Can You Repeat That?

Introduction · 4 min

Introduction

Hook

“Can you repeat that?” We say it two ways. Sometimes it means, “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” Sometimes it means, “I heard you, and I can’t believe you just said that.” God has been repeating Himself to His people for a long time: “I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not” (Jeremiah 7:13). “God speaketh once, yea twice, though man regardeth it not” (Job 33:14).

Need

Most of us do not reject God’s word out loud. We just don’t hear it. Our wants, our fears and our own opinions talk over Him until His word is background noise — or we hear Him clearly and decide He must not mean it. Either way the result is the same: we look in the mirror, walk away, and forget what we saw. James tells us how to stop.

Read

Read James 1:19–25 aloud. Ask the congregation to listen for the three things James says every man should be, and for what happens to the man who hears and walks away.

Sometimes we need God to repeat Himself because we were not really listening: our desires, our attachments and our fears talked louder than His word, and like the man at the mirror we heard, walked away, and forgot.

• Hearing is not heeding: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves” (v. 22). The man at the mirror saw his face clearly, and “straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (vv. 23–24). “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13).
• Samson, drowned out by desire: his parents asked, “Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren?” and he answered, “Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well” (Judges 14:3). Three times Delilah tried to hand him to the Philistines (16:6–14), and still “he told her all his heart” (16:17). He woke expecting to “shake myself free,” “but he knew not that Jehovah was departed from him” (16:20).
• Lot’s wife, drowned out by attachment: the warning was plain — “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee” (Genesis 19:17). “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (v. 26). Her sons-in-law had not listened either; Lot “seemed unto his sons-in-law as one that mocked” (v. 14). Jesus needed three words to make the point: “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).
• The Israelites, drowned out by fear: at the edge of the land they “wept that night” and said, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt” (Numbers 14:1–4). Joshua and Caleb pleaded, “Jehovah is with us: fear them not” (v. 9), but fear was louder. God gave them what they had said: “as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness” (vv. 28–29).
• The word that did not profit: “the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard” (Hebrews 4:2). So the warning stands for us: “To-day if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).

On screen, one click each

1. Samson Three times Delilah betrayed him, and still he told her all his heart. Judges 16:15–21
2. Lot’s wife God said “look not behind thee,” and she looked back. Genesis 19:17, 26
3. Israel Their fears and doubts drowned out God’s promise; they wanted Egypt again. Numbers 14:1–4

Illustration

Picture Samson on Delilah’s lap the fourth time. Three times she had asked for his secret, and three times he had heard “The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.” Anyone watching could see where this was going. Samson could not, because he did not want to. It is possible to hear every word of a warning and still not be listening, when what we want is louder than what we are told. Samson heard that cry four times (Judges 16:9, 12, 14, 20). Only the fourth time did it cost him his eyes.

Potential Activity to Recommend

Reflect on what is louder than God’s word in your life right now: a desire, an attachment to something He has told you to leave behind, or a fear. Each time you open your Bible this week, pray first for an honest ear, and afterward ask Him for the will to do what you read before you forget what you saw in the mirror.

Transition

Not listening is one reason we ask God to repeat Himself. The other is harder to admit: sometimes we heard Him perfectly well, and we disagree.

Sometimes we hear God perfectly well and push back, because we think we know better — whom He should forgive, what He would rather have, what His plan ought to be; but “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God,” and the word has to be received with meekness.

• The wrath of man: “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (v. 20). When God’s word cuts against what we want, the first response is often heat. The way through is to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (v. 21).
• Jonah — “Why would God forgive them?” Told to cry against Nineveh, Jonah “rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah” (Jonah 1:1–3). Later he said why: “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger” (4:2). God answered with a question: “Doest thou well to be angry?” (4:4).
• King Saul — “Surely God would prefer…” Told to destroy Amalek utterly, he kept the best “to sacrifice unto Jehovah thy God” and greeted Samuel with “I have performed the commandment of Jehovah” (1 Samuel 15:13–15). Samuel answered, “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (v. 22). At last Saul admitted the truth: “I feared the people, and obeyed their voice” (v. 24).
• Peter — rebuking instead of asking. Moments after confessing “Thou art the Christ” (Matthew 16:16), Peter heard Jesus say He must suffer and be killed, and “began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord” (vv. 21–22). Jesus answered, “thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men” (v. 23). Later the disciples “understood not the saying, and were afraid to ask him” (Mark 9:32).
• If we lack understanding, ask — don’t argue it away: “if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not” (James 1:5). His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8–9), but He does not resent an honest question. Jesus told Peter, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter” (John 13:7).

On screen, one click each

1. Jonah He knew God would spare Nineveh, so he ran the other way. Jonah 1:1–3; 4:2
2. Saul He was sure God would rather have sacrifice; to obey is better. 1 Samuel 15:20–22
3. Peter He rebuked Jesus when he should have asked what He meant. Matthew 16:21–23

Illustration

Six days after Peter rebuked Jesus, he stood on a mountain and watched Him shine, with Moses and Elijah beside Him (Matthew 17:1–3). And Peter was talking again: “Lord, it is good for us to be here… I will make here three tabernacles” (v. 4). Mark says “he knew not what to answer” (Mark 9:6). “While he was yet speaking,” a voice came out of the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matthew 17:5). The Father interrupted Peter to tell him the one thing he most needed: stop talking, and listen to My Son.

Potential Activity to Recommend

Reflect on whether there is a teaching of Scripture you have quietly decided God doesn’t really mean. Then do what Peter didn’t: ask. Bring it to God in prayer, and ask for the wisdom He promised to give without upbraiding (James 1:5). But don’t argue it away and keep walking.

Transition

Whether we weren’t listening or didn’t like what we heard, the question is the same: how do I start listening? James gives the answer in one line.

Listening starts when we set aside what we had already decided, admit how much we don’t know, slow our mouths and our reactions, and take God’s correction as love; the one who looks into the word and keeps looking “shall be blessed in his doing.”

• Identify your presuppositions — what conclusions are distracting you from the truth? Naaman came expecting a ceremony: “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me” (2 Kings 5:11), and nearly went home a leper. The Bereans checked even an apostle’s preaching, “examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
• Accept that you don’t know everything: “If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2). “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah” (Isaiah 55:8). Job, after all his questions, said, “I have uttered that which I understood not” (Job 42:3).
• Be patient in speech and action: “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (v. 19). “He that giveth answer before he heareth, It is folly and shame unto him” (Proverbs 18:13). “Let thy words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet, and heard his word” (Luke 10:39).
• Accept God’s correction as an act of love: “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Hebrews 12:6; Proverbs 3:11–12). “As many as I love, I reprove and chasten” (Revelation 3:19). Chastening is “not joyous but grievous,” yet it “yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). “He that refuseth correction despiseth his own soul” (Proverbs 15:32).
• Keep looking: the blessed man “looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh” (v. 25). One glance is not listening. “Take heed therefore how ye hear” (Luke 8:18).

On screen, one click each

1. Assumptions Name what you had already decided, like Naaman: “Behold, I thought…” 2 Kings 5:11
2. Humility Accept that you don’t know everything; His thoughts are higher. Isaiah 55:8–9; 1 Corinthians 8:2
3. Patience Be swift to hear and slow to speak; answer only after hearing. James 1:19; Proverbs 18:13
4. Correction Take God’s correction as love: whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Hebrews 12:5–6

Illustration

Naaman came to Elisha’s door “with his horses and with his chariots” and a scene already written in his head. Elisha didn’t even come out; he sent word: go wash in the Jordan seven times (2 Kings 5:9–10). Naaman “went away in a rage”: “Behold, I thought…” (vv. 11–12). What saved him was a servant with one good question: “if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” (v. 13). Naaman set down what he thought, did what he was told, and “his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child” (v. 14).

Potential Activity to Recommend

This week, in conversation, let the other person finish before you answer. And the next time a brother, a sister or the word itself corrects you, pause before you defend yourself, and ask God what He is teaching you.

Transition

James promises that the one who keeps looking and doing “shall be blessed in his doing.” That blessing begins with hearing the One the Father told us to hear.

Conclusion · 4 min

Conclusion

Recap

We ask God to repeat Himself because we weren’t listening: like Samson, Lot’s wife and the Israelites, our desires, attachments and fears talked over Him (vv. 22–24). Or because we disagreed: like Jonah, Saul and Peter, we thought we knew better (vv. 20–21). Listening starts when we set aside our assumptions, admit what we don’t know, slow down, and take His correction as love (vv. 19, 25).

Gospel

God has not stopped speaking: “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets… hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). The Son Peter tried to talk out of the cross went to it anyway, and was raised the third day, just as He said (Matthew 16:21). On the mountain the Father said it once for all: “This is my beloved Son… hear ye him” (Matthew 17:5). “Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

Invitation

“To-day if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15). If you have not obeyed the gospel, you do not need Him to repeat it again: believe in Him, repent, confess Him, and be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9–10; Galatians 3:27). If you are a Christian and you have stopped listening, or have been arguing with something God plainly said, come home today.

Close

Read 1 Samuel 3:10 together, and let Samuel’s answer be ours: “Speak; for thy servant heareth.”