So You Want To Be Unique?
(Christian Survivor Series; Living Godly in a Godless World) Developing a Christlike character is possible,
and just what we all need.
James 1.19-27 February 4, 2001
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends:
Lead with your ears,
follow up with your tongue,
and let anger straggle along in the rear.
God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger.
So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage.
In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other.
Act on what you hear!
Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror,
walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are,
what they look like.
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—
the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it,
is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action.
That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air.
Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight,
and guard against corruption from the godless world.
The Message: New Testament
What’s your definition of unique? The words rare, uncommon, strange, odd and peculiar come to mind.
If you listen to the worldview of today’s cultural movers and shakers, unique is to be found in accomplishment, accumulation and applause. You do stuff, gather stuff, and people take note!
There have been many notable unique people in history (according to the previous definition). Consider what the world will consider unique:
Music -- Elvis, The Beatles, Whitney and Brittany – their music changed the definition of music. Unique!
Dress and hair –Victorian button-up and down, to leisure suits (remember?), and then punk, skateboard, and gothic. Unique!
Cars – Rolls Royce to Rusty Wallace. Unique!
Logos – Nike’s to Tommy Jeans. Unique!
Super Bowl Commercials are unique. Last year’s Budweiser men shouted Whassssssup? to each other on the phone; this year it’s perfectly calm and calibrated, What are you doing? Unique!
Sports – If you can slamjam, slug it, or spike it, you’re unique.
What REALLY makes someone unique? The religious answer would be, We’re created in God’s image. Well, in reality, that gives us identity, not uniqueness. The fact of uniqueness is bound up in the fact that we are individually loved and cared for by the God who created us…now THAT is unique! He has given us fingerprints, eye-prints, and even DNA prints that are completely unique. No one else in the universe has ever matched the “you” God created.
The question then becomes, How much more unique can you get? The answer is bound up in the model God the Creator would have us pattern after, His perfect and unique Son, Jesus the Christ.
Consider His uniqueness:
Pre-incarnate existence. Jesus didn’t come into being in a manger. He existed in eternity with the Father. No one else can make that claim.
Virgin Birth. There have been plenty of single Moms throughout history – but no virgins. Jesus was born of a virgin. No one else can make that claim.
Sacrificial Atonement. Jesus’ death on the cross was not just an unfair treatment by a harsh Roman government, or an angry Jewish mob. It was chosen before the foundation of the world for Jesus to die for our sins. No one else can make that claim.
Resurrection. The dead man got out of a tomb and walked. Plenty of medical miracles in history and revived persons who were thought dead – but not a one who didn’t eventually die. Jesus’ resurrection was permanent. No one else can make that claim.
Ascension. When the time came, Jesus simply left this earth and went to the Father in heaven. He never died… No one else can make that claim.
Is there any doubt of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ – far above an Elvis or Madonna? There’s never been anyone like Jesus. And, to top it all off, the most startling uniqueness is that he loves us and is coming back for us, and wants us to be with Him…and like Him.
…that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
James 1.18b KJV
For those who have accepted Christ, what follows in the text of this letter we have from Jesus’ half-brother, James, is advice on How to recognize the uniqueness of Christ growing in you. There is a danger of imagining these are what we do to become unique. But that is not so.
These are rather the distinguishing marks of our uniqueness in Christ. It’s all about HIM, and what He does in our lives to make us like Him.
So, this morning, as we consider the admonition to examine ourselves before sitting at the Lord’s Supper Table, it’s a good time to look-over the uniqueness that Christ grows in true believers. It’s kind of a self-test to see about our growth.
I. Are your two ears more prominent than one mouth?
Slow to speak is James’s measuring stick. It was his first day on the job. He was a new clerk in the green goods department of a super market. A lady came up to him and said she wanted to buy half of a head of lettuce. He tried to dissuade her from that goal, but she persisted.
Finally he said, "I’ll have to go back and talk to the manager."
He went to the rear of the store to talk to the manager, not noticing that the woman was walking right behind him. When he got into the back of the store, he said to the manager, "There’s some stupid old bag out there who wants to buy half a head of lettuce. What should I tell her?"
Seeing the horrified look on the face of the manager, he turned about and, seeing the woman, added, "And this nice lady wants to buy the other half of the head of lettuce. Will it be all right?" Considerably relieved, the manager said, "That would be fine."
Later in the day, he congratulated the boy on his quick thinking. He then asked, "Where are you from, son?"
The boy said, "I’m from Toronto, Canada, the home of beautiful hockey players and ugly women." The manager looked at him and said, "My wife is from Toronto." The boy said, "Oh, what team did she play for?"
Quick thinking can get you out of some scrapes. Some not. The dear lady was visiting the church for the first time. The Pastor’s family was greeting the worshipers at the front door after the service. They happened to be having a dinner on the grounds, and the Pastor invited the rather stout visitor to stay.
Said the dear lady to the Parson, "Your church is wonderful. I’m certain the food is delicious, but I don’t know if I ought to stay to eat. After all, I’ve just lost a considerable amount of weight. Said the preacher’s son from behind the lady, "Hey, look back here, I think I found it."
How are you doing with listening? If it’s coming along, it’s a sign of God’s grace and growth in you.
II. Is your humility more prominent than your anger towards people? 19b-21
The righteousness of God or anger can grow in you, but not at the same time. How do you feel about people? A pastor arranged for a gathering of the women’s auxiliary. It was to be a garden party on the church lawn, under the old oak. At the last moment, the morning of the party, Mrs. Preacher discovered she left Sister Hissyfit off the invitation list.
The parson called the dear sister and begged forgiveness. I’m so sorry we didn’t catch this sooner, Mrs. Hissyfit, won’t you please come to the garden party? cajoled the pastor. Beggin’ won’t help now, Preacher, said the offended Mrs. H., I’ve already prayed for rain.
Humility is one of those strange things that, once you think you’ve got a handle on it, you don’t!
Perhaps this will help: In Romans, Paul gave the picture of sin as our house before we knew Christ, and His grace. Paul said that once we leave that old house behind, and move on, we’re not in-residence there any more.
A lack of humility towards others is sin. When the grace of God grows in you, the house of conceit and superiority is no longer a fit house. Moving out is natural. It’s what grace does!
How is your humility doing in overcoming the anger?
III. Is your practical service more prominent than your theoretical by-standing? 1.22-27
Andras Tamas is the name officials gave a certain man decades ago in a Russian psychiatric hospital. He’d been drafted into the army, but the authorities had mistaken his native Hungarian language for the gibberish of a lunatic and had him committed.
Then they forgot about him. For 53 years.
A few years ago a psychiatrist at the hospital began to realize what had happened and helped Tamas recover the memories of who he was and where he came from. He recently returned home to Budapest as a war hero, "the last prisoner of World War II."
Not only had this man forgotten his real name, he hadn’t even seen his own face in five decades. So, according to one news account, "For hours, the old man studies the face in a mirror. The deep-set eyes. The gray stubble on the chin. The furrows of the brow. It is his face, but it is a startling revelation."
It’s easy, if we’re not careful to hold the mirror up daily, to lose sight of what we are, and Whose we are. I have often run myself ragged thinking up (and then doing-up) programs and practices and activities. It’s usually only after I am run down and played out that I remember the mirror. And I hold it up, and I don’t like what I see.
Before I got here you had some programs – you didn’t need more programs.
Before I got here you had activities and procedures – you didn’t need more of that.
Before I got here you had a reputation for loving each other, and helping others. And I came here because of that! You see, the mirror is the Word – God’s Word. And it shows me that in all our planning and doing and running, what’s important is the grace of God growing in us. And the grace of God grows in us when we hold up the mirror. And when we do anything else we forget our own face – created in the image of Him.
This survivor series of messages is all about having Christian character. It’s about surviving the worldview of today’s culture – and allowing the grace of God to shape us, grow in us, change us into the image of His beautiful Son, Jesus.
Sometimes even a pastor can forget that. That’s when it happens that the mouth gets more prominent than the ears; and anger replaces humility; and theory becomes more prominent than serving. At such times a pastor should hold up the mirror of God’s word; he should repent.
And then…then he knows, he can sense – that’s where the grace of God touches. And that’s unique!
