Transcription downloaded from https://services.pcumc.org/sermons/27513/wisdom/.

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[0:00] We'll be right back.

[0:30] We'll be right back.

[1:00] Hello. Hi, welcome to Pendleton Center Church. We are the Menahem. If this is your first time here, be sure to pick up a welcome bag at the connection site or the Welcome and Information Desk.

[1:11] I hope everyone will put their name on the friendship card that is in their bulletin. If you would like to receive the church newsletter or need to update any information, be sure to fill out your address and phone number.

[1:22] On the back, you can write prayer concerns, blessings, or notes to the staff. Please enjoy the service and have a good day. Good morning.

[1:32] Good morning. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[1:51] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:08] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:22] Let us pray. Lord, we come to you this day to glorify your name, to praise you in worship, and we pray that you will come and fill us to overflow with your Holy Spirit.

[2:34] Help us to experience you, Lord, and praise you all the day in your beauty and your majesty. Amen. I'd like to invite you all to stand, if you're able, as we sing together, O Spirit of the Living God.

[3:11] O Spirit of the Living God, the light and fire divine, descend upon the church once born and make it truly thine.

[3:32] Fill it with love and joy and power, with righteousness and peace. Till Christ shall dwell in human hearts and sin and sorrow cease.

[3:51] Blow wind of God with wisdom blow until our minds are free. From mists of error, crowds of doubt, which blind our eyes to thee.

[4:09] Burn we in fire, inspire our lips with flaming love and zeal. To preach to all thy great good news, God's glorious common will.

[4:26] Teach us to honor living words of truth, which all may hear. The language all men understand when love speaks loud and clear.

[4:44] Till every age and raise and cry shall plant the dreams in one. And earth shall form one family by whom thy will is done.

[5:03] The Lord be with you. And also with you. Please be seated. Hi, I'm Lori Jagow.

[5:14] I'm a lay minister, Christian counselor, and I've recently joined the staff here at Pendleton Center United Methodist Church. We believe the church is God's design to reach people for Jesus Christ.

[5:27] In fact, it is the most important thing we do. We believe everyone has a calling from God and that the ministries of the church are designed by God through the gifted people he sends to the church.

[5:40] We assume value in all people and strive to build a Christian community that will reach the world through love in action by caring for others and offering help to those in need.

[5:52] As a result of the efforts of God's faithful people, the lives of many have been changed. But in a lost and hurting world, so many more need to be touched so that they may soon know that God cares.

[6:06] And so do we. I would like to invite you to join us in our efforts to make a difference in the lives of the people of the church, the community, and the world.

[6:18] Together, we can make a difference by using your gifts and talents. Feel free to stop by and see me or give me a call at the church office. I look forward to getting to know you.

[6:28] One day when you said that prayer, I asked Jesus in my heart. Thank you for giving to the Lord.

[6:46] I am so glad you gave. Thank you for giving to the Lord.

[7:01] I am so glad you gave. We're thankful for God and for the gifts of the Spirit that the Lord gives to everyone.

[7:17] And we wanted to introduce Lori because she's going to be calling people and getting everybody involved, making sure that you're on the right track because we were all called to use our gifts in ministry in some way.

[7:27] So we want to introduce you and hopefully God is moving you in some way to get involved in ministry if you have not done so already. We have a couple of announcements.

[7:39] The first one is that Pastor Jean, I don't know if hopefully everyone's heard, is going to be going on to Trinity United Methodist Church. And we're having a big going away party for her this coming Saturday.

[7:51] And it's a dinner, so please RSVP for that. But it's Saturday. This Saturday is a going away for Pastor Jean. We also have a rummage sale in Niagara Falls.

[8:02] And we're going to start collecting all your stuff. So please start bringing your stuff all this week. And we'll be able to use it out there for missions.

[8:14] And boy, there's so much to be thankful for. I'm starting off with I'm thankful for my dad. I'm thankful for all the dads and the blessings that come with that. And I'd love to hear what you all are thankful for this day.

[8:25] What are you thankful for today? Healthy children. Amen to that. Judy. The incredible missionaries that I met on the way through New Jersey.

[8:39] Just incredible women and women of faith. People witnessing to the faith. Amen to that. Yeah. Anyone else? Anyone else? Christian friends.

[8:50] Absolutely. Yeah. Husband of 22 years. Absolutely. Anyone else?

[9:06] Well, through this time of offering, we come to the Lord with praise and thanksgiving. So as we give, let's reflect on God's goodness and God's incredible blessings in our lives.

[9:16] Ichanna juice.

[9:42] Happy做 recic한테. There's a place Where mercy reigns And never dies There's a place Where streams of grace Flow deep and wide Where all the Lord I've ever found

[10:43] Comes like a flood Comes flowing down At the cross At the cross I surrender my life I'm in a view I'm in a view Where your love ran right And my sin washed white I owe all to you I owe all to you Jesus There's a place Where sin and shame Are powerless Where my heart

[11:46] Has peace with God And forgiveness Where all the love Is a place And my sin Where you are And my sin Where you're all the love I've ever found Comes like a flood Comes flowing down down. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I'm in awe of you, I'm in awe of you.

[12:24] Where your love ran red and my sin washed white, I owe all to you, I owe all to you.

[12:37] Here, my hope is found. Here, unholy ground. Here, I bow down. Here, I bow down. Here, arms open wide. Here, you save my life. Here, I bow down. Here, I bow at the cross.

[13:06] At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I'm in awe of you, I'm in awe of you.

[13:17] Where your love ran red and my sin washed white, I owe all to you. We owe all to you.

[13:30] At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. We owe all to you. We owe all to you.

[13:44] Where your love ran red and my sin washed white, we owe all to you. I owe all to you. I owe all to you. We owe all to you.

[14:04] Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.

[14:15] Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Amen. Lord, we thank you for your goodness and we thank you for your blessings.

[15:01] We give back to you this offering, this gift of gratitude. We pray that you will bless this gift, that it may go out and transform the world in your name.

[15:13] For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. We have a couple of prayer concerns to share with you today.

[15:30] Pray for the Krupp family. Elmer Krupp's brother Warren passed away. Also pray for Dan Piazza who had his gallbladder out and he's home healing from that.

[15:45] And pray for Jennifer Stowe, the Stowe family. Jennifer's father, Jim Hymers, passed away Wednesday. And also pray for Joanne Hanazeski.

[15:56] She and Liz were in a car accident, a pretty serious car accident. And she has many broken bones and she's going to have a long, long road of healing. And we are actually looking for meals for the family a couple times a week.

[16:10] So if you're interested and able to help in that ministry, please let us know. But pray for Joanne as well. Does anyone else have any prayer concerns to lift up today?

[16:27] Pray for Jan Gertz. Yeah. Yolanda's on a mission trip where?

[16:38] In Costa Rica. So pray for safety and a wonderful experience with that. Anyone else? Yeah, Carol.

[16:50] I'm sorry, what? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? So pray for Justine who had a stroke and needs healing emotionally to heal as well.

[17:09] Anyone else? Okay, let's pray. Gracious and loving Lord, we come to you today with thanksgiving in our hearts, knowing that you are our Father who loves us and cares for us.

[17:29] And we trust in you. And we are offering to you our petitions as we ask for your healing in the lives of so many.

[17:40] We pray for healing for those who are named here and healing in the lives who are struggling physically. We pray that you will bind up pain, that they may be pain-free.

[17:52] We pray that you will cast out disease, that people will become whole and well. We pray for those who are struggling with depression and anxiety.

[18:10] And we pray for those who feel hopeless, that they may see and experience your hope. We pray that your hand will bring peace upon the people.

[18:22] Lord, we pray for families and relationships and any brokenness that you will heal, that your love will abound.

[18:35] Lord, we pray for this church, that you will set us in your continual direction.

[18:47] Guide us, that we may proclaim you as a church body. Lord, we pray for our nation.

[18:59] Be with those in leadership, that they may make wise and just decisions. With your love in their hearts. We pray that you will continue to move in our lives, open us up to your Holy Spirit.

[19:20] Help us to know you, to receive you, to move in you and with you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

[19:32] Now let's hear from the word of the Lord.祈ine is one of ourmud, who is Bereich Geist, who isologξ God, giving thanks to Josephson God, the Lord. Thank you. Thank you, Lord.

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[19:56] Through ∂ gain a chance in our relying of his son. Thereforeelim, that' forgiveness, was sfiv so Madison I address at first meeting making alle roads. Good morning.

[20:14] Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Today's scripture reading is from 1 Corinthians 2, verses 4-16.

[20:25] My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.

[20:41] We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

[21:00] None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him, these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

[21:25] The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?

[21:36] In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

[21:51] This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

[22:04] The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

[22:15] The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?

[22:30] But we have the mind of Christ. This is the word of the Lord. Praise to you, God. Papa, can we play outside?

[22:45] No. Why? Because it's five o'clock in the morning. It's too early. Why? The sun hasn't come up yet.

[23:01] Why? Because the sun comes up later. Why? Why? Well, the earth goes around, and when it turns a certain amount, the sun shows on the horizon.

[23:20] Why? I don't know. Why? Why don't you know, Papa?

[23:34] Because I didn't pay attention in school, okay? I didn't listen in class. Why? Why? I didn't think it would matter.

[23:51] Why? Why? I just figured my life would come together on its own. But then I met your mom, and you came along.

[24:03] So now I work at the muffler shop. Why? Why? Why? Well, it's too late for me to pursue a career now, and since your mom has a job with benefits, I stay home and I take care of you.

[24:16] Because what I make is pretty much just a joke. Why? Well, the surface economy of replace manufacturing. There's no real jobs in America anymore.

[24:30] Why? We had good jobs for a while, but it's just because we were lucky, and now we're unlucky. Why? It's just the way it goes.

[24:42] Okay. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Some of us have had that experience at some point in life, one side or the other.

[24:59] We're going to talk this morning about knowledge and wisdom. In this sermon series, we're talking about how we can experience the Holy Spirit through the summer. We're going to talk about experiencing the living God in our lives and the gifts that God gives to us.

[25:14] In this case, the gifts of wisdom and knowledge. Proverbs says to us, blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it talks to us and it says that there are many gifts.

[25:29] And to one is given the spirit and to one is given the spirit and a message of wisdom and to another a message of knowledge by the same spirit. A message of wisdom and a message of wisdom.

[25:42] A message of knowledge which we learn and we grow from. When I was growing up, the way we learned was we read books. Now, how do you make a house a home? One of the things we've added this week to our home is books.

[25:56] I read books. We all were taught that if we read a lot of books, we became very smart. And in fact, if we owned a lot of books, we looked very smart.

[26:06] Sometimes I'd be sitting at the dinner table with my father and I'd ask him a question. And my father rarely gave us an answer.

[26:18] This is what he'd say. Go look it up in the encyclopedia. Now, for those of you who are young and have no idea what an encyclopedia is, it was a bunch of books like Wikipedia.

[26:31] Only really, we thought it was huge, but it was smaller. We had a three-volume dictionary. And we had a 30-volume encyclopedia.

[26:41] It contained all the known information in the world. Therefore known as the World Book Encyclopedia. You had your Funk and Wagner, you know what I'm talking about, right?

[26:53] Britannica. There were all kinds of them. Everything was contained in books. Back 200 years ago, one person could learn all there was to know in the world.

[27:07] Really. Nowadays, you couldn't learn all the information that's been created today if you spent your lifetime trying to do it. Look it up.

[27:18] I hate when my father said that. But he believed that if we worked at it and we discovered the answer, we would be smarter than if he just gave us the answer.

[27:32] And so we've tried to learn in life. And one of the things that we've discovered as a church is that God wants to love him. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, he says to us, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

[27:49] It's called the Shema. But for those of us who attend this church, you would say there's something missing. Anybody remember what it is? Mind. Because in the original Shema, it wasn't there.

[28:02] Jesus added that we're to love God with all our mind. Because in the day that Jesus came along, people from the Greek world had separated the idea of heart, soul, and strength.

[28:17] And added something we call mind. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? You know, in school, I was always considered one of the not-so-smart kids.

[28:31] They were surprised if I ever accomplished any academic accomplishments. It was the same thing when I went to work. Because I asked that question.

[28:44] People would teach me something, and I would ask, Well, why? How does that work? Tell me, explain that a little more. And eventually, the people around me would say, Crap, how?

[28:56] I can't say the word. You know the S word? Are you? Well, the truth of the matter is, I did better on tests than most of those kids, because I found the answer that I was looking for.

[29:10] They didn't want to ask the question. But that kind of experience can affect us. And actually, from kindergarten through third grade, I was one of the least smart kids in the smartest 10% of the school, but I didn't know it.

[29:27] They put us in an advanced group. Back then, they did that. And I wasn't very smart in that class, but I was smarter than 90% of the people just being in that class. But because my peers thought I wasn't very smart, I thought I was.

[29:39] Do you see how that works? Because what people say about us affects us. This passage in 1 Corinthians requires a little background about Paul.

[29:52] He was traveling through a lot of cities and preaching, and he came to a city called Athens. Athens is in Greece. And in that day and age, Athens was the center of intellectual knowledge.

[30:05] Everybody who was smart lived in Athens. The smartest people, Socrates, Aristotle, you've heard of these people, Plato. They all came from Athens. And so Paul went to Athens.

[30:18] And he went right to the center of where they talk about smart things. And he got up on a podium, and he shared why intelligent people should believe in God.

[30:31] And he laid out an explanation. You can read it in the book of Acts. As to why we can prove God. And so if you're intelligent, you should, of course, choose to follow God.

[30:48] At the end it says, a couple people accepted what he said. Most of them laughed at Paul. They described Paul as not being very smart.

[31:01] Now the truth of the matter is, is Paul had studied under the greatest Jewish teacher there was, Gamiel. He had also gone to the Greek university. He was a very intelligent man.

[31:13] But in that company, if they didn't accept him, he wasn't considered intelligent. He was crushed. If you read the first three verses of this chapter, Paul says to you, when I came to you, I didn't come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God.

[31:33] For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came in weakness, fear, and trembling. Now if you've ever read the writings of Paul, he's rarely fearful, weak, and trembling.

[31:49] But he was broken when he came to the Corinthians. Devastated. Because he tried to impress these people with the wisdom of God. And they laughed.

[32:00] So he said, I've decided to preach Christ. And Christ crucified alone. For the last 2,000 years, we've worked on trying to understand what does that mean?

[32:12] And sometimes we try to figure it out using a book. Now my dad introduced me to books. He had a lot of books. My father never went to college. He didn't have the money to do that.

[32:24] But for his generation, having graduated from high school, made him an intelligent man. And he read books every single day. He liked science fiction, so I liked science fiction.

[32:36] I read science fiction books that were huge. Asimov. And the trilogy. And things that other people never even heard of.

[32:47] I read The Hobbit before you ever even knew there was a Hobbit. Because my father introduced me to books. He introduced me to facts and knowledge. And you know that for 15 years, I had a standing subscription to receive the World Book Almanac, and I read it from cover to cover every year.

[33:05] That's just weird. But it's because my dad made books a part of my life. And in the process of that, I learned a lot of things.

[33:16] Now, some of it's just a plethora of useless information. But some of it teaches us things. And we learn how we can understand even our faith by studying and reading.

[33:33] In the book of Deuteronomy, a little further, after the Shemad, says, These commandments I give to you today are to be on your heart. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home.

[33:44] And when you walk along the road. When you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands. Bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. Study them all the time.

[34:00] What do we study? What do we spend our time on? What do we teach our children? What books are on our shelf? I didn't put these books here. I was very pleased to see that one of the books is the book.

[34:14] I shouldn't have been surprised in any way. I know the person who did this. The Holy Bible. How well do you know this book? How well does your family know this book? How well have they studied it and learned it and found out what it means?

[34:29] When I was a little child, my parents taught me these stories. In fact, I went to something called Sunday school. Anybody know what that is? Yeah. School on Sunday?

[34:40] It's where we learned the adventures in the Bible of Adam and Eve and Noah and the ark and all the leaders of Israel. helped us to understand what's true and what's not true.

[34:56] In Timothy, it says to us, all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. And so, we learned. We learned and experienced knowledge and wisdom that we discovered, that we learned together.

[35:13] together. But reading a book isn't always the same as when you experience something from somebody who's been there. My father also taught me how to drive a car.

[35:25] I don't want you to misunderstand. I went to driver's ed. It was a great way to get out of school for an hour or so. You know? I read that little manual that they give to us, you know?

[35:36] Which says, if you come up on a yellow light, what's the policy? You're supposed to gun it. Gun it. That's what it says in the New York manual.

[35:48] Hit the gas and get through it. Quick. Really? There are fascinating things in the book. But my dad taught me things that weren't in the book.

[36:00] So he told me, when you come up on a winter icy day to a left-hand turn, you put on your signal, but you keep your wheels straight. Because if you're sitting there at the light and you have your wheels turned and somebody comes up and hits you from behind, you're going right into traffic and you're going to get smashed.

[36:18] That's a good idea. They didn't tell me that in the book. Of course, the book was written by people who live in Florida, but that's a whole different story.

[36:30] So reading a book isn't the same as experiencing. the experience. In verse 14 of this passage, if you have your Bibles from 1 Corinthians 2, it says, the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, considers them foolishness, and can't understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

[36:55] You can only know them by knowing and experiencing the Holy Spirit. Some of you have been around a long time. You've heard me tell quite a few stories about my dad, so you might think you know my dad, but all you do is know about him.

[37:08] You don't really know him. You know what I'm saying? And it's the same with God. So the Holy Spirit actually gives us access to know the living God, to experience God.

[37:22] In fact, it says in this passage, we have the mind of Christ. Christ. Can you imagine that? We have access to the wisdom and the knowledge of God himself.

[37:35] Now in that 1 Corinthians chapter 12, when it talks about the gifts of wisdom and knowledge, it doesn't just say wisdom and knowledge. It says the message of wisdom and the message of knowledge.

[37:46] So in other words, this isn't just being smart or being wise. This is actually receiving that from God. In verse 13, it says, this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

[38:10] Sometimes God literally gives us information, pours into us the knowledge we need to have. And sometimes God gives us wisdom, which is the ability to decide how to make decisions.

[38:25] There have been times when I've met with somebody and I'm speaking to them and in counseling situations or places where you need just the right words, I hear these words come out of my mouth and I wonder where did they come from?

[38:40] And then I remember where they came from. That God will literally, the Bible says, give us through the Holy Spirit the words we need and the wisdom to understand.

[38:52] King Solomon needed to lead a nation. He had a huge nation. He had more wealth, some people say, than anybody who's ever lived on the face of the earth.

[39:05] He had a powerful army. He had all these amazing things and he pleased God when he built the temple. So God said to him, what do you want? Any gift you want. What would we ask for?

[39:18] More wealth? More power? Maybe the ability to fight like his dad did. Or maybe to sing like his dad did. You know, he was a singing king.

[39:30] Uh-huh. Oh. He didn't ask for those gifts. Not the things we would expect that would get us on America's God talent. But he asked for wisdom.

[39:44] Wisdom. Because he knew he had to make difficult decisions leading an entire nation. You know, I struggle just leading a church. I can't even imagine what it's like to have to make the decisions for a nation.

[40:00] That is so beyond my scope. So what do we do? The Bible suggests we need to ask God for that wisdom and we will receive it.

[40:13] Sometimes I use books. I read books to figure out maybe what somebody else has learned. A few years ago there was a book written by a guy named Rick Warren. It was called The Purpose Driven Church.

[40:27] Some of you read The Purpose Driven Life. This was The Purpose Driven Church. It had actually been out for a couple years before I heard people talking about it. So I sat down with some of the people in our church and read it just to see what I might learn.

[40:43] As I'm going through the book, Rick Warren kept complaining because he said other people kept taking his stuff and had stolen his ideas. Oddly enough, I'm looking at this book and realizing that the stuff he's got in his book is my stuff.

[41:01] Right down to the charts that we drew up here at our church. I'm like, what? You took my stuff, dude? And I try to remember, when did we come up with that stuff?

[41:14] And it was about the same time he came up with that stuff and then, I know it's sometimes hard for things to get through, but I realized none of it was our stuff at all.

[41:27] It's all whose stuff? God's stuff. See, here's the most fascinating thing. We think we are so intelligent because we can take things and put them together in a different way.

[41:41] But I took out my cell phone the other day and I asked Google to tell me something nobody knew. Google can't do it.

[41:54] Google can't come up with something original. All Google can do is tell you what already is known. But God can make something out of nothing.

[42:05] God, the creator of the universe, who hung a planet in the middle of the outer space, can hang intelligence in our minds. And this is what God does is he downloads it all over the place.

[42:20] Believe it or not, all kinds of people hear the message of God. That's what I've discovered. You see it in churches, which is what I work in, because all of a sudden, a hundred, maybe a thousand churches all over the country, even all of the world, start doing the same thing.

[42:36] And it's like it's spontaneous. How did that happen? Because they were listening. You see? They were listening. And they heard what God wanted them to know.

[42:51] Gifts of knowledge. Information. Sometimes I've received words. A number of years ago, I came back and said, God told me it's harvest time.

[43:01] I don't know what that means, but it's harvest time. God has told me a lot of things over the course of my life and my ministry. Some things for me personally, some things for the church.

[43:13] And God gives those to everybody. Now the interesting part is some people take that information and put it in a book and copyright it. I don't know what God's going to think about that someday in glory.

[43:25] To me, the more we give it away, the more God will give it to us. God gives us wisdom. God gives us knowledge so that we can understand who we're supposed to be.

[43:37] Whatever, what no eye has seen, what no hearer has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him. These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit.

[43:53] Not what we learn, as great as the Bible is to teach us what people experience with God over 5,000 years, even greater is that God reveals his wisdom to us through his Holy Spirit.

[44:10] We have access to the mind of Christ. Think about that. That's better than Wikipedia. That's better than Google. We can experience the living God.

[44:25] Have you ever gotten anxious? Anybody here ever get anxious? Worried, troubled about things? Most of us do at some point in time, right? When I get anxious, I try to figure things out.

[44:36] Anybody else do that? I try to figure it out. I'll read some books, I'll go online, I'll talk to other people. But the truth is, is that the first place we should start is not there.

[44:49] In the book of Philippians, in chapter 4, and I love chapter 4, it says, don't be anxious about what? Really? Anything! Anything! Anything! But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, remembering what God has done for you, present your requests to God.

[45:09] I try to figure it out, and eventually, I end up in prayer. You know, the thing about prayer that we miss is just taking the time to listen.

[45:25] Sometimes I wonder if we should just have a time of silence in our church. You know, we have a wonderful worship experience together with God. But sometimes I wonder if we just need to take a couple minutes and listen to God.

[45:45] Not me. I've read a lot of books. I know a lot about God. But could you imagine if instead we just listened to God? Now what I've discovered, if I leave you for over a minute, you freak out.

[46:01] I don't know what that means, but you just can't handle silence. So I'm not going to do that to you. But you can do that. You can take a little time to listen to what God has to say.

[46:14] Knowledge is power. In Proverbs 24, it says to us, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean... No, that's not Proverbs 24. That's okay. A wise man is strong.

[46:26] A man of knowledge increases strength. Knowledge is power. It gives us the ability to understand things.

[46:36] And wise people are more powerful than strong people in general. In verse 6, it says, We do not, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but we speak wisdom not of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.

[46:56] The rulers often think that they're wise and think because they have power or they have wealth. They must be smart. In fact, we do the same thing.

[47:07] We assume because somehow they figured out how to get a bunch of green paper. They must be smarter than us. But that power is coming to nothing. The real power comes from God.

[47:19] They laughed at the Apostle Paul. people have laughed at me. I bet you people have laughed at you. But does it matter what people think?

[47:31] Does it make any difference what others believe about us? I know we're worried about that. Did we dress right? Did we carry ourselves right? Did we say the smart thing? We're so worried what other people will say.

[47:44] But we have the opportunity to experience a living God. You see, the difficulty is people are trying to understand soul things and heart things with their mind.

[47:56] And as good as the mind is, it can lead us astray. In verse 8, it says, None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

[48:08] They killed Jesus. And you know what? Here's how amazing it is. They killed Jesus and released the real power. Because up until that time, the Holy Spirit came upon individuals occasionally, here and there, came and went.

[48:22] But after Jesus was crucified, it says, God poured out His Holy Spirit on all people. Young men had visions. Old men dreamed dreams.

[48:32] Men and women preached the Word of God. The power of God was released. I grew up in the United Methodist Church.

[48:44] church. And I went to church and I learned things. And sometimes the pastor would talk in words I didn't understand. And I discovered a lot of knowledge about God.

[48:58] But somewhere along the line, I struggled because it didn't really seem to matter much in the world until I experienced the power of God itself. Until God Himself became a part of my life.

[49:10] Until the Holy Spirit touched my heart. and then everything changed. And so you might wonder why I talk about this so much. Because I have decided to preach Christ and Christ crucified.

[49:25] Because God has changed me. Not because God changed my mind. Because God changed my life. Touching the Holy Spirit and having that Spirit touch my life transformed me.

[49:42] And I believe that the only way the church of Jesus Christ goes forward is if we can convey the Holy Spirit from heart to heart to heart to heart. In the book of Psalms it says, deep calls to deep.

[50:00] And so my ministry is about releasing that power. About experiencing the Holy Spirit. My message, Paul says in verse 4, and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.

[50:21] I can tell you theological understandings. We can talk about the epiclesis and we can talk about sanctification and justification and all sorts of occasions maybe even vacations.

[50:39] But what I really want you to do is not learn I want you to experience. You don't come here to hear what I have to say. You come here to meet the living God.

[50:50] Amen? And that is the power that God wants to turn loose. Books can make a house a home.

[51:02] Or they can just be for show. Have you seen the movies where they have books all over the place but nobody's ever read any of them? I love this because these books are down on the floor.

[51:14] You know why? Those are the books we read together. Those are the books you read with that small child and they say why? And we give them the best answers we can.

[51:27] And they say why? And we give them another answer and they say why? And we continue to patiently answer their whys. Because when we read together those books make our house into a home.

[51:45] And it's the same thing with God. God wants us to know Him. Know Him like we know our dads. Verse 11 says who knows a person's thought except their own spirit within them.

[52:01] Who really knows you? Who's so close that they understand what's going on inside your heart, your mind, your soul?

[52:12] There's stuff about each of us that's so deep in there no one knows it but us. God knows it and loves us anyways.

[52:31] It's fascinating that good parents love their children no matter what. I've read about tough love.

[52:41] I'm not sure how you do that. I've heard about parents that'll push their kids away. I'm not sure why anybody would do that. I had a father who loved me when I screwed up.

[52:54] I had a father who loved me when I got arrested. I had a father who loved me when I just destroyed myself financially. I had a father who loved me when I made mistakes.

[53:04] I had a father who loved me because I was his son. In fact, he loved me before I could even say dad.

[53:16] He held me like a little baby and decided that no matter what, he was going to care for me. Not everyone has a father like that. I understand that.

[53:27] But that's what a father should be. As someone who loves us no matter what, in spite of who we are, and decides it before we even realize it.

[53:40] In verse 7, it speaks about a great mystery. God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden, that God destined for our glory before time began. And this is what the mystery is.

[53:54] It's God's love. God decided to choose love rather than to condemn us. God could have said, I know these people are going to be messed up, they're going to make mistakes, they're going to hurt me, they're going to break my heart, and I'm going to love them anyways.

[54:13] We all know what John 3.16 says, but John 3.17 says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

[54:25] And in verse 12, it says that this is a gift. This is a gift that God has freely given to us, the gift of grace, freely given. God died to his perfection on the cross, Christ crucified, so that we could be set alive in the power of God, so that we could be at one with God, so we could be in relationship with God, so that we wouldn't be pushed away by the perfect God, but drawn in by a God that takes us the way we are.

[55:01] It's not something we discover, it's something God reveals to us. Back in the 1970s, you know, the last century, when I was growing up, they had a phrase in a lot of churches and Christian circles, I found Jesus, and the corresponding bumper sticker said, I didn't know he was lost.

[55:29] It's kind of a joke, but it's not. God's not lost. God knows where he is. God knows what he's doing. It's not a matter of discovering Jesus or finding Jesus.

[55:44] It's a matter of experiencing the living God. I experienced God, and it changed me.

[55:58] I don't care what people say about me. I don't worry about whether I am some kind of success. I know I won't make it on America's Got Talent, but I like to watch it.

[56:13] I know that the God of the universe has decided to love me, and he loved me before the world began, decided to accept you, forgive you, receive you, before you came to church today, before you were even born, he chose you and called you, Jeremiah says.

[56:40] That's the mystery that the people of Israel prayed about, sang about, come, be Emmanuel, be God in us, be born to our hearts today, and then will receive the wisdom and the knowledge forever and ever and ever.

[57:04] O come, O come, Emmanuel. O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom, captive Israel, Israel, that mourns in lowly exile here, until the Son of God appear.

[57:46] Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee away Israel.

[58:01] O come, thou wisdom from on high, and order all things far and nigh, to us the path of knowledge show, and cause us in her way, ways to go.

[58:30] Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

[58:45] If we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, that word shall come to you changes into has come to us, does come to us. God is very present with us.

[58:55] You know, we as human beings are really, really stubborn and we think we know all the answers, we want to go our own way, but God says, I know the way and I want to show you the way. Open yourself up to me because I have the wisdom of all.

[59:09] So I invite you to a prayer of confession so we can get right on that track with God again. Lord, I am a sinner. I need your grace. Forgive me my sins.

[59:23] Give me your wisdom. Lead me in your way. Help me to follow with all of my life. In Jesus' name I pray.

[59:38] Amen. Lord, I need you. Let'sよ Lord, let's make Lord, I fall, I confess.

[60:17] Thou in here, I find my rest. Without you, I fall apart.

[60:30] You're the one that guides my heart. Lord, I need you.

[60:42] Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you.

[60:52] My one defense, my righteousness. Oh God, oh, I need you.

[61:07] First in one's deep, your grace is born. Your grace is found, is where you are.

[61:19] Where you are, Lord, I am free. Holiness is Christ in me.

[61:33] Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you.

[61:48] My one defense, my righteousness. Oh God, oh, I need you.

[62:01] So teach my song to rise to you. When temptation comes my way, And when I cannot stand, I'll fall on you.

[62:15] Jesus, you're my hope and stay. Lord, I need you.

[62:28] Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you.

[62:38] My one defense, my righteousness. Oh God, how I need you.

[62:51] My one defense, my righteousness. Oh God, how I need you.

[63:05] Rejoice, rejoice. Hear the good news. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. And this proves God's love for you and for me. So in the name of Jesus Christ, Your sins are forgiven.

[63:19] In the name of Jesus Christ, Your sins are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen. And now as a forgiven body of Christ, Let's greet one another With the peace of the Holy Spirit As we prepare for the table of grace.

[63:33] Peace. Sounded good. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Oh yeah, by the way, we're doing the chorus first.

[63:54] So they go through that. I didn't know the person I showed up for the. Oh, when we did our praise team rehearsal.

[64:06] Hey, peace. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

[64:22] And I have fun. So dear, but my life of one, all this worldly peace, and lost to all my life's dark pain, I am bound and lost, and I'm worthless now compared to this.

[64:54] Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing.

[65:09] You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you more.

[65:19] Oh, now my heart seems I am is to know you more, to be found in you.

[65:33] And all as always, you possess by faith what I could not earn, all surpassing in the righteousness.

[65:51] Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing.

[66:05] You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness.

[66:20] You are my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness. And I love you more.

[66:31] As the children do in junior church, they make a little heart and they say to one another, Jesus loves you very much.

[66:49] Jesus loves you very much. Jesus loves you very much.

[67:21] And a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

[67:37] When we turned away and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God and spoke to us through the prophets.

[67:52] And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn. Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

[68:07] Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you. And blessed is your Son, Jesus Christ.

[68:20] Your Spirit. Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people.

[68:36] He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

[68:57] When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took the bread.

[69:11] He gave thanks to you. He broke the bread and gave it to his disciples and said, Take and eat. This is my body, which is given for you.

[69:29] Do this in remembrance of me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup. He gave thanks to you and he said, This is the blood, my blood, of the new covenant, poured out for you, poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.

[69:53] Drink of this often, remembering me. And so, in remembrance of these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

[70:23] Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine.

[70:35] Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. By your Spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

[70:57] Through your Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit and your Holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.

[71:09] Amen. And now let us pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

[71:25] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[71:39] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Will those who are serving please come forward. Amen. Amen.

[72:11] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[72:22] Amen. Amen. Amen.

[72:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

[73:09] Thank you.

[73:39] Thank you.

[74:09] Thank you. Thank you.

[75:09] Thank you. Thank you.

[76:09] Thank you. Thank you.

[77:09] Thank you. Thank you.

[78:09] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[78:21] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[78:33] Thank you. Thank you. Asking what great thing I know That delights and stirs me so What a high reward I win Who's the name I glory in Jesus Christ the crucified This is that great thing I know This delights and stirs me so Faith in Him who died to save Him who triumphed o'er the grave

[79:35] Jesus Christ the crucified Don't be anxious about anything.

[79:47] How can that be possible when I have so many whys? Why? Why? God, why? Why? Why? Sometimes God doesn't tell us. Sometimes God doesn't give us the answers.

[79:59] Sometimes God says, look it up in the book. Sometimes God says, you'll know the answer When it's the right time. Trust in God.

[80:11] Believe that He has your benefit at His heart. Believe that He will give you the wisdom you need When you need it. And the peace of God will be with you Forever and forever.

[80:26]  Go in His peace now and always. Amen. Amen.