September 2, 2012
Scripture Readings
Mark 1:35-39
35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the
house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his
companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they
exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38
Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I
can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled
throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
James 1:5-7
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to
all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you
must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of
the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to
receive anything from the Lord.
5
Message – Are You a Good Listener?
These days God is guiding me through a season of life in which I’m
learning the difference between hearing and listening. Have you ever
distinguished those two words?
I hear.. we all hear lots of things everyday, but that doesn’t mean that
we’re listening, does it? God is teaching me the difference between hearing
and listening as my ears become weaker. Twenty years ago a disease
weakened my right ear, but more recently my left ear has become weaker.
Page 1 of 10 The boom boxes and headsets of my generation are taking their toll on us
baby boomers.
So, more often than not, these days I’ll hear someone talking to me
but have to reply “what‘d you say?” It is then that I stop hearing and start
listening; which I can best define as hearing with the intent of receiving.
This distinction is true whether we’re talking about being able to listen
to one another, or when we want to listen for God’s guiding voice. You see,
hearing is not enough. If you want healthy relationships you need to be a
good listener.
Are you a “good listener”?
When I find myself counseling couples who come with weak
communication skills, we will take time to practice the art of listening.
1. We set aside time.
2. The couple will take turns speaking to one another about an issue
that divides them.
3. But most importantly, after one person is done speaking, the
listener is asked to repeat back what they have just heard their
spouse or fiancée say. And it’s amazing how often at first they
can’t do that. They have heard words but not with the intent of
receiving them. Often times, instead of listening, they are
preparing their own words of response even as the other is
speaking to them.
Page 2 of 10 Does that sound familiar? Haven’t we all done that at one time or another,
though God’s Word warns us against such bad communication?
Proverbs 18:13
To answer before listening—
that is folly and shame.
I see this exemplified often, these days, when people are talking politics;
especially when people are coming from opposing camps.
These days people seem less willing to receive thoughts, opinions,
perspectives that are different than theirs, than they are in doling out such
things to others. And so we find ourselves living through another political
campaign hearing a lot of words but not listening well. Such
“communication”, if you can call it that, leads to gridlock and division.
Solutions, whether political or marital, fail to materialize when we fail to
listen well.
In an excellent book by Adam Kahane called Solving Tough
Problems, is a book based in large measure upon his experience in South
Africa’s peaceful end of apartheid; where the black majority of that nation
peacefully rose to power over the once-controlling white minority through
their first democratically held elections. In this book Kahane emphasizes
the crucial role of “listening openly” as “being willing to expose ourselves to
something new from others.”
Page 3 of 10 So perhaps we can expand our definition of “listening” by saying that;
Listening is hearing with the intent of receiving something new from others.
Are you a good listener?
- Are you open to receiving?
- Are you open enough to reflect on new thoughts, new opinions,
new perspectives even if they challenge your current thoughts,
opinions or perspectives?
Are you listening now? I hope so.
As I preach, are you listening with the intent of receiving something
new from God’s Word that just may require a change in both your thinking
and living? Or are you taking notes of whether or not my preaching agrees
with your thoughts? Sometimes that is all we want to hear, but that’s not
the “good listening” we’re talking about today.
As a quick aside about people’ unwillingness to hear but not really
listen, one of the troubling critiques of the internet is just how easy it is for
people to find like-minded others. For while this may be fun and profitable
when you want to hear more about a favorite car or a hobby, the internet
also allows political and social extremists to find each other and to create
their own little world that validates their extreme opinions and their extreme
solutions.
For now, rather than having to live and listening within a community
that challenges such extremist views, the internet indirectly supports such
views by allowing like-minded people to hear only those who validate their
own conclusion about life. In essence, such groups stop listening to the
world around them and hear only those who agree with them. And so, it
Page 4 of 10 comes as no surprise when a worldwide internet child pornography group is
uncovered, and includes a man from Milford and another from Northbridge.
It comes as no surprise to find terrorist groups online, including a young
man from Ashland.
Today it is way too easy for people to isolate themselves among likeminded people in order to hear what they want to hear; to creating a world
where real “listening” is optional.
Again, God’s Word opposes such a choice:
Proverbs 1:5
5
let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—
Proverbs 12:15
15
The way of fools seems right to them,
but the wise listen to advice.
Are you a good listener?
Do you hear with the intent of receiving something new from others?
Today I want you to know that because of our sinful nature,
if you want to hear God’s voice of direction, you must become a good
listener.
And so this morning, in addition to encourage good listening in our
interactions with God and others, I want to use our James 1:5-7 passage,
with its emphasis on belief, to offer two quick insights into how we can
become good listeners of God’s voice.
Page 5 of 10 James 1:5-7
5
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to
all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you
must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of
the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to
receive anything from the Lord.
Insight #1:
1. We are to listen for God with a pure in heart.
It is not just James, but the Apostle Paul as well who emphasizes the
important connection between one’s belief/faith and one’s actions; though
James says it most forcefully and memorably about four different times in
the second chapter of his letter; the last time stating:
James 2:26
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Toward the end of this month and into October we are going to be
reminded a lot about this truth; that when we have a genuine faith in God
our lives will be changed; our outward deeds as well as our very hearts will
reflect the very presence of God. To be “pure in heart” is to simply live life
aligned with God’s priorities. As Jesus taught in the Beatitudes:
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Page 6 of 10 When this is the case, the deafening noise of sin and guilt are
silenced, so that when we listen for God’s direction we will receive it. Sadly,
we learn this lesson through the Bible when it gives us examples of God’s
silence when those with unclean hearts seek guidance.
During a generation of idol worship God spoke through the Prophet
Ezekiel to the Israelites:
Ezekiel 20:30-31
30
“Therefore say to the Israelites: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
Will you defile yourselves the way your ancestors did and lust after their
vile images? 31 When you offer your gifts—the sacrifice of your children in
the fire—you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day.
Am I to let you inquire of me, you Israelites? As surely as I live, declares
the Sovereign LORD, I will not let you inquire of me.
Yet, despite the examples of God’s silence toward people with
unclean hearts, the good news for people and for nations is that when we
dedicate our hearts/wills/actions to God, then we can again hear his voice.
Listen for God with a pure heart.
Insight #2
2. We are to listen for God when we are ready to do whatever He says.
Again, my earlier definition of listening was “hearing with the intent of
receiving something new from others”. While good listening toward other
people necessitates that we wrestle with those new thoughts, opinions and
perspectives to either reaffirm or reconfigure how we understand life; when
we’re talking about listening for God’s voice we are talking about hearing
Page 7 of 10 the voice of our Lord whose words are the very wisdom by which life was
created and abundant life is found.
With an understanding of the bond between faith and deeds, there is
no question that when we listen for God’s wisdom we must be ready to
accept it; when we listen for God’s voice of direction, we must be ready to
go. We should never go to God asking His blessing upon our own
commonsense decisions. We need to go to God listening for His decision,
and then seek His blessing as we follow His ways.
James reminds us that when we believe; when we believe not only
that God hears and responds but believe that God is God; the Great
Shepherd who will always lead us toward fullness and shalom, we will do
whatever God tells us to do!
If we seek God’s voice with a pure heart He will gives generously to
all without finding fault, but we should not expect anything from God if we
doubt; if we declare a faith without being willing to take action
As the American theologian Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder and
first president of Dallas Theological Seminary once said:
“His leading is only for those who are already committed to do as he may
choose. To such it may be said, ‘God is able to speak loud enough to make
a willing soul hear.’” Lewis Sperry Chafer, He That Is Spiritual (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1918), 92.
Are you a “willing soul”? If you are listening for God you must be ready to
do whatever He tells you to do.
Page 8 of 10 When you seek after God’s guiding voice, are you a good listener?
Do you want to be? Do you want to be able to hear God’s voice when He
offers you His guidance?
In the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy we find Moses speaking to the
Israelites. He is describing a time in their future when they will be living in
the Promised Land, but also a time when they have turned away from
trusting in God by instead trusting in idols.
They are not in a good place.
They have not been listening for God’s voice.
As we learned this morning, their tainted hearts and disobedience to God
made them very bad listeners.
But amid what appears to be a hopeless situation comes this promise
from God to His people:
Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek
him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today, as the adopted children of God through Jesus Christ, we’ve
inherited this promise; which tells us that no matter where you are today in
your relationship with God, whether God is planted firmly in your heart or
whether you’re still bowing down to idols…. the promise is that
if you seek the Lord your God you will find Him;
if you listen for Him you will hear Him,
if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Page 9 of 10 Are you a good listener? It takes effort, but that effort is worth it!
- Is your heart pure,
- Are you ready to do whatever God says.
If so, believe that when you ask God for His wisdom
He will give generously to you.
Today as we listen to God’s invitation to gather around His Table, may we
listen well;
- may we give our hearts to Him, and
- may we be ready to do what He asks us to do. AMEN
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