Foolish Worldly Thinking
An all-creatures Bible Message

Foolish Worldly Thinking
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
29 July 2018
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Psalm 14:1-7
John 6:1-23

Foolish worldly thinking is unfortunately what most people in the world are doing instead of becoming peacemaking children of God who live in the heavenly will of the Lord and do everything they can to free creation from its present corruption.
 
Foolish worldly thinking leaves very little room, if any, for wisdom and empathy.
 
The foolish worldly thinking of most people rarely feels the pain and suffering of any other living being; they really only care about themselves, and as a result we have a world that is torn apart by violence, indifference, injustice, and self-indulgence, which leads directly to all the suffering and death that is inflicted upon millions of human beings and billions of other animals every year.
 
Psalm 14:1-7 is written about this problem…

1. The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

This is exactly what we are talking about; it’s time we start doing good things that are in the heavenly will of God, where there is no pain, or suffering, or death, and we bring that way of living and thinking here to earth as it is in heaven.

2. The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men,
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.

What do you think that God sees when He looks down upon us?
 
What about the people around us?
 
And most importantly, what are we doing about it?

3. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.

As we look around the world today with all its foolish worldly thinking, it is not hard to think like this.

4. Do all the workers of wickedness not know,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon the LORD?

And the animals are God’s people, too; and think about what most people are eating.

5. There they are in great dread,
For God is with the righteous generation.

The people who are in great dread are not truly happy, for they never seem to be satisfied, and they are afraid that they won’t be able to retain what they do have.

6. You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted,
But the LORD is his refuge.

God is the refuge of the righteous who stand in the heavenly will of God against the devil and the foolish thinking people who follow him.

7. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When the LORD restores His captive people,
Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.
NASB

To us, Israel is an example of our world today, and we need to free it from its present corruption, which is exactly what true peacemaking children of God are supposed to be doing.
 
As we look at John 6:1-23, consider whether we are looking at righteous people or those filled with foolish worldly thinking.

1. After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).
 
2. And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.

Some of them may have believed, but according to what we are told here, the majority was only following Jesus to see the miracles He was performing; they are the foolish worldly thinking people.
 
It’s just as it is today; most people only seem to believe in the Lord because they want something, because if they truly believed they wouldn’t be living in the corrupt and evil ways of this world with all its violence, pain, and bloodshed that cause millions of humans, and billions of other animals to suffer and die every year.

3. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

Every time we see this kind of statement in the Bible, we can’t help but think that Jesus went up to the mountain to get away from the crowd because they would not let Him have any peace; their foolish worldly thinking was selfish and they didn’t think about Jesus and His needs, including communing with His Father.
 
This is the same kind of foolish worldly thinking that is indifferent to the pain and suffering of billions of animals, and allows our warring madness to proliferate in the world around us.

4. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
 
5. Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?" 
 
6. And this He was saying to test him; for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.

We should all seriously think about how often the Lord tests us with various things to see if we are going to answer and react in the heavenly will of God.

7. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little."

Philip is answering with foolish worldly thinking, because he is forgetting who Jesus is.

8. One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him,
 
9. "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?"

Even Andrew answers only partially correctly, for while he seems to understand that Jesus could feed the people with the five loaves, he still has doubts.

10. Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

This is a very interesting statement, for it tells us that there were about 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, and we know that there were children there because of the mention of the lad.
 
Jesus was about to feed a lot of people.

11. Jesus therefore took the loaves; and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.

Notice that there is no mention of Jesus even breaking the loaves, which could very likely mean that these were small loaves and that He multiplied the whole loaves and distributed them.
 
In those days there was no refrigeration to preserve the fish, so it is most likely that these fish were already dead and either smoked or salted to preserve them; it was these that Jesus multiplied and distributed whole as we are told.
 
And then something very interesting occurred.

12. And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost." 
 
13. And so they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

The boy most likely had all five loaves in one basket, and there was at least twelve times that much bread left over after the people had eaten, and there is no mention of the fish.
 
Jesus is a life giver, and doesn’t deal in death, which makes us wonder if the fish were really there.

14. When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world."

Because the people had not matured, and are still using foolish worldly thinking, they fail to have seen this miracle coming directly from God.

15. Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

And because these people are filled with their foolish worldly thinking, Jesus is once again forced to retreat to the mountain by Himself.
 
And, what about the disciples?
 
What did they do?

16. Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,
 
17. and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. And it had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

They didn’t wait for Jesus to return, they just set off to return to the other side of the sea.

18. And the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.
 
19. When therefore they had rowed about three or four miles, they beheld Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened.

They failed to remember who Jesus was and is; they were using their foolish worldly thinking.

20. But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid."

If we live in the heavenly will of God, we don’t need Him to tell us not to be afraid, because we will be at peace.
 
And, it is in this peace and love and compassion and empathy that we feel the pain and suffering of the whole of creation, and know that all forms of fear and violence and evil come from the devil, and we separate ourselves from it without fear.
 
What the disciples were feeling was from the devil and not from God, and that’s why Jesus spoke to them as He did.

21. They were willing therefore to receive Him into the boat; and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

This is a miracle from heaven.

22. The next day the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone.
 
23. There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
NASB

Notice that there was no mention of the fish, and only the bread that they had eaten.
 
But like most people today, they were emotionally tied up in their foolish worldly thinking instead of the heavenly will of God.
 
We shouldn’t stay like the people who are caught up in their foolish worldly thinking.
 
We should be like Jesus and bring true heavenly peace to earth as it is in heaven.
 
Amen.

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