Listen!

St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Scripture Passage

James 1:17-27

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Sermon Script

James tells us today this very important lesson.

let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger (James 1:19)

This should be our life lesson. This teaching should govern our life.

When we don't listen, when we are too quick to speak, and too quick to anger, we face all kinds of problems.

We will regret what we said. We will hurt others. Our relationships will be strained.

Listening is so important.

It is the forgotten art of our spiritual discipline. We need to restore the beautiful art of listening.

Listening requires a lot of practice. It doesn't come automatically.

Because listening is not mere hearing of sounds. We all hear sounds but listening is more than that.

That's why Jesus said this.

Let anyone with ears to hear listen! (Mark 4:9)

We all have ears but we don't listen. Because listening is more than hearing with your ears.

Beethoven completely lost his hearing when he was about 44 or 45.

After he lost his hearing, he stopped social interactions with people. It was too painful for him to do that.

No performance. No public appearances. He left the city and went to the countryside.

He saw the beautiful nature and even though he could not hear any sound such as birds chirping, leaves rustling, and the river flowing, he was able to listen to the nature much better than when he was able to hear with his ears.

There, he wrote his famous Symphony #6, often called Pastoral Symphony.

So, listening is more than hearing sounds with your ears.

Beethoven listened with his imagination. He listened with the heart of music.

He was able to listen much more clearly without hearing sounds.

Sometimes sounds hinder your listening rather than helping.

When we hear too many sounds, we cannot really listen to what we were supposed to listen.

So, we need silence to listen.

Sometimes, I can listen the best early in the morning. Because everything is so quiet.

Usually, I don't turn on any music while I am driving. I just want to be quiet. Then I can listen.

These two words are composed of same alphabets.

L-I-S-T-E-N
S-I-L-E-N-T

Silencing ourselves – being where there is no noise – that is the best way to be able to really listen to the inner voice.

Don't constantly fill up your silence with sounds.

People are nervous when there is silence. They feel anxious with the void and the emptiness.

Silence represents the void and the emptiness and so they are uncomfortable with silence.

Be comfortable with silence, you may be surprised at what you might listen.

Actually silence yourself – that is the best way to prepare yourself to listen.

Silence not only noise but silence your anger and prejudice. Silence your worries and fear.

Psalmist said.

Be still, and know that I am God! (Psalm 46:10)

Prejudgment in your mind really hinders and blocks you from true listening.

We often filter what we want to hear with prejudgment. We choose to hear what we want to hear.

Not only that, we hear in our own way because of our prejudice.

Our listening is selective.

The rich and the powerful – we listen to them. We want to listen to them.

But the poor and the weak – we often don't care to listen to them.

So, many powerless people don't feel heard. They have to shout for people to hear.

But Jesus heard them.

Jesus listened to those who were weak and vulnerable. Jesus heard their outcries.

God listens to those who are weak and suffering from injustice.

When Israelites were suffering under the powerful Egyptians, God heard their outcries.

After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Exodus 2:23, 24)

When Hagar was kicked out with her son Ishmael into the desert, God listened to Ishmael.

Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, Do not let me look on the death of the child.' And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy (Genesis 21:16, 17)

God listens to those who are weak and suffering from injustice.

Listening is the best gift you can give to others.

When you listen with the total attention, you make people valued.

Listening means you care. Listening takes energy.

When I listen to people for counselling, after that, I get really drained. For a while, I can't do anything.

Listening is at the core of our spiritual discipline.

Prayer is not speaking to God. But mostly it is listening to God.

You think sermon is about speaking. No, there are several hours of listening. Then I speak what I heard.

A speaking part is only 15-20 min. But the listening part is several hours.

I want to briefly say three things about what listening does for us.

1. Listening gives you understanding.

When you are able to listen to others without prejudice, your understanding gets deeper.

When you put down your prejudices about a person and just listen to him/her with empathetic ears, you will be able to understand the person better.

When you listen to yourself, you will have a better understanding of yourself.

When you listen to what God says in the Bible, you will be able to understand God much better.

I said, listening is much more than hearing sounds.

Listening to God is the same. It is not about hearing voices. When you hear voices, you better see a doctor.

Take your time and listen to your life. You will have a better understanding of your life. You will become wiser.

2. Listening not only gives you understanding but also it brings transformation.

When you are able to listen, it changes you.

When you listen to the story of those who are suffering, you change. When you are able to listen to God, you change.

When Elijah felt he was all alone, he listened to God.

God said,

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. (1 Kings 19:18)

He overcame his own depression. Before, he said, kill me. I can't go on.

Now he was transformed.

Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Listening and understanding give you freedom.

3. Listening brings about unity.

When our relationship is strained, the first that goes is communication. We don't listen to each other.

In marriage relationship, when the relationship is not right, they don't listen to each other. They give up listening to each other. They don't want to listen.

Love is not romantic feelings. Love is not an abstract concept.

Love is listening.

As I said, listening is the best gift you can give to each other.

When you truly listen to each other, you will experience the unity.

Jesus' last prayer was about the unity. This was what Jesus prayed.

I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:23)

But before this, he said this.

for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth (John 17:8)

Unity comes from listening, listening to the truth.

Where there is true listening, there will be no more division but harmony and unity.

Our differences will not divide us. Our differences make us a whole.

By ourselves, we can never be whole. When we listen, our differences will make us whole.

Different voices will find harmony, not dissonance.

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