Godly Wisdom | James 3:13-18 | Jarryd Cole

Pastor Jarryd continues in the book of James, teaching about how Godly wisdom intersects with envy and ambition. 

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Ambassador Church Podcast, a church in the city for the city, on Milwaukee's east side. We pray this message meets you where you are, challenges your faith, and draws you closer to Jesus.

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All right, you guys can go ahead and find your seats. Good morning, good morning. Welcome again to Ambassador Church. If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and get those out. Grab your Bibles, meet me in the book of James. It's in your New Testament towards the back there. Maybe you came in the room today because last week you were here for Easter and you're wanting to meet. I could I'd give it another shot. I'd come for another Sunday. We've been going through a series in the book of James for the last uh eight weeks now. And so we've been in this. It's an 11-week series. We have a few more weeks left. Excited to get to the rest of it. But we're picking up from where we left off a couple weeks ago before the interruption of Easter. And we're in James chapter three. And so if you have your Bible, meet me there. James chapter three. We're gonna be in the back end of that uh chapter, closing it out today, verses 13 through 18. And as you're getting there, I have a question for you. If I were to ask you what was the most valuable thing in your home, what would you tell me it was? So many things you can think about. But let me bring you into my world really quick. When I was growing up, the most valuable thing I would argue was the remote control for the television. Because you know what happens with the remote control? It's a hot commodity, it's terrible when you lose it. Everybody's looking for it, okay? Like the remote, and I would even argue it's probably the most valuable thing in your home, too. Okay, and we can argue about it later. But go with me. Like I can still even think from years ago and hear my dad's voice. You know, who lost the remote? You know, and maybe this is something you hear in your home or you've heard in your home before. And what happens when you lose a remote is that everybody goes on search duty. Everything stops in the home, the word goes out who lost the remote. And it's like, hey, everybody, get your flashlights out, get on your hands and knees, look up under all the cushions, lift up the couch, right? Somehow you turn into like macho man or he-man or somebody, like whenever you're looking for the remote control, everything is turned up end. You get in the kitchen and you're looking in places where you think a remote could never possibly be here. You look in the refrigerator, you open it up and you're like, is it underneath the carton of milk? Like, no, it will never fit there. But you're looking anyway because when things of value like get lost, or you're looking for something that's important to you, you do anything and everything to look for it, to get it back. And you guys remember the joy of getting the thing that you're looking for? The joy you feel when you finally find the remote, y'all, and you're like, oh yeah, let's get to the couch, let's turn on Netflix, put our favorite show on, or the game's coming on. Fells, that's the worst, yo. The game's coming on, and you're like, I can't find this remote, this remote better show up before tip off or for kickoff, and you find it. And the joy, the relief you feel when you're like, ah, yes, boom. Exactly what I want. Valuable. Remote control can be a valuable thing. But maybe for you, it's not the remote in your house, maybe it's something else. A piece of jewelry, your favorite shirt, really anything, right? When those things kind of pop up, you're just the the relief you feel, but don't forget the search that you put on when you look for those kind of things. Do you want to know what the Bible says we should search for like that? It's wisdom. So the Bible says you should pursue wisdom like you look for the most valuable thing in your home, like you're searching for the remote control just to get the show put on in time. See, Proverbs is a book in your Bible, it's in the Old Testament, and Proverbs is a book full of wisdom, and it's doing a couple things simultaneously. It's trying to help us live a wise life while at the same time defining wisdom as it goes. And I love one of the ways how it defines wisdom in Proverbs chapter 3, which is ironic for us today because Proverbs 3, 13 through 18, it literally mirrors the passage we're gonna be in in the book of James this morning. But in Proverbs 3, 13 through 18, here's what it says. You can just listen, it's not gonna pop up here on the screen. But here's what the writer says it says, Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding. For she, wisdom, is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, nothing you desire can equal her. Long life is in her right hand, and in her left there's riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths are peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy. This is how we can understand wisdom. And we have to know the Bible is unanimous when it says wisdom is worth pursuing. But here's where we're gonna be at this morning. James is gonna let us know that there's actually two types of wisdom that we can choose to live by in our earthly lives. There's godly wisdom, and then there's worldly wisdom. So as we get into the text, we'll spend some time looking at these two wisdoms, comparing them, and then we'll even get to talking about the dangers of worldly wisdom. We gotta know those things. And then at the end of the message, we'll just do some application and we'll answer the question how do we get this godly wisdom now that we are speaking of? You guys with me on that? All right, let's do it. If you're in the Bible, James chapter 3, 13 through 18. Here's what it says. I'm gonna read it all, and then we'll come back and unpack it. Here's what James says he says, Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct, he should show that his works are done and the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, he says, Don't boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but it is earthly, it's unspiritual, it's demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder in every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, hear this, then peace-loving, it's gentle, it's compliant, it's full of mercy and good fruits, it's unwavering, it's without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace. So we think about this text, there's a couple questions I want us to ask as we're unpacking. And the first question is this What is this godly wisdom that James is talking about? Look back at verse 13 with me. It says, Who among you is wise and understanding? It says, By his good conduct, he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. Y'all, we have to know that the age that we live in right now, we could call what we live in the information age. Okay? Like we're so connected to so many different things. Uh, we have these devices in our pockets that at a drop of a dime, we can get almost any type of information that we want. Information that's close to us and information that's far from us. We type it in, we get answers. But we also have to know that information isn't the same thing as wisdom. Like we live in the most connected, the most informed time. But how many of you know we live in an age too where we're lacking a lot of wisdom, y'all? Like, you know there's wisdom lacking in your own life, you know there's wisdom lacking in the lives of the people around you. You don't got to go too far. You can turn on the news, you can open up Instagram, you can find it right there. There seems to be a lack of wisdom in our time and place right now. And I want us to understand this a little further because there's kind of three tiers that information can flow through if you think about it. The first tier is knowledge. Knowledge is simply this it's the accumulation of facts and information. But understanding is the ability to see why those facts are true and how they connect to other things and so forth. But wisdom, here's this wisdom is kind of like the pool that these things kind of puddle into. Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know and understand. This is wisdom. We can think about it kind of like this. There's a lot of med school students that come here to ambassador church. Here's an illustration you can maybe follow. You see, a medical student, they can know that a drug treats a type of disease. But a good doctor, they understand like the mechanisms and the risks and the interactions of what that drug can do. But a wise physician, here's what they know they know when and whether to prescribe it for this particular patient and know if they should prescribe it for this particular moment. This is the difference between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. See, wisdom is an action word. Look at how James puts it in our text. He says, by his good conduct, he should show that his works are done, and the gentleness that comes from wisdom. In other words, godly wisdom is good conduct lived out in gentleness. Meaning godly wisdom isn't just what you know, but it's living out what you know in a God-honoring way. See, there's also another kind of wisdom though we can be thinking about that's godly wisdom, but there's also worldly wisdom. Look back to the text, verse 14. Here's what James says he says, But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, he says, Don't boast and deny the truth. See, in this part of the text, we get to see something else James is talking about. First, godly wisdom, good conduct and gentleness, and we get to parse that out with what he's saying now, with this other kind of wisdom that harbors itself inside of bitter envy and selfish ambition. That's worldly wisdom. And if we're honest, we think about those two things, and what we get to experience in our world right now is that the world actually rewards those type of mindsets. When you have bitter envy and selfish ambition, the places of work that we want to go to or be at, like they actually reward these things. How fast can you climb the ladder? How quickly can you do these things? How better can you be with somebody else? And actually, can you stomp on their heads on your way up to getting to that place? This is rewarded in the life that we live in right now. There's jobs and opportunities based on envious motivation that in turn fuel our self-gratification. When am I getting promoted? When can I go here? Who can I crush now? Who can I throw under the bus? How can I succeed and make other people fail? We have to know this isn't wise in the kingdom of God. It's wise here on earth, and in most places it gets rewarded, but we have to know, like if we're people of God, this is not wise in the economy of God. Bitter envy and selfless ambition, yes, it's worldly wisdom, but we have to know it's also a trap. And y'all, we're talking about a lot of terms this morning, and so I want to define some for us. Okay, if we're thinking about the word envy, what is Paul talking about when he says envy? It definitely is gonna come up here on the screen for you. Envy is I want what you have. Other translations say jealousy in this text, it's getting at the same root, okay? It's this idea of man, I see what you have, you have these kind of things, and I see it on my man. I I want that too. Okay. Paul puts a word in front of envy here because this is a huge distinction because bitter envy is this. Look at this definition. Bitter envy isn't I just want what you have, but it's I want what you have and I don't want you to have it. You see, bitter envy is saying you have what I want, and I want it too, but not only that, but I don't want you to experience of this good thing that you even have. And honestly, if it were up to me, I would make sure you didn't have it and I would have it. This is the heart of bitter envy. And you want to know true about bitter envy? Bitter envy isn't only like an evil and divisive thing to do, but it is actually an affront on God. Because what you're saying is this you're saying to the sovereign Lord of the universe who loves you, created all things, who sees all things, you're saying to that being, hey, sovereign lord of the universe, you got it wrong. You missed it when it comes to me. I see all this out here, but with me, somehow, somehow you got it wrong. You missed it. And we look at the the being who created all things through love, out of expression of his own self, and say bad, unbelievable. When everything in Genesis, God calls everything good. In creation, we are not to tell the creator what is good and what is bad. But here's what's true about bitter envy: when bitter envy starts to run your life, what you do is start to compare your life to other people. Okay, comparison is often the root of this bitter envy that kind of takes hold. And you want to know what comparison does? Comparison kills. See, comparison is one of the greatest friends of worldly wisdom, but it's one of the greatest enemies to godly wisdom. Like if you want, think about it, if you want good and godly things in your life to die, like if you want faithfulness and watchfulness and diligence and joy and even urgency for the Lord, if you want those things to die in your life, just start comparing your life to other people around you. It's easy and it's that simple. And maybe you've seen this played out in your life before, or maybe in the lives of the people around you. A part of my background is I spent a lot of time in the sports world. I played sports for a long time. I ended up coaching sports for a while. I have kids now. Eventually, I'll probably coach again. Um, but man, I remember coaching basketball, and oftentimes you see a lot of walks of life come into this basketball arena. And you're at practice and you see kids in these different skill sets, and sometimes you'll get a kid that has significant skill level. And they're good for a time. But oftentimes what happens, eventually, somebody comes in that has more skill than them. And the kid now has a couple options. They can either fold and be like, yo, I'm done, or they can work harder and become better. But oftentimes, more often than not, what happens is that a kid that's experienced some kind of success, once someone else comes in with greater skill, they end up falling back. And the reason isn't because they've become less skilled, the reason because they start comparing themselves to the person that just came. Comparison is a killer. And what happens is a guy that might have been first string before now comes to second string and goes from second string to third string and third string to fourth string if they stick around. Like this is the effect of comparison. It's the enemy, it's the thief of joy, and it distracts us from the responsibility and importance of pursuing godly wisdom over worldly wisdom. Maybe some of you aren't sports fans, maybe you're a lawn care type person. Okay, any lawn care people in the room. Listen, I've got a lot of friends who love their lawn. I don't really love my lawn like that. Maybe I can learn to love it a little bit better from some of you guys in the room. But I got a lot of friends who love their lawn. And I've got friends who, when I go to their house, one of the first things they want to show me is, man, look how my yard's doing. And I'm like, you know, I don't care anything about your yard. But I'm gonna indulge you just for the sake because I love you, okay? And I don't know if you know this, but there's like, especially if you live in the neighborhood, there's a line between your yard and the neighbor's yard that's called the domination line. You guys ever heard of that before? And people who love their lawn, they think like my lawn has to be the best lawn, especially with the people who are connected to me. And the domination line, people are like my yard needs to be better than their yard. But I've got friends, man, who when I come up to their home, they love to show me their yard. I'm looking at the yard, I'm like, yeah, this is this is good. And he's like, Yeah, this yeah, this is good. But then his eyes slowly start to wander across the street, to the right, to the left. And he's like, Yeah, but my yard's not quite like John's yard. I'm like, dude, it's evergreen. The grass is amazing, flowers are where they're supposed to be. Dandelion's not in, okay? No weeds. Like, you're your your yard is great. Be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's not like it's not like John's next door across the street. And I'm like, listen, you have a great yard. Like, comparison is a killer, it's a thief. It steals from the joy. You can't even see the good that you have in front of you. And maybe not a sports fan or a lawn person, like this can go even beyond that. You can experience this at your schools, you can experience it in your offices. And what happens when comparison starts to seep in, you can start to question like why is theirs that way and mine isn't? Why is mine's like this and theirs is like that? Why did they get that opportunity? Why did she get that promotion? That should have been me. Comparison kills. And sometimes y'all, even this a little deeper with me. Come on. It gets to the point where we don't just compare, but some of us even start to delight in other people's pain. It gets weird. I'm sorry if you're new to the room. I have a bad habit of saying the quiet part out loud. So if you don't like that, you're not like Ambassador Church, okay? Like you and me, we'd never admit this. But doesn't this kind of well up in us sometimes? Like, think about a friend who shares good news with you, or someone you would call your friend, and they come in and they're lit up with joy, smiles on their face, and they're telling you all these cool things, fun things that happen to them. And what happens sometimes with us is we're so full of envy and bitter envy that we can't even take delight in the thing that they're delighting in right now. Instead of saying, Hey, I'm proud of you, keep going. I can't believe it, man. Keep, I'm excited for you. How can I help? We sit there and think like, Good job. Ah, I should have been me. Like, this is this is real. You find some way to either make some slick remark, or you even get real silent, right? Like, your tone doesn't match their tone. Their tone is up here, your tone's down here, and they're like, I'll make silent, and you're like, Cool, good, like, good job. We downplay the joy that they feel, or maybe a friend is struggling and coming to you, and instead of having a sincere heart and saying, Man, I'm so sorry. Is there anything you need? How can I help? You say, Oh yes. Like maybe your family in here, you've got friends, they've got kids, you've got kids, maybe you've been playing catch up, you run them with the Joneses, and you view their family, their kids as better than your kids, your family. They're the perfect ones. But sometimes those type of families come to your family and they say, Man, dang, little Jordan got expelled from school last week, and you know, we're trying to figure out what to do as a family. And in your heart, in your heart of hearts, you're not thinking, oh man, what can we do to help you? You're thinking, it's about time. It's about time. Like finally, the perfection is worn off. You're actually human. Can I just let you know something in the room really quick? If those things well up in your heart, you know what that is? That's evil. It is a destroyer, it is a killer, it will destroy relationships, and here's what's true: it will destroy you from the inside out if you let it. See, comparison is birthed from bitter envy, and it's the enemy of pursuing godly wisdom. But it's not just bitter envy, okay? There's also selfish ambition. There's more. James doesn't let up quite yet, okay? But here's what we have to know about selfish ambition. The Bible doesn't condone or like diminish ambition wholesale, but there's two kinds of ambition that we can kind of pursue. There's selfish ambition and there's holy ambition. And I want to define these words for us too. Selfish ambition, I'll hop up here on the screen first. Selfish ambition is this. Selfish ambition is a self-centered drive to advance oneself, often at the expense of others or apart from God's purposes. And the apostle Paul, who's responsible for writing the lion's share of your New Testament, he draws note of this in the letter to the Philippians in chapter 2, verse 3, he says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourself. And you have to know that when Paul's saying this, he's not saying other people are more important than you. He's saying there's a mind shift that you have to have, a spirit you have to have in your heart of saying, like, hey, I'm not I'm no better than you, and you're no better than me. But there's a shift of humility that happens when you count others as higher than yourself, so that you can have a posture of service, of love, of joy, and care over something like bitter envy and selfish ambition. He's saying, count others higher than yourself. But then there's also a holy ambition. Selfish ambition, a holy ambition. A holy ambition is defined by this it's a God-centered passion to see God's kingdom come and his will be done, even at personal costs. It's a desire to use your gifts, your energy, your opportunities to glorify God and bless others. And Paul also has some things to say about this. In Romans chapter 15, verse 20, he says, It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known. And in Philippians chapter 3, the same book from just above, um, verse chapter 3, verse 14, he says, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Meaning, he's saying, I'm holding as my highest ambition to pursue the goal that God has promised me through his son. He's not Saying ambition is bad wholesale. He's saying there's two ways we can pursue it, either selfishly or holy. And I love that Paul says this in our Bibles because those of you who know Paul's story, Paul has a wild conversion story to Christianity. Like Paul is naturally a zealous person. And if you knew who he was before Christ, he was zealous for persecuting Christians. And his main aim, his highest ambition, was to make sure the name of Jesus didn't spread anywhere. But then when he came to know Jesus, his ambition changed. His ambition, instead of not wanting them just to be known anywhere, was having the name of Jesus be known everywhere. And I hope this is helpful for you in the room because when you come to Christ, God doesn't want to like make you into a completely new person with all these other desires. He just wants to transform the desires you already have to go from glorifying yourself in selfish ambition and glorifying God in holy ambition. Like if you want to know what you should be doing in light of who God is and who you now are as a new person in Christ, look at your hands and say, God, what have you already given me? Look at your place. Where have you placed me? Look at where you're going, where am I going? And how can I go and do and be and be placed for the glory of God and not my own glory? This is what we have to know. This is the kind of ambition that God smiles at. So if you want to know if you're giving yourself over to selfish ambition versus holy ambition, here's a uh chart that would be helpful for you. See, selfish ambition is motivated by pride and envy and fear. And it seeks my glory over God's glory. It leads to rivalry, comparison, and division, and it brings this emptiness and destruction. But holy ambition on the other side is motivated by love for God and other people. It seeks God's glory above all else. It leads to willing sacrifice and desire for eternal impact, not just for the impact for me or for right now, but eternal. And it brings joy, fruit, and blessing to others. This is the difference between selfish ambition and holy ambition. I wonder if you were to take inventory to last week, where do you feel like you would fall mostly in this chart? And how could you fall more into holy ambition versus selfish ambition? To put it plainly, selfish ambition asks this question How can I make myself great? But holy ambition asks, how can I make Jesus great through my life? But it's often hard to tell the difference, isn't it? Especially for its achievers in the room. Can I be honest with you for a minute? See, I look at this list and I'm looking at Paul talking about worldly wisdom and saying, hey, worldly wisdom is based in bitter envy and selfish ambition. And to be honest with you, I don't really struggle with bitter envy that much. All right. Just to put my cards on the table. I'm not a very envious guy. I am grateful most of the time for what I have in God. But one thing I might do is I might see someone who has all these things and they're doing kind of things, things that I like foresee and maybe have ambition for in my life. And I'm like, God, I've seen what you've done for others. Could you do it for me? Okay, like that's about it. But you have it. I'm great you have it. I will even champion you and I'll lift you up. Like that's just my personality. But here's what's true of me I don't struggle with bitter envy, but I do struggle with selfish ambition. Like selfish ambition, if left unchecked, will actually run my life. Like I'm the kind of guy that has to check if what I'm doing is for God or for me. I'm the guy that I like to blame where I've been. Okay, those of you who played sports, you guys know this. You're in this bubble. And in sports, it's all about immediate gratification and self-gratification. You're under the limelight, you're doing all these kind of things, and you want to be better than the person next to you. You want to save face with the people who are watching you, you want to do it, all these kind of things. And if I'm honest, like I think the residue of where I was then, I've had to do work overtime in my life as I followed Christ to be like, how can I not bring that into the real world here? And for many of us, it's not sports, it might be something else, something else that's in your life that's claiming you. And what you do is you are trying to succeed in that place and that doing it, you're seeking selfish ambition, and it's actually causing more harm to you than good. And here's what I believe about the selfish ambition in my life, and I believe it might be true in your life too. This selfish ambition is born out of a type of pride. And it makes us believe the lie that says, hey, the more I achieve, the better that I look, the more that I have, this proves how valuable I am. In the eyes of myself, in the eyes of others around me, in the eyes of God. This is what can be true. And if you wrestle with selfish ambition like me, like you can even deceive yourself and be like, hey, it's not really selfish ambition. Why? Because I'm just a driven person. I just like going, I like accomplishing and all these different kinds of things. Plus, I'm my own worst critic. Like I'm I'm critical of myself and what I do. Let me help you out. You might be your own critic, but we say this as if self-criticism cancels out selfish ambition. It doesn't. Y'all. It's a solid attempt though. Okay, good. Good job. But it doesn't cancel it out. And so maybe you, like me, have to consistently remind yourself and ask the question hey, is this thing I'm putting my hand to, is this thing I'm dreaming of? Is this thing I'm moving towards? Am I doing this more for me? Am I doing this more for God? If you can relate, let me share with you a note that I keep fresh in my phone for when my ego tends to flare up like that. And the phrase is this you matter, but you're not the point. You matter, but you are not the point. And y'all, this is gospel-centric because what's more true about you than anything is that God the Father sees you, and even if you don't claim his son, Jesus, and you're in his family, like he's still pursuing after you. He's still running after you, he's still loving you, he still wants you to be a part of his family. And even if you know him and you find yourself running away from him, doing other things, he hasn't left you gone to go be. No, no, no. But he's still pursuing you too. He's saying, Hey, come back, come back, come back. And if the father of the universe, the creator of all things, is saying, Hey, you out of all people, I'm pursuing you, and I want you with me. You want to know what that means? You matter, and at the same time, you are not the point. You are not the center of the universe. God, out of his love and kindness, is pursuing you. You matter because of God, not because of you. You matter, but you are not the point. And why am I making such a big deal about this? I'm making a big deal about this. Look in the text, James 3, 15 through 16. Here's what James says, and he continues. He says, Such wisdom, when we think about bitter envy and selfish ambition, he says, such wisdom does not come down from above, but it is earthly, it is unspiritual, and it is demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder in every evil practice. That's a harsh word, gang. James is saying that worldly ambition that hides itself in bitter envy and selfish ambition. I want you to see this list. He says it's unspiritual. He says it's earthly and demonic. He says disorder comes out of pursuing worldly wisdom. Every evil practice that you know comes from worldly wisdom. And it's not just the worldly wisdom out there that somewhere on the news or in the political sphere, all that kind of stuff. No, no, no. But this same worldly wisdom can be welled up inside of us too. And what James is saying, there's a place where that comes from. There's a place where that comes from, and it's not of God. Listen, I'm making a big deal out of this because the Bible calls bitter envy and selfish ambition demonic. He's literally saying it is from the pit of hell. Bitter envy and selfish ambition. So the question is what do we do? Here's the answer: we flee from worldly wisdom and we pursue godly wisdom. But what does godly wisdom look like? Remember, we use James' words to define this. It's good conduct to live out in gentleness. But the last couple verses in our passage, they actually give us a picture of this. Look at verses 17 through 18. James continues, he says, But the wisdom from above is first this. Here it is. It's pure, and then it's peace-loving, it's gentle, it's compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, it's unwavering, it's without pretense, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace. If you want to know what godly wisdom looks like, the fruit of it, he's saying it's pure, meaning it's undefined, uh undivided, meaning it's focused on God's will alone and not your will. It's peace-loving, it doesn't intentionally make or pursue conflict. It's gentle, it's considerate of others, not ready to fight all the time. It's compliant, meaning not stubborn, and it's open to input. It's merciful and fruitful, it actively pursues kind and right actions, it's unwavering, meaning not partial or not easily swayed, and it's without pretense, it's full of authenticity. This is what godly wisdom looks like. When these things manifest in our life. There's no question. We are on the godly path. So as I close, I want to give us just a little bit of application here as we answer the question how do we get this godly wisdom? I hope you're asking that question. We've looked at what godly wisdom is, what worldly wisdom is. We've talked about the dangers and distractions of worldly wisdom. So now, if godly wisdom is what we should have, how do we get it? There's three things that pop up here on the screen. The first one is this it's pursue Jesus. I know that might sound like a Bible school answer to many of you, okay? But this is first and foremost. We pursue Jesus. Why? Because Jesus, the Bible defines him in many places as the wisdom of God. Jesus Himself. The Bible says Jesus is the wisdom of God. You want wisdom personified? Look at Jesus. You can read about his life, all four of the gospel accounts in your New Testament. You can, if you want to know what wisdom looks like, look at the life of Jesus. Jesus is the wisdom of God. Paul even makes this more clear in 1 Corinthians 1.24. He says, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. In 1 Corinthians 1 30, he says, Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us. In Colossians 2 3, he says, In him, Jesus, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Jesus is wisdom. So if you want wisdom, if you want to know how to make wise decisions in your life, you can actually look at Jesus. Several weeks ago, we talked about the what would Jesus do wristbands. You guys remember that? And we tossed that thing around. Y'all got to look at it. It's an ancient 90s relic. Okay, many of y'all never seen one of them bad boys before. But that's what wisdom looks like. And I think those of you that make a comeback, and so if you got them and you selling them, let me know. I'll buy a few. But wisdom looks like that. And so the charge for you is if you want godly wisdom exercise to your life, you need to plan out time in your weeks to pursue Jesus. Y'all, you have a Bible in your hand right now, and some of you are even looking at it on your phone. That thing can go with you anywhere. Everywhere you go, you have the word of God. We are the most connected to the Bible now than anybody has ever been in human history. And if you want to pursue Jesus, it starts there. Read his word. And be a person of prayer. Pray to God. Be in Christian community. Wisdom and wise action, wise living that comes from goodness and gentleness happens when you get close to Jesus. And you want to know what? That stuff doesn't happen on its own. It doesn't happen accidentally. You can't just oops your way into righteousness and godliness. That doesn't work. So the charge is hey, find the time in your week to do it, find the place maybe for you to go and do it. Find the people who can do it with you. And how about you make a commitment to pursuing Jesus if you want godly wisdom? So pursue Jesus. The second thing is we got to petition God for wisdom. If you want godly wisdom, pursue Jesus. Secondly, petition God for it. You've got to go to the throne room. Ask him. Ask him, and you will get it. I love how in James chapter 1, verse 5, we were in this a few weeks ago as well. And James unpacks wisdom there. We talked about that too. And here's what he says in James 1, verse 5. He says, Now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should do what? He should ask God for it, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. Like that's actually a promise in your text, if you don't know that. That if you ask for wisdom from God, which means if you ask for more of Jesus from God, he will never withhold that from you. How could he? He's already given you his son on the cross, he's done the worst thing in giving his son up for you. How much more will he do the lesser thing of giving you something like joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self and selflessness and self-control, faithfulness, self-control. How much more will he give you those things if you come to him, you petition him for it, and you ask him for those things? On Easter, we talked about a little bit of doubt and fear. Right? Doubt isn't the enemy of your faith, fear is the enemy of your of your faith. And even in James, James talks about doubt, and the only time that he mentions doubt is when we should come to God and pray and petition before him for things like this. It's right after this verse, without doubting. That if you come to him and trust and know that God will give you more Jesus, if you ask him more, wasn't if you ask him from him, he will say, How much do you want? When do you want it? And how can I get it to you? How do you take payment? Venmo, Apple Pay, how do you want it? I'll get it to you. But lastly, pursue Jesus, petition with God, and then practice gratitude. This is the last one. And this one is super practical. And so I want to invite you sometime this week, find a time to make a list of all the things you're grateful for. If we want to fight against worldly wisdom and pursue godly wisdom, if we don't want to give over to things like bitter envy and selfish ambition, sometimes the thing that stands in the gap between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom is just being thankful for the things that you already have. And when you take inventory of what God has already done, gratitude and thankfulness is the antidote to bitter envy and selfish ambition. When you're grateful, the wisdom of the world tends to fall away, but the wisdom of God tends to be made manifest. So I invite you to make a list this week. And a lot of that, I wrote a list down from this past week of things that I'm grateful for. Maybe this will spire you in your week this week. I'm thankful for breath in my lungs. I'm thankful for a faithful spouse, four wild children that keep me on my toes. I'm grateful for the stewardship of Ambassador Church and the journey of church planning. I'm grateful for the second chance that God's given me. And the second chance after the second chance, and the second chance after that. I'm grateful for the parents that I know love me even though they're no longer here. I'm grateful for a college education and friends I know I could call on at any moment. The experiences that basketball has given me, the wisdom I get from my trusted mentors. And lastly and most importantly, I'm grateful for a savior in Jesus Christ who promises to go with me and be with me no matter what I'm doing and no matter where I'm at. I'm grateful. And I wonder what you in the room are grateful for. If you just took five seconds, I bet you could name some. I wonder what you can do in five minutes. I wonder what you can do in 15. Set a timer and just see what how long can that list get of just you thanking God for the things that you do have in your life, not the things that you're looking over the fence for at everybody else, but the things that you have in your own life. I bet if you took inventory of what you're grateful for, gratitude will well up in your heart. And God will be kind to show you the path to godly wisdom over worldly wisdom. And it starts with pursuing Jesus. So the main point this morning is this that when you pursue Jesus, you gain the wisdom of God. And my plea this morning is that we be people like that. That we be people who pursue Jesus, we petition with a holy God, and we practice gratitude in our lives so that we can pursue godly wisdom more of Jesus and flee worldly wisdom, bitter envy, and selfish ambition. We want to look like Jesus and be more conformed into his image, y'all. This is the way. And so would you pray with me that this be true of us? Father, we love you, and we're grateful for this morning, and we're grateful for all you've done. We're grateful for your son that you've given us on the cross, who purchased our salvation. You know, we're grateful for you who desires to be with us, who all wisdom dwells in, and you desire to share that wisdom with us. And so would the Spirit come on this room, and would you give us the unction and the desire to ask from you and plead with you for all godly wisdom? So many things we're going through in our lives, so many questions that we have, so many things we're facing. And the question that I pray that we ask is, God, would you show us godly wisdom? How can we enter into these stages and phases in our lives, the opportunities in our lives, pursuing you and not ourselves? How can we be grateful and still pursue holy ambition? Will we be bold and brave to ask that question and listen to you as you answer? And along the way, would you continue to give us more of your son so that we can continually take steps in wisdom, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness, more faithfulness, more self-control as we walk in this life, Father, not for our own glory, but for your glory. We love you and we praise you. You can do all things. We praise in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Thanks for listening to the Ambassador Church Podcast. To learn more, visit ambassadormke.org or follow us on Instagram at AmbassadorMKE. And if you're in the Milwaukee area, we'd love to see you this Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m. at 2308 East Bellevue Place. Grace and peace.