James 3:13-18
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Announcements:
Recap Game night: Almost 60 people in the church to have fun.
From what I could tell, the results were:
Tim won unstable unicorns, Jennifer won phase 10, Reese dominated at Bananas, and Kathy Davis won rummicube. I saw people playing yatzee and uno. I don’t know who else played what. I will say this - we all won in the quality of food and fellowship we had last night. That was great fun. Thank you to everyone who participated.
Progressive dinner - schedule is set:
We will start at Bob and Cathy Dye’s house - then off to the Rienigs - and finish at our house for desert
Couple of things to be mindful of as we prepare for the holidays:
We will start decorating for Christmas soon.
December 24th is on a Tuesday - Christmas on Wednesday that week. We will have our christmas eve service at 6pm on Tuesday.
Our holiday fellowship dinner will be January 5th, plenty of time for everyone to get back from where ever
21 Days of Prayer and Fasting will follow.
We are working through the book of James, learning from the little brother of Jesus what it means to be a follower of Christ. If you have a bible with you please turn to James chapter 3.
James is very practical application focused. We don’t find a lot of theological dissertation in the book of James. He was raised as a carpenter - and brings that blue collar mindset into his ministry in Jerusalem and his writings to us.
As we study this book together, I believe that God has planned to do a work in this church. If we can apply the instructions given here - I believe that our lives will be changed.
If we can wrestle through the truths that are presented here, and be obedient to the instructions given to us here, I believe everything about us will change. I believe that God will be Glorified. I believe that we will be equipped. I believe that we will share the Gospel..
The incredible thing about this book, is that if we do take heed of it, it will cause a measurable difference in who we are as a church.
This morning we are starting off in verse 13 to finish off the chapter.
13 Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth.
15 Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
This is not the first time that James has dealt with wisdom, we will go back to reference his writing in chapter one to tie things together.
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
What is wisdom:
Wisdom:
Wisdom is not simply education or intellect.
It is not simply a matter of the mind.
It about morality and behavior. It is a spiritual thing.
We believe and so we behave.
The wise man is the one who hears the words and puts them into action.
“Wisdom is Godly insight applied to the living of Life” -Allistar Begg
13 Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are his.
Wisdom is spiritual and practical. It is something that we have or don’t have, and you can have more or less of it. It is not measurable, but it is visible. You can look at someone else and say - that person is wise.. or that person is very unwise.
So to be WISE is a good thing. It is a Goal.
James this morning is going to give us a couple of instructions, and some help in understanding those instructions. And remember, we don’t get to James 3 without going through James 1. This is a masterclass on being a christian but the lessons come in order.
Start with a self evaluation.
13 Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.
James asks the question. Who is wise?
Are you wise?
Do you behave in a way that others consider wise?
Are other people looking to you to increase their own understanding? Or are you dumb?
In chapter one, he said if anyone needs wisdom ask God for it - and now he gives us a process of evaluation.
The reality is, in a lot of ways we can know if we are wise or we are dumb. But what we might not be able to tell right away is where is that wisdom coming from.
When we talk about wisdom, we are almost always talking about good, Godly wisdom. James introduces us to another kind here - earthly and demonic wisdom. We might be DOING all of the things, but still not have the right wisdom behind it. James is dealing with a whole person approach.
He gives us a description of both so that we can evaluate ourselves - and those around us.
We want to evaluate ourselves, because we can change.
We want to evaluate others, so that we can understand and sometimes safeguard.
Demonic Wisdom / Demonic Behavior:
Bitterness
Envy
Selfishness
Boastful
This is a fools wisdom. This is earthly, demonic wisdom.
This is the wisdom that is offered by the serpent in Genesis 3. Don’t you want to be as wise as God? Eat.
This wisdom flows out of a worldly lifestyle. Social media and echo chambers of your one news channel that you subscribe to telling you that everyone of the other opinion is evil.
Looking at problems in marriages, in workplaces, in families - it is the focus on “what is best for me” or “Im going to get mine”
Envy amongst siblings ruins relationships. selfishness in parents destroys children. We are seeing that play out in some of the kids that we have had in our home to an extreme. Simple refusal to care about anything more than yourself.
And it might work out! You might climb the ladder, you might acheive all of the big dream things, but the carnage you leave behind is devastating.
So we want to be evaluating ourselves.
We want christians in our lives that are evaluating themselves and we want them to be evaluating us too.
That can be really difficult, especially if you have some of these characteristics.
Heavenly Wisdom:
Pure
peacable
gentle
open to reason
full of mercy and good fruits
Impartial
Sincere
Heavenly wisdom is so different, because the perspective changes.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
Let’s get into just one of these. I think it is one of the easiest ones to spot in each other.
Open to reason.
Are you open to reason?
Can you be corrected?
If you understand what open to reason means, you can understand why it is so important.
The reality is, especially in modern america, we struggle right here.
We are a special breed of closed minded stubborn people.
And with each generation it gets worse.
We know everything.
Samuel wrote about a fellow named Nabal and said
17 Now consider carefully what you should do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”
Think about some people in your life that have proven to be this way.
Young employees who say they can run the whole operation but don’t show up on time.
Foolish sons like Proverbs 10:1 who bring heartache to their mothers.
1 Solomon’s proverbs: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son, heartache to his mother.
1 Every wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
People who are foolish - or wise in the world.
I stand dumbfounded, watching relationships fall apart because the world says it’s okay.
God doesn’t say its okay. God said fix it. God said seek peace. God said be humble. God said submit.
Its you and your dumb cousin Marice who’s got 10 baby daddies and telling you not to settle that is ruining your marriage.
If we can just find a few people that agree with us, then we don’t have to listen to anyone else, right?
There is no wisdom there.
No wisdom from heaven.
CS Lewis wrote an essay he called “the trouble with X” and in it he describes someone who lacks this heavenly wisdom.
On such occasions the . . . friend usually says, “But why don’t you tell them? Why don’t you go to [them] . . . and have it all out? People are usually reasonable. All you’ve got to do is to make them see things in the right light. Explain it to them in a reasonable, quiet, friendly way.” And we, whatever we say outwardly, think sadly to ourselves, “He doesn’t know ‘X.’” We do. We know how utterly hopeless it is to make “X” see reason. Either we’ve tried it over and over again — tried it till we are sick of trying it — or else we’ve never tried it because we saw from the beginning how useless it would be. (God in the Dock, 161–62)
Wisdom dictates our responses to the world around us, where is your wisdom coming from?
Evaluate yourself.
And from that, we change.
James gives us these instructions - not just so that we can look at ourselves and say “God made me this way” and never do anything about it. No! He says hey - do something about this!
Evil is trending! Change!
Don’t just settle for who you have always been. Change.
When considering whether or not we are open to reason, it means that we should change the way we think about ourselves - knowing everything, and the people around us. We should find ourselves willing to consider the opinions of others. We should find ourselves willing to consider their positions.
And that doesn’t mean we are giving any ground on the truths of God.
14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
But it will mean that we think about the ways that we are stuck in. It will mean that we consider the things that we believe that aren’t staunchly from scripture.
We might need to be more open to suggestions.
Understand what is at risk.
James 3:18
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
What I am hearing out of young men and boys is that they are so angry they just can’t control it.
At that point, anger becomes a sin.
The fruit of righteousness is sown by those who cultivate peace.
The fruit of righteousness cannot be sown by those who cultivate evil.
And change.
1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding;
3 furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity
8 so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of his faithful followers.
Evaluate yourself.
Develop relationships that allow others to help you with this. Ask honest questions.
And change.
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
