with you this morning, and I know that you do, because I heard you. Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter one. 1 Corinthians chapter one, we're gonna look at that passage down verses 18 to 32. 1 Corinthians one, 18 to 32. Paul writes, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discernment of the discerning, I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who will believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your callings, brothers, Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many of you were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame what is wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus. who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious heavenly Father, as I come this morning, and as we come before you, we just ask that you do the work that only you can do in our midst this morning. Father, that you overcome my simple speech, and speak directly to the hearts of your people the truth that you would have them to hear and to know and to love. Father, use the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome all things in our presence, to feed us from the scripture, to enliven us with these words, to help us to know, to sanctify us, to increase in us, to build in us the work that you are doing here in this place, here in this community, here in this state, Father. and your perfect plan of redemptive history, empower us this morning. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Good morning. Well, if you've been with us, you know we've kind of taken a little detour of the book of Ephesians. We've worked up to the second chapter of the book of Ephesians, and we're just gonna turn over there just momentarily so that we can read just a couple of verses, because it's those two verses that we're kind of springboarding off of in Ephesians chapter two. We'd gone through chapter one, heard all the things that God has done in salvation. We saw it from God's perspective down to us and how magisterial and how sovereign God is in all of creation and how he'd done that work. Planned it before the foundation of the world, it says there. And then in verse seven, chapter one, he brought Christ to the earth at just the right time to die on the cross for us. And then in each of our own time, verses in 13 and 14 there say, that you heard the word of truth, right? The gospel of your, the good news of your salvation. And it is in the work of the spirit at that time, your heart was regenerated and you could respond, you know, you could respond in repentance to the Lord. And you start to look back on that and you go, well, God planned this before the foundation of the world. And Jesus came at just the right time. And God loves me so much. He spoke to me in this word at this time. And then Paul goes into chapter two and reminds us all that we were dead people, right? And we know we act like that because we look at our world and it gets in the midsection of chapter two there and it tells us how God sees people either circumcised or uncircumcised, either saved or they're not saved, right? And man tries to categorize everybody by skin color, by height, by social status, by financial status, but God only sees. He looks right at the heart, so that we know we can't discriminate because we all need the same thing, and that is that hostility between us and God broken down in Jesus Christ. And it's then, there, right there, that God makes us love him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and strength, and then we can love our brothers and sisters, right? Then we can love this world. Then we can love. And then he gets into the building of the church, and that's where we're at now. In chapter two, we left off there in verses 20 through 22, and it's in verse 20 and 22, 21, I'm sorry, 21, that where my heart got stuck. Let's start at verse 20. It's verse 20 that's in my heart, I'm sorry. Something's in there, right? Verse 20, build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple and to the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. It's there. It's that we, the church, are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. And last week we looked at that from the perspective of men and how God has been faithful to raise up good men throughout generations to lead his people onto the promises that he has given them. They were built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And what did the apostles and prophets give us? They give us the word of God. We have the word of God there in that passage in verse 20, and we have the living word. We have the written word of God and the living word of God. Because it's the living word of God that makes all of it else true. It is Jesus Christ, his cornerstone, that everything else is set in place. And every building block of the church is built upon that cornerstone, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That is the revealed Word of God, right? We're saved by the living Word of God and we're built up by the revealed Word of God. So last week we spoke about Joshua, how Joshua took over from Moses as Moses had died and was not gonna lead the people onto the promised land. And we illustrated from that passage that God is faithful to stand up men, built on those same promises, built with that same truth, and then puts them in leadership positions for them to lead the people of God, right? And that is so necessary, and it was a challenge to the men of this group, specifically, to stand, a call to arise to that leadership, as God said to Joshua. So we named that Men Arise. Today we've got Truth Arise. Because we need men to grow into leadership in this local church, we need them to rise, and we need them to strengthen us in truth. Truth Arise. And that's where we take off this morning. And that's why we're in First Corinthians. And I just have one simple proposition or premise to make this morning, and I'd like to show you from this passage in 1 Corinthians, and it will only take about three hours. Some of you are not laughing. I'm sorry, I'm really dry this morning. I wanna talk to you about thinking man, because that's what Paul's talking about here this morning. The Latin name for thinking man is homo sapien, thinking man. That's what the Latin means there, thanking man. And it's a philosophical underpinnings for all of our public education system and most of all, of man's educational system. But there's just one problem, and here's the premise. This is what Paul is saying here in this passage this morning. Thanking man cannot know God, and because thanking man cannot know God, he cannot know truth. Let me say that again. You might want to write it down. You'll hear it a couple more times. Thinking man, homo sapien, cannot know God because thinking man cannot, excuse me, thinking man cannot know God and because thinking man cannot know God, he cannot discern or know truth. I know what you're thinking. Really, he can't know or discern anything? Stick with me, that's what hour three's for. Today there's a concerted effort by the enemy to destroy truth. Understanding and believing that should immediately lead you to the ultimate importance in life, and that is, what is the most important thing in life? It's to know truth. Truth is the most important thing to know. I feign for the truth. A fire has been built in me since the age of 27 when God converted me to know truth, to teach truth, to preach his truth, to understand his truth, and I've spent a lot of money and a lot of sweat equity in seminaries and in time and in prayer wanting and desiring to know God rightly and to know his truth. There's nothing more important than truth. Divine truth is the most important thing to any human being today. It's the understanding that man can know God, be forgiven, and escape eternal damnation. That's the most important truth in the world. It is for me, it is for my family, it is for my church, and it is for everybody I come in contact with, beloved. is to know God because he is truth. Truth is everything. Truth must undergird all of our central focus of this church, of the church of Jesus Christ, and all of our educational efforts, no matter what they may be. Truth is about the ability to develop skills to discern, to know reality and how it accords with truth. Students, people must be taught how to think and not what to think. Learn how to divine truth, to assess differing situations, different arguments, and the culture in which they live, and most importantly, and above all, to discern error. To discern error. The man who understands revealed truth is the most important person in the conversation. He will become the most important person in the room. If you know the truth about a given situation, you become the most valuable commodity present, and it should be obvious living in this culture that doesn't believe in objective truth that the stakes are immensely high in this battle. John MacArthur said these words at a conference, ultimately everything finds its affirmation in scripture. It is either denounced or affirmed by the word of God, any idea at all, so that the biblical literacy becomes the ultimate tool and point of discernment. Biblical literacy is absolutely critical. You can understand the classical thinkers, you can bow down to classical methodology, but in the end, the truth will prevail. You cannot find the truth on your own because eye has not seen nor ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that love him. It comes by divine revelation, not by intuition and not by experimentation. The only true scholar is the one who knows the word of God best because God knows reality And if you see things the way God sees things, the way they truly are, and a person that sees things the way they truly are, you're the most valuable person in this culture. I don't know if you've thought about truth a lot, or where truth comes from, or what truth is, but I know that you came to this church this morning to hear the truth, right? I know that you came to worship the one who is true, And those two things are not dissimilar. In fact, they're the same thing. Because to, listen, this is the point against Homo sapien, thinking man, is Homo adorans, worshiping man. To worship God is to know truth. To worship God is to know truth. But I ask you again, what is truth? If somebody stopped you on the street tomorrow and you had to give an answer for that, what is truth? And if you've been here on Wednesday nights, and some of you folks that have been on Wednesday nights, we've been working on this for the last three weeks, haven't we? It's been a great study, and the men's group hit on this study. What is truth? Could you define what truth is? If somebody stopped you on the street, or one of your friends asked you, or one of your family members said, hey, Susan, what is truth? Hey, Barry, what is truth? Could you answer that question? Pilot asked that same question at the end of John, and he asked it, in a manner that tells us that he was somewhat skeptical, that he might have been just a little bit of scoffing at Jesus when Jesus said this, but Pilate said in John 18, 37 and verse eight, and Jesus said to him, then Pilate said to him, so you are a king, and this is just right at the point of crucifixion when Pilate's about to put Jesus to the cross. Jesus answered and he said to Pilate, he said, you say that I am a king, For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Amazing words to me. Jesus said that his whole purpose, that's what he's wanted Pilate to hear, that's what he wanted us to hear down through antiquity, is I'm here to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. So Pilate said to him, what is truth? What is truth? And here we have Pilate. I'm sure he was skeptical. You know, he was a bit frustrated. Jesus claimed to be the king of the Jews, and here was the Jews bringing their own king to have him crucified. He wasn't sure what was going on. Pilate might have been a bit frustrated that the judgments Jesus had followed on him, and he looked on at the angry mob wanting their own king crucified. He must have concluded, at least at some point, a heavy dose of cynicism was necessary, and he cries out, what is truth? Because certainly, this is not truth that they brought you here for me to crucify. But this is what scoffers do. This is what people that don't understand truth do. They don't understand the consequences of the gravity of the situation or the truth of the situation. Jesus had come, in verse 37 in there, it says, to bear witness to the truth. And here's the evil intent of the heart. The truth was against them, and they wanted Jesus dead. So Pilate says to them, what is truth? What is truth? What is truth? And don't we all feel that burden to some extent? When we see how the world works, and we see what God promises, and we see everything, what is truth? What is justice? Can you define what truth is? Well, Jesus gives the definition, if we understand what Pilate didn't know. Jesus came to bear witness about the truth, it says in verse 37. And Jesus, as we all know from reading scripture, came to bear witness about the one who was true, the one who is truth, God. They're one and the same, beloved. God is true. And that's what Paul's getting at here, thinking man can't know God by man's wisdom. He can only know God by becoming worshiping man first. Jesus came to bear witness to the Father because only he had seen the Father. In fact, in these passages in John, we see that Jesus came to bear witness to, came to speak the words of, do the works of, do the will of the one who is true. He is saying in all of this that I am here to do and show you what truth is, And truth is not just an action, but a person. Truth is the living God. I speak of what I've seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your Father. Jesus spoke the words of the Father. He came to bear witness to the Father. In John 1 18, he says, no one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side is making this God known. Not only was Jesus an only eyewitness of the Father, but he only spoke the words of the Father. For I have not spoken on my own authority, Jesus says, but the Father who sent me has himself given me the commandment that I speak. What to say and what to speak is what Jesus spoke were the words from the Father, the one who is true. So not only the witness, not only the words, but the works. John 5, 19, he says he did the works of the Father, right? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. Jesus was bearing witness to the truth. He was bearing witness to God in all of his actions and speaking. Finally, God's will. Jesus did the will of God. He did only the will of the Father, John 6, 38. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Scripture leaves, this is not ambiguous, about what Jesus is saying to Pilate. The truth that Jesus came to bear witness to was God. God is truth. Isaiah writes in 65, 16, the prophet writes these words, so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth. And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth. The Old Testament and the New Testament both agree that God, God, creator of all the ends of the earth, God who sent Jesus, Jesus as God, because the very words of scripture are Jesus's words, he is the living word, he is the cornerstone of the church, he is the spirit, gave the apostles and prophets the words of God, all of it accords with what is true. Both the Old Testament and New Testament agree here that all of truth is God's truth. that God is true so we can easily conclude a simple definition so that you can give it to anyone who asks what is truth. Truth is that which accords with the mind, the will, the character, and the glory of God. And only that. Let me say it again. The definition of what is true is that which accords with the mind, the will, and the character and the glory of God, and only that, and only that. So what we find is that truth is first theological, because to know truth, you have to know God, and to know God, you have to study God in his own revelation. You have to study God in scripture, but please remember the original proposition that I gave to you. Thinking man, homo sapien, cannot know God, and because thinking man cannot know God, thinking man cannot know Truth. And this is where we begin to exposit this passage that we're in a little bit this morning. Let's read that just quickly, verses 20 through 22, because that's the main part of my work this morning. Paul says, where's the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. And that's the very part Paul is making in this text. You see it there, specifically in 41 and 21. In the wisdom of God, the world could not know God through wisdom. That is, thinking man could not attain up to God. He could not know God. And in not knowing God, he could not know truth, because God is truth. See how simple that proposition is this morning? I know, you're picking at me this morning. I know you're picking, but listen, it's coming. This is the very point that Paul's making in this passage. You have to know in all of man's history, the height of philosophical pontification, the pinnacle of it, of thinking man's reason was in view here. Paul was attacking the very height of the philosophical world some three and four centuries before Christ. He's attacking it all here in chapters one and two. In chapter two, he's actually arguing against Aristotle's Great Stole Man in 214. These were the men, though, they were the great thinking men. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, those are the Greek philosophers that he's picking on here, but he's also picking on the Jewish law scholars. the great rhetoricians that could use the law to make it say whatever they wanted, to bring about anything they wanted to bring to pass, that's who Paul is directly refuting. He's directly refuting their argumentation and refuting a culture within Corinth that adored philosophy, which is just another word, by the way, for the wisdom of man. And the Bible almost always uses the word philosophy as the wisdom of man. And if I break down the compound word for you just a little bit, philosophical, is phallosophia, phallosophia, phallosophia. You recognize the phallos word because it's in Philadelphia, love of brother. Adelphia in Greek is brother, brotherly love is phallo, love of brother. It's the same thing in philosophical phallosophia, love of wisdom. And almost always the Bible talks to it and about it in a sense that it's love of man's wisdom, love of the wisdom of the world, and that's why Paul's rhetoric is so thick, right, in this passage. He's saying, where is the wise man? Where is the sophist? Where is the one who is wise? Where is the lawyer? Where is the man that's skilled in law and rhetoric and writing? Where is the debater of this age? And that word's fancy. I love that word. It means one who's skilled in expressing a strong difference of opinion. Where is the debater of this age? Ultimately, Paul was rhetorically calling them out by saying, send me the best that you have. Send me the greatest minds, the thinking men that you have. Send them to me and send me the thinking man who has achieved greatness in this world by all of his knowledge and I have something to say to him. He was looking for the greatest of Homo sapiens, right? He was directly and his rhetoric was directly firing off at them. They're the smartest men in the world. and everybody clamored after them. They're skilled in the wisdom of the world. They're skilled in the knowledge of man. Athens, the school of Athens is in view here. The Greek philosophers, as I said earlier, Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, these were no slouches. Certainly the first century Jews would have been indicted here in their their love for the law and their love to use the law to get what they want. All those people were being indicted here. And here is the truth about what they believed and about their knowledge. Aristotle believed that he could make a great society if we could just have enough education. If we could just make everybody into a thinking man, we could solve all of man's problems. But Paul is saying, listen, come on out. I'm going to tell you guys something. I want to speak to everyone. Send me all of your wise men. But thinking man, And Paul understood this because he was empowered by the Holy Spirit because this is scripture. Thinking man, homo sapien, had one great fault. One great blindness. What was it? I'll repeat it, it's there in verse 21. For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. Homo sapien, no matter how hard he tried, as thinking man, could not attain to the wisdom of God by the wisdom of man. Greater still was the implication, is that if he could not know God by his thinking, he could not know truth. If thinking man could not know God by wisdom, thinking man could not know truth. Remember, God is truth. You have to know God to know truth, and thinking man does not know God by wisdom, therefore he does not know truth. As great as thinking man's achievements are, he cannot know the mind and will and character and glory of God. That is expressly what Paul is saying here. And if you read chapter two and the rest of chapter one, and we're not gonna have time to go into that a lot, but just read 2.14. This is where he picks on Aristotle's great souled man or great educated man. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness to him. He's already said that in 118, for the word of the cross is folly, foolishness, moronic. It's morose in the Greek. It's moronic to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved, it is the mind and the will and the character and glory of God. Huh? You're starting to see it now a little bit, aren't you? Let me keep going. What are we to do then? How is thinking man ever to come to know the truth? Well, let me introduce you to worshiping man. You know thanking man. All cultures put you in view of him. But you only learn who thanking or worshiping man is, homo adornis, in church. And here's the problem. Turn with me to John chapter four, verses 23 and 24. It's the woman at the well story, if you have that. John chapter four, verses 23 and 24, but keep your finger in first Corinthians. John chapter four, 23 and 24. The words are familiar. You probably, anybody that reads their Bible have heard these. The hour is coming. Jesus is alluding to the difference that's gonna take place. You know, the Jewish system didn't fall down overnight. Well, it did in the cross. Christ destroyed all of it. All the sacrifices were then perfected. But phenomenologically, it took about 40 years as the Jewish temple worship fell down and the Christian church stood up. That's the book of Acts, by the way, and a part of it. But in John 4.23, he's alluding to this as he speaks with the woman at the well. I love this story, and this is a different rabbit to chase sometime, but this woman, this woman at the well that got to see Jesus first as Messiah, we never even know her name. It's beautiful. But the hour is coming, Jesus says, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Listen, the Father is seeking these men, these people, such people to worship Him. God is the Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There you go, there's worshiping man. God is seeking worshiping man. The Father is seeking worshiping man, not thinking man, but worshiping man. The Father is seeking worshiping man, not mathematician man, right? Do you see the difference? Oh my gosh, keep with me. Worshiping man knows God. This is the genesis of his worship. Worshiping man knows God, therefore he knows truth. Worshiping man returns worship because he knows God through his revealed world. Worshiping man can do nothing but worship God because he's been filled with the truth of the mind and the will and the character and the glory of God. Worshiping man is what God is seeking and he's putting down the wisdom of the wise. There's a great difference between thinking man and worshiping man, but it's simply illustrated in just a few words. Thinking man reasons to himself and he considers these things, and he considers abortion, he calls it a moral choice, he calls it an acceptable choice, because He calls it those things because it's all based on his rationalization and his feelings. He calls it a choice. He says it's reproductive health care. But worshiping man, knowing the mind and will and character and glory of God, understands that life is infinitely precious, bearing the image of God. You see the difference between the two men? Huh? Starting to see the importance of worshiping man I think what you see is the great gulf of myths that all of our education takes place with today because they're building, they're doing really good at building thinking man. Thinking man looks at LGBTQ and says, well, you know, that's, we've got great psychologists, they're great thinkers. They make great books that tell us how to diagnose gender dysphoria. Thinking man goes on to reason within himself, within his own conscience, and he says, I tell you what, let's give him surgery. Let's cut the healthy breast off a 15-year-old girl. But worshiping man says, God created them male and female. You could fill in anything there, equity, inclusion. My goodness, we have Olympic decathletes that I grew up looking at on a cereal box that believes he's a woman and lives every day like a woman. And he's called a great thinking man. But worshiping man, knowing the mind, will, character, and glory of God, looks at that and he says, it can't be. Thinking man has one serious fault. Monday night football. Thinking man goes out onto the field, he's done all he can do, and he says, that's all we can do. Worshiping man gets on his knees and prays to the author of life and says, we can do greater because I know the mind, will, and character and glory of God's at stake here. Our education system is great at producing thinking children, but they're on the way to hell if they don't become worshiping children. They don't know truth. They don't know the mind, the will, the character, and the glory of God. And there's too many adults that are right there with them. Why is this important? Why is it important to the church? Because the church must be at the center of all education efforts. I don't care whether it's a baby at its mother's breasts or if it's a 50 year old man that's just come to Christ. He needs to first be a worshiping man so that he can know truth. And the church Beloved is the center of this. The scripture tells us this. This is not your pastor making this up. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3 verses 14, 15, and 16, 15 is the one I want. Paul says to Timothy, he says, I hope to get to you soon. Paul being in the mentorship over Timothy, writing to him the pastoral epistles so that young Timothy will know what to do, so that we know what to do today, so that we know what kind of man to look at for the pastor, for the decomposition. So we know a lot of things about the polity and how the church works. But he connects it to something bigger here. He connects it to something all-encompassing. He connects it to the most important thing. And then he connects it to Christ. He said, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing to you so that you will know that if I'm delayed, you may know how to behave in the household of God. which is the church of the living God, remember he's truth, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Man can't go, thinking man can go anywhere and not get the understanding of what it means to be a worshiping man until he comes to this place where we tell him who and what and how a worshiping man becomes a worshiping man. Because the church, beloved, the church is the pillar and the buttress of truth, not this physical location. Guys, don't get me wrong. The church. It's us. It is us. Great indeed, Paul says, is what we confess is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, and proclaimed among the nations. Children and adults will encounter worshiping man teaching in the public, will not encounter worshiping man teaching in the public sphere. We saw that on Monday night, we see that in our own schools, we see that in the public workspaces, in the public parks, everywhere. You know, everybody's just like, they don't say anything about God. They're afraid to talk about God. That's why it was so amazing when we saw it Monday night, a whole team of football players, and then a whole stadium full of people goes out to pray. They immediately become worshiping man. But thinking man will never get to the truth and the wisdom of God, for the world did not know God through wisdom and cannot know God through wisdom. Not that God's mind, will, and character. And this is where I need to give you Jesus because this is the missing link. How does thinking man become worshiping man? How does he attain to God, to the truth? Let's read verse 26 through 30 in 1 Corinthians and see what Paul has to say. Verses 26 through 30, for consider your calling, brothers, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Now he's talking directly to the people at Corinth Church. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And here it is, this is where I wanted to be. This is where Jesus comes in. This is God's gift of wisdom to us. And because of him, because of God, you are in Christ Jesus, who became what? Wisdom from God. This is how thinking man becomes worshiping man. Jesus, can you imagine if we held him to our standards? Thinking man says, man, you know, I can't go through Samaria. It's hot out there in Samaria. I mean, I've only got three years of ministry. I ain't got time to go through Samaria. Worshiping man says, the Father, said, I must need to go through Samaria. And that's how he met the woman at the well. Worshiping man, knowing the mind, will, and character of God, and glory said, I must go through Samaria. And you could play this with a woman with an issue of blood. I mean, she was destitute and poor and on the outs. Man said, I ain't got nothing to do with her, thinking man, but worshiping man says, she's a child of God. We do this all the time, beloved, witnessing man, Or thinking man, and I'll just use this thing, I'm gonna step on your toes just a little bit this morning, do you mind if I do that? When you're out witnessing, or when that Holy Spirit works on you to witness, thinking man says, ah, I don't wanna offend them. What if I say the wrong thing, thinking man says? I don't want to push my belief off on them. But worshiping man, knowing the mind, the will, and character of God says something much different in that situation. How about tithes and offering? Thinking man says, well, I gotta pay all these bills. I got the cell phone bills, I got the TV bills. You know, we wanna take that trip. I need to do this to make my taxes look like this. Worshiping man says, The scholar of God's anyway. Knowing the mind, will, and character, and glory of God, I will make sure God is first. The rest will just have to fall into place. Because it's not about what you have to give, but why you give what you have. It's a hard issue, Bloving. It's about truth. Thinking man says, I don't have time to get involved. I don't have time to be a member. I mean, my life is important, you know. Worshiping man says, knowing the mind, will, and character of God, I don't have time not to. And I'll just use my own position, beloved. Thinking man, many thinking men challenge me with this. Boy, you're pretty comfortable. You just sold your business. You got a nice four bedroom home on three city lots, about three and a half blocks. You know, your taxes are only a couple thousand. You move to South Jersey, they go to 12,000. Thinking man was right. I never said he was wrong. until you look at it from the perspective of worshiping man. Because God called me here and I could not not go. I don't care how funny or how bad it looks to the rest of the world, because it's about the mind and the will and the character and glory of God. Thinking man would have said, you know the cross, really? Look at what he says, verse 18. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying. But to those who are being saved, thinking man says it's foolishness that you would go die on a cross. Thinking man would say, you know, that's just too hard. Do we have to do it this way, God? Does sins really cost that much? Yes. Worshipping man says they cost my blood. I will die for them. Because I know the mind, the will, the character and the glory of the father. And worshiping man, knowing the mind, will, and character, and glory of God said perfectly, into thine hands I commit my spirit. We must, I reiterate this morning, beloved, for truth to arise, not only here, it would do you no good because there's some of you out here that are still thinking men and women. You need to consider the things of God and what God is calling you to in Jesus Christ. We must educate ourselves here, we must educate our children for truth to arise. I believe that this is this church's legacy. This is the great need of this community and this is the great work that the Lord has called me and others here to. I believe that with everything I am. Not because it makes sense to thinking man of me, but it only makes sense to the worshiping man in me. We must teach them as worshiping boys and girls and men and women, and we must go after their parents with a fervency that is unquenchable to teach them how to be worshiping men and women. Men and women that Christ died for, that he loved so much, I'll leave you with this, Proverbs 1-7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Beginning, underline beginning. Because when our teacher is God, the possibilities are limitless. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Gracious heavenly fathers, we come this morning We can look at all that you've done, all that Paul said here this morning that you've given us through the Spirit and his work, and we can clearly see that thinking man can't arise to the truth lest he become worshiping man. And Father, what is even more clear is that you sent the model man, Jesus Christ. If he'd been a thinking man, he would've never agreed to that, but he was a worshiping man. who agreed to be tested with every sin that we're tested with, to remain spotless, and then to offer himself in my place, in our place, and all those who will believe in him's place on the cross of Calvary. There's just no way a thinking man could have ever done that. But because he knew perfectly and his will agreed perfectly, that you are truth, that your glory, your mind, your will, your character, all agreed that this was necessary. Father, may we be men and women who are worshiping men and women. I pray that you work in the hearts of your people this morning. Only you can do that. Do so mightily. Encourage them in your truth. In Jesus' name I pray. Well, the man that's going to help me.