Sermon Transcript
Pastor Jeff:
Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. And Lord, we are so excited because we believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that Lord you speak and we want to hear you today. That's part of the reason that we gathered and bringing you worship is to hear directly from you so that you could instruct us and guide us, admonish us, challenge us, love us, show us how we can be more conformed to the image of Christ. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord speak directly to you, who will believe what the Lord says, and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. People are looking for answers.
You're looking for answers. It's interesting that even after we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ that we're still looking for answers. We spend our lives trying to figure out who God is. Is God real? Is he true? And we learn through the church the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose, that he is the incarnate Christ. He is God in flesh. He laid down his life on a cross, he rose from the dead. If you're willing to turn from your sin and trust Jesus, greatest news on the planet, you can have life and have life in His name forever and ever amen. The challenge is many people in the church think that that's the only purpose of the church. That's the only purpose. That's the only reason we exist.
Just tell people the gospel and then go on your way. And so there's a lot of people that have truly trusted Christ, but then they're looking for answers outside of Christ. They're looking for gurus in their life, spiritual gurus that know more about that than what Jesus does or marriage gurus or financial gurus, relationship gurus, any kind of guru you can find because the church is only, they say, for the gospel of Jesus Christ and getting you to heaven, but once you're born again, then you need to find people that are really smart and really wise to help you with life's big challenges. I'm here to tell you that's wrong. I'm here to tell you that Jesus Christ embodies wisdom and wisdom is skillful living put on display. And he wants you to know that if you've come to him as your personal Lord and Savior, that he has answers for all things.
He has ways he can instruct you no matter what you're going through. And if you have questions, Jesus has answers. And it's important that we understand this because as we've been going through the book of James talking about how it is that we walk our talk when we go through trials and temptations and how we receive the word of the Lord and how we have faith and works and how those combine together and how we control our tongue, if we're really going to be the people that God wants us to be, men, women, boys, and girls, we better know how to go to Jesus to get the answers that we need for all the aspects in our life. We better know that Jesus is willing to direct us if we have genuine questions about what we need to do. And so if you're looking for answers today, I got a word for you.
I believe the Lord has a way for you to get the answer. And to do that, we're going to be in James chapter three today, James chapter three, starting in verse 13 and I'd like to read through these six verses and then let's unpack them together because I want to tell you something this morning. Wisdom works. Wisdom works. The full embodiment of Jesus Christ's wisdom being put on display in your life works. Wisdom works. Listen to the text. He says, "Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show it by his good behavior and deeds and the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil thing, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy."
"And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." And here in this text, Jesus is telling us that wisdom works. The Lord is showing you that wisdom works and I'm going to show three ways that wisdom works. If you're looking for answers in your life, and all of us are, in different seasons of our life and for different reasons in our life and we're trying to figure out, "How do I make it through this life and what do I need to do now? I find myself in a new circumstances and new relationships and new things that are going on. How do I make the decisions that God wants me to make?" We're going to talk about three ways that wisdom will work. And the first is this, wisdom works when demonstrated by our behaviors and attitudes. Wisdom works, and I will tell you this, it only works when demonstrated by our behaviors and attitude.
Notice what he says. "Who among you is wise in understanding?" He's asking the question, "Who among you is demonstrating skilled living? Who is it that you know that you're watching put into practice the very things of God? Who is it that's understanding who has the acumen, who has the understanding, who has the teaching to know all things?" He's going to answer it for us. Here's how you know who it is. "Let him show," that means to demonstrate it, "By his good behavior. His deeds in the gentleness of wisdom." People that have wisdom live wisely. That's what the text is saying. People that are wise are practitioners. They're not just scholars. Sometimes we have this idea that wisdom is like Yoda. There's this being out there that just has all the answers that if we can just get to that being, it'll tell us exactly what to do.
Or Mr. Miyagi. If we can just get to Mr. Miyagi, then he'll show us how to wax on wax off. Don't you love all these '80s references today? Listen, wisdom is in the person of Jesus and you can experience wisdom when you put into practice what the Lord is showing you to do. That's how you become wise. It's not just knowing what to do, it's doing it. Who is wise and understanding? Here's who is. The ones who are doing the very things God tells them to do, not just the ones who are talking about it, not just the ones who are saying, "Here's what you should do." These are the people that are actually experiencing it because this is what they actually do. Do you see that? And he says, "These deeds are done in such a way," he says in verse 13, "In the gentleness of wisdom." This word gentleness means the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one's own self-importance.
You can't live out God's design for you if you think you're more important than God. You can't live out God's design for you if you think you're more important than the other people in your life. You can't do it. Wisdom is put on display when we have honor for God and we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and we love our neighbor as ourself. And then we hear God and we know how it is we can honor him and how we can love others. That's how wisdom is put on display. That's how it looks like. And it's manifested in our good behavior and deeds. Wisdom is active. It's not passive. It shows up in how you live, in your behaviors, in your actions, in your attitudes. It's more than knowledge. It's more than understanding. It's skillful living that's demonstrated.
And there's a difference between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Knowledge is the facts. Knowledge is the truth. Just give me the facts. If I know what you're saying, then I know the truth. I can see all of it. I know it. That's knowledge. Understanding is how do you take that truth and piece it all together? How do you put it all together? How does all of that work? And then wisdom is when you know the truth and you know how it works that you step into it and you start acting accordingly. And that's the difference. Many people abort the process because they refuse to actually do the very thing God wants them to do. That's why I pray at the beginning of every sermon, "This is what I'm praying for." That you would hear the Lord. What's that? That's knowledge. That you would believe what he says. That's faith, that's understanding.
"Oh, I see how that works." And then you do what? You would put into practice what he shows you. That's wisdom. That's skillful living. That means every time that you study the word, hear the word, hear the word proclaimed, you should be asking the question, "What is God as a result of what I'm hearing today asking me to do, asking me to start doing, or is he asking me to stop doing something or is he asking me to start doing something in a different way than what I was doing it before I heard this?" Why? Because God is constantly trying to conform you to the image of Christ. So there's always going to be something in his living and active word as you hear him where you're going to have insight and you're going to see knowledge like, "I didn't know that." Or there's going to be understanding.
"I finally see how this works." And then wisdom is, "Now that I see how it works, I'm stepping into that because I'm going to actually put into practice what the Lord showed me." And here's what God cares about. Wisdom, skillfully living out God's requirements. That's what he wants from you. And for many of us, we think wisdom comes from outside the church. So everything's good with Jesus until we have a problem in our marriage, then we go see a marriage counselor and everything's good with Jesus until we have a problem with our child, then we got to go see a kid's counselor and everything's good until we have a financial problem, then we got to go see a financial counselor. And let me tell you this, I'm not against counseling outside the church. I'm just not, provided that the center of that, first and foremost, is what Jesus Christ is saying and that you're not forsaking what Jesus is saying.
That's what he wants us to do. Just think about this. Think about how knowledge, understanding, and wisdom works. Let me just give you an example. Let's say somebody says, "I can't pay my bills. I just don't have it." And so we sit down and we get knowledge and they say, "We make $5,000 a month and here's what comes in. Let me show you where it all comes in. And we spend $7,000 a month. Here's where it all goes out. We can't pay our bills. We're $2,000 shy," or multiply by 10. You make $50,000 a month, but you have $70,000 a bill or multiply it by 100. You make a half a million dollars a month and you spend 700,000 a month. There's a problem. That's just knowledge. We have a problem. Now most people stop at knowledge and here's what they would say.
We make 5,000, we spend 7,000, here's the problem. We see it's a problem, we agree it's a problem, right? And then what do most people say? "I just need more money. I need more money. If I made $10,000, then I'd have a surplus of 3000. Just give me more money. That's all I need." And then we have prayer conferences. Pray that God gives me more provision. But we don't want to stop at knowledge, we want to continue and go to understanding. Why is this happening? And so we take a look at, "Well what are you spending on?" "Well, last month I spent $5,000 on extra furniture I didn't need and I bought this picture and I didn't need that and I went to the Broncos game and I couldn't afford that and I did this and this and this." Well here's an idea. Maybe don't spend what you don't have because if we just give you more money and you have a problem that's spiritual, you're still going to have the problem even if you have more money 'cause if you have $10,000, you're going to spend 13.
Do you see the problem? So wisdom then would dictate, "I'm going to spend less than what I make. So maybe it's not that I need more money, but I need to be faithful with what God shows me. And then as I look at money, I see God's principles for money and I begin to realize that there's two words that God says for people who are broke that they're probably not doing." Number one is this, generosity. Are you generous with the things God gives you back to him? Many people that are broke aren't 'cause one of the reasons that they're broke is that they'll never have enough because they don't realize their source is God and they need to give to God first. So they're not generous and number two is this, contentment. It's a bad word in North America. Contentment means I'm content with everything I have. I'm going to use everything I have for the glory of God. If this is what I have, I'm going to steward that well and I'm going to trust in anything else I need is the Lord's.
That's wisdom. And if you don't have much, you can still have wisdom. You can still use what God wants you to do. Years ago, 30 years ago, when I started out in ministry, I didn't make much money. I made $1,000 a month. That's what I was given. I was given a parsonage that was about a 10th the size of this stage and I had a car that was paid for and I said, "Okay. Lord, I'm learning what to do." So I put $2,000 aside for taxes. I gave $100 to the church. I lived off $700 a month and I ended up saving half of it. So by the time I went to my first year of seminary, I paid for the whole thing myself and I learned those principles. I'd have friends call me living in Chicago, "Hey, you want to come up and visit me?"
I'm like, "I cannot afford $35 to park for the night. No, I'm not coming." Couldn't do it. Not in that season. Now am I trying to tell you that you're spiritual if you can live off $1,000 a month? I don't know that I could do that anymore honestly with a family of five. That's not the point. The point is how are you generous with what you have? How are you grateful with what you have? How are you content with what you're having? How do you steward what you have for others? How can you thank God for what you have? That's what wisdom looks like. And it can be in any aspect of your life, right? What about marriage? And you say, "My marriage stinks." Kim and I could sit down with you and listen to you and say, "You are correct."
All right. And the husband could give his case and we'd be like, "He's right." And the wife could give her case and be like, "You're right." And what happens is is when you start having feelings about how bad things are, then you start to make poor decisions. We don't love each other anymore. We're done. Well let's understand how we got here. All right. Let's take a look at God's word. Why is that? Well she this and he that. No, no. Time out. Let's take a look at you first and then we'll take a look at you next. Just to give you an example from my own life. When Kim and I got married and we went through premarital counseling, which I highly recommend, we aced it. Premarital counseling was easy because when they kept telling us about the things that we were going to experience in marriage, both of our attitudes were like, "Yeah, I'm sure some people do, but not us. We're in love."
You don't understand. She's a believer. I'm a believer. She shares the same values, I share the same values. She's from a good family. I'm from a good family. We don't have y'all's baggage. Premarital, a breeze. Postmarital was a little harder because we would be in there and I remember the counselor would open his bible up and he would be reading to us. And I remember sometimes I'm like, "You don't understand. Let me explain to you more about her." And she would say, "You don't understand. Let me explain to you a little more about him." And I remember two specific incidents. Kim will remember them correctly. She will. Won't you? Ask her.
There was one night we left counseling and I was so frustrated 'cause I felt like I got picked on the whole night and we got in the car to drive away and I was like, "That was the worst way we've ever spent time ever." She's like, "That was the best counseling session we've ever had. He totally gets you." And the very next week we went and I went reluctantly and we got in the car and it was awesome. I'm like, "Baby, that was incredible." She's like, "I'm never going again." Why? Because God's wisdom has a way of coming into your life and laying across you and saying, "You know what? You need to change." And yeah, this has been hard and this has been difficult, but it's not just, hey, hit the easy button or get a divorce or break up or do this or do that or whatever. It's here's what God says and here's who you need to be and wrestle with this and struggle with this.
I heard a story this week, and some of you'll be familiar with this, about a little boy that was watching a butterfly come out of a cocoon and he was having a hard time 'cause as he's watching the butterfly come out of this little hole and really work on his wings, he felt bad for the butterfly and so he went and got some cuticle scissors and cut through the cocoon to make a bigger opening for the butterfly, thinking he was helping. Only to find out when the butterfly got out, it didn't have strong enough wings to fly or do anything. And then he learned that it was through the process of the butterfly getting through that little hole that made its wings strong enough so that it would be able to fly. Translation. Sometimes when you're going through what you're going through, God is not looking for the easy button to get you out. God gave you a narrow way so that you have to struggle and wrestle with him so that you grow in wisdom, knowledge, and stature and you can grow in wisdom and skilled living over time.
That's what he's talking about. And wisdom only works when it's demonstrated. It's the idea, you got to practice what you preach. You hear me on Sundays, and if you come up to me and tell me, "Hey, that was a great message. Really love that." I promise you that during the week I was being challenged. There's never been a week where I've read the word and I've been like, "Oh. I can't wait to preach this one. Those guys really need to hear this." I read it and I'm challenged. I read it and God reads me and I've got to change and I'm in the process of being transformed in the same way that you are. And we've got to trust his process and what he wants for us. And the same would be true, I know we talk about married people, but in singles the same is true for you.
How come I'm not married? How come I can't meet the right one? This stinks. I hate being single. I get it. So here's what I'm going to do. As a result, I'm just going to go try to find somebody. Nah. Probably wouldn't try to do that. Why are you single? What's going on? Is there something God's trying to build during this season? I remember asking God for a long time, "Why am I still single? Why am I still single?" I didn't get married until I was 34. I thought I would've been married a decade earlier. But after being married and looking back, there's no way I would've finished seminary. There's no way I would've prepared myself for ministry. There's no way I would've met my wife. All these things, but I, on my timeframe, had it figured out differently than God had it figured out. But why? What's the wisdom God has? What's he trying to show you about you in this season so that you can live skillfully in the way God wants you to so that you can be the most impactful in honoring him and in serving others.
That's wisdom. Wisdom is not about your comfort, it's about his glory, amen. And it's demonstrated by our behaviors and attitudes. You want to find somebody that has wisdom? Find people that are doing it the right way or growing in it the right way. Don't just find somebody who can talk about it. Anybody can talk about it. Anybody can talk about evangelism. Anybody can talk about marriage. Anybody could talk about finances. Anybody could talk about the word. Find somebody who's living it and ask them, "How do you live this?" Wisdom works when demonstrated by our behaviors and attitudes and oh by the way, your faith and obedience to living it first is what gives you the wisdom to understand how it works. Let me say it again. I can teach you on tithing. I can tell you that it works. I can tell you that God will supply all of your needs according to his glorious riches when you put him first and you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
I know that, but you know how I know that? 'Cause I tried it. I didn't just say, "Well that's what the Bible says." I had to step into it and start doing it and over time, I saw how God blessed that. Right? It's one thing to know, "Hey husbands. Love your wife as Christ loved the church." I knew that before I got married, I knew that after I got married, and guess what? I'm still learning how to do it better. I still haven't arrived. Close, but I haven't arrived. That's what we're doing. We're still growing in this. We're demonstrating it by our behaviors and our attitudes. Number two is wisdom works when focused on God's word instead of on the world's pragmatism. Wisdom works when focused on God's word instead of the world's pragmatism.
Now these three verses here are super powerful. Listen. He says, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth." Now here's what he means by that. He's like, "Wisdom works, but if you have," what? "Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.' Bitter jealousy is this, it's when you ask the question, "Why do they have that and I don't? If that's in your heart, you're jealous, you have a bitter jealousy. How come they are married like that and happy? How come they have that house? How come they have that job? How come they have those relationships? How come they have that influence? How come they have that church? How come they get to do that? How come they have those clothes? How come? And I don't. That's bitter jealousy.
Bitter jealousy comes from comparison and believing that you need to have what everybody else has. It's a lack of contentment. And then there's the idea of selfish ambition. Godly ambition is good, but here's what selfish ambition asks. What do I need to do to accomplish all my desires? What do I need to do so that I can accomplish all my desires? Just so you know, that's a question most Americans ask. It's not a good question. How do I live the American dream? How do I get everything I want? How do I get it when I want it? What do I need to do to get there?
And by the way, bookstores are filled with self-help books like this question being answered. And if you don't go to bookstores, go to Amazon. They're all over the place. They're going to teach you how you can accomplish all your dreams on this side of heaven. But he says this. Now notice, if that's how you live with bitter jealousy asking, "Why do they have it and I don't? Or selfish ambition, "What do I need to do to accomplish my desires?" Here's what he says. "If you have that in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth." He says, "If you're constantly asking those two questions, you're a prideful person and you're denying the truth of God." It means you are only living for this world. If those are the two questions you're asking, if those are your two primary questions you're asking is, "How come they have it and I don't?"
I'm comparing myself to you in this world or how do I get everything I want out of this world? Who is the focus of that question? Me. And if you're living for you, you are not living for Christ. You can't serve two masters. That's what he's talking about. He says, "So when it comes the way that wisdom works, it only works when it's focused on God's word instead of the world's pragmatism and what's easy and how it works." Notice verse 15, "This wisdom, the wisdom I'm talking about, is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic." He's like, "Wisdom that comes from this world, wisdom that tells you how you can succeed in this world, wisdom that comes from how you can be the best version of you in this world, wisdom that comes from how come they have it and you don't, wisdom that comes from how can I help you be the best version of you on this side of heaven? That wisdom is earthly," meaning it doesn't come from a source above yourself. It's only about this world.
It's natural, which means it's all about yourself. And what else is it? Did you read that word? Demonic. Satanic. It's of the devil. Why? Because the devil is the prince of the power of the air. What does the devil care about? That you would focus on this world rather than the one to come. Do you hear what I'm saying here? You read a self-help book, you might have people that reference God 'cause it's a good thing to do. People like it when you do that. I just want to thank God. Okay, well who's your God? The one that made me super successful. Really? Tell me about him. Is it Jesus who died on the cross in Jerusalem? Is it the one who's the God man who was buried? Is it the one who rose? Is it the one you submitted your life to? It's the one who has authority. No, not that God. I'm just talking about God in general. I just want to thank God. All right.
Think about the books you read and the things you have and ask yourself who's the source of this? Is the source about you being successful? Is the source about you not comparing or is the source about the glorification of Jesus Christ? That's all I'm asking 'cause if it's not about glorifying Jesus and serving others, here's what you can know about that. It's earthly, it's of this world, it's natural, it's about yourself and it's this. It's demonic. According to the word of God. Now that would offend many people, but it wouldn't be the first time we've offended people in this pulpit. Now listen to this. For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, where there are people asking, "Why do they have it and I don't?" Where there are people asking, "How do I best fulfill all my desires?" Where that is going on, where that exists, there is disorder and every evil thing.
Disorder is the idea of being unstable, it's a disturbance, it's unruliness, it's instability, it's anarchy. There's every kind of evil thing when you live in a culture where people are asking why do they have it and I don't? How do I get what they have? Have you ever seen a culture like that? You ever seen anybody in the world ask questions like, "How come they have it and I don't?" You ever seen anybody asking, "How do I get where I need to go and not care about other people?" 'Cause when you have a world like that, you have massive chaos everywhere. And in case you haven't opened your eyes, we live in that world right now. That's the world we live in 'cause people aren't living by wisdom, they're not living by God's word, they're not living by his standards, they're living by pragmatism. What's easy, what works, what seems to make sense to get through this life?
Let me give you some examples. Let me give you some examples. I really felt when I was studying this that the Lord kind of put this out to me in three different groups of people. And the first two I see being earthly, natural, and demonic. The first is this, people that have a poverty mentality. People that have a poverty mentality, they think there's only a limited amount of positions, a limited amount of resources. There's only so much they can do. So if somebody else has a happy marriage, they're taking away from some of the happy marriage you could have. Somebody else has a lot of money, they're taking away from some of the money you could have. If somebody else is getting kudos about how well they're doing in the job, they're taking away from the kudos you could be getting. There's only so much to go around and it's a poverty mentality because some people might get it and if they're getting it, that means you're not going to get it. And so people like that start asking this question, "How do I become the best?"
"How do I become the best 'cause if I'm the best, then people will recognize me. If I'm the best at my job, then people will recognize me. If I'm the best in my family, then people will recognize me. If I'm the best in my neighborhood, people will recognize me. If I'm the best in my bank account, then people will have to give me it. So I'm going to focus my life on being the best. If I'm the best in school, people will tell me I'm really smart. If I'm the best on my sports team, people will tell me I'm really good. I got to be the best because there's only so much good to go around. So I'm going to exhaust myself and spend my time to be the best." You know what the problem with that is? There's always somebody better. There's always somebody with more.
You can't ever get to the pinnacle. And it's a poverty mentality that says, "There's only so much to go around. There's only so much good to be had. You're not getting as much as you could. How come they get it and you don't and then how do you organize your life so you can go get more of it?" And here's what I would ask you. What does it profit a man or a woman to gain the entire world and forfeit your soul? It's not about being the best. So what happens in this world where you get other earthly natural demonic wisdom is this, there's a group of people that will tell you in every self-help book, "No, no, no, no. It's not about that. You're off a little bit. You're off a couple degrees. It's not about you being the best. It's about you being your best. You should be asking the question, "How can I be my best?" You can't have the best marriage and you can't have the best bank account and you can't have the best pedigree, but you can be your best."
"You can have your best marriage. You can have your best bank account. You can have your best job." And we hear that and like, "That makes a lot of sense 'cause now I'm not focused on comparison. Now I can focus solely on me. Now my life can all be about me 'cause I don't even have to think about anybody else. I love this." And it gets pitched as some spiritual truth. I just want to thank God. He's made me so successful. I just want to thank God. He's given me all. I just want to thank God. Really what I'm saying is I thank God that I get to do whatever I want and as long as I have everything I have, I love God, which is really no God at all. I call this the profitability mentality. There's unlimited resources for me and how I can live if I just go after them. I can be whatever I want. I can do whatever I want. I can go after whatever I want. It's really not about me comparing myself to anybody else. I'm totally freed up from that.
You can have all the success you want and so can I 'cause I'm not competing against you. I'm just being my best self and I'm going to live profitably. You live in poverty and almost every single self-help speaker book I've ever read goes here and most human beings read that and be like, "That is genius." And God would say, "No. It's earthly, natural, and demonic because even if you have the best version of yourself and you deem yourself to have your best marriage and your best life and your best bank account and your best this and you're not living for Christ, it's worthless." So he gives us another understanding of what we should do and it's not a poverty mentality, it's not a profitability mentality. I'm not asking how I can become my best self or become the best. I'm living with an abundance mentality.
And the abundance mentality is this, how do I become God's best? If he's the one who created me and he's the one who saved me and he's the one who designed every good work I would ever do, then how do I live my life in every situation so that he gets the most glory and other people get served? And when he gets the most glory and other people get served, I get the greatest joy. How do I live that way? So when it comes to my marriage, I'm not asking, "How come she's this?" And, "How come he's that? How can they treat me better?" I'm not asking, "How can we live our best marriage now?" I'm not asking that. God, how can I be, as a man, the best husband I can ever be to my wife for your glory and to serve her? As a wife, how can I be the best wife I can to honor you and to serve him? How can we as a couple be the best for you to serve our family? How can we as a family be our best for you to serve the world? How can we as a group of people use our finances to honor you and serve others? How do we use all the gifts you've given to us to serve you and honor other people?
What does that look like? 'Cause I'll tell you what. Worldly wisdom makes a lot of sense until you unpack it. You ever heard this statement, choose a job you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life. You know who said that? Apparently Confucius. He never told me. I just read it. But what does that mean? It means if you choose what's in alignment with how you're gifted and what you do, work won't feel like work anymore. You'll actually enjoy what you do. And we hear that like, "Oh my goodness. Profitability, that would be great. I would love to wake up and enjoy what I do all the time." But that's a very different question than, "God, you've given me every single gift and every single weakness. How do I best steward everything I have for your glory and to serve other people because I know one day I'm going to stand before you and I want to know that when I meet you face to face, I can look you in the eye and say to the best of my ability I did everything you gave me for you and to serve others."
See, that's a different question because if my goal is only to be fulfilled, if my goal is only to use my gifts for me, I might come up with a different answer than if my only goal is to honor God and to serve other people. I was asking all the right questions I thought. In college I was asking all the right worldly questions. I was asking all the profitability questions. How do I best use my gifts? How do I best develop my life? How do I best figure out what I want to do? And then it began to shift. And when I began to ask God the question, "Okay, Lord. How do you want me to serve and you put me in this world and you put me in this time and you put me in this season and you gave me these gifts and you gave me these weaknesses. How could I best serve you and what will it look like when I meet you on judgment day to know that you're proud of me and I hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
That shifted the course from here to go into full-time vocational ministry. I'm doing what I'm doing because of wisdom, not because it's what I would choose to do on a jobs survey, which by the way, everyone I took it didn't have pastor. Do you see what I'm saying? And what I'm not saying is if you serve the Lord, you're called into full-time ministry. That's not what I'm saying at all. As a matter of fact, I was always scared to ask that question as many of you know because when I grew up and went to a Lutheran grade school, they would have missionaries come in from New Guinea every year and I would be five years old sitting there in the front row with all the kindergartners and they have what was called an overhead projector, which most of you don't even know what it is, and they would show slides up on the wall of people sitting around a campfire eating iguana and talking about headhunters they were sharing the gospel with.
And I didn't know a lot as a five-year-old, but I knew this as a five-year-old, don't go all in with Jesus or you're going to be in New Guinea eating iguana with headhunters. Right? And so for a long time I didn't want to ask that question, but here's what I know about the missionaries who have been in New Guinea. They love it because that's what they were created to do. Here's what I know about me. I love doing this 'cause this is what I was created to do. Here's what I know about you. If you go all in with Jesus, you will love doing what God called and created you to do. There's a higher calling that's a heavenly calling, that's a divine calling, that has all wisdom behind it that looks different than the world standard, which is just be your best. And unfortunately, even in a lot of the pulpits in America today, it's that demonic, earthly, natural wisdom of how it is you can be your best and people gobble it up by the millions saying, "Oh, so good."
"That's so wisdom and so wise." Maybe, but maybe not. Does it really honor the Lord? Does it deal with our sin condition? Does it tell Jesus Christ that he's Lord? Does it get me living differently? Does it cause me to want to change who I am? Or does it just make me feel good that I'm seemingly making a difference in the world? That's what he's talking about here. He says, "Don't deny the truth. Don't deny the truth. Don't lie against the truth. Don't be arrogant. Don't be about this world and how successful you are. Be about the Lord Jesus Christ and his wisdom. Do it God's way." Here's why. Because one day, you're going to stand in front of that God. And I want to be clear on something. If you've trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the God man who laid down his life on the cross for all your sins and died and you've repented of your sins and you've come into relationship with Christ, I want you to know, all the judgment for your sin was taking care of at the cross.
You do not need to look forward to, "How's he going to judge me something?" He's not. He's not judging your sin, but here's what is going to happen for you that are Christians. You will still stand before him to give an account for your life and here's what he's going to ask you. "I know you trusted me. Welcome home. I love you. What did you do with everything I gave you for my glory? How did you advance the kingdom? How did you share the gospel? How did you live out my faith through you? How did you do that?" 'Cause there's rewards for that. And so Christian, listen to me. It's not just about being born again so you can go to heaven. That's called new birth. That's day one. That's the beginning. Then there's a whole life of how do I live skillfully for God so that I'm living on mission for him so that when I see him, here's what I'm going to hear, "Well done good and faithful servant."
"You stewarded what I gave you for my glory. You stewarded what I gave you to serve others. I use your life for good. Well done. Enter my rest." That's the question we should be asking. Christian you don't need to fear. You don't need to fear judgment at the judgment seat of Christ. Judgment took place on the cross for those of you who believe, but as a Christian if that's what took place, then God's holding you to a standard of how to live wisdom out in your life in a world that is dying to see people walk their talk with Jesus. Amen. So wisdom works. Wisdom works. We can give God praise for wisdom. Amen.
Wisdom works when demonstrated by our behaviors and attitudes. Wisdom works when focused on God's word instead of pragmatism. Pragmatism is this feels right. It feels easy. Sometimes God's word does not feel good. Sometimes God's word feels very discomforting. Sometimes God's word when you go God's way doesn't feel right. But if you take God's word at face value and believe it, changes things. Otherwise, you've always got to figure out how to retrofit God's word into this world and it'll never work. God's truth is truth. That's why wisdom works, number three, when embraced with peace and righteousness. Wisdom works when embraced with peace and righteousness. "Notice the wisdom that comes from above," verse 17, "Is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." See, wisdom is the foundation for all righteous living.
Notice what he says, "Wisdom first of all is pure." That means it's unsullied, it's undefiled, it's clean in thought and word and deed, it's truth. And if it's truth, it's always been truth and it will always be truth. God's wisdom is truth. It just is. Just think about, if the world just accepted, let's just take one example this morning. If the world just accepted God's truth that he created two genders, male and female, that's it. There are no others. There's no debate about it. Everybody in our culture believed that. What if people believed that? Would it change our culture? Yeah 'cause that's called wisdom 'cause it's true. And if you don't have wisdom and you don't believe God's word, then pragmatism comes in and then wokeness comes in and then you have to retrofit what you say you believe in order to fit everybody else's agenda to make them feel good.
That's not true and it's not wise. It's not wise. Let me tell you why it's not wise. Because if you are practicing a lifestyle apart from being a man or a woman and being the fullness of what God wants you to be, you are rebelling against the creator that you're one day going to meet and I love you too much to not tell you that. See, that's wisdom. It's wisdom. If you believe marriage is between a man and a woman until death threw you apart and that's all that God has and God believes in the permanence of it, you're going to view the world a lot differently. That's what marriage is. There is no other kind.
You can call whatever you want. You can call it, "Well we're in a civil union. We're in a partnership." You're in nothing according to God's standard because God's the one that joins you together and God doesn't join two men together and God doesn't join two women together and what's going to happen when people start wanting to marry their pets or their kids, which is coming by the way, and you think it's crazy and sick and demonic 'cause it is. That's why you just hold to the truth. Or what if we really believe that there's only one race of people because that's what God believes, that we're all the same race. Now we have different skin colors based upon our genetics and where we've lived geographically and all sorts of different, but there's one race and we're all of the same race.
What if we really believe what God believed? There wouldn't be racism. It's pure. God's word is pure when he says, "This is what it is," it is. Whether people believe it or not it's true. It's pure. It's always been that way. It will always be that way. Amen. It's also peaceable. Peaceable means I'll do everything I can to make the peace and keep it. I'll even lay down my life if it means that peace can be established. That's what Jesus did for us. Jesus Christ established peace by laying down his life on a cross for a group of rebellious people so that there could be peace between us and God through the mediator of Jesus Christ. Romans five says, "We now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Peace is first and foremost spiritual in our relationship with God. That translates into our love for others as long as it is up to us. Let's do everything we can to keep the peace.
It doesn't mean twist the truth so that people will be happy with you. It means I'm going to love you enough. I'm going to smile at you. I'm going to tell you, "Hey, this is the truth. This is what I believe." And here's what you need to know about our culture. If you want to just boil this down about what's earthly, natural, and demonic, I'll give you one word. You ready? Tolerance. Tolerance. That's it. 'Cause when people say tolerance, here's what they're saying. "We are tolerant about every aberrant behavior and anything you would ever desire to do no matter what it is, unless it's abiding by the full word of God and that Jesus Christ is Lord. Other than that, we'll tolerate anything." That's the culture. We don't mind that you're successful. We don't mind that you cheat on your spouse. We don't mind that you do whatever you want. You can choose whatever gender you want to be. We don't care if you mutilate kids' bodies. We don't care about borders. We don't care about anything. We don't care about nothing. We tolerate it all. We don't care about crime.
Whatever you want to do that's good for you, we're good with, unless you're going to believe in the authority of God's word and tell us that we have to believe in it too. Then we're intolerant. That's when you know that something's of the devil 'cause the devil's always intolerant of who Jesus is, but be pure. Be peaceable. You say, "Well I look at the prophets. They didn't seem very peaceable." That's because Jeremiah said all the prophets of the day were saying peace, peace, and God's saying, "Yeah, there's peace, peace, but there is no peace." There's pastors in our pulpits today that are like, "Oh, peace, peace." There's no peace in our culture today. We've wandered so far from the Lord and we've gone our own way and then we wonder, "We've sown the wind and we're going to reap the whirlwind." We're like, "Well what happened?" We left God.
We say in God we trust in our money. We might sing God Bless America at a game. None of us believe it 'cause if we did, we would stand for the truth, not only here, but out there, which we're doing by the way at Brave and I love you for it. Be gentle. Gentle means we're going to be long-suffering, not overbearing, not rude, not short. It doesn't mean we need to shout and yell at people and tell them that they're wrong all the time. It means we're going to come alongside. We're going to suffer much. We're willing to endure hardship much, all for the glory of God. It means true wisdom is reasonable. Reasonable means I'm willing to yield. I'm approachable. I'm open to reason. I'm conciliatory. Meaning I don't have all the answers. My God does. And if I've said something that's a little bit off, come talk to me. Let's figure this thing out. Let's go back to the word. Let's make sure we've got this thing right.
God's wisdom is full of mercy. That means it's compassionate and kind. It's not vindictive, especially those who have harmed you. It's forgiving. Wisdom forgives. Wisdom doesn't hold a grudge. And good fruits. Good fruits means I'm depending upon the Lord for him to yield his work in and through me. It's unwavering. It means I'm sincere. I'm genuine. I'm resolved. I'm authentic. I'm not a Christian chameleon that says one thing in the pulpit and lives another way Monday through Friday and when I do I'm quick to say, "I didn't do that right. I was wrong. Would you forgive me? It's not what I believe. That's not who I am. I'm still a sinner and I still came up short there, but what I did was wrong and I admit that." And it's without hypocrisy. It means I have integrity. It means I'm walking my talk. I'm growing stronger, more reliable, more trustworthy.
I'm walking this thing out. That's what wisdom looks like. Wisdom is not a Christian know-it-all. Wisdom is one who is putting into practice purity, peace, gentleness, reasonableness, mercy, good fruits, unwavering, and one who is without hypocrisy. And notice the result of this. It says, "In the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." When you walk in wisdom, when you walk in skillful living, when you put into practice what the Lord shows you, what's it result in? It results in righteous living. It results in a walk that looks more and more like you're conformed to the image of Christ. And when you're more and more conformed to the image of Christ, guess what? More of the prince of peace manifests himself in and through you. And when more of the prince of peace manifests himself in and through you, then what?
You take greater steps of wisdom, which results in greater righteousness, which means more of the prince of peace works through you. And so even as you go through crises, difficulties, challenges, suffering, hardship, what happens? More righteousness, more peace, more wisdom, more righteousness, more peace, more wisdom. And you meet people all the time who love the Lord like this that go through extremely difficult times, extremely difficult challenges, and you ask, "Man, I see joy in your life. What's going on?" My joy is not in my circumstances. My joy is in the Lord in my circumstances and I'm still rejoicing in him. That is wisdom.
And here's what I'm here to tell you. No matter what you're going through, "How am I going to handle this challenge with my grandchild or my child?" Or, "How am I going to handle this crisis with my parent?" Or, "How are we going to deal with this financial crisis?" Or all these different things. God's word has answers for you if you're willing to listen. And I'm encouraging you, don't just get around somebody that can tell you what they are. Get around somebody that can demonstrate what they are. You want to learn how to be generous? Get around a generous person. You want to learn how to be forgiving? Get around a forgiving person. You want to learn how to be merciful? Get around a merciful person. You want to get around somebody that embraces truth? Get around somebody that embraces the truth. The way that you grow in wisdom is getting around people that are wise.
And God wants you to be wise 'cause Jesus Christ is the only wise God. The last verse of Romans, I believe it's Romans 16:27, it says, "He's the only wise God." There's no other God that gives wisdom. There's no other God that can provide skillful living. Everything else is of this world. It's earthly. It's demonic. Friends, I'm encouraging you. We don't want to live for this world. We live in this world, but we're not of this world. And we live in this world so in this world, we want to live skillfully. In this world we want to live abundantly. And here's the truth. If you take steps the way God wants you to take steps, here's what I know about our abundant God. My God will meet all of your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. There's nothing that God ever calls you to that he doesn't have more than enough.
Individually and collectively. Whatever your vision is, he's got it. And I've seen God do this over and over and over in my life and in the lives of others. I was talking at first Tuesday about how excited I am about Brave Academy and what we've seen God do and the favor that he's placed on it. And everybody's been burdened as I spent time praying about our middle school and starting a high school and wanting to do it next year and all these different things. And I was saying, "Would you just pray with me about that? Because you know what? I have no idea how that would happen. I have no idea where we get the resources. I have no idea how we'd have the space. I don't know. I don't care. My God's able if that's what he wants to do to make that happen." Amen.
So when we walk in wisdom, the Bible says, "If you abide me and my word abides in you, ask whatever you wish and," what? "It will be done for you." Walking in wisdom, walking in skillful living, not perfectly, but increasingly, gives you the ability to ask God for anything that would bring him the most glory and serve other people the greatest. Would you be willing to ask God, "Lord, how would you like to use my life? How would you like to use me? I'm willing to do whatever, I put my hands up in the air, as long as you get the greatest glory from me and you can serve others the greatest through me, I will do and be whatever you want me to be." Not just as a one-time prayer, but an ongoing prayer for the rest of your life. I promise you as your pastor, I promise you, if you do that, there's a return on investment like you would never believe. It's out of this world.
For real, it is. And God's watching. He's looking to see whose heart is rightly related to him, who strengthens him, who's willing to take steps of faith and do that. Now I don't know about you, but when I was preparing this message, I was convicted all week. I was convicted all week about where do I take shortcuts and where do I like to listen to people that tell me how to be successful on this side of heaven and where do I think more about me than about others and where do I think more about me than about God and all that conviction thing and Lord just reminded me that I'm his. That I've been bought by the blood of Jesus. That everything is forgiven. That anytime that I go to him, I start afresh. Not because I get do-over, but because I'm already cleansed and I'm already forgiven and it's a reminder that he still loves me and he's never stopped and isn't that good news?
That's why today I want to end by taking the Lord's supper together. I want you to just hold these elements in your hand. Our worship team's going to be coming out here in a minute and leading us in a song and as they do, I want you to prepare your heart for this. As a reminder, maybe the Lord showed you something today. Here's my question. Did you hear the Lord speak to you today? Was he clear? Did he show you what you need to put into practice? And here's my exhortation. Go put into practice whatever it is that the Lord showed you. That's how you're going to grow in wisdom. If you're faithful with little steps, he'll make you faithful with bigger steps. That's what he does. But if you feel convicted today and say, "I'm not living wise," or, "I've made some poor choices," I want to remind you of the blood of Jesus that not only covers your sin, but cleanses you from the inside out.
And I want you to start fresh and I want you to be renewed in your heart today that Jesus loves you. Here's how you know how much God loves you. He sent his only Son Jesus to die on the cross for you, to take all your punishment. He rose from the dead three days later, he offers life to anybody. This supper is for anybody who's trusted Christ as their personal Lord and savior. If you haven't done that, I'm going to pray for you here in a minute and you can do that and take this supper with us. Doesn't matter what denominational background you have or whether you attend Brave on a regular basis. If you're part of the family of God through faith alone in Jesus Christ, you can participate in this meal together. So I'm going to pray for him and have you hold these elements in your hand. As this song is sung over you, you prepare your hearts any way you want and then I'll come back up here and our campus pastors will come back up on our campuses and we will take these elements together.
Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. Lord, we thank you that you embody wisdom, that you have answers for everything if we're willing to go your way. God, would you move on our hearts today? Would you remind us that through Christ's death on a cross and his resurrection from the dead, we are completely forgiven? If you've never trusted Christ as your personal Lord and savior, here's how you can pray today. Lord Jesus, come into my life and save me. I've been living my own way, doing my own thing. I need you to come in and take over my life. I want you. And Father, remind all of us who have you that we are forgiven, not because of the works that we've done to try to get forgiven, but because of what you did on the cross, that you died for our sins. We give you praise, glory, and honor. Let us meditate on that truth as we hold these elements in our hand and prepare our hearts to celebrate the taking of this supper together. In Jesus' name, amen.