Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / James 3: Wisdom in a Social Media Storm | Sunday Service | November 3, 2024

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James 3: Wisdom in a Social Media Storm | Sunday Service | November 3, 2024 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  Speaker 1: there.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Listen, I want to continue this morning in James.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We've been doing this both on Sundays and Wednesdays.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: We've arrived at the third chapter of James.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: There's only five, so we don't have that much more to go, but I want to talk about something specific to this, and also not this is one of the most important chapters.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I've said that about every chapter, but this is one of the most important chapters, I think, in James, because it talks about something that we all struggle with, and so what I want to do is read the first few verses.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that, and then we're going to go to the next thing.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Is that okay?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: All right, here's the first verse.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: You can follow along in your Bible.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: It's on the screen, on multiple screens.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers, because we know that we teachers will be judged more strictly.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Next slide we all make mistakes often, but those who don't make mistakes with their words have reached their full maturity.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: We talked about on Wednesday the idea of completion.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Some translations use perfection.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I prefer completion, maturity.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Like a bridled horse, they can control themselves entirely.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: When we bridle horses and put bits in their mouth to lead them wherever we want, we can control their whole bodies.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Consider ships they are so large that strong winds are needed to drive them, but pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a little rudder.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts wildly.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Think about this A small flame can set a whole forest on fire.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: The tongue is a small flame of fire.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: A world of evil at work in us.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: It contaminates our entire lives.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: A world of evil at work in us.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: It contaminates our entire lives.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: The tongue itself is set on fire by the flames of hell.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: And with that, let's pray.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Gracious and holy God, your word is a lamp into our feet.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: It's a light into our path.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Gracious and holy God, your word is a lamp into our feet.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It's a light into our path.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: May it speak to us.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: May it speak through us for the establishment of your kingdom on this earth.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight and in your sight alone.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Oh God, you are our rock, you are our redeemer.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: We love you, we give you praise.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: We pray this in your name, amen.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: If you didn't pick up on the meaning of those six verses, it basically says what your mom told you growing up Watch your mouth, be careful with the words that you say.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Some of you have to be told that nowadays.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Some of you have come to complete maturity.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Most of us haven't.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Well, here's one of the things that it kind of pushes toward here, which is where we arrived on Wednesday at Bible study is that little words can have big impacts.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Can we say that Little words can have big impacts?
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Can we say that Little words can have big impacts?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Little words can make a huge difference.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Can I give you a very infamous example in my life?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: All right, I want to put yourself and I know you're young okay, but in 2013,.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: A certain person was the headline Super Bowl act.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Who's that?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Everybody say thank you Beyonce.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know why.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's hilarious that this new Gen Z thing that's blown up on TikTok is like everybody's thanking Beyonce because if they don't, something bad could happen.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Are you aware of this?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: This kind of like semi-conspiracy theory that definitely has truth to it that if you don't say thank you to Beyonce.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Something bad could happen to you.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, in 2013, she was the headline act of the Super Bowl Huge deal.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, now I was serving in seminary at Duke Wesley, which is where I went to school, and we had a Super Bowl party, as you do in a campus ministry, and we all gathered around for the halftime show because we wanted to see it and we started saying some less than complimentary things about Queen Bee, right, and I, if those of you who know me or know me on social media, decided that it would be a good idea to go back to my apartment and comment on the Super Bowl halftime show on a public place like Facebook, and I, to be honest with you, I tried to go back and find the screenshot of what I wrote.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I could not find it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I think I deleted it, to be honest with you at this point.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: But I basically said like I don't know if maybe we've come this far for the purpose of women and strength and powerful places for Beyonce to do what she did on the stage.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: That's what I said and the whole world ate me up Literally 250 comments.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I lost 35 friends that night on Facebook.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: There were so many people that were so energized to tell me how wrong I was, and I now know, because I live in 2024.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you, beyonce, right, but at the time I didn't.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Here's something that made it worse In the third quarter, the power went out.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: This is actually historic.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: This is news.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: The power went out in the Superdome, which is now Caesar's Palace Dome or whatever it is where Taylor just had her show, right.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: It went out in the Superdome and then everybody did what everybody did at that time they just got on the internet while they waited for the game to pick back up, and so I was at the top of everybody's feeds with my stupid one-sentence statement.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Here's how much worse it got.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: The next day or I think it was the next day or the next couple of days I said no Beyonce commentary from me tonight.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I think it's very telling that two people liked it Very much.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: People were done hearing from me.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Also, a few articles came out about this performance later, which was really bad, and everybody decided to share them with me.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Also, a few articles came out about this performance later, which was really bad, and everybody decided to share them with me.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: This is people I pulled off.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: This is February 4th 2013.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Bryant, have you seen this post?
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I think it might add some perspective to the conversation you ignited last night.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I thought you'd appreciate this.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: This is the role model thing.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: This is somebody else I haven't talked to since like elementary school.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: This is somebody that was in seminary with me, saw this yesterday and thought of you Great, awesome.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Now I've made myself familiar with saying bad things about Beyonce.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Now it got so bad even that my wife herself wrote this on my Facebook page.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Here it is.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Is when SNL came out with a sketch they called the Bajency where Beyonce.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: There was an agency that was protecting Beyonce and she thought well, this is you guys.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Think this is an original conspiracy theory to your generation.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: This is 10 years ago, 10 years ago.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I figured you might want to see the SNL sketch.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Can we do that?
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Alright, play it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: He was a normal man.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Guys, thank you so much.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Such a great birthday With an ordinary life To friends, friends, until one day, you guys.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I cannot stop listening to that Beyonce album.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, yes, I am obsessed.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Everything she does is perfect, totally.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: He turned against his country.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: She is so good.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of that.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: One drunken love song, though what?
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And it's queen, that one just doesn't do it for me, carrie, what's he talking about?
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: He's joking, right?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: No, tell them you wouldn't say something bad about Beyoncé.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: It's too late.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: They've come for him.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Who's they?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: You need to run, watch it.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: No, a man who said the unsayable.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And the agency tasked with bringing you down.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: He must be stopped.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: It's time to go to work.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Work with an E.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Of course they are an agency.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Says your card's declined.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: That's impossible.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Says you don't exist.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Of course I exist.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Look, here's my license.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: They're erasing you.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I know what you've done.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: You stay away from here.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I like most of her music.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Most Get out of my store.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: She's the queen bee, a man with few allies.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Listen to me closely.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of time.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: We need to disappear and start a new life.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: We have plane tickets for you.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: You leave tonight.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Wait, who are you guys?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Just a couple other people that made a mistake.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Everything you need is in a box to the left.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Where To the left?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: To the left?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Is that a Beyonce song?
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the only good one.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: A man with nowhere to run and no taste.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Daddy, what are you doing here?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I got scared.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Why did you leave?
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Daddy was really rude to Beyonce.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Honey, kevin, you smell different.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not Kevin.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: It's over, dan.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: No, stand up, put your hand in the air Now.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Do this, now, let's go.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: He paid the ultimate price for being a freaking idiot.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I love Beyonce.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I still listen to Baby Boy.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: You're never getting out.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: How long have you been in here?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: 2004.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I was at a wedding.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: They played Crazy in Love and I didn't dance.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't dance.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: That's when they took me.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Who is they?
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Who is they?
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Who is they?
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: The Bajency Rated NC-17 for loud language against Beyonce?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: That's three and a half minutes.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: We'll never get back.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: The thing I learned that night, and I think all of us should learn when this goes up on a podcast, is no, thank you Beyonce.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: No, people get passionate about things that are important to them.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: People get passionate about things that matter to them.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I learned that that night.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I've never said another word about Beyonce on my Facebook page.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I even did a search of it to make sure that was true and I'm pretty sure it was true.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I've never said another word about it, but everybody ate me for lunch and dinner that night.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: In fact, I still have friends who will text me like you remember when you said that stupid thing about Beyonce.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Like literally to this day, 10 years later, you remember that People get passionate about things that are important to them, and here's why I think this matters In the season of elections and if you aren't aware, there's one on Tuesday.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: In the season of elections, the things you say are super important.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Everyone's going to be on edge for the next couple of weeks, maybe longer.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Everyone's going to be on edge.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Everyone's going to be on edge.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So you have to be very careful about the things that you say and the way they may affect somebody else.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: And it's really easy especially if you're like me, who can't keep my mouth shut.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: It's really easy to go onto a platform that provides not even spelling correction.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: It provides no sort of like hey, are you sure you want to post this, like anything, like that Twitter, instagram, whatever, whatever you're going to put up, whatever you're going to comment about Some of you are going to be loud about it, some of you won't.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: It's very important that you understand that people are passionate about things that matter to them and that everybody's going to be on edge.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: In other words, small words have big impact.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: The little things that you say have huge impact and ramifications.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: They can be the cause of division and strife.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: How do I know that?
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Because there's been thousands and thousands and thousands of commentaries in the last two weeks about the little thing that this politician or this commentator or this comedian or something said that they might not have said in another context, or they might have said in a different context and it didn't work in this context or whatever the situation, and every single thing has become top of the headline news.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Now, when we're in this place which we find ourselves in right now, it's good for us to start thinking about what the tongue can do, what the things we say can do.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I want to show you these verses just real quick.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: This is verse 5.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts wildly.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: In other words, small words have big impacts.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Think about this A small flame can set a whole forest on fire.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Don't we know it?
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: A small flame can set a forest on fire.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: This is verse 10.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn't be this way.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: What he's saying is that the things that you say, where you're blessing God in one way and cursing a friend in another way.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: They come from the same mouth and what he's asking for is consistency.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Do you see how he's trying to bring maturity to your language?
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: You're trying to bring maturity to the things in which you say it's very important.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: On Wednesday, we talked about the importance of this within a one-on-one relationship outside of politics.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: In fact, a lot of people get their frustrations up when foul language is used or something like that, and I tried to bring us back to.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I understand that and I think in some ways, that's very unhelpful.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: But also, could we also say the same about gossip and bullying?
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Shouldn't we also say the same about the little joke that we think we make that turns out to be racist, but we didn't think it was because we had said it in other contexts, but in this space it wasn't.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Isn't there a space where we need to provide some maturity there?
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Though, what James is saying is tame your tongue, because the small things have a big impact.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Now, some of us, as we go through this next few weeks, are not the political type.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: We're not gonna have any sort of commentary on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: We're not gonna say anything.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: We're just gonna kind of go about our lives, but you are going to read it, you're going to see it.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I've been shocked, even as little as this sort of stuff gets talked about in this space.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: How many of you are fully up on all of the things that are going on?
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Because the news is in your face, no matter whether you try to avoid it or not.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: It's there for you.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: So what do we do as Christians in that space?
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: We talk about taming our tongue, but I want to go to this other section of the passage, which is what we didn't quite get to at Bible study on Wednesday.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I try to do this on purpose do one section and then here I want to start with verse 13.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Are any of you wise and understanding?
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Show that your actions are good, with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: This is right after he talked about being more mature.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: In your language, this is immediately after that.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Are you wise and understanding?
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Keep going your heart.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Keep going.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: This is not the wisdom that comes down from above.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Instead it is from the earth, natural and demonic.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder in everything that is evil.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: So I started thinking to myself if Christians okay, I get it, okay, christians are supposed to watch what they say, cool, christians are supposed to be careful about the little things that make a big impact.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Cool, got it, got it.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: We've heard that before.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: We've heard it a thousand times.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: We've heard it in scriptural context and we've heard it outside of scriptural context.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: We've heard it from our parents, we've heard it from our friends context.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: We've heard it from our parents.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: We've heard it from our friends.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: We've heard it from our professors, we've heard it from our pastors.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: We've heard it in so many different contexts.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Awesome, got it.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Then how is it that we can be wise to the conversations that happen around us?
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: How is it that we can be wise?
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Because some of us are not going to say it, but we might read it and we're left in that place of having to discern what's true and what's not, what's good and what's right and what's not.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: How is it that we're going to be wise to those things?
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I know I've found myself in this space all the time.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: It's only going to get worse with things like AI and other types of, let's say, misinformation.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: How is it that we can be wise to it?
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Well, look what he says.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: He says earthly wisdom is a wisdom that's driven by envy and selfish ambition.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Maybe the first thing you might ask yourself is where's the intention here?
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Where's this coming from?
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Is this something that's being said that's driven by selfish ambition?
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Is this something I'm saying that's driven by selfish ambition, or is it something else?
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: He contrasts this with wisdom from above.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: He says that heavenly wisdom is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: One of the translations says sincere.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I think it might be helpful for us to ask questions, then, of that.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: What is this wisdom from above?
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: First, it's pure, peaceful, gentle, obedient mercy, good actions, fair and genuine.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Those who make their peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing that I know that we're going to be faced with as this community, tallahassee, as Florida, as the United States.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: We're going to be faced with the necessity of finding wisdom where so often there's acts of deceit, selfish ambition, and it's so hard for us to discern sometimes If you find yourself on one side of the spectrum or another.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: All it takes is one piece of information that agrees with you and then, all of a sudden, you believe that narrative even more completely, even though that thing that backed up what you thought wasn't true at all.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: How do we become people of wisdom in that?
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: How do we become people of wisdom?
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Do we find those things that are centered, that are centered toward ourselves and we and we push them away?
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Or do we look to the things they say put 17 back up there, uh, hannah.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Do we look to these things to find wisdom?
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: What is the wisdom from above?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Heaven wisdom, godly wisdom, the wisdom that we want to be seeking after as christians.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: What is that wisdom from above?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: First it is pure, and then peaceful, and then gentle, and then obedient and then filled with mercy and good actions, and fair and genuine.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: If you wanna figure out where you need to be inside of any conversation about the society and the world around you, these are the things we look for the pure, the peaceful, the gentle, the obedient, the filled with mercy, the good actions, the fair and the genuine.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Those are the things we look for.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So let me encourage you here.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: There's three things I want to put up here as options for you, as things you might think about.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And if you're somebody who writes things down, these are pretty obvious, but we forget them all the time.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: So write them down.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: If you're somebody who writes things down, these are pretty obvious, but we forget them all the time.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: So write them down.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: In the next several weeks, as our society starts to each other a lot more, in order to find those things, what if we were quick to listen and, in contrast to that, slow to speak?
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: What if we were to engage with empathy and then pray that God would give us that wisdom?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I've committed to on social media the last six months or so it took a long time is that I want to sow words of peace.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I want to sow words of unity instead of destruction.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I want the words that I say to be wise words Challenging words, sure, but wise.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I want them to be words of peace, and I think we could all do the same thing in our own lives, whether it's on social media or in person or whatever.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: How could we seek out that purity, that gentleness?
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: And let me just say that these four things are things I wrote down about six months ago as a little note to me on my notes app on my phone.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: So when I'm writing something, am I quick to listen?
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Am I slow to speak?
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Am I engaging with empathy, and am I coding it in prayer for the wisdom that God can provide?
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: My challenge to all of us is that we would sow a world of peace rather than division.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Unity rather than division, joy rather than hatred, joy rather than hatred.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: That's our goal, that's our plan, and I don't care who you vote for on Tuesday.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: That's your goal.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: That's your goal.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I'd encourage you to do this with each other as well, because, again, it doesn't have to be political, but it does have to be genuine, which means that you've got to practice it with each other.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Most of us aren't very good at this.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: The first two or three times we try it.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: So you've got to try it.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: You've got to be, you got to try it, got to practice it.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Let me encourage you just to do that with each other.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Maybe write these things down in your phone Before I say that.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Am I listening to them?
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Am I slowing my speech there?
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Am I being empathetic to what they think, and am I coding this in prayer for God?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I am convinced our nation can get through this.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: A lot of people who make a living telling you otherwise, but I'm convinced we can do it.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Because God has grace that's available to us and we've been invited into a community to do this.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I want to challenge you with one thing this week find somebody in your life who you know adamantly disagrees with you.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Hopefully they haven't blocked you on social media.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Find them, invite them to coffee, lunch.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Be quick to listen, slow to speak, empathize with them and pray that God would coat it in wisdom.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Not wisdom, that's selfish, wisdom from above.