Pastor Jon Burgess
September 22, 2019 - W1938

Wisdom: From Above or Beneath?

Life Worth Living

Pastor Jon Burgess

September 21 & 22, 2019

Aloha, New Hope! Today, we will continue our series, Life Worth Living, and talk about “Wisdom: From Above or Beneath?” There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom: Knowledge is thewhat, and wisdom is the why. Knowledge is information; wisdom is the application.  Knowledge is facts and figures (empirical data); wisdom is how to apply the facts and data into our everyday life.  

In the Greek, sofos or wisdom is always about the means to judge correctly, to be able to follow the best course of action, and to gain more knowledge to make a decision.  

Proverbs 9:10 NIV says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  That tells us that a different kind of wisdom comes when you and I are in fear or in awe or in relationship with God.  It’s a download from heaven that we cannot get from simple knowledge or from an earthly understanding.    

Last week Pastor Wayne gave an amazing message about our heart and the battle between self and the Holy Spirit.  We'll be building on that, today, as we continue our study in the Book of James, about a choice we have of what we plant: wisdom from above or wisdom from beneath. We can tell by the fruit which wisdom we are living by:   

James 3:14-17 NIV says, “¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Just looking at the seeds of asparagus and wild flower, you won't be able to tell the difference—until you see the fruit!  The wild flowers seeds are as the wisdom from beneath because you can throw them in a pile of dirt, and they'll grow in a couple of months without hardly taking care of them—but they will die just as quickly!   

Asparagus, on the other hand, must be cultivated, cared for, and watered. You won’t see any fruit from the asparagus seed for 3 years! Godly wisdom is about serving or promoting God in the lives of others. We are spiritual beings and will only know the fullness of God's plan in our life when we're filled with his spirit, rather than filled with self.  Wisdom from beneath is whatever feels right in the moment; wisdom from above trusts what scripture says is right. 

Do you want fruit that will grow in a couple weeks, but die just as quickly, or fruit that comes from a plant that begins to bear fruit, then continues to bear fruit all the time. Wisdom from above is worth waiting for and cultivating.

There are three ways we can cultivate wisdom from above and get rid of wisdom from beneath: 

1. Keep Asking For The Wisdom From Heaven 

James 1:5 NIV says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

The word lacks wisdom is an economic term used when your bank account is empty! When you have a bill due and your bank account does not have the needed funds, the word is you lack and ask.The Greek word here is to keep on asking perpetually, having an ongoing conversation with God about every single thing that you lack, and He gives generously!  

There is no end to the seeds of wisdom that God wants to plant in the soil of our soul. He's willing to fill up your account with the wisdom that you need for the situations you're facing.  Better yet, it says, “He will not put you down for not knowing what to do.”  I love that!  He says, “I won’t make you feel silly or stupid.  I will give you wisdom liberally.”  God wants a relationship with us, and it will be given! 

King Solomon, known as the wisest man who ever lived, models this for us. How did he get that title?          1 Kings 3:10-14 NIV says: “¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, ¹² I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.       ¹³ Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. ¹⁴ And (here’s the caveat—the condition of this promise) if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

Anyone who knows Solomon’s story remembers that he started strong when God gave him a choice: choose riches, defeat of enemies, or wisdom.  Solomon passed the test and said:  “I don't care if I have any of those other things.  If I have you and your wisdom, I can solve anything. I can overcome any problem that comes my way.” And God gave him wisdom, and with wisdom, he would be able to handle wealth and victory, without it going to his head. 

God can enter into the very situation where you're confused, frustrated, or wondering where to go next.  The world will make it look easy and give you all kinds of quick answers, but it will dry up as soon as it comes.  The wisdom from above is a lasting fruit. 

Do you have decisions that need to be made about your future, such as, should I get a job or go to school? Literally, everything that you are wrestling with, God has the answer. Solomon got in trouble when he stopped asking, and married foreign wives who worshiped other gods. 

Maybe you started out really close to God, but then somewhere over the course of time, your heart has become divided from the Lord. Humble yourself and ask for the wisdom of the ages that will bear fruit at the perfect time for years to come.  He will provide exactly what you need when you need it. 

2. Keep Accessing The Wisdom From Heaven By Opening Up The Word Of God. There's a door that's open that we can either access or ignore.  At the end of King Solomon's life, his heart was divided because he was actually feeding on both sides.  

Ecclesiastes 1:17 ESV says: “And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.”

Solomon stopped asking and accessing the wisdom from God; and the further he got away from the word of God, the more confused he became about which wisdom was which.  The enemy would love to prevent us from knowing the difference between the counterfeit from the real—God wants to bring us back to His Word!

According to Barna Research, well over half of American adults have never read the Bible in a typical week, and one?third of those identified as born again Christians can't find the time to read their Bibles, even once a week.  This will cause our hearts become cynical; the soil of our soul becomes hard; and we can't tell the difference between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from beneath—and the devil loves it!

Get into the word of God.  One of the greatest legacies of Pastor Wayne and New Hope is a simple tool called, Life Journal, which crosses cultural and denominational lines to bring people back to the word of God. Start planting good seed into the soil of your soul and watch good fruit grow! 

When I was growing up, my pastors would always tell me, “Hey, Jon, you need to hear the voice of God, do the right thing, and follow God.” But I didn't know how to do that, until the Life Journal became a way for me to have a conduit of communication between the word of God and the God of my word.  A lot of times, if you're like me, you read scriptures and have no idea what it means; so to help you, we created an online tool called the Life Journal Jumpstart—one of our pastors will give a 3-4 minute explanation of the meaning behind what you'll be reading that day. 

3. Keep Acting On The Wisdom From Heaven

James 3:13 NIV says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Verse 18, “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”

Everyday, we have a choice of what to cultivate in the soil of our soul—but it requires humility!  We must ask ourselves which fruit are we harvesting: Is it selfish ambition, vain conceit?  Is it all about me?  If so, we must humble ourselves, and ask God to forgive us: “God, I'm going to uproot all of these weeds, and spend time planting the wisdom of Your word.” We then get transformed into peacemakers, who live in a world that desperately needs us to share the fruit of the Gospel—the wisdom from above.

Let me close with this story of a peacemaker in our church: Her name is Mona. Her son, Alan, two weeks ago tonight, was walking out of Lucky Strike in the Ala Moana Shopping Center, when a man tried to pick a fight with him in the parking lot. Alan, being a peacemaker like his mom, tried to calm down the man, but the man shot and killed him in the parking lot. 

I talked to Ramona for a while today, and what she said to me so blew me away that I had to share it with you, as we close.  She said, "Pastor Jon, as I was driving to the hospital to find out whether my son was alive or dead, I felt the Lord tell me two things:  One, “Your son has gone home to be with me, and,” two, “I need you to pray for Kapono, who shot your son because he needs to know what forgiveness looks like.” So everyday she gets up and brings to the Lord her sadness, anger, sorrow, and grief on her knees, and is planting seeds of wisdom on behalf of Kapono, who took her son's life.  

The only way that could happen is if the wisdom of heaven is being cultivated in her life because the wisdom of the world (from family and friends) is saying, “No, what are you doing?  You need to make him pay.  He needs to feel what he's taken from you.  He deserves punishment.”  

Yet, Ramona said this on the News: “We live in a world that needs more peace.  I'm choosing love instead of hate, and I'm choosing to love this boy who took my boy's life.”  That’s what it means to act on the wisdom of heaven, to bear the fruit of wisdom from above. The ripple effect of her story, I believe, will be felt by generations on this island as she refuses to buy into the wisdom of this world that tells her to wallow in grief and hate—she choses the wisdom from above—heaven!

We, too, must choose each day what kind of life we're going to live, what kind of wisdom we're going to listen to—the wisdom from heaven above, or the wisdom from beneath. 

Questions To Ponder:

1.      What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom from above?
2.      Which wisdom will you live by? What is your measuring rod?
3.      What is your practical application for serving one another (God’s wisdom)?
4.      How do we know the wisdom from above, God’s wisdom from the wisdom from below?
5.      How do you act on the wisdom from heaven? (Hint: What does James 1:22-25 from last weeks message say?)