Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
We are continuing our study through the book of James.
We are in our third installment.
If you have missed the first two, I encourage you to go to our website at newlifecorning.org
and get caught up.
As I mentioned before, I encourage to read through the book of James as we go through this series.
I believe God will encourage you, challenge you, and if applied, change you as we go through it.
Let’s dive into the Word today and see what God has for us.
Please stand with me as we read the Word of God.
Prayer
Quick to Hear, Slow to Speak, Slow to Anger
It is important to remember that anytime we read the words “brethren” it is referring to the church.
James is shifting from instructions about life’s difficulties to practical godly living.
In other words, James is saying we are going to go through trials, but here is how you are to live out your faith regardless if you face a trial or not.
So let’s break this down and see how we as Christians are to walk out our faith.
James opens up this practical living by telling followers of Christ to be quick to hear, slow to speak, but then he throws in slow to anger.
I can understand the whole quick to listen and slow to speak.
I mean God gave us two ears and one mouth.
Your ears are open while your tongue is enclosed behind your lips and a wall of teeth.
This tells me I should be listening more than speaking.
How many of you are good listeners?
I am working on it.
It takes practice to listen to someone as they are speaking to you.
You have to be intentional in listening.
There are actual signs you can look for to see if someone is listening or not:
Their eye contact is too fixed, and their heads are too still.
They smile too brightly and for too long.
They tap their fingers.
They fidget.
Their body is turned away from you
Their feet are pointed towards the door.
They don't mirror your body language.
They are playing on their phone or texting someone else while you are speaking (I am working on that one)
It is super awkward when someone your talking to isn’t listening.
This happened to me once where I was at lunch with another pastor and all through the conversation they were fidgeting and looking around the room instead of being engaged in the conversation.
We are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, but then James throws in slow to anger.
Maybe you are the one speaking and the other person isn’t listening or speaking back to you with no filter and you get angry.
Or maybe you heard something and it made you angry.
You ever get angry at something someone said to you?
I know I have.
When I was a youth pastor at our home church back in Indiana, we did a Passion play every year for Easter.
I played the part of Jesus.
We would spend hours practicing night after night getting prepared for the presentation of the Gospel message on Easter Sunday.
I remember one year we did it on a Friday or Saturday night as well.
We were down in the basement getting ready to start the program and my pastor said, “I don’t remember what time we put on the flyers and we might have to go through the play twice.”
At that moment there were some people complaining and I was one of them.
I said, “I am not doing this twice.”
My pastors response was something like “we will do it as many times as we need too!”
At that point my attitude was put it check not by what my pastor said, but by the Holy Spirit working through him.
My anger, my emotions, got in the way of the bigger picture.
James is telling us to keep our anger in check.
Why?
Our emotions will cloud our judgement every time and we will lose sight of the bigger picture.
When our judgement is clouded by our emotions, we cannot discern what God is saying.
Go back a little further to Genesis 19.
Abraham and his nephew Lot had parted ways and Lot went to dwell in the city of Sodom.
God is getting ready to pass judgement on Sodom for the wickedness and immorality that was taking place there.
God sends in two angels to the city on behalf his uncles prayers.
Lot takes these angels into his house and while they were there, the men of the city began to beat on the door.
Here is what the Scripture says.
Lot met the mob at the doorway and emotions are flying high.
I am sure he was scared.
Fear is an emotion.
Lot knowing the wickedness that was about to happen decided to respond out of emotion rather than seeking God and getting his view on things.
How do we know?
Lot was about to make a terrible choice for not only him, but his family.
Lot was about to put his own daughters in danger because of his emotions.
There was no discernment nor wisdom from God happening here.
Discernment in the fact that the angels of God could take care of themselves.
They are angels of God.
What can man do to them?
We see emotions take over again after they fled the city.
Lot's own daughters reacted out of fear (emotion) decided to liquor up dad not once but twice in order to bear children.
Out of Lot's two daughters came the Moabites and the Amorites whom were both arrogant, idolatrous, and wicked people.
Once you see how people in Scripture begin to make decisions based on emotions and how it affects discernment, you can't unsee it!
But doesn’t the Word say we can be angry?
Yes.
But listen to Paul’s words.
Paul tells us three things here.
You can be angry - God has given to us emotions.
It is not a sin to have anger or to experience anger.
It is what you do with that anger that can lead you into sin.
Sin - missing the mark.
Don’t let the sun go down on anger - in other words your anger should have a life span.
Be Angry, but Don’t Sin
Paul’s address to anger is actually pulling from an Old Testament Psalm.
Again we are allowed to be angry, but what we do with that anger will determine whether we fall into sin or not.
Remember, what we are trying to produce in our lives is the righteousness of God.
James tells us to be slow in our anger…why?
The anger of man will not produce the righteousness of God.
So what is this righteousness?
Righteousness
1 in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God. 1A the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God.
We are only approved by God through the righteousness of Jesus.
Our own righteousness is not good enough.
Our own righteousness is like filthy rags to God.
So we clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Christ.
But righteousness is not limited to just the righteousness of Christ or who we ought to be.
It actually goes a little deeper.
1B integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting.
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