James 5:1-6
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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.”
WE HAVE got to be the only country in the world that builds storage facilities so that people can rent space to house stuff that their house can no longer hold. We literally pay rent to keep stuff because we accumulate so much. If you want to make some money and you have some money to invest, build a storage facility because people accumulate stuff for stuff’s sake. They don’t take the stuff they no longer can use and share it so somebody else can use it. They accumulate it, save it, and pay rent to keep it. This is the ultimate expression of selfishness—keeping stuff for stuff’s sake. We have things in our homes that we’ll never use again and we just keep them.
Greed - Excessive desire for more of something, especially wealth or possesions
James had a problem these men using their wealth for selfish purposes, and were persecuting the poor in the process
.One of the themes that runs through the book of James is TROUBLES
Today our Theme is
SERMON TITLE: The Troubles Of GREED
We will look at two points that will fall under our title THE TROUBLES OF GREED
James 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
In 4:11–12, submission to God means :that brothers do not verbally abuse one another.
In 4:13–16, submission to God means :that our future plans are made with humility.
In 4:17, submission to God means that :failing to do what we know God wants us to do is sin.
Here James turns his attention to a group even farther from the truth.
You rich
James knew the importance to live completely relying on God.
So he is now rebuking those who choose to live completely relying on self.
Probably the same people that he talked about in
James 2:6 “But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?”
Q: Can you have riches and still follow after God?
Absolutely
Q: Why is having riches much harder to follow after God?
Having money is not wrong, but loving money is.
The abundance of money or the lack of money is less important than our spiritual condition.
STORY: I chased after riches and only thing that matter was my financial statement. No matter how much I gained, it was always wanting more. The more I gained the farther I fell away from the Truth of the bible.
Q: What is Consisdered rich?
Most of us sitting here today have a roof over our head, food on our table, a car that we drive, gas to put into our tank. Most of us get a paycheck.
Half of the global population lives on less than US$6.85 per person per day.
Half of the global population lives on less than US$6.85 per person per day.
When we put this into perspective.....James is talking to us as that group of being rich as well!
This study had me looking in my closet and at how many shoes I have.
James did not say it was a sin to be rich.
Abraham was a wealthy man, yet he walked with God, and was greatly used of God to bless the whole world.
James was concerned about the selfishness of the rich.
God may grant earthly riches to His people who will distribute those riches the way He wants.
Rich Christians who do not treat money as an idol are a blessing to many.
They start charities, contribute to help orphans and widows
James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
Weep and howl for your miseries that come upon you
Jesus said that those who would be excluded from God’s Kingdom would be weeping and gnashing their teeth
Matthew 8:12 “But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.””
Jesus shares this with the Centurion Servant that he just healed
Misery - unhappy , distress,
We see this with even rich people here on earth.
Remember this is not our final destination!
We are just passing through!
2. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten
Goods that are rotting and clothing that turns to rags indicate the greed of life.
Money, security, lavishness, and self-indulgence are as good as rotted because they can do nothing for them in eternity.
Story: I remember I couldn’t wait to wear a shirt that I havent worn in a while. As I put it on I come to find out that it was eaten by moths.
James (Warning to the Rich)
Q: What are the Benefits of Saving?
Benefits of Saving•
1. Demonstrates good stewardship of resources provided by God•
2. Makes a person able to respond to the needs of others•
3. Assumes that God sometimes provides for people through other people•
4. Is responsible preparation for tomorrow•
5. Promotes wise spending decisions
Q: What are the Dangers of Hoarding?
Dangers of Hoarding•
1. Fosters a sense of earthly security and independence from God•
2. Promotes a sense of superiority over others•
3. Assumes that what a person gains is only for that person’s benefit•
4. Is irresponsible indulgence for today•
5. Promotes impulsive spending decisions
James 5:3 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
Gold and silver are corroded,
James warns us that even what seems most indestructible is doomed if it is not put to good use.
Jesus made very clear what the bottom line really is in Matthew 16
Matthew 16:26 “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Compared to the values of the kingdom of God.
Because the earth’s most precious possessions fade away in tarnish and rust.
QUOTE: He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
—Jim Elliot
Their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
We have probably added a new dimension to the problem in that we have not hoarded in order to preserve for later;
rather, we have hoarded in order to waste.
Believers today find themselves participating in society’s tendency to consume as much as possible without regard to the conditions elsewhere in the world.
Review Journal......May 7, 2022
STAT: The United States currently produces twice as much food as it needs to serve its 330 million citizens, according to analytics firm SAS, roughly 54 million people in the U.S. are food-insecure. In Nevada alone, there are more than 373,000 people experiencing food insecurity, many of them children.
Las Vegas produces more than 5 billion pounds of waste per year. Most of that waste — food and all — ends up at the landfill. If all of that wasted food made its way to food pantries or shelters, there would not be any hunger.
The food exists to solve that problem, but instead of going to good use, it goes to landfills.
You have heaped up treasure in the last days
When the last days arrive, the hoarding will all be a waste.
The rich will be caught with their hands full, but it will be an accumulation of nothing
THE SOLUTION TO HOARDING
Q: How should we prepare for the Last days?
To be prepared for the last days we should:
1. Live in submission to God.
2. Live in awareness of and response to God’s grace.
3. Live in sensitivity to the needs of others.
4. Live to meet the needs of others.
5. Live with a view toward eternity.
1st Point - You never seen a Uhaul attached to a Hearst
James 5: 4 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.
Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields,
The rich would withhold the workers wages and use their power to control them.
If the owner refused to pay, there was little or nothing the worker could do.
If the workers did not receive their daily pay, his whole family would go hungry.
Today’s wages where tomorrows food.
There are many people that live paycheck to paycheck
Which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Lord of the Sabath or other translations say the Lord of Hosts
Which means The Lord almighty, sense of awe, power , and creator.
The commander of a huge army, that is in control of everything.
It has reached His ears.
This expression recalls God’s response to the first act of injustice.
Genesis 4:10-12 “And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.””
If we are facing oppression, faith requires that we remember God is our strength and our defender.
Temporary circumstances do not change the fact of God’s sovereignty.
God will protect us from spiritual evil in this life and give us the joys we desire in the next.
He will insure that justice will be done, and he will judge the oppressors.
James 5:5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter
The rich must realize that everything they have is earthbound.
Their reward is here and now; their judgment will come later.
James (Warning to the Rich / 5:1–6)
THE MARKS OF SELF-INDULGENCE
When our lives begin to display the following characteristics, we are practicing self-indulgence
(see the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19–31 for illustrations of many of these):•
Q: What are the marks of self indulgence?
THE MARKS OF SELF-INDULGENCE
1. When we assume that wealth should always be used first to meet our needs•
2. When we visualize wealth as a protection or insulation between us and the rest of the world•
3. When we waste, destroy, or discard what others could put to good use•
4. When we display pride in what we have and what others have•
5. When we invest in things purely for status without considering their usefulness
1 timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter
Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
James says that they are like fattened animals and that they will be slaughtered when the day of God’s judgment arrives
James 5:6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
There will always be organizations and institutions that allow this kind of oppression to exist legally.
The rich will get richer. The poor will sink more deeply into poverty.
But believers must know that God is passionately against oppression.
Which brings us to our last point #2
Point #2 If God Is For Us Who Can Be Against Us
Closing:
Remember James is talking to us as we are the Rich.
So to be aware of what we are doing with our Resources.
Because we cant take it with us.
Which we talked earlier that we never seen a uhaul attached to the back of a hearst.
Also this world is not getting better it has lost it’s morals and we have thrown God out of our country.
But we know the end of the story and if God is for us who can be against us.
Intro: Welcome my Friends
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