Broken God: The Wisdom of God | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening.

It is great to be with you all.

And uh Ryan, obviously, Robbie is getting married today.

Big day, right?

He and Brita.

And um Ryan and Jenny are down with them, so I get to be with you.

So that's a real thrill.

Okay, I'm gonna ask you to go to a uh a little bit different place.

I want you to, if you're comfortable, um, close your eyes because I want you to visualize a couple things.

I want you right now to think about, ask literally God to bring to your mind what's the most challenging, difficult.

Boy, Lord, if you could pray one prayer and he would just either change it or take it away, what would that be?

And if it's not something maybe just right now, maybe even in your past.

Not just something hard, but something where you you just don't understand.

I mean, if God really loves you and if he's good, then how did that person get taken away in the pandemic?

Or why did he or she break up with me?

Or how come this health issue never goes away, or this marriage never gets fixed, or ongoing something with maybe one of your kids, or you gotta betray, or you should really think about something more down deep, you say God.

I don't get it.

It just seems so unfair.

Have you got it?

If you're there, I'd like you to keep your eyes closed and and listen to words that might wash over that experience.

To act actively believe that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting welfare brings to the soul a benediction of peace.

Most of us go through life praying, a little planning, a little jockeying position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way.

This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.

There is a better way.

It's to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God.

Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it's a real hindrance to our spiritual progress.

God has charged himself today with the full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn to him in faith.

As you open your eyes, let me repeat that last line.

God has charged himself with the full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready today to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn to him in faith.

We're talking about the wisdom of God in this series called Broken God.

Really, it's more about our broken view of God.

And my prayer is that you're gonna get a new set of glasses, a new lens, that you start looking at circumstances and life and yourself and the future through a new set of glasses that are the wisdom of God.

And the definition classical of the wisdom of God is God brings about the best possible ends by the best possible means for the most possible people for the longest possible time.

And that truth saved my life.

I'm doing what I'm doing today because of that one truth.

You know, sometimes I like to think of uh, you know, theology as like all these great big thoughts about God, but what I want you to know is that it's taking theology and connecting it with how life really works that brings about great peace and great transformation.

And often it's like, when's the first time that you learn that?

I have to rewind many, many, many years.

Uh I was in seminary, Teresa and I, we had at the time two little boys who were about five or six, and an 18-month-old who later became the pastor at Awakening named Ryan.

And I was uh had a commitment, we had a commitment that Teresa should be home with our children.

And so I was going to school full time and I was working full time, and that meant in that current world, and I had a lot of energy that I got up at about 4:30 in the morning, went to an all-night donut shop and studied Greek for about an hour and a half, got on a carpool at about seven, uh, went with a group of guys, went to school, and every moment I wasn't in the class, I had a book open to get everything done, got home, played with the kids for a few minutes, ate dinner, then went to work about 6:30 until about 11 at night.

And then for three years, over and over and over, it was a straight commission job, so we never knew if we had enough money.

And a number of times we didn't.

And after three years of that, then uh the job literally it died.

So we're broke.

Um, the the little thing we did in order as an outlet, we did a little college ministry that started out with a few, you know, not that many, and it just mushroomed, and it added great joy but great stress.

And I found myself um going on about four or five hours' sleep for three years, tension in my marriage.

I'm absolutely broke.

I have no money, I'm discouraged.

In fact, I'm not discouraged, I'm depressed, and I'm thinking I was gonna be a major college basketball coach.

I've already been through grad school, you've called me to be this vocational ministry, and my life is broken in every area, and I'm discouraged, and so I've decided I'm gonna quit.

Not gonna quit on God, He's way too great and wonderful, but I I remember sitting in an absolute stupor in a class, and in I don't know why I pray in King James when I'm really discouraged, but I remember thinking, is this how you treat thy servants when we give all that we have to you?

I mean, I as far as I was aware, there was no big sin in my life, but everything was depleted and broken.

I can't pay the rent, I don't have any money, I and I'm done.

And I was sitting in this theology class, and it's one of those, you know, about 200 students, you know, that have the steps that come down.

And I just got so engrossed in this stupor.

I I remember someone tapping me on the shoulder and I looked up, and it was Dr.

Ryrie of the Ryrie Study Bible.

And I looked around and everyone else was gone.

And somehow I was so discouraged and despondent.

I sat in the class and everyone left and I didn't notice.

And he just said to me, Chip, whatever you do, don't make any big decisions for the next 48 hours.

Go home, get some rest, get a couple good meals.

Whatever you do, don't make any big decisions.

And I was driving home and had pretty much decided I can't do this anymore, and I'm gonna quit, and I, you know, I'll be a Christian, but I can't, whatever ministry is, this I can't do this anymore.

I'm done.

And Dr.

Ryrie had a way of uh stating things real uh pithily, and and as I uh the next day, you know, as I was thinking of all the implications of quitting, the definition of the wisdom of God, because I was taking a theology class with him, God brings about the best possible ends by the best possible means for the longest possible time for the most possible people.

All the circumstances, all the things of life, orchestrated decisions, people who make willful choices, freedom, sovereignty, all the rest.

And I remember thinking hypothetically, like I don't know if I believe that, but if I did, and and and I'm certain my life wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but as far as I knew there wasn't sin in my life, I'm doing what God's called me to do.

And I remember hypothetically thinking, what if, if that's true, if there was a kinder or gentler or better way for God to make me more like Jesus and prepare me and launch me into what I'm supposed to do?

What if this is the most kind and gentle and good way?

And I remember grabbing onto that and thinking, if it if there was an easier way, if there was a gentler way, if there was a kinder way, that would be it.

But what if I'd need this?

What if for reasons I don't understand?

And of course, later it meant I had to step back, and a little church needed a pastor, and it was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was the last place in the world I wanted to go.

And I took Teresa out there and we looked at it, and she cried all the way home, like, don't take me there.

And you know, I ended up in a in a little town of 3,000 people and guns in the back, and they still used the N-word, and it was it was I I can't fathom.

I was there for eight years, that I had so much to learn, and I had such prejudice and biased against, quote, redneck people and environments, until God sent me to Santa Cruz and I learned I had equally prejudiced and biased with super progressives and all the rest.

And God had to teach me through a journey.

I love them all, Chip.

I just see them as people in great need who've been raised by all kinds of people and influences.

I chose to believe that God was all wise.

And I think about the dominoes that would have happened if I would have opted out for my family and maybe even for others.

At the bottom of your notes, it says, How would your life be different?

I mean, what would happen in you as you go back to what you were pondering in your mind about God take it away?

I mean, I just was with a couple after the first service who six months ago a drunk driver killed their son.

This isn't hypothetical stuff.

They're wrestling.

They're asking God for a new lens.

Where and how could this be good?

And so, what I want to do is three things.

I want to define wisdom for you biblically.

I want to show you how God has revealed his wisdom, and then third, I want to help all of us learn how we can actually get the wisdom of God and live out of it.

You ready?

Turn the page, if you will, defining God's wisdom.

I've already started down the path, but this is Burkhoff.

This is a classic German theologian.

Wisdom is that attribute of God whereby he produces the best possible results by the best possible means.

Webster defines wisdom as the quality of being wise, the power of judging rightly, following the soundest course of action, and it's based on knowledge, experience, and understanding.

And don't miss this, the root words are to know and to see.

In other words, if you get wise counsel from someone, if they know things you don't know, they see things, they've been there, and they can say to you, in light of this, in light of that, in light of this, and this truth and where I've been, this is the best step.

Now, who's the only one that knows all things actual and all things possible?

Who's one that sees everything, every human heart, every decision, every global movement, everything from the supply chain to a little Chinese five-year-old today praying to God, ask me for help?

Only God.

He's all powerful, he's all-knowing, he's omnipresent, he's just, he's holy, he's powerful, he's compassionate, he's tender.

The scripture says now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

That's who's orchestrating the world today.

In a fallen world, he's given freedom, but he limits evil.

Remember, remember that he said to Satan about Job?

You can do whatever you want with him, but you can't kill him.

That's true at the personal level in your life and my life, but it's also true globally.

There was a Hitler and a Stalin, we've got a Putin.

There's people in corporate worlds, there's people in individual worlds.

There's free choice that allows evil to go, but God says, I put a limit on it.

Only so much here, only so much there, because my purposes will not be thwarted.

Paul, at the end of his magnificent picture in Romans 9, 10, and 11 of the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God in praise says, Oh, the depths of the riches of the underlying wisdom and then underlying knowledge of God.

Oh, the depths, oh the riches.

How unsearchable are his judgments.

The judgment is what he does and why he does it.

Unsearchable.

And his paths, or literally his ways, the way he works in your life, the way he works globally, the way he works in your family, the way he works at your work.

They're beyond tracing out.

The word wisdom all through scripture has the idea of it's used of God and men.

It always carries a moral connotation of pure and loving and good.

By now you recognize that Ryan and I both like A.W.

Tozer.

Notice in your notes, he gives us his definition of wisdom.

Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means.

It sees the end from the beginning, so there's no need to guess or to conjecture.

Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in its proper relationship to all, and is thus able to work toward a predestined goals with flawless precision.

Now that's a lot of highfalutin language that I think is very, very accurate.

I want to tell you a little story, so you can lean back for a minute, and I want you to picture the story.

This is a PG-13, possibly R-rated story in terms of where your emotions might go, but I think it's been very helpful to me.

Imagine it's about a hundred years ago, and there's a there's a there's a beautiful little hill, and it's all grassy and has some stairs, and then there's railroad tracks right here, and there's gravel on this side, and gravel here, and then you come up, and then there's another little incline up here, and there's just a it's like a little box.

And in the old days, if you train tracks would go this way, and then there was a switcher.

And if this if the train's gonna go this way, someone would manually switch it and it would go this way.

And so this is the story of the man who was the railroad switcher.

And so he would get up in the morning and play with his little five-year-old son and have a great time, and then he would go down the steps, cross the railroad tracks, come up, sit in his little box, and he would wait and look for the trains that would be on time, and then he had a little chart which ones need to be switched, and if they came fast, he needed to do it early.

And on this particular day, the little boy comes down, he's got his daddy's lunch, and he's running down the steps, and as he comes across, he trips.

And as he trips, he catches his foot underneath the track, and he can't get out.

And his father sees a train coming about 500 yards at 60 miles an hour, and he realizes I don't have time to get down and save my son.

And I have one or two options.

Option number one is it's coming and it's supposed to be on this track.

And if it is, then my son will die.

I can switch it, but at the speed, if I switch it, the train will derail and probably kill four or five hundred people.

Now, here's the question.

If we were in Harvard Business School, we would make this a case study.

And in the case study, we would sit in small groups, and I would say, what's the wisest thing to do?

Not the moral thing, not the Christian thing, not the most noble thing, not the most sacrificial thing, but what's the wisest thing to do?

And then we would sit in groups and talk about why we think our opinion about what's wisest, right?

Well, we're not in Harvard Business School.

And I think if we were with a group of Christians, most of us would talk for a while.

And as hard it would be, we would say something like, Well, God the Father gave his son, and to save four or five hundred people, the wisest thing to do would be to watch your son die.

And I think that would be a good Christian discussion.

What if uh that little boy, however, was the next Billy Graham?

And what if millions of people would spend eternity in heaven if he lived?

Or what if instead of Billy Graham he actually was a scientist who little would we know, but 20 years later he would discover the cure for cancer, and millions and millions and millions of people for decades on would live because that little boy lived.

Or wait a second, what if the next Billy Graham's on the train?

Or the next Mother Teresa?

Or a person that would understand the next law of physics and would allow us to see things like never before it and string theory would be like ABCs to him, and the world would change, and the food supply for all the world would be changed.

Are you get are you starting to get it?

The only one that can make a wise decision would have to see all the possibilities, both actual and possible.

By the way, that's the definition of God's omniscience.

He knows all things actual and possible.

You say, but where do you get that?

Do you remember Jesus?

I think he was speaking to the in Capernaum, and they didn't respond.

He said, if the message I gave here in Capernaum would have been taught in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented.

He knew.

He knew how they would have responded.

So all I want you to get is so much of here's life.

Life is this beautiful, beautiful tapestry from heaven's side.

And threads of suffering and pain and beauty and good and bad and decisions and nations, and it's all woven together.

And from eternity's side, from God's side, it is this fabric, this picture of his wisdom bringing about the best possible ends for the most possible people for the longest possible time.

And on our side, it's like the tapestry where you see knots and strings and knots and strings, and we in our humanness say, How could you let this happen?

I mean, this is a good woman, this is a great man, this is a faithful family.

I'm walking with God with all my heart.

I've sacrificially given my time, I've sacrificially given my money.

I volunteered for the peace course.

My son had this bright future and a car comes.

Oh God, how?

All I want you to understand is that the lens of God's wisdom.

If, in fact, to the best of our knowledge, we're walking with God, He can give us a new lens that allows us to trust Him, just like we trust His goodness, His love, His power.

Tozer finishes, all God's acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory, and then for the highest good of the greatest number of people for the longest time.

And all his acts are as pure as they are wise, and as good as they are wise and pure.

Not only could his acts not be done better, a better way to do them could not be imagined.

I think back of uh when I just hung on to the wisdom of God and ended up in that little church of 35 people in a very redneck community, in a town of about 3,000 without a stoplight.

And it seemed like the worst thing that could ever happen.

And I look back and Realize the arrogance and the insecurity of one of the men in that church has become a father to me for the last 40 years.

We talk every week.

God sees things you don't see.

In the present, in the moment, and the difficulty.

His heart is with you.

He wants the comfort.

But there are things that he's doing that we can't grasp.

It's the wisdom of God.

How has God revealed his wisdom?

First creation.

Psalm 104, 24.

It says, How many are your works, O Lord?

In wisdom you made them all.

The earth is full of your creatures.

Whether you take an electronic microscope and you look at DNA strands and realize that in one single cell, it's called a human being.

And then it starts to multiply, and for ways no one can understand, all of a sudden this gets a skeletal system over here, endocrine system over here, circulatory system over here, brain development over here, heart rate starts here, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And then you have this amazing miracle called the human body.

Or whether you take a telescope and you look at the Milky Way, and you look at the gravitational pool and the pools of these planets, and there's a hundred to two hundred billion stars, and I can't fathom a hundred or two hundred billion other galaxies.

And he created them all.

And whether it's looking at the beauty of a flower and realizing these tiny little things called bees, if they don't go from here to here and here to here to here to here, we don't even have crops.

And there's birds that fly thousands of miles and lay eggs within two or three feet of where they did the last year.

And you see the harmony and the beauty and the wisdom of God in creation.

Creation reveals the wisdom of its creator.

The second way he reveals it is through providence.

The Lord foils the plans, Psalm 33, verse 10 says, of the nations.

Psalms 33:10

He thwarts the purpose of the peoples, but the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

He does limit evil and freedom.

He does orchestrate things, but he does that in our lives as well.

I was uh the pandemic has been a tough time for for all of us.

I think for us extroverts, it was doubly tough.

And in early on, I mean it was so tragic, and we it was always tragic, but we wondered where and how and is it ever gonna stop?

And we watched what happened in Italy, and everything was shut down, and you know, only for three weeks, of course.

And then it turned into two years, and you know, I was I actually had my tickets, I was on my way to China, God had opened such great doors, and it was gonna be, I think, my eighth trip in about three years.

Can't go.

What was gonna happen?

And then pretty soon you can't see your family, you can't see your kids, can't see your grandkids.

I remember Annie and the kids came over and they put a blanket out, and and and then we were over here, and you know, people were wearing masks and just trying to, you know, you can't hug, you can't kiss, you can't talk, and you know, I'm an extrovert, it just made me nuts.

And I got where I couldn't do anything, I just felt so stuck and then angry.

And then I went from anger to getting discouraged.

And then after I got discouraged, I got depressed.

I mean, just dark, right?

You've been there?

I mean, where I know it's you get so self-focused and and then not good thoughts, right?

You know, you know, you you know, it starts getting dangerous when you start thinking thoughts like, whoa, whoa, that is a really bad thought.

I mean, I don't think I'd ever do that, but I might, you know, if I keep thinking it, I mean, you know, and you know, I got like, I gotta get out of this.

And I'm not talking clinical depression, I mean just when you really, really get down.

And so I I'm my three-part game plan uh after all these years for depression is no matter how you feel, pull yourself up by the ears, go out, get on a treadmill, whatever you need to do, get sweaty and get those endorphins, get a good workout.

That's step one.

Step number two is even if you can't sing, get on some worship music and as loud as you can, where no one's around, and start praising God.

You know, I don't feel like it, I don't know any of this, but I'm gonna thank you, thank you, thank you, praise you.

And whether my emotions are in it or not, I'm just gonna do it.

And number three is find someone who hurts a lot worse than you and go help them.

And in this particular case, I um I uh I've I've heard something on the news about you know the markets had closed in Egypt and and they didn't have any you know resources and no vaccines, and it was just it's terrible.

And I'd done significant work with the head of all the churches in Egypt.

And I thought, well, he's certain more than me, so I will uh I think I'll I'll zoom with him.

And Dr.

Zaki, how are you doing?

Oh, you know, I haven't had it yet, but I mean, Chip, we're barely surviving in the church and the country's in shambles.

I feel like the government's really doing all that they can, but we're barely surviving.

And I heard come out of my mouth, because you know, when I'm going through things, I'm always asking, where in the scripture, God, would you speak to us about this?

And I just said in passing, you know, Dr.

Zaki, um, I've been thinking about a series called The Artist Revival.

He goes, Oh, send it to me, send it to me.

I said, No, no, I've been thinking about the series.

I don't have the series.

And uh, it was out of James one about, you know, an attitude, consider it all joy, a resource, God's wisdom, and think it away in the midst of tragedy.

And and he just said, No, you have to send it to me.

And and you know, sometimes when you've been down, down, down, and you've been self-focused, and something goes, boom, and it was like, I gotta help them.

And I made a phone call and got a couple guys to come in with a couple cameras, and we took PVC pipe and put some cloth over it, made it look like something.

And I mean, I I did a three-part series, you know, like I studied over the weekend and did it on Monday, sent it on Friday.

It was translated by the following Friday.

Then we did a webinar with all the pastors, we did an hour of Q ⁇ A, and our head of international was there, and he goes, Chip, I don't I don't think this is for, I don't think this is just for Egypt and the Middle East.

And teams of pastors in India, then it was Africa, then Central America, and then across parts of the world.

And I found myself for the next 18 months doing a once-a-month webinar with about 10,000 pastors in 60 countries, who all were ready to just give up.

And God gets all the glory because it didn't grow out of, oh, I have a great idea, I think I can teach something.

It grew out of in the wisdom of God, I got so low and so discouraged, I just tried to throw out a line and say, Lord, would you do something?

Today we've done live training in four or five countries in Kenya and some going on in Mexico right now, and launches in India.

You don't know what's going on in the province of God.

You don't know how what you are doing now or not doing, or what you're experiencing, or how hard it is, or what you don't understand, you see knots and threads, knots and threads, knots and threads.

If you will not give up and not give in, God is saying to you, through the lens of my wisdom, there's a tapestry being formed.

And you may not see all of it until you're on the other side in relationship with me.

But if God brings about the best possible results by the best possible means for the most possible people for the longest possible time, and as far as you know, you're not actively rebelling and you're doing what he wants you to do, perhaps the most difficult thing in your life right now, or the thing that you regret in the past the most, is the kindest, most gentle, good way that God can form Christ in you and then do something through you that couldn't happen any other way.

The wisdom of God is revealed in creation, in providence, and then just most profoundly in redemption.

Christ's death.

Literally, the word redemption means to buy back, his blood, the purchase price.

The Apostle Paul would write to the Corinthian church, follow along, it's in your notes.

And he writes this we do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.

No, we declare God's wisdom a mystery.

Circle that in your notes.

It's a mystery.

The word means it's a secret, his past, you can't understand all of them.

And if you demand with your hands on your hips and say, this isn't right, this isn't fair, you've got to show me, you may get silence.

And it doesn't mean God doesn't love you.

His judgments are beyond finding out.

Mystery that has been hidden and that God has destined for our glory before time begin.

None of the rulers of this age understood it, for they, if they had, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.

However, as it is written, and this is for you, this is for me, and this is for now, what eye has not seen, and what ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the mind or the heart has ever conceived, the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

They're great things, they're blessed things, they're rich things, they're good things, some of them now, and others forever and ever and ever.

These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit, and the spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

I mean, he's revealed it through his son.

It says in 1 Corinthians and 30, it is because of him that you are in Christ, Jesus, has become for us the wisdom of God.

That is our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption.

The wisdom of God that we are now right standing with God.

We are now pure in God's eyes.

We have been bought back.

Now think of this plan.

I mean, I mean, we can't really do this, but you know, I feel the freedom to be hypothetical.

I just want you to imagine, I know it's hard, let's just pretend you're one of the angels.

You don't even have to be a cherubim, okay?

Just like a regular, you know, run-in-the-mill angel.

And um the angels long to look into some of these things, and that tells me they didn't understand it.

And so the you know, the Godhead has made from the foundations of the earth this plan, because he so loves us, to give us freedom, but with that freedom came evil, and he wants to buy us back for himself.

And here's the plan.

And you're one of the angels, you know, you're like like on the edge of angel seat, and you're watching.

And God the Son, oh my gosh, the Holy Spirit goes into this teenage girl, and he's vulnerable for all these years.

And you know, you have private conversations to another angel.

This is and this, what's he thinking?

Don't say this out loud, but this doesn't make any sense.

And then he lives 30 years of a perfect life, and then and then he heals people and he loves people and he speaks God's truth and he reveals the Father, and and oh yeah, I mean, you're an angel going, oh wow, this is so cool.

Everyone's gonna respond.

And then instead, the very people he came to save turn on him, and the government turns on him, and people are afraid, and he's got this little handful of followers, and then he's hanging on that cross.

And now instead of being an angel, if you will, come out of your angel body and be Mary or James or John, and you're looking up at that cross, and you hear the words, it's finished, and he dies.

And they're taking a limped, bruised, beaten, bloody body, and they're taking it away.

And you have left home, you've been rejected in the synagogue, you've left your job, you've left your work, you've left your identity, and he was your hope, and you're done.

And now the Jews hate you, and the Romans are after you, and you go hide somewhere, and you're wondering, God, where are you?

Where's the wisdom of God?

And in the darkness, he descends into the lower parts of the earth, and he proclaims of those who have died in ages past.

Satan is defeated, sin is paid for, death will be overcome, and he rises from the dead, and he says, Because of what I've done, all people of all time come unto me, your sins are forgiven.

But while he was in the grave, while he was hanging on the cross, I can almost hear the demons.

Ah, we got him, we killed him.

Because the plan looked like foolishness.

And Paul would write to the Corinthians and say, the wisdom of man is the foolishness of God.

We have to trust God's wisdom.

We see through a veil dimly.

This is how God has revealed his wisdom.

It's magnificent.

It requires.

At the end of the day, we all trust something or someone, right?

Do you believe God is good?

Do you believe he's holy?

Can you trust in the things that don't make sense?

That he's all wise.

That he's more than got your back, he's got your front.

Now, please hear me.

If you're doing things you know are wrong, if it's very clear this is God's will, this is righteousness, and you're living this way, there's consequences.

And the consequences aren't because he doesn't love you.

The consequences are I want you on this path.

Because like every good father, every good mother, he wants the best for you.

Well, how do you get this wisdom?

How do you learn to walk in the ways of God?

First of all, we we learn that we must learn to live wisely.

And as much as as motivating as is, because of all that it'll deliver, I got news for you, it's actually commanded.

Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 to 17 says, be very careful then how you live.

Ephesians 5:15–17

Literally, the word is to walk.

Be very careful how you take your steps in your life, the steps in your relationship, the steps in your work, the steps with your marriage, the steps in your singleness.

Be very careful how you walk.

Not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.

Why?

Because the days are evil.

Life is short.

You're the light, you're the salt, you're the hope, you're the church.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And verse 18 goes on to say what God's will is.

Do not be drunk with wine, for that's dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

Allow, literally, the word filled, literally, it's the idea of being saturated.

Be saturated like a sponge, so that when the difficulties and the pains and the issues of life, what comes out is the very fragrance of Christ.

Well, how do you get that kind of wisdom?

How do you live wisely?

Let me give you three specific suggestions.

Number one, it begins with reverence for God's ways.

Proverbs 1, 7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is, yes, to be, He's God, He's awesome, He lives in unapproachable light, so there's a fear.

But there's a beauty in the fear.

It's this idea that I don't want to live my life in a way that would be displeasing to you.

And also, since because of who you are, there are real consequences, so I'm afraid.

I remember uh we lived uh in Texas for a number of years, and I remember on one occasion uh when tornadoes would come, we were in that alley in Dallas between here and Oklahoma, and I mean there were like hail, golf ball size, and I mean, and then lightning and thunder, and you know, the whole family's in the bathroom, and you know, we have the mattress, you know, every whole family in the bathtub, and because we don't have a basement, and and I couldn't resist, like, I wonder how's it going out there?

And I remember, you know, family stay here, and I was gonna go see how it was going.

I remember going out there, and it was like lightning going through the sky, and I looked in the backyard and saw a little tunnel thing.

And it was like, I am scared to death, but it was so beautiful.

You know what I mean?

It was breath, it was it was like, and and then you know, you had a tree go like this, and something goes.

I mean, it was power, and it was so awesome and so beautiful and so terrifying.

In the words of Tozer, the paradox of faith is to fear God, and yet, because of Jesus, to come and not be afraid.

That's where it starts.

I think that's a big one for us.

You either decide, I know the best way to handle my money, I know the best way to do relationships, I know how to forgive or not forgive, I know how to handle adversity, I know how to suffer, I I I got a great plan for my life, and this is the plan for me, and this is what I'm gonna do.

And when God doesn't fulfill it, hey, where are you and what's the deal?

And I think we have a generation of Christians that are so discouraged and think God hasn't shown up because they're expecting things he never promised.

We don't read 1 Peter a lot.

For you have been called for this purpose to suffer, following in the steps of Jesus, who although he did no wrong, when he suffered, he didn't revile but entrusted himself to the faithful Creator, Father.

All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, promise, will be persecuted.

This idea that when you're doing what God wants you to do, that things would go really well and you're gonna be blessed, and God longs to bless.

But you are in a very volatile environment in a fallen world.

The second way we receive it is the reverence for God.

It's a bit of a decision, but it's revealed in receiving his word.

You know, Jesus, Jesus said, He just said it as plainly, those who value my word and respond to my word value and respond to me.

Those who don't value my word don't value or respond to me.

Your relationship with God's word reveals your relationship with God.

If it doesn't matter if you don't have time, but we all have time to put certain things in our mind.

And we will all be shaped by whatever we put into our mind.

All scripture is God breathed or inspired, is useful for teaching, understanding what's right, what's wrong, what's true, what's good, rebuking, cutting things out, correcting, getting back on track, and training the habitual habits of life in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

It took a while for me to say to the Lord, I'm gonna hear from you before I hear from anyone else.

Before I pick up the phone, before I look at email, before I open Facebook, before I take at Instagram, or look at who slapped me.

God, I'm gonna meet with you.

Because as I read in Proverbs just a few years ago, nothing compares to the wisdom of God.

Not rubies, not gold, not silver.

There's nothing that you can ever get in all the world as valuable and precious than understanding this is what to do, this is how to do it, this is when to do it, and this is why to do it in every relationship, in every circumstance in your life.

But God gives us wisdom through his word.

And then he says, it requires that we ask for it.

Great promise in James chapter one.

If any man or if any woman lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously.

And I love the next line, and without reproach can it be given to him.

God, I don't know what to do in this marriage.

I don't know what to do with this health issue.

I've seen every doctor under the sun.

I don't know what to do with this kid.

I don't know what to do with my work.

I don't know what to do with my illness.

I don't know what to do with this addiction.

I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying, and I can't quit.

God, if you'll show me I commit in advance to do whatever you say, promise, 100% of the time He'll show you what to do.

If your prayer is, God, I desperately need to know what you want me to do, because I'd like to take it into consideration to see if I'll do it or not.

That's how we unconsciously pray.

And verses 6 and verse 7 say, let not that double-minded man, we get our word schizophrenia from it, expect to receive anything from the Lord.

See, a part of getting wisdom is you are God.

You are infinite, and I am finite.

And you have spoken, and the cross has demonstrated your love.

And when it's pleasant, I want to do your will.

When it's unpleasant, I want to do your will.

When I don't feel like doing your will, I'm going to choose to do your will.

And I'm going to trust because of who you are.

Despite everything in me that cries out, and I'm going to share my anger and I'm going to share my struggle, and I'm going to tell you how unfair it is and how much I don't like it.

And then I'm going to pause and I'm going to take all my struggle and relationships through the lens of wisdom and say, you are bringing about the best possible end by the best possible means for the most possible people for the longest possible time because you are a good and kind and loving God.

And I don't get it.

But I refuse to give up.

Would you write the one word in in the final in your notes?

We must learn to, we write the word trust completely that all that comes our way is from the hand of a good and loving God who knows all things actual and possible and is exerting unlimited power to execute the best possible outcomes by the best possible means to fulfill the highest possible purpose.

Can I encourage you to go back to that big thing you want him to change or take away, or that you just wonder, God, why?

And would you just lean in and say, Lord, would you give me wisdom?

You know I want relief.

And I'm asking for that as well.

But until that comes, or until you do something through me or in me, or whatever you want to do, I refuse to give up because I believe that you're not just good or loving and holy and just.

I believe you're all wise.

And I want to walk in your wisdom.

I want to become more like Jesus.

And I want to fulfill whatever it is you want me to accomplish on this little time on earth.

And then the worship team will bring us before the throne.com slash card.