The Wisdom That Shapes Your Life

Well, friends, we continue our trek through the book of James.

If you are a visitor with us and you are not used to the Bible, feel free to use that Black Pew Bible in front of you.

The big numbers are the chapters and the little numbers are the verses.

Lauren read for us all of James chapter three, but we're going to focus our time this morning on verses 13 through 18, focusing on godly wisdom.

Now I would assume that no Christ's follower in this room ever said to themselves, I desire to be a foolish, stupid Christian.

I would assume we all desire to be wise, to be seen as wise by others, and to be convinced in our own hearts that God would characterize us as his wise children.

As we've been seeing through the book of James, James has been giving several tests of faith.

I love the book of James.

However, it's more like a pocketbook version of Proverbs.

He's a Jew himself.

He's very familiar with the Old Testament.

You can see a lot of the language of Proverbs and other books of the Old Testament woven into his exhortation to the Christians he writes to.

But he's been giving us these tests of faith.

So he started out with, you know, how God refines us through our trials, how he uses our suffering to cultivate genuine faith.

He talked about temptation.

He gave the warning of those who are true Christ followers are doers of the word, not just hearers of the word.

He talked about real Christ followers also meet real tangible needs that God providentially places in front of them.

And he then last week we looked at our words, how what comes out of our mouth reveals what's in our hearts, as another test of genuine faith.

And now in verses 13 through 18 in chapter 3, James asked this question What kind of wisdom is actually running your life if you profess to be a Christ follower?

Your consistent actions make your beliefs visible.

Just like James made the argument, your works are what put your faith on display.

So you can't say you have faith, but you don't have works that complement your faith.

Your faith should be made visible through your deeds.

And now James says, and if you claim that you are wise, then that wisdom will be demonstrated in your pattern of life.

Your consistent actions make your beliefs visible.

So here's what I want us to focus on this morning.

Your life reveals whose wisdom you're actually following, either God's or your own.

Your life reveals whose wisdom you're following, either God's or your own.

So before we talk about the kind of wisdom you know we might profess or claim for ourselves, James wants to show us the kind of wisdom that our lives should be actually producing.

So let's let's just focus on verse 13 to start.

And I want you to see this.

You show your wisdom by the way you live.

You show your wisdom by the way you live.

If you look at verse 13, James is addressing a group of Christians.

He's addressing a church, and he's saying, Who among you is wise and understanding?

It's a rhetorical question.

By his good conduct, he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.

Now we don't get all the background contextual uh data as to what's going on in this church James is writing to, but we can make some assumptions.

So we just learned, James gave this warning about hey, don't be quick to be teachers because they are judged with a stricter judgment.

Uh you have to meet certain character qualifications.

And now he's saying, and who among you is wise in understanding?

It makes me think I could be wrong.

I wonder if he's still addressing maybe these teachers who had risen up who saw themselves as wise and wanted people to follow them.

And James is now addressing saying, So who is wise among you?

This is what they should look like.

By their good conduct, they should show that their works are done in gentleness that comes from wisdom.

So I believe he is addressing some tension that had crept into this church body that was causing maybe some division or people being propped up in leadership roles who shouldn't have been.

And James is pastorally exhorting them, saying, Hey, if you truly want to be wise, if you want to be a teacher, you got to watch your words.

Your actions must must match your faith.

And let me help you understand what true wisdom is.

And I love this.

I love how James, I mean, James is he he doesn't pull any punches.

He's like straight to the point.

James is essentially saying, Don't don't tell me you're wise, show me.

Don't prop yourself up as a wise person.

Show me your wisdom in your deeds.

Wisdom in the Bible, friends, is never about someone's IQ.

It's never about your competency.

It's never primarily about how much Bible knowledge and theology you have, your cleverness, your personality.

Wisdom is skillful living.

It's taking the word of God and living in accordance with your knowledge of God's word with the help of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.

Not about how much facts are in your head.

Remember, the demons know more theology than anyone in this room, and yet they're damned to eternal punishment.

Knowledge doesn't save, but saving faith should lead to God honoring knowledge.

Before we go forward, let's just start with a very basic and helpful definition of what is wisdom.

Now, when you're defining words in the Bible, we got to be careful.

You want to look at, well, how's it used contextually?

Because some words might mean something in a different context, in a different book of the Bible.

But for the sake of this sermon, so we're all on the same page, here's a helpful definition that encouraged me.

Wisdom entails perceiving things accurately and then taking action in accordance with those correct perceptions.

Let me just read that again.

From a Christian perspective, wisdom entails perceiving things accurately as God was define them, and then taking action in accordance with those correct perceptions.

So that's why I would say biblical wisdom is skill in godly living.

If you're walking through the world with a Christian worldview, trying to discern how God's word bear on my life in this season, in this particular situation, then you are trying to strive with God's help to have a God-honoring perception of your life so that you respond in accordance with God's will for your life.

A good case study is uh my man King Solomon, is an excellent story in the Old Testament where God essentially gives him a blank check and says, I will grant you your what you desire.

And what does King Solomon ask God?

He asked him for wisdom.

In 1 Kings 3 9, he's he God tells him, Ask me for anything.

Now imagine if God appeared to you in a dream, spoke to you in a dream somehow, and offered you a blank check.

If God said the words to you, ask me anything and I will grant it to you.

What comes to your mind right now?

What would you say?

What's on your top three?

King uh King Solomon did not ask for fame, he did not ask for wealth, he didn't ask for health, he asked God for wisdom to lead God's people so that he could be a faithful king, leading them with righteousness.

When he was offered a blank check, that's how he chose to fill the check.

I don't, I'm gonna be honest, I don't know if that would be my prayer.

If God appeared to me and said, Ask me anything, like anything, Lord?

Solomon asked for wisdom.

And notice how in verse 13, James connects wisdom with a type of fruit, a type of aroma that comes from a wise person's life.

When he says, by his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.

James is saying, God honoring wisdom cultivates in that person a type of gentleness about them.

Not arrogance, not pride, not self-posturing, but gentleness.

Wisdom gives off a flavor, gentleness, steadiness, calmness, righteousness, which means the the with the way I think the world, our culture props up wisdom is polar opposite to the Bible's understanding of wisdom.

Wisdom shouldn't make somebody harsh, it should make them humble.

Wisdom shouldn't make somebody prideful and self-righteous, it should make them loving and kind and merciful.

Just to give some, you know, because again, James is writing to a church, he's he's giving them warnings on false wisdom and God-honoring wisdom because these are things that do creep into the life of local churches because we are all flawed, broken sinners in need of God's grace.

So think of some ways where we can be unwise, or or rather to be uh God have God-honoring wisdom.

So the wise person, for example, when I'm thinking about this picture he's given of gentleness, wisdom-producing gentleness, the wise person is the one who often listens before speaking.

Not perfectly, but more consistently, they're they're the type of person you desire to speak to because you know you will be heard and encouraged.

A wise God on God or someone who has God-honoring wisdom is the type who doesn't escalate conflict, but rather they seek God's help to de-escalate conflict in the life of a church.

They're the type who serve quietly without demanding attention.

They're the ones who correct others with tenderness, not with harshness and self-righteousness.

They're the ones who can disagree with someone without becoming disagreeable because their demeanor is gentleness because of the wisdom of God.

Think of wisdom, friends, as a compass.

Now, I'm not an outdoors guy, but I use Google Maps often.

You can hike, you can go on a trail, and you can be confident that I know what I'm doing, I know where I'm going, I know I'm going north.

But what's really going to tell you if you're on the right path is where that compass needle is pointing, isn't it?

Just like I could say, yeah, I know how to get to this part of Greensboro, and I ignore my GPS and I'm just going off of, like, yeah, I'm I know what I'm doing, and then I end up in rally, right?

No, wisdom is a spiritual compass which guides us towards Christ and his word.

Because, friends, your life is always pointing somewhere, isn't it?

You're heading in some trajectory, and it's either in the trajectory of holiness or a trajectory of brokenness and sin.

So here's a hard question for all of us this morning.

Are you claiming wisdom that your life isn't showing?

Think about James's warning, right?

Be doers of the word, not hearers only.

How many churches are filled with genuinely born-again Christians who profess verbally the name of Christ, but the trajectory of their life doesn't always match up.

Now, again, we're not talking about perfection.

As a Christian, faithfulness is the goal.

We are all broken, we all struggle, but there is this disconnect if we say, I trust in the wisdom of God, and yet the actions you demonstrate consistently in your life show you don't trust God in his word and his gospel, then something is off.

So if your life reveals what is at the root of your wisdom, James now presses in a little bit deeper.

He asks, What if the wisdom running your life isn't from God at all?

If that's where you find yourself, then what is the result?

Which brings me to verses 14 through 16.

Friends, you must renounce the false wisdom that pretends to be wise but secretly destroys your life.

You must renounce the false wisdom that pretends to be wise, but secretly destroys your life.

Let's pick up at verse 14.

James says, 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 in every evil practice.

James starts where Jesus always starts, with the heart, not behavior.

James gets at the heart.

Note I love the word pictures here, the language he uses, bitter envy.

Bitter envy.

That is, or rather, I would define that as the inward resentment that grows when someone else gets what you want.

When people around you, whether it's church life, family life, the workplace, when someone else receives a blessing from the Lord and your gut response is to sulk because it didn't benefit you, that can grow into this inward resentment that grows and leads into ungodly ways of thinking, ungodly ways of speaking and behaving and relating to other people.

Let me just give some real life examples.

Let's say a coworker gets promoted and you immediately feel irritation instead of rejoicing with that person for what they received.

Or maybe someone's marriage seems stronger than yours, and instead of rejoicing of God's kindness and evidence of grace in that marriage, you sulk and become spiritually depressed because you're measuring your marriage in comparison to them.

Or maybe you have a friend and you see their spiritual growth, and their growth exposes maybe some laziness in your own walk with the Lord, and that leads you to resent that person who's doing nothing wrong.

They're just following Jesus, but you realize that convicts you because you're you're kind of slacking, and now you have this bitter envy growing inside of you.

Friends, bitter envy is like acid in our hearts because it first corrodes our hearts and then everything around us that we touch, doesn't it?

You all, I'm sure, have heard that phrase bitterness is like drinking poison in hopes that the other person dies.

This is what can happen when we let this type of bitter envy grow.

But James also gives this warning against selfish ambition.

Now, I'm glad he added that qualifier, selfish ambition.

I'll talk about godly ambition in a second, but James is talking about a sinful type of ambition, which is selfish.

This is ego dressed up as diligence.

Now, this can be a hard one for us because we're Western Americans.

We're raised in a culture where it's like, no, selfish ambition is like how you achieve the American dream.

Like attain everything your heart desires, even at the expense of others, so that you are prosperous, is what we're taught.

But this can trip us up because selfish ambition, as I said, is ego dressed up as diligence.

So, for example, those who might be serving in church but doing so only because they want to be noticed.

That's selfish ambition.

It's not because I want to glorify God and edify his people.

I want to serve in this role and this way because other people will think I am wise or godly.

Or maybe those who get caught up in pressuring their family to behave and look a certain way so that they look good as a mom or a dad to their friends and family.

Oh, oh, make sure you do this or say this so that people think that I'm a great mother, I'm a great dad.

That's selfish ambition.

Or maybe someone who is demanding leadership and influence but without wanting the accountability that comes with it.

I want to be seen as a leader, but I don't want to actually like care for people or have other people hold me accountable to my role as a leader in the way that I serve.

These are all just typical ways that selfish ambition could creep up in our lives.

And this is a hard one because think about even our political system here in America.

I mean, the whole system is literally designed around sinful, selfish ambition.

Say whatever you need to say to get in whatever role you want to get in.

If if you hold this view and it won't help you excel, well then just change your view so that way you can keep climbing the ladder.

Selfish ambition is held up in our culture as a virtue, but yet James says that is the type of wisdom that is earthly unspiritual and demonic.

So keep that in friend, uh keep that in mind, friends.

Never get fall into the danger of compartmentalizing your faith, where you say, I follow and I love Jesus and his gospel, but once I clock into work, or once I'm over here in this sphere of my life, all this Bible stuff goes away.

And no, selfish ambition is okay because it's going to increase my paycheck, or it's going to help me in society or in my family.

It's like, no, your faith shapes every aspect.

I mean, that is the first three chapters of James, that's essentially what he is giving us a test of genuine faith.

He doesn't say this is only when you walk through the sanctuary doors at your church.

He's saying if you profess the name of Christ, you speak a certain way, you acknowledge a certain set of wisdom, which then shapes how you actually live everywhere you find yourself.

So selfish ambition is demonic, unspiritual, and evil.

But when he says here, um, he gives this warning that you know when you do this, you are boasting and denying, you gotta pay attention to the wording, the truth.

He's saying, hey, selfish ambition is not about God's kingdom, it's about building your own.

And as you're seeking to build your own kingdom, you are boasting in yourself and denying the truth.

Now, what does he mean by the truth?

He means the gospel.

He means the gospel.

When you live from a heart posture of envy, pride, comparison, and self-promotion, James is saying you are living the opposite of the gospel of grace that you might profess.

So do not deny the truth, the gospel, the content that saves us, the content of theology we believe to be saved.

Don't deny it in your sinful boasting by living opposite of the gospel.

Just think about selfish ambition as we know it, and then think about the gospel and how they correlate.

They don't.

Because in the gospel, we learn that Christ humbled himself.

In the gospel, we learn that Christ emptied himself.

He became poor so that we could become rich by his sacrifice.

We learn in the gospel that Christ made himself nothing, even though he was the creator and sustainer of the entire universe and everything was made for his glory.

So in Christ, in the gospel, we learn Christ does everything for others to exalt the glory of his father, but earthly wisdom says, make something of yourself.

That is the danger of selfish ambition and envy.

And when envy and pride are ruling desires in your hearts, you're functionally denying the gospel you claim to believe.

Now, none of us goes a bed and wakes up the next morning and our hearts are just dominated by sinful pride and selfish ambition.

It's that's why I like using the phrase of ruling desire.

So imagine the Christian life typically is Jesus sits on the throne of your heart.

But there's things, even good things that the Bible says are good, that can subtly start climbing the staircase of your heart.

And if left unchecked, they usurp Christ off the throne of your heart.

And now that thing, whether it's pride, whether it's ambition, replaces Jesus.

And now your Christian life is determined by as long as I get this thing I want, I feel whole, I feel loved and complete.

And now you're no longer finding your identity in Jesus, you're finding your identity in whatever has replaced Jesus on the throne of your heart.

So when envy and pride rule your heart, you are living as a functional atheist.

You're denying the gospel you claim to believe.

But let's talk about so you know, in those verses, he's he's giving these warnings of these uh ungodly forms of wisdom in verse 14.

But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, notice he doesn't focus on their actions or behavior, he goes to the heart.

Don't boast and deny the truth.

Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

For where there is envy and selfish ambition, here's the guarantee, here's the promise, there is disorder in every evil practice.

Whether that's your home, whether that's your church, if you let these patterns cultivate in your heart and grow, you are guaranteed disorder and chaos all around you.

Listen to what false wisdom produces.

James does not mince words for us.

He says, This wisdom that he is describing is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic, and the outcome is absolute destruction all around you, because false wisdom is like using rotten lumber to rot to develop your house.

It might look good in the beginning externally, but at some point it is going to rot away and collapse and destroy everything.

It may look stable for a moment, but the whole structure will eventually collapse.

This is what James is warning against.

And this is listen, I don't care how healthy a church is, I don't care how sound theologians are.

A church is all it takes is for a handful of individuals to give over to a heart posture of selfish ambition and pride and bitterness and envy, and that church will lose its testimony for Christ eventually.

If that sin goes unchecked, if there are not saints who love each other enough to move towards one another to help restore each other and check sin and temptation.

This is why James is addressing this in these group of Christians.

But find encouragement.

If James is writing to a group of Christians addressing these types of sins because it was among their people, then we're in good company.

We have not arrived, we are not perfect, and we need that need the same counsel from the Lord as well.

But James doesn't leave us stuck in the rubble.

He lifts our eyes to what true wisdom is, and he encourages us to find wisdom by looking to the heart of God Himself.

And this is where we'll spend the most of our time in verses 17 through 18.

I want us to focus on this.

You must embrace the true wisdom that reflects God's own heart.

You must ref yeah, I'm sorry, you must embrace the true wisdom that reflects God's own heart.

Look down at verse 17.

Verse 17 of chapter 3.

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.

So James now paints one of the most breathtaking portraits in the New Testament.

The wisdom that is from above, let's just briefly walk through each of these.

Number one, the wisdom from above is pure, which means it has no hidden agenda.

It is a genuine wisdom.

It is pure.

Second, it is peace-loving.

Who does not love peace?

It loves peace, which means it's not addicted to drama.

One of my favorite New Testament passages in 1 Thessalonians 4.11, when Paul says, seek to lead a quiet life and mind your own business.

Amen.

Think about that.

How much more holy would we all be if we just learn to mind our own business?

To be lovers of peace.

Now, this is, let's be honest, this is a hard one.

This is why gossip is a problem in churches.

This is why reality TV shows are some of the most popular things to watch, because we are all preoccupied with other people's business.

Why do we scroll on Instagram?

Why do we why are we on Facebook and all these things?

Because we love other people's lives, we love drama sometimes, and we have to be careful to be peace-loving saints.

He also says that God's wisdom that's from above is gentle.

Gentle.

Jesus is the greatest example.

Jesus was meek, he was humble.

Now, meekness doesn't mean he was a punk.

Meekness doesn't mean he just let people trample over him.

Meekness is power under control.

Think about that.

I love how Charles Spurson once gave an illustration of God's word, where he says, you know, you don't need to defend the Bible because the Bible, God's word, is like a lion.

You don't defend a lion, you just open a cage and let it go.

That was Jesus.

Jesus, as he hung on the cross with a single word, could have destroyed everyone.

So don't think he was powerless.

No, that's that's why that's what makes Jesus so transcendent, friends, because he was one with power under control.

He chose to voluntarily succumb to great injustice and wickedness and evil to accomplish the salvation of many.

That is meekness.

Fourth, it is open to reason.

Ask yourself, Lord, am I a teachable person?

Or am I stubborn?

Or am I more often teachable than I am stubborn?

He also says it is full of mercy, which means those who have wisdom from God are the type of people who are ready to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven them.

Unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment has no place in the heart of a Christian because it is opposite of the gospel.

He says, wisdom from above produces good fruits, which means your life is bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit and nourishing others who are around you as well.

He also talks about it's impartial.

I'm giving just various definitions of God's wisdom.

It's impartial.

We learned that a few weeks ago, which means God's wisdom is never tribalistic.

It's never showing favoritism, but it is impartial and fair.

It is also sincere, which means there's no hypocrisy.

It doesn't demonstrate wisdom, quote unquote, for the sake of posturing.

Now, why is this so important?

When why is this wisdom I'm describing so beautiful?

Well, friends, because it looks a lot like God.

It looks a lot like God.

Job 12, 13 says, Wisdom and strength belong to God, counsel and understanding are his.

Think about this.

God does not acquire wisdom, he is wisdom.

God doesn't do things that are wise, he is wise.

He's the very embodiment of these things.

Even those of us who might be considered wise by you know our peers, well, that godly wisdom is pointing back to the source, the originator of all wisdom, which is the Lord.

It does not originate with us.

Uh turning your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, if you have a pew Bible, that's page uh 1011.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Page 1011, but 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

I love how Paul describes the wisdom of God as we find it in our salvation.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 18 to 25.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Paul says this for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.

Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the teacher of the law?

Where is the debater of this age?

Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish?

For since in God's wisdom the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.

For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

Yet to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Praise God.

Now, Paul is using wordplay, guys.

He's he's not saying that God actually has foolishness about him, that's impossible.

He's not saying that God uh is uh can display weakness, he's he's using a picture, he's saying, even if it were possible for God to be foolish or ignorant, even his ignorance would be far wiser than earthly wisdom.

Even if God could have weakness in him, his weakness pales in comparison to the weakness of man.

That's what he's he's saying.

But praise be to God, listen to this, friends.

Whether you're a child here this morning, whether you're a brand new believer and you don't know much Bible and theology, if you know the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to God's word, you are far wiser than any PhD at some prestigious university who does not believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because all that knowledge, all that earthly wisdom cannot save their souls.

And if they don't have the Holy Spirit, let's go back to that definition of wisdom, right?

So wisdom is perceiving things accurately and then taking action in accordance with those correct perceptions.

So if that is someone who is not in Christ, who doesn't have God's spirit, who isn't submitted to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, they are not perceiving the world around them accurately according to God.

Therefore, they're not living in accordance with an accurate perception of the world around them as God would have them to.

But if you have God's spirit, if you have God's word, then you can see the world accurately and live in accordance with God's will.

That, friends, is true wisdom.

Not how many degrees go behind your name, not what school you went to or where you work, but do you know God in his heart?

Do you reverence the Lord?

Are you in awe of him and live in light of his holy character?

He is the very embodiment of wisdom.

Think of true wisdom or God honoring wisdom as a prism.

So when God's word, when God's light, so to speak, shines through our lives, his character refracts in every direction from us.

It's like people see mercy over here, love and grace over here, and wisdom.

It's we have the privilege of refracting the glory of the Lord in how we lead our lives, which is deeply humbling.

I mean, I love in Ephesians 3 how Paul describes God's wisdom as multifaceted.

He says, this is so that God's multifaceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens.

That's how dope God's wisdom is.

It's not like you study God's wisdom and you master it like in this box over here.

He's like, no, no, no, God's wisdom is multifaceted.

There are all sorts of aspects of the wisdom of God that you can study that will just make you bow in humility and worship him.

But notice what he says in Ephesians 3.10.

This is so that God's multifaceted wisdom may now be made known through who?

Through the church, to who?

To the rulers and authorities in the heavens.

Think about that.

Paul says God reveals his multifaceted wisdom through his bride, the church.

To angels, to demons, to the authorities.

God puts his wisdom on display through you if you're a Christ follower.

Think about that.

Again, God works through ordinary means to do extraordinary things for his glory.

God has designed to display his wisdom to the cosmos by working through fallen, broken, redeemed saints like you and me.

Which means, friends, your daily choices and how you lead your life in displaying gentleness, peace, mercy have cosmic significance.

So there is no Christian who should ever be convinced my life is meaningless.

I'm not doing much for the Lord.

All I do is change diapers and raise kids in discipline.

All I do is go to work.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Wherever you find yourself, friend, you are being used by God as an instrument to put on full display the manifold wisdom of God.

When people interact with you, to a degree, they get to see God.

Now the question is, are you convinced of that?

And are you seeking God's help to display that wisdom that James is giving us this morning?

And James ends with a promise in verse 18.

The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

Okay, James is stepping on our toes now.

Notice the last two words of verse 18.

What does it say?

Cultivate peace.

We all know what that word means, cultivate.

Doesn't mean you just sit on your hands and Lord, I pray that you reconcile me to that brother or sister I had conflict with.

Nope.

He says the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace, which is again wisdom displayed in actions.

To be peaceable, you have to initiate reconciliation and peacemaking, don't you?

Isn't that what God did to us?

Didn't God demonstrate to us what it means to be peaceable by reconciling us to himself by taking the first initiative to move towards us, even when we were his enemies and deserved his wrath and justice, and yet he initiated reconciliation, extended peace, and we repented and trusted in Christ, and he forgave us.

He cultivated, he sowed the fruit of righteousness and peace by cultivating peace.

And we are like God when we go and do likewise, which is why we should never, listen to me, we should never be comfortable as professing Christians, especially if you're a member of this church, with having a conflict with another child of God and just being content with, we'll just leave it unresolved.

I'm not gonna, it's getting quiet this morning.

We're not gonna go move towards that person.

I'm not gonna extend forgiveness.

I don't want to show mercy.

No, we follow the example of our Heavenly Father.

Just to motivate us a little bit, think of wisdom as turning your life into a garden where peace is planted and as a result, righteousness is grown.

We want to be like our Father, imitating him.

Well, before we can do that, let's just spend a little bit of time looking at the wisdom of God, how we can learn to be wise by considering who God is.

Because before James tells you what wisdom should look like in your life, the Bible wants you to see the sheer beauty of who God is in his wisdom.

Because Scripture never describes God as becoming wise, does it?

He simply is wise.

His wisdom is so perfect, so complete, so unhindered by time or limitation that he sees the end from the beginning and every detail in between without ever learning a thing.

God knows everything at once.

He never has to study, he doesn't have to go to school, he doesn't have to meditate.

God's wisdom is never surprised, it's never reactive, he's never scrambling.

He never, think about this, he never reconsiders a decision.

He never revises his plan.

He never corrects himself.

He never has to come to one of us and say, you know what, I'm sorry, I got that wrong.

I'll do better next time.

His decisions are always right on the first try because his knowledge is unbounded and his judgments are flawless.

He knows not only what this is what trips me up, he doesn't just know what should happen or what will happen, but he knows what could have happened.

So, like the multiverse is real with the Lord.

Like he knows if you didn't take that job or if you moved here or if you did that thing, this would have happened and this would have happened.

We don't know that knowledge.

That's God's secret knowledge, his secret will, right?

But he not only knows what will happen, but what could have happened and what should happen all with equal clarity.

That's the wisdom of God.

But God's wisdom weaves together billions of human decisions spanning thousands of years of history and every unseen spiritual reality into a single, single sovereign tapestry that glorifies him and accomplishes his purposes.

So God's wisdom is wedded to God's sovereignty and God's love and God's holiness.

Remember what we talked about last week?

God is not 25% holy, 25% loving.

No, he embodies all these attributes and they are all interconnected in all that he does.

Which means, friends, he is sovereignly using his wisdom to execute his divine plan of providence for the entire cosmos.

So, how should that encourage us?

If that's true, then even when your life feels chaotic and you have no idea what next month, next week will hold, you can rely on the fact that God's wisdom is steady, it is serene, and it is sovereign, and he is not in heaven panicking.

Like God doesn't have panic attacks where he's like, oh my gosh, I didn't know you were gonna do that.

Now I gotta scramble, I gotta pull out my my divine whiteboard and try to create an audible here to fix what you're doing.

And here's the breathtaking part the God whose wisdom spans the galaxies also applies that wisdom tenderly and generously to you individually.

Like God doesn't love like Christians, like just vaguely, generally, like a group of people.

Like he loves you individually as a Christ follower.

He knows you by name, he cares for you with all those divine attributes I'm describing.

He wields all his goodness in your personal favor.

He knows how to shepherd your life better than you know how to explain it.

He knows what to give, what to withhold, what to allow, and what to prevent.

Nothing in your life, friend, is random.

There is no such thing as randomness for a Christian if you believe in the sovereignty and providence of God, which also means nothing is wasted, nothing is accidental.

Everything passes through the filter of your father's divine wisdom and sovereignty.

And this infinitely wise God invites you to ask him for wisdom.

Just sit on that for a second.

The God who is the embodiment of wisdom, the one who just spoke and everything we know came into existence, he says, if you desire wisdom, ask me, and I will give generously.

He just gives us one caveat.

When you come to me and you ask, don't doubt.

Just don't doubt.

Believe that he is good, that he is generous, and he desires to grant you wisdom.

Now, where we get caught up is we think, Well, God, wisdom is you telling me what I want, what I want you to tell me, or what I want you to do according to my plan for my life.

It's like, well, guys, you're not God.

He is.

And that's why God can say, but when you come to me, don't doubt.

Because sometimes if things don't go our way, what's the first thing we do in our hearts?

We start doubting God.

We start questioning his goodness.

Well, if you're if you're good, God, why would you allow this very hard thing to come into my life?

But if we understand the character of God and his sovereignty and his providence and his love and his wisdom, we should, our response should be, Well, God, if this is happening, you knew it before it even came about.

I know you're a good God, and everything you do is governed by your goodness, and you love me enough to send your son to die on my behalf.

Therefore, help me to grow wiser like you as a result of going through this, and help me to trust you in the midst of it and to learn more about your heart and to learn more about myself.

Friends, once you glimpse the beauty of God's wisdom, earthly wisdom, earthly wisdom doesn't just look small, it looks, it looks idiotic.

When you compare the world's wisdom to God's, you realize this isn't even a conversation.

God is the embodiment of true wisdom.

He knows how to shepherd us, he knows how to care for us tenderly and to mold us more into the image of his son.

So, on that note, practically, how can we grow in godly wisdom?

It's one thing to stand up here and say, you know, the earthly wisdom is bad, pursue godly wisdom.

Okay, Cam, how do I do that?

What does that look like?

Let me give a few exhortations.

But before I do, these are not techniques.

These aren't a to-do list to walk out of the church sanctuary and say, I'm gonna start doing A, B, and C and I'm gonna be wiser by Tuesday, kind of a thing.

This is more of a heart posture you should cultivate with the Spirit's help before the Lord.

But let me give six practical tips on how you could cultivate a heart posture of godly wisdom.

Number one, the most fundamental, strive to fear the Lord.

Strive to fear the Lord.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.

When I say that, when the Bible says that, it's not referring to cowering in a corner as if you're scared of God.

No, it's a level of reverence and awe of God, which then leads you to live a certain way out of respect for Him.

Some of you are familiar with that Latin phrase corum dial, meaning before the gaze of God.

God is always watching, and so you live like that's true.

That is that awe, that reverence, uh Proverbs 1 and Proverbs 9 is talking about when it says fearing the Lord.

We act like wisdom is just being clever or being deep and esoteric, but the Bible starts it off with fearing the Lord, standing in humble awe before him, so you submit to his ways instead of your own.

Number two, ask God for wisdom daily, because he promises to give it generously.

And trust in his timing and the means by which he reveals his wisdom to you, not according to your plan, but ask God.

Doesn't that sound so basic?

Like if you want to be wise, ask God to give you wisdom.

He's not stingy, he's not holding back, he desires to bless his children generously.

Number three, walk closely with Jesus, because the closer you get to Christ, the more your instincts become like his.

The more you try to walk with Christ and be an imitator of God, then the more you think God's thoughts after him and live in accordance with his will.

Fourth, walk with wise believers, because wisdom, God honoring wisdom, is contagious.

Everyone in this room knows someone who's followed Christ maybe longer than you, is a little more mature in their faith than you, and you've been around them and you just leave so encouraged.

It's like, man, that brother, that sister just seems so wise in the Lord.

Like they've they've learned so much life experience as they've walked with Jesus for X amount of years.

Surround yourself with people like that and strive to be that person yourself.

Don't get caught up in the, well, I just gotta find my Paul, I gotta find my older sister who disciples me, kind of a thing.

And then you're constantly just looking for a mentor and just completely detaching yourself from the idea, but I'm also supposed to be that for other saints as well.

You want to be like Paul, able to say, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

So surround yourself with wise believers, especially friends, in a day and age where even a lot of Christians, unfortunately, are adopting a lot of secular wisdom that is affecting their Christianity.

As a biblical counselor, I just look at a lot of psychology and other things that are snatching up Christians, teaching them things that are contrary to the Bible, but because it sounds fancy and it's in the category of mental health, they detach from the scriptures and go with the wisdom of the world.

So surround yourself with wise believers.

Number five, repent quickly when earthly wisdom shows in your heart.

Catch pride early, pull comparison up by its roots.

When the Spirit reveals to you areas of earthly wisdom, acknowledge it and repent.

Number six, practice wisdom in small moments.

Remember, in the Bible, wisdom is skillful living in accordance with God's word.

Small decisions shape big direction.

God always cares about your heart, not just your habits.

So what I'm talking about right now is not behavior modification.

I'm talking about a heart posture that demonstrates itself in these six ways.

So with two types of wisdom on the table that James has given us here: one destructive, one demonic, unspiritual and evil, and one beautiful and God-honoring, James now brings us to a crossroads.

And here's the question James leaves us with.

And what fruit is your life actually producing?

Not what wisdom you claim, not what wisdom do you adore or admire, but what wisdom are you living out?

This is why I know this is a hard saying.

But friends, if you're a Christ Father, we all just need to accept suffering is a gift from the Lord.

It doesn't mean you have to feel warm and fuzzy as you go through it, but suffering truly is a gift of the Lord because it is a refining fire to show you many things about yourself and the Lord.

Suffering helps you to see, am I wise?

Because think about it, it's easy to look wise and holy and godly when things are going pretty well for you.

You're not being tempted with sin.

No one's sinning against you this season.

And so it's easy to just be cheerful, to sing all our nice Christian songs and to fellowship with each other.

But when you hear someone has gossiped about you, or when someone has sinned against you, or you're going through a health crisis or whatever it may be, that's when you get to see, do I really believe that God is good and faithful?

Do I really trust that God is sovereign and He's governing everything in my life for his eternal glory and my spiritual good, even if it inflicts temporal physical pain to my life?

That is when we get to see, is wisdom as I see it in scripture, is this something I claim to have?

Or is it just something I admire because I see it in the Bible and I agree with it?

Or is it both of those things?

But then when the test comes, I also see it practically lived out in the decisions I make and the thoughts I entertain as I go through difficulty.

So again, if you're a Christ follower, we just, friends, we just need to go ahead and accept.

Just think about church history.

The church was birthed through persecution.

That's why we can celebrate Jesus here in Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, because of persecution that has taken the lives of many faithful saints who have brought the gospel to the nations.

Suffering is a part of the Christian life.

And your life is preaching a sermon of sorts every single day.

Your wisdom is showing and how you respond to your kids when they're disobedient, when your wife, your husband provokes you, when someone at work doesn't take care of the responsibilities and now puts more work on you, when extended family is causing chaos or sinning against you or saying hurtful things, all of our responses in those moments are again going back to us having that privilege of demonstrating the multifaceted wisdom of God to the surrounding world.

That's when it happens, friends.

In those ordinary moments of life, not just the big moments.

You know, if you're a sports fan, we all love watching the highlights of people, you know, hitting the game winning shot and all that.

But there's no highlight reels of people just in the gym just practicing the fundamental stuff, right?

That's the Christian life.

It's in the fundamentals, seeking to be faithful, knowing that every day we are displaying the wisdom of God and the fruit that we exude never lies.

Now, let me end with this.

Here's the hope.

The God who needs no counselor, who learns nothing, offers wisdom freely to humble, imperfect, struggling believers who ask him.

The cross is the ultimate proof that God gives his wisdom to sinners because in Christ's death and resurrection, he accomplished what our own wisdom never could, which is our own salvation.

So when we read text like this, we should be humbled and realize I am I am far more foolish than I ever imagined.

But I also serve a God and Father who is the very embodiment of wisdom, who tells me, son or daughter, if you desire wisdom, just ask.

Just ask.

And he grants generously and cheerfully because he loves us.

Amen.

Let's pray.