(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
Am I being wise or stupid?
Intro:
A lawyer, a priest, and a podcast host walk into a bar. And the lawyer and priest look at the podcast host and go, “Roger, when are you going to figure out what you’re going to be when you grow up?”
Alright, we’ve got to be able to laugh at ourselves sometimes, right?
Seriously, when you’re faced with a decision, sometimes — or oftentimes — we don’t have perfect clarity. And in light of today’s readings, a good day to talk about wisdom — am I being wise, or am I just being stupid?
Credit where credit’s due — I happened to see a blog post from Carey Nieuwhof that shared a perspective I’ll get to in our Bottom Line segment today (link in the show notes). But our Wisdom Segment is going to be longer than normal today, and we’ll catch a useful tidbit at the end of our New Testament segment, too. So let’s get to it…John 15 is all red words today.
New Testament segment:
Passage: John 15
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 27
Words: ~580
Let’s double-down on a couple things Jesus said — first, he’s the vine, and the moment you get disconnected, the minute you start drying up. And just like you need physical food and drink every day, we need spiritual food and drink every day, too. But catch that last thing we read — what does the Holy Spirit — Counselor and Comforter — what does the Spirit ALWAYS do? “He will testify about Me?” We’ll come back to that.
Old Testament segment:
Our OT segment today is extra-short because, well, Obadiah is the shortest book in the OT. Before we get into it, however, let me remind you of a couple things.
First, remember back in Jeremiah when we’d hear a prophecy against one of the surrounding nations, but that prophecy was really for the people of Israel? Well, that’s what we have here. The “other” kingdom is Edom, and you’ll hear God’s beefs with them — the biggie of which is something considered a reeeally big deal — violence against a family member.
Two, who was that family member? Well, remember Jacob and Esau back in Genesis? The Israelites are the descendants of Jacob, and the Edomites were from Esau. But this isn’t just about Jacob and Esau — the history of the Edomites includes violence against the Israelites.
Passage: Obadiah
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 21
Words: ~604
So what’s the overall theological message of all this? God punishes sin, and particularly holds accountable those that take advantage of others in distress. And trust in anything but God is never secure, which is a nice segue into our Wisdom Segment.
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Psalm 135
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 21
Words: ~345
Passage: Proverbs 18:18-19:8
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 15
Words: ~238
2 Even zeal is not good without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily sins. Pr 19:2, CSB
8 The one who acquires good sense loves himself; one who safeguards understanding finds success. Pr 19:8, CSB
The bottom line:
So how do you know if you’re being wise or stupid? Carey Nieuwhof makes the following argument:
You’re faced with a big decision or situation — there’s a fine line between trust and irresponsibility.
Real risk lives on the edge of the spectacular where things going end up awesome or awful.
The Bible has a variety of leaders whose stories aren’t necessarily helpful. Hindsight makes them appear spectacular, but imagine being the one who thought he heard a voice telling him to leave everything and take his crew to some foreign country. Or getting thrown into a lion’s den because you thought you just had to keep praying.
Ask yourself two questions:
Is “wisdom” from the Bible squelching your trust in God? Sometimes what we call wisdom might actually be a fear that’s covered up.
Does your “trust in God” disregard appropriate wisdom? Sometimes saying we’re just going to trust God is actually irresponsibility or disobedience or insecurity.
His suggestion? Just make a decision. Seek good counsel and pray telling God you’re going to trust Him, particularly to change your course if you’ve chosen inappropriately.(1)
Here’s my observation and addition. You see the tension Nieuwhof’s set up — one that asks for you to manage a tension (like when we talk about truth and grace). We need Godly input and we should take care to not throw appropriate caution to the wind.
Looking back on some key input from today, we see that conditions for success here include staying plugged into Jesus as the true vine and listening in earnest to the Counselor, the Holy Spirit who will be 100% consistent keeping Jesus front and center…which we do via prayerfully reading the Bible Jesus affirmed. In fact, in 1 Jn 4 John writes that we should “test the spirits.” Clearly this means that we have the potential to be listening to the wrong one.
Too, we should check our own hearts — even zeal alone is not enough…we all need knowledge. Where do we get that? And we heard that acquiring good sense is a form of self-love not in a bad way, but like putting on your mask first so you can help someone else.
Finally, you may remember a few months back I told you of hearing Josh McDowell getting to the place in his ministry where he’d do exactly what Nieuwhof’s proposing — be informed and seek counsel, but even if you lack perfect clarity, prayerfully make a decision and trust God to guide.
Love you!
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(0) Paraphrased from Carey Nieuwhof, How to Know Whether You’re Trusting God…or Just Being Stupid, blog post, https://careynieuwhof.com/can-tell-whether-risk-means-youre-trusting-god-being-stupid, accessed October 4, 2020.