Let's take a moment to turn our Bibles to the book of James chapter 3. Excuse me. I'll turn my Bible there too. Okay. I'll read for us the passage and we'll pray to begin. James chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. The scripture says, "Who among you is wise and understanding?

Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes from above, but it's earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder of every evil thing.

But the wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed of whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Let's take a moment to pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace.

God, we are so incredibly grateful that as Ryan said, we have been given the privilege to know Christ, who is the answer to all, who is salvation. And we are praying, Father God, that all the more as we live our lives, then we would grow in that. And what's more, as you continue to instruct us, as you continue to guide us, I pray that we will then grow in true biblical gospel wisdom.

That God, we would be maturing children, giving honor to you. We also want to pray for our collegians who are at the retreat studying and learning. We pray for fruitful times of both fellowship in Christ, of learning and growing. We thank you, it's in Christ and we pray. Amen.

I want to ask you by way of introduction, when you were in school, let's say high school, what kind of student were you? Junior high, high school, college years, what kind of student were you? There's two camps. One that says, "I'm going to cram as much as I can and get this test done." And so by the time there's this kind of ebb and flow of you play, play, play, play, play, and then you cram, cram, cram, and you take your exam.

Or were you the kind of student who really felt like, "You know, I actually want to learn and retain this stuff because at some point I have to use it." And so you tried to study, you tried to actually apply, and you tried to make sure that when you come to just exam time, it wasn't just performance of test taking.

It was actually knowledge on paper. For a lot of people, I'm just assuming, it's just hard to be that kind of student, right? It's just the general tendency is to be the crammer, is to be the procrastinator who says, "You know what? I just need to get this exam done." And what we realize is that in education, examinations are actually very important because it forces us to make sure, "Okay, am I actually learning?" Exams are designed to test and see what do you know?

And then what's really interesting is there are different kinds of exams that is not so much intellectual or how well you retain information, but there are certain exams, let's say performance reviews, or even let's say in certain professions where the exam is not so much what do you know, but the exam is what can you do?

Let's say for a test for firefighters, a test for certain officers, military personnel, what can you actually do in this moment? And what I'm saying is these kinds of examinations periodically are absolutely necessary because it's important for us to know, is there an actual skill? Is there actually a growth?

Is there actually a capacity that we have? Now then applied to our Christian faith, what's very interesting is that this passage when you notice, it is an absolute call out. Do you know your stuff, right? The book of James is actually filled with tests. The book of James can be actually organized into five different series of exams.

Some of these exams are can you handle trials? Through trials, what is exposed, what is contained in you? How are you handling these things? There's a test of how do you respond to the word of God? Do you actually obey and do? Or is it just right over your head?

There's a test of your tongue, this powerful tool that I've given you, this powerful thing that you're supposed to use for the praise of God. How do you use this massive power called your tongue? And then there's this, do you have wisdom? Do you have knowledge and skill? And there is this call out because literally he says, "Who among you are wise?" It's almost like, "Hey, stand up if you think you can do this." And then he says, "Now show me." The passage literally straight up says, "Show me your good behavior.

Show me your wisdom." And that's why as I was reading this passage, I was so convicted, felt a little uneasy, almost felt like, "Oh goodness, I'm about to take this exam." And I'm going to go through some scrutiny and what James is going to do, the scripture is going to do, is really show us are we growing and maturing as good students of the Lord, good children of the Lord?

And so the way that I'm going to structure this sermon is to say, of course God wants us to have wisdom. Of course God wants us to live with maturity. Do we have it? Do we have true wisdom as the Lord desires? And so we're going to describe it as examination questions.

Moving forward, then the first one is this. First, true wisdom leads to skillful demonstration. True wisdom leads to skillful demonstration. And my exam question to you is, do you know what you're going to get examed on? Do you know what you're going to get tested on? Some students show up to the test like, "Oh shoot, I didn't know this was on the quiz." May we not be those kinds of students?

What am I saying? Most often when we think of wise, we think of, let's say, an old individual who has a gray beard, the wisdom is shown in the glory of his white hair, and he's teaching, lecturing, and the pupils are around him, and what he's doing is giving audible wisdom.

He's giving knowledge. Let me drop some knowledge on you guys in my days, and then he starts telling everybody his experience and the stuff he's learned in the past. Yes? But the kind of wisdom that God desires for us is far above and beyond that, is it not? The kind of wisdom that God desires for us is not something that you can just do audibly.

It has to be visible. Look at the text. The passage says, "Let him show." Do you have understanding and wisdom? "Then let him show it by his good behavior in the deeds and the gentleness of wisdom." The manner of your deeds, the quality of your life, and the general behavior in your daily routine, daily decisions, is it demonstrating wisdom?

In the way that you make decisions, in the things that you do day to day, is it demonstrating wisdom? This is the overarching concept that the scripture teaches us. God wants us to have a certain kind of wisdom and maturity, Christian growth, that is absolutely visible. Absolutely visible. For example, 1 Peter 2, verse 12.

The scripture says, "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they what? Observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." Not because you're like, "No, no, no, no, no, I'm not bad.

Trust me, I'm good." You're never going to win an argument like that. But because they see you, it's like, "What?" They can see your works, they can see your deeds, then they'll glorify God. Even more so, James, earlier in the book, in chapter 2, verse 18 through 20, he said, "But someone may well say, 'You have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without works. I will show you my faith by works. You believe that God is one.'" You've got good doctrine, that's good. But you do well, "The demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow," contrary to wisdom, the foolish fellow believes that faith without works is okay.

But he says, "No, faith without works is useless." Now that all makes sense to me, and the way I want to describe it to you is I want you to think about maybe just metaphorically the Christian life as a master craftsman, or the trade of being a craftsman, maybe a woodworker, right?

A woodworker. A good woodworker will know his stuff. When they pick up a piece of lumber, they'll be like, "Oh, this is actually softwood, not good for furniture." What are you doing? Are you building furniture for the outdoors? Ah, then you need redwood. You need cedar, because this and this and this and this.

This stuff doesn't mold outside. A knowledge base will be with a master craftsman who is wise. For you as a Christian, I will have to ask you this. If you have been sitting in church, you've been going to church, and you've been living your Christian life, there then must be a growing knowledge base.

What is this? This is not holy. You should be able to do that in wisdom. What is this? This is God-pleasing. You should be able to tag, label, and identify the stuff that is necessary, essentially is your working pieces. But that's not enough. Why? Because the master craftsman, he's sitting there like, "Oh, this is good lumber.

Oh, this is whatever." And then you go over with him to the table saw, and he's like, "How do you turn this on?" Right? Or all of a sudden, he sees the saw blade come up. He's like, "That saw blade is big." And then if you've ever worked with wood or these tools that are loud, it's like, "Oh my gosh." He's all shocked by it.

You would sit there and be like, "What? Have you never used this thing?" And if it wasn't a woodworker, but it was your physician, you'd be like, "Someone else please." This guy's nervous. He doesn't even know what tool that is. If he looked over to his assistant, he's like, "Can you hand me that thingamabobber?" You'd be like, "No, no, no, no.

We're not doing this operation. We're not doing operation with a guy who calls it a thingamabobber." You better know your stuff and know how to use it. Biblically speaking, wisdom is not just knowledge. Biblically speaking, all through Jewish history, when you look at the past, wisdom is skillfulness. It's a knowledge base that is skillfully used for you to live a life that is pleasing to God.

It is used for you to avoid pain. It is used for you to avoid sinfulness. It guards you from that presumptuous, rebellious, and all kinds of deviance from God. And it moves you to walking with God in holiness. That's the way Old Testament Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, all these things are seen as wisdom.

Does that make sense? But then for us, I got to ask you this question. What's really interesting in the Book of Proverbs says a good reputation is worth more, the much more valuable, much to be prized than money. Well, the thing about it is, is your track record, not that's a snapshot, but the film strip of your life, marked with a growing wisdom.

You know what? Earlier on, when I experienced this thing, I was like, "What is this? I don't know!" Are you growing in wisdom? Not only both in knowledge, substance of scripture, principles, and instruction, but there is a skillfulness to you. I know how to decide what to do in this scenario.

I know what I should be doing here. And you know in this scenario, you know what's valuable? Is there a growing wisdom in you that is demonstrable, it's seen? Or is your reputation, it's like every time that guy hits a hard road, it's always like, "I don't know what to do!" And then they just go off into this horrible trail.

I'm asking you this question to examine your life. Is there a growing wisdom, avoiding folly, avoiding childish decisions? This is the kind of test that God is going to ask. Right? He's going to ask that, like, "What are you doing with your time?" So that's number one. Moving forward to number two, true wisdom is not only seen, but as it's seen, it's humble.

And I put there, aka self-controlled. Take a look at the passage with me again, verse 13. It says, "Let him show his good behavior, his deeds, in the gentleness of wisdom." So yes, you're supposed to show it with good behavior, but it's supposed to be gentle. Now, I've got an older brother who has three daughters.

I always saw my older brother as like, "Dang, this guy's a man." When he was in high school, he lifted, he was kind of big, he had a shaved head in high school and stuff. And so for me, I always saw him as like, "This guy's a man." And he had three daughters, and he got all gentle.

He's all soft, like, "Elise, do you want to..." His voice changes. Have you seen that? Where it's all airy and soft? Okay, that's typically what we think when we think gentle, like tender-hearted, which is good, because biblically, that is gentleness. But here, there's a really interesting nuanced word that is translated differently in different translations.

The NIV translates it, "Humility that comes out of, or comes from, wisdom." The ESV says, "It is meekness in wisdom." Hmm. Clearly, then, the translators had some tough time describing this, and it's true. You guys all know, those of you guys who speak two languages, there are certain terms you'll just never be able to do a one-to-one correlation and translation, right?

These are one of those terms. So I'm going to give to you an interesting definition I found through a resource. The idea is more so not just gentle and soft, but meek, but not in a man's outward behavior only, nor in just his relation to his fellow man or his mere natural disposition.

Rather, it is an in-wrought grace of the soul, and the expressions of it are primarily towards God. So what the biblical commentators do is they just start bean-counting. Where was this word used through the Bible? And they just look at every single instance, and they notice a pattern. This is typically towards God, and the attitude is a spirit where we accept God's dealing with us as good, and do not dispute or resist.

That's meek. Do you see that? And then he says, "This word protest, according to Aristotle," now they track. Where is this word used in other literature? "In Aristotle, it is the middle standing between two extremes, one side getting angry without reason," always like, "Raaah," like brute force. "But the other, never getting angry at all, pushover, doormat.

Therefore, protest is getting angry at the right time, in the right measure, for the right reason." Wow. "Protest is not readily expressed in English. There is no one-to-one correlation, but it is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates dentalness not in weakness, but in power, in a balance born in strength of character." Dang, that is a rich word.

Let your wisdom be like that. And you're like, "Oh, that sounds all good, but, huh?" You know what's going to help for us? What is the prime example of this kind of meekness, humility, gentleness, where there is power, where there is certainty? It's Jesus Christ. You guys remember when he gave the incredible invitation to his disciples, and he said, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Why? "Because I'm the master teacher." Right? "'Cause I'll be your coach, and I'm going to whip you into shape, and you're going to take over the world." That's not what he said. He says, "Why? Come to me, take my yoke, because I am gentle and humble in heart.

You will find rest for your souls." That to me is incredible. Is Jesus Christ like meek and beating around the bush when he teaches? No, he's not beating around the bush. Jesus Christ speaks authoritatively, but that authority and power is controlled. It's humble. Right? We see the perfection of this wisdom and humility in Christ.

He has such stability and self-control that when he is reviled, he does not revile back. When it is appropriate, he shows what's true and what's right. This is the kind of gentle humility that we want to exhibit. And so, as a means for you guys, in your Christian life, have you been a newbie craftsman who does not have this control?

Are you right now growing in control? For example, when I think of a newbie craftsman, number one, he's too scared. He comes in, he's like, "Oh my gosh, I'm supposed to hold that power tool? That thing can shave off my arm." Right? Like, "Oh, I don't know what to do." That's not control.

That's not confidence, and you're probably going to get hurt. But on the flip side, if you see certain people have a major task, a big task at hand, you're supposed to build furniture for the king, you're like, "Oh my gosh." Right? So, certain things don't work. You get all frustrated.

It's like, "How come this is not working?" You're all impatient with yourself. Like, "I can't do this." You see what I'm saying? We are challenged and tested in so many different ways. And when we are growing in this kind of mature control, all kinds of anger will come out, impatience will come out, fear, interpretation, all this stuff will come out.

And my question to you is, are you growing in this? Are you growing in this? Because we're supposed to be growing as children of God, as disciples of Christ, in this kind of wisdom. And scripture says, I want to give you another passage from James chapter one, that he'll constantly contrast for us in teaching us what is contrasted with the wisdom of God.

On the flip side sometimes, James chapter one, 19, 20, he'll say, "This you know, my beloved brethren, that everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow in anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." I love that. The frustrated, annoyed, irritated, and impatient anger of man saying, "We need to get this work done.

This finisher must be done." Right? "How come it's taking so long?" That doesn't accomplish the kind of righteousness that God desires. But in wisdom, have you thought through that? Have you thought through that? And so, I want to put up an interesting kind of Venn diagram for you, because that's what scripture is doing.

True good wisdom of God. It will represent itself in good deeds. And you will be tested on those good deeds, that is it visible or not? But what's more true, good, good, godly wisdom will be humble and self-controlled. And then he contrasts that in the next section, and he starts to describe the false kind of wisdom, the kind of wrong wisdom that we might exercise.

And he says that this wisdom is absolutely selfish. Let's take a look at the passage, and this is what he says. Verse 14, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant, and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic." Wow, okay?

What a contrast. And so what he says is, there is this false wisdom, but that to me is very interesting. Because if you ask the question, what is the opposite of wisdom, for lack of better words, it's to be dumb. To be foolish is maybe a more biblical way to say it.

You're just foolish, right? But when you think of foolishness, what do you normally think of? I would have expected that the Bible would say, if you're foolish, then you don't know. You're just ignorant. Right? You don't know what's going on. You don't know what to do. You don't know how to decide.

What's very interesting is, he says, the false wisdom, it actually is derived from your selfish ambition. And we know this. We know this experientially. What do I mean that we know this experientially? Because many of us have experienced what it feels like to know up here exactly what we ought to do, and then do otherwise.

I call this the, you have conviction on Sunday, but you have sin on Monday. Right? You come into service, you're convicted, you know what you ought to do, and then Monday, whether it be your challenge to forgive, your challenge to be patient, your challenge to be focused and not distracted, and then Monday, I know what to do, but I can't do it.

And sometimes that has been our maturity ever since we were young. Our parents, it's not like they didn't tell us, dude, don't do this because you're going to hurt yourself. Right? You better check yourself for your records. Right? And how many times have our parents told us the same thing multiple times, only for us to be like, I know, I know, and get all frustrated, like stop lecturing me, and then do it.

And all of a sudden, it really does make sense. I mean, take a moment just now to do the evaluation. Do the history of yourself. In moments of frustration, in moments where you really regret your decisions, in moments where you wish, like, I really wish I had a take back, because that was a bad, bad moment in life.

Was it because you didn't know what was good? You didn't know what people would be upset by? You genuinely didn't know what you kind of ought to do? No. Those moments are probably filled with, I could not control what I wanted. I did it because I wanted to. You couldn't control that inner desire, and the longing, the love, the craving, the hunger.

A lot of times, our struggle is not just simply knowledge up in the head. A lot of times, it is the submission of our own will. And that's why scripture says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows." It flows the spring of life. That's Proverbs chapter four, verse 23.

And what's more, Proverbs 25, verse 18 says, "Like a city that is broken into, and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit." Scripture knows this. Scripture knows this. And we know this. The greatest thing oftentimes that we need to control is our ambition and our heart's desires.

And let's make some further observation. We recognize that this selfish ambition is an incredible force to be dealt with. And for you, I don't know if you think wisdom means I can wax eloquently about systematic theology, which is still really good. You should be able to. Maybe I can do the apologetic on teaching everybody why Christianity is so smart and everything is so dumb, right?

However, wisdom often is seen in a man who can domesticate one of the greatest beasts that live in our lives. And that is that internal desire. You know what's really interesting is that word for selfish ambition, it is tied together with bitter jealousy. You saw that? Bitter jealousy has many different translations.

So when you do that word study again, like how is it used here? How is it used there? Sometimes translated zealous, right? When you're zealous for something. And what's more, the term for selfish ambition, the word for ambition is really weird because if you take it literally, like you're not using it metaphorically, but you just take it literally, it means a mercenary.

You can't say like a mercenary, a hired hand to do the dirty deed. That's really interesting. But what it says is sometimes it's translated man of strife. What it tells you is this is a force to be reckoned with. Your internal desires don't just sit there like now that I'm a Christian, I want all things godly and I want nothing for myself.

That is not the way it works, is it? The desires of your heart must be constantly kept in check. The desires of your heart must be constantly ruled by you. And you must domesticate it almost. Sometimes you need to put it to death. And scripture says this is at the heart of true wisdom.

Why? Yesterday we had a seminar about finances. And what's really interesting is I shared how I had a pendulum swing. When I became Christian, I took this vow like all money is wicked. Look at all these wicked people. And part of that was because I was wicked with money.

I mean, I fantasized about money. I've confessed on this pulpit many times. I literally had daydreams, wishful thinking, and dreams of owning the world. You can take heaps of money pile because that to me was incredible value. That to me was my pride. That to me was my answer to all the struggles of our family.

That money to me was everything. It's my answer. And then so I pendulum swung. I became Christian and I was like all money is wicked. Money does not make you wicked. Scripture tells you that. All money is is paper with dollar signs on it and has a monetary value in your economic system.

Your heart's wicked. In the hands of a man with a wicked heart, that money will be used as a powerful tool of destruction. Now as we think about this, all I'm saying with that then is money is not wicked. When the wickedness lies in your heart, now I have to ask you and we have to do that examination as the scripture does.

What do you want? Are you wise enough to look into your heart and then start to decide and determine, do some judging of yourself? Oh my gosh, I want this thing but it's wicked. It's so selfish. There are so many people who are lost. Is this selfish? No. That shows me you have much more wrestling to do.

That shows me you have much more learning to do. Have you exercised the wisdom of God to let the scriptures start to judge the intentions and thoughts that are in your heart and therefore exercise a great wisdom. I want to tell you this, this is at the heart of this message.

This is at the heart of what we need to get to because scripture says that the indicator of your wisdom is going to be the desires and ambitions of your heart. Your selfish ambition is going to be to you the greatest hindrance for you to live as a wise child of God.

And you know what's really interesting? What scripture kind of hints at is this, buy what you want, it starts to be indicative of who you are. You want to find out if somebody is super shallow, ask them what they like. And when you see somebody who loves shallow stuff, a man who's always attracted to a shallow girl because all he sees is externals, a man who makes his decision based on all superficial things, he's a shallow man.

You are childish, why? Because you love childish stuff. You are worldly and earthly, why? Because you love earthly stuff. Your desires start to determine and judge who you are. And so I ask you, brothers and sisters, what do you want today? Are your desires your greatest desires? Does it have anything to do with God and his kingdom?

What do you hope to produce? What do you want to be known for? Why? Because your wisdom is going to be used to get it. Your wisdom is going to be used to get it. And therefore, ambition, wisdom, all these things. Ambition in and of itself is not wrong, right, or evil, or wicked, but for what goal you use them, now all of a sudden you become a villain, right?

You could have the greatest wisdom of how to make objectives, you could have the greatest wisdom of, you know what, although these are the resources we need, these are the personnel that we need, these are the benchmarks that we need, this is the process by which we're going to achieve this task.

Great. As soon as to your ambition you add the word selfish, now it's become wrong. What I'm trying to say is we as believers, we are taught in scripture, you actually should be some of the most ambitious people on the face of this planet, right? You should be persevering, you should be sacrificing, you should know what it means to work hard.

We should be as Christians some of the most ambitious people. Now for what? For what? If you've tagged your desire on the things of this earth, your world view is so small. Set your heart and ambition on the things that are massive, true, weighty, and actually desirable, which are the things of God.

And so I want to move quickly into the next point. True wisdom then operates in reality. What do I mean by that? Our faith informs the reality that the ambitions of this world, you may have them, but it's foolish why? It's so temporary and fleeting. What are you doing?

And what's more, this passage talks about this in a kind of nuanced way. What do I mean? Go back to verse 14 and it says, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth." Don't be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

That's really interesting. The command there is to stop, knock it off, being this arrogant person or a prideful individual who is boasting. And when you do that, you're lying against the truth. Now just a moment ago, I just told you, right? I just told you that we should be some of the most ambitious people because we actually have something worthwhile to be ambitious for.

Because on the flip side of it, we actually should be boastful people then. And you're kind of like, "Huh? Why would we be boastful people?" Because we then, in our faith, actually have something to boast of. I have hope. I have eternity. I have power supernatural by the Spirit of God and I have a heavenly Father who is perfect.

Take a look at this passage with me. Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23 to 24. Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23 to 24, "Thus says the Lord, 'Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not a mighty man boast in his might. Let not a rich man boast in his riches.'" Why?

"Because truth be told, all those things are false." There's nothing to be boasting in. "But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me. And that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, righteousness on earth. So I delight in these things, declares the Lord." You know what pride is?

At any moment, you really, really want to be, or at any moment, you really, really actually believe that you are more than reality. Right? When you think highly of yourself beyond what is true and real, that is absolute arrogance. And honestly speaking, to have a selfish ambition where although in reality you're a slave of God, although in reality you're a servant of the Lord, although in reality you're a child of God, to demand your agenda, to demand your way, to demand that the God of the universe or the people around you fulfill your ambition, that's something so deceived about that, isn't there?

Absolute arrogance. And so, scripture talks about how here, for us, we are to operate in reality. It is also not humble, it is also not godly of us to go beyond that on the flip side, where we absolutely smash ourselves and we say, "We are absolutely worthless. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

I'm just a worm." Right? Well scripture is very clear. We're depraved. We're altogether, right? Humble and stained and we are helpless. But the God also says, "No, aren't you more valuable than two sparrows?" Right? "Aren't you more valuable? Are you not precious to me? Will I not provide for you?" What am I saying there?

On the spectrum of the way that we deal and interpret, to be wise does not mean just to smash yourself and get low, but rather it means to operate in reality. This is the way that we have to make sure that we're not lying against the truth. Now I want to talk about something here a little bit.

Just as a way, as an example, to take a moment of breather to think about wisdom. The other day I was watching a silly TV show with my boys. And it was so funny because we were watching a bunch of grown men go fishing and then after they caught their fish, they got together, they cut up the fish and was eating sashimi.

It was so funny. And we were eating dinner too. And it was so funny because I was watching that and I was like, "Oh, it must be so yummy." And like slobbering. Right? It was so funny because all it was a bunch of guys eating fish and then the guy who was the captain of the team or the guy who was actually running the boat and stuff, he goes on this monologue and he's like, "You know what, girl?

You got to follow your dreams. Don't let anybody tell you no. You can't ever be put down by other people. And if you hit that wall, you just got to keep going." Now I get it. This is really good. And everybody needs to learn that. Right? But what he was saying was, look how much they're enjoying life by going out and fishing, catching a wonderful fish.

They caught a yellowfin tuna. They had sashimi that thing. They were eating it. They're like, "This is your dream. Don't let everybody tell you no." I'm going to be honest with you. There was a little part of me that was like, "Yeah. That must be awesome." And when you hear that, I mean, everybody, we've all heard that in this world.

Do you hear the arrogance in that? "I'm just going to do this. No one's going to say no." What if your father says no? I'm looking at my kids. Part of me want to be like, "Don't listen to him, guys." You're not supposed to just go and follow your dream like nobody's telling you no.

The world's wisdom is absolutely contrary and they can't even hear the arrogance when they say stuff like that. Let us not be those who operate under this kind of worldly wisdom. Moving forward, number five, true wisdom perseveres order and righteousness. These next couple points are going to get a little shorter.

Look at what the passage says. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder of every evil thing. And what's more, look at the passage, it describes that this is not from above. In verse 15, he describes this as earthly, this is natural, and then boom, demonic. Whoa.

Why? Why? Let me just make this statement. When your selfish ambition is not controlled and put into check, you know what it's going to do? It is going to do the age old methodology and strategy of the devil. It will scheme. Yes? It will scheme to have what it wants.

Sometimes it will lie, sometimes it will fudge the truth, sometimes it's going to manipulate you, sometimes it's going to use all kinds of pity parties, sometimes it's going to use anger. I can't get what I want through reason because it doesn't make sense, so you know what I'm going to do now?

I'm going to pound the table. Don't mess with me, I'm mad. Give me what I want. Real quick heart check for you guys. Again, today's theme is tests, examinations. If you do not have your selfishness in check, you will find yourself resorting to all kinds of means to get what you want.

There is an appropriate way to get angry. There is an absolutely manipulative way to get angry. Have you in your life exhibited foolishness, lack of wisdom because you use anger to get your way? Honest question. Do you use anger in your relationships, in your marriages, in your friendships, with whatever it may be that you use anger as a means to let the other person know, "Don't mess with me.

I'm going to win." We have to heart check. Biblical wisdom is contrary. Yes? God's going to look at that and say, "You foolish man. You foolish girl." There is all kinds of wickedness in that. If you turn your Bible to James chapter four, verse one through three, he actually explicitly says, "This is the reason for all your troubles." James chapter four, verses one through three, this is what he says, "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?

It is not the source of your pleasures that weighs war in your members. You lust and you do not have, so what do you do? You commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures." Dang.

He just spells it out. Right? He just spells it out. Believe it. The scripture is wise to notice that selfish ambitions and zeal for your own gain will produce nothing but disorder and unrighteousness. However, earlier I gave you a Venn diagram. I want to describe to you for a moment what the scripture is going to do is give you rapid fire, look at how deep, look at how lovely.

Look at godly wisdom. Are you growing in these things? For the sake of time, I cannot go through every single one of these things, but let's take a moment to just first read it. Starting from verse 17, "The wisdom from above that God desires for his godly children who are growing and maturing is first pure, is peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, of good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy." Dang.

That's a lot to go through. What I'm going to do is do my best in brief summary of those things. Just try to paint a picture of good godly wisdom. And the question to you is going to be, have you exercised this kind of spiritual good wisdom or in your thinking, your maturity and growth was going to be, I'm going to do my Bible study.

Right? Unfortunately, sometimes that's the case for Christians who are just walking this very plateau Christian life. I'm just going to do my Bible study. I'm going to be faithful. I'm going to learn. But the scripture is challenging us to higher standards and higher heights and saying, are you exercising this wisdom?

This wisdom. So let's begin. True wisdom is first, he says, very pure. The idea of purity has the idea of innocence and a lot of times that purity is actually wrapped up with the concept of a virgin being chaste. Right? And the idea is you haven't given yourself away to the desires and allurements, right?

You haven't contaminated yourself with the filth of the world. And what's more, there is this purity in your heart that you're seeking. I want to highlight a passage for you because again, I want to give you pictures. King David wanted purity in his heart. King David, he's repenting after some heinous sin, heinous sins.

In Psalm 51 he says, this will purify me with hyssop. Wash me and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me. Brothers and sisters, did you exercise this wisdom where you are asking the Lord, God, clean me.

You know what I'm going to confess? A lot of times I'm just walking my life, walking my life, assuming I'm pure. And then God has to interject like, hello, what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. Are you regularly in wisdom? A wise child is asking the Lord, God, wash me, cleanse me.

Let me open this up. Is there hurtful ways right here? That's King David's heart. And what's more, there's another passage I want to highlight for you. It comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 7 where Apostle Paul describes true godly repentance. And he says, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation.

But the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold, what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow has produced in you, listen to this, what vindication, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, zeal for godliness, what avenging of wrong in everything you demonstrate, okay, you demonstrate yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

In your relationships, when you hurt somebody, right, is your thought like, oh, just don't make it a big deal. I'm sorry, okay, I'll do better next time, right? Or are you showing this? You have a zeal to make it right. You have a zeal to be innocent of a certain matter.

You're not just saying like, please stop nagging me and pointing all the flaws at me. Are we all sinful? Stop making a big deal. Your heart is set on innocence and purity. You desire in the innermost part, clean heart. What a good motive, right? What good desire? What purity?

What's more, true wisdom is peaceful. You know, I love the way the NIV translates it. It says peace loving. Are you a peaceful man? Are you an individual that loves peace? And peace naturally has a relational attitude, right? If selfishness was me, you better acknowledge me. If selfishness was I need to have my way.

If selfishness is me, my, and mine, peace is us, right? Have you exercised a certain wisdom in your life where you're able to be peaceful, that you love peace? You know who's really wise? Have you guys ever gotten in a fight where you're like, I don't, we're just missing each other, man.

We're just like communicating, but it's just like blah, right? A novice craftsman would be like, I'm frustrated, forget you. We're not, we're not doing this. I'm done, right? But the skilled craftsman, even in peacemaking will come in and say, let me understand what's going on. What happened? What are you saying?

Are you saying this? Do you see what I'm saying? The lover of peace will be motivated to make peace. He's a man of peace. Are you that kind of wise individual? What's more, you're gentle. True wisdom is gentle. Now what's really interesting is verse 13 had the Greek word prautis, and it meant self-control.

You're like, you have this calm about you because you're solid, right? But this is a different word, and the definition entries are things like fair, modest, tolerant, considerate. I want to turn you to a passage. You don't have to turn there for the sake of time. Proverbs 19 verse 11.

It says a person's wisdom yields patience. It is to one's glory to overlook an offense. To overlook an offense. Have you now exercised some wisdom in your relationships where you're able to understand why is this person weak? Maybe it's because they've got 15 things to fix. They're working on three, and you're seeing the whole picture, and you're like, dude, yes, so many things to fix.

But an understanding person realizes, growing Christian, he's working, look at him. He's got lots of things to correct, but you understand so you can overlook. Do you exercise wisdom like that? Or are you like, no, no, no, you hurt me. You hurt me in these five ways, and you better pay, right?

That's not wise. That's not biblical wisdom. The other one is true wisdom is reasonable. Scripture says that an individual who is reasonable is teachable. Scripture says that even leaders need to be reasonable. What's really interesting is this term for reasonable is often translated submissive. But the way I want to describe it to you, because I want to give you a picture, and then it's going to be a test.

Do you exercise this kind of wisdom? Are you able to listen and then be persuaded? I picture, on contrast, the older Asian man who's just like, no, I hate vegetables, I'm not eating it. Whatever it may be. And you're like, no, that is good for you. You can say it's good for me all you want, not doing it.

Unpersuadable. But look, I got, no, I've never done it, not doing it now. Do you know how frustrating it is when you talk to somebody like that? If you've ever been that person where your excuse for not changing was, I've never done it that way. The person talking to you is being like, fool.

If it's good for you, it's good for you. What does it matter you've never done it this way? Are you persuadable? Are you reasonable? Or have you put your foot down and said, no, I'm not changing. Not only are you going to be a hard person to deal with in relationships, but you're going to look like the fool.

You're not listening to good reason. What's more, true wisdom is full of mercy. Why? Because the biblical reality is you've been lavish with mercy. If you want to picture it, God has literally poured out mercy upon you so that your cup overflows. For you to be stingy with mercy is an absolute hypocrisy.

And scripture says you're blessed when you're merciful. But another nuanced way to think about mercy is this. The terminology was used in 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 24 to 25. The scripture says, "The Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome. He must be kind." Boom, right there. "He must be kind to all, able to teach patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition.

If perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of truth." What's really interesting is later on, he's going to say, well, he's going to describe the character of a man who could be a leader. And one of those things is rather than getting everyone back, he is absorbing the wrong of others.

Isn't that what mercy is? You see the crime. I saw what you did. Yeah, you did it. Yeah, it was you, right? Of course you see it. We see other people's flaws as clear as day. Can you be merciful? Are you a person marked by mercy? What's more, scripture says that true wisdom is full of good fruits.

We talked about how your wisdom is going to show in your skill. Scripture also says that true wisdom is unwavering, meaning that you are unbiased when you judged. You're not wavering by bribes. You're not wavering by people and you're not partial. You're like always like a politician is like, "I think you want to hear this from me, so I'm going to say it.

I think you're going to get pissed off, so I'm not going to say this." If you are constantly trying to predict what you should do to please people, guess what? You are going to be the most wavering, double-minded person on the universe. God's wisdom says, "No, you are unwavering." What's more, true wisdom is without hypocrisy.

There's no pretense. You should be sincere. There's no faking it. There's no acting. Now, at this point, you might be like, "Wow, we just went through a lot." And I'm going to conclude with that. God's wisdom that he wants us to grow is a lot. And if we keep thinking about the perfection of these things, we're thinking about Jesus Christ.

And that standard is so high. How many of us can say, "I am really patient." How many of us can say, "I'm super merciful, and no, I don't hold wrong." How many of us can say, "There's no hypocrisy in me. There was never a time when I tried to present myself more godly than I am." You'd be like, "Okay." You can tell when people are lying.

You'd be like, "Liar." What am I saying right now? To be godly in the way of God's wisdom is a lifelong investment. And that's why Proverbs chapter four says, "The beginning of wisdom is, yes, the fear of God, but he says, "Here's my number one advice to you. Get wisdom.

Be a learner." Proverbs chapter one. "Don't refuse my teaching. Hear and incline your ear. Listen." Proverbs chapter five, and it goes on to this, "Look at wisdom and prize her, guard her, keep her near." And so my question to you is this. If you've been plateauing and stuff like that, ask yourself, where is your hunger for God to instruct you?

Where is your hunger for wisdom? There's so much to learn. And so that's why verse 18 ends with, "The seed of fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." What does that metaphor highlight for you? It's a farmer. In the off season, when it's cold, you start prepping the ground.

You lay the seed. You wait on the Lord. You're still prepping this and prepping that, and then you're way patiently, and like a master craftsman who knows, "Listen, young man, I know you're impatient with this whole process, but sanding takes time. Even picking the wood takes time. Even the layer of finish and the layer of paint takes time.

Even curing all that stuff takes time. Piecing it all together takes time. Measuring it takes time. All of it takes an immense amount of investment." Yes? It is wise for us then to dedicate and say, "God, teach me. I am here to learn from you." This is to us a great, great challenge because regularly, I'm going to be honest, certain moments in life, you're going to assume you're good.

You're going to assume you know enough, and at least you know more than the people around you. Those are the moments you're a fool because scripture says you will fall. I want to end with Ephesians chapter five that says this, "Therefore, be careful how you walk. Stay attentive. Be observant.

Stay in tune with your next steps. Not as unwise men, but as wise." May we be growing Christians. May our Father look at us, not because we're perfect, but he's looking at us like his children. Maybe we can say teenage children, right? He can see in you, "Look at you.

You're hungry. You're open to instruction. Yeah, you've got a ton of refining to do. Yes, out of 15 things, maybe you're only getting three right, but my wise son is listening to the wise words of God." Let's pray.