Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for his wisdom and his knowledge. We pray that you would help us to rely on that as we live our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. As you know, we work part-time with Source of Light Ministries in Madison, Georgia. Jim Tilson is one of our missionaries. And we are there sometimes. And they always send homework with me home. So I've got stacks of books that I'm going through. But I also answer questions for prisoners. And one of the prisoners, the last time I was there, had a letter. And he said, I am in prison for sexual assault. And when I'm going to be released, I'm going to be released as a sexual predator. And so he has to be registered wherever. And he said, the judge told me I'm not allowed to have any relationship with any of my daughters. I'm never allowed to see them again. Could you help me with that? You know what? Too bad, too late. You know, sometimes, We get there, and we're like, how did I get here? And that's because we didn't look at three questions. So I wrote him back about the three questions, and he didn't get this whole sermon, but just briefly three questions. And so here we go. Number one, we have to understand about how dumb God is in relationship to your intelligence, right? This is where we run into problems a lot of times. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. In other words, the dumbest thing God could come up with is a lot smarter than the smartest thing you could come up with. Now, I realize that's hard to understand, but that's the way it is, okay? Number two, and the weakness of God, God's weakest point, is stronger than your strongest point. So when we're deciding on a question, we're saying, let me see, is God smarter and stronger than me, or do I really have a better idea than he has right now when I'm dealing with an issue? Chapter 3 and verse 19, for the wisdom of this world, God has to check with the scientist to see if he's right or not, right? So let me see. Who is the most intelligent person in the world? So God checks with them to see if they agree with him and they think that he might be right. Right? No. They may disagree with him, but that doesn't mean God's wrong. Because God, wisdom, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. The smartest person in the world is really super, super dumb compared to God. Now, sometimes we make our own decisions. Proverbs chapter 19 and verse three, and the foolishest man perverted his way, but in his heart fretted against the Lord. In other words, I hear people say this, well, they made some bad choices. And guess who they blame? God. God did this to me. No, no, no. You made a foolish choice. You made a wrong choice. And now you're trying to blame God because you didn't seek his wisdom to start with. Three questions. Number one, what does God think about this? Any situation, anything that comes up, anything that you have to make a decision about, this is the first question you ask. What does God think? If you have to say, I don't know, guess what? You say, I'm going to find out, right? We have a pastor. If you don't know, ask him. You may know other godly people. If you don't know, ask them. Find out. What does God think about this? Question number two. Do you care about what God thinks? Now, if the person really doesn't care about what God thinks, conversation is over. Because as a Christian, you can't help people who don't care about what God thinks. They're not interested about what God thinks. They've already made up their mind, regardless of what God thinks, because they think they're smarter than God. And they're not smarter than God. So if they don't care, the conversation's over. But if you have a chance to throw in question number three, you can throw in this one. Are you willing to accept the consequences of this action? Now, they may have never thought about consequences of an action, but everything you have in the scripture You can see all kinds of illustrations of this in every type of circumstance in scripture, and we're going to look at some of those this evening. So the first question is, what does God think about this? The second question is, do you care what God thinks? And the third, are you willing to accept the consequences of this action? But when he, Jesus, turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Jesus had said, I'm going to go to the cross. And Peter said, no, you're not. What God thought was he was going to go to the cross. Peter said, no, that doesn't fit my agenda. I think you're wrong. God said, you're going to forsake me. Peter said, not me. The rest of the disciples said, not me. You don't have to worry about us, Lord. We're going to be with you right to the end. Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee. Likewise said all the disciples. They said, Lord, don't worry about it. Question number one, what does God think? He's going to go to the cross. He's going to die on the cross. The disciples are going to forsake him and flee. And the disciples say, no. In other words, God, you're wrong. That's not what we think. That's not what's going to happen. Don't worry about it. We're with you to the end. But guess what? Peter said, I don't know who that guy is. Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately the cock, while he yet spake, the cock grew. And the Bible says in another passage of scripture, Jesus turned and looked at him. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. He didn't think there was going to be any consequences. He didn't think there was going to be any denial. But the first question was, what did God think? And God thought he was going to go to the cross and all the disciples would forsake him. And they said, no, that's what they thought. Because it didn't matter what God said, because they had a different idea. And the consequences was they did exactly what Jesus said they would do. Exodus chapter 20, Ten Commandment chapter. You're familiar with that, I'm sure. And one of the Ten Commandments says, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Moses was up on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments. Aaron and Hur were supposed to be in charge of the people down in the valley. And the people down in the valley said, we don't know what in the world happened to Moses. We need to make some gods. And he, that is Aaron, received them, gold and silk gold, at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made a golden calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. What did God think? No other gods, no images. What was the people's response to that? Did they care what God said? No, they didn't care. So how do you know that? Because they did exactly the opposite of what God said to do. But what they didn't think about was question number three. What was going to be the consequences of their action? See, that's the thing we also have to consider if we're really concerned about things. Say, I know God said this, I think he might be wrong, but suppose he's right, what are the consequences gonna be in my life about that? And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and there fell of the people that day, 3,000 dead people. That was the consequence. because what God said. And they didn't care about what God said because they made the idols anyways. 3,000 people were dead that day. There were consequences. The Gibeonites had come to the people of Israel after they had entered the land of promise and said, we're from a far country. We live way, way, way away from you. They knew that Israelites were not supposed to make any agreements with them. And we want to make a treaty with you. And so Joshua looked at the old bread and the old worn out shoes and the old wine skins and they said, okay, that's good. Guess what? He missed question number one. You never miss question number one. What's question number one? What does God think about this? Guess what? God knows when people are lying to you. You know that? He does. God always knows the truth. God knows what's up. But notice what the verse says, and the men, Joshua and his men who made the decision, took of their victuals and did not ask not the counsel at the mouth of the Lord. So we skip question number one. You never miss question number one if you're a Christian. It's always the first question. And when you find out what the first question is, and you care about the first question, then you're safe. But they cared about the second question without asking the first question. In other words, what does God think? But we didn't ask him what he thinks to start with, okay? In other words, what did God say? But all the princes said in the congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel, now therefore we may not touch them. In other words, we should have asked God first. But look at the mess we're in now. What are we going to do with this? When we skip the first question and only ask the second question after we realize we made a mistake by not asking the first question, then it's hard to get out of the third question. What are the consequences of this action? Now, therefore, you are cursed and there shall none of you be free, talking about the Gibeonites, from being bondmen and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. That's the best they could do to save the situation because some of the people of Israel said, we need to kill the whole bunch of them. They lied to us. And Joshua said, we didn't ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord. We didn't ask the first question. We only ask the question after we realize that we've been deceived, the second question. And then the consequence, the third question. The people of Israel were ready to enter the promised land. They'd been walking around in the desert for a few years. And Joshua sent 12 men as spies out to look out the land. The 12 spies came back and we had two divisions. We had 10 against two. The two were Caleb and Joshua. The 10 said, we can't do it. We're going to go up there and we're all going to get killed. There's no way we can defeat the giants. There's no way we can take the land. It's not possible. In other words, they saw the circumstances as bigger than their God. And a lot of times we do that. We see our circumstances as bigger than our God. But here was Joshua and Caleb who saw their God bigger than their circumstances. And they said, only rebel ye not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is apart and from, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. Notice the phrase, the Lord is with us. When the Lord is with us, we are assured of victory. If God says, this is what I want you to do, go into the land, I'm going to give you the land. This is the land of promise. The victory is yours. I am with you. That's God's will. That's question number one. What does God want us to do? God wants us to go in and take the land. Well, the people were big there. God's big too. God's a lot bigger than they are. God's a lot stronger than the men, remember? God is stronger than the men. Then he answered and said unto me, we have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up the hill. And Moses said, no, you're not going. God's not going to be with you, and you're going to be defeated if you go up there. Don't go up there. All of a sudden, they started to think about what God said and what God's going to do. And they didn't want that to happen because the consequences that was going to come was really a bad deal. God said, you're going to die right where you are. God, can we rerun this one? God said, no, we can't rerun it. You're going to die right where you are. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. After the number of days in which you search the land, even 40 days each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities even 40 years, and you shall know my breach of promise. Number one, what did God say? Go in and take the land. What were they thinking? What did they think about what God said? Do you care about what God said? No, we're not going to do that. We're going to go back to Egypt. And God said, no, you're going to die right here in the wilderness. Did you ever think of the fact that a son may have said to his father, Dad, I thought we were going to the promised land? And Dad says, yes, we are. And the son says, Dad, we've been walking around in circles in this wilderness for the last 30 years. How far is the promised land from here? And the father says, 10 more years of us dying, that's how far it is from here. 40 wasted years in the wilderness, walking around in circles, and people getting buried in the sand, 605,330. What did God say? Go in and take the land. What did they think about what God said? They're too big for us, God. We can't do that. God said, OK, die in the wilderness. Get buried in the wilderness. Are you willing to accept the consequences of your action? 40 wasted years walking around in circles. You know, sometimes I believe there are some of God's people that are walking around in circles in the wilderness, wasting years. Because they don't care about what God said. They don't care what he said. They don't care what he thinks. And somehow they think there won't be any consequences. But they're just walking around in circles in the wilderness. Saul is talking to, try it again. Samuel is talking to Saul. And the Lord sent thee, Saul, on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. What does God think? God thinks that King Saul should take the army down and wipe out the Amalekites, the whole bunch of them, wipe them out. Saul salutes Samuel. heads off to fight with the Amalekites. He comes back into town after victory, and he's talking to Samuel. And Saul said unto Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and I've gone the way which the Lord sent me, and I brought Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and I'll destroy the Amalekites. Samuel said, how come I hear sheep? bleeding in my ears. What is Agag doing here? What are all these other people doing here? I'll get to that in a minute. God said utterly destroy. What does God think? He wanted the Amalekites destroyed. Saul, and Saul blames it on the people as well, as you know, says, Well, the people wanted to save the best to sacrifice the Lord. To obey is better than sacrificing to hearken than the fight of rams. What did they think about what God said? They could make some adjustments in what God said. No, you can't. Because question number three comes up, what are the consequences of this decision? And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. God said, I'm done with you, you're out. God anointed a man after his own heart, his name was David. Saul wanted to get rid of him, but it didn't happen. One day Saul and his sons in the army of Israel was fighting the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. Saul was wounded by the archers. And what happens next, I'm not sure. I've jumped back and forth on that one. But Saul fell on his sword. His armor bearer falls on his sword. But when somebody comes to David with the king's crown, and David said, how do you know Saul's dead? And he said, well, Saul was leaning on his spear. And Saul said to me, would you go ahead and finish me off? And then he asked him, who are you? Guess what he said? I am an Amlekite. The person that Saul was supposed to destroy killed him, finished him off. God, and he said, and he, God, said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. There was no conversation with Sarah, I don't think. Abraham didn't go to Sarah and say, I'm gonna sacrifice Isaac tomorrow down the road. I think we'll be back. He didn't say that. He heard what God said, and it mattered to him what God said. And he just did what God said. And question number one, what does God think? Question number two, do you care what God thinks? And Abraham cared what God thought. That was of utmost importance to him. And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him. And Isaac, his son, enclaved the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went to the place in which God had told him. Bound his son, laid him on the altar. hold up the knife ready to finish him off. And the angel from heaven says, wait, wait. There's a ram in the bush. Take him. And there were consequences to that action as well. God said that in blessing I will bless thee and multiply and I will multiply thy seed to the stars of heaven as the sand which is on the seashore and thy seed, that's children, shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed, children, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice. Guess what? Those are good consequences, aren't they? God's blessing on the family of Abraham and not just on his family, but on all the nations of the earth. We are blessed because Abraham cared what God thought. It mattered to him what God thought. And the results of that, the consequences of that, was the blessing to the entire world for thousands of years. Because he obeyed the voice of the Lord. And there was, I chopped up some verses here, so the reading on the screen is not gonna be right, but, and there was a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said unto him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, behold, I am here, Lord. And Saul had seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and put his hands on him that he might receive his sight. Ananias knew about Saul. He killed Stephen. He was killing lots of people. He was dragging lots of people off into prison. He was doing everything he can to make the people of God curse God. And Anna and I said, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil we have done to thy saints in Jerusalem. He said, God, are you sure you want me to do this? You know, when something, God comes to you with something that really seems off the wall, God has no problem with you checking with him to make sure you've got the instructions right. You know that? Ananias didn't say, God, I'm not going to do that. That guy's been a rascal. He's been mean and nasty to your church, to your people, to your saints. There's no way in the world he didn't say that. He just said, God, Are you sure you want me to do this? And the Lord said unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. Do you care what God thinks? Ananias cared. But he did want to check with God before he continued. But he had no intention whatsoever of not continuing, because to Ananias, It meant everything to him what God thinks. But the Lord said unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings of Israel. He said, you go get him. Pastor Walker was talking to us this morning about being a witness, and I'm sure that Ananias went to be a witness, scared to living to death. He said, I'm gonna end up in this thing dead, but I'm gonna do it. And Ananias went his way and entered the house and put in his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord even Jesus that appeared in thee away as thou camest has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Let him the Lord. He received the Holy Spirit. He became the Apostle Paul. Wrote many of the books of the scripture in the New Testament. Started churches all over the Mediterranean world. As some people said, this guy came here and turned the world upside down. But he had somebody that witnessed to him and led him to the Lord. Because, number one, he wanted to know what God said. And God said in Ananias, go get Saul. He said, Lord, can I check one thing with you? You know who this guy is, right, Lord? And you're sure you want me to do this? And God said, go get him. And he did. And the consequence as a result of that was the known world heard the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ because of the person that he led to the Lord. The people of Israel had been carried off into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. Johanan, who guy was in charge of the military, had decided that after they killed the person who was supposed to be in charge, the Babylonians had put in charge that the people ought to go down to Egypt. So they go to Jeremiah and they say to Jeremiah, we want to know what God wants us to do. Question number one, what does God think? Whatever God tells you, that's what we're gonna do. You can count on it. We wanna know what God thinks. So Jeremiah goes and talks to God. God tells him what they've got in mind. And actually what they have in mind is they don't really care what God thinks. They don't care what God thinks. They wanted God to tell them that they were supposed to do what they wanted to do regardless of what God said. That's what they wanted to happen. So Jeremiah comes back to them and says, this is what God says, stay in this land, I'll bless you, I'll protect you. The Babylonians won't come and destroy you, stay here, you'll get God's blessing here, stay right where you are. Do not go into Egypt, you understand? Don't go into Egypt. That's what God thinks. Did they care about what God said? No, they didn't. They said to Jeremiah, as for the word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. Baruch doesn't like us. He set you against us. This is not what God said. It is what God said. It's exactly what God said. Are you willing to accept the consequences by going and doing your own thing? What are the consequences going to be? Are there going to be any consequences? Yes, there are. Then it shall come to pass that the sword in which he feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt. He said, the sword that you're afraid of here, that I told you would not come on you here in the land of Israel, is going to overtake you in Egypt. And the famine that you're afraid of here, that I promised you would not be a famine, when you go to Egypt, you're going to have a famine. And shall follow you close after you there in Egypt, and there you shall die. So you're all going to die there. That's the consequences. Question number one, what does God think? Question number two, do you care what God thinks? And question number three, are you willing to accept the consequences of going against what God thinks? If you follow what God thinks, the consequences are going to be blessings. And if not, the consequences could be 48 wasted years in the wilderness walking around in circles until you die. Three questions. When you're talking with people, they're easy to remember. They're easy to remember. When you're making decisions for yourself, they're easy to remember. Question number one, what does God think? If you love God and you don't know, you're going to find out. And you can find out. If any man will to know of the doctrine, he shall know. And you're safe there. Question number two, you should always care about what God thinks. And you're always going to walk in obedience to that. If you don't care about what God thinks, it shows up by your disobedience to his word and to his ways. Question number three, what is it going to cost you? You don't always know that ahead of time. I'm sure the people of Israel didn't know ahead of time that they're going to be walking around in the wilderness for 40 years. I'm sure Saul didn't know that he was going to be rejected as king and an Amalekite would run his sword through his gut. Excuse the bad language. I'm sure when the people of Israel made their idol that Aaron made out of gold, they didn't realize there were going to be 3,000 dead people that day. And we don't always know what that's going to be. But at that point in the conversation, it's kind of tough to recoup things. Here's the verses you always need to remember. Number one, God's a whole lot smarter than you are. When you've got a better idea, compare IQs with God, okay? Maybe God doesn't love you, right? False. Why do you think he hung on the cross? For you and for me. Here is love, not that we love God, but he loved us and gave his son propitiation for our sins. No matter how smart the world thinks they are, it's utter foolishness with God. So you need to seek God's wisdom to know God's mind, to walk in God's ways, to receive God's blessings. If you make bad choices that mess up your life, don't blame God. because you didn't ask the first three questions. You didn't bother, because really you thought you were smarter than God, and God really didn't love you. That's why he wants you to do things that seem wrong to you. The foolishest of men pervert his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank Thee for the truth that lies therein. We thank Thee that we have a God who loves us and cares for us and is willing to be our guide and director. We thank Thee that He's a good shepherd that leads us in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. And as we walk there, there's Thy blessing there for us. We thank You for Your goodness and kindness to us in that regard. We pray that You would help us that we might always be concerned about what You think. that it would always be important to us what you've told us about a certain thing. Help us always to care about that. And help us to consider the possible consequences of disobedience to your word and your will and your best for us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.