The Mature Grow In Wisdom — James 3:13-18

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit Nate Holderidge.com for additional Bible teaching for my lead pastor Nate Holderidge. Teaching today is our lead pastor Nate Holderidge.

[00:00:23] Great to be with you, Church. Let's turn to James chapter 3 like Janine just mentioned and get ourselves settled in the word.

[00:00:34] It's great to see you guys again last week. I was up in Petaluma at Pastor Zach Bestings. Church, how many of you guys were here last week to listen to Zach?

[00:00:41] Share the word from Mark chapter 5. That was a great message. A great word we did just a reminder for you a little pulp at swap. So I was up there teaching at his church. I love the message that he gave here was super encouraged by it.

[00:00:56] I was able to share with them something from the book of Exodus that I think was helpful to them in thinking about their next stage as a church

[00:01:05] because they, after many years, of renting a great facility are now owners of a new building that they're remodeling and they'll be moving into this fall.

[00:01:16] So I wanted to talk to them about God's mission, what he's doing on earth and how he's probably using that building to help them in the mission that he is on here on earth.

[00:01:27] So I tried to just encourage them like, I know God isn't giving you a new building so that you can have a sweet coffee shop.

[00:01:33] I know he's not giving you a new building so that you can have more comfortable seats. I know he's not giving you a new building, so you have a nicer kids play zone. You might get all those things, but I know he's not giving you a new building for those reasons, but maybe because he's on a mission and he wants to reach Petaluma.

[00:01:51] So that was the message that I gave to them up there.

[00:01:54] And I really liked the way that it went. I drove up in the morning's act drove down here in the morning. We passed each other on the 101 and I'm hoping that he's willing to do it again, and kind of make it a little bit more of a regular thing, you know, a handful of times each year.

[00:02:11] But if you don't hear me in the next year announcing to you that I'm going up to Petaluma to speak, you know that it didn't go as good for them as it did for us here. It's kind of like going on a date, you know, like I had a good time. Did you have a good time?

[00:02:27] So if I'm not just speaking up there in the next year, you know that it wasn't that great of a message that I shared.

[00:02:35] The next few weeks I just want to keep you guys in the loop on what things will look like. It's summertime. A lot of us are traveling and all of that we're going to do today is be in James we're studying through the book of James together as a church.

[00:02:48] The next Sunday I'm going to be teaching Psalm 22 where we're going to restart our summer Psalms series. So this will be the third summer where we take a little stretch of time and myself and the pastors on our staff. We go through the Psalms.

[00:03:04] So we've gotten all the way up through Psalm 21 now we're in Psalm 22. Then the following week pastor Mike Casey will be in Psalm 23.

[00:03:13] And then I think it's pastor Riley the week after doing Psalm 24 pastor Matt Kaler doing Psalm 25 and then I'll be back doing Psalm 26 before we then pick up the book of James again together in the month of August.

[00:03:29] So that's what the next few weeks will look like and if you've been around it all you know that what this means is that my family and I are getting ready to go to Lake Tahoe and we're going to just relax and chill and I'm going to like I won't be thinking about you guys at all the whole time.

[00:03:46] I'll give like a couple of week prayers like all Lord bless them at home you know but give me good weather today and then.

[00:03:55] Now God really speaks to me during that time it's a time to get recalibrated reset recharge for the year to come and I'm excited about this next year after we're done with the book of James.

[00:04:06] We're going to get into the book of Philippians which I've been pressing into over the last few weeks and I just feel that there is a fresh message for the church at this time in the book of Philippians.

[00:04:19] So I'm looking forward to sharing that with you. I don't want to give you too much of a preview about that one just yet, but I'm excited about getting into that book together as a church and for those of you that are new to the church I just want to continue to remind you that the small groups will be starting up again in September advertised in August we want every single person in this church to be in a life group and so that's a way for you to get fellowship, friendship, connection, and Christ discussing the word together.

[00:04:46] And that'll be coming up this September and yeah I just want to echo the announcement about getting involved in the youth ministry.

[00:04:54] Each week there's about 60 kids there their attendance is you know all kind of all over the place so it probably represents a group of about 100 teenagers and we need help in ministering to these kids so some of you might be called to.

[00:05:08] You know keep up with them and and be there serving them so I'd encourage you to fill out that application. It's a great way if you find yourself like wanting to just continue to prioritize the right things.

[00:05:22] But needing an outlet it's a great way and space to find that so that might be for a few of you. There's a lot of young adults that are serving in that environment and we'd love to see some more get involved with the kids.

[00:05:36] Alright I've got one of my heroes, Bernard Clinghamberg on the platform to read the scripture today to you. Yeah you can celebrate Bernard he's the man.

[00:05:45] Bernard is the guy that holds the technological side of our church together and he is also a great dad to beautiful little girls and he's a real stud so I love this guy.

[00:06:00] And so Bernard's going to read James three verse 13 to 18 just follow along and your bibles are on the screen as he reads. James 3 13 13 13 who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

[00:06:20] But 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 but is earthly, unspeartual demonic.

[00:06:34] For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceful gentle open a reason full of mercy and good fruits impartial and sincere.

[00:06:55] And a harvest of righteousness is sewn in peace by those who make peace. Amen let's pray together Lord thank you for this passage in your word. Please help us as we spend a little time considering it.

[00:07:12] And Lord we pray that the grid by which we build our lives each one of us individually and as a church collectively. Lord we pray that it would trend more and more toward your wisdom and away from false wisdom.

[00:07:32] And so Lord we ask that you do this by the power of your spirit in Jesus name we pray together. Amen.

[00:07:39] Well a few weeks ago I was in my office here at the church and many of you know we're doing a lot of renovations and construction right now you'll probably in the next few weeks and months start seeing a lot of this stuff in this area beginning to be touched and dealt with.

[00:08:00] But in preparation for some of that we had rented a big dumpster where a lot of stuff you know that had been accumulated over the years or demo that had been done was just being thrown into this dumpster and I looked down my office window and I was just kind of daydreaming a little bit and I noticed that on the dumpster there was all of this graffiti.

[00:08:23] So I just started reading the different edifying messages that people had written on the side of this dumpster and one of them in particular caught my eye it was just three words. It just said don't follow rules don't follow rules and I just started expositing that little sentence.

[00:08:48] I was thinking about I thought oh yeah and I thought okay this would be fun. What I should do is I should get my own can of spray paint and I should go out there and I should draw an arrow to that.

[00:09:00] I should go out there and I should attach to it a question including this rule.

[00:09:11] And then I thought oh no no that's not what I want to do. What I want to do is I want to go out there and with my can of spray paint I want to write a thing next to that excitation that says how to succeed in life.

[00:09:26] Collin step one take your advice from people whose big platform is the side of a dumpster. I'm sorry that's just the way my weird brain works it's what was going on for me that day you guys are like man that's what you do during your work.

[00:09:47] But I was thinking about that and I thought you know a lot of times the grids that we use to build our lives are really not much better than side of a dumpster advice.

[00:09:58] You know in James comes along and here he is describing the life of wisdom but the life of maturity.

[00:10:07] He's describing the life of Jesus and he looks out at the churches that existed in his era. He apparently was starting to see fights and dissensions and disunity in their ranks.

[00:10:21] And as he's describing for them the life of maturity comes to this point where he wants to talk to them about wisdom. How you build your life how you build your decision making process how you build your value system.

[00:10:39] And for James it boiled down to two sources of wisdom one being true wisdom from God from heaven spiritual in nature wise and producing great results. And the other form of wisdom producing catastrophe and disunity and bitter envy and self-seeking it's not real wisdom it's false wisdom.

[00:11:05] And by framing it this way it's like James is going back to the book of Proverbs I've already told you before that James so often sounds like the Old Testament book of Proverbs he was a Jewish believer writing to Jewish believers they would have been well steeped in the Old Testament book of Proverbs and in Proverbs chapter nine before you start getting a long list of one sentence two sentence Proverbs.

[00:11:35] There's a chapter in Proverbs nine that describes wisdom as two women. One is the woman named wisdom the other is the woman named folly and both of these women are crying out to everyone who passes by.

[00:11:52] Come in and die at my table come in and receive my wares and it's like James knows the same thing is still happening today.

[00:12:04] We have a decision to make who are we going to listen to well we follow wisdom or will we follow folly now none of us would I think say oh I I would love to follow foolishness that sounds like a great plan none of us would say that.

[00:12:23] But we need James as help this morning because if we're honest about our lives I mean wouldn't you say it like this we are some mixture of both nearly at every season of our lives.

[00:12:36] There's going to be some areas of our lives where we've heard the wisdom of God we've seen it lived out in the lives of others and we have begun to implement it in our lives were receiving wisdom.

[00:12:49] And then there are bound to be other blind spots or areas in our lives even areas where we have will fully said no I'm not going to go there in obedience to the Lord where we are following folly and the goal the desire of the believer is to increase and following wisdom and decrease and following folly.

[00:13:11] But does James give us any help because like I said none of us would ever say I plan on following foolishness.

[00:13:20] Does James give us any help at identifying where wisdom comes from and identifying where folly comes from and he does in this passage what James will do is when he talks about folly he's going to or false wisdom he's going to tell us the source like where it comes from.

[00:13:42] He's going to tell us the characteristics like some of the things that you're going to see coming from false wisdom and then he tells us the ultimate outcome of false wisdom and then he'll do the same thing for true wisdom he'll tell us the source where it comes from characteristics that surround this good wisdom from God and the ultimate result or outcome of this wisdom.

[00:14:09] So here's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to just spend our time first thinking about the false wisdom and I got to just warn you about this part of the teaching it's not highly encouraging because it's just sounds terrible he's using words like it's demonic in nature it's just like scary I don't want this kind of wisdom.

[00:14:26] And then secondly we're going to spend our time thinking about true wisdom where does it come from what does it produce what's its outcome and then lastly this is what we're going to do we're going to take a look at I've made a list of 10 possible confessions that we can make or commitments we can make as a result of what James shows us in this passage this morning.

[00:14:53] So that's how we'll close out our time together. So let's talk first about this false wisdom. Let's think first about the source like I said where does it come from look at verse 15 he tells us first where it does not come from he says it is not the wisdom that comes down from above.

[00:15:15] It's it's not from God. It's not from our father in heaven you got to remember earlier in the book of James James chapter one James talked about God as the father of lights from whom every good and perfect comes for with whom there is no change or variation or shadow of changing he's consistent he's the same and every good and perfect gift comes from that father of lights and here James is saying hey I need you to know

[00:15:44] there is a version of wisdom that does not come from him where does it come from well he says it is look at verse 15 earthly unspearential

[00:15:58] demonic what does that mean well you think about those three words first of all you think about earthly earthly is in contrast to heavenly or from where God is it is of the things of earth I think this part of false wisdom asks the question how will this affect me right now

[00:16:26] this kind of wisdom on the first day of eternity will be corrected on the first day of eternity it will be a big like oh I built my life off the wrong thing I was pointing in the wrong direction

[00:16:42] of this kind of wisdom makes relational decisions financial decisions faith practice decisions based on the here and now rather than the eternal things of God

[00:16:57] this kind of wisdom as I said will be corrected on the first breath of eternity maybe to give you an example of what I think James might be alluding to when he talks about earthly wisdom

[00:17:09] would be to think of a story from the life of Jesus you guys remember before Jesus went to the cross on the Tuesday night before he was betrayed and eventually died on the cross he gathered in the house

[00:17:22] of a man named Simon who had been a leprecha in the city of Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem and he was there as the guest of honor along with Lazarus whom he had recently raised from

[00:17:34] the dead and Lazarus had two sisters Mary and Martha and as they were eating this meal together Mary took an alibaster flask of fragrant oil that was worth a years worth of wages

[00:17:48] and she sent something that no one else since she sensed that Jesus was nearing his death and so she took that ointment again very valuable but also normally used as a burial spice

[00:18:02] and she broke it and put it on his feet and then on his head and it created a moment in that room I mean you could smell the smell of this fragrant incense it's a serious moment there's a woman

[00:18:19] and a nointing Jesus's feet and head and people began to whisper Judas who used to take care of the money box and thief from it said something like this should have been sold

[00:18:35] and the proceeds given to the poor rather than being wasted like this to him what she was doing that worship that devotion that money that time that energy all that she was throwing into worship and devotion of Jesus it was wasteful

[00:18:55] and Jesus announced to the room with Judas being present what this woman has done for me will be told up her wherever the gospel is preached she is anointed my body for its burial

[00:19:10] it's like what Jesus was doing was a corrective on the earthly wisdom that Judas was operating by he saw things with earthly mathematics and Jesus said no there's actually something way beyond this earth that her action on earth is producing

[00:19:30] whatever this is going to be told of her don't let anyone ever tell you that it is a waste of time to devote yourself to the body of Christ don't let anyone tell you it's a waste of time to be praying don't let anyone tell you that these things are wasteful that is earthly wisdom

[00:19:52] but then James said it's also unspiritual unspiritual wisdom I think asks the question what will please me right now

[00:20:04] unspiritual means that it's physical it's natural it's based on bodily impulses and desires rather than the desires of the spirit of God as he dwells in us and is moving

[00:20:19] in our lives this kind of wisdom is constantly focused on the shallower elements of life rarely touches on the deepest parts of humanity you know I know what it's like to be in friendship and relationship with people you know how you have those connections where

[00:20:40] you kind of catch up on the natural realm you know you talk about hobbies and interests and things that are fun and all of that but then

[00:20:47] you're so looking forward to the moment where it turns into you've done that it's like you've checked the boxes and now you can get into

[00:20:55] true Christian fellowship talking about the things of God the things of the spirit this kind of wisdom according to James is unspiritual in nature

[00:21:08] but is instead focused on the natural or sensual desires maybe an example from the New Testament would be helpful here you guys may have read first

[00:21:19] and second Corinthians at some point and when Paul Dell with the Corinthian church Paul was dealing with a church that had a lot of moral confusion and chaos

[00:21:29] there was actually a man in the church who the whole church was very proud of because they thought that they were expressing grace to this guy

[00:21:39] and apparently this man had stolen his father's wife from his father it was probably his step mother and he had taken her to be his own and the church was

[00:21:52] accepting of this and it seems excited about it as if they were these big extensions of the grace of God towards this unrepentant man

[00:22:03] Paul concluded he said look you need to deal with this this is unspearigial wisdom this man is building his grid for life on the natural realm on his bodily impulses

[00:22:16] and actually had some harsh words to say about this guy he said you've got to commit him to Satan for the destruction of his flesh

[00:22:26] he just can't really have the protection of the body of Christ during this time we're hoping for full restoration but he's got to be dealt with because of his un-spiritual wisdom and then lastly

[00:22:38] James says this wisdom is earthly it is unspearigial and it is demonic that kind of a scary word for us like demonic demonic wisdom now I do think there's a lot of demon originated

[00:22:54] demonic originated darkness originated principalities and powers originated wisdom that people are listening to and following in our modern time

[00:23:05] if you think about what a demon is though the theology I think would say that a demon is a creature who at one point rebelled from the authority of God in order to have their own authority and to try to do their own thing and express their own dominance

[00:23:25] so I think in a sense what you could say is that this version of false wisdom it's it would ask the question how can I be in charge of my life right now

[00:23:36] how can I get my way how can I have my thoughts be the thoughts that govern my life this kind of wisdom rejects God's leadership in their lives

[00:23:49] maybe an example of this would be Samson from the pages of the Old Testament and the book of judges I mean Samson like if you read the kids versions of it and children's Bible

[00:24:00] he was a real stud and a real hero you know he was strong and is long hair and all that stuff you know we're all jealous of Samson you know he was the man

[00:24:08] according to the children's Bible but if you read the Bible Bible it's like okay this guy he failed miserably you know he had a little victory there at the end but he's really as so many of the characters and judges are ever increasingly throughout judges

[00:24:23] an example of what not to do he started out well in covenant with Yahweh partnering with Yahweh

[00:24:32] but it's time went on he didn't want to follow God's way he wanted to do things his own way this led to his demise this is the kind of wisdom that James is talking about a false wisdom

[00:24:45] a folly that we must be conscious of now that's the source of this false wisdom what are the common characteristics the James mentions of this false wisdom he said in verse 14 and 16 that this kind of wisdom leads to bitter jealousy

[00:25:04] and selfish ambition you see here's the thing with James James he thinks of wisdom as something that we do something that we live out so for James when he's thinking about wisdom he's not thinking about it as something that you can disconnect

[00:25:19] from the life the lifestyle the output in the life of the person who's proclaiming it he's saying you got to take a look at the result

[00:25:29] of their wisdom a result of their grid for how to live life and he says here this false wisdom leads to bitter jealousy

[00:25:38] and selfish ambition now I'll remind you James is not writing to the culture at large he's not writing to the world he's not writing to non-believers he's writing to Christians in churches scattered more than likely to the east of Jerusalem

[00:25:55] and as he's writing to these people living in that region these Christians in that region apparently he heard some kind of report of infighting in their gatherings or in their churches disunity among these fellowships and what he's saying to them is listen look at the outcome

[00:26:16] you've got selfish ambition you've got bitter jealousy what that means is that you have built your life on the wrong wisdom the characteristic is showing us how you have built your life

[00:26:32] I think James is thinking of this well beyond just individual believers he's thinking about it as a collective groups of people and when you get a church like this a church built on this earthly unspearageal demonic version of wisdom

[00:26:48] what you end up getting is an environment where people can't grow you get an environment where people can't come to Christ you get an environment that is not conducive to life but is instead harsh and rigid and severe

[00:27:04] churches overrun with this spirit are not a safe bed where new life is cultivated but a barren wasteland that dries up life from within a good example of the kind of environment that this wisdom produces would be the Sahara Desert

[00:27:21] I mean you just look at a place like that yeah there is some life it can exist but it's one of the toughest places on the planet for vegetation to actually grow for crops to actually be produced

[00:27:36] and James said is saying to us this first false kind of wisdom it's a harsh it creates a harsh environment and what is the ultimate outcome will look at verse 16 he said it leads to disorder and every

[00:27:51] vile practice there's an unholyness there's an ungodlyness so to follow this wisdom is like finding a place that has been affected by nuclear fallout and saying this looks like a great place to live okay that's what James is saying he's like look you

[00:28:08] do you don't want to partake of this kind of wisdom I remember years ago we were up in in Lake Tahoe and we were staying on one side of the lake but we gone to the other side of the lake for a meal or something like that

[00:28:22] and at night we were driving back there's just like one road that goes around the whole lake and we were driving back there's this real famous spot called Emerald Bay and we were right near there and traffic had just backed up it's nighttime that's not totally normal

[00:28:37] there's a lot of cars on the road but normally the traffic is flowing all right that time and night but the traffic just stopped you know we're not going anywhere and we're all confused we see some

[00:28:49] we hear some sirens we see the sirens flashing you know the lights flashing up ahead we're kind of wondering like you know what's going on and apparently what it happened was that someone I think like

[00:29:01] I think it started down in Reno but like somebody robbed a seven eleven and then just kept robbing seven elevens all the way up the mountain and then as they were being pursued by the cops they somehow got word out that they had a bomb

[00:29:16] they didn't have a bomb but they said they had a bomb and it like freaked everybody out so there's like bomb squads driving bias and stuff like that we're just like sitting there in line

[00:29:25] waiting like should we go do we go and I was like in the front of the line and this motorcycle this guy turns around he's driving our direction he's going back the other way and he just flips up his

[00:29:37] visor and he slowly like just looks at me and he's like turn around there's a bomb it was like that you just never expected to hear that just there in traffic like I wonder what this traffic

[00:29:47] jams about like bomb was not the number one thing on my at the top of my mind and so you know what I did I got like my car full of people I wasn't sitting there saying to myself like well that's okay

[00:30:01] I like bombs you know no I said oh I'm gonna turn around I'm gonna go the other direction around the lake and it's like James is saying that to us this morning he's like you go this way there's a bomb

[00:30:13] you want to change course and you want to head in the other direction okay so let's think about true wisdom what does that look like well it comes down from above that's its source not from the earth verse 15 verse 17 it comes down from above

[00:30:32] what does that mean though it comes down from above partly we would say well that that's got to be the Bible to some degree we believe that scripture is inspired of God that has been breathed out by God

[00:30:46] and so it's come from above so the word of God but I think we also have to remember that the pinnacle of God's revelation in the word is Jesus Paul said in Colossians that in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

[00:31:07] so what we want to do is we want to get the word but then interpret it through the lens of how Jesus would be living and acting because unfortunately I'm sure a lot of us know people who it feels like they really know the word really well

[00:31:21] and then they kind of take it and they don't act like Jesus in response to it but I think what James is going to show us here is going to say you know it comes from above

[00:31:32] it's the word but it filters through the gospel through Christ and it produces a certain kind of life he says in verse 17 with the characteristics of this wisdom, I say it's a big list

[00:31:44] first peer then piece of old general open a reason full of mercy and good fruits impartial and sincere it's not exactly a replica of the fruit of the spirit the Paul mentioned in Galatians chapter five but it just sounds similar like a similar kind of person is produced

[00:32:04] it's like James has come in at it from the angle of there's the wisdom of God and Paul is coming at it from the angle of and the spirit of God is residing inside of you

[00:32:15] and as you're pumping the wisdom of God into yourself and the spirit of God is activating in your life with that wisdom outcomes this beautiful person we don't have time to look at all eight or ten words that James uses to describe this person

[00:32:34] but I think you could say in summary this is a person with a humble spirit, a peaceful manner and moral up rightness that's what you got here with this person they have a humble spirit there's a peaceful manner about them they're approachable they're gentle

[00:32:55] and there's a moral up rightness there's a holiness in their lives that seems to be what James is describing that helps us understand what the spirit is trying to produce in us as we walk with Jesus in part by part taking of his word

[00:33:11] I had a parent who told me a super cute little story about her children recently and they were talking about how back in the day we used to a lot of Christians would rock these WWJD bracelets you guys remember those?

[00:33:27] It stands for what would Jesus do and I think kind of the idea was like every time I'm getting ready to do something stupid I look at that and I'm like oh no Jesus wouldn't do this you know

[00:33:39] and then it kind of like walks us back or whatever and so she told me this story she said yeah my little kids were talking about it the older sibling had discovered this WWJD thing that it was a thing in the past

[00:33:51] and she asked her younger sibling like do you know what WWJD stands for and her little brother was like kind of new it was something having to do with the Bible or Jesus or God or whatever in the wheels were turning

[00:34:06] and he just comes out with and he's like walk with Jesus dog and I like that one because I'm like yeah that's the way it's supposed to go you walk with Jesus dog then you can do what Jesus did

[00:34:25] that's the right order so I love that let's bring the WWJD bracelets back and just be walk with Jesus dog I love it that's what James is describing he's like you walk with Jesus and this is what's going to come out of your life

[00:34:39] you're going to start looking more like Jesus because that's what this list looks like to me I mean Jesus was pure they found no sin in him Jesus was peaceful I mean they're they're in a storm out in the middle of the sea of Galilee

[00:35:00] Jesus at rest he's sleeping he's at peace Jesus was gentle remember how he treated Peter after Peter failed you know catastrophically he was so gentle and restoring that man Jesus was open to reason that doesn't mean that the disciples had better ideas than Jesus

[00:35:22] and Jesus was like oh that's a great idea I haven't thought of that opened to reason means willing to submit to the idea of another and Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane was very willing to submit Father if it's possible let this come pass from me

[00:35:41] never the last not as I will but as you will he was full of mercy remember when he was on the way to the cross he's literally carrying his cross beam and he begins to weep mourn not for himself but for Jerusalem

[00:35:58] because he knows of the trouble that's going to be fall in the coming generation He's crying out about Jerusalem's destiny Jesus bore good fruits I mean his whole ministry was controlled by incredible deeds of righteousness helping other people he was impartial I mean he each else

[00:36:21] an amazing team but they weren't the elites of the world he was impartial and he was sincere totally without hypocrisy always consistent the same in private as he was in public Jesus is the wisdom that James envisioned and I think what James thinks that the outcome will be

[00:36:43] as found in verse 18 when a person or when a church builds their grid for how to do life based on this wisdom this true wisdom when they do that he says a harvest of righteousness is going to come out of their life

[00:37:01] and come out of their church a harvest of righteousness when you guys love to have like that the people in your life be like you know that's what's got to go on their tombstone I know I would love for the next generation of the Lord Terry

[00:37:17] I'd love the next generation of this church in 20 or 30 years think about us and think of us as having produced a harvest of righteousness like they found the environment that they created because they received the right wisdom it just produced all kinds of fruit here on earth

[00:37:40] communities where this brand of true wisdom is ever present you have the raw materials for spiritual growth and life to flourish if the false wisdom is like the Sahara Desert then this true wisdom of God is like the Nile River every year it has overflows

[00:38:02] it saturates the regions around it with all kinds of minerals so that for thousands of years crops have been growing right there on the edge of the Sahara Desert because of the nutrients and the life and the water that has flowed there

[00:38:16] the environment the soil itself has been changed and the soil itself can be changed in our lives when we receive the right and true wisdom from God so let's wrap it up this morning by thinking about some commitments

[00:38:33] that we might want to make as we consider these two versions of wisdom that James is throwing out here to us remember what I said at the beginning of this teaching about Proverbs chapter 9 how there's the woman wisdom and the woman folly

[00:38:50] and they're both calling out to us here where do you hear the true wisdom of God and where to say, okay, I want that I want to accept that invitation when I was coming up there was a one hit wonder rapper named Young MC

[00:39:10] I don't know if you guys ever remember this guy and any of you guys remember this guy anybody remember Young MC Young MC had like one song that people liked who was called Bustamove and it was I was going to say a great song

[00:39:23] but don't listen to it with your kids on the drive home and it was PG13 for sure but he had like advice for like okay so you and it was like these little stories you know and I remember one was like you go to a wedding

[00:39:36] and there's an attractive girl there you really like her you know and then the punch line was don't just stand there Bustamove you know and he there was just like it was a real marching orders for my generation who's like okay that's thank you for this advice

[00:39:49] my dad didn't tell me about this I will not just stand there I will bust a move I imagine James looking at us this morning is a church and he's like don't just stand there Bustamove okay there's wisdom to pursue

[00:40:01] you got to pursue it so let's think about some commitments that we can make one or two of these might hit for you all these are in my notes online but we'll put them on the screen for you today number one here's a commitment

[00:40:14] I think we can make I will consider how important my wisdom grid is I will consider how important my wisdom grid is you might have come in here this morning and not even really thinking that you've got a wisdom grid that that has been built at all

[00:40:29] but it has been built you're looking at the world you're making your decisions a certain way you've got to realize like that grid whether it's good or bad or somewhere in between it is important for the outcomes in my life

[00:40:45] okay so number one I'll consider how important my wisdom grid is number two I will reconsider my current wisdom grid everyone's so well we got to take a step back and ask ourselves the questions what is important to me? What are my core values?

[00:41:00] What do I think is valuable important and where did I get those ideas from? We just got to just do a little assessment a little analysis a number three I will intentionally not accidentally build my wisdom grid you know for most people the wisdom grid is built accidentally

[00:41:28] you grab a podcast here a book there, a friend that you like they're advice there, a TV show that you like a certain kind of music you're listening to with certain types of lyrics you just kind of collect it's an accidental thing

[00:41:42] but we need to I think be a little more intentional and say I will intentionally build my wisdom grid number four I will think of wisdom as something to apply not theories to believe wisdom according to God's word like I've been saying this morning it's about action

[00:42:02] it leads somewhere in a person's life it isn't just a concept to hold on to but it's something to practice and something to live out number five I will regularly set my mind and heart on God's wisdom you know God has his wisdom

[00:42:21] I've been talking about it in the word I've been talking about it in the life of Jesus but we've got to it takes a little bit of time to set your heart to set your mind on God's wisdom I heard about a little boy in our church

[00:42:33] this last week, not a little boy, young man but recently finished reading through the book of Job some of you aren't impressed by that and it's probably because you haven't read the book of Job it's tough sledding it's not one of the easier passages in God's word

[00:42:53] I'm telling you if a young man can do it we can do it we can set our minds on the things of God we can put our minds in that place I'll regularly set my mind and heart on God's wisdom

[00:43:04] number six I will build more of my wisdom grid off people I know and can observe this is a huge one in our modern time because so many of us we're building our wisdom grid based off people that we can't observe their lives

[00:43:23] they might give us a projection of what their life is about they might share little snapshots of what their life is about but they're all self-selected when you're in a local church, a local congregation and you're just slogging it out year after year

[00:43:37] you just kind of see people you see what the results are of their manner of life and decision making and all of that over periods of time and I, you know I get it there's sources of wisdom that are out there for us but I'm just saying

[00:43:52] I think a good commitment could be for some of us I will build more of my wisdom grid off people I know and can observe number seven I will be cautious when interacting with other wisdom claims I will be cautious when interacting with other wisdom claims

[00:44:12] I think especially in our modern era we have to have a little bit of caution when it comes to wisdom claims that are being thrown at us you guys all know this but we are all a battleground they're fighting for your eyeballs they're fighting for your ears

[00:44:30] and the more they can get your eyes on the more they can get your ears the more advertising they can sell at a higher price and the more money goes in their pockets so we are a battleground for our eyes and for our ears

[00:44:43] and so how can I get your eyes and how can I get your ears more and more smile you up smile you up get you upset get you frustrated and you'll keep coming back for more and more and more and we've got to watch out for that

[00:44:58] we've got to be cautious when interacting with other wisdom claims number eight I will be open to eternal wisdom claims now I get that this is church service right now so like every one of us is for supposed to be saying

[00:45:14] well yes definitely I am open to eternal wisdom claims I'm here you know you said turn to James chapter three and like I didn't even have to look in the table at contents and a new genuinely where that might be in the Bible that I brought

[00:45:29] you know or whatever it might be but the reality is I think sometimes we we we're a little more hesitant to lean into the things of God than we might admit now's reading the other day and Matthew chapter six that little line from Jesus about

[00:45:45] don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where Moth and Russ cannot destroy. And I was just thinking about that concept, like the challenge to my heart in that moment was, and do I really believe this?

[00:46:03] Do I really believe that that is the way to live my life? And so sometimes we'll say to ourselves, like, oh yeah, for sure, I'm into and interested in the way that God would have me live. But we've got to make that commitment.

[00:46:18] I'll be open to eternal wisdom claims. Number nine, I will pursue wisdom claims from pure, meek piece making people. This is straight out of James. This is what he's looking at. He's like, man, if you're receiving wisdom from people that are impure, unholy,

[00:46:36] you're receiving wisdom from people who are not meek, but arrogant, you're receiving wisdom from people who are hostile. He said, that's actually not the right person to be building your wisdom grid off of. You wanna look for people like Jesus who are pure, meek and peace-making.

[00:46:53] And then number 10, I will not encourage jealousy and selfish ambition. This is the end result of the false wisdom. And you know, all of us are gonna be an environment's even just this week where there's a temptation to enter into jealousy and selfish ambition.

[00:47:15] And you know what it's like when you've got that moment of decision, like I could either say something to make the person or people I'm with more jealous, more self-oriented or I could not feed that fire. And that's what I'm getting at with this commitment.

[00:47:33] When I'm in an environment where someone is built there wisdom grid off the wrong things and it's led to selfish ambition and jealousy, I'm not gonna do anything to encourage that. I'm not gonna feed that fire. All right, so those are some of my thoughts.

[00:47:50] Sure, you could make another list of 50 other things that we might make as commitments related to what James has shared with us today. But pray about those. Consider them think about how that might, you know, bear fruit in your own life. Thank you for listening.

[00:48:09] If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monterey, please visit calvary.com. You can also find books, teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at natholderch.com. Thanks again for tuning in. See you next week.