James 1:19-20-So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Swift To Hear:
A believer will be swift, and ready to listen to God.
A believer should be hungry for the word of God, and they should place themselves or make themselves available to hear the word of God spoken!
In the world we live in and the technology that is available to us, the spoken and the written word are available to every one of us.
(Stack the notebooks of sermons that I have preached at this church the last 8 years)
Luke 12:48-But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
We not only need to hear God’s word, we need to obey it!
James 1:22-But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
If Peter would have listen to Jesus, he would have not been crying the next day!
Matthew 26:34-35-Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
35Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
And so said all the disciples.
Do we come to come to church ready to hear what god has to say?
I’m afraid that is not the case, we are sometimes preoccupied with other things and that keeps us from receiving instruction, or blessing, guidance and spiritual growth.
Slow To Speak:
James is not telling us to take vows of silence. We have to share the gospel.
James is not telling us to be unsociable, he is telling us to think before we speak.
Remember what Jesus said, Matthew 12:37-For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
It is not by chance that we have two ears and one mouth, we should listen twice as much as we talk.
Proverbs 10:19-In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.
Proverbs 17:28-Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive.
Slow To Wrath:
Just as "slow to speak" does not mean never to speak, so "slow to anger" does not mean
that we are never to be angry.
After spending three and a half hours enduring the long lines, surly clerks and insane regulations at the Department of Motor Vehicles, a man stopped at a toy store to pick up a gift for his son.
He brought his selection — a baseball bat — to the cash register. "Cash or charge?" the clerk asked.
"Cash," he snapped. Then apologizing for his rudeness, he explained, "I've spent the afternoon at the motor-vehicle bureau."
"Shall I gift wrap the bat?" the clerk asked sweetly. "Or are you going right back there?"
Some things we should get angry about. — A Righteous Anger.
Angry over unrighteousness, injustice, Children being hurt, elderly being taken advantage
of.
Who does God get mad at the most, it is not the unrighteous (There will
be a time for that) but it is the religious, Christian who continues to live
in sin! _
Our anger is often unrighteous and does not honor God.
The truth is most of the time when we get angry it is because we didn’t get our own way!
A young girl who was writing a paper for school came to her father and asked, "Dad, what is the difference between anger and annoyance?" The father replied, "It is mostly a matter of degree. Let me show you what I mean." With that the father went to the telephone and dialed a number at random. To the man who answered the phone, he said, "Hello, is Melvin there?" The man answered, "There is no one living here named Melvin. Why don’t you learn to look up numbers before you dial" "See," said the father to his daughter. "That man was not a bit happy with our call. He was probably very busy with something and we annoyed him. Now watch...." The father dialed the number again. "Hello, is Melvin there?" asked the father. "Now look here!" came the heated reply. "You just called this number and I told you that there is no Melvin here! You’ve got lot of guts calling again!" The receiver slammed down hard. The father turned to his daughter and said, "You see, that was anger. Now I’ll show you what annoyance means." He dialed the same number, and when a violent voice roared, "Hello!" The father calmly said, "Hello, this is Melvin. Have there been any calls for me?"
When anger comes in, listening flies out the window.
We get angry at God, because we didn’t understand why something happened or
didn’t happen!!!
That Does Not Honor God!!!
