Well, here we are in a new year. It’s been only a week and most of us have probably already broken those new year’s resolutions that we made. How did Jesus say it? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. How true it is!

Last week, we learned about the power of perception and how setting that directs the course of our lives; our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. This week, God is going to try to correct our perception toward what it means to live for Him. If you’re like me, you may have thought that you got it and understood clearly what it means to live life as a follower of Jesus. You may have thought that you knew what it looked like to live out faith in God. This morning, God might just be radically changing exactly that.

The title is “Magnificent Wisdom” and it started from that parable of Jesus about being a wise builder. After all, I firmly believe that each and every one of us want to be wise builders who build on the rock, Jesus Christ, and not on sinking sand. Why else would we be here this morning listening to what God is speaking and seeking after Him if we didn’t?

I believe that all of us want to live successful lives and not build up our lives just to watch them crash down all around us when the storms of life come rolling in. We want the work that we do to stand the test of time and withstand the opposition that this broken world brings our way.

Now the Bible speaks quite often about wisdom. James teaches us the comparison of what godly wisdom versus worldly wisdom looks and acts like. Proverbs is packed full of practical wisdom of how to handle just about every situation from raising children to co-signing loans to sexual temptation.

However, God specifically wants to give us wisdom in the area of ministry this morning. Ministry, simply meaning, serving others. God often had an issue with those who were leading His people. They often went astray and lead His people right along with them. They also were very often hypocritical and did not, as Jesus put it, practice what they preached. He wasn’t shy about calling them out on it, either!

We turn this morning to a time when exactly this was happening. God was speaking through Isaiah to the leaders of His people warning them to change their ways before they reached their certain destruction. The good thing for us is that we can learn from their mistakes. We can learn how to correctly minister to others and not miss out on God’s blessings. For time’s sake, we’ll skip ahead here:

Isaiah 28:7-16

7 And these also (the leaders) stagger from wine

and reel from beer:

Priests and prophets stagger from beer

and are befuddled with wine;

they reel from beer,

they stagger when seeing visions,

they stumble when rendering decisions.

8 All the tables are covered with vomit

and there is not a spot without filth.

9 “Who is it he is trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining his message?

To children weaned from their milk,

to those just taken from the breast?

10 For it is:

Do this, do that,

a rule for this, a rule for that;

a little here, a little there.”

(KJV: For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little)

I don’t mean to burst the bubble of those who use this quote for their method of Bible study and life application. However, the original Hebrew reveals that this quote was actually a mockery of those teachers. It’s similar to me saying that people teach saying, “Blah, blah, blah.” Now there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with building precept upon precept and line upon line and a little here and there and it can be a good method or principle to grow in our knowledge of God.

However, these are baby fundamentals and we shouldn’t cling to this type of teaching for long. As Isaiah said, this is the type of teaching and a message for infants and it won’t bring much maturity at all, in fact, if we don’t move on from it, it will lead to our spiritual death. Spiritual maturity co