Wealth, Waiting, & Wanting: The Freedom to Finish Well

This morning we’re going to wrap up the letter of James, as we have been slowly working at each chapter over the last couple months, but to give you some framing again: we started by looking at why we celebrate, with a lot of the activity around Easter and the resurrection of Jesus along with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which brought us to James, looking at a lot of practical reminders of how we then live in light of the good news of Jesus, and starting next week we’re going to deal with how we pursue being and building the church, all the while dealing with a less than ideal social and cultural situation, in the book of Nehemiah.

But this morning as we focus our attention from all the comings and goings of our 4th of July plans… we might be celebrating the temporal freedoms we experience because of the time and place we live, but as Christians, as followers of Jesus…

What is your freedom for? James concludes his letter to the church by giving us three examples of what our lives lived in the freedom of faith look like. And when we exercise that freedom in how we live, we declare something greater that reflects the glory of God, the reality that we tend to stray, and as we deal with wealth, waiting, and wanting, we either align ourselves with…

James 5:11 (NIV)

11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Or we declare ourselves gods unto ourselves, ends unto ourselves, and live according to the whims of the world. Because even if you don’t follow Jesus in these things, all of us think there is some kind of standard out there. There is some kind of ethic or law or ideal in the way we behave, the ways in which we wait, and how we should pursue those things we desire.

Every single person out there believes there is a right way to steward wealth, there is a right way to wait, and there is a right way to ask about what you want. Each of these arenas have a great freedom of response, but what does mean to follow Jesus in each of those things?

Because no matter how much we have, we almost always want… more. Maybe not a lot more, but still more. Like when I was a toddler, I’d ask for one more. I’d be given a cookie and ask for ‘one more’ - for my other hand. I would then proceed to stuff a cookie in my mouth, and ask again, “one more?” It didn’t matter if I had enough, or another, we always want more.

It might be rather silly with cookies and kids, but fast forward a couple dozen years and that want for more takes on another life, because worldly wealth will never satisfy.

James 5:1 NIV

1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.

Even if we get all the things we might want, James gives a warning to us all - notice here too - he’s not simply addressing the church anymore, he’s not talking to the brothers and sisters, but to anyone who is rich in this present age: now listen in. You who are rich, you who think you’ve finally gotten enough, weep and wail.

But wait! I though getting enough, finally getting the riches, getting the stuff, getting enough money, power, fame, likes and subscribes, I thought that’s what we all wanted? Why would I weep and wail? James tells us why: misery is coming. The very things we thought would give us stability, certainty, and security never live up to their so-called promise. When has a little more ever actually been enough?

Drive the next new Silverado or Tundra off the lot and suddenly it’s not worth so much anymore, or buy the latest iPhone or computer to find out it’s already dated three months later. But it all looks so bright and shiny, and full of promise at first.

James 5:2–3 NIV

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.

James tells us that worldly wealth will rot, get eaten up, corrode, and corrupt. This is brutal: the very fact that it has been hoarded speaks against those of us with much in this present age, and that if we don’t steward it well, it will eat our flesh like fire. How’s that for a welcome.

But that’s the reality. The irony is that the watching world knows it even if they are not following Jesus or care to hear the Gospel. Wealth never satisfies, it only amplifies. It takes who we are and amplifies our behaviors, reveals our priorities, and what we think our freedom is really for.

We’ve been given way more than we even recognize most of the time, and what we do with what we’ve been given matters. It matters to those you are in relationship now, and it matters to God. And if you’ve been given much, much is expected.

Jesus talks about this in Luke 12:

Luke 12:48b (NIV)

48 … From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

And God gives us the freedom to do with wealth what we will, but what’s amazing here is both where Jesus is teaching here, and where James goes next as he addresses us as the church, it’s in conjunction with and in the context of Jesus’ return.

James 5:7 “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.

What we do with what we’ve been given, and what we’ve indeed been doing as we wait to encounter Jesus face to face, is not a passive thing as much as we don’t operate on our own power. Much like we talked about the eagle rising up as the air currents change and move, or a sail on a ship being prepared to catch the wind. But what we catch from one another, from generation to generation, may not be what we thought.

Wealth passed down generation upon generation might be a blessing, but more often than not that wealth is slowly squandered or assumed, or simply gets used up as it spreads out. More often than not, the first generation works hard to innovate and earn while their kids watch and experience some of the hardship. Then the grand-kids come around and hear stories about how hard it was, how risky things were, how close things were to collapse yet here they are now experiencing an easy life. And by the next generation, all that’s left are the stories rather than the experience to make the most of what’s been given. It’s hard to get the third generation motivated and not take for granted what they’ve been given.

We don’t have to think very long about how many stories we hear of lottery winners living the high life… how many hold onto their wealth for very long? Or professional athletes that are paid millions and millions for years, and are found with next to nothing a few years after retirement?

And here’s the takeaway regardless of how much or what you’ve maybe inherited: if we’ve grown up in grace, in a Christian household, we may not fully understand the depth of the riches we’ve inherited, and simply take for granted the generational blessing we have recieved, maybe even squander or dismiss it, and wonder why we have nothing left when life gets on a little ways? When suffering comes, or doubts grow. Or the hard won freedoms we enjoy because of and as Biblical principles carried the weight to move us ahead as a nation.

We can take for granted the foundation of faith and merely dismiss the benefit and the blessing of what built that up, or we think we’ll start living more graciously or generously only when we have what we think is enough… but it’s always “one more“… then, then I’ll live the way God has mapped out for us, or maybe once I have enough of a voice in the world, then, then I’ll spring the Jesus card on them.

But where does Jesus go in his sermon after promising that much will be expected of us: Luke 12:49-51...

Luke 12:49–51 NIV

49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.

...that Jesus coming into the mix of things won’t make life in this present age easier, but harder. Jesus has brought peace between God and humanity, but the peace on earth is yet to come, we see that everyday. And the church, the bride of Christ, gets slandered left, right, and center all the time.

But the truth is like a lion, let it loose and it can defend itself. Don’t try and tame it down. Don’t try and water down the reality that there will be a reckoning, God will set things right, and as much as we might long for the day when that time will come, there is much to do, many to save, and much to be thankful for.

James’ reminder to the church, to our church, is that Jesus will fulfill what He has promised. He has already, He is now, and He soon will. And yet, we don’t know the time of that return will be, only that it will come like a thief in the night, and we’re not going to be able to predict when that will happen.

But there’s a catch, God also gives us the freedom to be wrong:

In a recent article in The Futurist magazine, writer Laura Lee catalogues some of the worst predictions of all time:

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“Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments.”

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—Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus, A.D. 100

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“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.”

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—John Eric Ericksen, surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873

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“Law will be simplified [over the next century]. Lawyers will have diminished, and their fees will have been vastly curtailed.”

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—journalist Junius Henri Browne, 1893

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“It doesn’t matter what he does, he will never amount to anything.”

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—Albert Einstein’s teacher to Einstein’s father, 1895

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“It would appear we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology.”

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—computer scientist John von Neumann, 1949

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“Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within ten years.”

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—Alex Lewyt, president of the Lewyt Vacuum Cleaner Company, quoted in The New York Times, June 10, 1955

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“Before man reaches the moon, your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.”

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—Arthur Summerfield, U.S. Postmaster General under Eisenhower, 1959

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“By the turn of the century, we will live in a paperless society.”

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—Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986

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“I predict the Internet … will go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.”

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—Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, 1995

Aren’t you glad your faith does not rest on human words but on the sure Word of God?

It’s not about us being right. How many times has trying to be right been wrong in the long run?

James 5:7 NIV

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

We do the work before us, and then patiently wait. We can’t make it rain sooner or faster, we can’t make the crops grow any quicker without running into other problems down the road, and if we stress and worry about what’s to come, how is that going to help anything around us grow?

James 5:8 (NIV)

8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

We’d rather this verse say be quick and stand loosely. We’d like instant results, and not have our feet held to the fire for holding onto absolute truth, that there is an authority that is greater than ourselves, and while we might have the freedom to say no to all of it, it doesn’t make us right. And James reminds us in a desert climate that the rains will come in season, there is work to prepare, but we have to be patient, and trust God will work things together for our eternal good. James 5:7

James 5:7 NIV

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

As much as we are used to everything on-demand and instant, nothing good for us appears overnight.

Greg Laurie Sermon Archive (What the Lord’s Return Means to You)

No crop appears overnight. Except of course a crop of weeds. Isn’t it amazing how quickly weeds can grow. You can be nurturing your little plant. You sing to it every day. You play classical musical to it. You hug it periodically. Not too hard so you don’t damage the leaves. And in the process of time, as your little plant has finally grown an inch or two, meanwhile, some weed has grown 35 feet high. With no help at all.

If you want to have a good harvest in your life, it takes time.

When we are told to wait for the Lord, that is hard. We live in a culture where every thing comes fast. You don’t have to wait for anything anymore. If you want something, you don’t have to wait and save up the money to purchase it. You charge it. And they promise you that you won’t even have to make payments for a full year.

We don’t want to wait. We want to get it now. We feel we deserve it.

In this culture of getting things fast, getting our information fast, everything comes at such a rapid pace. We are told wait for the coming of the Lord.

We look around at our world and we say, “Lord, come on. What? Are you dragging your feet? Have you forgotten? When are you coming back?”

But God is not bound by our schedules. God will come at the appointed time.

Peter tells us this another way:

2 Peter 3:9 NIV

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

We know we need patience, but it’s not something we like to exercise. Especially if we’re on the giving end rather than the receiving. And the last thing we usually want to do is to confess our failures and faults to anyone else, yet this is exactly what James is telling us to do:

James 5:16 NIV

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

We are usually okay with confessing to God or acknowledging to ourselves that we are people in need, but putting ourselves in a position of vulnerability, of being held accountable with others who are face to face, that’s hard. And more often than not, we would rather try and keep appearances, or acting like what we did or what happened was somehow justified or intended.

James 5:14 (NA28)

14 ἀσθενεῖ τις ἐν ὑμῖν, προσκαλεσάσθω τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ προσευξάσθωσαν ἐπʼ αὐτὸν ἀλείψαντες αὐτὸν ἐλαίῳ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου.

The word here for sick, is literally weakened to the point of being incapacitated, you’ve got nothing left. You’ve tried and tried and tried, you’ve exhausted everything you have and are, even then, James tells us to come back to the Lord in prayer, among the family of God, among brothers and sisters, let those who have grown mature in faith come alongside you.

James 5:19–20 NIV

19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

James concludes with an invitation. We might wander away from the truth. If we’ve grazed our way into lostness, when we look up and find ourselves somewhere we didn’t expect, we are given the freedom to choose our response... the freedom to try harder, get more, and do more, or ask for a new cup… the new cup of the covenant that Jesus makes with us.

Which leads us into communion.

Which leads us back to the table that God has prepared for us.

Some of us might need to confess that we’ve wandered, and we’re too proud to admit it, we don’t want to confess our sin, our brokenness to anyone… but even if there is suffering, even if it takes patience, even if it costs us everything the world would chase after, let us be like our heavenly Father, full of compassion and mercy.

Let us pray.