Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: how will you follow Jesus in prayer and dependence on God this week?
Main Points
In this lesson shaped by Calvary Boise's teaching on WISDOM: Wisdom in Transition, Christ invites us to receive truth with humility, practice repentance, and walk in faithful obedience.
Grace and Justification
good morning it's good to be with you love cafe chapel Boise this is where I came to the Lord grew up in faith ministry missions was sent out of here I don't know 20 20 years ago we left and I'm gonna talk more on Wednesday I think about what God is currently doing there but for today I just want to get right into the word because we have very little time to do that so if you open up your Bibles to the Epistle of James I'm gonna start there and gonna be moving around quite a bit so buckle up let's read this text here I don't really have time set up the context but James is he's bringing down the gauntlet the hammer and he's trying to deal with carnality in Christians and exhort them to godliness holiness righteousness walking in the spirit he's dealing with their tongue their mouths how'd they talk to one another and so forth and he moves into wisdom and how obviously we need wisdom we need wisdom for all things every aspect of our lives and particularly of our Christian walks but here in verse 13 James chapter 3 says who is wise and understanding among you let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom and now he's gonna contrast wisdom that appears to be wisdom which we think is our wisdom just according to our own understanding resources knowledge and so forth he's gonna contrast that with godly wisdom a wisdom from above obviously one is bad one is good he says if you have bitter mve and self seeking in your hearts do not boast and lie against the truth this wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly sensual and demonic that's man's wisdom apart from God where Mb exist confusion and every evil thing are there but the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy let's pray lord thank you so much for your grace thank you so much that you're a God who cares about us individually intimately your God wants to lead us into good things into fruitfulness into peace and lord we are desperate for your wisdom so we pray Lord that even as we consider it as we look at these principles as we deal with transition in our lives that you would speak even today each one of us Lord we need to hear from you speak prophetically we thank you for what you're gonna do in Jesus name Amen if you're a note taker I got an outline for you today that's not usually my style but I got one today three helpful principles for wisdom in transition number one abide and being near number two wait in here and number three trust and obey transition define is the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another synonyms include change adaptation move alteration metamorphosis and so forth we all are constantly going through transition the older you get the bigger they become we go through you know being single to be married we go from being married to having babies we go from marriage to divorce unfortunately sometimes we go from one city to another we move from one church to another we move into a new position at work or we change careers completely there's just a lot that goes on whether you're a student you're young you're older whatever it is we're constantly dealing with change and transition and we have the knee for adaptation we have the need for the wisdom that comes from above that wisdom which as we read here which is pure and peaceable and gentle and leads to good fruits would anybody agree with that amen I wake up on a daily basis I'm just a weak human being I have my own tendencies I'm a sinner just like anybody else and I wake up every day just saying god help me like what do I do how do I approach this day the situation I'm a dad I have three children by the way you can say hi to my family they love it when I point them out one just disappeared evidently but you can just wave and raise your hand real quick we'll see you guys on Wednesday night if you want to come by and say hi or even today up to the surface but nonetheless back here to dealing with transition and change it can be tricky it can be scary can be intense it can be uncomfortable confusing there's a lot of people that want to give their opinions and interject their ideas and their supposed wisdom and sometimes it may be helpful it may be something that God is wanting to use somebody to lead us into his wisdom and yet at the same time it may be awful and horrible either way sometimes we're tempted towards our own flesh we're tempted towards making rash decisions just winging it and so forth and here's what I want to tell you as I close out my if it's done in a good way if it's done in a godly way if it's done according to the Word of God and the will of God then it will result in good things it will be fruitful peaceful and joyful if it is not however done in a godly way if it is done according to our own wisdom or the wisdom of man that which is basically demonic according to James ear in the end it will be very painful and it will be very messy I want to kind of give you a couple of examples before I get started and bouncing around to some of these other texts I've obviously lived life long enough I made plenty of mistakes I where I came from I was here in Boise I was just living a drug-crazed party type lifestyle hippie New Age Grateful Dead all that jazz and the Holy Spirit got a hold of me and God picked me up took me out of the miry pit of self and sin and destruction and he set me up high upon a rock cleansed me filled me with His Holy Spirit and at that moment I had made the determination and the dedication to Lord I realized Lord I've spent 25 years of my life living it as I have deemed wise and I did nothing but make horrible mess so would you please now be the one who leads and guides and directs and instructs in such a way that if I simply just obey you and follow you then my life will actually bear the fruits of your goodness and your desires for my life because I know that is abundant life and abundant living and from that day forward I've tried to do that though I've made many mistakes and many messes and I'm going to give you one as an example I'm gonna give you one that worked out pretty well one we were you know we moved to Italy we had no kids we end up having kids we needed wisdom to know what to do with kids but then we need to know what to do with our kids American kids in Italy as missionaries do we put them in the school system do we homeschool them what do we do we're not home schoolers I was heavily leaning towards do not homeschool but nonetheless you know you're not nothing against you home schoolers you know god bless you but I we as we pray we prayed about that and we just felt like the Lord was leading us to put our kids in the public school and by God's grace I'm telling you right now it was one of the best things we ever did for our kids for our family for our church plant and the work there in Rome but as we moved on into that what happens is the kids go to preschool for three years from three to six then they go into first grade and from first grade to fifth grade they have the same teacher in the same class and that's a wonderful thing if you get that good teacher and that wonderful glass if not your stock for five years well my oldest daughter she got one of the very intense teachers and from first grade to fifth grade our home was filled with tons of homework and stress and tears and drama and anxiety and problems and so when my daughter finished what happens is they go into junior high well then the teacher goes back and she recirculates through and she takes a first grade class and then she brings him up to this great well our son our youngest son he was getting ready to go from kindergarten into first grade and when that happened we were like oh no what if he gets that teacher we could never do another five years of that plus my you know my daughter issues you know she handled it and she liked that teacher she worked it but you know my son is a different character different nature different personality and all that it would not have been good so here's the point when we decided to try to go oh no we could get her again we instead of doing the principles that I'm going to present to you that I think are helpful principles that lead to God's wisdom in transition instead of doing these things we got a little anxious we got a little nervous we got our hands on things and we created a big mess and here's what happened we went down in July because school starts in September and so we're like man we're gonna live nervous about this we went down I went down and I changed our son from the part-time school to the full-time school thinking well she taught part-time and so we'll go into the full-time and we won't have to worry about this right well guess what happened when it came time to start the school year we found out that she switched I mean guess what our son got put in her class so by God's amazing wonderful mercy and grace you know we repented we prayed about it we went we talked to the principal it got worked out we got him switched and he ended up with the greatest teacher for five years that was one example of not applying the principles I'm going to present to you I'll give you a quick idea of another example that I'll probably touch on a little bit more in the message and that is just being called to Rome going to Rome leaving our family leaving you know the church Calvary Boise you know we had a nice pretty little life we had two cars two dogs nice little cute house with the fence in the front yard I had a business I was involved in ministry there was a revival in the church things were great and then the Lord said I want you to start a church in Rome and we were like what no wait cuz it sounds cute and romantic but it's really not the food is amazing I will guarantee you that there is no food like the food in Italy but Rome four million people it's intense and we kind of live in the Bronx and so but anyway you know God said I want you start a church there well when we went to kind of put out the fleece is it where I'm gonna refer to Gideon a couple times in this message but that's where we kind of applied some of these principles and we really wanted to make sure because it was such a big transition and change and issue you know it's kind of one of those things where it's like god we've got to know this is you got to know exactly what you want us to do where you want us to go and so it worked out good and it's produced fruit we've been there for 20 years we have three italian-speaking churches in the rome area and we're still alive so I just want to point out you know proverbs chapter 4 verse 7 says wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom David in psalm 119 he referred to the reality that he was basically wiser than all of his instructors and teachers because of his relationship to the Lord and his relationship to the Word of God you ready for the three principals am I going too fast cuz I'm gonna get faster so hang on three important principles to help us have wisdom in transition number one abide and be near let's turn to John chapter 15 you know when you're in a time of transition we always want to be walking in our first love relationship with Jesus Christ the fact of the matter is that's just not the reality life takes on its own thing work we're busy we get scattered stretched out we've skipped church things are happening whatever we're just not stayin as close to Jesus as we really ordinarily should and yet in times of transition there is no other time like that where if ever before or if ever period we would need to draw near to God and be connected to and rooted in our intimacy in our relationship with him in such a way that we could know this is what's happening this is what you need to do this is what the decision you need to make this is how you need to approach that situation with your rebellious teenager or whatever it may be because it can be the difference between life and death the future that is you know prosperous for that child or it could be the difference in our financial reality it can be the difference in our health whatever it may be we want God's leading as we read this text here in John chapter 15 that's exactly basically what Jesus says and I just want to remind you this is the point of everything that we are and everything we're doing is Christians it's about our relationship with Jesus Christ it's not about we get what we do and all this other stuff it's about knowing him and loving him and then the wisdom and the fruit and the results are just a natural consequence an outflow of that intimacy and so here he says I'm The True Vine my father is the vine dresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit you are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you he's talking to the apostles to the disciples there abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me I am the vine you are the branches he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing now how many of you truly believe that with all of your heart this morning you're at a place in your walk and your relationship with Jesus Christ we're over a period of time you have come to discover that when I do things in my own flesh it produces death and drama but when I do things out of just the intimacy of my walk with God my relationship with him I'm just walking with him I'm not trying to get these things but just because I'm so close to him and connected to him then I have a sensitive here I have discernment I make good decisions and so forth and it makes a really big you really believe this you really believe no really apart from him I can do no good thing nothing that is lasting nothing that is eternal and productive in God's kingdom I believe that I believe it more and more every single day and I just want to point out to you a couple things here one obviously he's the he's saying stay close to me that's our principle here is abide and be near get as close as you can repent of sin purify your heart and your mind spend as much time as you can in the word and fellowship in prayer do whatever it takes to just be close to Jesus this was the heart of David and when we see David doing this very thing we see the man that we all come to love in David when we see David doing the opposite we come to know the man that we all go home and help me not to be like David in that situation because he created great problems and drama and disasters in his life and in his family's life and in the life of the whole nation but in Psalm 27 he says there's one thing that I desire the Lord and that will I seek after it is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and what David is expressing there is not a desire to go to church because he likes church so much he loves the building it's got great marble gold this and that or whatever it's because God is there and I just want to know God I just want to dwell with God I want to be in his glory and in his presence I don't know worship Him I want to love him because that is the most fulfilling thing that I can ever do and be and that's where we need to be in this first step following this first principle is just abiding in Christ he says in James chapter 4 it says if you draw near to God he will draw near to you if you want wisdom that goes beyond the natural you could never calculate all the different dynamics and variables and if I do that it'll work out like this but God knows all things he knows what the future holds he knows what the result is gonna be if you in fact move or if you in fact deny that position that seems like it would be a lot more money but it's gonna distract from your family or whatever it may be the second principle here is associated with this and it we get we have to dig a little bit deeper it goes a little bit more into the reality of abiding and that is that we are called to wait and hear from God we don't want to get rash we don't want to react emotionally or just out of exhaustion like I don't know what to do so I'm just gonna take the job I don't know what to do so you're grounded I don't know what to do so and we just make these rash decisions in proverbs chapter 21 verse 5 it associates ration as' to poverty how many of you like poverty spiritually speaking poverty in your relationships poverty in your world and reality it's not fun and so we don't want to be rash and the my son you know I called the Brady School debacle that was being rash that was getting anxious that was not waiting on God but what I want to show you here and even David's words again in Psalm 27 David says wait on the Lord be of good courage and he will strengthen your heart wait I say on the Lord and I know many of you are here today and you're right now you're in a little thing where you're just like I don't know what to do but I need to know what to do and I'm running out of time and here's what you need to do you just need to wait you need to not only wait you need to wait on the Lord you need to seek his face and you need to wait patiently there are many things that have gone on in my life and in ministry and marriage and our world where I waited for a minute sometimes a second sometimes a day you know whatever in my mind it's like I wait I was waiting and I didn't get what I needed and so I did what I did and then now look at this it's horrible and there's so many times where I wished I wish I would have waited just another hour I wish I would have waited another day I wish I would have sought the Lord more I wish I would have fasted and prayed have avoided this train wreck and in James chapter 1 verse 4 he says let patience have it's perfect work in you why because God does not work on your timeline God is eternal he sees everything he's doing a lot and we're just there come on god I need it yesterday come on you know we're used to the drive-thru and all this stuff and gods like hey I'm not your drive-thru I'm managing a whole universe and there's a lot of things going on here and I got to get that person over here so that person gets there and then you get connected with that person you're gonna get the phone call but it's not till tomorrow if you make the decision today it's gonna create problems and so god knows what he's doing he sees the beginning to the end and we want to tap into that resource and say you know you see so what should I do and until he speaks we need to wait patiently and let patience have it's perfect work in us you know Jesus said to ask seek and to knock in Matthew chapter 7 you know the idea is that you're pressing in you going deeper you know it's not just well I asked and I didn't get anything no I asked I didn't get anything so now I'm gonna seek I'm gonna go a little further with this I'm gonna spend more time on it sometimes we think prayer is just throw it up something should come back down immediately and we can run with it and instead again it's about relationship and God working and timing and sovereignty all kinds of different things and God wants us to just calm down slow down and wait upon him and then when he says what he says we can run with it we can act react in faith and obedience and that's gonna be our third point here in just a minute but I want to just encourage you to persevere in prayer and when I encourage you to press in I want to encourage you to get beyond this superficial I was given an example last night of the time when I was starting the Bible college over the church building on Longmont and I was just feeling you know there's so many transitions taking place in my life I went from being a pagan to being president I went from working a secular job all of a sudden to be just catapulted into went on the mission trip came back they were getting the Bible College they offered me you know just to stay at the church and study the Bible and so forth and so I mean there's a lot of changes in transitions and I remember just feeling like man this is I need perspective I need to be close to God I need to hear from God and I went in the cry room one day and I just sat down and you know sometimes you just you just feel like you're a little dry just a little off and you just kind of feel like even in prayer you're talking to yourself you know what I mean is that just me does anybody else feel that way sometimes I don't like listening to myself talk and so especially in prayer sometimes when I'm talking out loud to the Lord he's I was like I why do I have to listen to myself but anyway I sit there and I just kind of talking and I felt little lockers and then it was like just you know faith engaged and the Holy Spirit stirred or whatever started happening and then the next thing I know I'm just sitting there just sharing all my heart my life my burdens I'm just waiting on the Lord listening to learn I'm having this sweet time of fellowship and I just spent like two hours in the cry room there all by myself just in bliss you know just being like this is exactly what I needed and that's what we need to do we need to press and we need to persevere in prayer we need to get alone with the Lord we need to unplug we need to turn off the phone we need to get out up into the hills into the mountains take a walk out into the desert take a walk around the building at work or do whatever it is but we need to wait on the Lord and we need to hear from the Lord and we need to not do anything until we do we see this in David's life in psalm 40 he says I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry he also brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet on the rock and established my steps notice the sequence I waited patiently he inclined he spoke I heard my steps were established we want to make firm steps before our feet not just be stepping out into chasms that lead to death and destruction so we need to exercise prayer there's one other aspect to this before I move on to the last point here that I want to share with you and that is looking for the prophetic voice of God in these times of waiting and praying and really that's just this theological way of saying hearing God right like when he speaks to us prophetically obviously the Word of God is the inspired Word of God without error trustworthy you can stand on it you can count on it he speaks to us through his word I would suggest that when God does speak to you in these prophetic ways that I want to refer to that you get that confirmation through his word God's not going to tell you to do something or to make a decision that would be contrary to his character as nature his will or his word however God does speak to us he's the Living God he's the logos he's the Word of God he created by speaking he's always speaking and he loves to speak into our lives and so we say God I do I go to this school or do I go to that school or do I not go to school do I take that job or do I quit my job and do I become a missionary because I really feel comfortable getting a paycheck I don't know if I could live by faith or whatever it is and then it's like okay I'm listening I'm waiting and that may be a day a week a month a year or whatever it is but at the end of the day I need wisdom from above I need eternal wisdom that is going to produce good things and fruit in my life and so this idea of the prophetic word you know Jesus says I'm The Good Shepherd and my sheep hear my voice well he's not he's not spelling out his plan for our lives in his w
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.