Sermon Tone Analysis

Pastoral Prayer

In hope of teaching the importance of prayer to God for real needs - we are going to pray in 4 sphere’s each month.

Sphere 1 - Yourself and Your Family; Sphere 2 - Neighbors, Church & Classmates; Sphere 3 - Our City & Nation; Sphere 4 - The World and the Global Church.

Tonight we are praying for:

The World And The Global Church

Prayer:

Father,

Please give attention to our prayer to you our God.

That You are mindful of us and that You hear our prayers and our wishes is nothing short of stunning.

Tonight we lift up missionaries and church leaders throughout the globe.

We ask that you would rescue them from evil.

We ask that you would deliver them from the persecution of unbelievers that would hinder your gospel from going out unto the ends of the earth.

God of the top of my head I lift up Cameron who is serving in a Muslim dominated environment.

We pray that You would give him a great freedom in sharing about Jesus.

That Muslims would hear and You would open their eyes to repent of their wicked ways and trust in Jesus.

I pray for Danielle and her husband serving in across the globe for Your sake.

Bring across their path men and women, boys and girls that need to hear the good news of Christ and open their mouth to speak.

Finally, I think of Mikey serving in Fort Worth.

We pray that in his local context you would give him opportunities to share your faithful love with the children of the Village Church, FW.

God we ask all this in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

Student Read

Well, this passage is not in the top ten most frequently used for weddings or for that matter funerals…well, at least I hope it hasn’t been used at many of either!

Just a side note: one of the important reasons for working through entire books in the Bible is that without this discipline a church wouldn’t study passages like these.

We would tend to skip over them or run from them.

So that’s why expository preaching (which is explaining and applying God’s word to God’s people) is so good for the church.

In this heavy passage what see is three major emphases: (1) First, in (v.1) we see a Promise of Judgment and (2) then in (v.2-3) we are shown an Illustration of the Rich and Their Ruin and finally (3) in (v.4-6) James lays out A Solid Case for their Slaughter.

And then we’ll take this framework and lay it over on the lost.

So, before we dive into the text let me propose and answer one question:

Why would James speak to non-Christians (at this point) in this letter that is addressed specifically to Christians?

I think he wrote this, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to help us see the end of those who place their hope in wealth, that their end is miserable and that we, the faithful in Christ, would not envy their fortune because we know their fate.

And I believe secondly, James wrote this that we could lean into God as the avenger of evil, so that we could bear against their wickedness.

We have hope that God will right any and all wrongs.

So let’s get to the Bible.

Transition: Here James begins by promising judgment.

1. Promise of Judgment

Here’s what we know about God and His promises.

His promises always come true and they never fall to the ground.

From God’s promise to Adam and Eve to crush the head of the serpent in the first word of promise that was fulfilled on the cross, to God’s promise to Noah not to destroy the world by flood again, to God’s promise to Abram to make him into a great nation, give him a land and bless all the nations through him - all of God’s promises have always come true or will come true in the second coming.

And here students God promises the rich that miseries are coming upon them.

Now, let’s hit pause.

Is being rich sinful?

What does the Bible say:

It’s no evil to have riches, but it is what we do with our riches - or better what we see in our riches.

Look at :

Or, as Paul said to his protege Timothy:

So, to be clear these people who had misery pending upon their souls were putting their hope in their wealth.

It wasn’t that they were just rich guys - no they made an idol out of their wealth.

Transition: which was and is a poor idol.

Look at (v.2-3):

Here we see an Illustration of the Rich and their Ruin.

2. Illustration of the Rich and their Ruin

See money/wealth is a poor idol because it doesn’t last.

Here we have this picture of their wealth wasting away - even before their eyes.

$400 paycheck from the pool - turn around about 3 days later and its gone.

What did I spend it all on?

It’s gone faster than that mink coat you wore to the Animal Liberation Front Convention.

Which would be a bold move.

Just saying.

Ask any old timer in here and they will tell you that wealth doesn’t last.

And even if people can manage to keep wealthy until death they cannot take anything with them.

And so James paints this picture of those who put their hope in wealth - the wonderful/rich clothes you wear are wearing out and the gold and silver you have it is corroding and that is evidence of what will happen to you on the day of reckoning.

And in the same way the treasures of this earth waste away so your flesh is going to waste in the fires of hell.

But then James repeats a phrase that Jesus once said not to do: “you have laid up treasure in the last days.”

Here’s the way Jesus put it:

But these rich men have done this.

This is a sensitive topic in our wealthy Western world.

What can be said about the “rich” in this passage, however, is that they are condemned not simply for their wealth; they are condemned for their sinful use of wealth.

jlkj

In the Western world, where amassing material wealth is not only condoned but admired, we Christians need to come to grips with this point in James and ask ourselves seriously: When do we have too much?

Listen to this haunting parable of Jesus:

Why does James preach this message of denunciation of non-Christians in a letter addressed to the church?

Calvin appropriately isolates two main purposes: James “has a regard to the faithful, that they, hearing of the miserable end of the rich, might not envy their fortune, and also that knowing that God would be the avenger of the wrongs they suffered, they might with a calm and resigned mind bear them.”3

It is worth asking, minimally, in the household of God: when do we have too much?

And what does it mean for us to be rich toward God?

That most definitely may change the way we view and use money.

Okay, lets get back to the text.

Finally we see here A Solid Case for the Slaughter of the Rich.

3. A Solid Case for the Slaughter of the Rich

So these rich guys were oppressing the poor - not cool.

Think about it: Preston Turner comes to mow out these guys fields and they change his wages to basically nothing, but they have the power.

They are the cardholders during that time period.

No one would hear Preston cry for help, except God.

The outcry came up to God and he will avenge the poor and mistreated.

We know this because of the metaphor in (v.5).

Look back at (v.5):

So you got them living it up - party central - luxury.

They were the hub of social life in ancient near middle east.

But they indulged themselves.

They were about good ole’ me.

Like that old Toby Keith song,

“I want to talk about me

Want to talk about I

Want to talk about number one

Oh my me my

What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see

I like talking about you, you, you, you usually, but occasionally

I want to talk about me

I want to talk about me”

But then we get the striking metaphor.

“You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”