When Wisdom Conflicts

When God’s wisdom clashes with what the world calls smart, the cross becomes the turning point. In 1 Corinthians 1:18–25, Paul shows how the message of Jesus crucified sounds like foolishness to some, but is actually the power of God to save. This sermon exposes how pride demands proof and control, and why God’s rescue refuses to play by our terms. The invitation is simple and personal: trust God over appearances, lay down pride, and respond to Christ with humble obedience, repentance, and faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning. It is certainly good to be here today and to worship with each and every one of you as we gather together to sing praises to the Lord and uh just fellowship with one another. Always a blessing to be here at Chisholm Hills. Now, I've reached that point of recognizing that my daughter has it all figured out. And I know she's only five. She just turned five last month, and she seems to have all the answers. And I know I know what you're saying. We'll just wait till she gets to be a teenager, right? But especially when it comes to her clothing, she she seems to always have an idea of what she wants to wear, and she's only five. And I'm like, this is gonna get bad, isn't it? I'm set up for what's coming, I guess. But um it seems like she always wants to wear a dress. We're heading to the park. She picks out her fanciest dress and says, Hey, I want to put this on to go slide down the slides and swing in the swings. Like, Willa, I know you want to wear a dress, but this isn't gonna work at the park. We're gonna get it all dirty, and a dress just isn't the right thing to wear while you're sliding down a slide. And she's like, But I want to wear a dress, and I have to convince her that you may want to wear a dress. You may think that's what you want to wear, but it's just not practical for where we're going. This also manifests in her shoes. She always picks out the shoes she wants to wear. She wants to wear the fanciest ones all the time. And I gotta say, hey, those shoes aren't the best for running in the mulch. Those aren't the best ones when we're going to this place. And recently she found a pair of shoes that she wanted to wear. And I told her, Well, those are just too small. You've already grown out of them. You're growing so fast you can't wear those shoes anymore. And she said, Well, I just want to wear them. And so, you know, as a parent, and you've all been there, you gotta pick your battles at times, right? So I said, Okay, well, I'm gonna let you wear those shoes, but you're gonna realize that those are too small. And before we got home, she started complaining, Daddy, my shoes are too small. And I said, Well, that's what I told you from the beginning. But she said, But those are the ones that I wanted to wear. And I think that's uh that works a lot of times in our lives. We have things that we think we got figured out, we have things that we think we want to accomplish, but it turns out we were wrong the whole time. Anybody ever been there before? This whole quarter we've been talking about wisdom and how it manifests in our lives and the way we put it into practice. And one of those things about wisdom is sometimes it conflicts with the world. The wisdom of God's word often conflicts with our culture. So let me start with something we all know, but I think we don't always live like it's true. Some of the most important things in life just don't look right at first. You ever been there before? A controlled burn in a forest. It looks destructive. It looks like it's just making things worse. But the whole idea behind it is to control the fire. How about chemotherapy? It looks like poison when you're going through it. It hurts, it makes you weak, it makes you sick. It doesn't look like healing. But often, chemotherapy can be the exact thing that brings healing. Then we have something like pruning a healthy branch. When you go in there and start cutting on some kind of plant, it looks wrong. It looks like you're killing it. It looks like you're harming something that's actually growing. But the gardener cuts so that the plant can come back stronger so that it can bear more fruit. And I think in this world we tend to hold on to these types of ideas that we think are right at the time, but it turns out are not. And I think often some of the most important things in life just don't look right at first. And right here is the tension from today's message. God often works in ways that may look foolish to the world. Things that just don't look right. And I think nowhere is that more true than when we head to the cross. The cross in itself is wisdom. The cross contradicts everything the world tries to tell us. But in it is life, in it is ultimate truth. In the cross, we find hope. So here's the bottom line I want you to hold on to today. Trust the cross when God's wisdom looks foolish. So let's read our text. If you have your Bibles, I want to encourage you to open them up. 1 Corinthians 18, excuse me, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 18 through 25 is going to be our text, and we're going to kind of work our way through it this morning. So I want you to read it with me from your own Bibles if you have them. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where's the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made him foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Paul says something in this text that's either offensive or it's freeing, depending on the state of your heart right now. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So in that verse, it presents to us two ways to hear the message of the cross. There's really not a third category. You just get two options and how you will receive it. You don't get to do to be neutral. You don't get to look at it and say, Oh, that's interesting. You don't get them still processing. In the end, it lands one of two ways. It's either foolishness or it's power. There's no in between. And the question is not just, do you understand it? The more important part of that question is will you surrender to it? Will you make it your life? Because the cross doesn't flatter anyone. The cross offends pride. The cross itself humiliates human boasting. The cross says you can't save yourself. You can't earn it. You can't outsmart sin. You can't outrun death. And you can't stand before a holy God with a resume that means something. There's nothing you can accomplish to earn your way to salvation. There's nothing you can achieve where you can even stand before God in the first place. Because sin is a part of your life outside of Him. And the cross tells you that. The cross says the only way to eternity, the only way to relationship with God is through the cross. So we have to recognize that. It's a humbling experience when we come to Him. We have to realize that I can't do this on my own. That's the very message of Christianity. That's our primary position when we come to Him. The cross says, You need mercy. I think that's exactly why the world hates it. But it's also why the humble love it, why we need it. Because it's the only place that real rescue is found. You can't find it anywhere else. So I want to walk you through this text again in a simple way as we kind of press it into our lives. We're going to follow the flow of Paul's argument here this morning. And I'll give you four simple points, four anchors to kind of hold this message together. The first one is this trust the cross when God's wisdom looks foolish. And that's our opening statement. And so we'll go on to here. The message of the cross looks like foolishness to the world, if you're using your outlines this morning. The message of the cross looks like foolishness to the world. He starts in verse 18. The word of the cross is folly. And that word folly is talking about foolishness, nonsense, absurdity. Something that you might look at and laugh. But have you noticed in this world a lot of the things that we laugh at, a lot of the things that look absurd sometimes really actually work? You need a toaster. Create your own at home. It looks silly, but if it works, just as good as having a toaster, right? How about this one? This is a homemade AC system. Just run some pipes throughout the windshield of your vehicle. You know, it looks silly, but hey, if it keeps you cool, it works. How about this one? Doorbell is broken. Please just say ding dong really loud. Hey, it works, right? You don't necessarily need to push a button. Need a grill. Hey, you got a trailer, just pop that gate down. You're good to go. It looks absurd, but I guarantee those steaks tasted good, right? Sometimes absurdity looks crazy until it works, until it becomes something that you need. How about this one? We needed a spoon, so hey, let's just make our own. Got a pipe here, let's just cut our way around it. We can make it work. And this one you may can't tell from where you're sitting. The car looks like it's a good paint job, but if you look really close, that's duct tape. They got it wrapped up in duct tape. Again, looks crazy, looks absurd, but hey, it gets the job done and it works. Sometimes the most absurd things are the most incredible things. That's certainly the case with the cross. You have to understand what a cross meant in their world to understand this point. And again, this is probably a lesson you've heard many times before, but in the Roman Empire, crucifixion wasn't just execution. It was meant as humiliation, it was shame, it was public degradation. It was designed to say, this person is nothing beyond nothing. That's what crucifixion was all about. So when Christians stood up and said, Our king, oh, that's the one that was crucified. The world didn't just disagree. They scoffed. Your king was crucified? Those don't go in the same sentence. That doesn't work. It sounded like this. Wait, your savior got executed like a criminal? That's your hero? That's your victory? It doesn't make sense. It's hard to comprehend. In other words, the cross didn't just look weak, it looked absolutely ridiculous. And let's be honest, it still does. To a world, to a culture that glorifies image and strength. We live in a culture of platforms, of influence and applause. Think about the things we celebrate. Those things are that are impressive. We elevate the things that look powerful. We trust the things that are polished. We assume that if something is true, then it should be winning according to the world's scoreboard. But the gospel itself doesn't come packaged that way. It's not presented to us in that manner. God saves the world through a suffering servant. God conquers sin through sacrifice. God wins through losing. It doesn't make sense. And he reigns through a crown of thorns. And I think this is why the cross will always clash with the world. Put it in simple terms. If you choose the cross, you will look foolish to people who worship success. And that's where the first internal battle starts for many of us. It's not so much is the cross true, did this happen, but what will people think of me if I live like this is true? Because the cross calls you to things that don't look very impressive. Think about it. It calls you to repent. It calls you to confess sin. It calls you to forgive people who don't deserve it. It calls you to sexual purity in a culture that simply mocks that kind of behavior. It calls you to generosity when everybody else is just hoarding up riches. It calls you to service when everyone else is just trying to climb the ladder. And oftentimes the cross will feel like swimming upstream because let's face it, it is. But hear this the cross is not foolish. It only looks foolish to the world's values. Our culture calls it foolish. But in the end, it's where wisdom truly reigns. And I think that's the point that Paul is trying to make here. And that takes us to our next anchor, our next point from this text. Pride resists God because it wants proof on its own terms. Former heavyweight boxer James Quick Tillis is a cowboy from Oklahoma. He fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. He tells the story of remembering his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. He says, I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago, and I stopped in front of the Sears Tower. He says, I put my suitcases down and I looked up at that tower and I said to myself, I'm going to conquer Chicago. When I look back down, the suitcases were gone. I think pride presents itself that way. We want to conquer on our own. We want to achieve things by ourselves. When we begin to put our trust in ourselves, we often come crashing back down to reality. In the text in verse 22, it says, For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. And I think in that, Paul names for us two different kinds of pride. One says, I'll believe God if he gives me a sign. The other says, I'll believe God if he gives me an explanation, then I can actually respect. It's different packaging, but it both comes down to the same heart, to the same prideful ambition. One says, prove it with power, the other says, prove it with sophistication. But either way, pride is still on the throne saying, God, I'll let you be God if you simply do it my way. Pride is all about. And here's what pride cannot handle. That comes in verse 23. Read that one. It says, But we preach Christ crucified. That message refuses to let you stay in control because at the cross you don't negotiate. You don't get to edit. You don't set the terms. You either bow down or you walk away. Those are your choices. But it's one you have to make. You don't get to straddle the fence. And I think that's why pride resists God's ways. Have you ever thought about this? God, and you may have heard this uh statement before, but God designed the human body so that we cannot pat our own backs. I think there's some wisdom in that. Pride doesn't mind religion as long as religion makes you feel smart. Pride doesn't mind church as long as church makes you feel respectable. Pride doesn't mind spirituality as long as it doesn't require surrender. But the truth is, the cross requires surrender. And here's one of the reasons the cross is so offensive. It doesn't let you brag. Because it's no longer about you. And that's a tough part for a lot of us to wrap our minds around. We can say it all day long, but are you living like it? Are you holding on to his wisdom? Are you holding on to that cross? Is it influencing your decisions? Are you trusting in his plan instead of your own? That's what the cross is inviting us to: a life of surrender to God, but yet we want to hold on to our own imperfections. We want to hold on to that sin that we have sweeped under the rug, the one we hope nobody else sees. But God's calling us to surrender. Give it all up to Him. Put your trust in Jesus on that cross. You came to God through the cross. You didn't come with your strengths. If you're a Christian today, that means you came to God with your sin. It means you came with your need. The reason you come to Christ in the first place is because you feel shame. You come empty-handed. You don't come to him and say, Look at how great I am, look at all the good things I can do in your kingdom. No, you come to him and say, I need you. You come to him and say, I'm dead. There's nothing else I can do because I am broken. And only you can make me whole. Only Jesus can provide me rest. Only Jesus can make me whole. That's what Christianity is all about. That's the core of our faith. And for a world that wants power, a world that wants sophistication, that looks like weakness. You see why it's hard to comprehend. The cross says you are worse than you thought. But what I want you to also see about the cross is at the same time it says you are more loved than you ever dared to hope. You can imagine love in many ways, but your mind can't wrap itself around the love that God has offered to you on that cross. You see it. Pride hates the first half of that statement. But grace loves the second half. But you can't get the second half without admitting the first half. You can't get to grace if you're holding on to pride. You can't Look at yourself in reality and say, I'm way worse than I thought I was, then you're never going to understand the grace that God has poured out. And I think that's the heart of this conflict within us. Because the world's wisdom says, prove yourself, but God's wisdom says, come to me and be forgiven. The world's wisdom says, protect your image. But God's wisdom says, come, it says, lose your life, and there you will find it. So let me ask you very plainly this morning where in your life are you resisting obedience because it would cost you your pride? I think there are little places that it shows up. Where is that true in your world? I'll give you a few examples. I think some of us are resisting repentance because we don't want to say I was wrong. Has anybody been there, or maybe you're in that space right now? I think some of us are resisting baptism because we don't want to look foolish. We want, don't want to put away the things we've always been taught. But God's word lays it out clearly for us. Some of us resist confession because we don't want to be exposed. We don't want people to know our business. So we hold on, and when that invitation song is sung, we sit back in our seats because we don't want everybody to know. I'll just take care of it myself. But oftentimes it means coming forward and let us wrap our arms around you and let's work through this together. We say, because the pride is holding on. I don't want everybody to know business. I want to I don't want to open up, I don't want everybody to know. So we allow that to keep us from healing. We allow it to keep us from grace and the love that the church pours out. I think some of us are resisting forgiveness, forgiving others because we want to feel superior. Should you hold on to that resentment? Well, according to the world standards, probably. But God calls you to humble yourself. And oftentimes forgiveness brings us down a notch. Pride cannot save you, pride can only isolate you. And that's why God's wisdom confronts it. Which leads us to our third anchor. And I know we're running out of time. We'll move quickly. Verse 24 says that to the called Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. If you're using your outlines, God's weakness is actually his power to save. Paul says, For the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man. I want you to hear this. He's not saying God is actually foolish or weak. That's not what he's talking about here. But he's saying here, even what you mock as weakness is stronger than anything you got. We look at the cross and say, I can't believe he did that. And in that is built a strength that we can't even comprehend. So what is God's weakness in the eyes of the world? It's the cross. A crucified Savior looks like weakness, but in reality, the cross is God's power at work. How is that so? Because the cross doesn't just inspire you, it accomplishes something. At the cross, Jesus doesn't merely show love, he pays for your sin on the cross. He carried your sin with you. He provides forgiveness for all of us, and grace is extended because of what he did on that cross. On the cross, Jesus doesn't just demonstrate courage, he substitutes himself in your place. What an amazing moment that is in history. The world says power is the ability to avoid suffering. I want you to hear this. The world says power is the ability to avoid suffering. But God shows power by willingly entering suffering to rescue others. See, it doesn't line up because God's way is better. And that's why the cross is wisdom in and of itself. And if that feels upside down, it's because the gospel rearranges what we think strength is. It doesn't add up according to worldly understanding. Think about a firefighter that's running into a building to save those inside. But in that, the firefighter is showing strength, showing sacrifice, showing love, pouring that out for those that need help. That's strength, isn't it? The cross looks like weakness, but the reality is that it is rescue. It's God's rescue mission here on this earth. And you can't really follow Jesus until you stop demanding that God's rescue look impressive to the world. So let's make it personal. Some of you are facing things right now that may not look like winning. Maybe you're in the middle of a storm in your life. Maybe you're hurting because of some choices you made, or just because the world is broken. And you're in the middle of the season where it hurts. Maybe it feels like loss. Maybe it looks like surrender. Maybe it feels like weakness, or maybe you just feel misunderstood. And I think the temptation for us in those moments is to assume that God is absent because it doesn't look powerful. That's our temptation. Why are we in the middle of this? Because God isn't with me right now. Sometimes God is doing his deepest work right where it looks like weakness. Hear that? Sometimes in that storm is exactly where you need to be to grow. Maybe we're we're begging God to get us out of this, to deliver us from this pain, this hurt, this season of life. But then 10 years down the road, you look back at that moment and you say, Man, that look at how far I've come. Look at what that moment did for me. Look at what that season taught me. Oftentimes the greatest maturation we find in our life is when we're going through something. So the storms we put to work, or God puts to work in our lives to teach us something. I think that's why God's weakness is actually his power to save. Because in those moments are the times that he's really showing up. Sometimes the very place you think is proof that God has forgotten you is actually the place where God is shaping you, where he's saving you, where he's purifying you, where he's leading you to something better. Again, chemotherapy doesn't look like healing, but it can be healing. Pruning doesn't look like growth, but it creates growth. The cross doesn't look like victory, but man, it is the ultimate victory. So don't confuse looks weak with worthless. Don't confuse humbling with harmful, and don't confuse surrender with losing. In fact, surrender is where we find our strength. And that's why Paul says the cross is the power of God. Here's our last point. When God's wisdom conflicts with appearances, I will trust the cross. So we move from these points in the text to an idea that becomes a decision that we must make. This is what we must declare each and every day of our lives. When God's wisdom conflicts with appearances, I'm gonna trust the cross. I'm gonna trust Jesus at the end of the day. Because the cross calls for trust. And it's not trusting yourself, it's not trust in your own instincts, it's not trust in what makes you look impressive, but trust in Christ crucified. Trust doesn't mean you agree with it, trust means you stake your life on it. You're all on board. So what does that look like? I think it looks like obeying when obedience makes you look foolish. Here are a few examples. It looks like refusing to cheat even when it costs you money or a good grade. Holding on to truth, refusing to step outside of God's ways, even if everybody else is doing it. It looks like honoring your marriage, honoring your marriage vows in a culture that laughs at covenant. It looks like telling the truth when a lie would be a lot easier. I think sometimes we we tell lies just not to hurt the other person's feelings. That's not what God calls us to. It looks like forgiving when you'd rather hold on to that grudge. I think sometimes we feel comfort in that grudge because we think we deserve it. They don't deserve my forgiveness, but God calls us to something else. It looks like confessing sin and seeking help instead of hiding. Temptation is to not let anybody know what I'm struggling with. I don't want anybody to know what's making me feel this pain of how I've stepped outside of God's will. Because I have too much pride. But if you want to trust in God, it means you're willing to confess those things. Ask for help. And ultimately, it means putting Jesus first, even when you lose status. Because the cross trains us to live by faith, not by optics. And so we start asking different questions. It's no longer what will make me look strong, but it's what will make me faithful. What's gonna put me in line with God's word, what's gonna lead me to obedience to him. And if you're a disciple, this is not optional. Jesus said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. You don't follow a crucified Savior without carrying a cross-shaped life. Hear that? I think that's where Paul brings us back to where we started. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And as we wrap this up this morning, I want to speak to two different groups, perhaps, in the room. First, to those of you that have been faithful for a long time or maybe just a little bit tired. Maybe you're trying to obey Christ and it feels like it's costing you something. You're trying to do the right thing and it's not getting the applause or the recognition you think it should. Maybe you're trying to live clean and it feels like you're missing out on something. Maybe you're trying to be humble and people are just stepping on you. Well, hear this. The cross is not proof that God loses. The cross is proof that God saves. So the encouragement is keep going. Hold the line, stay faithful. Trust the wisdom of God even when it looks foolish to the world. Because he's leading you to something better, and that's what we have to trust at the end of the day. Second to the person that's still holding back. Maybe you're not giving God a piece of your life. Maybe you're not giving him any of your life. Maybe you've respected Jesus from a distance. Maybe you've liked the idea, but you never surrendered to him, even if it's not full surrender. Maybe you've been waiting for God to meet you on your terms. Here's the truth the cross will not meet your terms. The cross meets your needs. What you need is full rescue. The question is not, is this impressive enough? The question for us this morning is, will you be saved? The cross is God's wisdom on full display. The cross sees it and says, excuse me, the world sees the cross and says, foolish. Pride sees it and says, that's not my way. And faith sees it and says, that's my only hope. That's where we are this morning. That's why we're here, because we recognize what Jesus did for us, and we say, that's the only way for me. Because it's the only way to salvation. So trust the cross when God's wisdom looks foolish. You're ready to respond to Jesus. Don't wait till you feel powerful. Nobody comes to the cross powerful. We come needy, we come in pain. We need help. You believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and you're ready to turn from your sin. Come, confess his name, be baptized into him for the forgiveness of your sins. Not because the water is magic, but because God meets the humble there, because he joins you to the death and the resurrection of Jesus in that watery grave. If you've never made that step, we want you to do that today. If it's just time to come back to him, to turn your life back in that direction. Or you just need the prayers of the church, if we can help you in any way, please come. As together we stand and sing.