Christ is Life Podcast

So most of you know that immediately after college that I began a career teaching and coaching, I went back, moved back to my own hometown, small town, small community, began teaching and coaching there, and a lot of great things that happened. I really loved that season of my life in a lot of ways. But there was one thing that wasn't so great about that season, the first five or six years that I was coaching, and what wasn't so great was that I was I was single. There wasn't anybody to share life with in that moment. And again, it was a small town. There weren't really a lot of people my age, and so therefore there weren't a lot of choices and people that I could date, and I can count on one hand the number of dates that I went on in those five or six years there, and the ones that I did go on didn't go so well, and I just continued to feel alone a lot of times. I wanted to be married. I wanted to share life with someone. I wanted to be a dad and have a family and be about what the Lord had for us together. And so when it wasn't happening, I just got frustrated. You know, I'm having conversations with God. God, why did you bring me here? There's obviously no chance of me getting married to anyone in this town. There's no one here. In other words, I mean, God, I know what's best for me, and I don't know what you were thinking in even bringing me here, you were wrong to do so if you would have taken me somewhere else, then maybe there would have been someone that I could meet and someone that I could share life with. I don't know if you've been in a similar situation like that. Maybe you're in one of those situations right now, whether it's has to do with a relationship, or whether it has to do with a job you're in or or finances, or a situation with your kids or grandkids kids, or a divorce that you've walked through, but But you find yourself saying, Listen God, if you would just listen to me, if you would just do what I'm asking you to do, then things would be better for me if you do what I think you should do out in this world, the world would be a much better place. A lot of us may not say that so directly to him, but I wonder if we're saying that through our actions, through the things that we're kind of thinking in our minds and those things that are rattling around from time to time again. God, I know what's best, and so you should just do that well today, as we continue this message series on the attributes of God, the one or two attributes, excuse me, that we're going to be walking through, which, by the way, is a misprint in your bulletin. I apologize for that, but they're gonna fly in the face of that whole attitude of God. I know what's best for me. I know what's best for this world and what you should be doing in it, because what we're talking about is God's attribute of omniscience. We talked about another Omni attribute last week, where it comes from the Latin word omnis, meaning all this week. We're talking about omniscience, and so that means that God is all knowing. God knows all things. And again, we know that because God's revealed that to us. He tells us that in his word, one of the places that we see it is in First John, chapter three, verse 20, where he says, If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Kids, if you're paying attention, that's probably one of your blanks right there. It's not that God knows some things, not that God knows a lot of things, but that God knows everything that there is to possibly know. Paul ends in the moody book, Handbook of theology, talks about God's omniscience this way. He defines it this way. He says, God knows all things actual, and God knows all things possible, past, present and future. In one eternal act. Everybody turn to your neighbor and say, that's a lot of things to know. I mean, seriously, right? When you think about all things that are actually happening in our world, and he knows all of those. But if any knows everything that's possible to happen from any choice that could ever be made in our world, or that's ever been made in the past, that's being made right now in the present, and it could ever be made in the future. You're going, Holy Moly, that is a lot of knowledge. I mean, chat GPT may know a lot of things, but I don't think that it has anything on the creator of the universe. Now, when we're talking about the things that God knows, God's omniscience, there are several things in Scripture that highlight and talk about kind of specific aspects of that. And so I just want to point you to a number of those things. And we're going to start with this one. When it comes to God's omniscience, what it is that he knows, one of the things we see in Scripture is that God knows. Is everything taking place in our world? In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus is talking here, and he says, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside of your father's care. Do you know how many sparrows there are in the world? I do because I looked it up. Well, they don't really know that, but the guesses are that there's over a billion sparrows in the world. And this is Jesus saying, Hey, your father, God knows where all 1 billion or more of those sparrows are located. What it is that they need every single moment of every single day and how to provide for whatever it is that they need. Not only did Jesus say that, he said and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered, 8 billion people that live on this planet, and God knows the number of hair follicles on each and every single one of those 8 billion people. Now, some of us obviously make that a little bit easier on him to count, but still, that's a whole lot of hair follicles to know. God knows all things going on actually in our world at all times. Now, not only does God know everything going on in our world, but he also knows secret thoughts, the hidden things of our hearts that we don't think anybody else knows right Psalm 44 would not God have discovered it. Since he knows the secrets of the heart, God knows the secrets of your heart. Hebrews four. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account I hear, I hear people say sometimes something like, you know, no one, no one really gets me. No one
really understands me.
We know what it feels like to be us. We know the thoughts going on in our heads. We know the things that have happened to us. We know the things that we're dealing with internally, and we know that it would feel really good if someone else in the world understood who we really were, like they really knew who we were, and they valued us for who we were and what was going on in our lives. They really just knew us and could empathize with us. And sometimes you go, nobody knows like there's nobody who even gets me and understands me. But we cannot say that about God. God knows everything that there is to know about you. Psalm 139 says that he knit you together in the womb. And so sometimes, when it feels like you are hidden and no one sees you in this world, we've got to know and renew our minds to the truth that God does things that no one else knows or knows about you. God knows and he gets it, he sees you. And here's the most beautiful truth about this, God sees and knows everything about you,
and he still loves you.
Because some of you will go, Well, yeah, there's a lot to love here, right? But then a lot of us would go, Oh, shoot. You mean he knows that? He knows that thing that I did, or those things that I think about or that thing about me, this is the most beautiful thing about the omniscience of God is that He knows every single thing there is to know about you, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, the deepest and darkest secrets, And he still loves you. Yes, he understands you. He gets you. You are known and loved by the God of the universe. When it comes to God's omniscience, God knows the future. Isaiah 46 remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God, and there is no other I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end, from the beginning, from the ancient times, what is still to come. I make known what is still to come in the future. Psalm 139, four before a word. This is David speaking. He writes before a word. Is on my tongue, you, Lord know it completely. You already know the words before I ever even say them. You knew the words before I ever had even thought to even say them. God knows the future. Think when we you. Realize this, or when we renew our minds to this truth, it can be one of the most comforting things that really can bring us some peace, because a lot of us the thing that brings us the most fear, the thing that brings us the most worry, the things that brings us the most anxiety, is the future, like, what is going to take place in the future? Is my business going to run into the ground? Are we going to have enough money? Is my spouse going to leave me? Am I ever going to find anyone to marry? What's going on in the other side of the world over there? Is it going to come over here? We just have no way of knowing. But guess who does
God? God already
knows what is going to happen. Whatever it is that you're thinking should be different and should be happening different in the future. God already knows those things, and he knows where he's leading the world. He knows where he's leading you into the future. And when you combine this with his attribute of goodness, because we talked about that a few weeks ago, then we can renew our minds to the truth that whatever it is that he's going to be doing to lead us into that future is done out of His love, out of his kindness and out of his goodness. And so in the middle of the chaos, the confusion, the doubts, the worries if you would just do this.
He knows,
when I mentioned to you early on in my coaching and teaching career, and times I was single and frustrated, and God, it's never gonna happen, and you're never gonna do this for me, or is it even in the cards for me? Well, God knew, and he knew whether it was his plan for me to be married or not, and if it wasn't to be married, then that would have been okay, too, because he's good, right? And he'll lead us in the best possible way when it comes to those particular things. But about six years into it, I go knocking on the door of this lady who's sitting on the front row over here, and all of a sudden when she opens the door, I mean, sparks fly. There's Lionel Richie music playing in the background. I mean, it was amazing, yeah. And here we are, 23 years later, and thank goodness for her. No, for me. Thank goodness for her. I mean, really. I mean, God knew what He I mean, like, and we knew. I mean, I knew at least pretty early on God's gracious and kindness to go Jason, this is my omniscience, the aspect of me knowing the future and my goodness at work. For you you want to continue to doubt me, right? Oh, wow, he knows the future, and he's good, and so this is one of the aspects we are or become aware of through God's word about His omniscience. God knows the future. Here's another one. We kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier, but just to say it plainly, God knows what would happen under different circumstances. Jesus again, Book of Matthew, chapter 11 says, Woe to you, Corazon, Woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed entire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Jesus is saying, God knows that if this thing that was done for them would have happened to these guys over here, here's what would have happened under that situation or that circumstance. Now, when you stop and you think about that for just a moment, I mean, first of all, whoa, do you see the number of possibilities that we are talking about when we're talking about every person that's ever lived is currently living and ever will live in the future, and all the choices that they could make in the way that impacts their lives, in the way it impacts others lives all around them, and God knows, every single one of those possibilities of every choice that could ever be made in every situation that will ever happen on this earth that he created. Wow, that is so much knowledge that he is aware of. But second of all, the thing that we really want to highlight as we continue to move forward in this is that God is able to take all of those choices that people are making, and how they impact themselves, and how it would impact other people around them, and how it impacts the entire world for all of history, moving forward. And he's able to do so in a way, to work with those choices, to still move things forward according to His plan, his glory and His goodness, and for our goodness as well. And so when we talk about things like God's omniscience, that he knows everything, we can't also not talk about God's attribute of wisdom, because God. God is not only all knowing, but he's all wise. God is all wise. Romans 11, Paul alludes to this in chapter or verse 33 and 34 where he says, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, How unsearchable His judgments and his past be on tracing out who's known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor Job, chapter 12 to God belong. Wisdom and Power. Counsel and understanding are his now when we talk about wisdom, wisdom is different than knowledge. Wisdom refers to the way that someone uses the knowledge that they have. And how many of us can testify that there are a lot of really smart, knowledgeable people who are idiots walking around our planet, right? Sometimes you can know a whole lot about a whole lot of things and still be a moron, because you don't know how to use the knowledge that you have, but God knows how to use it. He knows how to take all of the knowledge that he has and use it in the best possible way to make the best possible choices and decisions. Here's the way that Charles Ryrie puts it. The Wisdom of God tells us that God will bring about the best possible results by the best possible means, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time, write that down, take a picture of that and dwell on that this week, when you begin to second guess him about what's going on in your life, about what's going on around the world, and how he's able to work with the information that he has and make the best possible choices For the things that are going on now. I love the way, in its simplicity, the way that Charles Ryrie puts it here. But I want to share with you another way. Another author, Chip Ingram, wrote a book several years ago called The Real God. And in the real God, he talks about a number of attributes of God, and one of them is God's wisdom. And he says some things about God's wisdom that are just so good. I mean, I couldn't really say it any better. And so I just wanted to read an excerpt from the book here about what it is that he says. He says our lives are like pebbles dropped into the lake of world history, and the ripples impact countless other people, generation after generation. I mean, just think about that right your life and the choices you make are not just impacting you, but the people around you, and can do so for generation after generation. So he says it would take an incomprehensibly wise person to keep track of it all, the jumble of decisions, actions and events that affect others. Mind is mind boggling. Even the smallest part that we do see makes us think sometimes that the world is in absolute chaos, but controlling his creation is like doing simple math for God, I love that. In one instant he sees all listen to this in one instant, he sees all relationships, all impact, all costs, all implications and how it all fits into his wise plan in a fallen world. Wow. And because you are His child, God orchestrates or allows only the best possible results by the best possible means to accomplish the highest possible purpose for the longest time, for the most people in and around your life, only God can make the wisest choice. We we get caught up in thinking we know what's wisest because we get little windows into truth and life. We jump to conclusions about what must be done. Sometimes we're right and sometimes we're completely wrong. Unfortunately, we often put our hands on our hips and demand, Hey, God, what about this situation? What about that problem? What about that person? If you'd only done things this way or prevented that from happening, everything would be so much better. Our arrogance, he said, is stunning. Every time I catch myself beginning to question God's judgment, I visit the last few chapters of the book of Job where he responds or where God responds to questions about his wisdom. He doesn't argue, doesn't defend himself. He simply points out that in the grand scope of things, we know nothing when it comes to divine wisdom. We haven't been there and we haven't done that. And then he sums it up and says, I hate to admit it, but I know how easy it is for us to. Act as if we are wiser than God, and we need to continually see ourselves in the proper place as creatures before our Creator. Amen. So true. I mean, we are the creation of an all knowing in All Wise
Creator,
we're not always going to be able to see from his perspective, and certainly, when we do get glimpses into his perspective, we aren't going to see it from beginning to end or in one eternal act and in any fullness, in any way, shape or forms. But the thing that we know, right, right? If we go, okay, he has all of this information, and he can see it, and he makes the wisest choices possible, like we we don't get to see it. We don't understand there seems like so much chaos. My life doesn't seem great. Sometimes your life doesn't seem great. Sometimes, how could it be the best possible choice for the best possible or the most possible people for the longest period of time, when this is going on in our world, when this is going on in my life, when it's affecting someone that I love, then we go, okay, but I know the attributes of God. I know who he is. I know that he knows all information he it's not because he's not aware. I know that he's all wise. So he knows the best way to assemble the information. I know the character of God and that he's good and that he's loving. And so wherever it is that we're at for whatever reason that we can't see, must be the most loving and the good thing for him to do, based on this place that we're in right now, you just stop and dwell on that.
It'll help you out a lot,
lot less stress, loss, less anxiety, fear, worry, all of the above. What it is is that we can just really trust what we said earlier about this simple, simplified version here, we just trust that the wisdom of God tells us that no matter what's going on in our world, in our own lives, that God will bring about the best possible results. Now don't get confused about your definition of best. This isn't what you think is the best, but what he knows is the best, the best possible results, by the best possible means, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time. So when we begin to think about what we're taking away the application of knowing, God's omniscient, and that he's all wise, that he has all wisdom. So if that is true about God, God's all knowing and he's all wise, then that simply means that, first and foremost, we can rest in whatever situation or whatever circumstance you find yourself in. We can trust that he is acting out of His love and His goodness for you and for the people of this world and for His glory, whatever it is that he's causing to happen, and whatever it is that he's allowing to happen, and however he works with the free will and choices that we make and that other people make, and all of those things, whatever situation we find ourselves in, we know, again, that he's good. He can only act in ways that are good and loving, and so he must be bringing about those things. We just don't get to sit in his chair. We don't get to sit in that chair and always see it from his perspective. But when we do, even if it's something that we're struggling or we're suffering in in some way, we can trust and know that he's still got our best interest in mind. Now the second takeaway for today, and we've talked about this a couple of times, is that when we talk about the attributes of God, some of them are incommunicable and some of them are communicable, right? He can. He shares those attributes with us, and that's the thing about God's omniscience and his wisdom. He shares his knowledge, and he shares his wisdom with us. First, Corinthians, 215, just for the sake of time, just Paul says, we have the mind of Christ like the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus. He forgives you. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you and unites you to Jesus. Well, guess who Jesus is, the one who's omniscient and the one who's all wise. He knows all things, and he's all wise, and he joins himself into a union with you. He shares his knowledge and he shares his wisdom in this spiritual union as the vine, and you're the branch. It gets intertwined in this union that you have now, not to the degree that he knows all things, not to the degree that he's wise, but he shares his knowledge. He shares His wisdom with us so that we can know what it is that he wants us to know, and he can lead us to make wise choices in the decisions that we're facing. In our own lives. This is an applicable thing about understanding who God is, the knowledge he has, the wisdom that he has, and that he shares that with us, has practical application for every single thing then going on in your life. And so again, when we talk about the omniscience and wisdom of God, when you don't know what to do to fix your marriage. Guess who does when you don't know what to do when your teenager is acting up? Guess who does when you don't know what to do about your finance? God knows when you don't know what to do or how to talk to that person that you're in conflict with. God knows how to lead you to talk to that person that you're in conflict with when you don't know how to deal with your anxiety and your stress and your depression. God knows guys. God knows and he understands all things, and if you're in Christ, you have access to his mind and his knowledge and his wisdom that he shares with you. So we go to him with every single area of our life, big or little, and we lean on him and not our own understanding. How many of us, when we're facing things that we're going through in our life are guilty of turning to YouTube first, how to fill in the blank of whatever it is that we're struggling with. How many of us are guilty of turning to Google or whatever AI platform that you use and just going tell me more about what it is that I'm going on tell me more about how to fix what it is that's going on. Why are we turning to those things when they don't know anything near as much as the God of the universe understands and knows and how it all fits together and will direct us in the ways that are loving and good for us, not saying God can't work in and through and speak to us through other things. I'm just wondering why we feel like we've got to turn there first. Let's turn to him, the one who's all knowing and all wise, because we've got access to it. I love this verse. Many of you know it, great life verse here, Proverbs 35 and six says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Notice that it doesn't say in some ways. It says in all ways, acknowledge him. This is not just for big decisions. A lot of us do that. Oh, man, is this the right person for being to marry? Should I buy this car or not? Should I buy this house or not? We get these are big decisions. We better get God involved in those things and not lean on our own understanding. We don't want to make the wrong decision here. Well, how about all don't lean on your understanding at all, like in all your ways. Acknowledge Him every little detail God is wrapped up in. He knows, and he wants to lead you with his wisdom. And so let's get a habit practically as we wrap this up. Of doing that, let's not lean on our own understanding. Let's acknowledge you bring everything before Him. God, this is what's going on, what I need to know about it. How are you leading me in this particular way? And he'll give you the knowledge that he that you need in that moment. He's going to give you the wisdom that you need to move in his direction and in His plan for your life.