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00:00:01 good morning brothers and sisters it's good to be in the house of the Lord today's scripture reading is taken from the book of James chapter 3 verse 13 to chapter 4 verse 10 um chapter uh 3 verse 13 who is wise and understanding among you let them show it by The Good Life by Deeds stunning the humility that comes from wisdom but if you Harbor Pitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth such wisdom does not come down from heaven but it's Earthly unspiritual
00:00:42 demonic for we have for you for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder in every evil practice but the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all pure then peace loving consider submissive full of mercy and good fruit impartial and sincere peacemakers who soul in peace with be Harvest of righteousness what causes fights and quarrels among you don't they come from your desires that battle within you you desire but do not have so you kill you covet but you cannot get what you want
00:01:26 so you quarrel and fight you do not have because you do not ask God when you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the world means enemity against God therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world become an enemy of God or do you think scripture says without reason that he jealously Longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us but he gives us more grace that is
00:02:04 why scripture says God opposes the proud but shows favors to the humble submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he will flee from you come near to God and he will come near to you wash your hands you Sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded grieve mourn and whail change your laughter to mourning and your joy to Gloom humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up this is the word of the Lord thank you Clementine for that very clear reading of God's word um this is next week's sermon uh pastor Raymond Raj
00:02:54 he's going to preach to us very exciting story Good Samaritan uh then Arnold will be taking us through wisdom again and uh then we'll start off on our Christmas Journey uh John Lee will kick off with the characters of Christmas we're going to do different characters within this Christmas Story leading up to our Lord Jesus Christ so let's start with a word of prayer father Lord we ask this morning that you holy spirit will open up our eyes and our hearts to know what true wisdom is and that more importantly that we will
00:03:27 desire and long for this wisdom that May transform our lives and bring us Eternal joy we ask for Jesus sake amen so the topic of today is the nature of true wisdom how many of you here sitting here feel you need a little bit more wisdom anybody uh the rest don't need I I reckon everybody needs more wisdom and sometime you wake up in the morning you're wondering oh why did I do that stupid thing I did yesterday you know if I just thought about a bit more did a bit more research I wouldn't wind up in trouble
00:04:05 today um so this is in the context of the Book of James James is basically about a faith that works looking at genuine stability genuine love genuine humility genine patience and in this section we're looking at genuine humility which actually a Hallmark of true wisdom so who is wise and understanding among you by his Good Conduct let show his works in the the meekness of wisdom so genuine humility actually stems from wisdom and we are talking in in James is very very practical he looks at genuine fake faith
00:04:42 and fake Faith genuine wisdom and fake wisdom and this is the topic today what is the nature of true wisdom because it's important because we need to desire this for our lives what is wisdom why is it important what are the two kinds of wisdoms and their characteristics and lastly how how do we get this wisdom from above very simple isn't it every sermon should have three points more than that we'll run away so what is wisdom why is important well who is wise and understanding among you by his Good Conduct let him show his
00:05:17 works in the meekness wisdom wisdom is the thinking that is behind the conduct isn't it it's as old as human history this is uh one of the 12 Gilgamesh tablets which actually date 4,000 years ago they're about the earliest written record of human history telling a story of uh a king his name is king of Uruk his name is gilgames who was described as a man who knew the ways and was wise in all things because wisdom is most treasured Athena goddess of Reason wisdom and War famous among the Greeks philosophy is coming
00:06:03 from the words filio which is love and Sophie which is wisdom and in ancient times these were the superstars how do you live well wisdom is about the truth of the world and our place within it and how to find the guidance as to how we to live successfully so you got Socrates you got Plato we got Aristotle which are the three pillars of Greek wisdom now wisdom is valuable Proverbs say take my instructions instead of silver and knowledge rather than Choice gold for wisdom is better than Jewels all that
00:06:38 you may desire cannot compare with her I have counsel and sound wisdom I have Insight I have strength so wisdom is strength by me Kings reign rulers decree what is just by me princes Rule and Nobles all who govern justly I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently find me riches and honor are with me enduring wealth and righteousness so it looks as if wisdom is the key to successful living isn't it King Solomon who loved the Lord was given like a genie choice you know what whatever you want from me God said you
00:07:15 ask and he asked give your servant therefore an understanding how to govern people that I may discern between Good and Evil And for those and who is able to govern this your great people he didn't choose riches he didn't choose uh women he chose wisdom and God gave that to him if you don't have wisdom many fail states in the world you can see in Yemen Somalia Sudan because of the lack of wisdom but more importantly today we're going to talk about personal wisdom what's gone wrong in your life if you look back the
00:07:53 older you are you look back and all you can think about is a couple of things that you decisions that you made that didn't end up well and how you could have done better maybe I had more information maybe if I not acted so rashly you know we look to technology and science and the latest is to be looked to AI if you don't know anything you need the wisdom you go to chat GPT and you type it out and there the wisdom comes rolling out isn't that how we approach this question of wisdom how many of you recognize this person's
00:08:35 face put your hands up obviously a matsal his name is William Silas all right at the age of three he taught himself Latin can you imagine at the age of three he finished Primary School all standard one to six in seven months if you can't be that he finished high school all six years of that in 6 weeks Harvard Medical School and the MIT entrance exam he took at 8 years old and he graduated from Harvard at the age of 16 his IQ is 250 to 300 possibly one of the brightest men who ever live son of both Ukrainian
00:09:25 Jews uh you've never heard of him lesser individuals have only IQ 160 you got Einstein all of you got an iPhone you know who made the iPhone all the young people who have got tailor with you know she's actually a billionaire today and one of the smartest women uh around you know uh and then you've got that funny fellow called Elon Musk you know them why because of the conduct of their lives wisdom is not just about knowledge and how clever you are you see who is wise and understanding you know by their Good
00:10:10 Conduct interesting words in good you can use two words in good you could use aatos which is good or Kalos which is beautiful James chooses Kalos if you want a beautiful life then you actually need to seek for wisdom wisdom is shown by how you live you can have beautiful lives like these people or you got ugly lives like these people full of power but ugly lives wisdom if you follow the sermon todaying example of William Silas is more than knowledge I wisdom dwell with Prudence I find knowledge and discretion so it's
00:10:52 that's not knowledge is the management of the knowledge with prudence and discretion John Piper has a very ful Paradigm which I introduced before would have time to go through all the scriptures to support it but we just have to accept it for the time being it's factual knowledge with situational insight and necessary resolve three triangles hopefully we'll take this back and apply this in your life you can have all the knowledge but unless you read the situation you might get it wrong for example you've got lonel Messi one of
00:11:23 the greatest football players in the world and they've actually noticed that whenever liel Messi goes in the pitch he's not running around all the time 85% of the time he's found off the ball strolling Doling looking mildly disinterested and why is he doing that because while he's strolling and looking what he's doing is scanning surveying taking the measure of the defense noticing where the vulnerabilities are calculating when opportunities might be seized within 10 and 5 to 10 minutes he has a map of all this around and then he
00:11:58 decides why what to do all right imagine uh remember the time when King Saul the first king was disobedient to God and Samuel the prophet came to him and told him it's finished God is going to choose another king so you know Saul gets very upset and you know before you choose another king you find out who the other king is he'll kill them right that's typical Old Testament way you which you do things so therefore Samuel has the dilemma and the dilemas was to go and anoint a new king and Samuel said how
00:12:37 can I go if Saul hears of it he will kill me so if he goes to anoint a new King Saul will kill him or the new king but the Lord said to him take a heer with you and say I have come to sacrifice to the Lord you don't go and say I've come to anoint new king Bodo isn't it it's true but you're Bodo if you do that so invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you so he goes there people ask him why you're here I come to sacrifice I come to worship you know at
00:13:15 the same time he anoints a new king and he doesn't get killed David doesn't get killed Samuel did not lie everything Samuel said was true but not everything true was said you see this is factual knowledge I have to go and anoint new king situational Insight that you know the situation is dangerous so therefore you do something all right I had a missionary friend of mine who was in India working among the botur people and you know there they were persecuted and the first thing you do is if you're a
00:13:51 government official you find out where they go for baptism right and so therefore you go to the baptism pool the guy dunking everybody he the pastor right you shoot him so what they did was they went to the river everybody stood there and all dun themselves ah it's immersion isn't it doesn't have to have a pastor immerse you then only legitimate is so they all dunk themselves they nobody to shoot because you don't know who the pastor is see that's situational Insight is wisdom next one is necessary result not only
00:14:24 you must have the information you must have judgment and situational insight and the next thing is resolv you know situational Insight is a a little bit uh odd I actually have difficulty with that and a lot of people find me totally blunt weian is not here but he shared with me one day many years ago his father was very ill and I was given 6 months to live and he brought him to me wrong person and I told him he do we need chemotherapy I and then I said to him your father got is going to die and then
00:15:02 he just shared with me last week he was shocked you know I told the truth it was factual knowledge right but no situational Insight no wisdom you see me you can have all the facts and a lot of people are like me you know big put your foot in your mouth all the time you have the data but you don't know how to cou it in such a way that would be not hurtful to the person and so I have to learn to be wise so if you got somebody with NSE don't bring to me all right I I'm still learning to couch it maybe he
00:15:38 will not die maybe this will take some time okay so I have to learn to be wise all right but if you want the truth you just tell me I'll shoot it straight all right next one is necessary resolve you see you can have factual knowledge you can have situational Insight but you don't have the resolve to sort it out this is the U island of simio of Madan and in 2004 there was a huge earthquake there and the sea level reide receded and people thought wow this is great we can to pick up all the free crabs right
00:16:17 but they have a tradition in simu that when the sea reide recedes you don't go and pick the crabs and free tuna fish you right you run for the hills and they did that and because because of that the children are alive today because they have the knowledge situational Insight but they acted on it but not everybody does that they have the knowledge this soli 2018 earthquake and tsunami in the town of pal L where there's a tribe called the P called the Khali tribe when the earthquake came and the waters receded they go and pick up
00:16:56 fish by the seaside 4,000 people died you see wisdom needs factual knowledge situational insight and you've got necessary resolve when Cain was fixing to kill his brother God actually approached him he said to him sin is crouching at your door the factual knowledge is that I know you're going to sin already right he crouching at your door better be careful but he doesn't he doesn't have the resolve and so therefore he killed his brother this is colorcoded wisdom indices very interesting a scientist do that all the
00:17:32 yellow and blue and green are the wise people who actually responded to all the 17 tsunamis since 2004 all the red one are all the stupid one who doesn't actually listen to wisdom so there is a difference whether you got wisdom or no wisdom all right so what is wisdom and why is important now let's look at what are the two kinds of wisdom and their characteristics all right now wisdom can be used also so many things this is the Stanford center for AI in medicine and they've done actually an experiment on
00:18:05 on about 15,000 people where they actually use AI to read chess X-rays and they've got a 99.1% sensitivity rate when you pick up right compared to 72.3% for Radiologists wow after this I don't want to see any more Radiologists I'll go for AI isn't it all right uh but the same AI is used both in Ukraine and in Israel to kill people so so wisdom can be repurposed in either direction the worldly wisdom is described by James is Earthly which means it is circumscribed by the earth physical things it fails to
00:18:50 consider God and his will so it's the best knowledge and wisdom that you can have in the absence of this idea of God so what if if you're actually operating within that realm it makes sense it is conventional wisdom it's unspiritual which is unso like unspiritual Soul compared to Spirit is human feeling and human reason are the ones that reign supreme you see all these movies especially American movies they'll say oh you just follow your heart you follow your heart to hell that's a problem is your heart is bent towards the direction
00:19:28 and lastly it is actually demonic that is worldly wisdom so what happens it's subtle all right so you you have bitter jealousy selfish ambition your hearts you're boastful we tell lies all right uh repeat 16 where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there will be disorder at every vile practice you see any disharmony within Society within the church this church it will be because of worldly wisdom and this applies in this particular text because it's actually talking chapter 3 is talking about teachers those who
00:20:08 basically think they're clever enough to be teachers he's warning them you shouldn't be teachers because you'll be judged with greater judgment strictness all right and because you use the wrong kind of wisdom Godly wisdom is communal you will see effects because people who are affected by these teachers it's pure pure means it only design Des to honor God if you're using your cleverness your theological knowledge to boost yourself up then it is not pure mixed motive it's Peaceable it allows people to interact
00:20:41 in a harmonious manner it's gentle you don't force the theology down people's throat it's open to reason full of Mercy good fruits impartial and Zeal compared to Earthly wisdom Earthly wisdom causes C quarrels fights all right is it not this that your passions are at war with you your desire do not have you murder you cover you cannot obtain you fight you quarrel you do not have because you do not ask so this is Earthly wisdom and and the thing is that Earthly wisdom actually panders to our own passions people come
00:21:17 to church why because they lost a job they get the job then they leave the church isn't it I mean fact isn't it I'm depressed I go to church the pastor pray for me I feel good that don't come next week you know so so if you actually look very carefully many of us come to church and come to God's people and come to God with mixed motive me first of all I am repenting of this that's you know when I first started in in high school when I first encountered the Lord Jesus Christ I went to scripture Union meetings you
00:21:50 know why makan and the girls okay come on be honest that's why in this church we don't mind giving you makan not the girls you can makan it's okay but in the process of makan suddenly you have the gospel and the gospel touches you that's what we want the opportunity if you stay long enough after the Mak you hear the gospel and the gospel changes you the central motive of Earthly wisdom is only number one selfish ambition that's if you want am world the wisdom and the and the reason behind a selfish ambition that is the Crux of
00:22:35 Earthly wisdom and it's recast in chapter four as adultery you adulterous people do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God or do you suppose there's no purpose that scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble so this this self ambition which is Central motive for worldly
00:23:08 wisdom is actually recast as adultery adultery is giving your heart to someone else sex is the is used in this particular picture because it's the most intimate experience of any relationship between two persons and that is between God and you all right look at the language with the prophets use Ezekiel when I pass by you again and I saw you behold you at the age of love this is God speaking and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness I made my vow to you to enter the Covenant with you
00:23:47 decrees the Lord and you are mine so he describes who Israel is and her relationship with God and then in 16 says and your Renown went forth among the Nations because of your beauty for was perfect throughout the Splendor that I had bestowed on you declares the Lord but you trusted in your beauty played the because of your Renown and lavish your whings in any passer by your beauty became his it is a graphic image of a man who brings in a beautiful woman and she become ugly woman she becomes beautiful
00:24:24 and then she gives all her sexual favors to everybody else and it as if and and you adulterous people whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God we're talking about friendship betrayal as God is a CLE God wearing the green hat actually if you say God is wearing the green hat this is where human analogy breaks down it is not because you know God feels so heart oh y my beautiful girl left me say it's not that okay I I mean is you know it's looking like you know one of
00:25:02 the most beautiful actresses in the world is Zang Yuki from China 2014 yeah imagine a beautiful woman like that a which man want to go and find somebody else right yeah her husband did exactly that can you have a beautiful woman like that and the husband finds somebody else probably uglier that's a situation it's so stupid isn't it right proverb says this is how it's cast you see proverb says my son keep my words and treasure up my Commandments with you keep my Commandments and live keep my teaching
00:25:36 as the apple of your eye bind them on your fingers write them on a tablet of your heart okay this is about wisdom but then the man is tempted by an adulterous a prostitute and if you look through this Proverbs you could later on I don't have time to go through with you the ending is this all at once he follows her as an ox goes to slaughter as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces his liver as a bird rushes into a snare he does not know it will cost him his life it's like a queen bee so beautiful
00:26:20 and all the men around the queen bee are like drones what do you want yeah okay we'll do this for you do that the reason why God is concerned is not because he's the cut cold he he wear the green hat it's because you are going to your death that is a problem it is caught in that snare the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and all who practice it have good understanding his praise endures for the foundation of all wisdom is God and godly wisdom is seen in community if you live alone in the hill
00:27:01 you cannot see your wisdom actually you see your Folly because you choose to live alone wisdom from above is tested is pure it's Peaceable it's gentle it doesn't push its way and you see somebody pushing away and then forcing his views on you you know that person is not wise it's open to reason you go for a meeting and you already decided what you want to say you decided what you want to do and then you go for the meeting you're totally closed wisdom isn't like that it's full of Mercy which means you don't execute the punishment
00:27:35 the person justly deserves you give Grace and good fruits is impartial and sincere and the Harvest of righteousness sown in Peace by those who make peace see wisdom is also a balance you've got sincere and is pure mean righteous and yet is also Peaceable and gentle some people want peace at all means you also correct you also correct everybody correct oh very good have you seen some church leaders like that everybody whoever you talk to is correct as long as we all have peace that is not it's sincere it's not double-minded it's pure
00:28:09 it looks for the truth and yet on the other hand it's impartial it doesn't side anybody and it's unwavering doesn't move and yet on the other hand willing to be persuaded if you get a guy who's fixed in his mind that's not wisdom because he it's as if he's God he knows everything so this is wisdom is also balance all right and there are certain things that you actually necessarily have to fight about he's his Titus he must talking to him he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as his taught so he will be able to give
00:28:43 instruction and sound Doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it and then here for there are many who are insubordinate false empty talkers and deceivers especially those of circumcision party they must be silent there are things that you have to stand and it may not be Peaceable because it involves the Gospel of Jesus Christ so the Harvest of righteousness is when if you act within the church with Godly wisdom what will happen is that the Believers will live peaceably believing God will provide for them they
00:29:17 reject self-interest and this harmonious atmosphere will Foster church members to live righteous lives and do righteous Deeds that is what it is all to of false teachers false teachers would actually says the barrel of my theological gun is straight but if all the bullets you fire do not have love then you are not a true teacher it is always love at the bottom of it how do we actually get this wisdom we talked so much about from above first of all wisdom is not about knowledge it's about your heart yeah it's actually you you you say
00:29:59 you want wisdom as the Chinese say say you don't really want it because it is about your heart what is the center of worldly wisdom selfish ambition I want my way I want things to good good for me whoever you are Christian or non-Christian you're sitting here that's your underlying basis so the first thing you need to do is that your way isn't the best way submit yourself therefore to God resist the devil he will flee from you draw near to God He will draw near to you cleanse your hands you Sinners
00:30:34 and purify your hearts you doubl minded first of all if you really want wisdom you have you have to understand that the path you've been going on worldly wisdom is wrong and the only source of wisdom true wisdom is God and we need to submit we need to continually repent because every time we enter a situation we're often working with the operating system of a worldly wisdom and number two it says be wretched and mourn and weep and let your after return the morning your joy to Gloom humble yourself before the Lord
00:31:11 and He will Ex this is not being sad all the day come to church everybody cry no it is a mark of true repentance he's saying that true repentance has an emotional element imagine you took all your money and bought shares in in in a stock market you know taga and suddenly taga you you think you are feeling you that's what it means because you realize you made a wrong investment right you lost everything and so therefore true repentance is realizing that your worldly wisdom based on your selfish ambition is totally wrong and
00:31:52 you made a mistake and I decide to turn 180° and I Look to God for the only soft of wisdom that is what must happen in our hearts today second of all you want to be clever you must be stupid yes you must be a bloody fool I will emphasize this you know why King Gilgamesh he actually thought I'm looking for wisdom and the most important wisdom is what avoid death he searched all over the place this the oldest story in the entire history of mankind and then he found out life we are looking for you will never find for
00:32:32 when the gods created man they let death be his share and life withheld in their own so his worldly wisdom couldn't solve you see whatever you smart the bottom line is that you must solve the question of death if you cannot solve the question what use is it right and and Paul says for the word of the Cross is fly you be stupid you must be a fool to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved is the power of God is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment or discernment
00:33:02 Discerning I will thwart so if you want to be clever you might be stupid you might be stupid in terms of the world looking at you isn't that that's right so I mean I I remember as an intern uh in Sydney working with a very clever uh registra in surgery I was doing my my first uh appendix and he was screaming at me all the time while I did the pandix for 1.5 hours can you imagine would it's usually 10 minutes you know but he was very patient to me and then and the question came out that you know what religion are you I'm Christian
00:33:43 immediately you can see his face turn stupid people I don't know why I let you do this appendix because you're part of the god Squad if you're in the west if they find out you're a Christian you're automatically stupid because you believe in fairy tales that the biggest fairy t tells Genesis and the Bible isn't it all right so that is the issue here so uh we need to become fools we need to let go of our worldly wisdom you see the Jews demine signs and the Greeks seek wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a
00:34:17 stumbling block to the Jews and Folly to the Gentiles but those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men so to get God's wisdom you've got to let go of your own wisdom and be the fool the people seek science and wonders other people seek the wonders of Science and you and and and you cannot reach God that way even Plato if you take one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived is Plato he says life is
00:34:52 like an an example of a cave you're sitting down there and you are watching The Shadow and the shadow is being cast by a a bunch of people with this little Patong Patong there right and and the whole world that you live in is actually an illusion and a if you actually meet westerners they will tell you life is an illusion you don't really understand what's happening it's all fake news the only way you're going to know is that you climb outside the cave and you go into the sunlight and then you see
00:35:25 reality right but the problem you outside the only reality you're going to see is still dependent on you yourself he says the philosophers are the one who are very clever they climb outside and see the light but with but as far as the terms of reference of the Ser himself the source of wisdom is still his own soul the only way you're going to get true wisdom is go outside the realm of this world and see it from the perspective the of the of the God who created this world other people think wisdom is like the Highlander this movie
00:35:57 last last time you know uh you come and you chop off your enemy's neck and then suddenly you get wisdom all right so if Benny hin puts his hands on you or maybe you come up towards P put his hand on you and suddenly you get wisdom actually that's crap that's not true okay the holy spirit will sit in you but the Holy Spirit doesn't work that way the Holy Spirit what does it mean to have wisdom from God let me tell you exactly I'm going to spend some time on this all right Godly wisdom is Gospel wisdom you
00:36:36 see to reach the full Assurance of understanding and knowledge of God's mystery which is Christ in whom all are wi hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there only one source you see the wisdom from above is God and God came down this person of his son and the wisdom is his son and his son got brutalized on the cross cross hello the world thinks that's actually very very stupid isn't it and the cross basically has three dimensions I need you to look at and this is a concept by Tim Keller
00:37:10 which actually applies very much the cross has an inside out Dimension an upside down Dimension and a forward backward Dimension and if you understand these three dimensions then you understand what Christ wisdom is about about he said Inside Out James 4:5 do you suppose of no purpose that he yearns jealously for the spirit that he made to dwell in us he gives more grace therefore God opposes the proud but gives Grace you see God's wisdom is to send his son to die on the cross and it tells you how much he values you he
00:37:54 sends a Son of God all the way down to be part of us to be take a take manhood into his into his own existence and die on the cross for you so that Demands a response Grace is something you didn't deserve when somebody came up to you gave you something you did not deserve it always elicits what a response unless you're not human right even a dog you give him a bone he come back he he he's basic I he wants another bone or maybe he's youd like to think that he's he's grateful right Grace always elicits a
00:38:34 response it's not what you do it's how you respond you know that's why Paul says if I speak in tongues of men of angels I'm not love I'm not a noisy gong or a clanging symbol I have prophetic powers and understand all Mysteries and all knowledge of all Faith remove mountains I have not love I am nothing you see it's not what you do how how you did it how religious you are whether you came to FBC and you gave tithing and you show everybody BT 76 transfer $2 million it's not what you do it's how you respond and you're responding to
00:39:13 love so therefore it's a Inside Out faith not outside in if it's outside in it's like ritualized religion if you go to uh the the in there's a cathedral in Paris Notre Dame been there for 700 years the other day it got caught fire and the most important thing everybody will try to look for for hours to save that Crown do you know that Crown you know who wore that Crown it's not an know them you know that Crown is called the crown of thorns allegedly Crown from you know Jesus head we should test the DNA all
00:39:50 right and the woman will come and every come and they put their hand on the crown you know when they put the hand on the crown oh my God God is so close to me and after that you go back to the stock market you do all your Dirty Deeds it doesn't matter it's from outside isn't it it's outside the the the cross tells us wisdom is from inside out it's always a response gospel wisdom is upside down worldly wisdom selfish ambition all right gospel W W uh wisdom is submission being wretched mourning weeping humble
00:40:28 completely different right I mean how to get God's wisdom become a fool here is a one the most ancient drawings on the catacombs in in in in Rome guess who is hanging on the cross anybody can tell me can you see or not who's hanging on the cross a what a horse a donkey donkey so you don't know it's a donkey so it tells you you you in God's wisdom you must be stupid why because you're worshiping donkey on on on only a donkey will allow himself to be killed right so therefore the the the the the cross is counterintuitive not only it's
00:41:11 inside out it's also upside down all the things that the world admires is actually upside down is what God doesn't admire that you see you see Proverbs 14 says there's a way that seems right to men but in the end is it's a way of death you see all the the grandmother stories they're telling you all the things in the newspapers they all seem right why because it's conventional wisdom but it will actually lead to death and we're not talking about obvious sin conventional wisdom will tell you when you're driving there
00:41:48 somebody honks you you don't get out and take your parang and go and cut fellow right we're not talking about that okay we're talking about normal wisdom for example you study hard go to university get your architectural degree you build the Twin Towers become very famous marry the most wonderful woman in the world have 15 children and 26 grandchildren and then you that conventional wisdom or that's not that but that's that's not God's wisdom that's conventional wisdom in fact Jesus when he was on trial he
00:42:24 says my kingdom is not of This World In My Kingdom of this world my my servants would have been fighting it's it's a different metric all right and pilate said to him you are kinger and Jesus said you say I'm a king for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come to the world to Bear witness to the truth so therefore Jesus kingship and Our Gospel wisdom is about not fighting not political power it's about the truth completely different metric look at Susanna Co who was actually uh uh test T
00:42:57 ifying saying uh when Raymond Cole her husband was uh before he was killed he had a note written in red and cigarette box with two bullets you know you get two bullets a note in red Hello what is a conventional wisdom back off pull up your tent go home hide at home hire two Gods brond Co doesn't follow conventional wisdom God knows where he is today you don't know but God knows that's not wisdom you see Let me give another situation Peter he said you are the Christ son of the Living God Jesus answer number one
00:43:44 man blessed are you Simon bonah flesh and blood has not revealed this to you my father who is in heaven I will tell you you are Peter on this rock I will build my church and the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against it you see very good number one A1 100% and then he says but I'm going to die on the cross and be resurrected and you know what Peter said Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him and say oh that translation for our American friends that's ridiculous far be it from you Lord this
00:44:19 shall never happen to you not while I am Peter we want big S here you know what what is this this is conventional wisdom isn't it it is conventional wisdom and I think why did Peter do that because he loves his master nothing wrong it's conventional wisdom Proverbs 14 says there's a way that seems right to man but the end leads to death he's using conventional wisdom conventional wisdom is not from God we live in a world which tells us we are fools and if if you have the gospel wisdom it's an upside down wisdom he says to Peter get
00:45:03 behind me Satan you are hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of men the things of man will look foolish to God and things of God will look foolish to man okay this is Earthly insight and therefore there's a wrong teaching going around the Christian church that we should as a people as a church capture ascendancy in the church the family business education entertainment politics government capture everything and then restore Israel as a capital of
00:45:36 the world blah blah blah and that is not gospel wisdom gospel wisdom tells us to love helps us to sacrifice it's an upside down wisdom okay life is judged on a different metric the last Dimension not only upside down inside out the last dimension of gospel wisdom is what from the vantage point of the empty tomb today all of us are sitting inside an empty tomb and when you sit inside our anty tomb our world view is completely different our world view is that if we humble ourselves before God he will exalt us you know why
00:46:26 because there is an empty tomb the empty tomb tells us that our faith is already sealed we are seated at the right hand of the father with Jesus Christ whatever happens whether it be in Gaza or Ukraine or Malaysia or whatever else our eternal security is secured because we Look Backwards at the cross and we look forward at the resurrection that is the dimension that will transcend all of our problems if we see life through those lands that is Gospel wisdom when pilate said to him you won't speak to me do you
00:47:07 not know I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you Jesus answered you have no authority over me unless it's been given to you so confident isn't it so when you look at the governmental system when you look at the political system whatever they do we turn around to the world and tell them you don't have any authority over me none unless it's been given to you from above and that is the way although we are humble as people we have an upside down dimension of our wisdom we have an
00:47:47 inside out response to God we are not cowering behind you know why because our Victor is assured because we live in an empty tomb there's no so therefore what is our purpose of Our God's gospel shaped wisdom for us is to live in such a way that we can say with Paul the only thing that matters is life not how many 15 grandchildren you have it's I fought the good fight I finished the race I've kept the faith therefore laid up for me is a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will
00:48:28 award me on that day and not only to me but to all who have loved his appearing may God grant every single one of you his wisdom and may you seek his wisdom every single day because on one hand you look at the experience of Peter you ask him a question B 100% Christ son of the Living God I'm going to die on the cross p no cannot conventional wisdom and he's switching back and forth under the influence of Holy Spirit under influence of Satan and that describes many of us too is not onetime deal you know it's a
00:49:09 constant repenting it is constant being cognizant of the three Axis or dimensions of what gospel wisdom and and learning to repent and learning to go back to him each time and asking for the you will get that wisdom but it's a question of your heart whether you want the wisdom or not if you don't want it is basically selfish ambition so may God grant us the humility to say look I can't deal with this world I need you and you start to bring in this gospel withd the become the fool trust in the cross let's
00:49:50 pray father Lord we come before you and we understand right now now because your word has said so that we are a foolish people we're drawn like flies to the flame like an ox being brought forward to be slain like a deer to be caught in the Trap because so often in our lives as we look back in the landscape of Our Lives we see so much Carnage so much unhappiness so many mistakes that we have committed in our lives we're not perfect and yet today we come before you we take up your promise that we humble ourselves before
00:50:44 you we desire you we will resist the devil and he will flee from us because Victory is already given to us this day we we pray every single day that when we live it's lived as a response to your love it's lived in a way that not puts ourselves up but to serve other people and put ourselves down and it still lived with the confidence of the coming resurrection of our own lives we ask all this for jesus' sake amen thank you Dr Peter for your message let us all rise um as we respond in song and that we Behold our God for his
00:51:36 wisdom for your heart and his love [Music] who has held the oceans in his hands who has numbered every grain of sand kings and Nations trample at his voice all creation Rises to Rejoice Behold our God Seated on his throne come let us adore behold the king nothing can compare come let us adore [Music] who has G counsel to the Lord who cares question any of his words who can teach the one who knows all things who can fa all his wondrous deed Behold our God Seated on his thr come let us adore him [Applause]
00:53:46 behold nothing can compare come let us the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] who has felt the nails upon his hand bearing all the guilt of sinful men God Eternal humble to the Grave Jes Jesus Savior risen now to rain be more God God Seated on his thr come let us adore him behold the king nothing can compare comp [Music] oh you will rain forever you will rain [Music] forever you will rain for [Music] forever you will r forever you will rain let your glor build [Applause] me Let Your Glory build
00:55:43 [Music] the Let Your Glory fild me [Music] up Let Your Glory Be oh God Seated on his throne come let us adore him Behold our nothing can compare us [Music] behold God Seated on his throne come let us adore him behold nothing can compare come let us [Music] adore he will reign forever but did you realize in that song there's another truth there we will reign with him because he reigns forever so will we so decide today to have that Christ shaped wisdom in our lives for our benediction listen to who he is the Lord
00:57:40 is your keeper the Lord is your shade on your right hand the sun shall not strike you by day nor the Moon by Night the Lord will keep you from all evil he will keep your life the Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forever more may God bless you as you leave to go back to your lives and some of you who would like prayer from the elders are welcome to come forward you are dismissed
