Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: At some point it’s just about faith. You’ve got to just let Him love you and accept what the Bible talks about as this gift of eternal life. But you have to start with a relationship with Him. You can’t work your way into this. You do what you do for God because He loves you, not to get Him to love you. Because if you get that sequence wrong, this whole thing is going to get screwed up.

Guest (Male): You’re listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We’re so glad you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. And in today’s complicated, busy life, that’s exactly what’s needed. Richard’s talks are always straight from the Bible, filled with truth.

Now, you may not be able to hang out with us for the entire program, but you can always pick it back up at our website, RichardEllis.com. In fact, you can find all of Richard’s talks right there waiting just for you, RichardEllis.com. So, with today’s talk, here’s Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today’s message is Sophia. The word Sophia in Greek means wisdom. And what I want to point out—and I’m probably going to do an unusual, inordinate amount of explaining some of the words in this passage and telling you what they meant originally—but let me say this before we get into it, because this is really what we’re going to talk about once I get into it.

There are churches all over the country, all over the planet, where when you go in, there are very knowledgeable, intellectual, even—there are people who stand up, preachers, teachers—and they’ll go through a passage and people will listen, and they’ll tell you what every verb, the tense, the mood, everything about everything. And when you leave, you could look at that passage, and if you take really copious, diligent notes, you could go away knowing every technical aspect of the passage.

You’ll know everything that happened, everything that was going on. But let me tell you the tragedy of church. It is that there are these places where it’s doctrinally sound and it is truth and all the Greek words are right and everything about it is technically correct, but you come in empty and you leave empty. Now, you don’t leave with your head empty, but you leave more intellectual, more knowledgeable. You just have the information, but there is no transformation in your life.

Now, let me tell you something. You can go to Bible studies and church every day of your life for the rest of your life and learn every Greek word—and I’m not knocking this—but if you don’t know how to take that information and apply it to your life and your life change, it’s almost a complete waste of time. It is an intellectual exercise. Now, it’s not bad to know these things, because at some point, if you start to apply them, that’s a good thing.

But there are people I’ve known in my lifetime who could quote you the Bible, who could tell you the Greek, the Hebrew words, the Aramaic words, any language that you want, but they didn’t really know God. They knew stuff about God, but they didn’t really have a personal, intimate relationship with Him. Now, the reason I’m telling you these things up front is this: I am not interested in filling your head with information. That is not the answer.

If you get information and you digest it and it changes your life, great. But you don’t need more information. Most Christians out there that have been going to church their whole life, if they did something with what they already know, their life would change so dramatically they wouldn’t know what to do. It’s not learning more; it’s learning how to apply what you have.

Now, let’s read here in James chapter 3, start with verse 13. And he asks a question, and he asks it of a group of believers, basically of people in a church. And this is what he says: "Who is wise and understanding among you?" Now, if we went through this room alone, or people that are listening to this message today, and you asked yourself the question, "Am I wise and understanding?" and the word here wise, Sophia, and in this case sophos, here’s what the specific definition of it in verse 13 is: skilled, expert, wise, skilled in letters, cultivated, learned.

Are you wise in that regard? And then the word knowledge, endued with knowledge: intelligent, experienced, one having the knowledge of an expert. So he says, "Who is wise and understanding among you?" We say, "Well, I make good decisions in my life; I must be pretty wise. I’m a good business person. I’m knowledgeable about some things; I have some expertise in some areas." But see, he’s not going there.

Because there are people that are wise maybe in business, but not in life. There are people that are knowledgeable technically maybe about the computer industry or whatever your business is, but they don’t really know anything about how to really live. And he goes through this passage and he says this: "Who is wise and understanding among you? Show it." And if you’ve got the NIV, the New International Version, it says, "Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."

Now, I’m going to try to, by the time we get to the end of this today, help you see whether you have just worldly wisdom and worldly knowledge, or whether it’s a God-kind of wisdom and a God-kind of knowledge and where you can tangibly see it and measure it, because one kind goes one way and another kind goes completely the other direction. You will not be the same person if it’s God-kind of wisdom that comes from above instead of wisdom that comes from below, and it literally says this in the passage.

Now, let me give you one other kind of background statement so there’s no misunderstanding. Most people come to church and get involved in some religion and they think—they’ve been taught this and maybe shown this—that being religious, having a relationship with God, is about performing for God. If I will do these things, then God will accept me because of what I am and what I have done, instead of coming to Him empty-handed and saying, "God, I can’t do anything to deserve You. I can’t do anything to prove my love for You. I am nothing; I’ve got nothing. I show up empty-handed, and I’m exchanging my nothing for Your everything."

Now, that’s where you start, guys. And if you’ve got pride in the middle of this, which this passage will talk about, you’re not going to make it to God. And I had a conversation with a guy, and I told him this in the conversation. This guy was so malleable, so moldable, so willing and so kind of seeking after God. He wasn’t fighting God; he was looking for God and found Him.

And there are so many people who put up these barriers and they fight it and they stiff-arm God and do everything they can to keep Him away. And if they just let go and let their guard down and say, "God, take me," and stop fighting the thing and rationalizing and trying to explain all these things away, at some point it’s just about faith. You’ve got to just let Him love you and accept what the Bible talks about as this gift of eternal life. But you have to start with a relationship with Him.

You can’t work your way into this. You do what you do for God because He loves you, not to get Him to love you. Does everybody understand that? Because if you get that sequence wrong, this whole thing is going to get screwed up. So you start in a relationship with Him, and then this that this talks about here comes out of that. So he says, "Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom."

Now, ask yourself this question: if you think you’re wise and understanding, does your life show it? And does it show it in a way that your conduct, what you do every day and in your life, that your works are done in the meekness of wisdom? And if you look in the NIV, it says, "deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." If you are truly wise, you’re going to be meek; you’re going to be humble. You’re not going to be self-seeking, as we’ll see here in just a minute.

One commentator said gentleness or meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. Now, that sounds un-American. You can’t be meek. It stems from trust in God’s goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of human will. It is a God thing. And you come before God and say, "God, without You, I’m going to be the cockiest, proudest, most arrogant person you’ve ever met in your life.

But if You take control of my life, I’m going to be able to live and operate and function in humility and with this meekness, and that’ll be borne out in the things that I do and the way that I live and the things that I say." So let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Now, here are some no-brainer triggers to see whether it’s working or not, verse 14: "But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth."

Now, ask yourself this question: do you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart? Have you ever been just so eaten up with jealousy? Maybe you’re not in a relationship and someone else is, and you just hate it and you hate them because they’ve got something you want and you don’t have. Maybe there’s a coworker, someone that’s got a job or got promoted and you didn’t, and you’re just eaten up with envy. First Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1. Let me read you a place where this is pretty clearly delineated here in the scriptures.

First Corinthians 3, verse 1: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people." Now, look at that. It’s possible to be a Christian and be carnal, not spiritual. He says, "I couldn’t talk to you like you were spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal."

Now, listen to what he follows this when he declares that they’re still carnal: "For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?" Anywhere you want to go, any time, you show me a group of Christians, Bible study, a church, any kind of ministry, and where there are these things—envy, strife, divisions—you’ve got a bunch of carnal Christians. Period.

You can’t hide this. And one of the reasons why people only go to a church service a lot of times, they sneak in and they sneak out, is they don’t want anybody knowing who they are. And see, you can fool a few people for a little while; you can shake some hands and smile big and get out. But when you have to show them who you are and have to live with them and walk with them and talk with them and do it day in and day out, now all of a sudden people go, "You know, there’s stuff coming out. They’re saying one thing, but something’s wrong here."

Because they seem like they are jealous. There’s envy, there’s strife, there’s divisions. There’s something wrong. Anybody who walks in the back door sees whatever is in there is coming out your mouth. You can’t contain yourself. You’re going to start yacking about what’s inside of you. And if you’re jealous, it’s coming out. If you’re self-seeking, it’s coming out. Who you are is going to come out of your mouth, and you’re going to give yourself away just like that.

That’s why people don’t like to get around people and get connected in relationships, because they don’t want to be exposed. They don’t want anybody to find out what’s really going on with them and who they really are. Beware of somebody you can’t spend time with, that won’t sit down with you, that you can’t talk to and listen to and find out what’s going on with them. This is the test; it’s going to show up somewhere. You’re going to find the holes in somebody’s life.

So he says to them, "You are still carnal. There are envy, strife, divisions among you. Are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?" You’re acting like anybody else who doesn’t even know God. That’s how the world lives. That’s what you expect of them. You shouldn’t be living that way as a Christian. All right, back over to James chapter 3, verse 14. "So if you have bitter envy and self-seeking"—now I’ve got to give you this self-seeking thing because I thought this was very intriguing.

Listen to the definition for self-seeking: electioneering or intriguing for office, apparently in the New Testament according to distinction, a desire to put oneself forward, a partisan and fractious spirit which does not disdain low arts, partisanship, fractiousness. That’s what you get when you’re not doing it God’s way. Bitter envy and the kind of spirit that goes looking for a political office and doing it illegally to boot.

Now, it doesn’t take you long if you’ve been in a church, and frankly, guys, a lot of people get blown out of church because of this kind of crap right here. They’ve been in a church and it was all about politics and people wanting power and people wanting to get in some position and be over a bunch of stuff and control. That’s not God. That is not of Him. That wisdom does not come from God.

That kind of stuff is not of Him, where it’s about jealousy and trying to get somebody over somebody and control something and seek something for yourself. It’s just not what God intends for our lives. And look how he describes that. He says, "If you have bitter envy and this self-seeking in your hearts, don’t boast and lie against the truth. Admit it; don’t try to lie about it. This wisdom does not descend from above." It’s not from God. Where does it come from? "It’s earthly, it’s sensual, it’s demonic."

Another translation said it’s earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. It comes straight from hell itself is what he says. So if you find yourself getting jealous of somebody else and self-seeking trying to promote yourself and be somebody—let me tell you something, you don’t have to try to be somebody. If you know Jesus, you are somebody. He declares that you’re holy, you’re righteous, you’re blameless, you’re pure, you’re chosen, you’re adopted, and I mean go on and on and on.

God’s already determined who you are regardless of your behavior. He made a decision to accept you in Christ. Period. So you can’t get any higher than where you’re seated with Him, the Bible says, at the right hand of the Father. It doesn’t get any better than that. So it’s not about self-promotion; it’s about God raising up people and raising up leaders. And you want those people to be in a position of leadership because they’re doing it—they have wisdom, but it’s God’s kind of wisdom.

And the reason you know it’s God’s kind of wisdom is it’s not self-seeking and there is no bitter envy attached to it. They’re not jealous of anybody; they’re meek. Now, look at verse 16. And I’m telling you, I believe these kind of verses explain why there is so much chaos in churches around the planet today. Verse 16 says, "Where this envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there."

You get below the surface of the words and there is confusion and there’s all kind of evil stuff going on. Now, it doesn’t take you long—and we’re not bashing churches because we’ve got our own trouble right here—but there are places where you go in and they may even be the dress-up church. I mean, they’re dressed to the nines, the tens, however high you can go; they look great, but you don’t want to get around too many people for too long because you start hearing horror stories and such-and-such elder, deacon sleeping with somebody like, "Oh my gosh."

You know what? If it’s not of God, there’s going to be confusion and all kind of evil stuff going on right below the surface. Now, I’m not declaring anything about this church, but I’m telling you guys, when you go in, if you’ve got half a brain and discernment, you ought to be able to tell just like that what’s going wrong or right or what’s going on period. You don’t need to get connected to some church that just has good music and you feel comfortable and it seems like a cool thing to do.

You need to ask God, "Do I belong here, and am I safe here, and are these people going after You or they just want some religious experience? And is there envy in this place, and when I talk to people, what’s the mood, what’s the spirit of the place? Is there self-seeking? Are they only about themselves or is it about other people?" These are no-brainer ways to determine what’s going on in a person’s life and in a church. Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

Now, let me read you the list that you want to look for and that you want to be, and that’s verse 17. And he just goes through simple word by word by word and describes this thing. We know what the wisdom from below looks like, where it comes from, what it causes, but look what he says: "But the wisdom that is from above is first"—the first thing that it is—"it’s pure, holy." When you’ve got God’s kind of wisdom, let me tell you what’s going to happen in your life: it’s going to get pure.

It’s going to get holy. It’s going to be separated. It’s not that you can’t be in the world, but there’s going to be something different. There’s going to be a purity about you that only God can give you. The first thing, then, you’ll be pure. The next thing, it’s peaceable. Another way to put this is peace-loving. You’re not going to be a person that stirs up conflict and contentions and arguments all the time. Now, think about somebody you know who’s got the gift of that.

There are people out there who almost have some kind of malicious gift that anywhere they go, they can walk into a room and within a matter of moments say words and create chaos. These people exist in churches. And they single-handedly, in one situation, in one Bible study, in one conversation, can unearth enough trouble and create more chaos than anybody can deal with, and to diffuse it and take it back down is almost impossible.

The first thing, if there’s purity, the next thing is you’ll be peace-loving. You’re not looking for trouble, you don’t want to make trouble, and there are all these people who say, "Well, I wasn’t trying to make trouble; I was just speaking the truth; you know, that’s really what happened." You’ve got to be wise about speaking the truth in the right place, in the right time. Just because something’s true doesn’t mean you have to tell everybody.

And that is part of wisdom, is knowing when to say what, to whom, in what situation. You see how this works? If you’re really wise, you’re not going to be creating chaos by the things that you say and the situations you get into. Now, understandably, there are people who want to say things and want to create trouble. That’s what you were trying to do. It’s working and you’re good at it and you know it. But it’s not working in the long run for anybody.

So it’s first pure, this wisdom is pure, then it’s peace-loving or peaceable. The third word he says here: "it’s gentle." Another translation says it’s considerate. Guys, I’m telling you, these things are diametrically opposed to each other: self-seeking, bitterness, envy, all that, and on the flip side, this pure humility, peace-loving, considerate, or another way to put it was gentle. You’re going to know you’re around a person like that. You say, "Well, this sounds like some weakling."

Let me tell you, you can be one of the strongest people on the planet and be meek at the same time. And a great word picture for the word meek, by the way, is this: it is not this meek, weak thing; it is of a wild stallion that has been tamed and broken, and now all that energy has been harnessed where it can be under control and under somebody’s guidance and leadership. That’s meek.

You say, "Well, I’m a strong person." It isn’t about you being strong; it’s about God breaking your will without breaking your spirit. And where you will yield and take all that strength and let Him channel it. It is not bad to be strong, as long as you’re strong in His strength flowing in you and through you. So it’s pure, then it’s peaceable, then it’s gentle. Look at the next one: "it’s willing to yield," or it is submissive.

Now, one of the first things you’re going to find you can spot in somebody, if they are not willing to yield—some people, I know people like this, they are never wrong. Know anybody like this? You can try to encourage them, challenge them, correct them, redirect them, and they’ve got an answer and excuse for everything, no matter what they’ve done; they are never wrong. It’s not of God. You’re going to be willing to yield. You’re going to be willing to listen.

You’re going to be willing to submit and say, "You know what, maybe I’m off track." I don’t enjoy it when somebody does it to me. But we’re all wrong at some point. And if you can’t be corrected, if you can’t be redirected, you’re in trouble because you’re on a collision course for wherever you’re determined to go and end up; that’s where you’re going. I mean, I sit down with these couples and they’re having sex outside of marriage and they don’t want to stop and they don’t want to hear about it.

But you cut to the chase and have the conversation. You know what? They don’t want to hear that conversation. But when you have it and they are bendable a little bit and flexible and talk about it and say, "You know what, maybe that’s right," and they do the right thing, then they’re relieved at some point and they’re grateful that somebody sat them down and said, "You know what? This was the right thing to do. We’re glad we did the right thing."

But if you get bullheaded and locked in and say, "We will not change," you’re going to end up wherever you’re going to end up, but it’s not going to be good. So this kind of wisdom is submissive. It’s a kind of wisdom that is willing to yield, that can be moved, and you’ll listen to somebody. Look at the next one: "full of mercy." And this one isn’t hard to spot. There’s a scripture in the Bible about a lady and what it says about her is basically that those who have been forgiven much, the gist of it is they give a lot of mercy.

Wisdom that comes from God is full of mercy. It’s not going to crush you. So full of mercy and what else? "and good fruit." Your life is going to bear fruit. And there are certain times where even alive trees look dead. But I’m going to tell you what, sooner or later it will bear fruit; leaves will pop out and fruit will grow and you will see something tangible on that thing. There will be full of mercy and good fruit.

And then look at the next word: "they’ll be impartial." And that means without dubiousness, ambiguity, or uncertainty. It may not be what you think it is. There is a sureness about a person who is operating under God’s wisdom. They’re not floundering and shaky and off balance. There is a solid knowledge of who they are and what’s going on, without any doubt, ambiguity, or uncertainty. They know who they are and where they’re going, but it’s not a cocky way; it’s a calm, meek, strong just assertion in who God is and who He is in and through them.

And then the last word that’s used here is "sincere." And that word means undisguised or without hypocrisy. They’re real. Now, I’m going to tell you one of the highest compliments that anybody I talk to pays to you as our church. And they walk away and they say, "It’s real." And that means without hypocrisy, that it’s real people with real stuff; they’re struggling, they’re honest, they’re moving forward, they’re where they are, and they’re growing.

And it’s real. We’re not hiding, we’re not playing games. This kind of wisdom will end up—the last thing mentioned in this list is it will be undisguised, it will be sincere, it will be without hypocrisy when it’s of God and His kind of wisdom. Now, look at the last verse. He says, "Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." And another translation said, "Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." If it really is God’s wisdom, then peacemakers who sow—and what they are doing with their life, they’re sowing in peace—they raise a harvest of righteousness. They will truly be righteous people, not hypocritical people who say one thing and do something completely different.

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. We all have busy schedules these days, so it means the world to us that you would take this time to listen. Richard would love to know how today’s talk has touched your heart. So give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD, 855-674-2427. You can also share your story with us at our website, RichardEllis.com.

One last thing: Richard Ellis Talks is a daily program that is always expanding to reach the world with the good news of the gospel. But it also has daily costs, and being a listener-supported program like ours means we rely on the financial partnership of our listeners, which means you. We believe that these talks with Richard are making a difference in your life. So this is how you can make a difference to ours: you can contribute by calling 855-6-RICHARD or at our website, RichardEllis.com. Thank you for your generosity. God bless and thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: There’s one other thing in here that I found and I want to read you, and it goes back to what I started with. It is not a matter of acquiring truth in lectures, but of applying truth to life. Now, see, you could walk out of here and if you’ve taken notes as I said earlier, you could tell me what a few new Greek words are. You could say, "Well, I know how to spot now someone who’s got Godly wisdom or just sensual, earthly, demonic wisdom, basically. I can spot those people now."

But you know what? So what? If you don’t walk out of here and know how to be this person, it doesn’t matter whether you can spot them or not. That isn’t going to help you in the least. The goal in this process is to say, "Father, what does it say and how do I apply what it says to my life? And do I want to end up being either the person that I am, which frankly, guys, if you’re not doing it God’s way, let me give you one guess: you’re probably being the negative list."

They’re self-seeking, there’s jealous, bitter envy inside of you. And it’s coming out somewhere. And you know it. And sooner or later what happens to people, either some catastrophic thing happens in their life, some situation occurs, or they get so sick of themselves they can’t take it anymore. And it doesn’t have to be—I mean, you talk to some guys, maybe a guy’s an alcoholic, he goes home drunk, beats his kids, his wife, and he’s sick of that. You know, it doesn’t have to go to that extreme.

Sometimes you just go, "You know what? I’m tired of talking this way. I’m tired of living this way. I’m tired of having these attitudes and these actions. I’m tired of living this way. There’s got to be a better way to live. And I’ve proven that I can’t do it my own way. I’m wise and I have information, but it’s not changing my life. And God, You’ve got to help me apply this kind of wisdom. I don’t have it in myself. And I want to be the kind of person described here that’s pure and all these things that follow."

And my prayer for me, for you, for all of us, for anybody is that you find out how to live by the list that works. Because guys, that’s what the world’s looking for. They need mercy. They need people who can help them that they see have been helped, that are real, that are not hypocritical, that are sure about who they are and not cocky, but sure and know where they’re going and why. And they know that you’ve listened to somebody before and you’re willing to listen to them and help them in the process and be patient with them in the process and not try to make chaos for them, but to make peace for them, with them, and explain that they can have it from God and with God.

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. We all have busy schedules these days, so it means the world to us that you would take this time to listen. Richard would love to know how today’s talk has touched your heart. So give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD, 855-674-2427. You can also share your story with us at our website, RichardEllis.com.

One last thing: Richard Ellis Talks is a daily program that is always expanding to reach the world with the good news of the gospel. But it also has daily costs, and being a listener-supported program like ours means we rely on the financial partnership of our listeners, which means you. We believe that these talks with Richard are making a difference in your life. So this is how you can make a difference to ours: you can contribute by calling 855-6-RICHARD or at our website, RichardEllis.com. Thank you for your generosity. God bless and thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.