Sermon 20230309

Good morning everyone and welcome to our session on James, at the start of chapter 5. You can turn there and read with me. I will be in the New King Jimmi version. ‌ This book of James has been a great journey, packed with great wisdom. We have heard on topics such as controlling the tongue, the danger of favouriting the rich and the need of how to show that our faith is real by the way we live our lives. Some of these themes are not popular. The excerpt of this scripture is from James 5:1-6. This is a small bit of scripture but is referenced throughout the Bible and refers to the fate of the rich who hoard their wealth for their own selfish needs. Now do not get me wrong, it is not a sin to be rich but it is idolatry to hoard wealth and live for the dollar to the expense of the LORD. The scriptures state that we will server mammon or God. In other words, if we hoard after our fleshly worldly desires to be rich, we will stumble and prove that we do not serve God but money. Now the scriptures state that mammon is a root of all kinds of evil. This is very challenging. You know my Uncle John was very successful in Amway in New Zealand. I reached out to them at times and also shared in what they were doing. I remember seeing books that taught us that God wants us to be rich. Yet it was a full time job to him to co-ordinate all his people to make that extra dollar. He ended up losing much of his wealth and brought my parents and another Uncle and Aunt to despair. Sofitel in Queenstown in NZ was the investment and the investment fell into a puff of smoke, costing my family millions. We have to realise that God wants us to be responsible with our wealth. For a start, we live in unprecedented times with technology unheard of in the previous generation. What we take for granted in the West would not even be dreamed of by the average African. Now can we start with a very confronting scripture. Let me read this scripture before we read from James 5. Mark 10:23-27 23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” 27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” Now it is very hard for a rich man to surrender His life to God as this will distract Him from His goals. Serving God requires a narrow path that must be followed through. In God, our wealth and riches need to be generously distributed to the Fathers House and His people. In God if we are wealthy, we need to also be generous with a willing heart to use riches for the Kingdom of God. Now we might receive a huge inheritance but that certainly is not sin in itself. However when much is given, much is required. It is not right for us to go along with the Joneses and expend money on limozines, grand houses and luxourous living. That is especially true when we look at those that cannot even afford their rent or a roof over their own head yet alone a nutrition meal. Let it be known that it is our heart that God cares about. You cannot fool God. If you live with selfish desires he will catch you out and you will stumble. There is a fine line between living for God and living for self. Yet it is true that Mammon can control us and our selfish desires will be spent upon ourselves. Please, we cannot have one foot in the World and another foot in God's kingdom. Ultimately you will end up living for one or the other. Now how God equates us versus the poor in Africa is His Kingdom. We have been bought into a rich economy with much opportunities and much more will be expected of us. Let it be known that one who is poor in wealth yet rich in God is very precious to God. However, the same applies to one of us who is rich yet chooses to lay down their life for the Lord. They too are precious to the Lord. Again it comes down to the heart of the man as to His place in the Kingdom of God. How God equates our lives to the poor is again His business but God is just and will reward His servants according to their works and how they use their gifts, talents and wealth. [James is] a preacher who speaks like a prophet … ‌ Indeed, James is a book of practical wisdom and is often referred to the proverbs of the New Testament. Let us now read from James 5. ‌ James 5:1-6 “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.” ‌ This is challenging. However, this goes along the line that being wealthy in this life carries with it great responsibility and obligations. It is so true that the more we hoard in this life, the harder we have to work to look after our assets. In fact we go further. Imagine you lived your life in an economy or a company that rewarded you with several million dollars. You decide to build a mansion for yourself and your family. Once you have created your millionaire view over the lake and have flourished in luxury, you start to realise that this too produces dust, rust, moth eaten clothes and spider webs that corrode and rot before your eyes. So what do you do. You go and find people to help you as this is not work that you want to do. Then you hire workers and pay them the minimum wage, thinking their reward is to be in the presence of your grand estate. As you also realise that you have much left over, you hoard your wealth for a rainy day and continue to squander your maids, gardeners and maintenance staff. Now imagine that your staff cry out to the Lord. Oh won't the Lord protect His people and doom will await the ones who hoards wealth in these last days. ‌ Prov 11:28 “He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like foliage.” ‌ 1 Timothy 6:17–19. Instructions to the Rich ‌ 17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. ‌ What about those who are already rich. Timothy should command them not to be haughty. This is a temptation to the wealthy. They are apt to look down on those who do not have a great deal of money as being uncouth, uncultured, and not very clever. This, of course, is not necessarily true. Great riches are not a sign of God’s blessing in the NT, as they were in the OT.

One of the great snares of riches is that it is difficult to have them without trusting in them. Yet this is really a form of idolatry. It is a denial of the truth that God is the One who gives us richly all things to enjoy. We can not condone luxurious living, but simply states that God is the Source of true enjoyment, and material things cannot produce this. ‌ The money we possesses is not our own. It is given to him as to a steward. He is responsible to use it for the glory of God and for the well-being of his fellow men. He should use it in the performance of good works and be willing to share it with the needy. ‌ John Wesley’s rule of life was, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” ‌ it is possible for us to use our material things in such a way in this life that they will reap eternal dividends. By using our funds in the work of the Lord at the present time, we are storing up … a good foundation for the time to come. In this way, we lay hold on the life which is life indeed. ‌ Riches are uncertain and therefore not worthy of trust. Our confidence should be in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. ‌ The righteous, that is, those whose trust is in the Lord, will flourish ‌ ‌ Lk 6:24 “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.” ‌ Tragically, these are the very ones who are counted great in the world today! “Woe to you who are rich.” These words of the Lord Jesus should be pondered carefully by Christians who are tempted to lay up treasures on earth, to hoard and scrimp for a rainy day. To do this is to live for the wrong world. Those who have wealth and who fail to use it for the eternal enrichment of others have already received the only reward they will ever get—the selfish, present gratification of their desires. ‌ 1 Tim 6:9 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” ‌ Here we deal directly with those who have an insatiable desire to be rich. Their sin lies not in being wealthy, but in coveting to be so. Those who desire to be rich are people who are not content with food, clothes, and lodging, but are determined to have more. Desiring to be rich leads a man into temptation. The desire becomes so strong that he cannot deliver himself from it. Perhaps he promises himself that when he reaches a certain figure in the bank account he will stop. But he cannot. When he reaches that goal, he has the desire for more. The desire for money also brings with it cares and fears, which entangle the soul. Jesus contravenes all human advice to provide for a financially secure future. When He says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” He is indicating that there is no security in material things. Any type of material treasure on earth can be either destroyed by elements of nature (moth or rust) or stolen by thieves. Jesus says that the only investments not subject to loss are treasures in heaven. ‌‌ The rich weep and howl because of the miseries which they were about to experience. Soon they would meet God. Then they would be filled with shame and remorse. They would see that they had been unfaithful stewards. They would wail over the opportunities they had missed. ‌ (Matt. 6:19–21)“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” ‌ Instead of putting their money to work, feeding the hungry, clothing the destitute, providing medicines for the sick, and spreading the gospel, the rich were saving their money for a “rainy day.” ‌ What will be our condemnation if we have had the means of spreading the gospel and have failed to use it? If we have hoarded material things when they might have been used in the salvation of souls? ‌ In verse 4, The second sin James attacks is acquiring wealth by failure to pay proper wages. The laborers who mowed the fields were deprived of their rightful pay. Though the workers might protest, they were quite helpless to get redress. They had no one on earth to plead their cause successfully. He who commands the armies of heaven is strong on behalf of earth’s downtrodden masses. ‌ In verse 5, Next James denounces the luxurious living of the rich. Expensive jewelry, elegant clothes, exquisitive foods, and palatial homes—how could they squander their wealth on self when multitudes were in desperate need? Or to bring it down to our own day, how can we justify the affluence and extravagance of the church and of Christian people? ‌ The clear teaching of the Scriptures, the appalling need of the world, the example of the Savior, and the simple instinct of compassion tell us that it is wrong to live in comfort, luxury, and ease as long as there is a single soul who has not heard the gospel. ‌ Those who live in pleasure and are unrestrained in luxury are likened to those who nourish their hearts as in a day of slaughter—like animals, fattening themselves just before their execution, or like soldiers who spend their time looting when others are perishing around them. ‌ In verse 6 - The final charge against the rich is that they condemned and murdered the just, and he did not resist them. James is thinking of the rough, highhanded way in which rich people have characteristically behaved toward their subordinates.

And there ends the lesson. Thank you.