In countless ways, our culture tells us that wealth is the key to happiness. Even among Christians, the pursuit of money and comfort and ease can be a major blindspot. We live as if this world is all there is. However, as David Platt reminds us in this message from James 5:1–6, there’s a deceptive danger attached to worldly wealth. While money isn’t inherently evil, we can begin to live for things that are temporary while ignoring the things that will matter for all of eternity. Even if we don’t consider ourselves to be wealthy, we must be on guard against the desire for more. We should be eager to use our resources for the glory of God and the good of others.
In countless ways, our culture tells us that wealth is the key to happiness. Even among Christians, the pursuit of money and comfort and ease can be a major blindspot. We live as if this world is all there is. However, as David Platt reminds us in this message from James 5:1–6, there’s a deceptive danger attached to worldly wealth. While money isn’t inherently evil, we can begin to live for things that are temporary while ignoring the things that will matter for all of eternity. Even if we don’t consider ourselves to be wealthy, we must be on guard against the desire for more. We should be eager to use our resources for the glory of God and the good of others.
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author and teacher David Platt. Blind spots we all have them, areas of our lives where we're deceived and we don't know it. You know, when you're driving, you look in the mirror Seems like it's fine to change lanes. Unbeknownst to you, there is a car right next to you in your blind spot. So when you start to change lanes they honk and you jerk back over into your lane and you think how did I miss something so obvious, something easy to see in hindsight, yet easy to miss in the prison? And other people can usually see blind spots in our lives more easily than we can. We need other people to point them out, but even then, something in us still doesn't want to see them. Sometimes that which is so obvious we don't want to admit even exists until it's too late. And this happens in our faith. Just think of the classic glaring blind spot of American Christian history Slavery. It seems unthinkable to us today. How could so many Christians who supposedly believe the gospel so easily rationalize subjecting slaves to deplorable conditions outside their homes and churchgoers worshiping God every Sunday, reading the Bible all week long, all while treating men, women and children like property to be used and abused, and they actually thought they were generous to give their slaves an extra chicken at Christmas. Is that not frightening? Church involvement, regular worship, even study of the Bible do not prevent blindness in us. Out of our sinful nature, still sees what we want to see and ignores what we want to ignore it, especially when it's commonplace in the world around us. I wonder if in our time in God's Word today, he wants to open our eyes to a blind spot in our lives and in the church. Today we live in a world of urgent, dire need, both spiritually and physically. Spiritually, we know we talk all the time about three billion people who've never encountered a Christian or a church to share the gospel with them. They're on a road that leads to eternal judgment and nobody's even told them about how much God loves them, how they can have eternal life with Him. On top of physical need, about a quarter of the world, approximately two billion people, live in fragile contexts, which means they live in impoverished conditions and dire circumstances. Meanwhile, we in this gathering today are some of the wealthiest people to ever live in the history of the world. I realize that in this gathering. We have varying levels of wealth in the different places where we are, and some, I know, are struggling financially. I don't want to minimize that in any way. At the same time, let's just look at average. The average annual income in the US is about $75,000. It's actually much higher in the area where we live right now, but if we just use that number, the average American is in the top 2% of the richest people in the world. Just to depict that graphically when you look at wealth in the world, this is us compared to the rest of the world. The reality is, if we have clean water, food, sufficient clothes, a roof over our head at night, a means of transportation even if it's public, and access to a trained doctor, we are wealthy in this world and, to be clear, that's not bad. It's not reason to feel guilty. Yet how are we spending the money, the wealth that God has given us? And, on average, north American Christians give about 2.5% of our income to the church. So by our here I mean North American Christians. We give about 2.5% of our income to the church, which I think is probably a high estimate, but we'll go with it. And, on average, north American churches give about 2% of their budget to ministry around the world. That's this little red line that you can barely see. You put this together out of all the wealth we have. This little red line is what we give to ministry around the world. Do you realize what this means? Like when you do the math and I checked and double checked and triple checked this because I couldn't believe what it means, but it's true out of every $100 a North American Christian makes, we give 5 cents to ministry in the rest of the world and less than a penny of that goes to the 3 billion people who've never heard the gospel. It feels kind of like an extra chicken for the slaves at Christmas, doesn't it? And I wonder if followers of Jesus 100 years from now, if Jesus hasn't returned, will look back at Christians in America today and wonder how can they worship, sing and study the Bible and live in such affluence, while billions of people were going to hell without even a year in hell they could go to heaven? Many of them were living in impoverished, dire conditions on earth. Like they gathered for worship, they raved the Bible, they sang the songs, they lived, they said we're Christian lives. How could they keep prioritizing their comforts and their preferences to the neglect of so many people in need. Is it possible that this is a blind spot for us? I think we have to admit it's possible. Can we just ask God right now to open our eyes to see what he sees, even if it's something we may not want to see, even if it goes totally against the grain of what this world says is the way to live? Even the Christians, in many ways in this world, say is the way to live. Could we just pray that right now? Can we bow our heads with me that we're not here just to sing some songs, go to some other places? We're meeting with God. So, god, we're asking you right now please help us to hear your word and to see our lives in the world around us clearly in its light. And if this is a blind spot for us, please open our eyes to it. We can just pray and we can hear your voice-in. Anyway, we need to be jarred and help us to course correct, no matter what that means, knowing that it's part of us to resist seeing and part of us to resist acting on what you say. So we just we pray for your help, for your spirit, to do the next few minutes what only your spirit can do. We want you more than we want this world what this world wants for us. You are wiser than the world around us. You're better. You love us. Help us to hear your word today as coming from your heart of love for us, need your help, god. Please help us to hear, to see whatever it is you want us to hear or see and to respond accordingly. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Okay, so let's hear the word of God Straight from him James 5, verse 1. Come now, you rich weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flash like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold the wages of the laborers who mow your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. That's strong language from God. So I want to try to summarize these verses in a sentence and if you're taking notes, I would encourage you to do so. If this is God's word, I would encourage you to write this sentence down here. It is In the hands of sinful people, wealth is deceptively, extremely and eternally dangerous to us and to others. In the hands of sinful people, wealth is deceptively, extremely and eternally dangerous to us and to others. So let's test that sentence against the passage we just read, see if it's true. So is this just you talking to David, or is this what God is saying? God said come now, you rich, which leads to the question wait a minute. Does this mean anybody who's rich has misery coming on them? So if you're rich which, as we've seen, compared to the rest of the world, is most of us, so for most of us, this God saying misery is coming upon us. Let's honestly ask that question, because if that's what this passage is saying, we need to hear that, we need to see that. Yet when you look at this passage and the whole of Scripture, that doesn't seem to be what God is saying. There are examples all throughout the Old Testament. We need to be careful when we think about money, not just to look at Old Testament, because there was a very significant shift in approach to money and possessions that we see in the New Testament. We can talk about that another time. But even in the New Testament we see righteous, god-glorifying people with riches, and the Bible on a whole does not say that wealth or riches are bad in and of themselves, and this passage is clearly emphasizing the unrighteous use of riches. So in the hands of sinful people, wealth or riches are deceptively. Deception is not all over this passage. The rich don't realize that their riches are rotting and corroding. They think they're getting away with defrauding their laborers. They don't know that they're fattening themselves on the day of slaughter which is the next word here Extremely is this language not extreme? Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Rich, wealthy people who are not honoring God with your riches and wealth. You should be weeping and howling Because misery is coming upon you. Your flesh will be eaten like fire that's extreme imagery and eternally. This whole passage is pointing to the future. Part of the point of this passage is clearly saying what you see on this earth is not the end. The way your years, riches here will have ramifications far beyond here. So in the hands of sinful people, wealth is deceptively, extremely and eternally dangerous to us and to others. So don't you see the danger on both sides? You see danger in this passage For people who were being unjustly treated and neglected and exploited, even killed, and then, in the sense, you see a deeper danger for the rich, the wealthy, who were neglecting those in need. So, in the hands of sinful people, wealth is deceptively, extremely and eternally dangerous to us and to others. Which leads to the question are you a sinful person, am I a sinful person? And the testimony of Scripture and the testimony of our lives shouts yes to that question. Which means that God is, in a sense, lovingly shouting to us right now some of the wealthiest people to ever walk planet earth Beware the deceptive, extreme, eternal danger of the wealth you have. This is not how Americans think. This is not how American Christians think. We are accustomed to thinking of wealth as a blessing. God is saying to us right now wealth beware. It's dangerous to others and it's dangerous to you. This is not what God is saying. So why is wealth so dangerous? Let's listen to what God is telling us in this passage, starting in verse 2 and 3. In the hands of sinful people, what does wealth do? Wealth leads to keeping more than you need. That's clearly the first specific indictment in this passage with imagery about riches that are rotting and garments that are eaten by moths, gold and silver that are corroding. I'll summarize in this last statement you have laid up treasure in the last days. This is clearly an illusion to a parable that Jesus used the same language in Luke 12, verse 16. Look at this with me. I'll put it up here on the screen. Jesus told the parable saying the land of a rich man produced plentifully. He thought to himself what shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him fool, this night, your soul is required of you and things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward. God lays up treasure. That's the exact same language from James five here laying up treasure. Are we hearing this? Like what Jesus just denounced? Store it up so you can relax, eat, drink and be merry. What Jesus just denounced is what our culture exalts Like. This is success in our culture. This is the dream for which we should live make money, store it up so that, when you're older, you can relax, eat, drink and be merry. That's success in our culture. Jesus says you're a fool, don't do it, you'll lose your soul. Now we know from the whole of Scripture that it's not wrong or unrighteous to save wisely. As just one example, proverbs 6-6-8 says Go to the aunt of sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread and summer gathers her food and harvests. In other words, it's wise and righteous To work as God provides and save for reasonable, anticipated need in the future as we are able. At the same time, beware this is some of the strongest spouscading language in all the Bible and it's aimed toward people who are filling their lives with more and more Newer, nicer things they don't need eventually, things that are no longer even used, in addition to stockpiling reserves, all while ignoring present need around them, which is the next reason wealth is so dangerous because in the hands of sinful people, wealth leads to neglect of others in need. When you see this language, you have laid up treasure in the last days. This language is so powerful because, again, wealth is dangerous to us Like we're in the last days right now. You and I. Very soon, every single one of us could be today. For any one of us, we're about to meet God as our judge, and Jesus could come back at any point. We have all these resources. James is saying you're about to meet God and you've got all these resources that you're wasting or you're holding on to that you could have been using for good, which then leads to this danger to others. Think about it, because they're also in the last days. They're also about to meet God. It's like picture this way Jesus could come back at any moment and all these people who've never heard the gospel, when we could have gotten the gospel to them. We have the resources in the church to get the gospel to all of them, but you didn't. Instead, you stored up more for yourself and your stuff and, as a result, you're leaving them in an eternally dangerous position. The point is these are the last days for all of us. None of us are going to be here for much longer, which means they're not a lot of time you give to people in dire need now, for their good and for your good. Don't lay up treasure here. That's one option. Lay up treasure here in the last days. No, don't do that. Lay up treasure in heaven in these last days. We'll talk about this more specifically in a minute. Couple verses from now, but don't miss the point here. Wealth in the hands of sinful people leads to keeping more than you need. Is there any evidence of that in your lives? And neglecting others in need. Is there evidence of this in our lives? Do we see this effect of wealth in the hands of sinful people? Which then leads to the next verse, verse four and specific people in need leaders who were laborers, who were working and not getting paid what they were due. So here's another danger of wealth in the hands of sinful people. Well, wealth leads to injustice and oppression when it's in the hands of sinful people. I'm going to include verse six here. So first, verse four specifically condemns any way in which those with wealth take advantage of or treat unjustly those who work for them, and denounces any person or group of people who reap riches at the expense of the poor. This verse pointedly beckons anyone among us who employs others to ask if there are any voices calling out to God because of you. And then, on a broader level, this verse highlights the power dynamic at play with those who have wealth, and it's a clear statement from God that he is the Lord of hosts means the Lord of heavenly armies. He ultimately has all power, and anyone with any semblance of wealth and power in this world will answer to God for how we wield that wealth and power for others good, and particularly for the good of people who are poor or without power. To any or all extent that God entrusts wealth and or power to us, we are responsible before God for using that wealth and or that power justly on behalf of those who are poor and or without power. And then you get down to verse six. You see how the sinful rich had condemned and murdered the righteous person. There's some debate over what exactly this is referring to. Some Bible scholars believe this is a reference to Jesus, how he was murdered by those in power with wealth. Others believe this is a reference to martyrs in that day, eventually including James himself, who were murdered by those in power with wealth. Regardless, it's a clear picture that in the hands of sinful people, wealth leads to both injustice and oppression. We see this throughout the history of the world. We see this throughout the world today, which means we all need to humbly and honestly ask is there any way in which wealth in our hands is leading to injustice or oppression of others? That is a question worthy of prayerfully considering before God and your life, of openly discussing with your church group. Get together and ask is there any way in which wealth in our hands is leading to injustice or oppression of others? All of that leads to two final ways that wealth is dangerous in the hands of sinful people. So one in the hands of sinful people, wealth leads to overindulgence in the temporary and under investment in the eternal. Look at verse five. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You see the emphasis here on the temporary. You lived like this earth. This world is all there is. And if this world is all there is, then absolutely. Paul even says this in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, eat, drink and be married. If this world is all there is, then a materialistic lifestyle makes total sense. Get all you can, enjoy all you can, whatever you want, buy it. If you have more than you want, save it to make sure you have all you want in the future. So yes, go to school, get a job, retire well and relax, indulge and enjoy as much as you can along the way. In other words, the American dream makes sense if America is all there is. But God is shouting it's not. But this country, this world, is not all there is. This country, this world, is temporary, it's fleeting. It's just going to be for a little bit longer, so don't live for it. I mean, here's this illustration that comes from Randy Alkorn's book on money, possessions and eternity. It relates in a sense to the slavery illustration from earlier. He writes imagine you're alive at the end of the Civil War in the United States. You're living in the South, but you're a Northerner. Your plan is to move back north as soon as the war is over, while in the South you've accumulated lots of Confederate currency. Now suppose you know for a fact that the North is going to win the war and the end is imminent. What will you do with your Confederate currency? If you're smart. There's only one answer you immediately cash in your Confederate currency for a US currency, the only money they will have value once the war is over. You will keep only enough Confederate currency to meet your short-term needs. Then he continues as believers, we have inside knowledge of a coming change in the worldwide economic situation. The currency of this world will be worthless at our death or Christ's return, both of which are imminent. This knowledge should radically affect our investment strategy. For us to accumulate vast earthly treasures in the face of the inevitable future is equivalent to stockpiling Confederate money. It's not just wrong, it's stupid. And just for the record, we don't use that word around our house, but it's the quote and it's making a point. Why are you stockpiling Confederate currency when the war is about to be over? Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have inside our knowledge of a coming change in the worldwide economic situation. So let's live like it. Let's not live like the rest of the world and then tack on Jesus on Sundays. Let's live like we're living for another world, like we're living for another country, a heavenly one, where treasure will never, ever fade. Instead of indulging in treasure that is transient, temporary, fleeting it's the way the world works, the next thing, the newer thing, the nicest thing instant gratification. Order it on Amazon one hour, get it the next, and not just in the moment. We think I want to plan for when I'm 60 or 70 or 80 years old. Okay, as we discussed earlier, that's not all unwise. But our ultimate focus is not on where we'll be at 60 or 70 or 80. Our focus is where we and others will be 60 or 70 or 80 million years from now, not how our investment is going to look in a couple of decades. It's the way the world thinks. It's not the way we think. How are our investments going to look in a couple of millennia? But that'll change the way you spend money and he was a tie this, although we talked about regarding saving earlier. So one of the arguments even Christian arguments against giving now is investing so that you can give more later, and that's not necessarily wrong or unwise. At the same time, that kind of thinking can often and unknowingly assume that Wall Street is going to be able to outperform God in the long term. So sure, if you put $10,000 in the market now, it may and I emphasize may. It may grow to tens of thousands of dollars later and you can pull it out in 30 years and have tens of thousands of dollars to give away then assuming you will actually be there in 30 years and assuming you will actually give it away in 30 years. Or what if you use that $10,000 now to support a church planner going into an unreached village? What if that church planner, by God's grace, leads influential people in that people group to faith in Jesus? And what if the gospel starts spreading among and through that people group in this area that was once hostile to Christianity? And what if this church that's now multiplying for the first time in that region starts sending missionaries to other people groups around it, and so those other people groups that were once seemingly impossible to reach start coming to Christ? Now, obviously, 30 years from now, you wouldn't have tens of thousands of dollars to show for your investment, but you might have tens of thousands of believers. Would that be a wise investment? Do not over-indulge in the temporary and under-invest in the eternal and miss out on God's good design for wealth that he gives to you. Beware wealth when attached to a sinful nature will lead you to totally miss it and finally, wealth in the hands of sinful people leads to self-centeredness and self-destruction. This is the last part of verse 5. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. So see the self-centeredness here. You're using your wealth to fill your heart's desires. You thought, oh, I want that. This will be good for me. I want this and that and more, and nicer and newer. You thought that would lead to more joy for you. That's why you did it. You're working for your good, but you don't realize where it leads. It's like drinking seawater. Seawater has a high concentration of salt. You think, oh, that'll be good for me. I'm thirsty, but you drink this water. And the more you do, the sooner you dehydrate. If you keep drinking it, you start getting headaches, then dry mouth, then low blood pressure, a rapid heart rate. Eventually you become delirious, you go unconscious and you die. It's amazing. You see water and you think that's what I want. But then you drink it and, unbeknownst to you, you're killing your body. This is more and more Money, possessions and this road. You see, you think I want it. You don't realize it's a trap. And the more you indulge yourself, the more you destroy your soul. It leads to self-destruction. That's not strong language when God has said you're like cattle gorging on food, unaware that you're about to be slaughtered. That's the language God is using and this is what happened under the judgment of God in the Old Testament. Do you remember Sodom and Gomorrah? When we think about God's judgment in Sodom and Gomorrah, in our minds usually go to sexual sin there. What does Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 49, say? This was the sin of your sister, sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned. They did not help the poor and needy. Overfed and unconcerned. Is this not a description of people who have so much and spend so little on the poor and needy? Is this not a description of us, of the picture we looked at, this little red line overfed, unconcerned, overfed, unconcerned. Is God not opening our eyes to a picture of ourselves when left to ourselves and our sinful nature? Friends, we need the spirit of Jesus to save us from ourselves and our sinful nature and the spirit of this world, and the good news of the Bible is he has come to do just that. We need 2 Corinthians 8-9, the spirit of the one who, by His grace, though he was rich, for our sake he became poor so that we, by His poverty, might become rich. See how the gospel of Jesus totally transforms our use of riches. So for those of you who are visiting with us, maybe exploring Christianity, this verse summarizes the greatest news in all the world, the story at the center of the Bible how we are all created by God for a relationship with God. We're made to find our joy not in more stuff, but in God, to find our satisfaction and security not in more things in this world, but in the God who made us and the God who rules over this world. We are made for relationship with God, but all of us have turned aside from God and His ways to ourselves and our own ways, one of which we looked at today. There's myriad others and as a result of our sin against God, we deserve eternal judgment before Him. But the good news of the Bible, and the greatest news in the world, is that God has not left us alone in this state of our sin. God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. He left His riches and came to us, lived among us a sinless life and then, even though he had no sin for which to die, he chose to die on the cross, to be crucified for our sin, to pay the price for our sin against God. And then, three days later, he rose from the grave and victory over sin and death, so that anyone, anywhere, no matter who you are, what you've done, no matter who you are what you've done, if you will trust in Jesus as the Savior of your life, the Lord of your life, you will be forgiven of all your sin, restored to relationship with God Through His poverty, you will become eternally rich in God, everlasting pleasure and treasure waiting for you for millennia to come, starting right now. Amen. You've never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We invite you to do that today and when you do, and for all who have, let us stop living according to the spirit of Sodom and Let us start living according to the spirit of our Savior. So what does this mean? Well, there's not a. A playbook says okay, do exactly this. That. What we have is James words to us earlier in this book. Don't just hear this word and walk away and your life look the same. That is not an option for followers of Jesus. What does it look like to put this word into practice, to say I don't live deceived anymore With a glaring, extremely, eternally dangerous blind spot. I want to do God whatever you're calling me to do, knowing, knowing that what he's calling us to do goes totally against the grain of the world around us, even that supposedly Christian all around us, for that imagery of slavery is helpful, like it just seems so commonplace. Of course we do this. No, at some point wake up and see it's a blind spot Gonna make major changes and how we give Years the wealth that God has given us. So let's hear him and let's obey him, believing that he is good. He's the best Financial counselor in all of creation. He's better than any other financial counselor. He knows us. He's made us for joy. He's not saying this to us because he hates us. He's saying this to us because he loves us so much and he wants us to experience life, life now and life forever, and not just us but others around us. To experience life. You will not regret trusting God with your use of possessions. So I Want to give you a moment to start reflecting on a few questions, and I say start because surely this word from God requires More than a minute or two of reflection. So I want to encourage you. Let these questions drive you into getting it alone with God this week, on your own and your families, then Discussing church groups with other brothers and sisters in Christ. What does this mean in our lives? Go before God and just ask these questions and think not just okay, had it small in my life today, but but big picture, maybe even to think okay over the next month. So here's the questions God, how are you leading me To change my saving or spending patterns? God, how are you leading me to change the way I save and spend money? God, how are you leading me to give more to that which is eternal? How are you leading me to invest and what will last forever, more in my life? Because, specifically, god, how are you leading me to use wealth I have on behalf of the poor and oppressed, spiritually and physically, so the spread of the gospel and the care of people's physical needs? Now, I just said, start asking these questions over the next month, and some of you are thinking, really December. I Can line of all the spending that's already happened and still, what better time when we take a holiday and the name of Jesus and turn it into a materialistic festival, what better time to say we want the spirit of Christ to drive us during this month? How is how are you leading me to change my saving and spending patterns? How are you leading me to give more to that was eternal? How are you leading me to use what I have on behalf of the poor and the oppressed? You will not miss Christmas by answering those questions and putting them in a practice, as the spirit of Christ leech Question is do you trust the spirit of Christ and each? So I want to give you a moment. Spend some time just starting to reflect on these questions. Listen to his spirit, speak to you, and then I or one of our other location pastors will lead us together in prayer. You just spend some time with the Lord right now. Oh God, we praise you for your love for us, praise you for your love and sending Jesus to Dine across for us to be poor, so he might become rich. And I pray for anyone in this room online Just never put their trust in Jesus. So this would be the moment. This would be the moment and they say to you God, I need you to save me from my sins. I believe you Love me so much that Jesus dial across for me. Trust in Jesus is the Savior and Lord of my life. Gonna, pray, pray, people all across this room and others online would turn to you now. Knowing tomorrow is not guaranteed. Today is the day of salvation and, as they do and for all who know you, lord Jesus is Savior and Lord. We pray for your spirit to transform our minds in our arch According, not to the pattern of this world. We transform according to the ways of your word and we pray you to help us. Help us to hear from you as we continue to process this in coming days alone, and families and church groups helps to Hear you and obey you, trusting you every step of the way that you're wiser and you're wiser than this world. We love you, god. We praise you for loving us enough to tell us the truth and to Open our eyes to blind spots and to course correct in ways that lead not just a life For us but for life for others, and we pray that would be the fruit of what you've spoken today. Joy for us, good for others and glory to your name and Jesus name. We pray, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of radical with David plant. For more resources from David plant, we invite you to visit radicalnet you.