The Real God - The Wisdom of God
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The Wisdom of God
The Real God, part 4
The Wisdom of God
The Wisdom of God
The purpose of this guide is to help you get a deeper understanding of the teaching outline. Before you teach this to your students, you’ll need to (a) add personal stories and illustrations, and (b) adapt the message so it fits your ministry context. Our intention was to provide enough content for a 30-minute message. You may need to slim it down or beef it up in order to fit your needs.
A word on formatting:
[Introduction]
BOLD, italicized text is “script” for you to teach as is or adapt.
Yellow highlighted text is material from the outline that students use.
[Introduction]
[Introduction]
[Story of me cutting my finger off]
This is week 4 in our series called The Real God, where every week we are looking at one of God’s characteristics. Here’s a quick recap:
Week #1: God’s goodness, which means he wants the very best for us.
Week #2: God’s sovereignty, which means he rules above everything.
Week #3: God’s holiness, which means he is set apart from everyone and everything.
This week, we are talking about God’s wisdom. I’d like to begin by getting a little feedback: in your opinion, what makes a person wise?
Great feedback! I love how you’re thinking. Ultimately, wise people can see the bigger picture, which helps them make good decisions.
Before we go any further, let’s define God’s wisdom:
God’s wisdom means his perfect knowledge leads to the BEST DECISIONS.
God’s wisdom means his perfect knowledge leads to the BEST DECISIONS.
God always makes the best decisions because His wisdom isn’t limited like human wisdom. But as we have already learned, God is unlimited. We make decisions based on what we know, and because we don’t know everything, our decisions can be flawed.
[Not understanding how that knife worked showed a lack of wisdom and I paid for it!]
God knows everything, so his decisions are always right. The Bible says in Job chapter 12 verse 13,
“To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” ()
one attribute i’d pick!!! save a lot of time, effort and money… a lot of heartache...
every time you bought a car it run to 200,000 miles and never have a problem
you’d never get food poisoning because you chose the wrong menu item
colt, every time you called a play in the huddle, you’d get a basket
there’d be no divorce… your first spouse would be the perfect spouse
doesn’t work like that for us though does it? because we don’t have perfect knowledge.
God didn’t learn wisdom. He didn’t go to school to learn, or become educated from trial and error. God has never guessed or been surprised. God’s very nature is wisdom and understanding. That’s who He is. All knowledge and truth comes from him.
In his wisdom, God created the universe:
12 But the Lord made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
he stretched out the heavens.
The design of the universe didn’t just happen by accident. God created everything. As Creator, he knows how everything is supposed to work. He has a plan for you and me as part of his creation.
Today we will look at 3 ways of how we might pursue this perfect wisdom of God?
1. Begin by FEARING GOD.
1. Begin by FEARING GOD.
This teaching might be surprising. Maybe you are thinking, “If God loves me so much, why do I have to fear him”? Good question. In this sense, “fearing God” means respect or reverence. It’s a common phrase in the Bible, to fear Him. Again, not to be afraid, rather to be in awe.
The crazy thing about wisdom is that you’ll never get it if you don’t want it. You can’t force a person to gain more wisdom. The truth is, many of us act like we know everything. If a cup is full you can’t add to it, right? When we think we know everything, we limit our capacity to learn more.
Here’s my question: do you want to grow in wisdom? Do you want to make better decisions? I’m going to assume that you do, so let’s quickly look at the next three scriptures to see why fearing God is the starting place for wisdom:
23 “God alone understands the way to wisdom;
he knows where it can be found,
24 for he looks throughout the whole earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
Like we talked about at the beginning of this message, God’s knowledge is perfect and complete. There is nothing that God doesn’t know. He sees everything on earth and in heaven.
God is the ultimate source of wisdom. He created it. As a result, we should be in awe of God because he knows all things and he is never surprised. There is a specific attitude—a posture of the heart—that leads to this kind of awe. It’s found in our next scripture:
33 Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom;
humility precedes honor.
Ultimately, gaining wisdom in our head begins with humility in our heart. Let me repeat that phrase so you can let it sink in: Ultimately, gaining wisdom in our head begins with humility in our heart.
The opposite of humility is pride. Pride says, “I’m good enough on my own, I don’t need help.” But this simply isn’t true. Everyone needs help. Letting go of pride means admitting that you are not enough on your own. You need God—he knows everything and you don’t.
To make the very best decisions for your life, you need His guidance. Life is too messy and too rough and too difficult to figure out on our own. Humility admits that we are not enough, but God is. Humility is the posture that leads to fearing God.
humility is what causes you to start out everyday on your knees, face down in your prayer chair, begging God for direction because He is wise and you are not
begin by FEARING GOD
2. Decide to trust GOD COMPLETELY.
2. Decide to trust GOD COMPLETELY.
When we grasp what it means that God is all-wise and we fear (awe) Him, we will more likely trust God. Trusting Him allows us to rest in his wise plan for our lives even when we don’t understand it.
[Steph]
What should the man do? What is the wisest choice to make?
God doesn’t give us the clay so we can be the potter
HE’S the potter and WE are the clay
God isn’t limited in perspective. He knows our future as well as the future of everyone else around us. We might struggle with understanding God’s decisions with how things turn out, but God’s perfect knowledge leads to the best decisions every time
15 Fools think their own way is right,
but the wise listen to others.
It’s foolish to think we are always right. We see this clearly in other people but we often can’t see this in ourselves. The problems we face and the decisions we have to make are bigger than we can handle on our own. We need one another—this is why we meet in small groups. We need others to talk about God’s Word and share life together so that we can help each other. We need one another, we also need to trust God’s wisdom:
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.
Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
In this passage, we again see the need for humility. If you lack humility, if you are pride-filled, you will lean only on your own understanding. When you trust God, when you surrender and submit your life to Him, your “path” will become clearer. You’ll gain greater clarity on what you are supposed to be and do when you trust God.
The first G
4 G’s (God is great, I don’t have to be in control)
could just as easily say,
God is all-wise, I don’t have to be in control....
God is all-wise, I can trust Him....
God is all-wise, I won’t understand every thing He does
3. Search for wisdom in GOD’S WORD.
3. Search for wisdom in GOD’S WORD.
If you and I were having a conversation, just one on one, how would you answer this question: Why is the Bible important?
God gave us the gift of the Bible so we can learn everything we need to know for a successful life.
[some of you don’t know where to start…]
I view the Bible as both an instruction manual and a love letter.
As an instruction manual, it tells me how to live. It instructs me about who God is, how I should respond to him, and how to live in the world.
The Bible is also like a love letter, because God has given it to us so we will draw closer to him. God loves us, and he doesn’t just want to tell us how to live, he also wants us to love Him and see that He loves us.
The Bible is important because it does these two things:
(1) it gives us wisdom, and
(2) draws us closer to God.
Check out this next passage in Proverbs chapter 2:
1 My child, listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
2 Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
3 Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
4 Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
New Living Translation Chapter 2
1 My child, listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
2 Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
3 Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
4 Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” ()
I want to point out two things from this passage:
FIRST: Notice all the ACTIONS listed in this passage: (1) listen, (2) treasure, (3) tune your ears, (4) concentrate, (5) cry out, (6) ask, (7) search for it like it’s silver, and (8) seek for it like it’s treasure.
That’s a lot of work! I count 8 actions—Gaining wisdom isn’t easy. It requires a daily focus on God and his word. It doesn’t happen by accident. It takes commitment.
Getting older doesn’t necessarily make you wiser. Some 15 year olds have more wisdom than people who are 95. Why? Because they fear God and follow Him and search God’s Word for wisdom.
Getting older doesn’t necessarily make you wiser. Some 15 year olds have more wisdom than people who are 95. Why? Because they fear God and follow Him and search God’s Word for wisdom.
SECOND, all of these actions are related to following God’s ways, which are found in the Bible.
We are called to pursue God’s words, commands, his wisdom and insight.
Consider how you spend your free time, what do you fill your mind with? We spend hours and hours on social media, YouTube, movies, TV, music, video games ... and fill our minds up with things that are interesting and amusing … but offer us little value or wisdom.
This Scriptures call us to do A LOT. However, when you think about it, we already do most of this with our favorite diversion. Let’s take SOCIAL MEDIA for example …
Listen to SOCIAL MEDIA
treasure SOCIAL MEDIA,
tune your ears to SOCIAL MEDIA,
concentrate on SOCIAL MEDIA,
call out and cry out loud if someone takes away our SOCIAL MEDIA
and we definitely treat SOCIAL MEDIA like it’s treasure.
If we want God’s wisdom, we need to focus on Him … and it’s difficult to focus on God when I’m focused on getting “likes” or “liking” other’s posts. I’m not likely to find God’s wisdom in social media.
And maybe SOCIAL MEDIA isn’t your thing … maybe it’s SPORTS, or YOUR FRIENDS … you get the point.
If I’m being honest, I need to watch how much time I spend
[Conclusion]
[Conclusion]
[Conclusion]
God is perfectly wise. His knowledge is complete, he is never surprised. God’s wisdom means that all of his decisions are the best possible decisions.
In response to God’s wisdom, we are called to pursue wisdom by:
1. Fearing God, which means to respect Him with a humble heart.
2. Trust God completely, even when we want to lean on our own understanding.
3. Search for wisdom in God’s Word, even where there are many distractions.
Let’s pray.