Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, August 31st. Are you sure you're making good decisions? Today's message kicks off a new series exploring the vital connection between knowing God and living with true wisdom. Why would a family choose to buy a home, house, that they know that they cannot afford. But they're gonna buy it anyway.
Unwise decision. Why would a person marry just for sexual fulfilment. not thinking about other things. Unwise decision. Why would people put in their mouth something that ultimately ends up in their lungs.
knowing that it's possible to have lung cancer. and die a terrible kind of death. Unwise decision. If you open the jail doors of prisons all over this country, and could interview the people who are therein. Most of them would say, as they look back.
unwise decisions. When you think about the kind of life that you're living, Would you say that the decisions that you're making are wise? are unwise. Wisdom is a gift from God. living unwisely.
is a very expensive lifestyle. to every aspect of our life.
So when we turn to this passage of Scripture in a few moments, What we really see Paul doing. Speaking to the people of his day and those Corinthians, Greeks, they thought they were the smartest folks in the world and probably were. In many ways, they're wise, humanly speaking. But there's a difference between human wisdom and godly wisdom.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and I want us to look at the 19th verse, beginning with that. And there are a number of verses I want us to consider here, but I want you to keep asking in your thinking. Decisions you have to make. Are they going to be wise decisions or unwise?
So, listen to what he says in this third chapter, beginning in verse 19. And notice what he says: though the wisdom of this world Look at that. The wisdom of the world is foolishness before God, the way the world thinks apart from God. For it is written, He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness. You don't get away with it, their consequences.
And again, the Lord knows the reasoning of the wise that they're useless.
So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you. And so he's comparing Paul and Apollos. And so he says, Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things, present, things to come, all things belong to you. They were trying to compare the preachers and so forth.
Then he says, and look at this next verse. And you belong to Christ? and Christ belongs to God. When I think about single verses in description, how powerful they are and how full of meaning they are. This rises to the top.
Listen to this. And you Belong. The Christ And Christ belongs to God. Therefore, If we belong to Christ, We belong to God. And I would ask you, who do you belong to?
You either belong to God through Christ. Or you belong to the devil, one of the two.
Some people say, well, I don't believe in the devil, unwise belief.
So with that in mind, I want us to look at this whole issue of wise and unwise lifestyle and how people are living it. And the scripture distinguishes it between here.
So let's look at wise living for a moment. And the first thing we want to do is define what do we mean by true, genuine wisdom. Godly wisdom. That's real wisdom. Godly wisdom is viewing things from God's viewpoint.
How does He see them? and then responding to those things on the basis of what the Word of God teaches.
So if I look at things from God's viewpoint, where am I going to find that? I'm going to find it in the Word of God. And so, a person who says, I don't have time for that Bible stuff, what you're saying is, I choose to live a very foolish life. I will make foolish decisions in life. I will suffer consequences I would never have dreamed of.
If you're so smart, that you think you can live your life and live it happily or peacefully or successfully Apart from the teachings of the Word of God, you are playing the fool. It is foolish. You cannot. And the Bible teaches it all the way through Scripture. by illustration where we can never forget it.
So think about that. It's the capacity to view things from God's viewpoint. And then, on the basis of that, respond to them accordingly.
So, you're facing a decision, what's the question? The question is this. What is the wise thing to do? If I'm going to find that out, I need to turn to the source of all wisdom, that's Almighty God. To leave God out of your life is foolish, devastating.
Only a fool. who hears the word of God. turns away. Says, I don't want any of that. Because you're not thinking wisely, you're thinking foolishly.
So when we look at this passage of Scripture, And with that in mind, Think about this. God is omniscient. He knows everything. He knows about yesterday, he knows about today, he knows about tomorrow. He knows what happened yesterday perfectly.
You and I don't. We only know what humans can know. God has absolute, total, complete, infinite knowledge about every single thing. He's never behind because he knows the past, present, and future. Nothing ever startles him or surprises him.
He knows perfectly before, during, and afterwards.
So it is only wise to consult one who knows everything and who has never said. Oh, I forgot. Oh, I never thought about that. God doesn't have to resort to a computer to find out what's happening. He doesn't have to take a photograph so he won't forget it.
He has infinite knowledge, everything that could possibly be known about you. before, during, and after. He knows you perfectly. Therefore, he knows every single need that you have. He knows it before you know it.
20 years from now, God knows where you're going to be, with Him or still living. He knows all about the economy. He knows all about the things that can possibly happen.
So the question is this, are you living on the basis of what you see? what you feel, what you hear, the so-called wisdom of man. which the Bible says is foolishness. because it's so limited, we'll see in a moment. The finest and the most brilliant of men are limited in their knowledge.
And oftentimes their brilliance is the very barrier between them and wisdom. Knowledge doesn't make a person necessarily wise. It gives them access to many, many things, but there's a difference, and when I think about it, Knowledge has to do more with the mind. But when I think about wisdom, it has more to do with the heart. with the spirit of a person.
You can be very smart about a lot of things. but very unwise about others. And when we are unwise, what we are doing is we are saying, I think I can handle it without God. I'm going to make this decision based on what I like, what I want. what all the people expect.
and what I believe will make me secure in life. I think about people who think their security is in finances. Yeah, listen. That is a foolish thought. Because it changes every day and oftentimes many times a day.
Where is your security? Is it in your relationship to Jesus Christ that is where all true genuine security is to be found? And if you have chosen to live your life apart from God, here's what you've done. You have separated yourself. from eternal security.
If you're living without God, you have separated yourself from any kind of true, genuine, lasting security. God is almighty. He knows all things about every single solitary thing. And so, that being true, naturally, He's the one I should be going to.
So, tomorrow morning you wake up, you have a decision to make. What do you do? You call your friends and ask them what they think? I can tell you what they think. You want to know ahead of time?
They think that whatever makes you happy is what they think. And oftentimes that's what they will do. They won't even be honest about it. The one person you and I can go to about every single solitary decision, no matter what, is Almighty God.
Now, watch this. He loves you enough To sent His Son Jesus into the world to die for all of us, we are all sinners. He saw beforehand every sin you'd ever commit. For all generations. And he sent his Son Jesus to die for us.
That tells me he loves me beyond my comprehension. He loves us, listen, knowing all of our failures, knowing all of our sins, knowing all of our mistakes, and all of the things that go on in our life that are not right. Beforehand, he saw that and he sent Jesus anyway.
So this much I know. This God whose son died for my sins. and who knows every single thing, does no research for anything. That above all, he loves me. And he loves you no matter what.
That love will never change. And when I think about these verses, I want to come back to this verse again in the 23rd verse of the third chapter of 1 Corinthians. Listen to this verse a minute. This verse just grabbed me. In fact, When I was studying this week, and I came to this verse that I have read multitudes of times, naturally.
I'll tell you what happened to me. I had to get on my knees. And ask God to help me to understand. What he means. When he said Excellent.
Ugh. You belong to Christ. Christ belongs to God. Therefore, you belong to God. You say, well, that's simple.
It may be simple, but I want you to think about it. You belong. That means he has stamped you. With his awesome Stamp of eternal security. that you are a child of God.
And nobody can get to you because You're in Jesus and Jesus is in God. And before anybody can get to you, they've got to bypass him. They can't bypass him.
Somehow, and I read that verse of Scripture. You, Billock, listen. Not that you just know about Jesus. Look at this. You belong to him.
Is your son or your daughter, your husband or your wife with you this morning? If he or she is with you, look at him. Come on. You belong to him. You belong to her.
That makes it one thing to know somebody. It's something else. to belong to them. And if I want to belong to somebody, I want to belong to Almighty God. You say, well, why did that get you so fired up?
I'll tell you why. Because it must have been something God didn't want to say to me. You belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. The only people about whom that can be true is people who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior, who are, listen, wise enough. to acknowledge their sinfulness, wise enough to believe The testimony of Scripture about his death, that he justified us, declared us righteous, reconciled us, saved us eternally, sanctified us, all the wonderful things the Bible says about us.
Listen, we have eternal security. You know what eternal is? Endless. We have the endless security in our relationship to him. And so the one who has made us have eternal security is the all-knowing Almighty God who sent His Son and about whom He said, You belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
I don't know about you, but that makes me feel very, very safe. You belong to Almighty God. Which means this. Watch this, nothing. And no one can touch you apart from the knowledge, the wisdom, and the will of God, nothing.
So So if you happen to be one of those persons and you are fearful of something, What's your relationship to God? Because He's the only one who can surround you perfectly and protect you in any and every given situation. Only that which God allows. can happen to one of his children. You say, well, what about so-and-so?
They went through this problem, this heartache, this burden, this tragedy. Not without God knowing it. Not without God's plan. And what he allows oftentimes is beyond my comprehension. It's not beyond the wisdom.
and the knowledge and the awesome plan of God. The world's foolishness is just that. It's foolish. They think they know. when only God knows.
That's why believers are set apart. We are a part of the body of Christ. We are set apart by God through His Son Jesus Christ to do what? To allow Him to live His life. In and through us.
Listen, we are the walking children of the living God whose names are in the Lamb's book of life, who are eternally secure in Him, and who have Him as our guide for every single day. We can come to Him and ask Him about any decision that needs to be made, and He is willing to give us direction. But if you don't know him, If you think, you see, watch this, if you live in disobedience to God, what you're saying is, I don't need omniscience. I don't need omnipotence. I don't need omnipresence.
I can handle it. In this mixed up, crazy, sinful, wicked, vile world, that is a foolish conclusion. A foolish conclusion. We all need Almighty God. All of us need Him every day.
And so when I look at these passages and see what Paul said in this particular passage, He says, the wisdom of the world's foolishness now is of God. Because you see, if you took a grain of sand, and put it over here and all the beaches of the world. That little grain of sand in all the beaches of the world. may be equal to our knowledge and understanding and wisdom. Apart from God, we don't have it.
We don't have it. If you don't believe, look at the society in which we live.
Well, look at what's happening to us every single day. You wake up one morning and you hear this. Wake up the next morning, you hear that. Let me ask you something. When's the last time you looked at the television or read the newspaper or heard anything about what's going on?
You've said, finally, a great day has arrived. No. It's not true.
So, what do Christians do? Are we supposed to be worried and frustrated and anxious and fearful and going to bed and wonder what's going to happen? No, we know what's going to happen. Listen, we're sleeping in the presence of Almighty God who never sleeps. Who has all power, all knowledge of every single thing?
Listen, we are His children. How foolish to live apart From holy God, who has made it possible to have everything we need in Christ Jesus that's wise for us to have.
So Human reason is deficient. It takes godly wisdom. to live the kind of life that I know every single person really wants deep down inside. And when we're living wisely, we're going to seek His guidance about all these things. And if you'll think about this, a person who is spiritually wise They're going to be able to see things with their eyes others do not see.
They're going to be able to hear things with their ears others don't hear. This is why somebody can say something to you very persuasively or very arrogantly, and you're a child of God walking in His Spirit, and you know what they say? They send two messages. Here's what you heard them say. Here's what they said.
And there's a lot of difference. children of God who are walking wisely, we have the wisdom of God. Because that's His desire and will for our lives. And the problem is, if we ignore that, then we get in trouble. We think, oh God, where were you?
And God is saying, I've been here all along. You weren't listening. You listen to other people. You decided what you wanted, not what I wanted, because I know what's best for you.
So, when we are living wisely, We will live a certain way. And what is it? In essence, to make it simple. When we're living wisely, we're going to be able to walk through the deepest, darkest valleys of life. We're going to walk through paths that we think There'll be no way to walk.
We're going to be able to walk through situations and circumstances and heartaches. that we would never think we could ever endure. But when you walk in wisely, here's what happens. God says, this is the next step. And this is the next step.
And this is the next step. And this is the next step. You know why he doesn't tell us a whole story? You can't even fathom it sometimes. You couldn't stand to know where God may lead you.
So, what does he do? Step by step. And so we ask him for, Lord, what shall I do in this decision? This is the step. What shall I do in this?
And you see, if we just decided we're going to do it ourselves, we just go plowing through the difficulty and the hardship and the pain, we find ourselves making mistakes. God, remember, he loves us enough to keep us on the path. He loves us enough to keep our eyes on things that are real and true and genuine. Thank you for listening to Living Wisely or Foolishly. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station.
And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
