Beacon Sunday Service: August 25th, 2024

To be able to worship together, praise the mount of let's just fix the one right now and just greet me.

Grace is the free gift of God, and peace is the result of that. Here I raise my easy here by thy great help I've come, and thy hope by thy good pleasure safely to rive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from love of God me to rescue me from danger, interpose his precious blood. All right, and as we just gather ourselves to our seeds from just want to start off with a word from Scripture today.

Um what I would like to share is our worship team this morning. We went through, we've been going through a book, and uh we're just talking about uh singing a new song and what that means, and it's interesting how in our culture today we're no longer really a culture that sings together with people, um, but we get to do that each and every week on Sundays. We sing a song to the Lord, and really what the Lord is pleased about is not just the singing of the words, but singing to him with our hearts. That's what the Lord cares about is our hearts when we sing and praise him more than just giving lip service to him, God desires our hearts and our genuine affection and love for him. And so today, as we sing together, may we uh do so in that manner.

Can we all rise today as I just start us off in First Corinthians and in Psalms? Uh it says this. It says to the church of God, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for a song of praise is fitting. May we do that today. May we just sing praises to our Lord for it is good. Let's sing together all the way, all the way my Savior leads me.

Who have I to ask beside how could I doubt his tender mercy who through life has been my guide all the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path thy tread, and gives me grace for every tribe me with the living breath, you lead me and keep me from falling. You can meet close to your heart, and show your goodness in mercy will meet all the way my Savior leads me all the fullness of his love, all the sureness of his promise in the triumph of his blood, and when my spirit clothed in moins its flights to realms of day this my song through endless Jesus led Jesus led me all the way, Jesus led me all the way, you leave me and keep me from falling, you can meet close to your heart, and show your goodness and mercy will meet you.

Close to your heart and show me your goodness and mercy will meet and all the way my savior leads me all the way my savior leads me all the way my savior leads me all the way my savior lead all the way our Savior leads us. May we just look to the cross today as we just continue to worship him in song Jesus, I my cross Jesus take all to me from me shall for hope or no rage God and have still the world, let the world inspired and leave me.

They have left my savior to human hearts and looks me. Thou art like them true. Oh, while thou does smile upon me, God of wisdom love and foes may hate and friends disown me. Show thy faith and all single than earthly fame. Go then earthly fame and treasure.

Come disaster scorn and pain in service painness pleasure with thy favor. I have called, I have called thee father. I have stayed my heart on thee. Storms may have land, clouds may gather all must work for good means so then now rises and fear joy to find something still to think what speech with me what bother smiles are think that Jesus died to win thee child of heaven can style hasty on hasty on grace to glory on by faith and win by prayer and turn days before me.

Shall guide thee, soon shall close thy mission, soon shall pass thy pivot days.

In this question and answer, we will confess how God uses sanctification to bless us in this life. And so here's the question. How does God use sanctification to bless us in this life? And together, as the Holy Spirit sanctifies, He protects us from the damaging effects of sin, comforts us when we are discouraged, and helps us live for God's glory. Amen. What a great work that God does in us, especially in the work of sanctification. I love how He protects us from sin and comforts us in our darkest days when we're hurt. We can look to Him for our help.

You rose. You rose. The grave in death are conquer. You grow my bons in shame. You rose. You rose. In death conquer. You grow my bonds of sin and shame. Oh Lord. Rock in my team. May Almighty bring glory to your name. Morning, everyone. Today's confession of sin is one where we acknowledge that we live prideful lives, that we walk in pride, and that the only one that can humble us and renew our spirit is the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let us confess together. Our kingdom of heaven, we praise and extol and honor you for all our works are right, and your ways are dressed. We have walked in pride and know you are able to humble us. Please forgive and renew a right spirit within us, for your dominion is everlasting, and your kingdom endures forever. We joyfully submit to your gracious reign in our lives. Amen. Please be seated. Let's now take in a time of private confession to our Lord.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus cleanses us and makes us white as snow. Amen. Today's prayer request is one of reminder.

He came and guest spoke, and then they were uh sent off to Japan. So he sends regular updates to us, uh, or at least to me via email. Uh, we've supported him financially, but more importantly, he would like us to support him in prayer. So one of the main things that he asks uh for us, or he said in his newsletter is that the people of Japan are wary of any new religions coming into their uh to their lives or communities or towns, uh, and that the people who they have been able to lead along and who have are professing Christians are having a hard time going home to their non-Christian families. So let's pray for those Christians, those Japanese Christians that are having a hard time, knowing that they might be persecuted within their own homes, within their own families for believing in a religion that is foreign to the ones that they've grown up with.

The other prayer requests uh that he he mentioned was one for his wife, Chenpei. She has a re uh regener regenerative uh eye condition where her eyesight is going away, and so it's hard for her to read and um just um they're not really sure what her course of action should be at living in Japan. So this is pray for blessing upon her, dealing with this um issue that the Lord will even just help it to stop, um, just give them the right decisions and even health care in Japan, as they've only been there for six months, and they're still getting accustomed to uh just um what's available to them, and lastly, their sons, John, Matthew, and Mark, uh, that they get continue to get accustomed to the lifestyle in Japan.

So let's pray for those three things.

We pray, Father, for blessing upon them, knowing that Japan is historically not a country that has received Christianity well. We pray for just doors to open, relationships to be built, and most importantly, for the gospel to be shared. We pray, Lord, uh, and thanks that people of Japan, that there are people who have been saved that are Christians, but we pray, Father, for their them to be a testimony to those and their families who are not uh saved, who care would care less to learn about who you are. But Lord, we pray, Father, for your work to be done. We pray for uh their resolve to remain, that their foundation and belief in your son would just be so strong that it is built on a rock, Father, that that foundation would not crumble.

And Lord, that eventually that their families would receive Christ. We pray, Father, for uh just his wife, Marco uh or Anahandro's wife, uh Chenpei, that you bless her eyesight, knowing that it's hard to live life as it is without being able to see things, but breeding and getting accustomed to a new home and lifestyle. We pray, Father, that you bless her, help her to adjust, help her eyesight to uh just the disease that's in her eyes to stop or to go away. We pray for healing upon her, and we pray for just every step, health care decisions and uh what's available to them, Father, that those doors would uh be open to them and that they she would get the proper care that she needs. We also pray for their sons, John, Matthew, and Mark.

We pray, Father, as they are young and getting accustomed to new lifestyle, new country, new language, new friends. We pray too that you would bless them as well. And most importantly, may you use Alejandro and his family to do your will and to glorify your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Uh, your dismissed children for Sunday school, please follow teacher Stephen in the back. Have a good day. Um, and as the children are being dismissed, we're gonna go over a few announcements. The first announcement is that we are gonna have uh headshots, photos of your beautiful faces taken for our church directory. As we shared via text this week, um, we just wanted to kind of have something that's more updated.

Uh, and one also that we can share with Pastor Peter, as he had requested uh names and faces so that he could pray over you before he comes. Uh, speaking of Pastor Peter, we have his installation service uh coming October 13th. Yes, uh, Pastor Peter is starting the first of October, uh, but we were able to secure an open time uh to be able to have uh a service to formally uh bless him and give him just um just the Lord's blessing. Uh a lot of people want to support him in our ministry, and so we're gonna have probably more close to 200 people coming, uh, which is amazing for our little campus and our little church. Uh so we're gonna be having it at uh KPC Sanctuary. Uh if you would like to invite somebody, um, someone that you know would love to be here and be a part of our historic event, uh please let us know so we can get in accurate head count.

Um it's gonna be tight, uh, but we want to plan accordingly. Uh next one is our children's ministry. We've been announcing this one uh for the past few months. But if you are teaching or if you're assistant teaching and you cannot make the week that you're scheduled, please go to the back and arrange for someone uh to replace you, uh maybe switch with somebody. Uh, but there's a sheet in the back, look through it and and figure out on your own how you could maybe have someone take your spot. Uh and last but not least, our offering options are Zel Vemo Cash and Check. Pastor Madison. Hey, we've been enjoying uh looking at wisdom. We've done it four weeks now. This is the fourth week. Uh, but have you ever have you ever played a prank on someone that you you thought, oh this this will be fun.

Well, I'll do this, and and you played a prank on them, and and sometimes it doesn't go quite right. And it and you go, Oh my goodness, I I'm so sorry, I didn't realize. Uh I when I think of wisdom, um, can you advance that or oh there we go. I put uh selected text today. We've looked at James chapter three, verses 13 to 18 uh for three weeks now. When we looked at it, um the first week we looked at how to know if you lack wisdom. And in the text it says, if you lack wisdom, you you'll get envious at times of other people, and you'll get bitter at times on, oh, how come they got it and I didn't get it? And so you had these indications that you lack wisdom. And then we said there are marks that show that you have wisdom, that you're uh peace loving and and that you do things in the text gives you eight things that we looked at over the last couple of weeks.

This week though, uh what the text doesn't give us in James 3 is how to get wisdom. I mean, you ought to know. I mean, if there is wisdom to be had, and God is willing to give it to us, what does he say we have to do to get wisdom? Well, getting back to pranks for a moment, uh I I want you to I want you to think about uh guys, you know what guys do at times. My grandkids, I have five grandkids, and at times they try to sneak in uh they're in our house, maybe staying uh for a day or so. This past week we had we had three uh of of them at our house because our granddaughter was in Phoenix getting more stem cell injections uh after the ablation had caused her heart to be perforated, and she went uh roughly 15 minutes without any oxygen to her brain.

And so now they're using stem cells, and she's now they said she'd be a body in the bed for the rest of her life, and now she's able to do to walk, and she's able to talk a little bit. She's got they said she'd be blind. She has now 2020 vision. Uh so it's really good to watch what God is is doing. But at times, now that they they might be at our house, they try to slip into my office area and sneak up behind me and scare the tar out of me, you know. Boo! And they you know, I and if they don't scare me, they go, ah, they're they're upset that they didn't, their prank didn't quite work. Because at times, when I look into the I have three three screens on my computer, so when I look into my screens and they're coming in behind me, I can see them in the screen.

So sometimes that doesn't quite work. But here's a guy that uh he's gonna play a prank on his on his wife. I'll set it up for you so you kind of know it's only 30 seconds, but he's gonna try to scare her. And he uh is raking leaves, and so he's got a pile of leaves, and she's gone, and he's decided that she's on her way home. He's gonna bury himself in the leaves, which just happened to be in their driveway. He's gonna bury himself in the leaves, and when she pulls in, he's gonna jump up and scare her. While he's getting ready to do that, he gets it into a pile, he gets into the pile, and his phone rings, and so now he gets out of the pile. But uh, here's this man nearly died. Turn it up. So I enjoy scaring my wife.

I'm gonna hide in the pile of leaves, and when she gets home from McConnell, I'm gonna jump out and scare the car out of her. Wish me luck. Are you leaving? And that's why you never pull jokes on your wife. I cannot believe that. Do you catch what happened there? I mean, this guy would have been dead. You know, sometimes it takes some of us longer to get wisdom than others. But I would bet the next time he rakes leaves, he's gonna be saying, Oh, thank you, God, thank you, God. You know, and can you imagine the conversation they had that night?

She's saying to him, Oh, are you thinking? And she just pulls right in and runs right, oh, let's run right over him. Thank God for phone calls that interrupt what's going on. What I want to say to you is this there are three ways to get uh wisdom, and I inserted into this there are three ways to get worldly wisdom, because there's a difference between worldly wisdom and God's wisdom. And so one writer says, Hey, one way to get wisdom is you can learn from your own mistakes. Isn't that true? Did you think that guy learned from his mistake? The next time he's not gonna jump in the leaf pile and and do it in the driveway uh and think he's gonna scare his wife, so you can learn from your own mistakes.

Sometimes that's costly though. Uh some of us guys have gone down that route, you know, where you decide uh the sink doesn't work, it's all backed up, and you decide rather than calling a plumber, you know, you can do it yourself, and so you tear it apart, and then it doesn't work correctly, and then you pay a plumber to come in and tear out what you put in and what you bought and what you did and what you put in to do it, because sometimes it's costly when you are gonna make your own mistakes. Another way to get wisdom is you can learn from the mistakes of others. That's kind of the the best way to get worldly wisdom, isn't it? You're if you had to rake leaves now and you had a lot of leaves, I would bet the next time you rake leaves, you're gonna be thinking, Oh, yeah, I remember that Pastor Madison showed that story of that guy that raked the leaves and crawl into them because you're gonna learn from those mistakes.

One guy said there's a third way to get worldly wisdom, and that you can buy it. And how do you buy it? Well, our our world teaches us that the way to get it is to go to college, you know, and and I don't want to be little college. I graduated from three of them, you know, three universities, but it that doesn't mean that I got wisdom. That means that I I read a lot of books and took a lot of tests and paid a lot of money. But you can get wisdom from buying it at times because you get a chance to learn from other people's mistakes by just reading about them, but sometimes you have to pay for it. The former president of Harvard said this. If you think education's expensive, try ignorance. Because when you are really wanting to do something important, and you do it all wrong, and you have to do it again and maybe a second time, education, it might be expensive, but ignorance really gets expensive.

Especially if you do something where you end up losing your eyesight or losing an arm or losing a leg. So, you know, he's saying, look, get wisdom, but it ought to come, you know, from God's point of view. I would say to you right from the start, our world has always known that wisdom is something you want to have. And let me take you back to Genesis to share that with you. In Genesis chapter 3, it says this. Now the serpent was the most cunning of all wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.

No, you will not die, the serpent said to the woman. In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You know, I would say to you, they were never more like God than how she was right at that moment before she partook. Because she was made in the image of God. She had an intellect. God knows everything, but uh we have a limited intellect. She had an emotion, they had emotions, they could love, they had a will. God has a will. God has emotions, he can love. So we were made in the image of God. We had intellect, emotion, and will. There was another thing that we had at creation that we lost when sin came. And that's we had no sin.

And so without any sin, uh, how does God classify us? We were we were holy. We weren't sinful, and we gave up that holiness when we sinned. How do we get that back when you trust Christ as your Savior? God now looks at you as holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4. So here's what Satan says to her, No, you're gonna be like God, but she was already like God. She was gonna give up being like God by doing something that God said not to do. The text goes on. Verse 6. Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable. Did he get this? It was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So right from the start, as far as we know from everything that God has given us, that they knew something about wisdom.

But this wisdom was gonna come from her sin. Did you catch that? Which means that there are two kinds of wisdom in the world, and that's what we find out later in scripture. There's a worldly wisdom that's even demonic and sensual and whatever, and then there's a godly wisdom that's first of all pure, then peaceable, lovely, gentle, easy to be entreated. All the things that he said in James chapter 3. That wisdom wasn't from above. It was worldly wisdom, and such wisdom doesn't come from above. That's earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Paul wrote about such wisdom, and he said it's called, he called it fleshly wisdom. And he uses that in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 12. For this is our confidence.

A testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, especially towards you, with God given sincerity, and I'm going to highlight this: purity. That's how Paul had conducted himself. And what did he say about the wisdom that was from above? It's first of all, do you remember in James chapter 3? The wisdom that's from above is first of all, what? Pure. Okay? You don't get God's wisdom by living ungodly lives. So he goes on, though, and says, it's not by fleshly wisdom. So there is a fleshly wisdom, and there's a godly wisdom. People in this world can have fleshly wisdom. They know how to get ahead, they know how to make money, they know how to cheat. I mean, it's uh it's this worldly wisdom that gets people ahead.

And then there's a godly wisdom that can allow you to get ahead, but not necessarily because the things of the world are gonna pass away, but he wants you to live in a way that glorifies him. And so, what is godly wisdom again? Godly wisdom is having the ability to see things from God's point of view. So, being a husband from God's point of view, what does he want you to do? From being a wife, from God's point of view, what does he want you to do? Not from your point of view, from my point of view, you know, as a as a husband, oh, you're always taught that you're gonna do this and this and this and this, and you're the leader of the home, you're the head of the home, or whatever. You're you're kind of taught this worldly wisdom, and God is saying, look, husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church.

Treat her like a queen, and she'll probably treat you like a king. Treat her like the world, and you'll probably end up in divorce. And 50% of the world ends up in divorce. So, godly wisdom is like gravity. You can't see it, but it keeps you grounded and stable. It keeps you from drifting. When I jump up and down, if I jump up, I'll always come what? I'll always come back down because of the law of gravity, right? Wisdom is like that. Instead of me going out and doing some crazy things, that wisdom keeps you and your children grounded. That's why you always want to come back to wisdom. Proverbs says it this way wisdom is the chief thing, therefore get wisdom, but with all I getting, get understanding.

So if you're gonna get something from God, get wisdom so that you see everything, your job, your family, your career, everything from God's point of view, so that you glorify him in the midst of all of that. Here's a sermon and a sentence today. The Bible clearly tells us how to get God's wisdom. He actually gives us five ways in Scripture to get his wisdom. Can you think of any of them right offhand? I'm not gonna ask you to say them, but there are five ways that you can get God's wisdom. Again, this is why we're looking at selected text today. Often we don't teach uh a topical sermon, we just open up a text and exposit it. But after three weeks of looking at wisdom, that text in James does not tell you how to get God's wisdom.

So, how do you get God's wisdom? First way, by fearing the Lord. Here's what it says, Psalm 11, verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Did you catch that? It's not the end all, but it's where it starts. If you don't start with a fear of the Lord, you'll never get wisdom. From God anyway. You can have worldly wisdom, but you won't have God's wisdom. This is Psalm 111, verse 10. This is the last verse of Psalm 11. Psalm 112, verse 1. The next, the very next verse says this. Hallelujah. Happy is the man who does what? Fears the Lord. So he's saying, look, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And happy is the man who fears the Lord. Proverbs 9 10 says it this way the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding.

What do we mean when we talk about the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is not where you're afraid of what he's going to do. Here's an example, but let me let me blank that out for a second. The fear of the Lord is almost like you. Remember when you were growing up, I hope you grew up in a godly family, so that you weren't abused, but that you were disciplined. There's a difference between being disciplined, lovingly disciplined, protecting your child, saying to your child, don't cross the street. Here's a little three-year-old. Don't cross the street without mom, mommy or daddy. Why? Because they don't know enough to look each way. They just run out and they get killed. We had a little six-year-old that ran out into the street after a ball.

Hit by the car, killed. And so I said to my kids, listen, we don't want anything to happen to you. And so when I tell you to stop what you're doing, I mean now. Stop what you're doing. And so that when you run across the street, you get ready, you stop immediately as soon as I tell you to stop. So that kind of discipline is you're there to protect them. So here's what happens when you have the fear of the Lord, like your parents. I'll pick on your daughter, Grace. You know, your daughter knew when she was growing up that you loved her. But there were still times when Stephen or Grace said to her, don't do this, or it's going to be a discipline. And she knew there was enough fear of mom and dad's discipline.

Am I correct? Yes, there was enough fear of mom and dad's discipline. You weren't, listen to me carefully. You weren't afraid of them, but you had a fear of doing what is right. There's a difference. And so when God talks about the fear of the Lord, he's not talking about us going, oh, oh, I'm just afraid of God. I'm not afraid of God. God loves me. Just like my parents love me. But man, did I hate it when my parents had put the fear of God in my heart and disciplined me? So let me give you a couple examples in the in the Old Testament. Genesis 35. And here's the here's the story. And then we'll read it a second. Jacob and Esau were brothers, twins. And Esau came out of the womb first. And they tied a ribbon around him.

So that you know, here's the first one out. And Jacob came out, and as he came out, you know what he was doing? He was grabbing the heel of Esau. So they gave him the name Jacob, which meant heel grabber. Someone who would trip somebody else up. And that's exactly what he did to his twin brother. His twin brother was born first. And because he was born first, he was to inherit what? All the wealth of the firstborn. 50% of what the family had. Because it was going to be his job to take care of the family when dad and mom died. So he got the inheritance of the firstborn. But Jacob stole it from him. Pretended to be Esau. His dad couldn't hardly see. He went into his dad, gave him what his dad wanted, and his dad gave him the blessing.

Esau goes, What? What happened? Because of that, Jacob left his family, ran off and lived with his uncle Laban, so he'd be safe. And his brother, his twin brother, wouldn't kill him. Here's the story in chapter 35. God said to Jacob, now he's at Laban's house, and he's gonna come back home finally. God said to Jacob, get up, go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, get up, now get rid of the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in the days of my distress.

He has been with me everywhere I've gone. Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. Then they set out. Here's the deal.

And all the area they were going to go across would steal on the way. Take all his possessions. But here's what happened. When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and those cities did not pursue Jacob's sons and all his possessions. A fear. God allowed an awe. Can I put this right it this way? A W. An awe.

Just think what God can do. He's an awesome God. And so that terror came over them. Just like he said, the terror of the Lord, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. If I'm not fearful of what God can do, I don't have to worry about. I'm not going to do anything for God. Another example of this is in Exodus 20. In Exodus 20, you have the Ten Commandments. Verses 1 through 17 are the Ten Commandments. You remember them. Remember when we were at the picnic and we went over the Ten Commandments and you learned them all that day? The number one is he's number one. Know the God's before me. Remember? And so we went down through. Remember, I'll bet you remember the eighth commandment.

Remember the eighth commandment? I said it was like this. Thou shalt not what? Louder. Steal. Thou shall not steal. And I said the eighth commandment, and I made the number eight, and I said, This is like handcuffs. And if you break the eighth commandment, you'll end up in handcuffs if you steal. So here he is. He's just finished the Ten Commandments. And he says, all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning and sound of the trumpet and the mountains surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it, they trembled and stood for fear. You speak to us, and we will listen, they said to Moses, but don't let God speak to us, or we will die. Moses responded to the people, don't be afraid, for God has come to test you so that you will fear him and will not sin.

That's why he wants you to have a fear that there are consequences. God is going to judge you and hold you accountable. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. If you don't fear God, you'll never get wisdom. It starts there. What's the text say? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. I've already talked to you about this. We're not to be afraid of God, but to fear him. It's almost like you view your parents when you're a little child. Okay? So the problem is Romans 3 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And that's what's wrong in America today. They don't fear God. They just want to do what they want to do because they've written God out of existence. So they live any way they want.

I said to you, there are five ways to get wisdom. The first way is by fearing God. The second way, if you fear God as you begin to fear God, then you can move towards trusting him as your savior. If you don't think God exists, why would you ever trust him as your Savior? So here's what the text says.

Verse 30 is not on the screen right at the moment. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world. Who's he talking about there? Believers. God has chosen what? What is insignificant and despised in the world? What is viewed as nothing? Do people look at you and say, whoa, they're really important. They look at presidents and kings and those in authority. Wow, they're really big, oh, they're important people. But then they look at you and say, Wow, he's important. She's really important. Man, whoa, wow, I you're really important. No. God is willing to choose, and he's God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world. What is viewed as nothing? To bring to nothing what is viewed as something.

The important people go, how can they be happy? How can they have joy? They don't have the money we have. They don't have all the stuff that we have, but you have the joy of the Lord. And they don't understand that. So he says, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one can boast in his presence. This is what it says in the New Living Translation. Can I tell you? I'll just throw this out really quickly. I think I've mentioned it once before. The New Living Translation used to be called the Living Bible. The living Bible is a paraphrase. A paraphrase is something that is not as accurate word for word. About uh 30 or 40 miles in Chicago. I think he had a dozen kids. I don't remember exactly throwing it out right now.

But uh his oldest was 16 at the time, and his youngest was, you know, a little tyke. And so every morning as he rode the train in, he would take a passage of scripture and paraphrase it. It became known, he started out with all the epistles. And they became known as living letters. And so he would take that, he would paraphrase it on the way in, and then he would share it with some of the guys at Moody, and then he'd tweak it on the way home that night. And then when he had devotions with his kids, because he had a 16-year-old and a two-year-old, he was trying to keep keep all the attention of all those kids. That's why he paraphrased it. So it would be like this. Dear friends in Rome, this is Paul.

I'm just writing you a letter. I want you to know. So it wasn't, and the epistle to the Romans, and you know, and in King James language, but just a paraphrase. Since that time, nobody used it much except beginning Christians that you wanted to kind of learn because it was just in simple English. They since turned it into a translation called the New Living Translation, which is pretty decent. But here's what he says, the same one I just read to you earlier. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and use them to bring to nothing what the world considers is important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. So we already know that how do you get wisdom?

By trusting Christ as your Savior. So 1 Corinthians 1 30 goes on. But it is from him that you are in Christ Jesus. Did you get that? If you trusted Christ as your Savior, you are in Christ. The next part is important. Who became God given what? Wisdom for us. As soon as I trust Christ, I begin to have God given wisdom. So that I view things in the world as not as important as the things of God. That's why he says in Matthew 6 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Ephesians says it this way in chapter 1, verse 7 and 8. We have redemption in him through his blood. We are in him, keeping going back.

Once you've trusted Christ, you are in him.

We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us with all what? Wisdom. So when you trust Christ as your Savior, what do you get? Wisdom. But you'll never trust him as a Savior until you first have a fear of God. So you say, Oh, there is a God. And he's in charge. And he's an awesome God. And I want to reach reach out and trust him. Colossians 2 says it this way. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches and assured understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, Christ. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are what?

Wisdom is in him.

Hey, Moses said this way, what do you say? And he would say, remember when he the woman was caught in the uh the very act of adultery? And they said, Hey, the Moses said to stone him, what do you say? Because if you don't say stoner, then you're against Moses, and we're gonna go after you. And he says, uh, let's do it this way. What would you say? He said, let the one without sin cast the first stone. And what did they all do? They drop the stones and they walked away. And he says to them, uh, where are you in this whole cycle? Wisdom coming from God. So I'm gonna get wisdom. There are five ways to get wisdom. The first way is by fearing the Lord, the second way is by trusting Christ as your Savior.

What do you think the third way is? Here's what scripture says by reading the word. I can begin to read the word and understand God's desire for wisdom in my life. Proverbs chapter 1. And there are five books in the Bible that are called the wisdom literature. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. So when's the last time you read the wisdom literature to get wisdom? I would use Proverbs with your children. And just one proverb at a time, starting in especially chapter 10. But here's what it says the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel, and here's why I'm writing. For learning what wisdom and discipline are, for understanding insightful sayings. So why does he write Proverbs?

So that you can acquire wisdom. Wisdom is, you know, there's so many different one verses or two verses in Proverbs. You know, here's one. Remove your foot from your neighbor's house, lest they become weary of you and so hate you. You know, if you're always over to your friend's house and you knock on the door, and hey, I just want to stop by. The more you're there, uh what was it that uh there was a guy? I will Rogers was it? He said, you know, uh visitors uh at your house uh are like fish after three days, they start to stink, you know. Now, now that's not the way it is with you and seed family, of course. But but you know, when you have uh Proverbs is saying, look, go to your friend's house, they do it on occasion, but don't always show up for lunch.

You know, after a while they're gonna say the only time they're here is when they want something to eat. So he says it that way. He says, even a fool is considered wise if he keeps his mouth shut because you they don't know. Well, open your mouth and reveal all that you really are not wise. Tell them how foolish you are. So uh Proverbs 10 1. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. So you get you're gonna get wisdom by just reading the word of God. First Corinthians 2 16 says it this way, for who has known the Lord's mind that he may instruct him? Huh? But we have the mind of Christ. What do I mean we have the mind of Christ? We have the mind of Christ.

How do we get the mind of Christ? Through reading, studying, meditating on his word. Because he's given us his mind. When somebody strikes you on this cheek, what do you do? Smack them back. No. What does God say? When they strike you on this cheek, turn the other cheek. That becomes the mind of Christ. So he's he's giving you that. Let me let me quickly throw one thing here. You know how to read God's word. You know how to study God's word. Do you know how to meditate on God's word? There are only two places in scripture that you're promised to succeed. One is Joshua 1.8, and one is Psalm chapter 1. And both of them say that he promises success if you meditate on his word. And even Psalm 1 says, you know, that you meditate on it day and night.

And you'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. And you'll bear fruit in its season, and your leaf will not wither. And whatever you do will prosper. Only two places in scripture you're promised that by meditating on God's word. Let me say it this way. Meditation is to your soul. Listen carefully to this, okay? I would want you to even kind of write this down and think about it. Meditation is to your soul what digestion is to your body. When you eat food, you take it in. If your body never digests it, what happens? You die. If there's a blockage, I had a blockage. I had to have a third of my colon taken out at one point. There was a blockage. Food was not going to be able to go through.

So at that point, my my body couldn't digest the food. So you have to be able to let it by be digested, you know, into your body.

When you take God's word in, you take it in and say, how does this feed my life? How does this change my life? How do I live differently? I'll give the husbands and guys that are going to be married someday. You know, God says, husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church. How do you meditate on that? By learning how to love your wife like Christ loved the church. You need to understand her enough, and you get that through God telling you to love her like Christ loved the church. What did Christ do for the church? He died for the church. Are you willing to die for your wife? If you're willing to die for her, then you might really be ready to live for her. And so as you meditate on that, meditation is to your soul what digestion is to your body.

You take it in and you make it a part of your life. Food, it's through osmosis. When it comes to scripture, it's through meditating and saying, how does this, how is this supposed to change my life? Five ways he's going to give them to you. First way by fearing the Lord. Second way by trusting Christ as your Savior. Third way by reading the word. Okay, is there another way that God's word says that you can get wisdom? The one we looked at in the book of James. James chapter 3 talks about wisdom, but James chapter 1 tells you how to get it. And that's by praying for it. If you lack it, here's what James 1 says. Now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be giving him given to him.

He should ask God. Is that difficult? Just for you to say, God, I don't know what to do here. And wisdom, you know, wisdom happens to come in areas that God's word doesn't say. If God's word says, uh husbands love your wife like Christ loved the church, I don't need to say, God, I don't know what to do here. Yes, I know what to do. I need to love my wife like Christ loved the church. Right? It's clear. Wisdom happens to be needed in areas you don't know what to do. Lord, do you want me to go to this college or this college? Lord, would you guide me, my heart through my parents and through others and through your Holy Spirit and through just circumstances in my life. What career should I go into?

Obviously, if if God, you know, releases you from one job, he should probably say, that's not the job for you. Lord, what do you want me to do? And you're asking for wisdom. And he says, just ask him. But here's the here's the thing I like even more about this. Is you can ask for wisdom for others. And as parents, listen to me. As parents, this ought to be really thrilling for you. Because you can ask God to give your kids wisdom. And here's where it's worded in Ephesians 1.17. I pray that God, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Let me do this. Let me dim down the unnecessary words in this verse.

And just highlight what I want you to see here. I pray that God would give you wisdom. What is Paul doing there? He's praying for the church at Ephesus. Why would he tell them that if he's just wasting his time praying? God is saying, I can pray for my kids to have wisdom. I can pray for you to have wisdom as a church, as an individuals. Okay. Here. God wants you to get have wisdom. There are five ways to get it. I'm going to give you four for a start here by fearing the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom. By trusting Christ as your Savior, because in him you have wisdom. Thirdly, by reading the word. We know that from Proverbs. He wrote the whole book so that you could have wisdom from God.

Fourthly, by asking for it. The fifth one, the fifth one, is one that kids don't like. Now, you're an adult, so you know, I'm not saying kids here. But your younger kids don't like this one. I almost hesitate to give it to you because I want you to do it wisely. But it's by disciplining your child when he or she needs it. You can impart wisdom to them by disciplining them when they need it. Here's what the text says in Scripture. Proverbs 29, 15. A rod of correction does what.

At what he says. And so, you know something? My folks discipline me. I remember, I don't know if I told you this. I remember my my dad didn't go to church much when I was a little kid, but my mom was always there. And I'll never forget in our church in New York. My mom had my brother, my older brother, and myself. We're on the back row. Sunday morning, Sunday school had finished, and I want to go home. I don't want to sit in the worship service. And I was so upset, she wasn't gonna let me go home.

I said, I want to go home. She said, No, you're staying, you're gonna be here for church. I looked at my mom and I said this. When I get older, I'm never going to church. And God must have looked out of heaven and thought, yeah, you are. You're gonna go all the time, buddy. Because the church that I planted in Palm Deal and was past through for 34 years. We had three morning services, and I and I preached just like I preach now. And you know something? My wife sat through all three services and was there to minister to people and to share.

You know, after me. You think you're you think one service is long? Try three. And hearing the same thing. I'm saying to you, listen, God's word says this, a rod of correction when my folks knew that I needed it. I got it. Never out of uh anger. You should never discipline your kids out of anger. But nobody the world wants to tell you, oh no, you shouldn't discipline them like that. Listen to me. God's word says the rod of correction. What is a what? You know what he ended up using? Uh just a little leather thing about 12 inches long, and you want them to feel the sting of doing wrong. I call it the sting of sin. You want them to feel the sting of sin. You're not wanting to bruise them, you're not wanting to hurt them.

God gave you a wonderful place that can never be broken, you know. But it stings. And listen to me carefully. When when a circus trains an elephant, you know what it does? It puts an elephant on a on a steel chain on a cement ball or large stone. And that elephant goes out and tries to break loose, and maybe cut its leg a little bit. And it goes and it says, Oh, I can't go any further. I can't go any further. Then they take it off the steel, put a stake in the ground, tie a rope to the stake, and put a rope around his leg.

Because from that point on, that elephant says, I can't go any further. I can't go any further. Because it tried when it was young. And you set parameters up so that they know this is the framework that God has for them and for you and your family. And that's what discipline is. And discipline can be done in a very loving way. It would take me a half hour to do discipline with my kids.

And then I'd let them sit there for five minutes and stew on it. Because they knew Dad was coming.

I don't want to discipline them. And I would always say to them, they got one SWAT. But I want to make sure it's stung.

And we would always open up God's word because I would only discipline them when they violated something in scripture. Now, and that's pretty simple at times because one of the scriptures is children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. So that's pretty broad. But if that was where they violated, that's where I took them in scripture. There'd be times my kids would say, show me, show me in scripture what I did wrong. I said, as they got older, I said, you know what you did, you know. You hit your sister, you know. And then I would say, here's God's word says, you know, be kindly affectionate one to another in brotherly love. Were you that? No, we told you if you did this, you'd get the discipline.

A rot of reproof will impart wisdom. So here's the questions I have for you. Do you fear the Lord today? Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Are you reading his word to get wisdom? Are you asking God for wisdom? Are you disciplining your child when he or she needs it? Because that's what's going to give them wisdom. That's God's word on how to get Godly wisdom. And that's what you want. And you want to teach your children that so they can teach your grandchildren that so they can teach your great-grandchildren that so that they pass wisdom on and they get it at an early age. Let's pray. Father, we give to you the very thought of wisdom and the necessary uh the need for it in our lives. Thank you that you uh have given us in your word how to get it.

While your heads are bowed, while your eyes are closed, will you ask God to give you wisdom today? So that you can see things from God's point of view, so that you can marry the right person, so that you can take the right job on.

So that you can bring your children up in the fear of the Lord. And if you haven't trusted Christ as your Savior, that perhaps today is the day when you say, Lord Jesus, I want to admit that I'm a sinner. I want to ask you into my life.

So that I get wisdom from by simply trusting you. And I do it in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's all rise and respond in worship. As we sing this next song, may we uh just begin with just fear of the Lord and then just ask the Lord that He would be our vision and He would be our source of wisdom in our lives. So may we just sing together, be thou my vision be thou my vision of my heart not be to me or waking or sleeping thy presence my love be thou my wisdom, be thou my wisdom, and thou my true with thee and thou with me, thou my great father, I thy true son, thou in me dwelling and I with one riches I need no man praise now my sends now and so and thou first in my heart I king of heaven my treasure I can I of heaven when tree is gone.

Joy may I reach heaven joys over heaven heart would be fall. Still be my vision. Oh rule. It's our joy to share communion today. And let me just read from First Corinthians chapter eleven, verse twenty-three and following. Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats the bread and drinks the cup. For everyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

It's not up to your spouse to determine. Would you just say, Lord, I want to be ready to remember what you did for me on the cross.

You don't have to be a regular attender. You would say to you, you will have had to trust Christ as your Savior. This is a this is a family, his family. And if you're part of the Lord's family, he wants you to participate. And so I'm going to ask that you right now join me in asking God's blessing on this wafer and on this cup. Father, these are just symbols, but they're important symbols.

Amen.

If you'll join me in pulling back that top portion, give you a moment to do that. I want you to look at this very flat wafer. I want you to know why it's flat. And actually why we don't use a loaf of bread. You know, a loaf of bread is baked with leaven in it. And leaven in Scripture became a picture of sin. The Passover, they always swept up all the leaven. And that's why their wafers are flat, almost like a saltine cracker. And this has no leaven in it. And the Lord says, as this is, he wants our life to have no sin. Leaven, just a little bit, permeates the whole dough.

The whole loaf of bread. Sin does that in our lives.

Eat of it. As you look at the juice, you know, we could use any kind of juice. The Lord used the fruit of the vine.

And just a little alcohol here could turn them back to a way they don't want to go.

This regular reminder.

All to him I owe. May we live this week as though we owe everything to you. Whatever we could give you would never pay you back. And so, Father, we pray that this week, your blessing will be on us. We pray for your wisdom to be on our lives today, that we would see this week from your perspective. For we pray these things in the wonderful, matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless you this week. And don't forget pictures will be taken as we and they were taking them outside. So if you'll just get a facial shot for our pictorial directory for Pastor Peter, thank you.