'The God of Yes: How Faith Makes All Things New' by Jud Wilhite

well good morning everybody great to see you this morning I hope you're doing well give yourselves a round of applause you made it to church come on 10:30 it's awesome any basketball fans yeah you've been on a roller coaster this last week then right and not quite through that yet so hey we're over here we're talking about the god of yes then today I want to talk to you about what it means to say yes to God's wisdom in our lives I don't know if you follow a lot of the how-to videos on YouTube but there's all kinds of how-to tools and resources out there I've tried several different things like how to fix my coffee maker how to fix my toilet didn't have much left with the coffee maker but I did get the toilet fixed so that was that was good then there's all kinds of how-to books right just thousands and thousands of how-to books and titles and some of them are a little bizarre yeah here's a few of the ones that I found that we're interesting crafting with cat hair this is like um things that you you know when your cat sheds you can like take the hair and collect it and make all kinds of of things with it now great here's another one if you like cookbooks cooking with Coolio I don't know about you have they know of all the cookbooks on earth like cooking with Coolio was never at the top of my list and on the back it has some interesting chapters it says a chapter such as how to become a kitchen pimp chillin and Grillin and pasta like a Rasta will guide you through creating five-star meals at a one-star price here's another one dating for under $1 301 ideas all the guys in the room are like huh dating for under a dollar sweet where can I get that it's got lots of marked pages in this one actually but I've got a better idea for you spend more than a dollar just a thought and this gets to really the challenge of the how to culture that we live in because there's a more important question than how to do something and that is should I do it to begin with just because I can make a scarf from my cat's shedded hair doesn't mean I should make a scarf and give it to my friend for their birthday right just because I can't cook with Coolio doesn't mean I should make a Coolio disc the first time I invite my boyfriend or girlfriend's family over for dinner just because I could do a date for under $1 it doesn't mean I should roll that out on my anniversary and so biblical wisdom not only answers how to do things how to navigate relationships how to deal with money in our lives how to handle tough business situations how to's but it also addresses the question of should I in the first place should what should I do and then after I determine what should i what I should do then how do I do it that's the power of biblical wisdom it's more than just how to when you look around in our culture there's all kinds of how-to resources but we don't have enough should i kinds of resources that help us figure out what we should be doing to give ourselves to what matters most biblical wisdom does answer those questions now biblical wisdom the word wisdom literally implies that you're in harmony with God and with reality that you're in harmony with God and with the way he's created things in life and so if you'll begin to lean into biblical wisdom and how you and how you deal with things in your life here's some benefits for you one is you'll experience what the Bible calls the blessed life a life filled with God's divine blessing and favor on your life you're aligning with his principles secondly you'll be successful in a godly way you will have a measure of success simply because if you live these principles over the long haul in your life they're going to be the kinds of principles that will sustain you and help you face all kinds of difficulties and challenges third you're gonna have a greater sense of peace you're gonna have less self-inflicted wounds I don't know about you but when I look back over my life many of that much of the pain that I've experienced in life is self-inflicted you know what I mean like I I not only put the landmine there and set the landmine I've been stepped on the landmine and went where'd my let go self-inflicted wounds and a lot of us live with that in our lives and as we begin to align with biblical wisdom we're gonna have less self-inflicted wounds we'll still faced difficult things but less self-inflicted things we're also gonna get to the end of our lives and have less regrets those are just some of the benefits of living with biblical wisdom in our life we've been in this series called the god of yes we've been learning what it means to say yes to God and to live in his yes to us in Jesus Christ a lot of people in our culture think God is the god of know that he's always just saying no the Ten Commandments are thou shalt not and God's just interested in getting us to toe the line but but what you see when you really look at the Bible is yes God says no to plenty of things but all of those knows are to lead us to live more fully in his yesses and God ultimately is saying yes to relationship with us yeah to knowing us he's pursuing us for relationship and as you go through the Bible you see sent Jesus to live and it died to be to be risen again for us in our lives that's the god of yes and when you say yes to God as we've looked at over the last few weeks you also say yes to wisdom in your life to wise living to living as God would call you to live and when you do that you get more in harmony with God and with reality so I want to talk to you about where we can discover that wisdom to guide us through challenges in our lives you have your Bibles we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 7 in the New Testament and grab your mobile devices we'll bring it up on the screen here as well Matthew chapter 7 now here's the deal Jesus is giving his famous message called the Sermon on the Mount it's called the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus goes up on a mount to give it really profound stuff here and so he's on a mount he gives this message it's powerful it takes a lot of people's current conceptions and flips him upside down Jesus was saying this again and again he says you've heard that it was said they don't say but I tell you you heard that it was said should hate your enemies but I tell you pray for your enemies you heard that it was said I for an i but I tell you and he would reverse then again and again the conventional wisdom of the day with wisdom that he was sharing with the people and at the end of Matthew 7 at the end of the Sermon on the Mount he sort of brings it all together and shows us where we can build a life on God's wisdom look at Matthew 7:24 says anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is what wise you see that how many of you want to be wise just all of you raise your hand because you want to be wise you know come on like that you want to walk in and have your wife look at you and go man you are mmm you're just so wise come on you know you want to just pop your chest out a little and go that's right I am I'm wise who doesn't want to be wise you know and have wisdom in your life now I want you to notice the very first word in Matthew 7:24 he says anyone you see that anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise now though anyone in the original language means anyone wisdom is available to every one of us doesn't matter how well you did in school doesn't matter if you were a straight-a student or if you flunked out doesn't matter if you had it all together and you got multiple degrees after your name or if you're a high school dropout listen you can have a million degrees after your name and still be a fool from a biblical perspective because wisdom from a biblical perspective isn't about how much you know it's about how you live you could be a high school dropout have zero degrees after your name but live with wisdom and be considered wise from a biblical standpoint so Jesus says any one of us no matter our education level no matter what our parents have said no matter what that ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend said no matter how many times you may have been called dumb or stupid no matter how many times you may have been teased growing up no matter where you're at in life any one of us can be wise and here's how he says you can be wise listen to my teaching and follow it see it's it's both it's listening and following listening and following you put it into practice you'll be wise this is like a person who builds a house on solid rock Jesus is saying if you build your life on me if you build your life on Jesus and his teaching then you'll build a life that will last it's a life that will last so first let's look at how we can examine our foundation examine your foundation in life I saw this picture recently about a 40 foot wide sinkhole that opened up beneath the National Corvette Museum and it swallowed all of these classic Corvettes over a million dollars in damage they fell multiple stories down into the earth and just swallowed them up here's a picture check this out now if you're a Corvette lover that should really disturb you right there it's like oh man and sometimes it feels like life just does that to us doesn't it you're just walking along another sudden this huge sinkhole just opens up and you're in it you're in it with work you're in it with friends you're in it and your relationships and you're like how do I get out of this situation what Jesus is gonna tell a story about shifting sands and foundations and sinkholes and he's gonna talk to us about how we can build our life in such a way that it will last no matter what we face so check it out he says if you listen and obey follow my teaching you'll be wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock and then verse 25 Matthew 7 though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the wind's beat against that house it won't collapse because it is built on what bedrock you see that but anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey is foolish like a person who builds a house on sand when the rains and floods come and the wind's beat against that house it will collapse with a mighty crash now notice it doesn't say if the rains and floods come says when the rains and floods come in our lives every one of us will face rains and floods every one of us will face difficulties I read one study that said the average person if they live an average lifespan will face on average five significant events in their life maybe crisis maybe a tragedy maybe loss but we'll face five significant events in our lives in other words for all of us we live in a broken fallen world none of us are immune to the difficulties that come in this world and when the floodwaters rise when the floods come that will show what foundation you've been building on Jesus saying examine your foundation build your foundation on me in the Luke account of this story in the Gospel of Luke it's the same story but it says an interesting thing about the person who built on rock it says he dug deep to get to the bedrock sometimes you got to dig a little deeper to build your life on something that will last I mean conventional wisdom today tells us a lot of things that Jesus would challenge for instance conventional wisdom says hey faith is a private thing just keep it to yourself but Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says no one lights a lamp and puts it under a blanket in other words if God has lit you up on the inside you know just cover that up but you let that shine in an appropriate way you can't always keep that to yourself conventional wisdom says hey it's just a little flirting at the office is no big deal but the deeper wisdom of Jesus challenges us to treat people with respect and dignity and to be very careful especially if you're married especially in a relationship be very careful when it comes to to flirting he says in the Sermon on the Mount anyone who looks at a person lustfully has already cheated in their heart and his point isn't to make us feel bad his point is to make us realize that these things begin in the heart and so we got to take a step back if you want to be in a long-term committed relationship with another person then you're gonna have to honor that commitment in your own heart and life and protect it be wise it's conventional wisdom that says hey it's just a white lie didn't hurt anyone nobody really expected me to keep that promise anyway it's not like I signed a contract Jesus comes along and he says let your yes be yes and your no be no long term what will happen is you'll start to be known as a person who keeps their word you'll be known as a person who keeps their word Laurie walked in on me a few weeks ago and I was online on iTunes and I was downloading these albums she says we doing I said I'm downloading these albums she says who is it and I told her the artist and she said never heard of them before and I said well I don't really know much about him either and she saw you why are you downloading his albums I said well because when I was out of town in January I saw him at this Jazz Club and he was really great and he as I was talking to him I told him I was gonna go buy his album and then I didn't think about it for a while and since I gave the guy my word I got to go buy his albums now and she's like seriously and I'm like hey let your yes be yes and your no buddy no here's the solution right don't tell a guy you're gonna buy album then you don't have to go buy his album but if I tell a guy I'm buying his album I'm buying his album told him I was gonna do it just a thought but if you keep your word long enough people will start to trust you right if you do your best to follow through and do the things that you said you're gonna do long enough you don't have to walk around and make a big grand standing thing about now I'm gonna tell you the truth because people will just know that's what you do you tell the truth and so Jesus says let your yes be yes and your no be no conventional wisdom says hey you got to look out for a number one you got to stand up for your rights Jesus deeper wisdom says give to those who ask and don't turn away from those who want to borrow do to others what you want them to do for you and so what are we building our life on what are our foundations what do you what do you are using just conventional wisdom that's guiding us or are we willing to dig a little deeper because a life that's built on Jesus and his teaching is a life that's built to last so first examine your foundation and then build on the rock build on the rock Conan O'Brien on The Late Show does these little these little statements that come with the phrase set no one ever I don't know if you've ever seen this but it you know there's so many words that have been spoken in our culture so many things that have been said and he does this whole deal about hey these are phrases that we think I've never actually been pieced together in this way here's a few of them just for kicks one of them he says my internet connection is way too fast said no one ever right here's another please practice the bagpipes some more son said no one ever drums could also fit in this category here's my favorite I have eaten a reasonable amount of ice-cream and now I don't want any more ice-cream said no one ever especially if it's Bluebell just saying but with so much being said all the time how do we cut through all of this and get to wisdom well friends we believe that God's wisdom is all contained for us right here in the Bible if the Bible is inspired by God and it's words of life that can lead us and direct us and periodically it's a good visual for me to just kind of hold the Bible up over my head and remind all of us that there's a faith community and as followers of Jesus we're surrendered to God and to Christ and we believe the Bible is God's revelation were under its authority we're not over its authority it's not like we could just kind of open it up and go like man I'm feeling good I like this passage right here that's a good one but this one yeah let's just rip this out and just move on to the next we're under the authority of God's Word and we believe it gives inspiration and direction and challenge for all of us every week you come to central we want to open up the Bible that's why I challenge you often to bring your Bibles or your mobile devices to get comfortable with opening it up on your own I mean you know we could come in there on the weekend and I could do a whole message on cooking with Coolio but that's not what we're about as a faith community we're about learning the wisdom and the principles from the Bible and applying them to our lives in Matthew chapter 7 verse 28 it says this when Jesus had finished saying these things the crowds were amazed or literally shocked at his teaching for he taught with real authority quite unlike their teachers of religious law they're shocked to his authority see I believe if we will build our lives on the rock of Jesus and his teaching and the wisdom of the Bible that we will experience a long-term success in our lives that maybe we can't even imagine right now I mean I got a front-row seat to this this last week I got to go home to my hometown to the church that I came to faith in and I got to share a service there a spoke at a service and afterwards I got to see so many old friends and people I remembered it was pretty emotional for me and I remember one guy walked up to me I haven't seen him in years his name was bill when I first met bill it was over 15 years ago he walked into a church that I was a part of at the time and he was probably around 50 years old he'd been an alcoholic most of his adult life he came in and he sat down and he introduced himself and he's like Jed I'm a drunk I've been a drunk my whole life and basically just said I don't know I don't you know life I'm at the end of myself here I don't know what to do still held down a job and all of that but just wasn't sure how to move forward and that first year I would see him often and I would say bill how you doing and every time I asked him he would say I don't know a pastor you tell me how am i doing you said no self-confidence I say you're doing okay you're doing good you're here you're growing in your faith you're gonna be alright you're gonna get through this one day at a time you can do it I'd see him again I say bill how you doing he said I don't know man how am i doing you tell me you're doing okay you got this I'll never forget the day after about a year I saw him and I said bill how you doing it's the first time he ever said to me I'm doing okay I'm doing okay he was standing on his own feet now he was standing on his own faith now when I saw him this last went Thursday night he's standing in front of me 15 years of sobriety now follower of Jesus he's standing next to his wife I mean I hug this guy tears in my eyes cuz I could see him 15 years before he's an electrician and he works in the local prisons in his area leading inmates and Bible study and other things and God's just done awesome things in his life and I looked down his left arm his right arm was shaking I said Bill what's wrong with your arm he said well I was just diagnosed with Parkinson's disease I said oh man I know you're an electrician how's that working for you as an electrician he says not very well this is an electrician with one hand is not a very good electrician but he smiled and he said God seeing me through it God's had my back all these years and I got great faith and when bill walked away it was just it just resonated so deeply in my heart the teaching of Jesus works it will change your life not just in the short term but over the long term and I saw it right there in front of me right there in front of me I've been counseling people with principles from the about the Bible and trying to encourage them to live these principles for over 20 years and what I if I thought for a minute that this was emotionally or psychologically or spiritually damaging to people that I would quit and go to something else but what I see again and again is the exact opposite when you live this stuff out in your life when you build on that rock you can build a different better life for yourself and your family I met a friend of mine named Tom and when I first met Tom he was kind of an agnostic didn't know if he believed in God he was a hard news guy and he came to one of our church services and God began to work in his life over us it was a long process I remember the day he got baptized the day he became a follower of Jesus remember the day that I'm married he and his wife and I hadn't seen him for years and to see him standing there and he said judge you know what I'm doing right now bit feels I remember over 15 years ago the day we first met he goes today I lead a Bible study every week for couples I'm involved I'm serving and they're just standing there I had tears in my eyes because that is what happens when you build your life on the rock this stuff works if you'll put it into practice in your life I don't know people say well the Bible is just outdated it's just a bunch of old mythical stories sort of all woven together and and yet I think the truth is many people who say that I've never even read the Bible and when you do open the Bible and read it for yourself you find that it is the Living Word of God as millions and hundreds of millions of believers have testified to down through the ages it can change your life when you lean into God's wisdom a life built on Jesus and his teaching is a life built to last it's why we've done our own Bible around here at Central the uncensored truth Bible a good Bible to give you tools and resources to help you grow that's why we do small group gatherings like the God of yes where we all sit not just in rows but also in circles and learn together and grow together it's all about discovering that wisdom for ourselves and growing in it in fact I want to share with you a commercial that went all over the world and has been kind of a worldwide phenomena it's a powerful commercial it's it's emotional I give you fair warning but there is a point to this commercial and it really sets up I think God and his love for us check this out it's produced in Thailand there are no perfect fathers I warned you ahead of time I think one of the reasons that commercial went all over the world is because it taps into a bigger story and that is the story of God and his love for us there are no perfect fathers some of you certainly as you think about your relationship with your earthly father it isn't perfect the Bible says God is the father to the fatherless he is the perfect father and He loves us in a way that even an earthly father cannot love us he loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world who literally gave his blood died for us so that we could be reconnected wisdom that we can apply to our lives but first and foremost what he desires is a relationship with us he is for you the friends if you've never reached out and placed your faith and your trust in God if you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior I want to give you an opportunity to do that today can begin with a simple prayer that just asks God to move in your life and just confesses your faith and your trust in Christ don't ask all of you to please bow your heads and close your eyes and if you'd like to become a Christian today if you'd like to be a follower of Jesus then that you can begin that journey by this repeating after me say dear God I thank you for loving me thank you for sending Jesus into the world I believe he died on the cross for my sins I believe he rose again forgive me for my sins give me the gift of eternal life help me face the challenges I'm up against God I surrender my life to you in Christ's name with every head bowed and every eye closed if that's your prayer today if it's your commitment I want to ask you just to slip your hand in the air and just make eye contact with me just to say before God to say to me you're gonna follow him in your life today just slip your hand in the air let's reach out and receive his love for you his forgiveness his mercy gotta thank you for each person here today thank you for each individual just reaching out to you and I pray though just experience you taking their burdens from their shoulders and filling them with your love and your joy and your peace and I pray that from this day forward they'll build their lives on on the teaching that you've given us on the rock and they'll experience every blessing that you have for them we just commit them to you we thank you in Christ's name Amen

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Keywords: christianbook.com, cbd, christian book distributors, christian, book, distributors, Jud Wilhite, God of Yes, FaithWords

Id: 2NE1Bsa_wRg

Length: 29min 37sec (1777 seconds)

Published: Fri May 09 2014