Have you
ever known anybody that just had to be right about everything; somebody that
knew all the answers, even if they were wrong? I used to work with a guy like
that. He was such a know-it-all. I remember one time I asked him a question
that I knew there was no way he could possibly know the answer and he acted
like he didn’t hear me. I was sitting right next to him and so I asked him
again and he literally turned away from me and just pouted, refusing to even
acknowledge the question. The words, “I don’t know” just were not in his
vocabulary.
We probably
all have known somebody like that but how many of you know anybody that simply
must be right…with God? There are lots
of people that feel they are always right but not many that are always right
with God. That is a lot different. It was Henry
Varley who said, "It remains to
be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him."
That man would be a righteous man.
Sitting in
church, we would probably all say we want to live a righteous life but be
honest. It doesn't sound like all that much fun, does it? We want to be
righteous but not many want to pay the price. The problem is that there are two
groups of people that keep you from living a righteous life: you and all the
other people around you.
You are
almost always your own worst enemy. You want to live righteously and yet you
want to live like the world lives. You want the stuff. You want the fun. You
want the sex, drugs and rock n roll party life. You want the money, the fame,
the security that all of that is supposed to bring because the world says you
need it even though you have had some or all of that and you know it’s not
true. Yet, we are still drawn to it.
The good
news, though, is that you are starting to mature and starting to understand
that none of that brings lasting happiness and none of it brings any kind of
lasting joy or peace. You are starting to get a handle on your own desires and
God is doing some great things in you and through you. You are a long way from
perfect but we have been working on that for some time now and you are seeing
progress. Thank you, Lord!
Our passage
this morning is in the book of James chapter one and here James addresses that
other group of people that we struggle with, everybody else. I don’t care who
you are or what you do, you have probably thought at some time in your life
something along the lines of, “This would
be a great job if it weren’t for all these stupid people.” Right? You’re
thinking that you could really be used of God if these morons around you would
just leave you alone. If only everybody was perfect like you and thought
correctly like you and would just live their lives like you, everything would
be okay.
Well, not
much has changed in the 2000 years since James wrote this. He understood that
feeling and has given us, not just good advice but it is also a command. This
was written by James through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and therefore
is a command by God to all of us who call ourselves Christians.
As we start
reading James 1:19-21, I want you to insert your name at the very beginning. He
starts off by calling special attention to this section of the letter and says,
“My dear brothers, take note of this…” I want you to put your name in the
margin or on top of that word “brothers” if you write in your Bible.
My dear
Todd…my dear Brian, my dear Lois. Got it? Let’s read James 1:19-21.
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be
quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20because human anger
does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of
all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word
planted in you, which can save you.
I don’t
always divide messages into points but this passage seems to divide itself four
points that James says we are to do if we want to live righteously and each one
builds on the other. If we want to be right with God, then James says we are to
listen correctly so we can live righteously. Then lose the world - but love the Word.
Now, when it
comes to the first point, listening correctly, everybody knows how to do
it and everybody always does it…if you ask them. If you ask them, they are
listening. The problem is that they are right and the other person is wrong so
THE OTHER PERSON is the one that needs to be listening.
The story is
told of Franklin Roosevelt, who often endured long receiving lines at the White
House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said.
One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person
who passed down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." The guests
responded with phrases like, "Marvelous!
Keep up the good work. We are proud of you. God bless you, sir." It
was not till the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia,
that his words were actually heard. Nonplussed, the ambassador leaned over and
whispered, "I'm sure she had it
coming."
Have you
ever felt like you just needed the other person to listen to you and that if
they would just listen – just listen – then the problem would be solved? Yes,
of course you have because everybody feels that way sometimes. Your spouse
needs you to truly listen. You boss needs you to listen. You neighbor, your
children, your friend, they all need YOU to listen to them.
Teenage
prostitutes, during interviews in a San Francisco study, were asked: "Is there anything you needed most and
couldn't get?" Their response, invariably preceded by sadness and
tears was unanimous: "What I needed
most was someone to listen to me. Someone who cared enough to listen to
me." (Jim Reapsome, Homemade)
That breaks
my heart. How many lives would be changed, how many souls would be won for
Jesus if people just had somebody to listen to their problems? How many
problems would just go away if one person just decided to listen and not just
be waiting for their turn to talk? If we could just learn to listen correctly
and focus on the other person and what they mean, not just what they say. We
need to look into their eyes, assess their body language, ask questions, even
take notes if possible.
It is a
proven biological need of every human to be heard, to express themselves. Have
you ever met somebody that only wants to talk about themselves? It’s because
they never really had anybody to listen to them and they are desperate to be
heard. When people feel like they are not being heard, do you know what
happens? They start to get mad. They get
angry because the solution to the problem is not that difficult. “Just be quiet for a minute and let me
speak!” That’s what they are thinking.
But that is
so hard to do because we all want to be heard. Well, if you want to listen
correctly so that you can live righteously, then James says to be quick to
listen and slow to speak because the anger that comes when you don’t is not
what God wants. Robert W. Herron
once said, “Good listening is like tuning
in a radio station. For good results, you can listen to only one station at a
time. Trying to listen to my wife while looking over an office report is like
trying to receive two radio stations at the same time. I end up with distortion
and frustration. Listening requires a choice of where I place my attention. To
tune into my partner, I must first choose to put away all that will divide my
attention. That might mean laying down the newspaper, moving away from the
dishes in the sink, putting down the book I'm reading, setting aside my
projects.”
We all know
how to listen and when we need to be heard, it seems like we are asking the
other person to do something pretty easy, right? Just be quiet and let me talk.
But here is the problem that so many people fail to realize when they are
asking or just expecting the other person to be quiet and listen. The problem is
you are asking that person to do something that is actually very difficult and
if you ask at the wrong time, it makes it even more difficult.
Just because
you have the need to be heard doesn’t mean the other person is able to listen right now. If you and
your spouse are in the middle of a heated debate, don’t expect them to truly
listen. If they are in the middle of something else, you have to understand how
difficult it is to truly listen even when you really want to, much less when
your attention is already somewhere else. I’m not taking away the value of your
need to be heard. Just realize that, if done wrong, it can lead to more anger.
“Everyone should be quick to listen,
slow to speak and slow to anger.” Listen correctly so you can live righteously. Now, go back
to verse 21. 21Therefore,
get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept
the word planted in you, which can save you. How many of you would
say that you watch an “average” amount of television? I don’t know what
“average” is and it doesn’t matter. I didn’t even try to research it by
googling it. But you would say that you watch TV like an average person?
Now, how
many times have you ever watched a movie, a 30-minute sit-com or even the
evening news and seen two parties modeling how to truly listen? I can’t
remember ever seeing it except maybe from somebody playing a psychiatrist and
they usually don’t even do it right then either. No, most of the time you see
somebody getting mad because the other person didn’t listen and so the first
person just kills the other person. That makes for good TV. That sells. People
tune in for that stuff.
But James
says don’t fall for it. Don’t watch that stuff. Get
rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. That’s
what the world does. It’s what the world watches. It’s what the world thinks
and that’s part of why the world is in the shape it’s in. If you want to listen
correctly so you can live righteously then lose the world and love the Word.
I’m not telling you to never watch TV. I love to watch TV but I realize all the
time that what I am watching is not making me righteous. It is not helping me
to be right with God. And that stuff is all around us. It’s not just TV. James
says it is “so prevalent”.
1 John 2 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the
world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the
world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes
not from the Father but from the world.”
Addressing a
national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference
in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active
religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkably
similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves
Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person
who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten
Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their
faith. Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, p. 76.
Now, do me a
favor. If that describes you, please don’t tell anybody you go to Christ
Fellowship, okay? In fact, just don’t say anything about church or Jesus or God
at all because you are doing nothing to help the cause of the Kingdom by living
like the world lives and then telling other people how they should live and
what religion to follow. We are to be in the world but not of the world. People
should be able to see Jesus in you especially as you relate to other people and
when difficult times come.
Men, how
would you feel if your wife started hanging out with her ex-husband? Oh, it’s
nothing serious. They’re just having dinner together a couple nights a week,
maybe a movie on the weekend. No big deal, right? But then you notice that she
starts to take on some of his mannerisms. She uses some of the same words he
does. They even have some inside jokes that you don’t understand and she starts
to like the same things he likes and pretty soon you realize y’all don’t have
much in common any more but she sure has a lot in common with him. No big deal,
right? At least she still uses your last name.
As
Christians in the church, we are called the Bride of Christ all through
scripture and God is described as being a jealous God in Exodus 20. It is not that God is jealous or envious because someone
has something He wants or needs. God is jealous when someone gives to another
something that rightly belongs to Him. He paid the price for you to be His
child and He loves you too much to allow you to be flirting with the world when
James says here that we should get rid of all
moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word
planted in you, which can save you.
God has
given us His Word, the Bible and passages like this in James, not to be a
killjoy but to show you just how deep His love is for you. He has given us this
owner’s manual for life and it tells us how best to get along with others and
how to be right with God and that is what this whole passage is really about in
James 1. James wants us to be right with God.
But I hear
ya. Right with God, a righteous life, it all sounds so…boring. Right? I know.
So, let’s just get real practical here for a minute. Let’s think about this.
Who do you think lives or lived a more boring life, the Apostle Paul or the
lady you work with that is keeping up with the Kardashians? Think about it. Who
is the boring one? D.L. Moody, who won thousands of people to Jesus or the guy
who works 80 hours a week so he can buy a boat so he can go to the lake twice a
year?
God says in John 10:10 that He wants us to live a
full and abundant life here on earth so do you think that describes you when
you have read everything on Facebook or you when you are on a mission trip?
Now, that’s just in this life. The real reason to live a righteous life; the
main reason we want to be right with God is for the next life. Jesus said in Revelation 22:12, “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each
person according to what they have done!”
James says
that instead of loving the world, we should lose the world and love the Word.
He says we should accept the Word. What does that mean? Accept it means to put
it on like a coat. Wallow around in it. Live in it. Meditate on it and let it
change your life so you can change other’s lives by the way you live. Have you
done that? Are you continuing to do that?
If not, then
start today by asking God to forgive you of your sins and then you need to
repent, or turn away from, those sins. Then ask Jesus to be Lord of your life
and give you the Holy Spirit to live in your life to help you make good
decisions and even be able to do things like listening to people who need
someone to do just that. Accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do
that right now as the music plays.
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