Wisdom | Matthew 7:21-29

*Note: some audio difficulties* 

April 19, 2026 - Living the Story - 

Michelle Jones digs into the practice of wisdom, noting that it's not just understanding or information. All of those things can fail us at some point. Wisdom, according to the text with Jesus, is usually revealed in a storm, in a challenge, when you've got problems. Wisdom speaks truth over what's simply true. It thinks algebraically versus arithmetically, and it acts before the storm, acts in obedience, and is not alone in the storm. Wisdom is the living out of our covenant with God.

Michelle is Pastor of Prayer and Teaching at Imago Dei Community in Portland, OR. 

/// Third Sunday of Eastertide /// 

The Story of God: Part 9

Transcript

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So I'm just saying. Alright. Charles Blondin. In the 19th century, the greatest tightrope rocker in the world was a man named Charles Blonden. On June 30th, 1859, he became the very first man in history to walk across Niagara Falls on tightrope. The slightest slip would have been fatal. He walked across the falls repeatedly. He walked across on harnesses, he walked across on silts. One time he walked across with a chair and a stove, and he stopped in the middle and made an omelet. And then he sat and ate it, and then he finished his walk across the tightrope. Gamblers would take bets on whether or not he would fall and they would lose a lot of money. People fainted as they watched him walk across the tightrope. And Mark Twain would refer to him as Blonden, that adventurous ass. He once pushed a wheelbarrow across the tightrope. And when he pushed it across, he pushed it across with 350 pounds of cement. And then one of the most memorable times was when he was listening to the crowds cheering about him, taking that wheelbarrow across, and he said to them, Do you think I could then take a man across in a wheelbarrow? And they all say, Yes, absolutely you could. And he pointed out one guy. And he said, You think I could take a human across in a wheelbarrow? The guy said, Absolutely. And he said, Get in. And the guy did not get in. You guys are in a series that is going through nine movements that comprise the story of God. And you're looking at all of these movements in the Bible, and there's a corresponding practice to go with each. As Darrell mentioned, the Bible is not a rule book, and it's not just a collection of devotionals that you can feel good about. It's not just a bunch of cute stories. It is one story. I work with a Bible project, and they say at the end of every episode, you'll hear me say sometimes on some of the podcasts, the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. And it is. It is one story. And that story is the steadfast love of God that endures forever in the person of Jesus Christ. That's all the books. That's the whole story. And every single story tells that story. And you all are a population of people who live the story of God in the city of Eugene. Now last week, Darrell talked about covenant, and he talked about how much it matters that we have a covenant with God. And today's corresponding practice to covenant is wisdom. Wisdom is the answer to the question: how do we as people who are in covenant with God then live? Wisdom is both practical and it's formational, and it's not just philosophical. It is belief that translates into behavior. If God says he can take you across the Niagara Falls on a tight rope in a wheelbarrow, his expectation is that you would get in the wheelbarrow and go with him across. Now our text was Matthew 7, 21 to 29. And many of you have heard that text and you've read it, you've seen it. And it's our jumping off place for a reason because it is the summation of the Sermon on the Mount. When he preaches the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gets to the very end and he says, that person who actually does these things that I just talked about, that person is like a wise man. And the person who reads, who hears these things and doesn't do them is like a foolish man. He turned good behavior on its head with the Sermon on the Mount. People walked into listening to the Sermon on the Mount with all of the scrolls trying to remember the scrolls in their head, and how should we behave and how should we do things and how should we act right and how should we, how should we, how should we? So they had this list of things that they needed to act on. But you had Jesus, who it says in that passage, he preached as one having authority and not as the scribe. So if you were to compare Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to the scribes and what they were used to hearing, it would be kind of like watching, um, I don't know, watching Jerry West play basketball, and he just knew how to do everything right, and he was amazing. And then along comes MJ. And he completely turns what basketball can be on its head. And this is how we see wisdom. Now, a lot of times we think about wisdom and we think of wisdom as something, I don't know, if we look at what wisdom is, sometimes we see wisdom in terms of these words. Speak less, say more isn't proper. Or wisdom hears one thing and understands three. Or don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek. Dan Rather's bit of wisdom. But the truth is that you can be sly and actually speak less and say more. You can be learn and hear one thing but understand more than one. You can be fearful and not taunt the alligator, right? It's not just simply good behavior, it's not simple knowledge. Wisdom is not just understanding or information or power or success. All of those things can fail us at some point. Wisdom, according to the text with Jesus, what really separates the wise from the unwise is usually revealed in a storm, in a challenge, when you've got problems. We seldom need wisdom when all is going well, and when all is right, and when all is good. We don't usually need wisdom when we're happy. Simple acceptance will do it. But who will you be when the storm comes? Who will you be when you have problems? Who will you be when you have challenges? Who will you be when you are disappointed? Will you trust that God provides when the money runs out before the month runs out? Will you forgive when your closest friend triggers you to this pain? Will you hope in a world where not yet has happened? And right now is not happening. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, can you keep from fearing other things more? Some of us are answering those questions right now. Some of us are actually thinking about problems that we're struggling with. Some of us are actually wondering whether or not I have enough wisdom to handle what's going on in my life right this second. Before I go on, I will tell you, yes, there's always enough wisdom. James tells us that whenever we want wisdom, we just ask for it. And God is generous and he gives it to us liberally. So the question is, how do we know we have wisdom? Well, there is a way that wisdom speaks, there is a way that wisdom thinks, and there is a way that wisdom acts. And that's what I want to show you today. And the example that we're going to use is Jesus, because Jesus, when he is wise and when he shows us what that looks like, it is an amazing, amazing thing. So what we're going to look at today is Jesus in the wilderness. Well-worn passage, well-traveled piece of scripture. But I want to look at it because I want to invite you into something. I want to invite you to hear or see or discover something that you've never seen before. And I also want you to consider being changed by it. If you listen to this passage and you listen to the scripture and you leave it just saying, this confirms everything I already knew, then you've wasted your time. So I don't want you to waste your time. So I want you to listen closely. There's an old cornflakes commercial from way back in the day, and it used to say, Hell, it's cornflakes. Taste it again for the first time. I want you to do that with this passage. Alright? Matthew 4, 1 through 11. Taste it again for the first time. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you're the Son of God, tell those stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, Throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him, It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All of this I will give to you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And then the devil left him, and the angels came and attended him. Now you could lay this passage right over the Matthew 7 passage, and it would lay over it pretty pretty neatly. You would look at how wisdom acts, and you will look at what the tempter is trying to tempt him to do, and you will actually see how the wise man acts and how the unwise person would act if he had fallen according to what Satan would have him do. But the reason for that is because we don't have a God, Hebrews says. We don't have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. Jesus actually experienced all that we will experience. And then he has been tempted in every way, just as we are, and yet he doesn't sin. He moves in wisdom. So the first thing I want to talk to you about is how does wisdom speak? Wisdom amplifies the truth, not just what's true. And what do I mean by that? This is something I've been leaning into lately. This podium is here. That is true. This woman is sitting there. That is true. I'm standing here. That's true. Until it's not true. Truth is eternally true. Truth is true whether or not anybody believes it. Truth is true whether or not anybody understands it. Truth is true whether or not anybody accepts it. Truth is true no matter what. So it is in fact true that Jesus could command those stones to be bred. It is in fact true that if he threw himself off the highest peak, that the angels would come and get him. It is in fact true that the tempter could give him the kingdoms of the world today. But truth is what we stand on. I could stand on this until it's not there anymore. We have a certain amount of money in our bank accounts until we don't. If we stand on that, when the money is gone, then what happens? When you think about Job, and you think about all he had, all the money he had, the kids that he had, the family that he had, the stability that he had, that he had stood on those things when they were gone. What did he have to stand on? Truth is what we stand on. Because the truth of the matter is, is that the enemy can't do anything with truth. He can only do something with what is true. He can only do something with the money you have in the bank. He can only do something. You would walk very differently if somebody had said to you, if you come into this room, there are pockets in the floor that you will step in and they'll drop you down like 40 feet. Wouldn't you walk differently? Truth isn't like that. Truth is true no matter what. Truth is a thing that we can stand on. So yeah, I might only have$6.17 in my bank account. But truth says that my God will supply all my needs according to the riches. It might be true that I might be sick, but God is a healer, is truth. There are so many things in our life that we focus on because we understand that they are true, and truth is it's reality, and we're supposed to see it, and it's supposed to affect our lives, and it's supposed to touch our lives, but the truth is the thing that we stand on. The truth is who God says He is. The truth is what we hope in. How many of you can think about things in your life that you have treated like they are truth when they're just true? I was absolutely certain I was gonna have kids one day. I was so sure of it that I named my first kid, that I knew exactly how it was gonna happen, and I stood on that. And when I found out that I had to have surgery that would make it impossible for me to have kids, it just about destroyed me. And I realized that was something I was standing on, and it was not mine to stand on. It was true until it was not true. But God loved me enough to tell me the woman who was barren is going to have more children than the woman who has kids. If I could count the kids I have now, I jokingly tell people I have no kids, but all kids have me. I look at kids, I look after kids, I take care of kids, I watch out for them because I'm free to do that. If I had my own, I might not. I might not consider that. And so God loves children through me in a way that He chose. So the question that I have for you today is whose voice are you amplifying when you are speaking? If you're amplifying what is true, then what you'll do is you'll find yourself actually trading sides. Because here's what's interesting: it's a teeny tiny leap from God is sovereign to it's God's fault. And how many times have we taken that leap? And we take that leap when we find ourselves standing on what is true and forgetting what is true. So you see the enemy trying to engage Jesus in the wilderness. He's trying to get him to focus on what's true. You could turn those stones to red. You could jump off and get protected. You could have now what God has promised you later. All of those things are true. And Jesus is not going to make that little short leap. Think about Peter when he was in the boat with the disciples, and the storm is raging. There's that storm. The storm is raging, and Peter goes down into the hole of the ship, and he wakes Jesus up and he says, Jesus, don't you care that we're perishing? I don't think Jesus was mad because they woke him up. I don't think he was mad because they were afraid. I think he was bugged because they woke him up like he wasn't the guy who could deal with this. They woke him up and said, We need you to join us and be afraid with us. We need you to wake up. Yeah, the storm is true. The storm is out there, but Jesus is like, Do you understand who you just woke up? You woke up the guy who could do something about the storm. You didn't wake up a guy who's gonna join you in your fear of the storm. Don't wake me up like I can't do anything about it. If you think I can't do anything about it, don't wake me up. That's what I would say. But they wake him up and then he deals with the storm. They don't expect him to do that. They expect him to join them in their fear. But he gets up and he's like, look, the truth is the storm is there. The truth is the wind and the seas obey me. And I can deal with the I can deal with the storm. So try to remember that wisdom speaks, amplifying the truth, not just what is true. Fran Liebowitz, who is a famous photographer, she said once, think before you speak and read before you think. I would add, pray before you think. Because wisdom, the way we think, determines a lot. In terms of wisdom. How does wisdom think? Right, I want you guys be with me here when I talk about this. Wisdom thinks algebraically, not like arithmetic. What do I mean by this? Arithmetic is what? Simple calculation. Two plus two equals four, five plus two equals seven, two times three equals six. Simple arithmetic, right? Arithmetic, you have all the pieces. Arithmetic, you know all there is to know to be able to get to a solution. This is how Adam and Eve got tricked. They were pretty sure that what they knew was all they needed to know. And oftentimes we think that what we know is all we need to know. So in the garden, Adam and Eve get tricked because why? The enemy says you don't have the fruit. Take the fruit, eat the fruit. So simple arithmetic. I don't have that, I take that, I have that. Right? Algebra doesn't think like that. Arithmetic is a problem in search of an answer. Algebra is an answer in search of a proof. Algebra begins with the answer. The word literally means the coming together of pieces. So it's not a problem in search of an answer. The answer is already there. The problem was not, Jesus, you don't have bread. The answer is already there. What is the will of God is always the answer. So if you think about algebra, some of you who hated algebra, some of you who loved algebra, some of you who were just like, I can't get there. I don't even understand. I'm gonna tell you, I did not like math. I understood it, but I didn't like it. With algebra, you would have 2a plus 3b equals C, right? And so you have to take everything and to figure out what everything was, you took the stuff you knew and you expressed the stuff you didn't know in terms of what you already knew. So if God's will is the answer, everything we do is expressed in terms of God's will. God's will in Romans 12, present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Don't be conformed to the image of this world, but be transformed so that you do what? Prove what is that acceptable will of God. Jesus going into Gethsemane. I don't know what to do about this. I think this is gonna kill me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. The Lord's prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, our kingdom come, your will be done. God's will is always the answer. We don't always know everything on the other side of that evil sign. But we do know what the answer is: the will of God. So we look for, we seek out, we we reach for the will of God because we understand that there are givens, there are variables, there are unknowns in algebra, there's stuff we don't know, there are things that we don't have, but you express everything in terms of the answer. What is the will of God? That's always the question. What is the will of God? Wisdom is a life that proves the answer all the time. Wisdom thinks like that. So when you're thinking about, no, that's a whole other sermon. I'm not going to do that. You work out an algebra problem by moving all the constants and all the knowns to the other side so that you expect. Express the answer, right? But the answer never changes. Your job in algebra is not to find the answer, but to prove the answer. That's your job. So now you understand that how wisdom speaks, you understand how wisdom thinks. Wisdom is thinking. I don't know everything, but God's will contains everything. So that's what I'm always reaching for. So how's wisdom act? Wisdom acts in three ways. Wisdom acts before the storm. What's built on is the only difference between the wise man and the foolish man. What's built before you get to the storm is what's the difference, right? So what you take into the wilderness matters. Matthew 4 would be nothing without Matthew 3. Think about how God brought Israel through the Red Sea before they entered into the wilderness. They were expected to remember what He did for them. He says to them all the time, look, I came and got you out of Egypt. I brought you through the water. I drowned your enemy. I fed you. I guided you with a fire by night and a cloud by day. Your sandals never wore out. And you should have remembered that while you were in the wilderness, and Israel never did. They didn't bring that foundation into the wilderness. Now, fast forward to Jesus. Just before he gets to Matthew 4, in Matthew 3, it says in 3, 16 and 17, Jesus was baptized. And as soon as he was baptized, he went up out of the water. And at the moment heaven was open, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him, and a voice from heaven saying, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well. What God said before the wilderness is what matters to Jesus in the wilderness. What happens before the story is what makes the difference in the storm. What happens before you're challenged is what makes the difference while you endure a challenge. What happens before the pain and before the difficulty and before the disappointment and before the issue, what happens before that is what makes the biggest difference while you're in the middle of it. Think about Adam and Eve in the garden. What happened before the tempter came? God makes them in his image. He loves them. And they forget. But it's important for us to remember that while he put them out of the garden, he did put the garden out of them. They were still very good. They were still made in his image. They were still loved, no matter what. So the question I have for you is as you're in your problems and as you're in your difficulties, wisdom says to you, you need to remember the garden that lives in you, the garden you were born with, the garden that is your that is God's image in you. Remember that as you go through the things that you go through. Remember the truth that God loves you and his love is everlasting, that he will never leave you or forsake you. There's a French phrase called Bibliothèque intérieure, which actually just means your inner library. It means this collection of things that you put on the inside of you that make up exactly who you are. What kinds of books are you making space for in your inner library? What are the things that you need to get rid of and purge from your inner library? The other thing that wisdom does is wisdom doesn't just behave, wisdom obeys. Now, the interesting thing about behavior versus obedience is that obedience assumes two things: an authority and an instruction. When you think about the Pharisees, they behaved all the time. But that's not wisdom. Wisdom understands that there is an authority telling me to do a thing. There's an instruction from that authority. And my behavior is a response to that. And so wisdom obeys versus behaves. Does that make sense? It's important that it's not a long good behavior in the same direction. Our goal is not to become people who can be good. Our goal is to be his and he will direct us and he will show us where to go and what to do. So not only does wisdom behave versus obey, and not only is wisdom one of those things that we have to remember is of God, but wisdom doesn't act alone in the storm. Matthew 4, 1 to 2 says that Jesus, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after 40 days of fasting and 40 nights, he was hungry. What he doesn't say is the Holy Spirit left him in the wilderness. He wasn't by himself. It says when he got baptized that the spirit rested on him. It descended and it rested and it remained on him. So now he's up in the wilderness, and this same spirit, the spirit that Isaiah says, is the spirit of the Lord of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord, is resting on him. How many of you have watched Law and Order or some kind of cop show? And you understand the Miranda rights, right? You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. Well, it's interesting that when we think about who the Holy Spirit is, he is the advocate. The Holy Spirit, do we have that slide? Yeah. The advocate, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, Jesus said. He'll teach you all things and remind you of everything I'm saying to you. So the question that I have for you is if you are wise, what does that mean? It means you are lawyered up all the time. You see the top show and somebody says, Okay, what about this? And what about this? And he's trying to trip him up, right? And then they kind of said, I'm gonna talk about my lawyer. And then they have to leave him alone. And they gotta ask him that question. And the reason is because the job of the lawyer is to stand there and tell you what you need to know and what you need to say. I just imagine that Jesus was in that wilderness. Yeah, and no need to turn those stones to red. Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word. And yet the Spirit is with him. And he can say what he needs to say and do what he needs to do. So wisdom speaks truth over what's simply true. It thinks algebraically versus arithmetically, and it acts before the storm, acts in obedience, and is not alone in the storm. Wisdom is the living out of our covenant with God. Durrell talked about how relationship came before the covenant. Charles Blondon, he asked so many people to get in that wheelbarrow and found no takers. And he offered to carry a man across on his back. He's like, look, I'll carry you. I'll do it. Nobody would take him up on it until finally his manager, Harry Colcourt, who knew him well, who watched him move, who watched him many times cross back and forth and back and forth. Harry volunteered. He would become the only man in history ever to be carried piggybacked on a type rope over the Niagara Falls. And it's interesting because Blonde gives him these instructions when he first climbs on his back. He says this, he says to Harry, he says, Look up, Harry. You are no longer Colcord, you are Blonden. Until I clear this place, be a part of me, mind, body, and soul. If I sway, sway with me. Do not attempt to do any balancing yourself. So Blonden put Colcord on his back, ended up having to put him down five times during the trip across before they actually managed to get across the type road. It puts me in mind with Paul in his letter to the Galatians, where he says, I've been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Wisdom lives and moves and has its being by faith in the source of all wisdom, which is God. Wisdom is living a life that makes sense to God, even when it doesn't make sense to us. It's not about what we do in the storm, but what the storm does in us, which is remind us of who God is and who we are in Him. Wisdom understands this truth: that when your time here is done and you know Jesus, he will not check your skin for scars and bruises. He will not care how much money you have in your account or how big your house is. He will not look to your walls for degrees or diplomas. He won't brandish a tally of your mistakes. When you see him, truly see him as he is, he will say just one thing. And nothing else will matter. We just ask you to make us people of wisdom, make us people who appreciate wisdom, who begin with a fear of the Lord, people who understand that your word is your wisdom, people who understand that your word we can hide in our hearts that we might not sin against you, Father. We pray that we would be a church that is wise, a church that understands who you are, a church that doesn't have to have all the windows because we have you. And we pray, Lord, that you would continue to blow us in wisdom, continue to give us the courage to ask for wisdom, and then give us the courage to act. In Jesus' name. Amen.