Enquiring Minds Want to Know

The title of today's sermon is, Inquiring Minds Want to Know.

I felt a little embarrassed even this week buying this magazine. Don't know if many of you remember. There used to be a TV commercial back in the 80s. I actually pulled it up on YouTube. And the National Enquirer magazine, a gossip rag, as some people call it, had a TV commercial that said, Inquiring Minds Want to Know. And then they would tell a little story, and then they would, like, flash on someone's face and say, I want to know! I want to know!

And so, it's interesting that the National Enquirer has all kinds of stories.

They have also been sued many, many times and lost many, many times because their stories were not factual, or they were not totally true.

Many entertainers, many people have actually gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars.

But it's interesting that this National Enquirer, at its peak, was actually based here in Florida.

And for many years, it was published right out of Boca Raton, until it kind of lost its way, and now it's at the supermarkets. You can see it there. That's why it's kind of embarrassing to me because I was the only one in my line who picked it up.

Because, I mean, there's some kind of far-out things in here. But people used to get this magazine, now they get so many things online. They used to get this magazine and just thumb through it. Oh, did not know that happened, and oh, look at this. And it told you anybody that was of any importance, it wanted to tell you all about these incredible stories that they were dealing with in their life.

Well, how about you? Do you have an inquiring mind?

Are you a pantomath? Yes, pantomath. P-A-N-T-O-M-A-T-H.

It's actually a word that means a person who wants to know everything or thinks they know everything. Pantomath. And it actually is from the Greek word, which means having learnt all. Now, I know it sounds like a southern term, I learnt everything. Having learnt all. Perhaps we've met people like that, that seem to know something about everything, or I've actually met people who seem to know everything about everything, whether they did or not.

Second Timothy, third chapter talks about in the last days.

People will be lovers of themselves more than the lovers of God.

But it also says in verse 7 that these people in the last days are always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. We see people who like to look at their IQs. I've met quite a few people in my lifetime that wanted to convince me that they were smarter than I am or smarter than most people that they knew, and so they would tell me their IQ score.

And some people go by that. I've never been impressed because I've actually known quite a few people with very high IQs that had no common sense at all. I think most, a lot of us, have seen that.

But Proverbs 12 and verse 1 in the New International Version says, whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.

As New King James says, whoever loves instruction loves knowledge.

Now, knowledge is very important.

I think all of us can attest to that. We basically have our jobs. We get through life because we actually know something. We have some bit of knowledge.

And it's really interesting because people go to college and graduate, and they're better prepared for a job, supposedly.

But I did find it interesting that a 2013 Washington Post article that did a survey found that only 27% of all people who graduate from college go into their field that they studied in college.

And that actually 41% of all people who have a college degree work at a job that doesn't require a college degree.

Well, why do they go?

Well, employers like to kind of look at someone and say, well, what have you done with your life from 18 to 22?

And if someone says, well, I went to this school and I got this degree, or I went to college for this time, they look at it like, well, then there was some discipline learned.

I think anyone that went to college realizes when you get out of high school and then you're an adult, you're off to school, and now you make the decisions instead of your parents.

And usually we make very bad decisions for a year or two, but then you begin to pick up and learn, I don't need to do this, I don't need to stay up till two in the morning and have a test at 7 a.m. and get good grades.

So knowledge is important. How important is it to you? Do you have an inquiring mind?

Do you like to know stuff? Are you a wealth of knowledge? Would you be a great future Jeopardy contestant?

All of us have seen Jeopardy, right? Now, if I cross channels, I may get it, but I don't just sit there and go, Oh, Jeopardy's on! We have a friend of ours that just has to be at whatever 6 or 7 o'clock. Oh, Jeopardy's on!

Okay? All right, fine. Whenever I see it, I will watch it for a few minutes.

And, you know, they have these categories, and it's always intriguing to me to look at and see if I can answer some of those Jeopardy questions.

Because all of a sudden, you'll watch, and they'll give you... and you get a couple answers, and boy, you feel smart.

You know? You kind of sit there, yeah, I know that one.

But then, they'll go to another category, and you...

Blurred out these answers is not even close. And you realize, man, I'm not that smart.

And then, there'll be somebody on the show that answers the third and longest river in Bolivia and spit it out.

And we're all impressed. We're all impressed sometimes.

But do you know that there is a right way to hang toilet paper?

See, this is knowledge. I'll give you knowledge. Do you know? Does anybody know that there is a right way?

Do you know that there's a... Oh, you do! Toilet paper!

Yes! It's supposed to come off this way, not this way.

So, see, we have a man that's knowledgeable. Right? So, anybody who's been doing this, you are so smart.

But if you've been doing this, you are so stupid.

That's what they say.

Now, one of the reasons they do that, it's easier to see where the end of it is, if it's come across here.

But also, all the major hotels. When you go in to check into your room, you'll find that the first piece will be turned back. Sometimes at an angle, sometimes just like that.

Do you know what that means?

Oh, very good!

Yes! It means that that bathroom in the room has been cleaned.

Not only for you, but also for the inspector that's supposed to come by and check on and make sure that the rooms are.

WD-40. Do you know what WD stands for?

No?

Water Displacement Test No. 40.

It's the 40th time that they actually experimented and it actually worked.

It's what WD-40 means.

Now, how important is that?

You know, we all today have computers and you can go and go to Google or Google something, as they call it.

You can Google any question and you can get a lot of different answers, right?

You always have to check and see whether you're getting the right answer or not.

Would it interest you to know what people in the United States ask?

Google?

What's the most asked question in America? Do you think it would tell you a little something about America?

Perhaps. What about by state?

Would it interest you? Would it interest you to know that Google did a paper on this?

And I want to give each of you one of these. Bruce, do you mind coming up here? Mike, can you come up here and help me? Is that a Google question? No, that's not a Google question. You can either say yes or no. It's pretty...

...mind. Handing each one. I want you to look at this.

I want you to look at this because it said, the most Googled, why do, question in your state.

And you can look at states there.

And I found it interesting that in Tennessee, where I'm from, the most Googled question last year was, why do fireflies glow?

Okay.

Interesting.

In Arizona, it says, why do people lie?

In Nevada, it's the why do dogs lick?

Louisiana, why do people yawn?

Now, I bring this up, not to just boggle your mind, but it tells us all up to Hawaii because it says, why do roosters crow? If you've ever been to Hawaii, you realize there's roosters and chickens running around everywhere over there. Because they have hurricanes and all people raise chickens in their backyard, and when a hurricane comes, guess what? Chickens get scattered.

But I found this interesting because it tells us a little something about America, our state of mind, and also our state of knowledge. Knowledge. Oh, Chris. Yeah.

What do we want to know? How inquiring are the minds in America?

Did you know that William Shakespeare invented the word assassination? That actually 1,700 words that we speak today, he invented, or he created, he added to. Does that really interest you?

It's a bit of knowledge that's like, okay, but what am I going to do with it? What am I going to do with that knowledge? So I guess the question is, what is in our gray matter? Because we kind of get to see what's in most of America's gray matter. This is the thing. You know, you could type in anything you want to type in to Google to get an answer now. And I guess they have, what is this, Alexa or whatever, and you can actually say it, right? Siri, yeah, and different things. You say it and it'll just give you the answer. But yet, when you look at this, you're going, really, America? The big questions in life? And it's, why do I sweat so much? So it does give us an insight into these things, but what do you want to know and why? Why do you want to know it? What does the good book, and I love that phrase because that's what I grew up on, but nobody uses it anymore.

What does the good book say about knowing everything or having all knowledge? Well, the one book, or even two books, that Paul wrote, talks about knowledge more than any of the others, and he talks to a church in Corinth. And he actually tells them in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1, that knowledge puffs up.

Knowledge puffs up. Wait a minute, why would he use that term? Well, because the Greeks were supposed to be the most educated and knowledgeable people that have ever lived. And even today, if you've ever known any Greeks, they have an answer, or so many. I won't...I'm not going to say everybody, but many have the answer to everything.

I've had many of them tell me. And I had a good friend of mine who ran a Greek restaurant because he was from Greece before he moved over to Tennessee. And a very smart man, hardworking and so forth, and we get to talking about history and Greece. And we talked about the shape or the condition of the world ten years ago when I talked to him about this in his restaurant as he set up, and we both had a glass of wine.

And so I talked about how bad the world conditions were. And he said, do you know why? I said, well, yeah. People basically have rejected God and the Bible and His source. He goes, well, I know where you're coming from. But he said, let me tell you why. He said, the reason the world is in its condition right now is because Alexander the Great died so early.

Okay, how is that? He said, because Alexander the Great brought libraries and he brought all this, and if his time hadn't been cut short, he would have taken all over the world and everybody would have been educated. Everybody would have known so much more that they would have all learned what the Greeks learned, and then everybody would be so much better off. Of course, I don't know what he thinks of the Greek financial system that is basically falling apart now. But that was his belief, that all it took was great learning because the Greeks believed in that. And we also see that from the Bible as we look into this thing.

But I'd like to go, if you will, I'm going to read from the New Living Translation today, I'd like you to go with me to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 verse. Because Paul is talking to the church at Corinth, which mainly consisted of Greeks. It was a very large city. It was the largest city in all of Greece at this time. Corinth was. And so here he had an issue, obviously.

He'd already talked about it in 1 Corinthians 8, where he said, knowledge puffs up. Because they had the same mindset that my friend had, that, oh, if everybody would just follow Greek philosophy from all these great teachers down through the years, everybody would be happy. Every problem would be solved. But Paul addresses it 1 Corinthians 13 verse 2. I'll read from the New Living Translation. He said, if I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all God's secret plan and possess all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains but didn't love others, I would be nothing.

I would be nothing. So Paul, the most educated of all the writers of the New Testament, is laying it out that you can know everything, but unless you have agape, which is a word, love, doesn't mean a thing. I think you'll find, as you'll turn with me to Acts 17, we have the story there. Interesting one, it's quoted quite often. Acts 17. Find my way here. Acts 17.

Here we have Paul coming into Athens, coming into the city of Athens. Now, it's interesting that we know there was no church in Athens. We don't have any knowledge of that anywhere. It's not in any of the writings. But Paul headed and came to Athens, and he was familiar with Athens. He was familiar with the philosophers who taught there before him. There was Aristotle, there was Socrates, there was Plato, there was Epicurus, there was Zeno. All the great philosophers had centered their lives in Athens. And by Paul's time, though, Corinth had replaced Athens as a leading commercial city in all of Greece, but Athens was still the leading cultural and intellectual center in the Western world.

And I find it interesting when you look back at Paul's time when he would have entered that city, and we'll read a little bit of it here in the Scripture, that the city of Athens had about 10,000 people, which is not very big. Corinth was a lot bigger. But Athens had about 10,000 people when Paul entered that city. The most interesting part is, though, that in the city of Athens at the time, there were over 30,000 gods carved out in stone, wood, scattered out through that city. 30,000. 30,000 statues of God. A god. Gods, since they believe there were many gods in the city.

So, can you imagine how vexed or kind of gut-wrenching it was to Paul to come to this city and everywhere you went, there were idols, there were these gods carved out. Let's go there in Acts 17, verse 16, and I'll be reading from the New Living Translation. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. He also had a debate with some of the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers.

Do we understand who the Stoics and the Epicureans were? Because I think it's important to understand when we read the Bible what's going on. And so, I can borrow you two again. I'd like you to have this so that you can explain. The Stoics and Epicureans, because it's here mentioned in the Bible, and it was definitely a problem. Now, as he's handing this out, I'll read this, but it gives you a reference here.

The Stoic and Epicureans were two different sects. There were two different thoughts in Athens at the time. And this, of course, I have on top that this is from Professor Darryl Hale. It said, the Stoics and Epicureans date from the Hellenistic period 323 to 331, and both schools were heavily influenced by the philosophy of Socrates. For the Stoics, the goal of human life was to align one's nature with the rational order of things, as reflected in the three areas of philosophy, logic, physics, and ethics.

Through practice, they stress understanding self-control and the virtue of greatest, as the virtue of greatest human achievement. If you recognize today, we use the word, oh, he's very stoic, or she's very stoic, which means they're very strict, straight-laced, just kind of regimented. The Epicureans, who lived at the same time, who followed Epicurus, they believed life was not so stringent, not so straight-laced.

The Epicureans believed that, enjoy life! You know, don't get bogged down with this, don't worry about anything, just go out and have some fun. Enjoy life, and they always looked at life through, oh, well, let's go do this because it might be fun. Where the Stoics were over here, oh, no, you know, we need to have strict discipline in our lives. So those were the two thoughts. So Paul enters the city of Athens with these Epicureans and Stoics as two leading parties, if I can say that, in here, the two leading parties. Let's go back down to verse 18. And when he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, what's this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he's picked up? Others said, he seems to be preaching about some foreign god. Then they took him to the high council of the city. Come and tell us about this new teaching, they said. You are saying some rather strange things and we want to know what it's all about. Now, verse 21 says, it should be explained that all the Athenians, as well as the foreigners in Athens, seem to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas. So, in Athens, they just love to just talk and philosophize. They've never known anybody that way. And that's where they get their enjoyment from. Verse 22, so Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows. Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way. For I was walking along, I saw your many shrines, and one of your altars had this inscription on it to the unknown god. This god whom you worship without knowing is the one I'm telling you about. So, he uses this opportunity to tell them about the one true God. Now, what's interesting, they actually took him to the Areopagus. Areopagus is what is called in Greek, Greece, and the Romans, though, they named this area because it was actually this hill. It was a hill that overlooked one of the highest points of all of Athens. And so, the Areopagus had these columns, and that's where the great philosophers would walk up there and philosophize. They would be telling these great things and talking this way, as Aristotle had done, Socrates had done. So, that's where all the people that were wanting to be in the know went. So, they took Paul to the Areopagus. Aries, named for the god Aries, the god of war. Pagas is actually means a hill. So, it was a hill of Aries.

It was later because they called the god of war Aries, where the Romans, when they came in, they called it Mars Hill. Because to them, Mars, in their belief, was the god of war. So, if you see it, Mars Hill in one place, Areopagus the other, it's just a Roman and a Greek changing of the names.

But essentially, because they took Paul up there to speak, they wanted him to hear. Because, whoa, they believed that there were many gods. That's why there were, say, there was some 30,000 out there. But they had one to the unknown god. And so, this was the only way Paul thought he could reach them.

Because you had the Epicureans and you had the Stoics. And so, they would love to argue amongst themselves or to get somebody like Paul that came up and said, Oh, one of them might agree with him and the other one would disagree. And then they could get into this great debate.

They loved debate.

Now, it's interesting, as I think about this today, I actually looked it up because the Athens was actually divided between Epicureans and Stoics.

Are we not divided in this country?

So, I had to actually look it up because the elections were on this week, in case you didn't know. In case you didn't know, in Florida, it's still going on.

But, I found Gallup poll in 2017, did one of America, and it said that 35% of this country considered themselves conservatives.

This is 2017. And that 26% of America considered themselves liberal.

See, if you were looking at it in Greek, you would have Stoics as conservatives and the Epicureans as liberals. But what's interesting is that the majority of Americans, 38%, consider themselves moderates.

That's why we have the election.

So, the Republicans are going to have their set people, and the Democrats are going to have their set people. But it's the moderates, it's the ones that just kind of weigh both things that actually get someone elected.

But it's so interesting that in Athens at the time, there were no moderates.

You either believe that you need to follow the Stoics or the Epicureans.

No real balance, is there?

You either had to be one side or the other side.

So I want to go down to Acts 17.

Because Paul then goes into his spilt about God, Christ coming, dying, and that was all just mind-blowing to them, to some of them.

But in Acts 17, verse 32, and when they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, because that was very foreign to some of them, wait a minute, God came down and he died. Some laughed in contempt, but others said, we want to hear more about this later. That ended Paul's discussion with them. But some joined him and became believers. Among them, Dionysus, a member of the council, and it said others were there.

Now, I bring this up because did Paul stand there for hours upon hours and day after day after day trying to convince these people? No. No. He basically laid it out there. If they wanted, follow fine. If they didn't, fine too.

It's interesting that Paul gave us a lesson of making the main thing the main thing. What's most important? What's most important to us? Will you philosophize? Because, I mean, you have to understand, there are these Aristotle Socrates and these Epicureans. Epicurus, I mean, they would stand for days and days and months and months just philosophizing. Paul came in, laid it out, said, okay, this is it. Some say I'm a babbler, others don't. Well, this is how it is. He didn't argue. Why? Because he wanted to change a lot of people's minds, was he? When somebody calls and says, oh, I want to know about the truth. I saw your program. I spend some bit of time talking to them. But I've had many call me, and their whole purpose was to change my thought. And that I would then go to Cincinnati and stop these men from saying these things. Because we say Saturday is the Sabbath, and that is all wrong, and that's what they have. And that's not true. And I can prove it, but how much time should I spend? How much time do you spend? My time on earth is short, so is your time, isn't it? You know, James actually said, life is like a vapor, a mist, a fog. You're here, and then you're gone. What do you want to be remembered for? Because I think of Chuck Zimmerman. He didn't plan on dying Wednesday. What about us? What if it's this week for you? What do you want to be remembered? What will people remember? Oh, man, that guy could argue, argue, argue. Now, I appreciate, because I've had actually members in here that brought me things from the Scriptures that I'm looking at and working on and also working with people at the home office on. So I like that. But we have to decide how much knowledge we want to have. Don't we? And then what kind of knowledge will that be? And then how much do we want to spend this time? This time, go with me to Psalm 39. Psalm 39. I think it's important for us to know, and I'll read from the New Living Translation. Psalm 39 verse 4. This is the Psalm of David, and he says, Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. How brief is your time? I turned 60 in January. Man, 30 years ago, 60 was at one foot in the grave. That was an old man, somebody I wouldn't really want to spend a lot of time with, somebody couldn't go out and play ball. Now, 30 years has gone by awfully fast. And that's what David's able to look at, because I'm sure he could think there as he was laying in bed or bedridden the last five years from 65 to 70. But I'm sure, as he wrote so many of these at that time, would reflect back of, wow, he was this 15, 16-year-old kid with the sling. Where had all that time gone? How many of us do that? We look and go, oh, that's it, and then you go, wow, that was 20 years ago. Time goes by so fast. Except when you're a kid. When you're 15 trying to get your license at 16, that year goes by so slow, doesn't it? But with us, and David is saying that, Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire life is just a moment to you. At best, each of us is but a breath. Gone. Life changes, and your thought process changes, and your knowledge changes when you come to the point that you see that you're not going to live forever.

Or you begin to see that 10 years went by awfully fast. So, brethren, what do you want to invest your vapor in? James said, life is but a vapor. What do you want to invest your vapor in? Arguing for nothing with someone who you cannot change or help. Where will you spend your time? What time you have left? How many breaths or how much vapor you have left since God puts it that way? Will you be heaping upon yourself the great theories of this world?

Because that's what happened in Athens. Do you really want to know everything there is about string theory? Or how about quantum theory? Or the theory of black holes? We know there's black holes. We think we know black holes, but we've never been able to go to one. So it's a theory. The theory of relativity from Einstein, one of the smartest men to ever live, right? And he spent his life and he developed the theory of relativity, but it was what? A theory. Or do you want to delve into the theory evolution by natural selection? Evolution. It is a theory, isn't it?

You want to know all about it? I mean, look it up sometime if you want to Google. And Google all the great theories. You'll see there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of theories. And you can sound really smart by rattling these things off, couldn't you? But where's it going to get you? Is it worth it?

Is it worth your time? Christ, I think, put it best in what? Matthew 6, 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Is that where we need to spend not all of our time?

Because I've actually known religious nuts. I've known a few in the church. Not going to call their name. Thankfully, no one's in this room, either. But I actually met them that all they did was study the Bible. Four, five, six hours a day, sometimes all day long. I knew a guy, he studied it almost every day.

He was retired, and that's all he did. He became so unbalanced. See, there's a balance here. And you can even see it in Christ's life if you just want to look. Now, should we study? Yes. Should we pray? Yes. But is it that we can't even communicate with someone because all we can talk about is the Bible? I can't do that because I have to talk to people because I don't want to turn people off about, oh, let me tell you a scripture about that.

No. So there is this balance. Should it be first in our life? Yes. Seek first the kingdom of God. Well, we know what we need to do for that, and also His righteousness.

And that's good. But should we be so stoic or epicure about that? You see, there is this balance, and we need to show people that we can actually talk, that we know other things. I remember one of my theology classes, because we had gone through the Bible so many times, and in fact, one of the instructors said, he said, read something besides the Bible. And we were all like, well, you know, hey, what are you saying?

He said, be well-rounded. Have some balance so that you can talk to your family members. Because sometimes it's better for people to see a sermon than to hear a sermon. How do you live? Now, we should be able to study the Word so we can quote the Word and live by it. But do we need balance?

I think so. Because to some people, knowledge is just so important. I want to read this from the New Living Translation, Matthew 6. Matthew 6 and verse 33. Matthew 6 and 33. He said, seek the kingdom of God above all else. See, that's right. Seek the kingdom of God above all else, not in place of all else.

But above all else, it should be. And then the other is live righteously. How many of you have seen religious nuts or seen them on television? There was actually a B movie star or whatever. I don't remember his name now. But he grew up and he had this talent, and he would stand at fairs and so forth like this one.

He was like eight, nine years old. And he knew the entire Bible and could quote it off the top of his head. Can you imagine that? We struggled to read the Bible through, and he knew it off his head. And he could quote, you pull out a verse. Philippians 8, Philippians 2, verse 4, he could just rattle it off.

Now, what did he become? He went to Hollywood, got into movies, and then not the kind of movies we would really want to see. And when they asked him about it, he goes, it was just a way to earn money. So you can have this knowledge. You can know this Bible inside and out. But what are you going to do with it? What do you do with that knowledge? You can take it off to someone? That's why it, to me, is very, very important. He says, seek first the kingdom of God above all else, live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. That's what Christ tells us to do. And in this highway called life, if I had one philosophy, this is mine. In this highway called life, life is too short to waste it going down exit ramps. Haven't we all done that before? I'm somewhere and got all, oh, I'll get gas this one, and then you get off and you, you know, I can't find gas, you go there, and then, oh, I want to see this, and you drive over there because I've got a sign right there, and so you drive off when you're trying to go somewhere. Oh, I want to see this, and you see it. It's like, wow, that was nothing. With us, with life. How many exit ramps we're going to take? Are you going to take some? Are we going to go, hmm? Well, then we know where we need to go. We know what we need to do. And it isn't trying to fill ourselves with all this knowledge of philosophy, explore things, and read things. It's not bad, too, but does it take us closer to God or further away? We have to answer that question. There were those people that Jesus Christ done who had inquiring minds, and they wanted to know things, both good and bad, and you see how He dealt with them. Remember, they came up and said, oh, is it, we know you're a righteous man, and so forth like this. Is it right to pay taxes? They were trying to put Him on the spot, right? Remember what He said? He used such wisdom. So if you could have wisdom or knowledge, which one would you take? I'll take wisdom every time. But you know what He said? He said, let me see the coin. And they gave Him His coin. He said, whose picture is on it? He said, Caesar. Render Caesar's what is Caesar and God what is God's. That's part of it. That's what we, we must inquire daily.

About the things of the kingdom of God. That's why we read the Bible. It tells us about, matter of fact, how many say, and the kingdom of God is like, and the kingdom of heaven is like, and the kingdom of God is like, which gives us a lot just to meditate on. Not just, well, I think I'm going to read 22 chapters in the Bible today. I'm not reading one or two and just really meditating and finding out what God has to say to you so that you really know that. You really know it.

Let's go, as I wrap up today, 1 Corinthians 2. Here we are back with the Corinthians again. Why? Because they were the ones always wanting this knowledge. They were the smartest people in the room, haven't we all met those? I've met ministers who always thought they were the smartest people in the room. You know? I want to make sure I'm not, because I know I'm not.

1 Corinthians 2. Actually, Paul is talking here about, I has not seen nor heard nor has entered the heart of man, things that God has planned for those who love Him. Okay, but then he goes down, and I'll read this from the New Living Translation, but it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. Why? He reveals the things by His Holy Spirit, the words. They come alive. Christ said, my words are life, my words are spirit.

He said, for His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets.

No one can know a person's thought except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thought except God's own spirit. And we have received God's Spirit, not the world's Spirit, so that we know the wonderful things that God has freely given to us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truth. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them, and they can't understand it. For only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For who can know the Lord's thoughts? For we know enough to teach Him, but we understand these things, because we have the mind of Christ. That's how we decipher things. That's how we spell things out. It's through the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit. I looked through this.

I guess you could say I had an inquiry mind. And I didn't really see anything that would help me through this week. I didn't see anything that would really help me through the day. I did find out something here that they said, though, that there are some movie people who their whole life is wrapped up around having a picture taken. And other people's lives wrap up around getting pictures of the people who are in this magazine. Isn't that sad? That people wait to see what somebody else did. Instead of living life, they're living vicariously through someone else. I think if we read Romans 8 verse 39, go with me, Romans 8, 39. Let's go to 37. Romans 8 verse 37. Said, No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. That's something to think about this week. Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ our Lord. You want something to inquire about? You want something to think about? Set your mind on these things. Do we need balance? Yes. Do we need this eight hours a day and you feel guilty if you don't? No. Do we need this? No. No. Let us have inquiring minds. Let God reveal things to us. And everybody have a good week and enjoy your study.