Seires: Life Hacks. Week 6: Who is Wise?
Underneath tough times & rough relationships is often a decision that was foolish rather than wise. And James asks “Who is wise?” Or, how do we become wise?
You can help prevent them if you can just engage Real Wisdom. James 3:13-18
Life Principle 1: There are two kinds of wisdom—wisdom from above and from below. And you have to navigate life in the midst of those 2 kinds of wisdom.
More specifically, in these two kinds of wisdom, there is one that comes from God, our Creator God, who is spirit, who originally created us in His image, and made us spirit just like Him. You are a spirit being wrapped in the physical body. a plastic bag –you are a spirit wrapped in a physical body. God created us out of dirt, your DNA is earthly.
But we are more. We have meaning and purpose, we have a soul, and we do things differently than the rest of creation. Example: Kill a deer
When we sinned. It was like turning off the lights. It put us in darkness. It created a distance with God. Being in spiritual darkness, we’re spiritually blind. And we can’t discern real wisdom. You could be seeking the truth and be very near it, but you can’t see it. Illustration: Hide and Seek in the Dark—flashlight. The Bible serves as God’s flashlight— wisdom to understand & navigate life.
Worldly wisdom: James 3:15-16. Demonic–it’s informed by the wisdom of fallen angels who rebelled against God & being fools they would love to have you join them in their eternal foolish state. Unspiritual –it is not from God’s Spirit but out of darkness. Earthly –it comes from a perspective that begins and ends with Earth. Wisdom that is consumed with Earth. Everything from the perspective of just the stuff on Earth—why it’s not unusual for us to just want more and more stuff, the next toy, the next tech, and the next thing that we can get. And we measure life by what happens on Earth. It’s earthly wisdom. GEICO commercial.
The truth of God speaks out, “Why not take God’s running car with lights?” The world says, “Are you crazy?” And then speaks an earthly wisdom into our lives. When we follow the world’s advice we end up in a nightmare: nightmare marriages, families, jobs and finances.
Over $32 trillion in our national debt. How long it would take you just to count to 1 trillion? 31,963 years. To count right now from zero to our national debt, would take over 1,022,816 years. What you need to know is there are two kinds of wisdom.
Life Principle 2: The two cannot be mixed without a double-minded disorder. You can’t mix wisdom from above with below without disorder and discontent.
Image of two wisdoms. The reason we end up with nightmare lives, marriages, and societies is because we’re caught in the blend of these voices.
Many Voices: parents, teachers & professors, friends, screen media—news and entertainment, social media, political system, and then you have the church.
The world in which we live today is overloaded with voices. And they scream into our lives. And when you make all voices equal, what you’re really creating my mix for yourself. A blend of what God says and all of these other voices. And you end up blending wisdom from above & from below. And you think because you blended a little bit of God in there that you have wisdom from above.
Here’s the point: When you blend them together, it is really wisdom from below, because ultimately you have put yourself above God. James 3:16—we can fall prey to our own selfish ambition. If it feels right to me, then I just follow it. You get things in the wrong order because when you become the center or take first place and God takes second place … when you have the wrong order, you get disorder. And with disorder comes discontentment from the envy and the jealousy that rises up. And a life of disorder and discontent is a bit of a nightmare.
James 3:17-18—God’s wisdom is pure, considerate, full of good works. So what do we do? 3 Life Hacks…
1—Stop to care about the one. Deal with your own selfish ambition. Deal with the tendency to put ourselves at the center. Stop in a busy world and care about others. What arrests selfish ambition is caring for others. When life is a fight and someone does something nice for you, it’s overwhelming. What matters? When you walk out of today’s service stop and care about someone else.
2—Look at what you have. Not a profound statement, just profound if you practice it. Look at what you do have instead of what you don’t have. And in a world that stirs discontent, listen, we become more about getting than giving. And if you let yourself become more about getting than giving, envy, jealousy, and coveting will own you at the core.
Challenge: Your life is shaped more by what you give than what you get. I am discontent with my getting—I have all kinds of thoughts & dreams for getting more. But I am content with my giving—I don’t have big dreams or plans for how I’m going to give more. Nobody ever taught me how to dream about giving more, only to dream about getting more. Switch those and it’ll change your life. Be discontent with your giving. Never be satisfied. And learn to be content with your getting.
3—Listen to your father first. Where do you get your wisdom? You live in a world that is going to engulf you with voices that are going to speak into your life. You’re going to be tempted to be the center of your own wisdom, to elevate yourself above God, blending wisdom from above and wisdom from below.
So, who is informing your values? –your sexual values, ethical values? your marriage values or your moral values? Who’s defining your family values? Your financial values? And James would tell us, “Listen to your heavenly Father first.” Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, to move you out of the nightmare that comes with wisdom from below into the dream that God has for our life with Him.
There are only 2 kinds of wisdom and you can’t mix them.
Ask yourself, will you apply God’s wisdom?
Will you stop to care about others?
Will you look at what you have versus what you don’t have?
Will you listen to your Father first?