Limitless Wisdom
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Last we we begun a series we are calling limitless life. It is all about how we can experience the life that we are promised by Jesus in John 10:10
A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Jesus didn’t come and die so you could have an ok like, so you could have a mediocre life, he didn’t even come so you could have a good life.
Jesus came so you could have a full, abundant life, that is without end or limit because his life has no limit.
Last week I told you there are four things we need if we want to experience a limitless life. But these aren’t self help tips that you work on and achieve. These are things you receive from God as result of being in close relationship with Jesus. Last week we looked at the limitless faith he offers to us by staying close enough to hear his voice, and even our small faith can be limitless if it is pointed at a big limitless God.
Today I am excited to breakdown the next thing that God offers those of us who have placed their faith in him that will help us live a limitless life and that is the limitless wisdom that he offers to us.
As soon as I said the word wisdom you probably imediately thought of one of two things The first may be like an old wise wizard from movies maybe like a yoda or gandalf type character. Or maybe you thought of the smartest person you know.
whatever popped into your mind if I had to guess the thing that popped into your head probably wasn’t yourself.
Maybe you don’t consider yourself smart enough to be wise. maybe you don’t consider yourself old enough to be wise. maybe you don’t think you have made enough good decisions in the past to be considered wise.
this is our starting point today that I want you to latch on to. Wisdom doesn’t have anything to do with how smart you are. Wisdom is not achieved by the decisions you made in the past. and this one is especially important, its not based on how old you are. our kids are in service with us today. kids look at me. did you know you dont have to be old to be wise?
wisdom does not come from age, experience, or intelligence. Real wisdom is given by God to us through Jesus.
The world tells you wisdom is based on information. The Bible tells us it is rooted in a person.
Charles Spurgeon said “all true wisdom is given by God alone”.
You can receive a limitless wisdom today regardless of how smart you are, how old you are, and how many unwise things you have done in the past because true wisdom doesn’t come from you it comes from God. If you are ready to learn how to receive true limitless wisdom from God flip your Bible to Proverbs 9:10
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. age is not the beginning of wisdom, a college education is not the beginning of wisdom, life experience is not the beginning of wisdom.
1. Wisdom Begins with Reverence.
1. Wisdom Begins with Reverence.
The word fear here is not the same thing as my fear of clowns. its like a reverent fear a child has of their parents.
If wisdom is truly not something that is earned or achieved but is received. there is no way you can receive that wisdom without reverence for the source of the wisdom.
and honestly why would you want to receive wisdom from God if you don’t revere him.
Have you ever thought that maybe the reason you don’t have the wisdom that you think you should have at this stage of your life is because you skipped the starting point.
You may have a positive view of God. you may be pro Jesus. But that is not the same thing having a reverence for Him. When you have a reverence for something it affects your actions.
I remember going to Washington DC for the first time and going arlington national cemetary. if you have ever been there you know it is a powerful place. As you walk through it you see thousands of perfectly lined white gravestones as far as you can see that mark the final resting places of men and women who served our country. as you walk through the winding paths with fields full of these grave stones on all sides of you, you get to the tomb of the unknown solider. containing the remains of few soldiers that couldn’t be identified. It also serves as the symbolic resting place of all those who were lost in battle and remain unidentified. and theres a sign before you enter this open aired but separate area of cemetary that says please be reverent by staying silent. when i first read that sign in 8th grade I thought are they serious? I hadn’t stopped talking to my friends for the last three days but sure enough as you enter that are the only thing you hear is the breeze and the birds chirping even though there will be hundreds of people in there. as they reverently watch the changing of the guard in front of the final resting place of the unidentified soldiers there.
For every person that is there the reverence leads to action. no talking, no phones, just observing and reflecting on the sacrifice.
I could have read that be silent sign over and over again but If i didnt have reverence fro the sacrifice that those men made I wouldn’t have listened to it.
You may have read the wisdom of God over and over, you have heard people talk about it. but until you revere God you will never have the limitless wisdom that you can receive. Wisdom begins with reverence.
Thats the beginning so what next?
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
2. Wisdom Grows Through Relationship
2. Wisdom Grows Through Relationship
It is God who gives wisdom. and he gives it to those who are a deep enough relationship with him that they would ask him for it.
Once we revere him enough to realize how much we need him and we ask him to save us. We become his children. and he wants his children to have wisdom. Parents in the room dont you want your children to have wisdom. Would you ever hold giving that back from them if they ask for it. and even if they don’t ask for it. But we as earthly parents we try to give the best wisdom we can but don’t always have the right words. and we don’t always model in front of them what wisdom looks like.
But God he is the perfect father and he is also the true source of true wisdom. So don’t you think if you ask for wisdom he would give it to you. Don’t you think he wants you to make wise choices of course he does. he will give you wisdom to know what to do because he is in relationship with you.
and as james 1:5 says he will give generously and not reluctantly. You don’t have to convince him you need it. He knows you need his wisdom. So when we ask for it we are agreeing with God about our greatest need Him.
You don’t have to go on this life long quest for wisdom. You don’t have to try to find the right podcast, you dont have find the right book other than the Bible, and you don’t need to climb to some monestary in the himeliays.
The only thing you need for limitless wisdom is relationship with Jesus.
You might thing that all sounds good but is it actual true? how can all knowledge come from reverence and relationship with God?
I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
The reason that true limitless wisdom can be recieved by revering and being in relationship with God is because Jesus is the fullness of wisdom.
3. Wisdom is Found in Jesus.
3. Wisdom is Found in Jesus.
Jesus is not just a conduit for us to receive wisdom the fullness of wisdom resides in the person of Jesus Christ.
This highlights an important distinction between what the world says what wisdom is and what the Bible says wisdom is.
The world says: wisdom = information
The Bible says:
It starts with reverence
Comes through relationship
Is revealed in Jesus
that doesn’t mean that every Jesus went he was walking fortune cookie with lots of wise sounding one liners. Because Biblical wisdom isn’t about sounding smart. Wisdom doesn’t live in your head. Its not about what you know its how you respond. In fact the book of proverbs says fools are not people who don’t know what to do. Fools are people who know what God wants them to do and don’t do it.
In God’s eyes the smart people aren’t the wise ones, the obedient one’s are. Wisdom isn’t about what is in your head. Wisdom doesn’t live there. Wisdom is lived out through your hands and your mouth.
What that looks like was revealed in Jesus. What made Jesus wise is he modeled what it looked like to completely obey the will of God.
And if you look throughout the Gospel Jesus demonstrated complete reverence for God, he demonstrated an intimate relationship with God, and through that he revealed to us what limitless wisdom looks like not as some abstract concept. but as a living breathing person. Jesus showed what limitless wisdom looked like not because he knew everything but because fulfilled the will of the father.
So as we get deeper in our relationship with Christ yes you learn more about him, but that knowledge isn’t wisdom. applying that knowledge is where wisdom comes.
Biblical wisdom is receiving God’s truth, seeing life from His perspective, and living it out through a relationship with Him.
So I got to ask you as you sit there today have you ever entered into relationship with him?
where have you been looking for wisdom? if it is anything other than Jesus I want you to think. How’s that working out for you?
Where has your wisdom led you? has it led you to full, abundant, and limitless life? I didn’t think so.
If you’re here today and you have never turned to Jesus for full abundant, limitless eternal life I want you to know the unwise mistakes of your past have not discqualified you from turning to Jesus. And the unwise mistakes that you will make in the future don’t disqualify you from turning to Jesus.
Jesus is the source of wisdom but he’s so much more he is the source of life itself.
Don’t let this be another week where you come and you hear and you know what you need to do but you leave without doing it.
Come to Jesus. Come reverantly before God humble yourself by telling him you don’t have all the answers but you believe he does because he is the answer for defeating death, hell, and the grave that he proved from dying for our sins and rising from the grave.
If you a tired by living from your wisdom the wisest thing you can do is turn to Jesus. If you have never done that today can be your day.
For the Christian in the room who you know the right stuff but it isn’t translating to wise Christian living. You keep making unwise decision after unwise decision and you don’t know what to do. Maybe you have a choice you have to make and feel like you just know you’re going to make the wrong decision.
Maybe you have been making the wrong decisions because you have been looking to wrong source for answers.
God loves his children. If you ask for wisdom he is there to generously give it. He wants you to make the wise choice because he wants what is best for you, because of his limitless love for you.
The wisdom that will help you live a limitless life doesn’t come from a podcast, a book, a degree, or yourself. True wisdom is revealed to us from the source of true wisdom God when we revere him and stay in relationship with him. The same savior that you looked to save your life is the same savior that you can look to, for wisdom and he promises to give it to you if you ask. Before we take communion I can think of no better way to end this time than to spend time going before the Lord and asking him for wisdom.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
