True Wisdom - James Chapter 3 First B Jackson 2022-04-26 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Songs are evidence. Such an awesome God in Christ alone. And then we're gonna end with I want to know you. Sound good? Alright. We do. Yes. Mandolin. Play a little. Alright. Alright. I think we're good. Great. Hey, friends. How are you? Thank you. Is anyone tired? Alright. Alright. Alright. Hey. Can we give the Galbraiths, and Dave and the girls, thank you so much for a fantastic, fantastic dinner. And I I just wanna say this. We're in the book of James on Monday nights. It's been conversation style. Don't let that freak you out or anything. I just, just keep it in mind at the end, there's a little time to share, a little testimony, something that that really popped from the word, something to encourage the people in this room and those watching. But you don't have to, but we get to. But before we get there, there's a couple of announcements too. Bet you, Carl. Do you have the little slideshow clicker in your pocket by any chance or something? Is it touching something? I don't. Is it just, is it just going wild on me? It's going wild. There we go. That's alright. That's exciting. So as you can see, all the announcements are very, very fast tonight for no reason whatsoever. We're just gonna shut that down and stuff that back up again, shall we? Totally fine for a couple hours. So everybody should know we have a pancake... Or a French toast breakfast coming up on May 15 to raise money for Kaylee McClanahan. She's going on a trip to Senegal, and she needs to raise some money. It's a two year missions trip, gospel oriented. It's it's really an extraordinary thing, and I highly recommend everybody help take part in it. And woah ho. The slides are still going bananas. That's okay. We'll try that again some other time. Maybe. That's okay. No. The whole program's freaking out. That's nice. That's really... Anybody else want a job? Anybody else want a job? We're gonna pray for Paco and DD too. That's another thing we've got on our hearts coming up. And, Carl, can we just have a second? Of course. Yeah. Talk amongst yourself. We'll we'll figure out our text glitches and our tech glitch, and and then we'll bring you back in. Well, it looks like there's something clicking. Alright. See, that was fast. You guys were worried. Alright. So we need people to help cook Monday nights. It's real simple. We could order the food for you if you want to. Always. Just sign up on that board in the back or you can contact the church, we'll sign up for you. The IF conference is coming back. This is a rebroadcast of the one that was about a month ago. It's down in Bondurant at heart six... It's Heart to Heart Ranch, May sixth and seventh. You can register at that website or through the link that's on our website on our page at firstjackson.org. And there it is again, firstbjackson.org. You can sign up to get Bible study emails every weekday. They're really fantastic. It's a great way to get to know the people who are writing them because there's a rotating list of people who are working on their way through books of the Bible. And thank you, Brad, for organizing all of our writers. Appreciate it. Yeah. Much. A shock to him too. It's it's really encouraging to get those emails in the morning, read it, and you're like, we got a deep bench here at at First Bee. There's a lot of spiritual maturity. Sometimes I wonder why am I up here? Brad, come on up tonight. No. Just Yeah. Yeah. Surprise. Connect hour. It's also on the Monday nights too. We need people to connect... Do the connect hour between services on Sunday. Here's Kaylee's slide too if anybody wants that information who's online. This Wednesday, there's a prayer vigil in the the sanctuary. One miracle night, it's to pray for all the Muslims who are finishing up Ramadan right now, that God would reveal themselves... Reveal himself to the people out there in the world. So come by, pray with us. It'd be really nice to have as many people as we can in the sanctuary this Wednesday at 07:00. And then on Wednesday mornings, this is ongoing. It's been going on for years. Wednesday morning at 07:30 in in our office, in the church office, we gather together to pray for all of the missionaries, and any prayer concerns you bring with with you, we'll pray with you too. It's it's a really nice way to connect with people around you, find out about all of the missionaries we have. We have, like, 20 missionaries that we support here at First B Jackson. So if you if you wanna come be a part of that, it's open year round. And I think maybe we're ready for a song. Oh, it worked. Hallelujah. Let's do it. Let's stand together and sing. From Luke 12, this is a great verse that... It's just so encouraging. It says, don't be afraid, little flock, Jesus says, for it gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom. Isn't that awesome? All throughout my history. If they're from this one beside me. The winter storms may wait for spring. And every season from where I'm standing. I see the evidence of your Good News all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises in for me, all over my life, all over my life. Help me remember when I'm weak. Fear may come to feel relief. You lead my heart to victory. You've got my strength, and you always will be. I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises and fulfill me all over my life, all over my life. See the cross, the empty grave. See the cross, the empty Where that in season ends, I'm a sail away because of you, oh Jesus. See the cross, the empty grave. All over my life, all over my life. I see your promises in fulfill me, all over my life, all over my life. So why should I fear? And will And I just want to take a second to say thank you for your care. Thank you for your provision. You know what's going on. Every detail of our lives. And there's hard stuff and there's really good stuff, and you hold it all. Lord, would you help us to walk through it with as much grace and dependence on you as we possibly can, yielding to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Hold my every breath mighty, so wonderful. Such an awesome God, so selfish, selfish, so generous, so faithful you are. Nothing comes. Nothing comes close to the Lord. Oh, mighty and nothing as sweet as his love. And mercy, nothing comes close to the Lord. Oh, mighty and nothing as sweet as he's love. And mercy, oh, nothing comes close to the door. Oh, mighty and nothing as sweet as he's the... So selfless, so generous, so faithful you are here. Such an awesome God. So mighty, God, it is so good to be able to sing these attributes because they are so true of you. Holy, wonderful, awesome, selfless, generous, faithful. This is who you are. And so we come before you humbly, God. Not with an agenda, but just asking God, would you reveal things to us that we just didn't expect this evening. And that truly we would seek the wisdom that comes from you, wisdom that's pure and peace loving and gentle, willing to yield to others. Show us in James, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Christ alone. In Christ alone, my hope is round. He's my light, my spring, my song. This cornerstone, this solemn ground, burly the fiercest drowning storm. One had to love what depths of peace when fears are still doing striding seas. My comforter, my all in all. Here in the above of Christ, I stand. Christ in me. From life's first cry, five of prayer. Jesus commends my peace in me. And no power of hell, Christ, I'll stand. Lord, I wanna make that our our prayer that we would stand in your power, in the power of Christ that we would stand. Until you return or call us home, that that's where we'd be. We would remain in you, abide in you. That's just the sweetest place to be. Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment. All right. So I want to share a little picture with you. This painted. This little picture right here was painted by Alyssa Massey. I got a picture of Alyssa right there. She lived here years ago. Does anybody remember Alyssa? Yeah? It's gonna be... Make me a little bit sad because the people that I'm mentioning have moved away. So she lived here. Then she she moved back to California. And Renzi Reno, this guy right here, does anybody remember Renzi? So he commissioned those paintings as a gift for the staff before he moved to Sheridan. And it was kind of a joke and kind of not. So one of his sayings was prove it. Prove it, meaning, show me the evidence. So during Ray's, sermons, Renzi would be back at the sound board. And Ray, you know, Ray would be preaching and and you'd hear Renzi go, prove it. And so it just kinda became a saying around here. And it it reminds me of James this week. And here's what James says. He goes, oops. Sorry. I went went too far. If we are wise and understanding God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life. Prove it. Apply it. Show the evidence for it because that is what wisdom is. It's applied knowledge. Wisdom is applied knowledge. It shows that it knows. That's wisdom. You can know that there is a red light up ahead. You can have a head knowledge of that. But wisdom says, okay, if it's wintertime in Jackson and the roads are icy, what? I should give myself a little extra stopping time. I'm trying to convince my 16 year old son of that right now. So that... But that's wisdom. Right? It knows when and it knows how to apply that knowledge. Like, it's discerning. Right? Or say, there's a buffalo in Yellowstone Park. Right? Knowledge says, that's an incredibly strong and unpredictable animal. If I get in its space, I might get flung. Right? But wisdom, wisdom says, I think I'll I think I'll stay in my car. I think I'll admire that massive animal from my car or not try to put a baby buffalo in my vaccine like a few years ago. Oh, There's a difference though. There's a difference between knowledge and and wisdom. Like, when I watch, anybody watch Jeopardy every once in a while? Right? It's fun. It's it's a fun show. And and I always think, wow, these people are so smart. They're the smartest. Right? But being smart doesn't always equal being wise. It just... It doesn't. You can be smart, intelligent, but still lack wisdom. Right? I I know you're like, right now in your head, you're like, I'm thinking of somebody right now. Please don't let it be me. But it's... It really... It's how we apply that knowledge. That's what makes us wise. Like, giving your... Giving yourself plenty of time to stop, you know, or or just admiring a a a massive beast like a buffalo from your car, not getting out, you know, that kind of stuff. But you get the point. Wisdom knows when and how to apply that knowledge. And tonight, here's what James says, true wisdom comes from God. If we wanna be truly wise, that wisdom, it comes from the Lord. And he makes a very clear distinction between the world's wisdom, just how things work here, and God's wisdom. And it's very different. They're very different. And they produce different results. So specifically, let's say, the world's wisdom produces disorder and evil. That's very direct. Whereas God's wisdom produces a harvest of righteousness. A harvest of righteousness. That sounds so much better than disorder and evil. So... But the idea here is to seek the wisdom that comes from God. And if you walk away with anything, please let it let it be that, to seek the wisdom that comes from the Lord. Proverbs four seven, getting wisdom is the wisest thing that you can do. And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. Man, this is good. This is like setting us up to win right here. The scriptures. So king Solomon started off well as a king. And when God asked him, Solomon, what do you want? Instead of going, just I wanna be powerful. I wanna be super wealthy. He goes, he asked for a wise and discerning heart in administering justice. How's that for a Sunday school answer? Right? I would like a wise heart in administering justice. Like, okay. How many of us would have? I wouldn't. Right? And God was more than pleased to give it. So much so he said, there was never gonna be another king like you because you asked for a wise and discerning heart in administering justice. So that being said, let's look at James three thirteen through 18 on true wisdom that comes from God. It'll be on the screen here and let's see what it says. If you are wise and understanding God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that come from wisdom. But if you're bitterly jealous and there's selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover that... Don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Verse 16, for wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there we will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17, but the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It's full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. That is a good word. I wanna stop there for now, but let's let's pray first and then work our our way through the text here. Lord, you say if anyone lacks wisdom, we should ask and you give it generously without finding fault. And so we do. We ask for that wisdom from above. The wisdom we just read about. The wisdom that is pure and peace loving and gentle, willing to yield to others that doesn't show favoritism and is full of mercy. God, it's by your spirit. And in your name we pray. Amen. So wisdom. I feel like it's not just a a word we throw around a lot. I don't know if you hear a lot. I don't feel like I do. More often, I I I do feel like, well, they're really smart or they're so intelligent or they're so smart. But wisdom, like we said earlier, it's more than intelligence. It has insight. It has skill. It has clarity. Last week, James said, not many of you should be teachers. And in verse 13, it's like he's circling back around and going, alright. If you are wise, if you wanna teach, if you're wise and you understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with humility that comes from wisdom. And I think humility is a key word here in this. And it's defined as meekness or gentle strength. It expresses power with reserve and gentleness. It begins with God's inspiration and finishes by his direction and empowerment. Can I read that again? I I feel like that's that's worth worth repeating. Humility is meekness. It is gentle strength. Strong but gentle at the same time. It expresses power with reserve and gentleness. It begins with God's inspiration and it finishes with his direction and empowerment. I think of Jesus when... Remember when Jesus was arrested in the garden? And he says, don't you realize that I could ask my father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly. But if I did, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen right now? You know, like any time, Jesus could have flexed his muscles. I mean, really though. Wiped wiped him out. And he didn't. But instead, he carried the father's will out and he trusted God's timing in it. And that's humility. It's like when you know you can let somebody have it, but you don't. Gentle strength. I could but I won't. Because what I really want to do is I want God's inspiration to lead this.