Wisdom From Above

James 3:13–18 (NLT)

13If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.

14But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.

15For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

16For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.

17But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

18And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

Prove it

James 3:13 “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Doing good works

If we claim to have wisdom the only way we can show it is by our life. Like if I claim to be 7ft tall.

it shows us here that if you have wisdom then we would expect them to live in a certain way.

this makes sense to us, i cannot claim to love a sports team then be either indifferent to their wins or losses or root for another team.

Humility that comes from wisdom

One of the ways we would expect people to live if they have wisdom is in humility

I think they recognize that they are not the center of the world

Proverbs 9:10 “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.”

this fear is not like you are watching a scary movie and are frightened but over awed by the power and might of the Lord.

this is us seeing that God is so much higher, stronger, mightier, than we are

God is very good but not safe. He is the creator of the cosmos if you want a safe life that stays in the shallows and you do not want to change then God is the wrong person to go to.

If we want to claim God’s wisdom then our life have better match up.

Not of God’s Kingdom

James 3:14–16

“But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.

For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.”

Bitterly jealous

Not just jealous but bitterly so, that means we do not just want what someone else has but we now resent them for having it

Selfish ambition

you want gain for yourself. You are the center of your world. your view is skewed, like people who thought the earth was the center of the universe.

These people are wanting to claim they have the wisdom from God but are lying and boasting to cover up the truth.

they are not of God’s kingdom so God’s citizens cannot have this on them.

these are the signs of an infestation. Its life if I find two termite in my house, where are two there are many more.

Wisdom from above

James 3:17–18

“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”

This is how we recongize Godly wisdom with the world.

This is true wisdom.

This is the list we hold them to.

Pure

gentle

willing to yield

full of mercy

fruit of good deeds

no favoritism

sincere

Plant seeds of peace

When we have this we plants seeds of peace, not chaos.

If you are someone who is constantly having drama around them and you do not know why, it might be time to ask what type of seeds are you planting, do you encourage and engage in gossip? Then why are you surprised?

Reap a harvest of righteousness

What we will reap we will sow. A harvest of righteousness. It will not just affect you but those around you.

people who sow chaos and selfish ambition, and jealousy will reap it.

Questions for the month

Why did god create people that are lgbtqia+ if he declares it wrong

lets look at scripture

Genesis 2:21–24 “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”

The premise is the people are born gay, I think that is actually up for dispute, research has been showing us that there are no known genetic factors that decide whether someone is that or not, it most often attributed to what happens when you are very young. because we cannot find any genetic factors in play it shows God is not creating people like that, but it is a consequence of the fall, not our desires are all out of order and in the wrong places.

we have to see who God created us to be in the garden and how we have changed.

Now this is no bigger a sin than someone watching pornography or something else, our cultural moment has made this a big issue

How do you know the Bible wasn't just made up a long time ago?

so many reasons

#1 people did not just discover the bible complete like it is today. they found fragments of it from different times all over

#2 we have old testament scrolls that are older than Jesus or around the same time as him, this shows that before Jesus existed we had the OT

#3 we know from places outside of the bible that Jesus existed and was real.

#4 The bible is the most historically reliable document ever.

#5 archeology backs up the bible

we have ancient inscriptions about Israel in Babylon during the deportation

There is a stone that has the inscription of pontius pilate as the prefect of Judea

quote from an archeologist

“It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of biblical description has often led to amazing discoveries.”

The bible gets a lot of stuff right about where things were in the Old and New.

from moses to Jesus its about 1,000 years

#6 manuscript evidence we have 5,800 manuscripts of parts of the NT and very early on, as early as 125AD thats 25-50 yrs after parts of the NT are writtten

other ancient works pale in comparison

Plato’s republic has 7 copies 1,200yrs after

Iliad, 1,800 copies 400-500 yrs after