The Trials of the Rich and Poor - James 1:9-12 | Skip Heitzig

welcome to Calvary Church with skip heik we're so glad you've joined us today while many books articles and social media posts offer advice on adulting in our daily lives there's only one resource to help us become spiritually mature Believers God's word this study in the Book of James with Pastor skip will encourage you to embrace discipline and difficulty to glorify God and demonstrate your faith to others in your Bibles to James chapter 1 um my son Nate was uh giving a little announcement about Mother's Day and Dad you probably forgot to get a gift for your wife uh let me just remind my son that it is called Mother's Day and uh the gift falls on the child to get the gift a small point but a point nonetheless we're in James chapter 1 we are going through this book verse by verse we are going to be looking at the next little chunk of verses beginning in verse 9 down to verse 12 I'm calling this message the trials of the rich and poor we live in a wealthy country and because we live in a wealthy country often called a first world country problems that we Face though legitimate and real when you compare those problems with the kinds of problems that exist in say the third third world when you compare the first world with the Third World um they're very very different first world problems are things like the Wi-Fi going out getting the wrong coffee order at Starbucks the TV remote not working misplacing your airpods getting a bad haircut or your phone battery dying those are huge trials for us and that's why it has been noted that first world problems are often third world luxuries so for an example you go to the grocery store and you're hunting down the cereal aisle you're looking for your favorite cereal among the hundreds of boxes of different cereal and they don't have it and you complain and you say this store is all always out of my favorite cereal meanwhile in a different place a third world country soldiers just stole the last bag of rice from a humanitarian food truck and the whole village has no cereal or food and they are starving or there's a thunderstorm in your neighborhood and the cable and the internet go out oh no oh no you know what this means I can't binge watch that series on Netflix it's catastrophic meanwhile in the third world there's an artillery storm by Insurgent soldiers who knock out the power and the water Etc so being in the first world versus being in the third world yes we still have are problems they're legitimate problems they're the problems we face but when you compare them with other people other places there sometimes is a disparity now I do want to say that living in the first world comes with its problems as well we have privileges but there are some setbacks because we are in a nation like ours one of them is there are more unhappy people in wealthier countries than in poor countries there are more people in countries like America that don't have a sense of purpose don't have joy it's it's much higher the lack of joy and peace and satisfaction in countries like ours than in poverty-stricken countries I got a a letter this week an email from India and uh this gentleman said I have accidentally found your channel on YouTube YouTu a couple of months ago and now I'm totally dedicated to your messages I'm particularly happy that you are teaching the word with such confidence courage and conviction from the United States a country that was built on the Bible but now is in such a state of depravity sin and evil the world needs more people like you especially in the US my son was in California almost 14 years and I visit VIs visited him several times and I've seen the decadence and the pitiful state that the country is in with all of the outward Prosperity gloss and Beauty I believe the country is totally rotten on the inside pardon my use of such hard words it comes from my love for your country God has blessed your country abundantly with all of its natural beauty resources and wealth it is a country which has known our Lord and yet at this current time in history is so far away from him ruled and led by the devil yet I see hope hope in pastors like you and in churches like yours if there is a Revival in America I'm sure there will be a Revival in the world and hope for the world now with that as a heavy background we get into our study and as you read through the Book of James if you have already done that and you're familiar with this book it would almost seem like the verses we're about to read just got dropped in there by James they just sort of seem out of place for some like he just decided to speak about the poor and the rich and the destiny of those who hold on to riches it doesn't even seem to connect with what he has just written about counted all joy when you fall into various trials but that's where you'd be wrong if you thought that it's actually following the same line of thinking he's dealing with the same subject matter of Trials because it's something we all face whether you are rich or if you are poor there's something you have in common and that is hardship that is Tri even if you're in the first world or you're in the third world you all face trials so no matter how wealthy a person is or how wealthy a country might be wealth will not protect you from the hardships of life so what I want to do in these four verses is uh give you some obvious and not so obvious truths about trials we began that topic last week beginning in verse two but now we look at verse 9 here's the first one our world is divided our world is divided and you'll notice that James even notices the division and displays that division in mentioning the lowly versus the wealthy look in verse 12 let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation but the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the field he will pass away for no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it Withers the grass its flower Falls and its beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man will also Fade Away in his Pursuits blessed is the man who endures Temptation that's unfortunately and I'll explain why in a minute uh a bad translation it should be testing or trial or the test oh blessed is the man who endures the test for when he has been approved he will receive the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised to those who love him so the first thing we notice is that James divides everyone up into two separate groups rich and poor now these two groups never typically mingled together in ancient times especially because they were so different they had different incomes they had different Social Circles they had a whole different set of friends they had different activities they had different housing conditions they had different styles of clothing but though they have all those differences they share something in common and that is there are times in life richer poor where you face a struggle a hardship a trial a difficulty so let's begin with the first category the lowly brother verse 9 let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation now when it says lowly it refers to low degree let the brother of low degree or low economic status in other words a poor person somebody who has lowly circumstances is lowly on the status or Prestige scale and because of that it produces a lowly outlook for him he might walk around with his head hung low looking down at the ground instead of shoulders square and head high because he feels a sense of Shame he knows that he is ill esteemed by those in his culture now with that as a background understand that is the bulk of the audience that James is writing to when he mentions the 12 tribes of Israel scattered the diaspora we talked about a few weeks ago he has in mind the fact that most of the people reading this are going to be poor people there will be some wealthy people they're addressed as well but for the most part these scattered Christians that he is writing to are very very poor but then he also addresses the rich in verse 10 but the rich in his humiliation these people are obviously different from the poor they are well off materially they are often considered to be blessed by God especially in ancient times especially among Jewish people if you had wealth it was just a sign that God's favor was on you and the proof of his favor was The Wealth that you enjoy you are blessed by God that's how it was seen but some of these wealthy people that James is writing to are beginning to lose their property it's being confiscated they are being persecuted Ed they're being defrauded and here was their dilemma they're Jewish Believers they're in different parts of the Roman Empire they're scattered around Asia Minor principally and up north in Syria and because of that they're not accepted by the Jewish Community because they name the name of Christ and they're not accepted by the secular Pagan Community because they are seen as Jewish in their background so they're like a man without a country and they're sandwiched in between two sources of persecution and many of them are losing what they had they're suffering because of it so two categories rich and poor and the world always does this we included we categorize people by a number of different categories different ways we categorize people by age by gender by nationality by ethnicity by religion by education by I Hue by political ideology and also by economic category rich and poor all of that to say we live in a divided world we always have it's how people look at life they size others up and they make categorical judgments and there's always been wealthy and poor the very categories I mentioned in opening up this message about the first World versus the third world these are socioeconomic terms now they didn't start out that way they were actually political terms and they are they were nations were called first second or third world depending on the fact did they align with NATO the North Atlantic um uh organization if they aligned or didn't align they were given these categories it was a political category so the United States Canada and allies were in the category of first world the Soviet Union China Cuba North Korea Vietnam were considered second world and the third world were the poor non-industrialized still developing nations a political designation that has become an economic term these days now these categories of rich and poor that James even mentions these are categories that are still with us today and the disparity between rich and poor is growing that is in most places the middle class is shrinking and the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer according to the world economic forum and I quote the poorest half of the global population owns just 2% of the global total while the richest 10% own 76% of all wealth well that's a whole series of messages in and of itself and the Bible has a lot to say about riches and the Bible has a lot to say about poverty and we're not going to look at that now because that is not the context here the context is if you're rich or poor no matter who you are you're going to face hardship you're going to be in the challenging situation of a trial from time to time something else about these two categories these SE two people both of them are Christian Brothers in this context notice in verse 9 let the lowly brother so he's a brother in Christ glory in his exaltation but the rich and the inference is back to the brother the rich brother in his humiliation so rich and poor that James is writing to are both part of God's family both in James mind he's referring to are God's kids now what what James was facing when he wrote this 2,000 years ago is the same thing that we face today every single church has some who are rich and some who are poor now some parts of the country and some churches are wealthier than others some are poorer than others but every church has people in it that have um more disposable income they're more welltoo and uh some who have less but both groups go through trials and by the way the church is the place that breaks down the division between rich and poor and calls both of them brothers that's a very important distinction so for a rich person who may just want to hang around rich people uh if he's a Believer he's going to be hanging around not many mighty not many noble not many uh wise of this world he's going to be hanging around the the riffraff us so um that's a good thing because that co-mingling uh brings a leveling and we'll see something else that brings a leveling in just a moment so our world is divided that's the first thing second our Outlook is delightful James uh tells both of them to do something that is unexpected before I get into that I just want to clear up an issue it is not wrong to be poor it is not wrong to be rich and both of those statements need to be said and heard it is not wrong to be poor it's not a sign of God's disfavor it's not wrong to be rich it's not a sign necessarily of God's um spiritual blessing on your life all can be a gift from God but uh not necessarily equaling so money is not evil money is neutral money is what we would say is amoral not immoral amoral it has no morality it's neither right nor wrong what is right or wrong is how you approach it what you do with it if you hoard it if you're not generous with it Etc the issue isn't having it the issue is what you do with it once you have it or if you are scheming always to get it some people say well the Bible says the money money is the root of of all evil Bible never says that once ever what the Bible does say is this for the love of money and you can have that if you're dirt poor the love of money is a root not the root a root of all kinds of evil well that's a very different meaning than money is the root of all evil so when it comes to rich and poor there were some people in the Bible that were very wealthy Abraham was very wealthy he could Mount up his own militia armed on par with the kings of Canaan and go fight battles job was wealthy he lost everything but God restored more at the end than at the beginning Joseph in the Old Testament we noted last week was the second most powerful man in the world that would also make him probably the second richest man in the world next to Pharaoh so he was Godly and wealthy in the New Testament there were Jews Like Joseph of ARA who followed Jesus there was Matthew who followed Jesus a tax collector zakus a tax collector in fact zakus had so much Bank he had so much money that he was able to restore people he cheated four times so he had a pretty hefty bank account so I just wanted to clear that up our world is divided it's not wrong to be poor it's not wrong to be rich it just is what you do with it and how you approach it is the issue but to our second Point our world is divided but our Outlook is delightful now if you go back to verse 9 and 10 James is telling both the lowly the poor and the rich to do something unexpected he's telling them to Glory which is another word for re joice or be glad look at it let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation but the rich and again inferred the rich brother glory in his humiliation because as the flower of the field he will pass away the word Glory could be translated boast or Rejoice both rich and poor are told to rejoice but for very different reasons very different reasons the lowly brother is to Rejoice or boast or glory in his exaltation the rich is to Glory or boast or brag in his humiliation one is honored one is humbled now watch this the lowly brother is brought High the one who is high is brought low by what trials have you noticed that trials are the great leveler the great equalizer whether you are poor or whether you are rich they have they have the capacity to bring equality you know we often say that it's always level at the foot of the cross what we mean by that is all men are sinners all have to come the same way so none are higher none are lower at the foot of the cross all can be forgiven so the ground is level at the foot of the cross I would also say that the ground is level in the field of suffering it's it's you might have different trials than other people but they're trials nonetheless they're common to all so he tells both of them to Glory now let's go to the poor brother and a ask the question why should the poor Rejoice what does he have to rejoice in well very simple and you can answer this you already know the answer to this the poor believer rejoices because no matter how poor he is he's still a Believer so he's a child of God that means he will inherit the birthright of a child of God that means he will rule and reign with Christ Romans 8:16 And1 17 Paul says if we are children then HS Heirs of God and Joint HS with Christ if indeed we suffer with him that we also may be glorified together then in the very next verse he says for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us so you may be poor right now you may be suffering a period of extreme poverty I just want to say that your poverty is a short-lived trial it will only last during this life hopefully it won't even last your whole life hopefully you'll be able to get out of it but if you stay poor your whole life it's still when you compare that to Eternity a very shortlived trial in eternity You Will Rule and Reign now something else about uh poverty James is writing to a group who mostly are poor there's a few rich but mostly poor Jesus also most of the people he ministered to to were poor people common people he said I have come and he read Isaiah he said to preach the gospel to the poor and he said in the Beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit and Luke's rendition is just blessed are the poor and there were many poor people that hung on every word when he was in the synagogue in the gospel of Mark and people were around and Jesus with was there and he spoke it says and the Common People heard him gladly they were attracted to him so you may be low in the eyes of the world you are exalted in God's eyes you may be poor but you will have eternal riches you may be hungry but you have the bread of life you may be thirsty but you have Water of Life you may be cast aside by men you will be welcomed by God you may have no home on this Earth or a poor home on this Earth You will have mansions in heaven so because of that let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation then he he addresses the rich but the rich verse 10 in his humiliation now we got to just look at that for a moment um we might get being poor and realizing that we're rich in Christ yeah I get all that okay I'm going to rule and Reign that's that that helps doesn't solve it but it helps but what's really weird if you're honest I think is to tell a person who is Rich and loses stuff like his wealth to say you should rejoice in your humiliation that's exactly what he says but the rich in his humiliation why how on Earth could he do that here's why because the trials that he faces reveal how inadequate his wealth is to solve the problem and it reveals to him the transitory nature of the wealth he owns you might have a lot of stuff that stuff can't give you peace that stuff can't really satisfy your inner soul and that stuff cannot help you spiritually remember that rich young ruler who came to Jesus and just had sort of a theoretical question what what must I do to inherit eternal life he's just you know all quizzical all professorial what must I do to inherit eternal life I want a good answer and Jesus said well keep the Commandments he started naming them the guy said I've kept them all from my youth Jesus said okay there's one more thing you got to do sell what you have and give it to the poor and come and follow me and you'll have Treasures in Heaven it says that man went away sorrowful he walked away from Jesus he just walked off the page very very sad because he had great wealth and then Jesus said to his disciples how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven why why would he say that I'm sure that was a shock to his disciples because rich people usually don't think they need anything they don't see the how desperate they are before God desperate me I've got it all are you kidding they don't see themselves as helpless material wealth has lured them into thinking they have have spiritual wealth they think they're okay they're not in touch with need that's why Jesus spoke of the deceitfulness of riches that choke up spiritual life and I think the more you have materially the more likely you are to be deceived spiritually remember when Jesus in Revelation 3 spoke to the church at leoa and he said because you say I am rich and I become wealthy and I have need of nothing and you don't know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked wow to the heart their materialism has clouded their thinking so wealth and pride are often twins it's um hard to have a lot of money and have a humble Spirit at the same time until it's taken away and if it's touched or diminished or it's taken away and you or you just suffer a trial in the material realm you start seeing life very clearly I love what George Whitfield said he said all trials are for two ends that we may be better acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ and better acquainted with our own Hearts so good so the poor should Rejoice because if he's in Christ he's eternally Rich the rich should Rejoice because the trial makes him humble and weans him off dependence on his material Goods so our world is divided our Outlook is delightful we Rejoice we Glory rich or poor third our materialism is doomed that's pretty clear in verse 10 because as a flower of the field he will pass away for no sooner has the sun risen with the burning heat and it Withers the grass the flower Falls its beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man will fade away in his Pursuit now that happens to be a a free rendering of an Old Testament passage Isaiah 40: 6 and 7 James is just kind of shooting from the hip and writing it down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but it is a free rendering of those verses so what he's writing about in quoting that is very familiar to anyone living in the Mediterranean world because this happens every summer you know it's funny when we take tours to Israel if you've come with us to Israel you've come in February everything's so green and people go wow this place is so green it's nothing like where we come from this is like you know Ireland or something cuz it's just it's the rainy season it's just about over it's that over season the early and latter rains but if they come in May all those beautiful green grasses and flowers look like straw and people come and they go man this place looks like real Rancho I mean it's the same place you should have just come a couple months ago what happened this happened the sun came up the winds came it blew it away it withered when um when I did live in Israel when I lived on a kabut many years ago uh they introduced me to this phenomena it's called a sraco that's this hot wind that comes from North Africa usually Egypt and it brings bugs with it dust and extreme temperatures so whatever you're growing can wither overnight I mean it's oppressive heat or if you're from Southern California or you're listening in Southern California you know about the Santa Ana winds that come from the deserts down by Palm Springs and they can blight everything along the coast when the winds change so that was a phenomenon they were familiar with what's his point simply this you can lose everything very quickly stock market 1929 crashed the Great Depression was launched now most rich people I'm speaking generally here I'm painting with a broom I realize that most rich people are very concerned with the possibility that they may lose what they have that gnaws at them and they work hard to protect it they're worried they're going to lose it news flash you will you will lose it if you don't lose it here you will lose it when you leave here you'll lose whatever you have you can't take anything with you first Timothy Paul said for we brought nothing into this world it is certain we can carry nothing out you've heard everybody say this little saying I'm about to say you've heard it before you've never seen hearse pulling a U-Haul right you can't it's like well you know they did it in Egypt they put a bunch of stuff in the tombs of the Pharaohs yeah but it didn't really help did it you can't take anything with you so you will part with it and whatever you have achieved or accumulated stays here all your Awards All the Gold Records all the Academy Awards all the Oscars all the phds all the medical degrees all the law degrees the gold watch from the company all stays here well I'll make sure I put it on my body in the casket okay what are you going to tell time so there's a common phrase and it's accurate because it's based on scripture it's all going to burn it's all going to burn actually true second Peter chapter 3 remember Peter said everything in the material world will melt with fervent heat then he said this therefore since all these things will be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness if you have material wealth and material wealth only then all your wealth and all your plans end up in a grave that's all you have that's all you have and they end there verse 10 is very clear he says he look at the last few words he will pass away I never really liked that saying when people said well he's passed away because yeah he's but yeah but no I mean he's passed away from here but he still is alive somewhere where is that right so he he's passed from here but he has gone somewhere else um you pass from this life and you end up in heaven or in hell and so the the idea here is James is just saying live with this eternal perspective I I've always liked um Duncan mat uh he was a Scottish clergyman who said he often pray Lord stamp eternity on my eyes that's how I want to see my world I want to live my world I want to wake up every day and think eternity eternity eternity every decision I make stamp eternity on my eyes but he was Scottish so it's stop eternity on my eyes I can just hear him saying that let me give you a fourth and we'll close with this our future is dependent the future that you face after this life depends on a few things even as a Believer so look at verse 12 blessed is the man who endures Temptation I know it says temptation as if it's belonging to the next uh verses on temptation but it really in most translations unfortunately the new King James doesn't corrected but most modern translations do it's the same word as the trials back in verse 2 and three so it's it's speaking about the trials that God takes us through or allows in our lives blessed is the man who endures testing trials for when he has been approved he will receive the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised to those who love him so James closes this section on trials with a beatitude blessed marcaras is the Greek word same word Jesus used in the sermon on the mouth blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed are the meek same word marcaras it means this ready oh how happy oh how happy oh how satisfied one translation says to be envied or oh what profound inner Joy To The Man Who endures Temptation he's going all the way back to verse two count it all joy so he returns to the theme of patience remember last week's message the remaining under the Hoopa Mane we talked about that's what patience means perseverance the ability to not get out from under the trial but remain there so that God can do his work let patience hoam man have its perfect work same word here it says whoever endures Temptation the word endure is the same word as patience hoam man so blessed oh how happy to be envied satisfied profound inner Joy to the one who endures Temptation why for when he has been approved he will receive the Crown of Life which the Lord Lord promised to those who love him now don't misunderstand that he is not meaning that you get eternal life as a reward for going through trials it's not like yeah you know I've suffered a lot in this world so I deserve Heaven didn't work that way it you can suffer a lot in this world and still not go to heaven that that's horrible but it's not like well if you suffer then God will okay you know what you've had it bad here so I'm going to make it good for you there now he's not talking about that it does mean that Believers will be rewarded at the Judgment seat of Christ you are given Rewards or the absence of rewards depending on your faithful service or not to the Lord so if you remain under the trial you endure the trials Allowed by God God is going to honor you in heaven that's the reference so we've done two weeks now on trials and next we're going to get into uh the flip side of that coin that is The Temptations that we face in life before I do and before we close let me make this section very practical to us I'm just going to ask you a few questions uh just maybe close your eyes uh you don't have to but I want you to evaluate you not her him them you you evaluate yourself as I ask these questions first question how do you react when various forms of testings come into your life next question do you complain about the misfortunes of life or do you thank God for them if indeed what we read the last two weeks is true then the latter should be true you should be thanking God for them next question do you adver ize your trials broadcasting them making sure everybody knows how bad it is for you or do you bear them quietly next question do you always live in the future waiting for things to improve or do you live in the present letting the hardship change your attitude for the better right now next question do you indulge in self-pity and seek sympathy from others or do you commit yourself to a life of service for others that's the evaluation part I don't know about you but I'm convicted and I want to endure I want to remain under cuz I like I said last week I'm going through whatever test I'm going through you're going through whatever test you're going through I'm in the classroom I don't want to take this class again I want to pass this class and not be held back and take it 10 years in a row I want to move on that's part of the maturity process you know what you know what God is so committed to making you mature that he's going to send you trials that's how much God loves you God is radically committed to your growth let patience have its perfect work endure the test lord it's easier said than done it's easier to preach than to live I admit that I know that but I do speak from personal experience as well as just someone who studies the word and teaches it and so Lord we just want to end by saying thank you for the test the test of our faith that which proves the worth of our faith because every time we endure it we look back and we go wow my faith is valid my faith is worth something I got through this so father we want to submit ourselves to whatever it is you're trying to work in our lives rich or poor we want to glory in what we are going through we want to boast in it rejoice in it because we are being leveled the poor is being lifted up the high is being brought down and we realize we are Sons and Daughters Brothers and Sisters of the same God and you're the only high and lifted up one so thank you once again in jesus' name thank you so much for joining us for this message from Calvary Church with skip heik we would love to know how this teaching has impacted you share your story with us email my story at Calvary nm. Church and if you'd like to support this Bible Teaching Ministry with a financial gift visit Calvary nm. Church

Channel: Connect with Skip Heitzig

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Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermons, Calvary Church, Jesus, How to Study the Bible, Gospel, adulting, dependent, divided, evil, exaltation, future, hardship, humble, humiliation, humility, low, lowly, materialism, money, poor, rich, trials, tribulations, wealth, world

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Length: 42min 39sec (2559 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024