James 1:19-20
“Extreme Makeover: What Looks Good to Jesus? Big Ears”
“The divine character demands that we listen.”
Sunday Morning Sermon
11.07.04
Intro: (Start with Sermon Title)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile and saying the usual things at all those White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was paying attention to what he was saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big smile and said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." People would automatically respond with comments such as "How lovely!" or "Just continue with your great work!" Nobody listened to what he was saying, except one foreign diplomat. When the president said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning," the diplomat responded softly, "I’m sure she had it coming to her."
It seems rather incongruous that in a society of super sophisticated communications, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners. -- Erma Bombeck
The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. – Fran Lebowitz, 1950 –
Discussion:
God wants you to pay attention. God wants you to hear his word this morning. Sometimes I wonder if we are listening to the word of God, or something else. Do we hear him whisper over the noise we surround ourselves with? James has something to say about listening. God wants you as a Christian to have Big Ears.
Turn with me to James 1:19-20 (read) (Advance)
I see three things this morning – if we are trying to have big ears for Jesus. We must do three things: (Advance)
I. Be Quick to Listen
Isaiah 51:1 – "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
a. Being a person of God means:
i. That you listen (Advance)
“The divine character demands that we listen.”
1. To those around you
Why do people talk? Sometimes I wish my dog could talk – tell me what she’s thinking.
You talk because you want to be heard – is that right? You talk because you have something to say. You talk because you have an experience to draw upon, because you want the approval of another person. A wise preacher told me one time, preach because you have something to say not because you have to say something. People like to hear those who have something to say. Being a person of God not only means that you listen, but church it means
ii. That you listen quickly.
1. Without hesitation
2. Without rebuttal
3. Without getting your word in first
Anyone can talk – it takes someone after the very heart of God to sit down and listen to the pain and struggles of another person. To celebrate in the good times, and cry in the sad times. Take time this week
b. To listen to God
i. What he is saying to you?
ii. Can he speak freely – or does he have to make an appointment?
I like the radio loud in the car. Each and every time we get into the car, especially with Hailey, I turn down the radio. The noise is too much for her to handle.
c. Our personal noise
i. Is sometimes too loud
ii. When we hear the opinions of people over the word of God
iii. When we hear the wishes of those around us rather than the will of God.
You can tell how loud your personal noise is by testing yourself --
d. Do you look for the will of God – but never seem to find it?
e. Have you had times when you felt – “in touch” but now you feel disconnect?
God has the desire for you to feel “in touch”. God has the desire for each and everyone of us to understand his clear will in our lives – but why do Christians, people of God go through times of spiritual drought? I want to suggest something:
f. It’s because we don’t listen
g. It’s because we don’t hear God above the noise and the busyness in our lives.
God will not compete with your family, your spouse, your children, with your job, with your desire to make more and more money. God will not compete with your free time. The more and more we put into our lives, the less and less time we have for the one who knows us best. You don’t hear, you don’t understand – because you are not listening.
Here’s how to fix it:
h. Pray –
i. Not just “rubba, dubba, dub, thank you for the grub”
W. Graham Scroggie once said, "Pray when you feel like it, pray when you don’t feel like it, pray until you do feel like it."
Pray like it means something. Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background.
One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
By this time the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground."
Spend time in prayer with your heavenly father. Ask God to change your heart, ask God to examine your heart. “Well, if God wants me to have it, he will just give it to me.” – Really? Would you show me that in the Bible? God just handing people what he wanted them to have – Most of the time, if not all the time they prayed for it.
If you are serious about listening to God – pray. Something else you can do:
i. Read Scripture
i. If nothing else – read through the book of James
1. It’s very practical
2. It’s very honest
ii. Read through the Psalms
1. Most are prayers
2. David crying out to God.
3. Asking God to search his heart
iii. Read through the Gospels –
1. What did Jesus do when those around him were hurting?
2. How did Jesus act when those around him were in need?
3. What did Jesus teach about sin?
4. What did Jesus teach about the sinner?
You want to hear God more clearly in your life? You want to understand his will? One more thing:
j. Attend Church
i. Get here every chance you get
ii. Be with people of like faith
And the idea is so that we can grow together as one body in Christ. One of the amazing things about the human body is the fact that when you eat ice cream too fast it gives you a headache. When you are having a heart attack your left arm hurts. What would happen if you go to the doctor and they schedule you for heart surgery, but your feet are somewhere else? It’s a little crazy to think about, but work with me. When the church is together as one body we are moving forward. We come together as the body of Christ, we need each other.
He tells us to do something else – I believe it’s just as important as listening. He says:
(Advance)
II. Be Slow to Speak
a. Think about what you say
i. Your words are powerful – James understands the power of the tongue – He says: (Advance)
James 3:4-6 – Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. (Advance) 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
b. Your tongue is a gift from God
i. You can express yourself –
ii. You can worship God with voice and song
iii. You can honor God
1. Through your speech
2. Through the love you show
Just as you can do wonderful things with your voice and tongue. We must be real – you can argue, fight, tear down, discourage, gossip, complain and lie. Just as the tongue can build up and encourage – it can tear down and discourage.
c. You are setting an example – Paul told Timothy (Advance)
1 Timothy 4:12 – Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
Your kids will do what they see you doing – In Singapore the government is outraged by something that the young people are doing. If you are important in Singapore, you show up late for weddings, and social events. Young people show up first, the unimportant show up first. The older you are, the more important you are – The thing that has the Singapore government so enraged – the young people have taken on the tradition.
Let me ask you this – is the example you are setting worth following?
d. Honestly
If you were honest, about the language you use. If you were honest about the things you spent your time on. If you were honest about every part of your life – all of us – myself included could probably stand to shift a little.
There are many trends in scripture – one of the clearest is how the
e. Tongue is connected to the heart
Notice what James says – (Advance)
Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry
i. Listening and speaking
1. Is connected to the anger that you have.
Somehow if I listen you completely, and you listen to me completely – and we both make an extra effort to listen to God – it will help us to slow down our anger. James is not giving us instructions as much as he is giving us a recipe for righteousness.
f. Anger
i. It’s not the way to righteousness
ii. It’s not the way to repentance
I know this is crazy – but anger is not the way to be heard or to make people change. Get rid of the idea that somehow your anger, your show of frustration, your loud voice makes a difference. People are a lot like mules – back one into a corner and they will come out kicking. Anger is a condition of the heart – the tongue is simply one way to express it.
The third thing James says is: (Advance)
III. Be Righteous (Advance)
1 Samuel 26:23a – The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness.
a. God desires something from you
i. He wants you and me to be righteous
ii. He wants righteousness to be the foundation that you build your life on.
Paul understood this so much that told the Ephesus church – Righteousness is a belt that you tie around your waist --“It will keep your pants up.” How do you build a house of righteousness? (Advance)
Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
b. Righteousness is not something you build
i. It’s not through works
Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith – if it were by works we could boast about the many great things we do. Righteousness is not something you build in yourself. Your righteousness is from GOD! If you are righteous it is not based on your church attendance, the time you donate, the money you give, the calls you make, the board meetings you attend – your righteousness is from GOD.
c. When you became Christian
d. When you were baptized and gave your life to Christ
e. When you walked down the isle and said your good confession of faith
God gave you his permanent Holy Spirit. God started building in your life a righteousness that would grow. (Advance)
Philippians 1:6 – being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
f. All of your attempts at righteousness
i. Will fall short
ii. Will fail
You might clean up pretty good for awhile. You might even think you have your sin conquered. What happens, and it happens in so many lives – you separate yourself accountability because you have it whipped. And the devil knows your weakness, and as strong as you think you are if you are leaning on yourself, your own knowledge – you will be tempted and you will fail. You know you have failed, and then you believe that you will never be able to rise above, never be able to conquer whatever it is, so you give up.
g. Obedience to God’s righteousness
i. Doesn’t make you perfect
ii. It makes you able to handle both your victories and your failures because you know who is in control.
iii. It also gives you a desire to help those around you….
Conclusion:
Extreme makeover, trading spaces, monster house, what-not-to-wear, pimp my ride, the swan, clean sweep, while you were out, surprise by design, monster garage, in a fix, and taking care of business…All make over shows. All of them take something, a house, a car or a person and makes them better than they were before. Listen, God wants to do the same in your life. He wants to do something extreme in your life and make you better than you are right now. But he won’t start the work until you are ready to give him access to all you are. He wants you desire to hear his word – he wants your desire to know who he is and his will for your life.
I guess the question comes down to willingness – not his willingness (because God is willing) but yours. Are you willing to grow in your listening skills are you willing to grow in righteousness? If you are he is right here with you. Matthew 6:33 says to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be given to you. It’s not hard to do, but he will only go where you let him.
Some of you are glad that I preached this sermon about listening. You could name the people in your life who need to wake up and listen more. Maybe they are sitting right beside you, or someone you work with. Let me quote the fruitcake lady – To see a change in someone you love – you must first be willing to change yourself. The change starts with you. And it needs to start right now.
We’re going to offer an invitation this morning – and if you have a decision to make for Jesus, perhaps you want to make a commitment for Jesus Christ to listen to him more. Maybe it’s just a matter of turning down and tuning out the noise in your life. We want to help you be everything that God wants you to be. Maybe you want to join this body of believers – we invite you to come as we stand and sing.
