2026.3.1 TFHC – Spiritual Wisdom | 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

2026.3.1 TFHC – Spiritual Wisdom | 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 Transcribed by Beluga AI. All right, we’re going to look at 1 Corinthians 2, the whole chapter, 16 verses. So here we go. 1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power. 6 We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived God has prepared these things for those who love him. 10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:1-16, CSB) Just to let you know, “dear ones” is in no translation. That was my own, my own editorial insertion. However yeah, well, if there ever is a KRV, Kevin’s Revised Edition, don’t worry Kevin’s Revised Version there will be “dear ones” all over the place. It’ll just be there. So, all right, dear ones, which you certainly are to me. Paul is talking about his preaching, and he says, “My preaching came not with human wisdom, not with persuasive words. I wasn’t a gifted speaker, but it did come with power.” There’s power in the Word. Paul preached with power. And the power is the message, not the preacher. The power is in the message, not the preacher. And so it wasn’t Paul. It wasn’t that Paul was he may have been self-deprecating here. I imagine Paul was a, you know, he obviously is a brilliant man. I imagine he was a gifted speaker. But his point was, “No, no, no, no, that’s not why you believe.” And the Greeks were big on that. They were big on gifted orators. Oh, they would have the most pompous, you know, orators and people would judge them not on the content of what they said, but just on their delivery. I remember as I was reading that and butchering it a few places, I remember I had a professor in seminary, and his only job he was a Hollywood actor. And they hired him at seminary to teach us seminary students how to read the Bible. And he would read it like a dramatic script. He was quite good. And then he’d expect us to do it. And you know, we just kind of And he was brutal. He was not gentle in his critiques. Which is good, you know, we live in too soft of a world, you know, so it’s good to be coached hard once in a while. But I just remember he would, you know, he would memorize the text and he would get up there and he would speak the Word of God and you know, you go, “Wow. Oh my goodness. Like God Himself is talking.” But Paul says that’s not the point. As much as that guy kind of thought it was the point. It’s not the point. Just like every seminary professor, they think their class, right? Every professor thinks their class the whole of the thing. I remember I had a professor and he taught on Hosea, okay? A minor prophet. Why do they call it a minor prophet? Not that he didn’t have anything to say. Just like, it ain’t the Gospel of John, buddy. But he was like, “Oh, you don’t understand the Bible unless you understand Hosea.” All right, good enough. You know, on Sunday night I’m a little looser, so you just get my pet peeves and everything. But Paul’s preaching was not a message with his persuasion. How many have ever heard Billy Graham speak? I went to a Billy Graham crusade, saw him speak many times on TV. My assessment: he was not a great preacher. He was not scintillating. You know, I’ve heard many preachers who were, you know, better at the craft, who captured my imagination more, who were easier to follow along with. But you know what? Doesn’t matter, because the power was in the simplicity of his message. Billy Graham knew who he was. He knew what he went there to say, and he said it. And the power of God’s Spirit was on it. And so thousands came forward every time because it’s God’s power, not Billy Graham’s great preaching. God used his faithfulness, not his oratory skills, to great effect. And so the power is the message. It is the mystery that Paul talks about here, the mystery long hidden from the ages. And what is the mystery? The mystery is that the big enemies of humanity, that the darkness of the present age, in which people had been living since the garden, the darkness of the fall sin and Satan and death would be overcome in an incredible way. Everybody thought it would be overcome by great, what? Military victory, might, and power because that’s how the world operates. That’s how the world operates. Our president right now: “Hey, you can’t beat us.” And, you know, that’s strange for Donald Trump to say that, because he’s always been known as a very humble, not overconfident man. But, you know, he’s like, “You can’t beat us. We’re the greatest.” And we people love that. “Yeah, yeah, we’re the greatest. We’re the most powerful.” But, you know, the mystery is this. And all of us could believe a religion like that. That’s how things operate. You know, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. Why? Because their defensive line couldn’t be handled by the New England Patriots’ offensive line. They were bigger, they were stronger, they were faster. Now, Joe, they weren’t as good as Mean Joe Green and those boys back in the ’70s, I got to give you that. But they were good. They were good, all right. That’s how the world operates. We’re bigger, we’re stronger, we’re faster, we’re meaner. And here we have a humble King. Who’s heard of such a thing? A King who poses as a carpenter, a poor man from a little village who then went to a fishing village of an oppressed people and dies a horrible, humiliating death. And yet there’s power in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ like no other power. Nothing else, quite frankly, quite honestly, quite demonstratively, has impacted the life of people on this planet more than the life of that one man. Literally, He’s changed everything. And it’s still changing. It is an incredibly powerful message that a crucified God would change the world and that a dead man got up from the grave in a victory that makes every military conquest in history look like child’s play. He defeated death. That’s the message. The message is a humble King comes and reinitiates, reintroduces, re-brings His kingdom in a great invasion. It was His kingdom to begin with. It was usurped, it was rebelled against, it was stolen. And guess what? Jesus Christ arrives and the kingdom is now established. The King has come, and through His death and resurrection, His kingdom has been established. Then He ascends to heaven and sends His Spirit, and the thing has been growing on the earth ever since then, so that the prophecy of Habakkuk 3,000 years ago is going to come true before our eyes. We’re going to see it, and we see it happening now. His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord ‘s glory, as the water covers the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14, CSB) That’s the mystery. That’s the power. The power is demonstrated in the simple preaching of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then power of signs and wonders. Paul’s also referring to that. He says, “When I came to you, the gospel was demonstrated by signs and wonders.” Throughout the Gospels, throughout the book of Acts, the gospel is demonstrated by signs and wonders. The signs and wonders are not the gospel. The signs and wonders are a sign and a proclamation that Jesus and His kingdom have arrived. How do we know Jesus and His kingdom has arrived? Because devils can’t stand in front of it. Towns committed to idolatry, like Ephesus, fall into great revival, and people are burning their witchcraft books. And the leading silversmith in town, who makes idols to this goddess, starts a riot because he’s losing his business. Because the whole world is being transformed by the preaching of this gospel, and there are miracles happening. In fact, handkerchiefs were going around, and people you know, TV preachers say, “Buy this handkerchief, and somebody will get healed.” Oh yeah, but you know what? He got that from the Bible. Not the marketing part of it. But even handkerchiefs that Paul touched were being laid on the sick, and they were being healed. That’s not that the handkerchiefs are magic. They’re not, but they’re an inspiration to faith. And God moves through that. You know, we anoint people with oil. It’s like, well, what’s magical about the oil? Nothing. It’s oil. But there’s something powerful when the symbol of the Holy Spirit is on the fingers of somebody indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and that person touches another person, and that power is transmitted. Signs and wonders of the kingdom. People will tell you it’s a scandal. It’s a scandal when people use signs and wonders to promote their own kingdom and to make money. And it is a scandal. It’s an embarrassment to the church that people traffic in the things of God and market the things of God. But you know what else is a scandal? False miracles. False prophecies. Manipulative miracles. Manipulative prophecies. Those are a scandal. You know what else is a scandal? A church with no miracles. That’s a scandal. Why? Because there’s power with the gospel. “Well, no, that was just to establish the church in the first century or before the Bible was written,” some will say. And you know the Bible that they revere? You know where it says that in the Bible? Nowhere. “The Bible is the inerrant Word of God.” Well, the inerrant Word of God says Paul preached the kingdom with signs and wonders and great miracles. “Yeah, but we don’t do that anymore.” I know. You know why you don’t do it? Because you’re disobeying the Bible you proclaim to believe in. “Well, I tried and it didn’t work.” Well, try again. “Well, if I tried and it didn’t work, it must mean it’s not for today.” No. Have you ever tried to evangelize a friend and they weren’t converted on the spot? “Yeah.” Oh, then evangelism is not for today. No, keep trying. Anything you try a lot in life, you get better at. “Well, that’s not true of spiritual gifts.” Of course it is. It’s true of natural gifts. If you’re a natural musician, you’ll become a better musician if you practice. Doesn’t mean you don’t have a natural there are people who have musical intelligence way beyond mine. I know because I know people who sat down at 3 years old and can listen to something being played and play it on the piano at three years old. I have a friend who could do that. Okay, that’s an intelligence I don’t have. But you know how he gets better at that? He takes that natural gift and he practices it. As hard as I ever practice at basketball Ats, you too. Neither one of us are ever going to be LeBron James. We’re not 6’9″. We don’t jump out of the building. We don’t have that incredible, you know, kinetic memory. We don’t have that brilliance, that brilliant muscle. That’s the kind of intelligence that we don’t have. Now, you’re a smart guy, but that’s not your primary intelligence. You might be an okay athlete, but, you know, you’re not LeBron. I’m not making you feel bad, are you? No. Okay, good. You’re a smart guy. You got intelligence that LeBron doesn’t have, trust me. You know? You know, Brian’s smart. He’s good with numbers. He’s good with math. He’s good with spatial intelligence. He’s an engineer. He can figure stuff out, solve problems. Engineering, man, they solve problems. Yay for engineers. They know how to get after it. You know who’s really smart and good with number and doesn’t solve problems? An accountant. They just recognize problems. They tell you, “You got a problem here.” Thanks, Einstein. I’m gonna go take my books to an engineer. He’ll fix this. All right. So what was my point? Oh, not everybody gets healed. Man, I wandered down a bunny trail there, didn’t I? Not everybody gets healed. Why not? “Well, because God’s not doing it anymore.” No. We’re not as good at it as He is. Keep doing it. How many months did we pray for Julie? Why wasn’t she healed the first time we prayed? I don’t know. I know she doesn’t have cancer anymore. That’s a miracle. We all witnessed it. Churches need miracles. I know she doesn’t go to this church, but she goes to our church. She’s part of our church. We prayed for her. It’s one church. Got miracles in church. It’s a scandal when you don’t. The gospel is to be preached with signs and wonders and miracles. Revealing Christ is God’s job when we proclaim the gospel. It’s not a matter of winning the argument. I know of very few people who’ve been converted to Christianity through apologetics, that is, arguing for this. Now, I know of hundreds of Christians whose faith has been strengthened through apologetics, and I’m one of them. I love apologetics. I love reading all the reasons to believe. And I am absolutely convinced that we have the most scientific, historical, philosophical, and moral worldview out there. There’s nothing that can compare. And I’ll argue with you on any of those points. I’ll argue with you that we have the best scientific case. Atheists are all hypocrites because they believe in six miracles. Everything came from nothing. Morality comes from matter. Right? Life comes from non-life. That’s three of them. The other three aren’t on the top of my head now, but, you know. Oh, order comes from chaos. You know, they believe in things that aren’t scientifically observable and have no scientific explanation. James Tour is a brilliant microbiologist from, I think, Rice University, and he talks all the time and he argues about the origins of life. He just says, “Hey, molecules don’t work that way. In fact, the more we try,” he says, “the more we try to discover an organic, naturalistic explanation for the origin of life,” he says, “the more we study it, the more we pursue it, the goalpost is not moving closer, it’s moving farther away.” Everything we discover says, “This couldn’t happen.” But then James Tour is also an evangelist on his campus with students and other professors. People ask him, “Do you use these brilliant arguments for creation and the origins of life when you’re leading people to Christ?” “No. Heavens no. I tell them they’re lost without Jesus and going to hell. They need to believe in Him and repent of their sins.” “Really?” “Oh, yeah. That’s what I tell them. So all that other stuff, that’s just icing on the cake. Here’s the problem: you’re a rebel. Repent, turn back to God. God’s made a way.” He gets it. He gets the power of the gospel. Christ is revealed in the simple preaching of the gospel. He’s also revealed in our character. People believe a credible witness more than they believe a not credible witness. Simple as that. If your life in some ways reflects Jesus, your story about Jesus is more believable. I mean, how many of us have heard people say, “Oh ” And they have these wonderful spiritual encounters and these wonderful conversion experiences and their life’s a mess. You kind of go, “Well,” you know, “what did Jesus do for you?” But you have a testimony. And part of that testimony ought to be, without you having to brag about it, it ought to just be obvious to all a transformed character. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Again, people say, “Well, if you’re Christians, you should act Christian.” Well, I act more Christian than I did 10 years ago. That’s the evidence. It’s not that you’re perfect; you’re not quite as good as Jesus. It always scares me, man, when people come to church and they really blow me up. “You’re just the greatest.” Not that I hear this every day. Don’t get me wrong. Every once in a while: “We’ve been looking for a church just like this, and you’re the best preacher ” And all this stuff. Because I always know those folks, and they’re always like, “We are all in, me and my family, we’re all in with this church.” It’s almost like I become nervous around those words. It’s like, “Uh-oh, they’ll be gone in two weeks.” “We’re with you.” And then you step on a landmine from their childhood, right? You don’t even know it’s there. But you know, you’re the idealized daddy that you know, their father was a failure and they transfer that and you’re the idealized daddy. And then you do something their first daddy did, you know, or you say something and instantly you go from Jesus to Satan. I mean, overnight it’s like I’m the hero and then I’m the villain. And I just tell people. I tell people, right when they start telling me, “Oh, you’re the greatest,” I say, “Hey, I’m not Jesus and I’m not the devil. I’m not as good as one or as bad as the other. Just telling you.” But even though I’m not Jesus and I’m not the devil, next year I want to be more like Jesus and less like the devil than I am today.” That’s a witness. A transformed life, a life that lives with godly character, is a powerful witness. It is revealed when we use our spiritual gifts, like I said, when we operate in the power of God. And it’s God who gets the glory, but we become conduits for His power, whether it’s in simple things listen, people say, “Well, the supernatural gifts like healing and prophecy and tongues. But then there’s the natural gifts like helps and mercy.” No, those are supernatural too. Listen, for human beings to be helpful, kind and sacrificial, that’s a miracle because I see how they come out as babies. They’re none of those things. How many babies come out altruistic? How many 2 year olds who you know are saying, “I just want to do this for others”? What do two year olds say? “Mine. Mine. No.” They’re good with that one too. “You need to do what daddy says.” “No!” You know what daddy says? He says, “Oh yes, oh yes. It’s on, kid. And you’re going to lose.” So it is the power of God working through us that reveals Christ. And then He’s revealed in our testimony. You got a story and it’s your story. Not everybody has your story. Where did God meet you? How did God change you? How did God speak to you? And there is power in that testimony. Why? Paul says the rulers of this age would not have killed Him had they known. They wouldn’t have crucified Him. Why is the Old Testament so mysterious? You know, we talk about fulfilled prophecies, but I remember I first became a Christian and I read the Old Testament. Then I read the New Testament, and then Matthew would say, “It’s like the Old Testament said. It, you know, speaks of this prophecy.” It’s like, yeah, I get it, there’s a connection there. But why didn’t the prophet say, “Hey, there’s going to be this guy named Jesus. And believe it or not, His mom and dad aren’t going to have sex, and His mom’s going to have the first virgin baby ever on the planet. Her name is going to be Mary. She’s going to live in Nazareth in Galilee. And Joseph’s not going to believe her for a while, but then he’s going to believe her. They’re going to name Him Jesus. And it’s going to happen on this date, and these are all the things that are going to happen”? All those things are alluded to in the Old Testament. They’re alluded to. And only looking back do people say, “Aha.” Why is that? Because God isn’t revealing His playbook in the Old Testament to the devil. He’s giving Israel and His church, His future church, enough hints and then later to look back and see, oh my gosh, this was the story all along. But He’s not doing it enough so the devil knows the plan. This is true. God tricked the devil, the rulers of this age. You know where Peter in Mark 8, this great turning point in the Gospel of Mark, where the disciples finally get that Jesus is the Messiah, and then for the next eight chapters, they don’t get what kind of Messiah He’s going to be, but they get He’s the Messiah. “Who do you say that I am?” You are the Christ, the Messiah, the King, the Son of the living God.” You know where that declaration was made? The Bible tells us in Caesarea Philippi. But what you might not know about Caesarea Philippi is that Caesarea Philippi was by a mountain in Lebanon, in northern Israel. I think it was Mount Hermon, might have been Mount Hermon one of those mountains and it is called the Devil’s Gate. There’s a cave in that mountain that was believed to be the place that demons entered and left the world. And right in front of that mountain was one of the largest pagan sacrificial cult temples in the Middle East at the time of Jesus. Caesarea Philippi was the hotbed of satanic paganism. It was at that place that Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus says, you’re right. And He’s saying it as it is. He is taunting the spirits of darkness. He’s taunting. “That’s right. I’m here. I’m here. You know it because I’ve been casting your little critters out of people. That’s why your tool, King Herod, tried to kill all the babies. You know it. You knew something was going to happen. You knew God wasn’t going to do nothing. It’s happening now.” And they panic. They go, “We got to kill him.” Jesus even tells Peter, and like, the disciples, they don’t get it. Jesus says, “Yeah, they’re going to kill me.” And then Peter goes, “Oh, no, I just told you you’re the Messiah.” “I am, but they’re going to kill me.” “No, haven’t you read the Scriptures? That’s not what the Messiah does.” He says, “That’s what this Messiah does.” The next eight chapters, He keeps telling them. It’s almost hilarious, except it’s so poignant. “So I’m going to go to Jerusalem, I’m going to die, and I’m going to rise again.” I think three times. Just tells them flat out. And they always go, “What do you think He meant?” Which, fair enough, He taught in parables, so they were like, often they said, “What do you think He meant?” But this is not a parable. It’s like, “Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go to Jerusalem. They’re going to hand me over. They’re going to kill me. But on the third day, I’m going to rise.” “Huh Another of those mysterious parables. But when you do come into Jerusalem and you enter your kingdom and we kick butt on the Romans, can James be your secretary of defense, and I can be the secretary of state? Mom says these would be great jobs for us.” And Jesus goes I think that was the first use of the Jewish term, oyvey. Oy vey. You know, “Can you drink the cup I’m going to drink?” “Oh, sure.” “All right. You will. You will suffer. But you know what? You don’t know what you’re asking. 38 Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup I drink or to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” (Mark 10:38, CSB) “My father has got those things planned. Don’t worry, James and John, you will be honored. I mean, for all eternity, John, you’re going to write your gospel and tell everybody you were faster than Peter.” Typical guys, right? “Yeah. And we ran to the grave I won.” So He reveals this mystery. And the rulers of this age take the bait and they play right into God’s hand. “We’ll kill Him.” “Good. Because while I’m dead, as I’m getting ready to rise, I’m going to go to your boss’s face, and I’m going to snatch the keys of death from his hand. And then I’m going to go back to that tomb, and I’m going to get out of that tomb, and you will all look in powerless, impotent horror that your reign has come to an end.” He’s trash talking the devil. This makes me happy, by the way, because I’m a trash talker. And now it is sanctified. You can trash talk. It’s okay. Anybody else in here a trash talker? No? You’re a bunch of losers. See how it works? It’s not that hard. It’s not that hard. Joe, you’ve talked trash in your day. Steelers fan? Oh, you’ve talked trash. Yeah, a little bit. I’m going back to Kansas City next week. I go there every year for this conference and I love these dear people. They’re all big Chiefs fans. Oh, you don’t think I’m wearing my Seahawks gear back there this year? I’ll be like, “Where’s the red and yellow, people? Where’s the red and yellow?” And then I’ll preach to them just to see if I can get the crowd back after I totally lose them. It’s a challenge. It’s a challenge. Trash talk them and then try to love them into the kingdom. It’ll be fun. All right. Now we have inherited a great hope. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him. Oh, my goodness. The rulers of this age thought He was coming back to establish a Davidic kingdom like the one that was around a thousand years before Him. No. They didn’t get the prophecies. He’s that little rock Daniel talked about that is going to crush his every worldly kingdom and spread like a huge mountain over all the earth and dominate everything. And Satan and his kingdom has been destroyed. And it will be destroyed forever. And His kingdom will reign forever. It is an absolute, complete, overwhelming victory. And by our repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we have, by His amazing grace and mercy, entered that kingdom. And one day, Marsha, we are going to inherit it to the full. All the dogs and cats and animals that you loved through your whole life are going to dance around your feet. You and Stevin and Jill can have a little animal farm out there with all your beloved pets, all right? We’ll come visit you, and we won’t even have allergies. Oh, yeah, and Ats will have… And who? You? Emi? You. Yeah, and you. Yes, all those chickens that you know, you know by name. Now you can’t eat them. I hope you don’t love your pigs that way, because I want some of that bacon. I want you to kill some of those pigs when you get them, all right? Don’t be loving on those pigs, Aiko. I want the bacon. I want a Christmas gift. Come on. You don’t have to give me bunny meat. I don’t want that. Don’t worry about that. You can love on the bunnies all you want, but don’t be loving those pigs, all right? We have inherited a great hope. And now in this world, the greatest way we can demonstrate the greatest gift, one of the greatest gifts we can have, is to have what He talks about here. Not the wisdom of the world, which is overrated, but spiritual wisdom. And the Bible I read Proverbs 8 the Bible just elevates this idea of wisdom. Almost deifies wisdom, almost sounds like in Proverbs 8, when you’re reading about wisdom, you’re reading about Christ. It elevates this idea of wisdom. Paul says in James 3:17, “Wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and impartial.” And, you know, I have known Christians of great wisdom who are completely uneducated, self-educated. One of the wisest and most read and most revered Christian authors of the 20th century was A.W. Tozer. And he never went to get formal theological education. And yet a brilliant theological mind. Why? Because he pursued spiritual wisdom. And he had it. He got it. He got it. And the Bible says it’s more valuable than gold and silver. It is pure, it is holy, it is beautiful, it loves peace. It brings reconciliation and love. It is gentle. A bruised reed He will not break. A smoldering wick, He will not extinguish. I tell you, the gentle the gentle inherit the world. The meek inherit the earth. The world elevates and worships the strong. But God loves the gentle. The gentle represent His wisdom. Gentle Jesus. Oh, He could be fierce, don’t get me wrong. But oh, my gosh, do you see Jesus with broken sinners? Do you see Jesus with the woman who had an issue of blood and made everybody in the crowd, including Jesus, unclean by touching Him? Made it unable, according to Jewish law, for Him to go lay hands on and heal Jairus’ daughter. Jairus, the rich and powerful ruler of the synagogue. And he comes to Jesus for help. And Jesus is going to go and heal Jairus’ daughter, and this poor, broken, unclean woman touches Him. And her name, for all her life, has been “unclean.” And as this woman is named “unclean” that’s what everybody’s called her for the last 13 years she touches Jesus, and Jesus says, “Who touched me?” And then she’s panicked, right? Because, “Oh, my gosh, I touched the Messiah. I ruined His day. I ruined everybody’s day. Oh, no. I thought I was ” But she was healed, and she was excited, but she was also terrified, and she says, “It was me. I’m the one who touched you.” And the first word out of His mouth for 13 years, the first word out of everybody’s mouth when they saw her was “unclean” and the first word out of gentle Jesus’ mouth after He touches her and she has the faith to get healed is “Daughter.” Oh, if that doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what will. “Daughter, precious girl, I commend you for your faith.” “But now you can’t go.” “Yeah, I can go see Jairus’s daughter. You know, that issue of blood. Didn’t I just show you I’m stronger than that issue of blood? Don’t worry about, you know “ And then He goes and sees Jairus’ daughter. And again, He’s incredible, incredibly gentle. “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And she gets up, and everybody’s freaking out, “Oh, it’s great! It’s a miracle!” You know what He does? He says, “Give her something to eat. Being dead’s hard work. She’s hungry.” He’s very practical. He’s very, very kind of like, down to earth. It’s like she’s alive and she’s also hungry. She needs to regain her strength. Give her something to eat. That’s the wisdom of God. It is so beautiful. It is so counterintuitive. I love it. He’s reasonable. I tell you, my wife’s a Christian, and the parts you know, the parts she loves I mean, a lot of it doesn’t make sense, which is really good that she’s a Christian, but she loves, you know It said in Proverbs 8, one of the attributes of wisdom is common sense. My wife says, “Yeah, that’s it.” He’s reasonable. He makes sense. He makes sense. Full of mercy. We just talked about that. Justice and mercy, right? The tension between justice and mercy. But what does James say? Mercy triumphs. God came not to judge the world; the world was already judged. He came to show mercy. He’s impartial. Rich, poor, young, old, black, white, male, female. He’s impartial. There’s no prejudice in God. That’s the wisdom from above. That’s the wisdom we gain when we get wisdom. Well, how do we gain spiritual wisdom? This is so good. Not by going to school. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Some of us went to way too much school. Nothing wrong going to school, Jamie. It’s good. That’s your call. And actually it is. You are called to go to school. You have got a wonderful inquisitive mind. And, and so you know, all gifts and compulsions it’s a thin line. It’s just a thin line. So just walk the line carefully. But you gain wisdom through the Spirit of God. You gain knowledge by going to school. But knowledge isn’t wisdom. There’s information which, by the way, in our culture, there has never been a culture in the history of the world that has so much information glut. I love googling stuff because I’m a sports fanatic, right? And some announcer will say something like this, “That’s the second highest points total by a guard in the last 20 years.” You know what? I am instantly going, “Who’s had the highest points totaled by a guard in the last 20 years? Who was it? I got to know.” You know? “He’s going to become the fifth highest scorer in NBA history.” Well, who’s he going to pass up? By the way, that’s Kevin Durant, and he’s going to pass up Kobe, or he’s going to pass up Michael Jordan as the fifth highest. It was so fun. My grandson Noah was asking me out to dinner, and he plays a game called Sports Trivia with me. And I just bring up all these old sports questions, and he tries to answer it. And there’s this old guy just listening in on us. Joe, he was great. He just turns around, he goes and he just jumps right in. He goes, “I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help it. When you did that Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain question, I just wanted to say, ‘Bill Russell. Bill Russell.’ I couldn’t ‘” And he started quizzing my grandson, “Who was better, Joe Montana or Tom Brady?” You know, he started going off, and me and this old guy started sharing all our old sports stories. And what’s wonderful is my grandson Noah’s just soaking it all in. It’s like he has joined me in my world, and my wife’s just being stupid. Like I’ll ask a baseball question: who hit the most home runs? And she’s just to be smart like, “Kobe Bryant.” Shut up. Just throws out names randomly. It’s like, oh All right, how’s that only given and received by the Spirit of God? I don’t know. Oh, knowledge. Yeah. What knowledge? Information you know stuff. Knowledge is you know stuff about the stuff you know. So information is: there’s a river; there’s two sides of the river. There’s people on both sides of the river. Knowledge. We’d like to get those two people together. And we have engineers, Brian, who know how to build a bridge. So we’re going to build a bridge. Wisdom. Should we build a bridge? Should we get those two people together? Where’s the best spot on the river to build the bridge? Should we count the cost of building the bridge before we embark on this bridge-building idea? Our government, in my view, is full of information and very full of knowledge. Wisdom…? Yeah, maybe, maybe. And yet the Bible says wisdom is that skill in life that knows what to do and when to do it, what not to do, when to speak, when to be silent, who to marry, who not to marry. Now the Bible will give you some knowledge about that. It says don’t marry an unbeliever. All right. But it doesn’t say which believer to marry. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom. I remember one of the first times I heard the voice of God in my head. It was incredible wisdom. And I’ve told this story before, but it’s worth telling again. I’m an 18-year-old boy and I start dating this girl. And I am falling in love with this girl. Oh my gosh, I’m falling in love with her. And what’s even more amazing is she was falling in love with me, which is mind-blowing. You know, it’s such a great feeling to have this beautiful, intelligent young woman just like swooning over you. It was like such an ego boost. Wow, she’s into me. That’s so cool. And so we’re just falling in love and it’s great. Except I’m an 18-year-old boy. I’m a new Christian. There are parts of my life that are purely unsanctified at this point. And one of those parts of my life was this 18-year-old girl had morals. Well, I’m not sure I wanted a girl with morals. I’m an 18 year old boy don’t be hard on me. I’m an 18 year old boy. It’s like, she’s beautiful. She’s there. She kisses me. What comes after kissing? It’s a nice road. Let’s just travel down that road. Well, see, there were stop signs on that road with her. Dang it. But alas, there were other 18-year-old girls out there. And I had their phone numbers. And I had strong suspicion that those girls did not quite have the same moral foundation that the girl I was dating did. And I thought, “Hmm “ And so, I had information, and I thought I had some knowledge. And the knowledge was every weekend has two nights. It has a Friday night and a Saturday night, so I could date the girl that I’m falling in love with on Friday night. And I had a little black book with phone numbers in it. I could use my little black book on Saturday night and kind of explore. And I thought, “That’s a great plan.” That’s knowledge, not wisdom. So, I come home after a wonderful date with this girl that I’m falling in love with, and I’m thinking, “Who will I take out next week?” And I’m pulling off my sweater, and the sweater’s over my head, and I hear the voice. And here’s what the voice said. It wasn’t condemning. It wasn’t like, “You scumbag, what are you thinking?” No, here’s what the voice said. I can quote it to this day, so clear: “Kevin, there’s nothing out there any better for you. There’s nothing out there any better for you. What are you doing? I’m giving you the best thing besides me you’re ever going to get in your life. I’m handing it to you, dude, and you want to mess it up?” I mean, He didn’t say that. He just said, He just said those first words. “Kevin, there’s nothing out there better for you.” And that was wisdom. Spirit-given wisdom. And so I never used that little black book. I sold it to my best friend for 20 bucks. He was glad. No, I didn’t do that. It’s an idea, though. Probably should have done it. Hey, man, got some leads here. How else do we get wisdom? Ask for it. James says that. Isn’t this great? “If anyone lacks wisdom, let them ask God, who gives generously without reproach.” How easy is that? Hey, God, I got a job offer in Kansas City and I got a job offer in Jacksonville, which, you know, both are good. Both companies are good. Where do I go? I’ve done the pros and cons; it’s a tie. God, I need wisdom. God, I need wisdom. I’m dating. I know two wonderful young Christian women as a young man. Which one should I ask out? I need wisdom, you know. I know the Bible gives me some guidelines, you know, get with a Christian girl. Okay, I got that. Not going to get with somebody who’s, you know but God, I need wisdom. All right, how do I handle this problem at work? How do I handle this conflict that’s come up? The Bible says God gives wisdom generously. Practical guidelines on how to live your life. There it is. Ask Him for it. Now, the only people who don’t get it are the people who doubt. He says, “If you don’t really believe God’s going to give it to you, guess what? He’s not going to give it to you. Because even if He did give it to you, what would you do? You’d doubt it. ‘No, that can’t be from God. I have to go back to my pros and cons list.'” But again, imagine if God said, “Ask me generously and I’ll drop gold bars into your house and bags of silver, and you know, it’ll rain cash, and your whole living room will be filled with hundred dollar bills. Just ask, and I’ll fill your living room with $100 bills every day if you want.” Man, we’d be praying all the time, right? I’ve had this fantasy in my life. What if I found a genie and they said, “Every time you stick your hand in your pocket, you pull out a hundred-dollar bill.” That’d be a good genie to have, right? Just go to the gas station. Oh, I’ll fill up my car. There it is. Go to the grocery store. Oh, I’ll pay the groceries. There it is. Go out to dinner, just right there, just Well, that’s never happened. But you know what’s better than that? When I pray the prayer “Help,” and God gives me help, often with wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10, CSB) Why is that? I’ll tell you why. That’s the only thing it’s wise to fear. There’s only one person in the universe who can save your soul or condemn it. Here’s wisdom. Here’s what the fear of the Lord does for you. It heals you of all people pleasing, which is one of the stupidest things we can do. And yet we’re all so tempted to do it. Who cares what somebody else thinks? Because in the last day, they don’t say, “Oh, look, I put your name in the book of life.” Or, “Oh, here I blotted it out.” Who else can say these words to you that will heal you for all eternity? This is the compliment that will work. I love compliments, but I’ve, I’ve In my life, I fished for compliments. You know what I’m talking about? And when I receive them, it’s a pleasant drink, but it’s empty calories. They don’t work for very long. People will come, they’ll be nice to me. They’ll come and say, “You’re just a wonderful ” Who was it just last week? Troy and Marsha were saying, you know, nice things to me about “Your preaching has really impacted our lives in a great way. We really appreciate it,” and stuff. And I loved hearing that. And if you’ve got stuff like that to say to me, don’t hesitate. Go for it. Say it in front of people. Say it loud. Say it often. I got no problem with that. But I do know this. I also know this. I’ve received that multiple times, and it always feels good, and it never it doesn’t make it home on the drive. You know, by the time I get home, I’m like, “Yeah, but really, I suck.” You know? You know, which I don’t do that anymore either. I’m better now. Used to be that, but now I’m just like… I’m kind of neutral. But you know what? I really believe with all my heart. And I almost weep when I think of this, because I just I yearn. I ask God for it to just be able to look into those eyes and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I think that’s going to work. I think that’ll stick with me longer than the drive home. And so I like what you say when you say nice things, but I get it. I used to tell my youth pastor, and this wasn’t true, but he was always worried about what the parents were thinking. I said, “Lookit. You are not going to please all those parents. You know, a lot of them raised little stinkers, and they want you to fix them, and you can’t, so don’t worry about it.” You know, he’d take kids on a mission trip. He says, “Oh, Kevin, I just got to bring them all back.” I said, “Yeah, bring them, most of them back. In fact, at the church, we can make a list of which ones you can leave. Here, if you lose these guys, even their parents will probably be okay with it. You know, there you go.” And I always try, you know, I always tried to relax him because he was so And I said, “Lookit, Steve ” His name was Steve. I said, “Lookit, Steve. You only got to please me and God,” which is not true. But, you know, I was his boss, so I had to put that in there. I said, “You only got to please me and God. And I’m happy.” And he’ll go, “What about my wife?” Well, that’s between you and her. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s got to please me and God. But the truth is, you only got to please God. Fear the Lord. That’s wisdom. Live for Him. That’s wisdom. Do the right thing for Him, no matter what anybody else says or thinks. Here’s a way. Bet you never thought you’d hear this in church. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. There you go. Study the Scriptures. Now, I’ll add some wisdom to that. Read your Bible and then be like Jesus, who said, “If you listen to these words of mine and you do them, you’re like the man who built his house upon the rock.” 24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24, CSB) So read your Bible and do them. And you know, just Nike. Just do it. Now, I got lots of education. I could say that in Greek. I could say “just do it” in Greek. Poiesete. There you go. I looked it up this afternoon. Poiesete. Just do it. That’s wisdom. Do what the Bible says. Finally, humble yourself before God. “God gives grace to the humble, but He opposes the proud.” So when you come here and you lift your hands and you worship God and you sing songs about Him and not about you, and you mean it, that is great wisdom. It is great wisdom to go to church on a regular I didn’t know you were there, Sailor. He perked up, when I was talking about wisdom. It is great wisdom to humble yourself. And finally, the benefits of wisdom. The Bible says, life and prosperity. Psalms and Proverbs. You will have a good life if you pursue wisdom. Prosperity means more than monetary prosperity. It just means prosperity in life. I’ll tell you, I have plenty of money. But you know what? You know where I prosper? I prosper in relationships. Next week, I’m going back to Grace Covenant. That’s another church family for me. I love those people. I love hanging out with those people. I so look forward to our two meetings a year. I just love the relationships. I’m on committees, and I don’t even hate that. We have two committees, and I’m on both of them, for goodness sakes. I can hardly wait till I retire and I can just go back to those conferences and just go out to lunch with those people and hang out. But I don’t even mind the committees because I love those people. I love you. And that’s not flattery, that’s just the truth. Every one of you. Makes me happy when you walk in. Joe, I’m just getting to know you. But as you walked in tonight, I was like, “Oh, there’s Joe.” And it felt like, there’s good old Joe, you know? We’re in. You know, I finally got a football fan in this church, for goodness sakes. Goes for the wrong team, but at least you’re a fan. So got my guy. And Marsha and the Johnsons. They’ve been hanging around since I was young. And you still make me happy every time I see you. Missed you this morning. You’ll walk in tonight, it’s like, “There she is.” And little Sailor pops up his head. I even love him. Wisdom, you will prosper in life. Again, you will build your house on a firm foundation. I remember the 1989 earthquake. Anybody remember that in the Bay Area? So I’m there. I’m at Redwood Christian Park, which was 10 miles from Mount Loma Prieta, the epicenter of the quake. I was in the prayer chapel from 4 to 5. The earthquake hit at 5 o’clock. A bunch of us Methodist pastors were in that little prayer chapel. It was probably our fault because we were praying for our denomination, and I believe we literally prayed, “Lord, shake up the Methodist church.” So it’s probably our fault. Anyway, that earthquake hit, I dove under the pew, but my head was kind of sticking out. There’s a big metal cross on the wall. And I thought, “Oh, my gosh, this little chapel could fall down on top of me, or that cross could just fall off the wall and crush me. Hit my head and crush me.” I thought, “Well, you know, if you’re going to go to heaven and meet Jesus, ‘Well, son, what were you doing?’ ‘I was praying for an hour. Got hit on the head by a cross.'” I know you’re not saved by works, but hey, man, those are good credentials, right? Those are good entry papers. So anyway, the cross didn’t fall on me. But I also remember in San Francisco, many, many further miles away, there were parts of the city that really were devastated that collapsed. And those were the parts of the city that were built on landfill. And why is that, Brian? Yeah. No firm foundation. What’s the name for it? Liquefaction. Yeah, so we had some liquefaction going on. We had jello, all right? But buildings that were built on rocks no jello. Rocks didn’t turn into jello. They stayed rocks. And those buildings stood. Poiesete. Do what Jesus says is wisdom, and it will not stop the earthquakes in life, and it will not stop the storms, and it will not stop the crises and catastrophes. It will not stop disease and death. It will not stop wars and rumors of wars. But it will give you the ability to stand in all of those. You will stand and not crumble. Next time somebody asks you, “Why do you believe in Jesus?” Because I don’t want my life built on the possibility of liquefaction. I don’t want liquefaction going on. They go, “Oh, okay.” And finally, we already talked about this. Discerning life’s choices. Doesn’t mean you’ll never make mistakes. Sometimes you’ll mishear God or misread it, or you won’t you’ll forget to ask for wisdom. But if you want to live a life of good choices good choices pursue wisdom, and God will generously give it to you. And you are doing that by showing up to church, opening up your Bibles, listening to me go on and on. You’re pursuing wisdom. So God bless you for that pursuit. Poisete. Do it. Jesus said, “When you gather together, do it.” He didn’t say, “Listen to a guy talk for half an hour.” He didn’t say, “Sing a half an hour of songs.” Though I think those things are also valuable. But he did say, “Do this.” He said, “Do this.” I love what C.S. Lewis said, who loved to argue, but in the middle of the arguments but he also loved mere Christianity, and he didn’t like Christians always arguing about secondary things. And so, he said, “Remember, our Lord’s command when it came to communion was ‘Take and eat,’ not ‘Take and understand.'” And it’s enough to humble ourselves and say, “Lord, I don’t understand all the mysteries of communion, but you said this was something you wanted us to do.” And so, out of obedience wisdom is obedient out of the wisdom of obedience, I will come now to your table at your invitation and take and eat. The post 2026.3.1 TFHC – Spiritual Wisdom | 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 appeared first on The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, WA.