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Sermon: Pursue Wisdom From Above · North Raleigh United Methodist Church Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to be finishing our series in the book of James.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've been in James for these four weeks.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're in James chapter 3, starting in verse 13.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the series has been called Practical Faith.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Overall, in James, uh, as I read it a lot of times, I can read it and kind of understand what it says in all of the passages except for today's.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're um gonna talk about this passage together and think through today what this idea about wisdom is telling us for how we can live this practical life of faith that James invites us to.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I invite you to read with me James 3, 13.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are any of you wise in understanding?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, instead it is from the earth, natural and demonic.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: What of the wisdom from above?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: First it is pure, and then peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair and genuine.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is the source of conflict among you?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: What is the source of your disputes?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: You long for something you don't have, so you commit murder.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're jealous for something you can't get, so you struggle and fight.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have because you don't ask.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: You ask and don't have because you ask with evil intentions to waste it on your own cravings.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: You unfaithful people, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't God long for our faithfulness and the life he has given to us?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But he gives us more grace.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the humble.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore submit to God.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Come near to God, and he will come near to you.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Cry out in sorrow, mourn, and weep.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let your laughter become mourning and your joy become sadness.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, this is the word of God for us, the people of God.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, for you, O Lord, are our rock and our redeemer.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is very little wisdom in our world today.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: When I think about books that are written, articles that are published, shows and movies that are produced, it is mostly disposable.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of books are written to give you an escape.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: A headline is published just to see if you'll click.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: A show or a movie has to generate buzz before it's even released.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: But escape, clickbait, and buzzworthiness are hardly signs of wisdom.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is why when we come across something wise, we are stunned by it.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: It could shock us and force us to slow down.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have had Pope Leo's encyclical on artificial intelligence in my briefcase for three or four months.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is a deep work.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: It takes me a long time to read a paragraph.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is brilliant and full of wisdom, but my brain almost doesn't know what to do with such wisdom.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of years ago, I read East of Eden.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's a book.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't first a Netflix show.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um John Steinbeck wrote that book.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is thick.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is not beach reading.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: It took me a long time, but it is a masterwork, and it caused me to reflect on so many questions about human nature and generational trauma and how it all interacts with Scripture.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we have been encountering in this whole book of James.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: James begins in verse 5 of chapter 1.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: James has been concerned with wisdom this whole time.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say that James is really a New Testament book of wisdom.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom writings are concerned with how to live happily under God's rule.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: James has a lot of advice about how to do this.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You see, wisdom is the definition of practical faith.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is being a doer of the word and not only a hearer of the word.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is caring for the poor and not favoring the rich.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is watching what we say.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today, James wants us to know that a wise life is on display by how a person treats their relationships.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: There was other wisdom literature that was out there during the time that James was written.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And James's style echoes some of that tradition.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: But James is written as a wisdom teacher in the Jesus tradition.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So he is echoing many things that Jesus, the greatest wisdom teacher, says.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Much of the cultural wisdom during James' time was about keeping your place in society and having the correct manners.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was about keeping up the status quo of the hierarchy as it was.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: But James does not care about these goals.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: James is concerned with the community gathered around Jesus Christ.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he envisions this community as an egalitarian one, living out the teachings of Jesus in real time and in real life.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The cultural wisdom around James was concerned with individualism.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: The wisdom James offers, though, is about the good of the whole community.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: James begins today by writing, Show that your actions are good, with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: As always, James is concerned about right action.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what wisdom is always concerned with, not just right speech, but right action.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And James presents the goal of a wise life, a humble lifestyle.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: What does this humble lifestyle look like?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: James lays it out in verse 17.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: What of the wisdom from above?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: First it is pure and then peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair and genuine.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: For James, wisdom is lived out in the context of relationships.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: How you treat someone shows if you have this wisdom that is from above.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: We can check ourselves against this list from James 3.17.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do I treat people with no aim of getting something from them?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Peaceful.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do I seek healing and harmony in my relationships?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Am I gentle?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do I treat people with kindness and dignity?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Am I fair?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Am I honest in all my relationships?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: James closes out this discussion of what the wisdom from above looks like with a proverb of his own.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: James is saying that wise people make peace.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: They don't hope that peace just comes to them.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wise people pursue the act of peacemaking.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when they do this, they are sowing the seeds of justice in the world.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: If this sounds like a beautiful dream, it's because it is.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is the vision for the beloved community that Dr.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: King talked about.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is God's dream that motivated Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the time of apartheid South Africa.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is the kingdom of God that Jesus invited us to enter.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And James is saying that wise people live this way: a humble lifestyle that points to a life of wisdom.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: James tells us.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition get in the way.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: These things are the exact opposite of the humble lifestyle of peace that James calls the wisdom from above.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: If wisdom is all about relationships, then the wisdom that is from below or from the earth is also all about relationships.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And James gives some strong warnings about this false wisdom.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: He calls it demonic.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 16, he tells us wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Those are strong words.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is hard for us because our culture lifts up people with selfish ambition.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So many stories of superstars, whether in sports and entertainment or in business or in politics, are essentially stories about people making sure that the haters were always wrong as they proved that they are the best.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: If wisdom is displayed by how we treat others, then so is its opposite.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: This wisdom from below is like Bing Crosby's character in White Christmas.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when he's sitting in the ballroom of the Florida theater and he accuses Betty of bringing him there on false pretenses?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: His view of business and the world is that everybody's got an angle, meaning every person is always looking out for their own self-interest.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone is trying to get their piece of the pie.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when we hear that position of Bing's character, everybody's got an angle, we cringe a little bit because we know he's right.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is the wisdom from below.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the wisdom of our world and of our economy.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: You better get yours.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: You better look out for, number one, you better protect your stuff.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: James wants the people of God to know this is not what the life that Jesus offers us looks like.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: For when relationships are treated as a means to an end, we are warned about what will happen.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: James writes that the cravings are so strong for possessions that people will even kill someone for their things.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think about those Black Fridays at Best Buy back in the day.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: The insatiable desire for stuff is so strong, James warns, that it takes over and it permeates all relationships, selfish ambition and bitter jealousy.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that the community that James was writing to was so awful that they always reflected this selfish ambition.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's why James had to lay it out in such stark terms.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he warns them in verse 4 of chapter 4: you unfaithful people, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And James begins with a strong word.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Unfaithful might not sound as strong as the word he really means, which is adulterer.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: James is saying that your allegiance to God is like a marriage.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the covenant that the prophet spoke about ever since the Old Testament.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: A marriage requires complete faithfulness, not partial.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: There is not like six days a week faithfulness in marriage with a day off of it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's all of the time.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And James uses this language of friendship that had certain connotations in his world.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Friends in James' time shared their possessions, and they also shared their view of the world.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: James wants us to know that you can't call yourself a friend of God and be a friend of the world.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: A friend of the world would kill one another in order to get their possessions.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther King Jr.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: wrote and preached that we are all extremists, friends of the world or friends of God.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: In his letter from a Birmingham jail in 1963, he said it like this.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Will we be extremists for hate or for love?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: James is saying you cannot be friends of the world and friends of God.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: This dual relationship is impossible.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: He calls this being double-minded.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: But don't we do that all of the time?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: We play this game in our heads that we probably don't speak out loud very much, especially in church.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Can I be like just enough Christian?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we want to have the bare minimum of the Christian faith in order to have its benefits.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why we like being United Methodists.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're really nice.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't ask too much of you.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in London, right across from the chapel that's named after him, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, is rolling over in his grave.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: For he preached this sermon in 1741 called The Almost Christian.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: He preached it at Oxford University.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: For the third time, he got to preach there in 1741.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And after that sermon, they never invited him back.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he called upon the people not just to appear Christian, but to fully devote themselves to Christ.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: You see, Methodists were known by their complete commitment to loving God and loving neighbor.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Methodists were known by their complete devotion to Jesus.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were known for their methods of discipleship for God's sake.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have the name.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: They were known for being extreme friends of God.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: James knows that this is the issue for his people then, and it's the same for us today.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Human nature tries to maintain and hold on to friendship with the world even after it has tried to become friends with God.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But God demands our life, our soul, and our all.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: For James, this is obvious.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is black and white.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, come near to God and repent.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Purify your hearts and cry out to God.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: This movement of confessing to God and turning toward God and repentance is the way back to God's heart.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: James closes our section with a simple invitation: humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: How do we live with a humble lifestyle?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The life of wisdom?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: James writes that we humble ourselves before the Lord.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: When we humble ourselves before God, we adopt the alternative values of friendship with God.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Those values of peacemaking, gentleness, mercy.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: James offers us two alternatives here.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he asks us point blank, who has your desires?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do God and God's hope for the world have your desires?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is this wisdom from God what lights you up and gets you excited and gets you up out of bed in the morning?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or do the world and its ways have your desires?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you find yourself fretting over your own selfish desires?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you're honest, do you find yourself wondering, just how much of this Christian thing do I need to do?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: James knew that friendship with the world looks very appealing.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: It did back then and it still does today.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of us who are pretty skilled at achieving by this world's standards, giving up friendship with the world is indeed a sacrifice.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: But we can only will one thing.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: We can't turn on peacefulness for some of our relationships and then turn on selfishness and greediness for others.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's either one or the other.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way of wisdom.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: One way is a far better way, friendship with God.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: But one way is a far easier way.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Friendship with the world.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Which one will you give your life to?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out of it.