Tim Keller | Leadership Wisdom for Co-Mission in London

yes whenever I come in here it just reminds me they just don't make ceilings like they used to they just don't make in fact actually it's more interesting than you so I just I hope that I'm not distracted by it's a terrible thing and I hope you're not distracted by it I want to talk about something that you might ordinarily not here in the incessant meetings we have about how to do ministry and church planting in in a city like new and like London I want to talk to you about wisdom for church leadership some of you might know a couple years ago my wife and I wrote a devotional on proverbs and we had to work we had to basically crawl through proverbs verse by verse for a couple years and I was very very impressed by how much proverbs says about leadership and also how much is very very relevant even though you're not going to hear me mention at least during this talk you're not gonna hear me mention church planning too often but I'm chosen and I'm I've chosen certain principles and I'm also in a sense going to illustrate them and frame them in a way that I think are particularly useful for people who are doing church planning in cities so what's wisdom what is leadership wisdom and how do you grow it what is wisdom you might say well I know what wisdom is well in a sense you probably don't actually this year heard Vaughn Roberts and one of his uh I heard him teaching and he made a statement which I think is extremely important he said because God had created the world and because God is sovereign in a control of history it means that obedience is always the wise thing to do obedience to God is always the wise thing to do no matter what its immediate cost in other words God created the world God is sovereign over the world God's laws and his the the things that the Bible says reflect the nature of his creation and therefore to ever go against what the Bible says to ever go against God's will God's Word it's always stupid it's not just disobedient though it is primarily its - it's it's it's disobedient primarily it's offensive to God but it's secondarily it's stupid that is to say it's the most unwise thing you can possibly do so wisdom is not less than being obedient to God's Word but wisdom actually goes beyond that because there are so many situations to which God's Word doesn't speak real directly doesn't directly address God's Word gives you principles that help you make every decision and yet the fact of course is if if someone comes to you and says I'm thinking about committing adultery you don't say well let's pray about it and talk about it you say no you can't commit adultery the Bible says you can't commit adultery but if somebody comes to you says I don't know whether I should marry this person or this person well of course there you know obviously guys is you have to you have to marry in the Lord so it doesn't mean that most of the human race isn't already ruled out for you nevertheless it doesn't tell you exactly who you should marry it doesn't tell you exactly the job you should take or whether you should quit this job and take another job 80% of the major decisions we have to make are not directly dictated by the Bible and yet to make a bad decision a foolish decision an unwise decision can ruin your life and so in a way wisdom is not being less than obedient to the Word of God it's not being less you might say than being obedient but it's more it's it's knowing the right thing and the wise thing to do in the many many many the majority of situations that the Bible doesn't speak directly to so what is a wisdom if you're going to figure out what it is the best way to do it is to read the first chapter of of Proverbs and pay attention to the Hebrew words one of the things that I learned from Derek it neurs little commentary years ago which is too short and it's pretty old now it's still a wonderful treasure he mentions that it's in the first chapter and somewhat in the second chapter that many many synonyms are used for hip for wisdom of course there's the Hebrew word hikmah which is the word for wisdom it means to be competent with regards to the complexities and realities life but there's a whole lot of synonyms that every translation by the way translates differently and I'll just give you three that I think break down what wisdom is wisdom is insight foresight and knowledgeable miss you're wise if you have insight foresight and knowledgeable miss insight is the Hebrew word bina which is usually translated insight sometimes it's translated to sermon and it means the ability to see small differences so for example years for people that you could hire for a very important job and a an unwise person says well this person can't but these three or they all could do the job but a wise person can see small differences between those three people and make the decision of which is the best person B na means insight then there's a there's several other Hebrew words like or ma and Haskell which are translated in various ways but they basically means foresight that means they means the beat is strategic a wise person is someone who knows what the result of a particular action exactly going to be if you say well I thought I'd better talk to that person about that and he quit I had no idea he'd resign lack of foresight why in other words you you didn't know what the result of that would be if you were wise enough you would have known that if you said that to him he would quit actually somebody once said to me that being able to change something and you all are in situations as leaders where you need to make changes very often things will change and they'll change successfully and everybody will be on board and it will actually happen is if you if if you do these 10 10 steps in exactly this order if you do the thing that you ought to be doing fifth-third it's all over if you're doing the thing that you will ought to be doing seventh second it's all over and the reason why people do do it that way and the reason why I very often changes do fall apart was because there's just like a Farsight foresight so you have insight foresight and then knowledge and that's it the the fairly often when talking about wisdom we say well wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge that's exactly right I do know a man I saw once who knew everything academically there was to know about poverty he was just he was brilliant in understanding poverty sociologically anthropologically and economically when it came to actually him trying to help an actual poor family get on their feet he was a disaster so here's somebody it's possible to know a lot about subject and not be wise about it but it's impossible to be wise about a subject to not know a lot about it see you can have knowledge without wisdom you really can't have wisdom without knowledge you really do have to still know about your subject now if you have insight if you have foresight and if you have knowledgeable Nasseri --is according to the book of Proverbs you are becoming a wise person what are those four areas you need have insight foresight and knowledge bonus about God's will your own heart you have to really know your heart human nature you have to really know how people are and how people act and the times and the seasons and if you've got those three things about those four areas the will of God your own knowledge of your own heart human nature times and seasons you're becoming a wise person but we're here to talk about alright let's apply this to what does the Bible say about wisdom for church leaders there's an awful lot of church leaders I know that are passionate that they're doctrinally solid they're highly committed and they're foolish and they make all kinds of foolish moves all the time and therefore God's commission is not going forward so let's talk about what I see in this scripture mainly in the book of Proverbs but I've added a few other things eight I think will count them as we go along eight features of wise church leadership so I'm going to start eight times I think I'm going to say wise leaders lead like this okay a wise leaders lead mainly through character as you know first Peter five three nice talking to elders here and some of your elders but it's this would be true of course any of you any of you in leadership at all he says lead not by lording it over but by being examples I mean that's so clear not by lording it over but by being examples occasionally you really can as they say pull rank I don't know I suppose you've got that you never what ever use an idiom when you're American you are British and you go to the other continent and use it you always have to ask but you know the the idiom pull rank meaning you standing on your authority you're saying look I'm the boss here I'm the pastor here I'm the elder here occasionally you can do that and you should do that but you should be rare according to first Peter three your example your example ought to be so compelling people want to follow you what does that mean it means godliness of character deep godliness of character love and joy are you known as a person of love and joy peace and patience very very slow to get riled integrity and courage but humility and self-control let me get just in a minute I'm going to show you that leaders are supposed to be catalytic meaning they're supposed to give people a picture of the future so people are compelled and they want to follow but you know what and also good leaders are organized we'll talk about that in a second the fact is you may not be all that great in your leadership gifts you may not be really a gifted leader but if you're godly I mean if you are godly people are gonna follow you they're gonna follow you because they're gonna trust you by the way I even go so far as to say character is a lack of character is usually the reason why preaching is boring but that's another subject I mean all right you can be you can be relatively uninteresting just because you don't have great rhetorical gifts you just and give them to you but to be truly boring takes a certain amount of pride it's true you have to be full of yourself about your doctrine or want to showing off your show off your your Bible knowledge or something like that so the fact is wise leaders leads your character number one number two a let's say be wise leaders lead by judging character by reading character so proverbs 20 verse 5 the purposes of the heart are deep waters but one with insight draws it out or 28 I mean it's in the same chapter of proverbs chapter 20 verse 8 the King winnows all evil with his eyes and what there's what but both those texts are saying is the mark between a one of the marks of a wise person versus a foolish person is that they actually can judge motives do you know the difference between somebody who's really passionate for the gospel and a person who's just so insecure and desperately trying to be liked or trying to feel good about him or herself can you tell the difference you better because actually there is nothing more important for leaders than to be able to choose other leaders to be able to choose other people to hire people or to or to recruit people in the leadership position it's absolutely crucial and temperamental II none of us are wise in fact I'll keep I'm gonna get back to this before we're done our temperament is a habitual way we do things we may be temperamental II extroverted temperamental II introverted temperamental II cynical temperamental II naive we all a temperament is a default mode it's something that comes it was it was rudeness because of probably culture and maybe family background or whatever and it's a habitual way of dealing with situations but the fact is a wise person always responds to situations as they need to be responded to so most of us temperamentally tend to be either cynical or naive about people so some of us tend to hire people and recruit people and afterwards say oh my goodness why do I do that this person is not at all the right person they're many of the rest of us are so cynical we actually never trust anybody and we can't really build the movement because we've got it we can only work with people who were just exactly like us and the ability to be able to look into people's hearts and know what they're thinking you know in first Kings when when God comes to Solomon says hey you're a new king what do you need and Samba does not ask for wealth and he does not ask for a military victory he asked for what wisdom but in what way remember in first Kings 3 there's these two women each of them says this baby is mine and the essence of wisdom is to discern the motives one of those women were being was being duplicitous and one was being sincere and Solomon as you know the story I won't go into the Solomon and in his wisdom found a way to look into them into the women's hearts so you know George MacDonald whose theology was absolutely horrible but his fairy tales were great and he wrote one of his fairy tales called the princess and Kirti and it's about kirti is the hero and he had heard he has to go on a kind of quest for I can't remember what the quest is for but but this the fairy godmother a grandmother shows up and says you need a special power if you're gonna succeed and the special power is that when he touches somebody's hand he can discern what the person's really like sometimes he can actually touch what looks like a beautiful woman's hand and he perceives a claw or in one case he actually touches the the hide of a horrible beast and he perceives a child on the inside that had been turned into a horrible beast so it's a fairy tale but the point was the ability to read character which the Bible says is crucial to being a leader is also you know as a second extremely important by the way I know I'm scaring everybody here as I go along you're saying oh how do we get this well that's the point three and a good speaker gets you to want the end not like how do we get to the end so wise leaders lead through by reading character of see wise leaders lead by decisiveness without impulsiveness decisiveness without impulsiveness now when I say no impulsiveness you surely know that proverbs is just over the top about slowing down on your decisions so for example chapter 12 verse 15 says the way of fools seems right to them but the wise ask for lots of advice which is kind of frightening because some of us who are leaders the way this it's obvious you know the way of fools always seems right to them but frankly the he says the wise slow it down and ask a lot of advice and tried it and you don't go on your gut another way of saying that is chapter 50 1215 is the way it fools is to go with the gut and the go with the visceral here's another one it's chapter 21 verse 5 in this again in Proverbs the plans of the diligent lead to profit but haste leads to poverty haste I mean haste is like the bad guy in the book of Proverbs so impulsiveness no good no good to go but here's we gotta keep in mind is Jesus also judges indecisiveness and perfect example of this is is that the three stewards in Matthew 25 the parable the stewards and so a an owner gives three stewards in so many talents you know but one of the guys one of the stewards never invest the talent and he's nervous he's afraid he's in decisive and he's not quite sure he's afraid of losing it and so he thinks and he thinks he thinks he never does anything and of course when the owner comes back you know what did you with my talent well here is your talent I didn't I didn't grow it because I was you know I knew that you're a wicked hard master but of course the the you know the conclusion you might say on that servant is you wicked lazy servant not you wicked indecisive servant you you know you wicked lazy servant the fact is that the a leader is decisive and a person who's not decisive has the fear of man the person who's not decisive is just too afraid of looking bad too afraid of what people think and yet you can't be impulsive because a wise leader is marked by decisiveness but not impulsiveness now @cd is very very close I almost put these two together but I thought I'd better bring him out too a wise leader leads by assertiveness but not domineering they're awfully close but here's what I mean by that in the Bible especially in the New Testament ministry has looked at his stewardship Paul in 1st Corinthians 9 17 also in Titus 1:7 calls ministers of the gospel stewards now the reasons that that word means a lot and Jesus explains that a lot in his parables is stewards are both rulers and servants at the same time because their steward was actually the CEO or really the ruler of the estate but not the owner of the estate ultimately everyone reported to the steward but their steward report of the owner and that's a person who is a really interesting person that person on the one hand is not an owner not a ruler is a servant on the other hand is a ruler and you could argue and I will write here is that in Luke chapter 12 when Jesus talks about the the steward who beats the other servants and he's told that when the owner comes back he's going to cut you to pieces when if you forget that you were just a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ or as I just showed you in Matthew 26 if you're an indecisive steward that means you're not seeing your ruler see the Matthew 26 steward would not act like a ruler the Luke 12 steward would not act like a servant but a real leader is both at the same time and not half-and-half both at the same time so you've got some leaders who just want consensus and they want everybody on board and you know nothing ever happens and you've got other leaders that are domineering they say my way or the highway this is the way to go and Jesus Jesus condemns both but here's why I'm gonna just say this your temperament will print make you prone to one of the other nobody is wise without the Holy Spirit apart from the Holy Spirit you've got a temperament you've got a habitual way of doing things and that temperament is gonna lead you to be a bad ruler or a bad servant you're gonna tend to be too domineering or you're gonna tend to be too unassertive and Jesus condemns both because that's not what leaders are okay so that's a b c d e wise leaders lead two ways this could be to but not let's go two ways catalyzing and organizing now when i say by catalyzing organizing you know this is a pretty famous proverb that's a contested translation is contested and its interpretation it's chapter 29 verse 18 proverbs 29:18 word the old translations without vision of people perish you've heard that but of course you know other people point out that the word vision can also mean revelation and so some translated without revelation that people cast off restraint which is sure sounds different and by the way during the writing of the book I had to get out a bunch of commentaries all the people who know me here ooh better than me and weigh it up and I do think the fair I think it's fair to say that both sides have some right and therefore you should say this it's the job of a leader to use the Bible to cast a vision it's the job of the leader not just to catch the vision that that that the leader wants to cast but on the basis of what the scripture teaches on the basis of what the scripture teaches you are supposed to be putting in front of people it's not enough just to keep the machinery going that's not a leader a leader has to say how do we improve how do we make progress great Commission you know disciple the nation's we we can never be happy with the with the status quo ever so leaders should always be catalytic but secondly they have to be organized now here's where I'm gonna really make you feel bad ready I know you're so many of your English so you're not going to show it I know but I'm gonna I'm still gonna try a leader is organized and I'm talking here for a moment about time when I read Matthew apartment mark chapter one thirty one thirty five very famous in some circles here mark 1:35 that Jesus Christ early in the morning long in the dark long before dawn went out and prayed and then luke 9:51 where Jesus comes he says when the time had come to go to Jerusalem Jesus went to Jerusalem I love ad verse 9 luke 9:51 when Jesus when the time I come to go to Jerusalem Jesus went to Jerusalem here's what I'm going to say let me I wrote it down just so I said it right in Jesus Christ we have a man who masters time completely masters time completely in service to his calling he completely masters time in service to his calling there it's never wasted he never spends too much time in one thing in too little timing a completely masters time to serve his calling do you do I know and a good leader but plenty of Platt passages in the in in proverbs talk about a leader who can count the cost to figure out how much time it's going to take figure out what its gonna not start things until you know exactly what it's going to take but Jesus Christ and I'm just extremely convicted by it so misery loves company that is that he had a complete mastery of time in service of God's calling on him do we have complete mastery of time so leaders lead by catalyzing organizing almost done at least for this this list here we go I guess a b c d e let's let's call this f wise leaders lead out of a desire to serve not to get an identity and so forth they minister out of a desire to serve not to get an identity and self-worth i can't rush rush past this too fast every electric proverbs twenty twenty eight says something pretty surprising Provost 20:28 says though he says through love a king's throne is made secure through love I mean that's that's not the typical Old Testament thing to say about the king through love and what the commentators will tell you is we're really saying is the king's throne is not secure unless that people know that ultimately in spite of how tough a guy he is in spite of how authoritative a guy he is they've got to know that he loves this people and of course Luke chapter 22 27 says yeah you know where Jesus is the place where he says who is greater the one who sits at the table the one who serves I'm among you as one who serves so it's just so typical to say servant leadership servant leadership we're here not for ourselves we're here not for our own power it's all servant leadership but I tell you the spiritual reality is that you will tend to identify with your ministry in a way that you probably wouldn't have identified if you were a banker or it mean well that can happen too but the fact is when you get into ministry there's a tendency to so identify with that ministry so the ministry does well then I feel good about myself and so the ministry becomes an identity to some degree a bigger identity factor than the love of Christ for you and that is absolutely deadly I do remember years ago reading in Spurgeon's lectures my student at one place where he said he actually said don't preach the gospel to save your own soul and I remember I was a young Christian when I read that and I said that's crazy why would anybody go and call other people to be converted if they weren't converted themselves but now I get it I know what he's saying do you he says to a great degree so I know Jesus loves me on the other hand we're still trying to prove to ourselves in the ministry that Jesus loves us and that is absolutely deadly because the people are going to recognize it that you really are in it for you you're really not in it for them love is not the foundation of your throne and here's what I mean how well do you take criticism see if you identify with your ministry then criticism of your ministry is criticism of you and you just it really bothers you and people sense how it as you and guess what you have a very bad leadership environment you know why the best way for you to grow it is to make sure that everybody feels free to speak up and make suggestions everybody's got to say you know I don't think that's working I'm not sure that's working I mean by if you want the most wisdom out of your community you've got to make it safe to criticize the way things are but if you identify so much with your ministry they can tell that the criticism bothers you they're gonna shut up I'm gonna lose their wisdom not only that when things go well if your ministry really does well it's gonna go to your head if your ministry goes terribly it's gonna go right to your heart and your self-image and it's gonna it's going to you're gonna meltdown because you're actually not rooted in Christ you're rooted in your ministry for Christ so it's a wise leaders know this huge danger and wise leaders the love is the throne it is the foundation of the throne and Christ is the is the foundation of their identity and not their ministry and lastly wise leaders know that leaders are lonely and they and they escape the trap of self-pity about it and that wonderful prose wise leaders know that leaders are lonely and they escape the trap of self-pity over it now what do I mean by that there's a I was meditating near the very end of the book of Proverbs like chapter 31 King Lemuel Lemuel has a mother who writes advice to him like a queen mother I get you know the Queen Mum and invites rights advice and she says let other people drink wine let other drink people drink beer that's fine for them they're people that's great but you're a king and if you're drunk and somebody comes to you for justice you're going to do injustice so sorry you can't drink and wine and beer and I was reading on that I realize what what she's saying it's lonely at the top the fact is that if you're gonna be a leader you are not like everybody else for example you can't just let your prayer life go the way you used to you can't find yourself just so busy I haven't really prayed in days you know what you can't do that anymore when you're just a regular person maybe but people are depending on you you'll do injustice and there's something very lonely about being in the leadership role I could spend more time on that don't ask me more about it because it's a it's a hard thing to even talk about but the more you find the leadership the more leadership you get into the more in some ways you feel like in spite of all the colleagues and all that there's a certain loneliness to it and the great danger is self-pity because I I can almost tell how David did the stupid thing that he did King David how could how could King David do what he did with Bathsheba looking over there here's what probably something like this went on in his heart he says people don't know all the sacrifices I make people have no idea all I have to go through to be king I deserve that maybe it's not right but I deserve that self-pity that comes from the loneliness and a wise leader knows ahead of time it's gonna happen and guards against it okay here's the four things and I'll be pretty brief how do you grow this see I told you by now you should all be scared you should be if you're not I I wouldn't say you're not listening I would say I just haven't been an effective communicator because you really can't survive in any leadership but especially certainly not in church planning without these these marks of wise leadership I hate to say it in a if you if you have an established Church a kind of historic established Church and ministers have come and gone over the years I don't know I think in some ways a lack of wisdom doesn't immediately lead to breakdown I got to tell you that in new churches and in church planting a lack of wisdom can actually blow up the entire thing immediately like like that and therefore there's really there no risk you need to be growing wisdom and how here according to the Bible are one two here's three ways but the third way has three ways okay here we go number one reflection on daily life in community now the reason I didn't jump right to other things that you think I'm going to jump to is the book of proverbs talks an awful lot about people coming together and reflecting on what they're going through and becoming wise they sit there together cake people brothers and sisters coming together leaders coming together constantly and talking about what they're going through I told you there's a loneliness here well this would help to mitigate that to some degree constantly doing how to say it case studies or you're saying I'm in this situation and we're sinking and whatever and the question is always what are we learning from this situation what are we learning one of my favorite lines just is a little bit of a indulge myself you know one of the Agatha Christie Miss Marple novels I forget which one it is I think it's Bertram so tell anyway there's a place where Agatha Miss Marple has a retired Scotland Yard inspector who knows what a great detective she is and he's he's in the same restaurant I think talking to a friend another retired policeman friend and he looked he points over to Miss Marple who the man's never met and he says that this is the greatest crimp that woman over there is the greatest criminologist in England and yeah the guy looks at the retired Scotland Yard inspector says what and this is what he says there she sits he said an elderly spinster sweet Placid or so you'd think yet her mind has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it all in a day's work she has lived all her life in a little rural village of st. Mary Mead it's extraordinary she knows the world only through the prism of that village and its daily life but by knowing the village so thoroughly she knows the world the secrets of wisdom are locked in your ordinary experience of you know how to learn from it but most always that happens in community so first of all reflection on daily life and community case studies number one number two taking criticism rebukes I won't take time on this the Proverbs is filled with this in my friend John Piper is always talking about how important it is to take rebukes with a smile because they said your you know there's no way to become wise without at certain points getting withering critique from colleagues or others and accepting and listening and even take here's the day here's the point even if the if the criticism is eighty percent wrong or let's just say ill motivated as my wife likes to say Balaam's ass spoke the truth but it was still an ass okay you're not gonna say why should i listen to what Balaam's ass says it's an ass well but it was the truth yes it's the truth and so what if the person's motivation and all sorts of other things what is eighty percent of what the person says isn't true do you know how to learn from the twenty percent or do you just dismiss that the human heart which never misses an opportunity for self justification and self salvation never says you don't have to listen that twenty percent because that's not fair because look at all these other you know look at all the exaggeration and look at the poor motivation do you know how to do you know how to really learn from rebukes number one number two number three of course you're gonna hear me say this the gospel and the gospel does three things it changes your temperament it changes your identity and it changes the way in which you handle suffering one is it changed your temperament I'll be quick about this but it's very important to think about this Jesus Christ walks into a funeral the funeral of Lazarus I got this all by the way from a dick Lucas sermon four years ago if you never heard this it's just one of the greatest sermons and up comes Martha and says Lord if you'd been here our brother would not have died just a few verses later Mary comes up to Jesus and says law if you'd been here our brother wouldn't have died in other words two women two sisters same situation same moment and both are even asking the same question word-for-word and yet what dick pointed out was that Martha got the truth and Mary only got tears what what he says to Martha is I am the resurrection and the life but with Mary he just cries why see your temperament some of us would give both people speeches and some of us would do nothing but listen and - and weep but Jesus doesn't have a temperament you know why he's perfectly wise you know he's that he's that he's the wonderful counselor he's perfectly wise and he gave the women exactly what they needed not what was natural to him because he's just wise he doesn't have a temperament now here's what's great about the gospel the gospel will work on the part of your temperament that that will it'll weaken it so there's a great place in James chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 and it says in there it says that Christians of low position should remind themselves of their high position in Christ but Christians who are rich should remind themselves of their low position in Christ you hear what's going on because we all know the gospel means that if you're a Christian you're a horrible sinner and yet completely accepted in Christ your sign will set packet or your simultaneously a terrible Center and yet righteous in Jesus Christ and what's interesting what James is saying is those people who out there in the world are always told they're nothing neither really in particular use their high position on the part of their heart that might make them not confident but those people are out in the world are always being told how great they are and how wonderful are they are they need to remind themselves they're just plain sinners so the Gospels got something for you to keep you from becoming a person who is ruled by temperament also just briefly the gospel also changed your identity and if you're ever going to escape if you're ever going escape making your ministry an identity you've got to recognize that it's Christ as your identity it's not your love for him but his love for you arguably Peters mistake and the reason he did the stupid things he did arguably the reason Peter this stupid thing which he did which he denied Christ you know why he and you also might remember he said he said if everybody else abandons you I will not abandon you which is really weird because of course he was the biggest coward he was actually saying I'm the bravest of all these disciples he turned out to be probably maybe the biggest coward you know why because when he said I will never I will never abandon you here's my view of that he was basing his identity more on his love for Christ than Christ's love for him he was saying the wreath I'm sold out for you Jesus I'm sold out for you so his he had a false identity but you see how subtle it can be it was in his ministry that's the reason why he had no idea really what a coward he was he couldn't see himself if you if your self-image is based on being brave when you look into your heart you're gonna see cowardice no you're just gonna screen it out only the gospel can humble you and lift you up enough so you don't your ministry is not your identity as Christ and lastly suffering almost every culture almost every religion except our culture today believes that nobody can become wise unless they have a hard life I mean through how many of the most important things we've learned it because of troubles anybody living a charmed life generally is is pretty superficial in their understanding of their own hearts their superficial when it comes to understanding other people but here's the trouble suffering doesn't automatically make you wise because suffering can also make you proud nobody suffered like I have suffering can make you bitter suffering can make you anxious and what's the secret see what'll happen I think is suffering will harden you unless while you're in your suffering you know that in Christ God delights in you and that's only the gospel can if you if you've got if you've got works/righteousness where you basically believe the reason why God loves me is because I'm really a sold out Christian then when suffering comes you're gonna doubt whether God loves you because you basically saying I'm giving God everything why isn't he giving me everything but if you really understand the gospel of justification adoption you really understand that then what it means is during suffering you have to say in spite of how it feels I know he loves me and if you know that during suffering then the hurt will relate to your heart the way fire relates to gold or way pressure relates to a diamond and the suffering will only make you something greater

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Length: 41min 1sec (2461 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2019