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Living the Life of a Christian Diplomat

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Living the Life of a Christian Diplomat

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Living the Life of a Christian Diplomat

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We are ambassadors for Jesus Christ and our capacity to represent the coming kingdom is important. We must exhibit these three ingredients:  knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

Transcript

 

Sermon presented by Anthony Wasilkoff on April 13, 2013 in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada congregation.

 

According to the authoritative Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia (I hope it's authoritative, it's quite a few years old, but it still has some validity) the following description or definition is given for the diplomatic service.  You may have, at one time, maybe considered diplomatic service as a career option or maybe you have known someone who has served in the diplomatic service, either in this nation or other nations.  The diplomatic service is a body of agents maintained by a government to conduct its relations with foreign nations.  First, ambassadors acted only on specific missions and then in the early middle ages, Venice set up the first permanent system of resident ambassadors in foreign capitals and permanent ligations became general by the end of the eighteenth century.  Congress of Vienna in 1815 adopted classic vocations of officers, now widely accepted and these classifications you will recognize. What are they?  Ambassador, Minister, Prayer Potentiary (I like that one) Minister Plenipopentiary, Envoy Extra Ordinary, Charge D'affair and so on.  Diplomats enjoy, what the diplomats enjoy among other things, diplomats enjoy diplomatic immunity, the resident's rights of extra territoriality and one function of diplomats is to observe political, economic and military trends subject to international restrictions barring one thing and the one thing that they are barred from doing is espionage. Yet it's known that (Not Distinguishable) is cover for all kinds of espionage and that its the one thing that is specifically forbidden.  It's been said, I heard quick one time that (this is tongue in cheek) that diplomacy has three parts.  Diplomacy is one third protocol, one third alcohol, and one third Geritol.  It is tongue in cheek and yet sadly, if you follow the news about a week ago, a week and half ago, two weeks at the most the complaint lodged by a U.S. official, a delegate to the United Nations regarding the fifth committee which is the budgetary committee that too many of the participants were showing up inebriated.  Some of them fall down drunk, including the note taker in recent times.  So he then put in an official complaint saying this must not be.  It should not be something that is allowed or countenance in any way. 

Look with me now please at II Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 20, still part of the introduction for this particular message this afternoon, the sermon following today's sermonette. 

II Corinthians 5:20  Now we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us:  we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.....Which appeared in one of our heads we once had as part of our church entity, Ambassador College.  A number of us here this afternoon have attended Ambassador College or visited the college or the campus or been there for the Feast of Tabernacles or have had family that go to that particular school and at one time before we even had 3 campuses of Ambassador College.  Presently we have Ambassador Bible Center and for that we are grateful to have that particular entity. Ambassadors for Christ was what we as Christians are supposed to be; Ambassadors or Envoy's or representatives of the coming Kingdom of God. 

There are three one third elements for being able and adept and successful Ambassadors for Christ.  They are not protocol, alcohol and Geritol.  But they are one third component parts just the same and I'd like to identify them for you here today, so that we are truly exemplary.  Do you know that in New York the delegates, meaning the envoys, the official reps from various nations in their particular roles are considered in many respect deadbeat people, meaning that in the United Nations area and by that I mean New York, there are so many envoys and diplomats who abuse their diplomatic immunity status.  For example:  A few years ago, there were those who from a certain nation called Cuba didn't agree with an anti-Cuba parade in New York and four of them waded into the parade with an ax handle, a crow bar and another offensive weapon and beat the marchers including a policeman and it was all caught on video tape and although they were charged, the charges were dropped because they exercised their diplomatic immunity.  A lot of the diplomats there abuse their privileges by parking illegally, by renting either homes or other office space and not paying and nothing can be done about it. I suspect that is true in other capital cities where there may be diplomats who are in embassies and abuse their parking opportunities or privileges and the most that can be done  ultimately is that they are sent home. 

We are ambassadors for Jesus Christ and our capacity to represent the coming kingdom is important.  We also must exhibit three one third ingredients. 

 

Ingredient #1 and once I mention that you'll figure out the next two.  Ingredient #1 is knowledge.  As ambassadors for Christ we have to have a working knowledge of God's word of the holy scripture,  referred to today in this afternoons sermonette.

Proverbs 18.  I think a broader definition of it at first and then zero in of course on the scripture. But what does knowledge mean?  Knowledge means, when you have to ask how knowledgeable do you feel right now?  Well, we feel knowledgeable in many ways. We're individuals, who if we were offered knowledge we wouldn't be here, for instance this afternoon.  We probably would be somewhere else.  Look what it says in:

Proverbs 18:15  The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

Knowledge isn't inherent.  It's something according to this verse (I'm using the new King James version), it's something that has to be acquired.  It's something that has to be sought.  It's something that has to be valued.  It's something that has to be pursued.  It doesn't happen just automatically. A quotation.  I don't know who this came from: "It ain't so much what folks don't know, it's that they know so much that just ain't so."  So we have to be discreet, or discerning would be a better word, about the knowledge that is out there and what we're trying to learn and what we're trying to acquire.  It doesn't happen automatically, we have to be careful about how we pursue it.  How many times have we received warnings, especially now on the internet and then you check it out on Scopes and we find out that it's not accurate.  It's well intentioned but it's not accurate by any means.  You hear and see the advertisements about learning a foreign language and you think it would be so nice to learn a second language.  We know one language, two languages, some of you are linguist.  You know multiple languages, but it never hurts to learn one more language. You can write in for this course and all you have to do is put that CD in the machine and put your little pillow speaker into your pillow and then you can just sleep and learn effortlessly while you sleep.  Is there anything that is effortless that is worthwhile in this life?  You and I both know that although it would be nice to think I could learn a foreign language by sleeping, we know it doesn't really work, in fact it does not work at all.  Learning requires concentration.  Knowledge is vitally important.  A wise man it's been said, allows himself to be taught many things that he already knows.  That's how an individual becomes more knowledgeable.  Instead of saying to you, as you were trying to share something to them, interrupting you and saying to you, "I know."  But, you didn't let me finish before you interrupted me and said "I know."  

Proverbs 12:1  Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is brutish or foolish. 

How much do we, how much do you, how much do I, still love learning, love knowledge?  Let me rephrase that and see if we can get a parallel.  How many of us love chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, how many of us love lemon, lemon pie, lemon anything, lemon dessert?  How many of us love certain past times, maybe swimming, maybe canoeing, maybe kayaking?  How many of us love the beach or love the ocean or love sunny days or love a thunder storm?  You can go on and on.  I love that first crocus that comes through in the ground, the first daffodil, the first tulip.  Here reference is made that we should love instruction and love knowledge.

Awhile ago I clipped out an article and put it in this file. A convention, not too long ago, right here in Toronto of 3,500 librarians and all weekend they were going shhhh to each other.  No they weren't but there wasn't a lot of partying going on and various individuals who valued the lamdbert.  One individual being quoted here and he was actually the librarian then from Stafford, Ontario said:  "I really don't see the sense of surfing the net, I'd rather walk to my local library and surf the actual book.  Go there and pull it off the shelf and go through it." They're finding that library enrollment, library attendance is actually going up, not going down.  I must say that when it comes to research, it's so much easier to turn on the computer and google or whatever methodology you use, to find a book that before it was difficult to research, but now it's much, much easier.  Nevertheless, it goes on to say, by long life, technology is a major component of this convention, it simply complements the traditional library and the books we can hold, open and read in bed.  Have you heard recently that when it comes to electronic devices, observations have been made that people who take their lap top or their e-reader to bed with them, find that inhibits sleep because as you are reading before bedtime, it emanates so much light, that your body thinks, oh it's still daylight, it's not night yet and it affects sleep patterns.  So, the recommendation is, don't do it a couple hours before bedtime, just read a regular book.  As I mentioned before, I found it really works when I read bedtime stories to my grandchildren, I fall asleep before they do.  "Grandpa, wake up."  Some of you can understand exactly how that works

Remember this passage from years gone by, it was one of our memory verses and a good one to commit to memory once again.  It says:

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge...Where do we start when it comes to knowledge?  Well with the fear of the Lord, that's the foundation of it.  That appeared once in effect in principle on Ambassador Hall on our Ambassador college campus in Pasadena, CA.  It was a reflection of this verse.... But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

This puts a direction, a definition on what knowledge is and what it isn't.  We live in the information age.  There's an incredible amount of information that's out there right now.  How many e-mails do you receive a day?  Some of you receive an enormous number of e-mails a day.  How many of them can you read a day?  How many of them do you have to answer every day?  Well we know we live in the information age, but information isn't knowledge and certain information and knowledge I do not want to know.  When the news comes on and says and now we're going to show you something that may cause you some difficulty, it may be hard for viewers to watch, I'll change the channel.  If this is something that's going to affect the viewer, I don't want to see it.  Why are they putting it on there anyway?  When you have a right to know, actually I have a right to not know.  Certain things I don't need to know, I don't want to know, it has a contaminating effect, but knowledge is gone, information is gone way too far in this day and age as we realize in so many ways.

Looking at the example of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Was Jesus Christ perceived as being knowledgeable or was He perceived as not being knowledgeable?  What was the perception that He gave to others?  How did they observe Him?  How did they experience Him?  Two little verses here, but applicable for what we're covering right here.  

John 7: 14 & 15   Now about the middle of the feast.....Which feast was this?  This was of course the Feast of Tabernacles.  It was a time I had no idea what the Feast of Tabernacles was and maybe you were in that situation too at one time.  We have observed the feast, many of us for years and years and automatically we know what this is talking about......Jesus went up into the temple and taught.  So what did He do during the middle of the feast?  Well He gave instruction.  So we attend the Feast of Tabernacles for many reasons;  instruction, learning, during the Feast knowledge is one of those reasons.           

Then verse 15 tells how He was experienced, how He was observed.....And the Jews arveled....marveled at what?  At the quality of His teaching.....saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?" .....Well of course He was the Son of God.  He knew all about everything.  He could read men's minds, especially theirs.  But what this is saying is how can He be so educated when He didn't go to a biblical school?  Well, we know the answer.  He came across as somebody who was knowledgeable and well read and informed and so should God's people be today as they should be in every age.

One of the axioms that Gardner Ted Armstrong used to give some years ago was this:  That a Christian should know a little bit about everything and everything about the bible.  I think that's still a good rule of thumb, that a Christian should know a little bit about everything and everything about the bible so that you realize Jesus Christ came across as educated and knowledgeable.  King Solomon had a wide range of interests.  When he was visited by the Queen of Sheba, she was really impressed by many things,   certainly by the office of the kingdom, but by his knowledge and you'll remember if you think back to I Kings chapter 4, that he knew 3,000 proverbs, l,005 songs and that he talked about trees and animals and birds and insects and fish, that he knew about so many things that he was interested in them.  Have you known people who are brilliant, really brilliant, but their brilliance is in a very narrow band in this spectrum and in that one narrow band of the spectrum, they are remarkably brilliant.

One of the chauffeurs at Ambassador which I've referred to before, was a driver for one of the world's stellar pianist.  We had some of the top pianists in the world literally, who played at the Ambassador auditorium, like Arthur Rubenstein who was considered one of the top who ever lived and also Vladimir         Horowitz and there were others.  One of them, I'm not sure which one, I'm glad I don't know, said to our student who was trying to work his way through college, driving individuals of stellar reputation to and from the airport to the campus and back, said to him: "You're so lucky, you're so fortunate, you can do so many things, all I can do is play the piano."  Well he played it brilliantly, of course world class, but that was his proficiency and everything else was something that was foreign to him.  

So as God's people, most of us are not specialist and that's probably for the better.  Where we strive to know a little bit about everything and a broad range of interests and everything about the bible, which takes a lifetime and then some. 

Moving on from this first ingredient to be an effective Christian diplomat, we have to have as part of our repertoire, one third knowledge.  In addition to that of course we go to the next one third and that is one third understanding,  Knowledge is the acquisition of information.  For more than that, fact and figures, principles, how to live, knowledge of the bible, how to apply it.  Understanding is knowing the significance of that information, knowing the meaning of that information.  How much understanding would you say you had?  I would ask myself, how much understanding do I have?  It's a static thing, it can come and go and I'll make a comment about that a little bit further.  You sometimes think, oh that was perceptive, there was a lot of discernment in that and other times you may think even the very opposite.

Jeremiah 5:20-25 "Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying: 21 'Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding,.....They have knowledge perhaps but what they lack here that's being identified is a lack of understanding.....who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not: 22 Do you not fear Me?' says the Lord. 'Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet then cannot pass over it. 23 But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed. 24 They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us now fear the Lord our God.... which is the foundation of knowledge....Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.  He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest." 25 Your iniquities have turned these things away and your sins have withheld good things from you.

Has that been happening?  We hear a lot about weather patterns, global warming, climate change and we think, well we can solve that by buying carbon offsets and somehow that will solve the difficulties, solve the problem.  Number one I don't fly much, but buying a ticket, I think probably for the Feast of Tabernacles and being asked by the agent:  "Would you like to buy a carbon offset."  "No thank you, I'm not interested in buying a carbon like he had."  "That's o.k. I won't be offended by that."  But how do I know where that carbon offset really goes and does it really benefit?  Somebody sent me a cartoon this week, I think it was yesterday and it's a Peanuts cartoon and I wanted to share that with you, one of the three, maybe you saw it as well where Lucy says to Linus:  "I am pro-choice."  "Can I choose to smoke he asked her?"  "No, it's not good for you."  "Can I choose a large soda?"  "No it's not good for you."  she says.  He asks: "Can I choose to own a gun?"  "No it's not safe for kids."  He goes on to ask her: "Can I choose an incandescent bulb?"  "No, it's not good for the planet."  "Can I choose low cost coal."  "No, that's not good for the planet either."  "Can I choose to honor God?"  "No, that's offensive."  "So what can I choose?"  Last frame:  "An Abortion."  I can choose an abortion.  This is an example of political correctness that has gone amuck and it's captured quite nicely by a little cartoon.  I don't think Charles Schultz did this because I think he is deceased but someone has been using his vehicle and it's effective to show how we have lost our way when it comes to knowledge and even more so understanding.  We have somehow, someway, well we know how, lost our way, but understanding isn't what it should be, what it once was.

Psalm 119: 99  (This is the psalmist saying and you can say this too, no matter how old you are) I have more understanding than all my teachers.....not some, not most, why?....For Your testimonies are my meditation.....You may be going to night school at a local community college, you may be studying for a degree at a university, you may be mentored at work and all those teachers have more knowledge than you in all likelihood, but you can say you have more understanding.  How come?  Because of what it says in verse 99.  Because you studied God's word and you've taken it seriously trying to learn and not only just learning information but you're trying to understand it, to think it through of why it works and how it can be applied....100  I understand more than the ancients.... more than those who are a lot older than me or who are not Christians.  Why?  How can we understand more than the ancients?......because I keep Your precepts....We take the instructions, the laws of God's word, apply them and as we do that, we actually grow in understanding.  It does work that way.

One of the things we scratch our heads about today is when celebrities become spokesmen for various causes.  You think how did they become authorities to be spokesmen for various causes and sometimes they're self-appointed.  It's just an interest of theirs and they're being given so much publicity.  Reference here, some time ago to a Miss USA contest.  The question was, if you could live forever, would you want to and why?  As Christians we know, yes we'd like to live forever and everything in this human experience is too short, that a lifespan passes all too quickly.  But each year when I come for the Feast of Tabernacles and unpack and think, oh this is wonderful, it's going to be eight days of bliss.  The next thing you know, you're packing, next thing you know, it's over and it goes by so quickly.  We have been constructed to yearn for eternity and nothing else satisfies.  Back to the USA beauty contest.  The contestant replied as follows (Miss Alabama):  The question was, if you could live forever, would you want to and why?  Answer:  I would not live forever because we should not live forever because if we were supposed to live forever then we would then live forever, but we can't live forever and that is why I would not live forever.  It's a valued attempt, but it doesn't follow that proficiency in one area translates into proficiency in another and how blessed we are to have knowledge based on scripture understanding of that knowledge, especially in scripture and how it applies to quality of life.

Here's another probation quote that is astonishing.  A comment made by actress Brooke Shields during an interview to become a spokesman for a federal anti-smoking campaign.  So if you were selected for that post and it's an important one, what would you say that would be believable?  What would you say that you show you have grasp and understanding of that position.  Here's what she said:  "Smoking kills.  If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."  So, it's a sadness and it shows that something is missing in the selection process and training process and people are put into a position where they really aren't able to convey what is expected of them and it comes back to haunt and bite them.

Looking at our Savior, Jesus Christ and how He exhibited this second attribute, the second one third.  He was clearly knowledgeable but look at Luke 2 and see how He did when it came to understanding.

Luke 2:41  His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.....referring not only to the Passover day but the whole feast week, the Days of Unleavened Bread.  The word or term Passover applies to the whole segment of time.  So they observed not only the Feast of Tabernacles or He did, but also the spring feasts as we just did.  42:  And when He was twelve years old ......it's hard to comprehend what Jesus Christ was like when He was an infant, and now He is twelve.....they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast....43: When they had finished the days....all seven of them.....as they returned......time would have gone by quickly for them just as it does for us......the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.....Isn't that beautiful terminology, the boy Jesus describing Him as a youth and still looking boy-like and being boyish?  I remember the wife of our music teacher in junior high talked about her boys, I think she and her husband had three or four boys and she described them as still having kissy faces and then how these little boys, little girls, little boys had kissy faces.  Then as they get older, they start getting a stubble.  These days I still kiss my son goodbye and goodnight and he's going to be forty this year, it gets grizzly and the kissy faces gone long ago but here's where He still had kissy faces and we can enjoy the description here when Jesus Christ was like when He was twelve. ....And Joseph and Mary did not know it. 44:  But supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45:  So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him......They must have been worried, He was missing for three days. 46:  Now so it was that after three days they found Him......Where?......in the temple.....Not in a bowling alley or a video arcade or whatever would have been the equivalent.  What was He doing there?......sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions......He knew  everything, did He not, at age twelve?  It was pretty much clear that He was an exceptional human being, but He could still ask questions.  Has anyone ever asked you a question and then didn't listen to the answer?  You say, wait, wait, I haven't finished my answer.  No I'm going on to it, next question?  He asked questions, He listened to the answers setting a remarkable fine example for us through the ages.  47:  And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers....at His grasp, at His comprehension and answers two things, emphasizing understanding that a twelve year old of course, He was the exception to the rule, can have a lot of grasp, a lot of understanding and one of the things that He modeled for us here is illustrated by this little poem:

A wise old owl sat in an oak.  The more he heard, the less he spoke.  The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why aren't we all like that wise old bird? 

If we listen a whole lot more than we speak; Jesus Christ illustrated that even as a twelve year old.  Then of course we will benefit not only in the realm of knowledge, but also in understanding.  47: And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.  He had remarkable discernment and grasp, even as a twelve year old.

Category three, or element number three, or the last one third.  First of all, as effective and capable and adept ambassadors for Christ, we have to be knowledgeable and we have to be understanding and knowledgeable especially of God's word, understanding what that word means and then thirdly, wisdom (you're probably well ahead of me) knowing when and how to apply the knowledge and understanding we have.  There are individuals who have a certain amount of knowledge and a certain amount of understanding, but they do not do well in applying it and putting it to practice because of a lack of wisdom.  How much wisdom would you say you have or I have?  Well wisdom is fluid.  Just because someone has wisdom at one time of their life, doesn't mean they will always have that wisdom.  Solomon of course is testimony to that sadly enough.    Sadly, wisdom is not valued too much in today's day and age, it should be.  Seniors are not valued in today's day and age, they should be and we are paying tribute to our seniors here in this congregation today in a special way.  We should of course, every Sabbath and every day, but we have a special function here today.

Proverbs 8:11  For wisdom is better....wisdom is better than something....it's better than rubies.....Now someone said I have two choices for you today, after sunset tonight and we have Gemologists who are in this congregation and they would say to you I have two rubies and I have wisdom, which would you choose?  And we think I can always get wisdom later and how many carrots are those rubies?  I'm not even sure how you measure rubies.....Wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.....Wisdom is so valuable, so important, so essential.  Wisdom is better than rubies.  If all the things we desire cannot be compared with her......12  I, wisdom.....Wisdom here is personified.....dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion.....or understanding if you will. 

How important is wisdom to you and to me?  Do you ever see it offered in a college course or even in a university setting or a high school, wisdom 101 or wisdom 201, or post graduate course in wisdom?  It is not valued out there that I know of, if it is, let me know.  We have quite a few people here who are teachers and some who are university students and university graduates, let me know.

In today's world, what is valued?  When you go in for a job interview, is there some way in which the potential employer is trying to access, well the knowledge they will, understanding not so much and wisdom usually zero.  There's very little way or interest in accessing wisdom. It's been interesting to observe yesterday in the news, people who are hoping that if they rub their hands with  potential glee, that they may win the next lotto draw.  Is it forty million or is it more than that?  Not too long ago a lady won I think forty million or quite a few million and she did the happy dance, you may have seen that on the news.  So the potential in winning millions of dollars is there and they interviewed various individuals, asking them what would you do if you win, if you make the big win?  Very interesting what people had to say.  People in their thirties and forties and fifties, what they had to say.  Not many of them were optimistic.   One eighteen year old lass who just turned eighteen and bought her first lottery ticket said I would give it all away, I would share it with others.  Interesting to hear an eighteen year old say that. 

I got this out of last weeks paper about someone who won the lottery.  An individual who had been living homeless since 1978 in Illinois.  He went to the Circle K gas station in Bloomington, bought it back to his camp after he bought his ticket, scratched off the ticket and said:  "I'm a winner, I won, I won."  He ran back to the store thinking he had won one thousand dollars and the clerk said: "No, you didn't win a thousand, you won fifty thousand."  He said "I almost fell over."  This fifty-nine year old doesn't plan to change his lifestyle, instead He said:  "I want to give it back to society."  All he has is fifty thousand, not fifty million.  He lives in a tent and said the first thing I want to do is help the fellow homeless people around here, I'll give each of them a hundred dollars.  I have eight friends in that category but I'm sure many more will show up.  Then I have plans to visit my son and then a dentist and then I'll put some of the cash away.  After taxes, guess how much he has left of the fifty grand?  Thirty-five thousand.  Uncle Sam takes a pretty good size segment of that winning money.  He went on to say:  "I'm living in a tent and I'm happy as I can in my nature."  So he had a little more put together as far as values are concerned, a little more of a grasp then most.

We have God's wisdom offered to us through our relationship with Jesus Christ and with God the Father.  "I, wisdom, dwell with prudence. Wisdom is better than rubies."  This is a remarkable and a wondrous treasure we should never, ever take for granted.

A one time memory and passage for us in years gone by, you may remember this, it will come back to the back of your mind when you read this with me:

Psalm 111:10  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom....How does wisdom begin?  What is its foundation?  The same as knowledge.  The fear of the Lord is a vital starting point.  That's the beginning of wisdom....A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.  His praise endures forever.

Wisdom depends on our relationship with the great God in heaven and over time we grow in knowledge, over time we grow in understanding, over time we grow in wisdom.  Those who are our elderly in the faith and they have been in the church for decades and we're honoring them today.  How much they've grown in knowledge, how much they've grown in understanding, how much they've grown in wisdom, our faithful, beloved seniors who are here today and others who wish they could be here.  How fitting to honor them.

Do you remember the book written by Robert S. Mendelsohn some years ago called "The Confessions of a Medical Heretic?"  He was himself a Pediatrician, he since has died relatively young from complications of diabetes of all things.  He also wrote Male Practice, maybe that can ring a bell, and he wrote Confessions of a Medical Heretic.  He was a Professor, a practicing Pediatrician as I said and he pointed out some of the difficulties in the medical world, some of dangers, some of the areas where we need to be really careful and not just overly docile.  He's the one who said when you go into a hospital, tell as many people as you can you have a lawyer in the family and he's really close to you.  Then be sure that when you're in the hospital room that you have somebody sitting in a chair beside your bed at all times.  Don't leave it up to the staff to look after you.  Be sure you have someone there who's going to be there on your behalf to be sure everyone is doing their job and most of the time most of them are, we realize, but there are the occasional situations where things can go awry.  But in his book he was describing the value of family, the knowledge of family.  He said that one grandmother is equal to two physicians, that one grandmother is equivalent to at least two medical doctors.  Why would he say that?  Experience, knowledge, wisdom that grandmothers has accumulated over the years treating her children and then treating her grandchildren, and having a lot of grasp and knowhow.  Interesting to hear him read that or say that and to read it in his book "The Confessions of a Medical Heretic." 

James 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom....well that doesn't apply to any of us here, so let's go on to the next verse.  It was Will Rogers who once said, we are all ignorant, we are all ignorant only on different subjects.  That's a pretty good description, we're all ignorant but only on different subjects.  We all have deficiencies, no one can be an expert on everything.  So if any of you lacks wisdom, what do we do?.....let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. Or her.....6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting......no wavering......for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind......7 For let not that person.....or she or he or they......suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;......he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

When is the last time you have prayed for wisdom?  How often do you pray for wisdom when you do, when you get into the wisdom mode?  You think, well I've been slipping in the wisdom department.  I need to ask God for more wisdom.  Wisdom is the result of a miracle.  It's something that God grants to people and as I've said, you can lose it.  Solomon at one time was the wisest man who ever lived, but towards the end of his life he became a foolish king, sad to say.  So wisdom in one area isn't necessarily translating to wisdom in all areas.  Wisdom is something that is fluid and it's vitally important that we as God's people ask our Heavenly Father earnestly for wisdom, for the right reason and in the right way for the right reason virtually every day.  Of course He will grant it to us.  But if we don't, well guess what happens?  Well, we can loose it and begin relying on our own capacity.

I remember talking to one individual with respect to certain decisions he was making.  He came in for some counseling and he was making certain decisions which were really not in his best interest.  I asked him how is your prayer life and bible study life?  Marginal.  How do you know you're making the right decisions and he pointed to his head and said, little grey cells, little grey cells.  Well, if you're (French saying) then perhaps there is something to identify, but otherwise if we rely on our own wisdom, we can find ourselves in serious difficulty.

Remember the following progression of thought?  When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was grown up.  Do you remember being in that position or situation when you were still a little boy or girl, you could hardly wait to have your driver's license, hardly wait to be out of the house, hardly wait to be grown up. When I was a kid all I wanted to be was grown up.  When I was all grown up, all I wanted to be was married.  When I was married, all I wanted to be was a success.  When I was a success all I wanted to have was kids.  When I had kids, several of them, all I wanted was to be alone.  When I left my spouse, all I wanted to be was free and when I was free, all I wanted to be was happy.  I should have settled for grown up.  A lot of people learn that too late.  Now, as God's people, we have been given information the rest of society doesn't have.  We're blessedwith information and understanding and wisdom that the rest of society doesn't have and we want to share it with them.  We want others to have what we have and to experience what we experience, the joy, the benefits, the privileges, the freedoms God has given to us in His law and in His word.

Matthew 13:54  Describing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and how He exemplified this attribute, this final one-third component:  And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said: "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?  Because one follows the other, at least it did in His experience and in the ministry God gave Him.  He was knowledgeable, understanding and He had wisdom.  Remember at another reference I will not site it here for lack of time, but He talked about Jonah and He talked about the wisdom of Solomon and then He said: "And a greater than Solomon is here."  Solomon was a king, he had a huge audience, massive influence so that dignitaries came to see him.  Jesus Christ's profile is very different and yet his wisdom far surpassed that of Solomon.

Some summary thoughts.  Knowledge, understanding, wisdom. Knowledge is directly proportionate.  How much knowledge you and I have.  The right kind of knowledge is directly proportionate to our amount and quality daily bible study.  If we want to be knowledgeable and remain being knowledgeable, that's directly proportionate to the amount and quality of our daily bible study.  We've said that for years and years and forgive me for repetition, but there is no other substitute for it.  Daily bible study is vital.  We have a daily bible reading program, very effective.  If you're not doing it, please consider starting because it's so beneficial, it takes us through the whole bible once a year.  So, knowledge directly proportionate to the amount and quality of our daily bible study.  Our understanding, our grasp our savvy is directly proportionate to the amount and quality of our daily meditation.  That's something  that's a lost art, it's a sermon all by itself.  Meditation.  People used to sit on the front porch and whittle.  They would have a stick and knife and they'd be sitting in a rocker and they would be doing nothing.  Yes they were doing something, they were thinking and it's so nice sometimes to not turn on the radio in the car and just have quiet and think.  But these days people don't have that because of the ear plugs in their ears and you'd be walking along talking to someone and they're not listening to you because they're in their own world and its a sad thing to see.  Mother's pushing along a stroller and the little child is looking around and instead of engaging with the infant, he or she are on their cell phone or they have their ear plugs and this completely shuts the outside world off.  People need time to think.  Understanding is directly proportionate to the amount and quality of daily meditation and of wisdom.  The wisdom that God can give us is directly proportionate to the amount and quality of daily prayer, where we are in communication with our great God in heaven and asking Him day by day, virtually every day, not only give us this day our daily bread, but also provide for wisdom from above, to be able to walk and live the life of a Christian Diplomat.