Untitled Sermon

James chapter 3, James chapter 3, and we'll look today at verses 13 to 18. We'll begin looking today at verses 13 to 18. James writes in verse 13, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life and 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. But where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

I don't often read Dear Abby. Matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I did, but I did yesterday. And I wanted to share a couple of these that were in there with you to start off the study this morning. This is, guys can relate to this one. Dear Abby, I was at a very crowded shopping mall and needed to use the restroom as I was leaving. The men's room and the ladies' room were side by side. The

ladies' room had a line outside of it, while the men's room had no waiting line. As I approached the men's room, the women started to grumble loudly about having to wait and split up, into lines outside of both restrooms. This effectively restricted my access to the men's room, so I departed the mall and drove to the nearest gas station to use the restroom there. What should a male's proper course of action be in a situation like this? Signed,

Legs Crossed in Newark. What advice would you give where that's concerned? I can see this as a commercial on TV. Know your rights. And a famous Wichita lawyer would say, have you suffered injury while standing in line at a restroom? Another one there was, Abby, why would a bright, pretty 23-year-old allow herself to be emotionally abused by her husband? Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, St. Valentine's Day, etc. come and go without so

much as a card or any kind of acknowledgement. They've had many fights over this, and my daughter has told him how hurt she is. He is always sorry and has some kind of excuse, but this happens over and over again. It hurts me to see how upset she gets. But as a parent, what should I do? Signed, Upset Mom Down South. What would you advise her to do? What advice would

you give to Upset Mom Down South? Here's another one. Dear Abby, and I'm not going to read the answers. Dear Abby, our son is getting married soon. The bride's parents say this is the 90s, and we should split the cost, as they are our kids. What the kids want will cost $6,000 total. They claim, I heard a groan, they claim they have gotten the lowest prices for this big day.

Are we responsible for paying 50%? I told my husband about the financing, and he said it's customary for the bride's father to pay for the wedding. Others who have married children say they've... split the cost. I don't think splitting the cost is such a bad idea. Perhaps when our two daughters get married, we can say, hey, this is the 90s, and we'll pay half. What do you say, Abby? I related

to that one, you know. I'm a 90s kind of guy, you know. That's signed, Stressed in Washington. What would you advise where that's concerned? What advice would you give? You see, that's the whole picture of what we're talking about in this section on wisdom, because we each give advice, and it's based on some kind of wisdom. Now, as we started this section in chapter three,

it mentions a warning to teachers, and specifically, it's probably talking about pastors who stand up and teach the Word, and proclaim to be an authority on the Word of God. And it could probably relate to elders who lead Bible studies, and deacons and all, who officiate with the Word of God. But because it doesn't specifically say pastors, elders, or deacons, I think this applies to all of us. And I think it comes down to the advice that we give, because it, if we are Christians, is supposed to represent the Word of God. And so,

we need to be learned from it, and to be seen as a part of the Word of God, and to be seen as a part of the Word of God, and to be seen as a part of God. But I think that this is the first step, in the first 12 verses, in the first 12 verses that we're going to be talking about, is to develop the tongue. And he's shown us six objects. He's given us an object lesson with the tongue. He's

given us an object lesson with the tongue. He's shown us six objects that are divided up into three pairs. So, that we'll understand the power that we have in the tongue, the power behind the tongue. First of all, to direct. And the first two objects were a rudder and a bit. A bit that fits in the mouth of the horse. And the emphasis there was that the tongue has the power to direct. And

to the words that we say we have the power to direct others to give them wise counsel or to give them faulty counsel the second picture we saw in in verses 1 through 12 of chapter 3 was that the tongue is either a fire it can be a fire or it can be like a poisonous animal it has the power to destroy the things that we say can literally devastate the lives of others it can destroy them emotionally it can destroy their character it can devastate their hope we can destroy others with the power of the tongue and then the third pair the third set of objects listed in those verses is is the idea of a fountain or a spring and a tree or a vine something that produces and the idea is that our tongues dispense they have the power to dispense and they can

either dispense water like fresh water that that's that's soothing and encouraging and uplifting and cleansing or they can dispense it like a tree that produces the fruit of the figs or the olives that are nourishing like the fruit is or they can dispense sourness bitterness like a bitter spring a salty spring a salty pool a sulfur pool like a geyser but a tree cannot bring forth good fruit and bad in the sense that a fig tree can't bring forth olives it always has to bring forth what it was designed to bring forth and so a spring or a fountain can only dispense one of two different kinds of water it's either fresh water or bitter water and so we have the power to dispense words that refresh and

fill or words that are bitter and leave empty and discourage and james is not leaving that thought as we come to the second half because as we think about the power that we have in the tongue as we think about the accountability to god that we have as we represent him and are going to talk to others representing him then what kind of wisdom do we give them when they come and ask and you see that hits us all because wherever you work wherever you go wherever you go wherever you go wherever you go to school wherever you live there will be people that come to you and ask advice what should i do about and you'll influence them in one of those ways either with a godly wisdom james says there's

two different kinds of wisdom there's a godly wisdom there's a wisdom that's from above and there's a wisdom that is man made and that's what we're going to look at in these last few verses which wisdom are we using which which way are we directing people are we destroying them are we moving them into an area that's taking them away from their walk with the lord or are we encouraging them to do something that's not good for them or are we encouraging them to do something their walk with the lord are we dispensing the wisdom of god that's refreshing and filling are we dispensing the wisdom of man that leaves bitter taste that leaves anguish and emptiness god tells us in proverbs chapter 4 verse 7 through solomon wisdom is the principal thing therefore

get wisdom wisdom is the principal thing wisdom is what's necessary and yet in our society today what is the principal thing that is emphasized as the basic need to solve the problems of our society knowledge education if we simply educate the people on a certain subject then that will solve the problem we have skyrocketing venereal disease and teenage pregnancies so our thought is educate give them all the knowledge show them every way that it functions show them how to put a condom on a banana so that they get the general picture and then surely with all the knowledge that's out there it'll take care of those things because knowledge is the answer right and we find just the opposite is wrong is found statistically that unwanted or teenage

pregnancies are skyrocketing venereal diseases quadrupling on top of all of that and that's just one area but we think if we attack a certain area with education with knowledge that knowledge is what's going to be the answer to our situation and yet the bible tells us no it's not knowledge it's wisdom wisdom is the principal thing principal thing warren weirsby a bible scholar and commentator writes quote knowledge enables us to take things apart but wisdom enables us to put things together and relate god's truth to daily life and cool knowledge allows us to take things apart and to find out how they function but wisdom allows us to put things together and see how they relate see

what the purpose is you see we're we're doing great with knowledge we're learning a whole bunch of stuff we're learning how things work how things function we're taking things apart with the computers and the way that we have to analyze today and the multi micron telescopes that just you know electro things that really look down into something or really look out into something we're able to take a lot of things apart and we're gaining a lot of knowledge but without the wisdom of god without god factored into the to the to the equation we don't know what to do with it and when we have all that knowledge without the wisdom of god the knowledge that we have literally becomes destructive we have

learned in the last 50 years about the atom how to take the atom apart literally how to how to dissect it and pull the pieces of it apart and it's been good on the positive side because we've entered into the area of nuclear power and we are able now to use with in in medicine uh tremendous advances as a result of that it's a tremendous uh source for generating the electricity powers cities at a cheaper more economical cost powers the ships of our navy but by the same token it's the most destructive mechanism at man's disposal it's the basic ingredient for mass destruction so knowledge without wisdom ultimately becomes a destructive weapon the apostle paul has a lot to say about god's wisdom he writes in first

corinthians 120 has not god made foolish the wisdom of the world hasn't god made foolish the wisdom of the world as you as you grow in your christian walk that's one of the things hopefully you realize is how foolish man's wisdom is how empty it is god has made man's wisdom foolish but by the same token paul writes in first corinthians 214 god's wisdom is foolishness to man god's wisdom is foolishness to man you have to give up to gain you have to die to live you have to become a servant to be a servant to be a servant to be a servant to be a servant to be a free god's wisdom is foolishness to man because man's wisdom is based upon reason man looks at something and he reasons tries to reason out its function and pull apart as we talked about pull

it apart so he can understand and analyze it man's wisdom is based on reason while god although the source of reason god's wisdom is based upon revelation the revealing of himself and so you see the more we find out about him the more we understand everything else at function paul writes again in first corinthians chapter 8 verse 1 knowledge puffs up but love builds up knowledge puffs up we have a tendency when we gain knowledge to puff ourselves up the pursuit of knowledge again without the wisdom of god is destructive as potential destruction outwardly but inwardly it has the potential of leading us into a god complex that the more knowledge i have the more

i'm in control of my destiny the more i'm able to function and determine course of action and determine you the outcome of certain situations it's we have the idea the god complex is that you know eventually man's going to come up with a cure for cancer because his intelligence the gaining of knowledge the pulling apart of the chromosomes in the dna eventually we're going to come to the point where we know how it functions we can eliminate it so man's knowledge is going to eliminate cancer he thinks he can eliminate aids he can he thinks he can eliminate the poverty and the and the food problem based upon knowledge man has a god complex and knowledge elevated apart from god's wisdom makes us all that way

gives us all the idea that well i can take care of myself WHEN PURCHASED AND MOVED BY THE CRE GEORGE i can be my own destiny maker and that was the whole premise behind the tower of babel in jennessee chapter eleventh verse four God saw that the initiations of man were evil altogether FOR MAN SAID FOREST FORоки TENT end of verse We can build for ourselves a city with the tower that reaches to the heavens. FOREST order not be scattered all over the place HIDE SHOW man direct QUOTE So we can direct our own ideas, our own lifestyles. We can read the heavens. We can project and plan and come up with our own lifestyle.

Knowledge apart from God. And as we look at these verses, verses 13 through 18 here in the last part of chapter 3, we're going to look at three different areas of wisdom. First of all, we're going to look at its origin. James says there's two different kinds of wisdom. We will look at where they originate. Because from their source, they project their ideas and their attitudes

and their purposes and their goals and their effects. So where does the wisdom of the world originate? What's man's wisdom? And where does God's wisdom? How do we find it? The origin of the two. Secondly, we'll look at the operation of each wisdom. In other words, their characteristics. What are the characteristics of man's wisdom? You may think you know. And see, that's it with us as Christians.

We think we know the characteristics of God's wisdom and man's wisdom because we're Christians, aren't we? Hopefully. And yet you don't realize daily how much we are swayed by man's wisdom and how we have to. In Colossians, it says, set your affections on things. Not on things above, not on things of the earth. Set your minds on things above, not on things of the earth.

That's a terribly important command that we fail to do because we live here. And our hope is there. And someday we'll be there. But this is the here and now. And we just have to live in the here and now. And if you're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. Not what the Bible says. In order to be effective and functional, you better be heavenly minded. Your emotions better be set on things above.

You're going to be controlled even as a Christian by the wisdom of this world. And that's what James is warning about. See, James talks from experience. Don't forget. Who James is as we go through James. The half-brother of Jesus. The probably, I like to think of him as the firstborn of Joseph and Mary. Not Mary and God. Jesus' firstborn. Mary and God. James, I see as the firstborn between Joseph and Mary.

The brother who is next in line. Who can't do, you know, all the things that he sees his brother doing. Can't be as good as. Just always takes the ridicule. Does not like older brother. Despised older brother. Was with mom when they went to get him when he was out healing people. Because they said he's mad. He's beside himself, it says in Mark. He's nuts. James thinking that.

Not understanding anything about who Jesus was until after the resurrection when Jesus appears to him. And reveals himself to him. And restores, forgives and restores James. And James is saying, I don't want you to make that mistake. I don't want you to live by the wisdom I live by that almost sent me to hell. And so James speaks with a passion. Warning the church.

Warning the believer. Take heed. Take heed. Don't get stuck in these areas of worldly wisdom. So we're gonna look at the origin of wisdom. The operation of wisdom. Its characteristics. And finally we'll look at the outcome of wisdom. Because each source of wisdom has a consequence. Has an outcome. Each cause has an effect. So each wisdom, each choice of wisdom that we make has a particular effect.

And we need to realize that. Because we're held accountable for that to God. So let's look at the origins first. The origins of wisdom. And the first one we'll look at is man's wisdom. That's the first one that's listed. We're gonna jump down for just a second to verse 15. We'll come back and pick up all of this in context as we go through this. But today we'll just look at the origins of wisdom.

And look at verse 15. Or start at 14 really. James writes, 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, and of the devil. So if we need a definition for man's wisdom, that's it. It doesn't come from above. It's earthly. It's unspiritual.

And it's of the devil. Now get excited whenever you read descriptives in the Word of God. Because God is saying something in a way that He wants us to understand the particulars of. If He said there's man's wisdom and there's God's wisdom, that'd be it. But He says the wisdom that doesn't come from me is three parts. Now have we seen, you remember reading in Scripture anywhere where God defines things that affect us in three different parts?

And He's talking here about it's earthly, it's unspiritual, it's of the devil. Hold your finger here and go back with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. . In Ephesians, Paul begins in chapter 1 by telling us as Christians all the wonders, the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ, available to us, that we've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, verse 13,

and the moment that we believe that He's made available to us, verses 16 through 20, the resurrection power of God in the person of the Holy Spirit, the power that raised God from the dead is available to you and me, so that the things that He tells us that we need to do as believers, He already empowers us to be able to do it. So we're without excuse, really. Then he tells us in chapter 2, verse 1, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. This is B.C. That's where we came to Christ.

In which you used to live. We lived in our transgressions and sins when you followed the ways of this world. Underline or circle world. When you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air. If you're reading King James, the prince and power of the air. That's the devil. So underline that or mark it. You can write off to the side, the devil or Satan.

The spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings, and in NIV it says, . Sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. If you notice, there's a footnote there. If you're reading NIV, it's sinful nature. And if you go down to the bottom of the page, which people don't like to read footnotes.

But read the footnotes and these things. Down at the bottom of the page, it says, or flesh. I like flesh. Sinful nature expounds on the idea of the flesh. So that's not, you don't get the idea. It's just your skin and your blood. But it's everything contained in this physical body that makes up our soul and our flesh. So what you have there is the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The three things that influence us. Before. The spirit of God came. Before we came to Christ and the spirit of God came in and resided with us. The things that we just were blown along by the weather vane of this world that influenced us were the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now you go back to James chapter 3 and verse 15. And he says, the wisdom from this world doesn't come down from heaven if it has bitter envy and all.

But it's earthly of the world. It's unspiritual of the flesh. And it's of the devil. So the world, the flesh, and the devil are the enemies of the believer. And the wisdom of this world is made up of the world system. The flesh, and the devil. And we'll look at each one of those individually as we come through this study. This is the type of wisdom. This man-made wisdom that's earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil is the wisdom that approaches God as if he does not exist.

It takes the world view and world view. Don't let that pick up on what that means because you interpret life based upon your world view. You interpret how things are going. Stock market's going up. You go, things are going great in this world. Employment is doing great in this world. If you're looking at a world view of this world system. But if you have a world view from the Bible, you understand these things.

I don't know if you follow it or not. Follow, just watch the 5 o'clock news or the 10 o'clock news and follow the Dow Jones. Up 153 points. Down 89 points. Up 65 points. Down 28 points. Up 130 points. Down 75 points. It has just, it's ready to die. It is going nuts. It's like a top that's been spinning and now it's starting to wobble. And that's exactly what it's doing before it falls.

It falls clear over. That's a world view that says God's in control. God said things were going to happen like this and I'm watching that. And I'm not taking it at the world's value. I'm not taking it at what the world lays out as being what's going on. I'm following it with God's word. That's a Christian or a biblical world view. But man's wisdom is based on a world view that says God does not exist.

And its foundation for that is evolution. Its foundation for that is evolution. Evolution is not simply a theory anymore. Evolution is embraced by society. It's embraced by the world's system. You may say, well, no, no, I'm a Christian. I believe that God created. I don't believe in evolution. I just give it space. Well, you gave it space long enough to where it's the influence of the world's ideas and attitudes.

I mean, everybody you see anymore who is an authority, quote unquote, says the Earth is, you know, several billion years old and dinosaurs were here 65 million years ago. And the two latest movies that are the hot movies, Dante's Peak and I don't know if you saw Asteroid on TV the other night, but it is a, it was a movie preparing and conditioning the mindset of this country for what's coming in the FEMA society. But those, all of those, you know, well, you know, 65 million years ago or 45 million years ago, the volcanoes came and an asteroid hit the ground and it sent stuff up and we had the Ice Age. The Ice Age came along and that's what killed the dinosaurs.

Not according to the word of God, but you see, we've just sucked that in. The evolutionary concept is just accepted as that's exactly what happened. And it's, there's no evidence for that. The visible evidence, tangible scientific evidence, goes along and supports creation, supports a global flood. But the wisdom of the world has sucked the minds of the world into just assuming that

evolution is right and that's what's being taught in the schools. You can't teach creation alongside of it. It's banned. It's a religion. And there's more scientific evidence for creation than there is for evolution. But evolution, you see, the purpose of evolution is it removes now man's responsibility and accountability to an almighty God. Evolution allows me to just, I can do what I want to do.

I mean, I can make up my own rules. What's right for me doesn't have to be right for you. I mean, if you were in my situation, if you were in my shoes, and I had to make this decision, and I did this, it's based upon these characteristics and these things that happened. So I made that decision. You can't tell me I'm wrong because it's just what happened over here.

And if you were over here, you would have probably done the same thing. So you can't tell me that I was wrong. That's situational ethics. Based upon the idea that I don't have anybody that I'm responsible to answer to or accountable to. See, that's the foundation for man-made wisdom. It's earthly. It is earthly. It's based upon the world system. Which says God doesn't exist, so you're not responsible to God.

You're not accountable to God. And you have these kind of attitudes and goals and needs and purposes and morality that emphasizes a tolerance and an individual's rights. I have the right to, see, that's the world. That's the world system. I have a right. I don't have to put up with this. Again, where the Bible tells us that I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.

For me to live is Christ. To die is gain. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.19, I will destroy. Actually, Paul's quoting God speaking through Isaiah in Isaiah 29. When he says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. The intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. God is saying that man's worldly wisdom is finally going to come to nothing. But God's wisdom is the wisdom that will endure forever.

And as Christians, you and I have to be cautious of the wisdom that is earthly. Because it's attractive. And it's what we are hit with. We are bombarded with all of our waking minutes. It presents an inaccurate worldview. It denies the existence and the power and the authority and the accountability and the responsibility to God. It's earthly. It's unspiritual is the second word that's used here to describe it.

It's unspiritual. The word in the Greek is psuchikos. It's from the Greek word psuche, from which we get our English word psyche. It can refer to the soul. So it can refer to soulish. In 1 Corinthians 2.14, the same word psuchikos is translated natural in the English. And in Jude 19, it's translated sensual. And I like that word. Sensual is a 90s kind of word.

When I say sensual, what do you think of? Hmm, maybe things you shouldn't think of. But that's the idea here. See, sensual literally implies that there's a wisdom that comes from man's fallen nature. It's apart from God. It's part of his psuche, part of his soul that's separated from God. And its emphasis is on the sensual, on the senses, on the feelings. And so it has the idea of,

if it feels good, do it. That was the slogan several years ago. Now we've gotten to the point where we've erased all that and we just go, swish, just do it, you know. If you want to do it, just do it. That's the sensual. That's how I'm doing it because I have that desire. I'm going to move towards that. I want to appease my senses. I'm just going to do it. And then there's of the devil.

It's earthly. It's sensual or unspiritual, separated from God, based on the senses of man. And it's of the devil or it's devilish. Literally, in the Greek, it means demonic. It's demonic. The wisdom of the world has as its foundation the characteristics of Satan, the characteristics of the devil, who is the deceiver. Jesus, when he was talking to the Pharisees, said,

You are like your father, the devil. He was a murderer and a liar from the beginning. Characteristics of Satan. What characterizes our world system today? They had four murders this week in Wichita. Four. We're competing with the big cities. Talk about growth, man. We've got municipal growth here. We're killing more, just like Satan. Genesis chapter 3, the deception that Satan used on Eve was to deceive her,

thinking that he was seeking her best interest. This fruit will make you what? Wise. Wisdom. You'll be like God, knowing good from evil. It's the wisdom fruit. And Eve, you deserve a break today. Right? That's the wisdom that's devilish. You deserve. It seeks to elevate self. You deserve. You don't have to put up with that. Dear Abby's second letter. You don't have to put up with that.

You deserve. You deserve to be treated. You deserve to be. You deserve. What does God's word say? You deserve death. It's by his mercy that you and I breathe. We have become his slaves. Servants, do with me, Lord, what will bring you glory. I am as an unprofitable servant. If you're like me, I hate that parable. I don't like the story of the unprofitable servant.

Because I know that's what I'm supposed to be like. I want to serve and have God just every time I do something. If I do something great, go, wow, am I proud of you. You know, you do such a good job. And really, he does. I don't want to diminish that at all. But in the parable of the unprofitable servant, we're doing it simply because he's the master, we're the servant.

That's the reason we're doing it. And Jesus said when the guy came in after working all day in the fields, and he came in, and the master said, fix me my dinner, and he fixed him his dinner, and then he could go eat. He didn't commend him because he's an unprofitable servant. That's what he's there for. He's a servant to serve. That's what he equates it to us as believers.

Yes, there was a servant. There will be rewards. And we need to understand that. Yes, there is glory. Yes, there is blessing. Yes, God loves us, and he delights in us. But we also have to remember we are unprofitable servants. And to have the idea of demanding, and I have a right, has just removed lordship from the throne of God in heaven and placed it in your hands.

And that's not in here. Yes, Lord, whatever your desire is, Lord. You know my needs, the Bible says. You will provide my needs, the Bible says. But wisdom that is from the devil says, I have a right. I am me-centered. I mean, man, we get impatient if there's more than two people in line at a store. Where's another checker? We've been conditioned to that by our world's wisdom.

That's the wisdom of the world. The fruit of the Spirit is, one of them, is patience. That's also in here, as we look down here in the next few verses. And you see, as we're giving advice, we're using our tongue. And our tongue is going to give some kind of advice. And somebody's going to come to you and say, I've got this situation going on at home. I've got this situation going on at school.

I have a teacher who's this. I have somebody at work who's doing this. I have a husband or a wife who's doing this. What should I do? And you're going to dispense something. And it's either going to be the wisdom of the world that says, you don't have to, just do it. Or it's going to be the wisdom of God, which is harder to dispense. Which is right. And you and I, listen, listen, we are accountable for either one to God.

And so James is wanting us to understand, you better know where they originate. And you better know what the characteristics, how they operate. And you really better know what the outcome is. Because you're going to be held accountable. There's a wisdom that's of the world that is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish. But then secondly, there's a wisdom that's heavenly.

Verse 15, he starts off by saying that such wisdom, the wisdom that is filled with bitter envy and selfish ambition, we'll talk about that in the next couple of weeks, does not come down from heaven. Verse 17, but the wisdom that comes from heaven. James says back in chapter 1, verse 17, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. So as Christians, we look to heaven for our wisdom.

We look to God, who dispenses His wisdom. We acknowledge a Creator. And from Him, we receive the wisdom. He gives us foundation. He gives us eternal truth. This is truth. Black and white. No gray, where this is concerned. He gives us absolutes, rather than situational ethics. Proverbs 9, verse 10. Solomon says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. I want you to maybe write that down, Proverbs 9, verse 10. And look at it this week. Because I know it's a verse you've heard before. But often it's a verse we fail to think about and meditate on. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now, he's not talking about specifically that I have to be shaky afraid of God.

Although that's understood. The main thing he's acknowledging is to realize that He's there. To realize that God is there and He is sovereign. If He is sovereign, He created. If He created, He created with purpose. If He created with purpose, then there's a responsibility I have to respond to the purpose for which He created me. And if He did that, then I'm accountable to Him for that purpose.

And it better rattle your socks. Because that's the beginning of wisdom. That's where it starts. When you come to that point that you realize that God is, and that He's a designer, a creator who is involved. He's not separated. He didn't create the world and start spinning and go off to Tahiti or somewhere on a vacation. He's intimately involved, intricately involved, has a purpose,

has a responsibility for your life, for the lives in which you come in contact, that He wants to speak through you too. And you are responsible to Him for that. And you will account to Him for that. That's where wisdom begins. But then Solomon goes on in the rest of that verse, in verse 10 to say, And knowledge of the holy is understanding. And that's where NIV does render it a little better.

Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So when you know that He's there, and you're accountable to Him, that's the beginning of where you begin to understand how the rest of life works. But then to know Him, to get into a relationship where you're growing in knowing Him, that's understanding. I know He exists. Well, you've got some wisdom then. You realize that the stuff that's happening in the world happens for a purpose.

Even senseless stuff like the shooting of this 19-year-old girl in Wichita. I can't tell you the whys, but I know God knows things that seem senseless. God is allowing for purposes beyond our understanding. I can't answer them, but God knows. And so as I grow in my knowing of Him, I grow in understanding. When you were growing up and me, and the reason I'm sharing this is because this is usually where we have

the first encounters. It says we're children, and we're in school, and we see those in school that are different from us. Usually they have deformities or impediments that are visible by braces or missing limbs or cleft palates. There's a lot of kids with cleft palates when I was growing up in elementary school, and I was guilty. I joined right in with the rest of the world system and made fun of them, made fun of the deformities.

There's one kid that had a particular deformity, and at first I was part of making fun of until I had the opportunity. I was actually forced into the opportunity of getting to know him. And as I got to know him, I got to see why he did what he did, and I got close to that guy. And so as the other guy started making fun of him, I stood up for him, for his defense, because, you see, I'd gotten to know him.

And I understood why he did what he did, the way that he did it. And see, God is doing and moving and has ways that are beyond ours. And we have situations at times where we feel like cursing Him for what He's doing until we take time to get to know Him. See, there's understanding. Knowing that He's there, fearing Him in that way is the beginning of wisdom.

But the knowledge of Him, taking time to just spend with Him and getting to know Him and getting to know His heart, getting to know the extent of His love, which is unfathomable. It's unmeasurable, the love that He has for you, the mercy that He's extended to you. As you get to know that, as you get to see that and realize that, you'll see it in your daily life. And when you do, it humbles you before Him.

That's knowledge. That's knowledge. That's heavenly wisdom. So knowing Jesus is where heavenly wisdom begins. Getting to know Him, moving into that relationship with Him. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 23 and 24, Paul writes, But we preach Christ crucified. He is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

You want to know what's going on in the world? You want to have wisdom to answer those that are coming to you daily and having questions about how to function in life? Know Jesus. You draw closer to Him. You spend time with Him. Because knowing Him is the wisdom, you'll gain then the insight to know how to share. And you may have to share with somebody. I don't know all of it.

I can't give you just a pat answer for this, but I know that we need to pray. I know that we need to seek Him. I know that we need to wait. And I know in a day where two people in line calls for another checker, waiting is a foreign word. But you teach them that by your example, as your patient, as you wait with them and wait for them. They need to get to know Jesus.

Colossians 2, 3, Paul writes, Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the wisdom and knowledge that you and I need for this world to function in this life are hidden in Christ. I like the terminology. They're there. They're in Him. We know He's there. We need to go find them. So we need to find, we need to get into Him to find those treasures.

It involves an active search, an active effort to draw out those treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Knowing Jesus is the beginning. We need to find that the Word of God gives us the wisdom of God. You want to know Jesus? Best way to know Jesus is in the Word. They build on each other. You get into the Word of God. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 15. He tells him in the first part of chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, how bad things are going to get.

People are going to turn away. They're going to become brutal. They're going to become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. From such turn away. Don't get drawn into that, Timothy. But I'm convinced of greater things for you, he says, for how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures. You've known the Word of God, which are able to make you wise.

It's the Word of God that's able to make you wise. And he goes on, that verse goes on, verse 15. Wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That's where wisdom comes. Again, man's wisdom is based on reason. God's wisdom is based on revelation. There's going to be times that you're going to be in a situation that does not compute. It doesn't reason out.

And you're going to spiral down into despair until you realize God's in control. And it stops right there. And I don't understand it all, but the more I see of you, Lord, the more peace and comfort and understanding I'll have in the midst of this. And that's revealed to us through the Word. It's the Word that gives us, that makes us wise in our faith in Christ.

Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. Moses is not going to be able to go into the Promised Land with the children of Israel. And so one of the final things he says to them before they go in, in Deuteronomy 4, verses 5 and 6, he says, See, I have taught you decrees and laws. I've given you God's Word. I've taught you decrees and laws, as the Lord my God commanded me,

so that you may follow them. In the land you're entering to take possession of. Then he goes on in verse 6 to say, Observe them carefully, for this, What? What's the this? Observing the laws. Observe the laws carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations. So as they observe the laws of God, it's going to declare to the nations around them their wisdom and understanding.

The nations will see that and they will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. That's what James is trying to say here in chapter 3, verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life and deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. It's evident in your life. You will speak it. The wisdom that you hold to reverberates through your speech.

The workings of faith, if God is at work in you, it will reflect itself. It will reverberate in the things that you say. It will be evident to the world around you if you're walking in the ways of the Lord and the ways of the world. So, knowing Jesus is the beginning for us as Christians. We know him by the word. We also gain knowledge of him and his wisdom through prayer.

I mean, this is all stuff you and I know. We gain knowledge of him and wisdom of him through prayer. Back in chapter 1, verse 5, James says, If any of you lacks wisdom, you're in the middle of a squeeze. You're in the middle of a difficult trial. You're being squeezed and you need to know what to do. If you lack wisdom, ask. That means pray. It's not, now I lay me down asleep.

I lay me down asleep and pray to the Lord and soul keep. It's, God, I need your help. How many of you, in the situations that you've been in the last week or two, have cried out to God? Hold your finger here and James, go back to Proverbs chapter 2. Proverbs chapter 2. The church in America is not a powerful church because the church in America is not a praying church.

The church in America runs through the motions. They want to build the bigger buildings, have all the programs and take care of all the kids and all the adults and all the singles and all the couples, and they don't pray. And they base their Christianity on activity and function rather than on a relationship with God. They run with the Most High God. And so when problems come in the church today,

we run to counselors, we run to other people, but we fail to cry out to the Lord. And that's one of the things I'm excited about about the Impact World Tour that's coming is it's causing the church in this area to stir its prayer light up and cry out to God. Solomon writes in chapter 2, my son, verse 1, if you accept my words and store up my commands, he's talking about wisdom within you, now follow all the verbs, follow all the verbs. Verse 2, turning your ear to wisdom.

Applying your heart to him. And understanding. If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. How many times in the last two weeks

in the series of trials and difficulties that you've been going through, have you turned your ear towards wisdom, where you take time to just sit before the Lord and pray? Have you applied your heart to understanding, crying out to God? Have you called out to him for insight? Have you cried out to him for understanding? Have you looked for it through prayer

and through his word as for a hidden treasure? We just read where all the wisdom and knowledge of God are hidden in Christ. Have you cried out? Have you looked for it? Or have you just gone and talked to somebody in the world and gotten worldly wisdom? You deserve a break today! Let's do it! Knowing Jesus, being in the word of God helps us to know Jesus. Through prayer we gain wisdom as God speaks to our hearts

and it's directed by the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1.17, the spirit of God is called the spirit of wisdom and revelation. He directs us in the wisest path that we should walk as we trust in the word of God and pray. The spirit of God will direct. As you take the time to seek the Lord, as you take the time to cry out to him for understanding, as you take the time to sit before him

and seek him out in his word, and pray, he will direct. Again, it comes down to where have you spent your time this week? Gaining insight from the wisdom of the world? Finding out who's leaving whose wife to be with who on another world of the days of our lives? Learning that you don't have to put up with that, that there's somebody else right around the corner?

Or have you been spending time crying out, calling upon, seeking the wisdom that God has? The only true source of wisdom is God. Period. If you seek it anywhere else, you're asking for trouble. And we'll get to that as we get to the outcomes of these two wisdoms. Next week we'll look at the operations. You see, God has given us in his word the way to identify the two wisdoms.

One is earthly and sensual and delish. It has characteristics that manifest themselves. And that's in these verses. The other one is godly. It's from heaven. It comes down from above. Its source is in Christ. Revealed through the word. Revealed through prayer. Directed by the spirit of God. It's in these verses. It shows us the characteristics of that. How they operate.

So when this little thing flaps, what's coming out of it is either from God or from the world because of the characteristics that you're encouraging. And again, we're going to be accountable to God for that. Let's stand together. Let's just take a minute as we close and let the Lord search our hearts as we've been through this time in his word. And if there are areas in our own lives

where we have been dispensers of a bitter water seeking to direct someone and we've directed them in the ways of the world and God's spirit's bringing that to our attention right now, let's just take a minute and ask him to forgive us and to cleanse us from unrighteousness and to set his word in our hearts. That we might seek him this week. That we might seek his wisdom. That we might look for it.

That we might dig at it through his word. That we might cry out unto him in prayer. That we might call aloud for him. That we might look as though we were looking for a precious metal for that that the Lord has for us because he wants to speak. He wants to give us the wisdom. Not only that we need for what we need to do but for what we need to advise others

that will come to us this week. Father, we have a fresh day, a fresh week ahead of us. Lord, we are your vessels and our tongues are mighty instruments, mighty tools and you're warning us of that. And this week, Lord, we have people in our care, people in our surroundings, people in our jobs, people at our schools, that we will encourage and influence one way or the other and we are held accountable for that.

God, you've empowered us. You've given us the opportunity to draw upon your spirit, draw upon the power of your spirit to speak your truth. We also know that 24 hours a day we're being influenced by the wisdom of the world. So, Father, help us to set our hearts and our minds on things above and not on things of the earth and give us that right word for those that we'll come in contact with this week.

Father, it's exciting to see your spirit moving in this area and we anticipate the time of revival coming. May we be given over to prayer. May we be given over to prayer in a new way, in a way that maybe we've never been before. Father, pray for those around us. Lord, if there's anyone here who has maybe been bouncing up and down with their relationship, right now they call out unto you

and seek your face and draw close. May those here that have just been kind of bouncing in and out of church and never really made that commitment, may they know that to seek you through Christ is the beginning of wisdom. And getting to know you, getting to know Jesus is understanding. Lord, we look to you now and wait to hear your word. In Jesus' name. Revive us, O Lord.

Revive us, O Lord. And cleanse us from our impure impurities. And lead us home to rest in your love. Amen. Amen.