Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 17.12 - James 3:13-18 - What It Looks Like To Follow God’s Wisdom

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17.12 - James 3:13-18 - What It Looks Like To Follow God’s Wisdom · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in
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  his Word, and show his love to others.
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  Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  Today we are in James chapter 3 and verses 13 through 18.
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  James, 313 through 18 today, James, the pastor of the Church
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  of Jerusalem, he's writing to people that were once a part of
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  his congregation. They're now scattered all across
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  the Roman Empire due to persecution.
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  And he is letting them know because there are some people
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  within their churches all across the Roman Empire that purport
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  themselves to be wise and understanding people, that these
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  should be the people that are teaching.
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  They're very kind of worldly wise.
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  They've they've got lots of money and they can really talk
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  up a storm. And James here wants the
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  churches to recognize who are the people that we should be
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  listening to and who are not the people that you should be
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  listening to, if you will. It's this, what does God's
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  wisdom look like? What does someone following
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  God's wisdom look like? And I'm going to read through
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  verses 13 through 18, and then we'll see what we have for
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  today. Verse 13.
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  Who among you is wise and understanding?
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  By His good conduct? He should show that His works
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  are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.
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  But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart,
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  don't boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down
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  from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
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  For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is
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  disorder and every evil practice.
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  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace, loving,
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  gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering
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  without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness
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  is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
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  So if you will, in this section, James says, what does someone
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  that is following God's wisdom look like?
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  He is a peaceful person, not a fighting person, a peaceful
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  person, not a fighting person. And I think as we go through
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  here, you'll see that even as we are reading through, I'm sure
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  some of how many times the word peace showed up kind of clued
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  you into that as well. So he says first in verse 13,
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  who is wise and understanding? Here's the litmus test.
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  This tells you who is wise and understanding in the eyes of
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  God. It says someone that by their
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  good conduct, the way they live their life, they show that their
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  works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.
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  Now look real quick at this word gentleness.
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  This is the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of
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  1's self importance. This is someone that says it's
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  not about me. Like I want to follow what is
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  right, I want to follow what is good.
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  And I don't really care if I get credit for it.
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  I don't really care if I benefit the most from it.
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  I just want to do what's right. It's someone that's not saying
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  here's my opinion, here's my way.
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  This is someone that just wants the Lord's way and genuinely
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  cares about the other person. There is a a way of quote, UN
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  quote being right that just totally runs roughshod over
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  other people and it doesn't care about other people.
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  It it could not tell you what someone else's concerns or
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  thoughts or objections would be. A person that is gentle that
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  wants to see God's will be done within, you know, a family
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  within a friend group, within a church, within a specific
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  ministry. Someone that is following God
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  will absolutely seek to understand where other people
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  are coming from. And they're not worried about,
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  OK, is my idea going to get through?
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  They're going to worry about what's right because I don't
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  care about me. I care about what is right.
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  So verse 14, the opposite of this, someone that doesn't care
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  about what's right, someone that doesn't care if they get credit
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  or if they're in charge. Verse 14 But if you have bitter
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  envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast in an
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  eye of the truth. Don't say that you are wise and
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  understanding when you have bitter envy and selfish
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  ambition, bitterness. This would be jealousy in
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  someone's heart. It's they are embittered, they
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  are harsh towards other people. A a person that is bitter, they
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  have perhaps felt violated in some way, even from context,
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  maybe that someone didn't listen to them or pick up their idea.
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  And so their response to that is now I'm going to mistreat you as
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  a result of this. This sometimes looks like, OK,
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  you told me something I didn't want to hear.
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  And so now I'm not going to talk to you.
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  I'm giving you the silent treatment.
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  Sometimes this results in kind of spreading or maligning
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  another person behind their back.
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  And they're like, Oh well, they are this and this and this as a
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  result of the the feelings of I am important and you didn't
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  listen to me or you didn't put me in charge of this.
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  And so I am going to have bitter feelings, not only bitterness,
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  but you have here envy. This is in a positive way.
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  This is like zeal. Passion, on the flip side, is
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  intense negative feelings over another's achievements or
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  success, jealousy and envy. So if you are mad about what
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  others are able to accomplish, you can know you are not walking
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  in gentleness, you're not walking in wisdom, you're not
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  walking in an understanding way in God's eyes, you are in the
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  wrong. If you are harsh towards others,
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  uncaring, you have anger towards them, either directly to them or
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  behind their back. If you have envy, intense
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  negative feelings about what others are seeing done, you can
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  know you're not walking in the wisdom of God.
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  Not only that, but he says bitter envy and selfish
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  ambition. This, this word was taken
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  initially from a word that would mean a self seeking pursuit of
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  political office. So if you were, if you would,
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  you could use the word politicking here.
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  And man, I, I'm trying to think of situations other than the
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  local church in which you might see some of this certainly
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  obviously in the realm of politics would be the initial
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  one. But the kind of stuff that you
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  see done in politics would give us an idea of what this selfish
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  ambition is. It's I want to be in charge.
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  I want to be known. I want to be lauded and
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  applauded. This is totally the opposite of
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  the person that is gentle, that goes, yeah, I don't really care
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  about me in this. Like I just care about let's do
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  what's right as opposed to a person that goes, I want
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  position and leadership. This would also be aware of the
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  selfish ambition. This is strife.
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  This is contentiousness. You're you're fighting someone
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  else in order to get your way. And it's not on a basis of, hey,
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  let's do what's right. It's let's do what I want to do.
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  Frankly, as you're conversing with other people and there will
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  always be times of differing ideas within a family, within a
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  marriage, within a a group of friends, within, you know, a
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  school board, within a local church, within anything, you are
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  going to have a difference of opinion.
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  But if you're looking for the godly people, for the people
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  that use the wisdom of God in order to arrive at the decision
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  that they need to arrive at. Listen for the people that go,
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  hey, here's what the Bible says, here's what God's word says,
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  here's what's right to do. Here's the counsel of others as
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  opposed to the people that go, I feel this, this makes me proud,
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  this, how dare you take this away from me.
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  This really means something to me.
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  That kind of difference is it shows worldly wisdom, the
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  earthly wisdom that we read about in verse #15 and the godly
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  wisdom that we read about in verse #13 is it focused on
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  what's right or on what, like benefits, blesses, lifts up,
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  acknowledges, makes one person great?
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  So verse 15 is what James says. Such wisdom, that kind of bitter
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  envy and selfish ambition, it doesn't come from above.
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  It's not from God. It's earthly, unspiritual, and
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  demonic. Earthly.
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  It's not from heaven, it's from this earth.
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  This is the way people do things.
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  It's not the way God does things is unspiritual.
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  It is not led by the Holy Spirit because you're not listening to
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  the voice of the Spirit, who in his fruit you have Lovejoy,
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  Peace. Then the last description there
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  demonic that you have just like Satan said, I will be like the
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  most High, I will ascend to the mountain and I will be this in
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  this and that. Or even as he tempted Adam and
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  Eve to say in the day that you eat of it, he knows that you
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  will be like God's knowing good and evil and so selfish
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  ambition. What can I gain out of this?
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  How does this elevate me? That is demonic wisdom.
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  That's Satan's way of living in the world.
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  It's not God's way. Verse #16 For where there is
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  envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil
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  practice. You want to see a family that's
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  just in shambles and is totally disordered.
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  There's no cohesion between people that that family's not
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  going anywhere. There's just constant fighting.
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  You can know that bitter envy and selfish ambition, They're
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  right at home there. That's the kind of wisdom,
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  that's the kind of home that they are living in.
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  As opposed to you want to see a church that is going forward for
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  the Kingdom, a church that is living the way that God wants
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  them to. They are operating by a wisdom
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  that has a gentleness that goes, hey, I don't care who gets the
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  credit. I don't care who leads this
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  thing. Let's just do what the Bible
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  says. And as we follow what the word
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  of God says, we're going to be a OK.
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  And that should be the the place that we lead as as believers in
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  our jobs. It might I'll say this too.
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  Maybe this was the Lord that brought it to mind.
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  You can get further in your job by operating by this world's
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  wisdom. You can make more money.
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  You can get more of the hours that you want by looking out for
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  yourself, by having negative feelings towards others
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  accomplishments or successes, or when other people are given a
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  raise or honored or given a position.
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  You can get further in this world by operating by worldly
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  wisdom, but that doesn't mean that's how you should behave as
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  a child of God. You should behave with God's
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  wisdom. That you don't care that you
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  don't care about your own ambitions.
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  You care about what's right. Now, what's right doesn't always
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  mean that you just roll over and let other people lie.
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  It doesn't mean that you allow other people to maybe mistreat
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  you, but it does mean you're not looking to fight fire with fire.
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  It might mean, you know, you, you blind CC some stuff to
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  yourself on some emails that you've got some, you know, time
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  stamp trails to be like, oh, yes, actually, I did do this.
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  I, I did put in the work for this.
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  Here's the receipts on that. But you are doing so in a way
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  that is gentle. You're, you're caring.
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  You care more about your coworkers, about your bosses,
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  about the good of the company than just hey, can I get 17
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  steps ahead of the system that your primary care would be.
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  I want to be like Jesus in this place and to these people and
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  that they would feel loved and cared for and that there would
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  be a a right situation in this workplace and you could get
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  further faster by doing it the world's way.
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  Choose instead, I'm going to do this through the wisdom of God,
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  not through the wisdom of this world.
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  All right, verse 17, the wisdom from above.
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  What's it like? It's first pure.
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  There's no ulterior motives. God's God's wisdom is a pure
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  wisdom. Then it is peace loving.
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  There's not a love of fighting and arguing.
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  They want to build bridges. They want to be able to
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  compromise when they can. If you have someone that is
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  never like, hey, I'll meet you halfway or I'll meet you 1/4 of
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  the way or I'll meet you 3/4. If someone's just like, no, my
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  way or the highway, that's not normally godly wisdom.
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  There are some instances in which you need that, you know,
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  salvation. That should be something that is
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  just directly very clear. And someone's like, yeah, Jesus
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  and some other stuff. You should be like, no,
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  absolutely not. Don't compromise with that.
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  But when you've got interpersonal relationships,
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  there is normally some place where compromise can take place
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  because they love peace. So it's pure, it's peace loving,
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  it's gentle, it is yielding, it's not insisting on every
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  right of letter of law or custom.
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  It's it's someone that can give a little bit.
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  It's someone that's not going to find minutia to grill you over.
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  That's not a loving mindset. That's not the wisdom of God.
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  Then you have this word compliant and this is someone
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  that is obedient. This is kind of an interesting
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  word. Yeah.
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  So this would be someone that is easily entreated that as there
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  is request for leniency, as there is request for, oh, could
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  you really help me out with like, you know, this last step
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  in the process or, man, this really means a lot.
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  Could you this or that that you're able to do so that you
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  choose to do so? And I think so many times in
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  Scripture of when people asked Jesus or when people asked the
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  Lord for just like a little something extra and God did it
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  time and time again. Think of Abraham when he's
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  interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah and in particular for
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  Lot and his family, that as he goes all the way down from 50
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  down to 10, at each moment along the way, God was compliant with
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  his request. And he didn't have to be because
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  he knew it was like Lot and that might have been about it for the
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  righteous people. So God could have stopped at 50
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  and been like, yes, 50, that's great.
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  We're going to go now knowing what the the true state of
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  affairs was, but God was compliant.
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  He was easily entreated. May we have that same love and
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  desire and goal that it would be easy for people to be like, hey,
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  can you give a little on this that we would easily do so when
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  we are able to obviously not on things of right and wrong, but
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  not a lot of things are straight up right and wrong in our in our
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  world. If it's not sin have have some
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  grace to be able to have compliance towards others, then
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  full of mercy and good fruits. God's wisdom.
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  It doesn't want to bring the hammer down on people and it
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  wants to do good to others. Let's have that be the way we
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  live. It is unwavering and without
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  pretense. It is not judgmental.
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  It's not divisive. It is impartial.
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  It's not uncertain that it would just say I am going to treat you
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  in a way that is loving and that is caring and I am not going to
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  vacillate between, OK, I really want to treat him the way that
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  the world says I should treat him.
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  Oh no, I guess I should be like, no, no, just consistently choose
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  the wisdom in the way and the love of God as seen in the life
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  of Jesus. And we do that.
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  And then without pretense, this is being genuine.
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  It is being sincere. It's not play acting.
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  Instead, it is someone that that says, yeah, I'm just
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  straightforward with you. Hey, I don't love this.
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  This isn't super great, but I am going to give on this and this
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  and this. I'm going to hold to these
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  things over here that are non negotiable, but I'll do whatever
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  I can for you, just without pretense.
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  Be straight up, be be upfront with people.
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  That can sometimes be hard, especially when you know
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  someone's not going to like what you have to say.
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  And goodness knows that I have to encounter that often.
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  But this kind of wisdom, man, it, it is, it is living out the
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  new life, the abundant life that Jesus wants us to live.
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  And it's the life that we are going to experience with Jesus
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  when, when we're back here on, on the new heaven and the new
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  earth, that we will experience Jesus being like this to us for
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  all of eternity. And what a joy that will be that
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  we are living right now like Jesus's Kingdom on earth has
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  already come. We are living godly lives in
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  light of that day in which we will always get to live godly
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  lives. Verse #18 And the fruit of
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  righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
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  You want to do what's right. You don't do it through force,
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  you don't do it through argument, you don't do it
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  through brutality and strong army.
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  You do it through trying to be peaceable.
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  And when you plant that seed of righteousness, right treating of
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  God and man, and you water it with peace, you water it with
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  this kind of wisdom. Goodness, that's going to grow
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  peace in your life, and you're going to experience
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  righteousness rising up in you, in your family, in your job, in
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  your church when you pursue this kind of wisdom, a wisdom that
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  isn't looking out for itself, it's looking out for what's
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  right, for what is. God's way that you treat others
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  with gentleness and kindness and being easily compliant, loving
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  peace, being merciful towards others, being without pretense.
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  That kind of wisdom is the kind of wisdom that you need and that
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  I need. O Thanks for tuning in today.
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  Hope that this would have been an encouragement to you.
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  Next, Eisode will be in Charter 4.