The Apostle Paul wrote this extraordinary letter to a church he knew well, yet a church which had got itself into a bit of a muddle. The Christian Family matters so it is important to ensure that Jesus sits at the heart and soul of this church and in fact any church.
In this talk, Jared Lidgerwood holds up a mirror toward the Christian family and looks at the different ways that we consider something to be wise. The point: worldly wisdom is not match for the foolishness of God who saves through Christ crucified. Really?
In every stage of life, what we often need and frequently lack, is wisdom. Whether seeking or being married, relating to our children or relating as adults to our parents, there are potholes that rattle us. Proverbs anticipates our struggles and offers timeless wisdom, warning and instruction that find their zenith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Building Wisdom: Husband and Wife
This sermon looks at the need for faithfulness in a marriage, and the greatest example of this being Christ and the church.
Proverbs assumes the need to love our children through discipline, as hard as this is in practice. This sermon investigates the idea of discipline, as well as the ways that God loves us through his discipline of us as his children.
This sermon looks at our struggle to heed all the wisdom our parents have to offer, often due to pride. We should honour our earthly parents naturally as we live out our faith in honouring our heavenly Father, perfectly modelled by Jesus.
While poverty or wealth often correlates with foolishness and wisdom respectively there are other times when the wise must choose wisdom over wealth. Wealth is fleeting, especially for the fool and hence a wise person will be generous towards those in poverty. This talk explores what Proverbs says about worldly riches.
A true friend chooses to love us, unlike family who we are stuck with. True friendship involves choice to love at cost and should be held onto dearly. Hence a true friend will seek our best, even if this is not easy. Again, for this reason, Jesus proves to be the ultimate friend. This sermon explores what Proverbs says about friendship.
Our words have a moral status in the eyes of God. Proverbs recognises the great power of our words to bring life or death, prosperity or poverty, wisdom or folly.
With our words we can condemn others and even ourselves.
If our words and tongue are so potent, we need God’s words to accept us, save us and protect us. This sermon looks at how.
There is humility in learning from an ant. Proverbs reminds us of the consequences of laziness and yet also encourages us to enjoy the good gifts of creation. Christ is the ultimate worker, being perfectly rich, he worked for our salvation. This Sermon explores what Proverbs says about work.
Do you love a good party? Go back a millennium and you may have found yourself at an Israelite party – or ‘festival’ to be more accurate. Israel as the people for God conducted festivals which celebrated or reminded them of what God had done for his people. At these festivals they would read out one of their (Old Testament) scrolls – Ruth at Pentecost, Song of Songs and Passover, Ecclesiastes at the Feast of Tabernacles, Esther at Purim and Lamentations at the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem. This custom was not continued by the Christian church.
Yet these little books exist in our Bible and it is not often that you hear them preached. So, in our Five Festal Garments series we are going to look at these little biblical treasure troves and see what Christians can learn today as we get dressed to live godly lives.
In this, the second of three sermons on Gospel-drive guidance Geoff Lin shows us what the Bible has to say about how we can find out how God wants us to live (God’s moral will). Geoff explains how the Bible should be the primary way we discern this and reminds us in 2 Timothy 3:14 we read that the “holy Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation”. Geoff then provides sound advice for as to how we should do this – by reading and being challenged by, the whole of the Bible – all of “God’s Word to us”.
Be careful how you answer – because there are two different kinds of ‘wisdom’. On the one hand there is heavenly wisdom and on the other there is worldly wisdom.
A wise person, should probably examine themselves before they give an answer.Of course a Christian would want to say they were a ‘heavenly wise’ person. Indeed. Would others consider you to be?
James in his letter shows us the difference between these two kinds of wisdom – and helpfully suggests that the way to determine a heavenly wise person is to effectively ask those around them!
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