“A Life of Listening and Love”  Deut. 10:12,13l; Micah 6:6-8; John 14:15,23; 15:9,10  1-20-08

We are in the midst of a series on how to live the Christian life.  It is all by God’s grace- grace makes the difference. 

Today we will be looking at the essence of what God requires of us.  I believe it is a life of listening and love.

            I checked my answering machine last Friday and you wouldn’t believe the people who were on it!  The attorney general for South Carolina called.  Two U.S. Senators called my house last week.  Two presidential candidates called my house wanting me to get out and vote—and especially to not believe the bad things said about them, but only the good things that they say about themselves.  What causes someone to go out in the rain and snow and vote for someone?  I suspect what causes someone to vote and to respond to these calls to vote for a particular candidate is concern.  If I am concerned about what the candidate is concerned about, and if I like the candidate a lot, then I will get out and vote for them.  If I do not think the candidate is concern-worthy, or if the candidate’s issues are not issues that I love to talk or think about, then I will be unmotivated, indifferent, and if it is cold and maybe rainy/snowy, I will not get out and vote. 

            Jesus basically said, “If you are concerned about me, you will listen to me.”   

He actually said it much stronger than this- if you love me, you will do what I say.

I. LISTENING IS IMPORTANT

            A) WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DO NOT LISTEN

            When we do not listen to God, we fail to listen to the voices of others.  God is constantly asking us to hear other voices and not ignore them.  He is asking us to not just stay shut up in our houses and not know who our neighbors are.  He is asking us to take the cotton out of our ears and hear the voices of the poor and the prisoner, and those who don’t believe.  He is asking us to be concerned but when we do not listen to God, it is not that it is impossible to listen.  It is just that it’s harder to hear, and we don’t have God telling us constantly- even when we don’t want to hear it- that we need to listen.

            B) LISTENING IS MORE THAN HEARING-

            My mother used to ask ( a little curtly), “Are you LISTENING to me?”  She didn’t mean did I hear her.  She wanted to know if I intended to heed her.

Jesus said of the people, “You have ears to hear but do not hear.”  He said this a lot of the people of his day.  They heard his message but would not respond to it.

Jesus said “anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” What counts is not just coming to listen and get another opinion.  If your belief in God does not motivate you to act, then your belief is shallow and needs to grow deeper.  When the Apostle Paul spoke in Athens the people loved to listen to him, because they were always interested in hearing one more new opinion.  But most of them rejected the message.  Too much of western liberal arts education is simply trying to listen to opinion, and modern day philosophy’s post-modernism basically takes the Athenians ploy that one philosophy is just as good as another- what is important is listening and sincerity. 

            But the Judeo-Christian way of life is that there is such a thing as truth, and reality and life.  Once there were three people who were in a house and a winter storm was coming.  One wanted to not hear anything about the storm because that would worry them.  They were like the person hiding their head in the sand hoping the danger would go away.  Another person wanted to listen to the weather channel who said there was a 40% chance of sleet, or a 40% chance of rain, and a 20% chance of nothing at all.   They listened and listened to the TV, but that was all they did.  The third person heard the weather forecast then responded by checking the flashlights, getting new batteries, and going to the store to buy basic necessities in case they couldn’t get out if there was an ice storm.  One person refused to hear, one person heard but did not act, and the third person saved the day when the storm finally hit because they acted on what they heard and believed it.  

            Micah tells us that God has shown us what is required of us- to do mercy, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.  He has let us know.  Are we listening, or do we just think it is interesting?

II. LOVING IS IMPORTANT

            If we love, we will act.  It is one thing to know what is good and what we ought to do in life.  But love changes the will and makes us want to do what is right.  I believe that if we loved God perfectly, we would listen to God perfectly.  

            I talked with a person once who said he believe everyone should do what they want to do in life.  He said that no one should ever tell him what to do- not the church, not the Bible, not anyone.  His desire was not to love other people, but to have other people and the world love him.  We live in a day in which the previous taboos are mostly gone.  People will do what they want to do.  My hope is that for those who really believe in Christ we will follow this young man’s advice- do what you want to do—but let your want to be Jesus’ want to.  Ironically, about five years down the road, this young man fell in love with a girl- a church-going girl.  All of a sudden, he wanted to come to church.  He wanted to give up some of his bad habits.

            If you love God, you want to make Him happy.  If a couple is in love, they are the ones who are bending over backwards for the other one.  They talk on the phone in the wee hours of the morning.  I remember telling each of my kids to get off the phone in the wee hours of the morning.  Yet,  how hard a time we have praying to God for five minutes. I believe we need a checkup on our love meter.  When a couple is dating that can’t see each other enough.  Yet half of our congregation, and half the church-going people in America go less than once a month.  When revivals come, people stay all night.  In Presbyterian churches cell phones buzz and watches beep at the magic hour.  We need a check up on our love for God.  I remember when Kay and I were starting to like each other, we would write each other notes- (now there’s e-mail and instant messages and text messages).  Writing and reading notes took a lot more time.  I can remember if I didn’t hear from Kay that day I would start to panic.  God Almighty has written us a love letter, and we see it as old, bound by cultural and linguistic problems and we find a million excuses not to read it.  We need to check to see if we are still in love with God. 

B) LOVE IS NOT JUST A SENTIMENT OR A FEELING

            The person who says, “I love you but I can’t live with you any more” is lying.  It is a meaningless statement.  Their love has disappeared, or has shrunk to meaninglessness.  The person who turns to his wife and says, “I love you but I love this other person too” has lost their sense of love. 

            Love and truth go hand in hand.  A sense of love and justice/rightness go along together.  They are gathered together in the person of God, and when life works best with all four wheels working- is when there is a sense of love and a sense of truth together.  We call it “true love.” 

III. LISTENING AND LOVING ARE SIGNS OF GOD’S GRACE

A) Usually a person is full of grace if they are listening to someone else, and a person is too headstrong when they are not.  It is not good manners to not listen to someone else when they are talking.  If you are always talking and not listening- then you are not graceful. 

            There is another point to God’s grace and that is that God helps us both to love and to obey.  Jesus says He will send the Holy Spirit whom he calls a counselor, an advocate, a parakletos- literally- “one who is called alongside to help.”   We are spurred to listen by the Spirit.  We are spurred to respond to what we hear by the Spirit, and we are spurred to love by the Spirit.

B) Loving is full of grace

            We remain in God’s love when we keep his commands.  God’s grace is that we keep his commands.

            The more we love, the more God shows us of himself.  Just like the more you grow in love for another person, the more you know about them.  When a person is mean to you, it cuts off communication.  God does not reveal himself usually to evil people.  There are even exceptions to this- as when Jesus showed himself to Paul on the Damascus Road.  But a general principle is that if you listen in one area, God will tell you more about another area.  If you don’t listen to what you know, why should God reveal more to you? 

The life of Jesus is a life of love but it is also a life of obedience to the Father.  Christian love is not just a private, mystical relationship.  It is a relationship lived out in real life- in obedience.  Love is incarnate- it puts on flesh.  So we, if we love God must flesh it out by obeying God.

            God has left you a message.  He wants you to do something for Him.  He wants you to hear his message and leave your comfort to do something for Him.  If you love Him, you won’t delete His message, but you’ll listen and love!