Kingdom Perspectives in Proverbs: Wisdom Changes Everything

I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

I have counsel and sound wisdom.

I have insight, I have strength.

By me, kings reign, and rulers decree what is just.

By me, princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly.

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.

My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.

I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.

Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth.

When there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth.

Before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.

When he established the heavens, I was there.

When he drew a circle on the face of the deep.

When he made firm the skies above.

When he established the fountains of the deep.

When he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command.

When he marked out the foundations of the earth.

Then I was beside him, like a master workman.

And I was daily his delight.

Rejoicing before him always.

Rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in children of man.

And now, O sons, listen to me.

Blessed are those who keep my ways.

Hear instruction, and be wise.

And do not neglect it.

Blessed is the one who listens to me.

Watching daily at my days.

Waiting beside my doors.

For whoever finds me, finds life.

And obtains favor from the Lord.

But he who fails to find me, injures himself.

All who hate me, love death.

This is the reading of God's word.

Good morning.

How are we?

Alright, so I'm, this is my second time now preaching at Watermark.

And I have to say, I just love the support that everyone gives to me when I come up here.

You know, last week, Millen told me, don't puke on the stage, and any mistakes will go on YouTube.

Yesterday, I was talking with another friend.

I told him, I'm preaching at Watermark today.

And he said, oh great, what are you preaching on?

And I said, wisdom.

And he goes, dude, wisdom comes with age, and you're so young, you're probably the least qualified person there to speak on that.

And he's probably right.

But I'm hoping that the wisdom of God's word, which is greater than any of our wisdom, will come through much louder than my lack of it.

And so, let's jump in and look at wisdom today.

In the past few weeks, we've been going through a series on Proverbs.

And we've sort of had this illustration running throughout of an oriental rug.

Can we get that on the screen?

And we said that with an oriental rug, when you look at the back of the rug, you can see a little bit of a design there.

But you can't see the full picture.

You can see knots and loose strings hanging all over the place.

And it's sort of a big mess.

But you can see enough to know that there's something there.

What you can see, the incomplete picture on the back, points towards a completed picture on the other side.

And we said that as we live in the world, our vision of God's kingdom is like looking at the back of an oriental rug.

That we can see bits and pieces of what he is doing and how he is doing it.

But in the end, the complete picture is not something that we can see yet.

But it's something that God can see.

And as he rules the world, he sees this complete picture.

But we don't quite have it yet.

And we've been talking about what it means to live with this incomplete picture.

And in light of that, what has been revealed to us to live in obedience to God over the past few weeks.

And today, we're going to sort of metaphorically turn the carpet around and look at how we gain a more complete understanding of the front of the rug.

Of this complete picture.

And ultimately, I'm going to spoil the ending right here.

The way that we do it is through Christ.

And so, Teresa just did a great job reading from Proverbs 8 about wisdom.

It's the big theme of the book of Proverbs.

And it's a huge subject.

We're not going to cover all of it today, obviously.

But we're sort of going to build to the big part, which is the title, that wisdom changes everything.

So, we're going to take some time and build a foundation so that we can actually get to that point where I can say wisdom changes everything.

And you'll understand what that means.

And the first starting point that I want to start with is that wisdom is rooted in a proper relationship with God, which is ultimately found through the gospel.

If you look at the book of Proverbs and the Bible in general, it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I think in our day, we've lost a lot of the significance of what the fear of the Lord means.

We don't like fear in our culture.

We like manageable fear.

So, we like horror movies that you can go and have some fictional account of something horrific happening.

And you can get up two hours later and be like, God, that's not real life.

But we don't like real fear.

We like to avoid it.

And we definitely don't want a God who is fearful.

We want a God who is a genie in a magic bottle.

You know, you find your glass or golden lamp and you rub it and Robin Williams' voice comes out and says, I'll give you three wishes.

And that's what we want our God to be.

We don't want God to be someone that inspires fear for us.

And so, we take this term, the fear of the Lord, and we sort of dumb it down and we say it's awe and it's reverence.

But if you look throughout the Bible, when people had encounters with God, they were terrified.

One example would be the Israelites.

They were slaves in Egypt.

They got set free through God's powerful work.

He leads them through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where he is going to speak to them and reveal to them his commands for them.

And they come to the mountain and God starts to speak to them in a loud voice through the thunder.

And the people are there and they hear the voice of God speaking and they are terrified.

And they go to Moses, their leader, and they say, hey, Moses, we don't want God talking to us because we're afraid that he'll kill us if he does.

So, how about you go talk to God for us and then bring back his messages and just tell us everything that he said.

They were terrified.

They had a fear of the Lord.

Another example in the Bible would be in the book of Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

The prophet Isaiah was the voice of God to his people.

And in Isaiah chapter 6, he says,

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on his throne.

He has this vision where he sees God.

And he is terrified.

God's prophet to the nation actually calls down a curse upon himself when he sees God.

He says, woe is me, I am ruined.

Just kill me now.

It's over.

Because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king.

The man whose lips deliver God's words to the people when he actually sees God says,

My lips are dirty.

They're filthy.

I deserve to die because of what has come out of my lips.

And he is in fear in the presence of God.

And yeah, yeah, that's the Old Testament.

What about the New Testament?

Okay.

We'll go to the book of Luke.

Jesus is teaching this big crowd of people.

And the crowds are pressing in on him and pressing in on him.

And Jesus is backing up trying to find some space to breathe.

And he gets to the shore of the lake.

And he can't go back any further.

So he finds a boat.

And he says to the guys in the boat, hey, let me step onto your boat.

Go out a little bit into the lake so that I can talk to the crowds without getting smushed.

And so these guys let him onto their boat.

He sort of backs out into the lake a little bit.

And he keeps teaching the crowds.

And he turns to the guys in the boat.

And he says, hey, take your nets and set them down over the side of the boat.

And this guy on the boat, his name is Peter.

You've probably heard of him.

He says, you know, Jesus, it's been a long night.

We've been fishing all night.

And we haven't caught anything.

And right now is not really the prime time of the day to do fishing.

So that's probably a really bad idea.

But you said to do it, so I will.

And he drops the nets over the side of the boat.

And more fish than the boat can hold start swimming into this net.

And Peter turns and looks at Jesus and falls on his face and says,

depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.

He sees the power of God in Jesus.

And he is afraid.

Or again, in Mark chapter 4, Jesus and his disciples are on a boat.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Again, Jesus on boats.

And there's a storm that comes.

And Jesus is asleep.

And the disciples are not.

And the disciples are terrified of the storm.

And they come to Jesus and they wake him and they say, save us.

Don't you care that we're all going to die?

And he wakes up.

He turns and he looks at the storm and the wind and the waves and the rain and the thunder.

And he says, peace, be still.

And it does.

And the Bible says, not that the disciples stopped being afraid when that happened,

but actually that they became more afraid.

Because now instead of, oh, there's weather that can kill us,

there is a man on the boat with us who can control the weather.

And that terrified them.

And they became more afraid of this man on the boat with them than they were of the weather itself.

In the Bible, anytime someone has an interaction with God where they get to see him and his power on display,

there is a genuine, legitimate fear.

And I think that understanding this is essential to our understanding of wisdom.

And this is not a crippling fear.

This is not a fear that just traps us and holds us and won't let us go.

But it's actually, the Bible says, a fear that leads to life.

I know that may seem like a paradox for us.

But if you think about it, the disciples on the boat with Jesus, when he calmed the storm,

they were afraid of this man on the boat with them.

But when they realized that they were afraid of him,

they realized that there was nothing else they needed to be afraid of.

The things that they had previously been afraid of, the wind, the rain, the seas,

this guy controls those.

Why would we need to fear those?

And the fear of Jesus, the fear of the Lord in that situation,

freed them from all the other fears that they were experiencing.

So when we properly understand the fear of the Lord,

it actually liberates us and frees us from all of our other fears.

But also, it's not a fear that just takes us and holds us in its own grip.

Because the fear of the Lord is actually the way that we enter into a relationship with God as well.

See, as long as we take the fear of the Lord and sort of reduce it to awe, reverence,

warm, fuzzy feelings about God inside our hearts,

we're not going to understand the basic message of the gospel.

Which is that God created us as worshipers of himself.

That he created us to live in this relationship with him in this good thing.

And our sin completely wrecked that.

There is a void between us and God because of our sin that we cannot bridge on our own.

And as long as we think the fear of the Lord is this awe, reverence,

we'll think, oh, there's something I can do to fix what's wrong.

It's not until we realize how big God is, how perfect God is,

and how high his standard for us is, and how far short of it we have fallen,

that we realize how desperate we are for something other than ourselves to bridge that gap.

And the fear of the Lord makes us aware of our need for something else,

something other to bridge this gap, and ultimately points us to Christ.

So through this we can see that our fear of the Lord,

that wisdom has its root in the gospel, in Christ,

and that that is an essential part of us properly understanding what wisdom is.

As we move on, we see also that God's wisdom, the true wisdom,

is different than the world's wisdom, although they are not mutually exclusive.

The definition of wisdom that I'm working with today is that wisdom is

a system of beliefs and practices developed to help us live the good life.

A system of beliefs and practices developed to help us live the good life.

I think this is something that we sort of miss out on in our day and age,

that ultimately in the Bible, wisdom, such as the book of Proverbs,

was not written as, this is how you have to be, or else.

But it was written as an instruction to help live the good life.

Solomon says, don't go mess around with your neighbor's wife,

because you don't want your neighbor out for your head.

Solomon says, you don't want to rob people because you want to live in a world

that is safe, where you don't have to worry about people robbing you.

Like, the key to the good life is to live in obedience to God's commands.

And let me show you what those are.

It's basically the premise of Proverbs.

And in the Bible, the fear of the Lord, living in obedience to his commands,

trusting Christ, is repeatedly portrayed as the path to the good life.

And the world also has a definition of the good life.

The world says the good life is get as much money as you can.

Get as much power as you can.

Have as much sex as you can.

Pursue happiness at all costs as much as you can.

And because of this, the world has a definition of wisdom that is different than God's

because the definition of the good life that they're basing their definition of wisdom upon

is different than God's definition of the good life.

So the world's collection of wisdom could look something like this.

Work as hard as you can from an early age.

Get into the best school that you can so that you can get the best job that you can

so you can get the most money possible and be happy because of it.

It's okay to lie, cheat, and steal to get more as long as you don't get caught.

If you're not really fulfilled in your marriage relationship,

it's okay to seek more fulfillment outside of your marriage relationship as long as you don't get caught.

Do whatever it takes to make you happy.

To fulfill yourself.

And that is the path to a good life.

That is what the world tells us.

But God gives us a different message in terms of wisdom

because he gives us a different definition of the good life.

God says, ultimately, the good life is found not in this pursuit of pleasures that are going to go away,

but in a relationship with me.

So God says, pursue me.

Pursue the things that draw you closer to me.

So the Bible's definition of wisdom and collection of wisdom

says things like, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

It says things like, love your neighbor.

Don't use them.

It says, yes, work hard.

That is a good thing.

But don't let your work define you.

Take a day of rest every week.

And so we can see that God's wisdom and the world's wisdom,

they're different, but they're not mutually exclusive.

And what this means is that we shouldn't automatically accept or discount wisdom

simply because of the source that we receive it from.

So for example, if a non-Christian relative walks up to you and says,

you need to work hard,

we shouldn't look at them and say,

oh, you're not a Christian.

Nothing you say can be any good.

We should say, okay, what does the Bible say about this?

According to God's word, hard work is a good thing.

You are right.

But according to God's word, my work should not define me.

And so I shouldn't just work hard blindly,

but I should work hard with a view of why I'm working hard,

that I'm doing it for God's kingdom and his glory.

It also means that we shouldn't just blindly accept

something that people tell us because they're Christians.

Yes, the Bible is correct, but Christians aren't always correct.

So for example, one time I was listening to a sermon.

I've listened to a lot of those over the years.

And I heard this preacher say,

if you want to have lasting change in your life,

one essential step is to reward yourself for the change that you make.

And he had a passage in the Bible that he used to support that point

that had absolutely nothing to do with that claim.

And then he had this illustration to show exactly what he meant

by making this claim.

And he said, imagine that two men decide to lose some weight together.

And they set this goal to each lose 20 pounds.

And at the end of two months, they achieve that goal.

And so to reward themselves, they go out together

to buy a nice big juicy steak.

Now, if we carry that illustration over

and apply it to dealing with sin in our lives,

we see we avoid sin for a couple months,

and then we have a right to indulge in it.

That's not in line with the Bible's wisdom.

So although a pastor said this wisdom,

when you weigh it against God's word,

ultimately it doesn't hold up.

And so we have to let God's word be the standard

to define our wisdom,

not necessarily who tells it to us.

I mean, another example is when I was in high school,

I grew up in a place where there were not many Christians.

And so a decent number of people in my high school

knew that I was a Christian.

And when they had questions about Christianity or about God,

they'd ask me, they'd be like,

Eric, what do Christians believe?

What does the Bible say?

And I had this reputation for being a smart guy.

And, you know, didn't want to say, I don't know.

So I would guess sometimes.

Sometimes I knew the answers.

Sometimes I would guess.

And some of my answers that I gave,

I found out later on were not quite right.

But the people in my school believed

that's what the Bible says.

That's what Christians believe.

Because the only Christian I know

said that that's what they believe.

And so, again, we have to weigh our wisdom against God's word.

Just because a Christian says,

I think this is in the Bible,

or a pastor says, this is what's right,

ultimately doesn't mean that they are right.

Ultimately, God's word has to be our standard of truth,

not the source that we get it from.

And ultimately, the contrasting wisdom

between God and the world

and the contrasting definitions of the good life

that they lead us to

give us an awesome opportunity

to live missionally in the world.

Missional is basically a word

that means that in our daily lives,

we are living with a missionary mindset.

The thoughts and actions that we would have

if we were in a foreign culture as missionaries,

trying to reach out to them with the gospel

are directing the way that we approach our work,

our friendships, our relationships

with the unbelieving world around us.

And so when we realize

that ultimately God's commands

are not this oppressive, burdensome thing,

but they're the path to the good life,

it frees us to start shaping how we live around them.

Ultimately, when we realize

that God gives us his commands out of love

and out of a desire to see us grow

in our relationship with him

and our love for him

and in our joy in him,

we have much more of a desire

to follow those commands.

And the world,

operating from its different definition of wisdom,

still has no desire to follow those commands.

And so as we let God's commands

and God's definition of wisdom

begin to shape us and how we live,

it will provide differences

between us and the world around us

that give them opportunities

to see how God is shaping us.

And a lot of times,

these lead to conversations like,

you know,

why is it that you're going to church on Sunday

instead of sleeping in?

Or, you know,

what is this community group thing

that you're going to?

And I'm not saying

that we have to add in

all these extra programs to our lives

in order to make this impact.

It could be something as simple as,

you know,

they want to slightly cheat a little bit

on the numbers

to help the company

make a little extra money

and you're not willing to do it

because we're walking in obedience to God.

And these things start conversations.

These things make people ask why

and these things give us opportunities

to share with them

the reason for the hope that we have.

And so these different definitions of wisdom,

they give us this contrast

that ultimately helps us

to live as lights within the world.

And now I think we've reached a point

where I can say

that wisdom changes everything

and sort of have that foundation laid

to build on top of.

As we look at the book of Proverbs,

I think a lot of times

we look at it as a book

on a lot of different stuff.

A book that talks about marriage,

a book that talks about wealth,

a book that talks about wisdom,

a book that talks about our work.

But in reality,

Proverbs is not a book

about a bunch of different things,

but it's a book about one thing.

It's a book about wisdom.

And everything else that the book of Proverbs talks about

falls under the umbrella of wisdom.

So when Proverbs talks about our family,

it's not talking about the family in and of itself,

but it's talking about how should our understanding of wisdom

shape the way that we approach our family.

When Proverbs talks about work,

it's not talking about work in and of itself,

but it's saying how should our approach to work

be impacted by the fact that we have wisdom.

And so wisdom is not just one thing among many

in the book of Proverbs that are discussed,

but it is the thing that the book of Proverbs talks about.

And as we move forward into the New Testament,

we see that the New Testament draws

these unmistakable parallels

between wisdom in the Old Testament

and the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

So we read in Proverbs chapter 8

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

that wisdom was the first among God's creation.

It was with God in creation.

And as we look at Colossians chapter 1,

Colossians 1:15–17

verses 15 through 17,

we see that Paul actually draws

an amazing number of parallels

between wisdom and the person of Jesus Christ.

So he says,

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created

in the heavens and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things,

and in him all things hold together.

Paul uses language here

that points directly back to Proverbs chapter 8.

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

In his discussion about Christ,

he draws in the language used of wisdom

so the people reading his letter cannot miss it.

He says that Christ is the firstborn of creation,

the exact same phrase that was used of wisdom

in chapter 8.

And now that doesn't mean that Jesus is a created being.

It's a big phrase that we don't have time to get into right now,

but it shows that Paul is trying to draw these connections

between the person of Christ and wisdom.

Also, both Paul in this passage

and Proverbs chapter 8

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

describe Christ and wisdom

as agents of divine creation.

They say that the world was created through wisdom and Christ.

And it says that both wisdom and Christ

are the power by which kings reign.

Colossians 1.16,

you know,

all things are made by him and for him.

Thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities,

it all exists through Christ.

And then Proverbs chapter 8

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

says that wisdom is the power by which kings reign.

So Paul,

unmistakably,

draws these connections between Christ and wisdom.

And he does it again

in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30.

1 Corinthians 1:30

It says that Christ became to us the wisdom from God.

That this wisdom from the Old Testament

came to us in Christ.

And Paul's not the only one in the New Testament

who draws these connections between Christ and wisdom.

The Apostle John also does it

in the book of John, chapter 1,

John 1:1–14

verses 1 through 14.

He says,

in the beginning was the word,

talking about Jesus.

So he was in the beginning,

just like wisdom,

in chapter 8.

He goes on and he says

that all things were made through him,

in verse 3,

just like all things were made through wisdom,

in Proverbs chapter 8.

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

And then he says in verse 4,

in him was light,

and that light,

or in him was life,

and that life was the light of men.

Again, pointing back to Proverbs chapter 8,

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

describing Christ as a life-giving force,

just as wisdom in Proverbs 8

was this life-giving thing.

So when we look forward to the New Testament,

when we look around the other side of the carpet,

and we see them talking about Christ,

not just about wisdom,

we see it embodied in a person,

it's himself.

We see that wisdom

ultimately points us to

and leads us to Christ.

That wisdom,

it's not the same thing as Jesus,

but that it's fulfilled in Jesus.

So this lens through which we view all of life

is ultimately interpreted

through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Around Watermark,

we have this phrase that we use a lot

that says the gospel changes everything.

Everything.

We believe the good news

that God saves us,

even though we were separated from him,

should impact every area of our lives.

It should impact how we use our money.

It should impact how we view our jobs,

how we raise our families,

how we interact with the people around us.

And it has strong calls on how we live.

It should transform the things that we do.

It should transform, you know,

not just who we interact with,

but how we interact with them.

Are we interacting with them to use them

or to love them?

And as we see that wisdom

is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus

and that Jesus ultimately points us

towards the gospel,

we see that wisdom also

must change everything in our lives.

That ultimately,

our actions,

our thoughts,

our mindsets,

towards everything,

must be transformed

transformed by this call of wisdom

upon our lives.

And this isn't something

that happens immediately.

It's a process.

So it's not like

pray and become a Christian

and automatically

you have all the wisdom

in the universe

unlocked and right here.

But it's something that God

teaches us through time.

So in my own life,

I've been a Christian

since I was a little kid.

A couple years ago,

I moved to Hong Kong

to work at a church here.

And I really wanted

to help this church.

I really wanted to

make an impact

in the youth of Hong Kong.

And I got here.

I started working.

I was really excited.

And a couple months in,

I started to sort of re-evaluate

why I came to Hong Kong,

what my motives were.

I realized that,

yes,

I did want to help this church.

Yes,

I did want to teach youth

about Jesus

and see them come to know him

and love him.

But that not all of my motives

for coming were right.

Ultimately,

yes,

I did want to see

these youth come to know Jesus.

But at least part of that

was sort of a personal pride issue

where I was like,

I feel better about myself

if there are 50 kids

in the youth group

instead of 10.

And yes,

I did want to see

these kids grow

in their spiritual faith.

But at least part

of that was,

I feel like I have

more value and worth

if I'm doing a good job

at my job

than if I'm not.

And I looked around

more

at the gospel's call

in my life

and I realized

that while I lived,

while I loved

the church

and the people in it,

I didn't really love

the city

of Hong Kong.

I was more here

just to use it,

get what I could off of it,

get some extra stuff

on my resume

so I went back home.

I could get a better job

because of my time here.

And I started to think

about what does

the gospel say

about the attitude

that I have

towards the church,

towards the city

of Hong Kong,

towards the people here.

And I saw that ultimately,

you know,

I shouldn't be finding

my worth in my job,

in my success

or failure at it.

I should be finding it

in Christ.

Ultimately,

I shouldn't be using

the people around me

and the city around me

to gain some cool

life experiences,

get extra stuff

on my resume

and help me

have career advancement

further down the road,

but that I should be

investing in the city

and loving the city

regardless of how long

I'm here.

And these realizations

started shaping me

and changing my mindset

and really have

had this understanding

of how the gospel

and wisdom

changes everything

have played a big role

in the fact that

I've stayed in Hong Kong

for two years now.

Originally,

it was,

I'll be here 14 months

and then see ya.

But now,

I've been here

for two years

and that's largely

because of this

transformation

that's happening

in me

in my understanding

of what it means

to walk in wisdom

and follow

the call of the gospel.

And so,

it is a continual process

that God will

keep doing

in all of us,

helping us grow in him,

helping to understand him more.

And so,

as we read the book of Proverbs,

as we look at wisdom,

let us not just think

that it's one thing

among many,

but let us see

that ultimately,

it is the thing.

Ultimately,

it finds its interpretation

in Christ.

That ultimately,

it's not just

a little part of our life

that,

you know,

can kind of

have its time

and space,

but that ultimately,

it's the thing

through which we must

interpret all of life.

Let's pray.

Father,

we thank you

for today,

for this chance

to come together

as your people

to study your word

and learn about you.

We thank you

for your word,

for revealing

your wisdom

to us in it,

and for sending

Jesus to be

the fulfillment

and embodiment

of that wisdom

for us.

Thank you

for the fact

that you have

purchased us

with a price

and that we are

now yours

and that everything

in our lives

can now be

lived for you.

That your call

to us

is not just

to live a life

of burden

and of

blind obedience,

but a call

to pursue

the only true

good life.

that is

available.

So we pray

that as we go

throughout our weeks

we would understand

more clearly

what your call

is for us,

that we would

continue to grow

in our obedience

to you

and what you

want us to do

with our lives

and that we

would truly

know you.

And in Jesus'

name,

amen.

Amen.

Let's stand

and just

celebrate

what God's

done on our

behalf.

We're just

going to sing

about who

he is

and I hope

that in order

to live

out what

Eric's

told us,

we need

to just

be in his

presence

and reflect

on him.

And he's

so powerful,

he's so amazing,

he can do

anything in

and through

you if you'll

just let him.

you can be

seated.

I have just

a couple

quick announcements

for us.

One,

we do not

pass an

offering plate

here at

Watermark,

but around

the sanctuary

and in the

entrance over

there,

we have

offering boxes.

We believe

that offerings

should be our

response in

worship to

what God

has done

for us.

We have

envelopes,

you can

just fill

out the

back,

stick your

money in

there and

stick it

in the

box if

you would

like to

give.

If you're

not a

Christian here

or a

visitor,

don't feel

compelled to

give,

we want our

offerings to

be a response

to what God

is doing in

us and for

us.

The second

thing is

community

groups.

If you are

not a part

of a

community

group and

you would

like to

get involved

in community

group,

we will have

a desk

outside where

you can

learn more

about community

groups after

the service.

We would

love for you

to get

plugged in to

community

groups and

the life of

the church.

VBS is

coming up

August 7-13?

13-17,

that's what

it is.

I knew

there was

a 7 and

a 13 in

there.

I just

forgot the

one in

front of

the 7.

VBS is

coming up

August 13-17.

It's for

kids ages 5-10.

If you would

like to sign

up your kids

for VBS or

if you're

interested in

volunteering,

there will be

information about

that at the

table outside by

the coffee after

service as well.

Or you can

contact Melanie

and Natalie.

And now I

would like to

invite Mike up

for a special

presentation.

My name is

Mike.

I work with

university students

here.

There's something

really interesting

about Watermark.

Actually, being on

the staff team with

Watermark, it makes

me feel really

old.

Having people

like Eric around.

I wonder how

God viewed that

staff team from

his perspective.

because we have

a lot of fuzzy

edges and

lacking experience

a lot because

we're all these

young guys that

try to go on

this journey of

planting churches

and seeing what

God is doing in

the area.

And so God

must have looked

down on the

couple perspective

on this church

and said they

just really need

some experience.

So about a year

ago, God

spoke to someone

to just basically

show up in the

office, talk to

them and say,

God really puts

on my heart that

I should come

alongside you.

And so Pastor

Chua showed up

a year ago and

he has several

years of experience

in church planting

and leadership

development.

So he has been

with us for this

past year in

like two different

terms.

Just come alongside

the church and

come alongside the

staff and leadership

development and

just very helpful

in a lot of

things that we

were lacking.

And so since

Pastor Tobin can't

be here, we have

a little video with

Pastor Tobin on

because we want

to say thank

you to Pastor

Chua for what

he has done.

There's one thing

that really stuck

with me from what

Pastor Chua shared

and he has shared

a lot with us,

but there's one

thing that he

shared, that he

said that many

Christians start

well, but they

don't end well.

Very few really

run the race to

the end.

And so I think

that's a great

encouragement for

you as a congregation,

for all of us,

to even say, you

know, maybe when

you came to Christ

first, you had an

excitement in you

and maybe that has

faded.

And so I think

there's some great

encouragement in just

asking ourselves,

what does it mean

to finish well?

And Pastor Chua has

been a great

encouragement for us

in just seeing how

he aims to finish

well.

He has a lot of

speaking assignments

coming up and

traveling to Nigeria

and Singapore and

London.

And so we just

want to invite

Pastor Chua up

on stage.

And also I would

like to invite the

elders and the

staff on stage to

pray for him because

we want to pray that

as he is finishing

his race well,

that we want to

pray for his

journey, for all

the things that are

coming.

So please come

up.

Yeah.

Kingling, would

you please come

up as well?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the actual gift

is in the box,

but just so that you

can actually see it,

it's basically Jesus

washing the feet of

his disciples and you

have been helping us

and the staff team

and you have been

serving the church in

so many different ways

and not just leadership

development, but also

developing the prayer

team and so many

different ways and Kingling

was part of that as

well.

And so we are really

grateful and thankful

for all you have done.

So we just want to pray

for you.

So you want to lay on

hands.

Father, we are just

grateful that you see

the big picture and you

know what our church

needs and this young

church that you have

called into being here

two years ago and

sending people like

Kingling and Pastor

Chua to us to come

alongside our young

team and the church

and the church members

and just knowing that

we need a ministry of

prayer, a heart for

prayer, that we need

people to be developed

and it's just someone

with experience who has

seen more of how your

kingdom is coming about

in this world.

So we are just thankful

for just sending him

here and his family and

thankful for Daniel and

his family as well and

how they are serving.

So we just want to pray

your blessing over Wehan

and Kingling and as they

travel, may you go before

them.

May you be in him.

May you just keep his

back and may you point

him to your kingdom to

come.

May you use him in every

step that he walks to

finish his race, that you

give him many steps to

walk and many steps to

impact people around him

as he has done for your

kingdom for so many years.

So Father, we're just

thankful again for you,

how you see everything,

how you see our needs as a

church and a staff and how

you respond and help us to

finish the race well as well.

So we just again want to

look at the cross and look

at your son Jesus and how

he came into the world and

died for our sin and that

even there it is a picture

of coming into the needs of

the world that you also send

other people to wash the

feet of others and having a

servant heart and so we thank

you and bless you and pray

this in Christ's name.

Amen.