Week 5 - Wisdom from the Word

July 24, 2009

Wow, this week was awesome! Here’s the list…James3: 13-18, James 4:1-10, Psalms 37, Jeremiah 12, Judges 3, Matthew 25: 1-13, and Daniel 10.

James 3: 13-18 – Two kinds of Wisdom. Where are we getting our wisdom? Under what spirit’s influence are we living our lives? The bible is very clear about the two sources being either good or evil and they are easy to recognize.

James 4: 1-10 – These first few verses give a clear picture of someone who is living life from evil wisdom and the last few give us the way to godly wisdom. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (Vs.6) Here we learned that we are to be humble before the Lord and this theme carried on throughout the evening. I’d also like to note that in verse 9, God wants us to get serious!

Psalm 37 gave us further examples of wisdom and instruction about living like God wants us to live. Chapter 37 was packed with promises and advise about the wicked. It seems like some people can live like the devil and have everything go their way. But Psalm 37 makes it clear what will happen to the wicked…they won’t get away with their wickedness and God will make sure of that.

There were many action words in this psalm and there are things we need to do on our part some of these words are…Trust verse 3, delight (4), commit (5), be still (7), refrain (8), turn (21), and wait (34). There were wonderful promises associated with these action words, check it out.

Jeremiah 12 fit beautifully with Psalm 37 as Jeremiah is frustrated about the wicked always getting their way. He complains to God about this even going so far as to tell God to butcher them like sheep! (vs.3) He vents his anger to God and God responds in verses 9 to the end of the chapter by saying…(my paraphrase) look, Jeremiah, if these little things distract you and make you mad what will you do when life really gets tough!?

God goes on to explain to Jeremiah just how he will deal with the wicked, first from among his own people and then from other nations. God ends with compassion for the wicked saying in verses 15-17 that he will restore anyone who does things his way but if they want to continue with their own ways they will be destroyed.

Judges 3 shows the crazy cycle that we all get on when idols get in the way of our relationship with God.
1. The people worshipped idols therein being disobedient to God (literally having an affair in his eyes).
2. God would send a nation to take them into captivity and slavery.
3. The people would cry out to God.
4. God would send someone to deliver them.

Not just in Judges can you see this cycle but it goes on and on throughout the bible and also in our own lives. In our society, we are enslaved to such things as payments, fatty bodies, food, money, credit card companies, trends, drugs, alcohol and the list goes on. We become slaves to the very things we worship just as the Israelites did.

Matthew 25: 1-13 reminded us to be ready and watching on every occasion for Jesus to return. I wouldn’t want to be caught unprepared when Jesus came, that would be very foolish. We touched on the fact that verse 5 says that all ten virgins were asleep. The virgins represent the church as we are the Bride of Christ. (Revelation 19:7-8, 21: 1-4)

Some were ready in a moments notice and some were not but even the ones who were ready were sleeping at the time. No one will have this thing down perfect but when the trumpet sounds it is too late to get serious about your faith in God.

Finally in Daniel 10, Daniel receives a revelation about future events from a man, but not just any man. This scripture shows us our frailty in the presence of God. Daniel becomes weak and falls on his face before the presence of God.

It is only as the man (Jesus) speaks to him that he gains strength enough to stand but even then Daniel says in verse 17 that he can’t even speak and is barely breathing. Again the man speaks to Daniel and as the words “peace, be strong now, be strong” are spoken he regains enough energy to speak.

We talked about how this is also a perfect representation of Ephesians 6:12 from last week. Without God we are nothing and cannot fight in the spiritual realm, even this man needed help!

We are to use the wisdom God gives us, to live godly lives pleasing to our Savior. It’s time to let the things of this world go that so easily ensnare us and run the race marked out for us from the beginning of time. It is a warning to every member of the Body of Christ to know him and be watching and ready for his return.

It is a cry from the heart of God to those who don’t know him to humble themselves before him and come to know him! In these end days, there is no more time for games! It’s time for every believer to live the life we’ve been called to and stop making excuses. This was a very sobering study for us but very necessary. I’m glad for the discipline of God that tells me of his love for me.