The Rock Family Sermon of the Week
The Rock Family Worship Center is a multi-cultural non denominational church led by Pastors Scott & Britt Silcox.
The Rock Family Sermon of the Week
Build The House | Wisdom & Humility In Christ - Pastor Scott Silcox
We call out the tension between Christ and culture and show why humility is the doorway to wisdom that rebuilds lives, families, and communities. From Proverbs 9 and James 3, we outline the pillars of wisdom and confront four common excuses that keep us passive.
•Fframing the Build the House vision through humility and wisdom
• Pathos versus logos and why “winning people” beats winning arguments
• The seven pillars from James 3 and how humility grants access
• Inspecting motives and choosing peace, gentleness, and mercy
• Rejecting favoritism and embracing authentic faith
• Rethinking time, calling, and equipping for service
• Practical pathways to serve foster families and local ministries
• Living from a seated place with Christ before acting
Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.
SPEAKER_02:You guys know we're in the series Build the House, correct? And I'm not gonna leave you hanging, we're gonna hit a little bit of the Build the House thing today, because I think it really aids into what we're trying to accomplish today. Because how many know that there's it's impossible for you to have the capacity of generosity and do it outside of Christ? It's his nature that compels us to do more. How many know if we don't have that, there's no, there's nothing, there's nothing too great or important that will compel us off our rear ends to do anything. Unless Christ does it, right? So we're gonna talk a little bit about that today, but here's four things I appreciate about you. This is that I think that are really good. Um these these four points, this is something that you've answered that I think every one of us have to answer about life in general. But she's answered this this this idea, this fear, this this uh excuse that says, I don't have enough time. The cultural voice will tell you you you you're it's all about productivity, and it's become an idol. If we're not careful, we'll make what we do who we are. That becomes the center focus, and then no matter what need comes, we dismiss it because you're focused. We gotta be careful here. This is one thing I love about this ministry that they're focused, but they're they're open-handed to what's coming. And this is their humble response my time is God's time. It's God's time. When you're under the lordship of Christ, you don't own any time. But this is my time. No, no, see, that's that's what you were before Christ. With Christ, he's Lord of all, is he not? Okay, you'll believe it by the end today, I promise. How about this one? Someone else will do it. The cultural voice, that's apathy. It's easy for me to believe somebody's already feeling the need. Because I see all that Lee's doing, because I see what Pastor Lisa's done, because I see what Lifeline's doing, and they're out in the lobby as well, because I see what they're doing, well, there's there's no space for me, there's no room for me. It's already being done. Here's the humble response: here I am, send me. This is a posture of our life. Here I am, see me. What about this one? I'm not equipped. I'm not equipped. I barely got my kids. Taking other kids? Are you serious right now? I'm not equipped. Good news is we're equipping. That's one thing she just talked about. We're providing equipping, training, teaching. It's not just training and teaching, it's the community itself. I love that phrase, where your house ends, ours begins. What a great phrase. At the end of my capacity is more resource. Not not chaos, but but partnership. Right? And then what we get, the the cultural voice says it's self-reliance. It's all up to me. Come on, somebody. This isn't all up to you. If it were all up to you, we're all in trouble. We're just in trouble. Come on, Tyler. If this is on you, bud, I mean, like, come on, step up the game. Humble response is this God equips the willing. The willing. The willing. Whose hearts are moved in compassion, he will equip the willing. And this last one, it's too broke to fix. It's too broke to fix. What is the cultural voice? It's cynicism. Hey, better people than you have tried it. Hey, this has already been attempted, but it's corrupt. This is broken. This is too far gone. Cynicism. Humble response is God rebuilds the ruins. Right? Doesn't this dovetail so perfectly into what we're talking about? Building the house. Build the house. Come on, touch your neighbor, say build the house. Build the house. We've been in a series talking about build the house. This is not just some metaphor. This is both physical, spiritual, mental. We are doing this. This is what we're doing. But we need to know what it is that we're doing. We're not just building any old house, we're building something specific. We're building on top of foundations that were already laid. And it's incredibly important for us to understand this. We've gone through the book of Ezra. We've got a little bit left in that. We're talking through Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, how he's been involved in that process. You get to see three distinct areas where Zerubbabel, where Ezra and Nehemiah all attempt to build the new house, the new temple, the new land, the new place that have been set free again, and each one of them bringing their part to the table. So this is what we've been learning. But I think there's something we're going to deviate a little bit off of the passage this week, and we're going to talk about something that I think is really that's the tension point. Why are we not making more progress? Now I'm talking about right here in this house. I'm talking about the Big C church. I'm talking about our own personal homes. So go ahead and find what that is for you today. You may be like, I've got home locked up, we're good. Then you need to be paying attention about the spiritual home you're keeping. What are you building there, right? So let's talk about it today. There's some things that are in tension. What's at work? What's holding us in tension? And that is there is Christ in culture. The thing that is at work, you're actually, we're we're watching the news every single day, and we're drawing lines of who we like and dislike, who we're for, who we're against, right? And and and what makes me uncomfortable, and what can I align with? And there's there's a lot of tension there, but can I just bring you up for a second? Your real battle is Christ versus culture. What we're toiling over is not my my personal wants and desires, but who Christ is and what he's trying to establish and what culture has and is trying to establish, and those two are at odds. They're at odds with each other. So we have to recognize that. That's why, like when we talk about marriages, why we're fighting so hard for marriages and for family, is because it's the biblical view. It's what God decided that the thing he, the union he blessed as a model, even he uses himself as husband and bride language. And it's a model, and so we fight for it. Why are we fighting for that? Because it's at war, it's trying to be redefined. Culture's trying to get it to fit the comfort level that they need, and Christ is saying, Your best comfort is with me. Are you guys tracking today? I'm trying to catch up all of our guests who have not gone through the series. I encourage you to go through it. But but roughly, this is this has been the idea. And today we want to talk about two concepts. It's these two concepts. Pathos versus logos. This is this is the split. What is this pathos? It's emotion, outrage, and self-expression. This is what that is. This is how it's defined. Right? This is that self-expression. Who I am is the most important thing. What I see, what I experience is real truth. That's the truth that I know. It's what? My truth. Right? That's self-expression. I can be whoever I want to be, however I want to be it, and you'll have to just deal with it. That's culture, pathos, pathos. That's it. But what about this one? The invitation is logos. The word. The invitation is wisdom, truth. Wisdom embodied in love. See, see, the the idea is in order for us to even have a capacity to serve our community, we have to have the wisdom of God on how to approach that. Wouldn't you agree? Would you agree that there has to be wisdom, has to be present, so we know how to serve and when to serve, and that the capacity we we should be serving and doing. There's going to require wisdom. That's why some people are like, well, I don't want to serve because, you know, I don't serve in Manna House because all y'all do is feed people. Right. Because they're hungry. But when we we we justify our lack of action because you think I'm operating from a place of wisdom. I want to be wise with my resources. Well, you haven't given anything to help accomplish it, but you've been wise. Some would call it stewardship, Pastor Scott. And what happens is we begin to weaponize the word to what? To guard our our our our hearts and honestly, to cloak our inactive work, our serving. So what it is is you our lack of serving gets, we find biblical scriptures to justify why we don't do anything. Call it Jesus and say, I'm praying. At some point, there has to be action to it. Amen? Okay. It's gonna get happier. Right? I mean, Alabama fans, you have nothing to complain about today. Right? Right? I mean, come on. The joy of the Lord is here. You beat a team without a coach and half their players. That's amazing. You did excellent this week. Fantastic. This sermon is definitely for you. You'll see in a minute. We'll reference that statement in just a second. Hold tight. What are we dealing with? Let's look at it. What's it? Conflict. Here's a little side-by-side versus pathos versus logos. It's reacts from emotion, responds from truth. Now, I I'm giving you this, and I did it this way, because sometimes we're trying to, we're always looking for a lipness test of where we're at. And so today I've got like three of these versions of this so that you can see it. Because we need to know what do I press it against? How do I know? How do I know when someone else around me is operating this? How do I know when I am operating in this? Where is my motive? Where is my motive? And so we have here there's self-asserting versus what? Self-emptying. Putting yourself in the middle of it as the center of attention or emptying yourself of who you are, allowing the Lord to do what he wants to do. Taking all of my want-to and setting that aside and allowing God to do something different through me. You have to empty yourself for this to be possible. For you to operate in logos. How about this? It divides into tribes. See, this culture wants us to be divided. That's how we can make sense of everything. If we can be divided, then we can be easily controlled too. So then the narrative can get into like sub-narrative, down into a little bitty demographic of people, and then all of a sudden we have a truth that doesn't line up to what God has actually given us the freedom to have. But it sounds like freedom because it's the same language. Freedom in Christ can be cloaked in freedom in expression. Come on, you got you have to go here. You have to allow yourself to go here because God's trying to bring about wisdom. How many of us have needed God's wisdom in decisions we've made this year? How many know we're coming to the end of the year and I'm already thinking of things I should have asked him about? I shouldn't have just done on my own. I should have consulted. Right? Anybody else besides me? Right? So we're always in need. I need wisdom to move out in the thing that Christ has paid for my life, in my life, in my family, in my job, in my community, in my church. I need the wisdom of God. How do we get there? We don't get it by winning arguments. When my goal to get up every day is to be a winner, I'm gonna win this argument. I'm going to work, I'm gonna wear that guy down, I'm gonna win this one. And I'm just talking about your husband in your house. Maybe talking about your job and talking about the one you think is your job. I'm gonna win this one. This one's gonna be one. Right? And then we we we make that our goal for the day to be the winner. We live in a culture who cannot stand, cannot bring themselves to a place to embrace loss. It is it is there's an there's an ultra-competitiveness, competitiveness about us that that is is good, but but when it doesn't have the restraints attached to it, it can get out of balance so bad. That's why we tease when we talk about like football games or sporting events, and people are like, why do we always talk about that? Because there's that's a that's like a that's easily trackable where you are with the Lord. Can I just be honest? Can I just be honest? It's so easily trackable that that you will yell at your television in ways, and you'll act in ways that, in fact, there are people in this room who can't watch other sporting events, their team with other people because you know who you are. I mean, I've had friends in my life who are like, hey, like, man, you want to get together and watch this again? They're like, nah, um. See, the thing is, like, you're gonna ruin it if you come to my house. And it's really because the the gig is up. Right? Because the first time something happens and you throw the remote at the television, you scream or you pound 42 wings after it doesn't go your way. Come on, somebody. All of those deep insecurities start to surface. I have another option for you. Logos, win people. Wins the arguments or wins people. When you boil down who Christ is, his number one desire is for connection with his people. What what what got disconnected at the garden, intimacy and in worship with the Lord, right? He has spent his entire existence restoring that back to us for your sake. What Brit was talking about before service is for your sake he gave his life. For people's sake. Last, seeks platform versus seeks presence. How do I know? How do I know? I can tell you real quick, if you're surrounded by people who always are trying to figure out how they can be platformed and not how they can seek the presence of the Lord, then you may be being pulled back and forth into this. It's a way for you to gauge it. Amen? Does that make sense? How do we get here? I've got two statements I want to prove today, or at least present to you as something worth living by. Check this out. Sure. Did I turn it off? Okay, no, this is not it. Yes, thank you. Um true wisdom is not intellectual, it's incarnational, revealed in the meekness of Christ. Wisdom, true wisdom. It's not you getting smart, it's you getting closer to the presence of the Lord. True wisdom. Right? Where is it found? And I like this. The meekness of Christ. Here's here's the dis here's here's the thing that we we we confuse. Meekness does not equal weakness. Meekness is because someone is meek in temperament, does not at all mean that they're they're they're weak and they're soft. And in fact, I would see it more like the bit of a horse. Uh do you guys understand what I mean? Okay, let me say it like this. Have you ever seen, have you ever watched the Discovery Channel and you've seen a lioness pick up her little cub? Have you ever seen this? Where they turn around and they take their massive teeth and they grab the back of the neck of their little ones to relocate them or move them out of the way, and they just softly move them, but at that same hour, they'll use the same teeth to kill something and to drag down. That's that's meekness, that's power under control. It's power under control. Does that make sense? It's it's it has the ability, but but understands how to handle it. What's disturbing sometimes is to see the body of Christ lack the meekness of Christ. Don't confuse Christ's soft temperament as a weak leader. Don't don't view his his cross experience as though somehow he was not able or strong enough. His meekness brought us brought us wisdom. Before Christ can stand against culture through us, listen, he must stand above culture with us. Now, now I've been telling Brett, I'm not getting the language right on this. I've rewritten this statement a hundred times. It ain't working. I'm trying to explain it to you. I've been saying this. This is what I mean by this is it's an invitation the Lord gives us. He says, you are seated in heavenly places. The thing that is is I would say, I'm not gonna say it's the number one, but I'm gonna say it's in the top five or three even things that cripple the church is our inability to come up with him. We are still trying to war face to face with culture and society, and the invitation was never for Christ to come and do that through you before you were first invited up. Up. Come up with him, get a perspective. The beauty of where I'm standing today is that I have perspective. I can see the back row. Wake up, sir. It's fine, it's fine. It's fine, it's fine. I've whatever. You know, you try, you know. I I pray it's restful. It's restful. The peace of the Lord, right? Perspective. It's what I have, what you don't have from the front row here. Does that make sense? The the invitation from the Lord is to come up and to see something. To see something. See what? See what he sees. Most times we refuse to see what God sees in others because we've already predetermined who they are in culture. This is who you are. What? How many have ever been around somebody who is expressing who they are a lot? But if you'll ask the Holy Spirit, he'll show you who Christ sees them to be. How many know that compassion starts when he calibrates or recalibrates our hearts to what he sees? So you can't love people because you think, well, you did all this to get yourself in this problem. See, that's you, that's you trying to reason here. The invitation for you this morning, come up and let him show you what he sees. And what he sees is a broken heart that needs love, care, support. Come on, somebody. Okay. So these are two things. But how do how do how do how do we justify? I gotta hurry. I gotta hurry. Because I I promised I would go fast. Scriptures, because you need those to validate what we're talking about here. So here's here's uh here's a scripture that I think will will work for us today. All right, you guys control it in the back. Give me the next one. Proverbs 9, uh 1 through 12. Now, this is a long passage. Write it down, go back and read it. This is all what? Wisdom literature, right? Proverbs covered with all of the wisdom saints. Now, some of you guys know this, you should get into it and you should read it. It's important, right? But here's something interesting. It says, Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. Now, I want you to underline that, write that down in your Bible because you're gonna go back to it in just a second. It has literally made preparation. It says wisdom has already laid the foundation with seven pillars to create the house of wisdom. It's important for us to understand there's seven pillars. Now, this entire passage is all about preparation and invitation. It's invitation. This is this is invitation to say there is a way in Christ and everyone's been invited to it. Right? If you just read the passage, that's actually what it's getting at too. But we always read this one. Is this not our key verse around here? We love this when it says this in verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of. Oh, we love this verse. We lead with this verse, the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01:The fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02:We love it because it sounds so spiritual, it sounds amazing. The problem is, it's if used alone with only the fear of the Lord, then it doesn't fulfill its full outcome of wisdom. It's just the beginning. The fear of the Lord, but go back to the verse one. Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn how many? There's seven pillars to wisdom. It starts here, but the entire passage is this there has to be humility. Meekness has to be present. Meekness has to come on, somebody say, humility. Humility. It is the thing that if we can get back, we've got to get it back. We've got the church has to re to adopt humility back. Before I can have the wisdom of God, humility has to be present. It's not just to be have the fear of God. It's it's I can't even have the fear of God without humility. You can't have it separate. And so when we say that there's a call for humility back in the church, it's so that we can regain the fear of the Lord. You can't have fear of the Lord without humility. You can have you can have a statement. You can have something you think you're strong in, you just wheeled around. You can weaponize it. You you know the problem with you, Terry, is you don't have the fear of the Lord. You just need to be a fear of the Lord. Right? And then you see people preach it in a way that makes people not want to respond to the Lord. It's like fear of the Lord, I don't, I have enough fear, I can't sleep at night already. Because without without fully understanding what they're trying to accomplish here, they're saying like there has to be a humble spirit to embrace the idea that that fear of the Lord is present. Those two work hand in hand, is what I'm saying. Now, now, where else do we see this? Well, fast forward, we can see it. Go to the next scripture, James 3.13. James 3.13. Now, James is using Proverbs 9 to make a point. He's using that saying there's seven pillars she is already established, but look at what he establishes. Here's what he says. He says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. In the meekness of wisdom. Now, God is meek, but so is wisdom. So there is there's this humility in wisdom, there's the fear of the Lord that makes it up, and James is confirming that hundreds of years later. And here he says, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts and do not boast and lie against the truth, the wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and what? Oh that's a scary thing. We don't want to talk about the demonic. But isn't it interesting how James uses this? That selfish ambition is not just culture, you being you, I'm defining life the way I see it. No, you will and can and is defined as slipping into demonic activity. You can't say that, Pastor Scott. I did. I'm just saying, I didn't, James did. Let's blame him. But we are saying that there is demonic work when we give ourselves over to the flesh. It's when that becomes the main driver. That, right? Do you guys follow? The motive is off. All right. Verse 16. Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are. Let's read it again. Where envy and self-seeking exist, what is there? Confusion and every evil thing are there. Listen to me. If you're living in a place where you have a foggy brain, you can't make it out, things seem confusing about everything, it doesn't matter what anyone says, you hear a totally different different definition. You're easily offended. It doesn't matter what happens. Somebody bumps up against you, someone accidentally bumps you with their grocery cart, and it's your day's done. Oh, I dare you, I dare you. The whole time you're just shopping angry. Can I just be can I just be transparent here? You know where this gets me? I'm gonna tell you where this gets me. My son is in the room, he'll tell you. You know where this gets? Both of my sons are in here. Is it both of you? No, it's just one of you. Sorry, you all look the same. You know? They all look like Rico up there. Like just you are your father. He'll tell you this, you know where it gets me? Kingdom Heights is gonna love this. Driving to school in the morning. I want to stay saved. But but my drive home every single day is me asking for repentance to the Lord about who I am. I was like, how you've got to get this under the blood. And I am I'm just can just be transparent. I'm just like I get in the car, I'm ready to go. We live about as far as you can away from this school. So there's the first thing I'm saying, why did we even move out here? Like, the thing that's a blessing to me, I curse. Like, God, why are we out here? Everybody knows you can't go down 53 in the morning, right? Like everything, just in my head. Just the narrative starts over and over and over again, right? And it's so silly. But there are things in our life, right, that will so easily sidetrack us, get us off, take our peace, right? Where where self-seeking exists. Look, if you're surrounded with people who are takers and not givers, then they're creating an environment that's going to steal. It's gonna steal, it's gonna rob you of your time, it's gonna rob you of your peace. It's gonna come on, somebody. Right? We've got to capture ourselves and be able to recognize it and confront it. And in some cases, distance yourself from it. Why? Why is that important? Because he contrasts two wisdoms. There's a cultural wisdom, there's a spiritual wisdom. James pulls those two in comparison, and then he defines, you guessed it, seven pillars. But the wisdom that is from above is first what? Pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield. Oh, which I am not when I'm driving. You're not getting in. I don't care how long you have that blinker on. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Just get used to that sound. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Because, hey, not on my watch. We're getting to school, wait, man. You think I'm saying silly stuff? You see, I'm exposing who I am. Don't judge me, Lee. I'm sorry. We're really good people. We really are. Just this one aspect. Britt's a saint, and I am. By the way, didn't she do amazing last week? Man. Bro, I got on the phone. I said, How did it go, babe? She said, I don't know. I think it was good. I said, I hang up with her. I call other people that will be honest, right? I was like, tell me, how did she do that? Like, she did amazing. And I was like, she did exactly what I told her to do with my notes and everything. Oh, it's amazing. Such a good soldier. I love that. So not true, right? You know that. Amazing. Amazing. So, what does it say? Willing to yield, full of mercy, and of good fruits. He says, without what? Partiality and without hypocrisy. Wisdom has got this foundation to hold it. Now I can't access it without humility. Now you say you want these things in your life, but they're impossible to access. Guess what's not in the list? Humility. Anyone made a note of that? Because those don't exist unless humility is at the beginning. Right? You don't see it in the seventh. Okay, let me lay it out as a different thing. Proverbs 9 is this. It's a blueprint, right? It is wisdom builds the house. It's an invitation to live by God's design. That's what Proverbs 9 is. Back to James 3 is this. It's instruction to live like Christ would live. Right? There's a blueprint, and then there's the materials to build. The blueprint is this is the best way to do life. In Proverbs, here's James come alongside saying, like, here, I'm giving you the building material. Let's start building a good foundation. This is what it looks like. Next slide. Wisdom's inspection. Is this the next slide? Let me just double check. It is. I'm just checking. I'm just checking. I don't know. I'm not in control of it. Alright, wisdom inspection, right? Any house inspection you know, you're gonna get. But if we're gonna inspect this house for wisdom, does this house have wisdom? Does your home have wisdom? We have to inspect the pillars. Let's find out what's existing there. First of all, is it pure? Is it mixed with what? Motive. We could just stop right here. What's your motive? What's your motive behind serving your family or your husband or your wife? What's your motive behind serving the community or serving in your church? What's the motive? Well, I was just hoping that somebody would give me a job. Well, Christ is checking at the door saying, wisdom that you see can only be found when you humble yourself and change your motive. The motive has got to be pure. It's got to be that his heart is exemplified on the earth. Does that make sense? It's got to be what he sees. Anything else is mixed. Peace loving, it builds unity. Peace loving. We have got to be a people, the body of Christ, who enjoys peace again. And instead, we we find oftentimes the church knows exactly what they don't believe in and will fight like heck to defend it. But they don't know at all who they love and what it is, and do they have peace anymore? What's disturbing is to see the church get off kilter so where they exchange their peace in Christ for a win and an argument. A little Facebook battle. Little zingers. Little posts. Here's a little something for you to chew on. Just peace absent. Gentle. Leads us right into the next one. Gentle, not combatative. Right? Not combatative. Gentle. Gentle in spirit. Anyone want wisdom in the room? The hands got less this time. Because it's just like when you realize in order to have it, starts with humility. You can't confront culture without humility. You cannot confront the culture you live in without a humble heart, without the meekness of Christ. You can't have those things unless these foundations are in place. You can't build on them. There's no need to build on them if these things aren't intact in our life. This has been why I've been praying this weekend over my own. God, where am I at in that area? And where I'm not, Lord, correct it. Realign it. I'm assuming that's what we want. How about this? To be submissive. Now we don't like that language because people have taken it and made it into other things, but submissive really is just being teachable. Just be teachable. Have you just learned it all? Are you just a super Christian? I know Angie is. She's here. She's got super Christian status, but the rest of us? Right? We're growing. We're learning. You know, one of the most beautiful parts to me is to see somebody. I said this about Chris Mitchell the other day, and I'll say it to you publicly. And I said it to people that were in my office. You know, one thing I love about him is that though he's just a couple of years older than I am. You know what I love about him? He has a teachable spirit. He hears some of the stuff we talk about here. We're changing the system, we're doing this, we're turning up this, we're going over here. I'll go by his office and he's just shaking his head and pounding away, trying to figure it out, and then he'll ask questions. Hey, can you have somebody get in here and help me figure this out? You know, what is email? No, I'm just kidding. It's not, it's not just kidding, it's not like that at all. It's checkout systems, it's things that we're changing, but they're new, right? Just takes time. You have to learn it. One thing I love about it's teachable. Not just teachable about those things, but like, hey, here's the direction we're going, here's how we're approaching scripture right now. Here's one thing we're putting emphasis on. You know what? This guy's turnaround to doing it. And he hasn't doing what he could do because he's smarter than all of us combined on the staff. He's got tons more life experience than we have. He's got a lot more work in, he's he's he's failed at more things than we've succeeded at. Now you think, well, that's not very good. That's great. That's not lessons learned. He's learned more about life than we've forgotten. He's forgotten more about life than we've learned. Let me say it like that. And yet he stays a student, teachable. Can we be teachable? Is the Holy Spirit done with you? Can he not press into you and teach us about ourselves and about his presence and about the word? Come on, somebody. Gotta invite yourself into a teachable moment, alright? Full of mercy. Are you compassionate? What does it mean to have wisdom full of mercy, compassion? Compassion. Compassion isn't the dollar that you give. That's not that's not it. That's the action. That's the action on compassion. You understand what I'm saying? The giving is the action on compassion. Where's the compassion? It's this. Where's my mercy level? Where's my mercy level? My mercy level goes down when I lose track of the mercy given. In the pleasure when I forget the mercy I received. When I lose sight of the mercy I received, then I then I withhold mercy as though I am judge and jury. And you are not. God, I want a I want a heart of compassion. Get a heart of mercy. Re-familiarize yourself with what's been given to you and then project it on somebody else. Isn't that what it is, Barry? Isn't that what it is? Not the thing. I know it drives you. I see that. You you always say, Oh, I'm better than I deserve. The mayor, that's how he talks. I'm better than I deserve. That's even his little action. I'm giving you his action. That's better than I deserve. Right? Holds himself. Pastor Scott, better than I deserve. Right? Because he understands that. You know what? It makes him incredible in ministry because he can see it in other people and he can call it. Oh, oh, there's more going on in your life. Oh, there's there's more to have joy about than what you have sadness over. And he'll just scoop you right up and turn your day around. Right? That's the one who understands their level of mercy in their life. That's what I see in you. I do. That's why I come to you all the time. Give me some of that. I'm losing mine, right? Impartial, no favoritism. No favoritism. Now, now here this. People will use this and be like, that's right. Favoritism. You know, here's the thing. We can't disconnect like expectation. Okay, you follow what I'm saying? Sometimes favoritism can be viewed like, well, they they have access to something that we don't. That's favoritism. Okay, that's that's a definition. But the one I'm referring to here in the wisdom inspection, is wisdom present, godly wisdom, is this. Is there favoritism inside? Meaning, are we making it, are we lowering standards of what it means to be a Christian? Just so that we can get the number. I do kind of like the things like Christians do. I have had a conversation with some friends recently. Yeah, I do sort of like that. Yeah, but do you do this? Well, kind of, I mean, sorta like it. It's like, well, I'm I'm not asking if you sort of like anything. I'm saying the standard is the same. We can't, we can't want, okay, let me say it like this. We we want we want spirituality on the curve. My my kids, my kids love when the curve comes into play. Let me say for me, as a student, curve was a friend. Curve was a friend. You know what I'm saying? There was always the little smarties in the in the class who were gonna do what they do. But then there was all those other people that weren't gonna do it, and and and I was kind of in the middle and I was glad to have the curve. Boy, just would give me just a little edge. That that D put me into a C, that C put me into a B, and boy, when that happened, I was living. But we want our spirituality and our faith on a curve. The standards the same. And the invitation is to come, and he'll give you the grace to do it. Amen? Sincere and authentic. Sincere and authentic. We have got to be able to present our faith again, our life again. Wisdom is sincere and authentic. It's not just a bunch of words. It's not words, it's it's authenticity. It's real. Right? Authenticity. We talk about this when you're dealing with counterfeit, right? In order to determine if something's a counterfeit, we don't study what? We don't study the counterfeit, we study the real. By understanding the real, the counterfeit becomes obvious. We've got to be authentic about understanding who God is and not what is being presented on TikTok. You have 30 seconds worth of gospel messaging from some dude on TikTok that's doing his best to fish out some likes and appreciation and some following, and you're like, that guy's got his heart right. Man, he's on to something. Look, bro, you ain't seen his day-to-day. You don't know what they're doing. Where's his family at? Have you done any research about what they do and how they live? I love those people that love to put people under the spotlight, but they don't have none of their personal stuff out in the middle of it. They love it. And we got all of us, we just, we just we will get into that world and just gather all this information. And for what? Because it's disingenuous, it's not authentic. But we're confusing it, we're calling it authentic. Alright. Here we're closing. Hey, um Greg, come come come help these people. Come play. Give them hope. Give them hope. Saint Moses, the Ethiopian, says it like this incredible passage. You fast, but Satan does not eat. You labor fervently, but Satan never sleeps. The only dimension with which you can outperform Satan is by acquiring humility. For Satan has no humility. When we try to outculture culture, when we try to out pathos, pathos, the call is to pick up the logos. The word. In the beginning was the and the word, the true, authentic. We need wisdom to lead in this cultural moment. Do you hear what I'm saying? You you and I, the church, needs divine wisdom to lead effectively for the kingdom in this hour. You're under, you're whether you know it or not, you're under the microscope. If you claim to be Christ, his. If you claim to be his, you're under the microscope. The way you live, the way you talk, what you say, the way you respond, it's all being looked at, and there are there are people casting judgment and making big, big decisions based off of what they're experiencing with you. We're under the microscope. How many know you need wisdom? Now I don't say that to turn around and throw out the fear of the Lord. So be afraid. Walk easy. No, I'm saying find a place of humility before the Lord and allow him to give you the wisdom that comes from a seated place above. He's invited everyone under the sound of my voice to come up and to see. Why does it matter, Pastor Scott? I thought we were talking about Orphan Sunday. What happened? We derailed. No, we didn't. I'm giving you the perspective of why people like kids to love, lifeline, why these ministries do what they do. It's not just because they needed a job. It's not because it was like, oh, that's fun. That seems like a good passion project. Are you serious right now? Do you know the kind of effort, the kind of hardship, the kind of stories you have to go to bed with at night if you don't know the Lord? Can I tell you it'll drive you mad? To think that it's impossible for there to be a dent of difference made in any effort that you put forward. But why do we show up every day? Because we seek the wisdom of God and to manifest that on the earth will take humility. And so when I lay down at night, I come back to this job on Monday, not because I feel like I'm the best qualified, I come back here to see this church and this school do what it needs to do. When I finally go home tonight and humble myself yet again and say, it's not my time, it's your time. This isn't my life, this is your life. God, I want to see what you see. Oh, I everybody sees a broke-down project, everybody sees a school that they should have bulldozed, and everybody has opinions on what this campus should and shouldn't be. But you know what? Christ sees something different. And my job and our job as a staff is to continue to tell that story and to begin to show people what's possible in the redemptive work of rebuilding the walls. This is a Nehemiah moment for us. This is an Ezra moment, it's a rubbable. This is us being given an opportunity to lead in the season. Every ministry that we're reaching out to and working through, it's it's this is the starting point of it. We can't have compassion without the wisdom of God. We can't do it. We can't, there's nothing possible, there's no way for us to get there. We have to have the foundation set in order for you and I to thrive in this world. Not to combat against the world, not to hold up your fists and be like, I'm going after him. Like, no, listen, he's already won. He's already accomplished it. He's already, he, his invitation is not to fight, it's to be seated. Isn't that interesting? Isn't every fight I know starts with fist up, squared up, ready to take aim, right? That's that's the fights I know. Or a little uh an initial shove. Gotta have that first. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. You better not touch me. You're gonna regret touching me, right? You get that little piece, but the first one that touches, then it's on. It's on like Donkey Kong, man. We're just going for it. That's the that's that's the fight. But in Christ, he says, when that happens, come sit with me. When you want to, oh, I want to spar, I want, I want my emotions, my feelings to be heard. He says, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. See, humble yourself and come sit with me. And I'm gonna give you a proper way to respond. It will be meek, but it's not weak. I'm gonna replace that. How many know that's harder than it sounds and then it looks, right? That's why we need the Lord. Amen. Would you stand with me today? I told you we come back to this. Two things. Humility, Alabama fan. Humility. You need it, you need wisdom. Get that humble. That humble pie is coming. But here, here, here, here, here's what I wanted to get back to the four things I said on the front end. Now, this is a full circle moment. I brought it up, but I wanted to bring it back. I told my wife, I'm gonna put these four right back into it. I want you to do this. Now start asking yourself about this about your life. Now that you understand, humility is the desired work, right? I need to be humble. Fear of the Lord gives me access to the wisdom of God that I need to move forward in compassion and care and love and for people. I can see the world differently if I can see it through his eyes. And then after I ask myself, I don't have enough time. Well, see, that argument doesn't seem as big anymore, does it? Than it did when we first read it. No, I guess maybe I do have a little time. It's about how I use it. In fact, I have lots of time. When it's submitted to the Lordship of Christ, he positions me to say, God, this is your time, this is your life. Use me. Someone else will do it. Well, that seems like an empty excuse now. I realize that nobody's gonna do that for me. The responsibility you have today is to respond to his call for you. Right? Your neighbor can't do it. They can't respond for you. It's a call to you. What is the result? Here I am, Lord, send me. I can do it. Send me, Lord. Send me, Lord. Don't be afraid to ask the Lord to send you. He'll do it. That might be why you're not asking you. But he'll send you. He'll send you. But he'll be with you. Amen? I'm not equipped. Let me know there's no excuse. In the beginning was the word, the word was God. Remember? No excuse. The word has been from the beginning. You have it. You have it. Today, some of you, the physical expression of it through your Bible, some of it hidden upon your heart, but you have the word of the Lord. Right? He's given it to you. No excuses. Yeah, I would if I just knew more. Well, you know, he decided to give you a book, written all about it. Right? It's got all the wisdom language in it, it's got all the tips, tricks, codes, right? All the ones and zeros you can imagine. They're all trapped up in the Bible, ready for you to decode and put to life and to work. That's for my engineers. 001110. Just gotta talk that language. Last but not least, it's too broke to fix. And this is what I know. There's absolutely nothing. No heart, no family, no situation so broken he can't fix it. There's nothing. World, you don't understand, this world's terribly tough. Yeah, it's tough. But it's not irreparable. With anything Christ is possible, we have to be believers that can not just say it, but create an atmosphere where the presence of the Lord comes and change can actually happen. It can happen in your work, it can happen with your employees. You've been gifted a responsibility to lead your team, lead them, not just to make money, impact their life. With the gospel's sake, maybe it's showing somebody a house, Buffy. Would you let the Holy Spirit take you beyond selling a house? And maybe into somebody who just needed an encouraging word today. Do you think God would displace you, move you around throughout the city? He gets you to drive out to some obscure little house that you would he displace you to give one word? Absolutely he would. And it'll be worth every minute. Because at the end of the day, there isn't anything that you're doing in your life that if you allow it, you can do with him. And through that partnership, that seated place with him, you know what you get to do? Restore walls. Broken down hearts, broken down dreams, broken down visions, broken down homes, broken kids who need homes. It's an invitation. Get some information. Pray about it. God, what's my responsibility? Maybe it's just to give. Maybe it's to be a foster parent. Maybe it's to be a grandparent to a foster family. We're talking about that. How does that work? I told Lee, I said, I think that's an area that our church can get behind. Right? How can we support foster families who just need a night out? Man, I got, there's all kinds of incredible men and women in this room that are grandparents who can take a couple of hours, show up to a game, or take a kid out for some pizza. Why the parents just get them in it? Let's do that. That's something we can do. But we have to start praying. God, show us what you want to accomplish. And give us the grace to step out in it. Amen? Heavenly Father, we love you today. We lift you up and we magnify you above all things. Our greatest desire today is that you be glorified in this room, in our lives, in our families. God, we're asking you, recalibrate our hearts, recalibrate our motives. God, recalibrate this sense of hope. And God, these pillars that we've just heard James lay out, God. God, when they're not there, God, give us the grace to admit it. And God, give us the hunger to see those things established in us. Why? Because we're building, we're building a house. We need your wisdom. We invite your wisdom. We don't want to reason like the world. We don't want to be driven by culture. We want to be led by the Spirit. I don't want to be driven by the culture, I want to be led by the Spirit. We thank you for your word. God, we thank you for what you're speaking to the people in this room. The decisions that are going to be made today. Life is different today. I'm addressing this totally different. I thank you. Holy Spirit, only you can do that work. Now, God, we're asking you, would you make it true? Would you complete it? Come on, if you're here today and you just say to yourself, hey, there's an area right here. I just need to just, before I leave out here, I just need to submit that to the Lord. Come on, I want you to do it right where you're at. You know the, do you know what the Holy Spirit highlighted in your life? Ways where you've been your own leader, you've been fighting from one perspective, but God has invited you to something different. Could you just take a second right where you're at and just say, Holy Spirit, I want to exchange that for this new truth? I want to exchange what I thought was right to what I know is right. I want to line up. God, not just to what is proclaimed in Proverbs, but God, what is doubled down and given, given, given, given strength and clarity and words and direction through chains. God, I want those pillars. God, I want those pillars to define what I'm building in my home, in my marriage, at my work. I want you to be glorified in all of it. God, we pray for wisdom, insight, direction in the days ahead. Favor with every single person who steps out of this building, God, every conversation. God, every every water cooler conversation, every every deal that's going to be made this week. God, every every every uh moment that's spent with their kids, God, in secret, God, as they guide and direct their families. God, I pray that you be present today. In such a real and tangible way. God, we humble ourselves. We humble ourselves. We ask you, be glorified through our lives in Jesus' name. Everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00:We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impact. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at nine and eleven.