All right, sorry about that. Well, thank you for reading that scripture this morning. It's a good starting point for us as we talk about wisdom today. We're in our next section of James chapter three. And I want to ask a question as we get started this morning. Do you recall a time in your life where someone shared some advice or a word of wisdom with you? Think about that for a moment. What was that helpful advice or words of wisdom that someone shared with you along the way that really has helped you throughout your life? My wife, Tessa, directs weddings, or she has directed weddings for many, many years, all 32 years of our marriage, she's done that. And I've been to many of them, helped with some, I've officiated in some. Most everyone that's happened here, I've been a part of. She does some weddings away from here too for other folks. And one of my questions a lot of times is when she's directing a wedding away from Calvary for someone I don't know is I have to determine if I'm going to go or not. So I usually ask who's the caterer and what kind of food are they going to have? That's pretty important. Then I can kind of make my judgment there. During those weddings, I've seen a table set up and there will be a table there with maybe some cards or some type of display and it will say, words of wisdom for the bride and groom. And they want you to write some things down and share with them that they can take with them into their marriage. And many times, there's a lot of very serious statements that are written there. There's some that are not so serious, and maybe even some shady ones that are written out on those cards, you know. But I did look up, and I just wanted to get an idea of what some folks might write for this, and here's a couple. Never laugh at your spouse's choices, because you're one of them. If at first you don't succeed, try doing it the way your wife told you to. I usually find that true with directions. You know, she knows better on directions for me. Don't discuss sensitive subjects before dinner. Eat first. That's a very helpful advice. You kind of settle the stomach there and you can talk more freely. Always be willing to forgive the fastest and love the most. And be sure to taste your words before you spit them out. That kind of ties back into our message last week of guarding the tongue. How did you do this week giving life-giving words to people that you know and love and people around you? Well, I'm grateful for what I'll call older people in my life who have brought us along in our marriage and gave us some good, helpful, practical advice as we started our life together. Their experiences and their heartaches, their joys, their trials provided an opportunity for them to speak into our life and to help us, a younger couple. Now, as I wrote that and thought about that, I realized that those folks who did that for me in our early days of marriage were probably my age right now. So I'm thinking they were older at the time, but it's a challenge for me to pass that on to other people as well. And this happens in a lot of areas of life, really. People giving advice and counsel and help on career choices and life and what school you're going to go to. And the type of wisdom one shares in those moments is coming from the type of wisdom upon which they are depending. So today as we resume our study in James 3, you can turn in your scriptures and read the passage in a moment. James is going to follow up his teaching on guarding the tongue and discussing true wisdom and false wisdom. And he says, we come off a passage that seems negative and hopeless but we ended last week realizing that the one who can help us guard our tongue is the Lord, the Lord Jesus, the perfect one. Now in this short paragraph, James shifts his approach to offer some constructive help and insight into how the wise person lives within the world and within the community of believers. Right here in this place, how do we live among each other wisely? And the main idea we want to see from the text today as we work through this, I hope this is what you will see as we work through, is that the one who possesses true wisdom will experience peace for themselves and will share peace with others. Let me read that again. The one who possesses true wisdom will experience peace for themselves and share that peace with others. So let's read the text and let's see what James is saying about wisdom here. Starting in chapter three, verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but it is earthly, it's unspiritual, it's demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is shown in peace by those who make peace. Why the question? Why is he asking this question at the very beginning? Now remember he's talking to believers. He has had brothers several times in this passage. But he's asking this question, who is wise among you? We're going to try to answer that question today. But I want you to think of this, what image, what type of person comes to your mind when you think of the wise one or wisdom? Now, a lot of times those images can include this white-haired man at the top of a mountain where you go for access, right, and you're going for the wise sage, and you're looking for wisdom for every circumstance or need. It might be that this is a person that you know that is skilled with all sorts of knowledge and facts, and basically he or she's going to be able to tell you everything you need to know about that subject, and everything probably you don't want to know about the subject. very, very skilled in all that knowledge. It's like the wedding advice that we're giving through the beginning there. How to be a good whatever, you fill in the blank, a good carpenter, a good fisherman, a good salesman. Fill in your job, hobby or skill. This is wisdom that gets passed down, these skills and understanding. And of course, we pray. I do a lot when I'm in the hospital with you. I pray for doctors and nurses that God will give them wisdom. And this wisdom is to apply what they know to the problem at hand. They have the knowledge but how do they apply that to the difficulty they're trying to solve for you. I pray for wisdom for them. And it's helpful to define our terms. And that's what wisdom is. What is he talking about? It's more than just practical advice and tips. It's more than just practical. knowledge about things, because that's beneficial for anyone. I believe his question maybe is a look back to an Old Testament writing in Hosea chapter 14. This comes at the end of Hosea's prophetic message of the continued rebellion of Israel against God, but it's also a reminder that God's love for them has not stopped. He's still pursuing them. And Hosea writes, whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. And here's the wisdom. Here's what it is. The ways of the Lord are right and the upright walk in them. but transgressors stumble over them. That's how the book ends. The ways of the Lord are right and the upright walk in them. Now perhaps this could have been a portion of scripture that James would have known and had in mind when he asked this question because he says the wise one will demonstrate works in meekness of wisdom. It'll be evident in their life. The wisdom he is referring to here, who among you is considered wise in the truth and the knowledge of God? That's what he's referring to. Here's a working definition for us this morning. Wisdom is a God-given gift or skill taking insight into the ways of God, that knowledge and truth about God, and applying it or weaving it into everyday life. A God-given gift or skill, taking insight into the ways of God and applying it or weaving it into our daily life. Now, that is not original in me. I borrowed that from Pastor Matt. He preached this passage several years ago, and I thought this is a wonderful definition for us to work off with. A skilled worker, a skilled surgeon, applying what they know and weaving it into what they have to do in that moment. It's a gift. The beginning of wisdom, as Proverbs tells us, is the fear of the Lord. And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Wisdom comes from God. Godly wisdom comes from God. And it equips us to live life. And then we can become skilled at living life through the knowledge and understanding of God and weaving it into our life. If I restate the question that James is asking, I might say it this way. Who among you has the gift or skill of taking the ways of God, the truth of God, the knowledge of God, and weaving it into the varied aspects of your life? Well, just a few passages earlier, we've been working through this, that it's proven out in some way. When you have faith in God, it's proven out in how you live your life. It's proven out in your conduct. It's the same thing here. These are things that affirm the wisdom you have. Good conduct and meekness in life. True biblical wisdom is not measured in how much you know. It doesn't matter how much scripture you can quote. It doesn't matter how versed you are on doctrinal issues and very difficult things to understand. You may be able to debate them till the end of time. But it doesn't matter what you know about those things. Mere knowledge is not enough. It's what you do with it. It's how you apply it to your life. That's where the wisdom comes in. So true biblical wisdom is proven out just like our faith. It's proven out in godly conduct. This is what he says. You do this in the spirit of meekness. In other words, those who do good works in a way that is designed to bring themselves honor or accolade is not evidencing true wisdom. Instead, we might say it this way, a more succinct way, true wisdom is living like Jesus. Living like Jesus. Jesus was the perfect wisdom personified. He came to earth, we've sung those songs this morning, Jesus coming to earth and living among us, perfect wisdom personified. He lived it, he exemplified it. The wisdom of the Old Testament was symbolic of the one to come and it did come, it came in Jesus, the person of Jesus. First Corinthians one, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And then he lived in meekness because in Matthew 11, 28, he says, I am gentle and lowly in heart. This is how he lived. He was wisdom and he lived in meekness. And this is what James is saying. This is the evidence of true wisdom in a person's life. Good conduct and a spirit of meekness. So reminder, what is wisdom? It's a God-given gift or skill of taking insight, knowledge of God, knowledge about the truth of God, and applying it or weaving it into every aspect of our life. So why is this an important discussion for us today? Well, we face so many trials. We face temptations. We face temptations to give up, to give in, to walk away. And challenges come in our daily life on a daily basis. And we need wisdom. We need wisdom from God to navigate this, to apply this to our life. We live in a fallen world and we need His help. The rest of this paragraph is going to explain to us the difference between the two types of wisdom that James is talking about here. First, it's gonna be about the wisdom that is not from God, and then the wisdom that is from God. Wisdom from God that's good for us and helpful to us, around us. The one that's not is not good for us, and it's actually damaging to others. So let's dig into this and look at it. He's gonna start with wisdom that is not from God, and he actually tells us that this type of wisdom is how this is known in someone. Look at verse 14. But if you have bitter jealousy, the buts mean you're not living a good conduct in meekness, but you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. Those with bitter jealousy, selfish ambition are just the opposite, right? What do these words mean? Bitter jealousy, rivalry, resentfulness, bitterness of heart, rudeness. You can look back up to verse 11 and you can see about the tongue that from the same place comes blessing and cursing. And I was reminded last week after the message that when I gave the illustration of coming up here to the stoplight and turning left and waiting for the lady to go, men also missed the light. So I wanted to just clarify that with you if you were here for that. I understand that. But how can it come from the same place, right, this bitterness and good? But it's the same word, bitter jealousy, selfish ambition. Literally, this is not hard to imagine. You have to think of a politician who's in it for himself. Whatever good he can, he'll do whatever it takes to get elected to make himself look good. That's what this is, selfish ambition. Not hard for us to picture. Now, it's so easy for us to condemn people. It's so easy for us to condemn others that are exhibiting this way of life. And we overlook our own tendency to slip into this. We can begin to think that we know what's best, that we have the right perspective on life and believe that we are applying knowledge in the right way, when in fact, we can be misguided in our own way. We can be pursuing our own things, our own lusts, our own desires, and we think all of a sudden, how did I get here? How did I get to this place? Attitudes, actions, explanations, accompanied by bitterness, jealousy, selfishness, these are not indicators of a person filled with godly wisdom. It cannot be a good gift that's coming down from the father of lights that James talks about in chapter one. And how do we get there? How do we get to that place? He says you're going to the wrong source. You're going to the wrong place for wisdom. Look at verse 15. This is not wisdom that comes from above, but it's earthly, it's spiritual, it's demonic. Earthly, only this life in view, the here and now, right now, focused on right now. Spiritual, it's focused on the natural man. focused on our fallen condition with no real view or thought about the Holy Spirit working in my life. It's focused on me and what I want. It's spiritual. And then he gets even worse, it's demonic. He says this type of wisdom that we turn to sometimes is inspired by the very forces of hell. I think what he's trying to get us to understand, this is a faulty worldview, is the opposite of anything godly. The place we turn to so quickly, many times, is the opposite of anything godly. It's earthbound, it's spiritually dead, and it's demon instigated. It's easy to see today this type of wisdom being lived out. murder, mayhem in the streets, as Ezekiel talks about. It's happening all around us. It's hard to even imagine the things that are taking place. Earthbound, unspiritual, demonic wisdom is guiding that. And this is the type of wisdom that views life from a very, very limited perspective. It doesn't see eternity in view, but it's only concerned, as we said, with the immediate, the here and now. What's best for self-advancement? What's best for self-pleasure? What's best for being on the right side of the current issue of the day? It's all focused there. And James says, in no uncertain terms, this is sourced in hell. And we have to be careful. We can't go to those sources for wisdom or for daily life. Because what happens when you do? What happens when a person goes to this direction? Well, verse 16 tells us. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, that's what's kind of driving this. You're thinking of yourself, and so you're going to sources for wisdom that are just not good. He says in verse 16, there will be disorder in every vile practice. Want to know what the product of human or earthly wisdom is? It's disorder, it's chaos, it's the opposite of peace. It disrupts peace between people and groups. It brings confusion, vile practices, wrong thinking produces wrong behavior. Maybe I can summarize it this way. This wisdom results in an absence of God's ways. They're not there. God is not in it. I might even say it's anti-God, this type of wisdom. Your home, your relationships, your church, your organization can be thrown into utter chaos. Utter chaos. And believe it or not, you and me, we are capable of doing things that we would never imagine that we would do. It's true. We're capable of doing that. But that comes when we're driven by selfish ambition, by jealousy, by these things, and we're looking to a system to provide a source to provide wisdom to us in our daily life that is actually flowing from hell. Friends, fellow believers, Jesus has rescued us from this. This is what he pulled us from. This is what we sing about this morning. He's pulled us from this. Ephesians 2, listen to this. You once walked these ways, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And you, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, that's who we were. But believers, he has pulled us from that. We do not have to rely on this source of wisdom. This is not where we need to go. There's chaos. There's just utter disappointment there. If you go to a stagnant pond, you're going to get bitter water. It's what James said earlier. Fresh water is not going to come from a bad source. And I was trying to think through, what are some of the sources that we can kind of wrap our mind around today of where we go for these sources of wisdom? Or what we can call fake wisdom, really. I think, now what I'm gonna list here, it can be used for good too. So it's not all bad, but we tend to run to these places and we get some bad advice, bad counsel, bad wisdom. I think one of the tops is social media because it's just so full of it. It's got so much bad running through there and we're grasping those little pieces and it's affecting us. So we have to be careful. Our favorite news channel or talk station can drive us to anger and frustration and trying to solve problems in an ungodly way. Trends, trying to keep up with the latest trends. Podcasts, now these can be great sources that will fill your heart with growth in the Lord, but it's also man's best attempt to kind of understand life. We have to be careful what we're listening to, what we're ingesting. I think friends that are not spirit-filled and they just offer the best advice they can. So like I said, these are not always all bad, but these are places we run sometimes to try to get wisdom for our life. But when it comes to this earthbound and unspiritual and demonic wisdom sources, you know, we can, with James, we can say, yeah, go get them, James. You tell them, that's right. Nothing good's gonna come from that. They get what they deserve. Now, in our self-righteousness sometimes, in our judgmental spirit that creeps up in all of us, it doesn't mean. I think we can affirm the truth of scripture that perhaps wouldn't say they are foolish. They're not living as wise men. But, when you read this passage, and you think through the implications of what James is talking about here, this becomes a lot more difficult to process for the ones who are here today, and you have friends, and you have loved ones, maybe some in your very own family. that are going to sources for wisdom in their life that is destroying them. They're living in bondage to earthly wisdom, the common ways that man thinks, rejecting the truth of God, and they're believing a lie. And I can't say, well, I just can't be content to say, well, they'll get what they deserve. People gotta fall on our knees. We gotta beg God to rescue them, to pull them out, get them away from that, release their mind from the bondage of Satan's deception. That's what we gotta do. Pastor David Platt summarizes this wisdom source like this. It says there's a danger in all of our families and our churches whenever we pursue selfish concerns or partisan causes to the neglect of the good of others. And so we need to be on guard. Such wisdom produces anger, bitterness, resentment, divisions, and divorce. Such wisdom robs us of love, intimacy, trust, fellowship, and harmony with others. My friends, wisdom that comes from the horizontal plane, right here in this space, cannot meet the deepest need of the human heart. It's wisdom from above that changes everything. It changes it all. And that's where James goes next. Look with me in verse 17. A description of wisdom that is from God. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. If the source of fake wisdom is not from above, but from a stagnant pond filled with bitter water, what is the source of true wisdom in the picture? It has to be like that spring of refreshing water that's just soothing and life-giving to the person who partakes of it. When you go to the right source, you get what James calls true wisdom. He says it is pure. It is pure. I mean, purified drinking water. But he says this is pure truth. This is pure wisdom. This is right. It's undefiled. It's sweet. It's refreshing. And it comes from the righteous and holy God. That's where it's sourced. If you're walking in the desert in southern Judea, just outside of Jerusalem and south, And you're gonna be hot, number one, because it is a hot place. And there's barren, and there's nothing around, and it's just, you're walking along, and you're hiking, and your throat is parched, it's sticky. Your lips are just cracking. You've got dust all over you. And then, you come upon a mountain, or a ridge, and there's water just flowing right out of that. It's called the Spring of Bengueti. Spring of Vengetti, and you go there, and you stand, and you look up, and you just get in the water, and it just pours down over you, and it washes away all the dust. It begins to soothe your parched lips, and you just open your mouth, and you drink it in, and it quenches your thirst. It's so refreshing. It's pure water, and it's just flowing right out of the mountain there. It's beautiful. If you walk about a mile east, there's a lot more water sitting there. And it's pretty as well. It's beautiful, it's laid out there. As far as you can see, there's water. But this water is not pure. It's dead. It's the Dead Sea. And the tendency is like, look at how much I can go get. I will never thirst again. There's so much water there. But the problem is, if you drink it, it's tainted, and you're gonna get a lot more problems. True and pure wisdom, James says, results in a soul-satisfying and a community-strengthening characteristic. It quenches you, it helps you, it helps others. And there's several things he lists out here. After it's pure, it's peace-loving. It's not simply the absence of conflicts, but you have to keep in mind the Old Testament word shalom, the Hebrew word shalom. It's not just avoiding conflict. It's like actually promoting peace. It's pushing for it. Blessed are the peacemakers. They'll be called sons of God. Gentleness, he says, willingness to yield to others, making allowances for their feelings, their weaknesses, and their needs, not insisting on my own rights. The wisdom here is helping me to be gentle to people, bringing them along. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Another descriptor, open to reason. Not just pushing for your own perspective or understanding, not argumentative, not willing to just argue everything, but you're willing to consider other points of view. This is wisdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says. And then he says, this type of wisdom is full of mercy and full of good fruit. I think this might be a look back to when he's, in chapter two, when he said, hey, you see a brother or sister in need? And you say, God bless you, and don't do anything for them. No, this is actually true wisdom produces in us a mercy and a fruit of putting compassion to action to meet that need. Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy, Jesus says. And then he concludes by saying it's impartial and it's sincere. True wisdom, true wisdom sourced from a holy God produces in a person a stable, trustworthy, transparent, open, fair-minded attitude. It's not double-minded. He's not just playing a part. This is the kind of person that is consistently displaying the virtues of wisdom and you can rely on this person for the skill to take the knowledge and truth of God and apply it and weave it into life and to help you. That's what he's talking about here. This is pure wisdom. This is what every follower and believer in Jesus needs today more than ever. And when you come to the right source, and with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, you know what you can become? You can become a conduit of His grace, a conduit of His wisdom, a conduit of His truth where you're passing it to others, a conduit of His peace and righteousness. That's what verse 18 says. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. This is a total contrast to chaos and evil that result from selfish ambition and earthbound wisdom. It's the exact opposite. God's wisdom produces what is right, what is pleasing, and what is honoring to God, and what is good for the people of God. That's what true wisdom produces. And peace is what God wants to have flourishing in all of our relationships, in our homes and in our church. Now don't misunderstand, we're not sacrificing truth just to be at peace with people. The ways of God, we don't sacrifice that because we're talking about true wisdom. And what we think about here is when a husband and a wife and they're humbly seeking God and pursuing wisdom that is pure, that is true, They're seeking God's wisdom. There will be peace produced in that home because they're doing this together. They're pursuing it. When we, brothers and sisters, in this body are pursuing God and humility, leaving behind all of that selfish ambition and jealousy and pride, self-righteousness, peace and righteousness will reign in this place and we will be a people promoting gentleness We'll be promoting reasonableness. We'll be promoting good fruit and good mercy with transparency and openness and sincerity, loving each other in grace. That's what we'll do. That's what will happen. So we need to, as a people of God, ask Him to remove us from this worldly thinking, worldly wisdom. So remember our definition. A God-given gift, wisdom is a God-given gift or skill of taking insight into the ways of God and applying them or weaving them into everyday life. So I think the natural question, progression of questions that we might have in our mind, okay, we understand bad wisdom, earthly wisdom, we understand godly wisdom, but how do we get the godly wisdom? How do we actually get that? Right now, as I think about closing this out for you, it's so tempting for me to be able to come up here and say, I'm gonna give you three ways to avoid earthbound wisdom. Or I'm gonna give you five tips to grow in your godly wisdom and pursuit of godly wisdom. Some of us like that. I mean, I like the checklist. I like to check things off the box. But a checklist is not gonna work. We depend too much on doing all the right things in all the right ways and expect that God's just gonna bless that when our heart is so far away from him. So, I wanna ask you this instead. I just wanna ask you one question. I want you to think about when you need wisdom, where's the first place you turn? Where's the first place you go looking for wisdom for your life? Peace and righteousness will only flow when we are rightly connected to the life-giving source of true wisdom. So, what is that source? What is that source of life-giving wisdom? It's Jesus, and it's the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, the pure source for pure wisdom. I wanna read a couple verses to you. John 4, 13 to 14, Jesus is having a conversation with a woman who's drawing water out of a well. And he says to her, everybody who drinks this water is gonna thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. It's flowing. It's living water that's flowing. He actually says that later in John chapter seven, whoever believes in me as a scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water, rivers of life giving water. Jesus is the source of godly wisdom. He is wisdom. And perhaps today you're sitting here, you're listening to this, you're watching online, and that's your biggest need. That might just be your biggest need today. You've tried all the other sources. You've tried everything else to help your life. You've come up empty. You're spent. You feel hopeless and helpless. And I ask you today, turn. Turn to the source of the life-giving water today. true wisdom, you will never thirst again. I'm not sure I can do this, but a song that's on my heart today, in mine, the music this morning, the words of the songs just resonated, but the hymn of heaven begins this way. How I long to breathe the air of heaven, where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets, to look upon the one who bled to save me and walk with him for all eternity. If you are not connected to the true source of wisdom, I invite you, come there with me. Come, come with me. Let's go, let's turn to Jesus. Turn to him. He is true wisdom. Now to the believers and the followers of Jesus today, the answer's quite similar. We also pursue, we turn to other things, we turn to so many places looking for help when the answers are right in front of us. And so the answer is quite similar. You want true wisdom? You want to be connected to the source? You want to go straight to the source and have true wisdom? It's not in some secret location. There's not a secret code that you need. You don't need to know the right people to be able to get access to it. What do you have to do? All you have to do is ask. All you have to do is ask him. James 1 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him, but let him ask in faith, believing without doubting. You need wisdom right now? You need wisdom to apply God's character and God's truth to the trials, the temptations, the testing that you're facing, ask him for it. Go to Jesus, ask him. He will give it to you. Don't turn to fake wisdom. All you're gonna get is lies. All you're gonna get is empty promises. Turn to Jesus. Isaiah warns us about the danger of turning to vain and empty promises of false wisdom when he writes in Isaiah chapter five, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. It's not gonna turn out well if that's where you go. Now, it's so easy right now for a believer to just walk away, to say I'm done. Things aren't working out like God said. I'm not sure what's happening here. It's so easy for them to look to fake wisdom and start pursuing that and think things are gonna turn out better. It's happening all around us. It's appealing. It seems like everyone is doing it. And it makes you question, is all of this really true? Is it true? Because it's at odds with everything that I find comfortable and personally fulfilling in this life, it's just at odds, I'm not sure. Someone or some argument comes along and they say, hey, I've got a better way, follow me. But my dear, dear church family, I appeal to you to remember, never forget that as believers we are not living for today. We are not living for a moment. We are not living for a like. We are not living for an experience. We are not living to be accepted. We're living for something much, much bigger. for someone much more exceptional or living for the glory of God. Saturate your heart, saturate your mind with the truth and the knowledge of God so that you know him, so that you understand his ways, and then ask him for wisdom to know how to apply that and to weave that into your life every day. Don't go to the bitter source, I beg you. Don't go there. Don't. Stay with Jesus. He's worth it. Stay with him. He's worth it. And pray that he will help you not to sow disorder and evil, but to harvest peace and righteousness in your relationship with him and with all those around you. I say to you, if you know someone that's running, if you know someone who's turning to that false wisdom, or maybe it's you yourself, it's not too late. It's not too late, no one is too far gone. No one has messed up so bad they can't be redeemed. So as I said before, get on your knees, Beg God to go after them and rescue them and bring them home. Let's pray for true wisdom. Let's turn to Jesus. Will you pray with me right now? Oh God, our hearts are so heavy for those that we know and love that are pursuing and looking for truth in all the wrong places. and we see in their lives they're just chaos and disruption and pain. So on behalf of my church family that are experiencing that right now, I cry out to you, God, rescue them, bring them home, bring them to a relationship with you. Will you go after them? And Father, would you help them to turn their hearts to you, I pray, and see true wisdom, maybe for the first time. And for my dear brothers and sisters here today who are searching for answers in their problems of life and their difficulties, God, will you help all of us to stay true to the true source of wisdom. And that's in you, Lord Jesus. Help us to know you more. God, will you draw us close. If we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. And we ask you, God, to don't let us go. Help us to stay close to you. Help us to remember that you are worth it all. Change our minds, change our hearts, I pray, Father. Give us godly, biblical wisdom today, I pray, for the things that we face in life. We need it and we ask for it. And we pray these things in your precious name, Lord Jesus, the only righteous one.