How To Know What To Do - When You Don’t Know What To Do
Series on Wisdom - #2
OPEN: So last week we started a discussion on the topic of wisdom, which we are going to continue this morning. How many of you remember anything from what we said last week? (how many of you remember what you had for breakfast this morning?) Last week we said that God’s people are called to live by a new standard – What is the wise thing for me to do? In light of my past – in light of my present circumstances – and in light of my future hopes and dreams – What is the wise thing for me to do? Not what is morally permissible – not what can I get away with because it isn’t specifically addressed in the Bible – not what is the standard my culture has adopted – and not what is acceptable by the people who surround me – but what is the wise thing for me to do? - in light of my unique past – in light of my present circumstances and in light of my future hopes and dreams. We started this discussion because of what we discovered in our study through the book of Ephesians: A Christian’s life is be characterized by wisdom – not foolishness.
Wisdom is not only your calling – it has been your gift. Check out this verse we looked at when we started our study in Ephesians: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, Along with redemption, along with forgiveness, along with grace which he lavished upon us – he says he has given to us wisdom and understanding and has made known the mystery of his will. In fact, every one born into this world comes in with a terminal state of congenital foolishness, otherwise known as the sin nature. That's how it is. Man is born a fool. Proverbs 22:15 says, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.” Man is born in a state of foolishness. But when we are reborn – you are born into a state of wisdom. As you have been gifted with God with wisdom - the command is then “walk in it” We are commanded to walk worthy – we are commanded to walk in unity – we are commanded to live as children of light – and we are commanded to walk in wisdom.
Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Christians are to live lives that reflect wisdom and not foolishness. Now notice that Paul is making a contrast between two different kinds of lifestyle. What are they? A foolish life and a wise life. Don’t live as unwise but a wise – don’t be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is. OK so Scripture says we’ve been gifted with wisdom and understanding – we are command to walk in wisdom and we are to avoid making foolish decisions and mistakes – so that settles it, right? Decisions should be easy at this point, right? Knowing what to do in every circumstance should come easy for us of us – shouldn’t it? I mean we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, a Holy Spirit who guides us, a Gentle Shepherd who calls us, and the Word of God which instructs us and we still end up making really dumb decisions? Why is that?
And we’ve got to realize what really hangs in the balance on this. Walking in wisdom is the key to survival in this world, isn’t it? That’s what Paul reminds about in this verse – “the days are evil,” is what he says. The world is diametrically opposed to the child of God, to the kingdom of God, to the church of Christ, to the Christian – the world is set up in such an evil way that it will chew you up and spit you out – worse than that – it will take you out if you make foolish decisions. Ill - I’ve buried several fools during my ministry. – Now that’s not what we say when a person dies. When someone dies we want to remember the good things about them and it would be extremely insensitive to eulogize a person by saying, “Well the thing I remember most about Fred is he was a fool. There’s a village someplace that will be missing an idiot now that he’s gone.” Even if it’s true, we can’t say that – but sometimes we know that the reality is that the defining characteristic of a person’s life was foolishness. Foolishness always exacts a price. The days we live in are evil and foolish choices will victimized you every time. Survival and success in life is determined by a person walking in wisdom. Ill. of funeral where the deceased sister came and looked in the casket and said the words, “You’re an idiot” I was really glad she wasn’t the one giving the eulogy. What was even more revealing is at the grave side his drinking buddies brought a bottle of whiskey – the very stuff that had killed him. They each took a drink – then each one poured a shot for him and poured it over the casket before it was let down into the grave. They said, “One more for the road.” That’s a picture of how evil this world actually is – “not only do we not care that your foolishness in drinking took your life – here’s another shot to celebrate your death.” Absolute Foolishness.
Knowing how to make wise choices is one of the most important issues you and I will ever deal with in our lives. Our survival and our success depend upon it. How can we learn how to make wise choices - and not foolish choices even when we don’t know what to do?
Wise People Know There Are Many Things They Don’t Know If you want to avoid making foolish choices in life, this is where it starts. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. That is the heart of the matter. Thee are a number of statements in the Bible where it says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of” (wisdom, understanding, fountain of life, my strength) A wise person becomes wise by recognizing that God is greater than his understanding – a wise person becomes wise by submitting to that Wisdom implies that you accept divine truth and you live by it. It is living by divine standards, but a fool hates that. He rejects that. He despises that.
Our memory verse from last week was Prov. 28:26 “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.” How does the Bible define foolishness? It’s the person who does “what feels right to them” It’s the person who trusts their own heart. The fools says, “I know best” Don’t tell me anything different, don’t talk to me about facts - don’t point out anything that contradicts me - I trust my own judgment.” A fool is a person who thinks his way of seeing things, his way of understanding something, his interpretation, his evaluation is right – and don’t try to confuse the issue with any other facts that might contradict his point of view. Don’t try to correct him – or tell him he needs to change. So the very first step in living wisely is to know how much you don’t know. And I absolutely guarantee that you are doing this in many areas of your life right now.
There is a law that governs your life. In any arena of life you cannot make right decisions – right decisions or appropriate choices unless you know the rules that govern the arena in which you are working. In any arena of life – if you are not aware of the principles and rules that govern that area – it is impossible for you to make the wisest choice. In every arena of life there are principle and rules and laws that govern those areas that equip us to make wise choices.
- whether it is your taxes – accounting – automobile repair – construction – business management – medicine – law – plumbing – music – it’s true about the place where you work. Each one of those disciplines have a body of knowledge you must have, if you are going to be successful in that area. If you provide a service for people that they cannot provide for themselves, it’s because you have a body of information which they do not have. You might have an education that provides you with the knowledge, the rules, the limits, the boundaries, the methods - you have the information that provides you with a body of knowledge that you can draw from in your area of expertise that enables you to do what it is that you do. It’s true about sports – when you go home today and turn on your football game, every player knows there are dozens of plays that they can use - but the reason they choose to run the particular ones they use in each situation they face is because they know which plays should work in each situation – they have specialized knowledge that enables them to make wise decisions in each situation they face. It’s true of every area of life.
Having a body of knowledge which you can draw from limits the available options for you. This is how wisdom works – Wisdom limits the number of options you choose from. As you look at a situation you might know there are not ten options but only three options. You instantly know there are some things there is no point in even trying because you already know it just won’t work. Ill. of working on your car. You open the hood and you’ve haven’t got a clue what the problem. So you decide one option is to get a hammer and start banging on things. Depending on the situation – a wise mechanic would instantly determine that banging on certain things with a hammer might have devastating results and rule that option out instantly. Then there are other times you might just replacing parts – and you still have the same problem. You take you car to the garage and the mechanic opens the hood and bangs on something with hammer and the problem goes away.
now many of us have tried to make decisions in some areas where we weren’t experts and we’ve paid for it haven’t we? If you’ve ever tried to do your own plumbing and you have no experience in that area – you can easily end up with a flooded kitchen or basement. Not having the right kind of wisdom can easily end up costing you more money because you also have to pay for the stuff you messed up while trying to fix it yourself.
This is the way it works in every area of life – when you hire an attorney, you hire that person because they know the law backwards and forwards and understand the intricacies of your case and know the laws of the land. You say to them – “You make the wisest decisions possible – because you know a body of knowledge that I don’t.” A lawyer doesn’t start making decisions in a vacuum – they start with a body of knowledge that they understand.
Having Knowledge Isn’t Enough – You Must Also Submit Yourself Before That Knowledge Turns Into Wisdom. Now let’s take this one step further - just knowing the rules, laws, boundaries and principles that govern each area of specialty doesn’t necessarily mean you will be successful in that area – you also have to know how to apply that body of knowledge properly – in the right proportion, in the right way, at the right time – having the knowledge isn’t enough – you have to submit to the laws. When a surgeon wheels you into the operating room – it’s not enough for them to be aware of the good medical procedures and how the body works. If they wheel you in and say – “Well, I’ve been trained in how to do this procedure, but I think I’ll throw that out the window this time and just free hand this one. I’ll make up my own rules and procedures and see how it turns out.” Anybody want to sign up for that surgeon? No – we want doctors that submit to the rules of chemistry, and biology and submit to the rules that govern the practice of medicine. The same is true in architecture, construction, engineering – everything. It’s not enough to just know – it’s a matter or whether or not we are willing to submit ourselves to the rules, principles and values of that particular discipline. We have to be willing to make decision that are under the umbrella of authority that governs that discipline. And when we do our ability to wise decisions in those areas is enhanced significantly.
Now here’s the irony of all this. None of anything that I just told you is new information to anyone here. We all already know everything that I just said, because we practice this every single day of our life in dozens of ways. When the wash machine breaks down we submit to the knowledge of the Maytag repair man, when the car breaks down we submit to the knowledge of the mechanic, when the electric goes out we don’t climb the electric pole to see if we can figure out what’s wrong ourselves – we call the electric company. When we want to fly we don’t go jump off a building and say – “I’ll figure flying out on the way down.” No – we submit to the knowledge of those who have worked things out before we get on the plane. We know we have to submit to people who have knowledge and expertise we don’t every single day of our lives.
But catch this– when it comes to submitting to the One who created all the laws that govern those disciplines – who created all the knowledge that guides each of these disciplines – who wrote the laws of physics and chemistry and biology and every other law that we’ve discovered that enables us to practice each of these discipline – when it comes right down to submitting to the one who knows more about each one of those areas than we will ever discover, there is still something in you and in me that resists the notion that we must submit in total to the God who created all this.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) Proverbs 12:15, says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes.” We will acknowledge that there is a God who is behind physics – a God who is behind biology, a God who is behind chemistry – a God who is behind gravity – and every law and principle that we’ve discovered - who has created every system we are willing to follow because we know it’s the wise thing to do – and even though I am willing to submit myself to all those disciplines when it comes to submitting to the God who created all those things there is something inside of me that resists it. So let me ask you? Is that very wise? Wouldn’t it be the most foolish thing in the world to ignore the God who create all those rules and principles? Wouldn’t the wise thing to do be to submit to the One who knows more than all the wisdom of all the disciplines put together? Ill – I go to a doctor because he is a person who has committed himself to knowing and understanding and submitting to the rules that govern the practice of medicine. Would it make sense to ignore the One that gives the doctor I go to counsel? When that doctor goes to medical school, what he is learning is how God put the body together – he’s learning about how different chemicals react with the body that God created, he’s learning how diseases affect the body that God created – in other words what he really doing is getting counsel through the studying and lab work- he is getting understanding and counsel from the One who created the body that he is going to be working on in the future during his career. Now I willingly submit to the advice of the doctor – but when it come to submitting to the one who gives him counsel – whose laws he has to obey – there is something in me that resists and we start to say things like – well think I know better -
Is it any wonder that we make some of the dumb decisions that we make? We say to God – the fountain of all wisdom – “Leave me alone – I want to do what I want to do! I’ll submit to the wisdom of doctors, accountants, mechanics, plumbers, lawyers and a multitude of other people – I recognize they have a body of knowledge that I don’t have I have to submit to their wisdom – But when it comes to you God - No Way! When it comes to your wisdom – I’ll call my own shots. I’ll do what I want to do!” - Just as many of us have discovered that we loose when we ignore the advice of those who know better than us – just as you loose when you ignore their wisdom – you loose in life when you ignore the wisdom of God and refuse to submit to His wisdom over your life. – Now contrast the way of the fool with what the Bible says brings wisdom:
Prov 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Wisdom begins - in terms of all of life – just like wisdom begins in every other arena – wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord has to do with reverence – “You say Well I believe in God - I acknowledge God – I accept God.” That’s not really what’s being said here. It’s one thing to acknowledge Him – it’s something else to be willing to submit to his law over your life.
What is the fear of the Lord? - The fear of the Lord = “recognition and reverence that leads to submission” That’s what it means. It means, “You are God and I am not” You’re smarter than I am. That means even when you ask me to do things that I don’t understand, I know that there is something that I don’t understand but I say yes to it before I understand it. But it is not just recognizing that You know more than I do, but because you are God and I am not, in reverence to You, I am going to submit to you. That means, no resistance, no argument, no pretense, no hiding – Because if I resist, it’s either because I am denying your wisdom or I’m declaring your wisdom for me to illogical. The only natural response when you come face to face with God is to surrender and submit – it’s the only natural thing to do. Just like I submit everyday to all kinds of rules and regulations in a multitude of different areas – I acknowledge that You, God are the One behind the wisdom of all those things so I willingly submit and surrender to You.
- At the root of the confusion you may be struggling with today – is not “What is the answer?” but “Who is the authority?” You see that’s the issue, isn’t it? Part of the reason we face so many confusing times in our life is we’ve set ourselves up as an authority. Have you noticed that we live in a world in which everyone is an expert. Everyone knows all the answers. Everyone can editorialize on everything. We live in a sea of opinions. And in spite of the fact that everyone we talk acts as if they have all the answers we still spend our time in an ocean of confusion. You can Google questions from now until Christ returns and still be just as confused as ever. Google gets somewhere around 50 billion inquires every week. 50 billion people every week asking, What is the answer?” And the world is still just as confused as its ever been. It’s the wrong question – the right question – “Who is the authority?” If you start off with the wrong question you are always going to end up with the wrong answer.
Now check out the second half of the verse: knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
Literally he’s talking about all of life. Knowledge of the Holy One brings understanding to all of life. Here’s the formula: This is how it worked with Solomon. If you don’t know what to do – the very first thing you need to do is Fear God. It’s start with the fear of God – the acknowledgement that he is God and you’re not. He’s far greater than you and your little understanding. You reverence Him and submit to Him - that leads you into understanding. Understanding in all of the various arenas of life - and as your understanding of how God’s principles apply to the various areas of your life, it leads to wisdom. As you begin to approach life, and you begin to understand how God’s rules and God’s principles, and God’s guidelines apply in the various areas of your life you begin to grow in wisdom. As you begin to submit to the understanding that God gives you, you then are liberated to the slavery of living foolishly. The beginning of wisdom is when you say Yes to God.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5) - set in the context of going through trails. You need wisdom for a trial. You don’t know what you don’t know. Notice what he doesn’t say: He doesn’t say – “Well you need to Google your question on the computer.” (I know a lot of people who will do that but not actually open their Bible) – No. He doesn’t address the “What?” – What he does address is the “Who?” Who do you go to? You go to God. what the Scripture is saying is as simple as this: “When you go through a trial, and you don’t know what to do - the place to go is to God.” That's much more important than running to your friends for answers. That's much more important than following your own counsel – it much more important than getting on your computer – You Come to God. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God”
That is an imperative. That is not optional. That is mandatory. That is a command. It’s as much of a command as any other command in the Bible. “Let trouble drive you to God, let trouble drive you to prayer.” And may I suggest this to you? If you are going through some deep trouble in your life and it has not enriched your prayer life and has not driven you to the throne of grace, then maybe the trouble will keep going on until you finally wake up and begin to do that. The source of wisdom is there if we will go there.
And what are we going to find when we arrive? Look at verse 5. “Let him ask of God who gives generously” Who gives generously....we have a generous and gracious God who desires to pour out to us those things which we desire. - - - Now catch this: The wisdom you need to get through the trial is never withheld if you will ask. Sometimes we don't ask. We do everything but ask God. Now the word “Generously” is a marvelous word, haplos, it means unconditionally. It means without bargaining. It means freely and generously. Then he also adds “without finding fault” He gives and He gives and He gives, that's His nature as a giving God. He gives sincerely, He gives without hesitation, He gives without mental reservation. He is not giving reluctantly, that's what it means. He isn't saying, “Well, I shouldn't be doing this, but, boy, I'm going to do it but I hope you appreciate it.” He isn't playing games about your unworthiness. He isn't reminding you about how undeserving you are. He is good and He is giving and He just keeps giving...holding back nothing.
- But check the condition of receiving God’s wisdom: But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. The wavering person who goes to God and doesn't really believe that God can provide the wisdom and vaccilates is like the surging billowing restless sea, moving back and forth with its endless tides, never able to settle, like that one tossed to and fro and blown around. Like those of Joshua's day, you remember, who halted between two opinions. Like those of Elijah's day who couldn't decide whether Jehovah was God or Baal was God. Those people who want God but want something else but won’t submit to His counsel. They vaccilate back and forth, those lukewarm people whom the Lord will spew out of His mouth because they're neither hot nor cold, that wavering person who doesn't go to God and hold on in confident trust is like the surging sea.
And verse 7 then says, That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. There's no way such a person should suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. The one who doubts God, the one who debates God, the one who wavers in his trust and isn't solidly committed to the Lord isn't going to receive anything. They literally are unwilling to cash in the resources God has provided in their spiritual account. And they receive nothing. And so they may go on and on and on in the misery of that trial, never knowing what to do – and probably blaming God all the time.
They will be unstable in all their ways. Double minded is dipsuchos, the word, the di at the beginning is two, and suchos is the word for soul...two souled, two minds, a soul divided between God and the world, trusting and not trusting, believing and not believing, a friend of the Lord and a friend of the world. And you remember what James 4:4 says, "Friendship with the world is enmity with God." Loving the world and trying to love God at the same time, and John says it's impossible to do that. Whenever a person lies or cheats we call them what? Two-faced. It’s a terrible thing to be called and it’s a worse thing to be.
Close: You don’t have to go through life like a turtle on its back – not knowing how to respond to what you are facing. You don’t have to make foolish choices - - you can walk in wisdom. You can make wise choices. Wisdom Starts with humbly establishing Jesus Christ as the authority over Your life.
Jesus is both the power and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:24) Wisdom starts with coming to the cross.
Prov 9:10 Will be our memory verse this week. I challenge you to tape in a prominent place to remind you recognize Him As God, Reverence Him – and submit. You do that – I would bet that understanding will be clearer and He will guide you into making wise choices.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
* PowerPoint slides may be available for this message. Some slides I use have copy write restrictions on them - others are slides, which I’ve created. If this sermon has slides I’ve created, I’d be glad to pass them on to you for your use. Please feel free to email me at: timvamosi@charter.net
