Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We saw last week that God brought us forth by the word of truth.

We heard that word and came forth.

We hear that word to continue forward.

It is hearing God that we can make it through any trial.

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.

(Robert W. Herron, Homemade, June, 1987.)

Lay aside all distractions so you can hear the Lord and know what He desires.

We will see in this text today that good listening is what is required of us if we are to have the proper behavior in our Christian life.

Good listening will aid us in What we Are Reflecting.

Like, the righteousness of God.

Do you reflect that in life during struggles and trials?

Or do you reflect the worldly ways in actions and anger?

Do we reflect our passion and love of the Lord by our acting upon what we heard from the word?

Or do we hear look at it and walk away to forget it and miss the blessing that comes with our faithful service?

Or do we speak a bold and big game but never do what we say?

Do we have a pious and exaggerated religion or one that is pure before God?

Many believers are fooling themselves thinking they are spiritual and godly when they are not.

They will say they are solid when in reality they are not.

They will act as if they have everything together when they do not.

They will falter because they have not heard (applied to their life) the word, but acted, they have not committed to performing the word but have only heard (seen it but not applied it).

This is those who come and hear the word once or twice but never take it up themselves and study to make it part of their life.

Then there is the one who has just enough knowledge of the word that they speak big but never give out.

They all have one thing in common: they have deceived themselves and will falter in trials and tests.

They will not endure because they have not internalized God’s word and His promises.

That is why this section begins with the three fold theme for the entire epistle, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

If we listen we may very well avoid regrettable words and actions and be able to act in accordance with God’s will.

So, let us read James 1:19-27

The first thing we see in the text today is that we can...

Reflect God’s Righteousness by Hearing (19-21)

Listen.

Don’t just sit and wait to respond, but listen.

We miss so much in life because we only want to make a statement ourselves.

We will sit there and only hear part of what is said and develop a response for that.

Here are some questions I found that can make us think about our listening.

How good a listener are you?

1) Since you think about four times faster than a person usually talks, do you use this time to think about other things while you're keeping track of the conversation?

2) Do you listen primarily for facts rather than ideas when someone is speaking?

3) Do you avoid listening to things you feel will be too difficult to understand?

4) Can you tell from a person's appearance and delivery that there won't be anything worthwhile said?

5) When someone is talking to you do you appear to be paying attention when you're not?

6) Do certain words and phrases prejudice you so you cannot listen objectively?

7) When listening are you distracted by outside sights and sounds?

Is this how you are?

I know I land on many of these questions at times.

I fail to listen well and that has caused some grief in my life.

When we listen, when we hear, we can make better decisions.

This listening questionnaire is applicable to the word of God too.

We need to apply this list to our study of His word so we can better apply it to our lives.

The words quick and slow mean exactly that, quick and slow.

We need to be quick to listen, meaning we need to put hearing first and foremost and slowly respond and be even slower to anger.

When we don’t listen but seek to respond, we miss very important instructions.

This goes back to the trials we are to take joy in.

When we only want out and respond that they are terrible, we have not listened and heard the Word of God in them.

Patience is required for this too.

If we do not have this, we are the opposite of this text.

We are quick to speak and quick to anger and slow to listen.

This produces anger and bitterness.

We become angry and complain and then condemn others because they may have it better than us.

We become jealous in trials instead of seeking the growth God is giving us.

This is why James says in verse 21 to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive the word.

Anger and frustration will not help us.

It will hinder us.

It will bring us down.

It will make us to falter along the path.

Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.

If we will lay aside every encumbrance of sin that clings to us, we can run the race well.

We can do this because of Jesus in us.

When we receive the word and it is implanted in us, we have His power to move on.

We need to hear it and receive it to reflect the righteousness of God.

The word received, can save your souls.

This is not necessarily about eternal salvation so much as it is about your physical life.

When we receive the word and have it implanted in us, we will know how to act and we can act in that way and not receive a just punishment from our father for not behaving as we should.

We can only do this through Jesus and His word in us working well because we listened well.

Another way we can do this and reflect His righteousness is when we...

Reflect the Word through Action (22-25)

If we hear the word as this text implies we should, implanted and applied, then we will reflect it.

But we deceive ourselves when we hear it and don’t apply it and not allow it to work in us.

We are, as James says, like a man who looks at his reflection and walks away to only forget what he looks like.

When we put the heard word into action in accordance with what the word says, then, then, we are looking into the perfect law of liberty, Jesus Christ and what he has said–love God with your everything and love your neighbor as yourself, and putting that to work.

One commentator has said of this, “If the readers ever thought that mere attention to the Scriptures was enough, they were mistaken.

With such a view they would be deceiving themselves.

The analogy today would be the Christian who is fascinated by the exposition and study of God’s Word but who has assimilated very little of it into everyday life.”

(Zane C. Hodges, Arthur L. Farstad, and Robert N. Wilkin, The Epistle of James: Proven Character through Testing (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1994), 42–43.

We can apply the teaching we have heard from the word through Jesus working in us and for us and then through us.

We are His and as His we can behave like His.

Like many of us.

We will get something that is complex to put together.

like a baby crib.

We will read the directions and instructions and think that these are nice.

Then we sit them down and walk over to the crib and commence to work.

We have left the directions behind, we have decided we can do the work alone.

We have decided we know enough from that one time glance and skimming we gave the instructions.

We begin to build and get a few pieces together right and think “I have this.”