Moments in the life of a Pastor

James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 3:13, 17-18

¹³ If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. ¹⁸ And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

Have you ever stopped to consider some of the profound questions in the Bible? Pontius Pilate – “What is truth?” Jesus – “Who do men say that I the Son of Man am?” God to Solomon in a dream – “What do you want? Ask and I will give it to you!” Now imagine that God came to you in a dream and said, “What do you want? Ask and I will give it to you!” What would you say? What would you ask for if the Lord of heaven and earth offered you anything you asked for? As you reflect on your answer I want to remind you of how Solomon answered that question in 1 Kings 3:7-13: ⁷ “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. ⁸ And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! ⁹ Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” ¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. ¹¹ So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies— ¹² I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! ¹³ And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life!He could have had anything he wanted and what did he ask for, Wisdom! Solomon understood the wealth of wisdom, as Proverbs 3:13-17 says: “Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying.” Wisdom directs your walk and your walk determines the way you will go. Either the road of righteousness or the road of ruin. So, let me ask you what road are you running down, the road of delight or despair. Are you living in the blessing or in the bondage? Sadly, instead of living the abundant life that Jesus promised many are living the abused life Satan planned because we refuse to walk according to the wisdom of God’s Word and instead we follow the wisdom of worldly ways. Instead of a worthy walk we have a wasted walk. The kind of wisdom that passes the test of faith is the wisdom that James describes as only coming from above. Verse 13 askes the question: “Who is wise and understanding among you?” The two people who are known for their wisdom in this world asked that very same question. Solomon who in Ecclesiastes 8:1, asked, “Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things?” And the great Greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates was the teacher of Plato who was the teacher of Aristotle, who are known as the greatest philosophers of the western world. Socrates spent his whole life on a quest for wisdom. His quest looked a lot like Solomon’s, but unlike Solomon, Socrates died without finding it. At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon found true wisdom in the only place it can be found in the Word of God. Socrates didn’t acknowledge the Word of God, so he never found what he spent his whole life looking for. But that didn’t stop people from coming to him looking for wisdom. A story is told of an arrogant young man who came to Socrates looking for wisdom. Socrates took him out to the sea and led him chest-deep into the water. Then he asked him, “What do you want?” The young man said, “Wisdom, oh wise Socrates.” So, Socrates proceeded to push him under the water. After about 30 seconds, he let the boy up and asked him again, “What do you want?” The young man sputtered, “Wisdom oh great and wise Socrates.” Socrates pushed him under water again. 30 seconds passed, 35, 40. Then he let him up. “What do you want?” This time the boy was gasping and choking. But between breaths, he managed to get out, “Wisdom, oh great and…” This time he didn’t even finish his sentence before Socrates dunked him. 30, 40, 50, 55, one full minute later, Socrates finally let him up. “What do you want?” “Air! I need air!” That was the lesson. Socrates told him, “When you desire wisdom as much as you just desired air, then you will have it.” Think about that for a second, air is something you don’t pay a whole lot of attention to until you don’t have it. But when you don’t have it, it is the only thing you can think about. If you’ve ever gotten the wind knocked out of you, you know what I’m talking about. What about wisdom do we desire it like we do air? Often, it’s not until we are chocking on our foolish decisions and gasping for God that we realize how much we need His wisdom. Solomon understood the value of wisdom. Do we? How much would a wheelbarrow full of wisdom go for on Ebay, and would we even bid on it? 

James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 3:13-16

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. ¹⁵ For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. ¹⁶ For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.

Worldly wisdom is not only revealed by its roots and attributes but also the:

• Fruits of test-failing wisdom (16)

The fruits of test-failing wisdom are evidenced in evil works and confusion. In the Left Behind series the author said that during the tribulation, whenever somebody got saved, a mark would appear on their foreheads that only other Christians could see. But in truth when Jesus saves us, we don’t receive a secret mark to identify us to other Christians rather people know we are followers of Jesus by our fruit. Our walk will reveal our real witness. While you can’t see the tree roots you can see the acorns. And the fruit, whether it be acorns or apples will reveal how healthy roots really are. A tree with diseased roots is going to do one of two things. Either it will fail to produce fruit, or the fruit will be shriveled and diseased. The difference between trees and people is that all people produce fruit. No matter how selfishly sick and diseased the heart is, the person will produce fruit. Wisdom that has the attributes of being worldly and sensual is devilish and is borne from the roots of a bitter, contentious, arrogant, self-centered heart. That kind of wisdom which comes from a diseased heart produces wretched fruit. The fruit of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19-21;“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” So, did you see the whole list? Or just the ones you don’t have a problem with? What about, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy. That is some ugly, shriveled, diseased fruit. James calls it every evil work, which lead to confusion, disorder and chaos. If every place that you go, there is a common pattern of confusion, disorder and chaos, you need to check your heart. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. What fruit is laying at the feet of your tree, acorns or anger? Apples or arrogance? The wisdom that you lean on determines your walk and a test failing wisdom will always result in a worldly walk that produces the fruit of the flesh. Are you watering your life with worldly wisdom or the wisdom of God’s Word? James says that Godly wisdom results in a humble heart not a haunty one. The Greek word that describes our English word “humility” means “gentleness of spirit. It was used to describe a horse that had been broken. A broken horse still has all the power that it once had, the difference is that its power is now under the control of someone else. Godly wisdom doesn’t surrender its ability; it just places it under new management. The reason God blessed Solomon with wisdom was because his motives were not self-centered. Worldly wisdom focuses on self but God’s wisdom focuses on serving. Are you seeking wisdom for self-benefit or to bless those you serve? Is your fruit ripe or rotten? If the fruit falling of your tree is rotten then your roots are diseased and the solution to your sickness is salvation. You need a heart transplant, Ephesians 2:4-10 “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. ⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Its time to turn to Jesus, to bury that old heart and be raised to walk a new life with Him.