We're gonna read God's 10 commandments. They appear here, second time they appear in the Bible. We're gonna read them from verse six to verse 21. Let's read these together in unison. So reading God's 10 commandments together, beginning at verse six. God said, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children. to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Please now at the second commandment, what you see there in verses 8, 9, and 10. Notice especially the phrase, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. There's a lot of kinds of art out there, and there are many tools out there, but we are told here very clearly we're not to worship our artwork, we're not to concoct strings of explanations for how we're not worshiping our artwork while we worship our artwork, all right? And we are not also to create tools and have tools that are there for our worship. You'll notice this is separate from the first commandment. The first commandment is, you have no other gods before me. The second one says, and you don't make for yourself a carved image to worship that. So he's not just saying, don't make a statue of Zeus and worship that. He's also saying, don't make a statue and say that it's me or represents me and worship it. The golden calf that Aaron made, he said, here are your gods of Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt. He was calling them, here's God or a representation of God or something to help focus your devotion on God. And God was angry. And when Moses broke the stone tablets, that wasn't a temper tantrum. The stone tablets had on it the words we just read, and that's a covenant document. And so he was saying, this covenant is broken because you broke it. And I'm going to bring home to you that you've broken it by breaking these stone tablets here in front of you. Now why? The Lord your God is jealous. It's very emphatic. I checked out the Hebrew. The Hebrew literally reads like this, I, Yahweh your God, God jealous. You have to supply the is and the though and stuff like that. I, Yahweh your God, God jealous. So he's jealous against the calf, even though it's supposed to represent him. He says, no, I am jealous of that calf because you're bowing down to it when you should be bowing down to me. And we notice here that stuff matters, like literal physical stuff matters, okay? Because they're using it the wrong way, all right? So you can't just say, well, things don't matter. Well, that thing mattered, all right? It mattered to God as a rival. And to understand the idea of rivalry or jealousy, God then goes on in the scripture to describe himself as the husband of his people and his people as the bride. And so in the New Testament that becomes that Christ is the bridegroom, the groom, and the church is the bride. God wants so far as to have a prophet deliberately marry a prostitute who would then be unfaithful to him so that he could be a living picture of God's love for Israel. through this prophet's love for his unfaithful wife. In fact, I've heard one pastor go so far as to say the reason God created us for sex and romance and marriage and jealousy is so that we would better understand that the relationship with God is also to be exclusive and have some idea of how God takes it when we are unfaithful to Him. This has implications not only for our worship, but also for our attitude to the world. And so we're gonna be talking about that a little more in James chapter. Lord, we pray that you would bring peace on the earth. We pray for peace between Russia and Ukraine. We pray for a genuine peace in Gaza. We pray for peace for your persecuted people in Nigeria and throughout Northern Africa. Lord, we pray that you would bring peace also to our hearts and to our households. And Lord, we confess that we don't always stand for peace. So Lord, we pray that you would speak to our hearts now of the peace that Jesus makes and gives. Open our ear, we pray, as we listen to your word. We pray this in Christ's name. Let me continue through the book of James. Please turn to James chapter three at verse 17. I'm gonna pick up at the beautiful end of chapter three, and then really focus on the first 10 verses of chapter four. So James chapter three, it's on page 1,012 in the Pew Bible. Pew Bible page 1,012. We'll begin reading at James chapter three at verse 17, and read on to chapter four, verse 10. Please give your attention to the word of God. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. When I went to seminary, now 25 years ago, up the street here in Glenside, The pastoral counseling classes were taught by the guys across the street at what's known as the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. Sometimes we just call it CCEF. That's Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. Great classes. I wish I discovered them sooner. And this passage was a favorite. Really liked this passage because they used it to counsel people dealing with two things that are not explicitly named in the passage. This passage is really important for dealing with anger and for dealing with desires of any kind. Now, that makes it a relevant passage for every person in every generation that ever lived on the earth because who does not have at least a little bit of an anger issue? And who does not have to deal with unruly desires within? But I dare say I think it may be a more relevant passage for us maybe than any previous generation. Because an increasing chunk of our economy is devoted to very smart people who understand our human nature and use it not to benefit us but to benefit them. There was a phrase a decade ago, the race up the brain stem. And what that meant was we want people to use our products without thinking about it, just to react, to say, I feel unhappy, so this is what I do when I feel unhappy. I feel angry, so this is what I do. I feel stressed, this is what I do when I feel stressed. I feel sad, this is what I do. I reach for my phone and I open up whatever it is. Very smart people, one of the smartest we have, saying, I'm going to get filthy rich by designing addictive products and I want people using them as soon as there's just a whiff of mental unhappiness, boom, they're on that device. I want to bypass the frontal cortex and raise up the brainstem. I want them just acting on the basis of their desires even before they've articulated in the brain, I am having a desire. You know, if you want to be a human, you have to resist. And how much more if you want to be a believer and live for God's glory? You have to protect your frontal cortex and say, no, I will think before I act. I will act in faith before I act. I will exercise faith before I act. Let me resist this impulse to reduce human beings to just clusters of desire that make money. for social media, gambling, marijuana, whatever it is, whatever the painkiller is that we reach for. And they want you to reach for it before you even realize that you've reached for it. So this passage here is a call to think. And so in particular, after anger, after any desire hijacks us, This passage teaches us we need to re-evaluate, repent, resist, and receive. After anger, after any desire takes over, re-evaluate, repent, resist, and receive. Now, re-evaluate what? Well, let's see what's going on here. In this book of James, chapter 2 is about our works. Faith without works is dead, so show charity. How do you treat poor people? Treat them right. Chapter three was about our words and our wisdom. And so chapter three, as we've read, ends on this beautiful note. The harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. A glorious picture of peacefulness in families and homes and societies and churches. And then he says, yeah, but it's often not like that. So chapter four, he says, well, why not? From where the quarrels? And from where the fights? So he says, from your passions. Now, I wish they translated it like the footnote does with the word pleasures, because the Greek word is actually adon, from which we get the word hedonism. The word from hedonism, that's the word here. Our pleasures, our passions, our desires. When we say, I need that. Not just I want that, but we go on to say, I need that. I must have that. I can't live without that. I am furious because I don't have that. How dare you block me from having that. Whatever that is, that's what we're talking about. Those are the passions or the pleasures. Don't just think of things. Because you can get mad because you just wanted some peace and quiet. It's not a very good way of getting the peace and quiet, but you can get mad because you want a peace and quiet. You can have a desire for rest and sleep. Maybe your craving is for everyone to like you, or to be famous, or to be rich. There's a lot of things we can desperately want, whether things, states, situations, and we don't get it, we're thwarted, so we're upset. Once we're upset, quarrels arise. Because we don't just quarrel with the person blocking us. Once you're upset, you quarrel with anybody. So he says, let's look at this. Where do these quarrels come from? Is it not very often because of your passions and pleasures, desires waging war within you? Now look at the results. He says, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You say, James, you're a little extreme. Well, yeah, he's not a real subtle writer, okay, so he kind of starts at the top of the scale here with murder. But, you know, a woman that we received to communion in this church, met with us before the service, and we received her to communion, she had communion with us, and she was in Nairobi, and they got carjacked, and she got shot and killed, because the carjackers wanted the SUV. You desire and do not have, so you commit murder. That's happened to someone who's had communion here in these pews. When I was young, the Air Jordans came out. So there were stories of people being jumped, mugged, maybe even killed for sneakers, because they were Air Jordans. I see someone nodding. Yeah, he remembers that. So that's not beyond what happens to say you desire and don't have, so you murder. That's happened. More commonly, fortunately, you covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. And you say, yeah, that's how that works. No argument with that. And it's a little ambiguous in Greek. It says, you are fighting among your members. And that can either mean internally between your ears, between your different desires in your heart. It could also mean among your members, like between you and you. You could have that other possible sense there. That's why you have quarrels, because of these fighting between the members. So he's tracing the quarrels that you see on the outside to the inner desires, inner lusts. He's saying this community problem is because of disordered souls. Then he says, you know, if you're coveting and quarreling, did you forget you have a God to go to? You have a God who said, pray to me. Pray and say, give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts. The God who said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. Yes, you have a Lord who said, ask whatever you want in my name and it shall be given to you. You have a Lord who said, your heavenly father is better than earthly fathers and they give gifts. How much more will your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him? You say, why are you mad at people when you could ask of God? Did you forget that step? And someone will say, well, I did pray and I didn't get it. He says, yes. Well, let's talk about that, he says. Examine yourself. What was it that you asked for? And why did you want it? And what were you going to do with it? Sometimes it wasn't a good thing. Sometimes it wasn't coming from the right heart. He says, sometimes you don't receive from the Lord, you ought to look at yourself. So we have here a call to reevaluate our anger. Because our anger, we do need to go back and evaluate it. Because when we're angry, we are so sure that we're right. In our anger, we are totally correct about everything. I am right and you are wrong and you deserve my wrath. It's how we are in our anger. We're self-righteous, self-important, full of self, and how often later we say, yeah, that wasn't right. It's a call to say, all right, what was I wanting? And don't be easy on yourself. Use a nasty word. That's what they did at CCEF. What were you craving? Craving is wanting that's a little too much, right? And the reason you use that word is, okay, I was craving if I chose that over peace, if I chose that over purity, if I chose that over doing the right thing before God, then that was no passing whim. At least in the moment, that was a craving. Let me give you an example from my own life. Last Sunday, end of evening church, get the family in the car, and I want to go home. Long day. and my wife sees another responsibility that we could take on, and I don't want to. Now, what can we do in that situation? What can I do? Well, I can A, take on the responsibility. I can B, say, well, let's sit here and talk about how we can be sure it's all right, we don't have to take it on. Or C, I can hit the accelerator. C is pretty rude, but I did C. because I was craving getting home. I didn't want that responsibility. Needless to say, that's not the way to treat a wife or responsibility. It's not the way to get to peace and quiet either. In that moment, I was craving just, I want to get home, don't give me something else to do. So having re-evaluated, the call next is to repent. He says, you adulterous people. Now, come on, James, you're being a little rough. I mean, adultery is not just a sexual sin. It's a sexual sin that's breaking a vow, all right? You're both sexually off and you are like just terrible character. You're breaking your promises. And he uses this strong language, you adulterous people. Why is he saying that? Adultery is when you're promised to one, but you go to another. And so he says, do you not know that friendship with the world, the word there is actually philos, as in Philadelphia, as in love. Do you not know that love for the world is enmity with God? If you love the world, then you're an enemy of God. He said, okay, that's how we get the adultery in there. The idea is that we are to be the bride of Christ, but we're going somewhere else. That's where the adultery language comes from. Now, how does he know that we're loving the world? This is because you're quarreling. You're quarreling because your passion was thwarted. When you quarrel because your passion is thwarted, it's because you're choosing the passion over doing what would be the right thing to do. Your passion for something in the world is stronger than your passion before God to work this out the way God would have you work it out. In that sense, he says, the angry person loves the world. The angry person is guilty of spiritual adultery and becomes an enemy of God because God is not indifferent to us. If God was indifferent, well, that'd be a different matter. But if God is not indifferent to us, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he's made to dwell in us. And since he yearns for that spirit, when we say, when we turn away from him, well, now his jealousy is aroused. Now, if you look at different translations on this verse, you'll see different ways of interpreting it. We know what the words are, but we don't necessarily know how to translate it. Normally, it's easy to tell what's a subject and what's an object, but in this case, spirit could be either the subject or the object. Also, what do you mean by spirit that you made to dwell in us? Our soul or the Holy Spirit? They could both work. But if I have to choose, I think it means this. God is jealous for our worship, jealous for our souls to respond to his love. In other words, I think we're talking about the second commandment again. The Lord your God is a jealous God. Now, this is a little unusual right here, because he says, the scripture says, and then you see something in quotes, and you say, okay, where do I go back in the Old Testament to find it? And this is one of the few times in the New Testament where it says, scripture says, and then you don't get a quote. You seem to get a summary of what the Bible says. a summary of biblical teaching. So you can't find that one, probably shouldn't be in quotes, but it is a summary of that scriptural teaching that we talked about, of the Lord being jealous for our worship, jealous for our souls, jealous for our affection and love. There's hope for us because God yearns for us. But it's also dangerous to have God yearning for you if you're insistent on not responding. God says, all I have been stretching out my hands to a wayward and rebellious people. God says, I have been reaching out. Where are you? So there's a call to repent for us, the mere creature to see the extraordinary love and grace of our creator, who's also our redeemer at the price of his own sons. And we're to respond and say he has first loved us. We will love him. Let us respond to him and not love the world more than the Lord. So where are to repent? But when he says, when he says to it, this is very harsh. Don't you know that friendship with the world or love for the world is enmity with God. We have to face the basic, the very basic question. Why shouldn't I be a friend of the world? It's where I live. It's all I see. God put me here, why shouldn't I be a friend of the world? Why does God have a problem with that? And there's two answers to that. One is, because there's a lot of evil in the world. And the second is, because the world won't be home all that long. First, there's a lot of evil in the world. That should be obvious. And if we just say, yeah, but let me be a friend of it anyway, Yes, they say birds of a feather flock together, and we are flocking to the side of evil. If we want to be a friend of the world and its evils, we cannot say that we are on the right side any longer. We're subject to the world's punishment. But secondly, it's not good to be a friend of the world because it will not be your home for all that long. You will not be here all that long. You could say, well, sure, I'll be here 80 years. Well, first of all, you don't know that unless you're already 80. Otherwise, you cannot say, I will be here 80 years. But secondly, I remember reading once, I assume you all remember how long second grade was. Second grade was a long year. And then like the second year of high school was not as long. And like last year wasn't that long at all. I remember reading that in terms of how it feels, age 14 is the midpoint of the average life. Which is a little sobering, right? Just because it feels so slow when you're young, because everything is brand new when you're young. And when you're old, it's like, yeah, I've done this before, and the time flies by. So evidently, according to whatever this was, age 14 is sort of the psychological midpoint of your life. That's why the older people say, man, enjoy your kids when they're small. Smell those flowers. Enjoy the trip. And you say, why? I got places to go. And that's because they're telling you, because I'm about to die and I don't know where the time went. Now, does this sound sad? Well, it is if this world is all that you love. If this world is what you love, the stuff I just said is some of the saddest stuff you've heard. But if you love God, then your approaching death and departure from this world is not a total tragedy, but rather something that can also be looked forward to because you love God. and you want to be with Him. So if we have genuine faith, we realize this world will not be the home for that long. Therefore, it should not be the goal or the standard. It is not to be loved more than God. Those with genuine faith, in other words, are ready to be outsiders in this world. In fact, know that we must be outsiders. Because if there's friendship for the world and there's enmity with God, and then there's friendship with God, then there's enmity with the world. There will need to be a break, and a break means suffering. But those with faith are ready for that suffering because you realize there's gonna be suffering anyway. Let us suffer in hope. To be transferred into the kingdom of God means to be transferred out of the kingdom of this world. And you may have a few unbelieving friends who say, look at you, good for you doing what's right for you. But you'll have others who say, you're a traitor. And we hate you, traitor. You make me uncomfortable, traitor. You make me think of things I don't want to think about, traitor. It is uncomfortable and painful to be an outsider. among those that you're with. I think it's worse when you're a teenager or in your 20s, because that's when you're saying, well, I can't live at home anymore. I have to be out in society. How will I find my place in society? I need to fit in with these people. That's who I got. But there must be that break. And the good news is that it does get easier and that it won't go on forever. So he's traced the quarrels to the inner passions, right? The inner passions to a love for the world that is greater than our love for God. It's a call to repent, a call to steal ourselves, to be on the outs with the world. And then he calls us to resist. Now, the good thing about translating that word as passions is it conveys the strength of these things, that we want things, and it's powerful. It takes charge of us. It's all I was wanting in that moment. It's why I'm doing that. It's why I did what I did. And when we realize how strong some of our passions are, we might say, well, resisting them is hopeless. But he goes on to say, there is hope because he gives more grace. And one of my teachers, David Pallison, said he wants to get to heaven and find James and get on him for not writing more at that point. But he gives more grace. That seems really important. Can you tell me? No, I'm going on. He didn't expand on it right there. He says, I want to know, James. I think you didn't write enough. He gives more grace. That is, perhaps. He jealously yearns for us. His wrath is aroused, but his grace is greater. And it overcomes his wrath. And so he calls us again. Or perhaps, He gives us grace, and we sin again, and we ask for forgiveness, and He gives us grace, and we sin again, and we ask for forgiveness, and He gives more grace. He goes on giving us forgiveness once again. Maybe it's all of the above. But He gives more grace, take care though, He gives it to whom? Therefore it says, and now this is a quote, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Proverbs 3, 34, following the Greek translation. If you look back here in the Hebrew, it's a little more specific. God is opposed to the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble. Mockers, a little more specific. Proud, a little more general. Yeah, now he's telling us to reevaluate our anger. He's tracing it from our passions. Okay, so the quarrels go to the passions. The passions go to love for the world, all right? And now he's moving on to pride. And I didn't find this connection as clear and obvious. Why is he now talking about pride? Well, he said, God yearns for us. He loves us. He wants us to love him back. If we say, yeah, God, you want me to love you back, but you know what? I wanna choose the world. There's a lot going on in that but part of it has to be pride. How can we look our creator in the face and say, I know better what's best for me than you know what's best for me. How can we say, this thing over here that I want is better than you who made the thing over here. There's got to be some pride in there because God is not just another guy. Now, if you're a young woman and you have multiple guys interested in you, well, you're gonna have to make a choice, and that's fine. Make the choice. If you don't make the choice, well, we have problems, all right? All right, that's fine. Pick whoever you want, but God is not just another guy. It's not like, well, you know, there's God and then there's my career. They don't compare. They're not even the same order of being. What are you doing? There's pride there. If we're turning away from our Savior and Lord and Creator, in favor, thinking that we know better. Pride's a tough one, though. Deadly sin. So he provides some powerful arguments to set us up rooting that pride. And he says to us, in effect, who do you want nearby? God is opposed to the proud. You can think of a whole bunch of other verses that say God is far from the prayer of a wicked man. God hates the sacrifices of the wicked. God is far away from the proud. If God is far away, who's close? He speaks of the devil. He says you must resist the devil or he won't flee. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. If you don't resist the devil, I guess he's not fleeing. But if you draw near to God, he says, then he will draw near to you. So who do you want around? You want the God who loves you and made you, or the devil who hates you and tricks you? And if you ask, well, how do I draw near to God? Well, he goes on to tell you, cleanse your hands, you sinner, purify your hearts, get away from your sins, grieve for them. And as you leave your sins behind and you're humble, God then is very close to you. That's why he speaks of mourning and gloom, being humble in God's presence. You might think of Psalm 51. It's not easy to leave your sins behind. The devil will tend to redouble his attacks on the new believer. Don't want to lose this one. I don't want to lose this one. So we have to resist and we do that best when we also receive God's promises and grace. Verse 7, 8, 9, 10, there's a lot of imperatives in there. You gotta do this, submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, weep. But he also puts a bunch of encouragements in there as well. He's not just hard on us. He tells us, this is what you need to do. Here's the encouragements. He says, God gives more grace. That's an encouragement that we are to hold on to. God gives more grace. Interpret it broadly. Both ways, I said before. His grace is greater than his wrath for those who are in Christ. He will forgive you again, so pray again. He will give grace and more grace. Second encouragement, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now, not willingly. The devil likes to trespass in your space and squat in your soul. So you need to call the Holy Spirit, the sheriff of your soul to drive the devil out. Pray for the Holy Spirit to indwell you, for if the Holy Spirit is in you, the devil is not. Now, how do you do this? I'll give you another example. A few weeks ago, I was stirred up in soul, upset, not really praying, not really wanting to pray because I was upset. I was driving up Tippany Creek Parkway and I said, you know, I really need to pray And I really don't want to pray, so I think I know how to pray. God, help me pray, because I don't want to pray. Please give me your Holy Spirit, so that I will want to pray. And I felt very quickly, that indeed, God was softening my heart, drawing me close to Him. That's a prayer that resists the devil and draws near to God, and I could tell, okay, He was right there with me. Helping me, all right, let's put down the anger, let's come close, and now let's start praying about all the other things you know you need to be praying about. You can pray that way. You can start out by praying, God, help me, because I don't want to pray to you. So please forgive me, and please help me out. I'm trying to draw near to you against the stirring and the problems in my soul. And so he says, humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. You know, Jesus did this in such a thorough way that it becomes catechism questions. Where in did Christ's humiliation consist? And you run through the answer. And then after that, where in does Christ's exaltation consist? And you run through that. That's the one that continues and lasts. But it's not just Jesus. Joseph goes from favored son to slave, to imprisoned slave, to forgotten. but he's humble before the Lord and he exalts him. And Moses goes from baby in the house to baby cast out in the wicker basket, to young man in the palace, to driven out and being a shepherd, to being the leader of God's people. And David goes from youngest who has to watch the sheep when everybody else gets to meet the prophet, to being favored general, son-in-law to the king, to being driven out and chased from cave to cave, to being the king. And we can go through others, Peter and Paul, how they have humiliation before exaltation. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. This is the wisdom that comes from above that does not seek a lasting tie with the world that passes away, but seeks a lasting tie with the good and eternal creator. So receive God's encouragements, that he will give more grace, that when you resist the devil with the help of the spirit, he will flee from you. So draw near to God that he may draw near to you. Yes, and humble yourselves before the Lord that he may lift you up. How good it is when brothers live in unity. How good it is when a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who seek and make peace. So when that is not you, then reevaluate, repent, resist, and perceive. Ask yourself, all right, what was I craving in the moment? What was I choosing over peace before God? And repent of it. And recognize, now I need to make a plan for resistance. to resist the devil who doesn't go easily, but by the help of the Spirit will go. So receive the Spirit and all the blessings and encouragements of God. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom from above. It is first pure and then peaceable. We may enjoy a harvest of peace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help this to be us to a greater and greater degree. Help us more and more not to live according to desires, according to instinct or lust, but rather instead help us to walk by your spirit and to enjoy this peace in our souls. And Lord, we pray that you'd also give us peace with one another. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.