James: Authentic Faith - Week 8: Authentic Wisdom Looks Up To God and Looks Out for Others | James 3:13-18

Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.

In today's sermon, we continue our series through the book of James, as James teaches us about the biblical idea of wisdom.

James teaches us that we find wisdom when we look up to God, and then here's what we do with it we look out for others.

I hope this message is an encouragement and a challenge to you.

On the evening of October 29th, 1964, Jack Murphy and Alan Kuhn climbed a fire escape and then tiptoed along a very narrow ledge and then lowered themselves down by a rope before entering in an open fourth floor window at the American Museum of Natural History.

Yeah, these are two criminals, Jack Murphy and Alan Kuhn.

Once they get inside the museum, the men they moved pretty swiftly.

They used some glass cutters to open three display cases of jewelry.

Those display cases held an assortment of emeralds and diamonds and rubies and sapphires, and that's not to mention the rings and the bracelets and the brooches.

After cleaning out those display cases, then those two men, those two crooks, they exited the same way that they entered.

Out the window, up the rope, across the ledge, down the fire escape.

To this day, that is still the greatest jewelry heist in the history of the United States.

The very next morning, news of the crime spread throughout New York City.

It's all anyone could talk about.

And one of the people who learned of the crime was a desk clerk at a hotel.

And she just so happened to be the desk clerk at the hotel where those two men had been staying while they were casing the museum and making the plans for their crime.

Early that morning, before the men had checked out, she noticed that they were kind of acting very suspicious.

And she just had a hunch.

So she called the police.

And the police, they were looking for any lead that they could possibly have on this case.

They immediately came to the hotel, they went up to the men's room, and the first thing they saw when they entered the room was a floor plan of the museum.

Clue number two: they saw a stack of brochures detailing the display cases that contained all the jewels and all the jewelry.

And then the third clue to let them know maybe that hunch was right.

In the corner of the room was a pair of sneakers.

And embedded in the sole of those sneakers were shards of glass.

Within 48 hours, those two crooks were in cuffs.

Eventually they confessed to the crime that they committed, and they returned all that they had stolen.

Now is as good of time of any to remind you of that piece of wisdom.

Crime doesn't pay.

Well, I mean, maybe in the case of these two guys, it does pay.

They both received an all expenses paid stay on Rikers Island.

For those of you who are unaware, Rikers Island is not a Caribbean vacation hotspot.

It's an island in the East River of New York, where one of the most infamous prisons in all of the country sits.

You know, those two men, uh safe to say that wasn't the payment that they hoped to receive.

They risked their life, they uh gave up their freedom because of the value of the contents of that display, of the precious gems and jewels inside.

Experts say that really, because those gems and jewels were one of a kind because they were unique, because they were irreplaceable, their value cannot be calculated.

They are actually priceless.

But as valuable as that collection might be, listen, the Bible tells us that there is something far more valuable than any gem or any piece of jewelry or any display case full of gems and jewelry or any vault that contains all the gems throughout the history of the world.

Listen to what Proverbs chapter 8, verse 11 says.

Proverbs 8:11

It says, For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

For wisdom is more precious than rubies.

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word wisdom?

Maybe you think of a familiar saying, something like a penny saved is a penny earned.

Or maybe when you hear the word wisdom, you you think of that famous sculpture of the thinker, that man sitting down, legs crossed, with his hand underneath his chin.

Or maybe when you uh hear the word wisdom, you're actually transported back in time.

You see your grandfather, and you remember the day he taught you to change the oil in your truck, or the day he taught you to shoot a rifle.

Or you're transported back to the dining room table, sitting with your mom and dad, having a conversation about how to be a good friend, or who should be in that close circle of your friends, or maybe it's the discussion about where to go to college and what your majors should be.

I think one of the reasons that Proverbs 8 ascribes such a value to wisdom is because it reaches into and it applies to every area of life.

Wisdom is how a person navigates and gets through daily life.

Wisdom is how we make the right decision in life, even if there are no clear moral laws that necessarily govern that decision.

There's still a wise decision and a foolish decision.

So here's my attempt to define wisdom.

Wisdom is living according to the truth.

Wisdom is living according to the truth.

What that definition does for us, I think, is it reveals uh the point of tension that each of us face.

Do we live according to capital T truth?

Or do we live according to truth?

Or let's say it plain.

Do we live according to capital T truth?

That is the truth that the Father has revealed to us through Jesus Christ.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 3 tells us that in Christ are hidden all treasures of wisdom.

Colossians 2:3

Or do we live according to truth?

That is lies that masquerade as truth.

Do we live according to the lies of pop stars and politicians, the lies of influencers and talking heads, the lies of Satan himself?

At first Baptist, we've been in this study going through the New Testament book of James, a series we've been calling authentic faith.

And since week one, we've defined authentic faith this way: authentic faith is actionable.

And over the last week, as I was reflecting on this James's teaching on wisdom that we're going to focus on today, the Holy Spirit kind of was speaking to me and maybe even offering a word of rebuke to me that the reason so many of us have an impotent faith and not an actionable faith is because we live according to lies and not according to the truth.

You see, actionable faith requires you and me, it requires our church to be a people who on a daily basis live according to the truth of God, no matter what it costs us, no matter what the world says.

Listen, in a world that's filled with fools, we must be wise.

So we got to stop playing the fool.

We have to be the wise man, the wise woman, the wise child who lives among the fools.

And what happens is, when God's people live as wise people in the world, as we live according to the truth, do you know what happens?

We expose the lies.

We reveal that the lies bring death and destruction and decay in the world.

We have to be people who live according to the truth, guys, if we want to possess authentic faith.

That's what wisdom is.

Wisdom is living according to the truth.

So this morning, as we continue our study in the book of James, we're gonna see together how James shows us where this sort of godly, authentic wisdom comes from.

Where do we find it?

And then what do we do with it?

Where do we find it and what do we do with it?

And here's kind of the the sermon in a sentence.

The sermon summarized as this authentic wisdom looks up to God and looks out for others.

Authentic wisdom looks up to God and looks out for others.

Let's begin all the way back in chapter one of James.

James chapter one, verse five.

James says this.

And it will be given to you.

All of us lack wisdom.

Hate to break it to you.

All of us lack wisdom.

All of us need more wisdom.

And now here's the funny thing about life.

The wisest people I know, the wisest people I know are the people who are most aware of the fact that they lack wisdom.

They've stopped trying to fool themselves.

And they know that they lack wisdom, and then they know where to look to find it.

And they don't turn on cable news, they don't log on to Facebook, they don't get onto Twitter, they don't read a self-help book.

The wisest people I know, every day they wake up and they look up to God.

They ask God to give them wisdom.

See, James chapter 1, verse 5, that is a verse that should shape your morning prayer time.

James 1:5

Or if you don't have a morning prayer time, James chapter 1, verse 5 is a reminder that you need a morning prayer time.

James 1:5

You lack wisdom, and every day you're gonna need it.

Every day you're going to face a temptation.

Every day you will encounter a difficult situation and difficult people.

Every day something unexpected will occur.

And in each of those moments, and in so many more, you will need wisdom.

You will need wisdom because you can live a life when you are wise that testifies to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You need wisdom because you can live a life that can stand out from the lives of everyone around you and reveal the foolishness of the world.

So we got to look to God for wisdom.

Don't look to other people, don't look to other books, don't look to other sources.

Look to God.

Ask God for wisdom.

But how does God answer that prayer for wisdom?

How does God answer it?

And what I want to highlight right now is this it says that James says that God, when you ask, what does he do?

He answers, and he doesn't just answer, he answers generously.

God answers your prayer request and he goes what?

Over and above what you expect.

He gives you more than you need.

He doesn't hold anything back, he's generous.

And one of the ways that God shows his generosity in answering that request is through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

A person who knows Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Listen, if you are a friend and follower of Jesus, if you put your faith in Jesus, your life is now a temple of the Holy Spirit.

If you are a child of God, God's presence lives inside of you, and the Holy Spirit wants to guide you in wisdom, not in foolishness.

The Holy Spirit wants to guide you in wisdom.

So in a few weeks, when school's back in session, and there's a new kid at lunch who doesn't have anyone to sit with, and you just have this like sense, this feeling, this voice that says, get up and go sit with them.

Like that's not your innate goodness coming out.

That's the Holy Spirit guiding you in wisdom.

Or tomorrow, when you want to argue over um something that doesn't matter with a colleague at work.

Like they made you mad, they say something you don't agree with, but ultimately it doesn't even matter.

And you have that voice inside of you saying, keep it to yourself.

That's the Holy Spirit.

Or tomorrow, like you sit down and like someone's really irritated you on social media, someone's really irritated you in real life, and you have to tell them about it, and you you like type out the zinger of a response and a reply on your phone, and then your phone crashes.

That's the Holy Spirit.

That's the Holy Spirit, like saving you from yourself.

We have to learn to listen to obey the Holy Spirit if we want to be wise.

We have to listen to his voice above all the other loud voices in the room.

Because it's only the voice of the Holy Spirit that leads us to live according to the truth.

And a second generous way that God answers our prayer for wisdom is this: it's the pages, it's the verses, it's the stories contained and told in this book that we call the Bible.

And specifically, it's this that the Bible contains four books, four gospels that tell the story of Jesus Christ.

And listen, Jesus is wisdom personified.

Jesus is wisdom incarnate.

So we must be people who know Jesus inside and out.

We must be people who are familiar with the message and the mission and the miracles of Jesus.

We must be people who know him.

What happens then, how wisdom begins to take root in our life when we know Jesus is this.

We begin as we study his life, as we know his life, as we reflect on his life, we begin to see connections between life in Jerusalem and Galilee and Judea and life in El Dorado.

We begin to see how Jesus lived according to the wisdom, the truth of God in the ancient world, and he's saying, You can live according to the truth of God in the modern world, thousands of miles away from where I walked city streets.

But Jesus isn't just wisdom personified, Jesus is also wisdom perfected.

Jesus never played the fool.

He was always the wise one in the room.

Wiser than the wisest of men.

Why?

Jesus knew.

Always looked to the Father.

Always look to the Father.

You know, when Jesus was worn out by crowds, what did he go and do?

He withdrew to quiet places and prayed.

He looked up to the Father.

Well, what did Jesus do when he was overwhelmed by a task?

When he was faced with the task of going to the cross, he's overwhelmed by it.

What did he do?

He goes to the garden and he prays.

He looks up to the Father.

But listen, Jesus not only agrees with his half-brother James that authentic wisdom looks up to God, Jesus, he also agrees with James that authentic wisdom, if you've got it, here's what you gotta do with it.

You gotta look out for others.

This is what James now says in chapter 3, verses 13 through 15.

Who is wise and understanding among you?

Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility that come from wisdom.

But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.

Such wisdom does not come from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

With those three verses, what does James do?

He distinguishes between godly authentic wisdom and counterfeit worldly wisdom.

And the defining characteristic of godly authentic wisdom is humility.

The Bible defines humility this way: Philippians chapter two.

Humility values others above self.

Humility does not look out for selfish interest, but the interest of others.

Why is humility the defining characteristic of godly wisdom?

It all goes back to Jesus.

It all goes back to the one who personified wisdom, the one who perfected wisdom.

Humility is the defining characteristic of Jesus' ministry.

For example, one day Jesus is talking to his disciples and they're having an argument about the rulers of this world.

How those rulers in this world they oppress and they victimize those who are under them.

And Jesus exposes the wisdom of the world as nothing but a pack of lies.

And then he says to them that the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

Or there was that day when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

In the ancient world, that was a task reserved for a slave.

Jesus, he took up a towel, he took up a basin, and he washed twenty-four dirty, stinky feet.

And then he looked at those twelve men and said, I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Or there was the day when Jesus was convicted of crimes he did not commit and carried a cross that he did not deserve.

Yet the very Son of God was a humble servant, obedient to death, even death on a cross.

You see, it was the presence of humility in the life of Jesus that testified to the fact that Jesus was wise.

That Jesus lived according to the truth.

Jesus looked up to God, and then he always looked out for others.

The author, uh Jen Wilken, she differentiates between godly authentic wisdom and counterfeit worldly wisdom in one of her books by using a series of statements.

I'm going to read just a few of those.

We'll put them on the screen in just a second.

I want to read these to you.

And as I read them, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to see if you can locate yourself in one of those two statements.

And as you locate yourself, where do you locate Jesus?

And then think to yourself.

Am I standing with Jesus or am I standing opposite Jesus?

Am I beside him or am I away from him?

The first pair.

Worldly wisdom seeks the highest place.

Godly wisdom seeks the lowest place.

Just stay right there on that slide.

Think about that.

Locate yourself and locate Jesus.

Let's go to the next slide.

Worldly wisdom avoids the mirror of the word.

Godly wisdom submits to the mirror of the word.

Where do you stand?

Where does Jesus stand?

Next slide.

Godly wisdom is slow to speak.

Here's the last one.

Worldly wisdom wields might.

Godly wisdom works in meekness.

A few years ago, a Swiss auction house had this massive twenty-five karat ruby that it put up for auction.

It's called the Sunrise Ruby.

Weighs over twenty-five carats.

Bidding began.

And the winner of the sunrise ruby through this auction was an anonymous buyer who paid over thirty million dollars for that ruby.

That's how valuable that gemstone was to this person.

They were willing to pay over thirty million dollars.

But don't forget what Proverbs 8 says.

There's something more valuable, far more valuable than a twenty-five karat ruby.

Wisdom.

How much are you willing to pay for wisdom?

Are you willing to pay with your time?

Are you willing to give up time?

Pay with time so that you can spend time with God in prayer, looking up to Him and spend time in His Word.

Looking at the life of Jesus, seeing what it means to live a wise life.

Are you willing to pay with your power and your privilege?

You see, if you listen to the Holy Spirit, he's going to put you at odds with opportunities that other people can take.

If you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, listen, some things that you want to take advantage of in life, you have to walk away from.

If you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, it can lower your bottom line.

Friends, you have to grasp this critical fact.

Wisdom isn't free.

If you want to live an authentic life that possesses godly wisdom and knows what to do with it, there is a cost.

Now, the ultimate cost for that wisdom was paid by Jesus.

The cross and resurrection of Jesus, they declare this.

They declare the presence of wisdom in the world.

That God's wisdom is greater than the lies of this world.

They say that God's wisdom is available in the here and now.

And then all of us who say we are a friend and follower of Jesus, Jesus offers us this invitation.

He says, I went to the cross, now pick up your cross.

He says, I was raised from the dead, now live in light of the resurrection every single day.

I don't have to tell you guys, we live in a world and we are surrounded by lies and surrounded by fools who live by those lies.

But because of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we can live according to the truth.

We can be people, listen, who look up to God and look out for others.

When no one else in the world looks up to God and prays to God, we'll be a people who pray to God and say, God, give us wisdom.

And when nobody else in this world cares about anyone but themselves, we're gonna care about other people because that's what God's wisdom does.

That's authentic, godly wisdom.

And every day we have to pursue it.

Every day we have to look up to God.

And then when He gives generously the wisdom we need, we have to be people who look out for others.

Would you stand with me and pray?

Let's just close our eyes and bow our head for just a moment.

And in silence, turn your heart and look up to God.

Are you willing to pray this morning?

God, I lack wisdom.

I lack the ability to make the right choices.

I lack the ability to live according to your truth when I'm faced with difficult people in difficult situations.

But I know if I look to you, you'll give generously.

And Lord, we pray and we trust that when wisdom comes, and you will answer our prayer for wisdom.

Let us be people who look out for others, who are humble in heart, who lower ourselves to lift up and elevate other people.

We want to follow in your way, Jesus, in your footsteps.

In your name we pray.

Amen.