In the past years of ministry, one thing that has struck me is encountering many people I find difficult to understand. (I don't want to use God's standards.) By my own standards, they are not at all smart, and their outcomes have proven that their actions were indeed unwise.

Transforming people from a state of ignorance to one of intelligence seems to be the work of the church, and it is something I enjoy doing. In other words, making people smarter is quite important.

In China, some years ago, a product called Brain Platinum made a fortune, though whether it actually improved intelligence is unknown. Becoming smarter is a desire for many. I don't feel particularly qualified to talk about making people smarter. However, I still want to say that while I may not be able to make people geniuses, making them a little smarter than before is likely possible.

So today, let's begin to address the issue of becoming a smart person. If I don't speak well, you can build upon my foundation and take it a step further. You can dismantle what I say and create your own set of ideas, and I will listen to you. I also enjoy hearing your perspectives on how to be a smart person.

I read a story when I was young, which you should have also heard: The Farmer and the Snake. A farmer saw a frozen snake on the road, so he put it in his bosom to revive it. The snake warmed up and woke up. After waking up, it thought, What's this? Where am I? and bit the farmer to death. The farmer in the story didn't know the danger of the poisonous snake, and his ending was tragic.

The story of The Farmer and the Snake teaches us that it is unwise when a person thinks he is doing a good deed but ends up harming himself.

So what are smart people like? Smart people do things that benefit themselves. Today, let's carefully observe that many people, whether in their conduct or their actions, not only do not benefit themselves but also do not benefit others. Even if you benefit yourself, we are happy. But doing something that doesn't benefit yourself, I find such people extremely foolish.

In my ministry, I have encountered many such people. Logically, no matter how I calculate it, I can't figure out why they would do such a thing. This shocks me. For example, when I say something for his own good, he responds, The pastor doesn't love me anymore! I wonder, how could I not love you? If I didn't love you, and you were wandering on the street, I wouldn't grab you and say, You are like this.... I wouldn't say it! Right?

Because this person is my spiritual child. If I don't speak to you, who will? Right? Some people just can't get past this hurdle. Sometimes, even if you explain it to them, they understand, but they just can't get past it. For example, within the church, I minister to many people. After receiving benefits from me, a few words from someone who wants to harm him lead him astray. He thinks the pastor is not trustworthy, but the words of a scammer are trustworthy. He trusts those who ruin him, but those who love, care for, and protect him are seen as harming him.

This kind of thing makes me determined to do one thing: either transform such people into smart people, so I can be at ease and they won't bite me out of idleness; or pastor them to leave the church. Of course, I might sound a bit harsh, but I earnestly hope that our brothers and sisters become smart people. This is a deep desire within me—through education, continuous training, and teaching, to transform them into smart people.

You must know that it is easy to minister to smart people, but it is especially difficult to minister to foolish people. Because foolish people often think you want to harm them. In fact, there are people in the Bible who have paranoia. Some people develop paranoia, and their first thought about everything is that someone wants to harm them.

Once, I was listening to a recording of my own sermon, which happened to mention Cain. Cain killed his brother, and there were only three people in the world: Adam, Eve, and Cain. Then he said, God, someone wants to kill me! Isn't that insane? At that time, he was basically mentally ill, so how did God heal his mental illness? I will put a mark on you, and they will not kill you. I think our God is also humorous! Put a mark on you, and you can rest assured. How foolish is that! After listening, I thought, how can there be such people? They just don't understand the situation.

How to be a smart person? First, the most basic level is that smart people know how to do things and how to deal with people. You know how to do things, you can solve problems; on another level, you must know how to deal with people. But it is not enough to know how to do things without knowing how to deal with people; it is also not enough to know how to deal with people without knowing how to do things. Being able to do things and deal with people is very smart.

So the first thing I want to talk about today is how to do things. Some people are not smart, they don't like to do things, they are lazy, and they watch TV every day. Later, I discovered that watching TV can make people foolish. Some people say, Pastor, I watch TV all the time. I say, Why? Watching TV increases knowledge! I found that not much knowledge was gained, but a lot of foolishness was. I said, Where did this come from? From TV dramas. I thought, is that okay?

In fact, the knowledge gained from watching TV is not as good as reading books or doing things yourself. What is the difference between doing things and not doing things? Watching TV is a passive process. By the time you need to use that knowledge, you may have already forgotten it, so passive learning is not effective.

Why do we need to do things? When you do things, you encounter problems. When you encounter problems, you think. After thinking, you will find ways to solve the problems. In the process of solving the problems, you will become smarter. That's how it is.

Why do companies require work experience when hiring? People with work experience have solved many problems; people without work experience have not solved any problems. So people don't say, I'm hiring someone with knowledge. Have you heard that? I'm hiring someone with experience. What is experience? It is that he has solved problems, he knows how to solve problems, he knows how to do things. Isn't that what companies do?

Some people say, I know how. That's not really the case. We all say It's easy to watch someone embroider flowers, but it's hard to do it yourself, right? For example, I really enjoy decorating. When I first started doing it, I was using sealant. I saw the workers apply the sealant and it looked beautiful. But when I applied it myself, I smeared it left and right, and the place looked terrible. But later I practiced and realized that it requires a very skillful pressure from the finger!

In other words, doing things yourself is completely different from watching others do things. People who do things become smarter. For example, if you are doing sales, you have to sell the product. If others sell the product and you can't, don't say that the product is hard to sell, not selling it is your problem. Once you start selling, you know it's really hard. If you think selling is easy after watching others sell, and then you take in a lot of stocking inventory, but you can't sell it, that's terrible.

So today, we must all learn to be smart people, and smart people do things. The reason why I push everyone to do practical things is to make everyone a smart person.

A pastor brought his entire team to me and said, Pastor Liu, I have seen that the website you built is very good, I let these people come to you to learn how to build a website. I said, Come on! Ask! The questions they asked sounded like they weren't experienced. He thought they should learn first and then do it when they go back. In fact, they should do it first, and when they encounter problems, they should ask. When you ask and are given the answer, you will definitely gain something. Even if the other person doesn't want to tell you, you can watch him do it and then think it over when you come back, and you will have learned something. This is how you become smart.

Solving Problems Makes People Smart

So people who do things become smarter, and when you do things you will definitely encounter problems. When you encounter problems, you will definitely think of ways to solve them, but if you give up... that's Too Bad. Don't give up, keep investigating! Once you solve the problem, you become an experienced person! Right? Once you solve the problem, you become an experienced person because you have solved the problem.

So in management, I know: Hey, do you have any problems? I don't have any problems. I know that's the biggest problem. Do you have any problems? - No problems. Do you have any problems? - No problems. That's the biggest problem. Now I have developed a habit. What habit have I developed? I arrange things for you to do and I estimate, I roughly know what problems you will encounter. I say:

Do you have any problems? No problems. I say: Have you encountered this problem? I have! So how can he have no problems? Trying to fool me, thinking he can fool me. Because I am a person who does things, it is a bit difficult to fool me. So when you encounter problems, don't cover them up! Take the problems out and say:

Pastor, I have encountered this problem, I have encountered that problem. How should I solve this problem, how should I solve that problem? You will definitely encounter problems. I had a project before, and I handed it over to one of my subordinates. At that time, I had just started as a manager, and I didn't have enough experience, I didn't understand. I said, You do it. Every time I passed by him, I said, Hey, young man, have you encountered any problems? No problems! Then after a few months, I said, Have you finished it? I've finished it! Okay, then let's do this tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a public holiday, and we have to do maintenance of the computer server during the public holiday. I came happily, and I asked him: What is your plan, how to solve it? I don't know... It turns out that during those months, no problem was the biggest problem!

Later, I really didn't need him. Based on my experience, I did the job and did the whole thing during the public holiday. In other words, a person who often does not encounter problems in his life will basically not become a smart person, right? If you encounter problems, you will become a smart person! You will become smarter by encountering and solving problems.

One day, there was a problem with the washing machine here. After I fixed the problem, I discovered that water would get stuck, once it got stuck, it would flow all over the corridor. I had to wash my clothes, so I wandered down the street, and there was a building, and the company had two old car tires.

I don't know if you have never seen that thing. I cut the waste car tires into two pipes. What time was it? It was New Year's time, and all the stores were closed. But you can't not wash your own clothes even if all the stores are closed! I fixed two car belts. How can those two car belts connected to each other? I bought two yogurt bottles.

I drank the yogurt, picked up the bottles and connected them, Hey, it's pretty good. It's connected, and I can wash my clothes. If you can't solve this problem, then you have to endure it! In other words, if a person solves many problems, he sees things very well. So if you often like to do things and solve one problem after another, you will have experience.

So doing things can make people smart! In fact, the Bible says the same thing, except that the Bible says God wants people to do things. Later, we thought that this was no longer the case in the New Testament. In fact, Paul had said that if you don't do honest work, you shouldn't eat. If you check the Bible, you should not eat if you do not work. You must learn to do things.

A Capable Person is a Smart Person

A person who acts, he becomes smart. So you will slowly understand this logical system, why you diligently keep and follow God's word, and God blesses the work of your hands. It is because after you act, you are like God, you will have God's image. When God created this universe and all things, and everything on earth, and then created man, and placed man on earth.

I ask you, is God's creation perfect? God's creation is perfect. Then if God's creation is perfect, what do we need you for? The problem becomes serious, we still need man, to continue God's creation on earth and continue to walk. In fact, God's creation deliberately left a portion for man to do, for man to act. Man must manage everything on this earth.

Of course, this is a story in the Bible. So it's about doing things! If you don't do things, but observe others doing things, is that okay? That's also good, you often observe when others are doing things, and have the opportunity to go back and do it yourself. When you do it yourself, you will find that you don't quite understand.

If you don't quite understand, have you later discovered that you seem to understand but don't quite understand? When you teach others, you understand again. You want to teach others to understand, and you also understand. So, if you teach others, you will become very capable quickly, very capable quickly. So, later I discovered that I created a learning model among us.

This learning model, throw the net, do this, do this, do this... after you are finished come find me. Is that fast? Very fast! So when GY came here, I had him build the website. Building the website, and then he learned something very practical. So today if you think sitting in a classroom listening to lectures is learning, you are wrong.

Doing things is the best learning. Doing things is the best learning. Even a very simple thing, you need to solve the problem, and then you can understand more, more thoroughly. When you understand one thing thoroughly, two things thoroughly, three things thoroughly, what will you discover? You will have a feeling inside you! The feeling of doing things.

As soon as you see this thing, it should be done this way, that thing should be done that way. You become smarter and smarter, more and more clever.

Doing Things Makes People Sensitive

Later who did I discover? I discovered that Li Ka-shing is over 80 years old, he is not saying he is clinging to power, he is not, he likes to do things. He wants to be responsible and wants to do things, if people get old and don’t do things they will have Alzheimer's! If a person is old and still working at 80 years old, it is difficult to get Alzheimer's. Very difficult, Alzheimer's is because he stays idle.

What are you doing? I'm staying idle, and just stays idle. So today we begin to understand, no matter how old you are, don't have the concept that: I can't do things anymore, I want to rest.

Someone said that when you are in a coffin, you have enough time to rest, in a coffin you can rest forever, no need to rest now, but this is a bit mean, you can rest forever in a coffin. That is to say, today we are still alive, since we are alive, we should do things well, right?

A Person Must Learn to Behave

The second clever thing is called being a person. You have to learn to be a person, I find that many people do not know how to be a person. What's going on? This thing about being a person, being a person is very interesting. You have to learn to be a person, doing things is a hard skill, being a person is a soft skill.

Everyone must know that a person must have hard skills and soft skills, hard skills and soft skills. Then hard skills are doing things, and soft skills are being a person. Let's just say, I find that many people may be able to do things but they don't know how to be a person, I'll give you an example:

Then I have an elder cousin, I don't know if that elder cousin is still alive, he is about the same age as my mother. Then he later went to my mother and my father, many years ago. Then my father arranged a job for him, arranged a job to work on a construction site. As a result, he and those workers united to scheme against people, who? Scheme against the person who arranged the job for him, and fight against them together.

That's your benefactor! People arranged a job for you and as a result you and the people below him are against him, this has to… I can't figure it out! If you ask me to do something like this, I don't know how to do it! I really don't know how to do it, but there really are people like this, just like this. Later, I tell you, my dad was very sad, very sad.

Then you say he introduced a job to him through a friend, and as a result, he came to be against the person who arranged the job for him. Are there many things like this? A lot! Very much!!

Then in the church I help him, and he is against me. Then if I don't help him, he and others will join together to be against me. Brothers, good brothers, hugging shoulders and necks. I think this is amazing, too amazing! You have to know how to be a person! Then how do you be a person? Do you know how to be a person? Do you know how to be a person? You need to know exactly how to be a person.

If you do this thing, you are definitely doing it for someone else, right? Isn't it? Who are you responsible to for doing this thing? If I do this thing and hand it over to him, then I will be responsible to him.

Who should you hand this over to? Who are you responsible to? I must learn to be a person in the process of doing things, I must know whether that person is satisfied after this thing is done.

Many people don't know how to be a person, he doesn't know what people want, maybe he didn't think about it, doesn't consider other people's thoughts, I'll give you an example, when I preach I must know how everyone is receiving it; when I lead everyone in worship, I have to examine, what exactly is their reception? If the reception is not good, what should I do, how to drive it up, that is, when I lead everyone to do this thing, I have to consider how everyone feels about this thing.

I often think this way, when I have oversights, you have to understand what others think, when I encounter a scammer, I know very well how the scammer thinks, and it is difficult to be fooled, and I understand through doing things, so, you must be loyal to the things entrusted to you, the Bible tells us to be loyal, to be loyal to the things entrusted to you by others, and then people will have a good impression of you, in fact, there are many levels to being a person:

Understanding the Needs of Others in the Process of Doing Things

Caring about people's needs and not caring about people's needs are not the same thing, a person who knows how to be a person will understand the other person's needs, not in a state of being controlled to meet the other person's needs, but in a very healthy and free win-win state to meet the other person's needs, there is a book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, teaches you how to do things and how to be a person, it is a good habit for a person to consider the needs of others, a very successful marketing person must clearly understand the customer, if he doesn't understand he can't do it, you know that people who drink Coca-Cola may not understand their need for Coca-Cola, but the Coca-Cola company understands consumers far more than consumers themselves.

Colgate toothpaste company knows people's toothpaste habits very well, they know how many people dip the toothbrush with toothpaste on it in water before brushing, how many people brush horizontally and vertically are very clear, you will see that a small toothbrush will become an innovative project, toothbrushes have pointed ones, round ones, thin ones, fat ones, hard ones, soft ones, Colgate toothpaste prevents gum bleeding, if you want to do sales, you must be a person who understands the needs of others, and first of all understands people's problems.

If you don't understand and don't care about the needs of others, and only care about the money in other people's pockets, don't do this sale, you can't do it, it's impossible to do it well, if everything you do considers the needs of others, a very successful salesman, knowing how to be a person is very important, in the level of being a person, emotional management, knowing how to see the importance and urgency, this is the most important key to being a person.

There is a book, The One Thing, to be a smart person, you must have a sense of the importance and urgency of things, it is also important to judge the importance and urgency of others, for example, a person is rushing to catch a train, and is about to be late, a person who knows how to be a person will not drink and chat, he will see the importance and urgency,

To Be a Smart Person, Never Discern Good and Evil

You must know that your own judgment of things is biased, why does this world use a ruler to draw lines, I once drew lines with my eyes, I couldn't draw them straight, it's the same with discerning good and evil, you think things are like this, without a proper standard to measure, it is a subjective judgment, why can't you be a person if you are subjective, you think this way and others think that way, there will be conflict, in the process of conflict you become a person who doesn't know how to be a person, you will argue, you have to be this way or that way, in fact this way or that way are not important, knowing how to be a person is the most important.

Knowing how to be a person and knowing how to do things, these two things determine whether a person is smart, how to measure whether a person is smart in the church, look at his pastoral work, his pastoral work is very powerful, he is a person who knows how to be a person, his ministry is very powerful, he will definitely be able to do things, basically he trains people to be very smart people. A person who knows how to be a person has to treat all kinds of people, and people can't ask questions, sometimes we judge things, a smart person does not discern good and evil, does not judge according to his own point of view, but according to objective standards.