Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning!

I want to start today by publically thanking Carey for preaching last week.

If you were not here, go back and listen to the message.

He did a great job of letting the HS speak through him.

I’d also add that it is such a blessing for me personally to be able to count Carey as a friend and a coworker.

It is not easy for a pastor to share his pulpit, but that is not the case with Carey.

Last week Carey finished up Chapter 4 in James with the following “preachery points.”

What we say matters.

How we plan matters.

How we respond matters.

He also gave a really good summary of much we have covered in this study so far.

Much of which concerns how we respond to what God is doing in our lives.

We want our faith to grow,, and that happens as we hear God speak and then do what He says.

True Faith, the kind we all want, never stops growing and it reveals itself to the world.

As we have discussed before and as James is going to address again today, the inverse of that is true as well.

Some of my commentaries stated that the first part of James 5 is addressed to unbelievers, but I don’t know how they have come to that conclusion.

It may be that the actions that James is speaking against would give evidence that they could not have been.

Maybe, but I also know that all of us are sinners and are learning more every day about what it means to love others.

These may have just been new believers.

We can’t really know.

Let’s dive in and see what God has for us today.

We need to be reminded of something before we really dig into this today.

For all of the new testament writers, there was a sense of urgency that we do not live with today.

For the writers and to the early church, there was a common understanding that Jesus’s return to the earth was imminent.

It was their belief at the time that when Jesus said he was coming back, it could be at any moment.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t live with that same urgency; in fact, it would do us good to have a little of that.

But it is important that we understand this as we unpack these verses and some others that we are going to look at today.

I don’t know about you, but for me, the biggest source of urgency is trying to get the kids either in bed or out the door to go somewhere.

However, even though we may not feel that same urgency that the early church did, that does not make Jame’s message any less harsh or critical.

I think that discussing our sense of urgency, or lack thereof, would be good for all of us.

We should consider it and how it affects our decision-making as followers of Christ.

Today we are going to discuss three different ways that wealth can consume us and ultimately cause us to be judged harshly.

Anxiety that comes from wealth.

The temperance of wealth.

Condemnation in wealth.

Before we get into all that, I want to remind us all of what it looks like when the church has the proper grasp on wealth.

In speaking negatively to the church, he is ultimately reminding and pointing them to a way of living that we see described in other parts of the New Testament.

It is the kind of life that we were created to enjoy in the garden but was destroyed by sin.

Because Jesus has come and has begun the process of restoring his kingdom, we get a glimpse of what this new life looks like.

This is a passage that we are all familiar with, and it takes place after the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the church was born.

I want us all to see two main things in this passage.

What is the singular focus of the people as they are described here?

They were focused on experiencing God.

Who were they taking care of, the body of believers?

Those that heard the gospel and wanted to be a part of this new work that God was doing.

Often when this passage is quoted, the intention is for people to give more.

More to the church, more to one another, more to charities.

I want to push back on that a little today and ask that as we talk about our possessions and wealth, we put the focus on experiencing God as we obey.

God wants us to know Him, and James is doing the difficult work today of revealing something that has always been a struggle for the church.

We talk often about how James references different things that he heard Jesus teach.

Today is no different.

There is no doubt in my mind that as James was writing this portion of his letter, he was thinking back to something that Jesus taught.

Boy, that sound familiar, doesn’t it?

This is where James is coming from.

His letter is not a plea for the rich to give more, it is to simply help them realize that they are putting their trust in something that cannot hope to give them what they need.

Look again at how James begins.

Now, if we were to go and do a poll, I would be willing to bet that most people would say that having more money would make them less stressed.

We could also do another poll asking people if, when all their bills are paid, does that anxiety go away or if they then immediately begin worrying about the next one.

You see, having “enough” money isn’t the answer to our anxiety.

What we already know, but maybe haven’t fully processed, is that in God’s economy, wealth is of little value.

In fact, and we know this by experience, …

The pursuit of wealth causes great anxiety.

Paying all the bills last few weeks after helping a community member, paying for materials for church maintenance, paying Igloo Air, and buying all the supplies need while we were out of town for two weeks made me a little anxious.

God provided for everything we needed.

On the outside I may have appeared calm and not worried, but on the inside, I was nervous.

We get so so worked up over whether or not we are going to have enough.

For some in our congregation and communities, having enough money to pay the bills isn’t even really an issue.

We could move some money around or give up a luxury, and we would be fine.

But there are also some for whom that is a very real concern.

They don’t have luxuries.

They live on a fixed or very low income, and there is no money to move around.

Within our body and our community exist both ends of the economic spectrum.

My point is that it doesn’t matter how much money you have; it could be a lot or a little, and you will still be worried about it.

The problem isn’t the bills we have or how much we make.

The issue lies in where we put our trust.

And this isn’t one-sided either.

If you are the one that is worried about being able to make ends meet, you have to ask and listen to God.

Also, if you have plenty and aren’t worried, you also need to ask and listen to God to show you where He wants to use you.

If in this, you find yourself saying, “I… fill in the blank,” you need to remember what we talked about in the Acts 2.

If your concern is for yourself, you are thinking about the wrong thing.

All wealth is temporary.

Again, just like last week, we see a throwback to Ecclesiastical writings here.

Look again At verses 2 and 3.

Do you remember the Qholet In Ecclesiastes talking about how he had all the money and possessions a person could desire, and yet it was hevel?

It is fleeting.

I cannot tell you how many times, especially when I was younger, that I would be trying so hard to put a little money away for something and then a major appliance would go out.

We can worry about money, we can make plans (we talked about that last week), or we can choose to ask God and then do what he says.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t save money, and James isn’t speaking out against the idea of that either.

James is addressing having so much saved up that it never moves around to the point of becoming tarnished while there are others around that are in desperate need.

Again, this may make you uncomfortable but be reminded that God wants to use you and I to allow others to experience the new kingdom that He is establishing.

One of the ways he is going to use us is by taking care of one another.

Raise your hand if God has told you to do something financially that, on paper, didn’t make sense.

We must learn, and this only happens as we obey, that God is not restricted by our income or lack of it.

Jesus made money appear in a fish's mouth!

We get worked up over having enough, and Jesus is just pulling money out of fish over here.

God has the ability to provide for any need we have.

He can do that through something miraculous or, and most often, He will do it through another believer.

Let me give you two examples:

High tunnel story…

We made a decision to obey God and had no idea that the amounts were different.