Sermon Tone Analysis

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By Pastor Glenn Pease
Benjamin Franklin decided to take stock of him self one New Years, and try to figure out why he seemed to alienate people, and why he lost friends so easily.
He discovered that one of his major flaws was that he was not willing to listen to others.
He had all of the answers and was arrogant.
He did not need to listen to other people's foolish opinions.
Franklin did an amazing thing; he learned to listen and became one of America's most famous diplomats.
His whole life and the history of America was changed by his learning to listen.
He wrote, "A pair of good ears will drink dry a hundred tongues.
He learned that when you talk you only say what you know, but when you listen you learn what someone else knows.
In spite of the fact that listening is such a vital part of learning and life, it is perpetually on the verge of being a lost art.
Ralph Nichols from the University of Minnesota, who has been a leader in promoting in the art of listening in his book Are You Listening?, says people in general do not know how to listen.
The reason is because nobody is training their ears anymore.
For centuries the ear was the key to learning.
All through the Bible times this was the case.
We could spend hours just looking at all the references to the ear in the Bible.
It was by means of the ear that the wise sought knowledge.
It was the constant battle of God to get His people to incline their ears to His Word.
God told Jeremiah, "Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem."
Dozens of texts lament that God's people have not inclined their ears unto the Lord.
They have ears but they hear not is the sad note in the Psalms and the Prophets.
One of the most frequent sayings of Christ in the Gospels is, "He that has ears to hear let him hear."
This is also one of the most frequently repeated phrases in the book of Revelation.
It is by listening that we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Reading has only been the primary source of learning for the last couple of centuries.
But because of the dominance of books people have ceased to think of the ear and have gone overboard in training the eye.
We think the Bible days are long gone and that we have progressed beyond the need to focus on the ear.
Ralph Nichols and many other scholars have revealed just how wrong modern man is.
We spend 3 times as many hours in listening as we do in reading, but we are not trained to listen.
Forty five per cent of our communication time is spent in listening, but we do it poorly because we have only trained the eye.
We graduate from our eye training schools, and then go off to an ear oriented world, where listening is the key to success.
Many people no longer read after they graduate, and for the rest of their lives they are most influenced by what they hear.
People on the jury decide the fate of others by what they hear and not by what they read.
We tend to vote based on what we hear from the candidates and not by what we read.
Nichols has been a leader in the movement to get listening clinics developed to help people learn to develop the art of listening.
Acts 22 is an excellent basis from which we can learn how relevant listening is for the Christian.
I counted nine examples of listening in this chapter.
Everyone in it is involved in listening, and their destiny id being determined at this point by how well or poorly they listen.
I have not read the whole book of Acts with this idea in mind, but a quick survey convinces me that the entire book revolves around the theme of listening.
Good listeners hear God's good news and they repent and receive Jesus as their Savior.
Bad listeners block their ears and refuse to hear God's Word, and they do foolish and evil things that leads to judgment.
When Stephen gave his testimony Acts 7:57 says, "At this they covered their ears."
Then they rushed upon him and stoned him to death.
Story after story in Acts reveals people listen and are saved, or they don't listen and are lost.
Heaven and hell lie in the art of listening.
We see it again in Acts 22, and the first point we want to look at is,
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING.
If we are going to take it seriously that listening is one of the keys to a better life and a happy New Year, then we need to establish just how important it is.
This chapter would not even exist if Paul had not worked hard at getting the mobs attention so he could speak.
He says, "Brothers and fathers listen to my defense."
Paul is a man who has a hunger to be heard, and such a hunger cannot be satisfied without somebody who is willing to listen.
One of the great hungers of the human soul is this hunger for a listener.
Seneca the ancient said, "Listen to me for a day-an hour-a moment.
Lest I expire in my terrible wilderness, my lonely silence, O God, is there no one to listen."
This is a common theme of the Old Testament as men of God cry out to God, "Give ear to my words O Lord, incline thy ear unto my cry."
When men had nowhere else to turn they begged God to be a listener.
Everybody needs a listener.
But as important as this need is, there are not many people who give it a place of primary importance.
John Godfrey, the lonely old man in Tayler Caldwell's The Listener says, "Nobody has time to listen to anyone, not even those who love you and would die for you.
Your parents, your children, your friends.
They have no time!"
Time, of course, is what it takes to be a good listener, but listening is so low on our list of priorities that we seldom take the time to listen.
We live in a world where masses are starving, and not just for food, but for attention.
Their deepest longing is for a listener.
Jamie Buckingham, and outstanding author and pastor, once suspected that nobody was listening as he gave announcements.
He tested the people by saying, "The baptism service for tonight is canceled because there is an alligator in the tank."
Only one 8 year old came up after the service and offered to help catch it.
Nobody else in his large church even batted an eye.
A man went to a psychiatrist and said, "Doctor, I don't know what's wrong with me.
Nobody will listen to me.
My employees won't listen to me, my children won't listen to me, my wife won't listen to me.
Why is it that nobody will listen to me?"
The psychiatrist responded, "Next!"
This is a joke, of course, but its no joke when it is a reality.
This comes from an actual court case.
The defendant said, "Judge, I want you to appoint me another lawyer."
The judge asked, "And why is that?" "Because the public defender isn't interested in my case."
The Judge looked to the public defender and asked, "Do you have any comments on defendants motion?"
The public defender responded, "I'm sorry your honor, I wasn't listening."
An un-measurable amount of the conflicts, confusion, sorrow and suffering of the world can be traced to the fact that someone was not listening.
These devout Jews of our text found Paul in the temple.
They were there to pray to God, and now through Paul God was answering their prayer by giving them the greatest news ever preached to man, but they were not listening.
Someone very briefly summed up much of the history of the relation by God and man by two big questions.
Man says, "God, I have prayed and prayed and prayed.
Why don't you answer?
And God says, "Man, I have answered and answered and answered.
Why don't you listen?"
The rest of Paul's life and the history of Israel could have been so different had God's people only listened.
A watch was lost in a bin of sawdust, and after the others looked for it and gave up a small boy tried his luck.
When they came back he had the watch and they asked him how he could have ever found it?
He said, "I just sat down and listened."
I know this would not work on modern watches that don't tick.
But it is a principle that will always work when it comes to hearing the Word of God.
Listening is the key to hearing what God has to say.
By not listening people lose life's best messages.
When Peter preached at Pentecost 3 thousand Jews were saved because they listened.
Paul preached here and no one responded because they refused to listen.
Listening to God's Word brings us into the kingdom, and it is by listening to it that we grow and become sanctified.
That is why Jesus says to the churches in Revelation over and over, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches."
To doubt the importance of listening is to reject the overwhelming testimony of both the Old and New Testaments.
Don't take listening lightly, but make it a point to become a better listener, for it can make a world of difference in your life.
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