Built Wisely James 3:13-18
Notes
Transcript
Wayne Pratt, October 13th 2024. James 3:13-18 “Built Wisely”
James 3:13–18 (ESV)
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 is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and 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 a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Q. Who is wise and understanding among you?
A. I’m glad there were no hands raised because that question, dear listener is a trap.
Dunning-Kruger
In the late 90s- two psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, took four groups of young adults and gave them tests on humor, logic and grammar. Their testing proved the results of their hypothesis true- here is what they found: “incompetent individuals… will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.” To translate, the less familiar you are with a subject, the better you think you will do.
Seminary Story
I thought I was sort-of smart and knew my bible until I took my first class at Southern Seminary in Kentucky. It was a hybrid class so all semester I did online work and reading, and then i finally got time to spend two eight hour days in person with my classmates... The room was filled with pastors and missionaries from Korea, Indonesia and Kenya. The professor was a pioneer in his area of study, had written the book on Protestant Natural Theology, and my fellow students had also written books. I was learning just listening to their questions and couldn’t answer as well as they were in their third language. After that first day, Bree picked me up after taking the kids to the zoo. I sat in the passenger seat, and she laughed and said “hey honey, how was school”? I sat there, hands in my lap, and said like Forest Gump, “I am not a smart man”.
Foolish People vs Wise People
Foolish people are loud about it- they say stuff like “how hard could it be?” “If he can do it, I can do it.” They’re the kind of people who think they can do something because they’ve never done it. The inverse of the dunning-kruger effect is that those professionals among us, people who actually know what they’re doing, are usually the ones who are quiet about it because they underestimate their ability.
Professionals know that their profession is extremely complex and that tends to humble them. Just take fishing: fishing can be as simple as a hook tied to a stick. But if you want to be a pro fisher, things get a lot more complicated. You’ll need to study water temperature, currents, tides, seasons, spawning habits, fishing line weight, line opacity, pole materials, reel ratios, hook types, bait types and a hundred other factors. The dunning-kruger effect says that a man who has fished all his life will say, “I’m not very good at it.”
Transition to Prayer
Likewise, James asks a question that a wise person would not respond to: “who is wise and understanding among you?”
The question is answered “By his conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” True wisdom is never loud- it is meek, because it knows just how much more wisdom there is to gain.
Today we are going to read from an expert- James, the bishop of the church of Jerusalem, brother of Jesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tell us what real wisdom is, what Godly wisdom is. How we can recognize it among ourselves and how we can obtain it ourselves.
Lets pray.
6 minutes
1. The Wisdom of Men
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 is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
Wisdom first born from fear
Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Wise people fear God. What does that mean?
Imagine you’re hiking in the woods one day, and you look up to see a grizzly bear in your path. You now have the fear of bear. That bear is all you think about. You keep your eyes on him. Everything you do in these next few seconds will be in response to your fear of bear. IF you are wise- You’ll either walk away backwards slowly and quietly with bears spray ready to go. If you are foolish (taking your eyes off of him), you’ll take out your phone to check instagram or the Jags score.
True wisdom starts with fearing God. He is a real danger. He is real and your meeting Him is an inevitability. Everything you do in life is should be in preparation for when you encounter Him. Fear of God, gives us the wisdom to repent of your sins and surrender to Him. That wise decision just so happens to be the best thing that can ever happen to us. But it starts first with fear.
Fear of Man
Yet, what James is about to describe isn’t godly wisdom. It is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. It is wisdom that comes from fear of man.
This is what fear of man looks like:
“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, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
Reiterate: Type of Fear = Type of Wisdom
Fear of bear, wisely acted on, leads us to move slowly and deliberately.
Fear of God, wisely acted on, leads us to surrender to Him as Lord.
Fear of man, wisely acted on, leads us to act like they are, do the things they do, and prove our worth to them.
Scripture is clear- we should not fear man. If you fear man, the wise thing to do is appear like you are smarter, tougher, more capable than you are. You will spend your whole life convincing everyone around you just how worthy of respect and love you are. You’ll do your very best, and look around to see if anyone saw it. You’ll mess up and make sure no one sees it. You will be a person possessed with the thought of, “what are they doing” “what do they think about me.” “How can I impress them. ” Your whole life you will act in fear of them, and then one day, you will meet God; totally unprepared.
What does a person who fears man act like? You can do a self assessment here- James writes : jealousy and selfish ambition- if my neighbor can do something or has something I need it. Boasting and false truth if I can’t do something or don’t have something, I can just lie and act like I do.
James isn’t saying someone who gets ahead in life by boasting and laying isn’t wise, he is saying their wisdom is demonic, it is man-centered.
5 Minutes
Q. In what ways are you wise?
For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.
Somber Reality
Are we there at all? Are there people in our church who are wise in what is good? If I’m honest (like last day honest) I love you dearly and please know I don’t have any individuals in mind- but I know very few Christians, in any church who own their faith enough to be called wise. This is a big problem, it’s a modern church problem.
To paraphrase Pastor Herbert, The American church is big and it is soft.
In North Korea, there are tens of thousands of Christians who gather together in their house churches, grab bibles hidden under floorboards, and whisper the hymns and songs we just sung so as not to be found out. In Iran, Christians sometimes leave the country in order to be baptized, and they limit their gatherings to no more than 10 people as to avoid detection. In Somalia, some individual Christians are totally isolated alone, since they don’t feel it is safe to tell even family members they are Christians. These people risk their lives to do it, yet they pray more, sing more, read more than us. Their desire is to be able to do exactly what we’re doing this morning.
But in the American church, without persecution, our desire is often to do what the world is doing.
If we’re honest- we don’t want to be super Christians. We want to be just Christian enough to be saved and have fun. We don’t have an appetite for it.
When we fear man, we find ourselves wanting to be Christian in the most casual of ways so as not to alert the attention of our predator. We’re not camouflaging, we want to BE like normal people. We want to be Christian versions of the people we actually admire.
Are our appetites really to have godly wisdom?
Romans 16:19 (ESV)
For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.
Instead, we are often innocent to what is good and wise to what is evil. I know so much about the most useless things. I can tell you the most useless trivia about music, movies, video games and so on. I’m going to meet God one day! Will I impress Him with my hobbies? What am I doing?
We know and do so much worldly, ungodly, silly things. We also know so many sinful, evil things; how to lie, how to lust, how to steal without ever being caught. Sometimes, our Christianity even contributes to our evils and gives us a better cover to sin even more wisely.
Why do we do this? Why are we wisest in the most evil and dumb of things? It’s because we fear man.
IF we don’t know that they know, or do what they do, then we are useless in their eyes. Yet listen to this:
(Walk)
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that 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.
Brothers and sisters, stop being impressed with the earthly, demonic wise people around you. You have EVERYTHING!!!
7 Minutes
2. The Wisdom of God
[17] But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. [18] And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:17-18 (ESV)
What does godly wisdom look like? Like James says in verse 13 “by his good conduct let him show his works”. Godly wisdom isn’t something we hear about from a wise person, it is a thing we see in their lifestyle.
I’ve met some people who will tell me they are a godly person. They will tell me how many people they saved, or what degrees they have or what spiritual feats they have performed. I’m a polite guy and will say “oh wow, that’s so interesting.” They may be- but that has yet to be determined.
Like faith, James says wisdom is evident by our works. How do we conduct ourselves around others?
(walk)
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
How Wisdom Acts
Wisdom in all its ways prepares for what is coming. During a hurricane, wise people evacuate because their home will probably be hit. Wise people take care of their health because they will probably live long enough for it to matter. Wise people usually prepare for what might come, and they always prepare for what is inevitable.
Godly wisdom prepares for God, who is inevitable.
A wise man on earth my save up for when a disaster inevitably happens. Jesus teaches us that Heaven is inevitable for us. For the Christian it is death, taxes and heaven.
If heaven is inevitable for you, what wise steps are you taking before you get there?
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a man who found treasure in a field.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Is selling everything you have to buy a field foolish? To everyone else in your life, that answer may be yes. But you know there is a treasure worth more than all you have ever owned.
7 minutes
25 Minutes so far..
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Jesus is our ultimate example of godly wisdom. What does a wise man do? He reacts to what he fears- what is most important to him. Jesus, in his 33 years here acted in perfect, godly wisdom. Yet, how foolish was He by the world’s standard.
What kind of man doesn’t have a job, a house, a wife, savings? What kind of rabbi heals on the sabbath, eats with sinners, recruits fishermen and tax collectors as students? What kind of savior couldn’t save himself? Our Lord is still mocked these ways by the demonic, earthly, wise people we often admire.
By the world’s standard, Jesus was not someone to be respected. After being beaten, stripped and mocked, even on the cross the title above His head, “king of the Jews” was sarcastic.
On the night He was about to be crucified, His best friends scattered because of fear of man. Peter denies Jesus for fear of man. Their whole world was falling apart because Jesus did not share their fears. Why does Jesus act this way? Because in His wisdom He followed the plan.
(WALK)
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
WALK Give em the GOSPEL!
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I’ll give you an example- our Pastor. I’ve been friends with Herbert for 9 years now, and the guy is an example of the wisdom expressed here. He and I talk almost exclusively about Jesus. In staff meetings he is not a tyrant- his leadership is gentle and open to reason. He has been hurt deeply in ministry and yet has shown mercy to his members. During sermons he is sincere and tells you his faults. I believe a church should be led by a Pastor who is wise in these ways.
I’m leaving you before we officially become North Harbor. You all, not just Herbert and the staff, are planting a church. If we had bricks anywhere on campus, your name might be on it and underneath it would say “founding member”. Please be assured you are being led by a Pastor wise beyond his years. Please support and be a blessing to him. You have a huge task ahead of you, and I know God has authorized the right man for the job.
Pragmatism
During the next few months, our church is going to be transforming in huge ways. The ways we give, pray, sing, worship, vote, study will all change. Pray that you can do those things in wise ways. The thing is godly wisdom and earthly wisdom often look totally different. I’ll give you an example which is the church governance model we’re looking at. Along with Pastor Herbert, Mike Tupper, Wally Bowden and Jon Davis, I’ve been on the Constitution and Bylaws committee with. It sounds riveting I know- but the idea is to have use a model of church polity that honors the role of multiple elder-pastors and the congregation. In this model- congregants would meet quarterly to hear with total transparency what the state of the church is, who we are hiring, what we are spending, who is being discipled. The criticism we’ve heard about this model is - it’s so slow. Wouldn’t it be easier to just have a private meeting with some leaders and decide everything ourselves? Actually - yes, but it’s our biblical conviction that Jesus authorizes both pastors and congregants to lead the church.
Last Sunday we had a meeting and were deep in the weeds going over some elder term limit rules. These were very minute details, we had our resident lawyer Mike Tupper going over it with us and we found a sentence that sounded reasonable enough. Then Jon Davis looks up and asks me, “where do we find that in scripture”, and I was like “it’s just easier that way” and I interrupted myself and went “you’re right, it’s not” and we actually removed that rule.
What kind of church do we want to be? Do we want be cool and low commitment? Do we want Christian themed concerts and TED talk pastors? I know many of you and know you don’t. You’re here because you have an appetite for the Gospel- to grow and make disciples.
I’m going to ask you as a brother to please take every next step in true godly wisdom.