Listening and living it out

Good Morning!

Thank you for having us with you this morning. Katie and I have spent the week getting to know many of you, listening and talking with you, and being ministered to by you. Thank you for that.

As we dive into the message this morning, I’ve got a scenario for you. I’ll tell you the scenario, and when I’m done I’ve got a question for you about it. If you want you can take notes.

Ready? (MAYBE DO ILLUMINATION EXERCISE INSTEAD)

*Tell the group that you will be asking questions on what they are about to hear and that they can take notes if they wish*

My name is Josh, and I’m the bus driver. At stop number 1, three people got on the bus, one of them was wearing a red hat.

At stop 2, four people got on and one got off.

At stop 3, two people got on, one person was carrying a bag and the person with the red hat got off.

At stop 4, a mom with a stroller got on, two people got off.

Finally, at stop 5, four people got on, and the mom with the stroller got off.

Now, what is the bus drivers age?

*The majority of people will not have heard the opening line: "you are bus driver".*

Haha, that’s impressive! Good listening! I wanted to do this little exercise today to get us thinking about listening. Listening is the first part of what we will be talking about today. Second, we’re going to be talking about what to do with what we’ve heard.

Our passage for today is James 1:19-27. You are welcome to follow along on the screen behind me, or in your bibles. I’ll be reading from the ESV.

James 1:19–27 ESV

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

We just went through this exercise where we examined how well we listen to others. Haha, I threw in a trick question there. But when it comes to the Word of God, do we really listen to what is being said? Do we actually attentively glean the information? Do we then allow it to sink in, and see how we need to mold and change with it? And finally, do we live the change it would work in us out as a living faith?

Here’s my main point for today: Christians should be listening to and living out God’s Word.

We are going to take a journey today of exploring what it means to be hearers and doers of God’s Word. On that journey I want to point out three landmarks that help us to see the path we are on.

So our first landmark for today is that need to:

Listen with Humility

Our text is split into three flows of thought. vv. 19-21 is one flow, then 22-25, and finally 26-27. Starting with 19-21, James admonishes the churches that they need to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and finally slow to anger. Why? Because it does not produce the righteousness of God. We must note here that this is not righteous anger, which is different. One source I read put it this way: Here anger refers not so much to general outbursts of frustration as to deeply-seated wrath or rage. We should be hesitant as believers to allow our anger to settle into something that we nurse and that can control us. Quick speaking usually walks hand in hand with anger, and often they can stem from inadequate listening (Blomberg). This is an important distinction, that bears noting. Anger itself is not necessarily wrong, but our choice to act out in it is.

James then goes on in v 21 and gives them the correct reaction: having put off our old lives filled with wickedness, we respond to God in the correct way: We come to Him in humility to receive his message, which can save souls.

Here is our first point - our first milestone: We must approach listen to God in humility. We need to strive to be humble people, who are pursuing what God has to say, and quietly listening to it!

As humans, we are prone to pride. It is who we are, as sinners. We get hot under the collar so fast, and rather than choosing to listen either to God or our fellow man, we speak - sometimes in anger - things that should not be said. This is not fruit of righteousness. This is not a mark of humility.

Just the other day, I was so frustrated with God that I sat with Katie and I said “I don’t want to pray! I can’t hear God anyway, and I don’t know what He’s doing. He’s toying with us… there’s no point in praying!” I quickly had to repent of this, and apologize to my wife! But I chose to speak before I had listened to God. I chose to let my anger get away from me. I chose exercise my pride, instead of being humble before God.

As it turned out, God did have something for me. He was willing to speak and show me what He wanted to happen. At the same time, He also assures me that as I wait for Him, He will show me what I am supposed to do and where I am supposed to go. But I need to wait for His timing. However, I was so done at that point that I lashed out to God in anger, and completely disregard those things. Fortunately we have a big God, who is forgiving. But I had to repent, because I had decided I was done and I could just be as anger and nasty as could be. At that point, I wasn’t able to hear from God, because I was in too much of a frenzy myself.

This is my point: when we choose to take the road of pride, the road of anger, the road that says “I know what’s best, and you should listen to me God!” We are not at a place of humility, and we cannot hear from God. James admonishes the churches then, and us now that we must be a humble people before our God, and be willing and ready to hear what He has to say. Both in prayer, and through His Word.

This is our first landmark as we continue the journey of listening to and living out God’s Word. We must be humble listeners of God. Our second landmark continues our journey:

Let God’s Word Change You

I think James is calling us out of that kind of complacency mindset here in our second section, vv. 22-25. He admonishes us to be not just hearers of the Word of God, but rather doers! He says that a hearer is someone who looks intently at themselves in the mirror, but then turns around and just forgets about it. One commentary helped me figure it out. It said:

James Explanation of Text

at this point we begin to wonder if perhaps this illustration is not better understood as a deliberately ridiculous analogy, for no one in their right mind who examines their image that closely would then utterly neglect the flaws they discover and instantly forget whatever they had seen. Likewise, James seeks to stress how ludicrous it is for people so rapidly to ignore and forget what they have heard. Baker highlights the absurdity of this picture of a person who “examines intently his very own face in the mirror, but within seconds he cannot even pick himself out of a police lineup.” To treat God’s Word in such cavalier fashion remains equally absurd.

So here’s the point: We’ve come to God in humility, we are ready to hear what He is saying and we are listening. We’re reading His Word, we’re studying the scripture… but it has no impact on our lives. Instead, as soon as we’re done reading we shut our Bible and go “huh, gonna have to think on that” and immediately go about our day. Never once does what we just read have an impact on our lives, immediately or in longterm.

You know, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

That means that everything - all of God’s Word - has an active part to play in our lives. James calls us to be doers of God’s Word - to read it, listen to what God’s saying, approach Him in humility, and then take what God gives us and actually do something with it! It would be utterly absurd - James says - to study yourself very intently in the mirror, find all the blemishes, and then turn around forget all about it! How much more so then is it absurd to study God’s Word, hear Him speak, and then never engage with God’s Spirit in letting His message change your life!?! We must engage with the Holy Spirit, and let Him work in our lives. We must let the Word of God change us.

If we choose to persevere in understanding the gospel message - the law of liberty - and acting upon it, letting it change us, and even (as we’ll see) living it out, we will be blessed by it. Is it not a blessing to have God active and working in your life? Should we not all desire this? Therefore, we must be doers.

So our second landmark is to let God’s Word change your life. after having approached God in humility, and being ready and willing to hear what He says, we must listen and implement what God says into our lives.

Live Out the Change

Our final landmark for today comes from the very end of our passage - vv. 26-27. James goes back to what he was saying before about being slow to speak. Only here, he says that we must bridle our tongue. If we do not, we practice a religion that is worthless. Now that may sound a little harsh, but let me explain.

James describes this person’s “religion” as based on external appearances rather than inward realities.

Now, for context’s sake, it’s important for us to get the idea behind the word “religion.” Religion now has this really uppity, overly pious, yet fake feeling to it. Yet back then, a religious person was not viewed that way. The Greek did not have that kind of connotation, so we can take the word at face value. Yet, a person who seems to be this way but speaks verbal garbage and has no bridle on their tongue is presenting garbage religion. I almost get the picture in my head of someone who says many great things, yet doesn’t practice any of them.

What is the sign then of someone who takes their faith seriously, who does not practice a worthless religion? James says that religion that is pure and undefiled before God the father is characterized by caring for others, and keeping oneself free of worldly things. On top of proclaiming the good news, we need to practice what we preach.

Our actions speak loudly, often louder than our words. James shows us that - while we need to proclaim with our words the message of Jesus and what He has done for us - it is powerful testimony to also live it out.

I’ve used this illustration before, but I once was talking with Katie’s Granny, who is not a believer. She does not want anything to do with the gospel, yet she told me once that the truest Christians she ever met was a family that always seemed to be serving others.

Our actions speak loudly, and we are called to live out the change God works in our lives. His message does save our souls, which means that we at once have a duty to care for those who are hurting - to show the same kind of love to them God showed to us - and to keep ourselves pure and undefiled.

Choosing to not engage in things of this world - drinking in excess, maybe practicing fowl language, choosing to be careful what you watch or read, this is keeping ourselves from the world.

Jame’s last point is that we must live out our faith. We don’t just pay lip service to it. Rather, people should be able to see a marked difference in our lives! If they can’t - if there is no change - has our faith really impacted us? Are we really listening to what God has to say?

Conclusion

That is our third and final milestone - to live out the change God’s Word has upon you. We’ve journeyed today through understanding how we must first humbly listen to what God is saying, and then choose not just to study and dive deep into God’s Word, but it change us! Finally, we have seen that we have to live out that change in our lives! If the gospel has really changed you, others should be able to see it.

When you came in today you should have found a small piece of paper on the pew. Does everyone have one? If not, there’s a bunch on the two back pews. On it, there’s three questions:

What do you sense God saying to you right now?

How does His Word for you change your life?

How can you live this out?

I’d like to take a few minutes, and give us the opportunity to reflect on what God is saying to us right now. Maybe He’s talking to you about something He wants you to do. Maybe He’s poking at that thing you don’t want to talk with Him about. Maybe He’s pushing you to go deeper with Him. Maybe He’s just reminding you of His love. Whatever it is, I’d like us to take a few minutes to listen to God, and then choose to allow what He has to say move in your life. Finally, I want us to leave space for God to show how He wants you to live out that change. Maybe it’ll be super obvious, maybe not. But I believe that there is a way to live it out.

Feel free to write on the paper, use a Bible, or just pray.

Let’s take about 5 minutes and do that now, and then we will close in prayer.