Beacon Sunday Service: July 21st, 2024

Good morning, church. I I tell you what, let's go ahead and get started. And I have some pictures from last week. Oh, let's back up here. Oh, you don't have a man yet? Okay. Oh, there we go. So this is when uh Howard was, you know, going to our business time so that we could share what's up with our future pastor. And then Howard is explaining again. And then this was lunchtime.

And oh yes, a couple of the leaders there.

And then the main table. Can you see yourself there, Lucas?

I'll leave that on there a second so you can see yourself. So let's do this. Let's let's greet each other with grace and peace. And in the Lord, ask that God's grace be on our kids and on our lives. And that that peace that passes understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Greet each other with grace and peace.

But when the kindness and love of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

So that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. Amen.

And I pray that the Lord will remind you of this glorious truth today. Father, we are so grateful for today. For waking us up.

So we may listen to your word once again. We are grateful for providing for us this past week. Meeting our every need.

And so that uh the words of wisdom will be preached to us and that we'll find root in our hearts, that we may bear fruit this coming week, that we would not allow this week to go to waste for your glory. So be with us as we lift our voices. Would you receive our our our singing?

I was an orphan. I was an orphan lost at the thought. Running away tonight he fall. But Father, you were curious. I had no righteousness of my own. I had no right drawn near me and thrown. But Father, you love me alone. And in love before you lay the world's foundation. You pretend to adopt me as your own. You have raised me up so high above my station.

Alone you left your home. You left your home to seek out the loss.

But Jesus, your face was I work my fingers down to the bone, but nothing that did ever told. But Jesus, you paid my death by your blood.

And you rose that I might be a new creation. I am born again by grace and grace.

But spirit you made me see.

So I'll stand in faith by grace and grace alone. I will run.

And there's comfort in that because we try to subconsciously. We revert back to that. Try to earn our salvation. And we realize even when we make progress, we realize it's it's not us, it's God.

And um in its price that he paid on the cross.

So for that, and because of that, let's uh sing all my boasts in Jesus.

What a wonders of wonders of love is this Christ would die for me.

Oh full is cry be crucified, the work is in all my boasts in Jesus, all my hope is his love, and I will glory forever in what the cross has died. Now fully forgiven my life is filled with grace on deserve for mercy that flow down that sacred let praise is now return.

Who else is the word all my boasts in Jesus, all my hope is his love, and I will glory forever in what the cross has single praise the one praise the one for blessing in alone and I will stay now thing less than the love of Christ my Lord Single praise O praise thou bless him alone I will stay less than the love of Christ I boast not in riches, I boast not in riches in strength, but in the grace of God I glory in weakness to live is Christ in plenty of wall that I may know that all may see his power is me, all my boasts in Jesus, all my hope is his love, and I will glory forever in what the cross has done now.

Now I stand, now I stand in his dream, ransom clean in his eye, and I cannot be ashamed for my boast is Jesus Christ. My post is Jesus Christ forever. My voice is Jesus Christ.

But it reads, How does the Holy Spirit help us? And together, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, comforts us, guides us, gives us spiritual gifts, and a desire to obey God, and he enables us to pray and to understand God's word. So let's sing that as we sing as speak over.

Plant it in us, shape and fashion us in your business that the light of Christ might be seen today in our action of love and defeat Lord and fulfill us all your verse for your glory as you teach us for the Lord for beats holy through humility and our attitudes in the rain of your view cause our faith to arise cause our eyes to see your much hidden love and with glory that can never fail.

Good morning, everyone. Today's confession of sin is a reminder that as we hide in our sin, we keep ourselves away from the Lord and we neglect those around us whom we're supposed to love and support and help. So let's go do our confession of sin together. Eternal God, we confess that we have tried to hide from you in the darkness of our sin. We have lived for ourselves and apart from you. We have turned from our neighbors and refuse to bear the burdens of others. We have ignored the pain of the world and pass by the hungry, poor, and oppressed. In your great mercy, forgive our sins and bring us back to the light. Soften our hearts so we can love, trust, and obey Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Please be seated. Let us now take in a private time of confession of sin. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

For he knows our frame.

Amen. As most of you know, uh last Sunday, uh, our church unanimously approved of our next pastor, and such an answered prayer over a year of praying, over a year of wanting a shepherd to come and bring us the word and to lead our ministry. But today's prayer request, today's prayer topic is one for yourselves. It's one for you to do a self-examination of what you want the Lord to accomplish in your life. It's not going to be driven by someone who comes and tells you or lead you in your faith. Your faith is your own.

As we know that we're going to welcome a pastor, we need to be ready to not only receive him, but also for ourselves to move forward and to direct and help build this ministry. So let's pray.

Father, we thank you for answering our prayers of bringing a brother to us to serve as our pastor as our shepherd. Lord, we know that that is going to be a blessing for our ministry. Lord, we pray, Father, for ourselves, uh, that a fire would be lit, a sense of urgency would be had, not just for the sake of just uh building or being a part of this church, but for our our relationship with you and our faith and what you're challenging us, calling us to do. Lord, we ask Father for direction, we ask for clarity, and we ask for something within us, Lord, to be uh to understand your will, and Lord, give us direction so that the things that we do would not only just be uh to help build this church and build this ministry, but to glorify you.

Lord, we thank you for today and just the freedom of this place to worship you, and we want to just say, bless um our teachers, uh Tiff and our our our brother Pastor Madison as he comes and brings us the word that you would fill them with the Spirit and that you will bless them, refresh them as uh they come and then they teach the word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please have a good Sunday school. As the children are being dismissed, uh, we're gonna have a just two announcements. Uh, one announcement that I for keep forgetting to tell the team is uh there is a sign-up sheet in the back for um for those of you that well, basically all of us who volunteer to be an assistant teacher uh every Sunday school.

If you're unable to help out on a Sunday, your name is on the list. Please help find a replacement or someone to take your spot. If you can't come on a Sunday, you know ahead of time, please uh do your due diligence. Uh look on the sheet, see if you can swap places with somebody so that they can take your place, and then you can make up another date. Uh and of course, our offering options are Zell Venmo, Cash and Check. Pastor Madison. Us to uh remember, you know, Alex, who usually sits right in here. Uh, he's in Korea right now for the month or six weeks or so. And I I just want us to just really quickly pray for him. Can we do that? Heavenly Father, uh, thank you for that young teenager who is so committed to you.

We pray that you would protect him there and use him with his family, uh, extended family that's there. And Father, bring him back to us ready to serve you here. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Hey, uh, today we're gonna talk about wisdom from James chapter three, uh, verses thirteen to eighteen. But let me start out with this question. If I were to say to you right now, who do you know that you would say they really have wisdom? Who would that be? Oh, they really are wise. When you think of the wisdom of Solomon or John the Baptist, or Jesus, of course. Who's name comes on your list of people that you'd say they're really wise?

Now the other question I have is this. Is your name on the list of somebody else? When they say, oh, yes, she's she's really got wisdom. He's really got wisdom. Or is it something that we talk about it, but we don't know whether somebody really has it, and we don't know that we have it. And so today, what I want to do is I want to look at four signs that he gives in James chapter 3, verses 13 to 18. Four signs that he gives to indicate that if we don't have wisdom. I mean, obviously, you ought to know if you have it or you don't have it. And then if you see these signs in your life, you say, hmm, I guess I don't have enough of it. Or, oh wow, they didn't have it. So let's do this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what?

Wisdom. This is why we have trouble in America. Because there's no fear of God before their eyes. And if that's the beginning of wisdom, then where do you go with it? You know that they don't have wisdom. It's no wonder that people want to kill babies, you know, and and in the womb and do things that are ungodly. Because they don't see it from God's point of view. God says in 139 that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And even you saw my parts when as yet they weren't. You knew me in my mother's womb. And yet the world doesn't see it that way, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Or how about this one? Romans chapter 3, where he quotes it in the New Testament. He says, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one.

There's no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. Now, can I really say it this way? This is why we understand God sought us to save us. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. We weren't out there thinking, I need to find God. I need to find God. God came to find us.

So the text goes on, verse 12. We've all turned away, all alike have become useless. There's no one who does what is good, not even one. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So the Old Testament tells us that. The New Testament tells us that. And our lives tell us that as we watch the world. They're not afraid of God. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Proverbs 11 2 says it this way. When pride comes, disgrace follows. But with humility comes wisdom. So we're going to talk about the signs that we don't have wisdom, but just so you know, if somebody is humble, then you can put them on the start to put them on the list. Your list of people who are wise. If they're arrogant and proud, then you can say, and we would say, you could probably put a few politicians or others on the list that you'd say, oh, they're arrogant.

They're not humble. What is humility? You know, humility is us realizing all we have has come from God. We didn't do it. We we're not self-made people. What we have we have from God. Proverbs 16, 16 says it this way get wisdom. How much better is it than gold? So we're talking about wisdom. I ask you, who has it in our congregation? Or do you have it in your life? And what he's saying here is, hey, wisdom, God wants us to have wisdom. It's more valuable than gold. He goes on, Proverbs 17, 24, wisdom is the focus of the perceptive. But fool's eyes roam to the ends of the earth. Let me put in another translation on the screen. Highlight them both. One is the NIV, one is the Christian standard Bible.

One says, a discerning man keeps what? Wisdom where? In view. Wisdom, remember? I gave this to you probably in the first week or so that we started here just about six months ago. I said, wisdom is the ability to see things from God's point of view. So let me give you that, hear that definition again. Do you have wisdom? The ability to see things from God's point of view. So if I'm a married man from God's point of view, what am I supposed to do? Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church. So if you're having trouble in your marriage, then you go back to God's point of view. Not your point of view as a man, not my point of view as a man, because I can say, well, she didn't do this, and she didn't do that, and she didn't pick up this, and she didn't, and I can have all sorts of reasons, but the issue is God's point of view.

I need to see the world and my family and my headship as a man from God's point of view. And God's point of view, at least me. Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church. How do you love the church? He gave his life for it. That's what we need to be doing. Oh, but wives, uh, you get into a pre-meral or a marital counseling, oh man, my husband's a mess, he leaves things all around and he and he doesn't really. And I would say, oh, there's a couple from God's point of view. What do you do? Well, there's a couple of words. There's only two words that mainly God gives for women in terms of their marriage. Wives. You know this one. This is the one that everybody talks about. Wives, submit yourself to your husband as to the Lord.

And so that's submissiveness. The other one is found in the same passage. Wives, see that you know what the word is? Respect your husband. And so it's not from your point of view, it's from God's point of view. And what are we after? Wisdom. A discerning man keeps wisdom in view. Uh, Christian Standard Bible, wisdom is the focus of the perceptive. So I'm gonna be always looking at that. When I uh, if I'm teaching on wisdom, often I will teach from Proverbs, chapter uh four, verses five, six, and seven. And I even would say it, I think I said it to you, Proverbs 4. It's easy to remember because you can go four, five, six, seven. Okay, Proverbs 4, verses 5, 6, and 7. And it's gonna say, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom.

And so, wisdom is the focus of our lives if we're perceptive. Wisdom keeps in view. Get wisdom, and here's what I said to you Proverbs 4, 5, 6, and 7. Get wisdom, get understanding. Don't forget, don't turn away from the words of my mouth. Don't abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you. Love her, and she'll guard you. Wisdom is supreme, so get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get understanding. So now he's gonna talk about that in James 3. He wants you to have wisdom. He wants people coming to you and saying, Hey, what do you think I ought to do about this? Because what are you gonna tell them? You're gonna tell them what they should do from God's point of view. And wisdom, again, is the ability for us to see things from God's point of view.

Now, listen to me carefully. This is what we want to be teaching our kids. And as your kids get older, you know what we did with our kids if they got older? You know, before you're always saying, Hey, hey, stop it. Don't do that. And you'd tell them what to do. As they got older, as they got to be 13, 14, 15, you know what I said to them? What do you think God wants you to do? They'd have a problem. And I'd say, What do you think God wants you to do? And I'd hear what they'd say. And then I would, because you're teaching them to learn how to make decisions from God's point of view. So I'd say to them, what do you think God would want you to do? And they'll tell me. And they would say, Well, you know, I think uh, and so they'd have to work through from God's point of view what to do.

And then I could say, you know, that's pretty good. The only thing I would change, and then I tweak maybe what they would want, what they said. And many times it got so they really knew what to do from God's point of view, because that's what you're teaching them to do. Proverbs chapter one says, I've written this book for several reasons. But one of those reasons is that you might have discretion. And you remember what discretion is? Discretion is knowing what to do when nobody's there to tell you what to do. So when mom and dad aren't there, what do you want your kids to have? As they grow up, you want to you want them to have discretion, the ability to know what to do when nobody's telling you what to do.

So get wisdom. That's the focus. So here's today's sermon in a sentence. God wants us to have wisdom. Is there any doubt? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So would He not want us to have wisdom? Obviously, He wants us to have wisdom. Let's look at four signs. I want you to see four signs that can indicate your lack of wisdom in the text. Okay. First one is this bitter envy. Right away you say, Well, I don't have that. You know, I'm not bitter, and I'm not envious of somebody else. Well, that's good. If you're not bitter or ever envy of somebody else, then you're starting to move towards wisdom. But here's what the text says. Who is wise? Verse 13, James 3:13. Who is wise and has understanding among you?

He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom's gentleness. But if you have bitter envy in your heart, don't brag and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above. You got it? So if bitterness, you're you ever talk to people and you know right away they're bitter. You know that they're upset with their mom or their dad. They they would never want to forgive what somebody did to them in their lives. They have this bitter envy in their hearts. And you know, God's word says in Psalm 1 that we don't take happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked. So if you know these people are have bitterness and envy in their hearts, you don't you don't go to them for advice.

You want to go to people who can see things from God's point of view and say, What do I need to be doing? And from God's point of view, uh, I would say this to you. When people came to me when I was the senior pastor of the church, when people came to me and wanted to have counsel, I would say better than 95% of the time, they already knew what God wanted them to do. It wasn't, you know, they didn't they never came to me and said, Hey, Pastor, I'm thinking about having adultery. What do you what do you what do you think about that? Well, they know what God wants in that regard. Or how about uh, you know, do I'm thinking about, you know, having uh stealing from somebody. They know what to do.

They know what God's word says, they know it's one of the Ten Commandments that thou shall not steal. So it's most of the time they already know what God wants them to do. Isn't that true of you? Does God want you to lie? No. Does God want you to swear? No. Does God want you to be bitter towards somebody? No. Does God want you to commit adultery? No. Does God want you to cheat? No. You already know those things, don't you? So you know things from God's point of view. The world doesn't know those things, or they don't want to act on them. But where people were having difficulty and they came to me for counseling, is not that they wanted to know what to do. He says, get wisdom, but with all that getting, get understanding.

Solomon had more wisdom than anybody, right? But think of the hundreds and hundreds of wives he had. Was that what God wanted? So why wasn't he able to do what he knew was wisdom? Wisdom is one man, one woman for a lifetime. But Solomon didn't do that. But he knew. He knew wisdom. But God's word in that member in uh Proverbs chapter 4, verses 5, 6, and 7. He says, get wisdom, get wisdom, get wisdom. But with all thy getting, do you remember the second word he said? Get understanding. Okay. Wisdom is the ability for you to see things from God's point of view. Understanding is the ability for us to apply in our lives what God showed us from his point of view.

Did you hear the difference? One is the ability to see it. The other is the ability to apply it. And that's where people have difficulty. How do I apply this to my life? How do I do this? I so they if they have bitter envying, they don't have what? This is one sign that somebody doesn't have wisdom. Is that clear enough in that text? But if you have bitter envying in your heart, don't brag and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but it's earthly, unspiritual, demonic. So they don't have wisdom if they have bitter envying. Here's the Greek phrase that's used right there. Let me pull down this one word. Zalon is the Greek word for envy or jealousy. But it can be used in a positive way for zeal and eagerness.

And let me show you a couple of places where that Greek word is used in a positive way. Okay. 1 Corinthians 12, 31. But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way. You know, he's going to lead. This is the verse that's going to lead right into 1 Corinthians 13, which is the what chapter? You know? The love chapter. Love is patient. Love is kind. He said, I'm going to show you. But what does he tell them? Zalon is this Greek word that's used for desire. And so it can be positive or it can be negative. So let me give you another verse. Same thing. Romans chapter 10, verse 2. I can testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. He's talking about people that are all emotional about loving God.

But look at me for a second. Their knowledge of God is this deep. And their emotion for God is this wide. They're really emotional. But they know so little about God. And so he says they have a zeal. Man, they're so excited about the Lord. Every time they have a chance, they're shouting, Hallelujah. But when you ask him what God wants, they don't know because they don't know God's word. So again, Zalon, used in a positive sense, though, they have a zeal for God. God wants us to have zeal for him, but he also wants us to have knowledge. Let me, this is the second part of that Greek word for bitter envy. This word, uh Picron, let me slide it down here. Picron, James draws out the contentious side of Zalon by adding Picron.

So if you have bitter envying, if you have bitter zeal, it's a deep-seated anger when you don't get your way. The contention that results in the poisonous tongue of James chapter 3, verse 8. Destroying unity in the body of Christ. Let me give you an example of this in scripture. Because it when God gives us scripture, when he paints a man in scripture or a woman, you ever heard the term? He paints them warts and all.

Aren't you glad that you didn't live back in in those days? Because if you'd have failed the Lord, you might have been in the Bible forever. Oh, yeah, Madison really mucked up here. You know, or Albert really failed the Lord here, and it's there forever. And here is the apostle Paul. And Barnabas, two godly men, but here's a case where they lacked wisdom. Here's what the text says. After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, they'd been on one missionary trip. If you could, if you could think of the Mediterranean Sea, right in the upper, I'll turn this way, okay? In the upper right-hand corner of the Mediterranean Sea, right against Turkey is right here. Israel's down here. If you could form a little C, a capital C, which would go right out from Lebanon, right up through Cyprus, right up into Turkey and back.

That's where they went on their first missionary tour. They took a guy with them that deserted them, though. So here's the story behind it. After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, let's go back and visit those churches that we visited on that first missionary journey, on that first capital C in that area. Let's go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we preach the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. Barnabas wanted to take along John, who was called Mark. The text goes on. Verse 38. But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. They had what look at the text. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.

Wait a minute. This is the Apostle Paul. This is the guy that said, be followers of me, even as I am of Christ. That's true. When he follows Christ, follow him. When he's not following Christ, don't follow him. When I follow Christ, follow me. When I don't follow Christ, don't follow me. That's what you want to be able to say to your kids. When I follow Christ, do exactly what mommy does. Do exactly what daddy does. Do exactly what the pastor does. As long as they're following Christ. But what's going on here? They parted company? Such a sharp disagreement. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus. They both went different ways. But you know what's amazing? God still used that sin.

Once they repented, God used them for his glory. And you know something? Twice as many people heard the gospel. That's why God can say in Romans 8 28, and we know that all things were together for good to them that love God. It might be bad, but if I say, look, God, I what I did wasn't wisdom. And we know it's not wisdom because James says, if there's bitter or envy in my heart, but that I'm that I don't have that wisdom. So here's the sermon again. God wants us to have what? Wisdom. What's wisdom? The ability to see things from God's point of view. And I said, in this text, you have four signs that indicate you lack it. If you don't have it, here's the sign. What are you gonna have? You're gonna have bitter envy in your heart.

You're gonna lack wisdom. Or you're gonna begin to see. Now, here's here's another reason why you need to learn this stuff, okay? If your kids want to be with somebody that you know they're bitter towards their parents, you don't want your kids around that. Do you understand that? Because you already know from Psalm 1 that happy is the one that does not walk in the advice of the wicked. So if they're not walking in wisdom, you don't want to put your kids with somebody that doesn't have wisdom. If they have bitter envy, they don't have wisdom. James says that. Secondly, they have selfish ambition. Ever anybody that you just know they're they're selfish. Everything is about them. I have a friend that was an FBI agent, and he was teaching, he was he attended our church, and then he got called back to Quantico in Washington and was at the headquarters of the FBI, and he was out teaching at UCLA.

He was teaching about uh knowing when people are lying to you. So he's in a large auditorium. Oh, there were probably 500 people, and he invited me down to spend time with him, and he was teaching that. And he was talking about the way people talk. Um, like if they've been involved in a crime and they murdered somebody, and you're interviewing them, and nothing has been said, they don't know the details, and so they're interviewing them. And he said, and you're listening carefully to what they're talking about. And he said, if they refer to the person in past tense, they know they're dead. Why would you refer to them a past tense if you don't know that? And so you're listening for people. And if people, if you want to know people have selfish ambition, how do you know that people have selfish ambition?

You want to listen to how they talk. And what do they use in their lives in their talk? If they're focused on themselves. I, this, I, that, I did this, I went here, I had this, I did that. Do you catch that? So as you're listening to your kids being around adults and stuff, you want them to be around adults that are humble. You want you want to hear things like, you know what the Lord was able to do? And then they share with you something that God used them to do. Not, you know what I was able to do? I did this. You're listening to them. Well, here's what the text says and selfish ambition. Who is wise and hasn't has understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom's gentleness.

But if you have bitter envying and what? Selfish ambition in your heart. Don't brag and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above. So selfish ambition, you want your kids to have ambition. Do you want your kids to be lazy? No. So what Satan does is he always takes the truth of what God wants you to do and tweaks it, twists it. Let me say it to you this way. I'll give you another illustration on it. Who made sex? God made sex, right? Is there anything wrong with sexuality and that intimacy? No, God made it. And so what does Satan do?

Satan takes what God has made and gives it to you with hooks in it. Let me say it this way. You want to you think, oh, um, I can have sex with everybody. God made sex, so I can, you know, I can go out there and do it with anybody. No, you can't. God said this is a relationship between us and him. Just a picture of a relationship between us and him. So we we've already talked about this. You know, if somebody goes fishing, what do they do? They they take a worm and put it on a hook, throw it in the water. The fish have everything they need in the water. They everything they're gonna need to live is already there. But I throw something in the water, and if a fish goes after what I throw in the water, they get it with what?

Hooks. And it's gonna kill them. And what the Lord is saying here, be ambitious, serve the Lord enthusiastically. Satan comes along and says, Ha. Yeah, you can serve the Lord, but do it so that you know he has to reward you, and people see it, and you become really a chief, important person. No, it's ambition is good. Selfish ambition is bad. And what you're gonna teach kids is look, be ambitious. This person, this older person needs your help. Be ambitious in helping them. Don't do it so that everybody brags about you. Don't have selfish ambition. Here's the Greek word that's used for selfish ambition. Epithea.

One was envious and the other covetous. The ruler of the city sent for them and said he wanted to grant them one wish each with this proviso. That the one who chose would get exactly what he asked for, while the other man would get exactly twice what the first had asked for himself. The envious man was ordered to choose first, but immediately found himself in a quandary. He wanted to choose something great for himself. But he realized that if he did so, the other would get twice as much. So he thought for a while. And then he asked that. Now, you tell me.

What do you think he asked for? And what would you ask for if you were envious and didn't want the other person to have twice as much as what you got? So the envious guy thought for a while and then asked that one of his eyes be put out. Because the other guy got both his eyes put out. That just shows you the wickedness, the selfish ambition of somebody. They wanted what everybody else had, but he was going to get a step up on him. And what you're doing for your kids and for your own life and at work, you're wanting people. I ask you right from the start. Who do you know in this church or in your world of influence that you'd say they have wisdom?

They're really wise. I want to go to them. And I tell you, when somebody comes to you and says, hey, I want to, I want to ask you what should I do. I'll give you an example. Our son, who's 44, came to me just in the last month. And he says, Dad, you know, I what should I do about this situation? I thought, I said, Oh, I uh he said, that's why you're dad. That's why I'm asking you. You know, I want to know what you remember one time I said to him, he was probably 26 at the time. I got married when I was 27. So I said to my son, I wanted him to kind of wait long enough so he's an adult enough and he's ready for this. When he was 26, I thought, he doesn't have anybody. He's never dated anybody.

Hey, it's time to date. He looked at me and he said, I was standing in the garage with him. I can still picture it. And he looked at me and said, Dad, you tell me who to take out, and I'll take her out. And I thought, oh my goodness, if you're if you're that willing to take your dad's advice, it almost sounds like that old Testament situation where you pre-arrange marriages, I'll choose her, and they'll choose her, you know, him, and we'll put them together. I said, you know, I'm not gonna mess this up, Doug. You know, I the bottom line is we as parents, if they got married to somebody that didn't work out, I thought, I don't want him to blame me. I and I want to have wisdom. I want I want his heart to sense this.

Well, let me come on. For I fear that perhaps Paul is writing now, for I fear that perhaps when I come, I will not find you to be what I want. And I may not be found by you to be what you want. There may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. Man, you know, he that that was to the bad church, the Corinthian church. They had more problems than anybody could shake a stick at. But selfish ambition was one of them. And they lacked wisdom. The text in Philippians says it this way, to be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and strife, but others out of goodwill. Those who do it out of goodwill, these do so out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

The others proclaim Christ out of rivalry. Not sincerely, seeking to cause me anxiety while I'm here in prison. So, do you want to know if somebody has wisdom? God wants us to have wisdom. What are the signs that you don't have wisdom? Well, if you have bitter envy, you don't have wisdom. If you come across people that are bitter and envious, they don't have wisdom. If you come across people who have selfish ambition, I did this, I'm a self-made person. I you know, I can they don't have wisdom. Thirdly, disorder and confusion. The text says it this way. Who is wise and has understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom's gentleness. Maybe I ought to just say that as well right now.

Wisdom that's from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated. That's James talking. That's the Bible. It's telling us. And so he says here, he should show his good works, good conduct with wisdom's gentleness. But if you have bitter envying and selfish ambition in your heart, don't brag and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where envying and selfish ambition exist, there is what? Disorder. So when you see things in chaos at work, or in your heart or life or family in our political arena, things in chaos, you know that they don't have the wisdom that's from above.

And when it comes to church, in 1 Corinthians 14, he says, let everything be done decently and in order. So when you're hearing God's word and you come in a congregation, he said, other people can share, but no more than three. And they need to explain what is being taught and why. And then again, let everything be done decently and in order. James 1.8 says, an indecisive man is what? Unstable in all his ways. A double. This is Christian Standard Bible. The King James calls it a double-minded man. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Here's what God wants. Oh, I'm going to resign. Oh, I'm not going to resign. I'm going to do. And a double-minded man. Oh, I'm in love with you. I don't know.

I'm having second thoughts. A double-minded man is unstable in how many ways? All his ways. So go and ask God for a singleness of mind. And what you want to have to your kids is teach them how to be single-minded, have a single purpose in life. My one goal, you know, is to glorify God. Give them that one goal. Then everything else kind of falls in line. James 3.8 says it this way, but no man can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil. It's the same thing. Disorder. And you know, if somebody has a tongue that they can't control, what are they telling you? That they don't have what? Wisdom. So you're listening.

So you can place your kids in a school or in an environment with others that have the people have wisdom. They're always going back. You know what? What does God want you to do? From God's point of view. You know, like when our kids used to have spats, we'd we'd open up the Bible with them and say, you know, you just hurt your brother, you just hate your sister. What does Romans say? Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another. And so they knew God's word. 1 Corinthians 14, 33. God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. So that's if you see disorder, if you see people shouting and it's out of hand, you say, that's not wisdom. Because the wisdom that's from above is first of all pure, gentle, easy to be entriated, and God is not a God of disorder.

So you want to kind of pull back. If you see that happening, you know, if you ever move away from here and you're looking for a church, you know, in Tennessee, where you're going, or Florida, where you want to go, or and you're looking for a church, and you see this disorder going on, you say, you know, I I thought this church was really good. You know, I listened to the sermon the first week, and the guy was preaching from the word, but there's turmoil going underneath, and that's not what God wants. That's not wisdom. So God wants us to have wisdom. Here are the signs bitter envy, selfish ambition, disorder and confusion. These are the signs that you don't have wisdom. The last one is every kind of evil.

When you see ungodly behavior, every kind of evil. I guess I could give you an example of that before I even show you the text.

When David, King David, was out on the balcony and looking down and seeing Bathsheba, bathing. And said to his man, get that woman. I want her to come up here. She was married. He still went after her, he still got involved physically, sexually with her. They had a child out of wedlock. When he heard that she was expecting her husband was out at the battle. He called and said, Send Uriah back. I want to talk to him. Tell me, tell him, I want to hear all the battles going. Here's David. You know, uh all that says is every one of us failed the Lord.

And God is still merciful. David could still repent. God could still call him later a man after God's own heart. But he called Uriah back, had him come back, got him drunk, and said, Hey, why don't you head on home? We'll talk, we'll meet tomorrow. Listen to me. Uriah had more wisdom, I don't know if the wisdom is the correct word, had more knowledge about doing right when he was drunk than David had when he was sober. Did you catch that? David got him drunk, wanted to send him home so he'd have sex with his wife, and later on, he would think that that was his child. He wouldn't even go home. You know what he said to David and others? He said, Why should I have the privilege to go home and be with my wife when my comrades are fighting the battle?

I won't go home. So then David arranged for him to go back to the battle and be killed. Put him on the front part of the battle so he gets killed. Does that sound every kind of what? Evil. Here's what the text says. Who is wise and has understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom, gentleness. But if you have bitter envying and selfish ambition in your heart, don't brag and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic, for where envy and selfish ambition exist. There is disorder and every kind of evil. And when you see that going on, you want you want to pull your kids back from that. And you want to pull back from your that yourself.

You know what Psalm 1 says? Happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked. So look at me. What are you doing? You know, you're walking and you said, hey, what do you got to do? You don't go to wicked people and ask what they, what you think they ought to do. Happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked. Or stand in the pathway with sinners. You don't hang out with sinners. You can befriend them so you can share Christ with them. But you don't have fellowship with them. What fellowship does light have with darkness? If they don't know the Lord, you don't go and say, hey, you're my best friend, you know what I mean? You're reaching them so that they can come to know Christ.

So you don't walk, look at me. You don't walk in the advice of the wicked. You don't stand in the pathway of sinners, and you don't sit in the company of mockers. You ever have people? I would mention names, but I don't even want to go there. There are people that you hear mock other people. They call them names and mock, you know how old they are, or how whatever. God says, look, don't even go there. Because that leads to every kind of evil. And that shows you that they don't have wisdom. And what does God want us to have? Wisdom. You ever heard this word? You ever heard somebody say, oh, that was that was a real snafu?

That was a real snafu. You heard it? Okay. This word was developed in World War II. It was just the letters that was made into a new word. It's how the world does things all the time. Let me highlight the letters, okay? And I'm going to then drop them down into the sentence that's made from these four letters. Situation, normal. All fouled up. And that really wasn't the word that they used in the military. But that's how the world looks at things. They just come out with everything. They don't care. It's evil. It's all fouled up. And what we're asking God to do is to turn our world to be what he designed.

What did he teach us to pray? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He wants his will done. That will be accomplished someday. But until then, God wants us to go to his word, because the only place I can see things from God's point of view is to keep going to his word. And in his word, the question I have for you today is do you lack wisdom? Is there disorder at times? Is there envy or bitter? Somebody got away with something. Or you just say, Okay, Lord, you're the one that's gonna handle that. But give me wisdom in that. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we bow right now, asking that you speak to our heart, that you'll use your word right now to take us back.

So we know whether we have the wisdom that's first of all pure and then peaceable and gentle and easy to be entreated. Father. While we're in prayer right now, we're asking that we can be godly, that we can have wisdom from above. Use that in our hearts and lives today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand together and sing this next song.

In you I live every time is yours by wisdom plan. He seed in past by sovereign hands. Renew my speech.

Display the matchness worth of price. Make me a living sacrifice together.

Your spirit still is here. And know my soul is like the night. You merce sees move. I rest in you a body till I try and suffer.

Be glorified. I rested. I rest in you almighty until I trust suffering in way to find a big to whoy, what a joy to look at the book of James. Next Sunday, uh I'll actually be flying to Buffalo on Friday, uh, and I'll be uh teaching at the camp in New York until uh August 5th. So next Sunday you'll have uh a guest speaker and so be here and and hear God's word there two weeks from today, your pastor, your new senior pastor will be here to preach.

Uh I are are we still on the air? Okay, then I won't mention any names at this point, okay? But two weeks from today, uh be here, have fellowship. They'll have a uh dinner time, a luncheon time uh as well for fellowship, so you will get to know them and their family, uh, and it'll just be our real blessing. So let's just close in prayer today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that your hand would be on these people. May they leave here today, ready to enter their mission field, whether it's in their home, in their neighborhood, at their job, wherever you're placing them this week, use them for your glory.