The Way of Life and the Way of Death

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,

James 1:12–25

which is where we are, second of our sermons in the book of James,

James 1, verses 12 to 25.

James 1:12–25

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,

life,

life,

life,

life,

and,

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,

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,

give in,

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

1 John 4 · chapter mention

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

very

very

well

and

it

might

very

well

be

that

after

she's

listened

to

me

very

very

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

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