The Love One Another Podcast | Episode 06 - Spiritual Wisdom from the Spirit

This is the Love One Another podcast from Beach Point Church.

Together, we're exploring the first letter to the Corinthians with the hope that we will be formed by the way of the cross and the love of the one who bore it, admitting as the letter says that we are nothing without love.

Love empowered by the Spirit through the work of Jesus is an unstoppable force.

It invites each of us to join God in the work of redeeming all things back to God.

With that in mind, let's open our hearts to God's Word today.

1 Corinthians 2, 6-16 Amen.

However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him.

These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit.

The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?

In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

What we have received is not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught us by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

The person with the Spirit makes judgment about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments.

For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ." Have you ever sat in the chair of an optometrist's office, peering through the machine as the lenses are adjusted?

Better like this or like this, they ask, shifting glass until the world snaps into focus.

When you leave that chair, the world hasn't changed, but you have.

You can see more clearly.

What was once blurry is now vibrant, defined, real.

Over 20 years ago, I had laser eye surgery.

I went in and looked at the eye chart.

I covered my right eye and said, I know there's an E on top from memory.

Kimberly looked at me and said, are you serious?

You can't see that chart?

I told her that if I could, we wouldn't be in the optometrist's office right now.

They scheduled me for surgery the next day.

And after the surgery, I remember removing the bandages and being amazed at how clear everything was.

I could see again.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul invites us to consider that the Holy Spirit works in us much the same way.

The Spirit is like a divine lens, helping us see the world not as it is, but as God sees it.

Through this new lens, the gospel becomes beautiful and true.

Without the Spirit, it just looks like foolishness, an upside-down story about a crucified Messiah.

But with the Spirit, we begin to understand that this is God's wisdom.

C.S.

Lewis once captured it perfectly.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Son has risen, not only because Because I see it, but because of it, I see everything else.

The cross changes our vision.

Through it, we begin to see how God turns the wisdom of the world upside down.

The powers of the age, religious leaders, political empires, did their worst.

They crucified the Lord of glory.

But in doing so, they unknowingly stepped into God's greatest act of redemption.

The cross looked like defeat, but it was victory.

It looked like shame, but it was glory.

It looked like weakness, but it was power.

Paul says that true wisdom We'll be right back.

To live a cross shaped life is to live by a wisdom the world cannot grasp, but one that sets us free.

So today, pause and ask, what wisdom of this world am I still clinging to?

In what ways have I begun to measure success, identity, or strength by the standards of the age instead of the spirit?

And where do I need my vision corrected?

Invite the Holy Spirit to open your eyes anew.

Ask him to give you the mind of Christ.

Let him shape your heart, your thoughts, your actions around the cross.

Through it, may you not only see Christ more clearly, but see everything more clearly.

May the cross shape your words.

May it guide your decisions.

May it soften your heart and may it teach you that true life, real life is found when we surrender to the wisdom of God.

Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, I invite you to adjust my vision today.

Please show me where I've embraced the wisdom of the world and call me back to the way of the cross.

Give me the mind of Christ.

Please help me see everything through the beauty and power of the gospel.

Amen.

Thank you for taking intentional time to align yourself with God's love and the call to love one another.

You can find the Love One Another sermon series and other resources at beachpoint.com messages or on the Beach Point Church app.

May you carry the love of God into every encounter you have today.