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Faith and Wealth: A Heart Issue 0:02 Hello, and welcome to the men's global livestream where we are poised to finish, our series in the book of James, a series that we've called James for Every Man Building a Faith0:15 That Works. And through it, we've been reminded that as a Christian, we're not called to a life of either faith or works as if we could separate the 2, but rather, just like James0:26 has been encouraging us, our faith and our works should work together. Right? Our faith and our actions, the things that we believe and the things that we do should both line up that we would0:38 be consistent. People where our works actually would reveal the faith that we have. And today, we're gonna turn to some really challenging portions, of this0:50 letter as we get into chapter 5. And as we close, it's really important to remember that, you know, we've been looking at the unique perspective that James had as as Jesus's brother. But let's never make the mistake1:02 that the wisdom that we've received, that we've been combing through somehow originated with James. James might have been the scribe or, you know, maybe vessel is a better word. But the1:14 book of James, just like every other book of the Bible, was authored by the Holy Spirit. You know, this has been God's word for us, not just the insights of a man. It's1:25 important to remind ourselves of that as we finish up. So this passage of James, like I said, chapter 5, may be the most intense warning that James offers us as as his readers. If1:37 you look at and listen to some of the language that's used and how seriously he's dealing with all the topics he goes over today, it's clear this passage is very important. And I believe1:49 the Lord wants to impress some things on our hearts, as well as the hearts of the original audience of the letter. And I wanna give you an encouragement and a bit of a challenge as we get2:01 started. It's this. Stay with me. Because you're there are gonna be some places and you're gonna be tempted and it's gonna be really easy to think, well,2:14 he's not really talking to me right now. This passage is for some other people. Heck, this passage is for some other people I know, but it's it's not it's not for me, which is not true.2:25 I want to encourage you that this passage is for each of us. It's for you, it's for me, even if you're tempted to tune out, stay with me. Don't assume that any portion of it doesn't apply to you just because he starts2:37 by addressing the rich. Now, for most of us, for many of you listening who live within the United States, when you hear the term rich, you think mega2:49 rich. Your mind goes to boats and planes and multiple properties and exotic locations. And that might be what you think about whenever you start to hear a letter addressed to the rich or3:01 warnings rather for the rich. And I know that that many of you have maybe heard some of these stats of what I'm about to give you and it's very easy to gloss over. It's very easy to get used to3:13 some of these stats. But here's the reality. We serve a global savior whose desires for the entire world, whose encouragements and his challenges3:25 are written for all people of all time. And so, if we serve a global God, it serves that we have to have a global perspective. We have to have a global perspective of what it means3:37 to be rich. It's got to expand to reach everyone. It's a good reminder. Not just when we're talking about wealth, but when we're talking about all encouragements in the scripture, we have to adopt a global3:49 mindset. We have to have a global mindset. In this case, we have to adopt a global mindset about wealth and a global mindset about poverty.4:01 Listen to this. For those of us who don't think we're rich, if you have any food in your refrigerator, now that's leftovers, the beginning of the meal, that strange jar that no 1 knows exactly what4:13 it is. If you have a complete outfit on right now, including a coat and shoes, if you sleep indoors, you're standing in front4:25 of 75 percent of the people in this world. 75 percent. If you have any money in the bank, if you have some spare change or loose dollar bills4:37 anywhere in your house, in between the cushions of your couch, underneath your seat in your car, you just moved to the top 8 percent of the world's wealth. But we can't just think of wealth and riches in4:49 terms of of money and in terms of finances. What about our access to life giving resources? Stuff that we all need like available and abundant clean water where most of us go to the sink and turn it on.5:01 25 percent. 1 out of 4 people in this world do not have access to clean water, and almost half, 45 percent of the people in the world don't have access to sanitation.5:13 Half the world's population has no access to medical care of any kind. Now depending on how you're watching this livestream, how secretive you have to be about5:25 carrying God's word with you while you're out in the open, When you wanna think about being rich, think about the fact that when you gather without fear and open God's word and sing worship on Sundays or when you5:36 gather with your brothers and sisters during the week, well, you have 360000000 brothers and sisters that live in countries where it's either illegal or dangerous to do that.5:49 That's an increase of over 20000000 in the last 2 years. So when this section encourages and challenges the rich, let's just assume he means us.6:01 Because I think globally, it's very hard to argue that we're not included. Alright. This is God's word. We're diving in. James chapter 5 verse 1. Grab a Bible. I'm gonna be reading and teaching from the New6:13 Living Translation. Look here, you rich people. Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away. Your6:25 fine clothes are moth eaten rags. Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. The treasure you've accumulated will6:37 stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. For listen, hear the cries of the field workers whom you've cheated their pay. The wages you held back cry against you. The cries of those6:49 who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the lord of heaven's armies. You've spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You fattened yourselves for the day of7:01 slaughter. You've condemned and killed innocent people who do not resist you. Wow. What a heavy, heavy passage, heavy warnings7:12 as we get into this. Let's stack hands on a core truth because we can be tempted to make false assumptions that are not clearly spelled out in this passage or anywhere in God's7:24 word. And that's this, money isn't evil. The love of money is. Money isn't evil. The love of it is. In the same way7:36 that money is not inherently good. It's it's arbitrary. Money just is. 1 of the most often misquoted passages of the entire Bible is first Timothy 6 10. And most7:48 people quote it by saying, money is the root of all evil. Money is the root of all evil. So what the Bible says, first Timothy 6 10 says, for the love of money8:01 is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people craving money have wandered away from the faith and pierce themselves with many pains.8:12 Money is not the issue. What James is talking about here is a heart issue that's revealed by how we spend our money. In in first Timothy, he's also8:24 getting at a heart issue, a heart that is drawn, that longs for, that desires, that loves money. I mean, look at the word that's used. Right? Love.8:36 It's talking about desire. It's talking about things that people crave. They sought after money. It's a heart issue. In these passages,8:48 the object of the heart happens to be money. But like we said, money itself is not the issue. In our passage, James isn't just talking about the love of money. He's really talking about9:00 2 much bigger ideas. He's talking about trust and he's talking about generosity. Trust and generosity. We'll start with trust. Look at verse 3. James says that the wealth the people9:12 had was corroded. Was corroded. Corrosion is the process, right? Where the atoms of the surface of a metal become oxidized. Right? The surface of the metal becomes permanently9:24 damaged over long periods of time. James is saying their wealth has started to rot because they've hoarded it. Because they've hoarded it.9:36 Because they've kept it. They've let it sit and they've let it rot. The hoarding of the wealth speaks actually to both sins of the heart that we're talking about. These people have hoarded wealth because they put their9:47 trust in it. I'll tell you guys from real and honest living, it's a lot easier to trust God about your future when finances are not a problem. That's just a9:59 reality. It shouldn't be so, but it's so tempting when you can solve many of your own problems to avoid taking them to the Lord. And so we falsely begin10:11 to trust in our resources. It shouldn't be like that, but I'm just being real. There have been times in my life when finances were were not a problem. And it's very easy to say, I10:23 trust Jesus with everything when I could take care of most of my own problems. I spent 15 years right after graduating college in corporate America in various settings, various industries, always in sales, in10:35 in national sales and sales management. The last job I had in corporate America was a terrific job with a company that I loved. It had great hours, I rarely had to travel, the pay was was great for our family.10:48 And then God came knocking. God called us into ministry. And so living in South Orange County with 4 children, we took the jump. We said, Jesus, we've said we trusted you for a long11:00 time. But now we're actually gonna give you a chance to show up according to how you promised you would in your word. We had said we trusted God, but now it was chance11:12 to put that on display. And you know what? It was challenging, it was scary, and it was beautiful. Nothing has built my faith more like having to trust in Jesus and then11:24 watching him show up. And I've experienced his miraculous provision in more ways than I can even recount to you right now. I've begun to count on him11:36 rather than on myself. Look at what that passage says. The very wealth that you were counting on will eat away at your flesh like fire. These people, as we're so often tempted to do as well, we're counting11:48 on their wealth. They were depending on it. They had placed their hope in it instead of the Lord Jesus. Even though God's so clear throughout the scripture. It's God that gives us the ability to produce wealth.12:00 Every good thing that we have comes directly from him and yet our eyes so often like a child's go to the gift and not the giver. Am I saying that wealthy people just can't trust Jesus? I'm not saying that. But I'm12:12 saying it will take effort for all of us because our temptation is to trust in our wealth, in our abilities to solve our problems.12:24 Guys, the human heart is a throne. It's a throne. And it desires to have something sit upon it. Something that we can place our trust in and our hope in,12:36 something we can worship. And most often, it's us. It's us that sits on the throne of our heart calling the shots, living to12:48 honor and please ourselves. And the secondary temptation is to trust money. Why? Because it's the vehicle to allow me to worship myself. It's the easiest way to worship13:00 me. But the issue isn't just that we would count in or trust on money. It said here that they had begun to hoard it. To let it stay with them, to not give it away13:12 because we cling tightly to the things that we place our trust in. Will we cling tightly to Jesus? Will we cling tightly to money? The13:23 encouragement not to hoard wealth goes back to Jesus' teaching in Matthew chapter 6 where he says, don't store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat and rust destroy and where thieves break in and13:35 steal, but store up for yourself treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal. For wherever your treasure is, there the desires13:47 of your heart will be also. Wherever your treasure is, wherever your desire is, you're going to cling to that thing. Christ is saying in this passage to us, we have a choice.13:59 We have a binary choice. We can store treasures here on earth or in heaven. Period. There's no diversified portfolio where I put a little bit in heaven and a little bit here on earth.14:11 It's a question of focus and priority. Jesus is placing to us a question saying, what's gonna be the aim of your life? Where's the end zone?14:24 Where where are the points scored? What's gonna be the hope and goal and aim and direction? Because that's gonna influence where your efforts go. They're gonna go towards14:36 your goal. James said that this corroded treasure, see again the reference for how long it's been held, will testify, testify against us on the day of14:47 judgment. Like a witness being brought in to testify will be the wealth that we've piled up for ourself. Why? Why would my money testify against me? Because I was blessed to be a blessing.15:00 I was blessed to be a blessing. There's intention behind God's gifts. What he gives to me, he wants to give through me. I was15:12 given so that I might give. God has shown such incredible generosity. Scripture says he's lavished his love upon us and his hope would be that I would turn around and do the15:24 same. I have 4 kids. And how do you think I would feel if I left for a day and my wife and I took off, right? We went and spent a day away and I left15:35 my oldest son with with a bunch of money for the day. And I said, feed your brother and your sisters. Take care of everybody. Watch them. I'm taking some of what is mine. I'm entrusting it to you and I want you to use it15:47 to make sure that everybody eats. Okay? And what if I get home and my son is sitting there in a new outfit with the remains of a steak dinner in front of him while his brothers and sisters are hungry and unclothed.15:59 Now, do you think I would be happy, excited for him? Ask him how his steak was, check out his new clothing or do you think I'd be very very upset and disappointed that I didn't16:11 see my heart of generosity modeled in him? Why do I think my father in heaven would have a different experience when he looks down on his kids?16:23 When he looks down on me, why do I think that he wouldn't look at me and say, Dusty, why did you hold on so tightly to all the stuff that I gave you? Didn't you realize I wanted you to share it with your16:35 brothers and sisters? Was all of this goodness that the Lord has entrusted to me intended for me alone? In Matthew chapter 25 verse16:47 14, we read the parable of the talents. 1 of my favorite stories in scripture. I love how it starts off. Right? This is Jesus talking about what the kingdom of heaven is like. He says, again, the kingdom of heaven can be16:59 illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was17:10 gone. Look at that last sentence. He called together his servants and entrusted his money, not their money. He entrusted his money17:22 to them while he was gone. The expectation that God has for us is to steward what he's temporarily entrusted to us well.17:35 Whatever we've been given comes with it an expectation. We're expected to use his money. Right? And not only his money, but whatever17:47 he's put in our hands, every talent, every treasure, every ability, all that we are, all of the things that God has given us to manage for a time, we're intended to use well to build his kingdom.18:00 That's God's hope for us. That's God's intention. That's that's what we see in the parable of the talents. Take a look back at our text here. James chapter 518:12 verse 5 lays this out in even gnarlier language. He says, you've spent your years on earth in luxury satisfying your every desire, taking care of whatever it is that you wanted. You18:23 fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. How gross is that? It's like a picture of a cow or a pig just shoveling food in its mouth, just consuming and consuming18:35 and consuming. And now all of the stuff that we've stored up for ourselves, all the treasures that we've amassed, all the things that we've we've held on to and kept and trusted that's begun to18:47 corrode, all of these things now serve as evidence to our own selfishness. Am I saying that we're not called to prepare? That we're not called to plan, to save for the18:59 future? Absolutely not. Scripture encourages us often to prepare for the future. But how can I justify setting aside more money for my19:10 future when there are people dying today? With with the reality that there are people who have not yet heard the good news about Jesus Christ and19:22 my resources aren't being used to get that gospel to them. Because either the gospel is the hope of the world or it's not. It's either my goal, the thing that my heart19:34 is desiring, my treasure or it's not. You know, whenever we talk about money and wealth, it just gets hard. It gets uncomfortable. It gets weird because19:47 we have competing voices. We have people preaching that God wants us to be rich. That his desire is that he would bless us with money. And that we feel guilty if we don't give it away. Right? Unless, now19:58 we're supposed to give it away. We should give it away. And we just want answers. Right? We want brass tacks. Okay. So tell me how much I'm supposed to keep and how much I'm supposed to give and the worst thing we can20:10 do when talking about money is to try to devise some type of legalistic formula about how much is okay to spend on a car or a house or how20:22 much we should give to God. We need generous hearts, not equations for giving. We need hearts that hope and trust and depend20:34 on Jesus. Not hearts that somehow have produced the amount of money needed for all things and then Jesus can have the rest of my heart and the rest of my trust and the rest of20:46 my my hope. It's about getting back to a heart that is followers of Jesus would wouldn't just be attached to the things of this earth. And20:57 if if any of our questions are just trying to answer, so how much of the stuff that God's given me is it okay for me to keep? I think I usually know the answer. It's not about having21:09 money. The problem is when money has us. The problem is not having things. It's when our things have us. When the things of this world control21:21 our hearts and control our minds and our desires, it's only a matter of time before they'll control our pursuits and our plans and our passions. Because what we21:33 desire will work to acquire. What should then consume us? What should be the driving force in our life? The return of the Lord Jesus. The new21:44 heaven, the new earth, our greatest hope, the reality that this life is a glorified camping trip. It's short. So let's not argue about money and stuff and and what we21:56 should and shouldn't keep and how much we should give and not. And rather ask, why do I long for these things so much anyways? Why do I keep buying more and more stuff for myself when others are in need so22:08 desperately? Right? Because it's that type of thinking that Jesus Christ rescues us from. He rescues us from us. He rescues us from ourselves, from a selfish outlook that seeks to get and puts a22:20 new heart in us that desires to give a heart that looks like his. He starts to transform us. He give us hearts that don't think how much they should give, but rather think what a joy22:31 to give, hearts that desire to give. And it's so interesting following that train of thought to where James goes next. Verse 7. Dear brothers and sisters, be patientShow more In this video 0:00 Faith and Wealth: A Heart Issue22:40 Patience, Prayer, and Unity56K followers
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