James: Wisdom From Above | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

Well, we're continuing in our series through the book of James.

We've made it pretty far.

We're at the end of chapter three.

You heard Kathy read our passage about wisdom.

I'm excited to talk this morning about wisdom and wisdom that is from above.

But first a story.

My wife, Stacy, recently purchased a motorcycle.

There it is.

It's awesome.

This is a 1973 Honda 350F.

The F stands for four because it has four cylinders, which was very rare for this model here.

And I won't go any any further.

Two weeks ago I knew nothing about motorcycles, and now I know a ton.

We've talked about motorcycles for 20 years, you know, maybe maybe having a couple and puttering around together.

When she got serious talking about it earlier this year, I said, Oh, well, you know, maybe we should look into getting two motorcycles and, you know, something we could do together as husband and wife.

And her response was, and I quote, no.

This is my midlife crisis.

Fair enough.

She's owning it.

So here it is in all its glory.

You can pray for her.

It's been in the shop for over a week, and she cries every day.

But after she got the bike and she's been riding and she loves it, she's having a great time.

Oh, finally, she's like, you know, we should ride together.

She did not have to twist my arm very hard.

Um so I'm signed up for the motorcycle safety course, middle of November.

I bought a helmet, so I'm I'm in, right?

You spend$200, and you know, you might as well buy the motorcycle today.

Um I'm also big into research, so I've been watching lots of YouTube videos.

There's a YouTube video for everything.

Uh what did we do before YouTube, right?

We used to think it was Wikipedia, but no, it's YouTube.

Um, you know, how to ride a bike, what to do, how not to look stupid.

There's lots of those videos.

Um and I I'm telling you, I've watched a lot of YouTube videos.

So many, in fact, and there's so many opinions and reviews and different perspectives that I think I'm actually more confused today than two weeks ago when I started watching those videos.

But isn't that the way life is?

See that transition?

Boom.

Right there.

Uh the world is diverse and complicated.

Things are not often simple or easy, and we're all trying to make it through life.

And so we often are in search of wisdom.

What is the best way to live my life?

How do I save for retirement?

How do I find a spouse?

How do I pass uh parent these darn kids, right?

Whatever adjective you want to use for your kids.

Where you are in life, um we're all looking for wisdom.

So how do we find it?

What does it look like?

How do we distinguish good wisdom or good advice from bad wisdom and bad advice?

Well, that's what our passage is about today.

Uh in verse 13, James asks a question.

He says, Who is wise and understanding among you?

And really he's setting us up.

He could have just written, What is wisdom?

And how do we get it?

Uh so that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

Point one, James tells us there are two kinds of wisdom.

Let's look again at verse 14.

He says, If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above.

It is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

Ooh, great description.

So James tells us there are two types of wisdom in the world.

There's one that comes down from above, it comes from heaven, it comes from where God dwells, it comes from God.

It is heavenly, spiritual wisdom.

On the other hand, there is wisdom that is from below, you might say.

It's earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

What does he mean by these descriptions?

He says, it's earthly, meaning it is separated from heaven.

Now, the scriptures do not, uh, it is not a dualism that heavenly or spiritual things are good and earthly and material things are bad.

That is not the Bible's view.

But there is a way of speaking, and Paul does the very same thing in the book of Corinthians, as he challenges the Corinthian church who were who were jockeying for position and saying, Well, I follow Paul, well, I follow Apollos, well, I follow Peter.

He's awesome.

All right, he says, when you reason that way, when you're jockey for position that way in the church, are you not acting merely human?

That's exactly the same thing that James is talking about here.

There's a way of reasoning in the world that seems detached from heaven.

It is only of the earth.

Which is why it's unspiritual, meaning it is not from the Holy Spirit, right?

This is not some ethereal spiritualism.

This is when the Bible talks about something being spiritual, it means it's connected to or comes from the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom comes to us from outside via the Holy Spirit.

And it's demonic.

Now, when he says demonic, he doesn't mean the devil made me do it, right?

It's not a wisdom that uh demons put into us, but like earlier in this letter, he says that demons have faith, right?

He says demons believe in God.

Demons, you know, they know a lot about the gospel and they shudder, right?

They don't have salvation, they don't have saving faith in God, but they have faith.

And in the same way, they have wisdom.

But it's a wisdom that is separated from heaven, is separated from God.

And so these are the two types of wisdom in the world.

Uh and when we're talking about demonic, Satan is often, his fall is often attributed to jealousy and selfish ambition.

Satan was this beautiful divine angel who saw the glory of God and became jealous.

He wanted to grasp it for himself, and so he pursued that selfish ambition and he fell.

And so that kind of wisdom is the wisdom of demons, and the wisdom we need to be careful to avoid.

So James tells us two types of wisdom, but point two, how do we tell them apart?

Right?

That is vital.

That's key.

Well, he tells us in verse 13, he says, by his good conduct, or her good conduct, let the wise person show their work in the meekness of wisdom.

So James says, your wisdom will show itself by the way you live.

And this echoes Jesus' own teaching in Luke chapter 6, when he said, A tree is known by its fruit.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

A fig tree produces figs.

Uh a grapevine produces grapes.

Godly wisdom produces godliness.

Earthly wisdom produces something else.

He's about to tell us.

So last week we saw that James said, Can a fig tree bear olives olives or a grapevine produce figs?

No, whatever comes out of the heart, Jesus taught us, the mouth speaks.

Whatever is inside of us, it bears fruit.

And that fruit, we're like a tree, right?

Roots that dig down into the earth.

And based on what is nourishing that tree, it produces that fruit.

And that is the heart of us.

Our hearts are like the roots of a tree and they dig down.

If we're digging into heavenly wisdom, it will produce one type of fruit.

If we're digging down into earthly wisdom, it will produce something else.

What does it produce?

He says in verse 16, where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice.

That's the fruit that earthly wisdom produces.

On the other hand, wisdom that is above is humble, right?

He says it is shown in the meekness of its wisdom.

It's pure and holy, meaning that it lends itself to godly behavior.

Have you ever spoken with someone?

Maybe you've even said this yourself, that God is leading me to do X.

But X is something that God has speaks clearly spoken against.

Right?

And we hear those things, we say, no, God cannot be leading you to that thing if, in his scriptures, he's already told us that that is ungodly behavior.

That's a red flag.

We know because God's told us that that is not the way he wants us to live.

Heavenly wisdom seeks peace rather than disunity.

It's gentle rather than harsh.

It's open-minded rather than closed-minded, full of mercy for others.

We can discern true wisdom, James tells us, by the fruit it bears in our hearts and in our lives.

And we can also tell from the lives of other people.

Years ago, a relative of mine, uh, someone I cared very much for, uh, I actually did their wedding, came to me and said that they and their spouse were getting divorced.

Uh, I was absolutely crushed.

Number one, I was invested in that in their wedding, and I cared for them very much, and I was heartbroken.

Uh, but as I met with them and I met with their spouse afterwards, uh, I heard, you know, I was not, didn't really know what was going on in their marriage at the time.

And I heard what had happened with them, and I heard the advice they were given from their friend group.

And as I heard my, I got angry, and I got more sad.

And inside, I said, I'm really not surprised that this ended in divorce because you were given horrible advice.

And we've all experienced that.

There's a there's a type of wisdom that looks wise in the world, and yet the result of it is chaos, heartbreak, and every vile thing.

Now, you can get good wisdom, good advice, and still get divorced.

That's that's no guarantee.

But the question is, where does the wisdom come from and what is its fruit?

Uh I can read up on how to save for retirement, right?

And it can be good, right advice.

I can follow the advice and and my investments can grow.

And that's great.

That's wonderful earthly uh advice.

But if as a result, now I'm fixated on my 401k and I check it daily and weekly, and my sense of well-being is tied to how the market is doing and how my retirement savings is doing, ah, it exposes itself for what it is.

This is earthly, unspiritual, even demonic.

Because I took that advice, I took that wisdom, and I set my life upon it.

It did not breed peace, it did not breed the good fruits of the spirit.

What earthly wisdom have you been leaning into?

What fruit are you seeing in your life that may raise questions?

It's an easy trap for us to fall into.

It's why James is talking about it, and something that I fall into all the time.

So, third and final point how do we get this wisdom that is above?

Well, James told us actually way back in chapter one, and he talks about it in our passage.

In chapter one, he said, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

You see, if true wisdom, heavenly wisdom, comes from God, it comes from outside of us, not something we can figure out ourselves, and not something that any human can figure out on themselves apart from God, then we must go to that source.

We must go to God and ask for the wisdom that is above.

And so we ask in prayer.

And we listen in prayer, and we listen in the scriptures.

And God can speak through the scriptures, He can speak to us through prayer, He can speak through other people, He can speak through books, He can speak through many different ways, but we are going to the one who is the source of all wisdom to find and get that wisdom, as opposed to trying to derive it for ourselves.

And this is what it means.

This is the humility of wisdom, the meekness of wisdom says, I don't have it in myself.

It doesn't matter how hard I try or how smart I am or how many degrees I have.

Only the Lord can provide it.

And so we humble ourselves and we go to Him.

A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with anxiety.

Anyone else do that?

Anyone?

I'm the only one?

Liars, you're a bunch of liars.

Uh so um, I've told you guys this a couple times, but I I my family and I, we planted a church 12 years ago and I pastored that.

And um that was, for good or ill, the main source of my anxiety.

It was the main thing that I would wake up in the middle of the night anxious about some issue related to the church.

Well, uh, when I stepped away from that church about a year and a half ago, um, there was some sweet immediate relief.

But then my heart uh immediately switched over to my children.

And it said, you're gonna wake up in the middle of the night and be anxious about them.

Oh, great.

Now that's there's that's not reflection at all on my parenting.

I was a great dad uh for 12 years.

You know, just the heart wants something to grab hold of.

So I woke up in the middle of the night with this anxiety, and because it was the middle of the night and I was annoyed and I was tired, I prayed.

That's the only thing I do at that moment.

And I said, Lord, I'm anxious about my children.

I'm anxious about this particular situation.

Would you give me the wisdom I need to parent them well through this situation?

And I laid there and waiting to hear from the Lord.

And I I did, I heard from the Lord.

And he said, Why are you so anxious?

And I said, Oh, alright, sorry, I didn't give enough background.

So these are my kids, they're, you know, teenagers and such, and I don't know if you knew this, but the brain like breaks down during that period.

They're actually dumber than they were before, and we're waiting for maturity to come back and then to become intelligent and think we're good parents again.

Um, that's science, by the way.

Um and so, you know, I'm afraid of X, Y, and Z.

And and please, would you would you give me the wisdom of parenting so that I can I can help them avoid these pitfalls?

Wait.

I hear.

Why are you so afraid?

Okay, now I'm angry.

I I've explained this.

I've you know, I've I've I've put I love my children, I don't want this.

If X happens, then Y and Z could happen, and then that could be very bad for them, Lord.

Why do I have to one more time?

Why are you afraid?

Ah, okay.

Thick skull takes time to get in.

Well, the reason I'm afraid is because I love my kids and I I want to protect them.

And and I want to know how I can parent them well so that they avoid these pitfalls.

Because I don't know how they'll handle that, I don't know how I'll handle that.

So I I really would love to be able to control them.

I'd really love to be able to control the future.

You know, if I'm honest, I don't want to trust you.

And so slowly and gently, the Lord was telling me, showing me that I was praying, I was going to the right source, but I was looking for earthly wisdom.

I was looking for the trick, I was looking for the scheme, I was looking for the the uh life hack, the parenting hack to set things up the way I wanted.

And so he began to speak to me about who I was, who I am.

You're my beloved son.

I love you.

I've done everything for you.

I'm with you.

I've promised you to be with you and to provide for you.

And he reminded me of who he is.

He is my heavenly father, who has done all of those things, who sees me and knows me and knows my anxious heart.

And he reminded me that he's my Lord, but he's also their Lord.

And just as he has worked in my life, he is overseeing their lives.

Now, this someone came up and asked me after the first service, so you get the benefit of this clarification.

This doesn't mean everything works out the way we want.

But the Lord was speaking to me as I was asking for a particular type of wisdom, he actually spoke wisdom to me.

It took me three or four times, and I got really angry.

But what he was saying is, you don't parent very well out of fear.

And you grasping for control is not what's best for them.

Walk with me.

Remember who you are.

Remember who I am.

And you will parent better, not perfectly.

That's the heavenly wisdom I actually needed.

It's not what I wanted.

So when we go to the source, when we pray, when we ask, when we search the scriptures, when we listen for his voice, when we seek wisdom from others, we need to be open to his wisdom.

Because it's often not what we think it's going to be.

He is often working in us to help us to see ourselves more clearly, to see him more clearly, and that actually breeds peace.

If he had given, if I read a parenting book and they say, do steps three through four, and you will get the outcome you want.

Oh man.

I am so anxious.

Because that almost never works, and then I just blame myself.

Amen.

Anyone?

But the Lord says, I am with you, and I am working in you, and I want you to work and walk with me.

Beloved, this is the gospel.

This is what we need.

When we come to the Lord and we ask for wisdom, let us be humble to wait for an answer.

It doesn't mean it's what we want to hear, and it doesn't mean the outcome is what we hope for, but the Lord is good.

The Lord knows us and loves us.

And he invites us to walk in his peace.

That's James' whole point here.

He says in verse 18 Those who walk in peace and sow peace will sow a rich harvest of righteousness.

So, beloved, the Lord is with you.

The Lord loves you if you've put your faith in Christ.

He has given you all things.

Everything in your life is a gift.

So let's go to Him.

Let's humble ourselves and seek the wisdom that is from above.

And he offers us this peace, the peace that Psalm 46 so beautifully speaks about.

It says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

No matter what is happening around us, beloved, we can experience the love and the peace of God.

And as we walk in peace and seek that wisdom and humility, we become a community that invites others into that same relationship and lavish gospel.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Thank you that you love us.

Thank you that you promise to give us wisdom when we ask.

Lord, give us ears to hear.

Give us patience, give us humility.

And Lord, would you sow peace among us so that you will be glorified and others will long to come in and be with us.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.