Are You Listening: #4 Quick to Listen

James calls believers to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,” emphasizing that merely hearing God’s Word is not enough. Real spiritual growth happens when the Word becomes “implanted” in us through obedience and practice. Hearing without doing leads to self-deception and forgetfulness, like looking in a mirror and immediately forgetting what you saw. But those who listen carefully and put God’s truth into action experience freedom, transformation, and blessing.

Transcript

Good morning and welcome to University Park Church. It's time to, turn to our message this morning. Yeah. Are you listening? That's, the title of our series that we've been going through. And this morning, I want to just ask this question. There are a lot of things that we really should be grateful for that we have, just taken for granted in life. Think of some of the things that, we should be really grateful for, but we never think about, much less give praise for, as I was thinking about that, I was thinking of this the, smallpox vaccination. How many of us, have any in recent months or years said, oh, Lord, we're so grateful for the development of the smallpox vaccination. Of course, we've forgotten all about smallpox because it's been eradicated from the face of the Earth. But it's something that, has saved us from a great deal of suffering and heartache. Other vaccinations, like, you know, vaccinations from polio have saved, legions of kids from being crippled their whole life. And, it's something that we greatly benefit from but hardly ever think about. And what I want to say that vaccinations or inoculations are an excellent metaphor for what we're going to be talking about today. And so I want us to think about how grateful we should be for what inoculates us, or what preserves us, or what delivers us from the moral disease that, has, gripped every man's soul. So, today, just think about these inoculations in terms of a metaphor for the disease of the human condition. The way a vaccination works, is that it? It takes a non virulent copy of whatever the pathogen is. It introduces it into our body system and our body's immune system is able to identify it and fight it off so that when we're when we're, when we're exposed to a virulent form of that, virus, we already have defenses against it. And that's very similar to what God's truth, God's word, does in us, in terms of delivering us or protecting us from, our moral disease, our corruption, it gives our immune system in our mind, the ability to identify deception and to, render it harmless before it takes hold of us today, today, as we continue in our series. You're listening. We're going to look at how God's word has that kind of, effect on the health of our soul, on the disease of our moral depravity. We're going to see how in a very similar way, that immunization helps heal the body, from physical disease that sin, which is, deadly disease. Here's just a couple scriptures that talk about the deadly nature of our sin. James 114. Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires and desire. Had, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Sin is a deadly disease in us. Or Romans 623 the wages of sin is death. The ultimate outcome of sin is mortification. And, there is a cure in God's Word. And we're going to be looking at that cure today, which starts with our ears. The cure to our moral disease starts with what we listen to. Are you listening? If you want to be spiritually healthy, it begins with not what you put into your mouth, but what you put into your ears. And we'll be looking at the relationship between God's Word and our spiritual well-being is what we're listening to. Bringing healing into our lives is what we currently pay attention to. Making our souls more healthy, more wholesome. How do the ideas that we embrace, the thoughts that we harbor, how do those things affect us spiritually and morally? How do they affect our moral and psychological well-being? How can God's truth save us from spiritually deadly diseases? How does the way we respond to God's voice affect our lives? That's the question I'd really like you to stop and think about right now. How does the way that we respond to God's voice when we hear it affect the health of our lives? How does it affect us? How does it affect our spiritual well-being? How does God's message God's truth, God's Word, impact our health and our welfare? Why does listening to God have little effect on one person and a huge effect on another person? How is it that that truth can penetrate one person's heart and make it absolutely startling difference in their life, and another person can hear the same thing, maybe even comprehend the same thing, and have very little impact on how they live and how they function, and how that and the attitudes that they hold. Why is that? How does, how does God's Word affect us? Those are questions I'd like to ask this morning is our message this morning is entitled Quick to Listen. And we'll be looking at James chapter one, verses 19 through 25. So pray with me if you would. Heavenly father, Lord, father, even as James is admonishing us to be quick to listen, right off the bat. Lord, I pray, father, for us to just, be at peace and receptive right now that that we could, clear our minds of all our other concerns and we just consider what, God is teaching us through. James, what your word is teaching us through your, through, through James the Apostle James. And that we would just see how his words, really un reveal how it is that your word can bring total healing to our souls, total deliverance to our souls. In Christ name. We pray. Amen. Okay, so, James, chapter one. Oh, I got to confess, all these years, years and years ago, somebody in our congregation, gathered the congregation together and gave me a new Bible. It was an NIV Bible. And for years I studied out of that Bible. And I, preached out of that Bible. I studied out of other text, too. But now the online support for the new king, the old new International Version is gone. So I had to get a new translation. So from this Sunday on, we'll be looking at the, English Standard Version. Sorry if, if it doesn't read the same as your NIV, but, you know. No, I don't want to get into that. Yeah. I don't endorse the new version. I'll say it that much. Anyway, verse 19 of James chapter one and the, English Standard Version reads as follows. Know this, my beloved brothers, every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to do what save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not here is only deceiving yourself. If anyone is a hero of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, and when he looks at himself and goes away at once, he forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres being no here, who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing so. What makes us right? What makes us right? What brings us into the right state? That God desires for us? What brings us into a wholesome, healthy state, the right state of righteousness that God desires for us? What causes us to come into that condition? What leads us to the righteous life that God wants for us? What leads us into that freedom, that radical freedom from moral filth and evil that is so prevalent? Verse 20, it tells us what doesn't lead us into that. Verse 20 tells us, first of all, what doesn't result in a good life or a righteous life, or the righteous life that God desires. And, verse 20 says this, that, the kind of desire that God wants for us, the righteous life does not come through getting, ticked off at everybody does not come through expressions of rage or anger. In fact, you can extrapolate from it. It doesn't come from any, evil impulses or acting on any evil impulses. It doesn't come from anger, and it doesn't come from lust. It doesn't come from acting any it, acting out of any of our fleshly desires. Those things only bring about moral corruption. Today, we're going to look at what James teaches us, will lead us to the kind of life that God desires. And so let me just ask you right now to think for a second, what kind of life does God want for you? What if you were in a conversation with God right now and you say, God, what kind of life do you want for me? What would he tell you? Well, he would tell you, I want you to live a peaceable life. I want you to live a joyful life. I want you to live a life, a graceful life full of love. I want you to live a life where. Yeah, that's that. That has a signature of kindness to it. I want you to be, a person who is morally upright. I want you to live a life of integrity. And, if if that's true, it doesn't that kind of go along with the kind of life we would want to live? Most people would want to live the kind of life that, God would desire for them. So where is the default? Where do we come up short? Where, where how can we get from where we are to where, we go to the type of life that both God wants for us and we want for ourselves? Well, that's what James tells us about today. Most men, maybe not all men, but I think the vast majority of men want for themselves exactly what God wants for them. But not all men. In fact, most men probably don't come to realize, at least fully. Probably no men come to realize fully the full extent of what God desires for them. So let's take a look how we can get a little closer to that today. The theme this morning is this the implanted word is able to save our souls. The implanted word is able to save our souls. Verse 21, it says, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. To save your souls. If we receive with humility what is called the implanted word here it is able to save our souls. Now, salvation in the Bible is talked about in terms of two different metaphors. The first metaphor that is talked about when we talk about what exactly is salvation is the judicial metaphor, the idea that, Christ on the cross died for our sins, saving us from the penalty of our crimes against God. It's the judicial metaphor of salvation that we get delivered from the punishment of our, that our sins deserve. The Scripture is also full of allusions to salvation that fit a medical metaphor, metaphor. And the medical metaphor is this that we are morally, sick. We have a moral disease, and through Christ it brings healing. We become healed. We, we become healed of our moral condition, of our moral disease. Today's passage is much more on the medical, side are much more using the medical, metaphor to describe what it means to be saved. Today's verse here talks about the soul, the healing or the, deliverance or the salvation of the soul, from all wickedness, from sin's deadly disease. Now, the key to salvation, that is moral. The moral healing of our soul is what is called here. The implanting of God's word. So God speaks to us in various ways, including his, the Bible. And if that word is implanted in our minds, in our hearts, it has a medically, beneficial effect to the diseased nature of our souls. It'd be like a computer analogy. What messes up a good computer program? Bad code. Right? Bad information, either coming from the outside, where it is corrupting a program from some hacker, or it was written poorly to begin with. And so the solution to try to fix a bad computer program would be to restore or to rewrite the code. We have a bad code in our moral desires. And that bad code started in the garden when Satan started telling Eve and, consequently, Adam, you don't trust God? Don't you trust God? He's not really telling you the truth. You won't surely die. In fact, I think you should be suspicious of God. He knows that when you eat or that the knowledge of good and evil, you can be like your own God. And he just. He just wants to keep you from good things. And that's why he's telling you not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. From the very beginning, there was an introduction of bad code, bad ideas into man and man became fallen, and man man's motivations became corrupted because he walked away from putting God first and put himself first and put his own, made himself his own moral determiner. We're corrupted by that bad code. That happened in the garden and has been happening ever since, you know? And the question is, do we trust what God says, or do we trust what our secular culture says? Or do we trust what our own desires say? You know, our character, our soul, our mind, our heart, our spirit have been corrupted by deceptive ideas, bad code. Now we have become, diseased. And in order to become well, we need to have some rewriting going on. We need to have some reprograming into our minds and the way we think. And of course, that's what the Bible promises. A new heart and a new mind, a transformed mind, as a result of the implanted word of God. It's really interesting, to see all the advances in neuroscience, in recent years, because neuroscientists used to think that once we became adults, that our minds were, stuck in concrete and that we really couldn't change our pattern of thinking, that we didn't any longer have what they call neuroplasticity. It's kind of like the old saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. They thought that about the human mind in the human condition. But as they continued to research, they realized that not only do does neuroplasticity continue on into adulthood, it continues on all the way throughout life. We have the possibility of changing our minds to changing the way we think. And that's what the Bible calls repentance, changing the patterns of our thought and our thinking. And how does that happen? That happens by the, what's the healthiest code that we can put in our minds? What's the most, beneficial, wholesome thing that we can program ourselves with? It's God's word. God's word, the implanted, word of God brings us into a healthy state, healthy mind, healthy attitudes and healthy desires. Are we being made well by the implanted word of God? Is there an affection effective inoculation, going on? Oh, there's my, illustration for bad code. I forgot to bring that up. Yeah, that that's bad computer code. There. This this is, my illustration on, neuroplasticity, the idea that your mind is constantly changing. And so I haven't been really tracking with my slides here, but this one here is, is inoculation. You know, this is a picture of kids getting inoculated from deadly diseases. And, the question here is, you know, are we being immunized from deception? Is our mind being immunized from those ideas that will, mess us up? How does God's saving word get implanted in us? How exactly does God's saving word that that saves our soul actually get implanted in us? And that's what we're going to talk about. Now, a lot of people hear God's Word, but it doesn't get implanted in them. You can hear it, but it's not there when it comes to informing your attitudes and your motivations and stuff. So how is it that it gets implanted in us? The implanted word is able to save our souls. And number one, point number one is the word becomes implanted when it is practiced. The word becomes part of us, implanted in us when it's practiced. Look at verse 22. But be doers of the word. Not here is only deceiving yourselves. So it's saying, if you hear the word only and you don't actually put it into practice, you are deceiving yourself. You're fooling yourself. You're causing yourself to think that you know something when you don't know it. We deceive ourselves if we think we can improve ourselves by just merely hearing what is right and not doing what is right. You know, for example, I'm not musical, but I suppose if I got instructions, I could improve, but I could get hundreds of hours of flute instructions, for example, and still not be able to play anything. Not a single note on the flute until I picked one. Up until I picked up a flute and started trying to implement whatever my instructor was telling me. I would be just as bad as I was when the instruction began. It isn't until the instruction gets incorporated with practice that you start seeing improvement, where you start seeing people, improve and get better. For example, I think, I could play the flute better after, ten minutes of instruction and five hours of practice than I could, after, 10,000 hours of instruction and no hours of practice. The instruction only becomes beneficial once it starts being practiced. There's a popular book out nowadays called outliers that I listen to on my iPod, and it's an interesting book, and it looks at why people what makes the difference between those who have succeeded, who are very accomplished and those who have never succeeded. It takes outstanding people like Bill gates or the Beatles, or different people that have been outstanding or athletes outstanding in their areas of, of work. And it ask, what are these people have in common? And of course, they all have talents in the areas where they're performing. But the thing that they have in common more than anything else is the number 10,000, 10,000 hours of practice is what they have in common, that in order to really gain mastery over something, to where you're a standout, you need you need the talent. You know, I could I could try to become a, a jockey, and I could spend, 10,000 hours at it, but I'd still be, crossing the finish line last year. So it's not necessarily without talent, but in order to be, you know, really mastery of something, you need practice. You need to take the ideas and put them into practice. And that's the idea of the book outliers. And that's the idea of James here, too, that good information becomes a blessing when it's, habitually applied. I, Remembered, a story from when we first started the church over at the Student Union building, and it must have been within the first month or two of the church. There was a guy who came out, who attended a church for a brief period of time and he came up to me and he said, pastor, I want you to know something. And I said, what, John, what would you like to tell me? He says, I want you to know that I have heard so many sermons that you'll never be able to preach to me anything that I haven't already heard. I said, well, John, that's interesting, but I have a question for you. She said, what's that? Is it possible that I'll ever be able to preach anything that you haven't yet applied? Yeah. It's nice to hear the truth, but, hey, look, any piece of information only becomes valuable, whether it's God's word or anything else that's beneficial when it starts being applied. The implanted word is able to save our souls. The word becomes implanted when it is practiced as point number one. It becomes implanted when it is practiced. And point number two is without practice. The word is soon forgotten. Let's take a look at verses 23 through 25. Yeah. For if anyone is a hear the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no here who forgets, but a doer who acts will be blessed in his doing. So here we see a contrast between, two approaches. One who is who, who looks at something and doesn't put it into practice and like looking into a mirror, soon forgetting, you know, if you look into a mirror, and then try to imagine how you looked if you, you know, an hour later, did I see a spotlight on my face in the mirror? Did it was there a, a blemish there? You don't remember? You can't remember. You know, you just looked in and you walked away and you can't remember what you what you look like. You can't remember any flaws that might have been there. You soon forget. And that's what it's like. If you hear something and you don't apply it. But when we intently reflect in God's law and see what it shows about our character, what is wrong with us? It leads us to God's mercy, leads us to seek God's power in us, to cleanse us. It leads us to seek God as our High priest forever, to heal us from the inside out, to change our hearts. Putting words into practice. Well, without putting words into practice, those words will be soon, forgotten, left on, mastered and of little value. I took two classes in seminary, regarding languages. One was Greek and one was Hebrew. Pretty much one was pretty much worthless now, and the other one is still beneficial. I spent just as much time working on both languages, but I've completely forgotten almost everything I learned in my Hebrew class because I never put it into practice. I can look up Hebrew words. There's a few things I can do using some tools, but, I forget all the grammatical significance, and I'm just totally like, I would flunk a, pop quiz if I went into a, introductory Hebrew class. I was able to one time pass the class, but I couldn't do it. Now. But on the other hand, I have, over the years, worked with and applied, what I learned in my grade class. And so that stuff is stuck with me. It's beneficial. I don't often bring it out in and sermons because I've changed over the years into Greek. It says such and such, but I trust me. I look at it a lot. I look at the grammar, I look at, word parsing. I look at, sentence diagraming just, to know that I'm, accurately reflecting what God's Word says from its or original source, but I, I say that because in one language, I'm, I mean, the hours I spent in class really have had no benefit because I never really applied it. And the other one had great benefit. And it's the same thing with any other thing that we, listen to. If we practice it, it becomes beneficial. All right, let me just ask you, what useful skill or ability do you have that you got by just sitting in and listening to instructions on how to do it without actually doing it? Okay, okay. Yeah. There isn't anything that we've ever but become able to do without actively practicing what it is that we're trying to do. You know. Yeah, I tried playing golf one time. Somebody told me how to swing the club, and I put a hole in the ground, and I thought, this is going to be too much work. You know, I remembered how much it took to learn how to play tennis, and I thought, I don't have the time to learn how to play golf. I'm too, too old. And you know, the same thing with tennis. You could. You know, I can't say a few. Few rackets haven't left this hand. Bullishly. It can get very frustrating when you picture yourself doing it like the pros do it, and then it doesn't work out so well. But the only way you can, you know, get closer to approximated practice, approximating what it ought to be like is to, to practice a good instructor helps because they can tell you what not to do and tell you what to do. But unless you do it, it doesn't, it doesn't improve your skills or your ability at all. It would be better here. Now, I'm going to bring this down to brass tacks. It would be better for us to read one verse a day and seek to apply it, than to read ten chapters a day and walk away without thinking. How can I incorporate these ideas into my life? We don't accomplish anything worthwhile by just reading what God's Word says. It only becomes beneficial at the point to where we practice it. So let me just, give you a few things to chew on this week. What are some of the best things to put into practice? Well, you know, you can go right to the core of things, the Ten Commandments or the two Great commandments. But let's just give you one, job this week at the beginning of the Ten Commandments are the commandments relating to God. And if you're going to summarize those commandments in one phrase, it would be, give God what belongs to God, give him his, give him the proper place he deserves in your life. Give him the proper, seeking after him and looking for him to guide you. Give him the proper authority and respect, an honor that is due him. Also the same idea in the first commandment Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Give God what belongs to God. And so, you know, that would be something where you could start this week if you're thinking, where, where can I start applying? You know, the question is when you wake up in the morning, God, this is your day. I am your child. Will you lead me this day? Will you? Will you guide what I say? Will you guide what I do? I recognize that you are my God and I am your child. And I want you to be, My master. And I don't want to be my own master. That would be one essential way of applying God's Word. Of course, there's a lot of other stuff in there, too, but, you know, you can use that just to start with. Again today, the implanted word is able to save our soul. And point number one is the word becomes implanted when it is practiced. And point number two is without practice. The word is soon forgotten. Let me conclude this morning by reading, the passage that is also, paraphrased up on our wall there, which is, John chapter eight, verses 31 and 32, John chapter eight, verses 31 through 32 says this. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, if you live in my word, if you make your dwelling in my word, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will do what set you free from what? From what is not true in all of the harm that what is not true causes. He has set you free from that bad coding. He will set you free from the deceiver and his lies and his deception. It will fill you with guidance and wisdom and, it will bring you into ever greener pastures. Pastures as his sheep. It will put you under his authority, and it will bless you. Let's pray. Heavenly father. Lord, father, it is so easy to step outside of your care and think that we have the wisdom to guide ourselves in the Shepherd ourselves and to protect ourselves. But, Lord, we come before you this day and just, acknowledge that all honor is. Do you? You are our creator. You are our sustainer. Unless you had spoken us into existence, we would not be here this morning. We are all that we are to you. And we pray, father, that you would author our footsteps going forward because we know you want for us what we want for ourselves. You want us to live joyful, peaceful, loving, honorable lives. We look for your help in filling our minds with ideas that will help us choose what is right and experience what is good in Christ. Name.