Take your Bibles to James chapter three, if you will, James chapter three. We are so glad to have each one of you who could be here tonight. These are unusual times throughout this year to say the least, even on Sunday morning, we've got about half of our regular crowd and who knows how long it will be before we get everybody together as a church. As we've done, we've not had a Iwanas for a long time. Usually we have almost this crowd in Iwanas. And we've not had that for a while. Children's ministries, so many different things. Outreaches throughout the week. But this too shall pass. Now I thought that'd be months ago it would have passed, but one of these days it's going to pass. Maybe when we're all in heaven, who knows, right? But one of these days it's gonna get back to normal. whatever that looks like, I guess. James 3, verses 13 through 18. Please open your Bible and find that place, James 3, verse 13. We'll go through the end of the chapter, verse 18. And we're looking at the subject of who is wise in God's eyes. Who is wise in God's eyes? Now, I think any of us that live want to be considered wise, or at least think that we're getting wiser as we get older. I know as I got older, I kept thinking and praying that I would get wiser. As I've told you before, I started pastoring when I was 21 years of age. And so the number one thing on my prayer request for many, many years was wisdom. Lord, I'm young, give me wisdom, please give me wisdom. And before I got 30, my hair started turning gray. So I at least had the look of wisdom. I don't know that I ever got wisdom, but I look so wise, you know, with the white hair, it makes me look wise. But I don't know that I've achieved that, but who doesn't wanna be wise? Who doesn't want to be able to know right from wrong and this from that and what I should do in this case and what I should do in that case? And especially as it involves teaching others. You know, when you become a parent, I remember so well holding our first child in my arms and realizing for the first time the weight of being responsible for that child, however they turn out. For the next 18 years, it's probably up to me. And honestly, it was like, whoa, I had to be wise. Boy, it sure helps your prayer life when you realize your decisions are affecting somebody else. A world where wisdom is gauged and measured by so many different categories. The world says it this way. The stars of our society say it this way. Politicians might say it this way, hey, we're not going there. That was last week, Brother Hoxie did that, okay. And so we don't, what is wise? Well, as a believer, as someone who's placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that Jesus Christ alone is the source of wisdom, amen? In him dwelleth all the wisdom. of Christ is our source. We know the word of God is our authority. And yet as Christians, sometimes we're so good at asking everybody except going to the source. Well, tonight we're looking at what God says is wise and who God says is wise. And God is showing a contrast in this passage of scripture. He's gonna show us the difference between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. Worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. And he's gonna say it in such a way that we're gonna easily be able to tell one from the other. Remember the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And dividing asunder the thoughts of the heart And as a discerner between the soul and the spirit, God's word has a way of clearly making it what's called a demarcation. We know this is right, this is wrong. This is up, this is down. And so when we go to the word of God, the spirit of God tells us in black and white letters, we don't have to read between the lines, we can just read what God's word says. And so with that in mind, let's start at verse 13 and let's read down through verse 18. And if you will just follow along as I read. Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the truth. This wisdom descended not from above, but is earthly, central, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and then we'll get right into the word of God. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time we have to assemble together. I pray that you'll speak to our hearts by your spirit and through your word. Lord, I pray that it'll be far more than just the words of a man that's heard, but let it be that still small voice. You, our God, speaking to every single heart. Lord Jesus, we love you tonight. And that's why we've assembled together. And we've assembled not just because we love each other, but we really do, Lord, we really do. But we've assembled together because we really love you. And we want you to speak to our lives. And Lord, we confess we need your wisdom. We are so bombarded in this world with so many things that others say is right, But Heavenly Father, we wanna listen to your voice tonight, and we wanna look at your word, and let it be the authority in every one of our hearts. And I pray this, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. I actually have quite a bit to say and a little bit of time to say it in. So I hope you'll follow along. I might preach a little faster than I normally would do. I don't know why I started working on this sermon and then my notes got longer and longer and I had it all written out. And then I thought I'd type it out. And I wanna say I've never had a sermon six pages long. Never. So this is our new year's pray the new year in. Is this December 31st we're praying the new year in or something? I don't know. It may look like that. In verse 13, we find what true wisdom is. Notice what it says. Who is a wise man and dude with knowledge among you? It asks a question. And it's interesting there when it says, who is a wise man, literally in Greek, that idea of wise man is talking about a teacher. Who is a teacher among you? A.T. Robertson in his book, Word Pictures in the New Testament, he was a great teacher of Greek for many, many years. I believe in Dallas Theological Center, Seminary and God used him in a great way He wrote many many books about the Greek language and he said this is specifically talking about who is a wise teacher now Let me say all of us have the potential of being that every parent teaching the Word of God to their children You're a teacher but it's specifically talking about teaching spiritual truth not a teaching math, teaching history, teaching. But who is a wise teacher teaching spiritual truth? That's what he's saying. Keep in mind, James is writing to the tribes of Israel that have been scattered about. And keep in mind, many of them have been caught up in Judaism, just like the author of Hebrews is addressing the Jews in Palestine, trying to address that. Here, he's trying to say, hey, listen, Jews, you call yourselves a teacher of truth. you have a hold on God's truth. And if that's true, let's start comparing it with this. Does it look like this or does it look like that? And he's letting them know the difference between false wisdom and true wisdom, worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. So he says, who is a wise man? By teacher, it includes anyone that teaches the Word of God, a parent teaching their children, a dad teaching his son spiritual truths, a Bible teacher, a minister, could be a Christian school teacher, but you're teaching a spiritual truth, not just math, English, all the other subjects you're supposed to teach. But anytime you're teaching some spiritual truth, Sunday school teacher, you are a teacher. But the question is, are you a wise one? Or more specifically, do you want to be? Do we want to be a wise teacher? Well, I'm just guessing the answer is yes. I don't wanna lead my kids astray. I don't wanna lead my grandkids astray. I don't wanna lead a church astray or a Sunday school class or teenagers astray. I believe the answer is yes. Yes, we wanna be wise teachers. I mean, even if you're working in the nursery, you're trying to tell the babies, you know, Jesus loves you. You wanna be a wise teacher. I don't know if they understand anything you're saying, but you start out young and you keep working all their life. Who wants to be a wise teacher? They pride it themselves, but the problem was they didn't have the wisdom that came from God. They had the wisdom that came from their own studies. And whenever we do that, we're getting in trouble. Then he says, whoever claims to be wise, let him show. Now it's interesting in Greek, that's one word, let him show, it's one word. And it's very emphatic, it's very strong. In other words, if you claim to be a wise teacher, then this is what your life will show. Wow. So he's sort of hitting them head on. and he's gonna show them, this is what your life will be. If you wanna have God's wisdom, it's gonna look like this. You're gonna have the world's wisdom, well, it's gonna look like that. You're gonna have heavenly wisdom, the wisdom from above, it's gonna look like this. And then he's gonna describe it in eight different ways. He's gonna show us tonight what God's wisdom looks like. He says, first of all, a good conversation. In fact, when he says, this is what it's gonna look like, he gives us two traits. He says, first of all, a good conversation. his works, a good conversation showing his works. Let me say the word conversation again is the old English word. It means lifestyle. It means manner of living. It's not talking about what you're talking about. It's what you're living. You see, God looks at wisdom by not what you spout with your mouth, but what you live with your life. Anyone ever had a teacher that could talk it good, but couldn't walk it very well? Not anything you're interested in learning. You see, God's wisdom is not so much looking at what we know, but what we live of what we know. Every child can live what they know. Every teenager, you say, well, I don't know it all. No, but you can live what you know. In fact, as an adult, it becomes increasingly, increasingly harder because we know, we know, we know, we know, we know. And if we're not careful, we know, we know, we know, but our life doesn't grow with what we know. We just sort of stay where we are. That's not God's plan. God's plan is to know and grow and know and grow and know. Now, we never live exactly to what we know. Mark the perfect man, there is no such thing. None of us are so good here that we learn something and we put it true. You never went to church and the preacher said, well, you know, the Bible says we ought to tithe. Oh, I've been looking to give. How long did it take you before that one sunk in? Oh, you ought to be faithful at church. Well, I went last month, what do you expect? Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, so whenever we assemble. Hmm. See, sometimes what we know is easy to learn, but how to grow is not so easy. Living what we know, that's the real secret of the Christian life. Not that we ever achieve it, but we're always striving after what we know. You can grow faster in knowledge than you grow in experience. Let him show. And the first thing is a godly conversation. A Bible teacher must live what he teaches and preaches. He must encourage or speak words of morality, purity, righteousness, justice, help, encouragement, strength, edification, ministry, challenge, salvation, deliverance, hope, and life. And he has to live what he preaches or teaches. If any spiritual teacher is honest, they'll say, this is what I try to do with my life. He never says, I do it great, I do it perfectly, you ought to follow my example. Hey, listen, any preacher or teacher that knows the word of God knows that Jesus is the only example worth following all the time, amen? He's the only one. So we point to Jesus. Paul even said it this way, follow me as I follow Christ. There were times he might not have, don't follow that, follow me as I. And the Bible says to obey them had rule over you. And then it says, whose faith follow. Don't follow his driving practices. He might break the law a little bit. I just a little bit to the police officers in here, just a little bit, but you know. He just goes the flow of traffic and maybe a mile or two more, but the flow of traffic's above the speed limit. There is no man, there is no woman that you follow perfectly. Only Jesus Christ do we follow perfectly. Only Jesus Christ. But at least you have to be a teacher, you have to be a preacher, you have to be someone who shares spiritual truth, who does your best to follow biblical truth. And when you blow it, you're honest enough to say it. As I raised my children, some of the most humbling times is when I had to go to them and say, you know what? Dad was wrong. I felt like I had it all together, but I didn't have all the facts. And you know what? I was wrong. Will you forgive me? Parents never think your children think less of you for doing that. They think more of you for being real. They think you're phony if you think you're always right, because even they have eyes enough to see you're not always right. And that's true of any spiritual leader. I told our staff, and I've told them so many times in the last many years, the more transparent you are, the more people want to follow you. I've heard preachers before talk about their prayer life and it'd be like him and Jesus are like this all the time. I've been to marriage conference and a person teach that him and his wife are just like that all the time. And they were saying, and I'm thinking, did he marry a woman? I'm lucky if we're on the same plane. I mean, what do you mean? We always agree. We always see eye to eye. You're crazy. Liar, liar, pants on fire. That's not true. Just be real. Just be honest. They asked me to do a marriage seminar, Miss Vicki and I, at First Baptist Church of Hammond, and I thought, Lordy, mercy, why they, and we did it, and said, y'all do this all the time? Yeah, 22 years ago, someone asked us to, and this is our second. And so, I spoke on how to survive marriage. And say, by the way, Miss Vicki and I are still working on it, you know, how to survive marriage. I had staff families come to me and say, that was so good. I think we have hope. I think we're gonna make it. Good. They said, we always went away discouraged when people talked about how they see eye to eye and they got it all together, but we don't. I said, we don't either, but we love each other and we love Jesus and we work at it all the time. And that's what marriage is. working at it all the time. A good conversation, a wise teacher knows he cannot teach one thing and live another. And so when you fail, be big enough to admit it. When you're wrong, be humble enough to say, I blew it. I think in two emails this afternoon, I had to say, it's my fault. It's my fault. Well, I said, my bad. Same thing, I believe, I hope, I don't, I think. Don't ever think you get so spiritual you can't be wrong. And so a wise teacher, first of all, he has a conversation of behavior that's godly, that's sincere, that's real. But second trait here is meekness and wisdom. Now, Colby's working up there. I have three different verses, but I don't have time to read all those. So we'll skip to mercy of wisdom. That's the second trait, mercy. Do you have mercy? Or does it all have to be your way? Mercy for someone who doesn't see your way. Mercy for someone who doesn't have your experience. Mercy for someone who hasn't lived long enough or hasn't experienced enough or maybe doesn't have the benefit of all your experiences and the teaching and the knowledge you have. If we are a wise teacher, let us show forth mercy. How patient are you with your students? How patient are you with your Sunday school class? How patient are you with your own children? You know, I raised up my children here. I never, ever said, never, ever said, you're the pastor's kids, you gotta act like the pastor's kids. I never did that. In fact, my kids went to a youth conference one time and they say, we wanna have a meeting with all the PKs. They thought that was strange. And then after the break, someone said, well, you're supposed to go to the PKs meetings. And they said, well, what's that mean? Preacher's kids. What do you mean? Well, is your father a pastor? Yeah, well, you're a PK. They'd never heard that term before. And they said, dad, we went into a meeting and all those kids were complaining about their dads being in ministry. And we thought, that's the strangest thing. First of all, I never thought that they should be anything other than kids. By the way, if you see staff kids running through the hall, just remember all kids run through a hall. That's just part of being a kid. Now, don't bother saying, hey, don't run through the hall, but don't expect them because they're five years old and their parents are some this or some that. Don't expect them to be perfect. You're not perfect and you're over five. I'm not perfect. So the thing is, have mercy, show mercy. Mercy is a humble state of mind, someone who loves people and loves peace. He desires to be a friend to all and a help to as much as possible. The Bible tells us that mercy has strong self-control. He controls his spirit and mind. Mercy forgives and forgets, and lives for others because of what Christ has done for him. Well, they hurt me. You hurt Christ, didn't you? Didn't your sins nail him to the cross? Yeah. Shouldn't you have the same mercy for other people that Christ has for you? You know, it's so easy to be called Christian. It's awful hard to live up to the name, but it's what God calls us to do, merciful. Galatians chapter six, verse one, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, Is there any man who's not been at one time or the other? Ye, which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Ephesians chapter four, verses one through three says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech ye that you walk worthy of the vocation wherein ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace. I said twice today in different meetings. You know, the Bible says, remember them who labor among you. And it says, remember them. It's talking about the pastor in particular. It says, remember. And what it means is think of him, think of him. He's your pastor, think of him. And then it says, and be at peace among yourselves. You wanna think of me? You don't need to buy me a car. You wanna think of me? You don't have to give me a gift. You wanna think of me? I don't need a Starbucks card or a card to this restaurant, that restaurant. If you'll just get along with your fellow Christian, that's the best gift I could ever have. Because that helps a pastor see ministry going on. Some pastors are so busy putting out this fire, putting out this fire, putting out this fire, putting out this fire, and then he has to go around the roses, putting out fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire. He doesn't have time for ministry. Now, I don't have that at this church, but that is one of my chief jobs, is trying to put out little fires and getting everybody on the same page. Because folks, if we're together, There's no end to what we can do for the cause of Christ. Man, if we're working together, if we get that unity, if we're all kicking on all cylinders, if we're all pulling in the same direction, there is nothing we cannot accomplish for God. But whenever you have a church that's fussing, by the way, in all these 36 years, we've never lived that way as a church, never. Someone who wanted to cause conflict, the truth is they didn't attend very long, because they couldn't get an audience. We're going as a church in the same direction for the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus chapter three, verse two says, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing mercy unto all men. Showing mercy. And then he goes into false wisdom. He's gonna tell us that in verse 14. But if you have bitter envy and in strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. He's gonna say, first of all, false wisdom is full of envy. Bitter envy, people who are teachers in some regard, but they're envious and jealous about others. Church position, preaching, teaching, ability, leadership, recognition, charisma, attention, associate friend. I wish I had that. I should have that position. I should have that place. I should be the one preaching. I should be the one teaching. I should have that Sunday school class. Envy. Remember this week we were talking about the subjects of all the 23 different things that go wrong when people turn from God, and one of them was envy. And here, envy is like covetousness, except it wants to hurt the one that has something you want. It's not just saying, I want what they have. It's, I hope they get hurt. I hope they get damaged. I hope that gets taken from them. It is ill will toward the person who has what you do not have. How could any Christian have that? There's no way, it's not of God. We don't want people to be hurt, we want people to be helped. When I hear someone has a bigger church or a greater work, I say, praise God. I'm just as happy for the person who runs thousands as the person I meet who runs 30. I think their jobs are just as important. They're servants of God. When I go to meetings, I get to shake hands with people who have big churches and growing churches and different things. And I praise God for that. But I also go out on my way to find someone who has very few people. And I do my best to tell them how important they are in God's eyes. Every little town in the middle of nowhere needs somebody preaching. They need somebody who loves them. Somebody who cares. Bitter envy and no teacher or preacher should ever envy another's ability or ministry at church. Let me ask you this. Are you good with what God has given you? Are you good with what God has given you? Or do you say, I should be better, I should be bigger, I should have a bigger business, I should have a bigger home, I should have a nicer car, I should have a nicer family, I should have... The truth is what we should have is hell for eternity. Because that's what we deserve. but because of the grace of God, we get heaven. The Bible says we ought to be content with such things as we have. Whatever you have, it's what God gave you. I'm not saying don't work hard. I'm not saying don't try to achieve, but don't let envy be a part of that. False wisdom has envy in it. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4. Charity suffereth long in his kind, charity envieth not. Charity vaunted, not itself is not puffed up. Proverbs 3, 31. Envy thou not the oppressor and choose none of his ways. Proverbs 23 verse 17, let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. So envy, that's part of false wisdom. Secondly, strife. Now strife is friction, friction, strife, rubbing together. Let me say, if you do nothing, be nothing, achieve nothing, you won't have much strife. but as sure as you try to do something in life, sure as you try to go somewhere with your family, push your family in one direction or push your ministry in one, you're gonna have friction and you're gonna have strife. And the goal of a good teacher is to reduce strife, reduce friction, but a false teacher has strife. Strife literally means, causing contention, problems. Proverbs 16 verse seven says, when a man's ways please the Lord, he make it even his enemies to be at peace with him. You see, when you try to push God's work forward your way, you get strife. When you try to push God's work forward his way, God has a way of making even your enemies be at peace with you when you try to do it his way. The Bible says he was kind to the unthankful. Jesus is just kind. And that's a wonderful trait for any Christian to have is kindness. Just be kind to each other. Doing things man's way is a desire to be put forward, to be known as wise and knowledgeable, to be seen as the teacher, the preacher, the leader. Earlier this week, Ms. Vestal was coming in to the office and she was talking about, she said, do you get this podcast? I said, I don't get this podcast. And she was telling me what a great preacher this guy is on the podcast. And she talked for five minutes about what a great preacher. You know, he is. What's wrong with acknowledging people are great preachers? Why do we feel threatened? Because there's some teacher smarter than you. There's someone who's better than you. There's someone who's more gifted than you. Here's what I came to realize about 25 years ago. I'm one man doing the best I know for the cause of Christ. and that's all you are, that's all I am, that's all God's children are. Some are more gifted, some are more talented, some are more this, some more that, but you are just one person doing your very best for the cause of Christ that you know how to do. And don't ever feel like you're in competition with any other of God's servants, because you are not. God has a will for their life. God has a will for your life. I'm not in competition. And I can praise God for someone who has a better this or a better that. If someone has a new car and they bring it in the parking lot, I don't say, yeah, sure wish I had a new car. I say, that's beautiful. Wow. I'm so glad God got that for you. I'm so glad you got that. The Bible says we're to rejoice with those who rejoice, right? Also says we're to weep with those who weep, empathy. False wisdom seeks to gather a clique around their position to have people recognize them as the leader. We want pats on the back. We want someone to tell us what a good sermon it was. We want someone last Sunday night My wife and I were doing what we always do. We hold hands and we pray, last thing we do before we go to sleep. And so we're praying and she prayed and I prayed. And then she said, that was a good sermon today. I said, really? Really? You know, about twice a year I get one, I hit on one, you know, and she said, yeah, that was really good. I said, well, thank you. I appreciate that. But you know, I don't ask her every week, how was that? We better learn to be secure in what God's called us to do with no accolades. Years ago, I heard Dr. Jack Heil say, if you preach for an amen, you're going to get upset when you don't get them. I've heard people preach, amen, amen. And I amen more than I ever amen in service because he was asking for it. But I don't want to amen because you ask for it. If I'm going to amen, I'm going to amen. Amen. Mark it down there. The third thing about false wisdom is glory not. False wisdom in teaching arouses the spirit of boasting and self-glory. Listen, if you serve God in any capacity, if you teach a Sunday school class of four-year-old boys, there are gonna be times where you teach that lesson and you're gonna sense God's presence. If it's just four-year-old boys or four-year-old girls or first graders, there's times that you are gonna You're gonna teach that and it's just like God showed up. But when that happens, you better be very careful, give all the glory to God. Because when it says glory not, it means that didn't come from you. Don't you take credit for that. If God uses you, it's just that, God used you. We're a vessel of clay. Whatever's good is what he puts in it. And if anything good comes out, we better give praise and honor to the Lord. And that's exactly what it means. You preach a good sermon, give God the glory. You teach a good lesson, you give God the glory. Preaching a good sermon is not more important than reaching people with God's truth. Being recognized is not more important than building up people. Seeking a position is not more important than ministering to a need. See, if we're not careful, we want the accolades, but not the life change. God didn't make us to teach or preach so that people say, oh, look how good that is. No, but to teach or preach so that somebody's heart gets touched by God's word. That's all that's needed. Some of the most powerful sermons I've heard in my whole life, I remember was one, was preached by a 16 year old boy in our teen group. many, many years ago. Another by a pastor who just never raised his voice, but he just talked. And something happened and just the spirit of God fell on that service. And he was just talking and sharing his heart and what God's laid on him to share. Powerful messages have nothing to do with your powerful delivery. It has everything to do how God engages a man, a woman, and flows through them to speak to others. It's not us, it's always him. The Bible goes on to say, lie not against the truth, not living and teaching the truth, inconsistent with what we teach. He teaches truth, but he does not live it. Now, let me just say, the number one person at Grandview Baptist Church I work on is me. And if you're in ministry, if the number one person you work on is you, It just may be that God could use you to help somebody else. But if you neglect working on you, we won't be fit to help anybody else. Paul said it this way, I keep my body under subjection, lest by any means I should be a castaway, a docomos, disapproved. You know why that happens? People get their eyes off themselves. Paul told Timothy several different times, I forgot the exact phrase, but it's like, keep looking at you, keep your eyes on you, keep yourself what you ought to be. And that's the key as a Christian, we never outgrow that. You might be a Christian for 60 years, you never outgrow that. You can be 70 years a Christian and still be a grouch. You can be 70 years as a Christian and still go home and gripe and complain. Now, something about being mature in Christ means we ought to be more Christ-like, kinder, more mellow as we get older, more sweet as we get older, not more crotchety and grrr. Now, by the way, I don't know anyone and I don't live with anyone like that. Okay, Ms. Vicki, I don't. I do not live with someone like that. When she's gone, our life is boring. The laughter has gone out of the home. Lie not against the truth. Fifthly, this wisdom is earthly, central and devilish. That's a strong word, isn't it? Devilish. That's devilish. Earthly wisdom apart from God's truth is devilish. It centers upon earthly wisdom set apart from the Bible. It's natural and unspiritual. It neglects the spiritual nature of man. It seeks only to fill his mind or stir his emotions. Wrong teaching is demonic. It explains away God's word. It minimizes God's word. It casts doubts upon God's word. It changes God's word. That, my friend, is demonic wisdom, not of God. Now the results of false wisdom. The Bible's gonna tell us that it's manifested by envy and strife. It leads to confusion and every evil work. It divides a family, it divides a church, it divides a class, it divides a work, and it causes weak Christians to turn away from Christ. Listen, weak Christians look at people who've been saved for a long time and they see them fussing and fuming and strife and all of this and they think, I'm just a new believer and they've been saved for 10 years and it hasn't helped them. The Bible tells us to be an example of the believer. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 14, 33, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 2, verses 4 and 5, but as we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time use we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetous God is witness. Now, heavenly wisdom. Heavenly wisdom is now described. And the Bible is gonna tell us in verse 16, no, verse 17, but the wisdom that is from above, and then it's gonna list eight different items of what that type of wisdom is. I don't have time to go through all of it. I just wanted to mention just a few of them. Earthly wisdom is described as first pure. And it's interesting when it says first pure, it's not talking about first in priority, oh no, first in place, but first in preeminence. Pure, God's teaching is first of all pure. It keeps his body pure, keeps his relationships pure, keeps his mind pure. It's first pure. Worldliness and biblical teaching do not go hand in hand. God's truth, I don't mean you have to be like you're Amish or something, but I'm saying there has to be the word of God working in your heart, working in your life. 1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, a pure heart fervently. So first of all, it's pure. Secondly, it's peaceable. Peaceable means to bind together. It means to weave together. It means to take two or three pieces of twine and tie it into one work. And that's what a church is. It's all of us from all different walks of life, all different backgrounds, all different upbringings, all different everything. And yet God works a tapestry and we're all not just all one brown picture. We're all beautifully made by God as he weaves a church together. God is not the author of uniformity. God is the author of unity. He made all of us unique. Every blade of grass is unique, every grain of sand, every grain of salt, every leaf on a tree, every snowflake, every person. God made everything different, but he brings unity in the church. That's the miracle. That is the thing of God. That's God. Man cannot do that. Only God can. You can't even get with your own family on Thanksgiving and have everything gel. But God can. If you have a Christian home and you meet on Thanksgiving, it's amazing how sweet it is. And you still don't see eye to eye on everything. But God has a way of just making it sweet. And that's the way a church is. First, pure. Secondly, peaceable. Thirdly, gentle, forbearance, agreeable, courteous, softness. Heavenly wisdom is lovingly gentle. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. That's 2 Timothy 2.24. Easy to be entreated. That's the fourth thing. That means you're reasonable. It means you're willing to listen to someone who has a different point of view. You're willing to change when you're wrong. The wise teacher listens to the word of God shared and changes when he sees he's wrong. There is none of us that live above correction. None of us. None of us. And we have to be humble enough to receive it when it comes our way. Isaiah 118, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. There we go. Number five, full of mercy, feelings of pity, compassion, kindness to draw people to oneself to help and to care for. You see a need, you work to fill the need. You see it, you try to fill it. Mercy never discriminates. I'm gonna help them, they could help me. You help the rich the same as you help the poor. It's completely colorblind. It's completely blind to any advantage you get. It's only for the purpose of being a blessing to someone else. That's mercy. Full of mercy, the Bible tells us. Very quickly, good fruit. Earthly wisdom reaches out and helps people in need. He feels compassion, then he acts. Number seven, without partiality. Impartial. A spiritual leader has to take God's side and show no favoritism to anyone else but God. Now, keep in mind impartiality is not indifference. Just because you don't take someone's side doesn't mean you're indifferent to their position. And then finally, without hypocrisy. You'll love this, without hypocrisy, it means don't wear a mask. That's what it means. But apparently this wasn't written in times of COVID, was it? True wisdom, heavenly wisdom, false wisdom. Do you wanna be wise? Who is wise in God's eyes? That passage verses 13 through 18, James chapter three tells us about God's wisdom versus earthly wisdom. And now the spirit of God says, you choose. If we're not careful, some of the areas of worldly wisdom we'll find creeping up in our life. Why? Because as Paul said, we're carnal soul under sin. We have a depraved nature. So we've got to constantly be watching for that. And we've got to keep in the Word of God so that we have heavenly wisdom. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, you're so good to us. Thank you for the endurance of these dear people. I trust the Word of God helped us, dear Lord, and ministered to our lives. I thank you, dear Lord, for your Word. Lord, I want to say it's blessed my heart as I studied this. And Lord, with all my heart, I want to be that teacher that pleases you and is a blessing to others. And I know that that's the heart of our people here tonight. But Lord, to whatever degree that there's some changes that need to be in our heart, perhaps very subtle ones, I pray that we'd yield to the Holy Spirit of God. And we'd want your will more than our will. We'd want your way more than our way. And Lord, I trust that's the heart of all of us. And Lord, if there's someone here or someone online that has never trusted Christ as their Savior, how I pray that even tonight they would say a simple prayer and mean it with all their heart and just say, Jesus, I wanna be a Christian. I believe in you and I wanna go to heaven and I want your forgiveness. And Lord, if they just had an open heart, that's all it would take. There's no magic words. if they just opened their heart, they could be a Christian, a believer. And I pray that you'd help them if that's the case. Bless these good people, Lord, thank you for those who've watched online, for those who've been here in person, and have your hand of blessing and protection upon our church, I pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Okay, I wanna just say a few words and then we're