James 3:13-18

MPS: Wisdom from Above

Prayer: God, empower me in wisdom and conviction to preach truth, to explain clearly, to set you and your son clearly before the church to be worshipped, loved and desired.

Intro:

Hello

Last week

The tongue…

Who is wise and understanding among you?

Wisdom

“the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.”

“Living skillfully in God’s world with the end in mind”

Greeks then, us now.

Valued wisdom, we don’t even value grey hair

Valued experience, understanding, we value youthfulness

“How much better to get wisdom than gold!

To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” Pr 16:16.

so, What is true wisdom?

The wisdom we have

The wisdom we need

PT 1- wisdom is seen through her works (v13)

Wisdom is: (2 things)

1. Visible

2. Meek

1. Visible:

By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom

Confusing? Wordy for sure.

Works are a result of true wisdom. True wisdom is a work in itself.

2 sides of the same coin. Don’t separate them.

Wisdom is visible though her works

Wisdom is visible through a person’s conduct

-Don’t confuse charisma with character

-Don’t confuse a leaders ability to speak with their ability to lead

-Don’t measure a pastor just by his sermons, measure us by our conduct outside of the pulpit

-Wisdom is seen, not just heard

2. Wisdom is Meek

“The meekness of wisdom”

Wisdom is the subject here

Meekness is the adjective

Meaning the marker for wisdom is meekness

What is meekness?

Not “weakness” -Sounds like weakness.

Praus- The greek word used to translate the OT word “humble”

The greeks used this word to describe war horses. A perfect warhorse was praus

Strength under control

A war horse needs to be powerful, fast, aggressive, cunning, ruthless.

But if it is only these things, it is a wild beast. no good.

A proper war horse it all these things and has the restraint will let you saddle it, the discipline to marches in line, the fortitude to obey it’s rider in the midst of chaos

Strength under control- meekness

Meekness is not just controlling your strength,

humility, controlling your ego

Meekness is holding yourself back to put others ahead. It extends beyond humility (self) to others. the opposite of weakness

“A spiritually meek person is not self-willed – not continually concerned with his own ways, ideas and wishes. They are willing to put themselves in second place and submit themselves to achieve what is good for others. Meekness is therefore the antithesis of self-will, self-interest, and self-assertiveness.”

Meekness is the marker of true wisdom.

Some examples of where I am learning meekness in every day life:

accepting my limitations

Keeping my mouth shut and allowing for moments of silence to hear from others

submitting to authority

Accepting circumstances

Doing whats needed

How many more meek politicians do we need? How many more meek leaders and pastors and men and women do we need in our world?

The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord

a necessary attribute for leaders

think of condemned leaders:

dictators who consume power only think of themselves

Politicians who enter congress middle class and leave multi-millionaires while their constituents lose jobs

bankers and Business leaders who take kick-backs before glowering interest, relieving debt or even giving their employees bonuses

Pastors who want the church to follow them more than Jesus

Wisdom is not measured in the ability to excel

Understanding is not character cannot be confused with charisma

Wisdom is measured by the ability to put o

A necessary attribute for christians

Curious that God’s word is careful to single leaders out and hold them to greater accountability. But he does not hold us to a different standard

there are clear sections of scripture addressed to pastors and deacons in the church. But there is nothing in there that is different from what any other christian is called to.

Only pastors must be able to teach.

This is for all christians. Why? why does God do that?

Greater standard because “with great responsibility comes great accountability”

But also, because each and every one of us is a ruler, is a leader

“a royal priesthood, a holy nation..”

a prince, a princess, an emissary, a representative of the family,

PT 2- Wisdom from below (vv14-16)

(Demonic wisdom and Earthly wisdom)

Bitter Jealousy

Selfish ambition

think of condemned leaders:

dictators who consume power only think of themselves

Politicians who enter congress middle class and leave multi-millionaires while their constituents lose jobs

bankers and Business leaders who take kick-backs before glowering interest, relieving debt or even giving their employees bonuses

Pastors who want the church to follow them more than Jesus

Pastors who leave their church for a bigger and more shiny pulpit

Wisdom is not measured in the ability to excel

Understanding is not character cannot be confused with charisma

Wisdom is measured by the ability to put o

Do not boast and be false to the truth- don’t lie!

Wisdom from the garden

Jealousy

Selfish ambition

the quick fall of man

Earthly, unspiritual, demonic

Funny that he calls this a type of wisdom

It appears as wisdom. It brands itself as wisdom

Our world certainly has many types of wisdom that are not from above

“enlightened” and the “enlightenment” was a time in which people across Europe began to say “God is dead”

We have the same problem today in America

To be woke is to move beyond God’s authority- his design- his word and to deny him

To be woke it to say, we are the masters of our bodies, we are the masters of the truth, we define words like “love”

Demonic wisdom

What about inside the church?

PT 3- Wisdom from above (God’s Wisdom) (vv17-18)

Fruits, etc

Wisdom from above comes down! (v15)

Where do we see the wisdom from above?

Through his creation

Prov 3:19

19  The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;

by understanding he established the heavens;

through his word

Prov 4:5

Get wisdom; get insight;

do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Through his son

English Standard Version Chapter 9

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

True Wisdom is:

seen- Jesus showed up to demonstrate as well as teach us the way

Meek- Jesus called himself meek, not wise

Pure, Peaceable, open to reason, full of mercy, good fruits, impartial, sincere, produces a harvest of righteousness. (a fruit salad)

Who is wise and understanding among you?

Jesus the meek one