Father, we give you thanks and praise that you are good, that you are only good, that
you have ever been good and will always be good.
And we give you thanks and praise that you are an ever-giving God, a generous God that
we can never outgive you, that you are never in our debt.
And we thank and praise you, Father, for that all of the good in the world and whatever
good there is within us has ultimately come as a gift from you.
And we acknowledge before you, Father, that we often doubt your goodness and are presumptuous
about your generosity towards us.
We ask, Father, that you would do a gentle but wonderful work in our hearts this morning
to bring home to us the truth of who you are and the truth of what you have done in your
Son.
And as we are gripped by this, help us to understand better the truth, the true truth about ourselves,
that we might be filled with life and freedom and live to praise you.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So those of you who have known me for a while know that I have a, well, I have sort of a
bit of a right-handedness when it comes to the Bible and when it comes to, I guess, Christian
teaching.
And I don't always, like in some ways I wish that I could change it.
It's just my right, so I had trouble trying to figure out how to start this sermon today
because my right-handedness is to be a Christian apologist.
That's my right-handedness, to try to hear and understand the objections to the Christian faith and to address them.
And so as an apologist, and that sort of goes at war with an evangelist.
An evangelist is a person, or more of a, I guess, a more pastor type, in a sense,
would also be, they want to try to woo people.
They want to woo the lost sheep to come home.
They want to woo the sheep to eat and to be fed.
That type of nurturing aspect of a pastor, a shepherd, a nurturing aspect of an evangelist.
And they war within me at some different times.
So the way my mind normally works when it comes to pick a sermon thing is I look at a text like today.
We're going to look at James 1, 12 to 25.
And the first thing that goes through my mind is, oh, that's very interesting.
There are many people who think that God,
one of the reasons that many people in our culture have rejected the idea of God
is because they believe that God promotes violence.
In fact, it would be a commonplace to many people.
Oh, yeah, the God in the Bible tells people to kill people.
Like, if I was to go and say that, you know, for actually being able to have, like, in a bar,
and just say, oh, you know, by the way, I was just reading today about how the God of the Bible
tells people to kill people.
Like, people just nod.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, it's just like talking about COVID-19 or the weather.
Like, everybody knows that.
And that's one of the reasons people don't like God.
And that's the normal way my mind would work when I look at a text like this
because actually the text says something about that belief about people.
On the other hand, if I was more of an evangelist, more of a pastor,
I would do something to try to woo you, to entice you into it
because maybe those of you who are here are particularly worried about that particular question.
But I could woo you and say something like there was a non-Christian,
this is about 20, 25 years ago,
there was a non-Christian who studied as part of his PhD
all of the self-help and all of the self-improvement literature for the previous 100 years.
And he tried to synthesize to see if there was some common teaching
for the self-help improvement literature for the previous 100 years.
And he came up with seven things which seemed to be common
to all of the self-help literature that had been written in the previous 100 years.
And interestingly enough, once again, remember this is a person who's not a Christian.
And interestingly enough, one of the things that he came up,
one of the seven things that was common of all self-help literature
over the previous 100 years was something that James wrote in the year 40
because it's actually here in the text.
And so anyway, I've done both.
I just share you.
You can pray for me because sometimes my apologist side of me
just automatically thinks of questions and objections.
And I should also think more of that which woos.
So we'll look at both.
And so if you have your Bibles, look at James 1, verses 12 to 25,
which is where we are, second of our sermons in the book of James,
James 1, verses 12 to 25.
And it begins like this.
And actually, those of you who remember my sermon from last week,
heard and remember it, will know that last week we went right up to verse 12,
and yet I'm reading verse 12 again.
And there's a literary reason for this.
Sorry here.
Grammar geek moment.
Just those of the rest of you, try not to fall asleep.
This is a text that at a literary level is sometimes can be referred to as a Janus text.
In other words, if you look at it from a literary point of view,
it sort of summarizes verses 2 to 12,
and it sort of summarizes the stuff that went on before or sort of clarifies it.
But it's a Janus text because it also actually introduces what's going to happen next.
So it's one of those texts that James wrote it so it looks two ways at the same time,
helps to clarify what just went on,
and actually helps to introduce what comes next in a very important, powerful way.
So we're going to read verse 12, and it goes like this.
Blessed is the man or the woman who remains steadfast under trial,
for when he or she has stood the test,
he or she, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
Now, we didn't talk about this text very much last week,
but it actually has something which is several things.
So first of all, I mean, I'll just be honest,
I have no particular interest in wearing a crown.
So if this text was to try to grab me, it doesn't grab me at all.
Like, I mean, the only time I wear something like a crown
is when I go to a kid's birthday party and they have crowns.
And I, of course, put on the crown and I wear it as long as the kids wear it,
and it's all good fun.
But beyond that, it doesn't do anything whatsoever to motivate me.
Maybe for some of you who love the crown and love the monarchy,
you know, the idea that maybe you could go to Buckingham Palace and have tea with the queen,
and at the end of it, she'd say,
by the way, would you like to wear my crown?
And you'd think you'd died and gone to heaven.
So then maybe that's a good analogy for some of you.
However, actually, the type of crown which is being mentioned here isn't that type of crown,
so you'd be disappointed.
In the ancient world, when you won the marathon race or you won the athletic event,
you were given a crown to show that you'd won.
And that's the type of crown which is referred to here.
So you've been, you know, God in his goodness and love
sends you different types of trials and tests.
That's part of the normal Christian life.
And at the end of all things, this is how it summarized the last thing.
The way you understand it is if you're in Christ,
the end of your walk with Christ is to, in a sense, be crowned by God,
congratulated for having run the race well.
But it's even more important than that.
It's actually an image that at the end,
you are engulfed in a greater life than you have ever known right now.
It's a very, very powerful image.
And when you understand that the image is sort of implying something that you see throughout all of the Bible,
that if you take, I mean, it's sort of, on one hand,
if you have, if there is the world's greatest athlete
and they die in a helicopter accident or a car accident,
but they're in Christ,
on the other side of death, their death,
which means the end and the breaking of the end of their body,
they'd actually, if they're in Christ,
they'd get swallowed with a greater life than they ever knew
or experienced on this side of the grave.
But it's also really hopeful because those of us who have loved ones
who are now very, very, very frail, very, very broken,
their body is becoming next to nothing,
and then they die,
if they're in Christ,
what happens in the moment of their death
is that they are engulfed,
they are swallowed,
they are clothed in life.
And that's the telos,
that's the end that God has for those of us who are in him.
And as I like to say over the last little while,
the end of the story makes the story completely and utterly different.
I mean, this is one of the problems that we have actually right now in Canada
because, as you know, all of the smart people,
many of the, not all of the smart people,
many of the smart people want to have doctors be able to kill more people.
That's actually, it's going on right now in the Senate and everything like that.
And if you read newspapers,
there's many, many arguments to give doctors more freedom
and to encourage more doctors to actually be able to do this,
to be able to kill people.
But of course, it actually,
it's so fascinating that this is going on in our culture
at the same time that we're having COVID-19
because there's a lot of fear
right now in our culture.
I think there's lots of fear.
And it's interesting because we live in a culture that wants to kill.
I know I'm being very blunt,
but that's what the doctor does.
He kills or she kills.
And we want to have that doctor have more power to kill
and to be able to kill more people
and to be able to qualify more people
and have less bureaucracy to be able to kill people.
And that's what we want.
And at the same time,
we live in a culture which is in denial about death.
And COVID-19 is partially revealing
that we live in a culture that's terrified of death.
And at the same time that we desire death,
are in denial of death,
are terrified of death,
we are also completely and utterly
able to see that about our culture.
And that's, I think,
a little bit why there's both
the acquiescence
to very, very
major government interventions
in freedoms and all in Canada
and also a lot of the hysteria.
I'm not a COVID-19 denier
or anything like that.
I'm not that.
But
it is something about our culture
that's going on
right now
and that our culture is blind to it.
And it's hard for us to know how to pray into it.
And that's a bit of an aside
and maybe I shouldn't have gone into that.
Maybe I will.
Who knows?
Maybe I'll get some angry letters
or emails or whatever.
I don't know.
But what we need to see here
is that the telos,
the end,
the goal
that God has for every person who,
he desires that every person
would come to be in Christ.
And for those of us in Christ,
the end
is to be swallowed up by life.
And that means it's a,
it's,
it's unlike the athletic crown,
which is a zero-sum game.
If all of us enter the marathon,
only one of us would be the best person for Messiah.
You know,
maybe in our case,
I don't know,
maybe some of you are unbelievably fit.
You know,
the best finishing time would be four hours
or something like that.
If you're maybe in some places in Kenya,
the best finishing time would be two hours and ten minutes.
But,
but only one of us can be the first to cross the line.
But this is not a zero-sum game.
The more who are in Christ,
the more everyone receives this telos,
this end of life.
And,
then the Bible actually says,
talks a little bit about death next.
Like,
it doesn't just talk about life,
as if it just talks about life,
life,
and,
and just doesn't look at what's going on in our culture,
what goes on in our own life,
the fact that many,
that all of us will die,
and,
it's,
well,
the Bible actually now talks about death.
It goes from life to death.
And if you look at it,
it's verses 13 to 15.
It goes like this.
Let no one say when he is tempted,
I am being tempted by God.
For God cannot be tempted with evil,
and he himself tempts no one.
But each person is tempted
when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Verse 15,
then desire,
when it has conceived,
gives birth to sin,
and sin,
when it is fully grown,
brings forth death.
So,
one of the things that the Bible is doing here,
which is very shocking,
is it's saying that death isn't a merely biological category.
Like,
actually,
if you think about it,
one of the things which is going on in our culture as well,
is that there's a crisis of meaning.
Because,
basically,
if we've grown up in a culture
that basically teaches us that God doesn't exist,
or if he,
then it really,
you're caught with it.
Was it Stephen Crane,
who over a hundred years ago
made some comment about,
we say to the universe
how we're feeling,
and basically,
of course,
the universe doesn't really care.
The universe is completely and utterly impersonal.
It's just stuff.
It's just matter.
It's just energy.
And if we live in a universe
which is just stuff,
it's just matter and energy and physical laws,
and that's all there is.
And life is merely a biological curiosity,
and death is merely a biological curiosity,
and nature cares no more
whether things come to life
or whether things die.
They're all just natural processes,
biological processes,
that just happen.
And yet,
at the same time,
we know that there must be meaning.
And the Bible says that,
in fact,
there is meaning,
and that death isn't just a biological thing.
There's actually something
which brings death about
and is intimately connected with death.
And what is intimately connected with death
is the desire for us to be like God,
the desire that we have to sin.
And what the Bible is saying here
is very,
very powerful,
is that nobody can ever say,
remember one of my early apologetic things,
that many people,
they look at the world,
and they see that suicide bombers,
the suicide bombers believe that,
in a sense,
God commands people to kill,
and that they'll be rewarded for killing.
And they don't make distinctions.
Many people in our culture
between,
you know,
that holy book
and the Christian holy book
or other types.
It's just a general,
all religious people are like that.
But we actually see that
in this particular book,
the Bible,
that in fact,
the Bible actually says
that God is only good,
and he never puts into your mind
to do something evil.
Like,
he never does that.
We can never say,
if somebody comes to you
or your accounts,
and I think God is telling me
to kill somebody,
you can say,
well,
no,
God's not telling you to kill them.
I mean,
he's just not.
Not the true God.
I mean,
a demon might be doing that,
but it's more likely
just something that's coming
from within you.
So that the world that we live in
is a world where there is real evil,
but the source of real evil
actually comes,
and here's where,
you see,
at a first reading this text,
our Buddhist friends
would actually say,
my,
this sounds like a very Buddhist
type of text,
but it's not a Buddhist text.
It doesn't say that the problem
is desire.
In fact,
the opposite of it,
I mean,
the reason that in verse 12,
the Bible tells us
that the God's telos,
his end for you,
is more life,
that that's your destiny
in Christ,
is to be engulfed
with more life.
That's your destiny.
He tells,
the Bible tells us that,
so we'll desire it.
That's,
he tells it,
so we'll desire it.
So the Bible doesn't say
that the problem is desire.
The problem comes
from desires within us,
but it isn't a desire per se.
You know,
I was just thinking about it.
I bought a coffee
between the services.
It's water in here right now
in case I need to have
a bit of a sip.
But I was just thinking
on the way
between getting the coffee
and coming back,
what a great invention
money is.
Like,
money is a great,
great,
brilliant invention.
I know there's at least
one economist
in the congregation.
Talk to the economist
about how great
an invention money is.
If we didn't have money,
I don't know,
I'd have to bring like,
I don't know,
like a live rabbit
or something
and I'd give them
the live rabbit
that they could kill
later on
and they'd give me
a cup of coffee
and,
you know,
one of you come up
with a brilliant device
that you can sell
and you sell it online
through your own webpage
and somebody in Vancouver
wants it.
I mean,
they just wire you money
and you wire them
and you send them the thing.
They don't have to send you,
you don't have to say,
well,
I'll give you this widget
if you give me,
I don't know,
like a pound of flour,
three pounds of butter
and a bottle of wine.
Like,
no,
you know,
they just send you money
and you can buy that stuff.
It's a great invention
and so the problem
isn't money.
But we all know
that money
and the misuse of money
and the allure of money
causes all sorts
of problems
and heartache.
People who study
marital counseling
say that one of the issues
that brings,
that's connected
to a lot of marital problems
is in fact
arguments over money.
One of the things
that you'll get surprised
at in marriage
is your maybe
right-handedness
is to save
and another person's
right-handedness
is if you have the paycheck,
you spend the whole paycheck.
Actually,
if you get a paycheck,
you spend all the whole paycheck
and maybe 5% more
because that's the wonderful thing
about credit cards,
isn't it?
I mean,
you just pay it back
in the next credit card
and all of a sudden
you think you love this person.
You go,
what?
You're going to do that
with the money?
And they say,
what?
You're going to do that
with the money?
Come on,
live a bit.
Don't be so tight.
Come on,
don't be so,
you know,
just spend all your money
on stuff.
Like,
what about rainy days?
And then you start
to have conflicts
and both of you
just think it's natural.
And that's separate
from the fact
that people can be
consumed with money,
that have money rule them,
that they make their basement,
their decisions about things
based on money.
And it's also connected
to the fact
that you get lots of money
and you don't say to yourself,
you know,
I have lots of money
and, you know,
gosh,
there's this,
you know,
young couple in the church
and, you know,
maybe I should just bless them
by giving them
a couple of dollars
or, you know,
there's this opportunity,
you know,
we're supporting
a missionary in Angola,
we're supporting
a missionary here,
we're supporting
a missionary there,
you know,
they need to eat
and I should be
generous towards them
and there's the needs
of the church,
I should be generous.
But, gosh,
you know,
there's an old joke,
maybe some of you
have heard it,
there's an old joke,
there's a young man
who was starting up
a business
and he went to his mom
about what he should do
and his mom said,
you know,
listen,
the Bible says
that if you bless,
you know,
if you're faithful,
God will,
you know,
bless you
and all that type of stuff
so I suggest
that what you should do
is you should make
a commitment before God
that you tithe,
you know,
whatever money comes in.
So, you know,
he has his business,
the first week he makes,
first couple months
he makes $500 a week
and at the end of every week
he writes a check to $50
and, you know,
puts it in the offering plate
and then, you know,
before you know it
he's making $1,000 a week,
$1,500 a week,
$2,000 a week
and every time
he writes a tithe
but all of a sudden
his business takes off,
like really takes off,
he's making $10,000 a week
and he can't write
$1,000 check
to the church,
like he just can't,
like that's a lot of money
and so he's wondering
what to do about it
and he says,
and the mom says,
I don't know,
I think you should just
keep tithing
but I don't know,
talk to the pastor,
he knows all about
this type of stuff,
this isn't me
so the young guy
goes to the pastor
and the pastor
listens to the problem
and he says,
yeah,
I know exactly what to do,
I can pray about it
and it'll be alright with God,
I know exactly
how to pray
into this situation
and you'll be really happy
at the end of it
and so the young man says,
oh I'm so thankful,
pastor,
let's do that
and so the young,
the guy says,
can I hold your hands?
He says,
yeah,
you can hold my hands,
we hold hands,
he prays
and God says,
dear Lord,
please reduce this man's income
to $500 a week again
so that he can tithe
and that's not what the young,
that's not what the young man
wanted at all,
he wanted a bit of a pass
but the point of it all
is this,
that in fact,
it's very,
very hard,
money isn't a bad thing,
money's a brilliant invention,
it's a good thing
and for those of you
who are just starting out
and you need more money
and the other,
you can work hard,
be creative,
come up with businesses,
work for promotions,
that's all good things per se
but we all know
that the problem comes
for desires
that start to bend that,
that we start to desire
things too much,
we desire money
more than we desire
maybe our kids
or our wife
or we desire,
you know,
power too much
or whatever it is,
there's nothing wrong
with power per se
or authority per se
but that there's something
and the Bible is saying
that whatever evil there is
is going on in the world,
none of it comes from God,
it comes from within us
and what happens
is that it comes from within us
and it's as if there's
a little voice,
good grief here,
I just got out of the blue,
distant relative
from Australia
left me $200,000
tax free
and while some of us
are not even tempted anymore,
we just spend it all
on ourselves,
not thinking that maybe
part of the reason
that that blessing
has come
is to be actually generous
and some of us
might struggle with it,
others don't even struggle
with it
because we're no longer
even tempted,
we just give in
to having money control us,
it can be the same
with the beauty of a man
or the beauty of a woman,
it can be with all sorts
of things,
you just go on and on and on
is that this,
first there's the desire,
we're tempted,
some people don't have
the tempted anymore
because we just give in,
give in,
and it's maybe like
as I said,
maybe with the marriage
and a couple,
they don't realize
that one of the people
is actually really,
really consumed with money,
they don't realize
that because they're just,
you know,
their parents were
consumed with money,
their program was
consumed with money,
their friends were
consumed with money
and they marry a woman
and all of a sudden
a woman's not
consumed with money
and they go,
whoa,
woman,
like maybe there's
a different way
I should handle money,
but we have a desire
and it leads to temptation
and we give in
to the temptation,
giving in
to the temptation,
refusing to be generous,
making an idol of money,
lusting after a woman,
you know,
acting out of that lust
in some particular way,
being filled with anger
at something which has
happened a slight
and so we have the desire,
we give in to it
and it's sin
and sin always leads to death.
In a sense,
death is a sign
that we are under
God's judgment,
which is one of the reasons
why we feel
no matter how much
biologists tell us
it's a natural process,
we all know that
it's not a natural process.
There's something wrong
and offensive
and broken about it.
We know the world
should be mended
in a different way
and we sense
there's something wrong
about it
and the Bible is saying
there is something wrong
about it.
It is a sign
of the judgment of God.
It is a sign
of that aspect
that comes from within us
that wants to be like God,
which means
that we have to be
over others,
that we have to be
the center,
that we have to have it
be our way
or the highway
and on and on.
So some of you
might say,
George,
thank you for that.
That's a very depressing
whole thing.
We're all going to die.
It's a sign
of the judgment of God.
You know,
thank you for that.
That's very,
very helpful.
The news sucks.
Desire taints
all human beings.
But the Bible
doesn't just stop
with that
because some of us
might say,
George,
there's lots of good
in the world
and in fact,
I actually sort of
talked about it
and I say money
is a brilliant
invention.
It's a brilliant
invention
and it's a good.
It makes many things
in life far more easy.
It allows
there to be
business
and enterprise
and people
to work really hard
and to be reimbursed.
It's a brilliant thing
and in fact,
you see,
the Bible
doesn't just talk
about evil
and death.
It talks about life.
Remember,
that's how it began.
Look what happens
right after
verses 13 to 15.
It goes like this,
verses 16 to 18.
Do not be deceived,
my beloved brothers
and sisters.
Every good gift
and every perfect gift
is from above,
coming down
from the Father
of lights
with whom
there is no variation
or shadow
due to change.
Of his own will,
he brought us forth
by the word of truth
that we should be
a kind of first fruits
of his creatures.
So the Bible actually
says that there is good.
There's an unending
amount of good
in the created world
and there's good
within every one of us.
But that good
is always a gift.
It's a gift
that comes from God.
And in a sense,
me,
when,
if people see goodness
in me
or see goodness in you,
what they're really seeing
is something that God
has done in me
and through me
or it's a reflection
of God's goodness
which you're able to see.
But in fact,
there is good in the world.
It isn't the case
that the world
is all evil
or that the world
is all good.
There is real evil
in the world
and it comes from human beings.
It comes from desires
that we have
that are disordered.
But there is good goodness
in the world.
And in fact,
all goodness is a gift
and the greatest gift
that God gives
of goodness
is that God's greatest gift
is that he does something
for us
that we cannot do
for us ourselves
which is to make us
right with him.
You see,
you know,
if you think about it
for a second,
if you're good
thinking that that means
that God will reward you
in some way,
like why won't God
reward me
with eternal life
for all the good things
that I've done?
Like why wouldn't he do that?
Isn't that a good question?
Like I do good things,
why doesn't God reward me
for those good things
or honor me
for those good things?
And honor is just another way
of saying reward
or recognize
and recognize
is just another way
of saying reward.
Like if I do these good things,
why don't I get recognized
by God in some way
and get some type of reward?
And if you think about that,
if you think about that,
there's two things with it.
First of all,
that means you're actually
motivated by the reward,
not by God.
You're motivated
by the reward,
not by God.
But the second thing
about it is,
well,
and that,
well,
that's the first thing.
You're not motivated by God.
You're not motivated
by the greatest good,
the source of all good.
You're motivated by something
that that good can give me.
And snuggled into the humility,
the apparent humility,
is actually a type of pride.
Because we don't desire God.
We desire something
that God would give us
in recognition
for something
that I have done.
And the fact of the matter
is that if we understand
that there's something
in us as human beings,
it means at different times
we just,
and we can't stop doing it.
If you meet a parent
and they say
they have a five-year-old
and their five-year-old
is perfect,
you know that's just
the parents are deluded.
They're delusional parents
because you just know
that they haven't actually
produced the perfect
five-year-old.
I mean,
we know that,
right?
And yet,
at the same,
because there's something
in us
that just keeps,
we can't save ourselves.
So unless God
does something
to save us,
we're completely
and utterly
incapable
of being made right
with them.
And that's what this text
says,
verse 18,
of his own will,
he brought us forth
by the word of truth
that we should be kind
of first fruits
of his creatures.
And this is another
one of those wonderful images
like the crown of life.
The first fruits
is an image
of something special
and precious.
And just like
no baby chooses
to be born,
fundamentally,
we don't choose
to be reborn.
That prior choice
is made by God.
And when we receive
the word of truth,
we're receiving something
that God had already
decided to give us.
And he's already done
all that has to be done
about it.
And it's a very
interesting thing
that it describes us,
what it means
is that we receive
the news about Jesus
and what he's done
for us.
And when we receive
that news about
who Jesus is
and what he's done
for us,
we receive him
and the benefits
of what he's done
for us.
And it's talked about
as a type of word
of truth.
Truth is a meaning word
that comes into us
and it's as that word
comes into us,
the truth
comes into us.
The goodness
of God,
a good gift
of God
is that his word
of truth
comes into us,
that we can receive it
and that when we receive
this good gift
of who Jesus is,
that the fact that,
remember how I said
last week,
some of you might
remember this,
that James is a very
interesting thing
about the way he begins.
If you look at the
historical biographies
of Jesus,
the historical records
of him,
you'll see that James
was the younger brother
of Jesus,
same mother,
different father,
and that James
thought that Jesus
was crazy,
he didn't believe him,
he mocked him
and he wasn't around
when he was dying.
And what changes him
is that he knows
the grave,
he knows that Jesus
died and he knows
the grave is empty
and Jesus appears
to him alive,
resurrected,
and completely
changes his life.
And he understands
that this message
of the truth is
that when Jesus
was dying upon the cross,
in a sense,
all of those things
within me
that have ever
desired wrong,
and everything
that I still will do
that had been
desired with wrong,
in a sense,
that was laid upon
Jesus when he died.
And that everything
that Jesus did,
which was just right,
that he never acted
in any way
that wasn't right
with God,
and that is offered
to me.
And that's what
the meaning of sacrifice
is.
And that this whole
thing that Jesus
accomplishes is something
that God desired
for us to have
because he loves us
and because he's good
and it's a gift.
And when we receive it,
we receive something
vastly more.
It just,
we can never have
earned it.
We could never have
accomplished it.
We don't deserve it.
And even the word
truth is so powerful
because it means
that God knew
the truth of George.
He knew the truth
about how George
doesn't have these desires.
I've never been tempted
by gambling,
for instance.
Just not in me.
I've never been really
tempted to be drunk.
I'm not boasting
because it's just not
been a temptation
of mine.
And that lives you
a long list of things
I have been tempted to.
By telling you
I can maybe add one more
and everything else
are things
I've been tempted to.
And God knew
the truth
about all of that
and still Jesus
died for me.
Still Jesus
died for me.
And that's the gift
of life.
And so the question
then might be
how do we grow?
But God
the question isn't
everything comes
from God as a gift.
So the question isn't
how do I grow?
The question is
how does God grow me?
And that's what
the last little bit
comes in.
And that's where we get
to Stephen Covey
actually.
And in fact
the next verse
that we look at
for many of us
I know it is for me
is a prayer
that I need to pray
every day
for the rest of my life.
What does it say?
Look at what it says.
Verses 19 to 21.
Know this my beloved
brothers and sisters.
Let every person
be quick to hear
slow to speak
slow to anger.
I don't know about you
but that's something
that I need to pray
just about every day
of my life.
This is what made it
into Stephen Covey's
list of the seven habits
of highly effective people.
Because the fundamental
problem is that
most of us
are far more
desirous to be
understood
than we are
to understand.
Most of us
go into meetings
wanting to be
understood
not to understand.
Often in
our marriages
we want to be
understood
not to understand.
Often divorces
are connected
because the other
person
one person
will say
my husband
or my wife
never listened
to me.
They stopped
listening.
they don't
know me
they don't
care.
And not only
is there
this problem
that we don't
understand or
listen
but we know
for a fact
that when you're
angry
you stop
listening
altogether.
I've shared
with you
that there
was a bit
of a
Twitter
storm
around
something
that I
helped
organize
and I
can tell
you for
those
bleepity bleeps
involved in the
media storm
and proudly
trying to
damage
incomes
of people
they didn't
listen.
Didn't listen
in the beginning
didn't listen
to go on
and they
just
consumed
with
people
who are
angry
we all
know
they
don't
listen.
So right
here
we'll
continue
we know
this my
beloved
brothers
and
sisters
let
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
save
your
soul.
And so
it's
saying
this
wonderful
thing
that
there's
a
wonderful
line
and
I
think
it's
1 John
chapter
4
that
says
how
can
you
say
that
you
love
God
whom
you
can't
see
if
you
don't
love
the
people
you
can
see
like
that's
a
really
good
examination
of
conscience
why
do
I
believe
I
love
God
when
I
actually
don't
love
my
neighbor
my
boss
my
kids
I
don't
know
people
here
I
don't
know
and
it's
the
same
type
of
thing
why
do
you
think
you
actually
are
good
at
listening
to
God
if
you're
not
good
at
listening
to
people
like
that's
a
good
question
so
there's
this
interesting
dynamic
that
to learn
to listen
to
God
will
also
mean
that
I
learn
to
listen
to
others
and
to
learn
to
listen
to
others
will
also
mean
I'm
learning
how
to
listen
to
God
it's
not
an
either
or
it's
a
both
and
so
once
again
for
many
of
us
a
prayer
that
we
could
pray
for
the
rest
of
our
lives
is
Lord
today
help
me
to
be
very
quick
to
hear
quick
to
understand
help
me
to
be
slow
to
speak
and
slow
to
anger
help
me
to
listen
well
Lord
help
me
to
listen
well
and
Stephen
Covey
said
it's
actually
a
key
to
success
successful
people
listen
well
understand
well
and
are
far
quicker
to
understand
than
they
are
to
express
their
opinions
or
to
get
angry
but
the
Bible
goes
a
little
bit
further
into
one
of
our
problems
and
it
talks
about
the
fact
that
we
can't
just
listen
but
we
actually
have
to
put
it
into
practice
in
some
way
to
really
be
able
to
listen
you
see
and
that's
because
we'll
use it
the other
way
around
my
wife
can
listen
to
me
very
well
and
it
might
very
well
be
that
after
she's
listened
to
me
very
well
she'll
say
George
you're
wrong
and
that's
completely
fair game
like
she's
really
listened
and
after
listening
she says
George
you're
wrong
or
George
you're
selfish
you
know
or
George
you're
unforgiving
you
know
or
George
that's
not
godly
you
know
George
that's
envy
but we
can't
say that
to
God
because
God's
only
good
so
what
it
says
here
is
very
interesting
verses
22
to
25
but
be
doers
of
the
word
and
not
hearers
only
deceiving
yourselves
for
if
anyone
is
a
hearer
of
the
word
and
not
a
doer
he
is
like
a
man
or
woman
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
of
liberty
and
perseveres
be
no
hearer
who
forgets
but
a
doer
who
acts
he
will
be
blessed
in
his
doing
so
one
of
the
tragic
things
for
some
people
with
dementia
and
it's
a
very
sad
moment
when
you're
dealing
with
a
loved
one
with
dementia
is
when
they
no
longer
recognize
you
but
there
can
be
people
with
dementia
who
no
longer
recognize
themselves
you
show
them
a
picture
of
a
birthday
party
from
a
couple
of
years
ago
and
you
can
tell
that
they
don't
actually
recognize
themselves
anymore
and
the
Bible
says
that's
the
human
condition
apart
from
the
gospel
and
the
word
of
God
that
we
don't
actually
recognize
ourselves
we
don't
actually
see
ourselves
and
the
way
we
begin
to
see
ourselves
is
not
just
by
listening
to
the
word
but
doing
the
word
means
that
if
you
think
you
can
sort
out
moral
dilemmas
and
temptations
just
by
thinking
you're
deceiving
yourself
that
we
need
to
obey
our
way
to
clarity
not
merely
think
our
way
to
clarity
if
we
want
to
have
clarity
about
a
great
moral
issue
but
aren't
actually
willing
to
take
a
stand
on
the
moral
issue
we
will
never
actually
understand
the
moral
issue
but
that's
not
kissing
your
brain
goodbye
because
as
I
said
to
listen
well
to
understand
well
to
read
well
involves
the
mind
it
involves
patience
it
involves
the
imagination
it
involves
compassion
and
entering
into
the
other
world
it
involves
self
effacing
and
the
full
aspect
of
the
person
to
really
listen
well
but
as
we
listen
well
to
even
listen
more
deeply
we
need
to
begin
to
obey
that
which
we
begin
to
understand
you'll
never
understand
the
biblical
teaching
on the
hold
of
money
unless
you
begin
to
give
money
away
won't
happen
won't
happen
you'll
never
begin
to
understand
you know
the dignity
of a
human being
without treating
human beings
well
you'll never
understand
marriage
without trying
to be
faithful
in your
marriage
you'll
never
understand
the sweetness
of the
word
without
reading
the
word
and putting
into
practice
I'm
saying
you
but it's
all me
too
I will
never
do
those
things
as well
I'm
not
above
you
in that
type
of
sense
and so
the
Bible
says
that
actually
as we
read
the
Bible
and
this
is
where
the
gospel
is
so
important
you
see
if
we
just
read
the
Bible
and
we
understand
we
have
to
read
the
Bible
to
understand
ourselves
and
we
start
to
see
really
terrible
things
about
ourselves
like
it
can
start
to
make
you
realize
I
didn't
realize
I
was
such
a
jerk
I
didn't
realize
that
money
had
such
a
control
in
my
life
I
didn't
realize
I
was
so
consumed
by
vanity
I
didn't
realize
I
was
so
narcissistic
I
didn't
realize
I
was
so
bad
at
keeping
my
word
I
didn't
realize
I
was
so
bad
at
being
just
preoccupied
with
my
own
needs
and
ignoring
everybody
like
I
didn't
realize
I
was
so
bad
at
these
sins
of
omission
and
that
can
be
terrifying
and
we
turn
away
from
it
but
it's
only
as
the
gospel
grips
us
and
we
understand
that
made
right
with
God
is
something
Jesus
did
for
us
and
he
knew
everything
there
was
to
know
about
us
when
he
made
us
right
with
him
that
as
that
truth
becomes
more
precious
and
deep
to
our
hearts
that
it
can
begin
to
give
us
the
liberty
to
see
ourselves
in
the
word
and
say
gosh
I
do
have
an
anger
problem
gosh
I
do
have
a
greed
problem
gosh
I
do
have
a
lack
of
compassion
problem
for
the
poor
gosh
I
do
have
a
hatred
problem
of
those
who
vote
different
ways
on
politics
than
me
gosh
I
do
have
a
listening
problem
it's
only
as
the
gospel
grips
us
that
we
can
then
enter
into
the
word
and
the
word
starts
to
reveal
who
we
are
so
we
can
see
ourselves
and
begin
to
work
on
it
with
others
let's
please
stand
let's
bow our
heads
in
prayer
father
we give
you
thanks
and
praise
that
you
desire
for
your
children
liberty
you
desire
for
us
to
be
free
you
desire
us
to
have
more
life
you
desire
us
to
have
a
good
relationship
with
you
desire
us
father
to
be
filled
with
gratitude
and
generosity
to
love
the
truth
to
hate
lies
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
your
desire
for
us
is
that
we
will
leave
self
deception
and
deceiving
of
others
and
false
fronts
that
we
will
know
the
truth
about
ourselves
and
not
be
deceived
and
know
the
truth
about
others
and
not
be
despairing
or
deceived
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
you
desire
these
things
for
us
in
the
security
of
the
gospel
and
in
the
truth
of
your
word
and
we
ask
father
that
you
would
make
us
disciples
of
Jesus
who
are
gripped
by
the
gospel
learning
to
live
for
your
glory
learning
to
live
free
as
we
read
your
word
as
the
Holy
Spirit
does
his
work
in
our
lives
and
father
if
there
are
any
here
who
have
not
yet
put
their
trust
in
Jesus
father
may
this
be
the
moment
may
this
be
the
day
may
this
be
the
time
that
they
say
Jesus
I
need
you
to
be
my
Savior
and
my
Lord
and
we
give
you
thanks
and
praise
that
the
whole
truth
about
who
he
is
and
what
he
has
done
for
us
that
truth
will
of
your
word
and
make
that
true
of
each
of
us
and
make
it
true
of
us
as
a
church
and
all
God's
people
said
Amen