INTRO.- Ignorant talk. There is a lot of that going around. Much of it is in Hollywood. Here is some ignorant talk from foolish people.
- JODIE FOSTER: "I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don’t believe in God."
- BILLY JOEL: "I wasn’t raised Catholic, but I used to go to Mass with my friends, and I viewed the whole business as a lot of very enthralling hocus-pocus. I believe that all important matters have to be settled here, not in the clouds somewhere after we kick off."
- JOHN MALKOVICH: "I believe in people, I believe in humans, I believe in a car, but I don’t believe something I have absolutely no evidence of for."
- BILL MAHER: On Larry King Live, Maher said that "all religious people have a neurological disorder" and that religion is "insanity by consensus."
- GEORGE CARLIN: I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood. Also, I’ve begun worshiping the Sun for a number of reasons. First of all, unlike some other gods I could mention, I can see the Sun. It’s there for me every day. And the things it brings me are quite apparent all the time: heat, light, food, a lovely day. There’s no mystery, no one asks for money, I don’t have to dress up, and there’s no boring pageantry.
ILL.- When comedian Kathy Griffin accepted her long-awaited Creative Arts award Emmy award in September 2007, she said: "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."
She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "This award is my god now!"
Fox religion correspondent, Lauren Green, wrote: I just don’t understand comedian Kathy Griffin. Please understand that I like her. She’s been on the FOX News Channel quite a bit and for the brief times we’ve talked, I’ve found her to be funny and self-effacing.
So, it puzzled me at first, then angered me second, that she would accept an award and then insult a man who preached love and acceptance. Why would someone do that?
I don’t know what went through her mind and why she would think that was cutting edge or even funny. But first, I want to actually show you that, in fact, Kathy Griffin is wrong. Jesus had everything to do with her winning that award. And here’s the reasoning.
Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago. His dying words were, "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." He died and they buried him in a rock cut tomb. Three days later, as the Bible says, he rose from the dead. That day is what Christians celebrate as Easter. So, you see, Kathy Griffin, Jesus has everything to do with you winning that award.
"You live in a free country where your abilities can be recognized if you’re willing to work hard enough. That’s at least the dream of America. If you’d been born in many other parts of the world, your daily activity might involve seeking out a way to survive, or even trying to avoid persecution and death.
"Luxuries like pursuing a career in the entertainment industry would never have been realized; luxuries like being able to insult the founder of a religion of forgiveness and acceptance would not have been possible.
Kathy Griffin, just because you "can" say something, doesn’t mean you "should."
You didn’t just insult Christianity … you insulted the very reason you’ve prospered.
And that’s what I call "silencing the ignorant talk of foolish people." Amen. But there are other ways of silencing the ignorant talk of foolish people.
PROP.- Our text tells us how to silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
1- Submit to authority
2- Live as servants
3- Show proper respect
4- Love the believers
I. SUBMIT TO AUTHORITY
13Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
ILL.- A policeman pulls a man over for speeding and asks him to get out of the car. After looking the man over he says, "Sir, I couldn’t help but notice your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been drinking?"
The man gets really indignant and says, "Officer, I couldn’t help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?"
ILL.- A man was speeding down a Alabama highway, feeling secure in a group of cars all traveling at the same speed. However, as they passed a speed trap, he got nailed by radar and was pulled over.
The officer handed him the citation, received his signature and was about to walk away when the man asked, "Officer, I know I was speeding, but I don’t think it’s fair - there were plenty of other cars around me who were going just as fast, so why did I get the ticket?"
"Ever go a fishin’?" the policeman suddenly asked the man."Ummm, yeah..." the startled man replied. The officer grinned and added, "Did you ever catch ’em all?"
Have you ever been pulled over and given a traffic ticket for speeding or otherwise? How did you respond to the officer? Did you show respect or did you try to argue your way out of it?
Romans 13:1 "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."
We are charged to submit to every human authority. What would this include? Our parents, teachers, bosses, managers, the law, police, the government, etc. Submission. Why is this important? One reason is because if we don’t learn submission to human authority we will never learn to submission to God!
ILL.- Someone said that in the past few biographies have influenced young Christians more than that of Hudson Taylor (May 21, 1832 – June 3, 1905) who was a missionary to China for 51 years. (China Inland Mission). The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country who began 125 schools and directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions.
What was his secret? Taylor wrote: “The Lord was looking for a man weak enough to use, and He found me.”
ILL.- Missionary Hudson Taylor was scheduled to speak at a Large Presbyterian church in Melbourne, Australia. The moderator of the service introduced the missionary in eloquent and glowing terms. He told the large congregation all that Taylor had accomplished in China, and then presented him as "our illustrious guest." Taylor stood quietly for a moment, and then opened his message by saying, "Dear friends, I am only the little servant of an illustrious Master."
The command or charge remains: We must submit to every human authority as best we can. And by doing this you will silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
II. LIVE AS SERVANTS
16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
Matthew 20:28 "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Gal. 5:13 "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."
To live as servants of God is to live as a servant to others.
ILL.- The most classic example of a modern servant leader was Sam Walton. He despised corporate fat cats. He could, and would, handle the cash register as well as stock the shelves in any of his Wal-Mart stores. He drove an old, rusty, dented pickup not to prove a point but because it still had plenty of good mileage left in it. He told his staff on more than one occasion that "if American management is going to say to their workers that we’re all in this together, they’re going to have to stop this foolishness of paying themselves $3 million and $4 million bonuses every year and riding around every where in limos and corporate jets like they’re so much better than everybody else."
If this is true about Sam Walton and I believe it is, then he had the right attitude.
ILL.- Someone said: "If you wish to be a leader you will be frustrated, for very few people wish to be led. If you aim to be a servant, you will never be frustrated."
ILL.- I saw a news item recently about that took place in Searcy, AR, Wal-Mart. What happened? A young wife and mother recently moved to Arkansas from Michigan to be near some relatives and with the hopes of being able to find a job to care for her son.
Mary Wadley never imagined the fortune she’d find the night she was checking out at a local Walmart store. In fact, she’d moved to Arkansas, hoping for better luck after she was laid off her job in Michigan. But it was still hard making ends meet for herself and her son. She said, "I’ve been praying to God, help me, give me a break, send someone to help reduce the pressure on me."
And that help was found in lane six of the check out area. Wadley was checking out groceries Tuesday night at Walmart in Searcy. The balance was $139.... But when it was time to pay, the cashier stopped her. "I looked up at her in shock and she said, that guy just paid for your groceries," said Wadley.
The man had been in front of her in line, and smiled at her before he left. And I looked up and he was walking out the door he never looked back, he just walked out," Wadley said.
So, who is he? Wadley doesn’t know but she’s looking for him. "I just want to say thank you to his face and you really helped and now me and my son are going to make it ok," said Wadley. She calls the anonymous stranger an angel.
And she says, even if she never meets him, she wants him to know what a difference he made in her life. And she’ll always treasure the receipt as a symbol of hope during tough times.
"I’ve had a lot of bad things happen in the past year, it touched my heart, put a smile on my face and a smile on my heart, and let’s me know there are still good people out there."
She says since it’s just a few days before Valentines Day, and even though she doesn’t know the man, this is an act that swept her off her feet.
Miracle of miracles, a stranger paid for her groceries. I wonder what kind of stranger? If he wasn’t an angel then he was a servant or had a servant’s heart.
We all need to live as servants to others. Why? Because being a servant speaks to a lost world better than pride, arrogance, and fame! True, humble servants silence the ignorant talk of foolish men!
III. SHOW PROPER RESPECT
17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
ILL.- Someone said: My boss was complaining in a staff meeting the other day that he wasn’t getting any respect. Later that morning he went out and got a small sign that read, "I’m the Boss." He then taped it to his office door.
Later that day when he returned from lunch, he found that someone had taped a note to the sign that said. "Your wife called, she wants her sign back!"
ILL.- RESPECT YOUR ELDERS. At age twenty-six, Pat Moore performed an unbelievable experiment. An industrial designer, Moore wanted a better understanding of senior adults, so for three years she frequently disguised herself as an eighty-five-year-old woman. From 1979 to 1982, she utilized the skills of a professional makeup artist and visited 116 cities throughout fourteen states and two Canadian provinces in her elderly persona. From her experience, Moore estimates that one of every 25 senior adults is abused, with most victims being 75 or older.
She was impressed with the compassion and care she received from senior adults when she was in character, but she received harsh treatment from younger generations. Unfortunately, society has widely accepted a practice called “social dismissal” of the elderly.
Hey! I’m getting there and to some young people I’m already there! I say to you youngsters, RESPECT YOUR ELDERS! Instead of me opening the door to the mall for you, why don’t you open it for me and other senior citizens?
Obviously, however, we all must show respect for one another and for all people: young and old, rich and poor, homely and homeless. Did you ever know someone whom you considered to never know a stranger?
ILL.- I know of a preacher named Al Hamilton who fits this description. I don’t know him well but well enough to know that he respects all people. Many years ago I went to Bedford, TX to try out for the Bedford Christian Church. Their previous preacher had been Al Hamilton. They said that Al loved everybody. He was very friendly and didn’t know a stranger. He was quick to greet and speak to all people.
That’s great but he also went a step further. He would literally find people living on the street and bring them into his own home to stay in order to help them.
Brothers and sisters, when we humble ourselves and show proper respect to all people, it will help to silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
IV. LOVE THE BELIEVERS
17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD OF BELIEVERS.
ILL.- Several churches in the South decided to hold union services. The leader was a Baptist and proud of his denomination.
"How many Baptists are here?" he asked on the first night of the revival?
All except one little old lady raised their hands.
"Lady, what are you?" asked the leader.
"I’m a Methodist," meekly replied the lady.
"Why are you a Methodist?" queried the leader?
"Well," replied the little old lady, "my grandparents were Methodists, my mother was a Methodist, and my late husband was a Methodist."
"Well," retorted the leader, "just supposing all your relatives had been morons, what would that have made you?"
"Oh, I see. A Baptist, I suppose," the lady replied meekly.
Whether churches get together for special services or not, they should still respect and love one another if those churches believe in Christ and seek to follow Him.
ILL.- Many years ago I was highly involved in a ministerial alliance because it was in a small town of 852 people. In that small town we had the Christian Church, the First Baptist Church, Assembly of God church, and Nazarene Church. There was one other church in town, I believe, but the preacher never attended our meetings. For the most part the ministerial meetings were very good BUT ONE DAY....ONE DAY one of the preachers came armed and ready to fight! Not physically, but verbally.
He pointed to every preacher in that meeting and said something about what they believed according to their particular church or denomination. Then he quoted scripture, which in his view, contradicted their faith. HE PURPOSELY CAME TO THAT MEETING TO PUT EVERY PREACHER AND HIS CHURCH DOWN, WHILE TRYING TO MAKE HIS CHURCH LOOK LIKE IT WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT WAS PREACHING THE TRUTH.
When he started in on one preacher that other preacher wasn’t going to take it sitting down. And they got into a dandy argument and while they did I got up and walked out. I thought, "This is crazy and that preacher just came looking for a fight."
What he did was wrong, totally wrong, because every preacher in that meeting believed strongly in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and savior of the world.
John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Boy, do we need to practice the words of Jesus! One of the greatest proofs of our faith in Christ is the fact that we love one another. This doesn’t mean that we agree totally with one another but if we believe in the same Christ and are trying to obey Him as best we can, then we must love one another!
When we love one another like Christ charged us to do, we will silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. They may well say,"Behold, how they love one another!"
CONCLUSION-------------------
ILL.- One man said: While I was speaking to the Denver Independent Banker’s Association, one of the bankers suddenly hollered out, “You’re stupid!” Five minutes later, I tried to keep my composure when he said the same thing. I noticed a slight slur in his voice. So I was ready for him the third time. When he said, “You’re stupid!” I replied, “Yes, and you’re drunk.” He replied, “Yes, but tomorrow I will be sober and you will still be stupid.”
Some people will never change. Once stupid, always stupid. And it will remain that way unless they come to Christ. We must live and walk with Christ. We must do His will, His way. And when we do we will silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
