Communicating God's Way - Lesson 1 - Introduction

The Story of the Rafting Adventure:

A group of successful businessmen were rewarded for hitting their corporate goals. Their reward was to go on an exhilarating white water rafting excursion. Their group was split into three teams. Each team was put in a raft with an experienced rafter. Before their adventure began the experienced team leaders had some pointers to review.

The team leader boldly exclaimed the following: “I’m sure all of you men are very good at what you do for a living. I am also sure that you would agree we know more about this river and these rapids than you.” They all nodded in child-like agreement. The leader’s voice commanded and deserved respect.

He went on, “Seeing as we all agree, I need you to listen to us as leaders. When we say “row”, we need you to row. When we say “oars out of water”, we need your oars out of the water. And when we say “dig”, we need you to row like there is no tomorrow. They were still nodding in child-like fashion.

The leader still went on. “I don’t know if anyone informed you of the real danger you would be facing. At one point in our journey we will be going over a twelve foot waterfall.” At this point they were not nodding, but they still had that child-like look on their face.

The leader ended with this, “As a part of this team, we are going where you go. Do you think we would intentionally hurt ourselves? No! We have been down this river a hundred times. We will get to the end of this journey, and it is up to you on how we get there.”

After the leader’s little pep talk they excitedly went on their way. Our story focuses on raft number one. They were in front, the whole time their eyes were scanning the horizon in search of what they thought the topside of a waterfall might look like. They were very good listeners, when they were told to “row” they rowed when they were told, “oars out of water”, the oars came out.

As they came to a quiet, calm portion of the river their was an eerie still. They knew what was on the horizon however, they could not see it or hear it. They knew it was there. At that moment the team leader shouted, “DIG!” In unison all members of our boat were rowing as if there were no tomorrow, as if their lives depended on it. Before they knew it they landed safely on the down-stream side of the waterfall. As they looked back in awe at the falls they realized it was more realistically twenty feet in height.

The team leader quickly directed them off to the shore where they could watch boat number two and three go over the falls. They watched boat two and three get violently buried in the digesting current of the falls.


Communication

What happened? Boat number one did what they were told. They listened to their leader with no questions. He has done this before; He would not intentionally hurt himself. We are going to listen to him. They got over the falls.


But We Did Listen

I can imagine what happened in boat two and three as they watched the first boat disappear off the horizon. Where did they go? What happened to them? Is that going to happen to us? Maybe we should not row as hard as we really can. Maybe we will get hurt less if we do not try as hard.

Who knows more about communication than we do? Don’t you think we should listen to Him? In addition to listening to Him, shouldn’t we do what He says?

I think we all want to be members of boat one. How do we do that?

James 1:22, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”


Definition of ‘Communication’

com·mu·ni·ca·tion
1. The act of communicating; transmission.
2. a. The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. b. Interpersonal rapport. c. communications(used with a sing. or pl. verb) The art and technique of using words effectively and with grace in imparting one's ideas.
3. Something communicated; a message.
4. communications A means of communicating, especially: a. A system, such as mail, telephone, or television, for sending and receiving messages. b. A network of routes for sending messages and transporting troops and supplies.
5. communications The technology employed in transmitting messages.
We all agree it takes at least two people to communicate. We don’t speak to everyone the same. Or at least we shouldn’t.


Communicating With A child

Returning home one afternoon with my two daughters, Kimberley, age two, and Kristi, six months, I pulled into my driveway and stopped to check the mailbox. But when I returned to the car, I found Kimberley had pushed the locks down on both doors and I had left the key in the ignition. For an hour I tried to explain to Kimberley how to pull up the door handle. I was on the verge of tears. My husband wasn't home, and since we live in the country, there were no neighbors to help. Finally Kimberley stood up and softly tapped on the window. As I looked down at her, she said, "Mommy, do you want me to roll down the window?"
Diane Prestwood (Magee, Miss.).


Class Outline

How does God communicate?
How should we communicate?
Communication expectations
Communicating with our spouse in words
Communicating with our spouse in actions
Communicating with our children in words
Communicating with our children in actions
Communicating with our employer
Communicating with our co-workers
Communicating with the saved
Communicating with our family
Communicating with the Lost


What Are Your Expectations From This Class?





Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”

Give an example of some recent ‘corrupt communication’ that has proceeded out of your mouth recently.





Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

Give an example of ‘wise conduct.’





We read earlier…

James 1:22, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

Romans 2:13, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”

Works demonstrate the hearts true condition, what do these verses say to you?





Matthew 5:37, “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”

Have you ever not lied, but in the same hand not been completely truthful or left out some key elements?





James 5:12, “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”

Taking an oath or signing a contract, can anyone give testimony of what this verse means to them?





Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

We are given a promise from God that, ‘He will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ What should we commit to God?





Conclusion

A young boy had a problem with his words. He would speak evil words to his siblings and other children. The father tried everything to curb his words, and nothing seemed to work. Then one day the father thought of a consequence for his son.

Every time you say something negative to someone I want you to take a nail and pound it in the fence outside. The son didn’t understand but he agreed to the challenge. At the end of the first day he had to pound 10 nails in the fence. The following day 8, day after that 5. On and on it went until he had a day with no nails and no negativity.

The boy proudly shared this with his father. The father said ‘good. Now I want you to try saying something nice to those same people. And every time you do I will allow you to remove a nail from the fence.’ Again, the boy didn’t understand but agreed to the father’s challenge. At the end of the next day he was able to remove one nail from the fence. 2 the following day. On and on it went until all the nails were removed from the fence.

This time very proudly the boy went to the father and told him he had completed the task. The father went out to the fence with the boy and they looked together. The boy was proud of himself for all he had accomplished. The father asked the boy to look at the fence and tell him what he saw. The boy noticed all the wholes in the wood where the nails were. The father shared with the boy that that is how our words are. When we say something we can ask for forgiveness. Even when the other person forgives us our words still leave a mark. We cannot fill in those holes. We can never restore the piece of wood to it’s original state.

The only thing that can fill the holes is the blood of Jesus. Just like the marks on his hands and feet it is a constant reminder of our sin. Only the cleansing blood of Jesus can fill the hole left by our words.

We are also going to look to how Jesus us going to help us not have to put any nails into the fence.

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