All right, good morning. Like I said, I'm Michael. It's good to be with you all this morning.
So what we are going to be looking at, we've been going through the book of James.
So what we're looking at today is James chapter 3 verses 13 through 18.
James chapter 3 verses 13 through 18.
And while you're finding that, I'll just kind of give a brief recap on Adam's teaching from last time.
So it's about taming the tongue, the importance of taming the tongue.
And about basically how we need to have pure hearts.
We need to have pure and clean hearts.
So that because it says in Matthew, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person,
but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.
So we need to start with our hearts, get them right before the Lord, cleanse our hearts before God.
And then we can speak life to one another, to ourselves and to our families, to our church body and to the world.
So, so yeah, thank you, Adam, for that.
It was sweet.
So let's go ahead and jump into the text.
So I'm going to go ahead and read it and then I'll kind of give a brief outline of how we're going to approach it.
So again, James 3, 13 through 18.
And I've kind of somewhat titled it, titled this worldly or counterfeit wisdom versus heavenly wisdom.
Essentially what we're getting at, what we're looking at is wisdom from above.
That's what we're going to be talking about mainly today.
So starting in verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you?
Sorry, starting the timer now.
All right.
Who is wise and understanding among you?
By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but it's earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits.
Impartial and sincere.
And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
So that's the text we're going to be looking at.
A little bit of a layout.
So we're going to spend probably maybe half of the time just on verse 13.
This is a fair warning for those of you that are getting concerned with time.
We're going to hang out in verse 13 a while.
And then we're going to kind of clustered verses 14 through 16, where it's laying out worldly, unspiritual, worldly wisdom.
And then to wrap it up, we'll look at verses 17 and 18, heavenly wisdom.
Okay?
So there's kind of the layout.
So I'm going to read the verse 13 again, and then we'll dig into it.
So, who is wise and understanding among you?
By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
Okay?
So Paul, or I mean not Paul, sorry, James, asks a question here.
So he just goes, who's wise and understanding among you?
He just puts that out there.
And I think that's kind of, I think that's a good question we should ask ourselves.
Do we think of ourselves, Christchurch, as a wise and understanding people?
Well, I would say probably yes.
We would all probably, yep, sign me up.
I'm one of those, I think, hopefully.
You know?
So, well, so Christ, or I mean, James asked this question, who is this?
Who's wise and understanding among you?
And he says, basically, prove it.
You think you're wise?
You think you're understanding?
Prove it.
And this is kind of a common theme here.
We kind of see James doing this a lot.
He's like, you have faith?
Prove it.
You say all this stuff?
Talk is cheap.
Let's see it.
What are we talking about?
You know what I mean?
So, like we said, for example, in chapter 2, 18 and 19, he says,
Someone will say you have faith, and I have works.
Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one.
You do well.
Even the demons believe and shudder.
So, he's saying, what's that, babe?
Okay.
So, he's saying, yeah, prove it.
Let's see it.
He does this multiple times.
So, I've got written down here.
This is kind of a, as I was going through this, it kind of made me think of, so, we all live in, most of us, I think most of us live in, on the Missouri side.
I don't think there's any Kansas folks here, if there is, sorry.
Anyway, so, you've heard it said that Missouri is the show me state.
Have you ever heard this?
Yeah, I'm sure most of you have heard this.
It's called the show me state, and I was like, oh, I just kind of had this thought.
I'm like, where did that come from?
So, I kind of looked it up.
Fun fact.
So, basically, Missouri is the show me, it's called the show me state, because it signifies the state's skeptical, nonsense attitude, or no nonsense attitude, sorry.
It signifies the state's skeptical, no nonsense attitude, famously popularized by Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, Vandiver, in 1899, where he gives a speech, and he basically demands proof.
He goes, you've got to show me, over your empty words.
He's giving his political speech, and he's just like, he's probably talking about, you know, the other political opponent, opponent, or whatever.
He's just like, you know, politicians, where people, people, talk is cheap.
It's easy to just say a bunch of stuff all the time.
So, that's, fun fact.
If you didn't already know that, that's where the show me state comes from.
This dude's like, show me, prove it.
So, anyway, another example, I mean, a lot of you all know, I like playing poker.
And so, we've been doing these, like, missional, like, poker nights and stuff.
So, a lot of times, like, you'll get dealt a hand or whatever.
And then, some of the games, some of the aspects, some of the, like, the strategy is, like, you know, sometimes you're trying to act like a bet, like you've got a certain hand, you know.
And then, well, the proof is in the pudding.
If you go, if you get called down, meaning you may get to the end of the betting round.
And then, you've got to show it.
You've got to prove it.
This whole time, I've been talking, I've been acting like I've got this.
I'm good, you know, I'm wise and this or whatever.
Well, prove it.
The proof is in the pudding.
Anyway, that's basically what we're getting at here.
So, it's an important challenge to us.
Let's, talk is cheap, you know.
We need to live lives that are in line with what we profess.
Okay?
We really do.
This is easy to, especially some of you, some of us that have been walking with the Lord for a long time.
Yeah, I know, I've felt this before where it's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just, yeah, I know that stuff.
I know, I know this.
I know that.
I know, well, wisdom is not knowing.
Wisdom is not knowledge.
We're going to get into that, actually.
Yeah, how do we prove we have it?
It says, by good conduct in meekness, in the meekness of wisdom.
I kind of love this term.
That's why we're kind of hanging out in this chapter, verse 13 for a while, because there's kind of a lot here.
So, how do we prove this?
It says, by good conduct in meekness of wisdom.
So, I kind of want to talk about this a little bit.
So, let's talk about wisdom.
Let's think about wisdom.
And let's think about what it is, what this means, the meekness of wisdom.
So, obviously, there's some clear, obvious ones where meekness is humble.
Meekness means being humble.
We're not proud.
We don't, we're not, nobody likes to know it all.
Okay?
Like, you guys, you know, when you're around a person that just kind of just know it all and like a little prideful, that's just like, put a bad taste in your mouth, doesn't it?
It's like, who cares?
Like, nobody, like, anyway.
So, meekness.
Meekness of wisdom.
Okay?
Not proud.
We are called to prove our wisdom by meekness and good conduct.
So, we got to live it.
Heavenly wisdom is meek.
Meek, it's humble.
Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth.
So, in 1 Corinthians 3, you don't have to go there, I'll just read it.
In 1 Corinthians 3, 18 through 23, it says,
Let no one deceive himself.
And if anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.
For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness.
And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.
So, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.
All are yours.
And you are Christ's.
And Christ is God's.
So, he just kind of lays this out.
This is, there's a, there's a, there's a worldly wisdom and then there's a heavenly wisdom.
And God calls worldly wisdom, obviously, it's foolish.
And the world calls our wisdom foolish.
We're both calling each other, you know.
But we obviously have the true word of God.
We have true wisdom.
We have access.
One of the most encouraging things about this, reading through this, is this is the reminder that we actually have access to heavenly wisdom.
This is like, think about this.
This is pretty incredible.
24-7.
Oh, I'm going to share.
Actually, I don't have this in my notes.
We're going off the cover.
So, I had a, I actually had a dream one time.
So, I had a dream one time where Elon Musk called me.
And I was all stoked.
I was stoked on this.
I like, look at my, somehow I had his number saved in my phone.
I don't know how it works.
But it's a dream.
Anyway, he calls me up.
And I'm like, whoa, Elon.
I'm not showing people before.
I said, Elon Musk called me.
Check this out.
I asked, what's up, Elon?
Elon?
He's like, hey, Mike, what's going on?
I was like, not much.
What's going on?
He's like, oh, I was just calling you as if you had any thoughts or questions for me, whatever.
And I was like, I remember in the dream, I was like so stoked.
I don't even remember, the conversation, I don't even remember what I had with Elon.
I was just so stoked that Elon called me.
I was like, what the heck's going on?
This is crazy.
Maybe this might be a little bit of an indictment on me here.
Anyway, I was stoked.
And I like, in the dream, I like went around telling people, Elon Musk just called me.
Did he call you?
Nobody used to.
You know, anyway, I'm like all stoked.
I'm like jazz.
And then I wake up from the dream and I was actually convicted.
I believe the dream was from the Lord.
Because I'm not that excited.
Like, do I get that excited?
I have full access.
I have a direct line to heaven by faith.
Heavenly wisdom.
We all do.
We all have direct line, unfiltered, uninterrupted, direct line to heaven, to God's ear.
And the mind of Christ.
We have access to this.
All the time.
In every situation.
This is crazy.
Think about this.
Is it sinking in?
Think about that fact.
You have access to God's ear and the mind of Christ all the time.
That's crazy.
That's, I mean, that's wonderful.
But it's wild.
Like, do we remember this?
Things we're going through.
Things that freak us out.
But, uh, uh, whatever.
You know what I mean?
Like, we're just, there's so many things in life that we're just like, oh, what do I do?
I don't know.
What should I do?
Let's tap into God's wisdom.
Tap into his mind.
Anyway, I'm taking too long on that.
I was off the cuff.
I got a lot of notes.
Okay, so.
Where are we at here?
Um, yeah, this is an upside down idea.
This is, this idea is upside down in the world's eyes.
Okay?
You think you're wise?
No.
You're a fool.
Like, wisdom is knowing Christ.
Wisdom is God.
God is wisdom.
God created the universe.
He created order out of chaos.
And we're going to get there here in a second.
Um, let me see here.
So, Matthew 16, 25.
For whoever would save his life would lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Okay?
This is a foolish idea.
This is foolishness to the world.
But it's spoken by the most practical man that ever walked the face of the earth.
And might be one of the most practical statements ever uttered as well.
Is that whoever, whoever would lose his life, whoever, whoever would save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
So, in what areas are we not losing our lives?
And what are we holding on to?
Okay?
Where are we not trusting the Lord's wisdom?
Where are we putting our confidence in our own wisdom or something else?
It's a good question to ask ourselves.
Wisdom?
Okay.
Let's talk a little bit more about wisdom.
Let's have, I got some thoughts on wisdom.
So, wisdom is not just knowing correct information.
It's not puffing up our chests and just like, yeah, I got it.
I know.
I already know.
Have you ever tried to like tell someone something or start talking to someone, explain something to someone?
And they're kind of just like, cut you off.
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know.
Well, you know.
We need to be, later on it says open.
We need to be open to reason.
That's kind of touching on that a little bit later.
But that's not open.
That's not being open to reason.
We need to listen to each other.
We need to hear each other out.
Value one another.
Value what each other have to say.
And then receive from one another.
And speak wisdom and life to one another.
So, it's not just information transfer.
It's not knowledge.
It's, yeah, it's because we already said, we already looked at this.
We're at here.
James 2.
So, even the demons know that God is one.
You know, like this is, and they shudder.
So, this is not, but they don't, they don't apply that knowledge appropriately.
They don't relate that knowledge to how it relates.
The demons don't take that word.
Okay, God's one.
And he's the creator of everything.
And he's all sufficient.
They don't, there's a relational problem.
It's like they don't put the pieces together.
You know what I mean?
Does that make sense?
It's wisdom, wisdom is, I think Tim Keller says, wisdom is knowledge related.
Does that make sense?
Let's think about that for a second.
Wisdom is knowledge related.
So, there's not just knowledge.
It's knowledge connected and contextually related to whatever said situation.
Let me see here.
First, we already went through that.
Yeah.
So, bad things, bad things when we don't apply wisdom.
Bad things happen when we don't apply wisdom to different situations.
I'm going to make fun of myself a little bit here.
So, considering like over-emphasizing knowledge or just like compartmentalizing facts, factual things without looking at the whole picture, without looking at the big picture, 10,000 foot view, it gets us in trouble.
I'm going to, Samuel, appreciate this one.
So, I one time hired a guy that didn't speak English.
Now, I'm older and I'm wiser.
I look back at that and I think, that was foolish.
And you're all kind of like, yeah, no crap.
Sherlock?
Yeah.
Anyway, I was only kind of tunnel vision.
Like, oh, this guy's got 10 years electrical experience.
You know, just whatever.
He was a glorified helper and throw him in there and be able to connect wires.
Whatever.
Well, I wasn't seeing the whole picture.
Like, it's not just, he had knowledge.
And I was, I think, in a tight spot for help at that time.
But that's a side note.
He had knowledge.
He had a bunch of knowledge about the field.
You know, I was just like, I tend to be overly optimistic sometimes and have a hard time seeing the downside of things or whatever.
But anyway, and impulsive too.
And this is also not, it's not wise to be impulsive.
Take your time.
Run things by one another.
Be open to reason.
I was not.
And anyway, that lasted, how long did that last?
Like three weeks or something like that?
Anyway.
Okay.
So, that was foolish.
We need to be able to take information, knowledge, and apply it appropriately to situations.
Having knowledge about God and how he works.
Demons have this.
We've already established this.
Wisdom is applying knowledge about God and submitting and fearing and repenting to God.
Heavenly wisdom is visible, evident, provable.
So, heavenly wisdom is visible, it's evident, and it's provable by how we live our lives.
Right?
It is.
It should be evident.
We can't just say, yeah, I'm wise.
I'm good.
You know, like, prove it.
Prove it by your decisions.
Prove it by your consistent decisions.
Over and over and over.
You know what I mean?
Just do the grind.
Over and over and over.
Over.
So, sometimes it's just making really boring decisions.
All the time.
So, it's like, all right, I don't want to, but I got to.
You know, I just got to keep the course.
Anyway, we got to keep moving on.
So, this is an obvious one.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
When we're thinking about wisdom, we have to think about fear.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
This is Proverbs 10.
So, it's what you do with the knowledge of the Holy.
Oh, sorry.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
So, it's not good enough to just know about God and how He works.
We have to apply it.
This is wisdom.
It's wise of us to both have insight on how God operates and who He is.
And then it would be wise to take that knowledge and then actually apply it.
So, I have it just written down here.
It's what you do with the knowledge of the Holy One that matters.
That's what actually matters.
Josh says a lot.
We don't want to make a point.
We want to make a difference.
This applies here.
So, if you're trying to win an argument, you'll just have the right information and have the right knowledge.
If you want to make a difference, you will apply wisdom over and over and over in your life.
And it will be evident to people.
And people will bear fruit of your diligence and your faithfulness and your wisdom that you've accessed before God.
That will bear fruit.
And it will be proven by good conduct and meekness.
So, anyway, we've got to keep moving on.
So, there's an...
What does this mean?
The fear of the Lord.
What does this mean?
It...
As long as Tim Keller, I like how he kind of puts this.
It doesn't mean that we need to just be, like, scared of God all the time.
Although we do need to...
We do need to tremble before his word.
And there is a certain element of trembling before him and having reverence and awe for him.
But I want to look at...
There's an awe and reverence of God that comes from knowing him and knowing his character.
So, in Psalms 130, 3 and 4, it says,
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you, there is forgiveness.
That you may be feared.
Okay?
That make sense?
Let's think about that.
Because we know that God is a forgiving God, knowing him, this should cause us to fear him and have awe and reverence for him.
That make sense?
It's God's kindness that leads us to repentance.
Okay?
And his mercies are new every morning.
He draws us by himself.
Okay?
And there is a certain sense...
There is a...
Like I said, there's reverence.
There's awe.
But there's a...
I love this verse.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you, there is forgiveness.
That you may be feared.
Okay?
We're moving on.
We've got to keep moving on here.
So, wisdom, knowing God, and making him known.
There's an element of wisdom that is...
It's knowing God and making him known.
It says in Proverbs 11, 30,
The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
Okay?
We're wise to win souls.
Okay?
We need to fight every day to win our own soul, to believe...
In the sense of sanctification, just believing in the...
Picking up our cross daily.
Believing the gospel fresh.
Getting right before God.
And then, it's wise of us to win souls.
So, okay.
We're going to move on.
That wraps up the commentary on verse 13.
We're going to move on.
So, 14 through 16.
I clustered these three together.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
Okay?
So, jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts.
How does...
I have written here.
So, how does this get into our hearts?
Where does this come from?
Where does this jealousy and selfish ambition come from?
I kind of like tracing...
Some of you have heard me talk about this before.
But I kind of like tracing it back to what I believe is the root here.
All the way back in Genesis 3.
But first, I'm going to kind of remind us of what God said here.
Okay?
As a side note, we need revelation from God to tell us what is good and bad.
We need God to tell us.
David says, search my heart, O God, that I might not sin against you.
That's his thing.
He says, we need God to be good.
We all know this.
But we need continual revelation from God.
We need continual...
We need our eyes continually open to the Lord every day.
Okay?
And so, in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, you have to go there to read these.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
For in that day, you eat of it.
You shall surely die.
This is what God said.
Remember.
God said this.
Okay?
But what does the devil say?
Let's look at it.
God already gave his instructions.
He already gave, let's say, the knowledge or the information.
He laid it out.
Clear.
Well, remember, we're tracing back where jealousy and selfish ambition come from.
We're going to go back to the root.
And I believe it's the first lie that man ever believed.
Okay?
The first lie that man ever believed.
We can find it in Genesis 3, 1 through 7.
Again, you don't have to go there.
I'll just read it.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of the tree in the garden?
And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.
But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.
Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened.
And you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,
and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.
So again, here's wisdom.
She's looking somewhere else to get wisdom other than God.
See, I mean, look at the implications of this.
Look at what happens when we look somewhere else to get wisdom.
The fall.
Sin.
Look at that.
It's chaos.
There's order.
God created a, you know, creation that was order.
There's perfect order.
So, yeah.
And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.
She took of its fruit and ate.
And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
And they sewed fig trees, or fig leaves together, and made themselves loincloths.
So let's look at this.
What did God say?
Don't eat of this.
You eat of this, you die.
What did the devil come in?
So we have, this is the first time I think we see, well, aside from like Lucifer rising up.
This is the first time we see selfish ambition.
So we know that this is deeply rooted in our, in the human heart.
Selfish ambition, the temptation to gain for oneself, by oneself, for oneself.
You guys remember the brand FUBU?
For us, by us.
You know what I mean?
It's getting something for yourself, and it's by yourself.
It's like, I did this.
It's pride.
That is utter pride.
Utterly prideful.
But this is appealing to the human heart.
It's, I'm not content, God, with walking with you.
You've created a perfect world, perfectly orderly.
And in comes corruption and chaos.
How did it come?
Through selfish ambition, essentially.
There's selfish ambition here.
I want to be like God.
I'm not okay as just serving God and loving God and submitting to God.
I want to be like God.
I want to be my own God.
I want to live my own truth.
I want to create my own truth.
You know, we see this all the time.
What does this do?
Well, let me see.
Let's just see here.
So lust, there's a lust for power.
And so what lust does to us is it kills our desire for revelation from God.
Okay?
So if you're engaging in lust and seeking wisdom and seeking stuff for your own sake
and for your own pleasure apart from God, don't expect to not desire God.
Don't be confused about this.
You brought this upon yourself.
You want to go and find pleasure apart from God?
This, like Adam's talking about, it's, it's, there's the, the waters are mixed.
It doesn't work.
We need, we need pure hearts.
Where are we at?
27.
All right.
Moving on.
We see earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
So to look to the forbidden fruit for pleasure, detached from God.
This is an earthly mindset.
This is, this is devoid of God.
This is stiff-arming God.
Looking for pleasure, detached and apart from God.
Okay?
That's what's going on there.
That's earthly.
That's carnal.
Okay?
Unspiritual.
Discontent with the revelation of God.
Not content with just revelation from God.
This, this is an unspiritual approach.
This is very, this is unspiritual.
This is carnal.
Okay?
Demonic.
Rebellion against God.
So, this is what this verse says.
It's unspiritual.
Earthly, unspiritual and demonic.
It's important to remember here that we have an enemy.
Okay?
We're not just like floating around.
It's like, oh yeah.
You know, we're good.
Me and God.
Everything's good.
We have an enemy who wants to destroy us.
Who wants to bring division.
Who wants to bring all kinds of corruption and chaos.
Okay?
Uh, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
So, earthly, unspiritual, carnal, and demonic.
We've all probably heard Brian talk about the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Right?
This is earthly.
This, there's kind of a parallel there.
Earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
This is the, this is seeking wisdom outside of God.
Outside of God's revelation.
And also not being content with just knowing God and knowing him.
Moving on.
Yeah, the world says truth is relative.
That we can do our own thing.
And that we can, well, look at, look at the, just let's just look at, let's just take a minute and look at what that gets us.
Truth is relative.
And I can live my own truth and believe in this selfish ambition.
I mean, every vile practice.
We can, I mean, just look around.
This is very true and evident.
Right?
There's fruit of, of this kind of mindset.
So, so this is, yeah, we've already touched on this.
Not needy, not humble, not meek.
Proud, self-sufficient, selfishly ambitious.
It's just, I'm going to get mine.
So, the world says happiness can be found outside of God.
Here you go, Chris.
The world says happiness is a warm gun.
Right, Chris?
Happiness is a warm gun.
Happiness is found in drugs.
This is what the world says.
Happiness is this.
Happiness is, so think of like the trans, I mean, think about the transgender stuff.
It's a, there's like a jealousy.
It's like, I'm born a man.
I'm jealous of that.
I want to be a woman.
Because it's like, no, no, no.
There's contentment.
We're created in the image of God.
Anyway, all kinds of vile stuff we see as fruit of veering away from and detaching the way that we think from the revelation of God and God's heart and mind.
Okay?
Yeah.
So, jealous, jealousy and selfish ambition says, I'm first.
Me first.
Everyone else, I don't care.
Me first.
Christ came to save.
To seek and save the last.
And he came as a servant.
Right?
So, we are to take his, we're going to, we're going to take cues from him.
He came and he says, the first will be last.
And he came and washed our feet.
So, this is, we have a perfect example of what this, of what wisdom embodied looks like.
Okay?
In Christ.
So, this is, this is, this is our, this is our, it's the captain of our salvation.
This is who we follow.
We take our cues.
We take our notes.
We follow him.
And then, you know.
So, I have written here, wisdom is actually, in a way, the opposite of disorder and chaos.
So, think about this.
But, think about like the, I think I, I actually think I have a verse here somewhere.
The Lord, Proverbs 3, 19.
The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth.
By understanding, he established the heavens.
So, he's bringing order.
He did this, I mean, on the cosmic level.
But, the principle still holds true in that wisdom from heaven brings order.
It's the opposite of disorder, in a sense.
It's the opposite of chaos.
It's order.
God set up the world.
It was orderly.
He did this.
You know, it was, it was, it was all in line, in order.
Enter sin.
Enter selfish ambition.
What do we have?
We have chaos.
We have disorder.
And then, the fruits of that are just, you would just see it pan out through history.
But, yeah.
I think this is an interesting thing to think about.
In that, wisdom is order.
Wisdom is the opposite of chaos.
That's an interesting thought.
Let me see here.
So, yeah.
And it says there, too.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice.
So, this is, he clearly says, this is not the wisdom that comes from above.
It causes disorder in every vile practice.
We've already, we've already hit that one.
So, by wisdom, he brought order out of chaos.
Moving on.
Okay.
Moving on.
Verse 17.
So, we're going to hit verse, we're going to close here, hopefully in the next 10 minutes or so.
17, verse 17 and 18.
So, let's look at, we just kind of talked about earthly wisdom.
And what, and the ramifications of this.
Chaos.
Every vile practice.
Verse 17.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable.
Gentle.
Open to reason.
Full of mercy.
And good fruits.
Impartial and sincere.
So, let's look at first pure, peaceable, and gentle.
Kind of clustered these together.
And I feel like 2 Timothy 2, 22 through 25.
Kind of touches on some of these.
So, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
There's peace right there.
Along with these, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
I'm going to start that again here.
So, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
Along with those who call on the name, or who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
So, wisdom is pure.
It's peaceable.
Pursue peace.
Call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.
You know that they breed quarrels.
And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil.
Correcting his opponents with gentleness.
There's gentleness right there, too.
This passage from 2 Timothy kind of touches on all three of these.
Correcting his opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth.
So, this is important stuff here.
I mean, this is even one of the qualifications for another, too.
There's gentleness.
Gentleness is very, very important in the church.
It's very important in our families.
We are to be, especially men, we are to be, especially men, we are to be peacemakers.
We are to set up our homes in a spirit of peace and gentleness.
This is what we're called to.
And so, as a reminder, this stuff doesn't come.
You don't have this.
We don't have the right stuff.
We don't have it.
This doesn't bubble up out of our hearts.
We need God for this.
We need God to be peacemakers.
We need God to be gentle.
We need God to be pure.
We're not pure.
We need constant filling.
I leak.
You know, we leak the Holy Spirit, right?
We need constant filling.
We need to be filled afresh so that these fruit can pour out of our lives over and over and over, continually.
Okay?
This stuff doesn't come from us.
We don't have it.
Sorry, guys.
But we do have it in Christ.
We can tap into it.
Okay?
Moving on.
Peaceable.
A wise person is a peacemaker.
I already just touched on that.
Open to reason.
We're moving on.
So, open to reason.
Wisdom is a person.
A wise person is a person that is open to reason.
Are we a people that are open to reason?
Or are we closed-minded?
This is a good question to ask yourself.
Am I open to reason?
Am I a good listener?
Can I hear people out?
Do I even care what anyone else says?
If you don't, you're prideful.
If you don't care to receive from someone, you're prideful.
You need to repent of your pride.
We need to be open to reason.
We need to hear from one another.
Okay?
We need to be full of mercy.
This is an important thing.
A lot of times we'll ask God, God, give me wisdom.
God, give me wisdom for this situation.
What do I do here?
How do I approach this?
Are we full of mercy in the way that we're approaching this situation?
Now, it's important to take all of it together.
Again, it's not like wisdom is, remember, wisdom is knowledge applied appropriately.
Okay?
So, if you get, like, the horse, like, you know, tunnel vision or whatever, and you only,
like, this is part of, I think this is part of my problem when I was just like, you know,
mercy, this guy needs a job, this and that, he just moved, immigrated, blah, blah, blah,
whatever.
You know, yeah, maybe that may be full of mercy, but I'm not looking at the whole picture.
You know, like, it's not, it's not, we have to think about, I think it's a helpful practice
to basically, if you're leaning one way or another on, like, a decision, if you're, if
you, it's important to be self-aware in that, it's important to kind of know ourselves in
that, know our own tendencies in our flesh, because sometimes we might, you know, our default
might be, like, judgment, you know, like, screw this guy, like, forget this guy, whatever,
or, you know, whatever, just bring, like, a kind of a dog-eat-dog approach to situations,
and just be like, yeah, I'll be fine, whatever.
You know what I mean?
It's important to know ourselves in that if you tend to be a person that, like, defaults
to this, you probably need to consider these more.
You probably need to meditate on what it means to be full of mercy, okay?
I know sometimes I can pendulum swing, you know, it, it, uh, wisdom is balanced.
I think there's that one verse, too, a man of wisdom avoids all extremes or something.
It might be worded differently, but, like, there's a balance.
Being wise means you're balanced.
You're not, you're not just camping out on this one thing, like, yeah, it says right here.
No, no, no.
Know yourself, know your tendencies, offset it with what the Bible says, and check yourself
before you wreck yourself.
Good fruits, okay, good fruits, impartial, and sincere.
Are we as sincere people?
We need to be sincere.
We impartial, we have good fruit.
We can.
By the grace of God, we can.
We need to be more sincere.
I think probably, like, yeah, we just need to be more sincere with everything, everything.
Just our husbands, wives, sincerity.
It's a beautiful thing.
I haven't quite learned that one yet.
That's a work in progress.
Our gentleness, you know, sometimes.
Anyway, we need the spirit to buffer, just to kind of, it's, it's oil between the gears,
right?
And moving on, last verse, okay?
Verse 18, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Isn't that an awesome verse?
Think about that one.
I'm going to read it again.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
This is a sweet verse.
What does it mean?
We should think about it.
Think about, you could meditate on that one.
Listen to this John Piper thing about that, and he's like, 50 years of being a Christian,
50 years of studying the Bible.
I was meditating on this, and it just blew up.
It just opened a whole new world of just like revelation.
It's, even prepping for the sermon has been helpful in that just meditating on some of this
stuff and just digging in.
And this is wisdom.
This is how we get, we shouldn't expect to get wisdom anywhere else.
There's so many talking heads.
There's so many opinions, so many reels, so many, oh, this guy, you got to hear what this
guy says.
This guy knows, this guy knows his stuff here, blah, blah, blah.
So, it's wisdom.
It's, we're not, what are we going, it's a good question to ask ourselves, what are we
going for?
What are we aiming at?
Are we just trying to, like, when you're scrolling, when you're chilling, when you're whatever,
what are you aiming at?
What are you going for?
What is the, what's your goal?
What's, what are you after?
Are we after wisdom from heaven?
Do we want this?
So, if we don't, we're not, I mean, you shouldn't, he talked about earlier, double-minded man,
we shouldn't expect anything.
Do we want wisdom from heaven?
I think we need it, right?
We need godly wisdom.
We need heavenly wisdom.
A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
So, it's farming, farming term, Mark, here you go.
So, sown in peace by those who make peace.
Harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The opposite I have written here is piggybacking off of John Piper's meditation here.
He, you know how he does the, this is a typical Piper thing.
He, like, flips it.
He takes the inverse of the verse.
He's like, if this is true, then the opposite is true then, too.
So, he goes, sowing in anger does not produce a right, a harvest of righteousness.
So, what does it look like to sow in anger?
I actually didn't have a whole lot of clarity on this one when I finished some of my sermon prep yesterday over it until, until I put the kids to bed.
I think, what time was it, like 9?
I think it was 8.45 or something.
Put the kids to bed around like 8.45 or something.
And so, Raina and Naya, are they in here?
Where are they at?
Naya, what's up?
Love you, honey.
I'm sorry for getting angry at you last night.
Spoiler.
So, Raina and Naya, like, their beds together.
Sometimes they like to put their beds, you know, their beds together and kind of sleep snuggling stuff.
Well, I kind of let it happen.
I was like, all right, yeah, we'll try it.
It's been like that for a little bit.
We've gone back and forth, you know.
And, like, they'll just get too stoked some nights.
Like, all right, we're pulling the plug on that.
Separating the beds again.
You guys can't handle it, whatever.
And we probably got, this is kind of hilarious.
But we've gone back and forth, like, a couple times here.
Like, I find that you earned it.
You worked the trust back up.
So, they had their beds together.
And then I think we put them at, like, around 8.45.
Well, at, like, I don't know, 10, 15 or something, Raina and Naya both come in our bedroom.
And Raina's like, oh, sorry, babe.
Are you embarrassed, Raina?
Raina's like, oh, she's picking up.
Is she doing this?
She won't let me sleep with you.
And I'm kind of just like, all right.
I'm over this.
So, I'm like, stop.
Let's go back downstairs.
Put this up.
This right.
I told you 100 times.
I was angry.
I responded in anger.
I was, like, frustrated.
I'm just like, how many times are we going to do this rodeo?
Like, what are we doing here?
So, I separate the beds.
Like, real quick.
I'm just like, you know, they go to bed or whatever.
Well, like, I don't know.
Maybe I'll last, like, six or seven minutes or something.
I'll come back up upstairs all huffing and puffing and how I'm right.
And, you know, Marianne's kind of giving me the look.
You all know.
All you husbands, you know the look.
You know what I'm talking about.
I was like, you're going to leave it there, Ben?
And I'm just like, you know, whatever.
And I'm finally, like, thinking, there it is.
A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace.
What am I doing?
John Piper says, for anger of man does not, or sorry, not John Piper.
James.
James 1, 20.
The anger of, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Okay?
So, parents, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, don't sow seeds of anger.
Okay?
Don't do that.
It's not going to produce the harvest of righteousness.
In yourself and in the receiver, whoever it is.
The kid, the brother, the sister.
So, again, sorry.
Love you.
We made it right.
We made it up.
It's important.
Yeah.
Anyway, we realize.
So, you make peace.
What do you do when you, what do you do?
You go back there and make peace ASAP.
Prick to repent.
Okay?
In conclusion, we need to humble ourselves.
Really.
We just, we need God for all of this.
We need to humble ourselves for God and ask him.
Don't ask, don't, don't ask Elon Musk.
Don't, who gives a record?
Right?
It's hilarious.
Think about that.
It's crazy.
We need God for this.
We need the spirit of God to bear this kind of fruit in our lives.
Okay?
I'll see you next time.