James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:1-6

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.

We have seen in the last several lessons in James who we really are in our innermost self. Apart from Christ, we become full of ourselves. It’s called pride. Pride is placing our selfish nature and desires in the place where only the Lord should be. As we continue in our series “The Litmus Test for Life” we come to the 9th test, “The Treasure Test.” James has already touched on treasure in the second test, “The Poverty and Prosperity Test” in James 1:9-11. It was there he reminded us of how our view of money impacts our heart, our head and our hands. Now James is going to reveal how our riches can adversely affect our relationships. Our greatest treasure is not our riches but our relationships, something we often loose sight of in our society. We live in a culture that is constantly putting profit ahead of people. James says that our treasure is not tied to profit but rather how we treat people. When we lose sight of our relationship with God it’s not long before we start living for greed. For a believer when it comes to business the bottom line has very little to do with money and everything to do with ministering. My prayer as we go through the treasure test is that our attitude to assess would reflect Christ and not the culture. James now turns from plans based on presumptive to pride, to pride based on our pocketbooks. He reveals the result of a walk based on wealth instead of God’s Word. How greedy pride causes us to use wealth the wrong way instead of using the riches and resources God has given us to reach people for Him. So that wealth becomes tied to our witness about the Savior instead of trying to use it to satisfy our wants. As a way to serve and honor God instead of to promote self. To do that James highlights the wrong way to use and abuse wealth as he reveals three examples of greedy pride. It is said that money does funny things to people, but doesn’t it? Actually, money doesn’t do anything to people. Money is an inanimate object. It’s a thing. It can’t do anything. It can’t really change people. But what happens is, money reveals who a person really is on the inside. It removes many of the barriers that keep people from acting like they really want to act. From showing who they truly are. From uncovering their innermost self. Our society says that Money makes the man, but the truth is that money doesn’t make the man it reveals the man. Because how you handle treasure reveals the one in whom you trust. Many of us are trusting in money instead of the Messiah. Society tells us that possessions reveal your social position but the truth is they reveal Your heart position. Many of us have hearts that are tied to treasure instead of God’s truth.  Our government focuses on finances as a gauge of how well we are doing but God focuses on our faith not our finances. And faith is not fueled by our finances but our trust in God the Father. Your view of riches reveal whether you are trusting in God as your source of security or in your treasures. 

James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 4:13-17

¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Not only is presumptive pride arrogantly self-sufficient and selfishly self-promoting but lastly it is:

3. Sinful instead of serving – Vs 17

There are two basic ways we sin, which theologians call the sins of commission and the sins of omission. Sins of commission is a sin we take action to commit, whether in thought, word, or deed. Where sins of omission are those in which we knew we should have done something good, but refused, this is the sin that James is focusing on here. The reality is that most of the time our problem isn’t that we don’t know the right thing to do. God has given us a conscience, He has also given us His Word, His Spirit and His church. He has even given us the law of the land to let us know what is right and wrong. There are very few instances where we can truly say, we didn’t know. The problem isn’t knowing what’s right, the problem is doing what’s right. And what’s right is submitting your wants to His Will. It’s what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:41-42 “He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Jesus asked the Father to let the cup of suffering pass Him by, but He asked based on God’s Will not His. How many times have you prayed for God to remove the pain and the problems in your life, but was your prayer one where your pain was in submission to Gods plan? Most of us today are making our pain and our problems preeminent to God’s plan. Because we refuse to accept that part of God’s plan may include our pain. We have bought into the lie that a loving God not would let us experience hurt and heartache. But what came out of Christs suffering our Salvation. Our problem is that we have limited God’s plans to anything that will bless and benefit me. In the pain do you trust God has a plan? It’s easy to submit your plans when things are perfect but what about in the pain? Jesus placed God’s Will ahead of His wants. None of us want to walk the path of pain but sometimes it is profitable, not just for us but for others. Are you willing to suffer if it serves others, are you willing to endure problems if it brings profit to others. Are you willing to trust God in the trials of life? It’s easy to say we are walking out His Will when things are wonderful but what about in the hard and hurtful times when the winter winds blow? He said, I know the plans that I want. But I am placing my plans under your plan. So, what are your plans this year? I hope they’re big plans. I hope they’re bold plans. But I hope they’re not presumptive prideful plans. Otherwise, no matter how successful they might look, they will ultimately end in failure. If you want truly successful plan, one that is guaranteed to succeed then submit your plans to God’s Will for your life.