Sermon Tone Analysis
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The book of James is often compared to the book of proverbs.
Like proverbs James uses great illustrations and anologies
Like proverbs James gives very practical advice
And like proverbs James highlights wisdom throughout his letter.
I truly love reading the book of proverbs:
I truly love reading the book of proverbs:
Wisdom is the predominant theme in the book of proverbs.
its not money
And if you have not spent much time in the book of proverbs i would encourage you to do so.
Proverbs has 31 chapters which lends itself to a great reading plan.
Read one chapter a day, and you’ll read all of proverbs in a month.
Its not fame
Prov
James is writing to people who are going through trials
Here are a few of the proverbs i really like...
persecution, driven from homes etc.
its not
James tells them to endure trials with joy because trials make us more like Jesus.
pro
However,
p
What are we to do in the midsts of trials?
James says, to ask God for wisdom.
I love this proverb, “The discerning sets his face toward wisdom...”
From beginning to end in the bible wisdom is held up as something God’s people values, treasure, and pursue.
Pages and pages of the bible are given to explaining what wisdom looks like, how to grow in wisdom, where wisdom comes from and so on.
However, wisdom is not something that is easily defined.
I think if we take the idea of wisdom in the bible and boil it down, one way to define wisdom is:
The Giver of Wisdom
In we will see that God is the giver of wisdom
Often times we get confused thinking about the differences between intelligence and wisdom.
So James encourages these young believers to ask God for wisdom.
Wisdom is gift of God given to his people so they might have insight and understanding on how to think, feel, and act in the all circumstances.
Wisdom is to think, feel and act like God.
Wisdom is to think God thoughts after him.
Wisdom is to think, feel and act like God.
If God is omniscience, all knowing, that means he has thought ever thought about ever situation.
And his thoughts are good and perfect.
So wisdom is to seek to think the way God thinks
A wise man thinks the thoughts of God.
It is alway to feel the way God feels
God has created us in his image, and he has made us emotional beings because God is an emotional God.
So wisdom is to feel the way God feels.
We should laugh at what God laughs at.
We should love what God loves
We should hate what God hates.
Wisdom is to act the way God acts.
This does not mean we get to act like we are God
but we are to act in the way he has called us to act.
Our actions are to constantly point people to God.
As his image bearers we are like mirrors that are to reflect the character of God to the world.
A wise person is a person who thinks, feels, and acts like God.
wisdom is not the same as intelligence - there are a lot of smart people who are not wise.
And this is what James wants from his readers, he wants them to be wise, he wants them to think, feel, and act like God.
Look with me at James 1.5
W
Context:
Remember, James is writing to young believers who have suffered many things through persecution and having to flee their homes.
This young church is now dispersed from their homes and need to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in the midst of trials.
We saw last week how James wants his people to consider it pure joy when they are faced with trials.
And this week we will see that James wants his people to ask God for wisdom on how to live in the midst of trials.
James tells them that wisdom comes from God.
Well, the first example in the bible of someone lacking wisdom or pursuing an earthly wisdom is in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
Though Adam and Eve were morally perfect without sin, they had not learned how to think, feel, and act like God.
They were not perfectly wise.
You remember the story,
God created Adam and Eve and places them in a garden.
This garden was full of trees and fruit they could eat from.
However, there were two special trees that God put in the middle of the garden.
The Tree of Life: which represented the life and immortality of God.
Adam and Eve were free to come and eat of the tree of life whenever they pleased
The Tree of Knowledge: which represented the wisdom of God.
Now, Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for they were not mature enough to eat its fruit.
before using wisdom they first had to learn to obey.
When they were more mature they would have been welcomed to eat from the tree of knowledge.
However, lacking wisdom they reached out for something that was not yet for them.
The second tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
or thinking that the fruit of the tree of knowledge was fruit that contained sin so they would be poisoned and cursed because of something in the tree itself.
Adam and Eve were walking in the garden enjoying God’s good creation when the serpent comes up and asks them about the tree of knowledge
Eve responds the right way saying they are not to eat nor touch the tree lest they die.
Look how the serpent responds in 3:4-5
Its interesting how the serpent is able to deceive Eve by mixing truth with lies.
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Gen
You see, if Adam and Eve had wisdom they would have known what the serpent was doing.
Wisdom knows how to obey God and follow his commands, and wait on his timing.
And if they would have learned to obey they would not have needed
Like children, they need to learn to obey before they learn to use wisdom.
So it was with Adam and Eve, they had to learn to obey before they were given wisdom.
He does not want them look to the world for wisdom.
He does not want them thinking, feeling, and acting like the world.
Gen 1
Rather he wants them to think, feel and act like God.
This is what it looks like to lack wisdom, Adam and Eve thought, felt and acted in a way that was foolish.
And James is telling us that this wisdom is given by God.
We are unable to attain this wisdom apart from him.
They didn’t trust God’s wisdom rather they thought themselves wise, and they thought the serpent wise, and ate the fruit.
Since the fall, wisdom has been something we are unable to attain ourselves.
Apart from God giving us wisdom
We are unable to think like God
We are unable to feel like God
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