Faith Works in Wisdom

CTK Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King Presbyterian Church. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive hope in Raleigh. Thank you, Brian, and thank you for those of you going to Nicaragua. You go with our prayers and we're very excited for what the Lord is going to do in and through you during your time there. It's an exciting adventure. So we'll be praying for you.

We are continuing our series on the book of James and if you were here last week, you'll recall we began the first part of chapter three and I said that stopping in the middle was a little bit of a cliffhanger. And actually, I kind of preached a little bit of this passage that we're going to read today last week, because I just couldn't help myself. I felt like we had to get to the next part because the first part of James is kind of scary. He says that the tongue is like a spark that sets a fire that could even burn our souls with the fire of hell. And then he says, no one can tame the tongue. So that's real hopeful stuff, right? Like our tongues are wicked and they control our entire bodies and we are reckless with them. And that's what he says in the beginning of three.

And then we come to the second part of three, verses thirteen through eighteen. And this is what he says. This is God's word. Let's read it together.

Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct, he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure then peace loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy, and good fruits, unwavering without pretense, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace. — James 3:13-18

Let's pray again. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the words that you gave us through your brother and our brother, James. Lord, would you speak through these words? Would you illumine our hearts in the same way that you inspired his writing? Would you help us to understand more about who you are, to see the beauty of what an amazing Savior we have through this passage? And Lord, would you help us to rest in the truth and hope of the gospel, rather than in our own works and efforts. Lord, would you do that as we consider this passage this morning? We pray this for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Understanding Wisdom

Alright. So the question from the beginning of three is, how do you tame the tongue? If nobody can tame the tongue, the answer is here: wisdom. Not worldly wisdom, but wisdom that comes from above.

I want to begin by talking about wisdom because it's a very important theme throughout the book of James. In fact, many have described the book of James as the proverbs of the New Testament because of how focused he is on wisdom. Wisdom is a word that he's not using lightly. He has grown up in the Jewish tradition. He's very familiar with the book of Proverbs. Moreover, he heard his brother teach on the Sermon on the Mount, which in many ways was an exposition of all of Old Testament law and wisdom. And so he's borrowing from a lot of Old Testament literature and common understanding about what wisdom is.

And so I want to begin with a little bit of that—talking about what was the Jewish understanding of wisdom since he's so keyed in on it, especially in this passage.

Wisdom isn't just knowing things. In fact, someone recently said that we're a culture that's drowning in knowledge, but starved for wisdom, implying that there's a difference between just having information and actually being able to apply it well. And that's essentially the difference.

Someone put it to me this way this week. I thought this was humorous. Knowledge is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit. But wisdom? Not putting tomatoes in a fruit salad. Right? One is knowledge. You can have just plain knowledge, but if you're not doing anything with it, if it's not helping you, if it's not practically applied in some way that promotes good and healthy living, then it's not wisdom—it's just information.

And so that's essentially the understanding, the approach that all of Proverbs has when it comes to wisdom. It talks about wisdom basically being applied in all these various different ways.

Years ago, Elliot Grudem, who was then our senior pastor, preached a series on the book of Proverbs and he defined wisdom this way. And so have many other commentators. And I think this is a great definition: Wisdom is skill for living. It's skill for living.

The ability to apply what you know to the situation in life that you're in, in a way that promotes life. And you think about Proverbs and you think about wisdom, everyone thinks about that verse in Proverbs that says that the beginning of wisdom is what? Say it loudly, you know it.

Fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. — Proverbs

How does that fit with that definition? Well, it fits this way. The fear of the Lord isn't just like I'm afraid of him. It's awe of who God is and when you're in awe of who God is, when you've actually come face to face with the divine, you kind of become obsessed with it. You become enamored with who God is. He becomes kind of your everything. And that is the beginning of wisdom. If you're not in a relationship with God, you have no skill for living because any other kinds of skill that you have for life are ultimately going to fall short, right? It's your relationship with God that determines your eternal life. And so therefore, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. You enter into this relationship with Him and that produces longevity to your life beyond your years here on this earth. So wisdom is skill for living.

And what James actually says in this passage and in his book about wisdom, it seems like he's kind of all over the place, but he actually has some very important things to say about wisdom. First of all, he noticed that in verse 13, he starts right by beginning with this. He says:

Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct, he should show that his works are done in gentleness that comes from wisdom. — James 3:13

So there's a lot in there. Notice, how do you know if someone's wise? It's not by the degrees that they hold. It's not by the way that they dress. It's not by how eloquent their speech is or even what they know. It's their conduct. It's the way they behave. And think about this, right? Someone who is a newbie, a rookie, whether you're talking about sports or anything else, they walk into the stage or onto the court or wherever they are—they're nervous, right? They've probably seen people do what they're about to do 100 times, but they've never done it. So there's this kind of sense of what am I doing, hesitations. You can kind of just look at them and go, oh, they're green. They're green, right? Have you ever done that where you've looked at somebody and you're like, they're green? And then there's somebody who walks onto the stage who's done this a million times, who is super skilled at whatever sport or performance they're about to give. They're very confident. They're very comfortable. They're wise. Their conduct shows that they have experience, that they have skill at this. They've done this before. You feel confident that they know what they're going to do, right? And that's the difference. He's saying, look, you can tell when someone's wise because of the way that they are acting.

Now, it's important to point out that in verse 13, it says, by his good conduct. The word good there—I think if you're like me, you probably read that as morally good, right? That's kind of what it seems like it's saying if you're just reading it in English. Who among you is wise and understanding by his moral conduct, he should show that his works are done in gentleness that comes from wisdom. If that's the way you're reading it, that's not what the Greek says. The word for good there—there's lots of different words for good in Greek. They have more than us in English. The word is more an implication of beautiful. It's by their beautiful conduct that you'll know that they're wise.

So if someone walks in and they have a way of engaging with other people that connects them, that's gentle, not harsh, that cultivates beautiful unity with other people, that brings people together—that's just attractive, right? Like if we're talking about sports, you see somebody who's playing who's magnificent at the game. Everybody wants to come and see them. Why? Because it's beautiful. Like there are some people who play games, sports and you're just kind of like that is magnificent. And that's what James is saying. He says, who is wise and understanding? You should be able to tell by their beautiful life. A beautiful life marked with gentleness.

Worldly Wisdom vs. True Wisdom

He then goes on to parse out and he says there's worldly wisdom and there's otherworldly wisdom. And he's very clear about what worldly wisdom is. He gives two characteristics of worldly wisdom: bitter envy and selfish ambition. Let's just take a second to unpack this. Worldly wisdom is fueled by bitter envy. What is bitter envy? Well, envy is just coveting something, wanting something else. Bitter envy is kind of like, I want that thing and I want whoever has it to die. Like, I want it so bad. I want nothing else. I want everybody else to suffer until I get that. That's bitter envy, right?

Give me that thing that is mine. The classic depiction of bitter envy is Cain, right, in Genesis. Abel has the acceptable sacrifice and Cain is like, I want that and I don't care what it costs, I'm killing my brother. I wanna be the chosen one. That's what was going on there. He had bitter envy in his heart.

James is saying that's what drives worldly wisdom, as well as selfish ambition, which similar to bitter envy—the fact that it's selfish ambition means it's a commitment to winning. I wanna win. I don't want us all to win. I wanna win and I don't care what the cost is. So I covet something and therefore I'm ambitious to go and get it.

Now, I think it's easy to read this and go, I'm not bitterly envious. I don't want to kill anybody. Like I'd like to live and let live a little bit. I'm not out there trying to kill any brothers of mine who seem favored. Or you can look at it and go, my ambition isn't selfish. Good aspects to my ambition. So I think I'm safe. I don't think I'm what James is talking about here.

But I want you to understand like this is the way the world works. It's actually very natural in this world for us to go to these places. And in fact, this is where our world wants to take us all the time. Turn on the television, turn on your social media. Everything is geared towards, especially marketing and ads: you need this, whatever this is. Your life will not be complete until you have this thing. Whatever it is, you're constantly called to envy, to want, to desire, to want things. It's something that is in the stream of our society. In fact, that's like one of the ways that companies make money. They drive us towards wanting things that we don't have and that fuels a selfish ambition. I've got to go to work. I got to crush it at work so I can get that promotion so I can get the thing.

And maybe it's not a thing, maybe it's a way of life. I would just like to have a house big enough for all the kids, right? Or I would just like to have a car that gets me there and people don't look at me with disdain, right? Maybe it's like, just want some comfort in my life. I want a little bit of something for me. What about me?

And the bottom line is worldly wisdom is essentially like looking out for number one, rising to the top of the food chain, being the one that kind of is able to achieve all of the things that we need or want in life. Worldly wisdom looks like that.

Worldly Wisdom and Spiritual Life

And we can do this with our spiritual life as well. In fact, it is a huge temptation and such a temptation because I think the evil one, Satan wants us to take our religion, which is really not about what we do, and make it about what we do.

So, you know, in fact, do remember the book Pilgrim's Progress? John Bunyan wrote a book called Pilgrim's Progress. It's an allegory for the Christian life. The main character is a guy named Christian, real subtle. And somewhere along the way he meets a guy named Worldly Wise Man. Guess what he represents? Worldly Wisdom, right?

Worldly Wise Man's advice to Christian is to give up on what evangelist has said to him, pointed him towards the narrow way, towards the cross where he can relieve his burden. He says, no, that's not gonna work. Don't do that. Instead, you should go to this town called Morality. There's a great—guess what that represents?—this great town called Morality. There's a guy there named Mr. Legality. He can help you with your burden, right?

That's kind of how we feel, right? Like let's do all this religious activity. Let's do all the things, the things that will make us feel like we are achieving and getting the thing that we covet, which could be a way of life, a feeling of forgiveness. So let me feel forgiven by going and doing some good works, some penance, and then I can come back and I feel like the burden's lighter, even though it doesn't really work, right? That's worldly wisdom. That's what it looks like.

And it's something that we all get sucked into whether we're talking about our spiritual life or our general life, because it is just the way that the world works. It's the way that Satan has designed this world that he's kind of in control of, that he's ruled.

James wants us to reject that. He wants us to reject that. He wants us to say, let's move away from this worldly wisdom. If that's what's in your heart, he says, hey, listen, don't talk. He said, don't boast and deny the truth. Don't act like you've got it. That's what he's saying. Like, don't use your tongue if worldly wisdom is what's operating in your heart.

But he says, there is another kind of wisdom, the wisdom that comes down from heaven. Now spoiler alert, let me tell you where we're going with this. That's Jesus. Okay? He's describing what that wisdom looks like but I want you to understand what he's describing is Christ. Okay?

Notice that there's nothing that he says here that suggests that you can achieve this wisdom. It's the wisdom from heaven, not the wisdom from your heart.

The wisdom from heaven. It is something that comes down from heaven into our life. Sound familiar? He gives eight characteristics of what this heavenly wisdom looks like. Now we could do eight different series sermons on these different eight characteristics and what they look like. What I want you to see is not so much what heavenly wisdom looks like, although that's important. I want you to see how descriptive this is of Christ and specifically Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. Okay? His life, his death, his resurrection, all of this describes that.

Notice wisdom that comes down from heaven is pure. Was Christ perfect? He was perfect in every way. He was pure. Nobody else is pure. Nobody else has that kind of purity. Nobody else can claim to be perfect. The Bible is very clear about that. So is James saying that you have to be perfectly pure? No, he's describing someone who is, someone who came down from heaven. Christ is pure. He was perfect, peace loving. He didn't come to destroy the world. He didn't come like with an army, right? In fact, there's a passage in Luke's gospel where Peter pulls out a sword when the soldiers come for Jesus, and he chops off his ear, the ear of a soldier, and Jesus is like, that's not what we're doing here, right? He loved peace. He came to actually reconcile the world with God and reconcile us with one another. He was peace loving. Everything he did was towards that end.

He was also gentle. He described himself that way. In Matthew 11:

I am gentle and humble in heart — Matthew 11

And he's compliant. He submits to the Father's will even though going to the cross was absolutely horrifying. He says:

Not my will but yours be done — Luke 22:42

He's compliant, submissive to the Father, full of mercy. He's on the cross and he's dying and the people that killed him are saying all kinds of terrible things. He said:

Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. — Luke 23:34

Full of mercy. Full of good fruits. Did Christ's life produce fruit? Absolutely, it did. He was also unwavering. He was steadfast in his mission and teaching even in the face of opposition and he was without pretense. It wasn't like he was one person when he was with the crowds and then he became this horrible person when he withdrew by himself or when he was just with his close friends. He was consistent.

Brothers and sisters, I don't know about you but if I'm grading myself on that list and any kind of wisdom I have, let me tell you, I ain't got it. There is nothing that comes from the heart of James Sutton that leads to those things. I can tell you in absolute honesty that I fall short of all of these. And of course the apostle Paul was very clear about how we fall short in all these different ways. That's why James is saying, this wisdom comes from above and that's why I'm saying he's describing Jesus and not us.

The Fruit of Righteousness

Now, but he is describing us but first, you have to understand, he's describing Jesus. And this last verse—this last verse is the key, I think. Look at the last verse, verse 18. So he's given this description and then he says:

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace — James 3:18

Which I'll be honest with you, this week I looked at that verse and I'm like what in the world is he talking about? And there's various different translations. In fact, I think the NIV really messes up this verse because it says those who sow in peace will cultivate a harvest of righteousness. So notice that the harvest becomes the object of the action instead of the thing that is being planted, right? That's the only translation that does that. I really think the NIV messed that up. I almost never would question a group of Bible translators because I'm just not that good at Greek but if you look at the Greek, the subject of this is the fruit of righteousness. That's the thing that's being planted. Do you see how weird that is? Normally when you get an agricultural analogy and you're talking about fruit it's at the end of the process but here it's at the beginning. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. The peace is the ground. Okay? So you have this fruit of righteousness that's being put into the ground that has been cultivated by those who cultivate peace.

This reminds me of the parable of the sower. What this is is a picture of the fruit of Christ's righteousness, his life, right? His death, his resurrection, the gospel itself, this good news that has cultivated peace, right? It has made the ground soft. We're the hard ground normally. Our sinful hearts are hard. And so when Jesus talks about the parable of the sower, it's always kind of a head scratcher that any of the seed takes root because we're all kind of hard ground. But this is saying, James is saying that Christ has cultivated, the Spirit has cultivated a softness in our hearts and the gospel goes into our hearts, it's planted.

This fruit is planted in our hearts and then it grows. Do you see that? He's not saying you gotta get it together guys in order to control the tongue. You've gotta be wise. What he's saying is, Jesus did this. His gospel has made it so that we, the ground, are now at peace. We're soft and his gospel message, his work is implanted into our hearts and we—what happens when you plant fruit? It grows a tree that also produces that fruit, right?

So the NIV is right in that sense in that ultimately that is the end of this in terms of what James is describing. If you want to control your tongue, if you want to be wise, if you want to do good works, what he's saying in this verse is you need to implant the gospel of Jesus Christ into your softened hearts which have been declared just and at peace with God because of God's work through Christ and you need to allow that to grow. That's what he's saying. He's not saying it's up to you. Now that's the wisdom that's from heaven.

The Rip Current Analogy

And let me give you this analogy. I think this is helpful. You're familiar with rip currents, it's summertime, right? Probably those of you who've been to the beach with your kids, you've talked about this. You know when tides come in water has to go out somewhere and in certain places that water going out can go out very rapidly and it creates a rip current which if you get caught in that, it's just fast enough to where you're not gonna be able to swim back to shore through that current, right?

And so a lot of times boogie boarders and surfers, they get kind of caught into these rip currents and they start get pulled out and people that are unaware of how this works, they just start swimming to shore and they exhaust themselves and they drown. But with a rip current, what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to basically—if you need to rest you rest, float, you wave for help, you try and get someone who knows what they're doing who has some sort of flotation device if you don't have it to come and help you. And rather than swimming towards the shore you swim parallel with the shore to get out of the current. It's very counterintuitive, right? Because if you're being pulled away from shore and you're really tired and you're starting to feel like I'm going to drown your natural response is I got to get back to the shore. That's worldly wisdom. It's up to me. I've got to do it. I've got to get back. And that's what we do. We have this bitter envy and selfish ambition and we're thinking I can make it. I can just make it. In fact that's how a lot of people drown. They know the rules but they think I'm a really good swimmer and this current isn't that strong and they start swimming and they just get tired and eventually they drown.

That's the world. That's what the world wants you to do but what Christ did in his wisdom says, hey I've done it. I'm the lifeguard. Here's a flotation device. Rest. Rest in me and I'm gonna pull you along parallel to the shore and then we're gonna ride waves in back home safe.

Worldly wisdom is intuitive, other worldly wisdom is counterintuitive and the only way that we receive it is through Jesus Christ coming into our hearts and putting our faith in him.

The Foolishness of God's Wisdom

Paul puts it this way, this is 1 Corinthians 1:18-24:

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but it is the power of God to those of us who are being saved. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish? For since in God's wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles yet to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

He is the wisdom that came down from heaven. If you put your faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ as counterintuitive and as weird as that seems—and if you're a non-Christian here believe me I empathize with how weird this seems—to say hey, stop trying to be righteous, stop trying to be perfect, stop trying to live a moral life and instead put your faith in this one person who thousands of years ago claims to have lived a perfect life and rose from the dead. That's a hard thing to put your faith in. It's very counterintuitive.

What we want to do is say, but what we do matters, right? We have to earn this, right? I got to swim to shore, right? I can't trust this lifeguard to do this by himself. I've gotta do work.

It's very counterintuitive, but once you put your faith in Christ, once you have the experience—and going back to James chapter one, do you remember at the very beginning, the thing that I threw my Bible about?

Consider it pure joy when you experience trials and hardships of every kind. — James 1:2

Remember that? That's a frustrating passage because it's just kind of like, "Why? I don't want trials and hardships. I don't want those." But James in chapter one says these are the things that produce wisdom. As we experience these things, we ask for wisdom. And as we go through them, we know, "Hey, as we walk through these trials more and more, increasingly we know I just have to trust Jesus. I don't have to pull this off. I don't have to work to make this happen."

I know through time and time again—trial and trial and trial—he's brought us through. And no matter what the trial is, even if it is a trial that will claim your life, Jesus will bring you home. He'll bring you through. So these experiences teach us that.

I want to just conclude with a couple of application points. How do we allow the wisdom that comes from above to take root in our hearts? How do we who have been cultivated by the Spirit, who are believers, who have been declared just by the work of Christ and therefore at peace with him—or the soil that is at peace—how do we cultivate this wisdom from above in our lives that results in a tree that's growing, that produces fruit that's very Christ-like?

I have two suggestions. They're very kind of like something you could have come up with yourself, but you need to hear them because we take these two things and we worldly them. We make them into things that we do instead of gifts from above. And I want you to understand they are gifts from above.

Cultivating Wisdom: Prayer and Scripture

So the first thing, the first practical tip that I have for cultivating this wisdom from above in your hearts is prayer. Now, not prayer the way that most Southerners think of prayer, right? Like prayer in our culture is like an honor, right? It's like, "Oh, will you lead us in a prayer?" And then I pray and they're like, "Oh, that was a wonderful prayer. Thank you for that prayer."

You know what prayer is? Prayer is in its purest form the soldier in the foxhole going, "Please, God, save us." It's an act of desperation. It's "I'm in the rip current, help me." It is a reminder that we go to God with nothing, that it's not up to us. "I got nothing else, Lord. I'm on my knees just begging you, please." There's nothing dignified about it, and it's not some sort of work that brings my salvation—unless I see it as the beautiful dependence upon God through Jesus Christ that it is.

And in that moment when I'm desperate, God meets me there, and I find out that I'm not really desperate because I love Him. That's what prayer is. It's not something you do to show off. It's not something that you do to check off your spiritual checklist to say, "Man, I'm really coming along." It is an act of desperation where God meets you and shows you that you have everything that you need in Him.

Would you stop depending on yourself and get on your knees and beg the Savior of the universe who has made peace with you through His work to act? Pray.

Second point is read the Bible. But don't read the Bible like Southerners are used to reading the Bible, right? Like, "I got my Bible reading plan. I'm gonna read a chapter every day." Then on the weekend you forget a day and then you feel really bad, like "I messed up. Got to read two today." So then you read two, a month in you've missed five days in a row and you're just kind of like, "I'm the worst Christian." That's not what the Bible is for.

The Bible is not designed to discourage you and make you feel like you have to do more. If that's how you're using the Bible, you're using it wrong. Maybe this illustration will help.

Imagine that a man dies and he gives his son this beautiful work of art and it's in a frame and the son hangs it on the wall. Day after day he walks by and thinks, "Man, I've got this beautiful piece of art. It is such an impressive thing." He invites friends over like, "Look at this beautiful piece of art that I have. Isn't it cool?" And everybody comes, and before long this thing's valued at millions of dollars and everything. It's really amazing.

Then finally some kid comes and looks at this beautiful work of art and says, "Wait, isn't that a map?" And he looks and sure enough it is a map. It's a very beautiful map, but it's pointing towards a treasure. And he takes it out of the frame and he starts using it to locate some of the landmarks that are on the map. And sure enough, he goes to a field and he finds more wealth than he could ever imagine.

That's what the Bible is. It's not something to have 15 copies on your shelf so that people come over and go, "Wow, what an amazing Christian."

You have all these Bibles. You have 15 Bibles. It's a treasure map that leads you to the hope of the gospel. It's something that isn't designed to make you feel like you have to work or to achieve something—like checking things off, like prayer. It's something that is meant to point you to the hope that you have in Christ.

Now you should read it regularly, not because you should read it regularly, but because look at it. Open it up. Have you seen the Jesus that is described in this book? It is incredible. Why wouldn't you want to soak in that on a regular basis? Don't feel guilty about not doing it, but I'm telling you if you're not, you're missing out. You are missing the beautiful Christ that will tell you and point you to the reality that it's not about you. And this rat race that we're all running where we're getting exhausted trying to swim against the tide because we're convinced of worldly wise man's advice that it's all up to us—you can slowly stop doing that.

If you pray regularly and you read your Bible, it will cultivate in you a heart of peace. It will remind you of the salvation that you have in Christ, and the example of Christ and his gospel will take root in your life. You will stop operating at bitter envy and selfish ambition, and you will more and more become like the fruit that was planted in your heart to begin with—Jesus Christ and his work.

You know, there was a movie that came out called Shawshank Redemption. I thought everybody had seen this movie, but I was talking to a younger friend of mine and he was like, "No, I've never heard of it." So maybe younger folks, you haven't seen Shawshank Redemption. It's about a guy who's wrongly accused and placed in prison, and he escapes. But in escaping, he actually helps several other prisoners figure out how to live life outside of prison.

There's a concept in the movie where they talk about someone being institutionalized—meaning they've been in prison so long they only know how to live in prison. And there's one character who gets out of prison and he's so overwhelmed by life outside of prison that he commits suicide. That guy was institutionalized. He only knew how to live in prison.

Brothers and sisters, let's not be institutionalized. Let's not only know how to live in the world's ways. We have been called and redeemed and set free by our great brother who has escaped this prison and who invites us to escape with him to heaven where he came from. Let's live a life that is a picture of that.

There's another phrase in the movie that says you either get busy living or you get busy dying. When you're soaking in the gospel, when we're taking the Lord's Supper, when you're considering the word of God, when you're praying—you're getting busy living. When you're running the rat race, you're trying to win God's approval, when you're trying to pull off everything in your life all on your own, when you feel that pressure—you're getting busy dying.

So brothers and sisters, may we get busy living in the hope of the gospel based on the wisdom that has come down from God that the world rejects but is Christ Jesus. And may that take root in our hearts in such a way that we would live as a church in a way that's so beautiful, so beautiful that people would want to come and learn more about our beautiful Savior.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would work in our church and in our hearts. Lord, help us to see the beauty of who you are. Lord Jesus, you are the wisdom that came down from heaven. Lord, you are the one who was beautiful in everything that you said, everything that you did. Lord, we long to be like you.

Lord, your suffering and dying on the cross and your resurrection—Lord, it created an environment where we're at peace with God so we no longer have bitter envy because we have everything we need in you. And we no longer have selfish ambition because we're no longer trying to live just for ourselves. We have everything we need. We live for others to give them.

Lord, would you help this gospel to grow in this congregation in ways that are visible, in ways that are audible, in ways that are tangible to the community around us? And Lord, would you bring many to yourself? Expand your kingdom both in our hearts and in our communities. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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