Lead With Your Ears 1 Sermon Series: Practical Teachings from James James 1:21-25 Rev. Michael D. Halley September 20, 2015 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ James 1:21-25 New International Version (NIV) Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it they will be blessed in what they do. The Word of the Lord: Thanks be to God! One of my great pleasures comes when I am listening to a Christian 2 radio station and hear the famed actor Alexander Scourby read the Bible. There is just something about hearing God s Word read by that man. (By the way, I understand that it takes 72 hours to read aloud through the entire Bible. That might well be the best 72 hours ever spent!) And it occurred to me, as I studied this passage from James, that our Christian sisters and brothers to whom James wrote did not have printed 1
Page 2 Bibles such as we have today. Their entire knowledge of God s Word came from hearing it read. As we know, James, the head of the church in Jerusalem, wrote to those who had fled their homes in Jerusalem because of persecution. These are words of encouragement as they... and we... face the ups and downs of daily life. James gives us four steps to better listening, as we lead with our ears to hear God s Word. First, he says to remove the evil and filth from our lives. Imagine this scenario. It is Saturday and you have lots of yard work to do. It is hot and muggy. You toil all day, mowing the lawn and weeding the flower beds. By late afternoon you are really dirty. And then you remember that a friend has invited you to dinner that evening. So, what do you do? Go as you are? Or clean up first? Well, of course, you clean up. To show up grimy and filthy would be disrespectful to your friends. You owe them better than that. In similar fashion, we cannot approach God without cleaning up our act. Rid yourself, James says, of all that is dirty. The Greek word James uses is rhyparia (roo-parr-ree-uh) and it means foul matter or something filthy or 3 useless. From that same word we get rhypophobia, which means the extreme fear of filth. We aren t ready to hear what God has to say to us until we get our heart and life clear of that which would stand between us and God. Repentance should be part of our daily cleansing ritual. To repent is to change your mind, to look at things differently, to see the error in our ways. Repentance is hard for many people because pride gets in the way and we find it difficult to admit that we are wrong. But we must be always repenting
Page 3 because we are always sinning. And so I must ask myself: Am I willing to repent of my sin? Until I can say Yes, I am not ready for James second step. And that second step in the hearing process is this: Accept the Word. James says to accept the Word in humility. This is not an easy step 4 either, is it? The dictionary says that humility is not thinking you are better than other people. To understand humility, listen to these antonyms: arrogance, conceit, egotism, haughtiness, pretense, pride, and superiority. This is not the attitude we need if we are to hear God s Word; we need humility. The singer Mac Davis knew a thing or two about humility, didn t he? With tongue firmly implanted in cheek, he sang Oh, Lord, it s hard to be humble When you re perfect in every way I can t wait to look in the mirror Cause I get better lookin each day 5 Humbly accept the word planted in you, James wrote. And so I must ask myself: Am I willing to receive God s Word with all humility and with an open heart? The next step in hearing is to respond to the Word by doing. James says, Do what it says. The Message puts it like this: Act on what you hear! Several weeks ago we formed The L.A.M.B.S. Club for our children. L.A.M.B.S. means Living As My Bible Says. This is exactly what James is saying. Our little Lambs are learning the memory verse of the club, Ephesians 4:22: Be ye kind one to another. Do what the Bible says to do. If we are faithful in joining our sisters and brothers in church each week,
and if we truly listen to what God is saying to us, don t you think that would lead to changes in our daily life? Wouldn t we be more kind, more helpful, more loving, more considerate? Wouldn t we stop the backbiting? You know what backbiting is, don t you? It is malicious talk about someone behind their back. And, again, I must ask myself, Am I willing to get up and go put God s Word into daily practice? If so, then I am ready for James next step. The fourth thing James suggests is to remember the truth of God s Word. Page 4 He illustrates this with his famous mirror story. James says if we forget what we hear from God it is like a man catching the reflection of his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, it is true, but he goes on with whatever he was doing without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror. 6 If the Bible is a mirror, and I think that it is, then it reveals our true condition. But like the person who walks away from the mirror and forgets what he or she saw, too many of us walk away from the Bible thinking that we are better than we really are. The real danger in listening to God s Word is forgetting: 7 We read Love one another but then we forget to go and love others. 8 We read Pray without ceasing, but then we forget to pray. 9 We read Rejoice always, but then we forget to live joyous lives. 10 We read In all things give thanks but then we forget to be thankful for God s blessings. Do you see how this is supposed to work? We remember the truth of what we hear from God. In Orthodox Judiasm, men while praying wear what is known as
11 phylacteries (fye-lack-terr-ees). They are small leather boxes, one wrapped around the upper arm and the other strapped to the forehead. Inside these boxes are scrolls of parchment inscribed with Bible verses. They are worn to remind the wearer that God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt. We might not want to go quite that far, but we all need reminders of what God is saying to us. We must not forget what we have heard. I must ask myself, Am I willing to remember what God tells me and faithfully practice it? Page 5 I commend to you the Bible. Lead with your ears and hear what God is saying to you. Someone wrote, of the Bible, This Book contains the mind of God, the state of man[kind], the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler s map, the pilgrim s staff, the pilot s compass, the soldier s sword and the Christian s charter. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object, our good is its design and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened in the judgement, and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents. 12 And so, here are our personal questions that arise from James teachings on effective listening to God s Word: Am I willing to repent of my sin before I listen to God s Word? Am I willing to receive God s Word with all humility? Am I willing to hear and then go put God s Word into daily practice?
Am I willing to remember what God tells me and faithfully practice it? Page 6 No doubt we all need to pray, Lord, make me willing to be changed by your Word. In fact, would you pray that with me right now? Let me say it one more time: Lord, make me willing to be changed by your Word. I invite you to pray it now with me: Lord, make me willing to be changed by your Word. Let us pray: Lord God, you sent your Son Jesus to rescue us from the power and penalty of our sins. You sent your Spirit to dwell within us to be our comfort and guide. You inspired holy men and women over the ages to faithfully record your Word and we are so thankful for it. May we listen carefully to it, remember it, and live it every day. Make us willing to be changed by your Word. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ I wish to thank my friend, the Rev. Dr. Ray Pritchard, of Keep Believing Ministries, for his consistent ability to challenge my thinking and for being so generous in sharing his thoughts and resources to other preachers. As we preachers often say, I get milk from a number of cows, but I churn my own butter. +==+==+==+==+==+==+
Page 7 Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. The title of this sermon comes from Eugene Peterson s translation of James 1:21: 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. The Message (MSG), copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson 2. Alexander Scourby (1913-1985) was an American film, television, and voice actor known for his deep and resonant voice. (See the Wikipedia article.) 3. See rhyparia at http://wordinfo.info/unit/1856 4. www.merriam-webster.com 5. It s Hard to be Humble, published by Lyrics BMG Rights Management US, LLC 6. James 1:23-24, J.B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, 1962 edition by HarperCollins 7. John 13:34-35: A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. 8. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 9. Philippians 4:4, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 10. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 11. See Tefillin, www.wikipedia.org. 12. From Quotations on Bible Study, http://www.bible-researcher.com/hermeneutics2.html.