How to Change Internally

Now our veggie patch is rather an interesting one. I suspect any keen gardener would look at it like it’s some sort of monstrosity. You see it is rather haphazard in nature. It’s a bit of a mix between somethings being carefully planned, some thing having some thought, and of course my favourites, the things that just pop up seemingly out of nowhere.

You see, we will sometimes place compost onto the garden, and one of the exciting things about doing this is that various seeds are transferred in the process. And then after some time, plants will pop up. You then have a fun game of trying to guess if its a weed or a plant. And if it’s not a weed, what sort of plant is it?

Going back a while now, I remember the exciting finding out we had accidentally grown a capsicum plant. And it even produced a number of capsicums for us, albeit, quite a bit smaller than what you get in the supermarket.

I’ve also got excited by our two tomato plants which have grown by themselves, and I must say, are looking rather healthy.

Now I know it is such a simple thing, but watching things grow can really produce a lot of joy.

Now while Fiona and I don’t put hours and hours into the garden, we do however give it some of our attention, and it is only because of this attention that we get some of the results that we do.

In the past, we have had tomato plants grow, but when they get to a certain height they topple over and run along the ground. While some tomatoes intially grow, when we haven’t provided it with any attention, we’ve never been able to pick anything worth caring about.

However, when we stake the plants, provide it with water and give it just some basic attention, the results change. I dare say if we gave it even more attention, we’d get even better results.

Lasting change in our life

This morning I want to consider how we can affect real change in our lives. And because the Bible often uses the growth of plants as an analogy, I thought it would be a good place to start.

But before I get into that analogy, let me set out the problem that we face as Christians.

If you were here last week, we explored the Christian approach to suffering and tough times. There were a number of different elements to this, however in part, it was about changing our mindset, and in the process, putting everything in God’s hands and allowing him to take control.

Now the problem with anything like this is that this is really easy to say this in theory, but much harder to put into practice. Last week I addressed that by looking at James advice back in verse 5 that we need to ask God for wisdom and he will give it to us.

Now that advice still stands, but I want to dig a little bit deeper. You see we ask for wisdom, we even receive it, but as I’m sure you are all aware, life keeps going and before you know it you are swamped again.

Wisdom is great - but just look at King Solomon and we can see the pitfall of it. Solomon is one of the great examples of someone receiving wisdom after asking, and even receiving it and gaining worldwide recognition for it. But do remember the ending of his story?

Well, it doesn’t end well. He married many foriegn women and went down a path that did not honour God.

And so, while wisdom is good and to be sought, we need a change in our lives, one that is lasting.

And so the big question for us is: how to we get this lasting change in our life?

Link to passage

Now thankfully, as I said last week, James is full of very practical information and as we get into the second half of chapter 1, if we pay careful attention we can see what it is that is going to cause this proper change.

Now last week we actually got to verse 18, but I’m going to just go back a few verse because it provides some links for us.

And just on this before I delve into it, one of the things you’ll notice about James is that on the surface it appears he is jumping around quite quickly from one theme to the next. But when you stop and pay attention, you’ll actually see that he links all these ideas quite masterfully. Incidentally, it is this rhetorical skill that causes some people to suggest that James the brother of Jesus couldn’t have been the author because he wasn’t educated sufficiently to be able to craft this in such a clever way. I’d say however that when you have the Holy Spirit as your mentor, James didn’t need formal education.

What is the seed?

But as I briefly delve back into some of what we covered last week, I want to find the first part of what I need to form the analogy that I started in my introduction.

You see, sustaining change is kind of like sustaining the plants in the garden.

But it all starts with the seed. Now as in my garden, some seeds are planted very deliberately, some happen a bit more haphazardly, but regardless, it is important to distinguish between the good seed and the bad one.

Now if we look back in the verses leading up to the start of today’s passage we will see James tell us both what the good seed is, and what the bad seed is.

That being said, rather than using the language of seed, at this point he is using the language of giving birth, but the same principle applies.

The bad seed: sin

So let’s start with the bad seed, and James tells us about this in verse 15.

It starts with evil desires - greed, lusts, idolatry. And that evil desire gives birth to sin. And then when sin is fully grown, we get death.

This imagery of a life form can be quite confronting but this is what happens.

The good seed: word of truth

But compare this with the much better seed that James gives us in verse 18.

Let me read that verse again:

James 1:18 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Did you notice what that birth came through?

Yes, it was the word of truth.

And it is this word of truth that I’m going to take as the basis of my big idea this morning.

As we look at verse 19 through to the end of the chapter I want to show how this word is the thing that will take hold of us, transform us, and make us into the very thing that will get us through this world and into eternity.

But first - what is this word of truth?

Well, we can explore a lot of different aspects of it. In one sense, it is the Bible. And in this regard it is great that it can be something so tangible.

But when we look at John’s Gospel, we see it taking on some new dimensions.

You might recall John 1:1 - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.

I don’t have time to fully unpack that now, but hopefully you can see that this word includes the words we hold in our bible, but is also Jesus Christ himself.

And what James describes for us is that when this word is able to take hold, it will truly change us and make us into something amazing.

So, we have this word - this life changing word. But what do we do with it?

How do we allow the word to change us in such permanent ways?

Listen

Well, the first thing that I want to take from James is the need to listen.

Unfortunately, this is a skill that we are not usually very good at. The reason we are so bad, is because we’re talking too much.

Now, before I continue, I want to take verse 19 and first try and consider what James was thinking when he wrote it. The verse tells us that we need to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

You see, there are two basic ideas that people suggest. There are some that suggest that when James argues be quick to listen, that primarily he has in mind the idea of listening to the word of God. This suggestion comes from the flow of the passage noting that verse 18 talks about the word, and verse 21 again talks about accepting the word that can save you.

Others however, suggest that James here is doing one of his quick changes of topics and rather than speaking specifically of the word of God, rather it is introducing the more general theme of controlling your tongue - a theme that he will pick up in greater detail in later chapters.

This second suggestion is perhaps the one that we are more familiar with. You see, we might be familiar with this verse because after all, it is just good advice.

No matter who you are, whether Christian or not, you would be well to listen first and be slow to speak.

But as I was thinking about the two different takes on the verse, it occured to me that the difference isn’t quite as significant as we might think. You see, while primarily we might be able to listen to God while we read the Bible and pray, the reality is, the more we stop talking and just listen, the more we can hear God’s voice.

The need to stop

I love the story of Elijah when he is up Mount Horeb feeling rather despondant. And then the account tell us how he witnesses a powerful wind, followed by an earthquake, and finally a raging fire, but tells us specifically after each one, God was not in it - but then in a gentle whisper, or as some translation have it, in the still small voice, God speaks.

You see, we can sometimes become so preoccupied with what we think God is saying. We’re quick to tell people our thoughts. But the problem is, we haven’t stopped to actually listen.

I would actually suggest that this is actually good advice in our prayer time as well. Sometimes when we pray, we can have this feeling that we have to keep speaking. But sometimes in your prayer time, I want to suggest that it can be good to just sit there in the silence.

God doesn’t normally speak to us in a booming voice, rather we hear his word in much more subtle ways.

Lectio Divina

Now I don’t know how many of you have heard of the spiritual practice called Lectio Divina. The Latin title might put you off, thinking it sounds a bit fancy, but put simply it is just reading the Bible, tiny bite sizes at a time in a way that lets you slow down and really chew on each passage.

Now if you google Lectio Divina, you can find suggestions for how to do this, but quite simply, just choose a small passage of scripture, and just take your time pondering, and praying and listening.

Hindrance of sin

Now there are a lot of things that make listening difficult. Sometimes it might be external noises, but quite often it is our pride and our lusts and our anger that cause so much noise in our head, that it’s hard to think of anything.

I suggest that this is perhaps what James has in mind when he tells us to be slow at becoming angry, and to get rid of all moral filth.

Sin stops the seed from taking. The seed that has been planted in us.

And so we need to do all we can to remove the filth. In the analogy of the garden, it is getting rid of the weeds. As we do, the seed will take, and as James reminds us at the end of verse 21, this has the power to save us.

Obedience to the Word

But implanting the seed is only the first step.

You might recall the parable Jesus gave of the sower. The one were seed is scattered but not all of it survives. In that parable there is some seed that not only becomes a seedling, but really takes off.

But what is the key. I’ve argued that it is the Word which is the seed, and that is great, but I want to talk about lasting change.

Well, James offers us something which in many ways sounds very simple, yet sometimes I think we need this simplicity to get to the profound.

Quite simply, in verse 22 he tells us: “do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says”.

So there is the important step - obedience.

You see, I just mentioned the spiritual practice of lectio divina a moment ago, the practice of slowly digesting scripture. But do you know what? Even if you are really diligent at this, but it doesn’t change a thing in you, well, it’s really been quite a waste of time.

The Word of God is not just a book. There are many books out there that we can enjoy. I’ve just finished a series of fictional books and I enjoyed reading them, but they didn’t change me. God’s word however is different. God’s word is living. It has the power to change. But we need to allow it to change us.

James gives us the image of someone looking in the mirror and then immediately forgetting what they look like. In that case, the exercise was completely useless.

Actually, sometimes I think I almost do this. My wife gives me a haircut. But after going into the bathroom where we have a mirror, she asks me what I think - but I forgot to look at my hair!

In verse 25, James tells us how it should be. When we look intently into the perfect law that give freedom and continue in it, and then we don’t forget, but actually do it, then we will be blessed.

And it is doing it that the change occurs.

Just do it

I suspect most of you would remember the Nike slogan - Just Do It.

I think it is actually a slogan that James would have perhaps like.

You see, we can talk strategies for change. And believe me, there are lots of good things that we could do. But sometimes I think we can over analyse this. Sometimes we need to stop planning to change, and just change!

When the Bible tells us to stop being angry. Stop being angry. When it tells us to remove lust. Remove lust. When it tells us to care for the vulnerable. Open your eyes to those who are hurting in our midst and help them. When it tells us to be generous open your wallet.

Now don’t get me wrong. I do recognise that there are complexities to this. But sometimes I think we let these complexities get in the way of actually doing.

If you want that lasting change in your life, the change that comes from the living word, then be prepared to start making changes.

When you have troubles (which will inevitably come), don’t give in, rather just dig further into God’s word. Listen, and then do what it says.

The beautiful thing is that this is not just another self-help book. You know, there are thousands of self-help books filled with many steps to make you a better person. But the difference with God’s word, is that God is present in it, and so, he enables you to change.

But you first need to listen. And then obey.

The end result

When we do this, the result is amazing.

What we certainly don’t get is another religious arrogant person who thinks they’ve got it all together. Believe me, there is sufficient people like that. And the world doesn’t need any more.

James is well aware of such people and calls them out in verse 26.

He says that if you think you are religious and yet you can’t even control your tongue. Well guess what? Your religion is worthless.

It can be refreshing to have such open talk. Let’s not beat around the bush.

The is absolutely no use putting up some vague pretense off religiosity.

If you’re not allowing the Word of God to transform you, what you are doing is useless.

But in verse 27, James tells us what the end result should look like.

If you let God’s word wash over you. And if you not only listen but obey. Then what you get, is something that the Father will accept as pure and faultless.

But what does that mean in practice. Well the two things James highlight: First, to look after orphans and widows in their distress. And second, to keep yourself from being polluted by the world.

Notice how there is both a moral component and a social component. As I mentioned on the front of the bulletin, the two go together.

When we keep ourselves pure, and care for those that need help, that’s when we find the change that we seek.

Conclusion

Last week I looked at the change in mindset that we need to start seeing our trials and suffering as something for our benefit.

Well, I’m suggesting that to really get a lasting transformation in our life, we need to be firmly rooted in the living word of God.

The Word is planted in us, and when it takes form, we need to act with obedience. Allowing it to change and mould us.

The result is that not only our minds change so that we can see our suffering from God’s perspective, but we also become people who look like God. Who cares for all people like God does. Especially the people who are shunned by society. And people who take on the characteristics of God. Including his holiness and righteousness.

I know at times I can make it sound easy, but in one sense it is. When we really delve into the Word, God starts living in us.

My prayer is that each of you will delve even deeper into this life giving word.