Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I'm going to have us stand here as I pray.
[00:00:04] Lord, I just ask today that you would speak into our lives through your word.
[00:00:10] And Father, we recognize that there's so much that you want to communicate to us. We know that you deeply love us.
[00:00:18] We know that you are for us.
[00:00:21] We know that you have allowed things to come into our lives. Sometimes we create problems that you, you know, warn us against, and yet we disobey and we do our own thing and we discover pain and sorrow, consequence. But also we know that there's times we find ourselves in difficulty that we didn't even create. And yet you use those things in our lives to help us to develop and grow and become more like you, more unself centered and more focused on the things that really matter in this life and in the life to come. We pray today as we hear words from James, very challenging words, sobering words. May you cause us to ponder, reflect, consider.
[00:01:09] And Lord, I know that I've been challenged as I worked on this message. You've spoken into my heart. And so I pray that you will speak into all of our hearts that we will be living a life that's totally ready for eternity. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:01:31] Probably one of the great concerns for people as they're aging is whether they'll have enough finances in their retirement years. And, you know, you'd probably go to different financial planners and they'll probably have different gauges to tell you how much money you need, probably depending on your lifestyle, all the rest of that.
[00:01:50] My question I'm going to raise today is how does God evaluate our financial portfolio?
[00:01:56] Totally a different approach. Because if you think about it, even if you retire, let's say, at 50, and you live to be 100, it's 50 years.
[00:02:05] What's that? In light of eternity, That's a little drop of time.
[00:02:12] And maybe what we need to be saying to ourselves is, yes, I need to take responsibility. Yes, I need to save. Yes, I should have some money set aside in retirement. But maybe I also need to consider that I have a portfolio that's going to be opened up in eternity that's going to affect my eternity. And I think most of us probably don't consider that too often.
[00:02:36] So if financial planning is a part of our eternal plan, maybe we need to realize what we're doing or not doing this area in our lives.
[00:02:45] Are we living the kind of life that God has called us to? First off, Are we ready for eternity? I mean, if, you know, something happened to one of us tonight or Jesus came back suddenly, which the Bible says he could come back at any moment.
[00:03:00] How would we stand before Almighty God in eternity?
[00:03:04] Being generous with our time and money does affect eternal outcomes.
[00:03:09] Many of us probably enjoy or have seen the movie A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens wrote this during the Industrial Revolution in London and he was trying to. Most of his books and writings were dealing with some of the terrible inequalities of life. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer. And in A Christmas Carol, most of us probably know the story. It's culturally, I think, widespread. We probably see it at Christmas time every year. There's a character called Ebenezer Scrooge. We even use the term of somebody who is being stingy as a Scrooge, right? Somebody who has no interest in other people. Somebody who's actually exploiting his workers so that he can have even more money that he doesn't need.
[00:03:55] Isn't that true? That's kind of the story. And then all of a sudden, Dickens House, you know, three ghosts show up, these apparitions that show up his past, his present and in his future. And finally at the end he sees, you know, he's lived his life with the wrong purpose, the wrong meaning, the wrong aims. And at the very end he has a chance to reset his life and he becomes extremely concerned about others and generous and he moves away from that very self focused life which was bringing him total misery and now began to discover a joy of serving other people.
[00:04:31] James challenges us regarding having the wrong priorities actually in regard to our finances, both how we attain them and also how we spend them or invest them.
[00:04:43] And sometimes even taking advantage of other people simply to live a self gratifying life.
[00:04:48] This chapter, chapter five is extremely powerful.
[00:04:53] He starts out, I'm going to read these first six verses because chapter seven, he shifts and is basically trying to encourage the people he's writing to. But he's saying something very profound here. In these first six verses he says, now listen, you rich people weep and wail because of the misery that's coming on you.
[00:05:11] Your wealth has rotted, your moths have eaten your clothes, your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.
[00:05:22] You have hoarded wealth in the last days, by the way. The last days is an expression used in the New Testament speaking from the day of Pentecost on. So we're living in the last days.
[00:05:33] He goes, 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. You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence.
[00:05:48] You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you.
[00:05:57] Probably one of the strongest passages of Scripture. And as I was considering this text, I realized that James is really bringing out some powerful message to a group of people he was writing to. If we remember back from some of you that may not be well acquainted with scripture, let me just bring a little back background so we really get an understanding. So James is writing to Jewish people that had become believers were spread out all over the Mediterranean world. Many of them were struggling financially.
[00:06:28] Many of them were being exploited.
[00:06:30] But there was a temptation. How many know when you're poor, you always want to be rich.
[00:06:34] You know, you always want to have like what the really rich people have. You know, you look at their lifestyle, the rich and famous, the self indulgence lifestyle, where they can do anything they want to do, right?
[00:06:45] And he's warning them against that attitude. That's not the goal of life.
[00:06:49] And yet so many people make that the goal of life. But the problem with that, James is warning us. And he says it, he says, don't show partiality to the rich. In other words, when the rich person came into the church, you acted like you gave them the best seat, but when the poor person came along, you just disregarded them.
[00:07:09] He says, don't show that kind of partiality. That's actually a sinful behavior. It's wrong. It's not what Jesus was doing. Jesus was a friend of the people that were impoverished. He was concerned about people.
[00:07:21] He didn't judge them based on their economic status. And we kind of feel that sometimes in society we're being judged, you know, in different ways. But one of them is on economic status. He goes on to say in chapter four, he says, be very careful. He said that you love not the world and the things in this world. And what he meant by that was, don't embrace the value system that society has placed upon you, which really was all about materialism and living a good life and having everything you ever wanted. He said, don't go down that trap, because people that eventually live down that trap find themselves at enmity, or they're actually become an enemy of God because they begin to take advantage of other people. They exploit people, they oppress people, and that's really unhealthy. And now in Chapter five, he brings out this whole warning to these people. As a matter of fact, James here.
[00:08:13] No, let me just say this. Is this simply a warning against ungodly people because he is speaking about the rich that are not godly here?
[00:08:22] Or is this a warning against the misuse of God's resources that he has given us as believers?
[00:08:28] Obviously, it is a warning against those who oppress others, but it's also a word to encourage the people who are suffering as a result of the financial inequality.
[00:08:39] God wants to encourage us. This world is not just folks. Has anybody figured that out yet? Anybody figured this out? This world does not have equality. There's inequality. You know, a lot of times people talk about trying to make everybody have the same amount, do all the same things. That's never going to happen. It's not the way the world works.
[00:08:57] But there's a day of reckoning. That's what James is saying. There's a day when everyone will stand before the Creator, the One who created this world and created every human being. And even though our world has gone astray and is in revolt against the one who created them, the King who came to rescue this world, he's trying to encourage the people who have surrendered, who have become followers of Jesus. Listen, even though you may be suffering unjustly now in verse seven, we're not going to talk about that today, but he's going to say, be patient.
[00:09:28] God's coming back and he's going to deal with people and there's going to be equity, there's going to be a judgment, there'll be a reckoning day. Because a lot of people right now, there seems to be no reckoning day. And you're going to hear about that in a moment. People just seem to be getting away with all kinds of bad stuff.
[00:09:44] James is using a literary device known as apostrophe, speaking to a people who are not present for the benefit of those who are. In other words, he's directing his comments to these rich people who are abusing and exploiting people probably are not part of the people that are receiving this letter. But James is trying to tell the people that are receiving this letter, don't envy these people. As a matter of fact, the psalmist warns Again, in Psalm 73, he said, I almost slipped because I was envying the wicked and their prosperity. He said, don't do that.
[00:10:17] And then later on in that psalm, he says, because later on when I came into the sanctuary, I began to realize that they were on a slippery slope and that when you relate eternity versus time.
[00:10:29] They're going to be in big time trouble for a long time.
[00:10:32] And the people that are maybe suffering in time are going to spend a wonderful eternity.
[00:10:38] So we need to understand that James is going to call for patient endurance under excessive and repressive economic conditions.
[00:10:49] The analogy that James makes in chapter five is of a ripening harvest.
[00:10:55] You know, the coming of Christ, you know, the second coming of Jesus. He came the first time he came as a servant. He came to lay down his life and die for us. He called people that were broken to himself. He brought forgiveness of sins to humanity. But he's coming again, folks. But this time when he comes, he's not coming as a humble, lowly baby born in a manger there on Christmas Day. He's coming as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to judge this world for all of the things that are happening on the planet.
[00:11:29] And actually we have an analogy.
[00:11:32] The coming of Christ is spoken of as a harvest of people. It's metaphorically speaking, the harvest is divided between two groups of people, that which is of value, the people who have surrendered their lives and walked uprightly and righteously with God, and those who have rejected God's kingdom and are still trapped in darkness, but who sometimes willfully live in darkness and are in a state of rebellion and are actually exploiting and abusing and oppressing people. They're going to be addressed. We don't like to think of those two big categories, but that's the way they fall down.
[00:12:09] Because most of us like to think, well, I'm neither bad nor good, Pastor, I'm in the middle. I hate to blow this apart, but there's no neutrality in this. You're on one kingdom or the other. And the Bible really points that out.
[00:12:25] James 5, 16 is addressing this economic oppression. David Platt in his writing says, you may wonder why in a book addressed to Christians, James would spend time using such harsh language towards unbelievers. Because that's normally not the way it is in the Scriptures.
[00:12:43] The answer is that he's reminding the Christians that the justice of God is coming, as I've said, and this reality should enable them to be patient. How many know? We don't tend to be patient with injustice, but it's difficult when we're suffering unjustly. But we have a model. Jesus is our model. He suffered injustice and he did it patiently.
[00:13:06] With that said, that doesn't mean these verses don't have another application to Christians. James has already rebuked Christian brothers and sisters who were favoring the rich. I've already mentioned that.
[00:13:16] And he's rebuked to rich non believers who were oppressing the poor. And a subtle but indirect warning to rich believers who were ignoring the poor. So now you and I have to evaluate ourselves. You know, could he be saying something to me when I'm reading these texts? And I think he can notice that James is not necessarily condemning wealth. Instead, he's focusing on the sinful use of wealth. At the same time, for those of us who are part of a culture that's extremely wealthy compared to the rest of the world, we need to examine whether or not we are engaged in the sinful use of resources that God has given to us.
[00:13:57] One of the great paradigm shifts that most people don't understand is I think as we grow up, we're like little kids. I can't wait for the day I become an adult. Right? Then I can do anything I want.
[00:14:08] It doesn't work that way, does it?
[00:14:10] No, because the time you become an adult, you know, like when you're a kid, you want to stay up all night, you know, you want to eat all the wrong foods. When you become an adult, you go, I just want to go to bed. And I got to watch what I'm eating. I mean, everything's changing. It never works out the way you think.
[00:14:24] Isn't that true? That's the way it works.
[00:14:27] And so, you know, so often, you know, we think, oh, when I get all this money, I'm going to do anything I want.
[00:14:33] But when you have that mentality, you're thinking as an owner, and I keep challenging us, that we're actually stewards, that we are managers, that God is entrusting us with our bodies, with our families, with our talents, with our jobs, with our lives.
[00:14:50] He's entrusting us with the resources that we have. And then we have to decide, how are we going to use these things? Because one day we're going to stand before Almighty God and give an account. And what I'm concerned about today and what I'm trying to get across to you, maybe you don't have much of a portfolio when it comes to eternal things.
[00:15:07] I wouldn't want you to go to heaven and stand before this almighty God and this almighty judge and go, wow, my portfolio doesn't look too good. I want you to have a good portfolio. I want you to understand that you have invested your life wisely, properly. So here we're going to look at, you know, these four indictments against the abuse of riches and the things that we need to be aware of and cautious about so that because we are actually living in a very affluent part of the world, how many know that's true? And you know, when I travel in other parts of the world where I see such great poverty, I realize how fortunate we really are. But let me take a look at the four abuses of riches. Number one, hoarding wealth.
[00:15:50] We're immediately confronted with the tone of judgment that will befall those who have been trusted in earthly riches and hoarding them rather than investing them in God's agenda, which is what helping the poor.
[00:16:02] But not just the poor that are physically poor, though we should be helping them, but also those that are poor spiritually and are in darkness and need to come to the light and experience God's wonderful saving grace and forgiveness and the beginning of a restoration and renewal in our lives, which many of us have experienced, thankfully.
[00:16:22] Douglas Moo explains who these rich people were that James was critiquing because he's going to give us a little bit of first century background here. And he says the rich people whom James attacks in the paragraph are wealthy landowners. We can see that from verse four. This was a class of people frequently criticized not only in the Old Testament and another Jewish literature, but also in the wider Greco Roman world for their greedy acquisition of land and their exploitation of those forced to work on the land for them. The social economic conflict between these two classes was acute in the first century, and James certainly was accurately reflecting that situation.
[00:17:01] So in Jewish literature, I'm going to skip over those verses that I read earlier, verses 1 to 3 there. In Jewish literature, the book of Proverbs says this ill gotten treasures have no lasting value.
[00:17:12] So if we're getting rich at the expense of other people, it's got no lasting value. But righteousness delivers from death. Proverbs 10:26 says, People curse the one who hoards grain. You say, well, why would somebody hoard grain? Pastor, do you know the law of economics? If you hoard the grain and there's a shortage, the value of that grain goes sky high. So they're basically seeing people in need. They're not doing anything about it, but they're holding it back so the price of grain goes up so that they can actually make even greater.
[00:17:43] They're taking advantage of the situation. They're helping create a bad situation so they make more money. You don't think people do this?
[00:17:51] Of course they do.
[00:17:52] He says, but God's blessing on the one who's willing to sell. In other words, they're prepared to do something so that other people are benefited, not at exorbitant and extravagant rates, so that they're helping people as well as they're making a living. Right. Then he says, those who trust in their riches, what will happen?
[00:18:13] Well, they're going to fall, but the righteous will thrive. Like a green leaf, you say. Well, yeah, but a green leaf only has a certain shelf life. Well, that may be true, but when it's green it's great.
[00:18:23] Right? And also we know that one day our time on earth will come to an end and we're going to get, you know, if you know the, know the scriptures, we're going to get a brand new body. How's that? You don't have to wait for any more replacement parts.
[00:18:38] That's a major problem today in our culture.
[00:18:42] Okay? Now I'm not suggesting that there's no place for savings. I believe in savings.
[00:18:48] I would argue that it's good to have a retirement plan. I think that's perfectly in order. I think the scriptures teach that.
[00:18:55] But we need to be equally diligent in our giving and investing into the lives of other people. People. That's the part I'm trying to stress tonight today that we understand that that's important that we're not just, you know, because once you get to a certain stage and you have enough to live on, you know, if you're just going to be living self extravagant, self indulgent lives and not helping other people, you're going to have a very small portfolio when you get to heaven. That's the point that I'm trying to drive at today.
[00:19:22] David Platt says this way about wealth having no value or security on the day of judgment. He said material are eating your clothes and your gold is corroding. Some have pointed out that this is not possible because gold doesn't corrode like iron does. But that's the point. James is saying that even that which you think is the surest use of money in this world is wasting away.
[00:19:46] You've hoarded and built bigger barns for all of your excess. But a day is coming when it's all going to be burnt up in the fire and you'll burn up with it.
[00:19:54] That's pretty strong language by David. But I think the point he's trying to make is simply this. How many know that today in an uncertain economic time, people start investing in gold? How many know that's what happens because they feel there's a greater certainty with gold? That's what they're doing. But he's saying the problem is that that's not the ultimate security.
[00:20:13] Gold is not the ultimate security. Can you imagine living as a Jewish person in the Holocaust in Germany? You could have been a very affluent and wealthy person. But you know what happened then? All of that wealth did not save them from the Holocaust. How many know that's true? And I can say this to all of us, that you and I could. You and I can have all kinds of investments, but all of a sudden, in one day, the who and crashes and we've lost everything. And the people who have put their whole hope and energy on building up this economic security, when it crashes, then their whole life is totaled out. They don't know what to do with themselves. Just like it happened in 1929 when the stock market crashed and many people who were very wealthy lost everything and they couldn't cope. They jumped out of buildings because they couldn't handle it.
[00:20:56] But here's the point. When you and I have a relationship with Almighty God, we have a greater security. It's an eternal security. And we need to understand that we have a Father in heaven, Heaven who loves us. And if you were here last week, I emphasize so deeply how much God cares about us and meets our needs. And if we're connected to him and we're relating to him, he's committed to caring for us.
[00:21:20] I love that about God. So he's the greater security.
[00:21:25] Bloomberg and Camille says this about this text, but the image may be deliberately jarring and all the more powerful if it reflects a metaphorical meaning of becoming useless. Basically, the gold is useless. In other words, not even the goal which the rich think they can count on to save them and provide them with a sense of wealth will last, to safeguard them. And that's what James is trying to get across to us, actually. This hoarding of wealth is going to be used as evidence against them. Timothy Johnson, Luke. Timothy Johnson says, first, James uses it to establish another courtroom setting, which reverses the one that he had said in chapter two, verses six, where he warned them. He says, don't, you know, focus in on being partial to those that are wealthy. He said, remember, it's the wealthy people that are taking you to court, you know, falsely prosecuting you and taking what you have away from you.
[00:22:19] And it's so often true the wealthy people many times don't have justice in the world.
[00:22:24] But, you know, a lot of times the poor people suffer a lot of injustice, and we've seen that before. We could go down and I could Give you all kinds of illustrations of that, you know. But secondly, the very corruption of their wealth is personified in order to bear testimony against them. Matter of fact, Jesus warns us of making material things the aim and the object of our lives. In Matthew chapter six, he says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So how do we store up treasure in heaven? How do we develop eternal investment portfolio? Well, don't live a self indulgent life.
[00:23:14] We can live, we can live really well on the earth. I'm not suggesting we never go on a trip. I do that. I don't think that's wrong. I think we can have vacations and do things like that. But let's face it, you know what? There's a limit to how much we can store up. And if we're not using some of the things that God's given us to help other people, that's problematic. And that's what he's talking about here. And if our heart is on material things, that's where our energy is going to go. But if our heart is really on the kingdom of God and seeing Jesus be exalted in our nation, then our energy and our time and our resources move in that direction.
[00:23:53] And you know what? You can't fake that stuff. God knows what we're doing. God knows how self indulgent we can become.
[00:24:00] Let me move to the second indictment is that we cheat workers.
[00:24:04] Look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvester have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
[00:24:12] James is pointing out again this wisdom in its relationship to wealth and how we attain it. Proverbs 16:8 says, Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. In other words, it's better to be a person of honesty and integrity. And you may not have a ton, but you have enough to get by. That's far better than if you're trying to accumulate a lot of wealth at the expense of other people. As a matter of fact, the law spoke against it in Deuteronomy. Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you and you'll be guilty of sin. So what is he saying? He's saying, listen, there's a lot of people out here that are going from paycheck to paycheck. How many know that's true? He said, we need to help those people.
[00:25:06] You know, if you're somebody in charge of a business or whatever, make sure that you're paying your workers adequately. You know what was really shocking, I was working on.
[00:25:15] Well, let me just say this.
[00:25:18] Dan McCartney says it's endemic to human behavior everywhere for the rich to oppress the poor. And the Greco Roman world was no exception. And James, condemnation applies to every manifestation of greed and the abuse of power, not just the withholding of wages. But speaking of withholding of wages, you know, on my phone, my cell phone, I noticed that they usually have, you know, as, you know, you kind of scroll with all your apps just before that. If you turn to the Onepage, they have about four major papers that they want you to read. You know what I'm talking about? The news kind of comes on there. They're trying to have you read the article.
[00:25:50] So I finished the sermon. You know what? I looked down here and here's an article. Listen to this.
[00:25:55] $200 million in the last seven to eight years of unpaid wages to workers in Ontario.
[00:26:04] I read the article.
[00:26:06] I was just so stunned. Let me tell you something. Right now in Canada, there's so much corruption and there's so many businesses taking advantage of people. It's unbelievable. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars of people not being paid.
[00:26:19] And it's very sad.
[00:26:21] It's evil. Somebody just told me after I finished the first service, they said, yeah, this person's paycheck, they're doing the same amount of work, but they're getting less pay for the same amount of work. And their company acts like, don't, you know, it's, you know, like there's no problem. And they actually have taken these people to court, by the way. And you know what happens? The court actually finds the employer tells them, yes, they have to pay. They've even tried to do all kinds of things to get the money, and they haven't been able to get the money. And the government, you know, I'm just saying this. The system is so broken right now that a lot of the workers are not getting their money. And some of them have gotten so discouraged, they've given up even trying to get the money. The exploitation in our country is unbelievable right now. And One of the main features in the article was this guy from Mexico who came legally to Canada, his mother has cancer and he was working seven days a week, ten hour days.
[00:27:12] And eventually the company said, well, you know, we just are not getting receipted money so we can't pay you. And they were actually getting the money, they just stopped paying them. And when he finally figured it out and took him to court, the courts even awarded him the money, but he hasn't been able to collect any of that money because you know what they said, well, we're not the company that hired him, this other company hired him and therefore they're responsible on this going back and forth. And they've been doing this for years.
[00:27:36] And this is what this man said. So I came to Canada thinking this was a country that was not corrupt. And I found out corruption exists in Canada and it is here. Folks, we need to understand that the third indictment is we've lived self indulgent lives.
[00:27:51] To add insult to injury, this exploitation of the poor was to further enrich a self indulgent lifestyle. You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence. You have fattened yourself in the day of slaughter.
[00:28:05] Wow. Did you see this imagery that he's pointing out here? How many know that when you, you know, you take the cow in the barn and you're feeding him a lot of food, you're really preparing him for what he's going to become the meal down the road. And this is the imagery that James is using. He's basically saying, if you're living the self indulgent lifestyle, he's saying you're fattening yourself up to stand before Almighty God and to be addressed because of what you've done at the expense of other people. Why do you think God blesses us?
[00:28:37] It's not just for us.
[00:28:39] God can only bless you so that you and I will be responsible. I said to somebody this morning, you know, why would God give somebody more if they're not even handling what they have properly?
[00:28:50] We need to learn how to handle finances correctly. And it's not just about for our enjoyment.
[00:28:57] It's got to be more than that, folks. We are going to be accountable to God. Jesus warns against a self indulgent lifestyle and listen to the parable he tells here.
[00:29:07] In Luke chapter 16, there's a rich man who's dressed in purple and fine linen. That means this person has a lot of money.
[00:29:20] Jesus telling a story.
[00:29:22] At the gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat from the rich man's table.
[00:29:30] Even the dogs came and licked his stores. The dogs had compassion on this guy.
[00:29:35] The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him into Abraham's side. This is a picture before the resurrection of Jesus. Okay, so they're painting a picture of the departed, righteous, dead. And the man sees this great gulf between the two, and he ends up in the wrong place.
[00:29:55] It says, in Hades, while he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Abraham by his side. So he called out to him, father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the T of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I'm in agony in this fire. But Abraham said, son, remember that in life, this your lifetime, you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. And now he's comforted and you are in agony. Do you know what the shocking story about this is?
[00:30:22] This rich man thought he was in relationship with God.
[00:30:27] You see, he was Jewish, so he thought he had the connection with God. He was racially on the right side. In his mind, he knew who Yahweh was. And he also assumed from Scripture he made this assumption that if you're prosperous, God's hand of favor and blessing is upon your life.
[00:30:43] But the fact that he was unlike God, in the fact that he was not caring for the needy and the poor, suggests to me he was totally unlike God, did not understand who God really was and was ignoring the scriptures that were teaching to do something for the poor. He was ignoring the needy around him.
[00:31:02] And so he ended up in the place where people that are unlike God end up.
[00:31:07] And so he was now living in torment for all of eternity, while the man who had this segment of life that was difficult, challenging and hard was now living in God's gracious presence, fully restored and healed. I think that's a warning Jesus is giving us. Alec Moyers challenges us with this self examination. Finally, we must have it constantly before our minds that it was a love of money that betrayed the Lord Jesus.
[00:31:36] Remember, Judas did it for 30 pieces of silver. Would we be surprised if only we could remember how often the Lord Jesus Christ has taken second place to possessions and has been much less the Lord of our financial arrangements. In other words, what Montior is basically saying is, who's in charge of your finances? You are God.
[00:31:58] Are we really? You know, because I think a lot of us don't realize something. Many times we're playing God with our lives.
[00:32:04] We're acting like I'm the Grown up now. I can do anything I want and I'm going, no, you can't. We're all stewards accountable to God, just like you discover when you were a child, you became an adult. All of a sudden you just couldn't do what you wanted because if you did, there was a consequence that you didn't want to have to pay.
[00:32:19] Who wants to stay up all night and, you know, have to go to work the next morning?
[00:32:24] It finally made sense. I better go to bed because I have to get up in the morning, right? I'm just telling you how it works. We finally grew up and maybe that's what we need to do with our finances, is finally grow up and realize, hey, they don't belong to me, they belong to him.
[00:32:37] And what does God want me to do with what he's given me?
[00:32:41] Worldly wealth is an area of high risk and a battle to walk humbly with God. Do you know it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God because we tend to trust earthly riches rather than trust God.
[00:32:53] It's hard to be rich and lowly at the same time. The use of money and the life of self pleasing are never far apart, and that is a challenge. But let me move to the last point, condemning the poor leading to their death here. The imagery may not mean literal death, but the diminishment of the person who's being taken advantage of it could also mean the result of their poverty led to a death that was premature.
[00:33:17] James says this in verse six. You've condemned and murdered the innocent one who is not opposing you. And here's a classic example, King Ahab. If you know the story, I'm not going to read it. You can read it. It's found in 1 Kings 21:4 11. He talks about King Ahab, who was his palace was sitting here. He looks out the window, he sees this beautiful vineyard. He goes, I want that for my garden. He goes down to the owner named Nabob and says, I'd like to buy this from you. Nabob says, no, no, this is my family ancestral inheritance. I can't sell you this. I don't want to sell you this. The king goes off sulking.
[00:33:52] And so his wife, who was Jezebel, who happened to be a very evil woman, said, stop sulking, you're the king, I'll fix it for you. And what did she do? She went out and had some people falsely accuse him, accuse Nabob of things that he was not guilty of. She took him to court they pronounced him guilty and they executed him.
[00:34:11] And then she tells the king, go get your vineyard. And when he rides in there in his chariot, guess who shows up? Elijah. And Elijah says, you know, because you took this man's vineyard and his life, you're going to lose your life.
[00:34:25] Wow. That was pretty strong. I think we've got to understand, you know, sometimes we go, oh, Jesus, the loving savior. Yes, he is, but he's going to address things in our lives. But let me close with Alec Motyer's words here and maybe some sobering conclusions to what we're talking about. We must not shirk the implications. Let me get up there.
[00:34:45] Of James. Harshness and directness. More than any of the areas of high risk, wealth threatens its possessors with coming misery.
[00:34:55] Its earthly cushioning dulls the sense of spiritual urgency. How many go? That's true.
[00:35:01] You know, I'm in India when we have a prayer meeting there, people come and pray.
[00:35:08] Let me say it to you this way. If we were in a crisis moment right now in Red Deer, if our lives were on the line, and I said, you know what? We're going to pray and fast tomorrow night, the place would be jammed.
[00:35:24] But you know what the problem is? We got so many distractions. We're living a good life.
[00:35:30] We have so many other options.
[00:35:32] You know, earthly cushioning dulls the sense of spiritual urgency and the reality of divine judgment.
[00:35:42] Affluence opens the door to commercial carelessness and insensitivity to what is both due and needful to others.
[00:35:51] That leads finally to setting aside the honor and the dignity of. Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:35:57] Powerful words.
[00:36:00] So what are we doing today, Pastor?
[00:36:02] I'm bringing up to your attention you don't just need a retirement portfolio.
[00:36:09] You also need an eternal portfolio.
[00:36:12] You need to ask yourself what God's entrusting you with.
[00:36:18] Energy, Time, Talent, Vocation, Resources.
[00:36:25] How does God want me to spend my life?
[00:36:29] Because money is just a currency called time.
[00:36:33] We're all being paid for our time, and time is something you can't recover. You can get more money, but you can't get more time.
[00:36:40] How are you spending your time? How are you spending the resources that you've acquired over time?
[00:36:46] Are you using them wisely? Are you putting. I'm not saying you put everything in one portfolio. I'm just saying you need to consider what we should be doing in light of eternity.
[00:36:57] Am I living a life primarily of self indulgence, or am I living for the glory and honor of God?
[00:37:05] Isn't it neat In Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge got a second chance.
[00:37:13] Aren't you glad for second chances?
[00:37:16] I am.
[00:37:17] God is a God of the second chance.
[00:37:21] And you know, you can't undo what you haven't done in the past or what you have done, you can't undo. But I'll tell you one thing. God can forgive us. Step one, number two, God can instruct and teach us.
[00:37:32] God can help us become a better version of ourselves. I really believe that, that God wants to make us a better version of ourselves. You say, how can I become a better version of myself?
[00:37:43] I surrender to him, I begin to find out what he's like through scripture and I find out about his ways and I begin to walk in them. And all of a sudden I find out something very fascinating. That as I live a life of self giving and helping other people, I find a joy comes into my life. But when I live a life that's self focused, I find that I'm far more miserable.
[00:38:08] It becomes about me.
[00:38:10] I become more insecure. I become more focused on trying to hang on to the little I have rather than to open my hands. And I've used this illustration in the past. When we open our hands to God and say, God, anything I have is yours. Everything I have is yours. You can take anything out anytime. My hands are like this.
[00:38:31] But when your hands are like this, folks, God can put stuff in there anytime he wants to.
[00:38:36] There's two ways to live. You can live like this or like this.
[00:38:40] I'm hanging on to the little I have because I'm so worried.
[00:38:44] Or I can open them up. How many know if you have your hands like this, it's pretty hard for God to put something in it. But you got your hands like this. God can fill it.
[00:38:53] Let's stand as we close the service today.
[00:38:59] So, Lord, would you'd search our hearts today?
[00:39:02] Would you evaluate in our own heart and mind really what our portfolio looks like?
[00:39:10] It's an eternal portfolio. And Lord, I don't want to come before you. And you look at it and go, wow, you sure spent a lot on earth, but didn't spend a lot for eternity. I don't want that to be said of me.
[00:39:21] Lord, I want to invest.
[00:39:23] I want to invest in that which is eternal.
[00:39:25] I want to invest that that's going to make a difference in people's lives.
[00:39:30] Lord, I want to be concerned about the things that you're concerned about. Not what I'm concerned about what you're concerned about.
[00:39:36] You're concerned about people's spiritual condition. You're concerned about people's physical, mental, emotional, psychological, every aspect of our lives. You're concerned about everything about us.
[00:39:50] And Lord, I pray that you'll help us to be concerned not just about ourselves, not just about our family, but help us to be concerned beyond that. Could you expand our souls to be concerned about people around us? Can you help us hear the cries of people around us and not be indifferent to their plea? And understand that we are your ambassadors on this planet. We represent your kingdoms. Lord, so help us to do it well.
[00:40:16] And we thank you for that. Father, in Jesus name, Amen. God bless you as you leave.
