Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25

Overview

Wisdom Incarnate: Christ as the Wisdom of God

For the Jewish people, wisdom and righteousness were sought through the law. In Christ, God turned that understanding on its head: wisdom is no longer a code to be mastered but a Person to be known. Christ Himself is the wisdom of God, and to seek wisdom is, first and foremost, to seek Him. This is why the incarnation matters so deeply. The creeds of the church—the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian—exist to guard this confession: that Jesus Christ is "at the same time both God and man," begotten of the Father before all ages and born of Mary in the fullness of time. Most heresies, in one way or another, distort one of His two natures. To know God rightly, we must hold fast to Christ as fully divine and fully human, "not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person."

Yet holding the true faith does not mean we comprehend every depth of God. Job learned this when, after demanding answers, he laid his hand on his mouth and confessed his smallness Job 40:3-5. The psalmist prays, "Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth" Psalm 86:10-11, and elsewhere quiets his soul like a weaned child rather than occupying himself with things too great for him Psalm 131:1-2. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" Proverbs 9:10—a reverent humility that admits our need before the One whose ways exceed our reason. Wisdom begins not with mastery but with awe.

Paul names this wisdom as something the rulers of this age could not see; had they known it, "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" 1 Corinthians 2:6-12. What we know of God we know because His Spirit has revealed Christ to us—the same Christ whose passion for His creation took Him to the cross. There, divine wisdom looked like foolishness: the Holy One bearing the iniquity of us all Isaiah 53. And there we see how unlike us God is. He does not deal with us as we deal with one another; He is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love," removing our transgressions as far as the east is from the west Psalm 103:8-12. Where we hold grudges and demand tit-for-tat fairness, God forgives, releases, and heals.

So what does it mean to follow Christ in this place, and to be His church in the world? It means we never grow so proud that we stop seeking Him, knowing there is always more of His grace to learn. It means we ask the Spirit to give us eyes to see our neighbors as God sees them—not by outward appearance but with mercy, gentleness, and sincerity, the very marks of wisdom from above James 3:17. And it means we hold fast to the true faith, gather as a family strengthened in Word and sacrament, and go out to plant the seed, trusting that God's Word will not return to Him empty. We will never be fully wise, but every day, by His grace, we can grow in the wisdom that begins and ends in Christ crucified for us.

Transcript

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much. 3s

We thank you that you are the wisdom incarnate of God that through your wisdom, which is 6s

greater than our own, you have made yourself known. 13s

You have made your love for us known through the redemption on the cross. 17s

And we thank you that you have opened our eyes and our hearts to know this truth. 23s

We ask that you would lead us today in this time of study that we would continue to seek 28s

after you knowing that you are wisdom itself. 33s

Lord we ask that you would bless us today, that you would bless those who are not able 38s

to be here today, and that you would continue to guide us today and always in your loving 42s

wisdom and your loving kindness. 48s

Lord we lift this to you in the blessed and holy name of Jesus Christ. 50s

Amen. 54s

Okay. 56s

Okay. 56s

Okay. 57s

So this is a total aside, but it was really cool. 58s

It surprised me. 60s

Yesterday I got this email from someone and he said while I was looking, he was looking 61s

up another living word Lutheran Church that's in Katie, Texas. 68s

And he stumbled upon our church and he started watching some sermons. 73s

So I just thought that was awesome. 78s

So just a little, a little encouraging nudge to share links because people find, find 80s

us and it's even better when they find us in their email that we send. 89s

So it was just kind of cool to think, oh, like we never know where our studies and where 96s

our sermons and where our devotions will, will reach. 102s

And so it was just really cool. 105s

That's a total aside, it has nothing to do with anything for today. 107s

But no accident, no accident, it was just really cool. 111s

I was, I was like, who is this emailing me? 114s

But no, okay. 117s

So I don't know him. 118s

That's okay. 119s

Okay. 120s

So we are going to wrap up with wisdom today. 121s

And again, we're asking those two questions. 125s

What does it mean for me to follow Christ in my life and in this place? 127s

And what does it mean for us today to be his church in the world? 131s

We've talked about how God really has flipped the understanding of the Jewish people, the 136s

Jewish people understood wisdom to be found in the law and through the law. 143s

Your righteousness was found through the law. 150s

Wisdom was in the law. 152s

And what God did was, was flipped that on its side so that we see that Christ is wisdom 154s

and that we are free in Christ. 162s

And it's very counterintuitive. 166s

But we talked a lot last week about how, how when we see that God's wisdom is in Christ, 169s

is exemplified, is come to life in Christ, that that leads us where we can't ignore the 177s

incarnation. 184s

We have to study the incarnation that is that Christ is fully divine, fully God and fully 185s

man, fully human. 194s

And so we are going to look at two of the creeds every single week. 196s

We say the Apostles creed in here. 202s

And there is that that's center section of the Apostles creed where it's focusing in 205s

on Jesus Christ. 212s

And it draws attention and pulls us to a confession of Christ in his two natures. 214s

And then we've got the other two creeds, the nice scene creed and the Athenation creed. 223s

And I'm going to start with the Athenation creed. 228s

We're not going to read the whole thing. 232s

But I think it's really interesting and important to talk about this. 234s

It begins with whoever desires to be saved must above all hold the Catholic faith. 240s

Catholic here is little c, not capital c, so it is not the denomination of Roman Catholicism, 249s

but the the word Catholic meaning the entirety, the whole Christian church. 257s

So whoever desires to be saved must above all hold to the Christian faith. 262s

Then we get over to, well I say over because it's in like two parts here. 272s

Then we come to where and it's going through over and over and over of the Trinity and 279s

how the Trinity is held together. 284s

And it's a beautiful, beautiful teaching and confession of the Trinity. 287s

So where it really honed in on Christ, we're going to center in there. 293s

It says, therefore it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord, 300s

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. 306s

So important to our faith and so important in seeking the wisdom of God and seeking to be wise in God 314s

is fundamentally in that truth that God is or Jesus is, fully man, fully God. 325s

Because if we try to take one of his natures away from him or if we try to lesson 334s

one of his natures and put them out of balance, then we are not talking about the second person of the Trinity. 341s

We're not talking about Jesus Christ, Son of God. 350s

And so it's fundamentally, fundamentally, fundamental, I don't know. 354s

It's fundamental that we confess Christ as who he is and to be who he is. 360s

He is God, the creed continues, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages. 368s

Remember we've talked about in Scripture where it's very clear that Christ was before time, before the beginning or at the beginning. 374s

See, he is man born from the substance of his mother in this age. 388s

There was an appointed time when the second person of the Trinity would be brought forth in creation through Mary. 393s

He is fully man, fully God, composed of irrational soul and human flesh equal to the Father with respect to his divinity, less than the Father with respect to his humanity. 403s

Although he is God and man, he is not too, but one Christ. 417s

Where we find a lot of the heresies, which Pastor Eibel did a great adult education on heresies, Hogali, was that pre-COVID or post-COVID? 424s

Post-COVID? Okay, we're getting a post-COVID vote. 434s

Really, really great to go back and watch that. 439s

What we find is that heresies, time and time again, are heretical because they try to teach something other than Jesus, second person of the Trinity, fully God, fully man. 442s

And so there are these branches of false teachings that generally have to do with Christ and trying to make him something that he is not. 459s

One, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God. 471s

So again, you have the divine and the flesh together. 478s

It's not like one draws the other. 488s

It is co-existent in one person, Christ. 491s

Let's see here, where are we? 498s

One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. 502s

For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ. 507s

Who suffered for our salvation descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the father, God Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. 513s

In the Nicene Creed, same sort of thing. 527s

And again, these creeds are built and written with the purpose of an answer to a heresy. 530s

So a heresy would arise and the councils would come together and they would work through explaining and putting forth a confession of faith. 538s

So that middle section in the Nicene Creed, I believe, well, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God, begotten from the father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, so not a creature, not a created being. 551s

Of the same essence as the father, through him, all things were made for us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven. 571s

He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human. 579s

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. The third day, he rose again according to the scriptures. 584s

He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father. 591s

He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have will never end or will have no end. 594s

Okay, so this is another little tangent. Did any of you grow up saying the Nicene Creed a lot? 602s

Okay, so I grew up where every week we would say the Nicene Creed. And if I'm not careful, when we're doing the apostles' creeds, sometimes I'll start to slip into the Nicene Creed. 608s

Man, it's crazy. So that is nothing with wisdom or anything, just a weird malignacism. Okay. 622s

So we see that the church fathers, the early church councils did their best to provide us with a steadfast confession of the incarnate, second person of the Trinity. 632s

But it doesn't mean that we fully grasp it or fully understand it. That's why I think it's so important in that first verse of the Athenation Creed where it says whoever desires to be saved must above all hold the Catholic or hold the Christian faith. 650s

It doesn't say must understand every nuance in this faith because we don't. And we can't. We can't. And that's where we're going to go next. 669s

So let's go to a joke. This is the book right before the Psalms. Job 41. 685s

We're going to look at a couple of things here. 693s

Job 41, verse 3. Wait, 41? No, I'm sorry. I think it's 40. 699s

Yes, 40. Job 40, verse 3. I have it written wrong. I'm going to correct myself there. 708s

So, Job has been challenging or wanting answers, demanding answers from God. God comes to Job and he starts questioning Job. 719s

And Job then says, and this is verse 3, Job then answered the Lord, see, I am a small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not answer twice, but will proceed no further. 731s

Job realizes that he's been sticking his nose into something that he does not understand and he has no business sticking his nose there. 748s

Because God is so far beyond what we could ever understand that what he reveals to us, we praise him and thank him for revealing that to us. 760s

And what we've said, this entire series or this entire study is that God reveals himself to us through and in Jesus Christ. 777s

We know God because we know Christ. So we take that and we rest in that. 788s

And whatever more God expands in revelation to us, you know, as we read his word, as we come to know him more and more, he will open himself more and more to us. 799s

And we praise him for that, but it is all Christocentric. It begins with knowing Christ and it begins with knowing Christ for you. Christ who was crucified for you. 813s

Let's go from Job over to the Psalms. We're going to go to Psalm 86, Psalm 86, verses 10 and 11. 831s

And I love these verses as this sort of confession similar to what Job is saying where Job says, well, I'm going to just shut my mouth. 842s

I realize I'm not where I belong right now or not not sticking my nose into my own business. I love these two verses. 853s

So verses 10 and 11 of Psalm 86, for you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. 863s

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 872s

It is seeking the wisdom from God that is true. And what do we know to be true? We know that Jesus is the way, the truth, the light. 884s

No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. So here the psalmist is lifting up, is lifting up the fact that God's deeds are so wondrous, so above our own understanding. 901s

But it's also that supplication that that are not supplication, that petition asking to teach me Lord reveal reveal yourself to me. Show me teach me I want to walk in truth. 922s

Let's go over to Psalm 131. Psalm 131. 937s

And we're going to look at the first two verses. 942s

I said Psalm 131, right? Okay, perfect. I don't even trust myself now. Okay. So again, same sort of thing. This is very similar to that, that what Job had said. 950s

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 964s

But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother. My soul is like the wean child that is with me. 975s

So here again, it's that that very humble, humble and rightfully so, humble before the Lord saying I'm not I'm not trying to be lofty. 983s

I'm not trying to seek something that I'm not supposed to know, but I want to know your ways Lord. Teach me. 997s

And isn't this what we're seeking? We're seeking the wisdom of God. We're seeking to be wise in God and in the ways of God. 1004s

And so, so we we seek we seek after the Lord and we're calm and we're still. 1015s

Think about a child. How after they eat they are just just so chill so chill. Happy Tommy, happy baby. It's all good. 1025s

When we are seeking after what the Lord will reveal to us and as we seek after his heart, after we seek after him, we can be still. 1040s

We can rest. We can be at peace because we know that what we are supposed to know, we know. 1051s

And what we are to know, God will tell us. God will show us. 1060s

Yes. Okay. So then let's go over to Proverbs. So we're in Psalms. We're going to go over to Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10. 1066s

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. 1083s

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and insight. 1093s

When we step back, when we step back and and really think about the Creator and the maker of all things that ever were ever are and ever are to come and consider how everything is held together in him. 1099s

And through him. And this is what we talked about last week where you keep stepping back and going broader and broader and your mind just just it's too great for us to understand. 1128s

And so we fear the Lord because he is greater. He is awesome and empower in wisdom in everything so much more than we can wrap our brains around that it is a reverent fear and awe. 1143s

And when we are in awe of the Lord and we are humble before the Lord, that is the beginning of wisdom. 1163s

That's our starting place. 1175s

Have you ever been trying to do something and someone wiser has stood by you and said, well, why don't you do this and they're trying to help. 1179s

They're trying to help and maybe this is just me, but I don't think it is. 1191s

Okay, so I'm trying to do something. Stop it. I got it. Stop it. I got it. I got it. I got it. 1195s

And how long does it take before we humbly say, can you help? 1201s

We have egos that are probably bigger than we even think they are. We have pride. We want, I love this. I just see some body language going on over here. 1211s

Sorry. 1227s

You know, when we are so sure in our own ideas and our own thoughts, we are not wise and we are not even ready to begin being wise. 1229s

But when we come to the Lord and we say, help. 1248s

As the Psalmist said, teach me, teach me your ways. 1252s

That fear of the Lord, honoring him, revering him, that is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. 1258s

He is so supreme and so great that our wisdom is actually in understanding that we won't or can't understand him fully. 1267s

Right? Let's go over to first Corinthians chapter 2. So this is in the New Testament. 1282s

I love asking that question every week. We ask the question to the kids in confirmation. We will say, okay, open your Bibles to X book or whatever. 1290s

First question is that Old Testament or New Testament? One guy last week. He got it right and that was great. And I said, yes, and he goes, well, I mean, there's only two choices. It was a 50-50 chat. 1299s

Okay. Just impress me. 1313s

Okay. So first Corinthians, we're past the Gospels, past the book of Acts, past Romans, and now we're in first Corinthians chapter 2. 1317s

And we're going to talk about as it's labeled in my Bible, it says, the true wisdom of God. 1329s

And I want to, you know, no, I'm going to start something else for, I mean, yeah, keep it there. That's good. 1334s

What we're going to find, what we find continually is that, you know, as Paul writes, he's writing of the true wisdom of God. 1340s

And when Paul writes of the wisdom of God, there's always this counterintuitive aspect to it that it doesn't jive with what we understand in this world or we understand by our own reason. 1350s

And we have to think that Paul is writing from a place of Jewish wisdom. He was a Pharisee. He was very well versed in the law and the ceremony and the rituals of the Jewish religion of the Jewish tradition. 1367s

What we find is that he, he wasn't finding redemption. He wasn't finding salvation in the Jewish law. He found reason to persecute. 1384s

He found reason to, to see himself as more worthy or more righteous than others around him. And he was absolutely blind to God. 1397s

So I think it's really, really interesting and not coincidental that, that when he met the Lord, the living Lord on that road to Damascus, what happened to him? He was blinded. 1413s

He had been blinded all his life by an incorrect teaching and understanding of God. He was a faithful Jew, but he was, he was blinded to God. 1428s

And so when he meets the living Lord after persecuting people of the way, he's literally blinded. And when he comes to see God spiritually, what happens? The scales fall from his eyes. And he can see. 1445s

He can see. And so he's writing, he's writing these letters and his mission and ministry is done out of the heart of one who once was blind, who does now see, who was wise in the ways of the world, and who is now wise in the way of God. 1467s

And so that's where he's, that's the perspective he's writing from. And so if we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 beginning in verse 6, 1488s

yet among the mature, we do, we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to perish, but we speak God's wisdom. 1498s

Oh, God, there's a ladybug. Oh, my gosh, sorry, that scared me. 1509s

It did. It scared me. It just, it just surprised me. Well, I'm going to have a pet. 1517s

None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but as it is written, 1528s

what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things Paul writes, God has revealed to us through the spirit. 1536s

For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within. 1550s

So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the spirit of God. 1561s

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 1568s

So we, oh, there you go. Okay. So we understand, we understand in a counterintuitive manner that God is greater, that we are redeemed in Christ, that we have something that is not of this world, 1578s

and that is what we are to pursue, that we have a spiritual understanding made known to us by the Holy Spirit himself, Christ promised to send the helper, the advocate. 1602s

And we know in the gospel of John that the advocate is to be sent to lead us and teach us in all things that are true. 1615s

What is true, Jesus Christ, crucified for us that our salvation rests in him and it's God's own spirit that connects us to God himself. 1625s

He is the one that opens our eyes. He is the one that opens our hearts to know him. He is the one through whom we understand whatever we are going to understand about God. 1641s

The cross, oh, who wrote this? Dennis, something or other in one of the books that I read, I really liked this. He says, the cross expresses the passion of God for human beings and for all of creation. 1659s

This kind of love between creator and creatures is not only unpredictable to human reason, but entirely unthinkable. Here, divine wisdom does something really foolish. 1675s

It is an extreme expression of identification between God and suffering creation. 1688s

We talk about the passion of Christ. And when you think of passion, at least I remember being younger and thinking of passion as being a very more of a romantic thing. 1695s

And then you hear about the passion of Christ and you think, what, that's not romantic, but it's God's intimate love for you that took him to the cross. 1707s

It is God's intimate love for his creation that he endured the most humiliating, sacri- or desks, executions. 1719s

The intimacy with which God loves us, I talked about this in a little breakout in Costa Rica. The song of Solomon or the song of songs, you read that of the love and the beloved and the intimate love that those two share. 1734s

And that is God's love for us. I mean, it kind of makes you blush. Because he loves us so, so deeply, so, so deeply. 1752s

And so the passion that God has for his beloved, the passion that Christ has for you is so intimate and so deep that it is a beautiful and extreme expression of his love for us. 1766s

And God doesn't deal with us in a manner that we deal with one another. Thank God. Thank God, he does not deal with us how we deal with one another. 1791s

Let's go back to the Psalms, Psalm 103, Psalm 103. 1806s

And we're going to begin with verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and a bounding instead fast love. We could stop right there and say, oh, yeah, no, God is very different than me. 1822s

God is very different than us. Who is slow to anger? Who's quick to anger? Right? Yes, exactly. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. Has anyone ever held a grudge in here? That's how we deal. That's how we deal with ourselves. That's how we deal with others. God does not. 1841s

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our niceties. How many of us live by the theory or by the idea that what goes around comes around? 1868s

You did this, so I'm going to do that. And you live in a tip-for-tatt sort of relationship with whomever. It's exhausting. It's exhausting to bear a grudge, to seek revenge, to seek after fairness according to our terms of fairness. 1890s

And what we see is that God counterintuitive to us and our reason, God does not deal with us in that manner. He does not hold a grudge against us. He does not continue to accuse us. 1920s

When we hear the law preached or when we read the law, and he convicts us with his word so that we fall at the foot of the cross and confess our sin, then we hear that word. You are forgiven? It's done. It's over. 1940s

Your sin is no more because Christ has taken it upon Himself and He does not hold a grudge. It says that as far as the east is from the west, so far He removes our transgressions from us, it's gone. It's gone. 1961s

Let's go to Isaiah 53. We're in Psalms. We're going to go to the right. You're going to come to Isaiah, chapter 53. 1988s

So one of the small groups that's happening right now is on the book of Ruth and it's a DVD series and the teacher of it is Messianic Jewish man, Sam Nadler, Dr. Sam Nadler. 1997s

He talks about when he was first introduced to Christ as a man who grew up in the Jewish faith, he went to a Bible study and in this Christian Bible study they read Isaiah chapter 53. 2012s

He said we don't read that in synagogue because it's so clear who it's talking about, who was being prophesied about. He went away from there saying, OK, it just can't be Jesus. 2033s

It just can't be Jesus because he had grown up in the Jewish faith which taught that it was a lie about Jesus, that he didn't really rise from the grave. 2052s

Remember in Scripture it talked about how the soldiers were told to go and spread the false news that someone had come, his disciples had come and stolen his body. 2066s

Instead of the truth that he had risen from the grave and so that carries through even today into the Jewish teachings. 2080s

So this man, he reads Isaiah 53 for the first time and he says, this is the Savior. 2088s

And he just didn't want it to be Jesus but he could not deny it was Jesus and by God's grace his eyes were opened, his heart was opened and he came to know Christ as his Savior. 2097s

So we're going to look at at 53 Isaiah 53 seeing that God does not deal with us according to how we deal with one another and we see that this is let's pick up in verse four. 2114s

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases yet we accounted him stricken struck down by God and afflicted. 2135s

He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities upon him was the punishment that made us whole and by his bruises we are healed. 2143s

All we like sheep have gone astray we have all turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all jumping down to verse eight by a perversion of justice he was taken away. 2159s

He was holy Jesus Christ alone was righteous and yet the iniquity of us all the wrath the punishment for our sin was laid upon him. 2181s

That is not how we deal with one another and yet that is how God deals with us. 2204s

In first Samuel when Samuel was told to go and anoint the new king which would be David to anoint the new king and the brothers of David are being ushered in and Samuel is seeing these men and he's saying oh surely that's the one that's the one and God says no stop don't look upon the outer appearance. 2217s

I see not like man sees I see the heart I see the heart and so God's ways always are bigger and better and wiser and greater than ours. 2242s

And he sees with eyes that we don't naturally have but by his grace he gives us eyes he gives us eyes first to see him and to know him and to know salvation through him and then he gives us eyes to see those around us. 2263s

We can't read people's hearts but we can look upon others with mercy and with grace and that is only only by the grace of God that we are able to do that. 2289s

In James chapter 3 verse 17 he's writing about seeking wisdom asking God for wisdom and he says the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle open to reason full of mercy and good fruits impartial and sincere. 2305s

And we know that Christ is wisdom Christ is wisdom from above and do those do those modifiers work is Christ pure yes is he peaceable gentle open to reason which means easily obeying and compliant think of how he prayed in the garden before going to the cross he prayed sweating blood if 2328s

if it is your will take this cup let it pass and if it's your will bring it on he was complying he was obedient to the father full of mercy of course is Christ full of good fruits is he impartial is he sincere. 2355s

The answer to all of these is yes yes yes Christ is the wisdom wisdom incarnate we know God and we know his love for us because we know Christ and we know what Christ has done for us. 2379s

Will we ever be fully wise no but by God's grace we have the opportunity every single day to continue to grow in wisdom seeking after the wisdom of God because when we seek after the wisdom of God we are seeking first and foremost after. 2405s

Christ and as we seek after Christ we continue to be blessed through the Holy Spirit to see our neighbors to see our family to see our friends to see others in need and to extend by the power of the Holy Spirit mercy in kindness and gentleness and exercise that wisdom that God has given us. 2431s

So what does it mean for me for us to follow Christ in our life and in this place it means that we are not so proud that we stop seeking after him that we are humble to know that there is always something more for us to learn and grow in by his grace and that we are called to see our friends. 2462s

We are called to love our neighbors and serve them through his love and what does it mean for us today to be his church in the world. 2491s

Well first and foremost I think that it means that we continue above all to hold to the true faith and that we don't veer from his word we don't veer from the truth that we have in his word and that we continue to go out, continue to go out, strengthened from being here as a community and faith. 2502s

We are a family of faith together and we go out and plant the seed, plant the seed and trust that God will indeed send forth his word and it won't come back to him empty. 2532s