Wise guys finish First”
James 3:13-18
If you had the chance to ask for whatever you wanted, what would it be? The OT gives us the story of a man named Solomon. We find the record that Solomon showed his love for God by walking according to God’s law. God rewarded him by coming to him in a dream with a profound statement. And here is what God said to him. “Ask for whatever you want me to give you and I will.” And Solomon said, “give me wisdom; give me a heart that can discern right from wrong so that I can lead the people. But it gets better. The Lord was pleased that this is what Solomon asked for so listen to what God says to him… “I will do what you have asked, I will give you a wise heart so that there will never have been anyone like you nor will there ever be. And on top of that since you did not ask for honor and riches, I will give you that also.” Not a bad deal.
A blonde, a brunette and a redhead are stuck on an island. One day, the three of them are walking along the beach and they discover a magic lamp. They rub it and sure enough, out pops a genie. The genie says, "Since I can only grant three wishes, you may EACH have one." The brunette says, "I've been stuck here for years. I miss my family. I just want to go home." POOF! The brunette gets her wish and she is returned to her family.
Then, the red head says, "I've been stuck here for years as well. I miss my family too. I wish I could go home too."
POOF! The redhead gets her wish and she is returned to her family. The blonde starts crying uncontrollably. The genie asks, "My dear, what's the matter?" The blonde says I really miss my friends now, "I WISH my friends were still here. POOF! They were back.
James asks us a very important question in this passage… here it is… who is wise and understanding among you?
We have at our disposal today more knowledge than at any time in history. More information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 5000 years. Today information doubles every 4 years. We have plenty of information… we are more educated… but there is still a shortage of wisdom, especially when it comes to the kind of choices we make in life.
Think about it. How do you make choices? Many of our choices are simple, they certainly don’t change our lives…will I order the fish or the chicken? Will I order the chocolate pie or the pecan pie? Or will I say no. Then there are choices that are much bigger. Where will I live? What will I choose to work at for the rest of my life? What house will I buy? Who will I marry? Will we have kids? These are life changing.
I have always found it interesting that professional athletes still have personal coaches and trainers. The trainers make far less money than the athlete but the athlete knows he/she needs their wisdom. But wisdom is a funny thing. It’s hard to nail down. According to Webster, wisdom is “the ability, developed through experience to be able to discern truth and to exercise good judgment. I think the key word there is discernment.” To be able to discern things.
James says, “13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. "
Throughout the letter of James, he tells us a lot about how to live a faith that is mature. A growing faith. He talks about trials and then compares them, to temptations. He tells us the importance of acting on what God says. It is not enough to listen. We must act. He says don’t show favoritism in the church. Treat everyone the same. He says we have to be very careful with our speech. We must learn to control our words.
And then today we get to the topic of wisdom. And of all the topics he has discussed, wisdom could be the most important stimulus for spiritual growth. In other words if you plan to grow in the faith it will not happen if you do not first get wisdom. The reason is simple. Without it you and I will continue to make poor choices. Proverbs says this, “getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do.” Period.
Now James starts this discussion by comparing false wisdom and true wisdom; unspiritual wisdom and spiritual wisdom. He says here is how you can determine whether you have the real thing or not. He says if you know it, show it, if you have it let others see it. How do we do that? By actions that are done with humility. To clarify that he then says, [14] “if you harbor bitter envy and selfless ambition in your hearts do not boast about it and don’t deny it.” So let me ask you, how many of you have any level of jealousy, selfish ambition or envy in your life right now? How many of you see that other people have things that you don’t and it deeply disturbs you? And because it so deeply disturbs you, you are filled with bitterness?
Well many of us would say of course not Pastor. It’s like saying you know I don’t have a problem with pride and I’m pretty proud of that.
Let’s take a moment and break these words down. First look at envy and jealousy. One author says this…”envy is the enemy of Christian living.” It is the exact opposite of grace. Envy wants to grab things… constantly. Grace wants to give things away. Envy only takes care of one person. Self.
Jealousy is simply when we want what someone else has. House, car, better looking wife, or we wish our kids were like their kids. And maybe we would even swap our kids. Or maybe we want their job. Here is what James is saying. There is NO connection whatsoever between envy/jealousy and godly wisdom. They are opposites.
2. Now look at selfish ambition. We know what it means to be ambitious. That’s usually a good thing. It means we are motivated. So selfish ambition simply means we are motivated in the wrong way…. to do the wrong things. It is when every decision we make is based on what we want. Ever do that? I do. Not proud of it but I do it.
So why does James refer to this as a type of wisdom? This is what I think. Ambition and envy have a certain type of logic to them. The logic goes like this. “I have to look at my own interests. Because if I don’t who will? If I am going to get what I deserve I am the one that has to take care of it. I’m the one that has to make it happen. After all I see people every day and they were hired at the same time I was and now they make more money!! What’s up with that?” I think I deserve the same thing. It’s logical. But it’s not spiritual. You see if we say we are going to take care of it we are saying we don’t need any help. We are saying we don’t need God. I can do this all by myself.
James says in v. 16 this will be the result…wherever you have envy and wherever you have selfish ambition, this will be the result…two things…. (1) disorder and (2) every evil practice. This shows up in churches… in fact it shows up a lot. People will have an idea and it’s usually a good idea but the problem is they feel so strongly about it, it becomes too personal….you know. So they present the idea and then nothing happens. And then they get upset and they leave.
My criteria for choosing a leader is something like this… (1) pray and ask God to guide me. If I am going to find the right person then I have to ask God because He is the only one who really knows. (2) Start looking and I usually look for someone often who is very busy. They say yes more than people who never do anything. You say well what about the ones who want to do something and you haven’t asked them. Well I also ask them. But listen, there is usually a reason if someone is not doing anything. They usually don’t want to. That’s why 20% of the people do 80% of the work in a church. I don’t like that but it’s true. (3) Look at the heart. You see I want the one who’s not selfish. I want the one who doesn’t have to be in the spotlight all of the time. Most of us don’t get to start at the top. I worked briefly with a fellow pastor who left and went into the banking business. Right away, within a few years he had his own branch. Why ….because his Dad owned the banks in that area. Here son, here’s your own bank. Bu the problem was he didn’t know what he was doing and he didn’t know how to treat people. Another fellow told me one time he was going to the top in the organization I was working in and he didn’t care who he had to run over to get there. You’ve seen it too. It is not God’s way.
Jesus washed feet. Jesus served others. Jesus said if you want to be mature/perfect then go sell everything you have and give it away.
When I first got involved in the church, the first job I got was to sit in a children’s SS class and be a role model. I didn’t teach. I rarely even spoke. But one of the leaders said some of these boys don’t have a role model and they need one. And sometimes we will call on you to lead in prayer. The 2nd job I was asked to do was to work in the bus ministry and every week I would wired with the kids and just talk to them and get to know them. So that’s what I did. Every week. Eventually I started teaching a class. Other opportunities came my way and finally several years later I was asked to preach…. For the first time. It was in a large church, they were on the radio, 500-600 people there…I got sick at my stomach that morning and I preached… get this…. 4 minutes. 4 minutes. Maybe I should go back to that.
Couple of thoughts about wisdom to close with.
(1) Wisdom has a beginning. There is a specific time when it begins to enter our lives. The psalmist said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When we begin to fear/respect the Lord wisdom comes into our lives. That is the first step. Here’s why. If you respect someone you tend to do what they tell you. When we disobey someone we then “disrespect” them.
(2) The world offers a lot of supposed ways to find wisdom. But they simply won’t work. If wisdom is your goal and you take the path the world offers, you will never find it.
(3) The greatest source of wisdom is the Bible. 2nd Timothy
3:15 says that “the holy scriptures are able to give you wisdom.” All true wisdom comes from this book. Period.
(4) Wisdom also has an end. It is not like your salvation. It is not permanent. You see God has the power to destroy wisdom if we use it for the wrong purpose. He says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.”
Be careful of ambition. It can destroy you. It can cause a lot of heartache. Ever noticed how kids are…if you tell them to line up and you have something for them they race to get to the front of the line. In fact all of us like to be first. Nike even has a tshirt that says 2nd place is for losers. But Jesus put it this way….. the first willbe last and that the last would be first. If you want to be first you have to learn to be last. If you want to do something great for God you have to humble yourself.
