So, have you ever gotten in trouble at school? Maybe this past week, I love the one laugh up there. Like it was this week you got in trouble this week I got it. That's good. Well, I got in trouble in the eighth grade in school and I was out in the hallway, it was in between classes and a friend of mine, she was at her locker and I walked over and did that thing where you go up behind somebody and you kind of knee them in the back of the knee, you know, and they kind of give away and kind of get off balance for a second. So I did that to her and she turned around, she went down and then I turned around and saw the vice principal and the vice principal went do, but she didn't ha ha ha. She was very, had a different look on her face. And so she told me to go to her office. So I went to her office and man, she made me sweat for a while. Like she did not come in, I was sitting there for a long time and then she finally came in gave me a pretty good reprimand and a little talking down to. I, I don't remember getting in a lot of trouble outside of that. I don't remember her telling me to, you know, go, go clean some erasers or go restock the hostess, uh, pudding pies over in the canteen. Iii I don't remember getting a lot of trouble but, but I, I do remember sitting in her office that day and I, I remember that feeling of, of being in trouble, you know, for just a moment, I had a, a temporary prank on a friend of mine and whether it's a, a temporary prank from a, you know, goofy but funny middle school boy or whether it's you slipping on your Jesus dip that you spilled all over the floor during the Super Bowl, all of us have had at least one moment where we lost our balance and sometimes losing our balance, had nothing to do with our feet. Sometimes losing our balance is something that happens in our mind. There's something going on, something that we're dealing with in life and, and we can't think, we just can't think and we can't think straight and, and part of that picture is when we can't think straight, when we have an imbalance in our mind, so to speak. That's when it's really hard to make decisions. Sometimes it feels impossible to make decisions. You ever had any moments like that where, where it's hard to make a decision was, was hard to figure out what you're supposed to do. We continue our series today called Navigating Life where we're considering some of the keys of making good, wise, healthy decisions. We're going to be looking in the Bible in the book of James and what James is going to do. He's going to help us see that there are two things that can really cause our minds to become uh imbalanced, so to speak that, that when we're making decisions, we won't have good balance and making those decisions. In fact, he's also going to show us that it does more than just cause us to lose our balance. He's going to show us how things can so easily get out of control when our balance is off, things at work and school and, and church and, and in local politics and local government and national elections, even in the Little League baseball game, he's going to show us how there's two things that can cause all of those moments and many of those moments to just be out of control. Sounds like something we might wanna know about. We, we don't want things to be completely out of control. And James is going to tell us our sermon today is entitled Turning towards Sound. And we're going to be looking at James three verse 16. This is what James says in verse 16 for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. If there is chaos at work. If there is chaos at school, if there's chaos at the church, if there's chaos at home, if there's chaos in local government, if there's chaos in national elections, if there's chaos at the Little League baseball game, you will find two things every single time, you will find bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. Now we define these last week. So here's just kind of a, a quick recap, bitter jealousy is, is how James uses this term in, in the sentence right before that. And so so bitter jealousy is when you are undone, when you are put out because somebody got something that you didn't get. Why did she get the new iphone? And, and I've still got a pager. Why does he get to go hunting? And I'm, I'm sitting here at the office doing paperwork. Why do they get steak and, and I get hostess pudding pies? Actually, that doesn't work because steak and pudding pies actually sounds tremendous. That that's something you could probably go for. But it's this, this thing where we are so undone because somebody gets something that we don't have. And oftentimes more often than not bitter jealousy will stir us to be angry and harsh and unkind. And the way that gets displayed is we are rude or we're crude or we're cruel when how we talk to other people, how we speak to other people, we yell and, and we scream or we do other things that directly or indirectly just cause problems for other people. However, being angry and harsh and unkind can also be displayed with using the silent treatment by ignoring people or indirectly or directly just dismissing the needs in their life. When there is bitter jealousy, it is impossible to make wise decisions. Bitter jealousy and wisdom do not go together. In fact, James says that when there's bitter jealousy, it leads to chaos, it leads to disorder, it leads to confusion and every evil thing, not just bitter jealousy, but also selfish ambition does. The exact same thing. Selfish ambition is when there is an unhealthy zeal to get your way. The language that James uses here is, is one of party spirit and that's not like a, a baby gender reveal party. This is more like a, like a political party. And the idea here is that there is this party spirit, this this zeal to push yourself to the top, to destroy your rivals so that you can be number one. It even goes so far as to have this understanding that even when you know you're doing something wrong, you, you keep on and you say well, this wrong thing, it's actually good because it's good for the party. It's good for the agenda. It's good for what I want. Selfish ambition creates unnecessary rivalry. It's rivalry that forces people to choose sides, not, not good sides. You know, where you have lots of different groups of people that are doing something good but but harmful sides sides that are not about doing good sides that are just about selfish purposes, self serving. And when there is an attitude of selfish ambition, there will not be wise decisions, selfish and selfish, ambition and wisdom do not go together. And again, James takes it a step further. He says, not only do they not go together, selfish ambition creates chaos, disorder, confusion and every evil thing. Now, does that mean that all jealousy and all ambition are, are evil? No, not at all. Jealousy. When we get down to the root word of it, it means zeal and even in the Bible, the book of Exodus, it says that our God is a jealous God, meaning that God has a zeal to be worshiped a good and right and just zeal to be worshiped as the only one true God. So jealousy is, is not evil, but bitter jealousy is evil because bitter jealousy is sinfully selfish and self serving and ambition. Ambition is not evil. There are ways for us to be ambitious in life that are, that are good and helpful ways for us to be ambitious in life that actually help other people, whether it's sports or politics or religion or just about anything else. And especially as believers as Christians as follow words of Jesus. There are ways for us to be ambitious that actually help people find Jesus. So ambition is not evil. But selfish ambition is evil because it is sinfully self serving. Now, someone may be thinking evil. I mean, come on. That's, that's a little over the top. Right. That's kind of a big word to say that, that bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are, are evil. I mean, isn't that just kind of religious exaggeration? Well, just consider how things are in the world right now. Just, just take a, a glance at everything that we're seeing happening in the world right now is the world full of order and a lack of confusion and, and peace. Is, is that what we see throughout the world? Well, if not, and if not, then, then we know that there are far too many pockets of creation that are being fueled by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition and not just politicians and world leaders, bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. They're at my house and they're at your house. We too, we, we practice these things, hopefully not 24 hours a day. But, but we all have moments when we struggle with being sinfully self serving but evil. I mean, again, that, that feels a little over the top. Well, the word for evil here it means vile, depraved, wicked or worthless. Now, what does it mean for something to be worthless? Well, it means it doesn't have any value and it will never have value, not, not general value but real true lasting value. It doesn't have that and it can't have that look. I love good food. II, I love a good meal. I love a good restaurant. It, it always makes all of my senses feel good. Uh It makes my stomach feel good. I, I just, I love good food. I love a good meal. I love a good restaurant, but none of those things make me right with God. They cannot make me right with God. They, they can help my senses, they can help my stomach, but they cannot help me get right with God. Therefore, it's, it's temporary. It's something I can enjoy for a moment, but that's it. I'm just going to enjoy it for the moment. But being right with God does not just create something good for a moment this year or a moment next year. Sometimes we think, oh well, you know there's going to be a, a birth of a baby or there's going to be a wedding or there's going to be an anniversary, there's going to be a birthday. So we have these moments during the year. These are good moments. These are sentimental moments, these are celebrating moments, but being right with God is not just a moment of good this year or a moment of good next year. Being right with God means that every single moment, 10,000 years from now is good and great and glorious and grand. So how can you get right with God? How can how can you engage in the reality of what will be happening in your life 10,000 years from right now. Well, Jesus put it pretty simply this way, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in Him in Jesus will not perish, will not come to destruction, but will have eternal everlasting life to believe in and trust in and rely on and cling to Jesus as the core of your soul. That's the only way to be right with God, to believe in Jesus in such a way that there is nothing greater, no greater treasure in your life that has had to be right with God. Eugene Peterson wrote a paraphrase of the Bible called the message. And, and in this section on John three, he says this, anyone who trusts in him and Jesus is acquitted, they, they're declared innocent. Anyone who trust in him is acquitted. Anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentences without knowing it. And why because of that person's failure to believe in the one of a kind son of God when introduced to him. Have you been introduced to Jesus? Maybe you haven't, you know, sat down with a pastor or maybe you've never even been in church. But if you've made it through one Christmas, you, you've heard something about the truth of Jesus, even if it was just in a Christmas carol. There's, there's much in our culture in our world in our Western culture that, that we have heard and interacted with some measure of the truth of Jesus, not so true in other parts of the world, which is exactly why we do our loving the loss video every week as a reminder for our hearts and minds that there are people in the world that don't know the Christmas carols that don't know the gospel, that don't know the truth about Jesus. And that's why we go. That's why we give, that's why we pray because the scripture says that that when the gospel has reached all the people groups, then the end will come. Sometimes I think we don't want the end to come. We're way too in love with this world. I promise you this world is not that great. Definitely not compared to eternity with Jesus. So, have you believed in Jesus? Have you been acquitted or let's ask it this way? What will you be doing? 10,000 years from now? It's, it's not a completely crazy question. 10,000 years from now, will you be engaged in death or will you be engaged in life? What will define you 10,000 years from now? Now, many people just dismiss that. Uh we can't know who knows. It's, it's a cute idea. Eternity but, but we don't know it and some people they deny it. Some people say, yeah, even if there is something like that, it just sounds boring. It's been said that Alexander the great once wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. He, he had conquered it all that will not happen in eternity. John Piper says this, when after a million years, we pull ourselves with unspeakable exhilaration over the massive peak of some glorious divine truth. We will be utterly astonished to find ourselves not at the top but merely in the foothills. And before us, as far as the eye can see mountains and valleys and forests and height and light that we could have never imagined. And he says this, there will be no boredom in the age to come. Oh, to be there and not in hell o to be where joy and beauty and majesty is inexhaustible. It will always get better. Always my wife and I went to the, to the Clemson game last night and, and, you know, it's amazing if you're at a college football game, I don't care who your team is, man. Everybody's there in the first quarter, right? I mean, everybody's all dialed in, you know, and, and most everybody's there in the second quarter. But if your team's up and it's a late game, man, people got to get home for church. Right? I mean, it's, it's different and there's not as many people in the second half as there are at the beginning and at the beginning of the game, whoever your team is, man, all the stuff, right? Everybody comes out, it's all the smoke and all the mirrors and all the planes and man, the band's full gear, you know, and sometimes by the end of those games, you know, everyone sitting around you because there's only like 10 of y'all, you know, and they're giving hot dogs away, they're bringing them down to you. All of us have been to something in life where it is grand at the beginning and then, and then it begins to fade. Not so with Jesus Christ. Not so with the glory of God to be with God is never going to be first quarter, never. It'll get grander and grander and grander and grander, the longer we are with him. Oh, to be there and not in hell, James is drawing a line in the sand. He's, he's drawing a line and he's saying, look, there's wisdom from above and there's wisdom from below. What's the wisdom from above? Well, he tells us in the very next verse. Look at verse 17, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace, loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and free of hypocrisy. Now, in the weeks ahead, as we continue in our series, we're going to unpack those pictures of wisdom from above. But, but for this morning, what is the picture of wisdom from below? What does wisdom from below look like? Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition? That's, that's wisdom from below and that's what makes it evil? See what makes it evil is, it's from below in a sense we could say because it's from below, it doesn't really have any value. It doesn't have true lasting value. It leads to everlasting death. And that's not wise that, that's, that's not wisdom, that's not good. And so bitter jealousy, selfish ambition lead to everlasting death. That's why they are worth less. And that's why James says they're evil. They have no worth, they have no value. Now look, you may have some moments of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition that help you win. You may win that game, you may win the election, you may win that argument with your spouse, but they do not have lasting value. It is a temporary victory again. If there's chaos, if there's disorder, if there's confusion at home or work or, or in the church or in local government or in national elections or in a little league ball game, you're going to find bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. Every single time those things are not sound footing, those things will cause you to lose your balance. Maybe not immediately, but eventually they're not sound footing. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition will not help you make good decisions in life. So how can we move in the opposite direction when we look at everything that's happening in the world today? How could we possibly start moving away from chaos, away from confusion, away from disorder and maybe not just in the broad scope. How about just in our own lives? How can we move away from chaos, away from disorder, away from confusion even when we're just trying to make decisions in our own lives. King David lived about 1000 years before Jesus was born and King David made some pretty much some of the most epic terrible decisions that anyone has ever made in the universe. I mean, terrible, awful decisions. Now, does that mean since we talk about him in church a lot that it's ok to make big epic terrible decisions. No big deal. Hey, everything's going to work out in the end. No, it's not the attitude we should take. Jim New Heiser says this about King David's failures in life. He says, while I'm saddened by the account of David's great sin, I'm so thankful. These events are recorded in scripture. What wonderful hope God's grace offers to sinners like us, especially when we're aware of how shameful our sins are. God invites sinners to run to him for compassion and abundant. Pardon? The nicest, most loving people on this planet will not always ask you to run to them for forgiveness and pardon? We seem to be grudge holders who you got a grudge with. Come on, you don't have to say it out loud but you got somebody man, it might even go back to middle school. You know, it's true. You, you're holding a grudge because some goofy middle school boy did the knee thing to you. You know, and you can't get it out of your mouth. We, we all have something like that and it, it doesn't do anything for us. It's, it's not helpful for us. See, we, we don't always live in a world where people, hey, run to me. I, I can't wait to forgive you and pardon you. But that's who God is. New. Heiser goes on to say this behold, the kindness and severity of God. Did you get that behold? That God is super kind and He's super severe and you cannot separate those two God is love and God is wrath. You cannot separate them apart. Behold the kindness and severity of God. He says, don't doubt God's willingness to forgive even the greatest sins. Is there something you think God will not or cannot forgive in your life? He will. He desires to don't doubt God's willingness to forgive even the greatest sins and don't test God by indulging in sin while assuming you'll be able to repent later. I'll just, I'll do that when I get, I'll go to church, I'll get right with God when I get out of high school. When I get out of college, after I've had some fun. Jim says this many other sinners were hardened in their rebellion and did not find repentance. And then he says, this, don't use the pretext of forgiveness to rationalize your sin. Sin is never worth it. That's especially true. When it comes to bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. They are not worth it. They're, they're, they're really not worth it. King David discovered that. So what is it about him that will move us in the opposite direction of those things? What is it about King David that can help us move away from chaos and, and disorder and confusion and lots of bad decisions. Well, let's just take one moment in his life. Psalm 16. Psalm 16 is 11 sentences. Ok? Just, just 11 and in the 11 sentences, this is how he begins. Verse one. Protect me, God for I take refuge in you. So verse one, something's wrong. OK? So something's off you. You don't ask for protection unless something's wrong, he's pressed or, or he's stressed or he's oppressed or, or he's depressed that there's something wrong. Something's not right ever felt like that. Had that moment this week. Maybe where something was off. Something wasn't right. Something, something's bothering you. Something's troubling you. Something is actually a, a trial or a tragedy in your life. So that's the first sentence. And then David does something that if you're a Christian, you should always be doing always. And I would say this, even if you're not a Christian, you should start doing this and, and it's this preaching the gospel to yourself. Not waiting for Sunday, not waiting for Wednesday, not, not waiting for a podcast, not, not waiting, but preaching the gospel to yourself. All the time, constantly reminding yourself of the truth of who Jesus is, what he has done, what he is doing and what he will do. All of us have that ability. All of us need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves. And so David starts to do that right after the first sentence and they listen to the last sentence. You will make known to me the way of life and your presence is fullness of joy in your right hand. There are pleasures forever. See what happened there. He started out pressed, he started out stressed, oppressed, depressed, something was wrong, but he didn't give over to it, whatever it was, he didn't give in or give over to it. He, he kept reminding himself there is something better and the better was God himself. He knew that He knew that God's wisdom and love would never end. It was inexhaustible that millions of years later, he would still be overwhelmed with how the grandness was. Only growing. David knew that God's wisdom and love were real and true and lasting. He, he knew that God's wisdom and love were the path to life and happiness on this earth today. But beyond that, he knew that the love and wisdom of God were the path to, to happiness beyond this earth, eternal life and eternal death. In other words, in the scope of 11 sentences. OK? Just, just think about that. How many sentences have you spoken today? I don't know. Maybe you're not a talker, you, you, you ain't even put one sentence together today. I don't know. But maybe some of us man, we, you know, we, we passed 11 before we left the house, right? How, how many sentences have you put together today? In 11 sentences? David goes from needing to be protected to knowing he was protected, he suddenly built or rebuilt his confidence in God. And why would he do that? Why would he rebuild his confidence in God? Because He knew when it came to making good decisions in life wise decisions, helpful decisions in life. He knew that confidence in God was sound footing. He knew that being confident in God would help him not lose his balance when he needed to navigate life. Charles Spurgeon said this stability in the fear and faith of God will make a man like a wall of brass which no one can batter down or break God find some way to soak that in. I'm I'm going to say it again. Stability in the fear and faith of God will make a man like a wall of brass which no one can batter down or break stability in God, not fear, not worry, not anger, not chaos, not confusion, not every evil thing but stability in the fear and faith of God, in the fear of God's severity and faith in God's kindness. Those two things will give you all the sound footing and all the balance that you need in life in general. But also when it comes to making decisions and that stability does something else. Spurgeon goes on. Nothing seems to offend Satan and his seed like decision. Oh God, nothing seems to offend the enemy and the enemies in your life like decision. What does that mean? It means that for the first time and then over and over and over again, you decide I'm going to be confident in God. I don't care what happens in the election. I don't care what happens in my health. I don't care what happens with my finances. I don't care what my spouse or my kids or my parents or any other tragedy or natural disaster that comes upon my life. I am going to be confident in God, hell or high water that offends your enemy and your enemies. To be confident in God is to remind your heart and mind with no shadow of a doubt his kingdom and only His kingdom is forever. And I'm in his kingdom to be confident in God is, is this unbelievable undeniable, constant tool to help our hearts maneuver and navigate through everything in life. Now does bitter jealousy and, and selfish ambition produce that in your life. No. You know why? Because it's wisdom from below, which really isn't wisdom at all. It's not true. It's not lasting at the most. They can bring you some measure of temporary victory. But that's all Spurgeon goes on to say this carried about with every wind of doctrine. Other people only need to be blown upon and away. They go. But those who love the doctrines of grace because they possess the grace of the doctrines stand like rocks in the midst of raging seas. Look, I can't promise that's what's going to happen to you at your job. You know, I can't promise you that if you do a great job, you're going to stand like rocks in a raging sea. I can't promise you. If you knock on every door for your favorite candidate, they're going to win. I can't promise you that, that you spend hours and hours and hours in the gym preparing for the game. Boy, you're, you're going to win. But I can promise you this. If you are banking your life on the doctrines of grace found in the person of Jesus Christ, you will be able to stand like rocks and raging seas. You know why? Because if the scripture says the most they can do is take your life. And if they do 10,000 years from now, you'll still be in the grand inexhaustible, majestic joy and happiness of knowing God just says this. We dare not budge an inch for the Lord himself holds us in our place and there we will abide forever. You wanna make good decisions in life, you wanna make wise decisions in life. You wanna avoid chaos and confusion and disorder. Do you want to impact the darkness of our culture that, that seems to be full of chaos and disorder and confusion. Then let us turn toward the sound realities of God. Let us build and, and rebuild over and over again, confidence and who God is. We turn toward Him. We are confident in Him. We don't budge an inch. Why? Because He's sound footing because He will hold you in place today and forever.