Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction (40 - 5min)

Do you know there is a difference between being smart and being wise?

Being smart is knowing your wife’s hair style isn’t as good as her last one.

Being wise is knowing enough to keep your mouth shut.

Definition of wisdom

“Wisdom” = the quality of being wise.

Knowledge and wisdom are NOT the same thing

ILLUST - ‘smart but not wise’

Knowledge is static - Wisdom is active

Wisdom is knowledge applied to life

The Bible talks a lot about wisdom:

Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Job

Proverbs is a book devoted to the application of truth to the way of life - a very practical book

Wisdom in OT was a way of life.

What James will show us today:

There is a contrast of wisdoms that creates a conflict within us that can only be solved with a clear choice.

(13-14) Who is wise and understanding among you?

By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

(13 - 14) - If anyone claims to be wise it will be evident 

There is a contrast of wisdoms that creates a conflict within us that can only be solved with a clear choice.

Contrast of wisdoms (3:13-18) (35 - 10min)

(13-14) Who is wise and understanding among you?

By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

(13 - 14) - If anyone claims to be wise it will be evident 

(14) But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

(15) This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

2 Sources of Wisdom

Wisdom from above / earthly

Earthly wisdom has as its source pragmatism.

Sources:

Self-help books, etc.

There is no shortage of people who will claim to be an expert about something and offer a way to apply their knowledge to a situation of life.

Wisdom from above has as it’s source the fact that GOD CREATED YOU AND THEREFORE KNOWS THE BEST WAY TO BRING ABOUT YOUR FLOURISHING.

**(The only reason we wouldn’t follow God then, if we understand this, is that we believe he doesn’t know or he doesn’t care) Doesn’t know - He’s Creator / Doesn’t care - look at the cross.

ILLUST - the Creator knows the truth and the application of the truth to our lives is not meant as rules and restrictions but to flourish us.

Sometimes, my children think the rules I give are to be restrictive, but they are to flourish them.

? - Fear of Lord beginning of wisdom

This does not mean that an unbeliever cannot act in wisdom, but when they do, they are borrowing from Christianity and acting in a way unnatural to who they are.

IF God is THE source of all wisdom (for life):

**Do you really know what the truth of God says about:

Marriage

Dating

How much to save for retirement

What to do with your retirement

How to respond when a family member invites you to their wedding with a partner of the same gender

How to vote or respond to others about particular social issues - immigration, abortion, etc

*What feeds your decision-making process for these things?

Where does your wisdom for these things come from?

Downstream efffects are the result of the upstream source

*Can you trace your decision-making back to a place where you included God in the process?

2 Results of Wisdom

Earthly Wisdom: The results of earthly wisdom is marked by:

Unspiritual - no mention of God - glory given elsewhere

Demonic - will actually lead away from the truth of God

Disorder - how can it be orderly if it does not trace back to the Creator?

Jealousy

Every Vile Practice - catch-all for everything else.

Wisdom from Above: The results of a life that applies wisdom from above to the situation of life are marked by:

Pure, Gentle, Reasonable, Merciful, Good, Peaceful

*How is your life marked?

Perhaps the reason why you feel your life is in such disorder and full of anxiety has less to do with the events and issues happening in your life and more to do with your application of wisdom to your life.

ILLUST - my kids when they mention that ___________ hurts when I touch it.

Don’t touch it.

In the church:

Some of the teachers (and others) who were having arguments in the churches James knew, however, were quite different from [the person who displays his wisdom with meekness and good works.]

They were characterized by bitter envy and selfish ambition.

They probably called their envy ‘zeal’, as Phinehas was zealous (), but while zeal is good, this zeal was not really from God’s spirit, for it was not characterized by meekness.

This was disguised envy.

What James describes as selfish ambition they may have called ‘standing for the truth’ or ‘keeping our group pure’.

The term James uses for it could also be translated ‘party spirit’, for they were forming groups or parties rather than standing for the unity of the whole church.

To call these attitudes ‘God’s wisdom’ and thus to boast about them is to deny reality, the truth of God.

This was not how Jesus acted.

Peter H. Davids, “James,” in New Bible Commentary:

Conflict of affections (4:1-5) (25 - 10min)

(1) What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? (ESV)

 

James is asking the question how in the world could there be conflict in the church if those in the church we’re walking in the wisdom that is from above

As he continues, his conclusion is the problem is deeper than any one issue of the church.

The source of the conflict in the church is really the conflict of affections of each individual heart 

Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

I’m convinced that the reason people see the same quarrels and fights in the church as they do outside the church is because the people inside the church are operating with the same source of wisdom (good life) as those outside the church.

Individualism

consumerism

“my” church, go TO church, how did YOU like worship

Alan Wolf, a leading sociologist and the director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, has concluded that, "In the United States culture has transformed Christ, as well as all other religions found within these shores.

In every aspect of the religious life, American faith has met American culture - and American culture has triumphed."

To validate Wolf's belief one need only look at religious traditions more recently introduced to popular consumer culture.

Last month The New York Times ran an article about the first Indian megatemple (the Hindu equivalent of the American megachurch).

The enormous building is designed to attract and entertain the un-templed with a large-format movie screen, an indoor boat ride, and even a hall of animatronic characters.

The temple's public relation's director proudly admits, "There is no doubt about it - we have taken the concept from Disneyland."

Christian atheism

God is functionally absent

(4-5)

You adulterous people!

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

When God’s people pursue the good life (wisdom) (flourishing) power, protection, provision, pleasure apart from the wisdom of God, it is as serious as a husband seeking purpose or pleasure with someone other than his wife.

Every time I walk not in wisdom from above but follow the world’s wisdom, my own desires, I am cheating on God.

If I am a believer, I am in a covenant relationship with Jesus, every time I make a decision and