Preaching on Sunday (Micah 5:5)

I preached on Sunday for about 50 minutes. The praise and worship did not begin until 9.40am after a 9am start. Only at about 10.20am I was called up to the pulpit and preached a sermon titled, "True Wisdom" or in Malay "Hikmat yang benar" from James 3:13-17.  I did not expound on the whole passage because I wanted to speak on another three passages from other parts of the Bible. First, I spoke about what true wisdom entails according to the apostle James. Then, I expounded on James 3 and said that true wisdom, a wisdom from heaven is proven by the life we live according the fruits thereof. It is just words but actions or deeds of wisdom in gentleness. I explained what heavenly wisdom is, peaceful, easy to appease, not raucous, not jealous or self-seeking because where there is envy and self-interest, there is disorder or disunity and every kind of evil (James 3;17).

I shared how about my school reunion that a few of my classmates despite 46 years still remembered that I came first all the time. In fact, my good friend told me that he got no. 2 all the time because of me. But he was happy to play second fiddle. But I told the church that for the past three days, I just followed (penurut) and took orders from my former classmates and I did not want to put myself forward except on one occasion that my friend were taking 5 minutes to decide on how to front the reunion's banner before the photo-taking at the School. I had to take charge which one or two might not be happy but solved a problem that most were glad and took notice of my leadership ability. One friend said, "it takes our no.1 to tell us what to do". 

It's just a natural ability to lead doubly charged by the Spirt of the Lord to lead God's people as the main passage of Micah 5:5. "When the Assyrians came to trample on our land, He will raise up seven shepherds and eight principal men." Why is this verse so important? It is important for showing up what leadership could do. Even the mighty Assyrians would be defeated, hordes and thousands of them if only God's people have seven or eight leaders of men. So I encouraged the church to stand up and shine for Jesus. I encouraged the young people to aim high but love and serve the Lord. I guess the sermon touched the chairman who was seated in front because he went up the pulpit and invited me to be the speaker of the church's anniversary scheduled next March 2025.