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Don't Be Naive
10 Plays2 years ago
Vernon talks through the benefits of learning from others, especially Solomon, as we figure out what walking in righteousness looks like! Those who avoid or resist wisdom and instruction are called "naïve", not by me but by Solomon!
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Transcript
Introduction to Walking Free Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free. And I'm so glad you joined again today.
Understanding Identity in Christ
00:00:25
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I was thinking about this
00:00:28
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idea of course of our identity and we talk about that a lot because well that's one of the key components of the grace message it's our identity in Christ and really understanding who you are that is so foundational
00:00:48
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We have a lot of foundational truths that I think distinguish this grace message from other religious, even other Christian messages, our identity in Christ, that we are not just figuratively or God sees me a certain way, but in truth and in reality,
00:01:15
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that as believers in Jesus Christ, we are righteous and holy. Another foundational truth is our forgiveness in Christ that we are forgiven 100%. We don't come daily trying to get more cleansing or more forgiveness.
00:01:43
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that the cross provided all the forgiveness we're ever gonna get. Past, present, future, we are forgiven.
Trusting in God's Power
00:01:53
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That's another key component of the message, our identity, our forgiveness. This idea of entrusting that is often coupled with, and we don't like this word,
00:02:10
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broken or where we need to come to a place and this is not just a one time but throughout our lives where we see the futility of our own fleshly efforts outside of God's power and outside of our new creation where we're trying to get life from other things
00:02:41
Speaker
any other thing outside of Christ, often that has to just be broken. We have to come to a place and life does a good job of that, by the way. Life has a way of breaking our dependencies on things that don't give us life and power and joy and peace.
Living Out Identity in Christ
00:03:04
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And as humans, we can be deceived and we will look to those things. Sometimes it's just been our things we've learned growing up that are like coping strategies that have worked kind of well. And we turn to those things like muscle memory. And over time, I think the Lord
00:03:29
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the Lord wants to break those things so we can turn to Him as the only one who gives us life and victory and power and love and peace. So there's a lot of foundational ideas of the grace message where we are free. And that is the truth, that we are free in Christ.
00:03:59
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there is another truth. You know, we talk about, and that's what I harp on on this podcast, is this idea that we need to stop talking and start walking, and I've explained that a thousand times, but
00:04:22
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It's where we talk about our identity in Christ, but we don't walk it out. Where we talk about how God's made us righteous, yet we don't live it out. We talk about God's made us victorious, but we don't experience that victory in our lives. We talk about God has made us brand new creations and made us in his image and love and kindness and humility, yet we don't walk
00:04:50
Speaker
We don't experience it, thus the stop talking, start walking. But the start walking is not like pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get on with it. That's not the intent, but the intent is to make a choice. That is part of the idea that you are holy and you can choose holiness.
00:05:17
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you are righteous and you can choose righteousness. You are a brand new creation and you can choose to be that brand new creation who is, by nature, loving and kind, empowered with self-control. You can choose that, but there is something
00:05:42
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that is probably lost in the translation when I say stop talking, start walking. And that is the very power of God who is in you to empower you to do that. Again, it's not a pull yourself up by the bootstraps. The world has that message and will tout that message all day long. That's not the message.
00:06:10
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The message is that God has not only made you a brand new creation, but he has joined himself with you and in you. And you have the power of the omnipotent God living on the inside. And his desire is to express his power through your body.
00:06:41
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Through your members, as Paul says in Romans six, he wants to express his power through you. And that's why we want to yield our members. That's a good word. Yield our members to his power. Yield our members of this human body to his power.
Gaining Wisdom Through Scripture
00:07:10
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to the new creation that he has made in you. And that is often the missing piece where we're trusting Christ as our life, Christ to be our life, Christ to empower our life. But sometimes it helps
00:07:35
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You know, we live in a world we don't always understand what righteousness looks like. And it's good. And the scripture gives us, you know, the New Testament is full of what that looks like. And they're not behaviors to emulate in terms of
00:07:56
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to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do, but this pictures, so we have an idea of what it looks like as we trust Christ to be our life in that particular area. And I think Proverbs is amazing to give you ideas and to give me ideas of what
00:08:22
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this looks like, what does wise behavior look like? You know, I encourage when I work with students, I don't wanna tell them, hey, this is a sin and this is not a sin. I mean, there are, quote, sins, yes, explicit, and we can certainly express those, but I think it's better when we talk about what's wise. What's the wise thing to do? That's what my pastor will always say. He would,
00:08:53
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say the question we need to ask is what's the wise thing to do? And he would phrase it, in light of your past experience and in light of your future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do? And there's no better place to look for wisdom. There's no better place than Proverbs. In fact, in Proverbs 1,
00:09:21
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Solomon starts out, says the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, and here's how he sets the stage. To know wisdom and instruction. To know wisdom and instruction. And that word instruction is the word for warning as well as instruction.
00:09:52
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for the word of correction and discipline and even rebuke, that's a big word to know wisdom and instruction. We don't like that word, do we? We don't want someone, we don't want to learn often. We don't want someone to tell us what to do. Then that sometimes kind of ruffle your feathers when you feel like someone is telling you what to do.
00:10:23
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Well, the book of Proverbs will give us some instruction and give us some very specific ideas on what to do and what not to do. And sometimes, yes, doing gets a bad rap in the grace message. We talk about being. Well, being is important, and I think that is how it begins. We need to understand who we are.
00:10:54
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But doing is what changed the world. Doing is what turned as it was told in history where the disciples just turned the world upside down, their world, because of what they did. But what they did was an outpouring of who they were and who they are. Your world is gonna change because of who you are
00:11:24
Speaker
and it's gonna be reflected in what you do. And it's that doing that's really gonna make the change. That's what people see. That's just what James was talking about, the brother of Jesus. People can't see your heart. People don't see what you believe, but they see what you do, and they see your attitude as well, by the way. And so doing is so important.
00:11:52
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But I don't want to put the cart before the horse or the trailer before the truck. So it starts with understanding who you are. But I'm telling you, if all you do is talk about it and you're not living it and experiencing the empowering life of Christ and people don't see that, your talk is hot air and it will be quickly dismissed.
00:12:20
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So we need to have proper doing and Proverbs is a great place to understand wisdom and what does wise behavior look like? And so he starts out and in verse two again, to know wisdom and instruction, correction and that idea of wisdom
00:12:48
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is a skillfulness, even a wit, often when you hear in our culture, wit and wisdom, they kind of go together, but a skillfulness to discern the sayings of understanding. And in Proverbs, you're gonna see this over and over. You're gonna see wisdom, instruction, understanding, and knowledge.
00:13:16
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You're gonna see all of those words. And this idea of understanding is this idea of meaning. I use the word the whys, W-H-Y, why. Understanding and meaning.
00:13:42
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to receive instruction in verse three in wise behavior. I think our culture could use a little bit of that today, don't you? To receive some instruction in wise behavior. And sometimes it's not even a matter of what's right or wrong, but it's what's wise. And that word wise is that
00:14:11
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What is really the smart thing? What's going to help you prosper in this particular situation or have success in this particular situation? Again, maybe not a right or wrong, but what's the wise thing? To receive instruction in wise behavior. And that's why I like the way my pastor will phrase it
00:14:40
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in light of my past experience and in light of my future hopes and dreams, what's the wise thing for me to do right now, in this moment, to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity? And righteousness is,
00:15:10
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something I think we need to understand more of, don't you? And what is right? And this idea and this word of, we talk about being the righteousness of Christ. We are his righteousness. Wouldn't it be cool
00:15:38
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to learn what does that look like? What does righteousness look like? What does justice look like? That word justice is a verdict, like a judicial verdict. What does justice look like in a particular situation?
00:16:10
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What does equity look like? What is the word being this idea of a straightness, the idea of a level? You know when you want to make something a level, maybe it's a picture, you're hanging a picture and you get a level, you wanna make sure it's straight,
00:16:37
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What does that look like, this idea of leveling out, being straight, being plain, being equitable? All these words kind of go together, righteousness, justice, equity. What does it look like? Are we able to give solid answers to what that might look like in a situation?
00:17:06
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for folks that we minister to. And I don't mean we tell people what to do, especially in counseling. We try to shy away from that when you're counseling.
Community and Wisdom Sharing
00:17:15
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People always wanna know, tell me what to do. I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I'm gonna tell you who you are. And we're gonna talk about wisdom and ask God to, and you can ask God to give you wisdom.
00:17:28
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But there's some things in scripture that give us ideas of what wisdom looks like. Well, let's look at that. Here's what Solomon says. Here's what Paul says. What does that look like now for you in light of what the scripture says? We need a little bit of wisdom and instruction in wise behavior and what righteousness and justice and equity looks like.
00:17:57
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Why? Well, verse four, to give prudence to the naive, and the naive are just those who are simple, they don't understand. Maybe they don't understand because they've never learned, maybe they never learned from their parents. Maybe they haven't learned in the culture that they're in, that we're in today, to give prudence, and that,
00:18:26
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word, prudence, can actually mean trickery, but in a good sense, this subtleness. Sometimes it's those subtle cues and that subtle discernment of what is the best wise thing for me to do now. It's a subtlety. It's a skill that takes, I think, experience. And some of you have got
00:18:51
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a lot of great experience in what's wise. You say, oh, I'm not a teacher, and I'm not a preacher, but you know you've got a lot of experience. You've got a lot of scars. And you can share that. Your story itself can provide wisdom to those who might be a little younger in the journey.
00:19:17
Speaker
And you can share that. And you don't have to be responsible whether they hear it, take it, or learn from it. That's okay. You can share it. And that's why in small group, we often, in fact, in the small group that Michelle and I lead, we will always encourage folks to share their story and to share their experience.
00:19:45
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Yes, we're going to look to the scripture. Yes, we're going to learn from incredible teachers, but we want to hear people's experience and the wisdom they've garnered over the years because their experience might just be the thing that God uses to help us or help someone else who might be a little naive in a situation.
00:20:17
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to give prudence to the naive, to the youth, knowledge and discretion. Now here's a statement that can be challenging. I think something that we need to reflect on when Solomon says in verse five, a wise man,
00:20:46
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A wise person will hear and increase in learning. And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord
00:21:17
Speaker
is the beginning of knowledge. If you want to really move forward in knowing God, knowing life, it starts with the fear of the Lord. In that word fear and we, and I'm gonna go back up to verse five in a minute, but just to camp on this for a second.
00:21:47
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That word fear is not necessarily to be afraid of, but it is used in fear, the actual word fear. But it's also used in relationship to God in this idea of reverence. And there's a fear, fear and reverence really can go hand in hand where you're, when you reverence, you have a reverence for the king, why?
00:22:15
Speaker
It's a respect and reverence for the king's authority and who they are. Because the king has authority to over you. The king has authority over you. And a bad king can hurt you. A good king wants your best. And when we have this fear of the Lord, it's that reverence for who God is.
00:22:45
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and that he has authority over me, and that's the beginning of knowledge. When we come outside of the authority of God, we're really missing out on true knowledge and on truth itself.
00:23:05
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So that's where it begins when we place ourselves, and you know what the funny thing is? We're under the authority of God, whether we believe it, like it, or accept it, or not. That's the crazy thing. So why not, since you're already under his authority anyways, choose to reverence who God is.
00:23:35
Speaker
and that He, and acknowledge that He has authority over you, and that He wants your good. He wants, in fact, He's given things through Christ, all things for your joy, and all things for you to enjoy. Let me jump back up to verse five. The challenging part is, number one,
00:24:05
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is to choose, to choose that God is our authority and to place ourselves reverently, humbly under his authority and to recognize that. It's challenging though to hear this phrase, a wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire counsel. When we choose not to listen,
00:24:33
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we choose not to learn. When we choose not to hear instruction, when we choose not to hear wisdom, when we choose not to hear instruction in wise behavior, in righteousness, justice, and equity, then we choose against wisdom and we choose against learning.
00:25:04
Speaker
A man of understanding, a woman of understanding will acquire wise counsel. It's okay to seek help. That's what we do at Grace Ministries. We are a counseling ministry. This is not talking strictly about counseling ministry, but seeking advice, learning from others, listening to others, surrounding yourselves with friends,
00:25:35
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Surrounding yourself with those that you can glean from. A wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. Life does not happen in a vacuum. We need community. You need community. And know they're not always going to be 100% like you. Don't let that stop you.
00:26:04
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from getting in community. Insert yourself in places where you can find community. You know, I go and Michelle and I coach special needs baseball. That's a community.
00:26:25
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that we can engage in, we learn from, we can get wisdom in, in the midst of it. We can share and impart wisdom and love in God's grace. And many of the folks there are just not like us. They may not have the same faith values. Many do and some don't, but we're in community and we're learning from one another. God uses that.
00:26:50
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Insert yourself in community where you can share and you can also acquire wise counsel to understand a proverb and a figure in the words of the wise and their riddles and ultimately place yourself voluntarily, volitionally, under the authority of God.
Acknowledging God's Authority
00:27:14
Speaker
He is your authority, whether you like it or not. Choose to
00:27:20
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Acknowledge the authority of God, and acknowledge the goodness of God through Christ. Acknowledge your union with Him, your fellowship with Him, and that He is always with you, never leaving you, and that He is your life. Don't miss the component when we stop talking and start walking
00:27:49
Speaker
Don't miss the fact that it's his empowering life in you that empowers you to choose to walk in holiness. That's what I wanted to just encourage you today. If you don't know what wisdom or what righteousness looks like, get in the scripture. Find folks who are doing it.
00:28:16
Speaker
who are living it, who are living the empowered life. You're only gonna find that as you find community. Look at them, find them, go over and ask them, wow, talk to me, share with me. Or just go hang out with them. That's what the disciples did when they followed Jesus. The reason Jesus said follow me, well, they didn't have CNN, they didn't have Fox News. You weren't gonna see a rerun.
00:28:43
Speaker
You really had to be there to see it and experience it. So they followed them to see what it looked like. Well, you know what? Find folks you can be with and hang with and see what it looks like.
00:29:04
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and ask God to empower you, to express his life through you, so you can stop talking about it and start walking.
Podcast Wrap-up
00:29:16
Speaker
You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.