Hello dear friends,
May perseverance and power be yours in the life-saving name of Jesus,
I’m looking forward to this coming Lord’s Day and worshipping with you all. Following the service, we are planning our first “Potluck” in over a year, along with our Grace Family Council. GBC will provide hamburgers and hotdogs with all the trimmings. And, we are asking you to provide your favorite side. Choose one and bring it with you this Sunday. It will be a good time.
Last week my sermon covered the Parable of the Sower from Luke 8:1-15. We saw how the Sower went out to sow generously and graciously all across his farm land. The seed that he sowed represented the Word of God—or the “Good News of the Kingdom.” We need to sow that Good News everywhere. Success in this case is defined by sowing generously. But Jesus went on to talk about how the hearts that hear the Good News respond to that news differently. Crop failure is not the “Seed’s” fault or the “Sower’s” fault. Jesus says that it has to do with the kind of “ground” that the “seed” falls on. People’s hearts are like four different kinds of ground: There is the 1. Path; 2. Rocky ground; 3. Thorny ground; and 4. Good soil. Jesus pointed out that “the seed on the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” See Luke 8:15.
God is looking for a crop from us and we have something to do with that. First we need a “Noble and good heart.” That requires that we repent of sin and worldliness. Otherwise, our hearts are filled with thorns, choking out our fruitfulness. Next we need to hear and retain the Word. Hearing has to do with spiritual understanding and retaining means that we are to cling to the Word—and not let it go. Finally, we must persevere… meaning that we are to not quit when the going gets tough. Life has its way of challenging our faith. Trials cause us to give up or to grow strong. With other three soils there is no persevering. Our hearing the Word must be transformed into doing.
Francis Bacon wrote, “It is not what men eat, but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain, but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read, but what we remember that makes us learned; not what we preach or pray, but what we practice and believe that makes us Christians.” This is true.
James, the half-brother of Jesus touches on the concept of the seed planted in us in James 1:19-21. Listen to the wisdom that God gave him…
“19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 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.”
The Word planted in us is meant to change us… not merely inform us. James is talking to believers here. He calls us “Dear brothers and sisters,” meaning that he loves the people he is writing to, but we also know that the Father loves us. We are rightly related to the Father through Jesus Christ—and the work He did for us on the cross. Having been born again into a new family, we are now rightly related to each other. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. It is correct to refer to each other as a brother or sister in Christ. This is a spiritual reality in the Lord. He then tells us to take note of some things. Three things are listed next…
First we should be quick to listen. God shouldn’t have to shout to get our attention. Rather, like a mom who hears her baby cry, or a servant who hears the master speak, we should be alert and attentive to what God is saying to us. Too often we get distracted by all kinds of things and miss what God is trying to communicate to us. It is important for us to hear from God, AND it is just as important for us to be quick to listen to other people. Oftentimes God is speaking to us using one of our brothers and sisters. Remember the story of King David when he had an affair with Bathsheba and even had her husband Uriah killed? He wasn’t quick to listen to God, but had closed his ears to God. So God sent the prophet Nathan to share about the rich man who had stolen a poor man’s only pet lamb so that he could serve that lamb to his guest. David heard the story and burned with anger against the man and declared that he should die. David couldn’t hear God, so Nathan had to tell him, “You are the man!” That’s when David realized the sin in his heart was blocking the voice of God. Read the story in 2 Samuel 12. He also repented and you can read about that in Psalm 51.
Next we are to be slow to speak. We all have two ears and one mouth which ought to remind us to listen more than we speak. But I have often found that when God is speaking to us—we are arguing back with him. We cling to foolish notions of denial—we didn’t do such and such. Or we deflect God’s words by thinking that “God should be talking to so and so.” We don’t have to say it out loud—because God knows the attitudes of our heart and thoughts of our mind. We get in trouble with God and with our brothers and sisters often because we are too quick to speak. We’re to listen well. Think about what is said. Consider it. Then share your words. Proverbs 17:27 says, “The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.” Later on, in the book of James we are told that the tongue is set on fire by hell. (James 3:6) Think of how many quarrels could be avoided just by being slow to speak. Think about how much more we would understand from God as well.
Third we are told to be slow to become angry. Don’t get angry at God or His Word. God speaks the truth. He is all about the truth. If His Word indicts us… don’t get mad at His Word. Instead, repent. Getting angry at God’s truth is like looking in a mirror and then breaking it because you don’t like what you see. It is foolish and does not change the truth. In the Garden, Peter was slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger—and he almost killed a man with his sword. Jesus then rebuked him told him to put his sword away. Then the Lord healed the man whose ear Peter cut off. This is the sort of thing that happens when we are quick to anger. In the church, anger is the sort of thing that leads to all kinds of quarrels. There should be a proper and godly anger against sin in our lives. If we love the Lord, we must hate sin. The cross is the measure of God’s hatred of sin. Let’s not foster sin in our lives by being quick to become angry.
Why should we be slow to become angry? James says it’s “because human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” In fact, anger is just the opposite of the patience God wants to produce in our lives as we mature in Christ. We are to bear with one another, love one another, share with one another, fellowship with one another, forgive one another, and so on. Anger short-circuits all of that. Our anger is like an exploding battery—it messes up everything around it. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Temper is such a valuable thing, it is a shame to lose it!”
James compares the human heart to a garden. If it is left to itself, it will tend to produce weeds. So in verse 21 we are urged to do some gardening. How? First we are to get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent around us. We live in a world that is saturated with moral filth and evil—like weed seeds, they come in on the breeze. If we are to keep ourselves from becoming fruitless like the seed sown on the thorny ground—we have to weed out these things from our own heart. God doesn’t take them away with a snap of His fingers. No, we are to do the hard work of repentance and exercise our faith. We are to break up the hard ground so that His Word would be more fruitful. This is the advice God gave the Israelites through the Prophet Jeremiah. He said, “This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.” Jer. 4:3.
Secondly we are to “humbly accept the word planted in us which can save us.” In other words, we don’t argue with God word and we don’t reject it. We don’t twist the Word of God, shade the Word of God, color the Word of God, or make it conform to our thinking. Rather, we honor the Word of the Lord simply because His words alone can save. They set us free from negative thinking. They set us free from bondage. They set us free from the lies of the enemy. Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life,” John 6:63. His words are good for us, so it behooves us not to humbly accept them in our life. Spend some time today in His Word, let it take root in your heart. Then rejoice knowing that His words to you are Spirit and life.
Benediction:
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” Jude 1:24-25 (NIV2011)
Pastor Russ Hilsinger,
Grace Baptist Church of Dallas, OR
P.S. I long for you to join us this coming Lord’s Day at 10:00am at the Grace Place! Then stay for the Potluck and Grace Family Council. Blessings on you all.