As I was writing the sermon this week, a memory came to the forefront of my mind. It had been hidden somewhere in my psyche for many years, but I believe that the Holy Spirit brought it to my attention for Gods purposes. I did a little research to confirm my foggy memory and indeed it was true. I was recalling a television show that I watched when I was in elementary school. It was set at a summer camp, Salute something was the title. It slowly came to me, the show was called Salute your Shorts on Nickelodeon. It was a summer camp for young teens and the title came from them running someone’s shorts up the flagpole and instructing passerby’s to salute.
I believe I was 9 years old at the time and the specific episode that was coming to my mind revolved around a frog jumping contest. Two young ladies who resided in the same cabin encountered a conflict. Without knowing the prize for the competition, one girl gave her champion jumping frog to the other since she wasn’t very interested in participating. But, when she found out the prize was a night in town, she wanted her frog back. Unable to resolve the situation they of course went to the stereotypical smart kid. Everyone called him sponge and he was skinny, wore glasses, and had a bad haircut. He assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that they should both hold the frog, one by the front legs and the other by the back legs. When he gave the word, they should begin to pull and whoever ended up with the frog would be the winner. Just as they were to start pulling one of the girls refused in fear of hurting the frog and surrendered it to the other. But as the victor began to celebrate, Sponge awarded the frog back to the first girl, because as the true owner, she had preferred to see it alive and belonging to another than in two pieces.
At the time I was awestruck by the twist and didn’t know that the storyline had been influenced by none other than the Bible. King Solomon is recorded as being given the opportunity to ask God for anything he desired. Instead of wealth or long life, he asked God for wisdom and discernment in ruling the people. And the Lord was very pleased with Solomon’s request. The bible then records a story of two prostitutes who lived in the same home. They both became pregnant and gave birth within days of each other. During the night one of the mothers rolled on top of her child and it died. Realizing this she switched the dead child with the other mothers live baby. In the morning the other mother woke to find a dead child in her bed. But after close examination concluded that it was not her child.
The two women came before the king and began to argue about who the rightful mother of the living child was. They each claimed the child was theirs. In response the King ordered that a sword be brought to him. Then he ordered that the child be cut in two and half given to each woman. The real mother of the child was filled with compassion and asked for the child to be given to the other woman without being harmed, meanwhile the other was content that the child be killed and neither woman have him. This was sufficient for the king. He gave the baby to the first woman recognizing that she was the true mother.
As I read that story for the first time, I remembered the TV show I had seen years before. I was impressed with the great wisdom that God had given to Solomon. So impressed I believe that I prayed for God to grant me wisdom like he did to Solomon.
Last week Pastor Mark talked about the heart of Jesus and that we should follow the example Jesus set out for us to make his house a house of prayer. Well I believe Jesus set an example for us to follow when it comes to wisdom as well.
According to the gospels, Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with men. Can we admit this morning that we might need to grow in wisdom as well? Men, if we had more wisdom maybe we would listen to our wives and do what they ask the first time. Ladies, if you had more wisdom you would realize that the end of a basketball game isn’t the best time to start a conversation. Teens, you need wisdom just to survive middle and high school. Senior adults, you need wisdom to pass along to the younger generation and wisdom to know how to best do that.
Jesus himself wasn’t born with all the wisdom he needed, instead he grew in wisdom. I doubt there is anyone here today who would disagree that being wiser would help them in their life. But my personal fear is that wisdom may not be in the forefront of our minds. I’m not sure we emphasize it enough to even think about the role Godly wisdom could and should play in our lives as followers of Christ.
I want us to look at two passages today from the book of James. The first passage will be in chapter 1 and verse 5.
James says we should look at our lives and determine if we are lacking wisdom. If we are, then we need to make it a point of emphasis in our prayers. And when we do, God will give generously. The bible also tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if we find ourselves lacking, let me prescribe these two measures, develop a healthy fear of God. And make it a daily habit to ask God to bless you with wisdom.
Let’s turn over to chapter 3 of James and look at verses 13-18. (Read Aloud)
One of the things I like about James is his practical side. He isn’t content for religion and spirituality to be only a philosophical/mental aspect of our lives. He gives us practical instructions throughout his book about the necessity of intertwining the two aspects, the physical and the spiritual life. In chapter 1 he says it isn’t enough to just listen to the word, we have to put it into practice in our lives. If we hear the word and then don’t do what it says, we are like someone who looks in the mirror and then walks away and forgets what his or her face looks like. In chapter 2 he goes into the correlation between faith and deeds. We can’t just say, I have faith in God and then never do anything that demonstrates faith. There must be a natural response to our faith that is demonstrated through our actions. And so here in chapter 3 as he begins to talk about wisdom he asks the question, who is wise and understanding among you? Well then let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
Let me emphasize the word humility here in the 13th verse. I think that humility is tied in very closely with wisdom; in fact it says it comes from wisdom. Would you consider a person to be wise if they went around telling everyone how wise they were? Would you consider a person humble if they went around shouting to the world about how humble they were? I mentioned that maybe we don’t talk enough about the topic of wisdom. I think it is partly a result of those the Lord has blessed with Godly wisdom not being flashy and drawing to themselves. Rather they exercise that wisdom through deeds done in humility.
James goes on to distinguish between earthly and Godly wisdom. Earthly wisdom doesn’t do a whole lot for us. I’m not sure I can say it always gets us in trouble, but it certainly got Adam and Eve in trouble. Genesis 3:6 says “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” La mujer vio que el fruto del árbol era bueno para comer, y que tenía buen aspecto y era deseable para adquirir sabiduría, así que tomó de su fruto y comió. Luego le dio a su esposo, y también él comió.
It wasn’t Godly wisdom that the fruit offered. No the Godly wisdom was already there, and it said don’t eat from that tree. But it was the desire for earthly wisdom that partly caused Adam and Eve to sin.
And listening to earthly wisdom has gotten me into a mess a time or too as well. I was in the 5th grade and we were playing a game in class that I believe was intended to teach us about the government and the division of powers. The class was divided into 3 groups and each group was given a different amount of power. The lowest group could only make suggestions for how the society would be run. The second group could propose laws, but only the third group could make something officially a law. I happened to be in the most powerful group. But what the other two groups didn’t know was that our teacher told us not to accept any ideas from the lower groups. Even if we thought they were good ideas, we should reject them. Well, that little bit of earthly wisdom got me punched in the back of the head. We spent the whole morning rejecting the ideas of the other two groups. My friend Brett Larson was so mad by the time recess came around that he walked straight up behind me and punched me in the back of the head. Now I was able to explain to him why my group had acted the way we had acted, but not before I had a lump on the back of my head. I think that piece of wisdom from the teacher was actually of the devil.
The last two verses of our passage here give us criteria by which we may determine that wisdom is from the Father. This is the wisdom that we are seeking, wisdom that is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Can you think of a time in your life when you saw this kind of wisdom?
I just recently heard a story from my father-in-law. He works in a factory in Southeastern Ohio and there is a young man there who doesn’t believe in God. Not only doesn’t he believe in God, but he likes to argue with people about the non-existence of God. Since my father-in-law is a Christian, they have had several conversations. Well Jerry got tired of this boy arguing with him so he decided to ask him a simple question. He said do you think that the world would be a better place if everyone lived according to the principles the bible sets out for us? Forget about whether God exists or not, do you think the world would be a better place? I believe that kind of forced this young guy to admit he had never really read the bible, so he couldn’t answer that question. So my father-in-law challenged him to read the bible in order to answer the question.
I don’t know where things stand right now, whether this guy has read or is reading the bible, but I want to point out why I see Godly wisdom in the way Jerry handled this situation. First, I doubt that anyone has ever been argued into believing in God. And this guy was interested in arguing. So Jerry avoided the argument because it served no Godly purpose. Instead he found a peaceful way to address this situation. Second, Jerry knows the word of God. He knows that the word of God does not return void and that simply reading the bible can positively influence this non-believer. Thirdly, as this guy reads the bible, the Holy Spirit is right there with him to confirm the truth that he will encounter within Gods word. He was created to be in fellowship with God, so somewhere on some level he knows that he is reading the word of truth, and the Holy Spirit confirms it for him.
I struggled this week because I wanted to define the word wisdom. I wanted put a definition to a word that for me created some confusion. But all the definitions I found were of earthly wisdom, not Godly wisdom. And so this is the conclusion I have reached. In the most practical sense, wisdom can be defined as the ability to see how the Word of God applies to our lives. Wisdom shows us how to apply everything in this book to our day to day life.
So allow me to repeat the question that James has posed for us this morning, do you lack wisdom? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you want to be wise? Ask the God who gives generously.
