Skip to content Session 2 - Wisdom From His Word Sep 7 · 54 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:00 Privilege to greet you all through this conference. What a powerful session we had with Pastor Edmund. Truly, the Lord has spoken to us. May we continue0:11 to be receptive to the word of God. In the first session, we talked about the receptivity to God's Word. In the second session, we're going to talk about how we need to appropriate0:23 the wisdom that comes from the Word of God. See, you and I, we need to understand it is not just about studying the Word so that we can accumulate knowledge. It is about0:35 gleaning wisdom. Because what is what is necessary to navigate the landmines in this world is the wisdom from the Word of God.0:47 So today, we're going to talk about wisdom from His Word. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you have already deposited deep truths. Today,0:59 Father, we ask that we will not only receive the Word of God, but we will also apply the Word of God into our lives. That we not just appreciate the Word of God, but Lord, that we will1:11 apply the Word of God. As a result, our life will be filled with wisdom from above. So today in this session, I ask that you open our eyes and give us listening ears and a heart that is willing to obey1:22 Your Word and direct us with Your wisdom in Jesus Name. And the people of God said, Amen and Amen. Wisdom from His Word. Let me start with an illustration.1:36 You know, a little boy came back from school, and he said to his mother, I have tummy ache. The mother said to him, The reason why you have tummy ache is because1:47 your tummy is empty. Fill it with food. Fill it with something. Then your tummy ache will be gone. Sure enough, after he had his snack, there was no tummyache. That1:59 evening, the father brought his boss to dinner. Now the boss came in and he said, I have a headache. The little boy heard that, and he rushed to the boss and said to him,2:11 The reason why you have a headache is because your head is empty, you fill it, you'll feel better. See, 1 of the things that you and I need to come back to is we got to be thinking people.2:23 You know, the whole reason why we do IDMC Conference is to bring the church back to her disciple making roots, is to bring back what is of ultimate2:35 importance. So, 1 of the key questions we ask is, what is critical when it comes to discipleship? We discovered from last session, what is critical for2:47 discipleship is understanding spiritual maturity. Our perspective on spiritual maturity and how we go about it. I want to also begin this session by asking2:58 a fundamental question: What is critical for leadership? There are so many things we can talk about. The leadership skills, the skill sets that we need to acquire or3:10 develop or be good at. But there is 1 thing every leader needs. It's the ability to see. I want you to think about this. The ability to see, to discern,3:22 to understand is critical for leadership. Professor Robert Clinton asked this question, What is the difference between a good leader and a bad leader? And his answer,3:35 perspective. He also asked another question. What's the difference between a good leader and a better leader? His answer, a better perspective. I want you to think about this. You and I, we need to3:47 have the ability to see, the ability to understand, the ability to discern, therefore, ability to walk in wisdom. As I begin this3:58 session, I want to take you to an Old Testament passage in Joshua chapter 5 and do a devotional thought. In Joshua chapter 5, verses 14:10 to 3, it says this: As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that the4:22 Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over. Their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of4:34 the people of Israel. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. So Joshua made flint knives and4:45 circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeah Haloth. You know, when I study this passage, I want you to look at it with the lens of a leader. Here he is commissioned by4:57 God, and they have taken the whole nation and they have crossed over into the Promised Land. And while they are there, the Lord begins to speak to him. And the Lord says to him5:09 specifically about circumcising the generation that was born in the wilderness. Now, the Bible begins by saying in chapter 5 that the kings of the5:20 Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan to the west, Their hearts had melted in fear. They are vulnerable at the moment. Now, if you think about it5:31 strategically, this is not the time for us to do anything else, to be distracted by anything else. But this is the time, militarily speaking, this is a strategic time to5:43 strike your enemy. Like they say in that movie, Strike first, strike hard, and no mercy. Isn't it? I want you to think about this. Here, the Bible says, God speaks to Joshua,5:55 the commander, the leader, and He says to him, Circumcise the sons of Israel. That means to circumcise all that are below the age of 40 and6:06 above the age of 20. These are guys who are in the army. So, what is God saying? In that moment, if I were Joshua, I would have given the Lord 3 excuses. 1, Lord, this6:18 is wrong time. You know, we were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. And in that 40 year period, you could have asked me to circumcise the sons of Israel. But now, this is a strategic6:30 time to strike first, strike hard and show no mercy to the people who are already vulnerable, our enemy kingdoms. But you know what? Joshua didn't give that excuse. He didn't say wrong time. He could have6:42 said wrong place. Lord, we were wandering in the wilderness. You could have asked us there. But now we have crossed into the enemy territory. We cannot afford to become vulnerable right now. We are6:53 surrounded by our enemies. But He didn't give that excuse of wrong place. He didn't give an excuse of wrong people. He could have said, Lord, if you wanted someone from 8 day old7:05 babies all the way to 19 year old, I could circumcise them. But do not ask me to circumcise my valiant men, the ones who are fighting the warfare. He didn't say, Lord, it is wrong7:17 time, wrong people, or wrong place. Instead, the Bible says in verse 3, Joshua circumcised the sons of Israel. I want you to get to this. This is the point that I want7:29 you to catch. If we see what God sees, we will do what God says. If you have the ability to recognize who you are, more importantly, whose7:41 you are, You will do what God says. Here, Joshua recognized even though he is the commander, he is not the commander in chief. The Lord, it is the Lord's7:53 people. It is the Lord's army. And the battle doesn't belong to us. The battle belongs to the Lord. So Joshua obeyed. Can I humbly say this? What is of ultimate importance?8:05 What is wisdom? Wisdom is hearing God and obeying God. Wisdom is saying, Lord, I want to see what you see so that I can do what you say. Hallelujah. You know,8:17 1 of the cool things that you and I need to understand is the world we live in. See, the world we live in, if you want to live in a world of wisdom and perspective, you must8:29 understand the nature of the world we live in. What is the most important thing about the world we live in? The most important world that we live in is the unseen world. And the most precious8:41 commodity in the unseen world is the truth. And this truth is found in the revelation of God's Word. That means, theologically speaking, logically, theologically, if you want8:52 wisdom, we kind of return back to the Word of God. And the moment we come back to the Word of God, it will help us to understand the spiritual nature of the world we live in.9:04 See, want you to catch this principle. Where we live determines how we live. There are 2 worlds. You and I understand this. There is the kingdom of the world, and then there's the9:16 kingdom of God. There is the life in the flesh, and then there's life in the spirit. There are 2 levels of living. You could be living heaven bound or earth bound with a heavenly mindset or an9:28 earthly mindset. Which kingdom are you living in? What is the world that you live in? In the previous session, Pastor Edmund touched on this. There's a key idea in9:40 philosophy called the ontological inversion. Ontological inversion, all it means is this: that we were created as spiritual beings to have a spiritual9:51 existence and spiritual experience. But after the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3, we now do not see ourselves as spiritual beings, but rather a physical10:03 being. A physical being with physical existence and physical experience. That's why this material world becomes so important. But you and I, we need to understand that Jesus10:15 came to restore us back. That we need to understand the world that we are living in. The world that we live in is of spiritual nature. Have you noticed that the world that10:26 Jesus came to preach about? It's the Kingdom of God. See, right from the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and the last sermon He would have ever preached, even after resurrection,10:39 the Bible says it is all about the Kingdom of God. In fact, when he taught people how to pray, he said, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Isn't it? He started his10:51 ministry by preaching, Behold, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Then the Bible says in Acts 1 that He taught 40 days about the Kingdom of11:02 God. Why did Jesus do this? He did this because He wanted you and I to understand that you and I are living in a spiritual kingdom, and that11:14 you cannot have a kingdom without a king. You cannot have a kingdom without a king. In other words, Jesus came to restore the kingdom of God. He came to establish the11:26 kingdom of God. And He says Jesus is King. Hallelujah. Can I humbly say this? In discipleship, we are not asking people to make Jesus prominent in their life. Jesus wants to be preeminent11:38 in our lives. In other words, Jesus wants to be the Lord, the Master, the King of our lives. Hallelujah. And the only way we can have that is we understand the world we live in.11:50 It also determines the yardsticks for our happiness. Because if you think about that you're living in a spiritual world, then your happiness is tied to that, not to this material,12:02 physical world. So, your happiness is not contingent on your fulfillment or your significance or what you attained or what you achieved or what you have. It is tied to His kingdom, His12:14 righteousness, and His redemptive purposes coming to pass in your life and my life. That is why we got to return back to wisdom from above. We need to know how12:26 to live with wisdom in this Kingdom of God. Hallelujah. There are 8 marks of unwise living that I want to talk about. 812:38 marks of unwise living. Number 1, living for the now. It is the existentialistic life. In other words, I want you to catch this principle,12:50 while we live in the now, we must not live for the now. In other words, you and I have to live in the present. You know, yesterday is already in the tomb,13:01 and tomorrow is in the womb. Today is all you got. Today is a gift. Today is a present. That's why we call it a present. In other words, this you and I, we need to live with wisdom for today,13:14 in the now. But even though we live in the now, we must not live for the now. In other words, we must live with the end in mind. We must live with eternity in mind. We13:26 must live for the future. You know, in the movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks acted in a character called Chuck Nolan. Chuck Nolan was a FedEx13:37 employee, and he was always in control over how he manages his time and his life. It was minute details. He paid attention, and it was precision and13:49 control. But then, 1 day when he was traveling in the FedEx plane, it crashed, and he was stuck in an island for nearly 4 years. He lost all about his life. All14:01 the orientation is gone. Now, when he was rescued and he was brought back, he met his friend, and his friend said to him, We actually had a funeral for you, Chuck. And You know, in the funeral, when we lowered your14:12 casket, we didn't know what to talk about your life. You know what we did? We took what was precious to you and we threw it in the casket. What was it? It was14:24 Elvis Presley CD, a beeper and a cell phone. His life was reduced to an Elvis Presley CD, a beeper and a cell phone. I want you to listen to me carefully. Living for14:36 the now, if you just keep living for the now, it's an unwise living, but we live for something greater. That's the wisdom of God. You and I, we need to come back to living with wisdom. Secondly,14:48 living by feelings. You know, many times people who don't have the understanding of getting into the Word, to study the Word and apply the Word in their life,15:00 they are led by circumstances. They are led by how they feel. See, in life, you can be led by either a compass that you have developed because of the Word of God has become a light15:12 unto your path and has become wisdom for you. Or you could be led by circumstances. A story was told of a man who shared this with his friend. He says, On15:24 the eleventh day of the month, on the eleventh month, it was his eleventh wedding anniversary. It was also his daughter's15:36 eleventh birthday. He said he went to a race course. And when he went there, it was 11 am. And there were it was the eleventh race. And there were 11 horses in the15:48 eleventh race. So, he said to his friend, I placed a bet on the eleventh horse. I placed 11000 dollars as a bet. Now, the15:59 friend asked him, Did your horse win? He says, No, the horse also came eleventh. Want you to listen to me carefully: Living by feelings. Thirdly, living for personal16:11 gains, security, pleasures, and self validation. You know, sometimes we are caught in a performance trap. Sometimes our life is all about what others think of us. We are16:22 craving for people's attention and approval. And as a result, we are so self absorbed that we are caught up in rat race. I want you to listen to me. That too is an unwise16:34 living. Fourthly, living for temporal and material. See, we already touched on this. Jesus said in Matthew 616:47 19, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. There are 2 things Jesus says about this temporal life. He16:58 says, things that you value here, things that you treasure here, they are they have 2 characteristics. They are perishable, and they are precarious. In other words, they can be destroyed. They can be17:10 stolen. See, you and I, we need to understand that we cannot build our lives based on temporal and material. Fifthly, living in deception17:22 and darkness. You know, 1 of the things that danger that we see in the world today is, as long as you can spit out a few verses, as long as you can17:34 just keep doing what you're good at, People think that you're okay. It becomes almost like a performance, isn't it? Your inner life could be rotting,17:45 decaying. But as long as people can just project a certain image, everything is hunky dory. I want you to listen to me. That's living a double life. And that's what Jesus said. It's a deception. When17:57 you live in double life, Jesus says in Matthew 6 23, If the light in you is darkness, how great is your darkness. What does He mean by, If the light in18:09 you? In other words, you project as though you have light, but yet the light in you is actually darkness. There are many kinds of darkness in the Bible. There's physical night18:21 darkness. There's a darkness that comes because of ignorance. There is a darkness that comes because of sin. But here is the worst kind, a darkness that comes because of deception. In other words, you think you18:32 have light, but the light is actually darkness. Then, how great is your darkness? You know, where I grew up in India, we have a saying, You can18:44 wake up a sleeping man. In other words, a man who is genuinely sleeping, you can wake him up. But you cannot wake up a man who is pretending to sleep. I want you to think about this. Number18:56 6, Jesus talks about this living in sin and compromise. You know, the unwise living is continuing to live in sin. See, there19:08 are 3 levels in which you can relate to sin. There are falling in sin. You and I are vulnerable. And as people of God, we want to we want to live righteous. We want to live holy. But sometimes we stumble and we fall.19:20 But what happens? We pick ourselves up, we come back to the grace of God, we ask Him to cleanse and keep short accounts of sin. That's falling in sin. But there are people who have addictions, and they are caught in sin.19:31 They struggle in that sin. It's a bondage that needs to be broken. But at least they have a desire that they want to be set free. But then there is another category who are living in sin. In19:43 other words, they have just made peace in living in sin. They are stubbornly, willfully continuing in sin and how detrimental that is to our spiritual life.19:55 Not only that, I want you to think about this: Sin will take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay, and will cost you far more than you're willing to pay.20:07 Isn't that right? In these last couple of years during COVID, scandal after scandal has come, and people are shocked at the veracity and what has happened in some20:18 prominent leaders' lives. Now, why is this? Because we continue to live in sin and compromise. You know, Paul Harvey, in his book, shared this story20:30 about how an Eskimo kills a wolf. You know, the wolf is a very cunning animal. So, you actually have to there is a way the Eskimo would20:42 kill a wolf. They will kill a small animal and take its blood and apply it on the sharp, double edged sword. And they will freeze that knife, and then again, apply20:54 another layer of blood, and freeze it again, and then apply another layer until it is coated with a thick layer of blood from the small animal. Then they will tie a knife to21:06 a tree, and then they will plunge it into the snow. Now, the smell of the blood, the wolf will come and they will start to lick it. And as it's tasting the blood,21:18 it will start to lick ferociously. And as it continues to lick, sometimes it will start to, at some point, will start to lick and the knife will start to cut into the21:30 tongue of the wolf. And without realizing it's licking its own blood, it's tasting its own blood, it will bleed to death. Now, this is the picture of sin and21:41 compromise. You and I, we need to come and give short accounts, keep short accounts of sin. Otherwise, it will cost us dearly. It's an unwise living. Number21:53 7: Living in unforgiveness. 1 of the things that you and I, we need to pay attention to is harboring unforgiveness in our hearts. As a pastor in this country for more than 2022:05 years, I've watched people's lives getting destroyed, people's relationships getting destroyed because they harbor bitterness, resentment because of unforgiveness. See, you and I22:17 know that we will get hurt along the way. There will be obstacles in our lives. There will also be offenses in our lives. You know, the enemy tries to bring obstacles and offenses into our22:29 lives. But you and I need to walk in unforgiveness. That's wisdom. We got to learn from the Prime Minister of Egypt. In the Old Testament, Joseph is a great example22:41 of someone who lived wisely and did not struggle with unforgiveness. Look at this. In Genesis chapter 45, when his brothers came and he finally could not control himself,22:53 he revealed that he is a brother. These are the men who had sold him into slavery. These are the men who had, who really wanted to kill him. But the Bible says,23:05 when he revealed, he actually did not focus on the brothers or their actions. He focused on God. And when he focused on God 3 times in that passage in Genesis 4023:15 five:five:seven-eight, he says, For God sent me. For God sent me. Hallelujah. The reason why he was able to forgive them is because his focus was upon23:27 God. But long before Genesis 45 happened, in Genesis 41, he had already released forgiveness. In Genesis 41, he named 2 sons,23:39 Ephraim and Manasseh. And this is what He says: For the firstborn, He called him Manasseh. Look at this in Genesis 40 one:fifty 1, God has made me forget all my hardship. In chapter 52, He23:51 says: For God has made me fruitful in the land. I want you to think about this. He had already released forgiveness. And as a result, he was24:03 living with wisdom. What does it take to build a godly marriage? What is the secret to a healthy relationship? What is the secret to a healthy marriage, or24:15 a healthy church, or a healthy ministry? At the heart of it, it's unforgiveness. At the heart of it, it's forgiveness. In other words, if you continue to harbor unforgiveness in24:27 your heart, it will destroy the best of relationships. See, you and I need to understand this. Even people with great intentions, great respect for 1 another, Like, for example, my wife and I,24:39 we've been married for 22 years. We both fell in love in a Bible college. On the sixteenth day, after knowing each other, just for 16 days, I proposed, and she24:51 accepted. And we have been married for the last 22 years. Now, even though we love each other, there are times that we could hurt 1 another. It25:03 could be for various reasons or simple reasons, but 1 of the things is even though we have the best intention, we can cause hurt. That's why you and I, though it's a closer relationship,25:15 how much more in other relationships? Whether it's in colleagues that you're working with, or people in the church or in a small group, offenses will happen. So you and I, we need to work hard and walk25:27 in wisdom and forgive. Hallelujah! The last 1 is living in doubt and fear. Living in doubt and fear. See, many times we are gripped with25:38 fear. We are gripped with doubt because there are anxieties that plague the soul. Anxieties about the uncertainty of the future. Anxieties because we have no control. We're not sure how things will25:50 turn out. Not only that, we don't know where resources will come from. As a result, we feel like we don't have any control over what's happening in our lives. And as a result, anxieties grip26:02 us. You know, I want you to think about this. The only way you can deal with anxieties of the heart is to truly bring your cares before Him, and to surrender to Him.26:14 Only when you come to a place where you can empty your soul and say, Lord, I give up my control. I don't have any control anyway. It is the illusion of control. So, I give my life into your hands.26:27 And when you walk in that surrender, that's where you have that restedness that comes from God. Now, I want you to take the time to read through these 8 points that I quickly covered.26:39 And I want you to circle the ones that you wrestle with. I know that we all struggle in different seasons in our lives. We have certain things that we need to, we are probably going to struggle with.26:51 But the key question is, it's not whether you have these things. My question to you is, how long have you been living with this? How long have you been gripped with anxiety, doubt, or27:03 fear, or sin, or compromise? How long have you been walking in darkness and deception? How long have you been harboring that unforgiveness? See, you and I, we need to recognize to27:15 walk in wisdom is to come back and to allow the Word of God to tutor our hearts, to transform our lives. As a result, when we are transformed, we live and walk in wisdom. Hallelujah!27:28 Before I finish tonight, I want to bring you to a passage in the Old Testament in wisdom literature. Proverbs chapter 3 verses 13 to 15 is a beautiful description27:39 about wisdom. If you want to learn about wisdom, I want you to take time to read through Proverbs 3 in this weekend. Let's read it, verse 13. Blessed is the 127:51 who finds wisdom and the 1 who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver, and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than dwells, and nothing you28:03 desire can compare with her. Want you to think about this. Nothing you desire can compare with her. I want to give you 5 processes to28:15 gain wisdom. It comes from Proverbs 3. Number 1: Earnestly seek and find. 1 of the things, the reason why we read the Scriptures,28:27 the reason why we ask people to go back and turn read, it's not just to tick a checklist. It is for us to come back to that place where we are tutored in our28:39 hearts, that we can learn to seek wisdom. You know, a philosopher and a young philosopher, aspiring 1, went to an old philosopher and said, I want28:51 to grow in wisdom. So, the old philosopher said to him, Come with me, come to the river with me. So he took him to the river and asked him to step into the river with him.29:03 And when the young philosopher was with him in the river, the old philosopher asked, What do you want? Oh, I want wisdom. So then the old philosopher took the young philosopher's29:15 head and pushed it into the water. He was gasping for air, and he was struggling to come up. And then finally, the old philosopher released him and said, What do you want?29:27 The young philosopher said, I want wisdom. I want to learn wisdom. He again pushed him underwater. And then he did this a few times. And finally, the young philosopher says, Stop, stop, stop,29:38 stop. What do you want? I want air. And the old philosopher said, When you want wisdom as much as you want air,29:50 then you will truly find wisdom. See, you and I, we need to come back to this, to seek wisdom. 1 of the things that people fail to do in this day and30:02 age is we want everything for someone else to feed us. We're not self feeders. Therefore, we rely on other people to study, other people to send30:14 us what they have studied, and then we just regurgitate what they have studied. I want you to listen to me. Wisdom is that you come before God and you wrestle with the truth30:26 in your own life. Seek. And while you're seeking, the second thing will happen. The process to gain wisdom is gaining understanding. What is understanding? Understanding is the ability to30:38 connect the dots and to see the big picture. See, sometimes when we are going through crisis in life, we cannot see further. We cannot see wider. But when30:50 you come into the Word of God, it gives you a perspective that is larger. And that's why you and I need wisdom of God. You know, sometimes life can be said like31:01 this: There were 3 men that were hiking into the forest. And while they were deep in the forest, they encountered a large, violent, raging river.31:13 They need to cross that river. And they didn't know how. So, the first man prayed and he said, Lord, I need strength to cross this river. And then31:25 immediately, he had strong arms and strong legs. So, he swam across struggling, but he made it to the other side in 2 hours. The second man watched the whole thing and he said, Lord,31:37 I need strength and tools to cross this river. And boom, he got strong arms and strong legs, and he also got a rowboat. So, now he was31:49 rowing, rowing, and he went across. After much challenge, he went across in an hour. The third man watched the other 2 men, and then he prayed, Lord, I32:00 need understanding to cross this river. As soon as he prayed for understanding, boom, the Lord gave him a map. And in that map, he was able to see that there was a bridge32:12 closer to where he was. And he walked across to that bridge, and he was able to cross over in no time. I want you to listen to me carefully. Sometimes we just need that understanding.32:24 And that happens when you are dwelling in the Word of God, that when you seek for wisdom. Thirdly, making the right judgment. You know, sometimes things are not what32:36 they seem to be. You you and I, we need to make the right judgment. As people of God, with wisdom, we can make the right call. Number 4: Practice discernment. In other32:48 words, discernment is sometimes you need to know what is God doing in all this? What is the devil trying to do in all this? And that wisdom comes by seeking33:00 God in the Word of God. Number 5, live wisely. Live wisely. So, the way to grow in wisdom is to continue to walk and live in33:12 wisdom. Let me give you the do's and don'ts for wise living from Proverbs 3. Let's look at the don'ts first. Don't forget the Lord's teaching in verse 1. Don't be wise33:23 in your own eyes. See, when the Lord says, Don't forget the Lord's teaching, He actually is saying, it's not saying that you struggle with remembering the Lord's teaching. He33:35 is saying, Obey the Lord's teaching. See, sometimes we can commit the Scripture to memory. But more than committing the Scripture to memory, we have to commit to applying the Scripture33:47 in our lives. And that's the key. It's not about how much you know, it's how much you have applied of what you know. See, listen, don't be wise in your own eyes. In other words, don't33:59 walk in presumption. Don't walk as though you know everything. You got to come back with humility before God to understand. And that's the don't. The third 1, don't depend34:11 on your own understanding. Many times, what trips people from living with wisdom is they rely too much on their own understanding. Number 4: Don't despise the Lord's correction.34:23 1 of the things that you and I need to understand is that there are seasons of life where God comes in to rebuke, to bring that change and transformation in our lives. Those are34:35 necessary for our lives. As we allow Him to do that deep work, He transforms us. Hallelujah! Number 5, don't plot evil or take revenge.34:46 Now, the do's I want to focus on. Keep God's commandments and His truth. We are continuing to establish this over the IDMC conferences. What is it? It is not34:58 about how much you know, it's how much you have applied. We have a saying in this house. Truth applied changes lives. Truth applied. In other words, it's not35:10 just knowing. I pray that your journal is not just full of Bible studies. I pray that your journal is full of stories of how you wrestle with the truth, and35:22 you apply the truth, and then you reap the benefits so that you can pass it on to others. Number 2, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Not just with some of your heart, but35:34 with all of your heart. That little word is the key word here, because we can trust Him in some areas of our lives. But wisdom suggests that you entrust your entire life to Him.35:46 You know, the disciples, when Jesus called them, they immediately dropped all their nets. Immediately, they followed Him. In other words, the disciples followed Him fully,35:57 followed Him gladly and followed Him only. That's the wisdom of God. When you come and trust Him with all your heart. Thirdly, acknowledge Him in all your ways and fear Him. In other36:09 words, you and I need to entrust our path. You know, there's so much, especially in this last couple of years after COVID. Things are36:21 not the same anymore. We have entered a new normal. How to run a business in this new normal? How to raise your children in this new normal? How to grow your church in this new normal. We36:33 have to acknowledge Him in all our ways and fear Him, because that's wisdom. Number 6. Number 4: Honour God with your wealth. You know, 1 of the36:45 things that I'm truly thankful to the Lord is that when you choose a path of wisdom, the path of wisdom is that you entrust Him every aspect of your life.36:57 That every aspect that includes finances. And when you truly honor God with your substance, honor God with your wealth, that's when you can truly say, I have37:08 entrusted my life to Him. Because when you withhold, you can give everything else, but it becomes a token surrender. But when you truly37:20 come and give the finances, because that's what Jesus said competes for your allegiance. In Matthew 6 24, He says, You can't serve 2 masters. You would hate the 137:32 and love the other. You will devote yourself to 1 and you will despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon together. That's why you and I, if you're walking in wisdom, we live a life of37:44 surrender, especially honoring God with our wealth. Number 5: Do good to those who need it. Now, the reason why I'm sharing these things, I want you to go and study37:56 this for yourself. Fruits of a wise disciple. Let me give you a homework. I want you to write down in your notes, Proverbs chapter 3. And I want you to study it38:08 in such a manner that you glean what are some of the fruits that you can see. You know, 1 of the things that I see in that is restedness. How wisdom leads us in a path of pleasantness,38:19 and it will be filled with Shalom. In other words, your life will be filled with meaning and purpose and honor and riches. That's the pathway of wisdom. So in38:31 conclusion, let me share this. You and I can study the Bible, but you can just do it as an intellectual exercise, without it38:42 ever touching your heart and transforming us. And the only way it will transform us is we come before Him and we say, Lord, I have these areas where38:54 I'm struggling with. I need you to change these aspects of my life. I want to entrust my life fully to you, wholly to you. And then when we do39:06 that, that's when wisdom really begins to operate. You know, I remember that time when I was in Bible school in Singapore. My father and mother had given me 10039:18 dollars and I went there with 100 dollars in my pocket. Now, the first 20 dollars I spent to buy an MRT card, which is like a transport card.Show more
Paul Jeyachandran
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