Who is the wisest person you know? Is wisdom based on intelligence and volume of knowledge? Or is wisdom based on emotional maturity? Or perhaps wisdom is about self-awareness. I mean, we’re all insecure right, but we might not all be self-aware? James asks the question, ‘Who is wise among you?’ He then shares what true, godly wisdom looks like. It is curious, but James connects wisdom with knowing God (Proverbs 1:7) and how we speak to people around us (James 3:17-18). Our language matters! Wisdom is about choosing to speak the right way, perhaps with the right tone, certainly with the right motive and it should always lead to peace building.
Good morning everyone um our reading this morning is James chapter 3 and um we’re going to share that with you now the first section of that is entitled taming the tongue not many of you should become teachers my brothers and sisters for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater
Strictness for all of us does make many mistakes anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect able to keep the whole body in check with a bridal if we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us we guide their whole bodies or look at ships though they are
So large that it takes strong winds to drive them yet they are Guided by a very small Rudder wherever the will will of the pilot directs so also the tongue is a small member yet it boasts of great exploits how great a forest is set Ablaze by a small
Fire and the tongue is a fire the tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity it stains the whole body sets on fire the cycle of Nature and is itself set on fire by hell for every species of Beast and bird of reptile and sea creature Can Be Tamed
And has been tamed by the human species but no one can tame the tongue a Restless evil full of deadly poison with it we bless the Lord and father and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God from the same mouth come blessing and cursing
My brothers and sisters this ought not to be so does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water can a fig tree my brothers and sisters yield olives or a grape vine figs no more can salt water yield fresh James now goes on to speak about
Two kinds of wisdom who is wise and understanding among you show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom but if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not be boastful and false to the truth such wisdom does not come down
From above but is Earthly unspiritual devilish for where there is envy and selfish ambition there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind but the wisdom from above is first pure then Peaceable gentle willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without a trace of partiality or
Hypocrisy and the Harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace amen thank you uh Moran Stewart for reading God’s word to us this morning and um hopefully you’ll appreciate the fact I haven’t mentioned the rugby either but uh I have just done that now
And we move swiftly on we don’t linger with that at all um we are in the heart of the letter that James writes to the scattered churches that are being persecuted and this is the heart of the letter there are four chapters and we’re beginning now in chapter three we’ve
Gone through chapters one and two and everybody can remember exactly what was said in all of those amazing talks in chapters one and two should we do a quiz no I thought not let’s not let’s not even go there but uh those first two chapters um were all about leading us in
One sense to think about not showing favoritism or um acting out our faith and we learned about James being the brother of Jesus and all that meant about sibling inter relationships but here we’re now exploring something about wisdom and um this isn’t a particularly attractive picture I’m sure this lady
Would have liked a different picture no doubt than sticking her tongue out I I’ve told you once or twice about moments when I’ve been to the hairdresses and the embarrassing situations I have sometimes there well last week I went to my dentist who loves going to the
Dentist do you really you like going to the dentist that’s great tell me more that’s wonderful Jenny lovely um but you know the dentist says put your tongue to the left and put it to the right and put it up and put it down and and then my
Dentist loves to talk uh I can’t say a thing um but uh but but the tongue that’s what we’re going to speak about this morning uh can you touch your nose with your tongue really wow that’s fantastic no one wants to see that thank you but but we’re talking about wisdom and
We’re talking about language we’re talking about communication we’re talking about the tongue who is the wisest person you’ve ever thought of who’s existed in the world and you can’t say Jesus any names that come to mindon Solomon good we’re going biblical nice Helen I wouldn’t expect anything
Less uh so we’re going King Solomon the wisest person that Helen thinks has ever existed in the world any want a trump King Solomon my n you’re Paul your nan I want to know your nan if she can wipe the floor of King Solomon in wisdom terms she’s someone good to
Know there are many people that we could think of in the world who might be considered to be wise and we could have a long list of people both biblical and people of history in terms of politics or in terms of world religions or in terms of Nobel peace prizes or
Scientists and mathematicians there are so many people we would consider to be wise but James asks in this chapter in James 3:3 who is wise among you so this question gets harder who is the wisest person at Shirley Baptist Church and I really want an answer here
No I don’t want an answer I do not want an answer yeah are so true yes you’re my lovely wife yeah it took someone else to tell you though yeah it took someone else to tell me but yes thank you Stuart answer correct Hannah um who is the wisest person in this
Church that’s the question that that James is asking Church communi scattered around who are facing persecution who is wise among you it’s not the kind of question that we explore very often for those of you in life groups which are groups of people that meet in the week and study
The Bible maybe discuss together who is the wisest person in your life group be interesting to know how you categorize wisdom how do we categorize wisdom more knowled know someone who’s written a book how do we categorize wisdom someone who’s good at numbers someone who’s good at words in intellect
Matters but these days there is a growing awareness of intelligence not being based on necessarily IQ but but EQ everyone know what I mean by EQ emotional intelligence the ability to understand and relate and connect to people around you to pick up the vibe the atmosphere to see in someone else’s face
Sadness and Sorrow or Joy or wonder to look at someone and I mean look at someone and know exactly what they’re going through to pick up the vibe do we think about wisdom in terms of intellect the mind or the heart perhaps that emotional connection and intelligence to people what is wisdom
Anyway well I was looking on uh a couple of websites to try and work out the attributes of what wise people and um and there’s a mixture between Theology and psychology and sociology with these five attributes and the first one and you’ll be able to hopefully be
Self-aware enough to see if you have one two five or dare I say it none of these attributes here we go people who who are wise are considered to be self Regulators they regulate emotions to think clearly they can actually take out the emotion and make decisions born on
Pragmatic aspects it’s not about people it’s about solving a problem and I can cut through the emotion and make a decision based on common sense who’s got common sense in the church hand up if you think you’ve got common sense next week I’m teaching on humility but anyway good good one well
Done you know who you are the other ones they’re virtuous people these are the people for whom relationships matter it’s not that I’m going to get something done to achieve something successful but I’m going to take people with me and they will say at the end we did
It uh the this sort of person who’s wise are virtuous not in the fact that they are reliable and dependable alone but they go at a pace that other people can go at too they are considerate of people’s feelings the third is that um wise people recognize patterns context is
Crucial for new things to emerge so they can assess the scene understand the history explore some of the issues the personalities that have fallen out or uh the history of a a particular organization and Society or or dare I say even church and work out some of the
Context and then look for new things that emerge out of that nothing stays the same they move people forward another one is that they navigate environments well they adapt and shape or move to a new place so an environment you encounter you can actually enter into it adapt to it shape
It or move to a new place and the last I call like this one this one is probably the one that we understand the most we can make the best of a bad situation Christ of my own heart whatever before how to face deep disappointment and psychologists and
Some theologians got together and they thought these are the five attributes to be people that uh think clearly but also people that are people minded uh they recognize patterns contexts they navigate environments but they make the best of a bad situation is that what wisdom is about it’s not a bad top
Five do you think you have any of those or none of them and if you have some but maybe not others or you think of someone next to you maybe who’s got all five wow amazing I think this doesn’t really matter what matters is this because the scriptures talk actually
About the way in which we speak Isaiah 65 Isaiah the prophet is like this person this prophet he said I’m a man of unclean lips he’s recognizing that he hasn’t got it sorted he doesn’t speak well speaks in a way that’s pretty offensive at times Matthew 1518 is all about the
Things that come out of a person mouth displays what’s going on in their heart or Romans 3:13 their throats are open like Graves their tongues practice deceit this is quite graphic and Paul is writing to the church at Roman saying guys the way which you speak it’s just
Not on Ephesians 4:29 do not let any un wholesome talk come out of your mouths I think we’re getting the point here Colossians 4:6 let your conversation always be full of Grace and one Peter 2 let no deceit was found in his mouth wisdom from a Biblical perspective does two
Things wisdom is about cherishing a passionate heart for God the priority of life but wi wisdom is also about how that passionate priority of a relationship with God radiates and connects with with the way we speak to one another that’s biblical wisdom you don’t have to be a psychologist to get
This it’s about passion for God prioritizing a love for God knowing god and being known by God enjoying God’s presence being on an adventure with God and then speaking well to other people this is my guardian angel when they were assigned to me my guardian angel probably had his head in
His hands thinking oh no I’ve got that one I don’t know how your guardian angel looks at you woohoo yeah great easy life for me my guardian angel looked at me and Proby when I’ve got a lot of work to do James 3:1 says not many of you should presume to be
Teachers and ever since my guardian angels had a tough job but then James in verse two goes on to say actually it’s not only teachers it’s a high calling and the way in which you speak the word of God matters and so therefore you need to take it
Seriously it matters what you say every word you say matters to people on a Sunday every word you say in conversation and I don’t get it right I get it wrong again again again which is why I need a guardian angel that is patient and by my side and lifting me up
When I go back home after Sunday and go I just didn’t say that well this is a picture of um some Fs in Norway and um the story is of a boat that goes along the field and you see these huge mountains either side of this
Boat and in the winter it’s covered with snow and The Story Goes that this tour group were on there and the guide said this as they were shivering and freezing but Beauty was all around with the white capped fields and well the mountains around the water and he said you know
What you know what an avalanche is caused by it’s caused when someone speaks when someone speaks the Echo goes out and it can actually affect the very nature of snow and it comes down and creates an avalanche James is saying the way in which we speak can sometimes create an
Avalanche in the world around us the way in which we speak has a massive effect on relationships the way in which we speak has a massive effect on the way in which we treat others the tongue has the power to direct Our Lives verse 3 and 4 James
Speaks about this and he speaks about the horse having such power and yet it’s the bit in its mouth and anyone ridden a horse before I have and I fell off a horse they are dangerous beasts horses Can’t Be Tamed very easily but they can with a bit in its mouth and
James says the tongue needs to be tamed a bit like the horse needs to be tamed the way in which we speak reflects our very heart life to God then he uses another example and he talks about ships and how they are powered by just that small Rudder I
Don’t know whether you remember the story of the SE Canal when a tip Shir a ship turned and it caused all of the shipping that went through the SE Canal to be stopped and our food went up in price as a result because the ship turned round and
The the tongue is like the the rudder small though it may be it actually affects and directs so much the tongue also has the power to destroy lives around us there was once in a church that I I was part of and and led in Albania and it wasn’t so Grand as SBC
I mean we had about 50 people in a room bigger well just about the same size as what’s that room next door G thank you can we change numbers to names no I won’t even go there G6 about the size of G6 50 people in there in Albania and we had an electrical
Fire which is rather ironic because we had hardly any electricity in Albania but we had this spark and then suddenly this fire came it was massive and we all had to rush out and the tongue can be like that when we use language which is
Not right it can be like that spark that lend itself into a fire it has the ability to destroy that’s what James says it’s difficult to contain it’s so difficult I don’t know if anyone I think CLA rob you were in roads last year or going to roads last
Year but ended up going to Turkey but roads last year had had huge fires from a spark it’s bit like the tongue we speak one word and it can set a whole fire of flame but we also with our mouths with our tongues we can display the unpredictable Peter said Lord Jesus I’ll
Will never deny you and then of course he denied him three times and James says to the church look with the tongue we can both with praise God with passion this morning it was wonderful the worship that was led this morning but we can worship on a Sunday morning and then we can
Curse in the week we can gossip we can bad mouth we can speak about not to we can criticize when someone is feeling that they can’t sing the song about being overwhelmed because they are overwhelmed and yet our word of criticism crushes them Praise You Lord and then I speak badly about someone
Else James uses wonderful poetic language of fig trees and grapefruit and you know this is good Mediterranean stuff and then we get into the water and salt water they just can’t mix what James is saying is that wisdom true wisdom is when you live a love a
Relationship of love with God and how that manifests with the way you speak about those around you matters what James is talking about here is practicing practicing ing the way of Jesus some of us in the church are reading a book by John Mark coma called practicing the way and the reason I’m
Absolutely loving this book is because it’s really simple it’s really simple you’ll go oh yeah yeah I know that oh yeah I know that yeah but actually he then just comes in with a phrase or a perspective it’s like oh my goodness thank you for the guardian angel I’ve got because I
Realize I do I do fall foul of speak in a way that’s not God honoring nor people honoring at times but what he says John Mark comr in this book be with Jesus be like Jesus do as Jesus did he says this at the very heart
Of the book and about halfway through he says it it’s such a joy when you are in a community of God’s people that are loving why because they’re patient with mistakes they don’t speak badly about you when you get it wrong they don’t think the worst of you when you forget something thing
Love matters when there’s disagreement the language of kindness and christlikeness matters when there is vulnerability and fragile relationships all around and James says this is wisdom to be peace loving and peace building so if you’ve heard nothing I’ve said this morning Stamp Out gossip shouldn’t have done that on my
Left leg my knee’s dodgy stamp it out I’m not mucking about I don’t know whether it’s going on or not which is why I can say this I don’t know what’s said behind my back and you don’t know what’s said behind your back but let us gently move to a place of love
Love is wisdom acted out and if I’m going to get really contemporary most of us don’t do it with our tongue and our language we write a text to someone else and not that person can you believe what they did or we WhatsApp or we Facebook
Message or we email because the irony is we hide behind a screen and what James is doing is he’s fleshing it out and saying to a community that are persecuted from outside and persecuted from within the world is against the church so much don’t be against yourselves that’s what he’s
Saying show love show Grace speak well practice peace this is your spiritual act of worship and that’s wisdom amen kind of feel like they need to say sorry so I’m going to say sorry if that came across too harsh please know my heart is for you and for
Us I think we just need to show a better way because Jesus Reigns so let’s be people of peace that love and build up let’s not destroy so let’s take a moment to be still can a fig tree bear olives can a grape vine bear figs neither can salt water produce fresh
Water loving God help us to be wise help us to love you to know you to be known by you to be passionate about your name to to cherish our relationship with you and in so doing discover wisdom to lean not on our own understanding but to know
That your ways are higher than our ways your thoughts are broader than our thoughts we don’t lean on our own understanding Lord we come into the very Heart of Jesus and say shape us form us mold us make us to be pure and peaceloving to be considerate and submissive to be
Sincere and to be peacemaking in Jesus name amen amen