Go ahead Noah and start showing those pictures. I have a little website that I love. It's a funny one to visit. It's called Why My Child Is Crying. What they do is they have pictures of children throwing tantrums. As you can see, the funny thing is the captions because it explains why their child was crying. This poor boy found a hot dog in his cornbread. Another boy wanted to eat a styrofoam cup and his parents wouldn't let him. And those cruel parents are causing these tantrums, these just complete explosions of emotion. It's funny. You know this if you've had children, if you tried to raise children. Tried because, you know, we just all do our best. But you know this. When a child is having a tantrum, you have two choices. One choice is to scream and throw them out the window. I don't recommend that one. And the other one is just to laugh at them. It's just funny that you want to eat styrofoam. And I'm not gonna have to reason with you about why I'm not letting you. It's just funny. But I think there's something that we can actually learn from these tantrums more than just laughing at the children. It sounds cruel. Probably need to take that off the tape. I think there's something we can learn from those if we will apply logic and apply our theology to the realm of tantrums. And what I mean is this. If you believe in God and you believe the things that the Christian church has taught for the last 2000 years, then you know with 100% certainty that the distance between God's wisdom and ours is far greater than the distance between a parent's wisdom and a toddler, right? You're closer to a toddler when it comes to wisdom then you are to the Lord of the universe, the maker of all things that have ever existed, space, time, and dimension. Nod, right? You agree with that. Therefore, oftentimes, I just kind of wonder how often it is when we are just furious that we're not getting our way, when we're having to face a defeat, when we're having to face a setback, when we didn't get the job we wanted or the boyfriend we wanted or the role that we wanted or the victory that we wanted, how often are we just throwing a tantrum in the middle of the street? because our father won't let us eat styrofoam. Because he won't give us something that would be terrible for us if he did. How often does that happen? I think the reason why that happens is because we are humans and humans are driven more than anything else by pride, by this desire to think well of ourselves. And that pride makes us a slave. Specifically, it makes us a slave to the tyranny of having to get what I want. Having to get what I want is a terrible tyranny. And that is how most of us live. But the Bible says there's another way. The Bible says that a wise person is a submissive person. A wise person is someone who trusts God. A wise person is someone who has seen himself and seen God and realizes he is nothing but dust. And that the Lord not only is much greater than she is, but is much wiser than she is and therefore he can be trusted. A fool is a slave to his pride and ambition. A wise person is a servant of the Lord who loves him. And the way of wisdom, the way of foolishness, is to seek your own ideas of what is best. According to this text, it's the way of ambition. And the way of wisdom is the way of submission and humility. There are some topics I'm very comfortable preaching on. Sex, that's easy. Fastball right down the middle. The cross, Jesus, those things I tend to enjoy. When it comes to this topic of ambition and pride, it makes me so uncomfortable because pride is just so deep in our culture. It is the the the backbeat is the rhythm of our economy and Everything we talk about just think about words like winner be a winner You may win so much. You're gonna be sick of winning Be number one be first be the best and and and we even as a church have kind of baptized that language and and made it into things like I You can only glorify God by being the best. That's kind of a nice little judo move on humility, isn't it? I only wanna be the best because I want God to get the glory for it. It's interesting, an interesting sentence. And then when we look at God, We see Jesus, the God-man. We see him descending to the earth. We see him leaving all the appearances of God and the trappings and the privileges of God and taking on the form of a man and coming to the lowest point on the earth in poverty and allowing himself to be baptized, going so low as to identify himself with sinners. And we know that baptism was only the beginning of the descent. And from there he went on to be despised and rejected, smitten by men, afflicted by God, betrayed by his friends, abandoned by his father. The Lord of the universe chose that role. He chose it. The father, the master of the house looked at him and said, you are my beloved son. You can have any role you want. You are the heir to the entire fortune. What role do you want in my household and all of my kingdom? And the son said, I want to remove filth from their feet. And he took off his robes and he girded himself with a towel. And he began washing us. And he was obedient. He was obedient all the way into death, even the death on the cross. And what was the result of that? The result of that was that God gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all the earth. And there's a really wrong temptation in us when we hear that. Our temptation is to think that's when he went back to being God. Like he stopped being God, went to the cross, then he has to go back and be God again. And that is so wrong. I want you to really erase that thought from your mind because what you gotta understand is that God on the cross is the most God-like picture of God you're ever gonna have. That's where he was the most beautiful. That's when he was the most like himself, giving himself out of pure love. That is who the Lord is. And that is who we are made in the image of. And if that's true, then maybe we should rethink how we go through life. Maybe, just maybe, Don't want it out there, got nothing else to talk about for the next 15 minutes. Maybe winning is not the only thing. Maybe God uses struggles and defeat and difficulty to free you from the awful tyranny of always having to get your way. Maybe you would actually be happier if you were holier than you would be if you were more prosperous. Maybe God is trying to take you to the beach and you're throwing a tantrum in the middle of the street because you don't want to leave your mud. As we read today's text, I want you to see that wisdom comes from meeting God and knowing that you are but dust. Foolishness is the mark of someone who's never met God and therefore assumes he is God-like. Please stand as we read this great text from James chapter 3, verses 13 through 18. Hear the word of the Lord. 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 is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. than gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Thus far the reading of God's Word. Please be seated. All men are like grass, and all of our glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever. Please give our attention to it. I believe James is telling us that wisdom comes from meeting God and knowing Him and trusting Him, and that trusting Him, that submitting to Him, frees us from the tyranny of always having to have what I want. frees us from believing that I know what is best for me. Frees us from the tantrums of not getting what I thought was best for me. James compares two kinds of people in this text. And what we wanna do is we're gonna look at those two kinds of people to contrast them. And then we're gonna ask the question, well, how do we become the wise and not the fool? So the first thing I want you to see is the fool. Look at him here in verse 14. It says, 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 is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Now, that's a jump, don't you think? All right, you get it. Jealousy is not good. You know, I really like this guy's hair and, you know, that guy's physique and that guy's car. It's not good. But demonic? Ambition. Well, I mean, honestly, most of us are just uncomfortable saying ambition is bad. I mean, most parents get mad at their children for not being more ambitious. That's actually an argument. That's actually a sermon on laziness and that's not today. ambition, the desire to be the best. Demonic? That seems strong. Let's look at that. First of all, what drives the fool? The fool is driven by, like we just said, jealousy and ambition. Jealousy is this belief that I deserve what someone else has. It is ugly and it is gross and I don't think there's a worse I don't think there's a worse realization that ever comes upon me than, you're just jealous. You know, awful. For those of y'all that don't know the story. Several years ago, a guy came to us and he wanted to plant a church in Tulsa and he wanted to worship in our church while he did. And he met me over coffee and he asked if his family could come worship here. And he said, I'm not going to ask you for any money and I promise I won't take any of your people. And I smirked and I said, well, buddy, I don't have any money to give you and I don't think you can take any of my people. Well, we hired Bo Berman to be our associate pastor eventually. And after four years, he went and planted a church with about $40,000 of our dollars and about 50 of our people. And it was great. And I was so happy that he was taking people and I was happy to be giving him this and really rejoicing in his victories until, until that second year when all the college students started going there. And all those just evil, ugly feelings welled up within me. And I just kind of want to go, really? I'm like that? I'm that kind of person? I didn't think I was that kind of person. But clearly I am. That feeling of just wanting to be first. and jealousy over when you're not. It's ugly. It's the opposite of the gospel. And it makes you hate people for what they have. An ambition, the desire to be first, always put ourselves first. What is it that made the demons into demons? What is it that made Satan into Satan? The desire to be equal with God, the desire to get all the glory that he got. And that's, That's all hell is. It's just a room filled with people demanding that you worship them. That you acknowledge how great they are. And James says, the source of those motives is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. They're not from heaven. There's nothing unseen about them. They're all convinced that this life, what you can see and experience right now, is all there is. And as a result, they turn into disorder, every vile practice. What's the result of the life of pride? What is the result of the life of selfish ambition and jealousy? Well, it's disorder. And it sounds strong, but let me explain to you what I mean by that, what I think James means by that, which is more important. We sang a song today at the beginning of worship, a great song. Praise to the Lord, all creatures of our God and King. And in it, we sang this verse, praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. And I want you to know that that is the song that has been getting sung since the beginning of the foundations of the world. before from all eternity you see the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit they've been singing and they've been dancing and the words to the song have always been Jesus and the Son and the Spirit saying praise the Father and the Father saying no praise the Son and then and then the Father and the Son getting together say praise the Spirit it's this dance of deference this dance of no no you before me And when God created us, he created us to join into that dance. But we wanted to dance to a different tune. We wanted to dance to the song of, well, what about me? Don't forget me over here. I mean, yeah, sure, praise y'all and me. And you see, that's a different tune. And when you have bad rhythm, I can tell you this from experience, when you have bad rhythm, When you're not on the same beat as everybody else, you don't belong on the dance floor. Because you bump into people, and you throw people off, and you create disorder where there's supposed to be harmony. And we're dancing to this different song, and we are insisting on getting what is ours, and we're insisting on getting to be first, and winning, and out of that desire to be first, Out of that desire comes every vile practice, according to verse 16. I think that's interesting, and I want to just kind of unpack that for you. You see, people don't do evil things because they want to do them. They do evil things because, well, I have to do this to get that, and that is worth it. That is worth it, the greater good. You see churches and institutions covering up awful rapes and sexual sins. Why? Well, for the greater good. For the greater good. We can't ruin the reputation of this institution. One of my favorite things to read, essays, is by C.S. Lewis. It's actually a speech that he gave at a graduation. And he looked at all these people about to graduate and said, some of you are going to do terrible things. And you don't believe it's you. Right now, when you heard me say that, you didn't believe it was you. And you don't mean to do terrible things. You're not setting out from here to do terrible things. But there's gonna come a day when you are in a circle of people who are tops in the field that you want to be in. And you're gonna hear them whisper, this is how we do things. This is how we keep our exclusivity by pushing people out. And you're going to do those things so that you can stay in that circle. That's every vile practice that comes out from us because we just want to be thought better of than everyone else. It's gross, isn't it? There's got to be a better way than that. There's got to be something better than that. Instead of throwing a tantrum, what if we could trustfully follow our Lord who has our best interest in mind? What if we could trust God's goodness? Well, that's what James says is better. Verse 17, he says, 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 sown in peace by those who make peace. He says this kind of wisdom, it comes from above. It's like God himself. You see, God himself is humble. God is humble and therefore his people are humble. Actually, we have a problem with God's humility. We don't like it. Let me explain what I mean. Oftentimes, we're struggling with atheism or talking with someone who's an unbeliever. What we wish is that God would just rip the top off of the skies and yell down to the world, I'm here! So this guy back up and move on, right? Like, come on God, if you exist, make it obvious. And he won't, he's quiet. He's humble. And his people are quiet and humble. The source of this kind of wisdom is from above. It's kind of like the wind, he says. Wisdom is like the wind. You can't see the wind, but you can see what it's doing. and you can see what wisdom does. And I'm gonna go through this list a little bit slowly, kind of meditatively, but it's not, this is, okay, this is not to beat you up. I just, and I gotta say that for some of you, you have incredibly tender consciences, and anything I say up here, you're gonna say, no, he was talking to me. I'm like, I'm not, you're great, you're fine. One of the most humble people in the sanctuary came up to me after the sermon, first service, and was like, you're just, I'm just so sorry, it was so painful. That's not what I meant. That's not what I meant. You're doing fine. So this is not a punishment. What this is is a barometer. Just don't ask yourself if you're perfect on these things. Ask yourself, are you moving in the right direction? Are you moving in the right direction? The first thing he says about wisdom is that it's pure. It's not seeking out things to defile it. It's not meditating on things that defile it. It is pure and sees the law of God and knows that God's law is there for its good. The law of God is not a barbed wire fence designed to keep us out of an amusement park. But God's law is a guardrail to keep you from destruction and defiling yourself. Are you moving towards purity or are you moving towards defilement? Is all your entertainment and the things that you meditate on, are they making you holier and cleaner and more like God or more like the world? Wisdom is peaceable. It doesn't spoil for a fight. It understands that God's righteous purposes aren't accomplished by man's anger. It's peaceable. It's gentle. A person who is wise is the kind of person that you can come to and admit you did something wrong. It's the kind of person that a child can come to with a failing grade and without the fear of being yelled at. Are you becoming more gentle? It's open to reason. I love that phrase. It's open to reason. You know what I love about that phrase? It's kind of gentle. Are you teachable? Are you teachable? The way I understand teachability really is from a comedian that I listen to. And he puts himself in this imaginary scenario. He says, if I saw someone coming down the street that I thought was Adolf Hitler, would I kill him? And he says, no, because I am often wrong. Well, you know, when he said it is funny, but you have to listen to the whole thing. Do you believe that about yourself? Do you just kind of carry that in your pocket as a necessary bullet that's aimed at yourself? I'm often wrong. Maybe I'm wrong about this. I often am. Are you teachable? Are you willing to listen to what other people have to say? Are you full of mercy and good fruits? Now, this is the toughest one, because the most merciful people in here are not going to believe they're full of mercy. They're going to just think about all the times they did not show mercy. That's kind of how the Lord does it. But there are some incredibly merciful people in here. I just want to assure you, if you need me to tell you who you are, come and ask. Wouldn't it be awful if you came and I just said no? I'm trying to be merciful, so I won't do that. And finally, sincere. Somebody who is wise, has the wisdom from above, is sincere. What does that mean? Sincerity means you are what you pretend to be. You are what you show people to be. There's nothing fake about it. It's actually a great word. The word in Latin means without wax. And it was taken from these statues that ancient sculptors would do. And they would make these statues out of marble, but they wouldn't be perfect. And so they would take wax, and they'd fill in all the gaps to make them perfect and smooth and beautiful. And then they would have parties to unveil the statues. And they would bring these statues out into the garden. And in the sun, the wax would melt. You'd see all the flaws. Sincere just means you're without wax. You're not trying to cover your flaws. You are who you pretend to be. That's what wisdom looks like. It doesn't push ourselves up. It's honest and true about ourselves so that we can receive with open hands God's grace. And its results are that righteousness and peace. Everything is right. We're all dancing to the same tune now. And there's peace. There's wholeness. There's shalom. There's fullness. There's contentment. But when you see peace in the world, peace in the Bible, don't think cessation of hostility. Think the final scene of a Christmas story when they're all eating the duck in the Chinese restaurant. Remember that scene? And he says, all was right with the world. that's peace when everything's right your presence is making things right now don't we want like we'd rather be that like I'm I don't think I'm the only one who says I would rather be this than evil and demonic so how James great I'm ready tell me how and a frustrating thing is this text doesn't it doesn't say and this is what you have to do to become humble because If it did, then we would all be really proud of how humble we are. You see the problem? But there is a solution, and I snuck up on you and I put it in the confession of sin. So look on the other page of your bulletin and just remember this. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. It's not a how, but it's a who. Humility comes from meeting God himself and seeing ourselves in front of him. It comes from drawing near to him. And when we draw near to him, it's terrible because you feel his greatness and you feel his holiness and you feel how far short you are of him and you can't help but humble yourself before him. And because he is so loving, because He's so tremendously gracious. He lifts you up. And we begin to live a life of submitting to Him, of trusting Him. How do we trust Him? We remember that Jesus, on the night that He was betrayed, submitted. He trusted the Father. He prayed three times, Lord, I don't want to do this. Don't make me do this. But he ended every prayer saying, but your will be done. What you desire is best. And out of that, God brought the salvation of the world and brought us into relationship with him and we can believe. If we believe that, if we rehearse that to ourselves over and over, we can begin to trust Him. And we can quit crying every time we don't get what we want and start being thankful that He gives us what's best for us because He knows us and He loves us. It's submission. Wisdom is submission. It's submission. My favorite illustration of submission, this is my final point, it comes from this. Several years ago we were interviewing an elder and his wife and kind of the last stage before we allowed him to be on the slate to be elected. And, you know, I ask all the questions we always ask about the church and how you serve it and what kind of how you're doing. And then we're kind of at the end. And so it wasn't really question time anymore. It's really kind of time for encouragement. And I looked at her. I said, you know, I want you to know something. I really admire you because I think you are a model of submission. She laughed. And I said, no, let me explain why I say that. I admire your submission because I know it doesn't come natural to you. Like some people just have a lack of confidence. And so submission is kind of a safety belt, right? Like, well, I'm going to trust you. And if it's your fault, then, but not you, you're, you're filled with confidence and you have great confidence in your opinion, but you don't always give it. And she said this, it was beautiful, she said, you know, I feel sorry for people who refuse to submit because I don't think they know what it means to be loved. She said, my husband just loves me so much. That's what enables me to submit. If you find yourself throwing a tantrum right now about a job or a grade or a relationship or, I don't know, your complexion, if you find yourself throwing a tantrum right now, I would encourage you that nothing touches you that doesn't pass through the nail-scarred hands of your Lord. And you can trust Him. You can trust Him. Please pray with me. Father, would you convince us of how much you love us so that we would begin to trust you so that we would stop kicking and screaming to get what we want all the time. Father, we're not wise people. We're just lured away by the world and its trappings. And we want the respect of the world. We want the admiration of the world. We want to look back and say we were successful. Father, I pray we would just give up trying to eat Styrofoam. and that we would be much more pleased with hearing that we are loved by you. Would you put that song into our hearts? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.