Producing Righteous Men Of God Series

Producing Righteous Men of God

(Father’s Day 2002)

James 1:19-20

Introduction

Lucille Ball was on the Merv Griffin show and maybe out of his own desparation and desire for answers he asked this woman only known for her comedy "Lucille, you’ve lived a long time on this earth and you are a wise person. What’s happened to our country? What’s wrong with our children? Why are our families falling apart? What’s missing?" Lucy’s startling yet matter-of-fact reply came quickly. "Papa’s missing," she said. "Things are falling apart because Papa’s gone. If Papa were here, he would fix it." A unique book that I have on my shelf could bring terror into the Christian household it is called “faith of the Fatherless” and it chronicles the lives of the famous and infamous atheists that ever lived. Nietzsche, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Voltaire, Sigmund Freud, HG Wells, Madalyn Murray-O’hare, just to name a few are all products of an absent father either by death or neglect or abusive father. We are in James 1:19,20. These verses just happen to land on Father’s Day it was not planned. God wants to speak to the dads at Commonwealth Chapel, I being one of them. He wants to teach us about our weak areas, show us the consequences and admonish us to change. God wants us to be righteous men of God, righteous as we listen to Him as we listen to her. Righteous with our speech when we are quick to speak and slow to think about the words we say and when we need to be quick to speak. God wants us to be righteous in our attitude towards our family slow to wrath. From the scripture we may get a glimpse at some things that produce the righteousness of God

1) The righteous man Listens (God, wife, kids)

a) Selective hearing is not righteousness

i) We think our kids have selective hearing so do men

ii) In youth ministry it is often hard to get the attention of youth when they are talking and carrying on you can scream and yell and yet there is no attention and so I found out how to do it. I yelled SEX!

iii) Selective hearing is listening to things that you want to hear and not listening to information that you don’t want to hear.

iv) Selective hearing is a nice way of saying that someone only listens to what they want to hear, or, worse, masks everything they hear with what they expect the other person is really saying… Hi Honey…What your really saying is you don’t trust me

v) The selective listener is not really listening to understand the other person’s heart, but rather listening to each reason in order to discredit it, the selective listener is listening to argue and not to understand. Their goal is what I want, regardless of your need.

b) The righteous man listens to his wife and kids

i) Your wife wants to say something too. She is wanting an intelligent conversation when you walk in

ii) Whether she is talkative or you are talkative. Someone has got to be the one to listen and I saying sir that you should start. Don’t tune her out. Her complaints may be a cry for help. Her frustration may be a desire for encouragement.

iii) Many timres they don’t want you to be the problem solver, but just an ear.

c) The righteous man listens to God

i) If we want to have an intimate relationship with God, one in which He speaks to us and directs our steps, we should first listen to His requirements of us in His Word.

ii) Author Joy Dawson says: We can’t begin to hear from God if:

(1) We don’t really want to hear what God has to say. Should we even try to chart our own course in life without consulting God. "God looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, that seek after God" (Ps. 53:2) Jesus always listened to the Father… (Matt 11:25)

(2) We don’t believe that God even wants to speak to us personally. God can talk to us anywhere, anytime, and about anything. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He only tells us what is true and holy. "Yes, He loves the people, all His saints are in Your hand; they sit down at Your feet; everyone receives your words" (Dt. 33:3). I wish it were true.

(3) We don’t want to deal with our sin. Our evil actions and thoughts quench our dialogue with God. We have to repent in order to hear from God and to be heard by Him. The Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Ps. 66:18). God will point to that thing which silences our conversations with Him, if we ask Him to.