Tag: Wisdom

Foolish Preaching

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Photo by Michelle Pearson

Foolish Preaching

1 Corinthians 2:13-16

 

I have a friend who is older than me; we’ll call him Ron. I see Ron almost every day at work, and we have great conversations. We talk about the hikes that Michelle and I go on every week, about sports, politics, and the Bible. Ron is not a believer, although he is very religious. He is blinded by his religion as well as his intellect and thinks he knows more than everyone else, including God. He doesn’t believe that the Bible is the word of God; he believes that it’s a book written by theologians throughout history. He believes that the Old Testament is nothing more than a book about the history of the Jewish nation and has no significance. He says the God of the Old Testament was an angry God who was constantly destroying people and says he wants nothing to do with a God like that. I had challenged him to read the Old Testament, all of it, specifically paying attention to those times when God took out His wrath on His people and to look at how many chances, He always gave them first.

The last time Ron said this, I asked him if I could read my favorite verse in the Bible. When he said I could, I took him to Zephaniah 3:17 which says, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” I then asked him, does this sound like an angry God to you?

But here’s the thing about Ron. No matter how many times he reads the Bible, or talks to pastors, or tries to reason it out, he will never understand the thoughts of God until he has been indwelled by God’s spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 Paul says, “13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.” You see, when we speak by the Spirit, the world cannot understand us. Years ago, I knew two pastors in the same town who both pastored in the same denomination. One of them was a great man of God. He preached from the Word, discipled his people, taught them how to win souls, and ministered all over town. The other stood up every Sunday and read the sermon that had been sent to him that week. When I would speak about spiritual things with that one, he would stand there with a blank look on his face. You could see it went right over his head.

When I tried to speak with Ron or that pastor about spiritual truths, they both saw it as foolishness. As we just read in verse 14, that’s how the world will respond. 1 Corinthians 1:18 also tells us this when it says, “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” So, if people see spiritual things as foolish, how can they be saved? Paul goes on to say, just a few verses later, “Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:21. People will be saved through our foolish preaching. You see, we can’t save anyone! Throughout my life, I have heard so many pastors saying things like, “I saved 200 people this year.” No, you didn’t! If they were saved at all, it had nothing to do with you. God used your foolish preaching to reach people and bring them to salvation. When we preach, or blog, or do a podcast, or even witness to someone, we need to remember that all we can do is share the gospel and pray that the Holy Spirit does the rest.

Now, that doesn’t mean we say whatever we want and leave it up to the Holy Spirit; we must be prepared. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.” And, then again in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.” You see, the Lord will only bless our foolish preaching if we are prepared. We must study, work hard, and be prepared to give an answer. Look at the end of that last verse where it says, “who correctly explains the word of truth.” We must be ready to explain the word of truth CORRECTLY. The KJV says “rightly dividing,” and the NASB says “accurately explaining.” The only way you can accurately explain the word of truth is to know what it says. Read it, study it, meditate on it, and be ready to explain it. We must put aside everything men taught us and study the word by taking it literally and keeping it in the context of the whole Bible. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t listen to pastors or read commentaries. What I am saying is when you do, test it against scripture, even what I am writing. God doesn’t want any of us to sit back and coast. He expects all of us to do the work.

In my book, Cathedral Made of People, I dedicated an entire chapter to this subject. Read Ephesians 4:11-16. In this passage, Paul says that God has given a gift to the Church in the form of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These people were given to the Church to equip them to build the body. A trainer for a bodybuilder doesn’t do the work for them. The trainer provides the proper equipment and teaches them to use it. In the same way, your pastor isn’t there to do the work for you; he is there to teach you how to use the equipment you have properly. So, let’s get to work and be prepared!

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Wise Speech

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Photo by Michelle Pearson

Wise Speech

1 Corinthians 2:6

Have you ever found yourself talking to another believer, completely amazed at the wisdom coming from them and at the same time realizing that it isn’t them? This happened to me recently when Michelle and I were talking to our new friends Terry and Amore. If you are a regular reader, you might remember me talking about them about a month or so ago. We had just met them but sat glued to everything he was saying and marveling at the wisdom that was exuding from him, but it was obvious it was God’s wisdom and not his. I know he didn’t go to Bible school or seminary, but I don’t even know if he went to college, it never came up because it was irrelevant. I realize I have recently used this verse, but it made me think of Acts 4:13, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”

Amore is a very humble man whose only goal is to glorify God. His speech is plain like we talked about last week, yet the wisdom of God just flowed from everything he said. This is what Paul was getting at in 1 Corinthians 2:6 when he said, “Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten.”

So, why didn’t he speak with God’s wisdom to the church at Corinth? One of the problems was that this particular church was trusting in their own wisdom. Corinth was a center of Greek philosophy which touted the wisdom of man. They worshiped man-kind, and their earthly wisdom much like many people do today. And, although the church were believers, they were very immature believers because they were being swayed by their environment.

Paul let them know that when he is with mature believers, he does speak with wisdom. By saying this, Paul was putting them in their place. They thought they were all that, but Paul let them know that they were still very immature in Christ. God often does this with us. We start trusting in our own wisdom and even try to take credit for God’s wisdom. God will never stand for this.

But when Paul told them that he spoke words of wisdom with more mature believers, he added a qualifier. He said, “but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten.” You see, the wisdom of this world is fleeting; it is soon forgotten. Those who think they are wise in the world will be forgotten.

The thing about God’s wisdom is that it is irrefutable. Oh, the world can try to mock it, trivialize it, or dispute it, but when they come face to face with the wisdom of God, they either give in or walk away.

Far too often, we try to reason with the unsaved by using our own, worldly knowledge. This never works and usually causes you and Christians as a whole to look ignorant. When talking to the world, or other Christ followers for that matter, we must go to them in the wisdom of God, not men.

So, where do we get the wisdom of God? Proverbs 9:10 says, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” Talking about fearing God isn’t popular right now, but it is scriptural. This verse and many others tell us that if we want to get wisdom, first we must fear God. Today the Church either preaches the love of God only or the fear of God only. As always, we are a people of extremes. But the truth is, both messages are equally important, and neither is exclusive. We must fear God because He loves us. You see, God loves us so much that He will never allow us to continue in sin without punishment. Did your dad ever tell you, “I brought you into this world, I can take you out!” I realize this is not a politically correct thing to say today, but I heard it growing up. My kids feared me; they knew if they did wrong, there would be consequences because I loved them and wanted them to grow up to be men of God. They also feared to let me down or disappoint me.

Someone recently told me that “The God of the Old Testament was an angry God and the God of the New Testament was a loving God.” It was obvious that this person had never read the Old Testament. Yes, in the Old Testament God did punish His people many times, but He always gave them chance after chance first. I shared with him my favorite verse. I took him to Zephaniah 3:17 which says, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” You can’t get much more Old Testament than Zephaniah, and yet this doesn’t sound like an angry God to me.

The second step to getting God’s wisdom is, once we have realized the fear of God, we need to ask for wisdom. James 1:5-8 says, “5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” So, if you want wisdom, just ask! But first, you must make sure your faith is in God alone, not in yourself.

Lastly, we need to realize that there is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. I saw a quote just yesterday that summed this up very well. I must say that I don’t usually quote Jimmy Hendrix, but this was good, he said, “Knowledge talks, wisdom listens.”

So, if you want God’s wisdom, you must first fear Him, then you must ask for it, then, just listen.

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No Clever Speeches

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Photo by Michelle Pearson

No Clever Speeches

1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Have you ever sat through a church service, the whole time thinking to yourself, “Wow, this guy is an awesome speaker?” You know those sermons, he had some hilarious jokes, great anecdotes, and really waxed eloquent on the subject…um, whatever it was.  Wait, what did he talk about? Hold on; I remember it was something about…no that wasn’t it. One of those pastors who sounded great, looked great, probably even smelled great, and said a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of nothing.

I have watched a few of these TV pastors, who shall remain nameless. These guys are brilliant speakers, extremely well spoken, and charismatic, but never really say anything. Don’t get me wrong, they make you feel really good about yourself and tell you all the things you want to hear, but not what you need to hear. Many of these people never open their Bible. They will preach for an hour and never even quote a verse. And, if they do quote a verse, they are taking it totally out of context to try to prove some point. These people have built huge “ministries” and amassed massive amounts of wealth for themselves, but they are not preaching the word and will have to answer for that one day.

In 1 Corinthians 1:17 Paul said, “For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.” Paul had just finished writing about how he was glad that he didn’t baptize but a few of them, so they couldn’t say that they were baptized in the name of Paul. Then he goes on in this verse to tell them that God didn’t send him to baptize, but to preach the gospel. But notice what he says at the end of the verse, he says that he wouldn’t preach with clever words, but why? Because clever speech might take away from the power of the cross.

You see, this is the problem with those types of pastors, it becomes all about them. They aren’t preaching the good news; they are telling you things that make you feel good about yourself so you will like them and give them money. Their preaching is taking away from the power of the cross! Please don’t get me wrong; there are popular pastors out there who are preaching the cross. Men who aren’t getting caught up in the trap of popularity yet are still well followed. Men like Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll are preaching the Word, not with clever speech, but with conviction. So, don’t write a pastor off just because he is popular, listen to what he is saying and test it against scripture.

Paul goes on in verses 18 and 19 to say, “18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.’” See what he says? If someone sees the gospel as foolish or useless, that is a good sign of where they are heading. Then Paul says, “But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” We know that the gospel is not foolish, we know that it is the very power of God. But notice that it says, “we who are being saved.” The verb tenses of this phrase, as well as the phrase, “are perishing,” are both very significant. You see, both of these phrases describe a work in progress. Every one of us is moving in one direction or the other. We are either being saved or perishing; there is no middle ground.

We will be looking at the end of this chapter in a few weeks, but what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29? He says, “26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” So, God isn’t worried about the wisdom of this world; He doesn’t care what we think about any of this. We may try to impress people with our fancy words and eloquent speech, but we don’t impress God. He doesn’t call the wise or rich or famous; He uses the poor and foolish and things the world counts as nothing to bring to nothing the things the world considers important.

I know this family who most people would consider backward hillbillies. They live in a trailer and drive an old beat up car. They have very simple and unpretentious speech and just seem uneducated. But once you get to know them you find out that the father and the son are both geniuses, they are both spiritual giants, and they are very wealthy, as the world sees wealth. There are no pretenses to them, but they regularly confound the wise.

We need to stop trusting in our wisdom. We need to become more like Paul and simply present the gospel. If there is a pastor that you love listening to, take some time to listen to what he is saying and doing. If his life and message don’t line up with scripture, then get away from him. But, like I said last week, if he is preaching the cross, you still need to do the work of studying out what he said with the Bible. If he is a man of God, he will be pleased that you are doing this.

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Don’t Live Like Fools

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Photo by Michelle Pearson

Don’t Live Like Fools

Ephesians 5:15-20

If you grew up in church, especially if you are around my age, you probably grew up singing a song in Sunday School that says, “Oh be careful little eyes what you see,” “be careful little mouth what you say,” and “be careful little feet where you go, because the Father up above is looking down in love.” Sometimes I think we need to go back to those children songs, their so simple and yet so profound.

Our passage today sums this all up. In Ephesians 5:15 Paul says, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.” Just be careful how you live, it’s that simple…Right? He says that we shouldn’t live like fools, instead we should live like the wise. Okay, the first question is, how do we get wisdom? James 1:5 tells us, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” We quote this verse quite a bit, but sometimes we forget to go on from there. Verses 6-8 say, “6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” So, yes, ask God, but you must have complete faith and trust in God alone. That means, don’t look for wisdom in Confucius, Plato, or Socrates, and don’t trust your own wisdom. We must remember that true wisdom only comes from God. We may ask God for wisdom, then wonder why He hasn’t given it to us. It’s because we keep trusting in our own wisdom or that of other humans, our loyalty is divided.

So, what are the attributes of true wisdom? James 3:17 tells us, “17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.” God’s wisdom is Pure, Peace Loving, Gentle at all times, and always willing to yield to others, in other words, it’s not proud. If your wisdom can’t be described as all these things, it is not of God. But, did you see what else it says? Look at it, “It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds.” It’s not that wisdom brings about good deeds, it is the product of good deeds. Wisdom is produced by us asking God for it and doing good deeds.

So, if we want to live by the Spirit’s power, we first must live like the wise, not the foolish. But this passage goes on to say, “16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. 20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If you hadn’t noticed, we are living in very evil days, but Paul tells us to look for opportunities and make the most of them.

And, how can we make the most of these opportunities? We need to stop being thoughtless and start understanding God’s plan. As we’ve seen many times before, God’s plan is for us to glorify Him…that’s all! And, here’s how we can glorify God:

Step 1: Don’t be a drunk! Why? It will ruin your life! I can’t begin to tell you how many lives I’ve seen ruined by alcoholism, even in my own family.

Step 2: Be filled with the Holy Spirit. We must empty ourselves of self and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and rule in us.

Step 3: SING! Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. A study was recently released on the benefits of singing 10 minutes each day. It strengthens your immune system, it is a workout in itself and even strengthens your lungs, it improves your posture, it aids in regular sleep, it is a natural anti-depressant, it lowers stress levels, it improves mental alertness, it can widen your circle of friends, boost your confidence, broaden your communication skills, and increase your ability to appreciate other music. Sing out loud, but also make music in your heart to the Lord.

Step 4: And, most important. In the name of Jesus Christ, give thanks to God for EVERYTHING! Not just the good things…everything.

We all need to ask ourselves daily, am I living by the Spirit’s power? This word, power, is a word we talked about quite a while ago. The Greek word is dunamis, which is the word we derived our word dynamite from. It is an explosive power and an inherent power. It is a power that is inherent within us and only comes from God. In contrast, the word the Bible always uses when it talks about Satan’s power is exousia which means the ability or strength with which one is endued. It is a power that God has allowed Satan to have for a season.

So, pray every day that God will fill you with the Holy Spirit. In fact, pray to be filled to overflowing, so the Spirit will spill out on everyone you come in contact with. Don’t be drunk but allow the Spirit of God to rule in your life. Then sing…sing with joy in your heart to the Lord. If you are singing all day every day, whether out loud or to yourself, you will be filled with joy, you will be doing good deeds which will bring about God’s wisdom in your life, and you will be living in the power of the Spirit of God.

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