Learning To Talk His Talk Series

1100 : Learning to Talk His Talk

March 12, 2006

Series: 24: A Day in the Life of Jesus

*****(Show video clip of ‘24’ characters being interrogated…)

This morning I want to ‘get you to talk’… now hopefully you’re not going to force me to resort to the methods you just saw in scenes from ‘24’. In the episodes we just viewed, time is running out. Jack Bauer only has 24 hours to stop terrorists from using nuclear power plants to destroy the U.S. As you can imagine, he has very little time and very little patience… to make the people (who have the information he needs)…to talk! This morning, (whether you realize it or not)… YOU have the information people desperately need, to avert disaster in their lives! You have the words of life! But they can’t help people, if you don’t talk! In today’s episode of a 24 hour day in the life of Jesus, Jesus begins to share the words that will ultimately save the world!

Last week we looked at the 1st thing Jesus did during this pivotal 1st day of ministry. He choose His disciples (people like us), who would someday represent and spread His good news to the world. We talked about the “5 Marks of a True Disciple”… things like

· the ability to FOLLOW and take instructions.

· FREEDOM from the ‘nets’ that try and entangle our lives…

· 3rdly, true disciples are interested in the lives of others… they’re FISHERS of men.

· Then we said that disciples, instead of having a ‘religion’, have a relationship with the Master. So the 4th mark of a true disciple of Jesus is “FRIENDSHIP”

· And then lastly, you can tell a true disciple by their ‘FELLOWSHIP’ with other disciples.

The 2nd thing Jesus begins to do in this 24 hour period of time we’re looking at… is he begins to teach. I want you to read Mark 1: 21-28 with me… (READ)

When it comes to communicating God’s Words… there was no one better or more effective than Jesus Christ Himself… Jesus was an amazing communicator! The bible tells us in Mark 1:21 that after choosing his disciples, He walked into the local Jewish synagogue and began to teach. But it also tells us the reactions that the crowd had to his teaching…”they were amazed”! Jesus wasn’t your ‘run-of-the-mill’, average, boring preacher…He was AMAZING! In Mark 11:8 after teaching the people, he tells us that “…the people were so enthusiastic about Jesus’ teaching”. -Mk.11:18 (LB) Another version translates Mark 11:18… ”the people were SPELLBOUND by His teaching”.-NRSV People had never heard a person speak like this. There’s never been a greater communicator (before or since) than Jesus Christ!

I want to speak to you this morning about ‘talking like Jesus talked’. See, the ‘words’ you use everyday, have incredible power! I once said 2 simple words…(I DO!) and it changed my life radically! (for the better I might add!). The avg. person has 30 conversations a day, and will spend a 5th of their lives talking. In one year alone, your words would fill 66 books of 800 pgs. each. If you’re a man, you speak an avg. of 20,000 words a day. If you’re a woman, you speak an avg. of 30,000 words a day. Which explains why when we men are done talking, our wives still have 10,000 words to go! It’s like the guy who was asked, “Do you mind that your wife always has to get the last word?”… He said, “Heck no! I’m just glad that she got to it!” Some of us are born with a silver ‘foot’ in our mouth! (I think I just swallowed mine!)

We always seem to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Sometimes it doesn’t take but a few words to really get yourself in trouble! Maybe you heard about the guy who joined the “Trapist Monastery” ...and for 3 yrs. he was given a probation period where he couldn’t speak at all. But at the end of each year… he was allowed to utter 2 words.

So at the end of the 1st yr. (he hadn’t said a word), and so he walks into the Father Superior’s office and says… “BED HARD!” He turns and walks out, and for another year he goes without a syllable… He comes back at the end of the 2nd yr. and the Father Superior asks, “All right my son, what would you like to say this year?” So he says only 2 words… “FOOD COLD!” Finally, the 3rd yr. comes around and he walks in with a disgusted look on his face and blurts out the only two words he’d spoken that year… “I QUIT!” The Father Superior looks at him and says, ‘Well, I’m not surprised, all you’ve done since you got here is COMPLAIN!”