Wisdom Lit - Jesus in the Gospels

Well, like I said before my name is Greg Hampton. I'm one of the pastors here. We've never met I would love to meet you

I enjoy coffee and the like

So if you would like to grab a beverage sometime

I'd be happy to buy that for you and get to know you hear your story learn a little bit about you last week

We finished up a three-week series called the Trinity and we ended on

The subject of the Holy Spirit. It's a common idea in the scriptures that wisdom comes from God

But more specifically the Holy Spirit is regularly credited with giving wisdom

to all those

That seek for it. We're actually gonna as far as I know right now

We're gonna go through the book of James this summer

So we're gonna find our way back to the subject of wisdom again

And in the beginning of James it talks about God gives wisdom to all those who ask of it

So I thought since we ended with the the Trinity last week that we would jump into a series called

wisdom lit that we would dive into

Wisdom, I've been having this feeling maybe you're having this feeling as well that we're gonna need wisdom now more

than ever as individuals as a society as

neighbors as well as as a church

Last week we had our our lead team with all the different leaders of the different

Volunteer teams here at the church last Sunday

And I was talking to them a little bit about some future ideas or opportunities the church might have but I said we don't just need

good opportunities we need wisdom

Because not every opportunity is the thing you're supposed to do even if it looks

Good and so for the next six weeks

We're gonna be in a series about the wisdom that we find in the scriptures called wisdom

Lit they might already know this but there are different categories of

scriptures like the law and the prophets like poetry and the epistles

The category of wisdom literature includes books like Job Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes in while the Gospels are not technically in the category of wisdom literature

They are category of their own

Last week we talked about how one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to remind us of

Everything that Jesus taught and so it seems to me if we're talking about wisdom

There's no better place to start than with the wisdom of Jesus in the Gospels

And so if you'll grab your Bible, let's go ahead and jump in we're gonna go to Luke

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Chapter 6 if you don't have a Bible there are Bibles on the table

There's also Bibles out in the lobby

On the bookshelf you can take one of those and I'll take it home with you if you'd like you can download a Bible from

any of the digital

App stores we're gonna be in Luke chapter 6 it goes Matthew Mark Luke John acts

Luke 6 · chapter mention

So you see any of those you're in the right neighborhood

Okay

We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention as they are read during the sermon and you can do that any

Number of ways you can sit as we read or you can join me in standing now

As we read Luke chapter 6

Luke 6 · chapter mention

starting in verse 27

It says this but I say to you who are listening

Love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you

Pray for those who mistreat you if anyone strikes you on the cheek offer the other also

And from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt

Give to everyone who asks of you and if anyone takes away what is yours do not ask for it back again

Do to others as you would have them do to you

If you love those who love you what credit is that to you for even sinners love those who love them

If you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you for even sinners do the same if you

Lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment what credit is that to you even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again

Instead love your enemies do good and lend expecting nothing in return your reward will be great

And you will be children of the most high for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked

And you will be children of the most high for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked

Be merciful just as your father is merciful let us pray

God of every tribe every tongue every color and every nation we thank you for your word

Thank you for the scriptures that they have persisted throughout the millennia

That it would become a part of the framework of our faith that our faith would become stronger as we become more like your son Jesus

Amen. Amen. You can all have a seat. Thank you.

Alright. Here's the first thing wisdom is not just being smart

Wisdom is not just being smart sometimes wisdom feels like the exact opposite

Doesn't sound smart to love your enemies to do good things for people that hate you but it is somehow wise

Doesn't sound like a smart idea to bless people that curse you or to turn your other cheek and yet somehow it is wise

If someone steals your coat and you know who stole it it doesn't feel smart to just let it go but somehow it is wise

Wisdom as described by Jesus actually sounds foolish

That's because wisdom is not just being smart

I've talked about this in the past but I think it was worth putting it up here again

Claire will you put up that first white graphic that I have in there

This is how we tend to think of wisdom these three lines you have good and bad you got right and wrong

You've got mature and immature these are the three things that kind of give dimension to how we think of wisdom in our life

When you're just small you're taught the stove is hot bad don't touch

Some of us have done that with our kids right bad hot don't touch

Of course the stove is not actually bad right

There's just good and bad times and ways to use the stove especially if you're a little kid

Then you learn not only is the stove good you find out that there's right and wrong ways to use the stove

You cook food and boil water right

Storing Tupperware inside of it forgetting and then preheating

It's on the wrong end of the spectrum

And then after you learn the difference between bad and good wrong right

You start to move into the area of life where you start to go okay things are mature or they are immature

With the stove you learn that this is the right way to use it this is the right time to use it

But maturity is using the stove for something good in the right way and then cleaning the stove when you're done

Any resemblance to anyone you know is a coincidence and unintentional

Good bad right wrong mature immature doesn't make us wise it makes us smart makes us sensible

When we follow Jesus we find out that the smartest thing isn't always wise according to us it might even feel foolish

But what is actually foolish causes life to cave in this next graphic shows the idea that when we add the Holy Spirit

When we are filled with the Holy Spirit it gives us a dimension to all of these things when we are filled with the Spirit

It can count like a test or act it can push everything out and grow everything all at once but when we are foolish

It can collapse everything so when we are convinced. Oh, this is the right thing to do, but it's actually foolish

We end up having negative consequences, and we wonder why it's because we made that decision based on what we thought was right or wrong

Or good and bad not necessarily on what was truly wise or foolish where it felt foolish to turn the other cheek

We find that retaliation or returning violence for violence actually shrinks our life

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars

Where it felt foolish to love our enemies we find that hate is what shrivels our hearts

Coretta Scott King the wife of the assassinated Dr. King said hate is too great a burden to bear

It injures the hater more than it injures the hated

Wisdom isn't just being smart by the world's standards it isn't just knowing good from bad right from wrong mature from immature

Wisdom is letting the teachings of Jesus fill us to the full by the power of the spirit and expanding our entire life because of it

Instead of limiting our love to only those that love us

Thanks, Claire, you can clear that

This is where I want to remind us including myself I'm reminding myself following Jesus living from a position of wisdom isn't easy

But I think that Jesus tells us how to at least get started

Let me read that verse again those first two verses

But I say to you who are listening love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who mistreat you

Love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who mistreat you love do good bless pray

When we find ourselves in a difficult situation maybe instead of just filtering what we should do through good bad right wrong mature immature

Maybe we can filter our next steps through those four things

Is my next decision motivated and shaped by love

Is it doing good

Is it a blessing is their prayer involved

Because the scripture goes on

He says if you love those who love you what credit is that to you

This is hard for us to hear

If you do good to only those who do good to you what credit is that to you

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment what credit is that to you he says instead love your enemies

Do good

And lend expecting nothing in return

He ends by saying be merciful

Just as your father is merciful I guess what it all amounts to is that wisdom is somehow grace and mercy combined

Grace is when you give the gift that someone did not deserve

We are grateful for the grace that we receive from God because there's this concept that we don't deserve the love forgiveness

The goodness that he offers us that's grace

But mercy is when you do not give the retribution that is deserved

Mercy is when you do not strike back when you could

Mercy is when you withhold the slap

The curse the violence or the punishment

That by the world standards would be deserved

They all get lost in mercy

And so I'm reminded of the words of James the brother of Jesus

He says mercy triumphs over judgment

Last Monday a new president was sworn into office here in the United States

And it's true of every president that the decisions that they make have real world consequences and outcomes for the people that you know and love

For yourself

Some people are very excited about those potential outcomes while others are completely terrified

I think that Jesus has something to say to us here

Especially to any of us find that we are feeling we have an enemy in the White House

I want us to remember that Jesus is speaking to a crowd full of people that were daily affected by their government

They were daily affected by a government that was their literal enemy

By the time that Jesus was saying these words in Luke and Matthew Rome had ruled over Israel for about 90 years

There was almost no one alive or anyone hearing his words that had ever experienced complete freedom in their lifetime

And in Matthew's version of the same sermon

Right in the middle of these verses we find out that Jesus is at least in part talking directly about the government that they were living under

Jesus says if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them too

He's talking about the military

He's talking about the soldiers from Rome that were occupying their land

We know this because there was a law that said if any Roman soldier wanted you to carry their gear for one mile you were required to do so

They could ask you anytime, any place to pick up their stuff and carry it for them

They could make you go two miles out of the way anytime they wanted

One mile to get wherever they wanted to go and one mile for you to get back

And now Jesus is saying make it four

Think about the last time someone asked you for a ride and be honest

How many of you were excited to go out of your way?

Now imagine that it's someone that you have a legitimate reason to dislike or distrust

Jesus says do more than you are required

Because if you love those who love you what credit is that to us?

He says be merciful just as your father is merciful

Now I don't think that this means that we aren't supposed to speak up about injustice

I think that Jesus has quite a bit to say about the poor, about the weak, about the least

And I don't think that this is Jesus telling someone that they have to stay in an abusive relationship

But I do think that we are conditioned to think that if we know something is good, not bad

If we know that something is right, not wrong

If we know something is mature, not immature

That we can be sure of what is wise and not foolish

But Jesus flips foolishness on its head and tells us that there is more wisdom in loving our enemies

Doing good to those who hate us, blessing those that curse us

And praying for those that mistreat us

Than in our own version of wisdom and what it would tell us

So let me end with this

If you don't know how to accept this kind of wisdom

Especially with what is happening in the world

If you do not know how to accept this kind of wisdom

If you don't know how to begin by loving your enemy

Then start with doing good for someone that has offended you

If you don't think that you can start by doing something good for someone that has offended you or hates you

Then maybe start with blessing someone that has cursed you

And if you don't think that you can start with blessing someone that has cursed you

Maybe start by praying for someone that has mistreated you

But start somewhere

Because wisdom is not just being smart

Wisdom begins with following the teachings of Jesus

Jesus taught that those who follow his teachings can be compared to this

There was a person that built a house

And they built it on rock

And there was another that built their house and built it on sand

And when the winds came, when the waves raged, when the storms beat against each house

One of those houses stood

The house that was built on the teachings of Jesus and following them was the house that survived

I hope that we will be filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit

That we will hear the teachings of Jesus

That we will follow these teachings with wisdom

In every moment, thinking about how to love, how to do good, how to bless, and how to pray

Amen? Amen. Let's pray

Father, we thank you that you are good

Jesus, we thank you that you love

Spirit, we thank you that you lead

Help us to be good

Help us to love

Help us to lead in a way that is wise

And not just by our own standards

In the name of Jesus we pray

Amen