Untitled Sermon

Take your Bibles and turn with me to James chapter 3. James should be a Bible, hopefully. We're going to try and get some more in. If you don't have a Bible, take one of those. It's yours. One of the few Bibles. I'm gone. Okay. Love this thing. Anyhow, as I was saying, if you don't have a Bible, please take one from the few. That's yours. I want you in the Word.

I don't want you looking at me when we're reading the Word, if you can help it. I'm not impressive or important. But the Word of God is. And I want you to see it as well as hear it. So James chapter 3. We're looking at two kinds of wisdom. James has started talking to us about a couple weeks ago. In our study, verse 13, he says, Who is wise and understanding among you?

Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy... Envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder in every evil practice.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. And we've been looking at this in the light of the workings of faith. The evidences of the fact that we have indeed been saved will evidence themselves, as James is saying now, through our speech, through the words that we say.

And those will evidence whether or not we are heeding wisdom from this world or wisdom that comes down from heaven, the wisdom of God. And so we're looking at wisdom under three different topics, really, three different areas to identify it. Because I don't know about you, but I want to know that I'm listening to the right thing and following the right wisdom, because we'll look at the consequences today or the outcomes of those. But the three topics we're looking at wisdom under are, first of all, its origin, and secondly, its operation, how it operates, the characteristics of the worship, and thirdly, the outcomes.

Now, we've already looked at the origin, and James mentioned it again as we just read through these verses. There's a wisdom. There are two main wisdoms in the world that we draw from that influence us. One is the wisdom of the world, worldly wisdom. He calls it earthly. He calls it unspiritual, and he calls it of the devil. Earthly simply means of the world system.

We've seen that. There's wisdom that originates from this world system, which entices our flesh, which is unspiritual. Which is of the devil, or devilish. It's a system of the world that is controlled by, influenced by Satan. And it appeals to our flesh. Whether you're born again or not, it appeals to your flesh. And just because we're born again doesn't mean that the wisdom of this world

has no effect on us. Just the opposite. It has a magnetic pull. Even if you know the Lord, the wisdom of this world has a pull and a draw because of our flesh. But the wisdom that comes down from heaven, is the only thing that will counteract that draw. The only thing that will counter that pull is the wisdom that comes from God. But you have to seek it. You have to seek after that wisdom.

Or the other one wins by default. Now catch that. If you're not seeking, if you're not actively seeking heavenly wisdom, worldly wisdom will win control of your attitudes and your actions by default. So those are the origins of wisdom. Then we've looked at the, the operation of these wisdoms, how they operate, the characteristics that define worldly wisdom and that define heavenly wisdom.

And we saw last time that there are four characteristics that define worldly wisdom. Bitter envy, you see someone prospering or having something that you don't have and you envy them or envy that, you want whatever they have. That leads to selfish ambition, according to James in verse 15. It leads to a selfish ambition where you promote yourself. We call it a party spirit or a campaign spirit where you seek to draw people to your side for your favor

so that you can hopefully gain recognition that you lost because someone else received it and that's why you envied them in the first place. Then that leads to a boasting. I mean, if you want people to follow you, then you have to tell them things that will cause them to think you're pretty special. And so that usually lends itself to embellishment or exaggeration where we boast, which is just lying, bingo. And that leads to a lying that really denies the truth, as it says,

a lying against the truth in that verse. Really denying not only the truth of God's word, but denying what's actually happened within us because we've heeded that worldly wisdom. We have become envious in a bitter way that's led to a selfish ambition to try and obtain what someone else has or the recognition that we feel like we rightfully desire that causes us to boast. We end up denying that that very activity is going on in our lives.

We deny the truth. We lie against the truth. That's the operation of worldly wisdom. Then we started looking at the operation of heavenly wisdom last week. And I mentioned that there are nine characteristics of heavenly wisdom, the wisdom that comes down from above. And we looked at the first two last time. Humility is found in verse 13, that we would, James says that we would allow, he says, who is understanding and wise among you,

verse 13, let him show it or allow it by his good life, by deeds done in the humiliation of the world. And that's what we're talking about. Humility that comes from wisdom. So the first characteristic of godly wisdom, heavenly wisdom is humility, a humble spirit. And we mentioned last time that that simply means our hearts submitted under the Lord, yielded to his control. There is a danger as we present the message of

salvation in just seeking for people to understand they're being saved from something, that you are saved from death, that you are saved from hell, that you are saved from an eternity of darkness and despair. And failing to share that the other part of salvation is that we are saved to something else. We are saved into a relationship with the God of the universe. We are saved into a life of eternal life, not eternal death, that we are saved to this glorious kingdom that God has promised to us and given to us through his son. We fail to share that. And in

failing to share that, we fail to share that we have, gone from being servants of darkness to servants of the light. You see, we're still servants. If you've been saved, you have been saved from the bondage of sin and death to become a bond slave of the Lord. You're still a slave. You're still a servant. It's your servanthood to the Lord that brings freedom. It's your serving of the flesh and darkness that brings bondage. And I say that

because often we want the blessing of being free from hell and death, the blessing of being free from sin, so we can go our own way. Just leads us right back into the bondage of sin. The wisdom that comes from above will only be received and revealed in your life and mine as we humble ourselves before the Lord, as we give him sovereign control. And we talked about that last week, that we realize that he's the one that has the power to raise up and put down. We yield

to that in every situation. It causes us to cease our striving for ourselves. We are to strive. We are to press. We are to labor. But it's towards knowing him. It's pressing on to know him. It's setting aside the chains and the bondage of sin, Hebrews 12, that we might look unto him, that we might run the race. It's pressing on to know him, that we press on, that we strive towards. And that only comes as we're sold out

to him and humble ourselves before him, that he's in control. Secondly, we saw the second characteristic is down in verse 17, and that's purity. And that's a life that is not only, it begins with humility. You have to be sold out to him. You have to be sold out to him. You have to be yielded to him before you then set your own heart apart unto him, your own mind unto him, your

own habits unto him, your own motives unto him. That chasteness of your heart and your mind and your life. And James says in verse 17, without that, none of the rest really happens. The wisdom that, in verse 17, he says, but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, chaste, set apart unto him. Without that, you will not receive his wisdom. You will not understand it.

You will not want to follow it. You will not want to follow it. You will not want to follow it. When he gives it. So there's a chasteness, a setting apart unto him. And we saw last time, as we looked at Psalm 119 in the first 11 verses, where the psalmist writes, how does a man keep his way pure? It's by setting your word in his heart. It's by seeking after your word, seeking to be

obedient to your word. It's that relationship with God, with the Lord Jesus Christ, through the word of God that keeps us set apart, that keeps that purity in our hearts. Those are the first two. So we pick up today with the third characteristic in the operation, of godly wisdom, of God's wisdom. And that's in verse 17. It says, first of all, pure, then peace loving, peace loving, verse 17. Now we could read over all of these and you

would affirm that you understand the basic definition of the words. I mean, none of those words there is really hard to pronounce. Or if you had some time to think about it, you could define them. But often when we read scripture, if we don't stop and meditate on it, that's all we do is just acknowledge that we know the words. I want us to look at this, the characteristics

of these words and meditate upon it. He says, He says this characteristic is peace loving. What is that? What does that mean? Well, someone who is peace loving, according to the definition of this word, is one who does not stir up strife. One who does not stir up strife. Let me ask you about your life. In your sphere of existence, in your family, in your school, in your job, when you walk into a room, or when you come to work, or when you walk

into the classroom, or when you come home from work, what's the general attitude? What's the attitude of the people there? What's the general atmosphere of the people there? Do they bubble up and brighten up, and they smile, and they're glad to see, or do they go, uh-oh, here he comes again? Do you tend to stir up strife? Those who have godly wisdom foster peace. They bring peace.

Those with worldly wisdom generate competition. Follow me with this. Those who are seeking God, those who are seeking the wisdom of God, your life just fosters peace. Those who are living after the wisdom of the world, everything you do generates competition. Let me put it this way. Those who are heeding godly wisdom will seek the bettering of others first. Those who are

seeking worldly wisdom compete with others. Again, your particular area of function, your particular area of existence. When you come to work, when you come to school, or as you live in your family unit, are you seeking to better the others around you, or are you competing with them? Are you in competition with them? If you're in school, are you in competition with those in your class because you've got to get the best grades? You

want to be the best. Where you work, are you seeking to be the best that you can be, be all that you can be? And the person that's working next to you, whether it's in an office or in a factory, are you in competition with them so that you can be better than they are? Bitter envy. Selfish ambition. Worldly wisdom. Godly wisdom. Peace loving. Doesn't stir up strife. Not

competitive with them, but actually seeking to better them. In other words, now your concern, your main area of focus, isn't that you're going to beat them, but that you're actually going to help them win, help them do better. It drives them nuts. It really does. Because the wisdom of the world is such a spirit of competition. I mean, you watch a bunch of guys when they walk into a room

together. Watch a bunch of men. If you see, if you're in a room somewhere and a bunch of, you have a bunch of men in it, watch the guys. I mean, there's a competition going on, you know, you know, going to be. So what's happening, man? You know, there's this competition to be cool. It's a, it's a competition. It goes on in everything. That's worldly wisdom. Godly wisdom

says, I'm going to help you be the best. Now, when you start doing that, if you're working with somebody and they, you're starting to make sure that they get stuff done, you know, before you do or, or whatever, they're going to notice. And the first thing they're going to be is suspicious. What are you doing that for? What's your ulterior motive? But as they see that you don't care, that you really have their interest

at heart, you want to better them first. They will open up to you and they'll ask you, why are you doing that? And you get to tell them. And you didn't have to shove four spiritual laws down your throat. You didn't have to thump a Bible on the table. You just get to tell them about the love of God and that God loves them. And God wants them to be blessed and he wants them to succeed.

And it's amazing what happens, how you eliminate competition, when you take that element of competition out of a situation, the pressure, the tension, the threat is gone. And the spirit of God gets to move in a powerful way. Now, this is not a compromise. It's not peace at any price. You maintain your convictions. The church has never, listen, the church has never gained peace by ignoring sin, but it's simply seeking the best

of others first. Now, let me ask you wherever you are in your sphere of existence, do you operate competitively? You want to be the best. That's great. In whose eyes? Who do you want to say, boy, you've done a good job? Your boss or the Lord? If God says it, you don't have to worry about the boss or whoever's working around you. That's why Paul says in Colossians to do everything,

whether in word or deed, hardly is under the Lord, not under man. Are you competitive? Are you peace loving? Fourth characteristic, verse 17, James says, the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all, pure, then peace loving, then considerate, then considerate in the NIV. I looked at the other translations for this word, and I looked at the different word studies that I have, and all of them will give different

meanings and indicate that it's a hard word to translate from Greek to English. Several, and whichever version you're reading of scripture, it may have a word like gentle or forbearing or courteous or kind. Theodore Epp in his commentary says about this word, quote, this word considerate means it knows how to forgive when strict justice gives one the right to condemn. It knows how to forgive when strict justice gives one the right to condemn. It knows

how to forgive when strict justice gives one the right to condemn. It knows how to forgive when strict justice gives one the right to condemn. You have a right to condemn. You're right. You're absolutely right. And justice would say, go ahead and condemn them. But this word means you know how to forgive when you have the right really to condemn. He goes on to say, it knows how to make

allowances. It knows when not to stand on his rights. Send that one to an attorney in Wichita. Know your rights. Great. Then what do you do? Go for the throat. Worldly wisdom. Forgive, make allowances. Knows how when not to stand on his rights. Knows how to temper, justice with mercy. Always remembers that there are greater things in the world than rules and

regulations. Knows when it's actually wrong to apply the strict letter of the law. That can only happen as God's directing. Because it's not excusing, it's knowing how to forgive. It's knowing how to make the allowances that are necessary. And that's a tough thing to do. Do we have a biblical example of that? Absolutely. Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, verses 43

and 44. Love your enemies. How's the world handling enemies? Drive by. Bump somebody in the store and you might get shot, or stabbed, or punched. Because that's how the world solves those areas. You bump me, I have my right to bump you back. Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, it says. Don't happen where I see life existing. Well, you blankety blank. Oh yeah, well you

blankety blankety blankety blank. Oh yeah, well you're blankety blankety blankety blankety blankety blank. It's a conversation now that there are people who talk that way that don't realize that they're saying anything bad. I mean, it's just a manner of the conversation. If you've not been in the world lately. Bless those who curse you. That means you bless, you don't respond with the

cursing. It knows how to forgive in the midst of this. Do good, Matthew goes on, do good to those who hate you. Well, I might be able to love my enemies, and I might be able to bless them when they curse me, but to do good to somebody that hates me, that's just going a little too far. You bet it is. It's going further than the world goes. It melts bitterness. They can't fight against it. That's why they didn't know what to do with

Jesus. That's why the gospel is so powerful, because it melts competition. It melts the enemies. And then it says, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. I mean, there's a descending progression there. Okay, enemies, those who curse you, those who hate you, those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Do good to them. You can't do that apart from the

power of God in your life. You cannot. That's why if you do that, if you are considerate as this comes from the power of God living in you, it's only part of the wisdom of God that you're seeking from the Lord. And there's not enough of it in the world today. There's not. The church in this country is defective. The church in this country is deficient where that kind of thing is concerned,

because the church in this country is giving too much heat to worldly wisdom rather than to godly wisdom. And it's a powerless church. We're living just like the world. The fifth characteristic here in the NIV is one of the most detestable words in English. Submissive. Submissive. The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, then considerate, then submissive. Submissive. If you're reading King James, it says easy to be

entreated. Easy to be entreated. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does it mean to be easily entreated? It means you have a listening ear. It means you're approachable. It means that you're compliant, that you're easy to live with, because you will listen to the other person. Whether you agree with them or not, you'll listen. Listen to them. Worldly wisdom makes a person hard and stubborn and unbending and unapproachable.

Again, if you can follow the progression of heavenly wisdom, of godly wisdom, you get to this point. You've got somebody, okay, that you're seeking the betterment of. You're peace-loving. You're considerate of. You're forgiving when you could just stomp all over them. Okay, now you have an opportunity to be submissive or easily entreated. They want to tell you a thing or two, and you let them. We're so defensive. We've become such a

defensive society that we feel like we have to carry guns. We're so defensive that anyone who has a different point of view is the enemy. I'm bound and determined to convince them of my way. So while they're telling you theirs, you're in the process of trying to shove yours down their throat. And who listens in a case like that? You don't hear what they're saying other than you know

that they don't like you, that they're pro-choice, and I've got to convince them that they've got to be pro-life. Why are they pro-choice? Have you bothered to find out about their background? Have you bothered to find out about where they're coming from? Or are you just bound and determined to shove down their throats that it's wrong? Is it wrong? I believe it's wrong according to scripture. But we're to be

easily entreated. That means we listen to them. It's listening, willing to listen to all sides without compromising your own convictions. Doesn't mean I compromise my convictions. Doesn't mean I've got to change my idea of how I stand on pro-life or whatever the issue is. But it means I listen to them. I give them somebody that will listen to them. You know what

happens when that's concerned? When you're not competitive, when you're not selfishly ambitious seeking to get your way through, when you seek to better the other one, they expend their effort and their energy telling you their side, and they get it out, and they see you're really listening to them. And they'll go, so what do you think? I mean, all the time you're listening to them. You're not

trying to interrupt them and point out where they're wrong. You're just listening to them. And they get it out. And you're not fighting. And it breaks down the walls. And they go, so what do you think about that? And you can say, well, you know, I'm persuaded this way. This is how I feel. And if they start arguing back, you don't argue. You don't fight. It takes two to fight. But if you're

secure, if you're humble before the Lord and you're secure in his sovereignty and his oversight and his control, they're punching the air. That's what the word submissive is. Easily entreated. Parents, are you easily entreated by your children? Can they come to you at any time? Do you give them the time of day? Do you listen to what they have to say? And I'm hitting this on me just

as much as I'm sharing it with you. It's so easy to get so busy and so involved. And they come and they want to talk to you. And yeah, yeah, you stop and you're easily entreated. You want to hear what they have to say. It's important to you to know what they're thinking, not to give them advice before you hear what they're saying. And it's only with godly wisdom that you do that. It's only

with godly wisdom that you do that. Sixth, he says the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, then considerate, then submissive. Then, and this one is listed as one actually comes out of the other one. He says full of mercy and good fruit, full of mercy and good fruit. Let's look at full of mercy first, full of mercy. Wisdom that comes from above is filled

with mercy. Now, according to scripture, to be filled with something means what? Means to be controlled by it. Don't be drunk with wine. Don't be filled with wine. We're in his excess, but be filled with the spirit, be controlled by the spirit. So here we're to be filled, to be controlled by the spirit. So here we're to be filled, to be controlled by the spirit. So here we're to be

filled, to be controlled by mercy. The word here in the Greek is eleos, E-L-E-O-S. And when I, when I mentioned these words, it's because they'll come up later in other studies. And I want you to start getting familiar with them. You don't have to take a class in Greek to know all the different words and how to parse verbs and the different tenses and whether it's aorist or passive or, or

present indicative or whatever. You don't have to take all of that. But if you begin to learn what certain words are and you hear them again, like agape, you hear that, you hear that enough, even the secular world's using agape. And you get to, you get an idea of what it means. This is eleos. It literally means, and let me give you a strong definition of this, is not only to be controlled

by mercy. It literally means mercy for anyone who is in trouble, even if he has brought that trouble on himself. It's mercy for anyone who is in trouble, even if he's brought that mercy upon himself. Now, as a parent, we do this a lot. As a parent, I won't speak for you. I have done this a lot. I've talked to my girls and I've talked to them about different,

different things in life that they need to watch or avoid, watch out for or avoid. And one of the things, I mean, you know, we can, we, and we need to talk to them about sex and we need to talk to them about drugs, but I'm talking simple things like when you're in school, like when, when they were here, it was no problem because they're always on the front row. But when they went to the high school, I suggested, now, when you go to the high school, when you go into a larger classroom, sit towards the front because everybody else will tend to sit towards the back. And I've been there and done that and brought the videos. You sit towards the back so you can be away from

them. You can talk to all your friends back in the back and be cool. That's where the cool sit is back in the back together so they can be cool. But you sit up towards the front so that you don't have that distraction. You see, there's a tendency when you want to know something, you should ask a question. Parents, do you tell your kids that? Ask, right? If you want to know something, ask,

ask your teachers. Let me tell you, when you're in a classroom and you're sitting at the back and you want to know a question, the last thing in the world you're going to do is raise your hand. Why? Everybody in the back, anybody in front of you is going to go, and you've got all these eyes looking at you. I don't want them to think I'm stupid. I just sit here and nod my head like I

know what's going on, and I'm cool. I'm cool. I fit. But if you sit up front, if you have a question, you can ask, and all you feel is eyeballs boring into the back of your head, but you don't have to see them. You don't have to look at them. Plus, you can hear the teacher. You get a better view of the board or the overhead or whatever they're using. You can see better from the front,

so sit towards the front, and you'll do better in school. Now, there were times when they came home and they'd had a problem in a certain class, and I'd say, well, where'd you sit? Well, I had to sit at the back. And what's a parent's tendency when they do something like that? I told you so, right? That's the opposite. That's the opposite of this. There's another tendency we have as parents, and that's as our

kids grow up, and they get to go out on their own away from our immediate care. Well, maybe I just do this. Maybe you don't do this. I had a tendency to tell them, if you get busted and it's the middle of the night, don't call me. I will not come running to bail your little butt out of jail. Maybe some of you have said that to your kids. This mercy is exampled in scripture by the father

of the prodigal son, who gave his son his inheritance and sent him off knowing what he was going to find, knowing what he was going to do. Knowing how he would end up. And as his son is coming home, and he's thinking in his own mind, I'll ask dad if I can just buff the banisters on the staircase, or if I can just, you know, I'll wax floors, I'll do whatever. And his dad sees him, and his dad goes running to him, you see, and puts rings on his fingers, and puts new clothes on him, and kills the fatted calf.

When he could have said, I told you so. That's Elias. That's filled with mercy. And that only comes when we're in a relationship with the Lord. It only comes when we're humble before him, and he's in control, and I yield to that control. It only comes as I set my heart aside unto him, and my thoughts, and my habits, and my motives unto him, that they're pure. And then from that

comes a peace-loving that seeks to better the other. And from that comes considerate, who forgives when he has a right to condemn, and is submissive, easily entreated, will listen to the whole story, and is full of mercy. Mercy even when the person got in trouble, and they brought that trouble on themselves. Seventh characteristic is good fruit. Ties, right in with that. Ties right in with that. You can't have, you can't get to there on following

heavenly wisdom without good fruit resulting. And that's why James writes it together in the sentence. Filled with mercy and good fruit. If you get to that point, if you follow God's wisdom where this is concerned, good fruit results. It's not just good fruit coming out of your life now, I want you to notice that. It's fruit that's affecting the lives of others. It's others

seeing the power of Christ in your life. Now the problem is, as Christians, we want to produce the fruit. And Jesus never told us to go produce fruit. He said, abide in the vine. You abide in me. My word abides in you. And I will bring forth fruit through you. So as you, believe me, if you seek after the Lord and his wisdom, all these things begin to manifest themselves through your

life. You will bring forth fruit. Your life will touch other lives for Christ's sake. When you're filled with mercy and a world is empty, they have no direction. They're seeking, and you're filled with the glory of God, with the spirit of God filling you. It changes your life. Godly wisdom is practical wisdom. It evidences itself and people are drawn to that. You become

a blessing to others for God's sake. And let me ask you again, the same question I asked at the beginning. When you walk into a room, do you brighten it? Are people glad to see you? Or do they look for corners to hide in, getting busy work to do because here they come again. Eighth, the eighth characteristic of godly wisdom is it, he says it's impartial. He says it's impartial. That means a singleness of mind. Someone who's

decisive, but not overbearing. It's the opposite of the word wavering. In chapter one, if you lack wisdom, James says, you ask God, but let him ask believing, not wavering. If you're not wavering, you're impartial. That's the word here. You're decisive. You know where you're going. You know God is in control. And listen, you are willing to allow others, to have recognition. It just follows right on down the road. If you're peace loving,

you want to see others better. You want to see them succeed. If you're impartial, you're willing to let them. It doesn't bother you to let others succeed because you trust in the sovereignty of God. You trust in God's ability to care for you, to take care of your need, to meet that need. Case in point, biblical example, Abraham and Lot. Abraham is the uncle,

Lot is the nephew. They come to the promised land. It's stretched out, not before them. Abraham has the right. He's Lot's uncle. He is older. He has the right to say, me take this, you get scraps. What does he say? Lot, the land is stretched out before us. You pick. Whatever you pick, I'll take the other. If you pick the valley, I'll go to the hills. If you

take the hills, I'll take the valley. He had the right, but he yielded, yielded to the other because he knew God was in control. It didn't matter. God was going to bless him wherever. And he sought the bettering of the other first. He was impartial. He didn't use people for his benefit, for him to get ahead. He didn't favor others for personal gain because he knew that God was sovereign. Everything today is team oriented. If you don't

know what I mean by that, if you haven't been to school lately, you now take tests as teams in a lot of classes. They team you up with a group of other students in whatever class you're in, and you will take that test together, and you will agree on the answers together, and you will all get the answer. Or in the workplace, they put you with a team, a work team. And the whole emphasis of this, see, is it goes back to where we were starting here in the characteristics of godly wisdom is peace loving. It means it's not competitive. Well, there's such competition in the world, and it's

such a dog-eat-dog and cutthroat kind of business in the world that they figured to get rid of that, they'd make everything team spirited. And we'll all be team, and we'll all be part owners of the company, and we'll all be in there together. And we'll all be in there together, and we'll all be we, and there'll be no they, because we're all a team. And the only problem with that is you still have your flesh to deal with. And apart from the Lord, you can't deal with that flesh. And so it

doesn't make any difference how much team whatever is done. Without Christ, there's still going to be competition within the team. And there's still going to be the attitude of, oh, don't stick me with them. If you haven't been on a team like that, you haven't lived. Physics test. You know about zero about physics, and you want to be stuck on the team with Joe Brain, you know? And you get

placed, and you're going, oh, no, you know, oh, I'm dead, you know? I don't want them on my team. Same thing in the workplace. You want to be able to pick your team, but if they put you on a team, you go, oh, no, you know, I've got to work with them. And inside, they're going, I've got to work with him, you. See, there's still that sphere of the flesh. But if you're impartial, don't make

any difference who's on your team. You're back to that point of humility, humble before the Lord. God's in control. God is sovereign. See, it comes back to how much do you trust the Lord? Wisdom that's from above is impartial. It says, I trust you. You have the ability to raise up and put down. I trust you with this situation. You want to know where that evidence is itself the most?

You want to know where practically, in the practical sense, that is the most evident of your trust in God? It's in your giving. It's evidenced the most in your giving to the Lord as to whether or not you believe he's sovereign and in control. I read another report from Dobson that came out this week that they had done a survey, this group that surveys, church giving, and they only have statistics as far as 94. But the church giving, the average

giving per person in 1994 was 2.48% of their income. The average giving per person to the church, 2.48% of their income in 1994. It's down from 2.52% in 1993. So it's down four hundreds of a percentage. Giving is down. But the figure I want you to hear is 2.48%. That means there had to be people that gave a whole lot more. And a whole lot of people that didn't give anything to average 2.48%. Now what that says is

I don't trust God because that's one area in scripture. It's the only area in scripture where God says, prove me, prove me, prove my faithfulness, prove my trustworthiness. And it's with the giving of our tithes and offering. You want to pray for somebody in our fellowship, pray for Gary, our treasurer. I don't know how, Butch, I don't know how you lasted for 15 years.

Gary is our treasurer. Gary is our treasurer. He's the only one that sees who gives and what's given. The rest of us on the board don't. Praise God. So I don't know who gives and who doesn't. But he said it's less than 50% of the fellowship that gives. And it's less of a percentage than that that gives consistently. It's amazing. We'll have days where there's crowds in here

and there's zip in the box. And I don't know if it's people look around and they go, wow, they're doing all right. And if they are, your eyes are focused out here instead of up here. You don't trust the Lord. If you did, it would be evidenced in your giving unto him. We have the executive committee for the Impact World Tour. We have meetings every week and we always have prayer for what's going on

in each other's lives during the meeting. And one brother came a few weeks ago and said, pray for me. And he says, I'm not asking this because I want you to give me anything. I'm just asking you to pray for me in this particular situation because we've had $800 worth of bills come in that were unexpected, $800 above what we normally have this month that just came in.

And he said, I have no idea where it's going to come from. And then he said the most amazing thing. He said, but I know what it means. And he kind of chuckled. And he says, it means I need to give more in the midst of this. And boy, did that hit me here. Because you know what my tendency is, and maybe yours too, is, man, things get tight. What's the first thing to go? God. Set God's money off. God doesn't want your

money. God can get along on his own. Except it's interesting that it's in the Bible. It says there's mammon and there's God and you'll worship one or the other. And if you're not giving God his, then because you're worshiping it rather than giving it to God. And that really struck home with me that here, you know, my tendency is if it's that kind of, that's one of those that you can just write off, you know,

and then when, then when I get stable, then when I get things back together, then I'll, then I'll start giving. You want to know when that is? Never, never. And the blessing is, is that he did and God did and praise God. The blessing is there. God's sovereignty, impartial, heavy duty, heavy duty. The ninth one is sincere, sincere. The word literally means without hypocrisy. In the Latin, it's the word sine seris. We've seen it before. When we went

through Romans, we spent six months in chapter 12 of Romans. We spent six months in chapter 12 of Romans. We spent six months in chapter 12 of Romans. We spent six months in chapter 12 of Romans. The last half of Romans. And we saw that over and over. Love must be sincere. Sine seris. In the Latin, it means without wax. In the marketplace, during the times of the Lord. And even today,

you can go to the marketplace in old Jerusalem and see the merchants just about like they were back at the time of Christ. But the potters, those who had the vessels for sale, the different pottery for sale, if they fired a piece before it was ready, or if they made the walls too thin before they fired the piece. Then when they fired it, there would develop little cracks throughout the vessel. And if somebody picked up the vessel and held it up to the light or to a candlelight, they could see through it and they'd see these little cracks and they'd know that's an imperfect vessel.

If I get it and use it, there'll be a tendency for it to break with use real quick, or it will begin to leak and then break. And so what the merchants would do is as they prepared their vessels, if they saw one that had the cracks in it, they would take and they would melt wax and they would rub wax all the way around the inside of the vessel. Because then when somebody would hold it up to the light, they couldn't see it. And so they would take it and they would rub wax all the way around. They couldn't see through it. It would look solid. It would look like it's a good

vessel, a solid vessel. But it was really filled with wax. Oftentimes that's the way believers can be, unfortunately, is we don't want people to see the cracks. And so we end up following worldly wisdom that envies and has selfish ambition and boasts and lies about the truth. And I don't want you to know that I have weaknesses. And so I'll put the wax in there in my life. And I'm a hypocrite.

I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite. But we're to live and we're to love sine seris, without wax, where you can hold me up and see the cracks. And it's okay because God's working on me. And I feel secure in that. And I have weaknesses. And I have infirmities. And I have imperfections. It's okay that you know that

because God's working on me. And he's sovereign. And I'm yielded to that. And I'm comfortable with that. I'm yielded to where I'm comfortable with wherever he has me, whatever he has me doing. And that kind of sincerity, that kind of moving without wax, can only come from the Lord. You can't manufacture it. Otherwise, you'll try and be kind and gentle and good and loving in your own strength. And you're not sine seris. You're

filled with wax. And there are too many people, listen, there are too many people on the road to hell or already in hell because of that, because of people who claim to be Christians and live the lie. They had another thing on Dateline this past week about another pastor who evidently strangled his wife, tried to strangle his wife. They took up the whole hour almost with that one.

Another pastor, another pastor, pastor involved in abuse, pastor involved in this, weakening, weakening the areas of Christianity to where that's the general consensus is what's a Christian? Oh, he's one of those. He's a hypocrite. He's not real. We've got to be without wax. We've got to be genuine and real and not afraid of that. Quickly, we only have a couple minutes. Those

are the nine characteristics of the operation of godly wisdom. What are the outcomes? They're real easy and they come real fast. What are the outcomes of following these two wisdoms? The first one is found in verse 16. That's worldly wisdom. He says, Those are the operations, two of the operations of worldly wisdom. Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. You want to know what? You follow worldly

wisdom. You have envy and you want to promote yourself and you want to boast about yourself and you want to lie about your condition. You want to know where you're going to end up? You're going to end up in those two areas, disorder and every evil practice. Let's define those words. Disorder. Disorder literally is defined here as Caused by confusion We just had this other word that talked about

That we're definite That we know where we're going That we're not wavering Now we have instability Instability from confusion If you follow worldly wisdom You're always going to be doing this You're going to have this to choose And you'll choose it And you should have chosen that You'll say Oh, I had the opportunity to buy this car, that car I bought this one I should have bought that one Oh, I married this person I should have married that one Oh, I bought this And I should have bought that We moved here We should have moved there That's instability That's disorder From following worldly wisdom Never satisfied There's never enough And nothing is ever right Ever been around somebody like that? Nothing is ever right You just found a thousand dollars

Behind your cereal box In your pantry And oh, but I need two Nothing is right Your husband gets up And makes the bed in the morning And oh You didn't do the dishes Your wife does some remarkable thing Making wonderful food for you to eat Yeah, but where's the dessert? Nothing's ever right Disorder Jesus used the word in Luke chapter 21 verse 9 To describe the condition of the world in the last days He says in Luke 21 9 When you hear of wars And the word is revolutions in the NIV It's commotions in King James It's the same word as disorder When you hear of these things Do not be frightened These things must happen first But the end will come It will not come right away When you hear of wars and disorder Of chaos Of commotions Of revolutions

When everything around you Seems in a chaotic mess It's in unrest It's in a state of flux There's no peace Uh, sound familiar? You ought to That's what we're involved in right now We're in the last days And the world is following worldly wisdom And it's not finding an answer And so it seeks to embrace the things of God Like team ministry Without God And it still ends up in chaos Because you've eliminated the one thing That can transform And that's the Lord And you end up in chaos The result of following worldly wisdom Is disorder Is chaos Instability Unrest Second thing it says is And every evil practice Every evil practice Vincent in his word study says That this is quote An inadequate rendering of the word Because it fails to bring out

The particular phase of evil Which is dominant in this word And that is Worthlessness And that is worthlessness And good for nothingness So as you follow the wisdom of the world You only end up in chaos Just going back and forth Never satisfied And in a state of worthlessness And good for nothingness In other words It doesn't seem like anything you do is worthwhile You work and you work And you try and get to this particular place And you finally get there And for what? DuPont The guy that's up for murder now All this fabulous wealth For what? For what purpose? Kurt Cobain Established a giant musical following For what?

What did he have? Nothing It was worthless It's the wood, hay, and stubble of life That's mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 All that stuff is wood, hay, and stubble It's worthless You follow worldly wisdom And at the end of your life You find out it was It was empty and for nothing There's something that goes on every year I don't know how many of you know about it But you're going to know more about it As time goes along As the Lord tarries This came from Dobson as well It's called The Dangerous Burning Man According to a report In the March 19th program The 1997 issue of Charisma magazine Thousands of people gather each year In the Nevada desert And enthusiastically ask Satan To take them to hell Neo-paganism is trying to gain a foothold

In the United States Says the article Each Labor Day weekend Since the mid-1980s This thing's been going on for quite a while Writes author and Christian researcher George Otis Jr. Spiritual nomads from every U.S. state Especially the psychedelic vortex of San Francisco And from Canada, Germany, Brazil Korea And at least 20 other countries Visit Black Rock Desert For a techno-pagan freak fest Known as the Burning Man Last year more than 10,000 participants Came to the event Many of them former Christians What does that mean? Were they saved?

Probably not But they were involved in church activity And they saw the hypocrisy Rather than the genuineness Rather than sincerity Rather than godly wisdom They saw nothing but worldly wisdom in the church And they said I don't want that And off they went after this Gargantuan foolish thing Many of them former Christians In the center of this sprawling desert encampment Stands an elaborate 40-foot timber giant Wrapped in wax-soaked burlap And studded with Roman candles Ritually torched on the event's final night The structure symbolizes the spirit caveman An ancient Indian mummy discovered nearby Quote I'm fully prepared to shake hands with the devil As I stumble through the gates of hell End quote Said one participant Quote

If Jesus was half the man that men say he is He'd whoop Satan End quote Sticker quote Stick around Another couple who took their two young teens in 1995 Spoke of the children's eagerness to return Quote My 14-year-old son is looking forward to burning man More than Christmas End quote He told the author Otis concludes Quote As spiritual darkness has become more pronounced in our culture We have started to see ungodly forces creeping into our own backyard But he also believes Quote The fruits of the attendees' disillusionment Are a reflection of our own disillusionment If they are rallying in the desert It's sometimes because they've been driven there Through pastoral sexual abuse Public hypocrisy of our religious cocoons

The enemy has been feasting on our mistakes End quote While investigating the event Otis learned that organizers plan to stage regional versions In various parts of the U.S. this year The Burning Man Festival isn't simply an annual event He observes It's a trend A barometer of our society's spiritual growth End quote So just like promise keepers We got Burning Man All over the country Worldly wisdom to the max Chaos and worthlessness But godly wisdom And we'll close with this Verse 18 Godly wisdom Peacemakers who sow in peace Raise a harvest of righteousness Peacemakers who sow in peace Raise a harvest of righteousness If you seek the Lord with all your heart If you seek to know him If you set everything else aside And just seek to know him first

If you're humbly submitted to him If you set your heart as pure unto him If you're peace loving Seeking the benefit of God Seeking the benefit of others first If you're considerate If you're right on down the line In heavenly wisdom The fruit that comes out of your life It says is a harvest of righteousness A harvest of righteousness In other words God lives that through your life Into the lives of those around you And you seek Christ Begin to work in the lives of the people around you That's why you're where you are In your school In your business Is that through you God might bring forth a harvest That through you As you seek to live for him As you set your heart upon him As his wisdom flows through you That fruit will manifest itself

In the lives of those around you And God will draw them to himself You are an oasis In the desert of the world And Satan His biggest joy Satan's biggest joy Is to trip you up Or get you following worldly wisdom So you just look like the rest of the world And proclaim that you're a Christian And the rest of the world looks at you Just like the burning man And goes I don't want nothing to do with this I'm going to go off to the desert in Nevada And burn a stick And call for Satan to take me to hell And brother once they get there Won't they be amazed at what they find But God loves them so much That mercy that's extended That alias that says All you got to do is come I'm not going to condemn you I've got the ring for your fingers I've got the robe