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Wisdom of the Holy Spirit
Have you guys ever really thought about what makes a wise person?
Like, what are the characteristics of a truly wise person?
Some of us have a picture of someone when we think about the word “wise.”
For me, it’s this old man sitting on the front porch smoking a pipe.
He’s got gray hair and glasses on, sometimes he’s smoking a pipe or witling.
Some of you guys may think about someone who has a ton of degrees or plaques on their wall, letting people know how much they’ve learned in their life.
Maybe it’s as simple as someone who just reads a lot.
Now, show of hands, who wants to be wise themselves?
When you picture yourself as wise, what do you see? Do you see a much older version of yourself?
Maybe that version has gone through a lot of hardships in life, learned a lot of really valuable lessons through tough times in life, maybe through your degrees or experiences.
Tonight, we’re going to read in James 3: 13-18 to get some insight into what wisdom from the Holy Spirit gives us.
Everybody turn there in your bibles.
Let’s read together
James 3:13-18 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.
But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth.
Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
- Pray -
When we read through this, James gives us the two versions of wisdom.
They butt heads hard.
I mean, these two versions are completely different, could not be more opposite.
When you break them apart, like we’re going to do tonight, you see that there’s wisdom from above that’s true wisdom coming from God, and the other is like this cheap Chinese knockoff.
Have you seen those?
It’s got all the right stitches in just the right places, the fake leather smells super good.
At first glance everything looks pretty solid but then you realize that the check is backwards, or it’s got 4 stripes instead of three.
There’s a difference between the legit sneaker and the fake.
Wisdom works in the same way.
The grey-haired guy on the porch with glasses making toothpicks may seem pretty wise, but does he have all the characteristics of legit wisdom?
What even are the characteristics of legit wisdom?
James just told us, but let’s go through it together.
1. Stay Humble
James 3:13-18 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.
Right out of the gate, James is asking the tough questions.
“Which one of you guys is wise?”
We’ve got to remember, in this passage, James is talking to people who want to teach the word.
Presumably, these guys all know the word pretty well.
They’ve probably been around the block a few times, maybe even spent some time learning under James directly, but he’s giving them a chance to really show the genuineness of their wisdom here.
This verse is kind of an “if-then” statement.
If you are wise and understanding, your conduct will show that the things you do are done in gentleness that comes from wisdom.
Wisdom isn’t measured by degrees; it’s measured by deeds, and how those deeds are done.
It’s important to note this word, gentleness.
The Greek for it is actually “Prautēs” and its meaning is a little more in depth than just “gentle.”
It means to be gentle in the spirit, have a mildness of disposition.
What do you take from that?
We know that definition as humility.
If you are prautēs you are humble and meek.
So, in this verse when James says your works are done in gentleness, he means humility.
You see, Jesus was the ultimate example of humility.
Son of God, born from a virgin in a barn and raised as a carpenter.
Always having the full power and authority of God, but never bragging.
Never putting himself above others but doing exactly the opposite.
If you flip over to Matthew 23:11we see Christ talking to a bunch of people about how to be humble.
He’s basically calling out the Pharisees for placing themselves above everyone else, and he says,
“The greatest among you will be your servant.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Back in the long-long ago, I’m sure you’ve all heard me talk about this, but I was really good at exalting myself.
I could walk into any situation and make it something about me.
Guys I made money, I had “friends,” I had fame, I had people tattooing my initials on their bodies, and all of that felt really good.
I could look in the mirror at night and tell myself that I was successful; that I’d made all this happen.
But here’s the deal.
I didn’t know God.
That’s not an excuse, but I had no idea who God was.
When I got saved, all of a sudden, it’s this face plant into the reality where the things that I had built me up on, the things that I was propping up this absolutely massive ego on, all those things belonged to God.
All of a sudden it felt wrong to let people give me praise for something that I should have been pointing to God to all along.
Even now, if you come up to me a say, “hey Jason, you did a great job on that song tonight.
The new single is banging.
I really dig how you’re wearing that jacket.”
- Praise God -
That’s it.
Praise God because God alone deserves the glory and the worship and the praise.
It’s not me and you doing good things for other people, it’s God working through us.
It’s not me or you that’s blessing people with the gifts that God gave us, it’s God gave us gifts to glorify him in all that we do so that He would be praised, and we might be blessed through it.
Stay humble, church.
The success that you get in this life did not come from you.
The talents that gave you platform did not come from you.
You’re a good singer, good dancer; you’re a super passionate person about giving to those less fortunate, you’re good at basketball or football…you get where I’m going with this.
None of these things come from you, that’s why they call it gifted.
Wisdom from the Holy Spirit is going to show when the things you do are meant to serve Him.
When you’re not looking to lift yourself up but trying to find new ways to show God to other people through your walk.
2. What We Know
So, what is earthly wisdom?
How are we supposed to tell it apart from the wisdom of the Holy Spirit?
We see it all over the place, ever single day.
It’s in politics and on the news, in the movie theatres and in the music that we listen to; how do we tell it apart?
Romans 1:21-23 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude.
Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
There’s a really important word in here “they became fools,” mōrianō.
Right here it actually says that they made themselves fools.
That they did it to themselves.
By leaning on their own understanding of things, their own knowledge, experience, false wisdom, the Pharisees abandoned the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
In their minds, they had it all figured out.
In all their piety, in all their perceived wisdom, in every holier than thou smile they gave out, they laid heavier and heavier into themselves instead of God.
And according to Romans, it was the idea that they were wise that made them become fools.
How many of us in the room are super good at assembling Ikea furniture?
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