Seeking Wisdom

Well, dear family, it is wonderful to be back here with you.

Just love worshiping with you.

You have an amazing worship team, as already has been mentioned.

You have amazing leadership.

Actually, a couple weeks ago, uh Jill and I came with our grandsons.

We were looking after them for the weekend, and we won we knew the children's program is so fantastic.

So you this really is a place to not take for granted.

This is a place of great giftedness.

Now, when we're not here, we're we're most of the time, not always, but most of the time back with uh our the church that we planted 20 years ago, Church of the Messiah over in Hickory Flat.

Um, and we let them know we wouldn't be with them today.

But two weeks ago, and I want to tell you about it because it's an interesting segue into this message today, uh, they had a guest preacher there.

Uh I had not heard his name before, Charles Curran.

He apparently uh is a very well-known author and a conference leader.

He's traveled the world for the Lord Jesus.

He had such passion, such excitement, such devotion that it was contagious.

The spirit was so alive within him as he preached.

And what made it even more remarkable was that he is coming up on his 90th birthday.

Now, I yeah, 9-0.

And I sat there overwhelmed that someone of his age could have such energy in the spirit.

And uh I tell you that story because about five years ago, when uh Jill and I were covered with uh Medishare for our insurance, I got a call one day from one of their staff, and they said, Yes, Fred, we're calling.

I'm I'm a health coach.

I said, Oh, okay.

And he said, uh, it's clear from your health profile that you're in good health, you're probably gonna live well into your 90s.

What's your life health goal?

And I said, I don't even know what that is.

And he said, Well, uh, when you get in your 90s, what would you like to be able to do?

And I said, Well, I'd love to be able to hit 90 and come charging up the stage and be able to preach the word with passion and power in the spirit.

And he said, Well, then that's what you ought to set for your goal.

And I'm telling you that story because two weeks ago I saw it happen.

It's really possible.

It's possible to have a long life filled with the spirit.

And so, uh, Elon, if you're still listening here somewhere, um, would you just mention to Justin when he gets back?

I'd like to be invited back when I'm 90.

And I'd like to just share with you the love of Jesus and his faithfulness, because there's nothing like that, is there?

Nothing.

Never take that for granted.

Now, Charles had shared that his life had been quite dramatic.

He'd been in ordained ministry for 70 years, but he was three decades into ministry before he discovered the intimate anointing of the Holy Spirit.

And it radically changed his life.

Imagine that.

He actually admitted he was a pastor who denied the Spirit for years and years until he experienced the Spirit, and it was it opened up the world to him and his passion for God.

And I'm one of those people as well.

Some of you have heard a bit of my story.

Uh, in my mid-20s, I was I was a backseater in carrier-based aircraft.

I was really on the track to become a mission specialist in the space program.

I wanted to be trained as an astronaut.

I was well on that path.

And in the midst of it, I realized that something was not connecting.

I was no longer feeling I had a purpose.

I didn't know what my purpose was, but I was convinced that life wasn't just about life and collecting things.

I didn't know what that was all about.

I had our pastor in a new church we were going to challenge me that I had a call in my life to be ordained and to serve the Lord full-time.

I had no idea why he knew that, how he knew that, or that how he could possibly know that I'd wrestled with that since I was eight years old.

So that next Sunday, uh praying in the midst of those folding chairs in a mission church in San Diego.

I said, God, I don't even know who you are.

But I want you in my life.

Please come into my life.

And yeah, I'm one of those guys who knows the day, the time, the place.

Bam! Everything was new.

Life was alive.

Um, I knew I was forgiven.

I knew I was loved.

I knew I loved everybody.

Colors came, everything was new.

And what I discovered very quickly was I had no clue how to live my life from that moment on.

Nothing in my high school training, nothing in my Naval Academy training, nothing in my my traveling around the world, nothing in my marriage, nothing in even my church experience had prepared me for that type of walk with God that's possible for everyone.

Now, I was one of the people who uh needed that type of experience.

I call it my two by four over the head, because I was well on my path to living my own life the way I wanted to live.

Um, but here I was confronted with the reality that God is real.

He really does love us.

He really sent Jesus to die for us.

We really are forgiven.

We really can have new life in the Spirit.

He we He wants our worship each day.

And I had no idea what that looked like, how to live that.

Anybody have any idea what that feels like?

You kind of, how does this work?

And I also want to just add, because obviously I've been in ministry a lot, uh, in the journey I've had, literally anywhere in the world, there's normally a small portion of people who have had that kind of dramatic wake-up call with God.

Who's had that wake-up call?

That where where you just one moment you were about yourself and the next moment it's all about God.

See, you know, there's not a lot of hands.

I found really there about 10, maybe 15% of believers have had that.

And it's probably because we were so lost, we really needed that.

The vast majority of people, it's just that growing up in God.

Uh, my wife, uh, my two of my three sons, uh, most of my grandkids, they're just they're just getting it.

Every day they get a little closer, a little closer, a little closer.

And and that you may be sitting here wishing you had one of those wake-up calls.

Maybe not.

Just don't wish for an experience.

Hunger for God.

But as I told you, I found myself in a place where I didn't know what to do next.

Where do you find the wisdom to live for God?

So I'm asking you, what would you say if somebody says, How do I find how to live for God?

What would you say?

The Bible.

Let's first say that.

Absolutely.

Uh we call it the Word of God, right?

We, you know, we're the only religion, I hate that word, but the only faith in the planet that calls our book the Word of God.

That's pretty awesome.

And because it's the living Word of God, we would expect God to speak to us.

Oh, maybe not the lightning bolt every day, but yes, that he speaks to us.

And I want to give you a little tidbit.

If you're in the Word four days or more a week, you have a biblical worldview.

If you are not in the Scripture four days a week, you are still looking at the world primarily through the culture of America.

And you know what's interesting?

That has been a proven fact.

That's a fact.

So if you want to grow in God, you just got to get disciplined enough, make that time to get in the word.

What else would you say about how we find the wisdom of God?

Example, yeah, okay, sure.

The the the being in the company of others who are living the life, like I saw the 90-year-old preacher.

Uh and when we talk with friends and family and those who are also in the Lord, I had a mentor years ago tell me, Fred, whenever you find somebody that you know is further along in the journey than you, get them to pray over you.

That's the least you ought to ask.

And I did, I did Charles, after the service.

After everybody left, I went up to him and said, I'd like your prayers.

Now, it's more than that, of course.

It's it's it's the it's networking with people, it's con it's being alive in a community and sharing faith and growing in faith, and because it's often in the fellowship which we share, not coffee, not that kind of fellowship, but the real deep uh Greek word is koinonia, the the K-word we often call it, that where you're sharing life together.

Sharing life together in Jesus.

So obviously, when Justin called uh uh and texted me yesterday morning and said, Fred, I need your help.

What am I gonna say?

He's my brother.

Of course, Justin, what do you need?

You see what I mean?

You we just we're sharing life together.

That's what family, true, true family does.

Okay, so we've named the Bible, we've named other counsel, fellowship.

How else do you experience the wisdom to live for God?

Holy Spirit, yeah.

And how does the Holy Spirit most often come?

Prayer, yeah, let's let's name that one.

Prayer is a huge one because that's where we get before God.

I heard a pastor in this county just say he spent tries to spend 20 minutes each morning, five minutes during the day, and 10 minutes at night just being with God, trying to get his mind clear to just be with our Lord through the Spirit.

Um, I'm not sure I can quantify my time with the Lord that much.

I'm trying to make it every moment, every moment for the glory of God.

Prayer.

Prayer.

That takes a lot of prayer, doesn't it?

Uh, there's another way.

What's the other way?

You're living it right now.

Worship, thank you, worship.

Uh, as a matter of fact, specifically, the the scripture refers to it as the breaking of the bread.

It the whole collective experience of the community coming together, and and the perspectives that we get here and where our thoughts go often are of God.

And if you even take a thought before the Lord in the midst of worship, you may find an insight you hadn't gotten before.

Now, I'm glad you you've worked with me on this question and answer period because you've just named one of my favorite verses in scripture, Acts 242.

Acts 2 to 2.42 tells us what the earliest believers did and what they devoted themselves to in order to get the wisdom of God.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, that's the Bible.

They devoted themselves to fellowship, that's counsel and sharing with others.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, worship, and they devoted themselves to prayer.

And those four devotions or disciplines became the foundation for a very strong life and a very strong church or kingdom life and a witness in the world.

They became world changers because that was their new devotions.

And that's what I had to figure out.

What are the devotions of my life going to be now?

That I'm not trying to get a name for myself.

I'm trying to live for God.

Just like the chairs you're sitting in, there's four legs.

In living for God and discovering the wisdom of God, there are four devotions.

There aren't five and there aren't three.

It's the Bible, it's counsel with others, it's worship, and it's prayer.

When those are the defining characteristics of our lives, we are in a place to receive the wisdom of God.

Does that make sense?

And I have to, you know, I've been trained, uh, the Naval Academy, I'm trained as an engineering mathematician.

I want the formula that works.

Guys, you know what I mean, don't you?

I don't need a lot of stuff.

I just want, what's the formula?

The formula is A plus B plus C plus D equals walking with God.

Bible counsel with others, uh, worship and prayer, you're getting in a place where God could speak to you a whole lot.

But what does that wisdom look like?

How do we know that it's really of God and not something else that we've just invented in our feelings?

Turn with me now to James chapter 3, and I want to point out a profound place in Scripture where we can have this intimate reality with the Lord Jesus Himself through the power of the Holy Spirit.

James 3 · chapter mention

James chapter 3, verse 13.

James 3:13

If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.

But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying.

For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom.

Such things are earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.

It's also peace-loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.

It's full of mercy and good deeds.

It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

Whoa.

Wouldn't you like to be at the end of your life and have your family get up and talk about what your life has been like?

And they said, You just were always a blessing.

You planted seeds of righteousness wherever you went.

How's that for a goal?

You see, what I've just read to you has been described as a tale of two cities.

And that dramatic.

One devoted to God's wisdom, the other earthly wisdom.

They are not the same at all.

Godly wisdom, well, he tells us actually that in here he gives us ten characteristics of godly wisdom, what it looks like.

When we're there, we're gonna know what it's like because the word of God tells us what it looks like.

And right in verse 13, it tells us it's an honorable life.

You're not ashamed of the way you live, and other people are not as well.

You honor others, but you're a life that others want to emulate.

We used to call it being a hero.

I know in our culture we we we somehow feel we need to destroy every hero so no one's better than anybody else.

But we all know there's folks who are just ahead of us on the journey, don't we?

An honorable life.

What they claim to be on the outside is what they are on the inside.

What they're like in public is what they're like in private.

An honorable life.

You know, the few of us that have had that experience in our own family of origin, it's an amazing gift, isn't it?

And it is so rare.

I have to admit, I'm still trying to live up to the standards my dad had when he lived.

Godly man loved his family, never met anybody he didn't he didn't like.

I once told him, Dad, you haven't met some of the people I have.

And he said, Son, you're wrong.

God loves everybody, and we have to as well.

That's an honorable life, isn't it?

Well, it also says that we're doing good with humility.

Humility is that word of hummus, it's earth, it's it's laying our life down.

It's saying, we're gonna live for others.

We're not gonna be preoccupied with ourselves anymore.

That's that's that's wisdom.

When you don't have to win the argument, you're you're snuggling up to God.

When you have to win every argument, and you have to prove yourself right, not godly wisdom.

It's not about proving ourselves as right or wrong.

Humility.

And then he jumps down in verse 17, and we have eight more characteristics of this amazing gift that God wants to give us.

His wisdom, heavenly wisdom.

We're told that it is pure.

I've had the privilege of hiking quite a bit, and I enjoy getting out on the Appalachian Trail.

I don't think I'll ever do the whole thing like my friends are doing uh next year.

But uh I've enjoyed being there, and I tell you what, when you're hiking in the summer, uh the only thing that matters is finding the best water you can.

One particular case we had to we had to hike half a mile off the trail just to find a creek that we could take a little stick and a little leaf and then a little stick and get enough trickle that we could fill up a canteen.

So we had water for the day for the night.

And yes, we did the pellets and the whole thing.

But you want to start with this pure, don't we?

Don't you want to start with wisdom that's pure?

It's gonna refresh your soul.

The promises of scripture is that God wants to restore our souls.

The Good Shepherd, Psalm 23, I will restore your soul.

That comes from the pure wisdom of God.

He doesn't want you filled with muck and and and pollution and darkness of this world.

He doesn't want you confused in life.

He wants you purpose-filled and filled with the love and joy of Christ.

So that's got to be pure wisdom.

It's also peace loving.

Peace loving.

You just that it's okay.

Life can be troubling.

You pray about it, you get anxious, you turn it to the Lord.

Peace loving.

And you share that peace with others.

And you know, don't you, that when you're living in a place of peace, you become a magnet for others.

Anxious people create anxiety wherever they go.

Peace-loving people create a presence of God so someone can be blessed.

But it's not not only peace, it's gentle.

It's not only gentle, it yields to others.

It it doesn't have to prove it's right.

It's open to reason, it's open to other ideas, it's open to new perspectives that might indeed be of God.

It's full of mercy.

Filled with good deeds.

It shows no favoritism.

That is, it's not it's not partial.

It isn't trying to get one-offsmanship, it's not trying to get ahead, it's not trying to prove a point.

It just shows no favoritism, it just seeks to bless this kind of wisdom, is the that which everyone can be blessed by.

And it's always sincere.

I want to pause on that one for a moment because I I do now that I'm I I claim I'm retired.

I I haven't found that in my time yet too much, but um my wife gets after me on occasion.

But um I I I do enjoy pottery.

And and I want to tell you about the word sincere because it's profound.

It comes from the Greek sincere, it means without wax.

It comes from the pottery, pottery industry because in that day, the way you got your dishes was pottery.

And you go to the market and you buy you buy your dishes, your bowls, your and so on.

Um now, when you fire some clay in a kiln, if you haven't done just right, it'll get a crack in it.

But you know, potters, by the time they get it through the kiln firing, and especially the second firing, the final firing, with the glazing, you you put so much effort into that piece, you really don't want to throw it away.

So what uh uh immoral merchants would do is they take wax and it filled in the crack.

And so they'd have this beautiful piece of pottery out there, and someone would go, Oh, I'd love to have this dish for my home.

And how would you tell if it was uh a whole piece?

You'd hold it up to the light.

And you see if there was any wax in it.

If there's any wax, it won't hold your your liquids.

The word sincere is without wax.

It's sincere.

It can take being held up to the light.

That's the wisdom of God.

You hold it up to the light of Jesus and say, Lord, is my life is this is this from you?

Is this is this what you have for me?

That's the wisdom of God.

It can stand the test of the cross.

Are you with me?

You see, this is a different kind of wisdom.

And as I told you, this is not the wisdom that I learned growing up.

I didn't even learn it in church.

In fact, it's not the wisdom I had before that day when I met God.

In fact, just a few years ago, uh Jill admitted to me, uh, you know, hon, she said, those first few years of marriage were were not easy.

And I said, What do you mean?

And she said, Well, to be honest, it was all about you.

And I said, Oh, honey, I'm really sorry for those years.

And she said, Oh, that's right.

I forgave you a long time ago, but I really like the you now.

There's a difference.

And see, now we have to talk about the other kind of wisdom.

It's the wisdom of the earth, it's the wisdom of the world.

And what are the two characteristics?

Now, listen to what James says.

Now, please understand, he's writing to believers.

He's writing to Jewish believers, Jewish Christians, we would call them, um, messianic Jews, uh, that are scattered around the Mediterranean.

So it's people who understand there's a difference between heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom.

But what he says is, how can you tell the difference?

If there is present as well jealousy or selfish ambition in your heart.

Now, I find that interesting because I think if I were writing about this, I'd say, if you've got anger in your heart or you've got bitterness in your heart.

No, he says, these two characteristics, if they're present, it's not wisdom from God.

First, he says it's jealousy.

You want something that someone else has.

Bottom line of jealousy.

I like their TV, I want their car, you know, spouse, whatever it is.

That's not of God.

But he says it's something else.

There's selfish ambition.

Eurythia is the word.

It sounds like diarrhea.

The Greek word urethia, it's that way you want to vomit out of your life because it's not good.

It will destroy.

Selfish ambition is it's all about me.

I deserve a break.

I deserve some time.

I deserve a break from the kids, I deserve a better job, I deserve more money, I want, I want, I want.

And when you think about it, the entire basis of our commerce in our country is based on that.

Trying to convince you that you want and you even need something, and you really don't.

And then when you travel in the third world, you find you don't need any of the stuff that's out there.

Selfish ambition.

Is actually biblically the opposite of God.

It's not God versus evil so much, although I'll get to that in a moment.

It's God's ways living for him, living for others, or selfish ways living for self.

James goes on and describes this in a process, and he says, verse 15, for jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom.

Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

Whoa.

James, aren't you getting a little carried away?

No.

He says, first, they're earthly, they're not of God.

When you start being preoccupied with, don't get me wrong, we all need food, we all need clothes, we all need to care for our families, of course.

We're talking about what's driving our heart.

When it's jealousy and selfish ambition, he says that's earthly.

That's part of our fallen nature.

That's the old nature that we deny in our baptisms.

And we have to keep denying, as he learns it every day, we have to keep denying that because there's a better way to live.

It's God's way for us.

That we can now live because we've been freed in Christ, haven't we?

We're now filled with the Spirit, aren't we?

Boy, you're awfully quiet.

You out there?

It's that God wants us to live a different way of life, and it's not the earthly ways.

It's not the values we pick up on TV.

Sadly, not even the values we pick up most of the time in school or in sports anymore.

It's what we find as we look to God.

Otherwise, it's earthly.

He says it's unspiritual.

He doesn't mean there isn't a spiritual component.

What he means is it's not of God, it's unspiritual.

It's what in this culture they call secular, has nothing to do with God.

But he goes on further.

He says it's actually demonic.

It's how Satan gets into your life, yes, even a believer's life, and wrecks havoc.

Let me give you an example.

And I complete truth.

I was a pastor up in Massachusetts, a church that was growing dramatically.

Things were going very, very well.

I had on my staff, we would have called her the music pastor, though we didn't use those terms in the day.

She was also active in admin, she was always volunteering, she was one of the massive leaders in the church, like a prayer partner on occasion.

I mean, just a major player in the church.

And uh I heard one day that when she was around church, she was always speaking of the church well and speaking of me well, but when she was away from the church, she was speaking ill of me.

And I was so surprised.

I mean, I considered her a very good friend in the Lord, a sister in the Lord.

So I went to her and I said, What's going on?

And she said, Yeah, I guess I really do do that.

And I said, Well, do you think we ought to meet and talk about that?

And she said, Yeah, we can do that.

So we began meeting.

Um, we met in my office a few times, a little council, didn't get very far.

Um later on, asked if she wanted to get together for lunch.

She said, sure.

So we're having lunch one day, and and she says, I don't know why I do that.

I really don't know why.

She said, Um, do you think I'm being harassed by a demon?

I said, Yes, I think you are.

And she said, Well, if you thought that, why didn't you share that with me?

And I said, Because I really felt that was something God needed to reveal to you directly.

And she said, Well, what should we do about that?

And I said, Oh, I think we ought to go back to the church and pray.

So we did.

We finished up our lunch, went back to the church, and prayed.

And it was in a liturgical church.

We had an altar rail in those days, and she was on one side, I was on the other, and I went to pray, and I put I went to put my hands on her forehead as I normally did to praying over someone.

She grabbed my wrists and said, No, no, it's right behind you.

Now, one more time.

I'm trained as an engineer and mathematician.

This is way outside my box.

And I promise you, my first thought was, Mommy, I really was.

I wanted to get out of there.

I didn't know what was going on.

And the the scary thing is, in the spirit, I knew she was speaking truth.

There was something right behind me, and all the hairs in the back of my neck were going up, and I'm going, What is going on?

I said, We need to pray, and she said, We sure do.

So we took hands together and we prayed and prayed and prayed.

And as we did, I felt it getting smaller and smaller, and then it was gone.

And then she was the first to speak, and she said, Fred, it got smaller and smaller and smaller, and then it's gone.

I said, It sure is, and I'm so glad.

And she said, Fred, I know its name.

I said, What?

She said, I know its name.

And I think it's going to be found in your books in your office.

And I said, Well, I've got little ones at home.

We were in the parsonage of the day.

I went, I ran across, I said, I got to go home.

So I ran across the field and went home and was helping Jill with the kids.

She called me just a few minutes later and she said, I found the answer.

I said, What is it?

She said, I prayed the Lord that he would give me a verse so I'd understand what I was seeing.

And he gave me James 3, 16.

Where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil.

Kind of every evil of every kind.

She said, I saw the name of the demon and I looked it up in Greek.

And it's it's that word disorder.

That's what was on me.

And I looked at her and said, You've been jealous of me and had your own ambitions for ministry, haven't you?

And she said, I confess I have.

I said, That's why there's been disorder in our relationship and disorder in this church.

Because you allowed him to get in.

Sad business.

Now, please understand, I'm not talking about demons taking possession of your heart.

I'm not talking about that.

If you've given your life to Christ, he's the king of your heart.

He's not going to give that thrown up to anybody else.

But maybe you gave him a little spot in your life.

In counseling, what I find that is most often is you're unwilling to forgive someone, often harboring that for decades, or you're unwilling to forgive yourself because though you've accepted the forgiveness of God, you don't think you should be forgiven.

And that is a torment place that Satan can have a field day.

Either you've been forgiven by the blood of the Lamb or you haven't accepted that.

If you accepted that, let it go.

We don't live with shame anymore.

That can't cling anymore, can it?

We're washed in the blood.

Okay, so I have a little exercise for you, especially with some of you clapping.

Put your hands together like this.

Please, everybody, put your hands together like this.

Now open your fingers just a little bit.

That's what happens if you're harboring something that is not of God.

Satan gets right in there and says, Oh, good, a place I can have a field day.

You may still have a very active prayer life, Bible study, church life, a lot of, but there's something in your life that you've given the enemy to have a chance to play with you and destroy you and others.

That's what was happening with my dear friend.

And to be honest with you, now 30 years later, 25 years later, whatever it is, we remained very good friends.

Heard from her just a few months ago.

In fact, I'll add one more one more point of our relationship.

She came to me about a week later and she said, Fred, I don't get it.

I said, Don't get what?

She said, I've been going to a counselor for years because I've wrestled with this kind of thing in my life.

I paid thousands of dollars, and you got rid of it in a moment of prayer.

And I said, No, I didn't, God did.

When you were willing to let it go.

But there's another kind of evil, and we have to recognize that as well.

Because you see, we can't embrace heavenly wisdom if we don't understand how demonic is the earthly wisdom.

You all uh know the name uh Irene, I hope you know the name.

Uh Irene Sendler.

Does that ring about with anybody?

Okay.

She, a remarkable woman, she passed just a couple years ago, actually born in this in the start of the last century, she lived to be 98.

She was trained as a nurse.

Uh, but in the 1930s, where she lived in Warsaw, she became especially concerned about people who were living on the edge.

Uh, the the poor, the destitute, especially those living in ghettos, and many of them were Jews.

She was not, but she just her heart just went out.

Uh, you know, as nurses' hearts do.

You nurses, you have amazing hearts.

And it she went out for the those who were suffering the most.

And then the Nazis came into Poland, and she knew it was evil.

So this is what she did.

She got herself trained as a sewer worker, drove a truck, went into the ghettos every day, past those Nazi guards, and she'd find the street children, and she'd find the little babies, she'd put them in the bottom of her big toolbox, cover them up, and put them in her truck and get them out.

She had a dog that she trained to bark whenever the Nazi guards came near the truck.

So they wanted nothing to do with that crazy lady and that crazy dog.

Bigger children, she would get to the truck, cover them up with her dirty rags, and get them out.

Until she was captured, she saved 2,500 children.

She worked, she she helped to build a network of mostly women who understood the evil of the day and sought to find adoption homes and temporary homes with uh her family, friends, and others through the network, working with actually the Roman Catholic Church in Poland.

And uh when she was captured and they began to torture her, she never shared a single name.

Though she'd written every one of them down, she put them in in big glass jars and buried them in her yard under the trees, so she could one day, when the war was over and the evil was gone, she could find the names and try to reconnect them with family.

What she sadly discovered was all those who she hadn't saved had perished.

Now, she recognized there's evil in the world and she did something about it.

What's remarkable is in the years to come, and her story has become known, she's gotten international awards, awards from, of course, Poland for saving their children, awards from Israel for saving their children, and even awards from many organizations in the U.S.

for her humanitarian efforts.

One woman who said, This is an evil world, but I'm not going to hide my head.

I'm going to live with a different kind of wisdom.

You see, if we've got jealousy or we've got selfish ambition, we'll never get anywhere.

If it's all about me preserving me, making sure I get a name for myself, hey, um the world's filled with that.

We are a people who are called to something else.

A spirit-filled, Jesus-centered wisdom that comes from heaven.

It is pure, it is holy, it is filled with good deeds, it is sincere.

It loves others first.

It asks the questions like Jesus did.

What can I do for you?

So whether your pastor calls and says, Can you preach?

Or your wife says, Can you help with the dishes?

Yes.

Of course.

What can I do?

Because our Lord did that for us.

But the celebration we have is we're redeemed.

We don't have to accept all of those values in the world, do we?

Do we?

We get a chance to live an entirely new life that has eternal consequences.

But even if they didn't have eternal consequences, our family will be blessed, our kids will be blessed, our grandkids will be blessed, our work environment will be blessed, our neighborhood will be blessed, the culture will be blessed because we have said we recognize there's evil in the world, and there may very well be evil in me, and I'm going to tend to that too.

But Lord, I'm going to live for you.

Use me to change the world.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let me close the program and I'll hand it over to.

You know what?

Why don't you pray?

Okay, I'm going to pray then.

Let's uh let's first acknowledge, Lord, there's a whole lot of stuff that's confused in our minds and our hearts, but one thing we know: you are holy and you have a call on our lives.

You have washed us in the waters of baptism.

You have washed us in your blood.

You have set us free for a new life and filled us with your spirit.

And Lord, we pray that you would help us to live up to your holy calling.

And Lord, we thank you that we can celebrate in the new life right now in baptism.

That that is the call on all of us to be washed of this world, to be washed of the shame in our past, to be set free to live a life of blessings.

Blessed to be a blessing in the holy name of Jesus.

Amen.