Pathways

We're going to read from an old testament of an amazing little book called Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes. It's ecclesiastes chapter 2, and we're reading verses 1 to 11. So keep your finger in James and then go to ecclesiastes. This is King Solomon.

He's trying all kinds of things to find out what life is about. It's like a diary entry and here he is. Said, I said to myself, come. I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. But that also proved to be meaningless.

After I said is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly. My mind's still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I brought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasures of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a Harim as well, the delights of a man's heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this, My wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing.

My eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done, and what I had toiled to achieve. Everything is meaningless.

A chasing after the wind, nothing was gained. Under the sun. And if we turn to James, the letter by James, brother of Jesus, and chapter 3 and verse 13. 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. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes down from heaven is first of all, pure, then peace loving.

Considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit in partial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace Reeper Harvest of righteousness. Father, we do thank you, for your word. We thank you for this, These 2 passages actually in Ecclesiastes and James help us to understand them, speak to our hearts and our minds through your word that we might be changed by morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

We're we're actually just it's a sort of 1 off this morning, but I thought we'd continue that little mini series that Tom and I'd started. I think it was in the summer on pathways. And this morning, we're gonna look at the topic of wisdom. Because really, we'd all like to find, wouldn't we, a pathway to wisdom in our lives. Proverbs, 3 verse 13 says blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding.

So I want us this morning just to start by thinking or considering, you know, what do you think wisdom is? What do you consider it to be? How do we judge whether someone is wise? Whether they're really the person that you should go to for advice. I think we know, don't we, being clever, isn't enough.

I mean, you don't go to the the genius mathematician who can't hold his marriage together for advice. Most of us know, I guess, that the biblical answer proverbs chapter 1 verse 7, which says the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom. But When we're faced with a decision, whether that's buying a house or a flat or moving job or making some sort of investment, or a challenge with parenting or dealing with elderly parents or, you know, some advice about a relationship. How often do we turn to the most godly person that we know for advice? And actually, is that the right thing to do?

You know, what if they aren't obviously successful, or they don't seem very astute with money, or they're not a parent, or they've not been married, doesn't experience in the specific matter that you need wisdom on count more than general godliness? What do we think? Now, leaving aside Jesus for a moment, Solomon is regarded as the wisest person who ever lived. In 1 kings, you'll recall the story. Solomon has a dream.

Chapter 3 in verse 5, of 1 kings, it says at Gibyan, the lord appoint appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream. And god says to him, ask for whatever you want me to give to you. And Solomon asked for wisdom. It's an amazing request. First 10, the lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.

So god said to him, since you've asked for this, and not for long life or wealth for yourself, I will give you a wise and discerning heart so that they're never will have been anyone like you nor will there ever be. 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. What a fantastic gift. And so in Ecclesiastes, we meet King Solomon, who's amazingly wise with great wealth, great armies, numerous horses, chariots, he builds awe inspiring buildings, including, of course, the temple, and don't we regard Solomon as wise because we see a person who's outwardly successful, who's built something, who's made something of their life, And don't we apply that then today?

You know, we see someone with a nice family or an outwardly happy marriage or who's financially well off And in our heads, assume that's a reflection of how wise they are. In other words, as we look at Solomon and we see the outward signs of success, we credit him with the wisdom that god said he'd give him. Yet, you see it's not what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes. In the reading that Pete, read for us. In Ecclesiastes chapter 2, he says that all his accomplishments all his buildings, and his gardens, and his reservoirs, and his fruit trees, and his slaves, and his herbs, and his silver, and his gold, all of it was meaningless.

All of it meant nothing. Yet we look at those accomplishments and say because of them, we know Solomon was wise. He's saying because of my wisdom, I can tell you that the things you're looking at are a waste of time. Look of, well, I'll read you verse 11 of that chapter 2 that we read. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands are done, and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the win, nothing was gained, under the sun.

Solomon says there's no value to wisdom if it's under the sun wisdom, that's what he's saying. And much of what he was doing there was under the sun wisdom. I said to myself, come now, I'll test you with pleasure. I said, laughter's madness. I undertook great projects.

I make gardens and parks. Even if it produces wealth and property and sex and power, if it's under the sun, it's meaningless. And actually, Solomon ends ecclesiastes by telling us what real wisdom is all about. Chapter 12 verse 13 of ecclesiastes, he says this, Now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear god, and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind.

You see, Solomon's concluding that real wisdom is above the sun wisdom. It's about having a relationship with the living god. It's about seeking to follow him. So we're back on with to where we were a minute or so ago. We're back to the idea of fearing god being the beginning of wisdom.

But although we hear that sentence, what does it really mean? Joe chapter 28 verse 28, it says this, and he, that's god, said to the human race, the fear of the lord, that is wisdom. And to shun evil is understanding. So fearing the lord is about a relationship with god. It's about seeking to obey him.

It's about avoiding evil. But we can go a bit further. In Acts chapter 10, some of you remember the story, you've got Cornelius, the Centurion, and it describes him as a righteous and god fearing man. What does that mean? Cause Cornelius was a Roman soldier.

He was a gentile He almost certainly wasn't frightened of much, and he definitely wasn't righteous. So what are they saying when they're saying he's a god fearing man? See, I think they're just simply saying he's a converted man. Here's a gentile who put his faith in the true living god. Proverbs 14 says the same thing.

The fear of the lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death. So the Bible is telling us that wisdom begins with the fear of the lord, which means faith in God, which means faith in Jesus Christ. It means you have a saving faith. And so you can conclude from this that the unsaved person, the person who doesn't fear the lord, lacks wisdom. That's the logic.

That gets us to this passage in James chapter 3 and verses 13 to 18. And do you see how James starts it with a question? Who is wise and understanding among you. And then, basically, he answers it. That's what we're gonna look at this morning.

He answers it and he's telling us that if you want to see who is wise, If you want to know who should I go to for advice, there's a simple test, actually, because he says if you have true wisdom, It's gonna come out in the way you live, not just the way you think. James says, look, there are 2 types of wisdom and how we act, how we think what we do tells us whether we have a wisdom from heaven or wisdom from hell. And that tells us whether you have a relationship with the living god, whether you fear the lord or not. That's what he means. Look at verse 13 with me.

That's what he means when he starts by his answer. Let them show it. These people who who are wise let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. He's saying, look, looking clever, being an intellectual, appearing wise isn't proof of wisdom. We have to look at the life that goes with it.

So a better translation actually of good life here is lovely life. That really made me think, would you say that your life is lovely? Not in the sense of what you experience, you know, I have a lovely life, but in terms of how you are towards other people, is your life lovely? A few commentators say that James is only addressing teachers here. I don't think so because of the the way the book structured, but it can definitely be applied to teachers.

You see, standing up here looking clever, but not having a life to match it is a big problem for a teacher. It's 1 of the reasons, by the way, local church like this is good because you get to see the life of our staff members, don't you? The preachers. You get to see their houses, their families, how they operate. You can't do that with an internet thing.

See, a truly wise person says James is someone whose life and actions have been transformed by their faith in Jesus Christ. And when you're in a local church, you see that in the leadership. But having made that clear, James carries on with 14, and completely changes direction slightly, having talked about what you need to look for, he tells you what false wisdom is. He tells us, what under the sun wisdom is, and that's our first point, true wisdom is not from this world. True wisdom is not from this world.

Verse 14, but if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly unspiritual demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, then you find disorder and every evil practice. Now, 1 of the best ways you you look at something and understand it and see it is to look at what it isn't. In other words, the contrast, You know, we we can tell what's knocked off for a fraud, can't we?

By holding it up against the genuine thing, and that's what James is doing. He's gonna show us what true wisdom is. By telling us firstly what it isn't, that there's a kind of wisdom which is not wisdom at all. Even though it appears to be, it is false. Now that little bit in verse 14, but if you harbor a bitter envy and suffering ambition on your own do not boast about it.

Well, that I I puzzled over, and why would you boast about something, you know, that's false in a sense? But he's saying that, look, if we envy other people, and we do, don't we? People that are more attractive, people who have more money, people who have better jobs, people who are more popular, people who are married, people who are single, people who have kids, people who don't have kids, our hearts are full of envy. But if we do that, you see, it leads us to to look at the wrong thing, to look at false wisdom and think that it's wisdom. So your highlights as well doesn't mean that verse, selfishness.

The element of self that there is in false wisdom, selfish ambition, You know, look at the person that's full of envy. The person who's totally self centered, the person that where it's all about me, And of course, he will boast. After all, if you're all about you, then you want to make sure everyone knows all about you. So the end of verse 14 could be translated. Do not boast about your worldly wisdom because to do so is to deny the truth even more clearly.

In other words, by boasting, you're putting on display just by doing that, that you're not really wise. Then in verse 15, James gives us 3 characteristics to really sum up this under the sun, this false wisdom, what it looks like. And he says it's earthly, and it's unspiritual, and it's demonic. Now you've probably heard the phrase the world, the flesh, and the devil, describing, you know, in a sense the challenges, you know, what we're fighting against as Christians. Well, isn't James saying the same thing?

False wisdom he says is firstly from the earth. Well, isn't that the world? Secondly, he says it's unspiritual. Well, you know, what what is unspiritual? It's the flesh.

Thirdly, he says it's demonic. So the 3 characteristics of false wisdom that we need to look for are the world, the flesh and the devil. In other words, this sort of wisdom is totally concerned with the here and now. It made it made me think actually when I was preparing this of, of Paul in Corinthians and he's he's talking about the Greek philosophers and he says their philosophy of life is let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Well, if you think there is no judgment, if you think there is no heaven, If you think only about today, that is the right philosophy, I guess, that's earthly wisdom.

Make the most of every moment because you've just got now. I saw a tweet the other day. It had been retweeted a lot, a lot of likes, And it said this. It was quoting somebody who says, what you're going to regret in your life? What you're going to regret in your life is not the mistakes you've made.

It is the kiss that you didn't steal. It is the affair that you didn't have. It is the sex that you could have enjoyed and you didn't. That's what you'll look back on and regret. Now, that is extraordinary.

Worldly advice, which only makes sense if there's nothing else. If there's no value to Fidel If there's no value to marriage, if there's no value to faithfulness, if there's no value to self control, then grab what you want when you want it. That is under the sun, worldly thinking that tries to pass itself off as wisdom. I've actually had a couple of clients, over the last few years And we've been talking about how they structure their, you know, buying property and all that sort of stuff. And, basically, it became clear in the conversation that they wanted to hide assets And I was thinking, well, but you have to do stamp duty and there is no chance HMRC you're gonna see right through this.

This And they said, no, no, no, no, I'm not trying to hide from the taxman. I'm trying to hide from my wife. And so you will automatically say, well, have you got problems in your marriage? And he said, no. He said, but I might have.

So let's keep it hidden in advance. That is under the sun, wisdom. It's false wisdom. It's earth bound. It's trapped.

It's limited in its outlook. And it's a wisdom that's focused on itself, on yourself, on this life, and it doesn't care about anything else. Secondly, James says wisdom is unspiritual. See, you get these people, don't you? They're very smart.

Very clever, and yet they'll say to you, yeah, but I'm just not interested in talking about god. Not interested in your faith, not interested in all this Jesus stuff. Now, where does that kind of thinking come from? You know, that level of blindness in somebody that clever. How does someone who on the surface seem smart and bright and clever end up saying, I don't want to know.

I don't want to know about spiritual world. I think James tells us because it's a progression. It's the third thing, and that's because it's demonic. Satan wants us kept unwise, worldly in our outlook, He wants us to focus on the here and now, and even better if you can be a bit dissatisfied with it, so driven to change it. And let's remember Satan can be subtle.

You know, demonic activity, we tend to think of spiritual warfare straight away, but it but it can be things like, a demonic activity can be like structures, political structures, even, behind the scenes in the world, constant upheaval, markets crashing and booming, greed, and then fear taking hold. The increase in stress levels in everyday life, the increasing pace of life. Satan's goal is for us to live our lives in ways that are so like the world around us. So taken up with our day to day that we don't even notice how we've become the same as everybody else. Searching for under the sun wisdom.

It's a bit like and I've used this story before. I just love it, really. I think it's terrific. It's a that that been in c s Lewis' screw tape letters. The guy sitting in the library, I just think this is fantastic.

His mind is drifting and he's beginning to think about whether there's a god. And you see the senior devil says to the junior devil, he doesn't say, say to it, say to him, there's no god. That's too obvious. He says distract him. That's the way to go.

It's getting to think about lunch and about how hungry is he is. So eventually, the man leaves the library to go out and get lunch, and then I think he sees a billboard with a new headline, some breaking news, and the thoughts about God have gone. That is how the devil operates He wants us to rush from 1 thing to another, from work to home and then back again. And of course, in between, he wants you to get your phone out and read your Twitter feed and your Facebook and your emails. Anything except sit there on the train or the bus or the sofa wherever you sit, thinking about god.

That's not what he wants. So if we're trying to identify false wisdom, it's going to be about this world. It's going to be focused on the here and now. It's going to have no regard for the future for the fact that 1 day we'll meet the judge of the heavens and the earth. It is a wisdom obsessed with the little things in life.

And by the way, let's not pretend it is always gonna be easy to spot this false wisdom to assume that oh, yeah, well, you know, where mature Christians will recognize it immediately. I was thinking actually about Mark's gospel and and chapter 8, the pivotal point if you remember when we went through Mark's gospel, the pivotal chapter, Jesus is talking to to his disciples and he says to them, if you remember, but he's explaining to them that he's gonna suffer and be killed. And what does Peter do? Peter takes him to 1 side and reboots him? You see Peter is perfectly logical.

I can see where Peter's coming from. He's saying, look, Jesus has suddenly gone glass half empty here. It's all a bit negative. This isn't what we have in mind for the Jewish Messiah. And I think most of us would have backed Peter up and said, why is Jesus gone all gloomy?

Well, Jesus says, chapter 8 verse 33, when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter get behind me Satan. You do not have in mind the concerns of god, but merely human concerns. So it is not always easy to spot false wisdom, and we mustn't think it is. James is giving us here certain things that we can look for that will help us see. And those final 2 things verse 16 that he mentions for where you have envy and selfish ambition, you get these results, disorder, and every evil practice.

And we might spot, I guess, every evil practice, but what about disorder? So you remember Satan hates order. He hates order because it was established in your life by god in creation. And so he will generate disorder wherever we can. We will come across people in our lives who are undoubtedly clever who have an acute sharp brain.

They've got skillful tongues. That you meet them and their effect on any group, any committee, any church is to cause trouble. Is to disturb personal relationships, and it's important when we come across these people to remember that their wisdom is not divine. It's demonic. Let me just clarify before we move on because you might you might be sitting there.

I was I was sitting there thinking, well, I'm still not sure I can spot and it's gonna be a problem. You see, there's nothing wrong with getting advice from an expert. If you need help with a mortgage or a pension, or then go to somebody who knows what they're talking about in those things. If if you need to go to a therapist to talk something through fine. If you need to go to a mate from university because you're you're making a big decision, you wanna talk to them.

There's nothing wrong with that. If you wanna go to an NCT friend because you're struggling as a mom, and, you know, you had babies together as it were. That's great. Nothing wrong with any of those things, but remember, says James, their wisdom is limited to under the sun wisdom. None of their advice will involve putting god first.

None of their advice will cause you to prioritize giving or going to your small group or serving or the need to sit under preaching on a Sunday. For that sort of advice, you need to talk to a wise person with true wisdom. That's who James turns to now. Verse 17, Second point true wisdom is from god. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit in partial and sincere peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Well, James tells us pretty straightforward at the beginning. 2 wisdom comes from heaven. It's from god. And it's pure. That is a there is a purity about it, a cleanliness, a holiness that characterizes this sort of wisdom.

In other words, it is god centered. But secondly, he says it's peace loving. Now, it's really he's really looking there at the opposite of disorder. It means this sort of wisdom seeks to promote peace, promote peace within the church. Now that doesn't mean, because you get this a little bit, that doesn't mean compromising your faith to keep peace.

It's not really saying. Some of you here over the last few years, some of you are here because the churches that you were in didn't preach the gospel or didn't speak the truth and you decided for you to grow spiritually you needed to move. That was the right decision despite what perhaps people said to you when you did it. Moving to a gospel centered church is not divisive. It is not creating disorder.

The promoting piece that James is talking about here is to do with how we live because all of wisdom, he says, changes what we do, not just how we think. So if, for example, someone you're talking to sometime this week, and they give you a little piece of choice gossip, you know, a rumor that you haven't heard before. Well, you promote peace by keeping it to yourself so that it doesn't spread any further from you. That's what it's talking about. The third characteristic of true wisdom is that it's considerate other translations kind or gentle.

In other words, it's not strident, it's not zealous, it's not pushy. Have you ever noticed how how people who know stuff can be quite overbearing? Quite aggressive, almost in the way that they give advice. True wisdom isn't always a monologue. Sometimes it involves being quiet and listening.

True wisdom doesn't cut you off. 3 words into your sentence because it's already created it and knows the answer. That is not how a wise Christian should be. We must be considerate and kind in how we deal with people. Our attitude must never be 1 of accept what I say or else.

And then when somebody doesn't list and they get it wrong and they make a mistake, we end up sort of revelling, in their discomfort because we've indicated That isn't true wisdom as not wisdom from heaven. True wisdom wants the best for a brother or sister in Christ. Fourth characteristic, he says, is that it's submissive. That means it's not stubborn, actually. It isn't easily led, but it is persuadable.

True wisdom is open to being wrong. See, the opposite of this would be someone who, although on the surface is wise, is actually underneath won't move their position. Even if it's proved that they're wrong, they won't move their position. They're stubborn, obstinate, and actually importantly disobedient because the word here submissive in the original language is used as as for a person who submits to military discipline, and they do it willingly. So we're talking about someone who, in their wisdom, still observes, still submits to the authorities of of the country.

Firstly, true wisdom is full of mercy. It means a person displaying this wisdom is full of compassion, concern for others has a desire to meet the needs of other people. The emphasis there is not on lording your wisdom over people. Not despising those who are struggling who come for help, not being blind to those around you need help. We don't want a superior intellectual wisdom.

Wisdom from heaven will help our brothers and sisters. And true saving faith is shown in those acts of kindness and mercy and love, and they show whether we're really truly wise. See those acts of kindness and mercy are exactly what James is talking about when he says in verse 17, good fruit. There's an idolatry, I think, in our culture, I think a lot of us would recognize this. I've heard Pete talk about it in sermons before there's an idolatry in our culture and its education.

We say it's great. It's good to be clever. It's good to be academic. And James says Actually, you know, it's good to be wise. Funny enough, he doesn't even say that.

What he's really saying is it's wise to be good. It's good to be kind, it's good to serve, it's good to be righteous through Christ. And finally, James says, true wisdom is impartial and sincere. Now if you know James, you'll know that in chapter 2, he talks about partiality. About favoritism favoritism towards the rich that come into church against the poor, and that mustn't happen.

Here, he's saying true wisdom is truly impartial. Never makes distinctions between people or wavering in our commitment to people because of some worldly basis of thinking, you know, such as wealth or race. Background upbringing to relevant. And similarly, He says we're not to be insincere, meaning hypocritical. So our wisdom mustn't be a pretense mustn't be fake, mustn't be phony.

We mustn't be people who appear clever just for the image. People who want to show they're in the know when you aren't. You come across people sadly in churches, in committees. You come across people who think it looks wise or or clever to never make up their mind about anything. They're doing it deliberately.

They'd rather sit there on the fence because they think it looks wise. They think it looks clever. So they talk about being open minded, balancing arguments, suspending judgment, even dare I say it's staying neutral. But that's so often not wisdom is just instability. Christian wisdom is based on certainties that come from god through the spirit.

We know what it takes what is required, what we need to do to take the gospel forward, don't we? And looking clever isn't part of the process. See, those things that he's listed out, the wisdom from heaven comes sorry, but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all then peace loving considerate submissive full of mercy and good food impartial and sincere. Those are the characteristics of true wisdom. So back to our question at the beginning, do you know who to go to for good advice?

See, it's a person that manifests that lifestyle. It's a person with pure motives whose behavior reveals a peacemaker a humble, kind, submissive person who's in the habit. It's very important to this, because not just about thoughts, about deeds, who's in the habit of merciful, compassionate deeds for others, and a commitment to god's truth without partiality in a sincere, genuine way. You're not looking for someone who knows god's plan you're looking for someone who knows God. That's the person to go to.

Someone who sees the bigger picture who has heaven set before them, who can see the impact of the decision on your holiness. On your ability to serve, how it will affect your interaction with your brothers and sisters in the church. And most important of all, how it will affect your heart. I've told this story before as well. Many years ago, I mean, this must be 25 years ago probably because the IMAX in Waterloo wasn't built and used to walk from Waterloo underneath where the IMAX is now.

And it was a cardboard city of the homeless people. Massive. And I used to walk over it every day, and I was never sure about what to do. Do I give them money? It wasn't as easy then.

There was no pret hanging around. You couldn't just buy a sandwich over. So do I give them money or not? Are they all you know, drug addicts, or do they actually need some money? And I was never sure to do.

So I asked my pastor at the time, what do you think I should do about this? And he didn't answer. It was very annoying. I wanted a black and white do give them money or don't. And, he didn't do that because I was looking for under the sun wisdom.

What he said to me was, I don't know. He said, I'm sure there are people there that are genuine and people that are not genuine. But what would worry me if you don't do anything? Is that every day as you walk past them, your heart hardens a little bit more. Now, that is above the sun wisdom We want to find wisdom, yet we're all guilty of looking for it in the wrong place.

Don't we all rush off to the, I don't know, the counselor or the expert or the self help book or the friend? Frankly, anything except the word of God. The word became flesh. Jesus Christ is wisdom incarnate. It's to him that we must go to see wisdom in truth, in speech, and in action.

He embodies everything that we just looked at in this passage. See, as Pete said, when he, he was praying, I think, James who writes this was Jesus' brother. So when he writes verse 17, but the wisdom that comes from heaven first of all, pure, then peace loving, considerate submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Don't you think it was his brother? Jesus Christ that he had in mind?

That describes Jesus completely, doesn't it? All those characteristics we see in him everything he did, everything he said, and that wisdom is available to us through his word by his spirit. So why don't we go to him? Wisdom is is personified actually in the beginning of in the style of writing, really, the beginning of proverbs, but it's actually personified in the person of Jesus christ. So let's go to him when we need help when we are looking for wisdom.

When we look for wisdom in somebody to talk to here, even in ourselves, perhaps thinking about whether we're wise, look for the characteristics that James sets out here. Yes. True wisdom is god honoring, but it is also self subduing and other person centered. Isn't that the sort of wisdom that we want to develop in ourselves? We want above the sun wisdom in the way we live.

Let's pray. Father god, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he personifies all of these characteristics that we've looked at this morning that in his, short life on Earth here. He showed himself to be truly wise. Lord help us not to chase after false wisdom, chase after under the sun wisdom, chase after things that you know, all about the here and now.

Help us to look for a true wisdom that is from you, from heaven. Given to us in your word brought to life by your spirit. Help us to search for that wisdom in our life that will that will make us or help us to make the right decisions. That we won't instead just think about what we can get now, greed, or whatever it is might not be money, might be something else. Help us instead to look to the future, look ahead.

Look to the way we live our lives. Help us to judge people not on, how many horses and chariots and fields and vineyards and so on that they have. But on whether they are merciful and compassionate and kind and following you, And lord help us to, grow this wisdom in our own lives as we walk closer with you. In Jesus' name, our