“Me vs. God”

Intro: Youth ministry fireworks in the field

Today as we dive into our passage we are going to talk about wisdom. Last week, if you remember, James cautioned the reader to think before they considered the idea of teaching.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

He was talking about people who would be leaders and teachers of the world, as well as lead within the church. James also reminded us last week to remain humble as leaders.

Humility is something that we must take seriously as believers if we take God's Word seriously. He has previously warned us of two facts of life, judgement (2:4, and 2:12) and failure (2:10).

First with judgment, there is going to be a greater strictness on those who teach or are leaders within the church, assuming they are teaching as well.

James is alluding to what Jesus taught, teachers are bound to teach what is true and then in turn live lives that exemplify the same truth. We will be held and judged to a higher standard.

Second with failure, we are all in a place that we will stumble. James talked about that already in chapter 2. James was being frank last week.

He was saying, "Look, you are subject to more judgement as you teach others, because you are just as vulnerable to sin in many ways. Don't lead others to sin."

So, this is why James warns all teachers of the word to be careful in what they do, and then begins our section today to walk in wisdom.

There is a real continuity taking place here between last week and this week and we do not want to miss it.

Without a healthy wisdom filled mindset, we will deceive ourselves and our behavior will be corrupt because of our inward character. James cuts straight to the point today.

We are going to dig in today and see our passage is clear about the difference between false wisdom and true wisdom.

This passage is for all of us, but it should press about those people in the church who vie to lead or be in ministry even more so. There is a way to live wise and a way to live foolish. Read passage: James 3:13-18

James 3:13–18 ESV

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 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.

So, we see clearly in this passage there are two places our wisdom can come from, and we better be able to identify where wisdom is coming from in our lives.

James assesses the inability to lead or live the Christian life by our own leading and the focus then shifts to our need for God's provision. The first thing we will identify this morning is that ...

1. Earthly wisdom is me centered

So, what does earthly wisdom mean? The best way to describe earthly wisdom is a person who does not taking eternity into consideration, but more focused on the hear and now.

Earthly wisdom is seen in the big decisions of your life. It might be how you spend your money, or how you live your life overall.

Maybe it’s in the switching of a job, or the uprooting from one community to the next. When your life is focused only on the here and now, that is earthly wisdom.

Now I want to make sure I am clear on this. Earthly wisdom is not necessarily bad, but you don't want it to be the focus of your whole life.

When earthly wisdom is your whole focus, you don't have time for difficult things, suffering, or waiting.

When earthly wisdom is your focus, you don't make decisions on what is to come, but the now instead.

This is where we get into trouble with debt, bad relationships, affairs, and doing things that don't bring glory to God.

A lot of times we will make poor decisions and rationalize them saying things like, "God will want me to do this because He wants me to be happy." Do me a favor and find that verse for me.

When has God ever encouraged our happiness to be found in the meaningless things of this world? Yet we do it all the time, me included.

Sometimes we can be like toddlers that want everything that they see, or when they are hungry and don't want to wait so take it into their own hands, trying to get what they want.

Toddlers don't like to wait because they forget we will take care of their needs. They don't have wisdom. Sometimes we act the same way. We want it and we want it now.

James is inviting the readers here, especially teachers of the Word, to get serious about wisdom. Listen to what he said again. Read James 3:14-16

James 3:14–16 ESV

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

The fruit of earthly wisdom is chaos friends. When self satisfaction is the heart of the believer then the believer becomes a sower of chaos and disorder.

It may not happen immediately, but it will happen. We must not allow earthly wisdom to become our true wisdom. So, the last point of identifying what true wisdom looks like is that ...

2. True wisdom is _God centered_

When we come to the realization that God designed a wonderful way for the world to work, then our lives are typically more of a reflection of that.

True wisdom is to submit to God's plan and to chase your joy and find your delight in Him. According to James that requires meekness and humility, right?

We have already learned that me centered wisdom leads us to boast about self. God centered wisdom has us looking at life differently.

We find ourselves saying, "I am going to obey God even though it may not make sense right now. Even though this does not bring me pleasure in this moment, I am going to follow Him."

The moment we become a believer we gain the righteousness of Christ, but God does not want us to just sit there like a bump on a log.

When we are driven by His word we are driven by delight and humility. That is when He begins to transform us from the inside out.

He shapes us to live like we should. It not a life of things we shouldn't do but a life of things that we desire to do and a harvest of righteousness is before us. Read James 3:17-18

James 3:17–18 ESV

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.

If this is true wisdom, God wants us to grow in it. He wants us to grow constantly in understanding Him through understanding His word. He wants us rooted in His word.

He wants us to walk in a community too. We are not to do this alone. Get around people who are serious about their faith and growing in the understanding of the Word.

They can help us see the difference between earthly and true wisdom. They will also be willing to point it out, and while that is not always awesome, it is necessary.

So, after you dig into the word of God, and you have a community, lastly, do what Hebrews 13:17 says. Read Hebrews 13:17

Hebrews 13:17 ESV

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I guarantee that verse reads differently to leaders than others. If you are not a leader you might hear that and think, "Wait, submit to you? Obey you? What...?"

But here is the glaring part of the verse for me that keeps me awake at night, as those who will have to give an account...

That verse seriously makes me lose more sleep than you can ever imagine. Why? Because for every member we add here is another soul that we are to keep watch over.

God has called us as leaders to protect you and not lead you astray, so your job is to trust us and what we bring to the table, and our job is to give an account to God...big gulp!

That's why we need good, healthy, Godly leaders. Don't ever pick our church, or any church for that matter, because of music, programs, or if the pastor makes you smile and laugh.

You should always be asking, "Do the people who lead this church love Jesus Christ and are they willing to lay down their life for Him?"

When a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace in the home, it produces righteousness in the home.

When it is sown in peace in the church it produces righteousness in the church.

When it is sown in peace in our relationship with others it produces righteousness in others.

This is God's calling to us. He wants us to bring others to Him and peacefully. He wants us to live life with each other and make disciples of Him. This is what we invest in.

So, how do we invest in this here? To be honest we already are investing in many ways, but we never want to stop looking for those opportunities.

This may mean we have to do things a little differently from time to time. This may mean that we need to invest time in the areas of the church that are in desperate need.

Let us take the time to ponder today's message and seek God's wisdom in these matters. What does God seek us to do as we move forward as a church body?