So, have you ever had to make any big decisions in life? Any, any big decisions in life? And when you did have to make that big decision, how did you make that big decision? What, what did you use to help you make that big decision? Did you ask your parents what to do? Did you ask your spouse? What to do? Ask your friends what to do? Did you get you a magic eight ball and shake it up and try to figure out if that's where the answer is going to be. Did you just wing it when it came to the big decisions? And what about the small decisions? You know, the, the smaller decisions in life that we have to make day in and day out? How do you make small decisions? Well, whether we're making big decisions or small decisions. The one thing that we really want every single time we make a decision is some wisdom like we, we want to make wise decisions that make things turn out good. Not bad. I mean, nobody wakes up in the morning and goes, you know what I think today I'm going to make a lot of bad unwise decisions so I can make my life miserable and make the lives of people around me miserable. No, nobody wakes up like that. If you do wake up like that, have some coffee, you know, maybe have two or 10 pieces of bacon and just, you know, just calm down, let, let your mind kind of pull back together. But, you know, even if we have the coffee and even if we have the bacon, the reality is in life, we still will make bad decisions, right? I mean, we just make bad decisions in life. Some of my worst decisions involved. Haircuts. Yeah. From uh from the bowl cut to the spike mullet. Uh I've, I've missed it more than once, you know, um, at this point for some reason over the last six months, either this is left over from my round with COVID or maybe I'm using the, the wrong shampoo or maybe it's genetics or maybe I'm stressed or, I don't know, but, and my hair is falling out rapidly. So eventually I'm not going to have to worry about making a bad decision with haircuts. I'm good. I'll be fine. No problem at all. How can we make better decisions in life? How can we make better decisions, the big ones and the small ones? How, how can we do better? We begin a new series today called Navigating Life. And what we're going to be doing is we're going to be turning our hearts and our minds toward wisdom, not kitten, poster wisdom but but true wisdom. The kind of wisdom that is good for every generation, every person, past, present and future. We're going to be looking in the Bible at the book of James and what James is going to do is he's going to turn us toward the kind of wisdom that doesn't just help us navigate life, but the kind of wisdom that helps us navigate death. So it's not just life, it's it's life and death. And the wisdom that we need for both is going to be found on, on this journey that we're going to take together. Sounds like if it can help us navigate death, it sounds like it could be pretty important wisdom. So, what kind of wisdom are we talking about? Well, let's find out ironically on this Labor Day Weekend, the title of our message today is Turning toward Work and we're going to be looking at James chapter three verse 13. James begins with a question who among you is wise and understanding. Now that one question packs two powerful punchy pictures. On the one hand James is saying, hey, who wants to be wise? Do, do you want wisdom? Do you wanna make good decisions? And then on the other hand, this question also says, if you're looking for someone to give you good advice and good wisdom for making decisions, what kind of person should you be looking for? Do you want wisdom? What kind of person should you be looking for when it comes to wisdom? Now, just kind of quickly in, in your own world, in your own mind. Who do you turn to for advice? Who gives you advice? Who's that person in your family or that friend, that person at work or school or, or church or, or wherever it is in life. Who is that person or maybe those several people that you turn to for advice that you turn to for wisdom. Now, let me just kind of give a gracious challenge along with that question. Are you getting good advice? Because see, there's, there's Godly wisdom and there's worldly wisdom, there's wisdom that's connected to the one true God. And then there's just the wisdom that's kind of out there in the world. And if we're honest and sometimes we don't like to be. But if we're honest, even among professing Christians, we tend to elevate worldly practical wisdom over Godly wisdom. We really do in the everyday life. We, we seem to be promoting worldly wisdom over Godly wisdom. Just think about each of our individual lives. Who, who can you have influence over in your life? Who are the people in your life that you influence a spouse, kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, um friends who, who are the, the people that you have influence in? And when you look at those people and your life, how often do you find yourself or could we just say consistently. Do you find yourself leading them toward the wisdom of Jesus, leading them toward the, the leadership of Jesus? Or do we find ourselves leading people toward a lot of other things? Is our primary promotion centered on the, the leadership and the wisdom and the ways of Jesus or is our primary promotion in life? Our favorite team is our primary promotion in life. Our, our favorite country singer or pop singer or rock band is our primary promotion in life. Our, our favorite kind of car, our favorite kind of truck or our favorite kind of motorcycle. Our favorite kind of hunting equipment when it comes to how we do life on a daily basis is our primary promotion in life, how to fix something or how to repair something or, or how to chip and putt and hit the long ball. Now, none of those things are bad or evil. They're all fine. But again, as we think of what it means to follow after Jesus Christ, do we elevate Godly wisdom or do we elevate worldly wisdom? Do we spend the majority of our time doing good things promoting good things, things that, that aren't evil in nature, but actually not promoting the one who actually rescued and saved and redeemed us. When we look at the state of our society and our culture, would it be wise for us as Christians to kind of look in the mirror and say, hey, am I really directing and leading my family toward Jesus as we look at the, the state of things in the world today and our culture and our society. Could we say that that maybe one reason possibly that things are the way they are is because we with good intentions, with noble intentions, we try to raise our kids in the church instead of raising our kids in Christ, there's a difference. And if you were raised in church, are you kind of doing your thing? And you're going well, I, I grew up in church, I, I got that connection, but you're not actually living for Christ. We look at the state of things in the world and our society and our culture. Is it fair for us to say? Well, well, maybe we've saturated our lives so much with sports and entertainment and hobbies and business and, and politics with getting a good job and, and having a good house that the good shepherd is just a passing comment and not actually the treasure of our lives. If there was ever a time in history, at least in our history that we as professing Christians should be asking this question. We should be asking this question that James asked, who is wise and who is understanding among us? Where is the Godly wisdom and is the Godly wisdom what we're promoting most? Or is the worldly wisdom taking over? Do we say that, you know, well, that stuff is good for church. But hey, that's not going to help me at work. We say, well, Godly wisdom is, is good for Sundays and, and Wednesdays and maybe a Bible study during the week and maybe Christmas and Easter. But that has nothing to do with what happens when I step in the voting booth. See, we don't like to admit it, but we have just quietly casually said we are Christians and we do something else. The worldly wisdom has taken over and the Godly wisdom is not elevated. One day Jesus was speaking to his disciples and he said this in Matthew 16, 26. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul. Look, it is good and helpful and encouraging to tell our family and our friends to, to make good grades and to have a good job and to, and to have a good house and a good car and to have a good hobby and a good sport and a good vacation and, and to learn to repair good and fix good and, and all of those things. But what good is all that good? If they forfeit their souls, those are heavy words. But you know what? We're living in heavy times. And again, if there's ever a moment that there was a time for professing Christians to exalt the name of Jesus above every team and above every politician and above every entertainer and above every car and every truck and every motorcycle and, and every moment and everything and every people in place and thing. If there was ever a moment for the name of Jesus to be exalted from his people, that time surely is now the time to exalt the name of Jesus. So who is wise, who is understanding among you here is who is wise and understanding the man or the woman or the boy or the girl who is exalting the name above every name, the only name, the last name, the final name that will be king of kings and Lord of Lords. And that name, the only name is the name of Jesus. That's the name to be exalted Apostle John wrote this in first John 55 who is the one who overcomes the world. But the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Remember we just said a moment ago that that this wisdom that James is promoting is a wisdom that helps us navigate through life, but it also helps us navigate through death. So navigating through death, it kind of sounds important, sounds like it could be one of the most important things in the universe, right? And, and that's the wisdom that James is right about it. The the wisdom that John is writing about. John says this, he says, overcoming the darkness and defeat of sin and evil. That is the only and ultimate way to overcome death. Overcoming sin and evil is the most ultimate way to overcome death. So how can someone overcome death? What John said this by believing in, by trusting in, by relying on, by clinging to the reality that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. Sounds like simple math, right? But boy, it's it's big math. It's the kind of math that says, well, if I believe that, then I have to yield my life to the one who is the king of kings and Lord of Lords. I can't just say, hey, see you on Sunday to follow after Jesus means that he impacts our decisions. It means that Godly wisdom has to win out over worldly wisdom. So do you believe that Jesus is the son of God? If not by default, you will not overcome this world and you will not overcome death. That's, it's, it's the simplest math. It's, it's, it's hurtful. It sounds mean and yet it's true and it's full of grace and mercy and full of freedom. So we plead with you. If you have never turned to Jesus, turn to Jesus today read and, and consider and engage with the truth surrounding his birth, his life, his teaching his miracles, his brutal execution, his death, defying resurrection, his glorious ascension and his promised return. In short, we would plead with you to believe that Jesus is the son of God. He is the savior of the world, the only savior, the only king, the only Lord. And how do you do that? I mean that just is that just something you do? You know, is it, is it just just kind of praying something? Is it just, you know, signing something? Is that or is there more to it? Well, John tells us a little farther in first John five verse 11, God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. We cannot overcome this world, we cannot overcome death without the eternal life that God gives in Jesus Christ. So the highest form of wisdom, the highest form of understanding is receiving and believing that Jesus is the son of God. And then following Jesus as the Son of God, that doesn't mean that there's not other wisdom out there that mean that there's not great things in economics and business and silence and science and athletics and everything else. But it just means the ultimate form of wisdom. The ultimate form of understanding is receiving and believing that Jesus is the Son of God and following after him as the son of God, that's the ultimate. But many people would say religion, you're just, you're talking religion and the afterlife. Ah It, it's all just a fairy tale or they may say, well, it's not a fairy tale, but nobody can really, really know. King Solomon was one of the wisest men who ever lived on the earth. And, and he said this about what God has done inside of each one of us. This is what he said. Ecclesiastes 3 11 for God has also set eternity in their heart that we can ignore that we can reject it. We can fight against it. But each one of us, we have a desire for eternity. We have a desire for eternity deep down in the deepest part of who we are and, and my inner person and your inner person. we know that's true. We know there's this desire for eternity. The atheist knows it. The agnostic knows it. Anyone who is a purveyor of any kind of religion or, or new world philosophy, they all know it. We have been created, it is inside of us, this desire for eternity. CS Lewis described it this way, the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and una peaceable want the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work. And the thing we shall still desire on our death beds. When the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work, the desire for eternal eternity is real. It is a reality. I know it. You know, we know it. There is this desire for eternal life. It's inside of us. And how can that desire be met? King Solomon also wrote this in Proverbs nine. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is under understanding, knowing the one true God through Jesus, his son is the highest, most ultimate reality. Knowing God through Jesus is the highest, most ultimate reality. There's no rush, there's no moment, there's no experience, there's no financial gift. There, there is nothing on the planet that is greater, a greater reality than knowing the one true holy God through Jesus, his son. Therefore, the greatest wisdom and the greatest understanding is all found in knowing God. That's the wisdom James is talking about. See, you can have a, a phd from a prestigious university and and not be wise or you can have a phd from the school of hard knocks and not be wise. This wisdom can only come from God. So how do you know you're turning toward that wisdom? How how do you know that if there's Godly wisdom and worldly wisdom that you're turning more toward Godly wisdom than worldly wisdom? So thankful to God for super simple math, James gives it to us verse 13. Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. True wisdom is seen in your work, not, not just like your work at work. True wisdom is seen in your work at home. Your work at school, your work at church, your work in the grocery store, your work sitting in traffic, you know, wherever you are, true wisdom is seen in your behavior and your conduct, in your attitude and your actions in who you are. Faith without works is, is dead is how James says it earlier in his letter. And, and this is not hard math, right? It is our works, our, our deeds that show evidence of what's happening on the inside. If we are wise, if we have this Godly wisdom, it will be seen in how we live our daily lives and it will be seen in our decisions. Not perfectly ok. We're, we're all going to make bad decisions. You know, we're all going to have moments where we just, we make the wrong choice and, and can I just say it's, it's just OK, it's OK. We, we live in a culture right now where if you say or do the wrong thing, you're just, you're evil. And can I just say that's a terrible way to raise our kids and, and most of us parents, we did it more than we want to admit. We didn't give freedom to make wrong decisions. It had to be right every single time. And, and now our whole culture is like that the whole culture is if you don't say the right thing all the time, then man, you're, you're canceled, you know. So like I want you to know, don't, don't be foolishly sinful, but it's OK to make a bad decision. It's, it's all right. You're going to and, and it's OK, we're, we're not perfect. But if we're following Jesus, then our life is not going to be marked with lots and lots and lots of bad decisions because Jesus doesn't lead that way. Godly wisdom helps us be wise in the big decisions and the small decisions. So, although we're not perfect, the question we always ask when it comes to these strong statements from the Bible, is this, what's the pattern of your life? What are you known for? Does your work look like? You know, God, does your conduct look like, you know, God, does your behavior look like? You know, God does your your attitude and your actions, does it look like? You know God, do your decisions, make it look like, you know God throughout the Bible, we we kind of see this as the simple math equation. What happens on the outside is, is coming from the inside. So what's happening in our heart is going to be seen? The word that James uses here for let him show in this passage. It means prove it with your life. Let let's see it, let it be seen in your work, let it be seen in your words, let it be seen in your ways. What kind of ways? What James says? Gentle ways. Now again, we hear the word gentle and we always, we just, we don't mean to, but we just think weak. When you, when you hear gentle, you hear weak. And, and the illustration that's always fantastic is Moses Moses was he, he led more than a million people out of 400 years of slavery. OK, strong man's man. And the Bible says that Moses was the most gentle meek man on the earth. What a resume, right? I've always loved how Kent Hughes describes Moses in this sense, Moses was the most meek man on earth. But at the same time, Moses was a man who could act decisively be as hard as nails and rise to anger at the proper time. See weakness is, is not weakness. Hughes goes on to say this those who are gentle and meek are immensely powerful people for they are controlled by God. So when you hear gentle, don't think of somebody you know, petting a bunny. OK. That, that's not the picture, gentle meek strength under control, strong, but knowing how to use that strength. Those are the signs of wisdom, gentle meek, strength under control. Is that what's seen in your decisions? Do do we see these things and, and how we speak and how we talk and how we act and, and how we think about things. Do we see gentleness and weakness and this strength under control or when it comes to our decisions and our attitude? And our words? Is there more immaturity and irresponsibility? Is there more pushiness and pride? Is there more anger or apathy? Is there more rashness or or rudeness? What what what's seen most of the time the language James uses here is gentleness of wisdom, deeds done in gentleness of wisdom. If we looked at the opposite of that. We could say that the opposite of that would be deeds done in selfishness of arrogance. And sometimes we hear the word arrogance and, and we think of whoever's in the room who's being the loudest silence is a strong form of arrogance. There, there's all kind of, of arrogance. Remember arrogance is thinking of, of self. It's not just being loud and boastful, it's just thinking of self. There's plenty of people having selfishness of arrogance in these days, right? I mean, everywhere you turn, there's someone demanding their way, whether it's in your kitchen or in the state house or out in front of the statehouse, you know, or in line behind you at Target. You know, we, we live in a culture and, and we're quick to point the finger. Hey, it's us too. Sometimes we're the ones standing in Target demanding something. We, we live in a demanding culture, a culture that says this is what I want in my country, in my county and my community and I will not rest until I get it. It's the attitude that seems to be spread in every direction, regardless of what you believe. So what are we adding into that mix as Christians? What are, what are we adding into a world that's demanding its way that's demanding exactly what it wants. Are we adding gentleness of wisdom or are we adding selfishness of arrogance? Just a, a casual look at our lives. Does, does it look like our work and our works and our deeds look like we know God does our conduct look like we know God, does our behavior look like? We know God do our attitudes and our actions and our opinions. Does it look like we know God do our decisions look like we know God is there Godly wisdom or worldly wisdom that's really controlling how we make decisions and what we do in life. A number of years ago, Russell was driving through West Tennessee. He was on his way to a cabin in northern Mississippi and he suddenly realized that he was lost. He didn't know where he was. Now, this was before GPS in the car and on the phone. And, and so all he had was, I'm imagining a flip phone and, and where he was there was not a lot of service. So he thought, man, I, I probably need to pull over here somewhere real soon so I can try to get a signal and call somebody for directions. And so he kind of found somewhere to pull over just on the, off to the side of the road and, and he was sitting there fiddling with his phone and, and it was a few moments before he looked up and realized that he was in the graveyard of a church. He pulled into the little road of the graveyard of a church. He also knew he was in the middle of a really big decision in life. That was part of the reason he was going to this cabin in Northern Mississippi to, to have some time to, to think and pray about this big decision that he had. So he took a moment. He thought, well, here I am. I might as well get out and walk around and stretch my legs for a minute. So he did, he got out and he kind of walked around the graveyard for a moment over to the little church that was next to the graveyard. And when he got over the, to the little church, he looked and saw the cornerstone of the church and it had the date of many years ago when the building was founded and then down underneath the date were the words Herman Russell Moore and Russell thought that that was my grandfather's name and his grandfather was a pastor. So he walked around until he could find some signal and called his grandmother. And sure enough, his grandfather had been the pastor of that church. Now, his grandfather died when he was just five years old. So he didn't really know him, but he, he stood there going. What, what are the odds that here I am in the, in the middle of nowhere. I pull up and, and this little church right here, this was a church that my grandfather pastor. Well, he knew he had this big decision. He was in the middle of, and this was kind of a, an, an unusual moment. So he thought, well, maybe I should just keep walking around and praying for a little bit. So he did, he just kind of kept walking around, kept praying and, and he walked through the, the cemetery and he was looking and reading some of the names and, and he thought, man, I, I wonder how many of these people heard the gospel from my grandfather and came to faith in Christ. I wonder how many of these people heard the gospel from my grandfather and overcame this life and overcame death. And then he said, then I, I kept walking and I thought, I wonder how many of these people gave my grandfather a hard time. I, I wonder how many of them criticized him and, and made a big deal about what he did or didn't do. And he said, and then I thought, you know, regardless whatever it was, it was all over. Now, he said, I realized how, how much was really buried beneath my feet. And he said this, whatever it was that had filled my grandfather with joy during his time here and whatever had kept him worrying at night, much of it was buried beneath me. That cornerstone was still there because the church building was still there. But he said, he, he realized that even one day that, that won't be there. And I loved his description. He said, all of that would be swept away in the trillions of years of cosmic time stretching out ahead of us. See, we, we're worried about the next election, trillions of years stretching out ahead of us with God or without God. Russell said in that moment, his big decision seemed even bigger because he started thinking, well, man, this little church, this, this little piece of land, my grandfather here made the kind of decisions that led to my existence. See his decisions even in that little place in West Tennessee, all of a sudden, it reminded Russell all my decisions matter but they matter. But then on the other hand, as he stood in the graveyard, he started thinking women, maybe my decision doesn't matter as much as I think this, this big decision, maybe it's not that big. This is what he said. After all, I was just a dying creature who would one day be forgotten along with all my big plans and all my fears and all my anxieties. That's a Hallmark card, right? He's just going to be forgotten all of it. But, but there's some hope in there and that's exactly what Russell said. He says I stood in the graveyard, the reality that I was going to die and all of my fears and all of my anxieties and all of my big decisions were going to die with me. He goes, you would think that would create this sense of dread. He goes, but it was the opposite. This is what he said at that moment. The thought of my mortality didn't leave me with a sense of futility or dread. The thought was strangely liberating, freeing me if just for a second to reflect on what really matters to give. Thanks to God for giving me a gospel, to believe and people to love. In other words, in the graveyard, in that moment, with all of his big decisions, he goes, wait a minute, wait a minute, what really matters. I've already overcome. I've already navigated through the thing that matters the most. He went on to write this. Sometimes God will let us get a little bit lost so that we might look about and realize that we aren't phoenixes rising from our own ashes, but we're sheep following the voice of a shepherd. Even through the valley of the shadow of death. Russell said on that day as he stood in the graveyard, he decided a graveyard is a good place to make big decisions. I think there's some truth to that. Look, making decisions is not easy. Ok? There's going to be some really hard ones. Some of you have come to me this week with some of those hard ones. It's not easy making some decisions. Some decisions are, are a little bit easier than others. But the best way to navigate the decisions of life, the best way to, to navigate through the big and the small decisions is to have already gained the wisdom that comes from navigating through death. See, the overcoming part defines everything else that's going on because we begin to remember. Well, wait a minute, this is a big, huge, gigantic decision. But you know what the biggest decision has already been settled in my heart and my mind and my soul. If that has already happened, if you, if you've already navigated there, then your works and your deeds and your attitudes and your opinions will reflect it not perfectly because none of us are perfect. But when it comes to the things that matter, most our lives will, will prove something. It'll prove that we're following Jesus or we're not following Jesus, it will prove that we are trusting him or we are not trusting in him. Because if you've truly received Jesus Christ, if, if you've truly discovered that through Him, you have and will overcome death than what is seen and what is heard, what is watched in your life will prove that Jesus is not just the son of God, but he is your savior. And if Jesus has set you free, then you are free. Indeed. Let's turn our hearts toward that.