What are you doing?
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever been around someone who said one thing and did something entirely different? Parents are really good at doing that. They tell their kids not to do something because it's bad for them but the parent does it themselves. When the child asks the parent why they can do it but the child can't the parent will say "because." Because I'm an adult, because when you get older you'll understand. When we do that we operated in the mode of do as I say and not as I do.
Last week we took a look at Solomon. One of the verses was
3 Now Solomon loved the Lord by walking in the laws of his father David with the exception that he also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines.
Except and if. I mentioned that I didn’t want to have the exception in my life. I want to enjoy the benefits of the If.
When he first became king he asked God for wisdom and God granted him his request. One of the sad things about Solomon's life is that he didn't seem to listen to his own advice. The book of Proverbs was written by Solomon yet for all the great things that he said there it seems that he didn't follow his own advice.
Solomon wrote about women and wives. He wrote in Proverbs 18:22
22 He who finds a wife finds what is good, gaining favor from the Lord.
He must have been really looking for favor from the Lord because he had not 1 wife but he had 700 wives and then 300 concubines added to the mix. The Bible says that "Solomon clung to these in love" (1 Kings 11:2). I don't how he could even know all of them let alone love them.
Solomon had a lot to say about wealth and riches. He wrote "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1)
The writer of 1 Kings tells us that Solomon received 666 talents of gold yearly in tributes and taxation. That is roughly 25 tons of gold each year. At the current price of gold, he received around 1.2 billion dollars' worth of gold each year. That doesn't count all his other assets. Realistically Solomon was a billionaire or maybe even a trillionaire.
Solomon is a great example of do as I say and not as I do. I don't know about you, but I like people to be honest to me. If they tell me they are going to do something that they do it. If they can't do something I want them to tell me they can't.
James in his letter tells us:
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
I looked at the word shadow in the Bible. In the NIV translation that word occurs 44 times, in the King James it occurs 77 times. About half of the times shadow is tied in with the word death. Take the 23'rd Psalm for example. David wrote "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
The half of the time the word shadow is tied in with God as a characteristic or His protection for us. An example is Psalm 17 where David wrote "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. (Psalm 17:8-9).
James is using the word shadow to show us a characteristic of God. He's saying that God does not change. The NRSV translation says “there is no variation or shadow of change.”
Stand outside when the sun is shining and watch your shadow. If you stand there long enough the shadow will move. If you do that in the evening the shadow will lengthen as the sun begins to set.
James is saying that God does not change like a shadow. In fact when describing the good and perfect gifts he says that they come from the Father of lights. The one who created the sun, moon and stars is the one who does not change.
Isn't that a great reassuring promise? God does not change like shifting shadows.
James says that "Every good and perfect gift is from above." God is generous James is saying. Other meanings for what he is saying there is that every complete or every full gift is from God. God doesn't just give us a little bit but he gives generously. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians
3 Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
4 God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world.
5 God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan
6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves.
7 We have been ransomed through his Son’s blood, and we have forgiveness for our failures based on his overflowing grace,
8 which he poured over us with wisdom and understanding.
9 God revealed his hidden design to us, which is according to his goodwill and the plan that he intended to accomplish through his Son.
10 This is what God planned for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.
Do you see how God had given generously to us? Paul says that God has blessed us, chosen us, presdestined us, adopted us, given us, redeemed us, and lavished on us. All those and a whole lot more. God loves us and He has given us everything we need.
The Apostle John wrote in his first letter:
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Because the world didn’t recognize him, it doesn’t recognize us.
God doesn't just love us, but He lavishes his love on us. He doesn't just give just a little bit of love, but he lavishes that love, He fills our lives full to overflowing with His love. John says to "see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"
Now I could stop right there and say a benediction and we could go home content with the fact that God loves us. I'm not going to do that because James is a very practical preacher and teacher. James knows that God doesn't want to have us relish in the love of God but he knows that God wants to transform us from what we were to who God wants us to be today.
One writer noted:
Human nature is charged with selfishness and pride. These show up not only in immorality (the use, rather than the valuing of others), but also in anger and antagonism. James told us that the quick, hostile reactions of men to one another are changed by faith. Patience and meekness replace anger and pride. (1)
James in his practical teaching tells us to be quick to listen. How often do we not really hear what others are saying? We often get so busy that we don't really take the time to listen to others.
There was an older guy that I visited when I was a hospice chaplain that was described to me as being a cranky old man by his case manager. Even one of my other patients who knew him from the dialyses clinic warned me that he was a crank and a grouch. The chaplain who use to visit him before me warned me about him. I had that picture in my mind of this gruff old crotchety man clearly painted in my mind when I went to visit him the first time.
The picture that I had of him in my mind was not the person I found when I visited him. I found him to be a very pleasant person who I enjoy sitting and talking with. I also learned this man who is in his 80's has been carrying a boat load of guilt with him for years. That wall that he had built around him began cracking and slowly crumbling as I helped him work through the issues that caused him to build that wall.
He had struggled with doubt about his salvation for years. I firmly but loving told him that God had forgiven him, that he is loved by the Father, forgiven by the son and indwelt by the Spirit. It was just amazing to see the transformation taking place in his life. He told that I'm the first person he's ever opened up to about his life and reason behind the facade he's built.
Imagine that, a man who has spent most of his life in the church and was approaching his own death and that after all these years finding what Jesus said that he can have life and not just life, but an abundant life. I left his home on a Tuesday afternoon knowing that I had been in the presence of our Holy God and that God the Holy Spirit had indeed done something wonderful in that man's life that day.
Had I not been quick to listen I doubt I would have had that experience and that man may never have found the forgiveness that had long eluded him. James says to be quick to listen. Not only listening to the words that a person is saying but also notice their body language. Being slow to listen means that we read between the lines of their lives.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 34: James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude How to Communicate
Jesus traveled the same roads and village streets as His contemporaries. Yet He heard and saw needs which no one else seemed to notice. His authentic love for people motivated Him to listen not only to words but to nonverbal communication. He was constantly meeting people at a point of need, whether it was the Samaritan woman at the well or Zacchaeus who was up a tree. He listened.
James next says to be "slow to speak." I've known a lot of people that need to take that advice. Have you ever been around someone who just talks and talks and you can't get a word in edgewise? Some people don't even think about what they are going to say, they just say it. I was talking to a guy this past week. His wife was standing off a short ways away with another person. While I was talking with the man the wife was standing their gossiping to the other woman.
Solomon in Proverbs wrote:
19 With lots of words comes wrongdoing, but the wise restrain their lips.
Solomon is saying that if we just talk to hear ourselves talk that sin is not far behind. If we just babel on without thought to what we are saying that we can easily slip into judgementalism and condemnation.
When we're talking with a not yet Christian we need to choose our words carefully, we need to be slow to speak. How easy it is to turn someone off to Jesus by the words that we say.
I have been learning to be more like Jesus in my listening. I am working with people who live lives that are repulsive to me because of the sin involved. I’m learning that I need to listen to their story, their hurt. In listening I then often earn the privilege of sharing Jesus with them.
Dr Paul Cedar in his commentary on this passage wrote:
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 34: James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude How to Communicate
And so our Lord invites us to the ministry of listening. Most of us would be amazed at how much more effective we would be in our witnessing if we stopped talking and began to listen. The most effective means of ministry, for example, is responding to need, not dumping our load.
What I believe James is saying to us is that our words should be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus when the woman was caught in adultery was brought to him he didn't speak words of judgement and condemnation to her. He observed the entire scene and then when he spoke he challenged those who were without sin to toss the first stone. The point being that we are all sinful, we all sin. Paul wrote "all have sinned." After the men walked away Jesus spoke to the woman and told her to go and leave her life of sin.
If we are to be slow to speak then we really have to be quick to listen. Rather than judging and condemning someone we should show them that there is a better way. We need to point them to Jesus.
Next James tells us that we should be slow to get angry. I don't know about you, but I don't like to be around an angry person. What is worse than an angry person is someone who claims to be a Christian but they seem to be angry all the time.
The word that James uses here for anger is the same word that Paul uses in his letter to the Colossian church when he wrote:
8 But now set aside these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language.
Anger is not a sin, it's what we do when we get angry that can become sinful.
When we get angry we can say all sorts of things that are hurtful. That is what Paul is saying there. He's writing to us as Christians and he's saying that now that we are Christians we need to put those things behind us because there is no room in the life of a believer for those kinds of things. God does that by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul in his first letter to Thessalonians wrote using the word wrath instead of anger but having the same meaning these words:
9 God didn’t intend for us to suffer his wrath but rather to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
10 Jesus died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him.
11 So continue encouraging each other and building each other up, just like you are doing already.
An angry person cannot be an encouraging person. No one wants to be around and angry person. If you're dealing with anger in your own life I would encourage you, I would implore you to bring it Jesus and allow that Holy Spirit to transform it.
Why does James tells us to be slow to anger? Look at verse 20, he writes:
20 This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness.
What does God desire? He desires righteousness or right living by us. That happens by being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of that is the Fruit of the Spirit. Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the self with its passions and its desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit.
What are you doing? How are you doing when measured up against the Fruit of the Spirit?
I didn't get as far as I wanted to with this passage so I'll stop here for today. Be challenged by James' practical words to us. I would urge you to allow the Holy Spirit to do what He desires within you.
I believe that as much as evil seems to be winning at the moment, I believe that God is greater. I believe that God the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. I believe that the Holy Spirit is on the verge of doing something new and fresh in our lives.
I believe that in the lives of the girls and boys and teens that God is going to call one or more to be a pastor or missionary right here in our community. We are all called to be missionaries where we live. The idea that we are a Christian nation is no more.
In many ways our generation has damage the reputation of the church. We’ve talked one way and lived another. I see the damage that has caused in people’s lives.
There is a song that has these words in it
Every day they pass me by
I can see it in their eyes
Empty people filled with care
Headed who knows where?
On they go through private pain
Living fear to fear
Laughter hides their silent cries
Only Jesus hears
We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right
What could be too great a cost
For sharing life with one who's lost?
Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear
They must hear the words of life
Only we can share
The chorus of that song reminds us
People need the Lord
People need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams
He's the open door
People need the Lord
People need the Lord
When will we realize
That we must give our lives
For people need the Lord
Songwriters: Greg Nelson / Phil McHugh - People Need the Lord lyrics © River Oaks Music Co., Shepherd's Fold Music
There is a world out there that desperately needs Jesus. How will they ever know if we as Christians don't live lives that reflect the image of Christ within us?
(1) [1] Richards, Larry, and Lawrence O. Richards. The Teacher’s Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1987. Print.