INTRODUCTION, Well it happened again. There I was minding my business during the Holiday Season. Kathy and I went to the new Pullman Square Movie Theater to see the film “Oceans 12”
I got in line to purchase my tickets when it happened – 2 Please, and then he rang up the price and there it was a senior citizen discount.
This has happened twice in the last year! Do I look like a senior citizen? Is it possible, my age catching up with me?
Last weekend, our Family attended the FERN CREEK CHRISTIAN CHURCH – we meet one of the Elders and his wife from my previous ministry. The first thing the elder’s wife said was you left us and now you are gray headed and are wearing glasses.
Got me thinking – DO I NEED A MAKEOVER?
After all, makeovers are all the rage on TV.
TV Shows like “THE SWAN” & “EXTREME MAKEOVER” tell of incredible transformations through plastic surgery
THE #1 cable TV show is called “NIP TUCK” and tells the exploits of 2 plastic surgeons
TV Talk shows – Dr. Phil, Oprah and others routinely take people out of their audience and in a period of less than 48 hours makeover people with make up haircuts and new wardrobes.
In a recent survey Percentage of American women who would change something about their looks if they could: 99. Percentage of men who would: 94
We seemed to be obsessed with changing our outward appearance. Yet God’s word tells us, “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Sam 16:7
We begin a new series today – called Extreme Makeover – What looks Good to God, over the next few weeks we are going to look at some internal qualities – which please God.
Today, I want us to look at the attribute of Big Ears. That is to be good listeners.
READ TEXT JAMES 1:19-25 NLT
Listening is quickly becoming a lost art. We no longer want to listen, but would rather be entertained with the visual. Perhaps this is why Adlai Stevenson, when he addressed the students at Princeton, said, "I understand I am here to speak and you are here to listen. Let’s hope we both finish at the same time."
The devotion prayer of modern man is, "Lord, speak to me! You have sixty seconds."
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
I find it amazing that we always want God and others to listen to us, but we seldom want to listen to others. But James reminds us, be quick to listen, slow speak and slow to get angry.
Why is it we have such a hard time with this command?
MANY OF THE PROBLEMS WE DEAL WITH IN CHURCH COME FROM NOT OBEYING THIS COMMAND!
Here is a saying among rabbis, "Men have two ears but one tongue, that they should hear more than they speak. The ears are always open, ever ready to receive instruction; but the tongue is surrounded with a double row of teeth to hedge it in, and keep it within proper bounds."
The Church is filled with people who want to hear themselves speak and who refuse to listen. I agree with Steven Covey who says in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we listen to respond. We need to learn to listen so as not to so quickly respond.
Proverbs 10:19 In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
HOW DO WE MAKEOVER OUR LISTENING SKILLS – HOW DO TRAIN OURSELVES TO HAVE BIG EARS!
James gives us 3 suggestions.
An Attentive Heart
My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, (James 1:19-21a)
The first insight we receive from this passage is to cultivate an attentive heart. We must be quick to hear the Word of truth. "Quick to hear" refers to an alert ear. It is possible to hear, and yet not hear. We do that all the time. We do that when we talk to one another. You see, James is not talking about physically hearing the words as they impact our ears, but listening for what God has to say. "Quick to hear" describes an attentive heart, listening for what God has to say. Often we talk to one another and never really hear what the other person has to say. When we ask someone, "How are you doing?" and they give us any other answer besides, "I’m doing fine," (the only one we’re programmed to hear), we may miss it altogether. We are not programmed to hear those kinds of answers. We are not quick to hear when it comes to receiving what others are trying to tell us.
That is often true when it comes to what God is trying to communicate to us. You can hear His Word and not really hear it. That’s why Jesus was always talking about "having ears to hear." In one Gospel, it says, "Take heed what you hear;" in another Gospel it says, "Take heed how you hear." We not only have to concentrate on the facts, we have to concentrate on the attitude of our heart in hearing the facts. What are the things that keep us from hearing?
One of the things that keeps us from hearing is that we need to be (but are not) slow to speak. One of the reasons you don’t listen is because you are doing all the talking. God gave us two ears and one mouth - that ought to say something to us. Many times we need to be quiet and let God speak to us.
The second thing we need to do is cultivate a calm spirit. We need to be slow to anger. Did you know that being upset with what you hear can block all the capacity you possess to hear it, especially when it comes to a relevant now word from God? If you don’t calm you spirit down and let God speak a word to you, even when that word is uncomfortable, you will never hear. Cultivate a calm spirit.
Then we also need to cultivate a clean heart. James exhorts us to continue putting aside all filthiness. This word, filthiness, comes from a root in Greek that has to do with earwax. But it refers to sin. In other words, sin in your life is like earwax - it will prevent you from hearing God. It stops up the capacity to hear. The Bible teaches that sin separates our hearts from God’s. Isaiah said, "The Lord GOD has opened My ear." (Isaiah 50:5) God sometimes has to dig our ears out so that we can hear what He has to say. If you listen for God to speak, you will hear His voice.
Some years ago, a young man who wanted to change his life went into a church and sat down in the sanctuary for awhile. He took out a piece of paper and a pencil and began writing down a long list of things that he promised he would do to change his life - a whole page of things - and he signed his name at the bottom and took it up and placed it on the altar, and sat down again in the sanctuary.
As he was sitting there, however, he began to sense the voice of God speaking softly in his own soul. And the more he listened to it, the more he heard God saying to him, You’ve done it all wrong. I want you to go back up there and get the piece of paper and tear it up. And then I’ll give you another instruction.
So, the young man got out of his pew and walked up to the altar and did as the Lord told him. And then he went back to sit down in the pew and waited for the Lord to instruct him. It did not happen immediately, but finally the message came through. The Lord said to him, very gently, Now take a piece of paper and sign your name to it at the bottom and let me fill in all the rest!
Can you have that kind of faith – you can if you have an attentive heart.
A Teachable Spirit
And humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. (James 1:21b)
How do we receive the Word? There are several keys here.
One is that we receive it in humility. Anger speaks of arrogance. We don’t want to hear what God has to say because we don’t like it. We need to develop a teachable spirit if we are going to hear what God has to say. Humility is talked about in Galatians 5 in terms of the Fruit of the Spirit. It is talked about in the Beatitudes, one of the eight characteristics which characterize a Christian’s walk and life. Humility is essential to hearing the Word and receiving it. It’s not just enough to hear the Word. We have to welcome it. The welcoming of the Word takes place when we are humble enough and teachable enough for God to speak to us.
I have dedicated my life to preaching and teaching God’s word and I find that the more I know about Jesus, the more there is to know. I have only scratched the surface in my understanding about the things of God. If I am to press on and understand the things of God better, I must maintain a teachable spirit, or I will stay stuck in the mud in my spiritual walk.
Listen, none of us have arrived. Paul said that he hadn’t arrived, and if he hadn’t I can’t think of anyone else who has. Paul said, "I have not attained . . . I press on." We need to develop a teachable heart and an open receptive spirit. The saints of God sometimes need to throw off all they think they know. Often they have to unlearn some things to be taught again.
The Teachable spirit does not simply come from God’s word; it also comes from listening to those who teach God’s Word.
Two children were in the kitchen fighting over the one orange in the house. Each needed the orange for a recipe. The Mom came in, saw the problem, and with great apparent wisdom, cut that orange in two and handed one half to one, one half to the other.
No one was satisfied. If only someone had listened.
You see, one recipe called for the meat of the orange, the other called for the peel. BOTH could have had what they wanted ... if only anyone had bothered to listen.
Perhaps that is one more lesson we can learn: In the church, beyond all other places in the world, we are supposed to learn to listen to one another, to value one another’s feelings and opinions, as a foretaste of heaven itself, where everyone will be heard perfectly. Would that be something? We might not be rich. We might not have great crowds. We might not sing very well. We might not look very successful in the world’s eyes. But if we could listen to one another, and love one another with our hearing, that would be something, wouldn’t it?
An Obedient Walk
And remember it is a message to obey, and not just listen to. If you don’t obey, you will be just fooling yourself. (James 1:22)
Many Christians stop at merely hearing and receiving the Word. They hear the Word, receive it, but don’t take the essential step to do what the Word commands. Chuck Swindoll says, in his book, Improving Your Serve:
"To make the value of obedience just a practical as possible, Lets pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite radio station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon talk shows. "What in the world is going on, man?" "What do you mean, Chuck?" "Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?" "Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, Chuck, we have had a letter study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters." "OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?" "Do? We didn’t do anything about them."
This is not funny at all, when you think of the unhappy fact that this is where many of our churches and Christians are. Sometimes we even reinforce it. We encourage our kids to memorize Scriptures and reward them for the mere fact of Scripture memorization without the resulting obedience to that Scripture. You see, God gives us His Word, not to make us smart, but so that we will obey it.
He says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." Sometimes, we hear and receive the Word; we memorize and can tell people the facts and the truth of the Word of God; and yet, we do not live that Word out. If we are merely hearers, we fool ourselves.
Sometimes we deceive ourselves into believing we are something we are not simply because we know the facts of the Word of God. A. W. Tozer wrote:
"There is an evil which, in its effect on the Christian religion, may be more destructive than communism, Romanism and liberalism combined. It is the glaring disparity between theology and practice among professing Christians. So wide is this gulf between theory and practice in the church that an inquiring stranger who chances upon both, would scarcely dream that there was any relation between the two of them. An intelligent observer of our human scene who heard the Sunday morning message and later watched the Sunday afternoon conduct of those who heard it would conclude that he had been examining two distinct and contrary religions. It appears to me that too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of being right. And so, the divorce between theory and practice becomes permanent in fact. Truth sits forsaken and grieves till her professed followers come home for a brief visit. But she sees them depart again when the bills come due."
Because we fail to obey the Word, there is a disparity between what we profess and what we possess; what we say we believe and what we actually believe; what we say we are and what we really are. Jesus has not called us to become people who "know" the Word only. He has called us to be people who live the Word, who obey the Word.
How do we receive the Word? We need to develop an attentive heart to hear the Word of God. We need to develop a teachable spirit to receive the Word of God. Finally, we need to develop an obedient walk to obey the Word of God. If you do this, you will be blessed.
If you are going to an extreme makeover, these qualities will need to be in you. Are they? Are you listening with your spiritual ears to what God wants to tell you? Do you have a teachable spirit open to what God has to say, or is your theology too closed and narrow to hear a fresh word? When God speaks, are you willing to do what He says? If you are willing to hear and obey, God will gladly tell you the next step to take. But it all depends on what you are listening for… A Midwesterner from the farm was visiting his college roommate in New York City. Walking near Times Square one day, the farm boy suddenly remarked, I hear a cricket.
You’re crazy, his city friend replied. It’s the noon rush hour, and in all of this traffic noise you heard a cricket? C’mon, man!
No, I did hear a cricket, the visitor insisted. Focusing more intently, he walked to the corner, crossed the busy avenue and looked all around. Finally he approached a shrub in a large cement planter. Digging beneath the cover mulch, he found his cricket.
His friend couldn’t believe what he had seen. But the friend from the farm said, My ears are no different from yours. It simply depends on what you have learned to listen for. Here, let me show you.
He then reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a handful of change, and dropped the coins on the sidewalk. At the sound of the money hitting the pavement, every head along the crowded block turned.
You see what I mean? the visitor said, as he began picking up what was left of his coins. It all depends on what you are listening for.
INVITATION
