This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our last day of looking together through 1st
Corinthians chapter 1, day 5. We began a look yesterday, looking at God's
wisdom, these three resources that God gives us, grace and unity and wisdom,
God's wisdom, as opposed to man's wisdom, depending on the thoughts of God, the
direction and plans of God, rather than just depending on the way I think I
should get to God, the way I think I should live out my life. Paul writes more
about this beginning in verses 26 to 29, let me read those verses.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise
by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, but
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak
things of the world to shame the strong.

He chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things and the things
that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before
him. These are amazing verses. God's wisdom, these verses have been telling us,
they are to lead our thoughts.

But as we read verses 26 to 29, we realize God's wisdom also leads our
relationships. Paul is writing to a church about how to be a great church. And
without God's wisdom, the unity that we need in Christ is never going to happen.

He's reminding us here that it's humility before God and humility towards others
that begins to govern our relationships when we live our lives according to
God's wisdom. He says at the beginning of this, not many of you were wise or
influential or had noble birth. He's not saying here that someone who is of
noble birth can't be saved.

He's just telling us what the Corinthian church is like. This is a church filled
with common people, people who are from the lower caste of society in that day.
Not many of you are wise, not many of you are influential, but you came to
Jesus.

And they've somehow become ashamed of it. They've become ashamed of their
background. They began to think, that background that we came out of, we've got
to like ignore that.

Pretend that never happened. And Paul says instead, no, embrace it. Realize that
God uses even your background to show what he is really like.

God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chooses the
weak things to shame the strong, the lowly things, the despised things even, the
things that are not, to nullify the things that are. What are the things that
are not?

Those are the things that are not impressive to the world. They're not cool.
They're not hot.

They're not popular. They're not in. They're just not not.

God chooses those things to show it's not about what we think is in. It's about
what he wants to do in human lives. He chooses weak things to show it's not
about what we think is strong.

It's about his strength in our lives. He chooses things that we would say are
foolish to show it's not about how smart we think we are. It's about the
awesome, the awesome love of God poured out upon this world in Jesus Christ.

Now he says in these verses, he chooses the foolish things, and I want to focus
on a word for a moment, to shame the wise, the weak things to shame the strong,
the lowly to shame. What is that word shame all about? And why would God want to
bring any kind of shame into our lives?

Remember that guilt and shame are like warning lights in your life. God does not
want you to live with guilt or shame. Jesus died on the cross for your guilt and
shame.

But guilt and shame, when we have them, they tell us that something needs to
change as a believer. And here the scripture is telling us that God uses
believers to tell the world that something needs to change. You're relying just
on yourself.

Your life is found just in you. Look at how God worked through that seemingly
weak person over there. Look at how God worked through that church over there.

Nobody thought they could do that. Look at what God does when people trust in
him. When you are used of God to help someone in your work, to help someone in
your family, someone in your neighborhood see that, they have seen, they have
glimpsed the way that God works in a human life.

And no longer is it about competition. No longer is it about how do I get ahead
of this person in order to feel better about myself. All of a sudden you
recognize it's about something I've never realized before.

God loves us all. God wants to use your abilities. God wants to use your gifts.

He wants to use even the intellect that he's given you. But he does not want you
to depend on your abilities or your gifts or your intellect for relationship
with him. And whenever we begin to do that, he shames that so that the world can
see that's not how you get to relationship with me.

Relationship with me is not about the smartest or the best people. It's given
freely to all in Jesus Christ for all who will accept it. That word shame really
goes to the key, the core of why the wisdom of God rather than the wisdom of man
is so important in our lives and we began to touch on it yesterday.

He says in verse 29, "So that no one may boast before him. " In fact, he says in
the next verse or a couple of verses later that our boasting needs to be
somewhere else. Listen to verses 30 and 31, "It is because of him, of God, that
you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God.

That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore it is written,
'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. '" The most dangerous thing that can
happen in my life, the most dangerous thing that can happen in any church is
boasting in yourself.

Boasting in yourself is all about hubris, it's all about pride, it's all about
me. And you might think you have reasons to boast in yourself. You're better
than this person.

You're better than that person. But the idea of boasting means that you feel
like you have gained spiritual superiority over another person. You feel like
you're just a little bit closer to God because of the way that you think or the
way you've sacrificed or the things that you've done.

The danger in that way of thinking is the danger of hell. That's how dangerous
that is. Don't boast in yourself.

Boasting in yourself, at minimum, all you're going to get is all you can do in
your life. People who boast in themselves, nobody else wants to be around them.
So all you get is all you can do.

However, for most who boast in themselves, they don't even get that because you
fall apart, you cave in, and you end up with nothing in your hands. Now the
scripture says that you should boast. I don't know if you know that.

You should boast. Not in yourself. How do I boast?

We're made to boast. And the problem is when we boast in the wrong thing, we are
made to boast. We are made to say, "Here is something that is superior to
everything else, and I want you to see it.

I want you to recognize it. " We're made to boast in God. That's what worship is
all about.

So verses 30 and 31, "You boast because of Him that you're in Christ Jesus. "
How do you boast? How do you fulfill this need that God has given to us?

You recognize that it's because of Him. That's where it starts. It's not because
of me.

It's because of Him that I have a relationship with God. You recognize I am in
Christ Jesus. You're not sure you're in Christ Jesus.

The way to get in Christ Jesus is to trust in Him. Trust in His forgiveness.
Trust in His leadership in your life.

You do that just through a simple prayer. Again, it's not about what you do.
It's about you saying in prayer right now, "Jesus, I trust in You for these
things.

" What is it that keeps people from trusting in Jesus? It's our pride. It's the
fact that we trust in ourselves.

Who wouldn't want forgiveness? Who wouldn't want the life that He offers? Who
wouldn't want heaven?

Who wouldn't want eternity? The only reason we reject it is because we think we
can get it ourselves and we want to boast in ourselves. That's the danger of it.

If you've been in that place right now, say, "I want to be in Jesus. Because of
His love and His power, I can set that boasting down, that need to somehow beat
everybody else spiritually. " Somehow say, "I did it in my relationship with
God, and right now, Jesus, I'm accepting you into my life.

" And when you do that, the Scripture says, "He then becomes to us wisdom from
God. " What is the wisdom of God? It's Jesus.

The wisdom of God is Jesus on the cross. The wisdom of God is Jesus in the
resurrection. The wisdom of God is Jesus in your life.

He says that here. He says, "Jesus has become your righteousness, your holiness,
your redemption. " The wisdom of God is Jesus in your life.

Righteousness, things have been made right between you and God. God has made you
clean and pure before Him. Not because of what you did, but because of what
Jesus did.

And redemption. God has, by the cross of Christ, paid the price of all your
sins. That's what the word "redeemed" means.

He paid the price, and it's finished. That is the wisdom of God. That's how God
works in our lives.

That brings us to the end of chapter 1, and that gives us the answer of Paul to
this question of chapter 1. Again, we're sitting in this room, and Paul, the
Bible answer man, is sitting in front. He's asked him from the audience, "Can
any church be a great church?

" And Paul's answer is, "Yes, absolutely. Any church can be a great life. Any
person can live a great life through a great church if you hold on to grace, if
you hold on to unity, if you hold on to God's wisdom and not human wisdom.

Yes, you can be a great church. Yes, you can live a great life. No matter the
circumstances, no matter where you've come from, no matter what's happened in
your life, no matter what others have said about you, no matter what brand is on
you, any church can be a great church.

Any life can be a great life. " Next week, we're going to look at chapter 2
together, and the question put to Paul in chapter 2 is a follow-up question.
Essentially, it's the question, "I'm having a hard time understanding all this
about man's wisdom and God's wisdom.

Could you say more about what God's wisdom means for my everyday life? " We'll
take that up next week. As we close this week, let's pray together.

Jesus, we want to live a great life. I want to live a great life so that people
can see who you are, so that I can fulfill what you've made me to do, made me to
be. Forgive me for those times when I chase after a great life on my own
strength, my own wisdom, my own power, thinking somehow I can build it myself.

That's not what I want. I want the kind of life that only you can give. I want
the kind of life that only you can build.

And so I need what only you can give. I need your grace. I need the unity that
comes through you, Jesus.

I need your wisdom. And I humbly ask for those things today. Help me to live in
grace.

Help me to live in unity. Help me to live in your wisdom. I pray it in your
name, Jesus.

Amen.