Wisdom For 2020, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Every kind is sinful. Sin separates it from God. In eternal separation, does God offer a solution?

Yes? God says I'll offer a solution, the big picture. I love you all so much I'll send my son into the world to live a perfect life and he'll die as your substitute on the rocks.

And you and I can spend eternity together. That's God's wisdom. The Gospel is the wisdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

And how does most of the world react to it? Not listening. God says okay, you're going to pay the consequences. 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. When I was at the University of Pittsburgh, one of my majors was a major in philosophy. And philosophy is a great word.

Flau is love. Love of wisdom. That's the word philosophy. When you say you major in philosophy, you major in the love of wisdom. So I read everybody from the pre-Socratics all the way to the modern day existentialists.

And guess what? They didn't know anything. They didn't impart anything. In fact, each set of philosophers hundreds of years apart would spend most of their time telling you why the last prevailing philosophy didn't bring you any happiness and it doesn't work. We have a new form of philosophy. And then eventually you get to existentialism and existential philosophy is an interesting philosophy because its philosophy is this.

Nothing works. And nothing really matters. There, that's our philosophy. So in one sense it was accurate, but in another sense it doesn't give you much hope, meaning, and purpose.

It just doesn't work that way. And he says, look, you're never going to find it here. This, he said, comes from God. That's where this comes from. In fact, the next statement or question I'll ask is, where do you find it?

Job just sort of gave us an idea. How do I find it here? Go with me to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1. And what we see here that's so important about it is this. What happens if we just ignore it?

Because most people do. But as a child of God, what James is telling you, don't ignore it. Because if you ignore it, what will happen is you'll seem fine whenever circumstances are great in your life. But whenever you go through a year like 2020, you'll find you have no resources, emotional resources to deal with it. And you won't find your life full of all joy. You'll find your life despairing. That's what will end up happening. That's what happens if you ignore it. Now, we'll notice what he says here in Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 20.

Same idea as before. Wisdom shouts in the streets. She lifts her voice in the square. At the head of the noisy street, she cries out. At the entrance of the gates of the city, she utters her sayings. God keeps saying, I just keep inundating people with they need wisdom. I'm shouting everywhere.

Now, watch what she shouts this time. How long, oh naive ones, will you love being simple minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing. And fools hate knowledge. There's God's assessment if you don't apply his wisdom.

That's what he says. Oh, what am I like? I'll tell you, there's three things you are. You're simple minded. You're a scoffer and you're a fool. That's who you are. You can ignore my wisdom.

Go ahead. But that's who you are then. He said, turn to my my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you and I will make my words known to you because I call you. And you refused.

I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention. And you neglected all my counsel. And you did not want my reproof. I'm trying people. See what God is saying in 2020 to us. I'm trying. I'm actually trying to reach you about how you acquire wisdom so that your life can be full of joy. And you're not getting it.

You're ignoring me. And then you start the whole pity party. Woe is me. This is a terrible time. I don't know what's going on.

You can't do that. He said, I'm offering it to you. Now, this part's a little bit personal. Verse 26, God's reaction when we act this way. I also will laugh at your calamity. I love that. Oh, there are very few times people ask me, does God ever laugh?

Here's one. When you act like an idiot, he'll laugh. He laughs at you. What are you thinking? What are you doing?

Why are you acting this way? Well, the circumstances. Hey, I've overcome the circumstances. You see how this works? God says, I laugh it. I laugh at your calamity. He said, I will mock. He says, when your dread comes.

Wow. When you get what you deserve, when you reap what you sow, God said, I'll mock you for that because you should know better. But we don't. He says, when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, sometimes the circumstances of life hit us just like a Category 5 hurricane. They come right upon us and everything changes. God says, yeah. And what do you do then? Do you count it all joy?

Oh, absolutely not. I'm going to be happy about here. There's a lot to be happy about.

Like what? How about me? You see, how about? No, no, I don't.

I know you're there, but I like to be happy based on my circumstances. God says life doesn't work that way. We are sinful people. We live on a fallen planet.

A lot of stuff happens. He says, then they will call on me and he says, I will not answer then. They will seek me and diligently, but they'll not find me because they hated knowledge. They did not choose the fear of the Lord.

They would not accept my counsel. They spurned all my reproof so they shall eat the fruit of their own way. And he says, be satiated with their own devices for the waywardness of the naive shall kill them. God says, when you reject wisdom, you pay the consequence. Think about this.

Think of the hope of mankind. Mankind is sinful. Sin separates it from God. And eternal separation. Does God offer a solution? Yes. God says, I'll offer a solution.

The big picture. I love you all so much, I'll send my son into the world. He'll live a perfect life and he'll die as your substitute on the cross. And you and I can spend eternity together. That's God's wisdom. So when you say that to a lot of people, how do they respond?

Not for me. I like religion better. I'm going to earn my way. I'll just show up in certain places and God will be so pleased that I showed up, he'll let me in. Or others of us are more moralist. We say, look, I don't think anyone doesn't get in unless you're really, really bad.

It's always Hitler or someone like that. Then you won't get in. But I think God's going to grade us all on the curve. You know, as long as I'm not terrible, I'm in.

Right? No. And they reject it. It's the way the gospel is the wisdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

And how does most of the world react to it? Not listening. God says, OK, you're going to pay the consequences. You see, you decided to reject it. But we, as his children, in the same way, we're going to reap what we sow, too, as his children, when God offers us his perspective and his wisdom as a gift to us to live through the most difficult of times. And we reject it. We don't want any part of God's wisdom. God says that's going to be a terrible thing. He says in verse 33, But he who listens to me shall live securely and shall be at ease from the dread of evil. James said we should be joyful.

Now he says you're secure. When we apply the wisdom of God, let me give you a fact of God, a fact. But to have wisdom, it can apply to your life. You hear me say this all the time. The worst thing that could happen to you. Can't happen to you. That's wisdom.

So I'm not that afraid. The last day of my life will be the best day of my life. It's the day I'm absent from the body and present with the Lord. That's God's perspective.

I need that because life can be really difficult and really painful. But if I ignore it, what do I end up with? Full of terror, frightened, worried, angry. He said that's what happens to me because I just reject God.

I don't want to hear that now. That's where we end up being and we end up reaping what we sow. So what happens when we ignore wisdom? We get calamity and dread. And many of us unfortunately are getting that now.

Last question. How do I get the wisdom? What do I need to do to get the wisdom? First passage I want to look to is Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 23. Jeremiah 9, 23. There's a certain posture I have to have if I'm going to get God's wisdom. Verse 23 of Jeremiah 9. Thus says the Lord. Let not a wise man.

We're back to it again. These are wise men. Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom. OK. Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom. So I can't walk around and say do you guys have any idea just how wise I am? I mean you need it.

Come to me. I got the wisdom. He said you don't boast in wisdom. What's the opposite of boasting? Humility. He said let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. He said and let not the mighty man boast in his might and let not the rich man boast in his riches. Well, do we do any of that? I mean that's why we have this stuff, right? If I can't boast about it and let everyone know how much I got, what's the fun of that? He said no, don't do that. He said let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands me and knows me and that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.

What those verses tell me is, Bill, God loves your humility when you're humble in front of him. That's one of the things I learned this year. This year has been a perplexing year with all the experience I have as a pastor and all the training I have, I have no answers to how to really pastor a church through all these circumstances. I haven't found any answers from my colleagues all over the country because they're everywhere all over the map, so they can't all be right. Every one of them have a whole different approach. So all I can do is get up in the morning and ask God to show it to me. I have no answers.

It's a perplexing thing, but God, I don't have an answer to this. I don't know what to do. I don't know what the best approach will be, but God does. One part of it is you have to be humble, he says, before God.

That's the way you have to be. Secondly, you have to seek wisdom with all your heart. First, go with me to Psalm 86. Verse 11. This is a psalm of David. Now remember, I said the first thing is you have to be humble.

The second thing is you have to seek it with all your heart. Now, how hard would this be for David? I want you to understand a little bit about him. When David was a teenager, he slew Goliath, a nine-foot, nine-inch Philistine. Everyone in Israel was terrified of him, and his teenager slew him.

And guess what the whole country did when they responded? They sang songs about him, the whole country. Everywhere you'd go, Jews sang songs about how great David was. Now you say 15. Now, if the whole country was singing accolades to you at 15, how would you do?

Everybody, top 10 list everywhere, singing songs to you. Then he went back home, and Samuel was told by God that he's going to actually appoint the next king, the real king. Saul had already been appointed king, and he's been a failure. So Samuel goes to Jesse's house. Jesse shows him all his sons, and God says to Samuel, that's not them. So Samuel has to ask the question, is there anyone else? And he goes, well, there's the boy.

Now, I already told you, by the way, everyone in that household doesn't like David much because everyone's singing about him. He said, he's out in the pasture tending a few sheep. He said, bring him in. So he comes in, and God whispers, and Samuel goes, he's the king. So now he's the king. So he's the king, and the boy who slew Goliath, everybody sings about him, and he has unparalleled success defeating all of Israel's enemies.

It's incredible what he has done. Now, I want you to see his prayer, verse 11. Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I will give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify your name forever.

What's he doing? He's humbly approaching God with all of his heart, and he says, God, it's all about you, not me. He had every reason not to be humble before the Lord or seek the Lord with all of his heart, and he does, and it's an amazing thing how he pursues it.

Now, I want you to see his son. Last passage, 1 Kings, chapter 3, verse 7. 1 Kings, chapter 3, verse 7. His name is Solomon, and now he's king. The famous story, verse 7. Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in a place of my father David, and yet I am my little child.

I do not know how to go out or come in. Your servant is in the midst of your people, which you have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered and counted. So give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours? He asked for wisdom. It says, it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing, and God said to him, because you have asked this thing and not have asked for yourself for long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for your discernment to understand justice. Behold, I have done according to your words, behold. He says, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. You know that story. Solomon is the wisest man who ever lived. God gave it to him as a gift.

Now, that's an amazing thing. Is that how you pursue wisdom? Do you pursue wisdom as it's the most important thing in your life?

Because it is. Do you dedicate yourself humbly before the Lord to pursue his wisdom, the way you've dedicated yourselves to be success? Educate yourselves, all the sacrifices I made for this company, the hours I've spent, the nights I didn't sleep, what are you pursuing? Because whatever it is, it's not wisdom.

It can't even be compared to wisdom. See, do you pursue things that way? It's sort of like we know that's an important thing, but we really don't act like it's an important thing.

I had found this this week, and it's a good reminder of, I think, the way we often are. We're a lot like the CEO is visited by an angel in the middle of a board meeting. So the whole board's at the table, and the CEO is there, and an angel comes and stands right in the middle of the room in the board meeting. And the angel said to him, because of your pious life, I'm going to give you a choice between unbounded wisdom, wealth, or beauty. With no hesitation, the man said, wisdom.

Very well, the angel said, and he disappeared. So the man then is sitting at the head of the table in the boardroom, and he's just glowing. And all the board members are just watching him, looking at him. And finally, one of them said, say something to us. We want to hear the voice of wisdom. He said, I should have taken the money. He's a picture of us. That's the way we act. You see, on one hand, we'd say, oh, no, I take the wisdom.

Would you really? What have you sacrificed to get God's wisdom? What have you sacrificed for the stuff? You see, you have to seek it with all your heart.

You have to humbly be in front of the Lord. And it's worth it, because it'll make you happy and content. It'll give you a life of peace, a life of joy, a life of hope. And it doesn't matter if it's 2020.

It won't make any difference at all. So what does wisdom look like? It's seeing life from God's perspective. Why is wisdom so important? Because it gives you sustaining contentment and joy. Where do you find wisdom?

Only one source, God. And what happens if you ignore it? Calamity and dread and terrible feelings, like many of us have right now.

And how do I get it? Be humble before the Lord and seek it from the Lord with all your heart. Who knows, maybe when this is all over, someday you'll look back and say, 2020 was the best year of my life. Let's pray. Father, so often we just get mesmerized by the circumstances, and that affects our attitude. And we express that attitude as despairing. Even though we know that you are sovereign over the circumstances, even though we know that all things work together for our good, even though we know we have the full assurance of your presence now with us and our presence forever with you, we still allow these circumstances to destroy our relationship with you and make any effect of our testimony to others when we could have a life of all joy, all peace. Paul calls it the peace beyond all comprehension. And then we can have a hope, the surety of Jesus Christ. These circumstances that we find ourself in in the world right now are circumstances that we should be able to use for your glory, that we should be salt and light, that we should be able to reach out to people who don't have the hope that we have in Christ. So, Father, I pray that all of us examine our own heart and ask ourselves, have we really sought the wisdom of God? I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ... ...