Faith IRL - Real Faith Seeks Wisdom - James 3:13–18

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Heat. Heat.

Well, good morning. You know, as you came in today, you probably passed by all the good food out there, right? and you're wondering why is there so much food out there in the hallway. Well, every few months we have a thing called Sweet Sunday and we just bring a lot of good food out there um just for us to snack on, to eat on, but more than that to hang out with and just meet other people. Somebody asked me this morning going, "Is this our version of Fat Tuesday?" Some of you Catholic folks get that right because Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Is it our fat Tuesday? Call it what you want, but we're going to have a great time and I hope you stick around with us afterwards and enjoy the food. Um, there are some chocolate dipped strawberries on the back table. I have tried those already. They're not very good. So, don't even worry about going those and I'll just take care of the rest of the leftover after we finish here today. Listen, if you're joining us here today, maybe you're a guest for the first time or you only been here once in the last few weeks. We're so glad you're here. As you came in, there's a card in your handout that you received. Take a few minutes and fill that out. We're not trying to get all of your information to bother you, to harass you, but I personally love to text everyone that comes just to get to know you that way. And so, take a few minutes and you can fill that out and drop it in one of the boxes as you leave today. But if you just started coming, here's where we've been the last few weeks. We've been in the book of James. And here's what we're discovering as we study the book of James together. It is a real practical book of the New Testament. In fact, many theologians believe it is one of the first books that was ever written that we'd later compile into what we call the New Testament. But really, James, who's the halfb brotherther of Jesus, sit out and said, "I'm going to put in just real practical terms, here's what it looks like to follow Jesus." That he wasn't trying to paint some theological thesis up there that maybe one day might be taught in seminaries. He was trying to just lay it out going, "If you say you love Jesus and if you say you trust Jesus, then here's what your life ought to look like." And it's been a good study so far. In the last couple of weeks, James really just drilled down deep in what it really means to have real faith. And here's what he said just kind of summary. He said, 'First of all, if you say you have real faith, then your actions need to show it. Like, you can't just say it and not live it. Because if you say it and don't live it, he goes, that's dead faith. That's not even real faith. And so, you have to live it out. But he said, there's a second thing, too. Not just the way you live, but in what you say and how you say it. And it's been interesting the last couple of weeks as we've studied this and I'm standing up here and I'm trying to teach what God's word says. Your expressions have been very, very interesting. Now, sometimes I feel like I'm preaching and you've already checked out and gone home even though you're you're you're still sitting in your chair. But the last couple of weeks as we drill down in what it really means to have real faith, I sense this leaning in towards me listening, but I wasn't really sensing your liking it a whole lot. Not like you're pushing back on what the pastor is saying, but James is just he was pretty straightforward. He's going, "Listen, if you say you have faith, then you need to look it and you need to sound like you have faith." And I what I sense there was just in all of us and I would say even in me as I've studied this, there's this frustration that welled up and and the frustration was not so much on the actual words, it was the frustration in our own lives as we're trying to act out what we hear from God's word. It's like the the the the tension of what you hear on Sunday and what your life looks like on Monday. In fact, I had one person email me and said, "This James description of real faith is so far from how I am living." And another person texted me and said, "And I am failing miserably at it." And I heard that and and I'm there's a part of me shaking my head not because I knew that person that's what they were saying but I was feeling the same thing. In fact, another person even in hallway conversation said this said I feel more like a fair weather fan of Jesus than a true follower of Jesus. So I'm just kind of curious. Anybody felt that way a little bit along the way? Don't leave me hanging here all by myself. Right. Yeah. If you're going, I don't want to raise my hand. That makes me a bad Christian. Well, listen. And if you raise your hand, you're in good company. Because even the Apostle Paul, as he was writing in another letter that he was writing in the book of Romans, he said this. He said, "The things that I want to do, I can't find seem to do. And the things I don't want to do, I seem to be doing all the time." And so, it leaves us as we're like, Jesus, we want to we want to have real faith. We want to live out real faith. But the disconnect, how how do we how do we make it connect the way you're saying we should? I've got good news for you. If you have felt that frustration, if you felt that tension, if you felt that disconnect in your life, as we've studied the book of James, he keeps moving forward in chapter 3 today. And he connects it together for us. And I really believe as we wrap up chapter 3 today, there's going to be this aha moment. You're going, "Oo, that's what I've been missing." And so, if you have your Bibles or we'll have the passage up here on the screen or even your handout, you can read your handout, but we'll be starting in verse 13. And so here's Paul's or I'm sorry, here's James's kind of solution to the disconnect, the frustration you may be feeling in your own life. He says there in verse 13, he starts out by saying, if you are wise and you understand God's way to put that in the vernacular that we've been reading and using these last few weeks, if you have real faith, okay? If you claim, if you won, if you stand up going, I am real faith. If that's you, he keeps going. He says this, then prove it. Okay? Don't just say it. Don't just talk it. You got to do it. And you're hearing that going, "Well, Keith, I thought he had an answer for us." Okay? He's doing nothing more than just elevating the very tension that I've been feeling because then he goes on in verse 13 to say this. Prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility. In other words, living the right way with the right attitude. He's telling us everything. He's kind of summarized. He capsuled it right there. Everything he's been saying, he's going, "If you say you have real faith, then prove it by doing the very things that you say that you need to be doing." And you're sitting here, see going, "Okay, Keith, you're not helping anything. You're just kind of piling it on deeper because you just keep saying the same thing over and over. And I'm feeling the same tension. I'm feeling the same disconnect. Help me because I want to move forward. I want my life of following Jesus to be much more than what it is. I want people to know that I have faith. James keeps going. He goes, by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility. And then he says this, that comes from wisdom. That's the solution right there that it comes from wisdom. You see, we nod our heads at the notion that real faith produces action and real faith produces good words. And then we start trying to act better. we start trying to talk better and we fail because somehow we leave the head out of the equation. Like too many times we just go straight to the hands and and the mouth, right? Like I got to act better. I got to do better. That's nothing more than behavior modification. And so we're like we're learning. Okay. So if it's not just behavior modification and it comes from a changed heart, like I'm trying to get my heart changed, I'm trying to be transformed, but it's still not connecting. And here's the piece. Here's the reason. Because it's a three-phase process. You see, following Jesus, real faith, it goes from the head, the wisdom to the heart where the roots take place and then the fruit comes out of our hands and our mouth and our life. And for many many people, we skip the head part of it. That we have good intentions, we have the right motivation, we want the good heart, and we're sure trying for the right actions, but it's not happening because we're leaving the head part out of it. You see, we try to produce the fruit before the seeds ever get planted. Let me say that again. We try to produce the fruits before the seeds ever get planted. You see, here's how God's word works. We listen to God's word. That's the seeds, the wisdom going into our head. We do it by listening to preaching. We do it by going to maybe a Sunday school class or we join a group that you can discuss God's word. Maybe you have your devotional. Maybe you read your Bible. These are all ways that the seeds, the wisdom of God comes into our head. So once it comes in our head, then the seed takes root in our heart and that's where the fruit comes out. But again, the reason we so mess up is because of the limited amount of seeds that ever get into our heads. Think about it this way. If the head, the mind is the starting point. Remember, so many times we bypass, most of the time we bypass and go straight to the actions and the mouth and and the words we say and we just can't get all that together. So, we're like, "No, we got to include the heart." But when we bypass the starting part of the heads and we're not faithfully and consistently putting the seeds of God's word and God's truth in our mind, here's what happens. It would be like we're leaving here today and we have a great time here at the party at the at the sweet Sunday. I'm like, "Hey, I want you to come over to my house. We're going to continue this party." And so you're like, "I'd love to. Where do you live?" And I do it the oldfashioned way. Instead of like giving you the address, I like I want to tell you how to get there. The type of instructions and directions that makes my teenage or my teen my my 30-year-old kids so angry. They're like, "Dad, we have GPS, right? But I want to spell it out for you." I'm going, "Okay, so take a right and go down about two miles and then take another left and go down two blocks. And after you get two blocks, there'll be a light. Take another left and go up about a mile and then take a right and go down about six blocks and you'll get to my house. You're like, "Okay, you write all that down." And I said, "I'll see you by 5:00 today." And so you go home and at 5:' you pull the directions out and you start following the directions not from the church, the starting point I gave you, but from your house. Do you think you'll ever get to my house? No. Because you didn't have the right starting place. And again, what James is trying to encourage us, what James is trying to show us right now is that we've got to have the right starting place. Well, Keith, you're preaching to the crowd, to the choir. Like, we're taking in your sermon. Okay? We got 30 minutes. Probably 10 of 10 minutes of it is good, but we're sitting listening to you for 30 minutes. Okay? We're taking in this is the seed. Okay. Don't just as you think about the seed and the wisdom going into your mind, just don't limit it to just the 30 minutes as you sit and listen to a sermon on a Sunday. Look at your whole week. In fact, social psychologists say this that the average person will spend almost 10 hours a day feeding into their mind TV, binge watching, social media, scrolling, news watching, reading the newspaper. And almost 10 hours a day, the average person is filling their mind. And so even though you may come to church once a week, and by the way, the average for most people to come to church is once a week, one time, one time every month. But let's say you come every week. So you get this hour in here, right? Balance that one seed with all the other seeds of the world coming into your mind. It's no wonder that our mind is not moving to our heart and our heart are moving to our hands and our mouth. In fact, I thought about this that we spend more time scrolling than we do reading scripture. For many people, we care more about what Fox or CNN says than Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John says. Or how about this one? that we respond quicker to the notifications on our phones than we do the nudging of the Holy Spirit because we have so much of the world coming in, coming in, coming in, coming in, but we only have a seed here and a seed there and a seed there of God's truth through a scripture. If you're with me, this means yes. This means no. This means we don't like what you're saying. Can you keep on moving down the way? So, that's the problem that we're trying to be conformed without our minds first being transformed. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. The starting point for real faith, according to James, is wisdom. The starting point for real faith doesn't begin with your hands or your mouth or anything else with your actions. It doesn't even begin, according to James, with your heart. It begins with your mind and God's truths being just saturated in your mind. Seed after seed after seed after seed. Now, let me make sure we understand uh this idea of wisdom that James is talking about. Because wisdom, biblical wisdom is more than just a bunch of facts and figures and data about the Bible. You can quote more Bible verses. You you can know more theology but still not have the mind of Christ. If you're taking notes, here's what biblical wisdom the part the wisdom that James is talking about. Biblical wisdom is seeking life through God's perspective until your desires begin to change. So it's not just adding another piece of data in your mind. It is taking that data and seeking it and seeing that data through God's perspective until then your inner desires begin to change. And when the desires change, then our life begins to change. Paul said it this way in Romans 12:2. He says, "Don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by the way that you think. Let him transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Transform your mind that moves your heart. Then your hands and mouth begin to follow behind that. See, it works this way. Knowing God's truth, wisdom, knowing God's truth shapes how we think. And when our thinking changes, our heart, those things that we love and those things that we desire, when our thinking changes, our heart begins to change. And when our heart changes, our choices begin to change. And when our choices change consistently, we begin to naturally look more like Jesus. Paul wrote another letter to the church in Col or to Col in Colossians and this is what he said in verse or chapter 1 verse9. He says we continually ask God. So this is him praying for the church. You can imagine this is Paul praying for us. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge. Get it? Wisdom, knowledge, mind. We continually ask to God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. Again, remember wisdom is more than just the things that we read. The wisdom is more than things that we learn. It is the things that we learn that we're trying to see from God's perspective. And then he says in verse 10, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. So there you go. If you felt the frustration, if you felt the tension of like what I want to do, I'm not doing. The things I do want to do, I don't do. If you felt that tension going, I'm not doing the real life faith thing like I want to. The question is, are you starting in the right place? Are you starting with wisdom that goes to the heart? So it goes from the head to the heart, then to the hands. So it might lead you to ask a question, a real practical question. Okay? If it's about wisdom and if you haven't beginning began beginning at the correct starting place, then Keith, help me know how to start at the right place. this wisdom that you're talking about, these good godly truths that you're talking about, give me an idea. How do I begin there? Show me where the starting place is and I'll start there. Well, here's the first thing. How do you get more truths? How do you get more wisdom? The first thing is this. Just got to be intentional in planting the seeds. Be intentional in planting the seeds. When we began the study of James, you remember some things that we made available to you that you still get every week. We said, "Here's the book of James." Now, you have it on your Bible. You may have it on your phone, but what we agreed is sometimes you just kind of need to get out of your normal rut that you're not doing anything anyway. We said, "Pick up a copy of James. It's so small. You can carry it around with you. You can stick in your car. It's just a reminder. You've got to be in God's word." And then every single week, we're producing a devotional over the scriptures that we're teaching on today. And so in 30 minutes, you might pick up just one or two nuggets of what I have to say. But if you take the devotional all week long, it takes these same scriptures we're talking about today and lets you meditate and read and think about them more throughout the week. So those are just a couple of ways that you can be more intentional. But here's what I promise you. If the world is dropping in seeds over 10 hours a day, no telling how many actual seeds and truths those are. If somehow we don't overcome it with more of God's truths intentionally, the world will always win out. Now, now don't get me wrong. If you go home today and you binge watch three hours of Netflix, God's not up in heaven going, "Well, there's three hours on this side. Are you going to give me three hours on this side? I'm not saying you have to count it minute by minute, hour by hour. The key word is intentional.

More than just a Sunday. One of the reasons I promote and believe in groups so much here at the church, that is the best way I think for God's word to intentionally gig in our get go in our minds because when I'm preaching on a Sunday morning, you got no choice but to listen. But when you sit with a group of people and you wrestle with some of the truths, you wrestle with some of the statements, you push back at times on some things, how do I make this fit in my life or I'm not doing good here. When you're wrestling with it with a group of people for it to really sink in, it's like it's tilling the soil of your mind to make your mind more fertile for God's seeds to seep in and and begin to take root. And so be intentional. But there's another thing too. In fact, in our remaining time, what I want to do is these few things I want to share now. Paul or I'm sorry, James actually digs into a little bit deeper. So, it's more than just being intentional. We have to do all that we can to make our mind ready to receive God's truths when we intentionally put those seeds in our mind. If you're taking notes, um, we're going to just going down. Let me give you the first one. Here's the first thing just to help your mind be more prepared to receive the seeds of God's truths. And here's the first one. Pra p practice examining the motivation behind your actions. Practice take the time intentionally examine the motivation behind your actions. You see, godly wisdom is formed through honest self-awareness of God. In fact, let me read what what James said about it in verse 14. He says, "But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying." He said, "For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic." He said, "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vow practice." You see, James just isn't confronting behavior. What he's saying is we need to under un uncover the hidden motivations in our heart. But when we become and take that practice of examining our motivations behind our actions, going show me how you see me. Let let me see the real picture. We talked about in James that the scriptur is like a mirror that we look in and it sees our life the way God sees us. When we begin to do that, it sets our mind up to be more fertile. Like sometimes I think our world brings so much seed seed seeds seeds seed seeds like we just become hardened in our head. And so when God drops one of these truths in our head, in our mind, it never takes root because it never gets past the hardness that this world has created in us. But when you start saying, God, here's my life. I'm not worried about my spouses. I'm not worried about my neighbors. I'm not worried about my co-workers. Here's my life. Help me to see my real motivations behind my actions. Then we begin toiling the soil of our mind and as truths begin to take deeper better roots in our mind. Wisdom doesn't just change what you do. It exposes why you do it. In fact, there's not a place on your notes to write these down. But if you just want some really practical ways to go about this, here's three practical ways. Regularly ask, "Why do I want this?" Great question. Why do I want this? Just ask yourself that. Here's another thing you can do. Watch for the comparison trap. How easy is that to fall in the comparison trap? I was out in the foyer before this all started and all the ladies wait till you just they take the they're they're beautiful if you haven't looked. And asked I'm like, "Is there any like you're looking at the next ladies over there that did their table going, I wonder if mine is as good as theirs?" And she looked at me and said, "Absolutely there is." and we laugh about it. But but really, don't we live in this comparison trap? And we're just looking and that comparison trap makes me want to exceed and makes me prideful because I want to be better. Why? So I can be better than you, not so I can glorify God. Here's a third just question you could ask yourself or thing to do. Confess ambition that is rooted in insecurity rather than calling. Confess ambition that is rooted in insecurity rather than calling.

Honest self-examination is where God's wisdom starts rewriting your and my story. Let me give you the second one. How to just keep our mind fertile so the soil broken up so these seeds can implant. The second one is this. Practice being teachable before you practice being right. Practice being teachable before you practice being right. God often delivers his wisdom through voices that we never expected. Yet we live in such an ego centered life that I'm right. I'm right. I'm right. In fact, if I'm not right, I'm going to go find somebody that will tell me that I'm right so I will know that I'm right. this echo chamber society that we live in. Here's what James says about that. Verse 17, he said, "But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peaceloving. It is gentle at all times." And then he says this, "And it is willing to yield to others." Does that sound like the wisdom of our society? I know that's not the wisdom of our politicians. It's not the wisdom of the influencers out there, but the wisdom of God that makes our mind fertile that those these wisdom as seeds of God's truth can give in says this that we will yield to others. In fact, the living Bible um phrases it this way. It says that we will allow discussion that godly wisdom will allow discussion. You see, godly wisdom values values understanding more than winning. Through discussion, wisdom moves from information to transformation. We get in discussion with somebody today and we don't yield to understanding what they have to say because they before they ever finish saying it, we already know what we're going to say to counter what they're going to say. And so, let me give you just some really easy suggestions on how to kind of create this practice in your life. Here's one for you. Don't interrupt to get your point across. When you're talking to somebody, don't interrupt to get your point across. Here's something else you could do. Listen objectively to help you understand the other person's perspective. Now, watch this. Just because I listen to understand your perspective doesn't mean I have to agree with you. I've had conversations with people before that their convictions when it comes to theological biblical things are so different than mine. But here's what happens. If I can train myself to at least at least listen to their perspective, I may not still never agree with them, but I will understand them better. I will understand their story better. It may give me more empathy. It may give me more compassion to their story. Isn't that what Jesus did? That's why Jesus was ridiculed by all the religious people because he went to the house of the sinners. He didn't go to there to get a free meal. He went there to understand them. But it never changed his convictions. It never changed his incredible love for them. But he says, 'I will take a step towards you to understand you so I can better express who I am. You can also another way listen fully before ever forming your response.

Wisdom grows when you stop needing to be in control of the narrative. That's why we have our opinions already formed. That's why I don't want to listen to you because I've already got my narrative and I don't want to have to change it because of you. But when I listen and understand, my mind becomes softer, more pliable, and the seeds of God's truth, not your opinion, but the seeds of God's truth can better then infiltrate and begin to grow in my heart and in my life. Let me give you just a couple more and we'll wrap up. Third one, practice making mercy your first response.

Again, these aren't the things. Yes, you are doing them, but the purpose of doing is that's not how you show fruit. The fruit becomes your mind becomes softer. Your mind becomes more moldable. The seeds go in your mind of God's truth. The seeds of God's truth goes in your mind. They go into your heart. The roots begin to grow. It changes your desires. It changes the things that you seek after. And then out of your heart comes your hands and your mouth and everything about you. See, mercy is not softness. Mercy is wisdom and action. James said this in verse 17. He says it, meaning wisdom, wisdom from above, God's wisdom, wisdom is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and it's always sincere. James reminds us that the wisdom above changes how we see people because we don't see them as a problem to go fix. We see them as a child of God to go love, an image of God that we can love who and what they are and how they are. Here's some practices you can do with this one. Just some suggestions. Assume the best in others. That's how you show mercy. Mercy is your first response. Assume the best in others. Don't write their story for them. You know, here here's what happens in our life. Somebody's going through something. Somebody did something. Somebody responded some way. I don't know why they did it that way. I don't know the circumstances behind it. And so what do I do? I just write their story for them. Oh, I know why you did that. I know why you're acting out that way. instead of getting to them know them through mercy.

So let the person be be intimate be enough in person's life where they can tell you their story not you write their story for them.

Here's the best way. Be willing to offer grace when somebody falls. That's the way we show mercy, isn't it? Be willing to offer grace when somebody show falls. Choose restoration over condemnation.

And then here's the last one that James writes about. If you ask James, if he was sitting here, the halfb brother of Jesus going, "James, I am trying my best to have this real faith like how do I get it to stick in my mind so it goes from my mind to my heart and out of my heart into my actions." Here's what he would say. Practice keeping the peace over proving your point. Practice keeping the peace over proving your point. You see, godly wisdom prioritizes relationships over everything else. This is how James said it in verse 18. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and they will reap a harvest of righteousness. He's not saying that wise people avoid conflict. He's saying wise people will work through conflict to make the relationship better. See, earthly wisdom tries to win arguments. Godly wisdom prioritizes the relationship. So, how's some ways you can do that? Here's some. Address tension early and gently. Tension is not a bad thing in relationships. The absence of conflict does not equal peace. So, address tension early and gently. Replace sarcasm with clarity. Or here's one for you. Ask in conflict, what can I do to move us towards peace? Like somebody having conflict, somebody kind of in the middle of going time out, time out. What can I do right now to move us towards peace? See, we think of peacekeeping as a personality trait. Peacekeeping is not a personality trait. It is evidence of the wisdom of God in your mind that's going to take the word of God from your mind to your heart to your hands.

So, you know, we we began this morning, identifying, trying to have real faith can be frustrating that we can we can fall short of it and just going, am I ever going to get it right? And so, my challenge to us today is let's take a step back. Let's make sure that we are starting in the right place. Not more facts, not more data, not more figures about God, but having a mind that tries to see things from God's perspective. And God's perspective will then begin to change your heart and the actions will overflow. You know, we gave you something when you walked in today because I don't want to just say fill your mind, go figure it out. And so, um, we gave everybody this little book called The Practice of the Presence of God. And here's how I'm going to use this book. Um, as you know, Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. And a lot of people use the season of Lent from Ash Wednesday through Easter just to refocus. It's just a good time. And whether whether you fall in the lurggical practices of Lent, here's what I would say. I've learned in my own life. It's just a good season to set aside going, God, show me the things that aren't helping. Help me take out of the things out of my life and my mind that aren't helping me. And help me to add some things into my mind and my life that will help. And so, here's my encouragement to you over the next 40 days as we begin Lent on Wednesday. Let's all commit to using this book. It's not a daily devotional, so it's not like one a day to read, but just saying, "Okay, God, I'm going to use this along with your word to help renew my mind.

Transform my mind that I won't be conformed to the world." And so, it's a pretty book you can sit on your shelf. It won't do you much good. Let's commit to using it. Just you got the card in there. That's kind of your placeholder. use a bookmarker, but it also shows the different moments throughout the next 40 days that we're going to gather together and continue to reexamine oursel. But will you commit with me, church, do not be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And then Paul goes on to say this, and that is our spiritual act of worship. Will you pray with me? Father, we we come before you now and just I I think I can confess this for all of us that our mind is infiltrated with junk of this world.

And that you remind us in your word that that that we are of this world, but we're not citizens of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven with you. And so, Father, we come to you and just will you use this next season as we ready ourselves for Easter. Would you fill our mind of your thinking? Would you fill our mind of your ways

and from our mind to our heart to our hands may we worship you in your name we pray. Amen.