9. What Does Your Money Say About You?
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to part nine of our sermon series, All Day, Everyday where we are using the book of James as a guidebook to help us follow Jesus well in every part of our lives.
So last Sunday, I told you about the Tikker wrist watch. It’s essentially a watch which counts down to the day of your predicted death. It’s like holding the grim reaper on your wrist. Today I want to tell you about the Titanic DNA, Night and Day watch. Here’s a picture of it.
This watch is made from salvaged materials from the Titanic but that’s not the only unique thing about this watch. In this limited series of just nine watches, this is the first wrist watch not to display the time. However, that did not seem to deter those with massive disposable incomes, who shelled out $300,000 a piece for these watches which were all snatched up in 48 hours. So what does it actually tell the wearer? Well, it has these two 12 hour tourbillions which tell you if it’s day time or night time. It basically tells you whether it’s day or night.
Seriously, how helpful is that? If you were to use that watch exclusively to help you navigate you day what would you schedule look like? Mr. Smith, your appointment was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. you are an hour late. Or Mr. Smith, your appointment isn’t until 9:00 a.m. your over an hour early. Yeah, well, I was just kind of guessing. Talk about a confusing and chaotic way to live life! However, that is what happens when there isn’t a true and precise, finely tuned time piece to keep us on schedule.
The same exact thing can be said about how we live our lives: If there isn’t a true, and precise guide to conform our lives to, chaos will be the result.
If you have a Bible or device, turn to James chapter four. If you are using the you version Bible app, look for Events. Then search out, Iowa City Church. All the Scriptures and Sermon Notes will be on your device.
If there is a theme for James as he writes this letter to Christians, don’t forget your true, precised guide to conform your life to. The theme James keeps returning to is found in James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Resist the false narratives, the lies and temptations from Satan. Instead, submit yourself to God. In other words, come under the authority of God. He is the true, perfect and a good guide to move our lives from chaos to clarity.
For example. A few weeks ago we talked about how to minimize conflict in your relationships. James points us to verse seven, “Submit yourselves to God.” As we submit ourselves to God, our conflict decreases in our relationships and our peace increases. Last Sunday we focused in on how to use our time. What to do with our lives. James again points us to verse seven. Submit your plans to God. Seek his will and find clarity in your life.
Here’s the rule: When we operate apart from God we find chaos. When we submit to God and his way, we find clarity.
Take just a moment and do this exercise with me. What are areas of your life right now that are currently chaotic? List out one or two that just seem out of control right now.
Hold on to those. During our prayer time I’m going to give you a few moments to submit those to God and surrender to his guidance.
I’m curious, and you don’t have to raise your hand, but I wonder how many of you feel like your finances or just money in general feels a bit out of control right now. I don’t pretend to be an economist or some prophet foretelling the future. But let me just say, if there is an area of our lives that needs to have clarity going forward, it’s going to be our finances…how we handle our money.
Did you know that how you view and handle money says a lot about you? In many ways you could say that, “Money Talks”.
I heard a popular comedian once say, “If money talks, all it ever says to me is good-bye!”
What would your money say about you? What would your money say about your faith. According to what James is going to describe in chapter 5:1-6, how we use our money tells us about our faith in God.
Your money or lack there of, tells you if you trust God or if you trust yourself. How you use money, is a test of your faith.
Are you leveraging your finances with guidance from God, or are you handling your finances on your own terms?
So here is what we are going to do. We are going to take test about what your finances says about your faith. Then we are going to conclude with Jesus’ teaching on how we can use our finances with God as our guide.
Here we go. Let’s read Jame’s test description about how we use our money.
1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
The very first thing you should notice is James’s usage of the words, “Now listen.” These are important words he doesn’t want to be overlooked. Then he says, “You rich people.” Do not check out because you would not describe yourself as a rich person. If you were in one of the churches James is writing to, you most definitely would be a rich person. If we even expand our context to include all the people in the church all over the world, again, you would be one of the richest people in the church. James is writing to us.
So how would you do on James’s money test?
1. Are you hoarding your money or being generous?
Most Christians don’t understand why they are rich. They think that their money is for them to hold on to. This is not to say that we shouldn’t have savings accounts or retirement plans. This is about having an attitude of greed as opposed to an attitude of generosity. God gives to us so we can be generous. If I have faith in God, then I know that as I generously give, he will continue to generously give to me. It’s really a matter of learning to live our lives opened handed and not closed fisted.
Look at James 5:3
3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
What you have hoarded for yourself, will testify against you at judgement. As Jesus himself said, what good is it to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul. Let me give you an example:
When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, one rich young woman did not flee like most residents. She stayed behind collecting as much jewelry as she could carry rather than escape by boat. Her rings went on her fingers, she didn’t have time to pick up a bag but rushed into the street clutching her pearls and rubies, gold brooches and earrings.
Poisonous fumes overcame her, she fell and died and remained under the ashes until in 1981 archaeologists found “The Ring Lady” preserved with her hands still laden with the jewels that cost her everything to hold onto. What could we be holding onto that holds us back from God?
[Picture of The Ring Lady]
To test yourself here, ask yourself this question: Am I motivated more by greed or generosity?
Here’s part two of James’s money test. Look at verse four.
4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
2. Have You Kept Others From Benefiting Because of Greed?
In this situation, there were Christians in the church not following through on their promises of paying those they employed. Simply put, they were cheating people out of what they deserved to instead line their pockets.
The test for us here is this: Have we kept our word on the money that is owed to others? Did we say we would pay them a certain amount of money, did we follow through? We borrowed money, did we pay it back? This could even be translated to how we tip. A follower of Jesus should be a generous and not a stingy tipper.
Here’s a simple way to summarize this test: Do you cheat people out of money they are owed?
Here’s the last test.
5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.
3. Is Your Greatest Goal To Live A Life of Luxury?
The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Eleven: Money Talks (James 5:1–6))
All of us are grateful for the good things of life, and we would certainly not want to return to primitive conditions. But we recognize the fact that there is a point of diminishing returns. “Tell me what thou dost need,” said the Quaker to his neighbor, “and I will tell thee how to get along without it.” Jesus said, “Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15, NASB). These rich men James addressed were feeding themselves on their riches and starving to death. There is a great difference between enjoying what God has given us (1 Tim. 6:17) and living extravagantly on what we have withheld from others. Even if what we have has been earned lawfully and in the will of God, we must not waste it on selfish living. There are too many needs to be met. Pursuing luxury has a way of ruining character.
Here’s a summary of test three: “Are you pursuing things that you could ultimately live without?”
So how did you do on James’ money test? If it hit you like it hit me, it’s very convicting and a startling reminder that we need to constantly be evaluating what we do with our lives. Did the test reveal that your finances are more in chaos then clarity? What did the test reveal about your faith in God?
The question is this: Now what?
Well, James would say, Submit yourselves to God. What does that look like? What does it look like to have God provide us clarity on how we handle our money? Jesus gives us an example of what it looks like to submit our finances to God.
In Luke 12, Jesus tells this parable about a wealth man who harvests a bumper crop! His dilemma is this: “What to do with all this extra that I have? He decides to build bigger barns to store all of his grain. Here is his logic, if he stores up enough for the future, and he can, “Eat, drink and be merry!”
Jesus calls the man foolish because, that very night when he begins to eat, drink and be merry…he dies. Then Jesus says these words:
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Why are you rich? You are rich so that you can invest in God’s good work in this world. God has invited you into a partnership with him. He blesses you and you trust him by investing in his good work in this world. Isn’t that amazing? That the God of the universe would invest in you, by giving you Jesus, new life, and jobs, money, influence and time so that you can turn around and invest in his work in this world. You are rich so that you can invest in God’s good work in this world. Here is the amazing thing. The more you invest in God’s work in this world, the more he fills you up to do it again. It’s truly a life changing experience. So, what is your plan to invest in God’s good work in this world?
With the time we have left, I want to give you a two-part plan that you can begin to use to help you focused on being rich toward God.
Priority Giving – I’m sure a lot of you are tracking with everything we are talking about this morning. And you are probably saying, “I’m going to do this as soon as I have some extra money.” I’m going to let you know something—you are never going to have some extra money. Lifestyle changes are hard for all of us. We say the same thing about losing weight or breaking habits or becoming more organized. We will do it…when the time is right, but not today.
We forget that we are literally changing our values. Changing our value system is so difficult, but it’s important. By making our investment a priority, we are telling ourselves and God that we value him and his work over the value system of our culture. The best way to begin to do this is to write your investment check to God’s good work the first thing. Before you pay the mortgage or the credit card bills. Every month, write your investment check or checks to God’s good work first. If you do the automatic payments, lock them in and know that you have made your investments in God’s work a priority.
Percentage Giving – Statistics show that the richer people get the less generous they are. To guard against greed, we need to annually set a percentage of our income that we are going to invest in God’s good work. The earlier in life you set this habit the better. What is a good percentage to start with? The Bible writers teach 10% as a good starting place. 10% literally means tithe or a tenth. In fact, it would probably be wise to set up all your finances around percentages. 10% to God’s Work, 10% to savings and live on the rest. Again, this is a great way to guard yourself from greed and keep you focused on investing in God’s good work.
Some of you might push back from the thought of a tithe. It’s extremely uncomfortable and you don’t want to do it. But so is a colonoscopy, and those save countless lives every year. It just boils down to how much you want to trust God and invest in his good work.
When we have a plan to be rich towards what God cares about, our financial chaos will diminish and our faith will grow.