Social Restoration - Phase 4: Social Wisdom, Part 2

Cultivation. It's the process of growing things.

It's actually a neutral term. Could be growing bad things like germs or good things like weed or apples or understanding or wisdom or even peace. But it's an intentional process.

You decide what you want and then you have to go after it with a plan. Today we're going to talk about an intentional plan, God's plan, to bring peace to a world that's literally falling apart. Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge features the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram, helping Christians live like Christians.

I'm Dave Drewy. And in this program we wrap up our series called Social Restoration. We've been talking about how serious minded believers can be in the world but not of the world, countering cultural pressure with light and love, not heat. Now if you've missed any of these messages along the way, they're available on the Chip Ingram app or at livingontheedge.org.

Just click the broadcasts tab. Well now Chip's son Ryan began this message in our previous program, so today he brings us part two of his talk, Social Wisdom. Now Chip will be with us after the teaching to add his thoughts, so be sure not to miss that.

Okay, if you have a Bible, open it now to James chapter three and let's join Ryan Ingram. So let me give you an example. The beach awakens awe in my life. I just can't get there and go like, oh wow. And as you look at the ocean and its power and you recognize in being in awe of the ocean, I am going to adjust to the ocean's way of behaving. I'm not asking the ocean to adjust to me. And so when I hop in and I surf, I recognize the currents and the tide. I wasn't actually as good at recognizing all the different sea life. I actually got stung by a stingray this last week. Ouch.

Why? Because it's the ocean and that's their home and I'm entering that presence and I need to adjust to the presence of the ocean. It awakens awe. And see what holiness is or purity is a response to the God who awakens awe. Proverbs says the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord or the awe of the Lord.

That we wouldn't look at God and ask God to adjust to us, but we would look with awe at who God is and we would adjust our lives to who God is. That's what it means to be holy. Pure. Whoa. I'm in your territory. You are God. You are great. You are powerful. You are mighty. You are just. You are righteous. There is none like you. And in light of who you are and the magnificent of God almighty, I can't continue to live this way.

My life then is going to be adjusted in response to you. All of wisdom begins there and everything flows from there when our hearts are awakened in awe to the greatness of God. He says, first of all, this internal quality of purity or moral excellence.

And then he goes on to give us six different things that are flowing out from that. He says, then it's peace loving. This is characterized by or prompting a state of wholeness or wellbeing. It's right relationships between individuals and between individuals and God. There is this desire that wisdom is bringing peace between one another. It's peace loving. It's agents of peace and trying to bring peace with others and God.

Then it says, consider it. And actually our English word here doesn't help us understand because this is such a rich and actually very difficult Greek word to translate. This word means not insisting on the right to enforce the strict letter of the law or custom. It's being merciful or lenient.

In fact, as you read, if you go back and the Hebrew scripture translated into Greek is called the Septuagint, this word considerate is used most often of God's response to humanity. As the King and the righteous King, he doesn't enforce his rights, but he does give us leniency and mercy and grace. It's the word that you want every judge, if you ever did anything wrong, the way you want them to respond to you. Though they have the right to maybe execute this judgment on you, they give you grace and mercy.

That's what this word is. It says, wise people don't execute according to the law, but they respond with love, leniency. They give mercy and grace to the other person. Taking the high road means not insisting on my right, but extending the leniency of grace and love to the other person and the way we would want to be extended to us.

Then he goes on and says, submissive. This idea is willing and open to adopting another's position, belief or course of action with sufficient reason or evidence. It's literally being open to reason, willing to listen. In fact, you could just write in your Bible, not being stubborn. That's what this is.

Don't be stubborn. So he says, true wisdom is first of all pure. Then it's peace loving. It's about restoration of relationships.

It's considering. It's a grace, mercy giving moment. That's what wisdom engages in the midst of hurt and pain. And then it sits down and it's willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to go, okay, what?

What's going on? And seek to understand and hear and not necessarily just always try to be heard and have your voice said. Says it's submissive.

It's not stubborn. Then goes on and says, full of mercy and good fruit. This is compassion moved to action. Now in the ancient Greek culture, it was pity for the one who is suffering unjustly. Yet in Christianity, this word began to take on new meaning and new depth because it wasn't just pity for the one who suffered unjustly. We can all feel pity for the one who suffered unjustly, right? Now it began for Christians was pity for the one who's suffering was brought on by themselves.

Wow. Do you see how this brings about social restoration? When you lay down your rights, when you're willing to listen, when instead of judging the person who, because of all they've done, deserve to be judged, you have pity and you engage.

This idea of mercy isn't complete until it takes action. It's not just about feeling bad. It's feeling pity or bad for them to doing good.

That is what wisdom does. It takes the high road and says impartial, not tending to cause factions or divisions within a group, not being judgmental or divisive, free from prejudice. Saying, I'm not going to play one side or the other. I'm going to engage in this moment with you. I'm going to sit and listen and hear and learn. And I'm not going to, you know, play favorites. And I'm going to impartiality stand in the middle and hurt and grieve and love. And it's harder that way.

In fact, you get more people angry at you that way because you're in the middle of both sides and where you say, no, no, no. I'm going to simply do my best to love the way Jesus loved without distinction. And then finally, he says, it's sincere without hypocrisy. It never pretends to be what it's not.

It never acts apart to gain its own end. What you see is what you get. There's not a secret agenda with wisdom when it takes the high road.

There's not an ulterior motive. You don't have to question or guess what is going on and what are they up to really? See, change the same wisdom that comes from heaven starts and originates from inside here where our hearts are so in awe of who God is. We adjust our lives to God and then it flows out. And when we're peace, loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, it's saying, you know what? I'm going to recognize the counterfeit wisdom where it's fueled by these negative emotions, they're powerful. And then I'm going to choose. I'm going to choose to take the high road. I mean, the low road, hell celebrates in. I'm going to take the high road. I mean, you can just start there and just go, okay, in this moment, in this post, in my response to my wife or my kids or my coworkers, what does the high road require of me? What does it look to take the high road?

And then he's going to say this. True wisdom. Sow seeds of reconciliation. You want to know what true wisdom does? It sows seeds of reconciliation, not retaliation. It sows seeds of reconciliation, not retribution.

It sows seeds of reconciliation, not revenge. Notice what he says to follow in the ways of Jesus. Memorize that verse. It's very short. You can do it.

You can do it. Peacemakers who sow in peace, reap a harvest of righteousness. Man, we look around at the world and we're seeing the brokenness, the heartache, the pain, the dysfunction, the injustice.

I go, what in the world is going to change this? Jesus followers. Jesus followers who stop playing games, pretending like, ah, this is just a social club for my personal benefit, but realize you've been placed on this planet for a purpose. You were deemed for a purpose. You have been given the ministry of reconciliation to bring hope and life and peace. You are called.

I am called by how we talk, how we walk, how we act to be peacemakers in every situation. Peacemakers. Well, what is reconciliation? It's the process by which enemies are brought into friendship.

And you're like, that can't happen. That's what God did for us in Christ Jesus. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we're yet sinners. He was a peacemaker. Christ died for our behalf.

See, see, it's what God has done for us when we were enemies with him in Christ Jesus. And as a result, he has then entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation to bring peace and hope to those around us. Peacemakers who sow seeds of peace, reap a harvest of righteousness, reap a harvest of justice. When you sow seeds of peace, the harvest that you reap is right relationships between God and others.

Living according to God's design. See, nothing good grows in an atmosphere, in a culture of hostility and anger and vitriol. But when you sow seeds of peace, righteousness can grow out of it. Restoration comes. See, social restoration is cultivated by followers of Jesus, sowing peace as true social wisdom.

Now I want you to notice something and we'll close here. Social restoration is cultivated. Do you notice it said peacemakers who sow peace? We understand when you're reaping and working, you know, with agriculture that you sow a seed and you plant and you water it and your weight on it and you take care of it. And over time it grows. And what we want in our instant culture is for everything to happen overnight.

Here's what he's saying. There's a process and there's a cultivation. How do we navigate these culturally complex, emotionally charged, socially intense times to bring about social restoration? We have to cultivate being peacemakers. We have to cultivate peace in our relationships with one another. We have to cultivate peace in the way we engage on social media. We have to cultivate peace in the way we respond to one another.

And he says, it's not overnight, it's consistency, not intensity that produces long-term change or impact. It's when Jesus' followers cultivate peace. And the question, am I a person of peace? I'd love to say like every time I'm a person of peace, but back to that person that flipped me off driving, my first response was not to be a person of peace. Let's just be honest. My first response was to ride their tail and make sure they knew I was right there and how wrong they were.

No, no, no. I'm just convicted. Am I a person of peace? Is my goal reconciliation or retaliation? Will you? Will I take the high road to bring about social restoration? This is what it means for us to follow the ways of Jesus. You're listening to Living on the Edge and Chip's with us to talk about the message you just heard. But in case you joined us a little late, our guest teacher today was Ryan Ingram with his message, Social Wisdom. Social restoration is complicated, even with the best of intentions. Well-meaning people get themselves into trouble. So how do we make a difference and bring light, not heat?

Well, these messages from Ryan Ingram bring a lot of clarity to that question. He looks at our current circumstances with a gospel vision of community and provides biblical solutions. For a limited time, resources for social restoration are discounted, and the MP3s are always free. To order your copy or to send it to a friend, visit us online at livingontheedge.org.

For additional information, just give us a call at 888-333-6003. I'll be right back in just a minute to talk about some very specific application to this teaching by Pastor Ryan Ingram. But before I do, I want to just say a word to those of us who want to make a difference, who want to share some things with people that we care about, people that may even very much disagree with us. Some of those people are in our own home.

We're related to them. Some of those people are in our churches, and we're living in a world today where we have Christians that are at odds sociologically and theologically and with real regards to cultural issues. How do we bridge that gap? How do we come together? How do we have social restoration first in our families and then in the church so we can be that light, that healing agent that Jesus has called us to be?

I would suggest that you have to go to the root instead of look at the fruit. There's something behind the name calling and the prejudging and the putting people in categories, even inside our families. And in the booklet Social Restoration, Ryan has written a primer to help each one of us ask and answer the question, what does God want to do with me and what kind of eyes do I need to look at others through in order to bring healing? We all have this issue, and in this booklet, you're going to learn from Scripture how to begin to take the kind of steps that allow you to see people differently, to see them the way God sees them, to be a bridge builder instead of a divider. You'll have a tool that you can give to someone else that you agree with or disagree with that you can read it quickly and then have a good conversation over a cup of coffee and say, you know something? This is something that we can both agree on. This is something we know God wants us as followers of Christ to follow.

And you know, as we build bridges, then we experience healing. Could I encourage you, give us a call or go to the website. We'll give it to you absolutely free.

We want to put this in the hands of as many people as possible to begin to get to the root of the problem instead of constantly blaming one another with the fruit of the negativity that's happening in the church, in families, in society. Go to the website or give us a call. Dave, could you give them that information?

Happy to. Well, not only is it a print copy, but we're also making this little booklet available as an e-book. Either way, you can choose a free copy when you go to our website, livingontheedge.org. Tap special offers on the app or give us a call at 888-333-6003. We'd love to get it into your hands and then have you pass it on when you're done. It's a great little conversation starter with the bonus of God-honoring solutions. Request your free copy of Social Restoration at livingontheedge.org.

Special offers on the app or by calling us at 888-333-6003. I hope you'll do it today. Well, as we wrap up today's message and the entire series, I'm grateful for what God has shared with us through Ryan. I've learned a lot. I hope you have as well. When the Lord begins to work in our lives and He begins to press in and we cooperate, things don't happen overnight.

This is a big series. We're talking about Social Restoration. That's like making a really, really big difference in our world that needs it. My big reminder would be that macro change, the big things we want to change, we want to see racism gone. We want to see the political rancor and hatred gone. But I want you to know that macro change always begins with micro action.

In fact, I love the quote in Ryan's message where he said this. There's a process and there's a cultivation. How do we navigate these culturally complex, emotionally charged, and socially intense times to bring about Social Restoration? We have to cultivate being peacemakers. We have to cultivate peace in our relationships with one another. We have to cultivate peace in a way that we engage on social media. We have to cultivate peace in the way we respond to one another.

And then I love this at the end. It's not going to happen overnight. It's consistency, not intensity, that produces long-term change or impact. So that means if you want wisdom, you have to pursue it consistently. If you want peace, you're going to have to pursue it consistently. If you want to treat everyone with dignity and respect, you're going to have to pursue it consistently, especially with those that you disagree with. If you want to learn to watch your words instead of blurting things out and hurting other people, you're going to have to go into training and do it consistently. If you want to serve your community and see life and love and change, you have to do it consistently.

This isn't just a little reaction where we say, oh yeah, I'm going to do this for a couple days. God taught us all those things that I just listed in this four-part series. And what I would encourage you, if you really are serious about Social Restoration, go and download the MP3s. Go and download the notes. Pass them on to someone else.

Review them on a regular basis. And say to the Lord, you know Lord, the world appears to be pretty messed up in a lot of ways. And I can't change everything, and I can't change everyone. But I can change some things, and I can change one person for sure. And the micro-change that's going to change the world begins not out there, it begins with me and it begins with you. What micro-changes do you need to make? Your speech, your attitude, your prejudice, your tongue. Say, Lord, help me.

Review these things. You take micro-steps, I'll take micro-steps. And as your little world changes and millions of other people's little world changes, guess what? Our world's going to change. Social Restoration is possible. But only in the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit working in you and working in me. Let's do this together. Thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. For all of us here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.