back to index2016-09-25 Spiritual Eyes
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And this will be our kind of platform text and we'll be jumping around to different texts 00:00:17.280 |
Let's take a, let's see, verse 11 through 14. 00:00:22.840 |
Okay, Hebrews chapter five, verse 11 through 14. 00:00:27.960 |
And the word of God says this, "Concerning him, we have much to say. 00:00:33.600 |
And it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. 00:00:39.040 |
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you 00:00:43.280 |
the elementary principles of the oracles of God. 00:00:46.400 |
And you have come to need milk and not solid food. 00:00:50.380 |
For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, 00:00:56.560 |
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern 00:01:09.140 |
And we pray, Father Lord, at this time that as we know your truth to be powerful, Lord, 00:01:19.280 |
Lord, would you continue to work on the soil of our heart that again, as we receive, would 00:01:25.840 |
we be eager, we would be desiring to apply it into our lives and that ultimately it would 00:01:32.960 |
God, we also lift up our pastor Peter as he's speaking at a retreat, praying Lord that as 00:01:39.840 |
the church has gathered their living way, Lord, you would minister to them with your 00:01:50.360 |
Well, I love talking with new parents, you know, parents who just recently had kids and 00:02:01.920 |
Whenever there's like a major shift in your life, there's a whole series of questions 00:02:10.640 |
Namely, they're always wanting to talk about tips and how to's and how do you do this and 00:02:16.680 |
And one of the main things that they teach you as soon as you have a kid and everybody's 00:02:20.600 |
like super in tuned and wanting to learn is how do you get your baby to stop crying? 00:02:26.840 |
Because when the baby is crying, you know, like through the day and then through the 00:02:31.600 |
night and it's 2am, 4am and your stress level is like up to here and that means you're not 00:02:38.120 |
sleeping, you know, and like, please help me. 00:02:42.880 |
And what's really cool is that I don't care, I don't know if you care to know this, but 00:02:47.400 |
the doctors give you this like, Hey, here are the five S's to pacify your baby when 00:03:04.800 |
But when I, the first time the doctor showed us how I just like, it's chuckling inside 00:03:09.280 |
because the doctor just basically took the baby and was like, this is how you do it. 00:03:18.920 |
But you got to let the baby hear the sound, you know? 00:03:21.600 |
Cause you know, as they're crying and stuff, they're not going to be able to hear you. 00:03:24.840 |
So I remember thinking like, that's hilarious. 00:03:32.280 |
So for those of you guys who don't know, it's kind of like working at Chipotle. 00:03:35.760 |
You basically stuff as much as you can in the blankie and then you wrap it as tight 00:03:42.800 |
And then the strong ones are like, you know, they get their arm out. 00:03:47.160 |
It's really funny when you watch the guys do it. 00:03:50.200 |
And cause you know, they try multiple times, the baby's getting loose and baby's still 00:03:56.400 |
My stress level is just going through the roof, right? 00:04:00.280 |
There's an S where you have to swing the baby. 00:04:03.400 |
The guys are thinking, not shake the baby, but swing the baby, swing the baby. 00:04:07.400 |
You know, the motions of kind of mimicking what the baby experienced through the womb 00:04:13.120 |
There's another one which I thought was also hilarious was basically turned the baby on 00:04:18.260 |
So you take the baby, like if this was a baby, you take it by its little chin, you hold it 00:04:21.660 |
like this and you just hold it like a football, you know? 00:04:23.880 |
But when you flip it over, there's this once in a while, and it doesn't work every time, 00:04:28.400 |
but sometimes the baby just calms down rather than let's say if you're holding it upright 00:04:34.600 |
And then the other one is just giving the baby a pacifier to suck on the pacifier, you 00:04:39.120 |
Again, I don't know if you guys care to know all that stuff, but if you're a new parent, 00:04:44.080 |
that stuff is like gold, you know, cause you need it. 00:04:48.920 |
Now the reason why I bring this up is because for me, I learned the five S's. 00:04:56.280 |
I memorized it and I can go through it with you even now, even after it's been like five 00:05:02.280 |
But the thing about it is in the moment when you're a brand new dad and your baby is crying 00:05:06.960 |
and he's just saying, "Ahh!" and your stress level is up, you're like, "I just want you 00:05:13.200 |
Your first question is like, "Which one of the five do I do?" 00:05:17.480 |
And so typically you just go with the one that's what you think is going to work, which 00:05:22.080 |
You know, like we were screaming into the baby's ear. 00:05:25.800 |
But there's always a question of what to do when, right? 00:05:30.240 |
Well today we're going to be talking about a topic that I have been thinking about a 00:05:33.600 |
lot, discussing with some of the brothers and I've been thinking about, which is wisdom 00:05:42.280 |
And the thing about it is we will always have questions whenever you face different circumstances 00:05:47.560 |
in your life, huge transitions in your life, major problems in your life. 00:05:52.720 |
Yeah, I know various things that the scripture has taught me. 00:05:56.720 |
You know, I've been going to church for a long time. 00:05:58.840 |
I know the precepts and stuff like that, but what to do when, it's always a difficult thing. 00:06:05.760 |
And this is where we as believers need to grow in wisdom, in skill of knowing when to 00:06:16.960 |
And God has called every single one of us to grow in this facet. 00:06:20.800 |
First and foremost, that we should eagerly desire wisdom as a precious jewel, scripture 00:06:27.680 |
But I feel the need to go over this because truthfully speaking, again, as I walk my own 00:06:34.600 |
life I always feel this sense of like, for lack of better words, there's a lot of times 00:06:42.680 |
And then when I talk to individuals, they're always at a loss, like what do I do? 00:06:46.400 |
And then sometimes there's so many different contributing factors that make wisdom, making 00:06:53.000 |
decisions, making judgment calls so tough for us, right? 00:06:58.200 |
And I don't know if you come in this sanctuary this morning already in a situation like that 00:07:03.360 |
where you're always thinking like, oh, what do I do? 00:07:06.440 |
Should I do X, Y, Z, combination of Z and Y, what should I do? 00:07:13.000 |
For us, we have to learn and grow in the skill and ask for wisdom so that we might be able 00:07:20.840 |
to maturely handle all these things we know we're going to encounter in our lives. 00:07:26.000 |
And so to give you a kind of a road map of today, we're talking about namely wisdom and 00:07:39.720 |
Why it's so incredibly important that you have it and then how do you get it? 00:07:47.560 |
First, the next couple of points I'm going to run through with you quite quickly, but 00:07:53.840 |
I'm going to ask you this question about do you understand what discernment is? 00:07:58.560 |
And the way I'm going to go through this is to give you some key words as you're taking 00:08:09.840 |
A question to you is you can write the keyword investigation, but do you know how to ask 00:08:17.360 |
and inquire and investigate about situations, but also about truth and what the Lord's standard 00:08:25.920 |
Do you have a pattern in your life where you practice this, where you come across a situation 00:08:31.360 |
and it's just not like, I don't want to deal with this so frustrating. 00:08:34.520 |
So right, we can do lots of different things. 00:08:44.400 |
We can block our heads, not ask because we don't want to care. 00:08:56.720 |
My question was to ask and have a time of inquiry now to evaluate ourselves. 00:09:04.660 |
Do you know how to ask, to ask and discover what's going on in your life that needs a 00:09:10.720 |
decision but also to ask the Lord, what would you have me do here? 00:09:20.400 |
What would be your best suggestion, command, exhortation or correction? 00:09:36.560 |
So if you're a good scientist, you can use other terms like first observe so you can 00:09:41.440 |
get the data and then you've got to interpret it. 00:09:51.520 |
What are the main people involved and who do I need to consider? 00:09:55.320 |
The analytical part of our mind, some of us are naturally in tune with. 00:10:01.760 |
And then you've already been skilled at categorizing, already interpreting. 00:10:13.880 |
But nonetheless, no matter where you are, you have to grow in your ability to analyze 00:10:19.640 |
But namely, to analyze through the lens of scripture. 00:10:25.640 |
And so let me give you some examples of this stuff. 00:10:31.400 |
He is the greatest educator because he educates by truth, by example, and such profound, profound 00:10:42.640 |
And if you notice the way he typically teaches, what does he do? 00:10:48.660 |
And so he kind of teaches them on this inquiry and analyzing. 00:10:53.760 |
Some scheming Pharisee might come along like, "Hey, Jesus." 00:10:59.280 |
They're scheming, that's sly, and so I kind of walk like that, like a Golem or something. 00:11:05.480 |
But they're probably proper and like, "Hey, Jesus." 00:11:18.480 |
If a husband dies, whose husband is this woman going to be? 00:11:24.080 |
What do you say about ... So many times for the gospel, they have questions trying to 00:11:27.880 |
trap him and do all this thing, and you can imagine Jesus going through this process, 00:11:36.520 |
And Jesus' answer and response to that typically initially is what? 00:11:45.360 |
He analyzes, asks questions, and then he says, "What does the word say? 00:11:52.520 |
Didn't you grow up in the synagogue and hear and listen to the word being preached and 00:12:00.600 |
And Jesus would point strictly at them and say, "Don't ... Haven't you gone through this 00:12:04.200 |
process of discernment and wisdom to ask and then to analyze what's supposed to be?" 00:12:13.200 |
And for us, the reason why I bring this up is because there is a dilemma. 00:12:19.080 |
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 5, the passage that we first read, again, as a platform for 00:12:23.140 |
this discussion, if you listen to the tone, is it a lot like, "Hey, guys, what's going 00:12:38.280 |
You should be at a point where you're articulating the standards of God and the wisdom of God 00:12:41.960 |
to other people, but right now you need to learn the basics, and mainly because you guys 00:12:46.520 |
are infantile and you're not able to tell left from right. 00:12:50.160 |
Sorry, that was my right and that was my left, so case in point, right? 00:12:56.760 |
You guys aren't able to discern this side or that side, good or evil, and there's a 00:13:04.600 |
Likewise, even in Jesus' time, this issue of wisdom according to the word of God was 00:13:09.360 |
something that Christ was desiring for his people to grasp. 00:13:14.920 |
But my point in terms of when I come to the topic of discernment, we had two key words 00:13:35.840 |
That is at the key, core, critical thing of the whole sermon today. 00:13:41.440 |
Educate yourself about how you go about your life, and whether it be parenting like I gave 00:13:47.560 |
the example of before, because the Bible doesn't speak about how to shush your baby, but the 00:13:52.200 |
Bible talks a lot about how to raise godly children. 00:13:56.600 |
How you go about your careers, how you go about your schooling, how you go about church, 00:14:02.600 |
Again, in every one of these specific circumstances of your life, how to deal with parents, how 00:14:08.880 |
to deal with unbelievers in your family, how to deal with difficult people that you run 00:14:13.080 |
across, how to deal with the church membership, all that kind of stuff has a question of what 00:14:25.640 |
See, this generation is so far and so vile, they have completely convoluted the line between 00:14:37.640 |
And then they act like it's a humble thing not to know. 00:14:43.840 |
It is not humble to pretend like you don't know. 00:14:51.360 |
If God gives you truth, it is not humble for you to act like you don't know. 00:14:57.760 |
If God gives you direction, if God gives you verdict, if God gives you command, if God 00:15:02.240 |
gives you precept, and you ask like, "Yeah, I heard you, but I don't know." 00:15:09.440 |
But the world wants you to think that because they're always saying like, "Who are you to 00:15:15.320 |
But the fact of the matter is, for you as a Christian, you not only have an obligation, 00:15:20.000 |
but you have a calling from God to exercise a capacity that is His. 00:15:24.920 |
Exercise the kind of judgment that God exercises in your life. 00:15:28.720 |
Because God has granted to you both His truth, His Spirit, and His Son so that you might 00:15:39.160 |
Do you have a hard time deciphering what is selfish and what is not? 00:15:45.720 |
And I ask that because, man, I had to wrestle with that a lot just recently. 00:15:51.040 |
Everything from disciplinary actions that happen in the church, everything from what 00:15:54.720 |
happens in my family, everything from what makes me angry. 00:15:59.040 |
It takes an individual who is trying to practice discretion to evaluate, "Was that thought 00:16:08.480 |
Are you able to discern, "This is godly, this is worldly, this is righteous, this is 00:16:12.480 |
evil, this is beneficial, this is detrimental, this will benefit my church, this will hurt 00:16:18.400 |
Are you able to practice that kind of judgment? 00:16:24.120 |
And if you're like me, where typically you're afraid of judgment, not the kind of judgment 00:16:29.880 |
where you're being judged, but you're afraid of making a judgment, you're afraid of being 00:16:54.080 |
There are those who make an accurate judgment call. 00:16:57.440 |
And those of you guys who are like, again, God has gifted us very differently, lots of 00:17:03.440 |
But there are those people who see something, boom, this is wrong, this is wrong. 00:17:09.480 |
And they're just like, "That's a problem, that's an issue." 00:17:15.200 |
For example, when a guy has an apartment, it's filthy, but to him it's like, "What's 00:17:23.880 |
And other people walk in and it's like, "Dudes." 00:17:32.440 |
I envy you guys because I feel like I've had to ask the Lord many times, "Help me 00:17:42.120 |
But even after you see, there is a maturity that has to grow. 00:17:47.420 |
Because I'm going to be honest with you, early on, right when I became Christian, and then 00:17:52.640 |
I had a pretty dramatic transformation of being super worldly, super arrogant, super 00:18:00.760 |
And now I'm like, "I want to be servant of God, I want to be all this stuff." 00:18:04.200 |
But the thing is, once you see certain things, all of a sudden, even that can be exposed 00:18:13.660 |
Someone might say this silly thing like, "You've got to be encouraging, you jerk." 00:18:19.400 |
Now you might have been able to assess, you might have been able to see and analyze something, 00:18:24.400 |
but your response and your appropriate behavior is not in keeping with the character of God. 00:18:36.560 |
So I'm going at length at this, but boiling all that down, right now we have investigation, 00:18:42.160 |
analyzing, making a judgment, and making appropriate application. 00:18:46.280 |
These things contribute to the idea of what the scripture would call you as wise. 00:18:52.240 |
Because now you've gained skill and a spiritual sight to be able to assess, to analyze, and 00:18:57.880 |
then solve through whatever application, whatever appropriate response there should be. 00:19:02.240 |
That is a skill in living the Christian life. 00:19:08.280 |
And the scripture says you need to be ever growing in this. 00:19:12.280 |
The scripture says you need to be practicing this. 00:19:14.360 |
The scripture says you need to be wanting this for your life. 00:19:17.300 |
You need to be wanting this more than jewels, basically more than money, more than stature, 00:19:23.160 |
For to be wise is a great, grand privilege of the Christian. 00:19:29.720 |
And so, I hope we did an okay job right now thinking through what is discretion and wisdom. 00:19:47.280 |
A, because when you're not exercising discretion in a godly manner through the Bible, you are 00:19:52.840 |
still exercising judgment but through your flesh. 00:19:58.080 |
It's so important because when you're not exercising discretion and judgment through 00:20:02.760 |
the scripture and the standard of God, you are still exercising discretion and judgment 00:20:10.480 |
So, tangible example, there have been times when I've been in conflict with certain people 00:20:16.720 |
and then I have a hard time analyzing like, "Oh my gosh, who did wrong? 00:20:32.280 |
I can start getting, what, bitter, resentful. 00:20:42.880 |
If the word of God does not intervene and the spirit of God is causing you to evaluate 00:20:48.200 |
that scenario to see clearly what is selfish, what is right, what is wrong, but then you 00:20:52.280 |
allow yourself for that time to just go, what's going to happen is your anger is going to 00:21:12.380 |
It's because so many times, because we're not proactively training ourselves to go through 00:21:19.000 |
this process of investigating, analyzing, judging, and then making appropriate application, 00:21:25.280 |
now we're simply allowing our flesh to reign. 00:21:38.360 |
And I see that as a problem for a lot of people as well. 00:21:42.340 |
But what's more, scripture is very clear that when you do not practice spiritual discernment, 00:21:56.520 |
Now it's one thing to be like, "Hey guys, we need to mature." 00:21:59.680 |
And if you're not reading your Bibles and looking at the world through the lens of the 00:22:04.240 |
scripture and you guys aren't making decisions that are wise, then you're just not maturing 00:22:12.800 |
If you're not maturing in your ability to discern, "This is wrong, this is right, this 00:22:17.480 |
is good, this is bad," then you're not maturing. 00:22:20.920 |
But the passage in Hebrews chapter 5 does not present to us a case where the author 00:22:25.880 |
is just like, "Oh man, I wish you guys would have matured, but we're not there yet, so 00:22:31.280 |
That is not the way he is presenting this case. 00:22:34.000 |
He is presenting this case like, "Since you guys are dull of hearing, I can't talk to 00:22:46.000 |
And then he says, "Although you should have been mature enough to teach even, not to say 00:22:52.000 |
that everybody should be a leader, but mature enough to guide somebody else, to impart this, 00:22:58.120 |
You're like a pro and you should have been able to transfer this to the next rookies 00:23:07.160 |
No, he says, "What you've done is, you should have been here, but you're now what? 00:23:13.280 |
It's not like you had building blocks and then you're up here. 00:23:17.560 |
And the best way I can talk about this is this. 00:23:20.040 |
If you go your life without having discretion for a certain amount of time, trying to practice 00:23:25.400 |
that discretion all of a sudden is not going to work. 00:23:39.200 |
So every time I get a chance, it's like, "Hey dude, how'd the draft go? 00:23:48.440 |
And then I played BBA before, but right now I'm not going to play. 00:23:53.320 |
Because a couple of years ago, I took a year off from BBA, maybe two years off from BBA, 00:23:58.480 |
but all of basketball too, because I had kids and life was busy and I just couldn't play. 00:24:08.120 |
So I go play with all the guys that are running full court. 00:24:12.280 |
Second two minutes, my lungs feel like they're burning. 00:24:14.280 |
It's just like, "Why is it so hard to breathe?" 00:24:19.040 |
And then maybe like 20 minutes into it, I didn't even play like three, four games or 00:24:28.720 |
I'm running down and nobody's around me because nobody's even playing defense yet. 00:24:32.880 |
So I'm just like, "Ah!" and I go down to the floor. 00:24:36.080 |
And everyone's like, "Oh, did you sprain your ankle?" 00:24:42.480 |
So everybody's kind of like, "Uh, you know, what happened?" 00:24:53.040 |
So I'm hopping off to the sideline and then I'm like, "Oh, my other calf!" 00:24:56.400 |
So I go to the floor and I'm like holding my calves. 00:25:00.740 |
And then like two days later, my wife's like, "Look at your calves. 00:25:05.020 |
They're purple all the way down from the back of my knees to my ankle. 00:25:10.280 |
And then she looked up her little bio book and was like, "You have like a third degree 00:25:14.000 |
Basically, you know, like I didn't work my calves out. 00:25:18.080 |
So I like overstrained it and then now the capillaries burst and I'm bruising inside. 00:25:27.740 |
Anyway, I share that with you because there's pretty much nothing in your life where you 00:25:32.300 |
can take many time, like months off or you're not practicing it and then all of a sudden 00:25:38.740 |
a major event happens like, "Dude, I need to perform right now." 00:25:46.100 |
Even your education, you don't use some of your stuff for like a little while and it's 00:25:54.340 |
So the fact of the matter is, the way that he's describing it is, in your discretion, 00:26:00.560 |
you need to be engaged in this, growing in this and loving the scriptures and the wisdom 00:26:06.420 |
of God because if you do not, it's not as you're going to stay stagnant or you're not 00:26:17.720 |
And so scripture says that this is so important for us to heed the admonition of scripture 00:26:26.840 |
By way of a couple warnings, by way of a couple warnings, in Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 it says, 00:26:32.960 |
"My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge." 00:26:35.860 |
Because in some ways it says here, they reject knowledge or since they have forgotten the 00:26:43.820 |
In Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 4, God calls them fools. 00:26:46.880 |
They are fools for they do not know the way of the Lord. 00:26:51.480 |
There is this, there is this idea that for generations, the people of God have been grieving 00:27:06.100 |
They weren't going to God asking like, God, is this okay? 00:27:11.780 |
Now, I don't know if you've become accustomed to your like corporate life and so you know, 00:27:16.520 |
you've kind of bought into this idea that like I should be a self starter. 00:27:22.520 |
I can't go to my boss every single time for every single question, you know? 00:27:27.680 |
And so you've kind of bought into this idea that even in your life you just got to work 00:27:31.160 |
hard, you just got to sit there, work it out, and then think about it, and then make a decision, 00:27:37.720 |
Is that the way God has called us to behave concerning this topic? 00:27:45.180 |
God has told us you're absolutely dependent on every single step of the way. 00:27:48.360 |
You need to pray, and you need to ask, and you need to seek the wisdom of God, and you 00:27:52.960 |
need to inquire even if it feels like, hey, it's just an issue of what do I do about this 00:27:58.040 |
What do I do about these multiple jobs and opportunities I have? 00:28:03.760 |
Because a lot of you guys right now are in church decision. 00:28:18.360 |
Even if you already anticipate, what's God going to tell me? 00:28:21.960 |
Even if in your mind, your fleshy mind, you're already anticipating like, I don't know, if 00:28:25.280 |
I go out and ask my pastor, he's always going to say the same thing. 00:28:29.520 |
I can already anticipate what's going to happen, even if, and even then. 00:28:34.720 |
We need to inquire of the Lord because that is our first step towards wisdom. 00:28:39.180 |
So I hope we've tried to rightly or I guess thoroughly address why it's so important to 00:28:53.100 |
The last, sorry, I'm going to add one more thing to that of why we need to strive for 00:28:57.520 |
wisdom is because in as much as maybe some of us have tried so hard to insulate ourselves 00:29:04.820 |
in the Christian community, you are always going to be attacked by falsehood. 00:29:14.220 |
No matter how much you try to protect yourself and no matter how safe you feel like you are, 00:29:19.060 |
you are always going to be attacked by falsehood. 00:29:25.800 |
We are at Berean Community Church and our reputation has been we're trying to be as 00:29:38.100 |
I've been a member here for 16 years or more, you know. 00:29:43.860 |
I want to preface that because the next thing I'm going to say is kind of like, what? 00:29:49.740 |
Within this church, you're going to be attacked with falsehood. 00:29:54.420 |
Within this church, maybe you'll run across people, maybe you'll run across other individuals 00:30:00.860 |
who in certain moments are walking in the flesh. 00:30:04.180 |
And as they walk in the flesh, they'll try to drag you down with them because that's 00:30:14.420 |
But the main point and the reason why I say that in terms of even within this church, 00:30:18.340 |
you're going to be attacked with falsehood is because the falsehood is right here. 00:30:22.980 |
In you, there are times in which false thoughts come up. 00:30:27.260 |
I don't know how many times maybe someone has done something and they're like, "I feel 00:30:33.180 |
Did someone come over and like, "What are you doing? 00:30:48.780 |
But no one's ever said anything to you, right? 00:30:57.460 |
You told yourself, "That guy looked at me with judgmental eyes, therefore he judged 00:31:05.660 |
So the only person who says, "I judged you," or "You are judged," is yourself. 00:31:22.660 |
Spiritual reality versus the facade of reality that we see with our physical eyes. 00:31:28.100 |
And this battle is going to happen no matter how safe you feel here in your home, no matter 00:31:32.900 |
how much, again, you've protected yourself by only having good friends, good people, 00:31:37.300 |
and how this world has tried to convince you, you can only surround yourself with people 00:31:41.340 |
who are going to make you happy and support you and stuff like that. 00:31:47.620 |
No matter how much you've bought into that, you're never safe from falsehood in this life. 00:31:51.340 |
As long as you live here on earth, you are in danger. 00:31:56.100 |
Externally, internally, we need to practice wisdom and discernment. 00:32:10.720 |
First and foremost, we need to ask for it like Solomon did. 00:32:17.140 |
Please turn your Bible over to 1 Kings chapter 3. 00:32:25.100 |
Before Solomon was like, "Oh, wow, he's the wisest king of all the area," and people were 00:32:30.780 |
like the queen of Sheba was coming around like, "Man, I've heard of your wisdom." 00:32:35.860 |
Before he was all that, he was just a wee child. 00:32:39.060 |
This is what the scripture says about it, 1 Kings chapter 3. 00:32:42.740 |
In the transition between King David and King Solomon, I'm going to read verse 10 through 00:32:58.220 |
Going to have to find my place here in the scripture. 00:33:02.820 |
Well, for the sake of context here, we'll just start reading from verse 3. 00:33:10.300 |
Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statues of his father, David, except he sacrificed 00:33:16.700 |
So there's a lot of things that Solomon was doing right, but there was a lot of things 00:33:20.540 |
"The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for there was a high priest." 00:33:26.260 |
Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 00:33:29.300 |
In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream that night, and God said, 'Ask what 00:33:38.020 |
I just want you guys for just a moment just to imagine with me, so you can drop yourself 00:33:45.140 |
Just first imagining King David was known as the greatest king for the nation of Israel. 00:33:51.220 |
He's a young boy who, when he was a young boy, defeated Goliath in front of the armies 00:33:56.780 |
of the Philistines and all this kind of stuff. 00:33:58.660 |
Now imagine yourself to be the successor of that man. 00:34:02.700 |
I actually don't think he's like a small, small child in this passage, but nonetheless, 00:34:08.380 |
You don't have experience, and you're about to fulfill one of the greatest seats known 00:34:14.980 |
And then God says, "What do you want to ask me?" 00:34:21.940 |
And then in verse six, it says, "Then Solomon said, 'You have shown great lovingkindness 00:34:24.740 |
to your servant David, my father, according as he walked before you in truth and righteousness 00:34:33.340 |
And you have reserved for him this great lovingkindness that you have given him a son to sit on his 00:34:40.540 |
Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am 00:34:50.620 |
Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people who 00:34:56.980 |
So give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern," here's 00:35:05.140 |
For who is able to judge this great people of yours?" 00:35:13.260 |
Because honestly, there is a question right now that is evaluating my heart. 00:35:18.140 |
When you are in moments of dire, whatever it may be, transition, need, suffering, difficulty, 00:35:24.380 |
whatever that may be, big moments in your life, what do you pray for? 00:35:33.780 |
Do you pray for the material blessings of money? 00:35:37.340 |
If I had this, if I had that, if I had this, if I had that? 00:35:43.040 |
If I just had what that guy had, if I had what that girl had? 00:35:46.380 |
Or are you searching for what the scripture says by spirit, by faith we understand that 00:35:50.820 |
wisdom and discretion is more valuable than gold or silver and so seek for it in this 00:35:57.020 |
And when you see the response of God, it challenges hearts even more that God truly does delight 00:36:08.900 |
It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. 00:36:12.960 |
God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long 00:36:16.480 |
life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked for the life of your enemies, 00:36:21.120 |
but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice. 00:36:27.760 |
Behold, I have given you a wise, discerning heart so that there have been, there has been 00:36:32.520 |
no one like you before you nor shall one like you arise after you. 00:36:36.440 |
I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor so that there will not 00:36:41.240 |
be any among the kings like you all your days. 00:36:45.240 |
If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments as your father David walked, 00:36:58.440 |
What God is saying was for us, for us, right? 00:37:03.920 |
We're taught in the New Testament very similar things. 00:37:10.440 |
My first point essentially is if you feel like you lack wisdom, you should ask. 00:37:17.400 |
You should ask God regularly, intensely, right? 00:37:20.880 |
And sincerely, you should ask him for wisdom. 00:37:25.040 |
To tell you honestly, again, for lack of better words, some days I just feel like naive. 00:37:29.960 |
Some days I feel kind of dumb even, you know? 00:37:32.780 |
And sometimes when we have these team meetings or business meetings or logistics meetings 00:37:37.800 |
and maybe someone might ask evaluative questions like, "Hey, what do we need right now?" 00:37:42.560 |
I'm just like, "Hmm, what do you think we need right now?" 00:37:47.960 |
Because sometimes I feel like I lack that wisdom to discern, to ask and analyze. 00:37:53.000 |
And then maybe sometimes, again, situations arise when people come to me and ask regularly, 00:38:08.260 |
If you turn your Bibles over to James chapter 1, that in the New Testament, this is a command 00:38:28.080 |
In James chapter 1, I'm going to start reading from verse 2 through 5. 00:38:32.200 |
And it says, "Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials, knowing 00:38:36.480 |
that the testing of your faith produces endurance." 00:38:40.280 |
So the people he's talking to are experiencing a huge amount of persecution. 00:38:44.040 |
They're experiencing difficulties in their lives that which probably you and I cannot 00:38:49.780 |
Because they have, later on it'll say, the confiscation of their belongings. 00:38:53.140 |
They had the splitting up of their family and people were being scattered all around 00:38:58.760 |
And then verse 4, "And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect, 00:39:08.280 |
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, 00:39:18.280 |
This is an area and field to which I feel like I've wrestled and struggled needlessly 00:39:23.360 |
for a long time when I should have been asking God. 00:39:27.680 |
And were there moments in your life, whether it be decisions, again, of your personal relationships, 00:39:34.440 |
decisions of practical jobs, schooling, whatever it may be, do you ask the Lord, "God, in 00:39:41.280 |
these moments, my friends have opinions, I have opinions, there's things I want, there's 00:39:45.280 |
things my parents want, there's things that everybody and anybody expects of me. 00:39:58.280 |
I hope, just imagine that every single one of us start to practice life that way. 00:40:04.320 |
Can you imagine a community of believers where we're starting to become truly in the biblical 00:40:08.700 |
sense of one mind because we're going through this process of wisdom and discernment, asking 00:40:14.000 |
the Lord, asking the Scriptures, analyzing the situation, making a judgment call, and 00:40:21.960 |
Can you imagine what the church would be like as a whole? 00:40:26.600 |
We would be moving together in such tremendous ways. 00:40:31.360 |
But what's more, first and foremost, we need to ask with this kind of humble heart. 00:40:37.560 |
I find that when King Solomon is asking, you see his tone. 00:40:48.760 |
He says, "I don't know the going in or going out." 00:40:53.400 |
It requires a level of that kind of humility for us to ask. 00:40:56.520 |
There was this one time I was working as a legal specialist. 00:41:01.040 |
I had no background in it and I just got a job. 00:41:04.120 |
After seminary, I just got this job and I was super thankful. 00:41:07.680 |
It was one of the most cool times that I had. 00:41:14.320 |
As a legal specialist, basically I was handling all the lawsuits. 00:41:21.400 |
And then whenever there were signatures needed, I would take these really sensitive documents, 00:41:25.000 |
take them over, have them signed by our president, all this kind of stuff. 00:41:37.280 |
We were an electronics company under a lawsuit by Samsung. 00:41:43.240 |
And then I had to get this document signed by the president. 00:41:53.480 |
And I was like, "Oh, I got it sent over from the legal counsel. 00:41:57.320 |
And he had to initial every page and then he signed it. 00:41:59.520 |
And then I came back and the legal counsel was like, "Oh, shoot. 00:42:06.800 |
You have to go and contact and then have the president sign and then explain to the VP 00:42:11.920 |
why you had him sign something he didn't know what he was signing." 00:42:19.800 |
And I'm not sure if you guys have ever done this where you're timid. 00:42:23.600 |
So you kind of go through this door and you're like, "Nope, I'm not going in there." 00:42:27.080 |
And then you go back and forth and you go back and forth. 00:42:30.680 |
And then you're kind of looking to see, "Maybe that guy can do it." 00:42:35.520 |
And I bring that up because every time that we have something of a decision to make, there 00:42:42.920 |
is always going to be an element where you want to defend and preserve yourself. 00:42:57.040 |
But thankfully, King Solomon in this moment said, "You know what? 00:43:02.080 |
God, the truth of the matter is, right and left, I don't know. 00:43:08.640 |
It takes that kind of humility and willing to come before God. 00:43:13.000 |
And I want to encourage you, when you ask both people and God to exhibit that kind of 00:43:18.120 |
humility so that that kind of instruction can be given you. 00:43:21.840 |
I want to challenge those of you, if those of you are in this room who have that kind 00:43:25.960 |
of unteachableness, you have a little bit of stubbornness, where let's say someone comes 00:43:30.360 |
over to try to give you instructions, like, "I know what I'm doing." 00:43:34.600 |
And especially if that person is younger, you feel like that person doesn't know as 00:43:41.440 |
If that's your typical MO, like that's how you operate, let's make sure we humble our 00:43:49.520 |
And even if we did know, we could always learn, right? 00:43:55.200 |
How to get wisdom, you ask and you ask humbly. 00:44:04.440 |
The passages that we read made it very clear that the discretion and wisdom that God desires 00:44:12.400 |
for us to have, it must be trained and exercised. 00:44:18.840 |
The wisdom and discretion that we're supposed to exhibit in our lives as Christians, it 00:44:25.840 |
Coming back to that passage in Hebrews chapter five, I'm going to read verse 14. 00:44:31.240 |
That passage says this, "The solid food is for the mature, for those who have their 00:44:37.480 |
powers of discernment trained by what constant practice to distinguish good and evil." 00:44:45.640 |
There is going to be a practice by which when you do it, you're going to have a better idea, 00:44:52.480 |
You're going to be better skilled, maybe even quicker to come to judgment. 00:44:55.520 |
You're going to be able to better analyze because you've been doing it. 00:45:03.160 |
And so even when your own emotions come out, it's not like, "Oh, what is this emotion I 00:45:11.160 |
I've trained myself to think through those emotions. 00:45:14.000 |
Are we going to have battles of emotion, different thoughts? 00:45:18.640 |
But we're going to have regular training where we will address those things appropriately. 00:45:23.680 |
I want to highlight for you an interesting passage that comes from Titus chapter 2. 00:45:33.760 |
Titus chapter 2 verse 11, as he's talking about the grace of God. 00:45:37.440 |
He just got finished talking about how we're not saved by words, but we're saved by grace. 00:45:42.960 |
And then here in chapter 2 verse 11 of Titus, this is what he says. 00:45:49.640 |
He says, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all the people." 00:45:58.520 |
But then he says, "Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live 00:46:05.400 |
self-controlled upright godly lives in this present age." 00:46:10.320 |
He uses the word training in terms of what the gospel and the grace of God that has come 00:46:15.800 |
to us is supposed to do in our lives as we live in here in sanctification until the time 00:46:23.240 |
He says the expectation is that the gospel does not simply cause you to pacify your guilt. 00:46:29.520 |
It does not simply cause you to sit there and feel like, "I'm okay with God." 00:46:33.080 |
Those are all great and grand truths that I don't want to minimize. 00:46:39.240 |
What he's saying is, this grace actually trains you. 00:46:44.040 |
This grace actually allows you to see, to analyze, to judge, and then to make appropriate 00:46:50.240 |
applications according to the grace of God so that you can be godly. 00:46:58.760 |
To practice, to exercise your capacities for discernment. 00:47:03.640 |
There are times in which, again, I think people sometimes have a hard time with this because 00:47:14.560 |
It's just so hard to fight against the desire of what I want. 00:47:18.880 |
So many times, sometimes when I counsel individuals, I'll walk them through and I'll say, "Hey, 00:47:24.280 |
I think," or maybe I'll start off with, "What do you think you need right now? 00:47:35.240 |
Then there's this question of, "What do you think you should do then?" 00:47:59.040 |
But what you realize is, no, it's not an issue of you need to think more, you need to learn 00:48:04.840 |
In terms of process things, you already know what is right, what you should do, how to 00:48:12.040 |
I haven't asked, "What is it you really want?" 00:48:15.440 |
Because in that moment, what you're battling is, "I know what's right. 00:48:25.120 |
And I bring that up now in terms of the idea of training. 00:48:29.480 |
Because if you look through every epistle, the main facet of wisdom and discernment that 00:48:34.840 |
you need to first exercise is the discernment and wisdom in training yourself to say no 00:48:42.540 |
To say no to your own personal, private desires and to say yes to the desires of God. 00:48:47.000 |
If this is what God desires, then this of what I want needs to take the back seat. 00:48:56.140 |
But that exercise of doing that, that requires regular practice. 00:49:03.540 |
The more that you practice giving into your flesh, the harder it becomes to exercise those 00:49:15.820 |
The Lord Jesus Christ, in what he has afforded to us, we think of it in terms of many different 00:49:29.260 |
But remember in the Gospel of John, as it described Christ coming down. 00:49:42.820 |
And what happened was that as the light of the men came, many men did not recognize it, 00:49:53.060 |
When you even think about the gospel, the great privilege of what Christ has done is 00:49:57.260 |
all of that redemption, all of that reconciliation plus more. 00:50:05.420 |
He's given us truth to be like him, to exercise judgment, to be like him in way of both mind 00:50:14.500 |
And so if we are not growing and desiring of this, there is a sense in which we are 00:50:23.180 |
So just like the scripture says in the book of Proverbs, wisdom calls out. 00:50:40.020 |
Father God, we want to thank you for the challenge from your scripture today. 00:50:45.820 |
And I pray Lord that you would continue to inspire within us a desire to walk according 00:50:51.260 |
to your pattern, the desire to be striving after the full measure of Christ. 00:50:58.340 |
And Lord, as we think about how our Lord and Savior was so wise, so truthful, I pray we 00:51:05.620 |
God, we confess that there are many times that we go through the ups and downs of life 00:51:19.300 |
But I pray Father God that as those who have such a great privilege to come to your throne, 00:51:24.620 |
that Lord we would truly come to you asking the Lord of all wisdom to guarantee us direction 00:51:30.860 |
And Lord, again, would you cause us to be faithful children, teachable children, wanting 00:51:36.940 |
and desiring your instruction into our lives.