Wisdom For 2020, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

You see, I love that. If any of you lack wisdom, I'll give it to you. In other words, when we lack wisdom, we lose our joy. When we lack wisdom, we begin to be anxious, worrisome, angry. We don't have wisdom. And God says, I'll make that available to you.

I will give that to you. God says, look, wisdom comes from me and I use it to strengthen you and give you victory in the circumstances. That's what wisdom does. That's why we can be joyful. But we see ourselves, especially this year, as victims in the circumstances.

And therefore we have all the other kinds of feelings. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. 2020. A year that will live in infamy. What a year. I guess you could call it a year of bad news. We've added words to our vocabulary. COVID. I don't think I ever used that word in my life.

Now you hear it every day. Sagging economy. Elections. Masks.

Social distancing. And hurricanes. Lots and lots of hurricanes. 30 name storms.

A record. New Orleans has been eight times in the cone of uncertainty. That's what I feel this whole year has been like, living in a cone of uncertainty, not really knowing what's going on. The worst part about all this, except knock on wood, hurricanes, is that they should be over with, but we have no earthly idea of when anything else is going to really change. Depending who you listen to, some say next year can look a lot like this year.

Let's pray not. I want to ask you a very important question, and you can only answer for yourself, but you have to be honest, and Christians usually in church are never honest. Christians always want to give a spiritual answer to something instead of how they really feel.

But here's my question. How are you feeling? How do you feel about this year? What's happening to you emotionally?

I've talked to enough of you to know that there are certainly some of you who are angry, and you talk about your anger, you're so upset. Others are frustrated with this whole year. Many are anxious. Almost all of us feel exhausted. Some of us are depressed.

And some of us just feel so impatient. And what we end up doing when we have these feelings is this is what we say to ourselves. How could I feel any different? I mean, in this year, with all this going on, how could I not feel the way I'm feeling?

Well, that's what I want to talk to you about today, because not only could you, but you should not be feeling any of these things. I want you to start with a familiar passage with me, James chapter 1 in the New Testament. James chapter 1, but I want to look at it in a little bit different perspective by way of introduction. James 1. Verse 2, James says this, he says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you live through 2020.

That's what he says. Now, it's a paraphrase, a little loose there. But he said, when you encounter various trials, consider, that's the word hegenomai, and it means to count. And then he says something we often, consider it all joy. There's the prevailing mood, feeling you and I should have.

Consider it all. He didn't say somewhat joyful, a little joyful, or not terrible. He said you should consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. He said, knowing that the testing of your faith produces an endurance, let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete and lack of nothing. In other words, all trials, including this year, are for the testing of your faith to help you grow as a Christian. So you should consider this all joy.

That should be your and my prevailing feeling. I've just got joy in this. Then he adds a word that Christians often use. This time God's using it through James. Whenever you talk to Christians and they're doing something they shouldn't be doing, they're feeling something they shouldn't be feeling, they'll always say to me at least, they'll say something like this, well, I know what the Bible says, but, and then they're going to say something else. Like if the Bible is irrelevant, I know what the Bible, but this is why I feel this way, this is what I'm doing. This time God puts the but in, which is wonderful. He puts the but in. He said, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all generously without reproach and it will be given to him.

Here's the connection that I hadn't seen before. If you don't have prevailing joy as your attitude in these various trials that we call 2020, it's simply because you lack wisdom. That's your problem. You lack wisdom.

That's what he says. You see, you should be joyful, but if you're not, you see, I love that. If any of you lack wisdom, I'll give it to you. In other words, when we lack wisdom, we lose our joy. When we lack wisdom, we begin to be anxious, worrisome, angry. We don't have wisdom. And God says, I'll make that available to you.

I will give that to you. God says, look, wisdom comes from me and I use it to strengthen you and give you victory in the circumstances. That's what wisdom does. That's why we can be joyful. But we see ourselves, especially this year, as victims of the circumstances. And therefore, we have all the other kinds of feelings. So what I want to look at this morning is I want to look at this subject and I want to do it with a series of questions.

The first question is simply this. What does wisdom look like? What do you mean wisdom?

What does it look like? I mean, right off the top of my head, I can say this. Wisdom is much different and much more than knowledge. It's not knowledge. In fact, it's more like taking application to the knowledge. You have to apply something. In the Old Testament, the word that is used is often translated skilled.

It's hokma in Hebrew. And it means the idea of becoming an expert artisan. It means that you can apply things for the good so you have a certain amount of knowledge.

Let me give you the simplest, very simple example. OK, let's take knowledge. Now, this may be shocking to you, but most of you should know this. A tomato is a fruit.

You know that. OK. Now, that's knowledge. Here's wisdom.

If you're making a fruit salad, don't put tomatoes in it. See, that's wisdom. That's the difference between knowledge and wisdom. And so what we see here is that we need to have wisdom. David Jeremiah says, wisdom is knowing to do the right thing without any precedent. You instinctively know how to live life. You live your life with real skill.

Wisdom sees the big picture perspective. And as I thought about that this week, I kept thinking about trying to think of an illustration. I go all the way back to when Velma and I lived in Pennsylvania. We used to drive from our town down to a place on the Ohio River called Northern Lights. There was a shopping center down there. But across the Ohio River was Conway Railroad Yards. And when I say railroad yards, it was unbelievable to see it. There were hundreds, hundreds of trains there and hundreds and hundreds of tracks.

It was the railroad yard for the whole steel industry, coal, and it was for everything. There were trains going every direction, on switch, everywhere they went. And if you sat there in the parking lot and watched it, you kept thinking, these trains are going to derail. Someone's going to hit somebody. This is really dangerous. They're just going every direction.

That was our perspective. If you'd have been on one of the trains, you're kind of in a helpless situation because you don't even know what's going on. All you can see what's around you and on the tracks. So you keep going with the switch boxes.

You keep switching simply because of the way it works. You don't have any control, a lot like us in 2020. But if you were in the control room with the controllers, you'd see it differently.

They would have giant boards in front of them and they are, just like with air traffic controllers, they are moving everything on these trains. The perspective that they have is the big picture. That's exactly the perspective God has.

He has the big picture in mind. And wisdom is having God's perspective, seeing life and especially this past year as 2020 is from God's perspective. That's what wisdom does. Now, what's interesting to me is that God says, look, I promise to give you this so that you could have joy in the midst of your trials. So what does wisdom look like? It looks like God's perspective. Why is wisdom so important? That's an interesting question. Why is this so important? It's kind of interesting to me what the Bible says the big advantage of wisdom is.

It might be different than you think. Go with me to Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 13. It's an interesting thing that God tells us.

He starts out in verse 13 and he says this. How blessed is the man who finds wisdom. The man who gains understanding. How blessed is the man who finds wisdom. Now, blessed is a religious word.

It doesn't help us much. Let me put in a word we all understand. How happy is the man who finds wisdom. How happy is the man who finds wisdom. If you were to take a poll, and I've seen many of them, of young people, old people, middle-aged people, anybody in our country, and you said, what is it you want out of life more than anything else? Just want to be happy. I just want to be happy. What do you wish for your children? I just hope that they're happy. We all want to be happy. Now, the problem in America is we pursue our happiness in a variety of ways of which almost all of them don't make us happy at all in the long run.

It doesn't work for us. But wisdom, he says, this is God's word. You want to be happy? Be wise. If you're wise, you'll be happy. James says if you're wise, you'll have prevailing joy. No matter what the trials are, you'll be joyful. So he goes on that in the proverb and says, for her profit is better than the profit of silver, and her gain is better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire compares to her.

That's interesting. Having wisdom is better than having money. Having wisdom is a lot better than having stuff.

No question about that. In fact, Solomon goes on and says there's nothing in this world that compares to wisdom to make you happy. Now, you have to believe this. This is God speaking. Nothing that's going to make you happy, nothing can even compare to wisdom. He said long life is in her right hand. In her left hand, he said her riches and honor. The riches and honor can come later, but wisdom comes first. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who hold her fast. Why is wisdom so important? It makes you happy. James even says even in the worst of circumstances.

Even in the year 2020, you can have prevailing happiness and joy. He said it's there for you. If you have wisdom, it's likely the most important ingredient in your life, and God wants you to have it. Turn with me to Proverbs 8 for a moment. Proverbs 8.

I'll look at the first three verses and the last three in the proverb, but the whole chapter is amazing. God's going to do something here with wisdom. He's going to personify wisdom. He's going to make wisdom a lady. He wants wisdom to be a woman.

And God says, look, I try the best I can to cry out to you. I want in every way I can for you to impart my wisdom to you. So I yell at you. I constantly talk to you about having wisdom. I implore you to have wisdom.

So that's what he says. Notice the first three verses. He said, does not wisdom call and understanding lift up her voice?

On the top of heights beside the way where the paths meet, she takes her stand beside the gates and at the opening of the city, at the entrance of the doors, she cries out. Wisdom is everywhere, crying. Every time we go through a set of circumstances, what God is saying to you, look, I want to give you wisdom. Malcolm Muckeridge said this. He said, every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us. And the art of life and to acquire wisdom is to get the message.

So what's happening in 2020? God's crying out to you. He's crying out to you to grab wisdom. He knows that we don't do this very well. And we all want to be happy, but we don't want to inquire wisdom at all. But God wants to impart it to us. Now look at the end of the chapter, verse 32, the last verses in this chapter.

32 through 35, he says this. Now therefore, O sons, listen to me. How happy are those who keep my ways. Heed instruction and be wise.

And do not neglect it. Happy is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorpost. For he who finds me finds life and obtains the favor from the Lord. He says, wisdom is life. You see, if you have wisdom, you have life. If you have wisdom, you have joy. If you have wisdom, you have peace. If you have wisdom, you have hope. If you see life from God's perspective, you get the essence of being alive. You understand the reason that you're here. That's what God says. That's wisdom.

And I want you to have it. So that in a sense, you're completely, you've been given God's vaccine against the whole pandemic of anxiety, depression, you know, worry, all those kind of things. I'll give you wisdom.

The question is, how well are we doing with this? So why is wisdom so important? So we can be happy. That's what God says. Well, where do you find wisdom? Go with me to Job 28.

Job 28, verse 12. Now, let me ask you a question to sort of give you an idea here. I don't know what each of you have experienced this year, but we've all experienced a lot of things. But if you were going to compare how terrible a year this is for you or us, how does your year compare to Job? I mean, really.

How does it compare? I mean, let's just say you go to heaven. And we're talking in heaven to other people and you're talking to people and you say, well, you know, have any of you, did any of you ever lived through 2020?

Oh, was it ever. Oh, you wouldn't believe how hard this was. And you're talking away and you say, oh, by the way, I didn't catch your name. And he said, oh, my name's Job.

So tell me about how bad 2020 was again for you. See, it seems kind of foolish, doesn't it? This is Job talking. And if you read the book of Job, one of the things you realize when you're reading the book is that Job, in a sense, is searching for wisdom. He finds it eventually, but he's searching for it because he keeps saying, I don't know why this is happening. I don't know. I wish God would have a counsel with God and he'd tell me why this is happening.

I just don't understand why this is happening. So here in Chapter 27, he starts his last reply to his friends. You see, he's given his last reply. And in 2812, he says this. Where can wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding?

Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. Job knows that. Remember, Job had three friends come. Remember that?

And what did they come and do? They gave and shared with Job their wisdom. How was that? It stunk.

It was terrible. Oh, they had good intentions. They didn't have any wisdom. So the more Job listened to them, the more he became confused. They didn't offer that. Job says, look, wisdom doesn't come from these guys.

That's for sure. He said, the deep says it's not in me and the sea says it's not with me. Then he says, pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can silver be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued as the gold of offer or precious onyx or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold. Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned. And he said in the acquisition of wisdom is above all that of pearls.

The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. This is pretty good. Job's world was just like ours. Just different. What is Job saying? Money can't buy you wisdom. Wisdom is the essence of life and wisdom will make you happy, but you're never going to get it with money. You're just not. Now in America, we sort of believe money can buy you everything, but it can't buy you wisdom.

It won't make you happy. We know that. We pursue things like that. He says then, verse 20, where does wisdom come from and where is the place of understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all the living and concealed from the birds of the sky. Abaddon, he said, in death say, with our ears we have heard and reported it. He said, God understands its way. God knows its place. Man doesn't have it. The wisdom that gives you the joy and the happiness and the meaning and the purpose of life doesn't come from man.

It just isn't going to work that way. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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