Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 20, 2016 | Timm Collins - Uncommon Sense

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March 20, 2016 | Timm Collins - Uncommon Sense · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the first day of spring.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Does not feel like the first day of spring, does it?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am relatively sure that yesterday at my son's soccer game out at Sunflower Soccer that I saw some snowflakes fall.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I really do think that I saw that yesterday.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been very interesting, as most of you know.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Tim Collins.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on staff with Trash Mountain Project.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: My wife and I moved here from Florida about almost three years ago now, and some of you are laughing right now as I talk about weather.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Florida had volatile weather, it really did.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: You never knew it was gonna rain every day.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You never know uh when, you knew about when, but you it it would come up very quickly.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but volatile weather here looks a little bit different.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I learned that, and actually I had had experience driving in snow and ice and black ice and things like that, and uh before we moved here, and uh the secret to driving on black ice, as we all know, is don't drive on it, right?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the secret.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Park.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I don't know if you remember this, but back in January, uh we had a big black ice storm that came through, and it came through very quickly.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that was surprising to me.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was not expecting that at all.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we were at work and we had got a warning that the weather was gonna get bad in the afternoon.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was literally that fast.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: We were there in the morning, and I mean it was cold, but everything was fine.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so we get in the truck.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine at work and I just ran out to grab a sandwich.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so we got in my truck and we drove to the sandwich shop.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it was wet and it was cold, but it was fine.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we were in the sandwich shop maybe 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and started to drive back, and it's like we were on a different planet.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: There was black ice everywhere.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to, you know, drive slow and be careful, just need to make it back to the office so that we can stay in and be safe.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm driving down this two-lane road, it's a very narrow two-lane road, it wasn't very wide, and I'm driving my truck, and I noticed up ahead in front of me, there was a truck off to the left that was turning onto this road that I was on.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: He was turning so that he could come towards me.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And when he made the turn, the back end of his truck just kept turning.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm driving, and I see this, and here comes the back end of this truck across into my lane, headed right for me.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I had I had one of those moments.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever lost control of a vehicle, uh, you've had one of these moments where you say, Well, I wonder how this is gonna end.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if this is gonna end or when it's gonna end, and what's it gonna look like when it's all over?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it can be a little bit uh scary, uh, and it can be a little bit concerning.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I want to shift gears with you for just a second and talk to you about another wonder when this will end moment.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to hang with me through this story because there's a point to it as we uh come out of it.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: In late 2007, much of America experienced one of these I wonder when it when it will end kind of moments.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Great Recession is what economists are calling it, uh, is that considered the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh started in December of 2007, it lasted about 18 months more or less.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, in the middle of it, nobody knew how long it was gonna last.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: What we knew was that it started with the bursting, get this, of an$8 trillion housing bubble.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's trillion with a T.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The housing bubble burst.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I've been told, I didn't live in Kansas at the time, I've been told that it didn't affect you guys here as much.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh where I was living in Florida, it affected us greatly.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um Florida, in California, Arizona, Nevada, uh, those were the four states that were hit the hardest.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what happened was on paper, everybody's houses had had slowly risen in value, and so people who were buying houses were having to spend more and more to buy a house, and even cheap houses weren't cheap anymore, and we were living in an area where that wasn't normal for us, so we didn't know what to think about it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they go up, they go up, they go up.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: People buy houses, and then all of a sudden, like that, we lose all our value.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now you lost it on paper, which is you know not quite as painful, uh, but it is scary, and you begin to feel this sensation that you're losing control.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you get nervous, and so when you get nervous about something like that, one of the things you do is you stop spending money.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So after the housing bubble burst, then consumer spending was cut way, way, way back because people were nervous, people were scared, they didn't know how things were gonna end, they didn't know when things were gonna end, they just knew they were along for the ride.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna have to see how this turns out.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when people stop spending money, when consumer spending goes down, then uh jobs are affected.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Especially for people who make things that people are buying.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: If people aren't buying the things that you're making, you're not selling them anymore.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So as a result, people who owned businesses suddenly their revenues were way down, sometimes cut in half or less.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people went out of business.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and for people who just worked at these businesses, like many of us, um, if you worked at a business, there were people who were being laid off, and one of the things that we saw uh was that most of the people around us were affected.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hardly any of us knew anybody who wasn't affected.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't know somebody, I should say, that wasn't affected by this.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was your friends, it was your co-workers, it was your family members, somebody had lost a job, somebody had lost a house to foreclosure.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, many of us could name several people who had lost a house to foreclosure.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the reason I tell you this.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about wisdom this morning, and I learned something very unique about wisdom in that uh context.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: As a pastor of a church, of a growing church, uh, but of a church of definitely younger folks, the median age of an attender of our church was about 28 years old.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so as they begin to navigate, if you think about what it's like to be 28 years old, um, maybe married, maybe you've got a kid or two, uh, and you're trying to navigate now this out-of-control financial situation, and you don't really know kind of what's coming next, and you've never seen anything like this before.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: You've never seen houses that were worth that much, and but they keep telling us, okay, they're gonna be worth that much, and then literally they're cut in half.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you've never heard of anything like this, and your parents have probably never heard of anything like this, and so uh we learned some lessons.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was very interesting.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: We learned some things about scarcity.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: We learned that you can find scarcity of jobs, and that's pretty important.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can find scarcity of money, that's important.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Scarcity of housing when you've been foreclosed and nobody wants to rent to you.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the most important thing.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was a scarcity of hope.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there were some lessons that we were learned, that we were learning coming out of that.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the main lesson boils down to this, and many of you already knew this, so if you already did, then just you know be patient while the rest of us catch up with you.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, is that it's a bad idea to bet on things that haven't shown up yet.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a very unwise thing to place a bet against something that hasn't shown up yet, because when things go out of control and things start kind of sliding sideways, you don't know if it's gonna show up or not.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You thought it would, but then who knows?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And see, we really had two problems, and this is our jumping off point for what we're gonna talk about today.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: We had two problems.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: The first problem was that we genuinely had less than we used to because of the economy.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the second problem is we learned, it was revealed to us, that some of the decisions we made maybe were foolish.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to see that when everything goes south.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: In the moment it may not look like an unwise decision, but when everything goes south and things are out of control and you don't know when it's gonna end or if it's gonna end, you can find out that things, some of the decisions that you made were maybe foolish.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we learned.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw a lot of people learn this, and I observed it, and I thought it was fascinating, and it really, for me, was a starting point to really try to understand what it means to have biblical wisdom.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And biblical wisdom really comes from the idea that we have a finite amount of resources, that you and I have a finite amount of resources.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, things didn't suddenly just become scarce for us, although that did happen.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what also happened was we realized all along that things were, things were scarce all along.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: We just didn't know it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: We just weren't living like it.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly we were forced to live like there's a limit, there's an end, there's a bottom.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a principle here that I want to pick up and I want to set down in some different areas as you and I talk about wisdom this morning.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is what wisdom looks like.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Biblical wisdom comes from realizing exactly how much we have and then acting accordingly.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's easy for you and I to make the jump and think, well, he's talking about money, he's talking about debt.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am talking about those things, but I'm actually talking about something that's so much bigger than that.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the big idea.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put it on the screen behind me, and then we're gonna read a verse from the Old Testament to kind of jump off into this subject.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is the big idea for this morning.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom comes from counting our resources, and then after we've done that, we can make our resources count.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You count your resources, you realize how rare they are, and how valuable they are and how limited they are, and that gives you the ability to make the type of choices that will help you make your resources count.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: So today is gonna be different.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna read one verse from Psalms, actually gonna be in Psalm 90.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to turn there, you're gonna want to do it quickly because we're gonna read one verse, and then we're gonna jump into the New Testament and look at some different passages there as we really weave in the idea of Palm Sunday and where does God's perspective come from on all of this?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's not normal for me and not normal for you to hear this, but I think this is a good jumping-off point to talk about wisdom, to talk about godly wisdom.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Psalm 90 actually was written by Moses.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Not many people know that, or not everybody knows that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, some people are surprised when they hear that, I think.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and uh it's the oldest of all the Psalms, and there's a verse in here that you've probably heard before.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've heard it my whole life growing up in church, uh, and this is what it says.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: It says something like this Psalm 90, 12.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us to number our days, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us to number our days, teach us to place a number on our days, or more specifically, teach us to realize that the number of days that we have here is limited so that we can present or so that we can gain a heart of wisdom.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom comes from counting our resources and then making our resources count.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to be wise when we begin realizing how finite our resources are.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I use a word like resources, for many of us we have different things that come to mind.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh obviously, in this context, what Moses is saying to us is that one of the most valuable resources that we have is time.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Time is a valuable resource.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, many people argue it's one of the most valuable resources because it's one of the few that you can't make more of.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Once it's gone, it's gone.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have a statement that we make, we say time is money.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Time's actually a lot more valuable than money.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: But while we're on the subject, time's not only a resource, money is a resource.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things we think about when we think of resources, that we get a finite amount of money and and uh that we have to manage every week or every month or twice a year or three, whatever that looks like for you, that you have a finite amount of resources that you have to manage, and you and I could still tell stories, couldn't we?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: About people who don't live that way, people who don't count their resources so that they can make those resources count.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: People who just live like we have a limited amount of whatever's coming to us.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you got time.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, here's one of the other things.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've thought about this before.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: One of the resources that you and I are given as parents are our children.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever think of your children as a resource?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a five-year-old son and a nine-year-old son.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they are a resource.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: They don't belong to me.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: They belong to God.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: They were given to me by God for a season, for a reason, and he wants me to treat them well and to manage them well.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if I live like they're gonna be around forever and we've got all the time in the world, then I'm probably not gonna make the wisest choices.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But when I realize that my nine-year-old son is halfway on his way to most likely moving out, going to college, whatever that looks like, it's shocking.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've counted that resource.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your children are a resource, your time, your money.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: How about this?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that your influence is a resource?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that you have a certain amount of influence?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there are people who listen to every word that you say and they listen very closely?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys feel like nobody listens to anything that you say?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, raise your hand.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I feel that way sometimes.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do we need to rewind and talk about kids?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us feel like that?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: We feel like nobody's listening to me.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: People are listening to you, and you may not know who they are, but I want you to think about this.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: There are people around you who are listening so closely to what you say that your words carry a lot of weight for them.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your words are heavy.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in light of that, let me ask you this question: How are you stewarding that resource?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: How are you stewarding your influence?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's a resource that's given to us from God.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Talent is an influence.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy for us to see if we see somebody sing and play an instrument, to see that as talent.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you have talent.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: You have a God-given talent.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And in light of that and time and money and all these things, how are we managing the resources that are around us, or that we have around us?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are we realizing that we only have a limited amount of these things?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what I know.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you and I live like we're going to live forever, and we're always going to have plenty of money, and we're always going to have plenty of time, and we can make commitments to anybody and everybody who comes along, and our kids are never going anywhere.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: As long as we live that way, we're not going to make wise choices, are we?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to live lives of godly wisdom.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the biggest misunderstanding that I think we have about wisdom that is its source.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where does wisdom come from?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Where does true godly wisdom come from?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: We think we know where it's found, but if we're not careful in assuming that we know where it's found, we're actually going to wind up in big trouble.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an illustration of this.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Several months back, my wife needed to drop something off at the mall.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember what it was, but for some reason she had to go in the mall.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh probably like most men, I'm not gonna volunteer to go in the mall ever if I can help it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, can I get a witness, right?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we go to the mall and she needed to drop something off.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I just decided I was gonna drop her off.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I had our two sons with us.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we parked up close to the door, and she got out to walk into the mall to do whatever she needed to do.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sitting in the car minding my own business.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: The car's running, the two boys are in the back minding their own business.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And not long after my wife got out and walked into the mall, uh, the door opened, and some lady got in our car and sat down.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yeah, I'm not from around here, so I don't know if that's the way you guys do things here.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is this some kind of taxi service I'm not aware of?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was I obligated to take her somewhere?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I wasn't, because what I said was, hey, hey! Like, you know, in Christian love.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what are you doing?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's a true story.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And she looked at me and went, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: This car looks just like our car, and my husband's parked somewhere close by here with the car running, waiting on me, and I wasn't even paying attention.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And she got in our car and sat down.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the reason I told you that story.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine once she realized she was in the wrong car, if she sat there anyway and said, Well, while I'm sitting here, can you run me home?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take me to the grocery store?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: What would I have said?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Again, in Christian love, I would have said, No, I cannot do that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, this car isn't going the place that you need to be headed.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: This car is not headed in that direction.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you and I aren't careful in our search for wisdom, we'll wind up looking in the wrong places and we'll wind up sitting in some cars that we think are gonna take us there, and they're not gonna take us there at all.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll wind up in totally the wrong place.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what I want to share with you.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is fascinating, and uh, I I hope this doesn't put you to sleep.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just find this the most interesting thing.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is actually an attribute of God.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you ever thought about that or not.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is an attribute of God.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what that means: God has certain things about him that he is the source of in everything that we know in our entire existence.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's the source of those things, like love.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: God is the source of love.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is the reason why, if you really want to understand what love is, you have to get to know God.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is no real love apart from God because it's one of his attributes.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: He is the source of that.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's who he is.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: He is love.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's truth.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's justice.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what else he is?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's wise.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's an attribute, it's a part of who he is.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's woven into the fabric of his character.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: But this is what I think is really interesting.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some of his attributes are what we call communicable attributes, which is a great big word that basically means he can share these with us.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you think about the omnis, you remember the omnis, you remember those attributes?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Omnipresent, omnipotent, you remember these?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: God can't share those with you.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know you think you're strong, but God hasn't shared his omnipotence with you.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you're strong, you must have figured out a way to get that way on your own.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're not nearly as strong as God is.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: However, when you talk about things like his love and his holiness and truth, these are communicable.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: These are the attributes that he can and does share with us.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And wisdom is one of those.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, let me review for you.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: This means if you and I want to find real wisdom, true wisdom, so that we can live the kind of lives that you and I are desiring to live, the only place we can go to to find that is God Himself.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: He is the true source of all wisdom.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if we ask him, he'll share it with us.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we see verses like this in James 1.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him do what?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ask God.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say if any of you ask lacks wisdom, let him read the latest self-help book or go to a seminar.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I guess those things are great.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I wonder how many times you and I, in a desire to live a wise life or to make wise choices or to have the right perspective, go to the wrong place to look for it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing I want you to understand about God's wisdom.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where some of you are still waiting for me to get to the Palm Sunday part, like the holy week part of the message.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is where it ties in.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Listen.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: God's wisdom is not primarily based in his knowledge.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I find this fascinating, just blows my mind.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: There is knowledge involved in wisdom, to be sure.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: But God's wisdom is not primarily based in his knowledge, it's based in the fact that he's infinite, that he doesn't have limits, that he can see everything all at the same time.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: God's wisdom isn't based in his knowledge, it's based in the fact that he's infinite.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, God's wisdom doesn't just come from how much he knows.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from how much he can see.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from the fact that he can see the entire pi big picture all at the same time.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have a quote for you that I want to read.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is from a guy named Millard Erickson who wrote a systematic theology textbook and it's used in seminaries.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is what he says.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Millard Erickson says this God acts in the light of all the facts and of correct values, knowing all things, God knows what is good.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: He sees all things in their proper perspective.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: He sees all Things in their proper perspective.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Say that with me.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: He sees all things in their proper perspective.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what wisdom is.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thus, he does not give anything a higher or a lower value than it ought to have.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does godly wisdom look like?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: When things are spinning out of control?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: When it looks like you don't know what's going to happen or where this thing's going to end?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: When it feels like you're on a roller coaster.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine for just a second what the experience of Holy Week must have looked like for Jesus Christ?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine for just a second what it must have been like to be hailed as a hero coming into Jerusalem on Sunday?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: To have the palm branches and the cloaks laid down and people singing your praises?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: To be hailed as a hero and five days later to be tortured and crucified as a criminal?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about a turn of events.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what a roller coaster that week must have gone like?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what it must have looked been like to have been Jesus riding on that donkey, knowing what was coming?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: How do you navigate these things?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: You navigate them with wisdom.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: You don't place too high a value on the people who are singing your praises when you know that they're going to crucify you.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: You place things in their proper perspective.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think Jesus had counted his time at that point.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think he knew exactly how much time he had left.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He knew it was coming.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think he had counted his time, and he was determined to make his time count.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, there was no time for distractions.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: That week, there was no time for distractions.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why you and I, there's something about us, for most of us who are Christ's followers, and maybe some of us who aren't really sure about the God thing yet.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're drawn to Jesus at this time.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're drawn to his example.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're fascinated by reading the stories and hearing the history and understanding what was going on between the Sundays.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Sunday that we celebrate is Easter, which is a phenomenal celebration.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a lot of mileage that happened that week.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus navigated it because he had wisdom.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And for you and I, when we bump into somebody who has real wisdom, true wisdom, godly wisdom, we're drawn to them in an inexplicable way.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing to watch somebody with wisdom live a life of purpose.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that purpose come from?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you and I find it?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to read four or five verses.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: These are verses actually, this is an interaction between Jesus and some Pharisees and some religious people.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as often was the case, they're trying to trip them up.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this interaction actually takes place about 48 or so hours before Jesus was crucified.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly what day of the holy week that it happened, but it's very likely it was 48 to 72 hours before Jesus was crucified.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is what happened in Mark 12.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: They had been trying to do this the entire time he had been ministering.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they came and they said to him, listen to what they say.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is fascinating.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Teacher, we know that you are true, and we know that you do not care about anyone's opinion.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think in parentheses you could say, including ours.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you're true.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you're not going to be swayed.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then listen to this.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're not swayed by appearances, but you truly teach the way of God.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what's happening?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're saying, you have God's perspective.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have godly wisdom because you have God's perspective.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And God's perspective is the secret to having the type of wisdom that you and I are looking for.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the question: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Should we pay them or should we not?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, Why put me to the test?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Bring me a denarius, and let me look at it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they bring him the coin.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They brought him one, and he said to them, I can see him holding it up, whose likeness and inscription is this?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, whose image is on this coin?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whose likeness and inscription is this?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Caesar's.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, say it with me, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about what Jesus meant then?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: What did he mean when he said that?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because it says they marveled at him, because he couldn't be trapped.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think the reason they were marveling at him is because they knew their Old Testament.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they could remember the creation story.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And in the creation story, God says, Let us make man in our image.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they could remember that throughout the Old Testament, over and over and over, it talks about you and I being made in the image of God.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, even after the fall, you and I being made in the image of God, even on our worst day, at our worst moment, we're still made in God's image.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus says, and I think it's so powerful.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's the source of living a wise life.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you find something that has Caesar's inscription on it, if you find something that has Caesar's image on it, you can go ahead and give that to him.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if you find something that has God's image on it, it will be out of place if it's given to anyone.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the God who made it.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he was talking about you.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he was talking about me.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: The way to live an unwise life is to take something or someone who has been made in God's image and give them away to things that aren't as valuable.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: It will be out of place to do that.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Which is why, even if you're not sure about the God thing, there's something inside of you that feels like you were made for a purpose.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: You were made for a purpose.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's to be given back to the God in whose image you were made.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the perspective that Jesus knew.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what you believe, even in your worst moment, you have been made in the image of God.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: So how do we do that?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for you and me?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: What are some steps that you and I need to take when we walk out of here?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because of this, because of this idea, and it's not something I came up with, this is in scripture.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because of this idea of finding and having and practicing godly wisdom, what are the practical steps that we can take?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got three, because I'm a Baptist preacher, and that's what Baptist preachers do, right?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: They give you three points.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit of a joke there.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, you go back to the source.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: You go back to the source.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: See if you can track with me on this.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I guess this is a little bit theological, but it's mostly just common sense.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: If God is the only true source of wisdom, that means that nobody else in your life gets to be the true source of wisdom.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody take a deep breath, including you.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: See how I did that?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: That was a bait and switch, wasn't it?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're not the source of true wisdom.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know you think you can figure it out on your own.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know we're Americans and we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: But listen to me, that's not the message of the gospel.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: The message of the gospel is you and I don't have all the answers.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: We go to the God of the universe because he has made it possible for us to interact with him and to have a relationship with him.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so instead of kind of fumbling around on our own and getting in the wrong car and doing all this crazy stuff that we do, trying to find wisdom, we just go to the God who is the source of wisdom.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to be very careful who we allow to speak into our lives and speak into our decisions.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you have people in your life like I do that you care greatly for, but they don't have wisdom.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to be really careful about that.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 1.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you had to know if we're going to be in the New Testament talking about wisdom.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: We were going to go there.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just some highlights, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 27 through 30.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: It says, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you can find the best worldly wisdom that you can find.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And God can put it to shame using his foolishness.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: He chooses foolishness to shame people who think they're wise.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's so much higher and so much wiser than we are.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Please look at me.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know you think this isn't very practical, but if you and I aren't careful, we begin to regard ourselves as the fount of wisdom.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, boasting is not far behind.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's dangerous ground to be on.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: And because of him, I love this, I love this.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: One of the theme verses of 1 Corinthians, I love this.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because of him, or we could say because of his wisdom, the best news I could share with you.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and all those things that you didn't even know you needed.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And God was wise enough to provide them before you even were aware of your need.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go back to the source.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Second thing, ask the right questions.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Ask the right questions.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Again, listen, just a little bit of common sense.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: If I only get so much time and I only get so much money, and I only get so many opportunities with my kids, and I only get so much of these resources, influence, and all of these things, how should I spend them?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, isn't that the logical question that we should be asking?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's find out what's most important to God.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's find out what matters most in God's world where wisdom reigns supreme, and let's invest some of these resources that He's entrusted us with in a way that honors His wisdom and His values.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: What does He value?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can give you two really quickly from the New Testament, two greats from Jesus' words.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: You remember the great command?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: You guys remember this?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Love God and love your neighbor.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to agree with your neighbor.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you might not like your neighbor, but you need to love them with God's love.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: The great command.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then on his way out, as he was ascending into heaven, do you remember this?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: He gives us the great commission?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Go into the world and make disciples.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can tell you this: in Jesus' words, if there are two things that are described as great, those are probably pretty important to him, wouldn't you say?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Great command and the great commission.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: So then maybe a framework that you and I should be asking ourselves is, or a lens that we should be running this through, is okay, if these are the things that are important to God and He's given me X number of resources, how many of these resources am I leveraging for the greats?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a bigger question, how many should I be leveraging for the Great Command, for the Great Commission?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Third thing.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: We need to take action.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us, when we walk out of here, we need to do something.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you, as I've talked about wisdom, you've thought of people, you've had the picture of someone's faces come to your mind that you know has too much influence in your life, and they should not be because they're not leading you to godly wisdom.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so now you're trying to figure out what do I do about that?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: You may need to make a phone call this afternoon.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: There may be somebody in your life who you know can lead you to godly wisdom.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you walk out of here, you need to make a phone call.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Buy their lunch, buy them coffee, ask if you can spend time with them.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: How about this?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Check this out.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be smart if you and I were valued these things?
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be smart if we figured out a way to intentionally put ourselves in environments where we're surrounding ourselves with other people who are also trying to seek and find godly wisdom?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that make sense?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have this little thing called Sunday school.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And small groups.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, the wisest thing you could do when you walk out of here would be to sit down and email Pastor Hunter and ask him, how do you get involved in a Bible study group?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel how practical that is?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: What does it look like to seek godly wisdom?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to answer that question, and you need to answer it quickly.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, here's the question.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big hairy question, okay?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is a question that you're not gonna answer right now.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: You could get started answering it right now.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna answer it in the car on the way home.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: You pull out your post-it note and you make a list of five things and you're done.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a big hairy question, and it's kind of heavy, so I'm gonna give you this warning.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna matter one second after you're dead?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to be that guy and to make it awkward in here, but this is the question we have to ask.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna matter one second after you're dead?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: If we believe that everybody lives forever somewhere, and we do believe that, that means that a thousand years from now you're gonna be living somewhere.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna matter then?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love uh in Homer's Odyssey, uh, we find, if you remember the story, we find Odysseus lashing himself to the mast of his ship so that he wouldn't respond to the distracting voices of sirens.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: He lashed himself to the mast of his ship so that he couldn't be distracted and going into the shallows and break up his ship and kill his crew and kill himself.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: He knew he had to sail through this area, and so he lashed himself to the mast of his ship so that he couldn't respond to the distractions, even if he wanted to.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it make sense for you and I?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Once we determine what are the things that godly wisdom will lead us to do, what are the things that matter in God's perspective, wouldn't it make sense for us to lash ourselves to those things right now and refuse to waver and refuse to be distracted?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the question I want to end with.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: What would it look like if you did this?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: This week, if you just decided that when it comes to your finances and your time and your children and your influence, and maybe you can come up with some resources that I didn't name?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to your resources, what would it look like if you figured out how to count those resources, realize how valuable they are, and then make them count, not from your perspective, but from God's perspective?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: What would that look like?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of spouse would you be?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of parent would you be?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of child would you be?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Would you be a better employee?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Would you be a better business owner?
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: A better community member?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what kind of church would we have if we all decided we were gonna do that?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it true that if you and I made that choice, we would turn into exactly the people that we've been wanting to be all along?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for the gospel.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the message that we are not self-sufficient and we don't have to be.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it is crazy for us to try to be or to believe that we are.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to always come to you for the source not just of wisdom, but the source of everything that we need.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: God, we are not self-sufficient.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: We need you in a very real way.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, God, I pray that as we walk out of here, you would give us a burden and a passion to experience godly wisdom in all the areas of our life and all the resources that you've entrusted us with.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to learn how to navigate that.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for Jesus Christ, who makes it possible for us not just to have wisdom, but for us to have you.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're the most precious gift that we could ever be given, God.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you because of what happened during Holy Week and how Holy Week ended with the crucifixion, the shed blood on the cross, and the resurrection, that we have the opportunity to have new life.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that this week we would live like it is real.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.