Today we're going to be in James and the motives matter is my
corny title. We'll be in James 13 to the
sorry James three 13318. You mean there isn't a James 13?
Oh, I'll announce it next week. I had an announcement, but I'm
running out of time, so we'll, we'll talk about it next week.
And so James 13. So 2 places we're going to be
James three, Sorry. And we'll also be in Acts 16 if
you guys want to put your finger there.
So who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct?
Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your
hearts, do not boast and be be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes from above, but it is
earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be
disorder and every vile practice.
But the wisdom from above is first pure and peaceable,
gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial
and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace
by those who make peace. So Lord, I just lift up this
time. I lift up everybody here.
And Lord, that you just would be in our midst, that you'd be
speaking to our hearts, teaching us your word, guiding and
directing us that you'd be putting, putting people in our
paths throughout the, the weeks and especially this time of year
or that we could just pour into or that you would give us words
to speak. And I pray this in Jesus name,
Amen. So Friday I was here and doing
my study and got all done with the study.
And Faye was still finishing up some craft stuff around here and
getting kitchen stuff organized. So I was scrolling and I, I saw
sand points. They had their board or their
council meeting and it was on YouTube.
So I'm like, well, I'll just see what's going on in Sandpoint.
Some some fun things just because the one I happen to
watch, they're they're going to make this, they're going to take
down the metal over here and widen the sidewalk is their
their plan and put guardrail up and that's kind of fun.
But the the board meeting and then this was not my plan, but
you will find that it really attaches to this study was about
if you guys don't know, we had a individual enter the girls
locker room that was not a girl at the YMCA.
Now the YMCA was stuck in a spot that Sandpoint has passed a law
that or made an ordinance that they're supposed to allow that
and kind of put them in a in a bad spot.
So this meeting was about the and, and there was a bunch.
There was probably, I think there was 10 people talked and
10 of them talked and said that we need to change that law.
And one person stood up and was definitely on the other side and
had a prepared statement. This Wednesday, they're going to
meet again to decide if they're going to repeal the law and what
they're going to repeat. What they're going to say in the
law is they're just going to mirror whatever the state of
Idaho says. And the state of Idaho has no
standing on it right now. They may have a standing in the
future, but right now they don't have any.
So Sandpoint has went past what the state of Idaho has.
I'm not this is not a political thing.
This is a kind of a duh, right of that This is we protect, we
protect those weaker than us, right.
And girls locker room at a YMCA is a place we want to be known
to. We want that's a that should be
a safe place. So so my encouragement to all of
you, I won't be here because I'm in the tri-cities.
But they didn't have time to organize and so one showed up.
I believe they're going to have time to organize.
You have an elected, you have elected officials that are going
to do the right thing, not because it's right, but because
they think it's what keeps them elected.
All right. We don't, we don't unfortunately
live in a country anymore that is ran by people that have
standards. We have people that want to get
elected. So because of that, I encourage
you to go to the meeting and have something to say.
We did have two from here that actually stood up and had
something to say at the meeting. And that was cool, right to see.
I mean, I totally it was the kind it must.
It was kind of a God thing because I was just literally
scrolling. I had no idea the meeting went
on. I didn't know that any of our
people spoke and it was it was cool to see.
But I encourage you guys to go and protect, protect the youth
of the of town of the town, right?
Anyway, So but that will lead into this and it really matches
up and it doesn't match up because I made a study to go
with that. I saw that after I did this
study. So verse 13, who is wise and
understanding among you by his good contact.
Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
So I like this because James kind of is setting everybody up,
right? He's he's doing this.
He expects everyone to raise their hand and says, well, I'm
wise and understanding and maybe even elbow the person next to
him ago. You need to listen up.
He's going to be talking here. But obviously it's a setup,
right? Being wise and understanding is
something that only comes if we really are like David, a man
after God's own heart, a woman after God's own heart.
And is that I want to do what he wants me to do.
I'm wise and understanding. Having knowledge and the ability
to see things clearly, make good judgments and tell tell right
from wrong, while also grasping the ideas from others and
applying them with fairness and humility.
And what that grasping ideas from others is, our goal is to
reach the lost, not prove to the loss they're lost, right?
And and proving to the loss they're lost is pointless,
right? There is no now now sharing with
them in a way that they understand their need for a
savior is a different conversation, but making sure
that's our goal is that we are aimed at saving others.
So defining another term there is our conduct.
It it's how we behave, how we manage our, our emotions, how we
how we direct our actions and our behavior.
Like James talked about, if we could tame our if we can tame
our tongue, well, our tongue, our communication with the
world, right is is supposed to be in this in this meek way,
having meekness of wisdom that it talks about his works in the
meekness of wisdom, which is living humbly and gently with
patience and respect for God, making good choices through his
Spirit and showing true wisdom by loving others and reflecting
Christ in a day and our daily life.
So meekness of wisdom is not just words in action.
It is Paul and Silas and Thyatira are the best picture
that I found of what this looks like.
And and it's really one of those Paul Paul obviously being Paul
had had wisdom about him. But whenever you talk about what
does meek, what is meekness, you know, we one of those lines,
meek, meek and mild. And it makes it sound like
meekness is weakness. And I'm sure you've all heard,
you know, that that meek is power under control.
But what does that look like? And when we go to Acts 16, this
story, it's it's a longer passage, but Acts 16 starting in
verse 16, going all the way to the end, it says, and we're and
this is Luke speaking and it says as we were going to the
place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of
deviation, divination and brought her owners much gain by
for fortune telling. She followed Paul and us crying
out, These men are servants of the Most High God, who
proclaimed to you the way of salvation.
And she kept doing. She kept doing for many days.
Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the
Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out
of her. And it came out of her that
hour. But when her owner saw that
their hope for gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and
dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers
and Silas sorry. And when they had brought them
to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews, and they
are, they are disturbing our city.
They advocate customs that are not lawful for our for us as
Romans to accept or to practice. The crowd joined in attacking
them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave
orders to beat them with rods. And when they had it inflicted
many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the
jailer to keep them safety safely.
Having received this order, he put them in the inner prison and
fastened their feet in stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas
with prayer, praying and singing hymns to God.
And the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was
a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were
shaken, and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's
bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw
that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about
to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul cried out with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for
we are all here. And the jailer called for lights
and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down at Paul
and Silas feet. When he brought them out, he
said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be
saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the
Lord to him and to all who were in the house.
And he took them that same hour of night and washed their
wounds. And he and he was baptized at
once, he and all his family. Then he brought them into the
into his house and set food before them.
And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had
believed in God. But when it was day, the
magistrates sent the police saying, let them let those men
go. And the jail reported these
words to Paul, saying, the magistrates have sent to let you
go, therefore come out now and go in peace.
But Paul said to them, They have beaten us publicly uncondemned
men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison.
And do they now throw us out secretly?
No, let them come themselves and take us out.
The police reported these words to the magistrate, and they were
afraid when they had heard that they were Roman citizens.
So they came and apologized to them, and they took them out and
asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison
and visited Lydia, and when they had seen the brothers, they they
encouraged them and departed. So that is a perfect picture of
meekness, right? So Paul starts off and he gets,
he gets annoyed and I it's always kind of funny.
So there's a, a girl following behind him telling him that, you
know, this is, this is the prophets of the most high God
and he's and there received salvation.
But you got to know that this had to be mocking, right?
This was, this was a spirit mocking them trying to demean
their ministry. And, and Paul just like one of
us, sooner or later he got annoyed with her and then he
casts out the demon. So Paul in in the first part of
the story casts out a demon and then the next part of the story,
he, he is beaten with rods by the magistrate.
So if this isn't this kind of meek wisdom, right, knowing when
to use Jesus's power. And so then as you go through
this story, you just get to see Paul over and over again showing
this meekness, right? He gets to prison and he, I
mean, they've been beaten. This was not like some friendly
beating, right? This was, they were stripped and
beaten and then they were taken to prison and put in stocks,
which is stocks as you know, their, their feet are clasped
together and they're, they're locked into place like you've
seen in medieval times, right? And they're singing to Jesus,
they're they're praising him. And why are they doing that?
Because, because they understand they're where God wants them to
be. And how do they know that?
You know, how do I know when I'm going through suffering that I'm
where I'm supposed to be? You, you and Jesus are having
conversations, right? You, you're at peace in where
you're at in the world. It's it's that story I was
telling you weeks back about being willing to fail for
Christ, right. My job is to do everything as
unto the Lord and not the men. And if I'm doing that, if I end
up in stocks, then I can praise him because I'm doing what I'm
supposed to be doing. There's, there's nothing that
says that doing what I'm supposed to be doing doesn't end
up in prison, doesn't end up, doesn't end up in, in, in
poverty. None of that is, is there.
What it means is I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
The rest of it's God's problem. And that's really where Paul and
Silas are in this. And then the reason that the
that the guard is going to or the jailer is going to kill
himself is because losing a prisoner was reason enough to
have a jailer killed. You know, that's they were
supposed to keep the prisons that well.
So if they lost a prisoner, they could be killed for it.
Well, all the doors were open and none of the prisoners left.
And this showed a power that Paul had to the jailer, right?
That's, that's that moment, right?
Because he's, you got to figure that Paul and Silas were wrongly
accused and in prison. But I doubt everybody in the
prison were upright, nice people, right?
They, they didn't stay, they didn't stay in prison because
they, they wanted the jailer not to die, right?
They stayed in prison because Paul and Silas, there was
something about them right there was there was a restraining
force, whether that was God wouldn't let him leave or
because they had a respect and they saw what just happened.
But regardless it it made an impact on on the jailer.
So, so far with this, with this meekness of wisdom, Paul has
cast out a demon, been beaten, doors have fallen off their
hinges and all the doors have been opened.
And now the jailer in his entire family has been saved because
Paul and Silas were beaten quietly, because that wasn't
their time to stand up. And then when it was time, they
they tell him, right? But my favorite part of this
story of what that looks like is they let Paul allowed himself to
be beaten as a Jew and he was Jewish, but we all know that he
was also a Roman. And being a Roman, so being
anything else in the Roman Empire, your your rights were
limited. But if you were an actual Roman
citizen born into being a Roman citizen, you had rights like an
American has rights. And if if those rights were
violated, those that violated them would be in all kinds of
trouble. They could they could get the
same punishment. So when they beat Paul and
Silas, who are both Romans, without due process, the
magistrates put their neck on the line.
And this is when they, when they, when Paul says no, you,
you tell them, you tell them we're not going out secretly.
They put us away. After they beat 2 Roman
citizens, you tell them to come in and release this publicly.
Now the magistrates at this point had to be completely
panicked because if Paul wanted to, he could basically report
them and they're going to jail. And so they tell it, you know,
they come and they you know, you can picture the the group coming
with their hats in their hands, trying to get this guy to just
we're really sorry are bad. Can you just go though?
I will let you go and you can just go and, and pulses and
they, you know, they say and they took them out and asked
them to leave the city. They didn't tell him to leave
the city because they didn't have any, they didn't have any
ability now, right? Paul was the one in complete
control at this point. And what did he do with that
control? He he went and talked to Lydia,
which was the reason that he had ended up in Thyatira in the 1st
place. So now the magistrates know that
she's he's they're friends and he went and talked to the
brothers and so now they know that they're friends.
So Paul has in in essence said, so these are my friends and I'm
letting you off the hook. But if I would like to come back
at a later date and put you on the hook, I can.
So I'd leave my friends alone. That's this is that picture of
Paul showing the power of being submitted to what the Lord wants
to do in your life. It isn't it isn't that that
there wasn't. I mean, you know, we, we glance
over inflicted many blows upon them, right?
This was not a nice moment in their life.
You know, it's it's, you know, when we talk about Steven being
stoned, you know, that's that's not little rocks thrown at
somebody. That's big rocks thrown at
someone's head, right? This is it's it's not, it's in
words. It doesn't really describe how
bad this beating was. Being beaten with rods is not.
Something that I mean, this is broken ribs, broken arms, broken
bones, right? This is, this is broken things.
This is not, oh, they're a little bruised.
But Paul was submitted to what the Lord had for him.
And because of that, he affected this whole town and, and took
care of the other believers in that town even in his absence.
But what if we come at it from another direction, right?
If we if we don't do it that way, if we're not submitted to
Christ and and we don't allow the Holy Spirit to guide us,
then we have our motives are wrong, right, Because I'm out
for myself, I'm out for what I can do.
Verse 14 But if you have bitter jealousies, selfish ambitions in
your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
You know, when we look at others and want what they have and we
have ambitions to move upward outside of the will of God, just
like with David and his brothers.
Don't think for a moment that the Lord's fool, right?
When when Samuel saw David's older brother, he said, ah, the
Lord's and this must be the Lord's anointed.
And the Lord said, no, don't look at the outside.
I look at the inside, right? So it doesn't matter how good
someone looks on the outside, the Lord's seeing their inside,
right? And that's especially in this
time of mega churches that we have the ability to have that,
that, that there is the ability to have 5000 people in a room
and then 2000 people in in other rooms watching you on video.
And that that we are, we live in that time.
That doesn't by definition mean that that that isn't, isn't
biblical. But don't for a second think
that the guy standing up front because he's standing up front
is right with Jesus. He might be, but don't don't
ever just automatically right watch the man see what he's
doing with that right. If you look at a great picture
of what this bitter jealousy and selfish ambition looks like is
the story of Cain and Abel, which once again, I don't think
I'm bringing out any like new new things.
We've all heard the story Genesis 4 three through 8.
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering
of fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the first born
of the of his flock, and of their fat portions.
And the Lord regarded what Abel and his regarded for Abel and
his offering. But for Cain and his offering he
had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his
face fell. The Lord said to Cain, Why are
you angry, and why has your face fallen?
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do well, if you do not do well, sin is crouching at
the door. It's desire is contrary to you,
but you must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother.
And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother
Abel and killed him. So Cain was jealous of Abel and
let it take root. And it became bitterness, right.
And the, the thing we want to watch out for, and this is when
I look at Cain, I think of so many people that say, I worship
the Lord the way I want to. And, and that's just that's Cain
was I worship the Lord the way I want to.
I bring him what I want to bring him.
And the Lord wasn't impressed, right.
And when you go, one of my favorite things about the book
of Exodus is Exodus is a, a community that we always think,
well, they were, they were Israelites and they knew stuff.
I didn't know anything, right? They didn't have anything
written down and 400 years they had been in Egypt.
How long has America been 300 years, 250 years.
Do we remember what happened at the do we do we we have we have
it all written down and are we anything like the country that
was formed? So now think of think of Israel
in Egypt for 400 years and how tweaked to their thoughts of
what God was like were. So then when Moses showed up
after the burning Bush and started laying out how the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wanted to be worshipped.
This was not a debate, right? This was this is how to do it.
And when we look at Cain and Abel, that was basically there
were, there were things God, God had told Adam and and I'm not
not that we were Privy to those conversations, but there were
conversations that that Adam and Cain and Abel and God had had.
And in those conversations, there were sacrifices, and the
one Cain brought wasn't on the list.
But Cain wanted to do it his way.
Do we? Do we get that way?
Do we want to do it the way we want to do it?
And when we do that, it puts us on the wrong side.
Verse 15 says this is not wisdom that comes down from above, but
this is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
And Cain is a picture of earthly, unspiritual and demonic
stuff, right? And it it comes down to what
Jesus says in Matthew 12. If we're not for him, we're
against him. We're being led by evil.
If we're not being led by him, he at verse 30 in chapter 12 of
Matthew, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does
not gather with me scatters abroad.
That doesn't mean we are possessed by a demon.
Because if you were filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, you, you
can't be possessed by a demon, but you can be led by one,
right? We can be deceived and lied to.
We can be running the wrong way. You know, it's, it's always tell
people you're always think of it like this, like, did you ever
play play soccer and end up kicking in the wrong goal when
you're a kid because you're heading the wrong direction,
right? You think you're doing good, but
nobody's defending because you're you're going the wrong
direction. And and that is something when
we think that I have something to offer when, if at any point
in this story with Paul, if he thought he had the power to do
it, he'd have blown this whole thing.
But if you watch Paul, Peter, James, John anywhere, they're
they're they're talked about what they are are submitted to
the will of God in their life. David, what he was, was a man
after God's own heart, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite,
which we've talked about. And in that moment, what he was,
was a man that was trying to to ignore God, right?
It wasn't that he murdered somebody because David had
already murdered somebody. Wasn't that he had adultery and
David had many wives and concubines.
So it wasn't adultery. What was it about that?
It was the time that David, when I don't want to hear it, I want
to do it my way. And when we do that, we end up,
we end up kicking in the wrong goal.
We're going in the wrong direction because I am either
led by God or I am ignoring God. There is not a there is not a me
and God. It's that whole thing about
Jesus is my copilot that doesn't work right.
Jesus is driving the car and I'm in the trunk.
That is that, that is, that is the input I get because my input
is broken when I tell the Lord, well, this is how we should do
this. I don't, I don't have all the
facts. He does what I should be telling
the Lord every day is Lord, not my will, but your will be done.
And speak to me and tell me your will because I am a fallen,
fallen human full of sin. My heart is dreadfully wicked.
And if I'm listening to myself, I have all of these things
right. My, my wisdom is, is earthly.
My wisdom is unspiritual. My wisdom is demonic.
Because if I'm using my wisdom, then I'm not in his will.
Paul talks about these people to the Philippians.
And this is not the people we want to be right.
Chapter 3 verse 17 through 20 brothers join join in imitating
me and keeping your eyes on those who walk according to the
example you have in US and that's who we want to be.
But verse 18 for many of whom I have often told you and now tell
you, even with tears, walk as the enemy of the cross of
Christ. Their end is destruction, their
God is their belly, and their glory is their shame with
mindset on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven
and from it we await A Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
Where's, where is our, where's our hope?
Where, where's our desire? Is it in?
Is it in Lord, I need to be comfortable on this earth?
Or is it Lord, I need to do what you want me to do?
And if that means I'm beaten with rods and I'm beaten with
rods, if that means that I'm released and people get saved,
then I'm released. Is it the thing it's facing?
The Giants says if we win, we praise him.
If we lose, we praise him, right?
And and that is our, when we set our focus on our needs and
desires, we will be unhappy. If you try to, me and Faye talk
about it in our in our marriage, in our life as a whole,
everything I have is in my hand, an open palm for the Lord to
have. If I was to try to close my hand
around it, I would lose it, right?
It is. It is on that my wife isn't
mine. My kids aren't mine, my house
isn't mine. This church isn't mine.
There's nothing that belongs to me outside of Christ.
And if I had any point try to make that belong to me, I will
fail. And I will fail because he isn't
willing to let me be selfish. He isn't as a believer.
It is something you signed up for.
You don't get to be selfish and let him and he isn't going to
stand for it. He will bring you to a point
where you have to make choices. Verse 16 says for where jealousy
and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every
vile thing. People of the flesh are carnal
Christians. And Paul talks about that in in
First Corinthians, which is probably the the picture of the
carnal church. As far as just people that are,
whenever anybody talks about the, you know, the early church
and they were the guys, the early church was not.
Yeah, the early church fits right in in America.
So 1st Corinthians 3, one through 3 says, but brothers,
but sorry, but I, brothers, could not address you as a
spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in
Christ. I have fed you with milk, not
solid food, for you were not ready for it.
And even now you are not ready for it, for you are still of the
flesh for a while. There are jealousies and strife
among you. Are you not of the flesh
behaving only in a human way? So whenever we decide that we
haven't figured out that I, I want what I want, we, we revert
back, right? I was me and me and Helen were
talking last week and just I, I made the comment that that Jesus
uses sinners because it's his only option, right?
That's and the thing with that is Jesus uses sinners and that's
his only option, but his option isn't to use you sinning, right?
He wants your heart. He wants you moving in his
direction. He wants you after his heart.
He wants you saying, Lord, what? What do you want from me?
And that, that that meekness that we get from that is that
power under control. He's not using.
I mean, I'm sure we've all heard the story using the Bible to
beat people over the head with it, right?
You know, the fire and Burnstone teaching that is not that is
that is misusing God's power, right?
I mean, like I've said in the past, the Bible has plenty of
offensive things to say, but I'm not supposed to be offensive
just to be offensive. If it's if it's something that
is offensive to the culture and it says it, then I'm supposed to
share it, but I'm not supposed to come up with ways to win an
argument, right? I loved that board meeting I'm
talking about. It was so refreshing because
like I said, I had no idea any of our people were going to be
there. But even the ones that weren't
from from Bridges, everybody said it from the position of
they weren't offended. They weren't, they weren't angry
at the council. They were there to protect
children. That's why they were there was
that they wanted, they wanted the children.
They wanted that. And not even the children.
The children and the ladies in that room should expect a level
of safety. And they were there to say we
should, we should be a town that you can you can feel safe in.
And and that's standing up in right places, right?
Not from my rights, but I'm standing up for somebody else's
rights, right? And that is whenever we talk
about liberty, that's what we want to be talking about.
We want to be talking about we're here to stand up for those
that can't stand up for themselves.
And and that is what God does all through the all through
this. And that was the end with Paul
and him going to Lydia and him going to the other brothers in
the faith of using using that the that the magistrates are now
back on their heels and using that and Sam.
But now let let's be clear, I'm friends because you know, they
were it's a rumor town, right? They were already everybody knew
who Paul was at that point. So now they're watching him and
where he's going. Well, we can't mess with Lydia.
We can't mess with these guys because if we do, right?
So he used his influence to cover others, to take care of
others, and. Romans 12/16 really tells us the
opposite of being a carnal Christian. 12 Romans 12/16
through 18 Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but
give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably
with all. And we will receive wisdom
because we will be able to understand it when we act like
that. Verse 17 of James it says, But
wisdom from above is pure and peaceable, gentle, open to
reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
It is ours to be that. But the only way any of that
happens is if I step out of the way and I say, Lord, whatever
you want to do with my life, I want that done right.
I, I don't, I don't need to look any particular way.
Lord, I need to let you do the work back in back in
Corinthians, Paul's talking to him and says yet among you the
mature, sorry, chapter 2, six and seven.
It says, yet among you the mature we do impart wisdom,
although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of
this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and
hidden wisdom of God, which God, God decreed before the ages for
your glory. So God has ways of doing things
when you you you can pull little sections out of out of the story
with Paul and and go what was going on there?
But when you read the whole thing, you can go so Paul, so
Paul was just submitted to the Lord in his life all the way
through that story and and you got to know you remember Luke's
right, Luke is writing the story.
And so Luke an outside observer. I mean a meekness, Jesus in
meekness. OK, this is sometimes I get
emotional on this one because I can picture being so when Jesus
was about to be crucified and they put a hood over his head
and the Roman soldiers are pumping him and punching him in
the face and saying prophecy, who hit you?
Who else was in that room? I mean who?
Who do you imagine was in that room?
So Jesus was there. There were some Roman soldiers
there. And his angels were there.
Gabriel was in that room because I'm.
I'm putting him there because where would you be?
Michael was in that room. Picture their hands on their
swords. Or just say it.
Clear your throat. Do anything.
We can end this now. But they didn't because Jesus
didn't tell him to. That's that's our job as
believers to be that kind of close to God that we know what
he's saying in every room because we're in our word, We're
praying, we're asking the Lord to give me your words for these
people, right? I mean that, that picture of
Jesus in that moment. And I mean, all he had to say is
I am and you aren't, you know, and that was the end of it.
And but he had a legion of angels, twelve of them that that
could have just wiped out, wiped out Jerusalem.
We're just done. So that's power, right?
But power and control. Jesus had power and Jesus, but
his angels had devotion to their God, even to the point of
allowing that. Do we have that?
Do we have that closeness with him that we know that we know
what he's telling us to do? Verse 18 A harvest of
righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace and we
can only make the peace James is talking about.
It isn't about being soft and wimpy and and milk toast and
quiet. It's about speaking for the Lord
when the Lord wants spoken for, right?
It's it's Lord you need to tell me what to say and when to say
it. My mouth is your mouth, my ears
are your ears, but that's that's a daily thing.
That ain't a Sunday morning thing.
That's a all day every day. That's a be in your word, be in
your word, be in prayer. Philippians 1/8 through 12/8.
Sorry, chapter one, eight through 11.
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with an
affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your
love may abound more and more with the knowledge and all
discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent.
And so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with
the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus to the glory
and praise of God. So see, that's Paul's prayer for
every church that he left, and that's our prayer for each
other. And that's my prayer for you.
That is, that is our desire, right?
Is that we are doing what the Lord wants us to do. 25 years
ago, I gave my life to the Lord. It's pretty awesome.
And there is, there is nothing about my previous life that I
would, I would say, Lord, you know, I really love what I have
now, but can I have a little little of that?
There's nothing. There's nothing I had before.
My friendships are better, my friendships are better.
My my sleep is better. My life is better.
And and it's not better because I took control.
It's better because I gave it to him.
And so we're going to do communion.
And if we're going through communion, I don't know
everybody here. If you want this, it is a really
simple conversation. Lord, I can't you need to thank
you for what you did on the cross.
Thank you that you were willing to take that for me.
If you're, if you're here today and and you're just Lord, I want
to do what you want me to do or spend this time, spend this time
and this song as we're, as we're passing out communion to just do
business with him and say, say, Lord, I want your wisdom.
I want you to take everything and you use it how you want to
use it. So if everybody if the I should
want to come up and we'll we'll pass it out and then we'll take
it together.