God's Promises...wisdom Series

God Promises… Wisdom

James 1:5

Introduction-

Last week we started a series called God’s Promises.

We looked at God’s faithfulness and then our faithfulness back to Him.

God promises to be faithful, you can take that to the bank.

He promises that you can trust Him to do the things that He said He would do.

His Word is the Word of truth. He will protect it and you can be assured that He will preserve it to be our guide for our lives now and for eternity.

Joshua 1:8

“Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

We learned that some of God’s promises are complete now, some futuristic, and some are conditional.

He has done some things that you cannot change.

There are things like His second coming that will happen one day in the future but we are promised that it will happen.

There are some that are conditional, He did it, we have to respond to Him.

This morning as we pick up another promise, I believe it is conditional.

Today we look at God’s promise of wisdom.

God promises us wisdom, but we will have to respond by seeking out His wisdom.

It is available, but we must ask for it and apply it to our lives.

James 1:5 Text

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

Wisdom is defined by who is asking.

Example:

Today I find people debating things that I have settled a long time ago. I see people looking up to people who I have little respect for because of what they stand for.

Talk to someone else and they would have their own values which will define what truth they will receive.

You have to be able to discern truth and be willing to accept the truth after knowing that you have received the truth.

John Wesley who played a big part in the beliefs of the Nazarenes had what was called the Wesleyan quadrilateral. It was 4 elements that make up a person’s faith and beliefs. It was reason, experience, Tradition and Scriptures. These four elements can also be used to gain us biblical wisdom.

Thoughts of mans truths and then God’s truths

#1-Knowledge gained by living life. (Mans wisdom)

There are some things you learn from being street smart.

You learn lessons by what life has brought your way.

Some lessons are learned because of the mean actions of others. You recognize (learned response) because you have seen it before or have gone through it.

God’s wisdom

God Word tells us that life is not fair.

You do not have to check the scales and believe that everyone is nice and all nice things return nice.

We know Christ suffered and Christ tells us that we will suffer for our faith, for doing the right things, for being honest.

This is not the end of life. There is more and this life is just the beginning.

That would be the experience side of the 4 elements

#2-Knowing how to apply wisdom to our lives (mans)

Some people do not learn from their mistakes, and worse, they repeat them often and wonder why nothing different is happening in their life. (The second mouse usually gets the cheese)

You have to develop a willingness to take action and apply wisdom to your life either by learning from your mistakes or by someone else’s.

Someone else’s is always better, always less painful.

God’s wisdom

You not only own a Bible, but your reading your bible daily. Applying God’s words, applying God’s principals, applying lessons you learned and helping others so that maybe they would not have to learn them the hard way. That would be the Scripture side of the 4 elements.

#3- Understand that wisdom is more than what you see or feel

There are and will be times you have to move forward because it is the right thing to do, conscience has moved you, human compassion has drawn you.

God’s wisdom

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

As a believer, our faith does not rest on what we see or don’t see, it does not rest on what we feel or don’t feel.

We do not live our lives on feelings or by sight, we go and live our lives by faith.

Faith in Christ. That would be the reasoning side of the 4 elements.

#4- Wisdom is being able to anticipate or avoid possible consequences.

Believe it or not, so many people don’t think before they do something, I know it is not you but others that would say if I had it to do over again, I would not have done it, I just was not thinking.