Description
I’m Not _____ Enough
Wisdom vs. Intelligence
September 16, 2012
Ed Young
In a world that applauds the intellectually elite and the scholastically superior, there’s a reality about intelligence that can take us to a new level of understanding. It’ all about the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
In this message, Pastor Ed Young gives us a biblical view of the relationship between knowledge that is gained and wisdom that is given. And we discover that when we look up to God more than we look around, we’ll discover an intellect and knowledge about life that elevates everything!
Transcript
I don’t know about you but I didn’t do that well in school. School was a struggle for me. I have a severe case, I know, if ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. I probably have ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Yet, I think ADD is a blessing. It’s a good thing. Anybody here with ADD, lift your hand. Don’t be shy. We’re about keeping it real. We’re about vulnerability at all the campuses. That’s what we’re talking about, vulnerability, vulnerability. The more vulnerable we are the more valuable we are.
I remember in homeroom back in the 11th grade everybody got their SAT scores back and mine was so bad, so low I was afraid to even tell people what I made. I didn’t do that well in school. Looking back I want to show you a little report card. This is from the 3rd grade.
“Ed’s very polite.” That’s good. “I enjoyed having him. He sometimes finds other things to take his attention away from classroom discussions.” Hmm… I remember trying to take notes even in seminary. I did four years of seminary. I’d be thinking about, “I’m gonna draw this professor.” I’d be thinking about maybe a basketball game or fishing. I’d be thinking about things a zillion, billion miles away. If I was not locked in, if it didn’t interest me I wasn’t into it. That’s why I had a report card like this in the 11th grade. And check out what the teacher wrote!
“Sorry Ed. Best of luck next year.” Show a brother some love! Man!
Well today we are in our blanking series. I’m not <blank> enough. Last week if you missed it, I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. A lot of us say that all the time, don’t we? I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough but God is God enough. We found that out. We found out if we’re a follower of Christ guess what? We are good enough because of God! We found out that if we’re believers, check this out, we’re saints. What? That’s what the Bible says. You’re either a saint or an ain’t. How do you become a saint?
By simply saying, “Lord, I’m vulnerable. I don’t have it together. I’ve messed up. I’ve screwed up. I’ve sinned. I’ve fumbled the ball on the one-yard-line. I turn from that and turn to you. Lord you’re #1 in my life. Forgive me. Cleanse me.” He comes in and from that day forward what am I? A saint.
Also, because I’m a believer, I can tap into everything that God offers. God offers what? Jesus. So when God offers you and me he sees Jesus. The righteousness of Christ.
Now, sometimes if you hear this, and I do. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. Or I’m not this enough or that enough. That’s true. And many times it’s the enemy talking smack to us. All we gotta do to him is say,
“Hey, talk to God about my condition.” Don’t try to argue with him, tell him, “Talk to God about my condition.” God’s gonna say, “Whoa! I see Jesus!” the righteousness of Christ has been appropriated, has been imputed into his life or her life. So you’re a saint. All of the stuff that God has is on tap for you and me. And furthermore we’re adopted into the family of God. When I become a believer, once I get in, I can’t get out.
So good isn’t good enough, but God is God enough. I am good enough because of God. God bridged the gap. He made up the distance. It takes some vulnerability to say that. It takes some vulnerability to say, “You know, I say that a lot. I’m not good enough.” A lot of people say, “I’m insecure. I’m just insecure and I don’t want to share my secrets. I don’t want to share the fact that I’m saying over and over that I’m not good enough.” Your secret is your strength. Your vulnerability is valuable. The most vulnerable act in history was when Jesus died on the cross for our iniquities. In our vulnerability we can appropriate that into our lives. God fills the blank. Because again, we’ve got a blanking crisis. A blanking crisis and the bailout works every time. That’s Jesus.
T.S. Well today I want to push the ginormous red button and we’re gonna talk about another blank. Last week I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. This week, you probably know where I’m going. I know you’re saying it. Some of you have said it today. You’ve been saying it for weeks and weeks especially now that school is back in session.
I’m not smart enough. Have you ever said that? Oh I have. Back in the day? I’m not smart enough. And that echoed in my empty brain, which now I know is not empty but I thought it was empty because I had a tough time in school. Smart isn’t smart enough but God is God enough.
Our educational system basically measures a little slice of intelligence. That’s good if you can memorize and regurgitate you can do pretty well. If you have a high IQ it’ll get you through school but a high GQ will get you through life and eternity. GQ, a Godly quotient. An IQ is an intelligence quotient but the real deal is a Godly quotient. I’m talking about something much more than an IQ or an EQ, I’m talking about a GQ. A Godly quotient. And that’s a big, big thing to consider and to think about.
In my travels here and also abroad whenever I have the opportunity to look in schools or talk to people about schools, all schools pretty much have the same hierarchy of subjects and they reflect industrialism. You’ve got the math and the sciences and the humanities, always trailing are the arts. And they reflect industrialism.
Well, in today’s world I think you would agree we need creativity, we need innovation. I would say for the educators to concentrate as much on creativity as we do on literacy. That’s just me. Our educational system does not measure the most important things it takes to succeed in life. Vision. Discipline. People skills. Adaptability. It doesn’t measure that. That’s why in the studies I’ve read so often the people in the front of the classroom work for those in the back of the classroom. So often the A-students work for the C-students. Why? What is intelligence? What is knowledge? What is wisdom?
Have you ever met an educated idiot before? I know idiot is a strong word but you know, someone maybe that graduated from an Ivy League school or they have a PhD or whatever and you’re talking to them and you’re like… wow. I mean you’ve got knowledge. You’ve gotta lot of data that doesn’t matta but when it comes to wisdom I’m not sure how wise you are.
You know the Bible talks a lot about wisdom? You know the Bible tells us to get knowledge. It never says, “Get knowledge.” It says, though, to get wisdom. James 1:5 “If you lack wisdom ask.” Give me an A! A! Give me an S! S! Give me a K! K! Always seeking knowledge. Ask! Because of those of us who are saints, it’s on tap 24/7. The wisdom of God.
We talk about knowledge a lot. Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Knowledge is taking things apart. Wisdom is putting them together. Knowledge is accumulation. Wisdom is application. The first time man looked away from God you have him struggling with wisdom. Struggling.
Illus: I think about a gentleman that I talked to on his yacht several years ago. Through a strange set of circumstances I spent 24 hours on this epic boat in the middle of a turquoise ocean talking to a very wealthy man, a brilliant man with an IQ off the charts about today’s subject matter. I’m in this family room on this boat, servants everywhere. And he’s telling me a little bit about his life and he’s telling me about some things. And of course he has squillions and squillions of dollars and he began to tell me,
“My wife hates me. My three kids despise me.” And then he began to tell me about some of the decisions that he had made and was in the process of making. And I was saying to myself, who’s the wise guy in the room? IQ? Oh he would probably triple my IQ. Knowledge? Oh he’s got it. Wisdom? I’m connected with God. I’m a saint. I’m a part of God’s family. I can tap into God’s wisdom. This guy, clueless. And I talked to him about that very subject, about God filling in the blank. But I will never forget it. As he dropped me off at this marina, as I took a car back to the airport, I watched this yacht motor right into the horizon line and I thought to myself, I wouldn’t trade places with that guy for all the money he had.
Knowledge versus wisdom. We need wisdom. Going back to our educational system. Once we kicked prayer out that’s why so much of our educational system, so many different aspects of it, is so chaotic. Because it’s based on knowledge, which basically leads to nowhere, versus Godly wisdom, which leads to eternity. We support, we love all of the leaders at Fellowship Church who teach, who train. But it’s something we have to think about. So I want to talk to you over the next couple of minutes, very, very quickly, about what it means to truly have intelligence. What it means to have a high GQ, a Godly quotient.
I remember Solomon. Solo-man! Yes! Solomon, back in the book of Ecclesiastes. For 40 years he chased the knowledge and the things of the world. He filled in the blanks like we will never, ever fill them. He filled in the blanks in a much superior fashion than the guy I just told you about on the yacht. He was worth billions and billions of dollars. He wrote and memorized over 2005 proverbs. People would come from all over the world to sit at his feet and learn from Solomon. He had 700 concubines. You want to talk about sex? Built buildings that were just absolutely sick. Moats and jewels from the ceilings. Choirs would wake him up in the morning and serenade him at night to put him to bed. This guy totally, totally OFF THE CHAIN with wealth.
At the end of his 40-year freefall into the abyss of the blanks, here’s what he said. “It’s a blank. It’s chasing after the wind.” He said, “Remember God when you’re young and follow God’s directives.” In other words, follow God’s wisdom. What’s the meaning of wisdom? I’m glad you asked. Wisdom, Godly wisdom, is seeing the World from God’s perspective and applying God’s truth, God’s faith and this shoe leather beneath the principles and precepts of what he says.
James 3:13, the meaning of wisdom. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” James, the half-brother of Jesus, is asking a rhetorical question.
Illus: I remember back in the early days of Fellowship Church. You know Fellowship Church began in rented facilities. For the first eight years we just rented stuff. We would set church up, tear church down. We met in rat-infested theaters, we met in lunchrooms. You wouldn’t believe it where we met. Well, there was this lady named Lynn who sat in the front row. Every week when I would ask some sort of rhetorical question she would answer it. She was from New York and had this piercing voice. So James goes, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” If I said that back in the day she would go, “I am!” And after hearing, “Aaaaaa! Aaaaa-Aaaaa-Aaaaaa!” that voice I finally said,
“Lynn, thanks for your enthusiasm but please don’t answer the rhetorical question. Now if I ask everybody a question you go ahead but people are wondering, man what’s the deal?” So I thought I’d throw that in.
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life.”
We’re ba-a-a-ad and we know it! We’re he-e-e-e-re to show it! So what you see is what you get and you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! So git-git-git-git-git-git-git git on up! Whoo!” I remember that cheer back in the day and that cheer has some great theology. I’m in Christ. I’m bad! I know it! I got that swagger. I’m here to show it coz I got Godly wisdom. What you see is what you get. If I’m walking in Godly wisdom, you’ll see it. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet so git-git-git-git-git-git-git git on up! Knowledge is found by looking around. Wisdom is found, Godly wisdom, by looking up. I’m telling you, there’s some theology in the cheers.
I have a whole message I did back in the day on cheers. I might bring it back one day. “Let him show it by his good life.” If I’m wise, if you’re wise, if I’m walking with God people be like, “Man, she’s living a good life! He’s living a good life! How does he make these decision? How does that girl do it?” Godly wisdom. Because we’re not that smart. Smart isn’t smart enough.
The meaning of wisdom. Last part of verse 13, “Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility.” Power under control. That comes from wisdom. This Godly wisdom commences with conversation. It widens with worship. It deepens with discipleship. And it is engaged in evangelism.
Illus: Lisa and I have five dogs and one of our dogs is really scary. His name is Vito. He’s a Cane Corso. He’s a cross between a Mastiff and a fighting dog that is extinct. He looks like, I don’t know, a pit bull on steroids. Fast. Powerful. He can jump. His jaws are so strong it’s scary. So we have some control problems with him, some aggression problems with him so we took him to school. We sent him off to a little school in Austin. It’s kinda like prison but…. He enjoyed it! And when I went to this school and saw Vito he was a different dog. I mean, this dog is so scary my friends go whoa! I mean, he scares people that even have dogs, he’s that intimidating. So once he really got trained and once they got his power under control now it’s a beautiful thing to behold. That’s wisdom.
When we say, “God, you’re God and I’m not. I’m not smart enough but God, you’re God enough.” What’s gonna happen? We’ll have that power under control. We will have humility. That’s what humility means, humility. We’re not bragging, “I’m the man! I’m the girl.” No, just under control. And it comes from wisdom. So that’s the meaning of wisdom.
Now check this out. The mask of wisdom. The mask. Some people say, “Oh I’m wise,” but it’s worldly wisdom. It’s really knowledge. The reveal.
You ever watch these reality shows? These building shows? These home improvement shows? The reveal. “Oh my gosh, it’s beautiful! I love the colors! …” You know what I’m saying to ya. What’s the reveal? What’s the bottom line of worldly wisdom?
James just put the cards on the table. Talk about being vulnerable? James 3:14, “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth. Worldly wisdom, worldly knowledge will lead to envy and selfish ambition.”
What’s envy? Well in the first of my 14 books I’ve written, Fatal Distractions, I talked about envy. Envy is being sad over your success and a fan of your failures. That’s envy. If you’re selfish you smell like a fish. Yourself smells like a fish that has been dead for two to three days and that is a horrendous, putrid smell. Godly wisdom doesn’t stink. There’s no envy in Godly wisdom. Why? Because we know, we know, that we’re uniquely made, we’re one of a kind, so the competition is over! If we live by worldly knowledge, presha busta pipe! Pressure bust a pipe. We can’t take the pressure. But if we live by Godly wisdom, the presha off.
Oh today I even have rap for you. I wrote a rap and we’re gonna perform it in a little while. So all you hip-hop wannabe people, you watch it. In just a little while. I’m just warming you up. So get ready to… <bass sound effect> everybody in a second.
The reveal. “Now the root of this knowledge, the root, such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly.” This word “earthly” in the original language is psychikos in the Greek. Psychikos is where we get the word ‘psychology’ from. I’m not anti-psychology but everything that we need to understand or get advice from must come from that Biblical anchor. So if you talk to a psychologist make sure that they have the Biblical anchor. If not you’re just looking inside yourself. And if you look inside yourself, if I look inside myself I’m all jacked up. It’s gotta be God. It’s gotta be God.
So, “such wisdom does not come down from Heaven but is earthly…” Psychikos. “… unspiritual and of the devil.”
Again, man’s wisdom comes from reason. God’s wisdom comes from revelation. Man’s wisdom will lead ultimately to nowhere. God’s wisdom, eternity. The reveal. The result of this.
Think about the yacht. Think about the chaos in this man’s life. “For where you have envy and selfish ambition there you’ll find disorder and every evil practice.” Adam and Eve, when they turned and tried to put something else in the blank, they kicked God’s wisdom out and put man’s knowledge in. And you see why we’ve been struggling with this ever since.
So the meaning of wisdom. The mask of wisdom. Let’s do one more. The magnitude of wisdom. I love it. Verse 17, “But the wisdom (this is Godly wisdom, right? Vertical wisdom, not horizontal wisdom) that comes from Heaven is first of all pure (say pure with me), peace-loving, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, good fruit, impartial and sincere.” The magnitude of God’s wisdom.
Check it out. It overcomes sin. It’s pure. It overcomes sin. God’s wisdom will always lead you and me into purity. Into purity. Who invented fun? God did! Who invented our senses? God did. Who invented our feelings? God did. Who invented creativity? God did. Who invented sex? God did. Who invented work? God did. It’ll always, always lead us to purity. What we see, where we go, what we talk about. That’s Romans 12:1.
Wisdom also overcomes strife, the word peace-loving. Overcomes strife, peace-loving. Now peace-loving doesn’t mean that we’re weak or we’re mild, it means that we will make peace. And sometimes to make peace you have to be willing to go through the tunnel of chaos. That’s wisdom. Godly wisdom, but people know that you love them.
Wisdom also overcomes stubbornness. See the word considerate? Or you could say snobbishness. I wrote that. The word considerate means to level up. I always say ‘whole ‘notha level.’ That means level up in the original language. I’m considerate, I’m level. I see everybody is level.
Who am I to go, “Oh I’m here and you’re there.” Or I’m here and you’re there. There is snobbery and there is reverse snobbery as well. I’ve never locked eyes with someone who does not matter to God.
Lisa is in Miami at one of our campuses right now, either in South Miami or Midtown. She’s getting ready to go with a number of women to Haiti. Fellowship Church is the #1 entity this next year that feeds children in the world. Fellowship Church in Haiti. We have a number of orphanages there. When you go to Haiti, and I’ve been there, there’s no place like Haiti. When you walk the streets if you’re not a follower of Christ you can easily say, oh yeah. I’m here and they’re there. These people don’t have anything. They got nothing. That’s not true. Every person I see, even in Haiti, even in wherever, they matter to God. Whether they’re on a yacht or whether they only have the clothes on their back and they’re at one of our orphanages. Everybody matters to God. And Godly wisdom always shows people that fact.
Wisdom also overcomes selfishness. It’s submissive. You show me somebody who has Godly wisdom, I will show you somebody who understands authority. We need to get under those things God has put over us, and get over those things God put under us. Remember that? You wanna be smart? That’s not gonna take you where you need to go. You wanna be wise? Godly wisdom? Find God’s chain of command and get beneath it. Because God has a chain of command in your life and mine, even though we don’t respect the person over us, God has him or her there to make us be the kind of people that God wants us to be. And this Godly wisdom is all about that.
Also, this wisdom overcomes scrutinizing. It’s full of mercy. People say, “Oh he’s full of it. She’s full of it.” It’s used in the negative, right? Well here we should be full of it. Full of mercy, full of grace. I’m a saint, I’ve been adopted into the family of God. All this stuff is on tap for me? Wow! Wisdom also overcomes self-righteousness. This, “Oh yeah, I’ve got it figured out. I’m special, you’re not.”
We’re all sinners saved by grace. I’m not smart enough. You’re not smart enough. But God is God enough and he gives us the wisdom for every situation. Are you asking him? Are you tapping into that? Knowledge is gonna lead you to nowhere! You’ve gotta have wisdom. We need wisdom in this hour. We need wisdom in Washington, D.C. We need wisdom in our school system. We need wisdom, Godly wisdom in our churches. We need Godly wisdom in our marriages, in our families. We need Godly wisdom. Single parents we need it. We need Godly wisdom. Wisdom overcomes self-righteousness.
You know the word hypocrite? Hypocrite is somebody who wears a mask. We’re all hypocrites, you know that. Hopefully you know. I’m a hypocrite. I am. Vulnerability? I’m a hypocrite. What’s a hypocrite? I’ve said one thing and done another. You ever done that? Let’s be vulnerable.
Illus: There was this horse, I read about this horse in Roanoke, you guys don’t understand this but in Roanoke kind of in this area there’s a big horse place. And this horse would like stand on this wooden block and the trainer would go, “Hey, what’s 1+1?” and the horse would go <stomp, stomp>. And people were like, oh man, this horse is smart.
“What’s 2×3?” <6 stomps> Everybody was like, wow! This horse was pretty smart. Then this trainer asked him, I couldn’t believe the trainer asked him this. It was in one of the papers.
The trainer goes, “How many hypocrites are there at Fellowship Church?” and the horse broke out in a dance.
After the first service somebody said, “What’s the name of that horse?” Mister Ed, of course. <singing> “A horse is a horse, of course, of course…”
T.S. Well how can I wrap this up? I wrote a rap. I have this new app-rap.
“Know all us homies have a lot of <blanks>, wanna put something in our <tanks>.
It’s called Godly wisdom and it needs to be <heard>,
I’m not talking knowledge but another <word>.
The value if wisdom is totally <sic>,
It comes from Him who makes us <clic>.
Who makes us clic-clic, who makes us clic.
Marriages and families and single <life>, keepin’ it real and that’s no <hype>.
Roll wit his Word, it’s the only <way>
To make the right choices every <day>, ev-every day, ev-ev-every day.”
All right, everybody stand here and at all of our campuses. Now we’re gonna do this. OK when you see the yellow that means you repeat the word. Now some of us have a hard time dancing, we do the white-man overbite. And that’s OK. Be the best you can be, right? Be the best you can be. Now I wish we could have a contest but we can’t. Wouldn’t it be cool to have all the different campuses see which one can rap the best? Everybody’s gonna stand, now everybody together. What a moment! All these locations with this rap. But think about the words. I’m not done with this message ‘coz we’re gonna wrap it up with something very interesting after the rap. Let’s do this rap together. If you got rhythm, you know? You do mmm-mm-mmm.. you might just kinda go…. Whatever. Let’s do it.
“Know all us homies have a lot of <blanks>, wanna put something in our <tanks>.
It’s called Godly wisdom and it needs to be <heard>,
I’m not talking knowledge but another <word>.
The value if wisdom is totally <sic>,
It comes from Him who makes us <clic>.
Who makes us clic-clic, who makes us clic.
Marriages and families and single <life>, keepin’ it real and that’s no <hype>.
Roll wit his Word, it’s the only <way>
To make the right choices every <day>, ev-every day, ev-ev-every day.”
You guys are great! Please be seated. Man, this rap app is awesome. I’ve been using it and sending different raps to my friends. I love it! And I thought, I’m just gonna rap part of the message so I just did it. And the cool thing is about this rap app, it’ll take your words and put them in perfect rhythm so you don’t have to work at it.
Many times, like, I’ve done some other hip-hop songs on YouTube and U.B.U. and ‘Hole ‘Notha Level if you wanna check those out. I love them. We had some brilliant people to do those to help me here, but that is just… even someone like myself who’s an idiot, I can just go, “All the homies nah-nah…” and it just puts it right in there. It’s cool. The rap app. I don’t know how to get it, somebody put it in there for me. It’s free, though.
T.S. Let’s have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! What do you think? For some reason as I’ve gotten older I just crave peanut butter. I love peanut butter allergy just turn, I mean, you know… I think I’m far enough away.
But here’s peanut butter and you know, there’s nothing like a PB&J. Peanut butter, it has some fat but it’s just good. It’s protein. I remember my mother, she never… I love my mother to death but she never made me enough food growing up. If she had fed me well I’d be like 6’7”, 245 pounds. Jason Witten would be on the bench, that’s what I’m saying. I remember having lunch with my friends. Mom’s just that way. It’s OK, Mom, I still love you. I mean, peanut butter. There is nothing like that. I mean that’s organic peanut butter. I like the organic stuff. Yeah, that’s good. Now I put some jelly. Gotta have jelly. Do you put the jelly on top of the peanut butter or on the other slice? That’s what I do, too. I really like that rap. Jelly on there. All right.
My mother used to, you know my mother’s an artist, she used to cut it up in these cool little squares. Did your mom ever do that? I might do that in honor of her right now. This is the last service. She would do like that and she would cut the crust off but I like the crust. Who in here doesn’t like the crust on sandwiches, lift your hand. It’s all right. She would cut it in little bites. Who’d like to try one? Who’s not allergic? I mean I don’t want to get into some kind of a legal issue? We only have about a billion lawyers that attend Fellowship Church. I love lawyers, I’m just saying. Who is not allergic? I better choose staff members, that’ll be easier. Dave, come up here. Yeah, Dave, come on up, come on up. Try this. PB&J, tell me that’s not good. Yeah, it’ll make you slap yo mama! Somebody! Whoa, is that good? Someone else. You gotta PROMISE me you’re not allergic. Come on up. What’s your name? Come on up, J.C.! What a great name! Come on up here. Now you promise me you’re not allergic to peanut butter? Oh, that’s scary. OK, right there. Just taste it, tell me it’s not incredible. Is that good? You can have it. You might want to eat it up here because I don’t wanna… anybody have peanut allergies around here? No. I will have one too.
PB&J. Here’s what you need for wisdom. P-Prayer. Ask God. The wisdom is there, ask God. Financially, emotionally, relationally, psychologically. Ask God.
B-The B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E. Study God’s word. Read God’s word. It’s God’s word to us, it’s revelation. God’s wisdom is revelation. Man’s wisdom is reason. I’m talking about Godly revelation here.
J is Jesus. PB&J it’s all about Jesus. You know, I could talk up here about success or stress. I could talk about work, I could talk about all sorts of things but without Jesus we’re toast! We’re done! It’s about him. If I’m not talking about Jesus it can be an Anthony Robbins seminar, some self-help Oprah, Dr. Phil type of thing. I mean that’s fine and good, that’s knowledge. But we’re talking about wisdom. It’s about Jesus. So Jesus died on the cross for our sins, rose again. We invite him to come into our lives so when God sees us he sees who? Jesus. Because we’ve welcomed him into our lives. It’s only about Jesus. It’s only his power, his grace, his goodness, his smarts. So smart isn’t smart enough, say it with me, but God is God enough.
[Ed leads closing prayer.]