Please turn with me to James 5.  We are in a section of James in which James is focusing on what happens when we mess up - when we fail at trusting God.  In chapter 4 James wrote about how we get into quarrels and conflicts because our faith - our trust - is focused on ourselves and not God.  Last Sunday we looked at our attitude towards time - we can really get messed up in our relationship with God - and a whole lot of other places in our lives - our faith can really get messed up when we see time as our birthright - something that we have a right to possess as belonging to us.

Coming to James chapter 5 - James is going to focus on wealth.

President Ronald Reagan said that the government’s view of money could be summed up in a few short phrases:  “If it moves tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

A man explained why he bought his new car:  “I was faced with the choice of buying a $60 battery for my old car or paying $15,000 for a new car.  They wanted cash for the battery.”

Oscar Wilde once said, “When I was young, I used to think that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am older I know that it is.” (1)

Our attitude towards wealth - money - possessions - stuff - our attitude towards wealth is crucially important.  Would you agree with that?  That’s where James is going here starting in verse 1.  How our attitude towards wealth can either really mess up our faith - or draw us deeper in our relationship with God.  Which is where we want to go - right?  Deeper in our relationship with God 

Verse 1:  Come now - which is James is way of saying “Pay attention.”  Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

James is writing the wealthy Jews spread out across the Roman Empire.    So we need to get a grip on where we fit into this.  A while ago someone gave me a list - comparing our lifestyle here in the US to the rest of the world.  To try to understand that even the poorest of us here this morning is really wealthy.  In comparison - to get an idea of how most people out there live...

First, we need to take all the furniture out of our houses except for one table and a couple of chairs.  We need to use only a blanket and some pads for beds.

Second:  We need to get rid of all our clothing except for our oldest dress or suit - shirt or blouse - you decide which one applies - and keep only one pair of shoes.

Third:  Empty all the food out of the house except a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans.

Fourth:  Dismantle the bathroom - shut off the running water - remove all the electrical wiring in the house

Fifth:  Get rid of the house all together and move the family into the tool shed - provided you have a tool shed.  Our kids don’t realize yet why we built that shed in the back yard.

Sixth:  Place your house in the worst part of town.

Seventh:  Cancel all your subscriptions - newspapers - magazines - book clubs - which is no great loss since we can’t read anyway.

Eighth:  There is only one radio in the whole town.  No Comcast - no Dish Network - no internet.

Ninth:  Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor.  In North America there’s one doctor for every 572 people.  In East Africa there’s one doctor for every 17,480 people.  That should make us appreciate Mercy Hospital. 

Tenth:  Throw away your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies.  Our sole financial attributes are a whopping $10.  

Eleventh:  Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third goes to the landlord and one tenth goes to the money lenders.

Last:  Lop off twenty-five or more years in life expectancy.

Point being - when James tells the wealthy to pay attention - all of us need to sit up and listen.  He’s talking about our attitudes towards wealth.

James writes that the wealthy need to pay attention and weep and howl -why?  because misery is coming.

Here it is - verse 2:  Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.  Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.  It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!

Notice two realities.

First:  Rotting Riches.  Say that with me, “Rotting riches.”

Bob Welch is a columnist with the Register-Guard up in Eugene, Oregon.  A while back Bob wrote about an auction he went to which was no ordinary auction.  People could bid on unclaimed items that people had left behind in safe-deposit boxes.

Bob gives a list of the various items that were up for bid:  Diplomas, coin collections, jewelry, train tickets, passports, marriage certificates - and the list goes on.  Fascinating stuff - undeveloped film, the ink print of a newborn’s feet, photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings.  Items that people once thought were so important that they’d paid money to have them safeguarded in steel.  Stuff that revealed - after their owners had died - stuff that revealed what was most important to them.  Its like a taking a tour of why they lived their lives they way they did.

Bob writes, “A 6x12 box full of mementos can speak volumes about what we valued…” (2)

When I read this I began thinking about the things in our safe deposit box - all the stuff that accumulates around the house.  How many of you have safe deposit boxes?  Or an auxiliary storage unit - commonly called a garage?  People have so much stuff they have to rent storage space to hold it all.  We’re getting buried under an avalanche of stuff that’s all rotting - rusting.

James writes that all this stuff we’re accumulating and hanging on to - as it rots and rust - its going to testify against us - its going to speak volumes about our attitudes - our greed - our selfishness - our foolishness - in what we thought was important in life.

Ultimately - James writes - ultimately all this stuff is going to burn us - come back and bite us.  Its going to eat away at us.

January 1848 - not too far from here - John Marshall discovered gold up at Sutter’s Mill.  That set off a gold rush that was one of the greatest mass migrations in history.  Prospectors arrived here from as far away as Europe.  The gold rush changed this state.  Would you agree with that?  It led to the creation of towns like Merced and Mariposa.  Drive up towards Snelling and we can see how the gold rush even changed the landscape around here.  Man’s insatiable desire for more.

Ever wonder what happened to these guys?  John Sutter - the man who owned the land were the gold lay for the taking - his land was overrun by gold seekers.  His cattle were stolen.  He was driven into bankruptcy.  John Marshall died drunken and penniless.  Wealth and misery so often go together.

Now notice also the second reality here - first was the rotting riches - Second: Their Storage Problem.  Say that with me, “Their storage problem.”

James writes - verse 3 - that “its in the last days that you have stored up your treasure.”  The last days are the days just before Jesus comes back to judge us - before we enter into either eternity with God or eternity in hell.  The wealthy are running after the things of this world - insatiably desiring more - hoarding all this stuff that’s rotting away and craving more - indulging themselves - with one problem.  What is it?  Where’s God in their attitude about wealth?  No where.  They’re only thinking about themselves today - and not God - and what matters for eternity.

Having wealth isn’t the problem.  A person can be wealthy and still be Godly.  A little tougher maybe.  But still possible.  The issue is the attitude.  Hear this:  James is saying, when we leave God out of our wealth - when our attitude about wealth focuses on ourselves and not God - we better starting weeping and howling - because we are in serious trouble.

Verse 4 - James is going to give us a real life example of what he’s writing about - verse 4:  Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

In James’ day - economically - there were five groups of people.  On the bottom of the economic ladder were the slaves.  Next up - if we could call it that - were the landless peasants who hired themselves out as day laborers - migrant workers - and if there was no work, they starved.  Thirdly, there were the farmers and artisans who might have land - or they had land - and they’d been forced off of it so they were now working on what had been their land - working to make someone else rich.  Life for the laborer was cheap.

Then there were the merchants and traders who were pretty well off.  In fact, some of them were pretty rich.  Then at the top of the economic ladder were the large land owners and the priests.  They had large, tenant-farmed estates and spent most of their time in the city enjoying themselves.

A poor worker - bottom of the ladder - might have been given 1 denarius a day as a wage.  At the top of the ladder, the rich were easily spending 400 denari a day in self-indulgent extravagance.  Their whole focus was on themselves.  It didn’t matter what they did to accumulate the wealth or to indulge themselves.  They paid almost nothing in wages - or they cheated workers out of their wages.  They ran people off their own land. 

At the bottom of the ladder the misery was intense - almost unbearable.  At the top of the ladder no one cared.  Ever see that attitude today?

The rich - surrounded by all their wealth - all their self-indulgent luxury - they didn’t hear the cry of the laborer.  But when the laborers - the harvesters - cried out - from the depths of their being - their hearts crying out in sorrow and pain - crying out because of the injustice - God heard the even the tinkling of the coins - the wages withheld.  Their cry reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabaoth - translated - the Lord of hosts - the Lord of the armies of heaven - the Lord God Almighty.  The abuse of the poor gets the attention of the supreme commander of the Universe.

What was it that the people at the top of the ladder failed to realize?  God is watching and hearing what’s going on.  And He - God - holds us accountable for our use or abuse of wealth.  When our attitude about wealth focuses on ourselves and not God we are - what? in serious trouble.

Verse 5:  You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Within 10 years after James wrote this - Josephus - the Jewish historian - writes that Titus - the Roman general who overthrew Jerusalem - when Titus marched into Jerusalem in 70 AD. he rounded up the fat people and tortured them to death to find out where their treasures were.

Rich people.  Live it up.  All the rotting and rusting stuff that you’re filling your life with - enjoy what you can now.  Because you all are like a pig at the trough - pounding down that slop - getting fat - eating your way to extinction.  Judgment is coming

Verse 6:  You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.

People are dying because of you.  They don’t resist you because they can’t.  You’re on top.  You’ve got all the cards and the deck is stacked. 

Now, we don’t often think about ourselves this way.  That people are crying out to God in misery - that people are dying - because of our attitude towards wealth.  That sounds extreme - doesn’t it?  But, that was the reality in James’ day.  And there are serious implications - a reality here - that touches even our own lives.  Reading through what James writes there are two attitudes towards wealth that we need to examine our faith by.

First is the attitude that its my wealth.  Say that with me, “My wealth.”

C.S. Lewis - writing in The Screwtape Letters - Screwtape - a high ranking demon - is giving advice to Wormwood - his novice demon nephew who’s in charge of working for the damnation of a young human man.  Screwtape is giving his nephew Wormwood advice on how he can really mess up the faith of this young man:  “The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged…  We produce this sense of ownership not only by pride but by confusion.  We teach them not to notice the different senses of the possessive pronoun - the finely graded differences that run from ‘my boots’ through ‘my dog’, ‘my servant’, ‘my wife’, ‘my father’, ‘my master’, and ‘my country’, to ‘my God.’  They can be taught to reduce all these senses to that of ‘my boots’, the ‘my’ of ownership.” (4)

Years ago movie companies were not too careful about the use of Swahili - assuming that no one in the United States would understand.  One movie director needed an African messenger who was suppose to have run for days with vital news - who - in this intense dramatic moment in the film - was to run up to the chief and gasp out this message.

A local Englishman who spoke Swahili was asked to write an urgent sounding sentence in the Swahili.  Which he did.  An American actor played the part beautifully.  And everything went well until the movie was shown in Nairobi - where of course people actually do speak Swahili.  This intense dramatic scene was reduced to comedy when the messenger threw himself - exhausted - before the chief - and said in perfect Swahili, “I don’t think I’m being paid enough for this part.” (5)

When our attitude towards wealth is that its my wealth - my house - my car - my portfolio - we have an expectation of attaining - preserving - a certain standard of living - an entitlement to luxury.  We get caught up in spending our time - our thoughts - our efforts to pursue that standard.  We get bent out of shape when our comfort zone is impinged upon.  We get anxious thinking that someone or something - a disaster or a downturn in the market - could take some of our stuff away. 

When our attitude towards wealth is that its my wealth we get resistant to God when He prompts us to give - especially if that might mean sacrificing some of that wealth - taking a lower standard of living - giving up some of our comfort - changing our lifestyle.  We spend so much money on ourselves - and yet church budgets go unmet.  Missions go unsupported.  Ministries which could expand and grow - which could reach so many with the Gospel - are hindered because we cling to our wealth.

When our attitude towards wealth is that its my wealth our attitude towards other people changes.  We find it easier to cut corners - to treat people unfairly - to deal with others in ways that benefit us.  We begin to think that “less fortunate” people somehow deserve their lives - that those of us with more have no or little responsibility towards them.  People may be dying because of our attitude.  That’s hard to hear - isn’t it?

The bottom line is this - when we view our wealth as my wealth - when  God no longer has a place in our thinking about wealth - or that we’ve relegated Him to a lesser role then ourselves - then we’re in - what?  serious trouble.

The second attitude towards wealth that we need to examine our faith by is the attitude that its God’s wealth.  Say that with me, “Its God’s wealth.”

I heard about a proposed 1040 short form from the IRS.  Line one says, “List all the money you made.”  Line two says, “Send it all in.” (5)  Its all ours anyway.  Just send it.

In a spiritual sense that’s true of God.  He does own all the wealth.  Its His.  Everything we have - our bodies - even our very souls - belong to God.

When we begin to understand wealth as His wealth we begin to ask the question “What?”  What is God’s purpose for blessing me with such wealth?

From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 - the Bible is a description of God’s plan - His purpose - His will - what He’s doing in creation.  The theme is what?  God’s redemption of humankind.  That theme should reorder our view of wealth - what we do with whatever wealth God choose to bless us with.  Its a starting point for us.  To ask the question,  How does my attitude towards wealth - my use of wealth - fit within God’s plan for the redemption of humankind?  What does God want to do with this wealth?

Remember Rush Limbaugh? “Talent on loan from - where?  from God.”  We’ve got wealth on loan from God.  Ultimately what matters to God is not what our bottom line is - its how we used the wealth He’s given us according to His purposes.

How does my attitude towards wealth - my use of wealth - fit within God’s plan for the redemption of humankind?

Answering the question, “What is God’s purpose for blessing me with such wealth?  What does He want to do with this wealth?”  Answering that question is a daily - minute by minute - if not second by second - process of discovery, submission, and faithful dependence on God.  A life in which everything we do is first taken before God in prayer.  Where all that we do is evaluated by His word.  In which, from the core of our being, our passionate desire is to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness - the accomplishment of His will in us and through us.  For us to lay our lives down before the sovereign God - so that if any purpose - any priority - is revealed - if any direction is given to our lives - it must be coming from Him.

That’s the life that goes deeper with God - faith that’s learning to follow after Him - to trust Him in all things - with all things.

Most of us really don’t stop long enough to think about how wealthy we really are.  This really is the top of the heap.  Having a view from the top - what does God want to do with what He has blessed you with?

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1. Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes
2. Bob Welch, Treasures in Heaven, More Stories For The Heart
3. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
4. B. & J. Leslie-Melville, Elephant Have Right of Way
5. Ben Patterson, The Grand Essentials

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.