Big Ears
Message series in book of James: “Extreme Makeover: What Really Looks Good to God”
Big word, an in word, in our culture these days is “makeover.” Tummy tucks, lipo-suction, nose jobs, home renos, remodelling of gardens, they are all the rage. Many TV shows that have this theme are capturing the airwaves. I can see the appeal of it. People dream of a new improved versions of their bodies or homes, to feel good, to feel beautiful, to be loved, to be popular, accepted, liked. So I don’t think, it is a newsflash that folks want to see improvement in their lives.
It is not news, as well, that God wants to makeover our lives as well. He wants a remodelled, new and improved, growing you. He wants us to grow up to look like Him. He wants all of us to feel loved, accepted, forgiven. In others words, God desires us to be made over to be as perfect and complete as He is. But how can we be made over in a world that’s falling apart? We find ourselves struggling to make improvements in a world that’s ugly with problems and stresses.
This week we will learn from the letter that James wrote to the church that needed a makeover. The environment, in which that letter was written, was one of similar stresses. Hard times were a constant reality. Here in James we find a community that desparately needed a makeover.
History tells us that, it was a time when jobs were hard to find, the economy was bad, many are poor. James was writing to people struggling to get by on their meagre income as noted in 1:9 “the brother in humble circumstances.” Not only that, but the believers that he wrote to were showing favouritism, discrimination, the rich dragging poor people to court (see Jas 2:1-7), spreading gossip, having big time problem of controlling the tongue (Jas 3), bickering (Jas 4), boasting, bragging (4:16). These were not happy times! They were suffering as rejects in their society. The community James wrote to was a fractured, broken, discouraged bunch that needed a lot of growing up. They were not having a whole of fun. Is this a church community that needed a makeover or what? I wonder if this sounds familiar?
I am glad God’s word does not have a sanitized fairy tale version of reality. God’ Word deals with real people problems. And so it gives a sense of real hope that God continues to speak our real world problems. God’s Word guides us as we navigate through tough times.
If I were James, I would have not documented such problems. I would have painted a picture of a church with no problems, church where everybody got along. I would have drawn a cheery pretty picture of church life, but it is obvious; the word of God does not attempt to hide the facts that even in the early days of the church, there was trouble in the church and that’s the real world in which they struggled to live in. No wonder, 1:2-3 speaks of facing “trials of many kinds… testing of your faith.” He writes and speaks to people who are tempted to blame God for their stresses and saying “God is tempting me” (v.13). Do you see how the church that day was facing deep struggles, and so the Bible continues to speaks to us, as the church today, that are facing all sorts of trials, feeling tested, feeling tempted and yet desiring a makeover?
The true word in Christianity is this, which James touched on: God has noticed us. And He has EMBRACED us. James (1:16-17) puts it this way “So don’t be misled… In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession.” To a bunch of struggling believers looking for instruction and hope, James reminds his readers, the church, God the Father has already given us birth as His children. Here is a church that is very close to Jesus, not far removed from the first Easter Sunday, with a living brother of Jesus writing to them. But they struggled to live as Christians, just like we are. The needed to be reminded of the grace of God and the grace of God has come and it wipes the slate clean, sins have been forgiven, hope is secured by the resurrection power of the living Christ. We are God’s “choice possession” by His very own choice, do not be misled!
How are we his choice, chosen kids of the King? The passion of Jesus Christ speaks to us.
The cross tells us that Christ has absorbed into Himself all the evil and sin and ugliness of the world. His purposes is to transform what’s ugly about humanity and turn it into a beautiful expression of God’s love acceptance and forgiveness to anyone who feels ugly, dehumanized, unlovely, unlovable. So “Christ died for our sins” as the Bible declares (1 Cor.15:3) in order to speak to our world in search of dignity and worth and beauty, that God has noticed us despite our ugliness of sin, and He did more than just cosmetic surgery, he completely routed sin, obliterated it, with His sacrifice, so that sin will never again get in the way of a holy God loving us.
Today, Jesus says to us “Peace be with you.” What a makeover, what an awesome thing Jesus did. If that’s the real deal, that God has already accepted us. Then what’s next? How does one live life as a forgiven child of God? I believe, God calls, for extreme makeover spiritually, as outlined in the book of James.
God wants to have beautiful well-developed children. Just like any parent – the desire for his or her child is for a completely healthy kid who’d grow up and be a responsible citizen. And so God wants us to grow, to become mature and complete, and to look like Him. He wants us to have spiritual makeover, get rid of the ugly stuff that sucks the fun and the life out of our existence. He does not make us over to make us acceptable, that is Jesus’ job, which He has done, as I explained thru the cross. We are already His choice possession. He wants to make us over to become more and more like Him in character, to grow, to make further progress, to help us to say “peace” to others, not just stay stagnant and become like a statue rather than a living being who is growing and thriving and having the best time of his life. Since God wants to do a great parenting job, he says that one thing we need to develop is this “Big Ears”.
19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. James 1:19-20 (NIV)
Big ears that are quick to listen. Hmmm… sound simple enuff. Problem is: We are bad at listening, really. Just take a look around, people have learned to tune things out. Listening skills are non-existent! The world would not be blowing up, if listening skills have not eroded beyond recognition. Strikes, militant demonstrations, Terrorist gets angry blows up people, why, to get an audience that’ll listen!
When I was living in Calgary, I lived within a stone’s throw away from the airport. Some of those planes fly pretty close to the ground. And when they do that, what horrible loud noise they make! Oooi! The house shakes, as if there was an earthquake and if you have TV without cable, using rabbit ears like I did, the picture on the TV suddenly becomes all fuzzy and blurry. It’s terrible when you are watching an exciting scene, then suddenly a plane come by! It really takes the fun out of it, when you miss the climax. But after a while I even learn to tune out that noise, just got used to it.
That’s just what happens, what a world we live in, e-mail, phone, cell-phones, faxes, text-messaging, etc and still we don’t listen well, we tune out. Do we have to resort to strikes, demonstrations, terrorist acts to ensure that someone will listen? I wonder how many have tuned out already during this worship service? That is why ad companies today are paid millions to get people to listen, and folks, guess what? Pepsi and Coke are willing to part with lots of cash in order to get people to listen. So let’s get a few tips on listening well from the Bible.
HOW TO LISTEN WELL:
1. Acceptance: People matter to God
The cross shows God indeed loves the world! Jesus gave His life for the sins of the world. We need to see people as Jesus did. If people do not matter to God, Christ would not have any reason to go the cross, but He did. Jesus showed us, grace loves, serves, forgives, doesn’t keep a record of wrong and then dangle them over someone’s face. Grace gives breathing room and it invites.
Therefore, make the love, acceptance and forgiveness Christ gave to you available to another. Let’s not have a faultfinding mission but a sins-forgiven mission, like Jesus. Remember God chose love as He accepted us as His kids (Jas.1:18). It is totally consistent of James to write, “Mercy triumphs over judgment” Jas 2:12. Demonstrate that love acceptance and forgiveness of Christ to another. God never did give up on us!
Stay with the person, no matter how hard it is for you. Remember what Christ has done for us! Remember how he says he will never leave us nor forsake us! Remember how the Bible says “Nothing in all creation will separate us from his love.” Now is the time of salvation, now is the time of redemption, now is the time of acceptance, of setting people free, the year of the Lord’s jubilee. God did not give up on you!God has settled our accounts, so let us then help others by dying to our need to settle accounts!
Let us show ourselves as true representatives of the majestic love of Jesus by settling the outstanding accounts others have against us! Let us reflect the glory of our God who tells us where His Spirit, there is freedom. Let us set the captives free! Let us not lose heart though outwardly we may be wasting away, but inwardly let us be renewed day by day, by the power of the Gospel that raised Jesus from the dead! Let grace reach more and more people through us that it may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God!
2. Eye contact
Make eye-to-eye contact, instead of looking elsewhere, pay attention to another. Eye contact really says, “I am here to listen”.
Jesus says in Lk.11:33 (NLT), “Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul.” Truth can penetrate deeper in with eye-to eye contact, and if the person is ready, sunshine can enter in via the eye, for it shows an openness of a sincere person seeking truth, who hopes to be understood. If there is a sincere need for someone to be helped, the eye-to-eye contact really helps. God made this principle real to us, when Jesus took on flesh on that first Christmas and became man to have eye-to-eye contact with people.
n the encounter with the rich young man, or the rich young ruler, who could not part with his wealth to follow God, Jesus demonstrates to us this important yet overlooked technique of listening. The Bible records Jesus doing this and I quote from Mark 10:21 (NIV), “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Eye-eye contact tells the other person you are interested in really hearing, in caring. It shows you are not distracted; you are tuning in, not faking but making contact. It shows you are not annoyed or can’t wait to fire back a response. If we can’t listen to someone we can see eye to eye, how can we then listen to God whom we cannot see?
3. Hold the phone
Just like phone conversations, making a conscious effort not to respond, even in your head, till the other has finished talking. Think of how a phone conversation sounds if everyone starts talking at the same time. Jas 1:19 says: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak.” Be truly attentive, hear completely, and respond with heart not the head! Watch the body language! Your body language will send messages if you are “slow to speak” or already framing a rebuttal. Be really slow to jump to conclusions. Listen then with your heart wide open, not your with your head. People want to know you care.
People want to be understood, not play head games with you. See the non-verbal cues, people do not generally like to be shrinked or psyched out.
The Bible says “Laughter can conceal a heavy heart; when the laughter ends, the grief remains” (Proverbs 14:13). Can we hear the grief beneath the laughter? I don’t think we can, if we are not able to hold the phone long enough to not garble the message.
Perhaps some of us can’t hold the phone because we feel uncomfortable, we kid around, or we dole out Bible verses or advice. The Bible says, “Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions” Pro.18:2 (NLT). When we are not quick to listen, we are really showing how foolish we are, aren’t we? “What a shame, what folly, to give advice before listening to the facts!” Pro.18:13 (NLT) So hold the phone.
4. Be honest
If you don’t know how respond, accept it. Your presence, staying with them (steps 1-3) is critical. Don ‘t have to know what to say for every circumstance. Advice is more than likely not want they want anyhow. It is to know they’re not alone. Common comment from many depressed people: “I am all alone.” Let your presence be felt through your acceptance, eye contact, holding the phone. Let the love of God, which you have received personally, touch the one you are listening, silently saying a prayer when you feel at lost for words. Just be real!
5. Process your inner self.
As you listen, and get honest with yourself, it may trigger a problem you’re facing yourself. Perhaps you find yourself getting angry, as a memory from your past is stirred up. James says don’t let things go out of hand, you can control it; “slow to become angry, 20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Man’s anger, the Bible says does not help at all, your anger must be dealt with. Your mind will travel off there. Won’t listen well. You’ll be attempting to seek solution to your problem. Know yourself well enough. Say a quick prayer to God, such as “Have mercy on me, O God, a sinner,” when u feel the temperature rising. “Wise people think before they act; fools don’t and even brag about it!” Pro.13:16 (NLT). So ask yourself what is it that triggers in you such an explosive response that you are fast becoming angry.
I like to tell you a story from Ernest Gordon’s Miracle on the River Kwai. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward.
The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . . The incident had a profound effect. . .
The men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: “No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness.” Sacrificial love has transforming power.
Man’s anger is really destructive, it does not bring about a righteous life that God desires as shown by the Japanese officer. But wow, the story of an innocent man’s sacrifice, what a profound effect it has – it sparked within the POWs not anger but these words “No more hatred, no more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness.” When we are willing to absorb the message of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we can have the resource that allows us to become “slow to anger” but when we resort to manage anger on our own, it can kill! So process those feelings with God! Call a time-out, regroup! Travel with God to the places where you felt disappointment, allow God to reach into those areas. Let Him heal you.
I need to say being angry is not at all sin. Eph.4:26 “In your anger do not sin”, in other words, there is permission to feel the hurt and pain, it is natural. But it is supernatural to forgive like Christ did. To not let anger manage you so in the same verse in Eph 4:26 says “do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” That is quickly deal with it, don’t let it embitter you, no anger should outlast the day. If it does, then Satan will get an edge on you and will drive a wedge further between you and the one who offended you, a “foothold” (Eph 4:27).
6. Keep responses brief and gentle.
Stay tuned in to the other. Proverbs 10:19 (NLT) says: “Don’t talk too much, for it fosters sin. Be sensible and turn off the flow!” Ha, ha if only preacher would do that! Proverbs 15:1 (NLT) tells us: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger.”
Got to remember our Father God listens very well. Jesus taught us we have a God who has a keen interest in us, in our needs, He listen to us. Read Matthew 7:7-11 (NLT) , 7 “Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks. 9 You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. Do you see how great a listener God is?
Want a new you, made over by God? Wanna church that’s beautiful, attractive? Let’s get some big ears - Listen well to God’s Word, listen well to each other. Problems are here to stay, when they come, see it as an opportunity or as James say be happy about it, “consider it pure joy”, to grow in your love and service to each other in the Spirit of Christ who forgives us and gives us a clean start. James speaks of a God who generously gives to all without finding fault. So let us grow up, be like our God, a God who has noticed us, let’s notice each other, with really big ears.
