Abundant Wisdom
Abundant • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewWe live in a world with vast information at our fingertips, yet we continue to grow in folly and lack in wisdom. True wisdom is Abundant and found in one place: An active, ongoing, faithful and thriving relationship with Jesus! This message explores this truth and reality and challenges us to grow in Abundant Wisdom!
Notes
Transcript
INTRO
INTRO
4 People on a plane
The Pilot, The World’s Smartest Man, The World’s Most Average Man, The World’s Most Average Teenager
Good news and Bad news
Good news: This airplane is typically equipped with 4 parachutes.
Bad news: One was taken out before takeoff for inspection and never replaced. The plane is experiencing critical failure. I’m taking one of the 3 remaining parachutes, good luck!
Smartest man - rushes to the cockpit and gets altitude and airspeed.
Average Man - Don’t worry, I can fix this.
Average Teenager - Capturing the chaos for Social Media views.
After a few moments the smartest man panics grabs a pack and jumps to continue advancing society.
Average teen looks at the average man and says, “We’re both gonna make it! That smart dude just grabbed my backpack. Let’s go!”
Smart does not always mean wise.
We live in a world with more access to information than any other time in history, yet folly and foolishness are growing at an alarming rate.
While the foolishness of this age is abounding, there is hope and access to abundant wisdom if we will but grasp it and grow in it!
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
4 Lessons to be Learned about Abundant Wisdom
4 Lessons to be Learned about Abundant Wisdom
1) Abundant Wisdom is Not Found in Lofty Philosophy!
1) Abundant Wisdom is Not Found in Lofty Philosophy!
Greek culture prided itself in philosophy and wisdom.
Education, development of ideas about life and the world, expression of ideas, and debating philosophy was a cornerstone of Greek culture.
Despite all of their philosophical loftiness, their culture was filled with false gods and worship of creation rather than worshipping the Creator.
Their own, self-establishing ideas about the world and how it works led them astray and assured them to self-destruction.
Many, when exposed to truth and real wisdom, denied it and shrugged it off as foolish nonsense.
In our world today, we are returning to an age of self-establishing ideas of the world and how the world works.
We are growing in our embrace of the natural world and denying the spiritual realities that govern life.
We have a new emerging generation that does not know God and is developing their own sense of meaning and purpose that is centered around and developed by social media influencers. As a result, created content is the focus and admiration of a lost generation that is leading to self-destruction.
The “lofty philosophies” of today are proving to be not so lofty after all.
The increase of information and knowledge that are shaping the philosophies of today are not leading to greater wisdom, but rather to greater folly.
2) Abundant Wisdom is Not Found in Knowledge About God!
2) Abundant Wisdom is Not Found in Knowledge About God!
The source of Abundant Wisdom is not found in knowledge about God either.
The Jews, were very knowledgeable about God and His standards.
Yet the most educated and elite when it comes to the scriptures, were the very ones who orchestrated the death of Jesus.
You can know a lot of head knowledge about God, His law, and His Word, yet until you know Him, walk with Him daily, deny yourself and your own understanding of the world, and trust in Jesus and walk by faith, you will never know wisdom and will continue in fruitless foolishness.
Billy Graham and Charles Templeton
Best friends and incredibly effective evangelists.
Most would have said during these early years of their ministry that Templeton was the one who would go on to greatness and vast impact.
Unfortunately, Charles Templeton, with all he knew of God, didn’t truly know God and was led astray by worldly and atheistic ideas. Here is an account from Charles Templeton himself of one of the last conversation he and Billy Graham had before parting ways.
“All our differences came to a head in a discussion which, better than anything I know, explains Billy Graham and his phenomenal success as an evangelist.
In the course of our conversation I said, ‘But, Billy, it’s simply not possible any longer to believe, for instance, the biblical account of creation. The world was not created over a period of days a few thousand years ago; it has evolved over millions of years. It’s not a matter of speculation; it’s a demonstrable fact.’
‘I don’t accept that’ Billy said. ‘And there are reputable scholars who don’t.’
‘Who are these scholars?’ I said. ‘Men in conservative Christian colleges[?]’
‘Most of them, yes,’ he said. ‘But that is not the point. I believe the Genesis account of creation because it’s in the Bible. I’ve discovered something in my ministry: When I take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as the word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on the platform and say, ‘God says,’ or ‘The Bible says,’ the Holy Spirit uses me. There are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing questions like this for centuries. I don’t have the time or the intellect to examine all sides of the theological dispute, so I’ve decided once for all to stop questioning and accept the Bible as God’s word.’
‘But Billy,’ I protested, ‘You cannot do that. You don’t dare stop thinking about the most important question in life. Do it and you begin to die. It’s intellectual suicide.'”
‘I don’t know about anybody else,’ he said, ‘but I’ve decided that that’s the path for me.'”
(Charles Templeton, Farewell to God, 7-8)
Charles Templeton left the ministry and became a journalist in Canada. He died in 2001 still rejecting Jesus as God and describing Him only as the greatest man who ever lived from whom much can be learned…but not God or the Incarnate Savior of the world.
Abundant Wisdom is not found in knowing about God…
3) Abundant Wisdom is Found Only in a Relationship with Jesus!
3) Abundant Wisdom is Found Only in a Relationship with Jesus!
vs. 24-30
Jesus is foolish to the dying world, but is Abundant Wisdom to those who know Him and walk with Him!
Much of the time, obedience to Jesus doesn’t make sense to the world in which we live, but it proves to always be wise beyond this age.
Those who want to be abundantly wise will be abundantly obedient and faithful to Jesus.
The closer grow to Him and conform how we think and how we live to Him, the wiser we become.
4) Abundant Wisdom is Attained as We Grow in Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption!
4) Abundant Wisdom is Attained as We Grow in Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption!
Righteousness - Being justified by Jesus and living rightly with God.
Sanctification - Every aspect of our lives becoming set apart unto Jesus. All of who we are being shaped by all of who He is!
Redemption - Understanding that we are bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus so that we owe nothing to this world and we owe everything all to Him.
IF WE WANT TO BE ABUNDANTLY WISE, WE NEED TO BE ABUNDANTLY HIS!
CALL TO RESPOND
CALL TO RESPOND
What are some modern ideas about life and purpose found in the world today that seem wise, but from an eternal perspective are foolish? How do some of these ideas try to have influence in your life?
For you personally, what is the difference in knowing about God and knowing God through Jesus?
How does your relationship with Jesus change how you see the world and your place in it?
In what areas of your life does God need to work so you can experience His Abundant Wisdom?