, because the Lord is taking these mess ups and he's brought a blessing attached to it. People who are meek, number two, receive an inheritance. See, an inheritance is something that comes from the generation above. You did not work for that. You did not earn it. You didn't sweat for it. It has been given to you. You didn't strive for it, you received it. You see, when you're meek, when you've gone through so much that now you're, "God, without you I'm nothing".
When that has happened, you receive blessings that you could not arrange for yourself. Your phone rang and a door opened. You received the email and the door opened. Someone new came into your life and all of a sudden new opportunities came. You were sick and then you were healed. A relationship that was estranged, all of a sudden became healed. You couldn't arrange these things. These are blessings and inheritances that you receive for coming to the Lord and just saying, "I need you. I know what I can do without you and it's messed up, but I need you".
There's inheritances. There's good things that you can't arrange for yourself. I've got this flower arrangement, and I always love seeing flower arrangements because there's always some flowers that have already bloomed. And when you see them, that's the attraction, are the bloomed flowers. You have inherited blessings that have already bloomed. You have children, it's a blessing, it's already bloomed. You are healthy and strong, that's a blessing, it's already bloomed. You have certain gifts that not everyone has, those have already bloomed. Some of you have gifts that you never even had to sharpen. You were born with them. They have already bloomed. You walk in a particular strength because you have bloomed in those particular areas. You already received that inheritance.
But then he looks at the meek, where something happened in your past to make you desire him in a deeper way where you see your own humanity. I have, we all, most of us anyway, have a tooth and it's number 19 in your mouth. It's number 19. I don't know if I'll always have that tooth. By the time I finish this story, I might be in the category of people that don't have a number 19 tooth. Not by the time I finish the story, that'd be crazy, but as I get older. Earlier this week... no, last week, I had to get a filling. Well, about four days later, I started experiencing this intense pain. It was so bad. It reached to the back of my neck, through my ear, I thought I had an ear infection, around my jaw, and all the way to the front of my mouth. Tooth number 19 is on the bottom, right here. I was in such excruciating pain.
Have you ever been in such pain that you're like, "God, take me". Are you with me? "Take me. Like, this either heal me now or take me now. This is too much". And in that moment, I realized how fragile I am. Fragile. And so, I go to the doctor, he does a root canal, which basically means he kills the whole entire tooth. This tooth is just standing here. The roots are dead. It's good. I think the nerves, I don't even know what happened, but stuff was flying out of my mouth. No idea what happened. My health is a flower that's already bloomed. But I wanna tell you this, there are flowers in this arrangement that haven't bloomed yet. It's promising to bloom.
I don't know what color it's gonna be when it blooms. I don't know how, the arrangement it's gonna be when it blooms, but it's promising to bloom. It's saying, "Hey, the good things in your life, they've already bloomed, but there's more coming," there's more coming. For the meek, for the meek. Not for every single person in the world does God begin to direct traffic to bring blessings into your life. Not everybody. No, no. It's for the meek, the people who have gone through seasons where they felt like they would never be the same again, where they were either inflicted, something they did, or afflicted, someone did something to them themselves, to them.
And now they're humble and they come before the Lord and just say, "I got to have you. I know who I am without you and I have to have you". It's those people who he says, "I have things for you. There's a blessing attached to those moments. You have not seen the best of your life yet. You have not seen it". I want you to know that the broken seasons are not the end of the story. They are not the end of the story. They are a necessary part of the story where God says, "Now you're broken. I can use you now".
Let me dive in to the very last point where people who are meek are friends of God. The Bible says in Numbers chapter 12, verse 3 that Moses was the most meek man on the earth, which, if you read the story of Moses, that seems like it's going to be impossible. Moses was a hothead. He was emotional. He was an expert at messing things up because he was a hothead. He was a Hebrew, and other Hebrews, not himself, but other Hebrews were in slavery. Thousands and thousands were in slavery, but he wasn't. And he saw an Egyptian whipping a Hebrew, beating him up. He got so reactionary, he went over and he beat the Egyptian to death. And so nobody would find out what happened, he dug a hole and rolled him into the hole and covered him up.
Well, somebody saw him and they went to the Pharaoh of the land and the Pharaoh said, "I'm coming after you". With all the king's horses and all the king's men, he went after him. He spent the next 40 years as a fugitive, 40 years. This is a moment in his life where he completely messed up. Now, fast forward. The Lord made him a ruler and a judge over all of the Hebrews. He used Moses to bring them into freedom. He was ready now, because over the last 40 years he says, "God, I'm really good at messing up. I gotta have you".
Now, as a ruler, he marries a dark skinned African young lady, was in love with her and she was in love with him, but Moses's brother, Aaron, and his sister, Miriam, were furious at Moses for marrying her. Now, Moses is the leader. He's the judge. And so, he looks at them and he says, "I'm not gonna say anything at all. I'm not gonna do anything at all. I have the authority to do whatever I want with you". And he didn't do anything. So what did Aaron and Miriam do? They began to plot and scheme to try to oust him, to push him out and to take his place. They actually said, "Is he the only one that God speaks to? He speaks to us, too. You out, me in". And he just backed up and he said, "The Lord will fight for me".
Now, think about this. How does a person go from beating a man to 40 years later saying, "You know what? I'm not dealing with it". How does one person get from here to here? How does that happen? It's called 40 years of trying to come to the Lord and saying, "I know what I do when I'm without you, but I'm desperate for you now. I'm humble. I'm meek. I've been through too much".
Now, all the passion, it's all under control now. It's not rumbling everywhere. The mistake has made him humble and kind. And the end of the story is the Lord began to defend him in such a way that Aaron and Miriam were punished far greater than what Moses ever could have done. And here's the interesting thing, is if you read, let me think, it's in Exodus 33:11. What we find are the people saying to Moses, "We are afraid of God. Don't let God talk to us directly. We will do whatever you want to do, but you go talk to God and come back and tell us what he said".
And now, in Exodus 33:11, it says this, that Moses and God talked to each other face to face, like a friend. How did Moses get there? He became meek and he became humble, even though it wasn't done not the way he wanted it to be done. For those of you who are meek in this room, and you didn't volunteer for it, I don't volunteer for it, let me just say this, you are stronger today than you have ever been in your life. Put your hands together for that.