SHHH...Are you Listening?

James 1:19–27 NIV

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, 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. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

INTRODUCTION

An old Wild West fort is about to be attacked. The wily old general sends for his trusty Native-American scout. “You must use all your 30 years of skill in trying to estimate the sort of army we are up against here that is outside our fort and ready to attack us.”

The trusty scout lies down and puts his ear to the ground, pauses a few moments, and then says: “Large war party, maybe 300 braves, four chiefs, two on black stallions, two on white stallions. All have war paint. Many, many guns. Medicine man also with them.”

“Good grief!” exclaims the general. “You can tell all of that just by listening to the ground?”

“No,” replies the Indian, “I can see under the gate.”

But boy, to be able to have those kinds of listening skills.

And as listening is our focus for today, perhaps it’s appropriate consider: How well do you listen?

Now I know that as you consider the answer to that question, it’s tempting to let your mind wander to the other people in your life who may not listen well to you: spouses, kids, entire classrooms, if you are a teacher.

But if you’re doing that, perhaps note how it feels not to be listened to, and then rein yourself back in:

How good of a listener are you? (P)

It’s the next important ingredient we want to discuss in this four-part lesson on prayer. And by the way, this series is called, even though it’s a little long to cram into the bulletin: Establishing a Relationship with God Through Prayer, because that’s exactly what this is all about.

I’ll refer to this again later, but this is not about a religion. We don’t come to church and say prayers and sing songs and contemplate a God up there because we need a religion and another thing taking up space in our already jam-packed schedules. We are talking about a relationship with a loving God who desires fellowship with us. This is the real deal; it is not about a religion, but it is about a relationship. (P)

So as we focus on that relationship and our desire to increase that closeness with God, we find that prayer is a critical component.

What relationship in your life goes well when you don’t communicate and connect with that person? It simply doesn’t work. (P)

And as we seek to be obedient to God and we want to know what He’s saying to us, listening is a must. (P)

And I believe most of us desire to do that; most of us aren’t itching to be defiant and rebellious to God. But for most of us, when the notion of listening to God comes up, it triggers several questions we find ourselves wrestling with.

What does God expect from me? What is He calling me to do?

How can we listen to God’s calling in a world full of distractions?

How do we know that what we hear is actually God and not our own desires? (P)

That’s what we’re going to try to figure out over the next several weeks, especially this week as we talk about listening, and two weeks from now, when we talk about hearing, discerning, and accepting His answer.

Between the two, next week, we will actually talk about how to pray. What do we say, how do we use the Lord’s model prayer in a way that isn’t just vain repetition, like we discussed last week? (P)

Now you may be saying, Pastor Eric, I think you got this backwards. Shouldn’t we talk about praying first, and then listening?

And the answer is no, because I want us to understand the importance, the priority even, of listening.

You’ve probably heard it said repeatedly that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. That means even when we do speak to God in prayer, we need to do so ready to listen for Him and to Him, and so I want that to be embedded in our thinking first, and then we will come back and talk about the rest. (P)

So let’s do it.

There is a lot that scripture has to say about listening, and I actually had a hard time zeroing in on one primary text to use this week, but then I was led through prayer and study to this passage in James’ first chapter, and I thought it pretty well summed it up. Because what James is revealing here in the early part of his letter is the importance of listening to God, and the steps we need to take to be able to do it effectively.

He would say that there are three of them, and we are going to explore those together this morning. A disclaimer, you see three R words in your notes that we will use as a one-word action statement, and those R-words are to the credit of Ronald Blue in one of the commentaries I was reviewing, and it really helped me to unpack each of those steps, so I hope it will be helpful to you.

Step number 1, one that deals directly with a question I started with - how do we hear God amid all the distractions?

Well, this first step addresses that very concern. This is a step of: {CLICK}

1. RECEIVING: [Where we] Eliminate all distractions and focus on Christ.

Now I realize that sounds like two different concepts, receiving and eliminating, so let me explain this a little bit.

Verse 19 of James 1 says that everyone should be quick to listen. That’s the receiving part. If we want to receive what God is telling us, we need to listen.

Now that seems simple enough, except it’s really not. Because there’s this monkey wrench that gets thrown into the mix that makes listening very difficult, and that’s this thing called distraction. (P)

James says that much of the distraction we face comes from human emotion, anger being a big one, according to verse 20, and evil and moral filth being another one in verse 21. James says that to fully listen to what God might be revealing to us, we need to get rid of these distractions.

Paul would agree in: {CLICK}

Colossians 3:8 NIV

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

{CLICK}

Basically, we need to get rid of everything that is not of God.

What actions or thoughts are you mulling over that are not from God? That’s the moral filth James talks about. (P)

But this is where we have to be careful and not easily misled, because even if we aren’t actively involved in any great sin or act of filth, what are you feeding your mind that is making you think of those things, or making you react to the mess going on around you in a way that isn’t healthy?

Maybe we are praying when we drive, and somewhere in the middle of your prayer, some knucklehead cuts you off, and somehow the sentence that started with you praising God ends with you cussing at that driver. That doesn’t work so well. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pray in your car, but maybe that’s not the only setting you pray in if you really want time where you can actually listen to God.

Facebook and Social Media can creep in on our time with God, too, especially with the handiness of our phones. I know for me, it isn’t helpful to be at my computer working on a sermon if I’m only a click or two away from bringing up Facebook, which will inevitably show me a political post, or how pathetic the Steelers were this year, and how they narrowly, on a wing and a prayer, made it to the playoffs.

And then I get angry about the stuff I see, or maybe tempted in other areas - how does that help me in my focus time with God, especially if I’m trying to listen to what he wants me to tell all of you on a Sunday morning? (P)

It’s not hard to encounter such distractions. The hard part is finding the remedy: the elimination of those distractions.

How do we tune out the distractions that are always all around us? (P)

A lot of it does, I’m afraid, take intentional effort. Other than the TV remote and the off buttons on our cell phones, there is no magic switch or button that turns off and blocks out distractions. It’s about finding that quiet place that we talked about last week, and even then, it’s still a mind game, because even if we are in a quiet, distraction-free room, that doesn’t mean our minds stop churning about our schedules and our most recent frustrations. (P)

But the good news is, God does not leave us to fight these battles alone. He just wants to know that you care enough about your time with Him that you’re at least willing to diligently seek Him despite everything else going on around you, and if so, He gives you this promise from Jeremiah 29: {CLICK}

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

It’s about real focus. It’s not always easy, but we can redirect our brains. But we do have to start by finding that quiet space so that no outside distractions take over.

Clean out a closet like they do in War Room, go outside to a nature sanctuary where you have been able to find the peaceful presence of God, go to a cellar or attic, or just come down to our prayer room. But you have to find that quiet space to eliminate all the distractions you can, and then all you have to deal with is your mind, where you zero in on God, and all the good things associated with Him.

Paul says it this way in Philippians. Opposite what he said in Colossians 3:8, where we get rid of all the ungodly stuff: {CLICK}

Philippians 4:8–9 NIV

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. {CLICK} Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

(P)

You’ve got to exert that effort, with God’s help, of course, to achieve the quiet space where the only thing left for you to address is your own mind, and then redirect your thinking. Sometimes it helps to start with a scripture or devotional. Whatever it takes to get your mind on the things of God.

Once you do that, you are ready for the second step. {CLICK}

2. RESPONDING: Do what you know while you wait for what you don’t.

Now, understand here, there is a bit of a gap I need to temporarily fill in until we get to the message two weeks from now that talks about receiving and discerning the answers we get from God, how He speaks to us, etc.

That’s why I say, do what you know while you wait for what you don’t. (P)

Face it, we all would love God to send us an email, text, or Facebook message to give us a direct answer to the things we are submitting to Him in prayer. But it just doesn’t happen. I mean, you can check my email inbox; you will not see a single email in there from [e-mail]. It’s just not there.

It doesn’t mean God’s not there. (P)

Not to give too much away from two weeks from now, but I will say, and I think most of you know, that one of His primary forms of communication with us is right here through His Word. And how many times do we have trouble with even that? We’re in a culture that loves to challenge, especially authority, and if they come across something they don’t like, they will stop at nothing to find a different answer or interpretation, and it seems they do that especially with scripture.

It’s like reading Satan’s interaction with Adam and Eve all over again: Did God really say...?

Yes! God really said, and if we want Him to start speaking to us, it might not be a bad idea to show we are willing to listen to the things He’s already revealed to us.

That’s why, as you look through verses 22-25 of this passage in James, the overarching theme he is trying to get across is to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only.

It’s about obedience - even in the things we have a hard time with, or don't like, or that might threaten the comfort of a lifestyle choice.

Parents deal with this one all the time. What do we expect of our children when we ask them to do something? And maybe they don’t comply at first, and so we come back at them with some variation of the phrase, you need to listen to me!

What are we implying when we tell our kids 963 times a day to listen when we speak? We don’t just want them to hear, we want them to do what we are telling them...even if they don’t like our instruction, there’s a reason for what we are telling them to do, and we need them to listen. (P)

While we wait for those...perhaps only few times throughout life that God may give us personal, supernatural revelation that we always say we wish we could have, He has given us a whole book full of direction, guidance, and expectation that we can know and obey in the meantime.

Think about it, the disciples were often clueless or confused about what they were to do, and they got to spend direct time with Jesus. It wouldn’t be until two weeks after He was gone that they would get that supernatural, personal revelation that we seek. In the meantime, even on the night before Jesus’ death, they would have to deal with what they knew from Jesus’ teachings. He said in: {CLICK}

John 13:17 NIV

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

(P)

And so that’s where we start, too. Until God chooses to reveal something else to us by some other, supernatural means, be blessed by doing the work that you already know from what you read in here. There is plenty in here that we can be doing, if that’s what you’re trying to figure out, like the disciples were - what do you want me to do, God?

It tells us how to love others, how to treat others, and how to share the gospel with others. You don’t need to wait for an individualized, detailed plan for each person you encounter. Just do what you know, and do it for the right reasons, which brings us to step 3: {CLICK}

3. RESIGNING: Do what you do with the hands, feet, and heart of Christ.

Step 3 is step 2, but much deeper, and with a greater focus on authenticity. (P)

If we can focus enough to complete step 1 of focusing on God’s Word, that’s great! If we bring ourselves to obey and do God’s words, wonderful!

But why do we do what we do? (P)

I think I read in one of my commentaries that the word religion only appears four times in the New Testament, and two of them are right here in James 1.

There’s a reason it’s so scarce...and that’s that religion is not what any of this is about.

It’s not about following blind rule sets. It’s about authenticity and real relationships, and that is well demonstrated in the acts we do, and why we do them, and that’s what James would say as he closes out our text for today. {CLICK}

James 1:27 NIV

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James would go on to say in his second chapter: {CLICK}

James 2:26 NIV

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

That means that no amount of works can save us, but they sure can provide a snapshot of how well we meant it when we said we want to follow and obey Christ.

At the end of the day, it becomes the difference between religion and relationship that we started out by talking about. (P)

You may remember that the prophet Micah says something that sounds similar to what we just heard in James 1:27. We discussed this several months back when we were working through our life verse series. {CLICK}

Micah 6:6–8 NIV

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? {CLICK} Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? {CLICK} He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

...not just pretend He’s up there when it’s convenient for you. (P) {CLICK}

William Boggs says it well.

He says:

Here's a powerful metaphor for a "whatever" Christian: "Someone has suggested that, for many of us, religion is like an artificial limb. It has neither warmth nor life, and though it helps us stumble along, it never becomes a part of us. We strap it on once a week and take it off after Sunday lunch to limp through the ordinary demands of daily living." (P)

Is that all we are about when we call ourselves Christians?

Is it about doing things our way?

Is it about hearing the Words of God but only doing the things that are convenient, pain-free, and that don’t call us into any kind of sacrifice, be it deed, lifestyle, or possession?

Is it about doing what we are told to do, but just to put on a show?

OR - is it about doing what Christ would do, for the people Christ would do it for, for the reasons Christ would do it - all rooted in pure, selfless love? (P)

If that last one is your answer, then you are ready to listen, and perhaps you’re about ready to receive more of what God will choose to reveal to you in His time. {CLICK}

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. {CLICK} Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve [and to hear and listen to] what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

(P)

CONCLUSION

This is why proper prayer is so important; it’s much more than finding a convenient three minutes in our whirlwind day to present God with our Amazon wish list.

There’s some serious stuff going on out there:

A political nightmare.

A group of countries on the same, shared globe, who should be on the same team of coexistence and benevolence, but instead, they aren’t happy unless they are ripping each other apart.

People who are hurting with illness, homelessness, loneliness, tragedy, and think they have nowhere to turn.

And worst of all, so many people who have no concept of a loving God.

And a God who wants us to be a part of the solution to all of this, but how?

We have all of that to pray for, and also a reminder that we have a good God who has given us His hope, His joy, and His love, and deserves to be praised, even if that’s all our prayer ends up being. (P)

We have a lot to pray for, a lot to listen to, and a tremendous reason to take time in our lives to make Him number one.

Our God is one to keep getting to know, because He has so much left to reveal to us.

Proverbs 2 says it so beautifully: {CLICK}

Proverbs 2:1–5 NIV

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, {CLICK} turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— {CLICK} indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, {CLICK} and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, {CLICK} then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

(P)

Charles Spurgeon describes it this way:

Did you ever climb a mountain? A friend of mine, when among the Alps, asserted confidently that he could reach the top of a certain mountain in half an hour. It certainly looked very near us, but my eye had been better educated to estimate distances among mountains, and I assured him that it would take him all day to stand on that ridge. The fact is that when you have climbed one stiff bit of hill, you find yourself bound to go down into a valley before you can tackle the next ascent. There are hills above hills, and one summit is a sort of lookout from which you see that you have much further to go.

That which looked like a part of the side of the hill may really be a mountain by itself. When you have ascended it, you have the cheering privilege of seeing that you are now at the bottom of the next. In fact, although you are decidedly higher, you often seem to have further to go than when you started.

He goes on to say:

It is just so with our experience of divine things. When we know the Lord to the full of our capacity, that capacity enlarges, and we begin to learn again. We know more, and for that very reason, are far more conscious of our ignorance than we were at first. (P)

Yes, it takes time to get to this point in our faith walk, but ours is a Good Shepherd who knows His sheep, who loves His sheep, and who is patient with His sheep as we continue to long for Him, and to seek Him. And as long as we genuinely continue to seek Him and claim Him as our shepherd, His promise is simple but profound: {CLICK}

John 10:27 NIV

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

(P)

We’ve talked about two components of our prayer life so far, packed with information, and a reminder of all that our prayer life can accomplish, and we haven’t even talked about speaking with God yet. It’s been about being quiet and listening.

Look at all that can be accomplished if we just do that. (P)

We’ll dig deeper next week, but I would like this to be a week for you of solidifying a quiet place, if you haven’t found one already, and practice sitting in there being quiet, and listening. Focus, read scripture, remain silent - shut off the world, and see if you can’t get something out of just that time...and you haven’t even said anything yet.

That’s my challenge for this week that I strongly encourage you to try.