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00:00:00 today's passage is taken from 1 Corinthians chap 1: 18 to 1 Corinthians chapter 2: 16 1 Corinthians chap 1: 18 to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 16 for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate where is the wise men where is the scholar where is the philosopher of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the
00:00:47 wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles but to Those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than man's Wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength Brothers think of what you were
00:01:30 when you were called not many of you were Wise by human standards not many were influential not many were of noble birth but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong he chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us
00:02:12 wisdom from God that is our righteousness Holiness and Redemption therefore as it is written let him who boasts boasts in the Lord when I come to you Brothers I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the spirit's
00:02:53 power so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power we do however speak a message of wisdom among the mature but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing no we speak of God's secret wisdom a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our Glory before the time began none of the rulers of this age understood it for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord Of Glory however as it is written no eye has seen no ear has
00:03:34 heard no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit the spirit searches all things even the Deep things of God for who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's Spirit within him in the in the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God sorry we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit of the spirit who is God that we may understand what God has freely given to us this is what we speak not in words
00:04:17 taught to us by the human wisdom in words taught by the spirit expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words The Man Without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned the spiritual man makes judgments about all things but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment for who has known the mind of the Lord that we may that he may instruct him but we have the mind of
00:04:53 Christ this is the word of God thank you Jesse well good morning church good to see all of you um uh next week you have been back again uh we're going to be speaking of the Gospel the hope of glory after that uh William me will be speaking to us we're going to jump forward to uh chapter three and four of Corinthians uh on the idea of the Gospel faith causing us to have self-forgetfulness and then after that John Lee will preach to us on spiritual maturity in church okay let's start with a word of prayer Lord we ask of this
00:05:43 day especially with the reading of your word about wisdom we pray that this day you open up our eyes to understand what true wisdom is because it is vital for us in order to live to glorify you we ask for Jesus sake amen okay so we're talking about wisdom and they be wise if they create a clicker that works always happens and it doesn't now it now it works is it me or you I cried okay now it's me all right good all right okay so if you go back in the context it's actually the Corinthian Church being affected by philosophers
00:06:32 philosophers were the rock stars of that age and uh they told people about the truth about the world our place in it and to find guidance of how we are to live if you follow the wisdom of philosophers very clever people you will live well if you don't you don't live well that's the idea of wisdom that's what we use wisdom for and so they had a different kind and following the the trend the philosophers the church was also polarized towards what they thought were the clever people in their Church
00:07:05 their Elders their Apostles and their leaders all right today our wisdom seems to be moving towards artificial intelligence to guide us how best to live our rock stars today are are not philosophers there are like Elon Musk measures himself through financial uh success Trump through public agulation Tailor Swift through Beauty and skill but the thing is that let's say for example if you're Elon Musk and you're very wealthy so therefore you view yourself to the lens of financial success and everything to you you see in
00:07:50 the world is a series of value propositions if I were to buy a car how much is it worth what's the value proposition if I go to your restaurant do I order red wine white wine champagne whatever value proposition which is value for my money problem with this is that if you define yourself that way which many of us do because we follow these people they are rock stars then we also view the world in such ways for example someone comes to you and he hates you then you know it's because he's jealous of your success jealous of
00:08:25 your money if somebody likes you and comes to you they say oh maybe want something from me we tend to look at people we look at the world through the metric of some kind of wisdom which is actually based on how we live our lives and so therefore this morning what I'm going to do is to look at how we see the world the wisdom and I'm going to tell you that the wisdom of the nature of true wisdom is actually three-fold it is in Christ it is totally counterintuitive to what your mother has taught you when you grew up
00:09:01 all right and it's given only by the Spirit by the holy spirit so first of all true wisdom is in Christ what wisdom is not Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with words of eloquent wisdom lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power it is not the fast talkinging smooth talking guy that is the influencer on YouTube he is not the wisdom it is actually Christ for the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing but to those but to us who are being saved it is the power of
00:09:41 Salvation how do I know it works well this is wisdom because we define wisdom is helping the metric to which you see success the biggest success is having eternal life and is salvation and because of him you are in Christ and who became to us wisdom from God righteousness San ification Redemption so it is written the one who boasts let the one who boasts boast in the Lord so that is actual wisdom because from God from Christ you actually are righteous cleans of your sin and you have Redemption that is why the Bible posits
00:10:16 Paul posits that Christ is our wisdom so if you want to boast if you want to feel proud of something be proud of the fact that it is the Lord who saved you the opposite is the Corinthians they've gone back to the metric of worldly wisdom they are saying that uh what has has been reported to be my closest people that be quarreling among your among you my brothers what I mean that each of you is saying I follow Paul I follow paus I follow keas I follow Christ just like they followed the philosophers so the issue is the message
00:10:51 not the wisdom not the medium so when Paul was with them after stressful time in other cities that historically he he was actually quite beside himself he was in trembling all right he was weakness in much fear he he wasn't the best place but the important thing is that he the message is important Christ Jesus and him crucified that is the message that is the importance not the medium so true wisdom is in Christ that's the proposition Paul puts to you today do you believe it a lot of don't you know
00:11:26 why because true wisdom is counter in trative it is not natural for the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God so why does it seem stupid why is it that your friends look at you when you thought yourself Christian they basically look down on you inside it's not so apparent in Malaysia because you have quite a in in Asian countries the world view of God is still there if you were to work in Australia which I did as an intern the moment you see a Christian
00:12:03 people look at you and say oh God Squad are you going to come and convert me and they laugh at you oh you know I remember I remember um having a costume party at school when I was just in high school everybody come in different costumes and I came and then you know when I stepped in the room you know what they called me Billy Graham everybody is something but I am the stupid preacher called Billy Graham right because it's stupid all right uh um it's it's Folly and you know why it's Folly because they are spiritually dying
00:12:38 they laugh at things they don't understand the cross has a polarizing effect like chicken wings not chicken wings sorry chicken feet you got a Western countries in those days they give you chicken feet for free I remember student days free why because nobody wants it today it's a delicacy to us or or even Duram this is uh rosalin card a very bright MIT Professor who actually won the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science and she actually designs AI the emotional effective elements of AI and before she
00:13:16 became a Christian she said I assume that those who believe in a God had thrown reason to the wind I could look around and see all kinds of uneducated people who were Believers and I thought the two went hand in hand he described as wacky you see why is it counterintuitive it's wacky because the Jew the Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom it is a different metric to which they see the world just like Elon mus sees the world through a series of value propositions Taylor Swift might see the
00:13:49 world in the metric of beauty the Jews see the world through science and the Greeks through wisdom for example uh the Hebrews Gideon didn't quite believe God would be using him so therefore he puts a fleece out right and ask God you know if it's going to happen if I'm going to win the battle therefore if it's wet outside this fleece should be dry and vice versa Hezekiah when told by God he was going to be healed no no not enough I want a sign so the the time moves back by half an hour the Jews demand signs and the signs the greatest
00:14:26 signs is that the Messiah would come and they only focused on one sign and the sign was the Messiah would be that great king not the suffering servant and so they wait even today Joe's are waiting since the 12th century uh now that Christ will come the Messiah come through the Golden Gate of Jerusalem but Christ did give them a sign he said some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him teacher we wish to see a sign from you and he said to them an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign
00:14:58 but no sign will be given to to them except the sign of the prophet Jonah three days in the fish and came out he actually gave them a sign but they didn't even believe the sign now the Greeks more closely akin to us because we're influenced by Western philosophy the Greeks seek wisdom so wi it's counterintuitive because the Greeks like us seek wisdom philosophers with their rock stars and here are the modern people Christopher Hitchens atheist he says absurd ideas not based on reason or evidence Unworthy of intellectual
00:15:32 respect historically led to or facilitated Wars genocide ethnic cleansing enslave Millions impeded medical and scientific research but you forget that wisdom actually consists of three legs factual knowledge we can get for AI necessary resolve and the last thing situational Insight you can't get that through artificial intelligence the nature of human wisdom is culturally situated and malleable construct with culture playing a central role in shaping your wisdom related behaviors for example I was watching a uh
00:16:08 interview of young people in China and they interviewed them okay young people I don't know why you spending so much money you earn this much and you spend this much is like deficit and the young people turned and laughed at the interviewer and said to them you know uh we're different from our parents generation and our parents stupid you know why they save all this money in the end to go to a good nursing home we spend the money now enjoy now because when you're young you can go somewhere you can run you can really
00:16:41 enjoy your money right the old fools are planning for the ding home and I actually sense it makes some sense isn't it it does make some sense the only thing they forgotten is that all the old people in China save up money for them for the young people to have fun which is uh uh something they forgot to say what I'm saying is that our wisdom culturally malleable actually traps us we can't think outside our wisdom if you're a businessman you think this way if you're a doctor you think this way if
00:17:14 you're a Malaysian you think this way if you look at these two ladies they're Iranians Iranians have a uh saying who has seen tomorrow they're not interested in tomorrow they're interested in the past so Iranian culture is very strong focus in the past ancient products rituals poetry and those are seen as wisdom if you go to Africa they were saying for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today so the the Africans actually focus on today doing things at the spur of the moment to live in the moment so each culture
00:17:50 determines your wisdom that's why some people will pay $110,000 to see this young lady sing so so if you criticize her like they then they then then what happens that I criticize her and they come all right it's okay because I I come a different kind of cultural wisdom my time was Cliff Richard your time is Taylor Swift so you might pay 10,000 I may pay the same thing Cliff Richard but who is wiser it's a different metric isn't it the metric which you see the the lens through which you see the world is so
00:18:24 important here's a very famous theoretical physicist uh Mito Kaku he says H look very see how clever he is I've concluded that we are in the World created by rules uh made by rules created by intelligence to me it is clear we exist in the plan which is governed by rules created and shaped by Universal intelligence and not by chance hello isn't that God so the logic traps him all right the psalm says the fool says in his heart there is no God some people say fool is a better word than stupid you know the Cambridge
00:19:02 Dictionary defines fool as stupid it's the same all right um this will be a hospital call do you can you I got a very sick patient think for me you going and talk to the nurse outside all right so um so why is it counterintuitive it's also counterintuitive because God designed to show the limitations of man so that he can turn to God for it written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the Discerning I will thwart right where is the one who is wise where is the Scribe where is the debater of this age has not
00:19:46 M God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of the world the world did not know God through wisdom it pleased God to the Folly of that of what we preach to save those who believe you see for we consider for consider your calling Brothers not many were wise according to worldly standards not many powerful and not many were of noble birth so we look at yourselves you look yourselves in this church this church is not in Damansara Heights nor in banga and most of you are well I
00:20:17 would say fairly normal people average and we are and ourselves the Corinthians are a testimony of the fact that you don't have to be very wise to come to the gospel I want to look at the verses 27- 29 it is so beautifully put three times Paul writes God chose God chose God chose God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that were you see what he does and contrast
00:20:59 this to I follow Paul I follow poos I follow Keepers you see what the Corinthian people have done they've completely turned wisdom on its head the fact that you are here today brothers and sisters is the wisdom God God of all people when and chose you and that's a wonderful thing that you don't have to look at others you don't have to look at yourself and say I'm not as successful as that person I'm not as rich as Elon Musk and I'm a nobody but you are not nobody you are the person whom God chose and that is special and we have to
00:21:45 live up to his choice so why does God do that so that no human being might boast in the presence of God there's nobody who can stand on this stage and say I'm so great that that's why God chose me we cannot boast of anything other than the cross now why is wisdom counterintuitive is our own choice of wisdom actually prevents us from receiving the truth that's the problem all right the Jews demand science and the Greeks seek wisdom we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and a Folly to Gentiles
00:22:21 you see whenever you see biblical wisdom it produces what we call a visceral response people naturally get upset with you right try it the biggest thing nowadays is the is the lgbtq issue you go go to lgbtq person and the moment you see a Christian suddenly the hackers come up because they think you are actually condemning them the wisdom of God is totally counterintuitive imagine a man who leads two million Philip people out into the desert every one stick opens up the Red Sea isn't that stupid you ask me before
00:23:01 I say are you kidding take two million people and put them out in a desert there's not even 1711 there I mean how you ask me to believe that stand around the biggest Fortress of that time and you blow your trumpet after marching around seven times and you're going to win the war is it see God's wisdom totally confounds you so that actually you produce such a visable response you laugh at the guy and you will never accept Christ when Christ died on the cross the thing actually blocks the Jews was they said the man
00:23:37 who is hanged on the tree is cursed they can't get over that in fact there was a a quotation by Rabbi Trio Who Says by this your soul calleded Christ is without honor and glory and Glory so that he even fallen into the uttermost curse that is in the law of God for he was crucified a Jew can't get over the fact that your God has been crucified because crucified person is cursed celsus one of the chief opponents of Christians fact he wrote against Christianity in the second century a Greek person F famous for his logic he's
00:24:14 a philosopher he says God is so beautiful and happy and if that which is most beautiful and best if he descends into the world it involves change for him to change from good to bad from beautiful to ugly from happiness to unhappiness from what best to what is worse and God would never accept such a change and he got some logic there I mean if you are God why would you want to come and look like you know Richard or Peter right was hairline also gone and all that God would never do that and he has
00:24:45 some logic there doesn't it but that logic actually traps him which is why the ancient drawing here of Alex aminos worship His God you know is a donkey on the cross a weak and stupid and and rosalin Picard actually uh came to know Christ and she said the hardest trials have been those confronting my own pride and unwillingness to examine anything other than the materialistic assumptions made unthinkingly by so many and it doesn't include other dimensions so this guy sees the whole world as a series of
00:25:21 value propositions he measures himself through financial success if you come to him and be nice to him he thinks you want something from him you you hate him means you are jealous of his success so therefore when he bought Twitter and ran Twitter his stock price comes down and down and down and in fact the latest one they say the value of share Dro by 71.5% now you know why it dropped average person will tell you Financial Times will tell you is because our friend went and post anti-semitic comments and he allowed a lot of
00:25:55 right-wing horrible conspiracy theories onto his platform without editing that is the reason but you know what his reason was well the advertisers trying to Blackmail me they're jealous are threatened by his power you see Elon Musk can't see anything past his own metric of wisdom and that's why wisdom traps us that's why wisdom stumbles us Martin Luther in heidleberg disputation said it is certain that we must utterly despair of our own ability before we are prepared to receive the grace of Christ
00:26:32 and that's why wisdom is counter intive unless God demolishes your wisdom and often when you are sick when you're bankrupt when you're in trouble when your life wife leaves you that's a time when you think oh my wisdom boat is Shake shaken my world is not as successful as I thought it was and maybe I have to think through things and see life through a different metric so true wisdom is counterintuitive by the default by purpose lastly the true wisdom is given by the spirit yet among the materal we impart
00:27:07 wisdom though it is not wisdom of this age or the rulers of the age who are doomed to pass away see wisdom in this world is absolutely limited it is only in one dimension and the dimension is the one that passes away if you look in the past you've got this guy called THS Greek philosopher was the first scientists in history what he did was the contempories of his time looked at phenomena like earthquakes volcanoes and stuff and and reinterpreted nature in terms of the Gods being upset with me so
00:27:45 if went on a trip on a boat and my my ship sank because God rained on me he broke what he did was he looked at patterns in nature and discovered signs right and he used logic looking the world in a logical way he worked out total Equip to the sun he worked out the height of the pyramids but the thing is human wisdom is not bad I'm not asking you to reject AI I'm not asking you to reject intelligence but it's insufficient our thinking is governed by the limits of our immediate Horizon the physical world is temporary will pass
00:28:23 away so the trouble is our we're limited by culture we are limited by own hor Horizons imagine there a parable told two men on the side of a river and they only one boat to get across to the other side how do you do it the river is too deep to swim you can't throw a rope on the other side anybody knows how to do it ah menah member you did huh too tough well you know you know why it's difficult or almost impossible it's because you don't understand the men were in opposite sides of the river so one man take a cross the other
00:29:12 one take a cross so they both cross because you've totally discounted that in your mind the moment I said two men on the side of river you thought they were same side of river right you didn't think they were the opposite sides of the river and that's exactly what I mean we're Limited by our Horizons we can't think in any other way that's why we so many problems with each other because each other are clever in your own ways and you don't see it beyond your own dimensions and so for the Jew they're
00:29:41 looking at the triumphant Christ they cannot imagine a tries to come as a suffering servant even though the prophet Isaiah had written about it in Isaiah 53 so for froin Picard the moment came when she realized that history is as valid as science see being a MIT Professor all she could think about is what science everything works as science but you can't empirically put God in a test tube and stir and then boom you got Resurrection right and suddenly she discovered what history the history is as reliable as science and there a
00:30:19 historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead and that's why this woman gave her life to Christ you see spiritual wisdom is also deliberately hidden it's not only counterintuitive it's counterintuitive for a particular purpose we impart a secret and hism wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages of for our Glory so which means god actually hides this wisdom to bring it out at the correct time to bring us to Glory none of the age rulers of this age understood this because if they had they would not have crucified the Lord
00:30:55 Of Glory right if they were so clever they wouldn't have killed Christ so spiritual wisdom is not understood by the elite of this world no eye has seen nor ear heard the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love him which means what God has prepared for is so unimaginable we cannot even imagine it that's how beautiful it is the things of which God has revealed to us is through the spirit the spirit searches everything even the depths of God for who knows the person thoughts except the spirit of that person which
00:31:29 is in him so that no one understands or comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given to us by God right which means wisdom is revealed with most intimate truth because the spirit comes from I mean the most intimate person with you is your wife isn't it she's with you every single day but more intimate than that is the spirit of God God which is with God every single moment from time
00:32:01 Eternal and God gives us that gives that to us and that Spirit imparts wisdom to us and lastly we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truth to to those who are spiritual so the wisdom that Paul shares comes from God's spirit and can only be accepted by believers who have a spirit so therefore when you actually hear biblical truth here your heart will resonate and say look that sounds right I'm going to take this in if you don't have God's spirit it'll
00:32:38 sound stupid ridiculous counterintuitive unless God's holy spirit is tugging at your heart so there are two people a natural person doesn't have spirit of God he has no way of understanding that's why when you talk to your neighbor and he he says you're stupid it's okay because Folly he thinks it's Folly why because he's perishing no spirit of God he doesn't have understanding spiritual things still seem stupid if you're a spiritual person you have the spirit of God it reveals God's spirit reveals
00:33:07 God's things to you and it will make actual make sense all right so how do you apply spiritual wisdom today right we don't want to go there right so spiritual wisdom lies in the cross you see why because the cross reveals the true you all right how do we use to cross well do you wear around your neck so many of you wear around the neck you think it's cool all right but that's not the way you apply spiritual wisdom in fact some people use it to chase away vampires there was superstitious in front the house they they put the cross
00:33:45 you think the the the or M won't come to your house because of the Cross um in fact Constantine as emperor in those days 300 ad actually asked all all his soldiers to put the cross on the shield and then they won the battle uh through that that's superstitious all right what you should actually wear around your neck is this ah the neck tie to hang yourself or the uh electric chair that is what you should wear today because you have to take scripture and and and bring it to today isn't it I tell you who which one
00:34:21 of you if I were to sell uh this of paraphernalia out how many you will buy nobody only $10 so so the issue is why won't you buy because it reveals something about you mirror mirror on the wall who's the ugliest of them all it's you when you look at the cross you look like Moses in those days that the people who sin against God God put a serpent on top of a pole and was a serpent is going to kill you the reason you're going to die you're looking at your own sin so nobody likes to look at the cross because it
00:35:06 tells you you are ugly you are sinful you are hopeless you see that's the issue that's why we don't want to wear the neck tie which looks like a hangman noose so what we do is we diminish sin reconceptualize it we focus on self-esteem we say sin is a flawed strategy to gain fulfillment sin is sickness not my fault my father's fault or the need of sin is you know need for personal fulfillment uh we water down the gospel instead of sin impending judgment repentance freedom from sin we talk about fulfillment
00:35:43 self-esteem improve marriage traing lifestyle purpose you see but the more you diminish sin do you know the more you diminish Grace you dress sin up any way you like it still looks like a dog because it's sined we like to dress up sin in so many ways which are more palatable but it's still sin so the three dimension of gospel wisdom which we must bring into our hearts this morning all right one the atonement inside out two Incarnation upside down and three Resurrection ction forward backwards this must mold this is the
00:36:32 lens through which we must see life if we it's not wearing the cross around your neck it is wearing a lens where three aspects are there if you bring up the dimension of atonement then you're able to respond to Christ's Grace if you look at upside down where Christ gave up the Throne of Heaven to come down and serve us then we too in our direction of Liv will focus to serve others if we actually have the direction of forward backward looking at the cross and because of the Cross and Resurrection we
00:37:05 look forward then we have hope and strength and all three come together I'll give you another analogy it's like going to the well looking at a telescope and looking at life through cross shaped Windows if you look at for example this happens in this church a lot somebody walked past me and didn't acknowledge me somebody said something bad about me I'm a terrible person and so therefore you got so insulted you know we leaders spend a lot of time untangling all this mess you know why people don't forgive
00:37:43 upset because I'm so great the person's going and about me so therefore it diminishes me by the wrong D I must get him back there must be a price to pay for what he did why can't you forgive well we can't forget unless you look at the person through the cross if you look at the cross you will see you probably committed worse sin than the fellow so who are you to throw the first stone so unless you see that person through the window of the cross that is always me my self-esteem isn't it and the second
00:38:17 thing when you look at the cross there's another aspect to it all right so you look at the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though you were like them though you went to the mirror and said mirror mirror on the wall who's the ugliest under the is you Christ died for the ugliest person in the world that's you that's you Christ died from you right so which means what what Paul says by the grace of God I am what I am his grace towards me was not in vain on the contrary I will harder than any of them though it
00:38:51 was not I but the grace of God that is within me what powers Paul what gets this guy to be beaten to a pulp persevere all those years what is his secret is the grace of God the grace of God is is is like uh a well which you go and when you're tired and when you're depressed when the people have really T you nicely you go to the well and you throw down your bucket and you draw up you know what you draw up Grace the love of Christ and that's how you can live for the glory of God if you don't go back to the well and draw up
00:39:39 what Christ has done for you you know what you go you go back to your self-esteem you will go back to your effort how you will be a better Christian I mean I was struggling with a patient of mind and he actually epitomizes this problem he came to me and he's got a sadly veneral disease you know very bad you know I told him that it's okay you won't die we've got medicine for you unless you got a HIV that's different story and he gots upet say I really don't want to get this illness but I can't help myself I must go to The
00:40:18 Prostitute have my fix and he's in a total dilemma and he's trying as hard as he can it's like a drug addict try as hard as he can to draw within his own well all the self discipline that he could but the end whatever you do it it cannot change because we have a sinful nature so we need a new nature and we need to be able to draw from this well you know moralistic behavioral change the more rules you impose it's like bending a piece of iron isn't it you can bend for a while You' be good for a while
00:40:58 but the Iron Will snap back it will 100% snap back the only way that we could change is to have our hearts melted human hearts are only melted by one thing what do you think that is anyone know love that is the most valuable thing on the face of the Earth people will do anything for love love speaks to our heart we have a trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit because from the beginning God is love and unless we go back to the gospel and Plum The Riches of the Gospel which is that well which you draw for
00:41:36 the fact that you are a horrible person and God actually died for you that's where you draw your strength to change you don't draw your strength to change because I am a Christian leader I'm a pastor so therefore oh better not find out you know what they cause they'll cause hypocrisy they hide hide hide hide right and what you you really are because you're trying to have that image we all go in that image I was just talking to somebody outside and he was saying you know cancer victims there are cancer victims
00:42:10 even in this church we started a cancer support group there's some people who will never tell you they got cancer you know why you can be a big time executive but the moment you got cancer people look at you they don't see Elon mask you know you see what Cancer Victim instead of admiration they see what P poor thing poor thing you want I give you m in my house you see that's that's what we draw from Christ is saying you are already bad you are already horrible you are a sinner you are condemn God hates Sinners
00:42:44 it's a fact look it up but he loves sinner as well because he died for you and you draw from that and that is what makes You Walk Tall today not your profession not your accomplishments not your bank account but what Christ has done for you that is available for you to change your heart and the other one is a telescope why a telescope well you look looking to Jesus the founder perfector of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross hey the cross wasn't fun just because he's Jesus Christ you're bang
00:43:21 him on the cross it hurts it absolutely hurts but he did it why because because he look forward for the joy and when we suffer when we are when someone tarnishes our reputation when someone schs us humiliates Us in public we want to get something back but God says what vengeance is mine I will repay there will be a judgment one day and for whatever things we suffer today because of the Cross God will recompense us we look forward to that Joy look this article in Malaysia K 2022 by Andrew sah very sad isn't it
00:44:04 this man defined the success in his life in terms of political power and towards the end of and if you live long enough it will happen Pang lost 42 seats in joho most of them lost their deposit very sad that's why people tell you to quit what you're ahead that's what human wisdom does for you and he's still trying to be the next prime minister of the country when he's 105 I shared this with you last week uh two weeks ago UEA Champions League Liverpool versus AC Milan and the sad thing was this guy
00:44:48 called Michael hotton when Liverpool was down 30-0 he thought AC Milan is so powerful they are League champions five five times over no way absolutely no way uh at half time he hung himself that's what we call foolish or stupid you know why because in the end they won and that's a parable for our lives we could give up on life because it is now halim it's not the end it is only half time and whatever your problems are today whatever defeat you face today from gospel wisdom tells you wait until the finish
00:45:37 time then we will all know then Liverpool would have won and then the resurrection is assured our Victory is assured don't live lives or give up on life at half time you know let me end usually you you I go to funerals and uh sometimes it's very awkward because you're waiting for the ulgy and then some people step up some people don't it's silence I went to a funeral last Thursday and amazing thing was for this lady I think mein's Mom Madam one who lived to 84 years of her age and uh I don't think she died a rich
00:46:30 woman well you can't die rich your relativ will be rich but what I was astounded by I've never seen was that nine grandchildren each one can't wait to come up and share about the grandma you know they didn't tell me the grandma was you know wealthy clever when few things they said she loved them every single one nine children she cared for them took them to the park spend time with them it's like a daycare kind of thing every single one of the nine grandchildren and they described her the other thing that describes her again and
00:47:18 again through her children was she loved to pray and you could hear her at night mentioning names of grandchildren and the sons and daughters and you know what when she died she died on her knees at 84 years of age you tell me yeah what does gospel wisdom do you know wind up like M totally defeated at some stage you will be whether you live or you want to wind up with this grandmother wasn't flashy wasn't brilliant wasn't rich but had gospel wisdom because the most important thing she imparted to her grandchildren was
00:48:03 love and the love of Christ and you just sit there and you listen and that's her Legacy and she left the world like this brothers and sisters how you live your life will be measured in the end not by your bank account or your title it will be measured by the people you leave behind and that testimony touch me I wish I would live my life like that could be a simple grandmother with only one gift she can cook fantastic Haka dish I don't have that and she can love brother sisters when you leave this
00:48:52 Hall you have a choice God wisdom or the world's wisdom you have to choose you have to look at the world through a cross shaped window you have to go to the well and draw from the grace of Christ that overflows the well and you can look with the telescope that no matter what happens in life the resurrection means you have victory shall we pray father Lord we we want to confess first that so often in our lives we have been distracted and we tend to build into our DNA the wisdom of the world and what we do with the wisdom of
00:49:53 the Cross is where we merely wear it around our nexts and Lord this morning we're going to declare to you Lord that isn't enough we want to stop wearing it around our necks we want to start plunging this cross into our hearts so the way we look at ourselves will determine how we see others the way when trouble starts whether we can draw from The Well of your grace whe you can feel our sin and what your Grace has done for our sin and father the hope that is before us we thank you Lord and we ask that as we
00:50:35 depart this Hall we will endure anything the world throws us us because of the joy set before us because we have the victory that is in Christ Jesus we thank you for his name's sake amen can I invite all to rise as we close with the song Christ Our [Music] [Music] wisdom w we are humbl when you hide your ways from us you have pures uned each one good and glorious help us trust when we grow wey free us from our gracious thoughts give us Grace to see more clearly you are God and we are not [Music]
00:52:06 Christ Our wisdom be our gladness when we fail to understand you orain all joy and sadness to fulfill your perfect plan help us know you rule with power over every ring FL in our most UN hour you are God and we are [Music] love Christ Our wisdom we will follow though the way ahead is buil as we journey through the sh us Fai where has filed help us to your Commandments streng by your faithful word we will never be abandoned you are God and we are [Music] yours chist wi we adore you for the beauty of the
00:53:49 Cross once foolishness on you but your blood singing all your Christ Our wisd Christ Our Glory you are God forever praise help us sing the and thees of your humble heart Christ of wisdom Christ of Glory you are God forever [Music] praise but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ therefore my my beloved brothers be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain after a few minutes of silence you're dismissed and I'm going to invite
00:55:15 any of you who like to have the leaders of the church pray over you please come forward thank you
