It's Not Foolish to be Faithful! - 1 Corinthians 1:18

"Sometimes there is the greatest hidden wisdom in foolishness." Family Discussion

• What are you doing in your life that seems like foolishness to the world, but you know down deep in your heart it's the power of God?
• What can you change in the way you're treating people?
• How can we change that around where it might be kind of foolish to the world, but it would be absolute bullseye to the word of God?

Transcription

00:14 Maybe if you've ever felt foolish before your friends or the people in the workplace that you operate and you're just representing Christ as best you can, then this verse today is going to be encouraging to you, as it is to me. It comes from First Corinthians chapter one, verse 18 through 20. Verse 18 says this, "for the Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved is the power of God." Man, I'll never forget when Mohammed Ali, some would say the greatest fighter of all time, was in a fight with Smokin' Joe Frazier, the heavyweight champion of the world at the time, and Ali, his deal in that fight was going to be rope-a-dope. And the rope-a-dope trick was going to be to train his abs.

01:02 I mean, his whole training before the fight was to train his abs, just thousands of crunches and sit ups and leg lifts. And then he would hover in the first few rounds of the fight and he let Smokin' Joe Frazier take on his midsection with all of his heart until Frazier was literally worn out. And then Ali took him out in one round. It was foolishness to the world. You don't train your abs to fight. You train your hands and you train your arms. But he trained his abs and it turned out to be victory. I'll never forget back in my days of playing and coaching would Bill Yeoman, the head coach of the Houston team, who invented the veer where you would literally not block the defensive tackle or sometimes the defensive end and you would option off of whatever he did. An unblocked defensive linemen?

01:50 Are you kidding me? It became the most powerful running game in the history of the sport. We had a kicker on our football team at SMU, kicked with the side of his foot. No one in football kick with a side of their foot. That was for soccer. We all kick with the front of our foot. Well, you know the rest of that story. Everybody kicks with the side of their foot today. They're breaking records at the straight oak kickers. And I'll never forget the first time in the Olympics when this guy starts jumping over backwards; you always rolled over the bar and that day and you could roll over five feet or six foot. Well, this guy comes along, his name is Spaz Bernie, jumped over backwards and cleared seven feet - foolishness to the world. But sometimes there is the greatest hidden wisdom in foolishness.

02:37 And so it is when you walk with Christ, so it is when you carry your Bible to school. So it is when you live your Bible in the workplace. So it is when you turn the other cheek in your home, when there's a fight and you're the first one to say, "I'm sorry, will you please forgive me?" It looks like foolishness when the world says fight for your rights, fight for your way. Sometimes foolishness is the heart of Christ because when he hung himself on that cross and they crucified him, and he was God, it looked like foolishness to the world. But we know now there's the power of God. So my questions to you today are these, what are you doing in your life that seems like foolishness to the world, but you know down deep in your heart it's the power of God? And then the big question of the day is this, what can you change in the way you're treating people? Your family or the way you're living your life at school or in your job that you know right now, it may seem like being cool to the world, but it's foolish to God. And how can we change that around where it might be kind of foolish to the world, but it would be absolute bullseye to the word of God? Sometimes foolishness is the wisest thing of them all.