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00:00 the worshippers of the second service and also uh great that uh all of you are steadfast in your faith growing day
00:07 today and this morning is my turn uh to speak again and always a joy and privilege to be standing here sharing
00:14 with you from the word of God and as many of you uh are aware we are now uh going through a series on the book of
00:21 James and today we are uh the title slide is the next slide uh I use my clip
00:31 Sorry. And today we are at the last part of uh chapter 3 uh 13 to 18. Now the
00:39 book of James uh over the past few uh sermons uh you can see that it is a very
00:45 practical piece of scripture offering us um a very practical advice on how we
00:50 should live our Christian lives. And the entire book uh seems to be anchored on this one verse uh chapter 1 verse 22.
00:58 But be doers of the word and not hearers only. The writer talks about the
01:03 importance of what we must do and mustn't do. And we are taught that works
01:09 specifically good works must accompany our faith. And we've already seen in
01:15 previous sermons that our doing good uh is not a prerequisite uh for our
01:20 salvation or a condition for our salvation unlike what other religions
01:26 teach. Rather it is an expression or an evidence of our faith or if you like the
01:33 exercise of our faith. The writer goes on to uh say three times in chapter 2
01:39 that faith without works is dead. And you find this mentioned in chapter 2 vers 17, 20 and uh 26. And James
01:49 therefore is a very useful book for us to digest and then to put into action. It lends a practical dimension to what
01:56 we believe in and more importantly it gives shape uh to our faith. And this
02:02 morning we shall focus on what we need to do in the in the conduct of our relationships with one another. And
02:08 hence the title making wise relationships. Our text uh actually
02:13 continues from the earlier passage in chapter 3 verses 1 and 1 to 12 on taming
02:19 the tongue which if it's not tame can destroy or sour relationships. actually
02:26 also continues into uh chapter four which describes uh infighting and and
02:31 and quarrels among members of the congregation. Uh it is clear that they
02:37 were not getting along well with one another. So beside controlling the tongue, what else must we do when we
02:42 relate to our fellow believers? And the text offers us specific guidelines um to
02:50 help steer uh our dealings within the community of God's people. As a matter of fact, uh these lessons can also be
02:56 applied uh not only to relationships within the church but also relationships within our families and also to
03:02 relationships uh within marriages. And but shall we first commit this time to the Lord in prayer.
03:11 Our father, it is your express will that we love one another as you have loved
03:17 us. But oh, how hard it is for us to obey this commandment. how often we struggle
03:23 to get along with people around us. Help us desire and seek your wisdom, wisdom
03:29 from above and be guided by it when we conduct our relationships as we study
03:35 this text from James. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
03:42 One Monday morning uh afternoon in fact in early October last year I found
03:48 myself uh visiting the Sharia court of Pinang.
03:54 Now what was I doing at the Sharia court? Uh before you start to imagine things
04:00 um did I convert? I was actually invited by the Pinang State Secretariat to be a member of uh
04:08 to be one of a three member panel of judges uh to judge a competition among
04:14 uh state employees and this was part of my work to help put uh food on the
04:19 table. Now to take part in the competition you need to form a group of between five to 10 uh uh people uh your
04:27 colleagues and to undertake a project uh lasting 6 months to a year to improve
04:33 the services that you provide to the rat okay or or the citizens in Bahasa and
04:39 the Pinang Sharia court being a state agency uh had a team participating and hence my
04:45 visit to judge uh their project. But I must tell you uh at first I was
04:51 rather apprehensive about going to the Sharia court. No. Uh but they treated me with utmost uh respect and courtesy. But
04:59 of course they had to be they had to be nice to me if they want to win. Now without going into details, the
05:06 outcome of their project uh is encapsulated in this pamphlet that the group uh produced which says uh hari
05:17 hari which means if today you agree today it
05:23 will be settled for you. Uh and the back says Jabatanakiman
05:28 Sharia. What's this all about? Now what happened
05:34 was that before the project uh before their project if a Muslim
05:40 couple wished to get a divorce it would take them about uh six trips to the Sharia court over a period of at least 3
05:47 months. And so they studied the entire process and they made uh some uh key
05:53 changes and improvement to that process. And now with this project completed, you
05:58 will only need to go to the Shara court once and and get your divorce in one
06:04 day. Harini sutu harini salasai. Okay.
06:10 But they were careful to point out that the that this only applies to uh to cases of uncontested divorce.
06:18 uh where both husband and wife have agreed amicably uh to the terms of the
06:23 dissolution of the marriage. I was stunned to say the least sitting
06:28 in the room hearing about their project, hearing their presentation. And so I asked them, wouldn't this lead to a
06:35 higher rate of divorce in the state of Pinang? The answer was very convincing. If a
06:41 couple is determined to get a divorce, if the marriage is beyond repair, why make life difficult for the couple?
06:49 I further inquired, what if in the aftermath of a sheetated quarrel between
06:55 husband and wife say last night and today they go and get a divorce in one day and then next week later they regret
07:02 the decision again. The answer was very good. The couple can always get married again.
07:10 Now to cut the long story short, they actually won the contest. They emerged
07:16 as the winner. you see was my fellow judges uh both of them were Malay and male they gave them they gave this
07:23 project very high marks now I wouldn't tell you what marks I gave them okay now
07:28 I'm relating this to you to illustrate that while the world out there may be hasty to break up relationships or even
07:36 to facilitate the ending of relationships in contrast Christians in
07:41 general put in far more efforts not only to maintain and keep relationships
07:47 but also to foster and nurture relationships. And this serves as a
07:53 backdrop to today's sermons in a sense that as Christians, we realize that to make a relationship work, any
07:59 relationship, not just marital ones, it requires a lot of efforts.
08:04 Our faith compels us to work hard at our relationships. And this squares with the
08:11 overall theme of the book of James namely works as an expression or
08:18 evidence of our faith. How then should our faith drive our relationships? What should we do in the
08:25 conduct of our relationship with others? Now to get on with the text um uh to get
08:31 on with the text, James talks about two kinds of wisdom. and earthly wisdom in the verse 15 and the wisdom that comes
08:39 from heaven in verse 17. So we have earthly wisdom versus heavenly wisdom
08:45 and the text starts by asking uh who who is wise and understanding among you and
08:51 since the text flows from the earlier verses. So this is linked to verse one at the beginning of the chapter where
08:56 the writer mentions that not many of you should become teachers. So what we have here is directed at teachers and or
09:03 aspiring teachers. But I would like to think that the teachings here directed at this specific group can also benefit
09:09 Christians in general. After all, if the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, who
09:14 wants to be a fool? Well, if you think that you have wisdom and understanding, verse 13 continues,
09:22 let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. In other words, if you
09:28 think you have these qualities of of wisdom and understanding, prove it.
09:34 Prove it by the way you conduct your life. Show it by what you do. Especially in the area of humility. And this again
09:41 squares with the overall theme of the book of James which I said a minute ago is works as an expression or evidence of
09:48 our faith. Now we will of course later zoom into what this what this wisdom is which must be proven by good conduct and
09:55 humble deeds. This of course we're talking about heavenly wisdom as opposed to the other uh earthly wisdom. But
10:01 before all of that let's look at wisdom in general. Okay. Uh what is wisdom? How
10:08 do we define wisdom? Now wisdom is certainly not the same as knowledge as you would all agree. If you ask people
10:14 in general they might say that wisdom is knowledge applied and applied in such a way that the outcome is good for those
10:20 involved. Now when I was a kid I was often told that uh knowledge is power.
10:25 My late father when I was a when I was in in primary school he he bought me a book of knowledge a small but thick
10:30 volume and I digested the pages like a hungry man feasting on food and I could tell you at that time uh the capital
10:37 city of every country in this world you know and I thought I was really smart and later I found out that knowledge
10:43 isn't power until it is applied and hence the notion that wisdom is knowledge applied in the right way but
10:51 is that is that the case many of us possess has vast knowledge in our respective fields. If you are an
10:57 accountant, you know a lot about accountancy. If you're an architect, you know a lot about architecture. If you're
11:03 a doctor, you know a lot about medicine. And you surely apply your knowledge in your work. But does that make you wise?
11:11 Which makes this quotation uh rather profound. Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living, the
11:19 other a life. About 10 days ago, a close Malay friend of mine, he rang and asked to meet up uh
11:26 and this guy, he runs a fairly successful business, but he was facing problem with an employee whom he pays a
11:34 fat salary, but whose performance was severely lacking. Was he was really at the loss of what to do. My friend is
11:41 about 40 years old, 17 youngest 17 years younger than me and also not so young.
11:46 uh but I've gone through of course far more than he has uh in the area of managing people in the workplace
11:53 and so I sat down with him uh for about more than two hours at a at a coffee shop and we talk about things like uh
12:00 motivating employees uh uh correcting them disciplining them or even sacking them. Now what my friend wanted was as
12:07 it turned out was to tap my experience on how to deal with employees. uh what would I what I would do in his
12:14 situation. You see, he he certainly had knowledge of what he could do. He was just unsure of what he should do. And so
12:21 wisdom may be defined as application of not just knowledge but also experience
12:27 which you accumulate along the years. But that's mostly secular wisdom. Being
12:33 sure of what to do, what's the best thing to do in a particular situation based on your knowledge and your
12:38 experience. But the Bible's definition of wisdom is f vastly different. And we will discuss
12:45 this in the in a moment in greater depth. But from the onset, I want to tell you that the in the pages of of
12:51 scripture in Bible times back then, the people of God to them, wisdom was
12:57 certainly a highly valued uh quality. And people at that time look up to the
13:02 wise. Part of the Old Testament is known as wisdom literature which includes
13:08 proverbs and uh and Ecclesiastes. And there are people in the Bible who are described as wise. We have the wise men
13:15 vis from the east visiting Jesus after after his birth as recorded in Matthew chapter 2. And if you read uh Daniel
13:21 chapter 1, Daniel and his three friends are said to be 10 times wiser than anyone else in the kingdom of
13:27 Nebuchadnezzar. But more notably, we have King Solomon,
13:32 supposedly the wisest man who has ever lived. God appeared to Solomon in a dream early in his reign and he said to
13:39 him from 1 kings 3:5, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." Well, God is
13:44 offering him, you know, wish you know and instead of requesting for riches or
13:50 longevity, Solomon asked for wisdom. And so God granted him wisdom in verse
13:58 12. I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or will ever had. And that's why
14:05 Solomon is now referred to the wisest man who has ever lived. And here is a 17th century painting showing Solomon
14:12 preciding over the well-known case of two mothers fighting over a baby. A story that we know very well.
14:20 But wise as we think Solomon was, he actually wasn't so wise. For one
14:26 thing, he had 700 mothers-in-law. Yes, he married 700 wives uh in addition
14:33 to another 300 mus that he kept. One mother-in-law is already challenging enough as most men would testify. To
14:40 have 700 mothers in-law is sheer madness. And so here we have a case of a man who
14:47 was good at dispensing wisdom to others but not himself.
14:52 Solomon certainly started well with wisdom from God. But unfortunately later in his life, he allowed the other kind
14:58 of wisdom to steer him away from God. In a way, these two kinds of wisdom are in
15:05 a competition or in opposition to each other. But only one will prevail, only
15:10 one will win. And just as there was only one winner in that competition last year
15:16 in October uh last year October in Pinang. And hence James talk about two opposing
15:22 two opposing kinds of wisdom. The heavenly kind of wisdom as opposed to the earthly kind of wisdom. As I said
15:29 earlier the text seems to be directed at teachers or aspiring teachers. And earlier in chapter three the writer was
15:34 talking about the the tool of the teacher the mouth sorry the tongue rather. And now in this text he
15:40 describes the qualities of the teacher uh whether he has the wisdom that comes from heaven. And although not all of us
15:48 are teachers or aspiring teachers I think we should all desire this kind of wisdom. After all are we not teachers
15:54 one way or another since we have uh uh children nieces and nephews coming to us
15:60 for advice. But first let's take a look between the two. Let's take a look at this other wisdom. The earthly wisdom. We shall
16:07 start with earthly wisdom as we continue to dig into the text. Now to begin with
16:12 the outcome or result of earthly wisdom is clear in verse 16. There you will
16:19 find disorder and every evil practice. So earthly wisdom leads to chaos and
16:25 sin. And earlier in uh chapter 3:6, Paul talks uh James talks about an untamed
16:31 tongue uh corrupting the whole body. uh if you consider an untamed tongue uh
16:36 manifestation of earthly wisdom. So uh uh earthly wisdom leading to corrupted
16:42 body of course a kind of disorder and later in uh chapter 4:1 uh the writer
16:47 also describes earthly wisdom causing fights and quarrels which I mentioned this now. Now such ugly results of
16:55 earthly wisdom uh uh when you look at it you know from
17:00 a corrupted body to to evil practice to to uh fights and quarrels and these
17:07 results are not really so surprising if we realize where it comes from and what is the origin of this wisdom that does
17:15 not come down from heaven. And here we focus on verse 15 where James has three
17:20 adjectives to describe this kind of wisdom. Earthly, unspiritual,
17:26 and demonic. And to understand what it's all about, we need to go a little bit
17:32 deeper. Now in the original Greek text uh because the old New Testament is
17:38 written originally in Greek the word earthly refers to something of this
17:44 world such as its system and its principles and its methods. In other
17:49 words, a sort of wisdom that is rooted in the ways of the world. A worldly
17:54 wisdom that is often very material uh in its focus which often which often draws
17:59 us away from God. Now the second word unspiritual of course it's opposite of spiritual but
18:06 it's sometimes translated as sensual in some versions I think the King James version has it as sensual sensual as
18:13 relating to the senses actually the original Greek word means natural more like natural such as coming from the
18:20 natural desires and appetites of a man one who is devoid of the spirit of God and therefore he acts according to his
18:27 natural human instincts. The third word demonic simply means of the devil coming from the devil himself.
18:34 And this kind of wisdom as you can imagine is characterized by pride and ego and the rebellious attitude towards
18:40 God. And so simply put so verse 15 uh we
18:45 gather that the origin of this wisdom as opposed to heavenly wisdom is three-fold. One the world two self with
18:52 its natural uh desires and three Satan. And it's possible that two or even all
18:58 three of them work in tandem to dictate a man's decisions and actions. Now,
19:03 don't attribute everything to Satan. Sometimes it's just our natural desires at work. As in the case of uh of Solomon
19:10 marrying so many wives, but put all three together, the world, self, and Satan, James described them as a wisdom
19:17 that has not come down from heaven. Now I cannot remember exactly when but I think it was more than four years ago I
19:24 preached a sermon on handling obstacles uh to grow from a passage in Acts chapter 4 and I remember a slide from
19:31 that sermon and I managed to dig it out uh this slide showing a model of the dynamics of Christian growth. On one
19:38 side we have the Holy Spirit in us, working in us, helping us in our transformation. But on the other side,
19:44 the left hand side, uh there are three forces at work continuing, constantly trying to pull us back. Uh we have old
19:51 self, uh the world and Satan. And this is really a lifelong tussle as I
19:57 mentioned during the time. Uh and there's no such thing as a spiritual equilibrium. Either you are moving
20:03 forward, growing, or you are backsliding, moving backwards. And I show you uh this slide again to you
20:09 today so that you can appreciate the similarity between the forces trying to undo our spiritual growth on the left
20:15 hand side and the origin of this earthly wisdom uh from the text today. And so
20:22 far we have seen the origins and the results of this earthly wisdom. Now let's take a look at the nature of this
20:28 kind of wisdom. And in and we look at verse 14 uh where where the writer writes but if
20:35 you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts and he repeats this in verse 16. So he mentions twice
20:44 this pair of phrase phrases and hence from this uh uh two verses we can gather
20:51 that the nature of earthly wisdom is twofold. One bitter envy and two selfish
20:58 ambition. actually three-fold if I were to add uh untamed tongue uh from the
21:04 earlier verses in chapter 3. Now let's look at the first one.
21:10 Envy. Envy actually is not the same as jealousy. There is a difference between
21:15 the two but we don't have time to go into that but just let me give you an example. Our God does not envy. There is
21:22 nothing for God to envy. But the Bible does describe God as a jealous God. So I
21:27 leave you to think about it. Okay. Now, envy is defined as your response when
21:33 you don't have something others have. When you don't have something that others have. But this feeling is not
21:39 necessarily bad. For example, a few days ago, a good friend of mine who lives in the state of Maine in US, he emailed me
21:46 to say that he and his wife will be uh traveling uh going on a one month trip in July from Moscow to Beijing via the
21:54 Trans Siberian Railway. I wrote back, "Wow, how wonderful. How I
22:00 envy you." Which I which of course meaning that I wish I could go on the trip like this. It was just an
22:07 expression of my desire. Nothing negative. But if it is bitter envy, then
22:13 it's different. In bitter envy, you become resentful even to the point of anger. For example, I I see you in your
22:21 S-Class Mercedes-Benz and I look at my MClass Proton Saga. MClass meaning
22:27 museum class. And I compare the two. How come you uh
22:32 you know in your M and in my proton and I resent the fact that you get to enjoy such good things in life and I don't.
22:40 It's unfair. And in fact, I wish that you weren't so successful. And this is bitter envy.
22:47 bitter envy uh resulting in resentment. Uh earthly wisdom is manifested in
22:53 bitter envy. Now similarly uh with uh ambition, ambition is your response
22:60 uh when you want something that you don't have and you're willing to work for it. So it's a bit different from from envy on its own. Once again, bitter
23:08 envy is not necessarily bad. After all, we tell our children, you know, we ask them what's your ambition, right? But if
23:14 it is selfish ambition then that means you won't hesitate to take advantage of others or to step on others to achieve
23:20 your goal. Earthly wisdom also shows itself in selfish ambition. Now when you
23:27 put together bitter envy and selfish ambition side by side, what is the common denominator?
23:35 It is selfcenteredness. thinking of thinking only of what you want, what you need, what you deserve,
23:42 what you feel, often at the expense of others. At its core, therefore, earthly
23:48 wisdom uh is based on the selfcentered disposition. We must be careful not to
23:54 conduct our relationships with any hint of self-centeredness. We must stop thinking only of what's
24:01 best for ourselves, but rather what's best for the other person. And linking this discussion back to the sermon
24:07 title, making wise relationships, it is not difficult to see how earthly wisdom can easily hurt or destroy a
24:15 relationship because self-centeredness often strains a relationship causing uh
24:21 uh tension and pain if not unease and frustration and eventually the relationship starts to break up.
24:28 Now what we have covered so far can be fitted into this this chart which summarizes about half of what the text
24:35 is saying. Now let us try to fill in the other half and take a look at the other kind of wisdom. The wisdom that comes
24:41 from heaven the kind that builds up a relationship not destroy relationships and we will look at of course at the
24:47 origin the nature and the result of this heavenly wisdom. First, the origin of
24:53 heavenly wisdom, which is not explicitly stated in the text. It just says in in verse 17, uh, the wisdom that comes from
25:00 heaven. Most other translations have it as the wisdom from above. Now, if you find these two general, where does it
25:06 come from? Let me direct you to what Jesus mentioned during the last supper. In John 14:26 and also in 16:13,
25:14 uh, Jesus said something interesting here. John 14:26, "By the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send
25:19 in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that
25:24 I've said to you." John 16:13, when the spirit of truth comes, uh, he will guide
25:30 you into all the truth. So, here we have Jesus on the on the last night with his
25:35 disciples promising them the coming of the Holy Spirit who would teach them all things and guide them into all truth.
25:41 And this in a way tells us that the Holy Spirit is the source of heavenly wisdom.
25:47 But to zoom in further, there is this verse in Isaiah 11 which is a prophetic text. This is
25:53 just a one verse from the from passage but the whole passage is a prophetic text pointing to the coming of the
25:58 Messiah. And in in Isaiah 11:2 uh it talks about how the Holy Spirit will come upon uh this Messiah which of
26:06 course is alluding to the to the uh baptism of Jesus. And here we have the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him
26:12 in meaning Jesus. The spirit of wisdom and understanding and the holy spirit is
26:18 described as the spirit of wisdom and understanding. You remember the phrase wisdom and understanding early in our
26:23 text. And hence it is more than clear that the heavenly wisdom that we're discussing comes from the holy spirit.
26:31 And next the nature we have seen the origin of the uh the source of wis heavenly wisdom. Next the nature of
26:37 heavenly wisdom. And we find this elaborated in verse 17.
26:42 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peaceloving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy
26:48 and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Well, this is quite a lot to digest. Seven attributes of a person blessed
26:55 with heavenly wisdom. For example, what does it mean to be full of mercy? What does it mean to be full of good fruit?
27:02 And also to be submissive is listed here. And in this age where where wives are finding difficult to submit to the
27:08 husbands, how how are we to supposed to submit to each other? Now I've pondered about this verse and to make it easier
27:15 to understand, I look it up in other translations and I've picked one that puts this verse across in plain language
27:21 and this is the same verse 17 in the ERV. First, it is pure. It is also peaceful,
27:29 gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always is always ready to help people
27:34 who have trouble and to do good for others. This wisdom is always fair and
27:40 honest. Okay, a slightly different way of translating that verse in Greek. Now,
27:46 now let me line this up for you in point form. After all, we love point forms. Uh we don't have time to go through uh each
27:52 of them in depth. Now, a few of them are sounds like godly qualities such as pure
27:58 uh peaceful, gentle. Now what I would like to do is to zoom into two or three
28:03 from this list and see what we can learn. Let's look at one of them. The middle one easy to please.
28:11 And this is from the word submissive in the NIV. Now since many of us find the word submissive hard to swallow, how
28:18 about easy to please? Are you easy to please? And the converse of this is
28:24 clear. If you are hard to please, then going by this verse, you are not so wise.
28:30 In Malaysian English, there is a we have a colorful way of describing a person like that. A person who is hard to
28:35 please. This cannot. That cannot. You know, very difficult to deal with people
28:41 like that. How about this restaurant? Not nice. How about that restaurant? Not nice. How about the other restaurant? Not nice. Actually, she already has a
28:48 restaurant in mind just as he doesn't want to say it. Have you come across people like that?
28:54 Obviously, and here's a quote uh that I picked up from the internet. I'm easy to please as
29:01 long as I have things done my own way. Obviously, a joke or an oxymoron. But
29:08 from here, we can imagine what a person is like who is hard to please. He'll always insist on doing things his way.
29:16 It is very hard to nurture a relationship if you keep thinking that your way is the best and that you're
29:22 always right. people around you eventually end up having to tolerate you.
29:29 There is something self-centered about such a person who says, "I'm right. My way is the best. I mine." And we have
29:38 just seen just now how earthly wisdom is characterized by self-centeredness.
29:43 Other Bible translation uh render the word submissive as open to reason. Are
29:49 you open to reason? Willing to yield. Are you willing to yield? Another word,
29:54 another word I can think of is perhaps accommodating. And this is the quality of a man blessed
30:00 with wisdom from above. As we say in the in Mandarin, which is a
30:06 very nice word I was taught from young, if you know Mandarin,
30:12 okay? Or another wonderful local word a bit.
30:18 If uh James had lived in Malaysia, he would have used the word chincha in verse 17.
30:26 Wonderful word. Now, two more qualities I would like to
30:32 highlight from the list. Uh they are ready to help people who have trouble and ready to good ready to do good for
30:39 others. And they of course related and they come from the phrase full of mercy and full of good fruit in the NIV. And
30:46 they seem to be a reinforcement of verse 13 which we went through just now. Uh talking about good life uh good deeds
30:53 you know deeds done in humility and so on related to uh it's an extension in fact of verse 13.
30:60 Now talking about good works helping people who are in trouble. I
31:05 know many of you uh will not hesitate to lend a helping hand to those in trouble
31:10 or in need. But I also know some who won't even lift a finger to help. And this is how they
31:18 think. You see, this guy's already in trouble, you know, so why trouble yourself, you know. Uh what can I do?
31:25 I'm just I'm just a a small guy and and haven't you heard? Don't don't don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles
31:32 you. Why go near trouble? You know, he's trouble. You know, he has trouble.
31:38 Very common. That's why uh when a sister or a brother in Christ is in trouble, he
31:44 actually he or she actually know who to call because there are some people no point calling. They won't even lift a
31:50 finger to help. But the trouble is in the body of Christ or in the community
31:56 of believers, the other person's trouble is your trouble.
32:02 It is a troubling thought. The other person's trouble is your trouble.
32:08 And I can show you tons of verses to support that. Not one or two verses,
32:13 many, many verses to support that. And let me share with you one from the New Testament and one from the Old. One John
32:20 3:17. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the how can
32:28 the what do you call the the love of God be in that person? Okay.
32:34 Next four verses from Deuteronomy 15. And here we have God speaking to his
32:39 people, the Israelites. Profound text. If anyone is poor among your fellow
32:46 Israelites, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted towards them. Rather, be
32:53 open-handed and freely lend them whatever they need. Give generously to
32:58 them and do so without a grudging heart. Then because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work, in
33:04 everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you. I
33:12 command you to be open-handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. It says here that is
33:19 a commandment. I know the question of Christian benevolence is is is is can be a complex
33:26 one with all kinds of difficult factors coming in. But say what you like,
33:31 Christian charity and aid, they have been the foundation, the hallmark of
33:36 Christianity over the many centuries. And in the context of our topic today, I
33:42 just want to say this. Helping people who have trouble and doing good for
33:47 others, which are combined as good works, I just want to point out that good works will go a long way to
33:53 strengthen the bonds within the church, within the community of believers. When
33:58 we go out of our way to meet the needs of our fellow believers, when we have their interest and welfare at heart,
34:06 they will feel it. The church will become stronger.
34:12 But the trouble is good works is not cheap. It doesn't come cheap. It will cost you
34:17 time, effort, and money. If you are very stingy or very busy,
34:26 then it's hard for you to consider other people's situation or to look into their lives. May God cause us to examine
34:33 ourselves to see if we are lacking in good works. Paul also has this to say about good works. There's this wonderful
34:40 uh two verses in Colossians 1:es 9 and 10. We continue ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all
34:47 the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. Notice the the source of
34:53 uh wisdom and understanding from the spirit. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in
34:59 every way, bearing fruit in every good work.
35:05 Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.
35:10 So to wrap up this point on the nature of heavenly wisdom, when we reook at the
35:16 qualities of a person filled with heavenly wisdom, we notice that many of these are active qualities, not passive.
35:24 It's about what we do. It's about doing something. And often our image of a wise
35:30 person is one someone with wise words, someone with with with who can give us
35:35 sound advice, someone with a with a higher understanding of things. But the picture of a wise person from our text
35:42 here is someone who is marked by his deeds and not his words. And so the
35:48 nature of heavenly wisdom is the walk and not the talk. is all about actions,
35:56 not just articulations. And we can now fill in the rest of the chart shown earlier.
36:02 Uh this is a summary of the main points in our text today. And as for the results of heavenly wisdom, I put in the
36:08 peace and uh righteousness at the bottom right corner. And we can glean this from the last verse in our text, verse 18,
36:15 which says, "Peacemakers who sow in peace uh reap a harvest of righteousness." Now we can assume that
36:21 peacemakers here are filled with heavenly wisdom since uh being peace-loving is an attribute of of a
36:27 wise person from verse 17. And here we see peace as a result as they sow the seeds of peace which ultimately uh uh
36:34 lead to righteousness and righteousness here should be understood to mean being right before God or being approved of
36:40 God. That's something which all Christians ought to aspire to to to do. And we have covered for all the verses
36:46 and we have pieced together a comprehensive picture of of earthly wisdom as opposed to heavenly wisdom.
36:52 And if I can condense all this into one sentence, earthly wisdom is based on
36:57 self-centeredness while heavenly wisdom is centered on others and it is typified
37:02 by godly qualities and above all good works towards others. And coming to the
37:09 last part of the sermon, I would like to uh offer something very practical about how we should conduct our relationships
37:16 with wisdom from above. And I'll do so by expanding what brother Arnold uh said
37:21 last Sunday about the need to he he I remember he said the need to fix our heart uh before uh then only fix our
37:27 words. And he shared a verse from Matthew 15:18. But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the
37:34 heart. Of course, his message was about the untamed tongue.
37:39 Now what do I mean uh by a practical uh uh uh point for you? But maybe I I
37:45 illustrate this uh with an incident that happened in the house many years ago when my children were in their early
37:52 teens. I don't remember exactly when. They may remember and I don't remember
37:57 exactly how it happened. But one day I was startled by my son who was banging
38:04 on the door in his room furiously out of uncontrolled anger.
38:10 It turned out that uh the sister, the elder sister took his handphone charger uh or was it the battery? I remember
38:17 without permission and she refused to return it and not knowing what else to do. So this
38:23 boy he took it out on the innocent door and when I confronted him in his defense
38:28 he said it was a sister's fault. So I said I would deal with a with a girl later but why did you let your anger
38:34 control you? You see in his mind he knew that banging on the door wouldn't get him back the the charger. You think the
38:39 sister will will listen will will do it. Worst still, he knew that his childish antics will get him into trouble with
38:45 me. But his angry heart overruled his rational mind. And of course, he was
38:51 well disciplined that day. I think he still remember.
38:56 You see, the mind represents the mental and the the rational part of existence. What the heart is the seat of our
39:03 emotions and feelings. And this is really the struggle in our life. uh the mind versus the heart, thinking versus
39:10 feeling and and and finding the right balance between the two.
39:16 Now granted, the heart is a is a wonderful place. We feel moved when we watch a touching movie. We feel ecstatic
39:23 when our team wins the Premier League, for example. We feel joyful when our
39:28 when a child is born. We feel proud when a son or daughter graduates from college. These are all wonderful
39:35 emotions and we are created to enjoy these feelings. This capability is what
39:40 makes us human. But for every joy there is sadness. For every laughter we shed
39:47 more than a tear. For every high feeling there is a low feeling. And the heart can also be filled with envy and
39:54 selfishness, bitterness and resentment, anger and hatred and all kinds of
39:59 negative and uh destructive emotions. While I recognize that I'm a human being
40:06 capable of emotions, I would hesitate to allow my heart to guide my actions. And
40:13 the lesson my son learned that day was that we must learn to control our emotions
40:19 and that the and the mind must rule the heart, not the other way around. The
40:25 mind must rule the heart. Reason Trump's uh uh impulse. I shouldn't use the word
40:32 Trump nowadays reason over impulse.
40:37 Now I'm saying this in the context of our topic today. How do we cultivate wise relationships? Now if I feel angry,
40:43 will it affect my relationships with others? Of course it will. Well, I must do something about it and I can do
40:50 something about it. And going back to the text, we have seen how heavenly wisdom is expressed in deeds and
40:57 actions. Okay, from all the way from verse 13, we could see that. And I submit to you that our actions are
41:03 firstly the products of our decisions. Where do actions come from? It comes from our decisions.
41:11 Decisions leads to actions. And our decisions should be should stem from rational thinking from the mind and not
41:19 the heart. You see because the state of our heart fluctuates between high and low emotions between positive and
41:25 negative feelings and that should not detect our actions. And touching on last
41:31 Sunday's sermon again that's why I find it so useful when brother suggested that we think before we we speak. Uh he talks
41:39 about this word think as an acronym. Is it helpful? Sorry. Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it important? Is it
41:45 necessary? It is is it kind? T I and K T I T H I N K
41:50 thinking of course is a function of our mental faculty. So perhaps we should fix our mind first before we fix our hearts
41:59 and hence it should be in this order. one rational thoughts which leads to
42:05 wise decision which leads to noble actions or even words and not the other
42:10 way around not uh negative feelings leading uh to reckless actions or words.
42:17 Of course, I know that positive feelings can also result in good uh actions or words. But if your if your actions or
42:23 words are based on your emotions, then you're going to be like a pendulum swinging periodically from one mood to
42:28 another. It is therefore no accident that when Paul talks about our transformation, he
42:34 writes in Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be
42:39 transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then you will be able to test and
42:46 approve what God's will is. Let me repeat what Paul is saying here. By the renewing of your mind.
42:53 And based on these thoughts, I recently shared at a caris meeting that love
42:59 should not be just a feeling. Now, some of you may be uh a bit surprised to hear
43:05 this. Love is much much more than a feeling. If you think that love is only
43:11 about feelings, you know, you have a lot more to learn. And I'm talking about the biblical kind of love. Of course, love
43:18 involves feelings. And we enjoy this feeling. I have enjoyed these feelings.
43:23 But if it is based on feelings alone, our relationship including our marriages uh would be like
43:30 a roller coaster ride going up and down. The world says that love is a feeling.
43:36 But the kind of love taught in the Bible is much much more than a feeling. It's really a commitment.
43:44 We are committed to the people in our relationships and commitments like actions are the products of a mind that
43:52 has made a decision and that should govern the way we relate to each other.
44:01 At the end of the day, our relationships with one another should be also powered by love as much as they are guided by
44:09 wisdom. How should love uh drive our relationship? That's really a another
44:15 long topic uh for another day. In the meantime, I just leave you with this
44:20 picture. If relationship were a sailboat, heavenly wisdom is a rudder steering the
44:28 vessel so that we go in the right direction. Love on the other hand is the wind blowing into the sails pushing the
44:36 vessel forward. Shall we close in a word of prayer?
44:43 James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives
44:49 generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." Our father in heaven, based on the promise in this
44:56 verse, we ask today that you bestow on us your wisdom that we will cease to
45:02 rely on earthly wisdom. We pray that the Holy Spirit, the source of wisdom from above, will guide us in the conduct of
45:09 all our relationships powered by your love, relationships in our marriages,
45:15 our families, and also in the community of FBC. For we we say this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
