Setting James In Context

Barkef Osigian 0:18

We are in the book of James, and we have been studying for quite some time. We're coming fairly close to the end now. But by way of reminder, James is that half-brother of Jesus. He is the leader of the church in Jerusalem. And at this point in time, he's writing to those Jewish believers who have been scattered throughout the Roman Empire because of the martyrdom of Stephen and the attack upon the believers by the religious, unbelieving religious rulers of the Jews. And so as he's writing to them, he's talking about what they're dealing with. They're under pressure. So we have entitled this series Pressure Points. Now, there are those because they've been scattered, because they've had to leave their homes and their cultural background. That is, they can't do business with many other Jewish people at this point because they are a minority of the Jewish people, those who place their faith, their trust in Christ. And of course, the Romans never liked them to begin with. And so they're struggling. And some of them find themselves short on groceries. Some of them find themselves short on clothing. And that's highlighted a number of times here in this letter. But the section we've been in for about three weeks now, he's talking to those who are well healed among the refugees. Those Jews who actually have means, who are materially well off amongst their brethren. And yet, under the pressures that they're under, they're suddenly acting like unbelievers. They're acting self-centered and selfish. And so James begins to do a little bit of teaching and scolding, if you will. And we come to the section today, and he really ratchets it off to those believers who are well healed and are ignoring the needs around them. In fact, some believe he begins to switch gears and he takes on the persona of an Old Testament prophet, as if an Old Testament prophet is now preaching and teaching, prophesying, if you will, to those unrepentant Jews of the nation of Israel who are all about their stuff and not about representing Christ well, where he's placed them in that promised land.

Scattered Believers And Pressure Points

Barkef Osigian 2:46

And so he begins to ratchet things up and he talks pretty starkly. And you'll hear that as we step into it. Now, you know, at a time like this, we're going to find that he's going to talk a whole lot about M-O-N-E-Y. And, you know, anytime you talk from the pulpit about NO M-O-N-E-Y, it's it's you know, you got to stop and just say, okay, now wait a minute, boys and girls. Like Peter, I know that I'm preaching for the most part to the choir. And I recognize the vast majority of you are very generous in the support of those in needs around you, in support of the gospel ministry. I'm well aware of that. But let's admit to ourselves that living in North America, all of us are tempted to step into materialism. Now, materialism, by definition, is not money, it's the love of money. Money is just a thing. Money's just a thing that society has come up with, a way about doing business. But money in and of itself, for the most part, it's just a little change. It's just a little uh portraits on pieces of green paper, right? That's all it is. But the love of money could be a real problem. And that is what he is addressing. Now, Jesus talked about money, Howard Dayton writes. Sixteen of the 38 parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, an amazing one out of 10 verses, 288 in all, deals directly with the subject of money. The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions. The Bible doesn't shy away from dealing with this issue of materialism. It's something that would easily infect and does from time to time affect all of us, especially here in North America. One scholar writes this most Christians in the northern hemisphere simply do not believe Jesus' teaching about the deadly danger of possessions. We all know that Jesus warned that possessions are highly dangerous, so dangerous, in fact, that it's extremely difficult for a rich person to be a Christian at all. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But we do not believe Jesus. Christians in the United States live in the richest society in the history of the world, surrounded by a billion hungry neighbors across the globe. Yet we insist on more and more. If Jesus was so un-American that he considered riches dangerous, then we're forced to ignore or reinterpret his message. A survey was done not too long ago among Americans and says one in four Americans say they think about money more than anything else on a daily basis. 90% say money impacts their stress level. I'm surprised it's not 100% on that one. Forty percent say they want a fresh financial start. How about you? You want a fresh financial start? Well, it all begins with your heart, not your checkbook. By the way, there's nothing wrong or sinful about being rich or being wealthy. I don't know if you knew that or not. I mean, you expect me to say the opposite after that introduction, don't you? But that's not true. Abraham, Job, Joseph, King David, King Solomon, Joseph of Merrimathea, Lydia from the book of Acts, Philemon from the letter that's written to him. We're all wealthy. The question is not about whether or not you have wealth. It's where did you get wealth? And what are you doing with it? That's the question. Psalm 24:1, New Living Translation, says this the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world and all its people belong to the Lord. Proverbs 10 22 says that this it is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it. Nothing wrong with being wealthy, it's nothing wrong with having stuff. That's not what he's talking about here. How did you get it? And what are you doing with it? That's the question. There's a principle from Genesis 12, verses 2 and 3. And it's a principle that is laid out very early concerning the father of our faith, Abraham. Here's what it says. The Lord speaks to Abraham, and he says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. God blesses his people that we might be a blessing. Nothing wrong with having stuff. How did you get it? And what are you doing with it? That is the question. So this morning, as we step into our passage, we're going to step into James chapter 5, verses 1 through 6. And I gotta tell you, it's harsh. Let me just read these six verses and then we'll we'll break down. I have the title of this message, uh, Beware of Materialism. Materialism. Not money, not stuff. The love of money is what we need to be beware of. Here's what he says.

Money Talk: Love Of Money vs Money

Barkef Osigian 9:31

Come now, you rich, weep and howl, for your miseries are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you, and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which have been withheld by you, cries out against you, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting have reached the ears of the Lord of Saboth, literally the Lord of heaven's host, the Lord of the armies of heaven. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you. Now we can't help but think, well, wait a minute, nobody works for me. I got no laborers. I'm not a farmer. I got no laborers in the harvest. I've got nobody out there working for me. I'm not holding back their wages. Yet this is a section of hyperbole to describe what it is when those of us who have been blessed by God to be a blessing choose not to be a blessing to those around us. And so he talks very harshly like a prophet, talking to those who are misusing the very blessings that God has given them. And so we want to beware of materialism, and we can have at least three cautions that we're going to find here together. Now, here's the deal. I can see, I'm I'm watching. You know, you you know, you know what? Y'all all see me. Guess what? If you see me, I see you. Did you know that? And I can see checking out happening. It's like, wait a minute, he's talking to the rich guy. I'm I'm paycheck to paycheck here, not talking to me. Hey, I give to the church, he ain't talking to me. No, I'm not talking to you at all. But God is. From his very word, he's talking to you. And he's warning you, and he's warning me. And he's telling us, now, look, wait a minute, you need to understand the stuff you have, it will deceive you. Materialism deceives. Look at these first few verses. Come now, you rich, by the way. By the standards of the world, everybody in the sound of my voice is filthy rich. By the standards of the ancient Near East, you're ridiculously wealthy. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten, your gold and your silver have rusted. Here's how Jesus put it in one of his parables. To those who have heard the truth of the word of God, here's what he says. But then the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Now we're this is a Bible church. You know what that means? We open the Bible every Sunday morning. You know what it means? It means that your Wednesday morning Bible study, you're opening what? The Bible. At the Wednesday night Bible study, you're opening what? The Bible. At the Friday morning Bible study, what are you doing? You're opening the Bible. At your life group, what are you doing? Besides eating? You're opening the Bible. And saying, this right here, this is what gives me the instructions for how I can live that abundant life. The life that God intends for every believer to experience. I came, then you might have life and have it to the full. He didn't say, I came, then you might have a closet and have it to the full. That's not what he said. Came that have life and have life to the full. Suddenly you're distracted. You're not experiencing all the God who would have you to. Your eyes are no longer open to spiritual things. You've brought been brought down from heaven to earth. And you're completely distracted from who you really are in Christ. Once Jesus was uh preaching and teaching, and he was walking through the crowd, find this in Luke chapter 12, and someone in the crowd says to him, Teacher, tell my brother to defy the family, divide the family inheritance with me. But Jesus said to him, Man, who appointed me a judge or arbiter over you? Now I'm thinking, I think Heavenly Father did actually. He said, No, no, no, no, wait a minute. In these earthly decisions that you're making, you ought to, by knowing the truth, be able to figure out what you ought to do in one of those pressure circumstances. It's time to divide up mom and dad's inheritance. What are we gonna do? Then Jesus follows up with this. Then he said to them, the crowd, Beware, be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. You know, I I know a family uh where the parents did pass away and they had quite an inheritance left, and there were three boys, all adult males, and they had such an argument over the inheritance that they didn't talk to each other for a number of years. That's a very sad situation. Perhaps some of you have had that experience. Maybe you know a friend or a neighbor, perhaps you were involved in such a scenario. It's just a bunch of stuff. Mom and dad didn't take it with them. Why fight over it?

Scripture’s Stark Warnings To The Wealthy

Barkef Osigian 17:03

Materialism begins to deceive us. In fact, we begin to think that those who are wealthy are special in God's eyes. Earlier in this very book, he's warning against when a rich man comes in and a poor man comes in, and you believers, you you usher the rich man up to the best seats, and the poor man, you just sit him in the bank and say, you know, that that piece of carpet on the floor there is for you. What happened? Materialism deceives us. A rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own imagination. Proverbs 1811. But Proverbs 22, too, says this the rich and the poor have a common bond. The Lord is the maker of them all. The ground is level at the cross. I don't care how much you have or don't have. The ground is level at the cross. Psalm 62, 1, 62, 10, I should say, warns us if riches increase, do not set your heart upon them. And Paul, when writing to Timothy, was pretty he presses this hard. He starts talking to those who are wealthy in the congregation, and he says, Hey, make sure you instruct the wealthy. Whatever you do, make sure you instruct the wealthy. They're the most likely to go sideways. So instruct them. So in 1 Timothy 6.17, here's what it says Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Shouldn't you enjoy the stuff God has given you? Absolutely. Enjoy it and then deploy it. Enjoy it and then deploy it. Send it out. You've been blessed to be a blessing. I've been blessed to be a blessing. You want to know how to do battle with materialism? Enjoy it, the stuff that He's blessed you with, and then deploy it. Send it out to where it's going to do its best good. Beware of materialism, materialism deceives, beware of materialism, materialism betrays. Look these uh next uh two verses, three and four. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you, and will consume your flesh like fire. It's in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which have been withheld by you, cries out against you, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. That's a transliteration of the Hebrew. It simply means the Lord of heaven's armies. It's basically a warning. Hey, God's not happy. God's not happy when you hoard your stuff. And listen, he loves those those that he disciplines, that means he's loving you. Ecclesiastes 5 13 says it this way There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. In Luke 12, Jesus tells a parable. There's a wealthy man who was his fields were just really turning over, and he was just making so much money. He had a barn, and his barn was full. He said, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go ahead and tear down that barn, it's just too small anyway, to hold all my stuff, and I'm gonna build two barns. And I'm gonna fill all my stuff in there and say, Soul, take your ease. All's well. Here's how Jesus tells the story. He told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man was very productive, and he began reasoning to himself, What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, This is what I will do. 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 many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, You fool, this very night your soul is required of you. Now who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. You know, sometimes you just have to let the word speak, you know, you don't even have to explain it. You know what I mean? This is maybe I ought to read that again. Let me read that again. And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, This is what I will do. 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. The guy's talking to himself in the mirror, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, You fool, this very night your soul is required of you. And now who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. I don't have a better illustration. I think Jesus does it better, don't you? You know, sometimes when you're preaching, all of a sudden you hear a pin

Materialism Deceives: Choking The Word

Barkef Osigian 24:31

drop. Lots of pins dropping. We're looking at materialism betrays. We've already looked at materialism deceives. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus continues on. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. By the way, what do you think the little thing is? Your money. That's what the little thing is. We've money is the big thing to us. It's not the big thing to Jesus. It's not the big thing the Heavenly Father. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, money, mammon, who will entrust you the true riches? You're thinking, boy, I wish God would use me. I really want him to use. I'm so grateful for who he is and what he's done for me through Jesus Christ, my Savior. God, would you use me? He says, Well, if I've given you a bunch of stuff and I'm I'm not seeing you being faithful with it, why would I give you more? Why why would I give you more? You ever had a child on allowance, anybody? And you're just kind of watching how they handle the allowance? And then you see them wasting the allowance and they come, they want more, and you go, I don't think so. I don't think I'm doing you any favors. It's basically what God is telling you and me when it comes to our stuff. We've been blessed to be a blessing. Enjoy it and then deploy it. Let it out. Proverbs 21 13 puts it this way: He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself. And not he answered. Proverbs 28, 27 puts it this way, he who gives to the poor will lack nothing. But he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. And Father, we don't want to be those who hear the word, embrace it, and then let the worries of this world and desire for other things enter in and choke out the word you have given us. And we become unfruitful children of God. Those who squander the very blessings you've given us, that we would walk closely with you and experience you using us for your kingdom purposes. Father, will you protect us? We confess to you that we are very distracted. And the proof is by how we handle our stuff. Father, indeed, it cries out against us. Help us, Father. Be those who hear your word and act upon it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We've looked at materialism deceives, materialism betrays, and now materialism destroys. Verses five and six. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of want and pleasure. You've fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. And he does not resist you. Paul puts it this way to Timothy. Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap, and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Listen, this isn't just for the people two thousand years ago that the half brother of Jesus was writing to. To you and to me. He goes on in First Timothy six ten the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. One scholar writes this, I used to think when I was a child that Christ might have been exaggerating when he warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how hard it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money has a dangerous way of putting scales on one's eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people's hands, eyes, lips, and hearts. You know, one of the reasons that I love to go on short-term missions is because I'm reminded. You know, living in Capel, Louisville, Flower Mound, Carrollton, this general area, we we tend to we're so distracted by paying our own bills or our children's bills. That we get our mind in this work-aday world and we forget this is not all there is. God has so much more. And so we we go and we go together, either to the Amazon or to Belize. We travel and we see how others are living outside of our own culture, and all of a sudden we wake up. Oh, yeah, that's right. It's happening in our own culture, too. And so we start getting involved again with CCA, Christian Community Action, around us, and we support them as a church. And many of us as life groups go and serve there and remember who we are and where we are and what we're all about. When we're actually walking in the truth of the word of God. By the way, gentlemen, Belize is coming up soon. Sign up. If you're new, you're thinking, boy, I wish I could get into this community. Well, don't wait for Belize. Get involved. You can come to a Bible study on uh Wednesday night or Friday morning. You can go to Starting Point and learn all the other ways you can get engaged. You can get engaged in life groups. But I have to tell you, one of the best ways to fully get into the community of the men of this church is to go to Belize. It's just not that expensive. And if you need help, we'll get your scholarship. But go rub shoulders with the rest of the men in this church. Men need other men. Women easily take one another in. That's no that's no big deal. In fact, you have trouble separating them for

Greed, Inheritance, And Partiality

Barkef Osigian 33:10

crying out loud. Watch today, after second service, you're still here. I got my hands on the car keys, and Susie will not leave this building. And you won't let her leave. But guys, the truth of the matter is we need each other. And that'd be a great way for you to spend a week with some other guys working side by side serving the poor. See what happens? We're looking at beware of materialism. Money's not a curse. The love of money is a curse. Materialism deceives, materialism betrays, materialism destroys. So now what's the cure? What's the cure? Here's what Hebrews 13, 5 and 6 say. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For he, the Lord, he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we may confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Now you'll often hear a preacher say to a brand new believer, the scripture promises you now that you're his forevermore, and he's yours forevermore, he'll never leave you nor will he ever forsake you. And that is a fact. But did you notice the context? The context was about the love of money. We have a tendency to be so anxious and so concerned about material things that we forget that God will never desert us in our need. He doesn't promise you your greed, but he does promise to meet your need. So the first move to be free of materialism is to be content with what you have because you know God will always meet your need. Call upon him. Secondly, is along these lines, pray. Here's what Jesus taught the disciples to do in Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 and following. Pray then in this way, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. First thing, it's all about your glory. It's all about obedience to what you would have, how you would use me for your kingdom purposes. That's first, first and foremost. Secondly, secondly, give us this day, our daily bread. Now that I've set everything aright with you and set my heart alright, now I ask, meet my need today. Meet my material, physical need today. I want to look for how you're gonna do that. For most of us, it's that job we have. We want to represent him well, serve our employer as if we're serving Christ Himself. That's what the scripture says, because it is the Lord Christ, whom we serve in all that we do. And finally, here's what Jesus says in Matthew 6, 19 and following. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Let me tell you how you change that out. You make a decision to take some of your treasure, your stuff, your money, your moolah, your green stuff, and you say, I'm gonna invest this in the gospel. I'm gonna invest this in God's kingdom purposes. And guess what will happen then? Your heart will go along with it. Your emotions will even actually catch up. I knew a young businessman who told me about how he had made these investments and he found himself addicted to checking out his stock portfolio on a daily basis. You want to be addicted to checking out your stock portfolio on a daily basis? How about your heavenly stock portfolio? How about having your eyes set on your heavenly prize, your opportunity to walk closely with Jesus in the here and the now? I want to finish with this. There was an article in the Atlantic Journal of Constitution some years ago, a story about a fellow named Bob Slack. He was an Atlanta businessman who had a massive stroke and who died at the age of 52. Whoo, that's young. After his death, his possessions were auctioned off at what the auction house called one very pricey garage sale. From the article, it says Slack owned a condominium at Park Place in Atlanta, a farm in Cumming, Georgia, a mansion in upstate New York, and a villa in Milan, Italy, in addition to his house in Buckhead, where he lived. Buckhead is an upscale neighborhood in suburban Atlanta. The sale was to include the contents of three of the houses along with an ocean-going speedboat and the house in Buckhead. The auctioneer said Slack was an accumulator. An accumulator is a collector gone nuts. The auctioneer found that most of the artwork in the house were by artists such as Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, Merrick Cassett, and John Singer Sargent. Most of the artwork wasn't hung on walls of his home, but were stacked under the eaves in the attic of the house. Every room in the three-story house had cubby holes in the walls where paintings or clear plastic storage boxes filled with art objects or rare collectibles, such as his 300 antique mechanical banks. According to the auctioneer, there was going to this was going to be the largest auction of art in the United States that year. In fact, he said it's the largest ever in the South. Some of these pieces were museum quality. They were museum quality, but had where'd he keep them? He kept them in plastic under the eaves in the attic of the house. Slack had several children, but his heir was a son who rarely spoke to his father. He worked in the family business, which was an auto-salvage company. It's sad, the auctioneer said, the son doesn't give a hoot about all that stuff or the houses. He just wants it all gone. God desires that you and I wouldn't be those who waste the blessings that we've been blessed with. But rather we would use them

Enjoy It, Then Deploy It

Barkef Osigian 41:55

to be a blessing to those around us. That is the design that God has given to your life and to mine. It is the Lord that makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it. Would you stand and pray with me?