Problem Solving - Week 1

[00:00:00] Speaker A: It. [00:00:02] Speaker B: The last two weeks I've been preaching at our other campuses, and I want you to know that they're all doing well. You know the old saying, nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I'm happy to be home today, you. And I'm very grateful to Katie and Sarah for the good job that they did while I was out. Galley Vanton Dear Heavenly Father, we are, we are challenged by life and we need problem solving skills. We're not asking you for a problem free life. We're asking you for the skills to deal with the problems of life, not just in an efficient way, but in a christian way. So we ask for that grace this morning. In Christ's name, amen. I wonder if you find it odd that one of the primary skills of life you probably never had a lesson on. Can you remember a time in your life where you took a class on problem solving? You went to elementary school a lot. You went to junior high, you went to high school. Many of you went to college. Many of you have professional training. But can you remember a time in your life where you actually had classes or you had actual instruction on how to solve problems? It seems like a no brainer, doesn't it? Doesn't it seem like at some point in our life somebody should say, everybody needs introduced to some problem solving skills, but here we are in the middle of life and many have never been introduced to problem solving skills? Well, it turns out the book of first corinthians in the Bible is Paul, solving hard problems. And we're going to study first corinthians and we're going to learn problem solving skills. And we're going to start at the very beginning, because I don't want to just solve problems. I want to solve problems in a christian way. I don't want to just get past the problem. I want to use every problem that comes up in my life, every problem that I face at work. I want to use every single one of these problems as a way of expressing my faith in Jesus Christ. Let me tell you a little bit about Corinth. Corinth is on the peloponnesian peninsula. So if you think of Greece, it kind of comes down to a point like this, and then it kind of has a wart on its left side. And that wart is called the peloponnesian peninsula. And Corinth is right on the far west side of that peninsula. To the north of it is the bay of Corinth. To the south of it is the Mediterranean Sea. And it's built on a mountain, so it's been there a long time because it was easy to defend. It was a greek merchandise city. And about 150 years before Christ, or 250 years before Paul, the Romans had a big fight with the Greeks because they wanted to absorb the Greeks into the roman empire, and the Greeks didn't want to. So a roman general named Mumius brought roman legions, and they attacked Corinth. And when they won the victory, they tore the city down. The Romans had a way of doing that. If you made them too mad, they just tore your whole town down. And it sat that way for about 100 years, until Julius Caesar wanted to do favors for some people. And the favor he did for them was he gave them land around Corinth. And he rebuilt the city of Corinth about 45 years before Christ, or about 100 years before Paul. Originally, everybody who lived in Corinth was roman, because that's who Caesar gave the land in the city to. But eventually, greek merchants started coming there, and eventually jewish merchants started coming there, and there was enough jewish people there to build a beautiful synagogue in the city. So on his second missionary trip, Paul spent a year and a half in Corinth, and he built a thriving congregation there. But Corinth was a city kind of like Las Vegas, and there was a lot of ways to get in trouble in Corinth. There were a lot of temptations away from the christian life in Corinth. So the church had a bunch of problems in it. And on his third missionary trip, Paul was worried about the church, and he was in the city of Ephesus, and he wrote the church of Corinth a letter, and it's called first Corinthians. And he probably wrote it somewhere around 54, 55 BC. In the second chapter, Paul launches into the idea of, God has given us a spiritual wisdom, and if we use it, we're better problem solvers. In fact, he said, in one corinthians, two, seven, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom from God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. So this is what Paul is saying. Paul is saying there's two kinds of wisdom in the world. There's the wisdom that you can get by just being a human being. The problem with that wisdom is it falls short of the spiritual wisdom that you can only get in a personal relationship with God. In fact, listen what he says. The people who called themselves wise are the ones who killed the Lord of glory. And if they had really been wise, if they had really been problem solvers, they would never have dreamed of killing Jesus Christ. So I want to start by saying Paul teaches that as a Christian, the Holy Spirit will teach you things in your problem solving skills that people who aren't christians won't learn. All of us approach solving a problem in one of four ways. The most common is emotional, all right? A problem arises, it triggers an emotion in us. Let's just take an easy one. A problem arises and it makes you angry, all right? If you stay in that emotional condition of anger, you're going to use anger to solve your problem. And if you've been around the block a few times, you know that that creates more problems than it solves, right? Do you know people, that as soon as a problem comes up, they're yelling? That's how they respond to problems. They get angry and yell about it. [00:09:17] Speaker A: All right? [00:09:19] Speaker B: There's another way. It's the opposite of end of the spectrum. A problem comes up, it triggers your insecurity, and you want to avoid it. These are emotional responses to problems, all right? And frankly, they're not very good. Most of us aren't good problem solvers because we try to solve problems from our emotional base, and that doesn't work very well. The second way we solve problems is intuitively. Your intuition is what you have learned and what you understand, and it exists just below the level of consciousness. Your intuition comes out of your subconscious. So if you have a lot of experience in an area, you have a deeper intuition in that area than people who don't have much experience in it. If you're a good cook and you've been cooking a long time, you have an intuition about cooking that I don't have. If you have mechanical skills and you've been fixing stuff for a long time, you have an intuition about fixing things that comes out of your experience. [00:10:50] Speaker A: All right? [00:10:51] Speaker B: The second most common way we solve problems is our intuition. We get subconscious ideas, and out of these subconscious ideas, we start problem solving. It sounds something like I sense. I'm really not sure, but I sense. All right. The third way we solve problems, we should solve problems, is rationally. We sit down and figure it out. We begin by saying, do I even know what the problem is? Can I state in a clear way this is the problem, or am I only identifying the presenting elements of a problem? Many times we're not dealing with the problem. We're only dealing with the presenting elements of a problem. Your child comes home from school, mom, and they're very unhappy. [00:11:55] Speaker A: All right? [00:11:56] Speaker B: The unhappiness isn't the problem. It's the presenting element of the problem. Right? And just giving them a cookie and turning on the cartoons won't solve the problem, although it might be a good start after a long day at school. All right, rationally, we solve problems by sitting down and first of all, labeling the problem. This is what I think the problem is. And then we start doing things like, what caused this problem? How can this problem be mitigated? Who can best help me solve this problem? So we use reason. [00:12:41] Speaker A: All right? [00:12:43] Speaker B: And I want to suggest that there's a fourth approach to problem solving. And it's spiritual. It's not out of my emotions, it's not out of my intuitions. It isn't out of my reason. It's out of my personal relationship with God. My personal relationship with God should touch everything I do. And if I have a personal relationship with God, I have a divine resource to help me in my problem solving. Is that making sense to everybody? Are you with me? [00:13:20] Speaker A: All right. [00:13:21] Speaker B: So then Paul goes on to say, one corinthians 212, now, we have received not, I don't know why it says it. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we may understand the things freely given to us by God, and we impart in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit. Interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual, or some other versions say, interpreting spiritual truth with spiritual truth. [00:14:04] Speaker A: All right. [00:14:06] Speaker B: The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, and it is his work in our lives to share with us the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit helps us think the thoughts of God. All right, you have a problem. Somebody at work isn't doing what they're supposed to do. Somebody at work is being unpleasant. Somebody at work is making it harder for everybody else. All right, you have a problem. You can let your emotions guide you in problem solving, and you can get angry, or you can avoid or all those other things, but it's not going to get you there. Or you can intuitively problem solve and say, I sense if we all just start ignoring this person, it'll get better. [00:15:00] Speaker A: Okay. [00:15:01] Speaker B: Or you can rationally say, okay, why is this person like that? Is there a reason this person acts this way? Can we change how we're relating to this person to make it easier for them? [00:15:15] Speaker A: All right. [00:15:15] Speaker B: I can deal with it rationally, but I can also invite the Holy Spirit into the problem. I can pause for just a moment and I can say, dear heavenly Father, you put me in this moment because you want to do something through my life. And I pray that you would help me to see this problem the way you see it and help me to respond to it in the kind of way that something good comes out of it. Not just that we get rid of it, not just that we brush it under the carpet, but that actually, through your spirit, something good comes out of this ugliness. Do you see? Now I'm problem solving at a different level. [00:16:03] Speaker A: All right. [00:16:05] Speaker B: You must understand, when you start problem solving at the spiritual level, you're going to be dealing with problems very, very differently than the people who are around you. Listen to what Paul says. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. When I start problem solving with a spiritual perspective, I need to understand that I'm going to be dealing with this problem very, very differently than many of the other people around me because I'm accessing the wisdom of God to solve the problem. My problem solving skills are not limited to the wisdom of the world. I can draw on the spirit of God. We have a divine help in problem solving. [00:17:06] Speaker A: All right? [00:17:10] Speaker B: And you do understand that God knows the problem better than you do, right? You also understand we're going to study in a couple of weeks that God has given you spiritual gifts that make you better at solving some problems than other problems. And God in his wisdom is going to providentially guide us and the problems that he wants to work through our lives to solve, he's going to connect us with. Do you see the problem? You see? Others might not see the thing that is a problem for you may not be a problem for other people because God is strategically placing you in that position, because he's going to share his wisdom with you. He's going to work through your life, and when he solves that problem, you're going to be able to express something beautiful about who God is. All right? We approach problems from the perspective of the spirit of God. We have an understanding that is graciously given to us. Do you see verse twelve? Now, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us. The original word there for freely is graciously. Now here we are dragging the grace of God into problem solving. Remember what grace means, treating people better than what they deserve. God has given us a grace. God has given us a wisdom of grace so that in problem solving we don't degenerate down to treating people the way they deserve. Our approach to problem solving has something better in it. It has something that is the grace of God about it. And as we solve problems, we have an impulse in our heart to treat this person better than what they deserve. My emotions tell me they don't deserve anything. But the spirit of God whispers to me, but, I've given you grace. My intuition tells me these people need to be told a thing or two. But the spirit of God says to me, I've given you grace. I rationalize and say, this isn't my problem. Let somebody else handle it. But the spirit of God says, I've given you grace. I've put you here. I want you to solve this problem, and I'm going to give you all the grace you need in solving this problem so that you can treat the people around you better than what you deserve. Church. That's a winning deal. I'm telling you. You let grace guide you in problem solving at home, and a number of problems you'll have to solve at home will go down precipitously. You let grace guide you at work, and people will want you on their team. There'll be something about you that you solve problems, and you do it in the kind of way that other people want to be around. Are you following me, church? We learn from the Holy Spirit a wisdom that is greater than simple human thinking. We are taught in words that aren't of human wisdom, but are of the Holy Spirit. And then we get to this beautiful idea. The Holy Spirit guides us to interpret reality with spiritual insights. The easiest thing to do is to look at a person or look at a situation, and our prejudices and our biases mislead us. It happens to every single one of us. We look at a person, they're causing a problem, and we don't think, I wonder what's going on in their life. We think, what an idiot. Any other sinners in the house today? [00:22:12] Speaker A: All right. [00:22:17] Speaker B: I am interpreting reality out of my own biases and my own prejudices. Have you ever met somebody and you thought you knew them, but when you got to know them, they were altogether different than you thought they would be? Church, for good and bad. I mean, I've met some people. I thought they were wonderful. They turned out to be creeps. I've thought some other people, I thought they were iffy, and they turned out to be very wonderful people. [00:22:49] Speaker A: All right. [00:22:49] Speaker B: It turns out that we're not as good at judging reality as we think we are. So listen to what Paul says. With the work of the Holy Spirit in us, the Holy Spirit starts saying to me, I want you to see this differently than you're seeing it right now. I want you to interpret this with a spiritual mindset and not with your prejudice mindset and not with your biased mindset. I want you to look at this. I want you to see this through the spiritual eyes of God. What does this look like to God? This person who's causing a problem and making your life difficult, this person you would enjoy to really light into. How does God see that person? What does God see in that person's heart? Is it possible this person is behaving the way they are because their life is a wreck? Is it possible that they are broken in ways that you don't understand and I don't understand, but that God does? Are you following him with me here, church? God is the greatest problem solver in the universe, and he's the greatest problem solver because he has spiritual understanding. And if we're going to be better problem solvers, we have to draw on the spiritual understanding of God and then start interpreting life from that understanding. You say, give me an example. [00:24:39] Speaker A: All right, here we go. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Jesus was one day trying to teach his disciples problem solving skills, and you know what he said? Love your enemies. That's a problem solving skill. I really didn't understand that until Abraham Lincoln explained it to me. I'm serious. Abraham Lincoln, I read a book about him, and Lincoln said, when I make an enemy my friend, they are no longer my enemy. That's love your enemies. I get to interpret life. I get to say I choose not to treat that person like an enemy. [00:25:37] Speaker A: All right. [00:25:38] Speaker B: The trouble is, in problems, the first impulse of my heart is to think they're my enemy, that if they weren't my enemy, they wouldn't be doing this. If they weren't this, if they weren't that. I'm interpreting reality based on my purely human biased. But the Holy Spirit comes along and says, let's look at this differently. If you love those who love you, what grace do you have? Pagans do that. If you're kind to the people who are kind to you, what grace do you have? Stone cold losers do that. He said, if you want a problem solving skill and you want to do this really well, Jesus said, let me tell you, you have to see it and interpret it differently. You have to see this in a spiritual perspective and begin to interpret it the way God wants you to interpret it. One corinthians 214. Some of you are saying, you know, doc, that might work for you at church, but you don't know where I work. Some of you are going, yeah, you don't know my husband. Some of you are going, you don't know my wife. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Okay. [00:27:08] Speaker B: You'Re right, I don't. But it turns out people are people everywhere you go. Turns out the people you work with are just like the people everybody else works with. Some of them are great and they're easy to get along with. And some of them have issues and they need to be dealt with from a healthy christian perspective. So Paul says, the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. So whenever I think this way, I start from the proposition that many people who I have to work with in solving problems, their first impulse is not going to be the right impulse. I don't get up every morning, expect everybody to be Jesus Christ. I'm going to work with Jesus today, and everything he does will be right. Everything will be fun. It'll be awesome. We're going to have a great lunch. It'll be bread and fish. Okay? You can't start with that perspective. You have to start with a different perspective. I understand that the problems I have to solve today at work and at home, if I'm doing this right, I'm going to see this a little bit differently than the people around me, and it might be hard for them to accept this approach. I want to start there because then I'm not disappointed when they go, oh, you're an idiot. What do you. Okay, so if I start with the idea that I'm going to solve problems and probably I'm going to be doing this in a way a little bit different than other people's first impulse. I want to start with that beginning. And so at the very beginning of the problem solving, I want to be able to say something like, we don't have to rush through this. We don't have to solve everything instantly. And in fact, I often begin problem solving with prayer. We met the bankers this week for our annual meeting with the bank. They're sitting there and I say, you know what? A lot of people can do this without prayer, but we can't. Would it be all right if I prayed and I prayed with our bankers? Do you see, listen, if you start problem solving with a prayer, do you see? You're starting at a very, very different place than if you start problem solving angry. Or if you start problem solving, feeling sorry for yourself, or if you start with a prayer, your approach to solving a problem is a lot different than everybody else's. You say, well, I can't pray at work. Oh, yes, you can. There's no logins praying at work. I'm not saying you even have to pray out loud, but you can say, I'd like to sink for just a minute. And in that minute, you can pause and you can say, I want spiritual understanding. I want to see this problem in a different way. I know the people I'm working with are going to see it one way, and I'm wide open to their point of view, but I want to see this from a spiritual point of view. Now do you see? I'm starting the problem solving in a radically different way than the people around me. In fact, the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly. To him. The word we translate, folly, is really stronger than that. They're moronic. The word moron has kind of fallen out of the english language, but it used to be more common when I was a. A younger moron. Ah. In fact, listen to what he says. They're not able to understand. [00:31:39] Speaker A: All right. [00:31:41] Speaker B: God puts us in the world as his representatives, and often what he's going to ask us to do will be hard for people around us to understand. But we're still representing God in a bigger world. Do you hear this? The most beautiful place you can represent God in a broken world is in the middle of problems. Verse 15. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself judged by no. 116 for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Listen. What? Listen to what Paul says. When I'm doing this right, I'm able to judge, scrutinize, and examine things differently than the people around me are. This is what he says. This word that gets translated, judge, is the original word is Anna Chrono. It's only used ten times in the New Testament, and every single one of them is in one corinthians. It is a word that's necessary to problem solving, and Paul uses it ten times in the book. All right, so you hear the word judge, and you think, okay, the word literally means more, something like scrutinize the ability to examine very closely and very correctly. Listen to what Paul's saying in the middle of solving problems. If we are guided by the grace that God gives us, and if we're guided by spiritual thinking. We're going to scrutinize and examine problems in a very skilled way, and we're going to do it in the kind of way that it's not easy for people to judge us for how we did it. Are you hearing this? Hello, church. This is helpful stuff. I believe it'll help you. I know it's not always easy, but it's helpful. All right, let's try again. [00:34:11] Speaker A: All right. [00:34:14] Speaker B: I want to solve problems. I want to solve problems in a christian kind of way. God said, I want to help you solve problems. So I'm going to give you the ability to treat people better than what they deserve in the problem. On top of that, I'm going to give you understanding from a spiritual point of view. And when you have grace and when you have this spiritual point of view, you're going to begin to scrutinize the problem in a way that is different than the people around you are scrutinizing the problem. And when you do that, you're going to have the potential to come up with better solutions to problems. And then he inserts a warning that every one of us need to hear, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. This quote is a quotation from Isaiah. Listen, what he's saying when you start doing this, don't get the idea in problem solving that you're smarter than God and that God needs your instructions on what to do. I've problem solved like that many times. Said, God, I've got this. I just need you to do this, this and this. This is your assignment. Well, this is exactly what he's warning against. Who has known the mind of God that we can start telling him what to do in problem solving. Here I am. I know everything. God, this is your assignment. If you do what you're supposed to do, everything will work out fine. That's exactly what he's warning us against. He's saying, in spiritual problem solving, it's not your job to start telling God what to do. It's your job to have an open heart toward him, to let the Holy Spirit help you think the right thoughts, to let the Holy Spirit work in you in the kind of way that God's ideas are guiding you and you're not trying to guide God. [00:36:32] Speaker A: All right. [00:36:35] Speaker B: I'm going to land it right here. I'm going to give you five problem solving skills based on this. And they all start with A-P-I was poetic the other day when I wrote this. [00:36:49] Speaker A: All right. [00:36:52] Speaker B: The five P's of spiritual problem solving. All right, one pause. Don't rush in. You can take a minute. Take a deep breath. Give yourself a second. Don't respond instantly. Don't jump to a conclusion. Pause. And in that pause, you have time to pray. If you can, pray out loud, pray out loud. If you can't, pray to yourself. But in that pause, and if there are people looking at you, you can easily say, I'd like to absorb this for just a minute before I shoot my mouth off. I'd like to think, just a minute. I don't think you get in too much trouble for saying, could I have just a moment to think about this before I. [00:37:51] Speaker A: All right. [00:37:52] Speaker B: And in that pause, I pray. And in that prayer, I'm going to say to God, you have a wisdom that I need. And you said, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth generously to all men. And I'm asking for the wisdom that I need. And I'm asking for the grace that I need. And I'm asking that this problem that seems so big, you can make it work out for something better than what I can see right now. Are you with me? I pause. I pray. And then three, I ponder. You see, problem solving requires some thinking, not just reacting. Too much of what we call problem solving is just reacting. I'm not thinking at all. I'm just reacting. You say? I say, you say, I say, all. [00:38:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:38:53] Speaker B: I want to think. I want to use my rational mind. I want my intuition to speak to me. I want a time where I am thinking, and I want to include in that thinking. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Ah. [00:39:16] Speaker B: Spiritual thinking. And not just human thinking. [00:39:20] Speaker A: All right? [00:39:21] Speaker B: That gets me to number four, perceive. Can I ask myself, in problem solving, did Jesus teach anything that might apply to what I'm doing right now? Just ask yourself the simple question. Did Jesus teach anything that has something to do with the problem I'm facing right now? It doesn't mean that he said the exact words, but does it relate? For example, you're arguing with your spouse about something. Well, did Jesus say anything that has anything to do with arguing with your spouse? I think he did. I think he said something like, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. All right, I am trying to perceive in my thinking. I'm asking the Holy Spirit, help me to remember anything Jesus taught that's going to help me in this problem solving moment. And then number five, practice. I have to put into action the results of my thinking. All right, do you know, there are problems that I've solved with one word. I have solved ugly problems with one word. The trouble is, I didn't want to say the word. I guess it's two. I'm sorry, but not if you bundle. Right? Okay. I have solved problems that went on for two or three days with simply saying, I'm sorry. Okay. I knew three days ago I should have said that. It wasn't new. I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to put into practice what I knew I should do. Church, in problem solving, I have to be willing to put into practice what I know I should do. I've solved problems by saying, you're right, that was my fault. You are absolutely right. That was my fault. And it led all the pressure out of the problem. Do you hear it? Okay. Now, on the other hand, we have problems that a dictionary worth of words don't solve on the spot. We worked on our budget recently, and we had a problem we couldn't figure out. I used all my problem sculpting skills, and finally I said to God, I'm not seeing this. Somebody else has to look at this because I can't see it. And somebody else looked at it and they saw it and the problem was solved. [00:42:44] Speaker A: All right. [00:42:44] Speaker B: Okay. I'm going to wrap this up. I've been gone a long time, so a little extra sermon isn't going to hurt anybody. And I preached over at the other places, too. [00:42:59] Speaker A: All right? [00:43:00] Speaker B: So I'm not just picking on you. All right, let's wrap this all up. I have to solve problems in life. I don't have to. I want to. I want to be the kind of guy that God can trust with problems. Do you hear this? I don't want to be the guy that says, you give him a problem and he falls apart. I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the kind of guy that God says, this dude is on my A team. I can trust him with real hard problems, all right? But I don't want to deal with these problems in the ugly way. I've dealt with them in the past. I want a new skill. I want a spirit directed problem solving skill. And for that to be true, I have to receive wisdom from the Holy Spirit. I have to receive the grace of God. I have to commit myself to treat people better than what they deserve in problem solving. I have to say, God, I want to think about this in a different way. I'm open to your ideas. Help me to remember anything Jesus taught about this, then I want to say to God, help me to put this all together in a way that solves this problem so that you look good. Then I want to have the faith and the courage to just do the next right thing I have to do to solve the problem. Church. Now, that will pay off for you. I promise you, if you do this, it'll be worth the hour you spent at church today. Our dear heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you that you graciously. You graciously teach us. I thank you that you guide us. I pray for myself and for everyone who's here this morning. I pray that your spirit would teach us problem solving skills and then that you would be able to rely upon us wherever you place us.