The Sons of Abraham: Galatians 3

00:00 - James Spencer (Host) Paul, I don't think, was thrown in prison as a strategic move and he's obeying the Lord, he's following Christ and he's thrown into prison. And so, as Paul obeys, the obedience is the strategy. Every time, every step, no matter where it leads us, obeying God is that strategy. 00:19 - Speaker 2 (None) Welcome to PREPPED, the podcast that equips you to live out God's story, not the world's story. Hosted by James Spencer, phd, each episode bridges the gap between academic insights and everyday life, preparing you to understand the Word of God and put it into practice. Whether you're diving into biblical studies, looking for ministry guidance or aiming to deepen your faith, PREPPED empowers you to think biblically and theologically in a world that encourages you not to Ready to get PREPPED. Subscribe now and transform the way you bring God's story into the world. 00:54 - James Spencer (Host) Hey everyone, welcome back to PREPPED. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about what it means to resist the wisdom of the world and develop a theological framework for making decisions that glorify God. So have you ever made a decision that seemed right on the surface but left you feeling a little unsettled or found yourself asking what does God really want me to do in this situation? And I think those are questions that are just part of what it means to live as a disciple of Christ. And in a world that often prioritizes logic and comfort or personal ambition over God's glory, we see these problems arise time over time because our goals aren't aligned with the goal right. Our goal, or the goal, is to point to and glorify God with all we are and have. That's sort of a riff on the Westminster Confessions, you know, comment on what it is that the chief end of man and Jesus's summary of the law, and so this is what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to be constantly pointing to and glorify God in all things. But the world tries to push us to be a little bit more selfish than that. They try to give us different goals and we start to define parts of our life in terms of success or in terms of our you know, our reputation in a given community, or in terms of the standards that are set by the world or the culture that we live in. And so today, what we're going to explore is we're going to explore the problem with worldly wisdom, we're going to look at a biblical framework for decision making and we'll do that over the next couple of episodes, actually and then we're going to look at practical steps for resisting the influence of the world. So let's dive in. 02:38 First of all, the problem with worldly wisdom. So the world's wisdom often denies or distorts the reality of God wisdom. So the world's wisdom often denies or distorts the reality of God. It tells stories that exclude him or diminish him or distort him in some way, and they suggest that human ingenuity and power and wealth are really the ultimate sources of security and success. So if we consider cultural messages like follow your heart, do whatever makes you happy, you are the master of your fate, these ideas are compelling, they're maybe motivating, but ultimately they don't account for God's authority, wisdom or purpose. 03:16 They tend to dismiss the fact that we are sinful beings who have these misdirected desires that we just we can't seem to control that we don't always understand. Like, if I were to follow my heart, I would be in a really bad place, right? Because, as an unsanctified being, where is my heart going to lead me? It's going to lead me to whatever it desires. Well, if those desires are misdirected, it's not going to lead me to a good place, not all the time. And so what we really need to do is we need to, as I think of it, we need to reorder our loves, we need to reorient our attention and we need to learn to respond to God faithfully. 04:02 And so, as we look at you know, we've looked at some of these narratives. Actually, if we look at something like the Tower of Babel story, here's an instance where humanity is looking out at their lives, they're looking out at the situation that they're in and they're saying well, you know, we're in a pretty bad spot here, folks, we don't have a lot of security. We all speak the same language, so we got some stuff going for us. We have these technologies that we can make bricks. So if we don't want to be scattered across the whole earth which I don't think we do what should we go about doing in order to avoid that? What we're viewing as a negative outcome. And so what they do is they sort of we could say they follow their heart, they do what they desire to do, they do what makes them happy, and they decide that they're going to become the masters of their own fate. And so, apart from any divine revelation, apart from any guidance, any restraint, any instruction, this is where our hearts will lead us. It very seldom leads us directly to God, if ever. And so we need God's revelation, we need God's guidance, we need God's instruction, because otherwise what we end up doing is we end up sort of manipulating the things of the world. 05:18 We can pull a lot of levers and push a lot of buttons to make things happen, and sometimes and this is a sort of a paraphrase of John McGilchrist's concept that he conveys in the Matter with Things, a book that he wrote but he talks about there's a difference between understanding the world and manipulating the world. Pulling the levers and pushing the buttons to get an effect is one thing. Actually, understanding what's going on underneath is different. And so he talks about. You know, because we can pull these levers and push these buttons, oftentimes we're doing damage to the world and don't even know it. We don't recognize the damage that we're doing, and it's because we don't understand the world in the way that we should. Well, god's word gives us the ability to understand that world. The world's wisdom gives us insight into the world. 06:12 If we think about wisdom in terms of, let's say, scientific knowledge, right, we see that science can make a lot of great observations, do experiments to show us sort of how the underlying mechanisms are moving the various elements and parts of creation that God has made. They are helpful, but they don't give us meaning. So, you know, what does it mean to have atoms and quarks and whatever else? You know, quantum physics is coming up with these days. What does it mean, right? Does it give us meaning or does it just convey a mechanistic view of reality? The reality is that what we get in scripture is not just here's how the world works on a mechanistic basis. We also get a picture of the symbolic and theological worlds that we occupy, and that's a crucial thing. And so, as we're thinking about the world's wisdom, we can assume that it's always going to come up short. 07:14 You know, beyond science, we could look to philosophy. I think there's some really great work being done, you know, on Augustine's the City of God, and there's one book in particular that I really enjoy on it. I'll include that reference in the show description. But basically there's a there's something in the City of God that Augustine is trying to convey, and one of the things is he's looking philosophy, he's looking at politics, he's looking at these various areas of society and he's saying, yeah, it's not that they get it all wrong, it's just that they can't get it all right. And so he talks about the political sphere. 07:59 As you know, some political arrangements could make the world more or less healthy, but they can't make the kingdom or the city of God or the city of man into the city of God. They can't make the city of man into the city of God. There's always going to be this gap in this gulf that no human wisdom is ever going to be able to jump across, because no human wisdom can really penetrate the distance between a transcendent God, a God who is above all things, who sees everything, who is invisible, who needs to reveal himself to us. They can't make the leap between what we can see and who God is. They can't make the leap between you know what seems to be necessary and what God actually requires. And so what's needed to bridge that gap is revelation, and this is where the church has that revelation and we are to show the world an alternative way to live. 09:00 And so the trouble with human wisdom I would say just in summary, is that it's incomplete and that, because it's incomplete, we tend to engage in a logic, when we're thinking in a worldly fashion, we tend to engage in a logic that ignores God fashion. We tend to engage in a logic that ignores God, that is based on these incomplete stories, these incomplete views of reality, as opposed to following a theologic or theology that guides us through God's instruction. And so if we think about the world's wisdom, just as incomplete that it often can yes, it can often lead us astray, it's a distortion of God's truth. There are other ways that it can be problematic, but ultimately all of the worldly wisdom is incomplete. It's able to distort. 09:50 Because it's incomplete, it doesn't take into account all the variables, because it's denying God and I'm not talking about sort of the generic God like higher power kind the variables, because it's denying God and I'm not talking about sort of the generic God like higher power kind of idea it's denying the triune God and the revelation that he's provided. And so when that's not part of the equation, you're missing an awful big variable. And that's what's happening when we look at worldly wisdom. It isn't that it's always completely off, it isn't that it's always evil all the time. Right, the worldly wisdom is capable of seeing the good, the true and the beautiful, but it's not capable of situating the good, the true and the beautiful as part of what God, the triune God, has established in his creation, can't see it that way. And so, because it can't see it that way, again, it's always going to be incomplete, it's always going to distort, it's always going to draw wrong implications and wrong conclusions for how we should be in the world. Because even if we're just responding to the good, the true and the beautiful, but we're not responding to the triune God, we haven't quite gotten there yet. Okay, so worldly wisdom in part is problematic because it's incomplete. 11:03 So how do we go about sort of approaching discernment and decision makings in a way that is going to reflect God's glory, that's going to get us away from the worldly wisdom and start to get us thinking in terms of how we go about, you know, seeing God as active and present in our lives responding to him as opposed to responding to a situation. How do we go about cultivating this sort of discernment and decision-making within our lives? I'd suggest there are at least three things we need to be thinking about. Number one is that God's glory is our ultimate goal. I referenced suggest there are at least three things we need to be thinking about. Number one is that God's glory is our ultimate goal. 11:40 I referenced this in the introduction of the podcast, but I would say the Westminster Shorter Confession actually sums this up really nicely. It begins with the question what is the chief aim of man? What is the chief end of man? What is the chief end of humankind? And then the answer is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That isn't just a theological statement, it's a practical guide. It's an orienting sort of statement. It reminds us that, oh, everything I do is to lead to this chief end. It's the most important thing I'll ever do is learning to glorify God and enjoy him forever, and so everything I do is immersed within this purpose. Right, it isn't a priority list. 12:27 I've done some writing on different things, and one of the things that I talk about is why prioritization and balance as concepts are, or can become problematic. You know, there's never a point in our day where we say, okay, good, I've given God enough, now I can move on to something else. That's just not how we see it. When we think about Christian theology, what we're always doing is trying to point to and glorify God. Our whole lives are immersed in it, and so it's not something we move on from. You know, if you picture it as a pie chart and you say, how much of this pie chart should God be getting of our lives, if we want to divide this out and say, okay, god gets 99.999% and everything else gets the rest, is that sufficient? Is that what the Bible teaches us? No, it's not. 13:23 Those are sort of pictures that we get sometimes when we're thinking about prioritization and balance. Instead, what we're supposed to do is we're supposed to be immersed within God's word. We're supposed to be immersed in a love for God and a pursuit to glorify him and enjoy him forever, and everything else we do gets caught up in this flow. Again, to go back to Augustine, he actually talks about it in terms of you know, sort of water flowing, and if you think about, you know, watching a river roll by, or maybe even the ocean, right, everything that, if that flow of that water is the love of God that we are supposed to have, we're supposed to love God in this way and that's the total love for him. Anything that we throw in there is just gonna flow according to that current. And so he uses this picture of the river and says now, when we love our neighbor, all we're really doing is we're immersing how we interact with our neighbor within this love of God, and the current of our love for God is going to carry us to love our neighbor. 14:28 It's very similar to that, and I think that that's an important aspect of this. You know, when we look at this, if we think about our goal is ultimately to honor God. Our goal is ultimately to honor him, to glorify him, to point to him, then nothing is outside of that. There isn't a sense in which I can stop glorifying God for a moment and just do what I want to do. Our whole lives are aimed at this, and so I think we see pictures of this. 15:02 You know we could look at things like the David and Goliath narrative. You know David doesn't rely here on worldly logic. You know he's looking at this sort of seasoned warrior. This very large man and by all human accounts, you accounts David's act was foolish. David would never beat Goliath if it were just built on worldly logic. This is the logic that Saul is using In that narrative. It's actually a contrast, not between David and Goliath, although that's also apparent, but it's a contrast between David and Saul. 15:37 Saul ultimately, in the book of Samuel, shows himself to be one who fears man more than he fears God. And so Saul continually does things to placate the people, to make sure that the people are on his side, to have a large army. He's trying to build his security by making sure that there are plenty of people around him who he can trust to fight for him. David, on the other hand, we see, make the complete opposite decisions. David is consistently sort of fearing God rather than fearing man, not perfectly, but consistently. And so what we see in this narrative of David and Goliath is that that contrast between David and Saul coming out. 16:19 Saul is afraid of this man because he's not fearing the Lord. Saul has a fear of Goliath because he doesn't fear the Lord. He doesn't recognize that Goliath is defaming the Lord's name. He doesn't. He doesn't take that the same way David does. And so David's decision-making in that moment isn't just yeah, I've done this before, you know, I've killed bears, I've killed lions. That's not exactly what he does. He looks at it and says this person is calling out against the arming, the looming God. He is defaming our God, he is dishonoring our God. He is dishonoring our God. Who is he to do that? Somebody should go down and stop him. I've watched God move powerfully in my life to do this multiple times. So I'm not afraid I'm more afraid of having this dishonor of our God stand than I am to go stand in front of that giant. And so David is using a theo logic, saul is using a theologic, saul is using a worldly logic. And so those are some of the ways that I see that, you know, sort of coming out in the scriptures. 17:39 Efficiency, I think we've. Especially in our modern era, efficiency reigns right. We want to get things done faster and better and we want to be productive, and I think the world often measures our success by those kinds of results. But God really does prioritize obedience over outcomes. You know, consider Noah building the ark. For a worldly perspective, it must have seemed absurd spending decades constructing a massive vessel with no visible sign of a flood. Yet Noah's obedience ultimately glorifies God and preserves his family, and so I think there's a sense in which our obedience is at times, as Paul talks about, going to look like foolishness to the world. But the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. And so what we're trying to do is we're trying to say look, when we respond to God with obedience, when we respond to him faithfully, what are we doing? Well, on some level we're denying or defying the wisdom of the world. We're saying this isn't the right way to think about this. This is not the right way to go about this. We don't want this for ourselves. So that's one thing we're doing. But the other thing we're doing is we're sort of embracing the way that God has taught us, and we're saying that because we know who God is, because we know that we can trust him, because we know that he is going to be for us and with us, we can follow this way and not worry about what it looks like. 19:07 Obedience often appears not to make sense in my mind. A lot of times, when we obey, we carry losses from obedience, worldly losses from obedience. You know, paul I don't think was thrown in prison as a strategic move, and he's obeying the Lord, he's following Christ and he's thrown into prison. That's not something that's going to necessarily. He's going to sit down and do a strategic planning on the whiteboard and go okay, guys, now I think what makes most sense is for me to go to prison for a few years here, and that'll really help me advance the gospel. That doesn't make any sense, but God makes it make sense. And so, as Paul obeys, the obedience is the strategy. Every time, every step, no matter where it leads us, obeying God is that strategy. And so when I say we need to think about obedience over efficiency, what I'm really saying there is a lot of times, obedience is going to put us in these pinch points where it really really feels like, you know, we're missing out on something or maybe we are taking a loss in some sense. And that's okay, because what God is telling us is that obedience is the strategy for moving us toward a life with him. It's the strategy that puts us in his hand, and wherever he's going to lead us is ultimately going to be better than what we could achieve ourselves. We may not necessarily be able to conceive of what that looks like, but we trust that that's the case. 20:49 The third thing is, I would say this it's a phrase that's sort of like theology. First thing is, I would say this it's a phrase that's sort of like theology first, pragmatism second. So pragmatism often asks what works. Theology asks what glorifies God, and our decisions need to flow from that theological understanding. It's a way of reframing our questions right. When we ask what glorifies God, we're no longer asking how do I resolve this situation? How do I get out of this tough predicament? How do I, you know, how do I do X, y or Z? How do I advance my own agenda? In this moment, we're asking something that fundamentally aligns with our chief end what glorifies God. And so we need things like how does this decision reflect that God is sovereign and good? Am I relying on my own wisdom or seeking his through prayer and scripture? And I think those are really crucial. Once we start reframing the way we think about making a decision not how do I solve this particular problem, but what glorifies God in this moment, we position ourselves, we reposture ourselves, we reorient ourselves to actually achieving our chief end we're not going to do that perfectly Obviously, I think and I've said this before. 22:09 I think on this podcast or in other contexts, you know 1 John 1.9,. When I read 1 John 1.9, this podcast or in other contexts, you know 1 John 1, 9,. When I read 1 John 1, 9, what I see is that confession is a mark of the Christian community, because we're so committed to the truth that even when we have to admit our failings, we do so because we want the truth to come forward. And so when we read 1 John 1, 9 and it says you know, when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, what John is really saying there is that confession is a mark of the Christian community, that we are not a community that believes that we're doing everything right. We are a community that believes that truth, reality, obedience to God is so crucial that we are willing to sacrifice our own reputations by confessing our sins, saying what we did wrong and reorienting ourselves. That's who the Christian community is. 23:07 I think we've lost some of that and I think in part it's because we haven't followed this last principle of theology first pragmatism second. We haven't followed this last principle of theology first pragmatism second. So how does this look when we're thinking about resisting the world's influence? What is resistance really? I've talked about resistance in other contexts. I actually wrote a book called Christian Resistance. You can pick it up on Amazon if you'd like. 23:29 But one of the things I have used as sort of an analogy to help people understand what I mean by resistance, but one of the things I have used as sort of an analogy to help people understand what I mean by resistance. It's not a violent resistance by any stretch of the imagination. I think of it in terms of a dam that's holding back water. If you think about what that dam is supposed to be, that dam is supposed to hold its shape against the pressure of the water. It's an immense pressure that's coming in on that dam, but the dam is supposed to be stout and hold firm, supposed to hold its shape, because if it doesn't, the water comes rushing in. And I think that Christians are sort of like that dam. We're supposed to hold our shape. 24:06 The world is going to pressure us to change. It's going to pressure us to reshape ourselves, but we have this sort of desire to conform to the image of Christ and so we want to be a certain type of people. We want to hold a particular shape in the world and to the extent that we can hold that shape, that is the resistance of the worldly wisdom. No matter what comes against us, we're holding our shape. This is who we are, this is the way that we walk and this is our way of being in the world. We're not moving, we're not changing. This is just who we are. We are following the way of Jesus. We're following the way that is Jesus, and so, by holding our shape, that is our form of resistance. So how does that resistance really work? 24:56 Well, I think, number one, we have to discern the stories that we're listening to. You know, the world is going to tell us stories through media and politics, advertising and culture, and those stories are going to shape how we think about success and happiness and identity. But not all those stories are true and, particularly, I would say, not all those stories are completely true. And so we need to ask ourselves how would this story look different if God were acknowledged, if the triune God were understood to be living and active, present among us? How would this story change? Does it exclude him? And if it does, what would this story look like if it were told, with God involved in that story. So, as we're thinking about you know what stories we're listening to we need to be asking that question how would this story change if the triune God were involved? What would these characters be doing? Are they really exhibiting wisdom or are they just sort of aping wisdom? Are we falling into this trap of thinking that, yeah, some of these things can really make sense in a world that is broken and that seemed to work? Are they following their own heart? Are they crafting their own fate? None of those acknowledge the triune God, and so what does it look like? What would this story look like if the triune God were acknowledged as living, active and infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor? So I think that's how we begin to discern those stories. 26:31 The other thing I think we can do to discern stories is ask ourselves about the transcendentals, the true, the good and the beautiful. How are these stories commenting on the true, the good and the beautiful? How are they conveying what those things are? What is beautiful about the world? What is true about the world? What is good about the world? Most stories, most works of art, most movies, tv shows you name it they're making comments about the true, the good and the beautiful, and oftentimes they're getting that partially right. They're pointing to things that are true and good and beautiful. They're pointing out, you know, where injustice lies in society, for instance, maybe they're pointing out the ways that people exclude one another, or how a particular sort of friendship conveys something good about the world, and yet without the triune God in the midst, it's always going to be incomplete, and so thinking about how a particular movie or book, or whatever it is that you happen to be watching or reading, is trying to comment on the true, the good or the beautiful, can, I think, be a really good way to help discern the stories that we're listening to. 27:46 The second one is something I've drawn from a campaign that we ran a few years ago Go Dark, shine Bright and I would say we need to practice going dark and shining bright, and so that phrase is really intended to say. You know, go dark means let's step away from some of the distractions that tend to dull our spiritual sensitivity, let's step away from things that are hindering us from growing in Christ, and let's step, then, toward things that are growing in Christ. And so originally, the campaign was framed around social media. And what we wanted was we encouraged people to take time off of social media. That social media, if it was a distraction, if it was something that was hindering you in your growth from Christ, that taking five, seven, 10, 20 days off of it would be a good thing. And then we wanted to. You know, we encourage people to shine bright, which meant living more intentionally for God's glory in every moment. So taking that time of moving away from the hindrance in order to determine how to go about living more faithfully in a moment. 28:51 And so what might going dark look like for you? Maybe it's not, you know. Maybe it's fasting from social media. That's the way we thought about it. Maybe it's turning off the news for a week. Maybe it's simplifying your schedule to create space for God, you know. Maybe it's making sure that you don't have events on a Sunday morning so you end up making it to church. Maybe it's you know, you name it. Maybe it's not binging that latest episode on Netflix. Maybe, you know, taking that time to read God's word or even just to go exercise, enjoy God's creation, take a walk. You know, whatever that is, there isn't any one thing. It's about you figuring out what is actually hindering you from moving forward with God, from being more faithful to him, and what is it that you could put in place to help you grow in your faith? 29:41 And then the last thing I'll say is learning to ask theological questions. I hinted at this earlier, but I think part of the reason that we don't make great decisions all the time is that we're asking the wrong kind of questions, and so, before we make a decision, we need to ask does this reflect that God is infinitely more relevant than other factors? In other words, you know, is the story I'm telling myself, taking account of the triune, god and his living and active presence in my life? And then the second one how does this really demonstrate my desire to glorify God? Is this the best way to glorify God in this moment, this time? And I think, the more we can ask ourselves those questions, it keeps our chief end in front of us to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And so, as we ask these questions, we're sort of putting ourselves on the path of learning to take pleasure in obedience, to really take pleasure in understanding God's word and following God's word. That's where we want our pleasure to be, and so to do that. 30:40 I think we need to ask different questions. If we keep asking the same questions, we're probably gonna get the same answers. So resisting the wisdom of the world, I think, does require some intentionality. It is about choosing God's glory over pragmatism, obedience over outcomes and, really, theology over efficiency. And I would just encourage you this week to take some time to evaluate some of your recent decisions. 31:05 Just ask yourself did this decision glorify God? And if it didn't, what could I have done differently? Where can I incorporate some know, incorporate some of these little strategies of asking different questions or taking a break from something you know? What is it that I need to do to really own the fact that the chief end of my life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever? Hey, thanks for joining me on this episode of PREPPED. In the next episode we're going to continue to talk a little bit about decision-making and our everyday decision-making for God's glory. But until then, let's just commit to making every decision for God's glory and, as always, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it, like it, subscribe all those various other things that really help us out, and we will catch you on the next episode of PREPPED. Thanks for being here. Take care everyone. 31:58 - Speaker 2 (None) Thanks for tuning into PREPPED. If today's episode helped you view the world through a God-centered lens, be sure to hit subscribe so you're always prepared for what comes next. Don't forget to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more believers eager to live out God's story. Share this episode with a friend, family member or loved one, and together let's keep challenging the world's narratives. Until next time, stay grounded, stay inspired and continue living out God's plan. See you soon on our next episode of PREPPED.