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WEALTH IN REAL LIFE JAMES 5:1-6 Series: Real Faith in Real Life - Part Ten Pastor Stephen Muncherian August 18, 2013 |
Would you join me at James 5 - starting
at verse 1. Looking at the top part of your message
notes there’s a brief outline of where we’ve been. As we’ve
been going through James - we’ve seen that real faith
in the real time of our lives produces real stability
in our lives. Real
faith in real time produces real love. And in the
part of James’ letter that we’ve been looking at -
starting mid way through chapter 3 - real faith in
real time produces real humility - which is the
section of James’ letter that we are coming to the end
of this morning. This morning we’re coming to James 5:1
and Wealth in Real Life.
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)
Which is where James is going starting in
verse 1. How
our attitude towards wealth can either really mess up
our faith - and really mess up our lives - or draw us
deeper in our relationship with God - growing us to be
who God has created us and called us to be. We’re going to read verses 1 to 6 out
loud together. Before
we do that I need $200 cash. Does anyone
have $200 they can give me? Cool. Thanks. Let’s read these verses together: Come now, you rich, weep and howl
for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches
have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold
and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be
evidence against you and will eat your flesh like
fire. You
have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the
wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you
kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and
the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of
the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on the earth in luxury and in
self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a
day of slaughter.
You have condemned and murdered the righteous
person. He
does not resist you. What James is giving us is a reality
check for the wealthy.
He begins in verse 1 with A Warning For The Wealthy. Come now - is James is
way of saying “Pay attention” Wake up and
smell the coffee.
This is hugely serious. Come now, you rich, weep and howl
for the miseries that are coming upon you. Those are powerful emotional words. Yes? Weep -
lament - drop to your knees in sorrow. Howl - from
the gut - cry out - wail out loud. What’s
coming down on you is misery - hardship - suffering. Not the
usual People magazine image of the lifestyles of the
rich and famous. James is writing about wealthy Jews
spread out across the Roman Empire - not necessarily
believers. Probably
not believers. But
wealthy - with attitude.
An attitude that we can find ourselves getting
caught up in. And
thinking comparatively about wealth - a standard of
living that most of us take for granted. If we were to take most of the furniture
out of our houses except for maybe a table and a
couple of chairs - a blanket and some pads to sleep
on. Get
rid of all our clothing except for an old dress or
suit - a shirt or blouse - maybe a pair of shoes. Empty out
the shelves except for a small bag of flour, some
sugar, salt, a few potatoes, some onions, maybe a dish
of dried beans. Shut off the running water - turn off the
electricity - dismantle the bathroom - in fact get rid
of the house all together and move the family into the
tool shed - providing you have a tool shed. I’m not sure
our kids realize yet why we have a shed in the back
yard. Cancel our subscriptions - we can’t read
anyway. Get
rid of the books - tablets - internet - cable - maybe
the phone. Toss
the bank books, stocks, pensions, insurance. Our sole
financial assets are a whopping $10. Medical care
is one doctor for every 17,000 plus people - which
should make us appreciate Mercy. The head of the family gets a few acres -
maybe - to cultivate on which we can raise a few
hundred dollars of cash crops - one third goes to the
landlord and one tenth goes to the money lenders. And lastly
lop off twenty-five years or more of life expectancy. Which means
some of us here are no longer here or almost there. All that is a picture of the way a huge
portion of the world lives. Point being - We may not think of
ourselves as wealthy.
But we are.
When James is warning the rich about their
attitude - we need to sit up and listen as well. Because we
can have attitude. It is so easy for us to fall into the
trap of doing the “I’m following the American Jesus”
thing thinking that we’re all end users of all the
stuff that God has blessed us with. We can get
on cruise control thinking that we’ve got this wealth
thing nailed and so we’re good. Thinking
that God wants us to be comfortable. All these
abilities and opportunities and possessions and wealth
is what it means to be a Christian in America.
James is writing to wealthy - not
believers and believers - people like us - writing not
because they had it all together - as if we do - but
because the wealthy need to pay attention and weep and
howl - why? Because
misery is coming.
There is some real serious potential hurt here
- to us and others - if we don’t get this right. Moving on through James’ reality check -
there are some realities here that we need to keep in
the forefront of our thinking. The first comes in verse 2 where James
writes about corrosion:
Your riches have rotted and your garments
are moth-eaten. Your
gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion
will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh
like fire.
Years ago a read about an auction where
people could bid on items that people had left behind
in safe-deposit boxes.
There was a list of what some of those items
were. Examples: 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. One of the great never ending tasks in
life is to keep ahead of the stuff coming through the
door. Stuff
accumulates proportional to the space available. As soon as
we clear out more space more stuff takes its place. Its a
mystery how that happens. But it does. Doesn’t it? Take a quick mental tour of where you
live. 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 and rusting - corroding. Which by the
way is an unashamed pitch for bringing stuff in for
the Yard Sale. In James’ day if we wanted to show off
our wealth - our position in life - we could do
that by partying, parading, and procuring. Eat well -
dress well - and buy well. Lifestyles
of the rich and famous.
Not much changes. Problem is - James writes - food rots,
garments get eaten, metal tarnishes. As it rots
and digests and rusts - oh my - all the stuff were
trying to strut is all giving evidence - speaking
volumes about our heart attitude - our greed - our
selfishness - our foolishness - the value we’re giving
to what we really think is important in life.
Os Guinness records what is a sobering
confession by a successful businessman - a prominent
businessman who was speaking at a conference near
Oxford University: “As you know, I have been very
fortunate in my career and I’ve made a lot of money -
far more than I ever dreamed of. Far more
than I could ever spend, far more than my family
needs.” At that point in his speech this hugely
successful businessman hesitated - betraying deeper
emotions hidden beneath his outward demeanor of a
speech maker. A
single tear rolled down his well-tanned cheek. “To be honest, one of my motives
for making so much money was simple - to have the
money to hire people to do what I don’t like doing. But there’s
one thing I’ve never been able to hire anyone to do
for me: find
my own sense of purpose and fulfillment. I’d give
anything to discover that.” (2) We need to do the reality check -
frequently. Is
what we’re giving so much of our time and effort and
mental energy to - is it really worth it? James goes on in verse 3: You have laid up treasure in the
last days. Meaning - as the wealthy are packing away
a nest egg of rotting, decaying, corroding stuff for
the future - the wealthy have a storage problem.
Remember
this picture? It
makes the point doesn’t it? Jesus:
“What do you benefit if you gain the
whole world and lose your own soul?” (Mark 8:36) Remember the quote from Fiddler on the
Roof? “If the rich could hire others to
die for them we, the poor, would all make a nice
living.” But the rich can’t. 100% of dead
wealthy people are all 100% dead. And then
what? Benjamin Franklin said: “If your riches are yours, why
don’t you take them with you to t’other world?” (4)
Let’s be clear. 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 our attitude - our heart focus. Hear this:
James is saying, when we leave God out of our
wealth - when our attitude about wealth focuses on us
and not God we are in serious serious trouble. Life is
pretty empty if the end point of wealth management is
the marble orchard. 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. Which is? Where’s God? No where.
They’re only thinking about themselves today -
and not God - and what matters for eternity. James is saying that we need to do a
reality check and grab some eternal perspective. God’s
perspective of wealth - His eternal purposes for
giving it. What
God is about doing in this world according to His will
and for His glory.
God who calls us to a greater use of what He’s
blessed us with than our wants and desires and
temporary band aid attempts to cover our deeper
issues. Take a good look in the eyes - in the
heart - of someone who has the wealth of the world but
is missing faith in Jesus - and we’ll see the reality
that James is warning us about here in verses 1 to 3: Hoarding the world’s riches returns
miserable dividends. Dividends
of stress and worry and bitterness and emptiness -
misery. James goes on - starting in verse 4 is
another reality we need to pay attention to. Behold, the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud,
are crying out against you, and the cries of the
harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
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 - paying them far less than what they’d
promised. 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. Which thankfully is an attitude we have
no clue about today.
Right? Think back to 2008 and the financial
crisis. The
super-rich rewarding themselves with bonuses while
people under them are loosing their jobs and homes. Reality is
that the greediest people are some of the wealthiest
and the most generous will give away their last penny. That’s been
a part of human history since human history. The rich - surrounded by all their wealth
- all their self-indulgent luxury - they didn’t hear
the cry of the laborer.
In reality - they weren’t listening. “I can’t hear you.” 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 even the tinkling
of the coins - the wages withheld. James writes that their cry reached the
ears of the Lord of hosts. Hosts
meaning armies not waitresses. The Lord of
hosts means the Lord of the armies of heaven. That’s huge.
James’ Jewish readers would have clicked
on that title - Lord of hosts - would have grabbed on
to that in an instant.
It’s a title that came right out of their
history and culture.
Its an allusion to the coming end times
judgment and God judging and waging war on His
enemies. (Isaiah
2:12). To the Jews what James wrote was a
reference to God taking out the Egyptians. Think Moses
and the Ten Plagues.
Just like God’s people were oppressed in Egypt
- enslaved - in bondage - their voices crying to out
to God - voices that reached to heaven - God responded
to their cries by bringing His judgment down on the
Egyptians. (Exodus
2:23-25) The Lord of the armies of heaven today
hears the cry of His oppressed people and the Lord God
Almighty - supreme commander of the Universe - is
going to do some serious dealing out of hurt against
the oppressors. We need to let that sink in. God is watching and hearing what’s going
on. He -
God - holds us accountable for our use or abuse of
wealth. Meaning
- if we’re using what God has blessed us with at the
expense of people that God is defending and raising up
we are in serious serious trouble before God. Verse 5:
You have lived on the earth in luxury and
in self-indulgence. 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 murdered the
righteous person.
He does not resist you. The word “righteous” here is singular. Meaning its
a description of a kind of person - someone who like
Jesus - the ultimate righteous person - someone who as
a follower of Jesus - like Jesus endures condemnation
and oppression and even martyrdom for their faith. It includes
all the righteous people - who are just trying to do
life following Jesus - being honest and not cheating
and lying their way through life - the righteous who
are brutalized by wealthy unbelievers. Point being - 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. But God -
the Lord of hosts - God knows. He knows
their suffering - our suffering. Which - on one hand - is a huge
reassurance for us.
God knows how you’re living - seeking to follow
Jesus in the corruption of this world - and what
you’re going through.
God gets it.
Judgment is coming. Which - on one hand - is a huge
reassurance for us.
And - on the other hand - is a reality check
for how we use wealth.
Jesus told them about a rich man who
lived in luxury and ignored the poor man Lazarus. Lazarus who
lived outside the rich man’s gate - lived covered in
sores and surrounded by dogs and eating the scraps
that fell off the rich man’s table. Both men died. The rich man
went to Hell and the poor man went to Heaven. The rich man
could see into Heaven - and from the agony of Hell -
he cried out for relief. The reply comes down from Heaven, “Son, remember that during your
lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus
had nothing. So
now he is here being comforted, and you are in
anguish. And
besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can
cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over
to us from there.” (Luke 16:19-31 TNLT) On one hand Jesus’ story shows God’s
response to the needs of the poor. The name
Lazarus literally means “God is my help.” Sick,
crippled, impoverished - Lazarus received compassion
from God. On the other hand Jesus’ story shows
God’s response to those who neglect the poor. God responds
to them with condemnation. Let’s be careful. Wealth alone
does not mean we’re unrighteous. The rich man
ends up in Hell - not because he had money - he ends
up in Hell because he lacked faith in God. He’s
trusting in himself.
Storing away wealth for himself. Which led
him to a self-focused lifestyle of self-indulgent
luxury while ignoring the needs of Lazarus outside his
gate. Let’s be clear - the poor James is
writing about - the poor of the New Testament were
significantly worse off than the professionally poor
people in America today who’ve made a business off of
mooching off of people and the system. The poor James is writing about - the
Lazarus class of poor are more like the 1 to 2 billion
people in the world today who live and die in
desperate poverty attempting to survive on less than 1
or 2 dollars a day - struggling to find food, water,
and shelter with less money than we spend at Starbucks
without even thinking twice. The implications of what James is writing
should challenge us.
Not only do those realities of poverty and need
exist. But
God takes very seriously how we respond to them. Our response to legitimate need -
legitimate need some of which is a part of life in
Merced - our response to legitimate need tells volumes
about the reality of our heart attitude towards God. When it
comes to wealth are we on the same page with God? Are we using
wealth following God’s purposes - or are we on our own
page - hoarding wealth for ourselves even at the
expense of others. David Platt - in his book Radical -
taking back your faith from the American Dream - David
Platt writes: “If I have been commanded to make
disciples of all nations, and if poverty is rampant in
the world to which God has called me, then I cannot
ignore these realities.
Anyone wanting to proclaim the glory of Christ
to the ends of the earth must consider not only how to
declare the gospel verbally but also how to
demonstrate the gospel visibly in a world where so
many are urgently hungry.” (5) The implications of that are
uncomfortably challenging. Are they
not? Our response is to meet physical needs. Which is
crucially important.
But inexorably tied to physical needs is the
opportunity to meet spiritual needs. Supporting
ministry here at Creekside. Supporting
missions out there.
Our very witness in the community. James’ reality check in verses 4 to 6 can
be put this way:
Hoarding the world’s riches yields
nothing good for eternity. Proverbs 11:4: “Riches do not profit in the day
of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” James warns us about the last days -
about laying up treasure and about judgment. One day God
the great accountant is going to conduct His audit of
our lives. God
is going to submit to the wealthy a bill that they
cannot pay - that none of us can pay - not with all
the stored up wealth and IRA’s and lands and silver
and gold in the UHaul. The only way that bill can ever get paid
is with the priceless blood of Jesus on the cross. Jesus
bearing the full punishment for our sins with His own
death. It may seem like the unrighteous are
getting away with murder - prospering at the expense
of others - but the bottom line is that God remembers
- God judges. There
is more going on here than temporal discomfort. Those who enter eternity having never
trusted in Jesus as their Savior - never having
trusted in Jesus as the one acceptable payment for the
debt of our sin - will stand before the throne of
God’s judgment without hope - will enter eternity
forever judged and condemned - forever separated from
God. That battle over that eternal destiny -
the investing of everything in God’s redeeming work -
whether we’re wealthy - poor - or someplace in between
- that accountable to God use of wealth is a crucial
reality check for each one of us. Are we
engaging our resources in the battle for the eternal
destiny of man or are we hoarding them uselessly for
ourselves? Processing what James writes - thinking
about wealth in the real time of the out there drama
of our lives - there’s one question that every one of
us answers every day of our lives. Here it is:
Who’s wealth is it? Is it my wealth or God’s wealth? Those are
the only two options - only two possible ways to
answer the question. 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 crying out to God in misery
- people maybe 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. 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. Heading
for serious misery. On the other hand - understanding that
all wealth is God’s wealth - and living trusting God
with that heart level understanding - that opens up to
us a totally different reality. When we began I asked for $200 cash. Didn’t say
what I was going to do with it. Just that I
needed it. And
Adrian came up here and gave me one. That might have surprised a few people. Maybe you
wondered what Adrian was doing with $200. Suddenly
Adrian became pretty popular. You might
have been thinking he was being generous - or crazy -
bringing that up here.
Thinking about all the things he could do with
that money. Follow me on this: Wouldn’t it
be a whole lot easier to give someone $200 cash if it
was really theirs in the first place? If we’re
just returning it to them? As soon as
we start thinking of that $200 as ours - starting
thinking about how that $200 could meet some of our
needs - wouldn't it be just a tad harder to give it
up. The reality is that - before the service
- I gave Adrian that $200. I told him
that during the service I would ask him for it back. Think about
that. It
was still my $200 and I still had use for it even
though I had placed it in Adrian’s care. Which is God and us. Our use of
wealth - even our faith - our trust in God gets messed
up when we start thinking that what we have is really
ours. But
hugely freeing for us when we realize that all we have
is really His - period. 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.” (6) 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 can humble ourselves - letting go
of our trying to hang on to what’s rotting, digesting,
and corroding - trying to control and possess what
what’s really not ours anyway - and trust God with
what is His - to trust Him to supply what we need - to
unreservedly trust Him to use all of what we have for
His purposes - that eliminates a whole lot of stress
and misery and opens us up to a whole lot of
opportunity - for now and forever. Bottom line - pun intended - bottom line: How have you
answered the question?
Who’s wealth is it?
_____________________________ 1. Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations
& Quotes 2. Os Guinness, The Call - Finding And Fulfilling The
Central Purpose Of Your Life, Nashville, TN: Word, 1998 -
cited by Dave Kraft, Leaders Who Last,
Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010 3. Martina Navratilova, Martina, 1985 4. Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard,
1751 5. David Platt, Radical - Taking Back Your
Faith From The American Dream, Multnomah Books, 2010,
pages 108,113,114 6. Ben Patterson, The Grand Essentials General series reference: Charles R.
Swindoll, Insights on James, 1 and 2 Peter - Zondervan, 2010 |