Grow in Wisdom | Secrets of the Chill People

🤔 How do you know if you're making the right decision?

Should you take the job?
End the relationship?
Move?
Stay?

The Bible says that getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do (Proverbs 4:7).
In this message, Robert James explores how God gives wisdom to His people through His Word and how Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to stop relying on worldly thinking and start pursuing God's wisdom.

In this sermon, you'll discover:
🧠 What biblical wisdom actually is
🙏 Why spending time with God changes the way you think
📖 How Scripture shapes wise decisions
💪 Why faith and wisdom go hand in hand

If you've been asking God for direction, this message is for you.

At Fierce Church, we're Helping You Walk with Jesus Step-by-Step because The Best U is in Community.

💬 What's one decision you're praying for wisdom about?

#Wisdom #Proverbs #ChristianLiving #BibleStudy #GodsWill #FierceChurch

Transcript

A Bus Station Wake Up Call

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, so around 2003, I was overseas and I came home, and my trip home didn't really go the way I planned it. I know most people are gonna believe it, but I may or may not been at the young phase of life where you're like struggling with who you know that God has called you to be and who you think you want to be, which is the wild, carefree young partying sailor that I was destined to be. And by the way, I was in shape too. So I also had all of the, you know, I had muscles, I had, I could run all day long, you know, I was swiveled. I was even more handsome than I am now. Um, and I went home, and things didn't go like I planned because I was, say, not as wise as I am now. I was a bit of a hothead. I know, it's crazy. Nobody ever sees that coming. Uh and long story short, I left home in a rush. And I was gonna go to my friend's house in Maryland, because I was gonna hang out in Maryland, and then I was gonna catch a Space A flight, and then I was gonna make my way back to Rota, Spain, and then that was just gonna be it. I didn't want to hear about it. Uh, I didn't want to talk about it anymore as it. I made my mind up. I'm gone, I'm out of here, get my stuff, suitcase, whatever. I'm out of here. Well, because God always does this to me, when I get to the Greyhound bus station, because I didn't have enough money to catch a flight, I'm sitting on the bus, and there is uh an older black man by the name of Shorty. I don't even know his real name. Um, his name was Shorty. And Shorty approached me and said, I could tell that something's wrong with you, young man. I could tell uh that something is really, really, really bothering you. I don't know what it is, but I'm supposed to talk to you, and he starts to talk to me about life. Starts to talk to me about making good choices, making good decisions. And then he says to me, out of Proverbs, fourth chapter, seventh verse, it says, getting wisdom is the wisest thing you could ever do. And what else, whatever else you do, makes sure that you develop good judgment.

unknown 2:53

Mr.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Shorty goes on to explain that knowing a whole bunch of stuff really means nothing if you don't understand it, and that understanding leads to wisdom. I was like, wow, that was pretty heavy stuff. But I was still young, hot-headed, you know. Okay, they're silently judging me over here. I'm gonna go over here. Um, I was young and hot-headed.

Knowledge Versus Wisdom In Real Life

SPEAKER_01 3:23

And now those words, 23 years later, resonate with me because if we're gonna be honest about it, Fierce, there's one thing that life will teach us that having all the knowledge in the world is really not enough. Having all the knowledge in the world is like having all the money in the world, and it does you nothing if you don't use it for good. Some of the worst decisions that we've ever made was not because we lacked passion, not because we lacked opportunity, not because we lacked talent, but because we lack wisdom. So here it is. This is what wisdom is. Wisdom takes that understanding and it applies it. It is the ability to make sound, just judgments and choose the best course of action for exactly what it is that we're trying to accomplish. Understanding only tells us uh why something is happening. Uh, wisdom is telling us what to do with the knowledge that we've made understanding of. Not synonymous whatsoever. Anybody in here got a testimony that sounds similar to mine? That if I had known what I know now, I would have moved differently. Or if I had known what I know now, I would have studied harder for that test. If I had known what I know now, I wouldn't have been in that relationship as long. If I had known what I know now, I would have made better use of the money than if I had known what I know now. Story of my life. If I had known. Is it just me? It's not, it's just me. Okay, but just make sure. Just make sure. What about you bought something that uh you really didn't have money to buy, but you bought it anyway, and you sat in a car in the parking lot and you thought about, man, I just bought this. And yes, yes, yes, Lord knows it was a good deal. You got a wonderful discount on it. I mean, it was only uh it was only three for twelve thousand, whereas normally one for twelve thousand. I mean, that is a really good deal. That's a bargain. You can't miss buy one, get one free. I'm here to tell you, have you ever done that? Or is it okay? I do that. Sometimes I do that too. I get in trouble too. And my wife is, my lovely wife is an accountant, and she makes sure that I that I know that I'm messing with the money. Some people think it's easy living with an accountant, and it is, it's lovely. I just have to be on my P's and Q's. I have to, the word account to accountant, it relates strongly to accountability, and my wife, my lovely wife, holds me accountable all the time, especially when it comes to money. You ever stayed in a relationship too long? God showed you enough red flags to start your very own parade. What about asking God for something, and then you go back and you help God because you just made an emotional decision? Had nothing to do with him, but it was just based on how you felt. That's why this message matters this morning. Sometimes the Holy Spirit guides us not by telling us all the things, but he guides us by growing us in wisdom. Is there anybody in here that needs some wisdom this morning? And many times when you don't know what to do, God is less concerned, less interested in giving you the whole blueprint. Matter of fact, he's more interested in developing your judgment. Where you can make sound decisions, where you can rely on what you know to be to make the best choice for your life, and that will bring glory to him.

Jesus As Wisdom Not Self-Help

SPEAKER_01 7:50

So, what it's about now. Hear me carefully. The sermon is not about being the smartest one in the room, being smarter than anybody else. It has nothing to do with that. The sermon is not uh a seven-step spiritual uh success plan. This is not self-help on how to be the best possible human being you could possibly be. This whole thing that I'm doing this morning is really about learning to be like Jesus, learning to be wise and to uh use uh what God has given us already, the a sound mind with the ability to think and to move and to make choices. This is about becoming like Jesus. This is because not only is wisdom something that Jesus has. What if I told you Jesus is wisdom? Let's look at First Corinthians, the first chapter, the 30th verse, where it says, and God has united you with Christ Jesus for our benefit. God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God, he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. That means that wisdom is not spiritual self-improvement. Wisdom is the Holy Spirit that shapes our character into who Jesus is. We ought to look like him, created in his image. We ought to walk like him, created in his image, we ought to talk like him, created in his image, we ought to move like him, created in his image. So this is not about make better choices, and God will love you. Okay, truth bomb. We have nothing good about us. That's nothing good about us in the way that we think, in the way that we move, and the way that we operate. So I want to clear it up with the self-help. If we had self-help, we wouldn't even be in here today. If we could do it ourselves, we wouldn't be covering the seats this morning because we'd have it all together and God already loves you. Matter of fact, he loved you so much, he sent his son Jesus to die for you. And then when Jesus died for you, God then applied grace to our lives. So it's not about what if I make better decisions, then God will love me more. He already does that. But often what it is that we really want is we want guidance, but we don't want uncertainty. We want to be led, but we never want to get lost. We want to know all the things. We want to have all the answers right away because that's the way we're designed. We're designed to have everything that we need, and we're supposed to know everything all the time. We got to have all the answers, we got to have all the pieces to the puzzle, and we got to have all if we don't have that thing start to fall apart, it unravels for us rather than relying on and trusting in him, and this is what it does for us it paralyzes us with fear. Has anybody ever been paralyzed with fear before? What about rush with impatience? Or okay, if I'm talking about you, just look straight ahead, don't look to the left or right. That way your neighbor doesn't know any of the things that you go through. What about pressure, pressured by people or distracted by emotions, or dependent on constant signs from God uh is is what you actually need. And when he's trying to improve your judgment, but this is it. God is not raising spiritual robots, God is interested in raising sons and daughters who have learned to trust and rely on him for everything that you need and to be the source of all wisdom, because when he's the source of all wisdom, you have everything that you need. And here it is, because we can get paralyzed by fear, and because we can uh be rashed because of impatience and even overly influenced by pressure. So sometimes uh we just let people around us just try to influence us and all these other wonderful things, or we become dependent on direct answers from God. We can't even move or do anything, I think, unless we we we reverence it. And oftentimes we reverence it and really, really um, we get really super spiritual. And I'm waiting to hear from God. The Lord is moving, and I'm waiting for him to give me direction. And God is there, but what more do you want? We must learn to be guided by the Spirit's wisdom early and often.

Why Certainty Can Make Us Stuck

SPEAKER_01 13:23

So here it is. This is where we are in 1 Corinthians. Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, and Lord have mercy, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Mary's baby. The church in Corinth was a mess, and uh they had a whole lot of stuff going on. Uh, they had all the wonderful things, they had uh they had gifts, but had no maturity. They uh they had power, but they didn't have any discipline. They uh uh you know they loved church, like coming in to church and being in the church and getting dressed up, taking a bath, stuff like that, getting all ready for church. They loved it, but they struggled with pride, they struggled with schism and division, uh, they struggled with immorality, uh, they struggled with confusion, and mostly they struggled with selfishness. Man, that's a jacked-up church, ain't it? But this is the reality. Yeah, I'm not gonna like this. But the church today, if we are honest, if we're gonna be honest, since we're gonna be honest here, y'all can run me out of here if you want to, that's fine. I can run real quick. Um, I got my truck out there. I didn't even cut it off today in case I have to make a quick bailout. The modern church today is really not much different. Take a look at ourselves. Uh, we we we we're worrying about all of the affiliations, and we worry about classes and uh the somebody's pedigree and pedagogy, and they don't have what I have, and we got everything that we need, and we're one of the best, we got the best of everything, and we have this selfish mentality. It's me and my three, and that's how it's gonna be. There's me and my four, and no more. But what God is calling for us to do is to join together and unite, and how can we do that without wisdom? Some people can speak in tongues, but won't even say good morning to you, much less speak kindly to you. You don't know nobody like that, do you? All right, just make sure. What about um um some people are fluent in Greek and Hebrew, and don't even know how to apologize when it's necessary. Am I talking to somebody? Some folks can quote scripture all day long, but still struggle with how to handle money, how to handle relationships, how to handle anger, how to handle life's frustrations, how to handle all of the things that can come at you. But I want you to know this morning that while the Corinthians wanted certainty from Paul, Paul did not give them certainty. Matter of fact, if we look at it in 1 Corinthians, the 16th chapter, and Paul's motto here becomes so powerful and so beautiful for us, and we have to have what I now call spirit-led flexibility. What spirit-led flexibility means is that we don't prescribe to this hard thing where God has to show us the sign, he has to give us the the pillar of uh smoke, or he has to, if God, if you don't show me, I ain't gonna go nowhere. No, God wants you to make the decision and make a move. Don't worry if you're wrong, he'll really end. Trust me. This happened to me. I was wrong, he reeled me in a few times. I didn't like it though. But in 1 Corinthians, the 16th chapter, Paul says, Perhaps I will stay a while with you, possibly all winter, and then you can send me on my way to my next destination. This time I don't want to make short, just a short visit, and then go right on. I will come to you and stay a while, if the Lord will let me. In the meantime, I will be staying here at Ephesus until the festival of Pentecost. There is a wide open door for great work here, although many oppose me. Let's look at the language that Paul uses in the preceding verse. Perhaps that is not certainty. Possibly, still not certainty. If the Lord will let me, still not certainty. Paul, one of the greatest Bible writers of all time, is not pretending to know everything, and I know that some of us in here may know everything. There's no need to look at Google and all of that because we already got it together. But I'm here to tell you that if Paul didn't know everything, how could you possibly know every spiritual thing and acting in certainty about every single thing? You drive yourself crazy. But Paul teaches us something here. You can be so deeply spiritual and still walk humbly in uncertainty. When you're uncertain, matter of fact, when you're uncertain, that's the best time to walk humbly with our God. And sometimes the Holy Spirit makes it look less dramatic, like all the wonderful things and signs, bells and whistles popping off and all that. And sometimes what it looks like is more prayer. Sometimes what it looks like is more wisdom. Sometimes what it looks like is wise counsel. Sometimes what it looks like, even though most of us need work on it, is patience. Sometimes it looks like, even though some of us definitely need a lot of work on this, flexibility. And then sometimes it's making the faith-filled decision.

Fix Your Eyes On God

SPEAKER_01 19:59

So when you don't know what to do, and there's a passage of scripture that I that I always love, when King Jehoshaphat got word that they were gonna be attacked, King Jehoshaphat went to the people in Israel, which was not very popular at the time for a king to do, and he admitted that we do not know what to do. He was scared. So, what was his prayer? Lord, since I'm scared, I'm gonna get my troops together and we're gonna go chat and try to kill everybody. Not his prayer. Um, Lord, since we got this thing going on, I'm gonna go ahead and just get everybody together, rally everybody, and we're gonna take off running. Not his prayer. His prayer, Jehoshaphat's prayer, is probably one of the most powerful prayers in recorded scripture. He says, Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are fixed on you. What do we do in those situations? We give it an opportunity, let it be an opportunity for us to grow in wisdom. Jesus wants us to be led by wisdom. When we move, when we make a move, we move in wisdom. We we think in wisdom, we talk in wisdom. You know how some people we like to give people a piece of our mind, and we we think that we're talking in wisdom, but I've learned that if we give people too many pieces of our mind, eventually we'll run out of it, and then we won't have any mind left for ourselves, which then in turn makes you absolutely crazy and look foolish. And that is why you never argue with a fool. When you argue with a fool, it's no longer one fool arguing. You guessed it. There's two. See those fingers, those two fingers. But what God wants us to do is number one, this is how we do it. So I know that you all have been waiting. What's the point? Get to the point.

Ask God For Wisdom First

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Here it is. Here it is. I know you've been wanting to know. You've been waiting. What is it? We got to ask God for wisdom. We have to ask God for wisdom. Proverbs 2, 3 and 6, 3 through 6. Cry out for insight and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would silver. Seek them like hidden treasure. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom. For the Lord grants wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Wisdom begins with a simple ask. And one of the most dangerous things in life is assuming that we already know too much. I know that we went to our fine institutions of learning, we've learned all the wonderful things, but you can never know too much. You're not as smart as you think you are. You're not the smartest person in the room. And that's okay. Ask God for wisdom. Some of us don't want to ask God because we trust ourselves too much. Is that true? That might be true. And that's it. I get it. And there are certain situations where we have to, you know, maybe trust ourselves. And we say all of our humble prayers. But we we trust that God is going to do something. We just don't know when. So our faithful prayer sometimes sounds like this. God, I know. You are so good. Thank you. I love you. You know that? I love you, God. Um, you know what I need. So I'm not rushing you. I know you take your time, but if you could please, please make sure that that check gets to me Friday by 1230. In Jesus' name. Amen. That's not waiting on him. That's you and injecting your own idea of what God should do, what he should be doing for you, especially. Um, so you know, at the time, I've I don't y'all got me.

unknown 24:39

Man.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Man, this side has been really heavy on my judgment. So, yeah, I I may a time or two, you're right. You're right. Okay, you're right. I may a time or two have said a prayer similar to that where I just was very specific about date and time that God should make the move so it would be better for me. And that way, by me knowing that God's gonna make the move when I tell him to, instead of asking him for wisdom about how to navigate the situation, then something is gonna get better. And very rarely does it work, but it does feel really good at the moment. Because God, like, nah, I ain't doing that. Be like, dang.

unknown 25:20

All right, never mind.

One Step Guidance And Humbling Moments

SPEAKER_01 25:23

And sometimes we realize God will allow, he will lovingly allow life to humble us in ways that we could never possibly imagine. Now, what does that mean? That's that sounds ugly, that sounds horrible. And and everybody has had a situation in life, even with the young people, have had a situation in life that will absolutely bring you to your knees. What are you talking about? I'm glad you asked me. Y'all are so inquisitive and I love it. You thought you had it figured out, until the diagnosis came. You thought you had it all together, until that relationship failed. You thought you had it all together until you got the test back. And if you had only studied just a little more, you thought what what what better way could it be? You thought you had it all together. You thought your family was good until your child started struggling. You thought that uh uh you were good until the grief hit. You thought you were good, until the bills stacked up. This again, I'm not talking about anybody. Just look straight ahead if that's you. Um you thought you had it all together until anxiety overwhelmed you. It took you over like a flood. You you thought you had it all together. Okay, I'm gonna share a story with you here. Uh, so I've had moments in my life where I've asked God to show me the whole plan. Um, God, let me know about uh what's happening tomorrow, next week. Year from now, I need to know the exact particulars. I need all the details, all the people that I'll encounter. Uh show me in five years or uh show me how it's all gonna work. And I the reality is I don't really know how he works it, but I do know that he does work it. And when he does work it, that it is for our good. So I think back, my grandmother, so okay, so my inner fat kid, right? Inner fat kid. I love, love, love homemade lemon meringue pie. With the, you know, with the whip, the whipped eggs, and put it in there and it browns up real nice. And then if you let it sit for a day or two, now I'm not telling anybody to do this. What when the when the when the when the topping flattens out, it gets like a a chewy texture. And I really, really love that. But my grandmother would take, she would separate the egg, so there's the egg yolk, the egg white, there's the the sweetened condensed milk, and there's all these things. And they were laid out. She'd zest the lemon, she'd have lemon juice, and they were all separate. But then when she put it all together, my goodness and my gracious, what a wonder we have. And that's what God does with us. We don't always know how it's gonna work. We don't really need to know how it's gonna work. What we do need to know is that he is gonna work it, and when he works it, it's gonna be for our good because we love him. God gives us one step at a time. He doesn't give us the whole thing. He's not gonna show us the whole map sometime. He's not gonna give you every direction, he's not gonna tell you everything to do, he's not gonna tell you which step to make, he's not gonna tell you what foot to start off on, he's not gonna tell you who to talk to, he's not gonna tell you where to go. Because wisdom develops when we have a relationship with him. So the question is, are we talking to him enough? He sent us all of these people to talk to us, to impart his wisdom on us, to counsel us, to give us wise counsel. And that's those, these are not the people that we want to hear. But what we do want to hear is stuff that makes us feel good. We'll see somebody on social media like uh an influencer with a ring like no fruit. We'll see a content creator that doesn't know Christ. We'll even listen to a podcast with no power from the Prince of Peace. But let us it it made us feel good. Lord help us in here. So to my teenagers, why are you trying to figure out your identity and dating and all of these wonderful things and sports and school and your future, and everybody has their opinion, but God knows what it actually looks like. God knows what your life's gonna look like already. My young adults, which I am a young adult, just want people to know that. Only like, I'm only like 25, something like that. The pressure to to to to to move in fast, to to just move, just to have life and just to keep going and on and on and on and have the job and a relationship and the children and the career decision and the money. You gotta have all of these things. You gotta have all of that. To parents, I have learned more from my children. There have been moments in my life when my children have absolutely leveled me. And I'm the parent, I'm the one that knows everything. I'm supposed to know everything. I'm telling you, what I say, do. Do it. Now, get it. Y'all know I still have that every now and again. I use my diaphragm to project my voice, and it can get super loud. So um, that's something that I learned when I was teaching uh young sailors how to be uh not crazy sailors. So I still use my diaphragm. I still got it in there, it's in there. Teach your children how to seek God. That that's where wisdom begins. Matter of fact, uh everybody comes to a season where life stopped making sense. I've I've been at several seasons where life just doesn't make sense at all, no matter how hard I try to rationalize it. And in those moments, I I'll lie to myself and I say, God, uh, if God doesn't explain everything to me, then uh he must not be guiding me. But the truth is, God can guide us even when he doesn't explain everything to us. Sometimes the prayer is not, Lord, show me the whole map, but simply, Lord, what is the next step? Again, Jesus is wisdom. And 1 Corinthians, I just want to read it one more time for you. God has united us with Christ Jesus for our benefit. God made him to be wisdom itself. The closer we get to Jesus, the wiser our life becomes. We cannot walk deeply with Christ and still remain unchanged. It's impossible. You just can't do it. Something about his character, his person is gonna rub off on you. And wisdom grows. Listen, wisdom grows where Jesus is loved. So the first thing is

Walk With Wise People

SPEAKER_01 32:49

ask. Then, not only do we want to ask, but now we want to walk with wise people, and this is where it comes really heavy. Because Proverbs 13 and 20 walk with the wise and become wise. Associate with fools and get in trouble. It don't get no plainer than that. I mean, I could really just stop right there. The relationships that we involve ourselves in, the people that we connect ourselves to, yes, they really they actually matter. Matter of fact, I'm one of the few people on the planet. I still have the same friends I had when I was in kindergarten. Same people. For whatever this thing was that God knew about me or was doing with me, He He He always had me around these boys. And now that I look back, again, knowing then what I know now, what I see is that what God was doing was developing my standards, He was developing my habits, He was developing my thinking, He was developing my discipline, He was developing my desires, and He was developing and shoring up my future. You cannot consistently hang around chaos and have peace. It is impossible. I mean, some have tried, it just doesn't work. You cannot normalize foolishness and think you're gonna glean some wisdom from it. No matter how hard you try, wrong will still be wrong, and it will never be right. And right will still be right and never be wrong, no matter how hard you try. Okay, so here it is. Okay. I've watched people delay their own growth because they stay connected to unhealthy influences. I've seen what happens. I I've seen it all, I see it all the time. I've seen people stay loyal to relationships that they know are destroying them. I've seen people uh that will clap while you ruin your life. Matter of fact, they want you to run the car to the brick wall so they can talk about it. No, young people, if your friends are your friends, just know that they're they're discipling you right now. Parents, your children are being shaped by screens and influencers and music and algorithms and peers and culture. And if you want wisdom to grow, you must intentionally surround yourself with wisdom. Matter of fact, you should pull to the old saints. Because the old asking the older saints, how did you survive? How did you stay married all this time? How did you go through this? How did you keep the faith? How did you make it in the midst of grief? And do you know, would you believe me if I told you that there are uh there are loads of wisdom and the scars that they have. In order to have scars, you must survive. You don't survive, there are no scars. Talk to the people who have scars.

Make The Move And Share

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Not only that, but then we're gonna make a wise decision. And then I'll be out of here. Give me two minutes. 1 Thessalonians, finally, we could stand no longer. We decided to stay alone in Athens. So after prayer, after counsel, after wisdom has moved in, you move. You gotta do something. You can't just stay there. Yeah, I know that you're afraid, but you gotta move. I know that you're afraid of failing. You're afraid of having regret. You're afraid of choosing the wrong thing. You're afraid of looking foolish, you're afraid of stepping out. I get all of that. But we can't stay frozen in fear. We have to move in faith. And don't think that the middle ground is not good. The middle ground is still not good because you can be indecisive, and indecisive is a decision not to make a decision, which can become disobedience too. I know you thought you had out right there, but you don't. I brought you back in. So, what am I saying here? Do we need wisdom today? Who needs wisdom? Where do you need wisdom? Do you need wisdom in your marriage or even in your parenting? Or even in your finances, or your relationships, or your emotions, or your calling, or your next step? Where do you need wisdom? Will you let the Holy Spirit make you wise? Will you ask? Will you surround yourself with wise people? Will you walk with wise people? Will you reject uh foolish influences? He's walking with you right now, matter of fact. I want you to know that God is walking with you. He is guiding you, he is correcting you, he is strengthening you, he is maturing you, he is loving on you because he is wisdom.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

All right, folks, that's all the time we have. But thank you so much for listening to this sermon. If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it. Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel. Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out. Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com. And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.