SPEAKER_00: I'd like to ask you to turn to James chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get started, I just want to mention that next Sunday we've invited a special guest speaker to be here on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Greg Haig.
SPEAKER_00: Happens to be a close personal friend of mine, but far more significantly, he's really given his life with a passion for reaching Jewish people, Jewish people for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He currently works with Chosen People Ministries.
SPEAKER_00: He's been with REL Ministries.
SPEAKER_00: His particular calling is training Jewish believers to pastor messianic fellowships.
SPEAKER_00: Fascinating, important work.
SPEAKER_00: He's part of a seminary.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's responsible for a seminary that's associated with Talbot Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: And they are located in the middle of Brooklyn in New York, in the middle of the strongly Jewish community, and it's the Jewish Center for Messianic Studies.
SPEAKER_00: And he has a lot to say, has a heart, and it's a ministry and a focus.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be opening the word.
SPEAKER_00: What he's really coming for is just because Jane and I love Greg and Linda, and we just want to be with them, and they're going to be here, and I worked it out that they could speak next week.
SPEAKER_00: I think you'll enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: So good friend of mine.
SPEAKER_00: But turn with me, please, to James chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be completing a two-part message on the subject of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And what I tried to do last week, and will continue to try to do this week, is very simple.
SPEAKER_00: What James is saying to us is that wisdom is not knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is skill in living life God's way.
SPEAKER_00: And the life of God within, which begins when we come to faith in Christ and continues through this life and takes its final form in the life to come.
SPEAKER_00: And this life is just a prelude.
SPEAKER_00: This is not what life is all about.
SPEAKER_00: This is like the foreword in the book.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a foretaste of what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens in this life is that the characteristics and the character traits and qualities of God become manifest in our lives imperfectly, but truly.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Bible is talking about wisdom, it's talking about the life of God lived out in our lives, and it's talking about what God does to develop godly character.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to focus on the fact that that counts.
SPEAKER_00: Character counts.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: It always has and it always will, whether it's reinforced in our society or not.
SPEAKER_00: So what we're talking about in this passage is really the character traits expressed in our lives as we begin to live out what God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: And character really does count.
SPEAKER_00: When our twin boys were in college, and that's goodness, a long time ago now, and they went off to school, I carried on a private campaign.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they ever really knew about it, but they knew what the effect was.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I would email them, and then every day as they would email back, and of course your kids always emailed you every day in college, right?
SPEAKER_00: Forget it.
SPEAKER_00: But every time I had contact with them, especially with email, I slipped in the phrase, character counts, time after time, email after email.
SPEAKER_00: Because I wanted, as they were moving out of our household, to have something to grab a hold of on that would take and develop what we've been trying to put into their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so every time they heard from me, they heard character counts.
SPEAKER_00: Now I never debriefed them afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they got as tired of hearing from their dad character counts as some of you may get tired of hearing today is Sunday, the 15th of May 2016, and God is still on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: He was last week, he is today, and he is in the week to come, and he's faithful and good.
SPEAKER_00: We say that every week.
SPEAKER_00: And if you get tired of hearing it, just wait.
SPEAKER_00: A time will come that I'm gone.
SPEAKER_00: But as long as I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's some things that are just so important.
SPEAKER_00: God is on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: He's involved.
SPEAKER_00: And he's good and he's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the themes of Scripture is character counts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not said quite that way, but that's what it boils down to.
SPEAKER_00: We have to reaffirm, and that's what James is doing, reaffirm that the way we live really matters, not in a legalistic kind of a way, but that we're drawn to, as we've come to know Christ, there is a desire that the Holy Spirit implants in our heart that begins with a personal, internal change, but there's a desire to be a certain kind of a person because that's what we desire.
SPEAKER_00: And if we if you don't desire that, then then something is not working right.
SPEAKER_00: But throughout scripture, examples and models are set forth for us that we need to focus on in our society.
SPEAKER_00: It used to be that we had American idols that were worthy of that position.
SPEAKER_00: They were examples of men and women with character.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think, for example, about George Washington, and I don't know if he ever really chopped down a cherry tree or not.
SPEAKER_00: It almost doesn't matter, but you know what was told and retold and retold about him that he fessed up and he said, it was me.
SPEAKER_00: And it was, he he admitted to it not because he had gotten caught, but because he didn't want to be a liar.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: That story was told over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: It used to be a he was a role model or honest Abe.
SPEAKER_00: And I know for a fact from the biographies of Abraham Lincoln that uh that I've read that he was a man who knew how to work hard, he was a man of integrity, he was a man of character, he really did split logs by day and study law at night.
SPEAKER_00: And there developed in Abraham Lincoln a character trait, a series of character traits that were praiseworthy.
SPEAKER_00: And we used to have, we used to have leaders, political leaders, who we could admire for their character.
SPEAKER_00: I think of someone like Clara Barton.
SPEAKER_00: Clara was a shy, uh a shy woman from Massachusetts who during the Civil War selflessly, self-sacrificially served and healed wounded soldiers in that which was America's bloodiest war, in part because of the uh the poor state of medicine at the time.
SPEAKER_00: And she just gave herself and gave herself and gave herself to these wounded soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: And then when the war was over, Clara Barton not only established the Red Cross, but became an early, early advocate of black civil rights.
SPEAKER_00: Go, Clara Barton.
SPEAKER_00: And her story has been told and told and told again, and it should be told.
SPEAKER_00: She was a woman of character.
SPEAKER_00: Or I think of Audie Murphy.
SPEAKER_00: Audie Murphy in 1942 was a young, scrawny five-foot, five-foot-five baby-faced boy who wanted to go and fight in World War II.
SPEAKER_00: And he tried to get into the Marines and he tried to get into the paratroopers, and they wouldn't have him because they wanted real men, not a scrawny little baby-faced uh boy.
SPEAKER_00: So he kind of sneaked into the infantry.
SPEAKER_00: And for the next years, he fought battle after battle with valor.
SPEAKER_00: He saved lives.
SPEAKER_00: He was a hero time and time and time and time and battlefield after battlefield.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually, and to this day, Audie Murphy is the single most decorated veteran in the history of America because of his valor and because of his character, because character counts.
SPEAKER_00: He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, and his grave is the second most visited grave site in Arlington National Cemetery next to John F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy, because he was a man of character.
SPEAKER_00: And these were the models in our society.
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at the scripture, it's character all over the place, it's godliness, it's character traits that are what is important.
SPEAKER_00: Would that we had presidents and politicians and leaders around us who exemplified character.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't start understanding not that as a political end, but that's what God wants to develop in your life and in mine.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about changing our behavior.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about filling our minds even with truth and good theology.
SPEAKER_00: It's about life transformation that gets expressed in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 3, verses 13 and following.
SPEAKER_00: Who is wise and understanding among you?
SPEAKER_00: We saw last week that's a rhetorical question.
SPEAKER_00: It's to get us to think.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives an answer.
SPEAKER_00: Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you're reading the ESV, it says a little bit differently.
SPEAKER_00: By his good conduct, let him show his works, his life, in the meekness that flows from wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about character.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have other character traits, bitter jealousy, selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the wisdom that comes from above.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's the wisdom from above that he's going to look at and we're going to be, or we're going to look at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But what we were seeing last week, that's not wisdom that comes from above.
SPEAKER_00: It's earthly.
SPEAKER_00: It's just focused on the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have a vertical or an eternal dimension to it.
SPEAKER_00: It's just earthly.
SPEAKER_00: It is unspiritual.
SPEAKER_00: It's disconnected from God.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly wisdom is disconnected from God who made the world and understands how it works and how we're to live.
SPEAKER_00: It is ultimately, the end of verse 15, demonic.
SPEAKER_00: For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
SPEAKER_00: But wisdom from above, God's kind of wisdom, is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle, then open to reason, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
SPEAKER_00: And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, what we're talking about today is dear to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: It describes how you want us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Not by self-effort, but by the power and the reality of your life in us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to be sensitized to what you want from us in terms of character.
SPEAKER_00: And if that happens this morning, then that's because you are present and you're at work.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, give us ears to hear, eyes to see, a heart that's open to hear what you're saying to us, I pray.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's just walk through these two verses.
SPEAKER_00: The first part of verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Um wisdom from above.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might say, well, just get on with it.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pause and think, what is he talking about here?
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom from above.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we know that this is contrasted with the wrong kind of wisdom, the kind of wisdom that is worldly wisdom, and he's just been describing that.
SPEAKER_00: And in contrast to that, he talks about wisdom from above.
SPEAKER_00: We know that biblical wisdom is not knowledge, it is knowledge about how life works that is skillfully put into practice in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: If you want knowledge, graduate from college.
SPEAKER_00: If you want wisdom, we go to God because it's truths about how life really works, how the designer designed it.
SPEAKER_00: And we learn to adjust our life in accordance.
SPEAKER_00: And God builds into us a different kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's what Jesus talked about, life that's abundant and free and rich and glorious and satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: And it has an influence among other people that is good and rich and satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to be more and more who God has made us to be.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just coming up with some strategies for living in a socially acceptable way.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's the very life of Christ that grows out of it.
SPEAKER_00: And as we saw, it's not what is earthly and carnal and demonic.
SPEAKER_00: Those were the things that's wisdom from below.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we saw last week and in the verses that go before, we saw some examples of what it's like when people are very advanced in their worldly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: When they get so sophisticated or so involved with the world the way it is around them, that it begins to affect things.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to just read a portion of the book of Romans, where it describes people who are well advanced, who are very mature in worldly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the way they are described.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 1, verse 21 and following.
SPEAKER_00: For although they knew God, they didn't honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Their thinking got all screwed up.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking in their future futile in their thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Their foolish hearts became darkened.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of becoming wise, it gets darker and darker within.
SPEAKER_00: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, God gave them over to the lusts of their heart, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, advancing in human wisdom, worldly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
SPEAKER_00: For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
SPEAKER_00: And men likewise gave up natural relationships with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.
SPEAKER_00: And since they didn't see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_00: They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
SPEAKER_00: They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
SPEAKER_00: They are gossipers, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that is a horrible, horrible description of where we end up when we reject godly wisdom and the life of God within.
SPEAKER_00: The question that we have to ask ourselves is: would we rather be characterized by the things that James is talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, a harvest of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to be like?
SPEAKER_00: It's a choice ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be like the world?
SPEAKER_00: Whereas God has made us for so much more than that.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to give us something more than that.
SPEAKER_00: And which kind of a person do you want to be?
SPEAKER_00: And if God is at work in your life at all, you don't want it to be that.
SPEAKER_00: And you do, at a deep level, want it to be what James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: And what it really is, is the godly qualities of life from above.
SPEAKER_00: Life from above, life from God, wisdom from God, character traits that He builds into us that come from above, lived out in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_00: That's James' way of describing what the Christian life ought to be and where we ought to be heading personally in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is the presence and influence of God lived out in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: The presence and the characteristics and the quality traits and the personal characteristics of godliness lived out in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: If you want knowledge, you have to go to college.
SPEAKER_00: If you want wisdom, you have to go to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, do we really want to go to God for that?
SPEAKER_00: And as a believer, I guarantee you that the Holy Spirit is working within to have you long to be more like that than like that.
SPEAKER_00: So the way James describes it here is like a series of fruit, uh, characteristics, luscious, luscious, delicious fruits, characteristics of living the way God intends us to live.
SPEAKER_00: Living in a way that satisfies, that really satisfies your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: The way we get satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: Was it the Beatles?
SPEAKER_00: Rolling Stones.
SPEAKER_00: I thought of it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bunny trail, folks.
SPEAKER_00: What satisfies is the life that God intends for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's what satisfies.
SPEAKER_00: And this is described for us with a series of fruits.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want you to do is I want you to just kick back and listen to what how God describes the life you've always wanted.
SPEAKER_00: And let it just kind of wash over you.
SPEAKER_00: Just pretend like you're standing in a shower.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Just you.
SPEAKER_00: You're just standing in the shower.
SPEAKER_00: And you let this stream over you.
SPEAKER_00: And it is so cleansing, it is so satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: And it's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
SPEAKER_00: So The first of these is a simple word, pure.
SPEAKER_00: And he says wisdom from above is first, pure.
SPEAKER_00: And probably what he's saying is this idea of purity is kind of an overarching description of what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the word pure, the particular word that is used in this section, is used very rarely in the New Testament, but a similar word that it's closely related to is used very, very frequently.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the term holy.
SPEAKER_00: What he's talking about is personal holiness.
SPEAKER_00: We don't really talk much about personal holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Shame on us.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's a life that truly satisfies.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a life that is the way we're meant to be.
SPEAKER_00: Pure means to be free from fault.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we are not fully pure.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've noticed that or not, but you are not fully pure.
SPEAKER_00: But by the grace of God, you are no longer what you once were, and by the grace of God we will someday become all that God intends for us.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not an all or nothing.
SPEAKER_00: This is a growing.
SPEAKER_00: The fruits grow in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't read the Galatians 5 passage of the fruit of the Spirit, which is Paul's way of saying very much of the same thing, but we could have.
SPEAKER_00: And so the picture here is the real thing.
SPEAKER_00: 100% the real thing, unadulterated, undiluted, and true.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like the best Florida orange juice.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if we spend a few bucks more for pure orange juice, pure refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: I love cold, fresh, pure orange juice.
SPEAKER_00: Where you don't pick out the orange leaves and parts of the stems that are there, and it's not been supplemented with all kinds of other things.
SPEAKER_00: It's the real thing.
SPEAKER_00: The real thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what pure is.
SPEAKER_00: The real thing, the real life of God within.
SPEAKER_00: Undefiled and undiluted devotion to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is in accordance with God's design for us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what James is talking about, what Paul is talking about, what Proverbs is talking about, is a life that works.
SPEAKER_00: And it works because the designer designed us to function in a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: It's not trying to beat us over the head.
SPEAKER_00: It's not trying to simply conform our social behavior or to make us feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, this is life and this is abundance.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I meant for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the designer.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the design.
SPEAKER_00: Live in accordance with the design and be the real thing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I got thinking about the idea of a designer and what a designer designs, and my strange mind got moving into designer genes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have to admit, I don't know much about designer genes.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a big concept, and some of you probably know all about it.
SPEAKER_00: So I just kind of looked it up.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, when I don't know something, my first thing to do is to turn to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, one of my first things to do is to turn to Google.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that sad?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's very clear famous designers have set forth an idea of what really looks good on you.
SPEAKER_00: And you pay through the nose for it.
SPEAKER_00: I checked on Amazon because I wasn't sure if there was such a thing as designer jeans for men.
SPEAKER_00: So I did a quick search, and the first thing that popped up was a pair of designer jeans for men that cost$1,590.
SPEAKER_00: Now, my friends, I can guarantee you I could wear a pair of jeans that cost$1,590 and it wouldn't make me look good.
SPEAKER_00: So why do we spend all of our time trying to look good?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have anything against designer jeans.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not going to waste the money on it, but that's me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not against trying to look good.
SPEAKER_00: But let me be real gentle here, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: Just because you squeeze into designer jeans doesn't mean you look good.
SPEAKER_00: And I say that just, I'm not on anybody's case.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, is that what makes us look good?
SPEAKER_00: How about slipping into a designer life?
SPEAKER_00: There's a designer who has a pattern for us and he knows what looks good and what feels good and what is good.
SPEAKER_00: A designer life, my friends, always makes you look good.
SPEAKER_00: A designer life, following the design of the designer, always makes you look good.
SPEAKER_00: Pure.
SPEAKER_00: The real thing, in accordance with the designer's design.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the overarching description, and then there's uh uh several more.
SPEAKER_00: Um and what follows is a very carefully put together list.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't James just kind of shooting from the hip.
SPEAKER_00: If you could study it in the original, you would find that it is it is almost poetic.
SPEAKER_00: The the next four uh character traits have a, they're alliterated, not just with the first letter, but the sound, the first sound in each word is parallel.
SPEAKER_00: You're drawn into it.
SPEAKER_00: This is there's a cadence to this.
SPEAKER_00: This is skillfully and wisely done to grab our attention and to let us just stand in the shower and let it just come over us.
SPEAKER_00: Just just enjoy what God wants for us.
SPEAKER_00: Um the next one is peaceable.
SPEAKER_00: Peaceable.
SPEAKER_00: What an interesting characteristic.
SPEAKER_00: It has the idea of being at rest.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's some people that just somehow or another they exude a sense of calm.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not because they're idiotic or their life works perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: They've just learned that though everything can be going on around me and there can be terrible trials and painful times in my life, there's there's a sense of rest.
SPEAKER_00: And it comes ultimately from knowing that today is the 16th of May, 2016, that God is on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: It has to do with our understanding of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: With God, a God who cares, a God who is sovereign, and God who's involved in my life, then I can have peace in the midst of chaos.
SPEAKER_00: Then I can have tranquility in the midst of pain.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not just theory, that's the reality of a life with God.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: But real and true, you better believe it.
SPEAKER_00: A sense of freedom from strife and disorder.
SPEAKER_00: Inclined or predisposed towards peace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we we don't always succeed, and sometimes we're in seasons of life where it's not real peaceful.
SPEAKER_00: I get that totally.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Ephesians uh, I don't remember if I put these verses there, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, verse 3, make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: That we're on the lookout and we're intentional about cultivating peace around us.
SPEAKER_00: Peace with God, peace with man.
SPEAKER_00: That's a predisposition.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 14, 19, make every effort to do what leads to peace.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes to get to peace we have to go through difficult times.
SPEAKER_00: But make every effort to do what's necessary, that peace, a calm, a tranquility that is connected with God, because God is here and he cares and he gives us a new kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, 18, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone.
SPEAKER_00: As far as it depends upon you, it doesn't always depend upon you that you're at peace with people.
SPEAKER_00: It takes two to tango, it also takes two to be at peace.
SPEAKER_00: But do everything, if far as it depends upon you, live at peace.
SPEAKER_00: There is a certain calmness and a serenity and a peaceability, the ability, the aptness to live this way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the opposite of being contentious, pugnacious, where you're constantly creating chaos and struggle and strife.
SPEAKER_00: It's quite the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_00: We may be in struggle and strife, but there's a sense of a sense of God being with us, and it's okay, even if what's happening is not okay.
SPEAKER_00: Um another one of the attributes, gentle gentle.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word that's translated here, gentle.
SPEAKER_00: What in the world does he mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Gentle.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is um actually one of the most difficult words in the Greek language to translate adequately into English.
SPEAKER_00: It's just really tricky.
SPEAKER_00: Um it is talking about uh someone who is gentle in the way we think of it, someone who is equitable, someone who is fair, treats people in appropriate ways.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps the best description, a paraphrase that I read, of a nuance that fits in our vocabulary is the idea of being kindly considerate.
SPEAKER_00: There's just some people who are just kind.
SPEAKER_00: There's people in this congregation who are just kind.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what a refreshment that is to be around a kind and considerate person?
SPEAKER_00: I want to be like that.
SPEAKER_00: This is not my strength.
SPEAKER_00: But boy, when I'm around that, that just feeds my soul and it bathes me in what God wants, and it helps me to be more like that.
SPEAKER_00: Kind and considerate.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's a person who knows how to make allowances appropriately, knows how and when and when not to make allowances for people, and to accept people's weaknesses, and to accept the fact that people aren't necessarily where they need to be.
SPEAKER_00: There's a time, there's a time and a place to just, okay, that's that's the way things are.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way this person is, that's the way I am.
SPEAKER_00: By God's grace, I want to be different.
SPEAKER_00: But there's this sense of considerate and considering others.
SPEAKER_00: Um Timothy, I think I put it on here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 2 Timothy chapter 2 is a very significant reference in this case.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 23 and following.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, speaking to Timothy, said, have nothing to do with foolishness, with foolish, ignorant controversies.
SPEAKER_00: You know that they breed quarrels, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents, but with gentleness.
SPEAKER_00: There is a time to correct, but to be able to do it with gentleness, even though you may need to say some hard and even harsh things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said a lot of harsh things.
SPEAKER_00: The interesting thing to me is that Jesus, his harshness came out to religious people who weren't living the way God intended them to live.
SPEAKER_00: It was religious leaders who on the inside were far cry from what their words said, and there was a confrontation, and he had no patience.
SPEAKER_00: There is a time and a place to not accept certain things with people.
SPEAKER_00: But most of us need to work on the time and the place to simply accept.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, correcting his opponents with gentleness, that God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That they might come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this character trait that godly wisdom produces that within us.
SPEAKER_00: Um there is a place for both tough love and tender love.
SPEAKER_00: We talk a lot about tough love, and rightly so.
SPEAKER_00: But not everything is appropriately dealt with with tough love.
SPEAKER_00: There's a time for tender love.
SPEAKER_00: But not everything is dealt with appropriately.
SPEAKER_00: With tender love, there's also a time for tough love.
SPEAKER_00: And wise is the parent with godly wisdom, who by God's grace, not because we get it all straight and understand it, but by God's grace, knows the times with her kids for tough love and for tender love.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the child whose parents understand the difference between tough and tender love.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the teenager who has been treated with both tough and tender love.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the adult child whose parent wisely understands the time for toughness and the time for tenderness.
SPEAKER_00: So this is all part of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is this balances it out.
SPEAKER_00: Wise is the one who knows the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, may we be wise in our relationships with people.
SPEAKER_00: In this case, the focus is on knowing when and how and how not, but knowing when and how to make allowances and to accept the weaknesses and the faults and the shortcomings of one another just as you want to be accepted and given grace and space.
SPEAKER_00: To be imperfect, but to be in process.
SPEAKER_00: The next character trait is translated in the ESV in verse 17 as open to reason.
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting translation.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually an attempt to put into our world the literal word of submissive.
SPEAKER_00: The NIV uses literally the word submissive.
SPEAKER_00: The problem with the word submissive is it doesn't mean in the scriptures what it means to us.
SPEAKER_00: Submissive, if we're not careful, has taken on a connotation of weakness of character and being walked over by other people.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what submission is all about.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just laying down and let yourself being walked over, but it's being open for really something else.
SPEAKER_00: The world of thought behind this term in this passage, we could paraphrase with correctable, able to be corrected, open to reason.
SPEAKER_00: You can sit down with somebody and you can talk things through and they can be corrected.
SPEAKER_00: Godly wise people are correctable.
SPEAKER_00: Godly wise people welcome correction because we need it.
SPEAKER_00: And we're open.
SPEAKER_00: We're open and we allow things to come into our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We're submissive and compliant in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: We don't rail against it automatically just because it doesn't make us feel good and doesn't put us in a good light, but we're open and we're correctable.
SPEAKER_00: Another way of looking at this is coachable.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad our kids are grown and gone because they don't have to listen to me use them as illustrations.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the kids in high school made the varsity basketball team.
SPEAKER_00: This was a small school.
SPEAKER_00: He never even would have dared try out if it was a large school.
SPEAKER_00: It was a small school, he tried out and he got on the team.
SPEAKER_00: I think there were 11 guys on the squad, and he was definitely number 11.
SPEAKER_00: That's all there was to it.
SPEAKER_00: He just wasn't a gifted athlete.
SPEAKER_00: But he played.
SPEAKER_00: I think he played that season.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe five, ten minutes in the whole season.
SPEAKER_00: I may be exaggerating, but not much.
SPEAKER_00: But he was there, he tried.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason I bring this up is his coach was a very, very wise and good coach.
SPEAKER_00: He came to our son one day and he said, you know what I value about you?
SPEAKER_00: You are the most coachable athlete I've ever had on any of my teams.
SPEAKER_00: And when I heard that, I just burst with thanksgiving to God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how many free throws he can shoot, I don't care for three-pointers, I don't care if he can do a fast break, I don't care if he knows how to set a pick.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with those things, but those are not life skills.
SPEAKER_00: But being coachable, now that that sets you up for life the way God wants it.
SPEAKER_00: And to this day, those two boys, by God's grace, not by our great parenting, they're men 34, 36 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Jane, we'll have a discussion over dinner about that.
SPEAKER_00: They're young men of character.
SPEAKER_00: And they're still coachable.
SPEAKER_00: You don't walk over them.
SPEAKER_00: They've got too much of me in them for that.
SPEAKER_00: But they're teachable.
SPEAKER_00: They're coachable.
SPEAKER_00: They're able to be led.
SPEAKER_00: That's another way of looking at this matter of open to reason.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever allow yourself to be led?
SPEAKER_00: Are you influenciable?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you stiff arm every effort of people around you to lead you?
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom allows you to be leadable, and a leader who is not leadable, who is not correctable, who is not coachable is a fool.
SPEAKER_00: That's all there is to it.
SPEAKER_00: These character traits that God wants include such things as being able to be influenced, corrected, and coached.
SPEAKER_00: God and wisely is the man or woman who can take correction.
SPEAKER_00: Godly and wisely are you if in the right spirit you can receive appropriate correction without chafing against it.
SPEAKER_00: Full of mercy and good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The idea here is mercy that produces good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The good fruit of mercy, the mercy that produces good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy in the New Testament is a character trait that is anything but haughty looking down.
SPEAKER_00: When we think of mercy, if we're not careful, we see somebody who's up here and looks down at that poor, suffering person down there.
SPEAKER_00: Where there's a distance in between.
SPEAKER_00: That is not mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy expresses itself as compassion that takes action.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just subtly, even unconsciously standing above someone, it's someone that you stand next to and you're moved to help in a meaningful way.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the best biblical example of mercy is in the familiar story of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: You had the priest and the Levite who saw this person beaten up, mugged, left for dead on the side of the road, and they passed them by.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any reason to think that their hearts were cold necessarily.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any reason to think that they didn't have a sense of pity for the person.
SPEAKER_00: They just had pity or whatever they felt, it just didn't lead them to compassionate action.
SPEAKER_00: And so the example of mercy is the Good Samaritan who stopped, didn't pass by, and at cost to himself, helped the people around.
SPEAKER_00: That is to be the example.
SPEAKER_00: Go thou and do likewise, was what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom results in going and do.
SPEAKER_00: Doing likewise when it comes to mercy, compassion that expresses itself.
SPEAKER_00: It's awfully easy just to write a check.
SPEAKER_00: Now, writing a check is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: We encourage that around here.
SPEAKER_00: It's a whole nother matter to really get involved with people in practical ways and sacrificially help them.
SPEAKER_00: That needs to be part of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of the character traits of people that are responding to God.
SPEAKER_00: Impartial, unwavering, the root here, is someone who doesn't vacillate back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't like the person described in Ephesians 4, 14, or tossed back and forth by waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of man.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't like that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a stability, there is, it has this idea of not vacillating, not being just blown back and forth, but really having a sense of what God wants, having a sense of God's mind on things, and moving forwards towards it, but at the same time being listening and being approachable for other people, able to stay the course while still being coachable and open to correction.
SPEAKER_00: See, these fruit, they balance one another.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the idea of it's not staying like I know what I'm supposed to do, and I'm gonna do what I'm supposed to do, and I'm gonna have you do what you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: I know what God wants now, do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an expression of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The difficulty is that evangelical Christians in our society are viewed as being critical, judgmental, and holier than thou.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it could be that the world around us is predisposed to see us that way.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite possible.
SPEAKER_00: But it also could be that's the way we often come across, because we have truth.
SPEAKER_00: But that truth, we know what God wants, but we don't come across pugnacious, pretentious, arrogant, and demanding.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the life of God within.
SPEAKER_00: That's just not what wisdom and maturity looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Godly wisdom has a fixed direction, but it is still the other things of being teachable, approachable, kind.
SPEAKER_00: Almost the last one is sincere, a term that we uh encounter uh really pretty regularly in the scriptures, and it's it's a real simple term.
SPEAKER_00: It means um being the kind of person that you look like you are.
SPEAKER_00: It's not having a false front.
SPEAKER_00: Uh someone who is without hypocrisy or pretense.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we we we try to look better than we are.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not suggesting we we look as bad as we are.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we're not even being willing to just be who we are.
SPEAKER_00: Without hypocrisy, without pretense, there's a sense of authenticity of actually being who you appear to be.
SPEAKER_00: What you see is what you get.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a character trait of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: But be careful with that.
SPEAKER_00: I I know plenty of people who say, look, it this is just the way I am.
SPEAKER_00: Just deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: This is who I am, just deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the spirit here as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's just being authentically with a measure of humility, um, being the imperfect person that you are without trying to cover that up.
SPEAKER_00: Humility is you're able to laugh at yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You're able to acknowledge that you've got foibles and problems.
SPEAKER_00: You're sincere, you're authentic.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you're not arrogantly just kind of defending yourself and foolishly and unsuccessfully presenting a picture of yourself that isn't true.
SPEAKER_00: There's no need for cosmetics.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not going to get off on cosmetics.
SPEAKER_00: Just a wee diversion here.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we're constantly trying to cover up our flaws.
SPEAKER_00: Now, please, I don't have a problem with women wearing makeup.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, ladies, it really doesn't cover up your flaws.
SPEAKER_00: We are just who we are.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not suggesting we don't present ourselves in an attractive way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying in our society we are addicted to cosmetics, not just not just makeup, but we're addicted to our image and presenting ourselves unlike the way we really are.
SPEAKER_00: There is no cosmetic in the world that will cover up a flaw of character.
SPEAKER_00: There is no cosmetic in the world.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way to try to impress people and cover up our flaws of character.
SPEAKER_00: People are not fools.
SPEAKER_00: We think we fool other people.
SPEAKER_00: And some people are just driven to present themselves as other than they are, and that's not godly wisdom.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Character traits of the life of God within.
SPEAKER_00: He ends with uh uh with verse 18, and we're not going to really look at it very closely.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's probably a proverb or an aphorism or a saying that was well known in biblical times.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of just has that feel to it where he says, a harvest of righteousness is shown in peace by those who make peace.
SPEAKER_00: And the picture is that of, well, we have some farmers in our church here, and this is seed sowing time.
SPEAKER_00: And they sow the seed with the anticipation of the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, sow seeds of righteousness in your life, and you will reap a great harvest.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what it's about.
SPEAKER_00: The seeds and the harvest is the right kind of life, God's kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: We are to plant seeds of right relationships, we are to plant seeds of peace with God and peace with man, we are to plant seeds of all of these other things that we've been talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I just want to just have you stop for a minute and just think about these.
SPEAKER_00: And allow yourself to relish a godly life, what it looks like, what it feels like.
SPEAKER_00: You see it at times in others, every once in a while you catch yourself doing it right.
SPEAKER_00: But just allow yourself to be drawn to that, to savor it.
SPEAKER_00: Purity, peaceability, being gentle, being open to reason, being full of mercy, being impartial, unwavering, and yet able to bend when necessary, having God's kind of life within.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the kind of person you'd like to have move in next door?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that really what a good neighbor would look like?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you just love it if that was the person in the apartment above you?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the kind of person you'd like to share your cubicle at work with?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the kind of person you'd love to have your kids have as a teacher and a role model?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the kind of roommate you'd like to have?
SPEAKER_00: Well, isn't that the kind of person you want to be?
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's a godly life.
SPEAKER_00: The life of God lived out within us.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news is that God gives us those things.
SPEAKER_00: He works within us to produce those.
SPEAKER_00: And if we lack in wisdom, we ask of God, and he gives it generously and freely and without rebuke.
SPEAKER_00: And just don't ever forget the example of Solomon in 2 Kings 2, 1 Kings 2, I think it is, where he could ask of God anything he wanted, and he asked of wisdom, and God gave it to him.
SPEAKER_00: God desires us to have the character traits for which we are designed.
SPEAKER_00: And character really counts.
SPEAKER_00: Your character counts.
SPEAKER_00: My character counts.
SPEAKER_00: Fall short?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: You do, I do.
SPEAKER_00: But this is life and life abundance.
SPEAKER_00: Can we long for that which God is working in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Can we give ourselves to that?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: We really don't.
SPEAKER_00: We want so much more.
SPEAKER_00: We were made for so much more than ordinary life.
SPEAKER_00: We're made to thrive.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Father, may the Holy Spirit have free reign in our lives to produce this kind of character.
SPEAKER_00: Father, may we be malleable, pliable in your good hands to become the men and the women that you are calling us to be.
SPEAKER_00: It would bless us and would honor you and would be a joy to be around.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, may we be men and women of wisdom expressed in this kind of character.
SPEAKER_00: We are totally dependent upon you for that.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts long for it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, have your way, I pray.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just ask you to stand for the benediction, please.
SPEAKER_00: Now go into the world in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Have courage.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that which is good and honor all men.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the suffering, restore the wandering, and share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Love and serve the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And may the grace and the peace be with us all in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.