This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Day 4 together of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and I want
to begin today by reading verses 17 to 19 of 1 Corinthians 1, "For Christ did
not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human
wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the
wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.

'" In these verses Paul is introducing a third quality in every great life, in
every great church. First he talks about grace, "I've got to see myself as God
has now made me to be by his grace. " And then unity, "I've got to realize the
power of unity.

" And now he begins to talk about wisdom, but he talks about it in great depth.
And he says, "If you're going to be living in a great life in a great church,
you have to build on God's wisdom, not human wisdom, not man's wisdom. " He's
saying here, and this has happened in Corinth, that sometimes we in our lives
and sometimes churches get caught up in a way of thinking, a human wisdom that
pushes them apart from each other rather than towards God's will.

Paul calls this focusing on the wisdom of man, focusing on human wisdom rather
than focusing on the wisdom of God. Now what's he talking about? Let me read a
little more for you, verses 20 to 24.

Paul says, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the
philosopher of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God
the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the
foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. " Jews demand
miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God
has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of
God.

As you read through these verses, where is the wise man? Where is the scholar?
As you read through these verses, the world in its wisdom could not come to know
him, and Paul beginning to talk about in God's wisdom, which we often see as
foolishness, he gave us Christ so that we could know him.

These are verses I know that for many people begin to make you scratch your
head, and we're going to camp on God's wisdom for a while here. Paul is going to
make sure that we get it before we get to the end of this, but from the very
beginning you have to understand that the wisdom of man, that human wisdom, is
all about depending on ourselves for everything. Human wisdom is not talking
about what your IQ level is or what college you went to.

It's talking about depending on yourself for everything, and Paul goes through
the list here. He talks about the Jews. For the Jews, that meant keeping the
law, and that was their way to God.

They depended on the way that they kept the law, the rules and regulations of
the Old Testament as their way to get to God, and it ended up they were
depending on themselves for everything when it had to do with their relationship
with God. For the Gentile, the way that they worshiped idols was their way to
God, and the way that they chose to worship that was all about them, their
sacrifice, what they did. It wasn't about God, it was about them.

For both, Paul says any other idea than their way, than depending on myself,
it's foolishness. Of course it is. If I've depended on myself all of my life,
and I've built all my life into I am keeping this law, keeping this law, I'm
making this sacrifice, making this sacrifice, and someone comes along and tells
me what you've been doing is meaningless, I'm going to think you're foolish,
because I've invested everything I have in the wrong thing.

I've invested everything I have in the wrong direction, and so it sounds like
foolishness. And the Corinthians, even though they were believers, even though
they'd come to Christ because of the wisdom of God in Christ and Jesus, they'd
begun to be fooled. Fooled in the thinking that they could make Christianity
acceptable to the world around them by being intellectually superior.

Christianity does not make sense in a world that does not know Jesus.
Christianity can't make sense apart from Jesus. His love does not seem possible
in a loveless world until you get to know him.

The good news doesn't read true if you try to figure it out in a bad news world
until you get to know him. We don't need, Paul is saying here, we don't need
just a better way of thinking, more intellectual. We need a totally new way of
thinking.

He calls it the wisdom of God. He calls it here even the foolishness of God. It
is so different that at first to us sometimes it looks like foolishness.

Now what is he talking about here? What is this way of thinking that makes for a
great life, that makes for a great church? Verse 25 begins to bring it into
sharper focus.

He says this, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the
weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. " There we're reminded again,
it's all about who am I depending on. The foolishness of God, what we see as
foolishness, the cross does look like foolishness.

That God would use a humiliating death on a cross as the means through which he
brings us into relationship with him. If I'm thinking just from an IQ
standpoint, the higher my IQ the more foolish that looks. And so to many people
what God did on the cross to them is a shameful thing.

They don't understand how that could possibly save us. It's only when you begin
to think in a different way, begin to see the world not through your eyes but
through God's eyes that you begin to understand the sacrifice, the love that was
expressed there, the debt that was paid there. God's greatness is so far above
ours that for me it's the trap.

For me to think if I just get a little bit smarter I can get to know him, that's
the trap. You can't get to know him by getting a little bit smarter or a little
bit better or a little bit holier. It takes a totally new way of thinking, a
totally new way of living, a totally new way of forgiving.

It takes a cross. It takes a place that changed everything in a moment. The
foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God is
stronger than man's strength.

Here are two reasons why this is so vital. This is depending on God's wisdom
instead of depending on ourselves. Number one, God's thinking is so far above
our thinking.

That's why it's so vital. And number two, our thinking left to itself always
tends to spin into comparison and pride. Let's look at those two.

Two reasons this is so vital, what we're talking about. One, God's wisdom is so
far above ours. That's the wisdom of God, this wisdom that Paul calls
foolishness.

That's how different this wisdom is. Now, as we talk about wisdom and God's
wisdom being far above ours, does this mean Christians don't think? Does this
mean to accept God's wisdom, I just put my mind in neutral and just let him put
thoughts in and that's what I do?

Absolutely not. There's a whole book of Proverbs that God wrote to us that tells
us how to think about things like money and relationships and the words that you
say and what you do in business. And all through the scriptures, even in the
teaching of Jesus, we're told again and again, here's how to be wise in this
situation.

Here's what to do in this situation. So as we talk about the wisdom of God,
don't get this confused. Don't take this to a different place and think this
means Christians don't think.

What it means is Christians think differently. They think differently about God
and they think differently about the world. It means you have the humility to
realize God's thinking is so far above mine.

There are times when the things that he tells me about himself, when the things
that he tells me about this world, the things that he tells me about eternity,
even the directions that he gives in my life as I look at his word, they're not
going to make sense to me. Not because they're senseless, but they're just so
far above me. Now all of us can understand this.

If you've ever had a child, a preschooler, and you've told them what to do and
what not to do, some of the things you tell them not to do make no sense at all
to them. Why can't I go out and play in the front yard all by myself? They don't
see the busy street that's there, but you do.

Things make sense to you that don't make sense to them. It's very humbling for
us to admit that God is so much greater than we are that that is true of what he
says to us. But that's the wisdom of God.

That's recognizing who we are. And I'm never going to get to all that God wants
for my life until I get to that place of humility. I'm still trying to get
there.

I'm going to be working on that one the rest of my life, but let's work on it
together. It's vital to recognize God's wisdom and build on it because God's
thinking is so much above our thinking. It's also vital because if I rely on my
thinking, it's going to result in comparison and pride.

When we rely on our own thinking, we always begin to compare ourselves. Oh, he's
smarter. She's smarter.

Wow, that was smart. Look how smart that was. And then the person who feels like
they're smarter, they begin to feel pride.

And the person who isn't feels the pride of wanting to be like the person who
was. Comparisons always result in pride. And the scripture tells us that instead
of this comparison in the church and the body of Christ of one being smarter,
one being better, we're a body together.

We're all needed equally. And the head of the body, the thoughts, the
directions, the head of the body is Jesus. That's why the wisdom is Jesus.

Now, we're just starting to step into this. And I think for most of us, the
first day of looking at God's wisdom versus man's wisdom, it leaves you
scratching your head a bit. We're going to talk about it more tomorrow.

But before we do that, let's pray for God's wisdom right now. Our Father, we
want to think like you think. We want to see the world more often, like you see
it.

To see the needs around us, like you see it. To see our own sin, like you see
it. To see the opportunities and gifts that you've given us, like you see it.

So instead of the world around us being a source of depression, because we don't
understand it, or pride because we think we have it figured out, that instead of
that happening, God, in your wisdom, we could see what you want to do in this
world, what you want to do through our lives. We could see your greatness. Lord,
we need a wisdom that's above and beyond us to do that.

We admit that. And even though we don't understand all that that is maybe yet,
God, we ask for it. We humbly ask for your wisdom, above and beyond our wisdom
so much that it might look like foolishness at the first glance or the second.

Give us your wisdom, we pray, Father. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.