"Weep and Howl! (James)" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

now today we're going to begin in lesson number 10 studying the book of james we've been going sequentially through the chapters of james i really like the way this lesson was written because you by the time you're done you've read every verse in the book of james and broken it down and this is just great bible study we have a memory verse and i invite the class here to say it out loud with me that verse is matthew 6 verse 21 matthew 6 21 if you have a quarterly of course it's right there in the lesson with you and very important central point on treasure are you ready say it together for where your treasure is there will your heart be also now this lesson is specifically dealing with uh where is our treasure and it says weep and how because in the book of james he makes some very powerful statements speaking to the rich and how that's often abused this lesson is dealing principally with the rich who abuse their authority power and money now you know what i thought would be a good idea if you have your bibles and i know you do go to the book of james and let's just read the verses that we're going to consider today in our study i'm going to start with james chapter 5 and we'll probably read right up through verse 7 here james 5 chapter 5 1-7 come now you rich weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you your ridges are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten your gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire you've heaped up treasure in the last days indeed the wages of the laborers who are mo who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out and the cries of the reapers have reached into the ears of the lord of sabaioth you've lived in luxury on the earth and pleasure and you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter you've condemned you've murdered the just he does not resist you therefore be patient brethren until the coming of the lord see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain so i added that version because it talks about the the abuse that comes often from those in positions of wealth and power but it ends with a word of encouragement if you suffer these things it's not going to last forever what comes as a judgment on the people of power that abuse the power will also come as a refreshing and relief on the others so we're going to go ahead and and take this lesson apart piece by piece we're going to find ourselves bouncing around in the bible a little bit and just to set the stage i thought it would be interesting to remind you of something that happened not too long ago do we all know who bernie madoff is have you heard that name people often tease and they say made off made off with a lot of people's money bernie madoff is now a convicted fraud former stockbroker investment advisor and financier he had convinced to operating a ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in u.s history the current appointed trustee estimate actually says losses to investors are approximately billion dollars that he took he's sentenced to 150 years i heard he had a heart attack this week and he's suffering from kidney failure but he doesn't want dialysis probably just would assume check out as they say he's in a prison in north carolina last i heard that was abusing your power and he didn't care how many people he hurt some of the investments and the money that he took were charities that were supposed to help a lot of people and he took the money and he bought boats and he bought mansions and he traveled and bought fancy cars and houses and lands and lived the high life and gave gifts to his friends with other people's money that was for poor and suffering people from their charities he was supposed to be investing these funds and he squandered how'd you like to face the judgment with something like that over your head but maybe on a smaller scale some people still do the same things you know you don't have to be a millionaire to be greedy and you don't have to be rich to also take advantage of others and that's what this lesson is really dealing with all right james 5 1. we're going to break it down verse by verse come now here's the verse the lesson is based on this come now you rich weep in howl for your miseries that are coming upon you now the greek word translated as miseries in james 5 1 comes from the same root word used to describe laodicea as wretched in revelation 3 17. it says because you say i am rich and i have become wealthy and i have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched poor miserable blind and naked can a person think that they are rich and increased with goods and not really have very much yeah absolutely matter of fact um that really describes the condition of the church of laodicea in fact i'm going to have somebody read for me luke 17 27 who has that all right and let me read another verse and then we're going to have you do that this is from james 1 9. now we're going back in the book of james we started with chapter 5. in james 1 verse 9 and 10 it says 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 now with what james says in this book about the rich is he talking to just those that are oppressing the church members or are some of them in the church is it possible that the early church had some rich people in it now paul talks about those that are rich make sure and share generously with what the needs might be some of those who were rich when they started out as christians basically liquidated in the interest of sharing the message i know in the early days of the seventh day adventist movement one of the founders probably one of the real figureheads that founded the church was a sea captain named joseph bates and he had made so much money he actually retired but he loved the message so much that when he died he had very little left because he invested all that he had he could have easily lived off his retirement the rest of his life he invested all that he had in publishing and spreading and underwriting the spreading of the message nicodemus was very wealthy from the time of the death of christ he began investing in helping to sustain and support the church barnabas had some lands and he sold them laid the money at the apostles feet i mean they were really making sacrificial gifts so is it a sin for you to have any property you know there's it takes divine wisdom in the holy spirit to guide each person it may be a little different too how much should you give how much should you keep how much should you earn i think it was john wesley that said that the secret for christian and finances is earn all you can save all you can give all you can he doesn't specify specify what that is but christians ought to be industrious we ought to be good stewards how many parables does jesus tell about he gives us talents he wants us to invest them and increase them right the bible says a lot about that proverbs a number of things talks about god blessing and increasing god blessed and increased abraham isaac and jacob but they were also generous and then jesus gives us those warnings that fly in the face of prosperity preaching which is harder for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and the idea for a christian when it comes to riches if if if you could know exactly when the lord's coming you'd want to make sure you have nothing left when he comes right the idea is that before the lord comes you want to invest your last dollar before probation closes actually in spreading the gospel did noah have any regrets that he invested all that he had in building the ark well he might have while he was building it he had no regrets when the door was shut and the thing began to float right because he had put everything he had into staying alive and saving his family no regrets at that point so what profit is that if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul all right i got you queued up now you're going to read i think revelation 17 27 please i'm sorry luke yes thank you you're going to read luke 17 27. they did eat they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all yeah speaking of the time just before jesus comes back i think a lot of christians believe that the second coming of jesus is preceded by a worldwide economic collapse the bible doesn't teach that the bible says in such an hour as you think not the son of man comes up until the end they marry they plant they build they eat they drink and it comes as an overwhelming surprise and so the world's still going yes there's going to be trials and there'll be spots in the world where there's going to be great disasters but life is going to continue to go on just like it did before sodom was destroyed just like it did before the time of noah the sun was shining the day before the rain came and people were involved in business and planning their weddings and their futures and um i'm going to go to this town and buy and sell and get gain and i'm going to build bigger barns and put all my proceeds in those barns i mean they were moving on with their plans so that's why we need to be really in tune with the holy spirit because god does not want that day to overtake us as a thief all right still under the section justice will be done ii timothy 3 1-5 talk a little bit about what paul says regarding money but know this in the last days perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy unloving lot of uns there unthankful unholy unloving unforgiving slanders without self-control brutal despisers of good traitors headstrong haughty lovers of pleasure more than lovers of god and you know what really makes this whole verse especially scary having a form of godliness but denying its power these people will have an outward religion but they don't have the holy spirit can that be people like the ones described in revelation who are outwardly rich and increased with goods and think they need nothing but inwardly they are poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked and so this is a condition of not just the world before jesus comes but many who are professing to be the church so what james says when he talks about weeping and howling is not just meant for the wicked out in the world he's warning those in the church who are becoming distracted with or at least a professing to be christians but they're distracted with the um the blessings of of god instead of god they're distracted with worldly treasure instead of heavenly wealth all right we're going to move on to the section when wealth becomes worthless and our verses we're going to consider here james chapter 5 verse 2 and 3. it says your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten your gold and your silver are corroded and does gold ever corrode not normally some of you may have heard me share that amazing fact happened in northern california uh last year couple walking in el dorado county on their property they had some land up there walking the trail they walked many times before under an oak tree husband saw what he thought was a glint oh he saw the edge of a can he thought what is that and his wife and him leaned over and they took a stick and they dug around a little bit and these can was there and it was full of gold coins and they found eight cans they got a metal detector there and they found eight cans as far as they know it was black bart's treasure they were unminted gold coins i forget they just sold it for like 25 million dollars at an auction the value of the coins was worth more than the value of the gold because they were perfectly preserved no corrosion on them gold doesn't corrode so when he's talking about your gold corroding that's gold basically being turned back into the elements of the earth and mixed with other things because of heat so god is saying that you know when the elements melt with fervent heat your goldman at that point is not worth anything right it says it will be a witness against you and eat your flesh like fire you've heaped up treasure in the last days these things can stand as a judgment you know there's a statement here that's in the lesson from the spirit of prophecy this is from testimonies volume 2 page 682 riches bring with them great responsibility to obtain wealth by unjust dealing by overreaching in trade by oppressing the widow and the fatherless or by hoarding up riches and neglecting the wants of the needy will eventually bring the retribution described by the inspired apostle verses we just read go now you richmond weep and howl for your misery shall come upon you and so it you know with influence comes responsibility and accountability money gives you influence and power and as a christian if he gives you that you want to use your money and that influence and that power to tell for good if it's just for selfish pleasure instead of helping you it can hurt you i think it was benjamin franklin that said more people are destroyed by abundance than want more people are destroyed i know it's not in the bible but it's worth remembering more people are destroyed by abundance than one a lot of people think oh man i'd if i could just win the lottery you know i wouldn't have all these worries stress i could pay off my bills and i'd go around just do good i just help people i'd give to charities people think that and they may have good hearts when they say that but you know what the record shows the typical person that wins the lottery within a few years they've made bad investments they've lost it in some cases they are more in debt than before they won in some cases they get involved in court disputes and battles with their family some have been murdered by family members who won the lottery because their spouses wanted the money i mean that someone went and did research of people that won the lottery and the vast majority of them their lives just spiraled into misery uh very few of them um knew how to handle it i remember one fella that he did okay he won the lottery they have 25 million dollars they don't give it to all at once it's like you know 10 000 a month the rest of your life or something like that but he drove a truck and he said what are you gonna do he says i'm gonna go to work tomorrow aren't you gonna quit no i like my job well i don't want to do nothing he said well you know i'm gonna probably get a better house and i'm gonna share some with my family and share some with my church and he said just it's been a blessing and i'm gonna just try and prove my quality of life but kept right on working now that kind of person they know how to handle it but a lot of people are destroyed by abundance that's why jesus said hardly shall a rich man enter the kingdom because we get where we start trusting the money for our peace and happiness instead of trusting god so here's an example in luke 12 16. let's talk this heading here is when wealth becomes worthless luke 12 16 and he spoke a parable to them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself what shall i do because i have no room where to bestow my fruits never crosses his mind well maybe you should share some and he said this will i do i'll pull down my barns and build greater and there i'll bestow all my fruits and my goods and i will say to my soul soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but god said to him you fool this night your soul will be required of you then whose shall those things be for which you provided so is he that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards god there is a warning there jesus is giving this to the church to the disciples we have to be careful you know the bible doesn't say a lot about retirement i'm not saying it's wrong to retire it actually sounds very attractive to me some days but god wants the reason is i think god wants his people to remain useful even if they should retire from their regular work i think as long as god gives us health and strength christians should be productive it doesn't mean you might not retire from your job but i know a lot of very happy retirees they retire they get their pension or their income then they go on maranatha church building trips or they go on amazing facts mission trips or whatever it might be because they say i want to continue to be useful for god i remember an old preacher that said make sure you stay useful in the kingdom because god has shown historically he tends to keep people around if they make themselves useful have you ever known an old couple married for many years and then one of the spouses dies as usual is the case and it just seems like it's in a few months the other dies it's like their lives were involved in helping take care of each other and when their purpose was gone their meaning for life was gone you need to have a purpose and you need to be involved in serving god and he's inclined to keep you around when that happens um all right here i'm going to do another story and this is from the book of first samuel 25 verse 2. anyone know what that's about you heard of someone named nabel we're still talking about when wealth becomes worthless nabel let me give you the background for this illustration of bible illustrates exactly what james was talking about nabel was a very wealthy landowner that lived up in the area of carmel not carmel california carmel and israel and he had a beautiful wife named abigail and david had been running from saul and he was living in the northern part of the kingdom at this time living out in the wilderness his the woods the hills where david and his soldiers were hiding uh were right next to the property of naval and naval shepherds and his uh cowboys were all out there and they became friends with david soldiers and david protected them against the assyrians and the raiding armies from the north and so david finally when the time came for sheep shearing he said to some of his soldiers go down typically this is a time of giving gifts and generosity when the they rejoice in the sheep shearing they also usually slaughtered some animals and there was abundance and there were some things that were being harvested during this time he said go down and say we're your servants with with david if there's anything you'd like to share with us during this time we appreciate it we've been kind of guarding your flocks and everything and nabal the bible says he was just such a churlish man selfish greedy and when the soldiers came with this message from david he said oh there's a lot of servants running away from their masters these days he's calling david a runaway slave because he was running from saul he said why am i supposed to take the food i'm supposed to give my slaves and give it to a runaway slave and and he was very rude well david had 600 soldiers with him at that time later known as the mighty men and this fellow had just terribly insulted them and so when abigail heard what her husband had said to david's messengers she said oh that was not good and the shepherd said david's soldiers had been a wall for us day and night protecting our flocks they've not molested us they've been friends with us they've taken care of us we should have helped them and so she got these provisions together and met david was on his way to attack nabal for his insult and she met them on the way and said please forgive your servant just like his name he's foolish that's what the name meant and she gave him something he said okay well you know what mabel had a stroke that day when abigail told him the next morning that he had nearly been killed and everything he had taken by david he almost had a stroke that day and he did have a stroke that next morning and he died 10 days later kind of this is what jesus is referring to in that parable of the foolish man he said i'm going to keep it all he lost it all he wouldn't share a little bit and he lost it all not only did he lose his houses and his lands guess who ended up marrying his wife david so it doesn't pay to be stingy all right um now you know this i'm looking at the clock and trying to piece myself here what about um hezekiah you remember when the messengers were sent you find this in second kings 20 verse 12. at that time barodak baladan the son of baladan king of babylon sent letters and a present to hezekiah for you heard that hezekiah had been sick and they just wanted to hear about god but you know what hezekiah showed them because he said wow babylon that's the center of sophistication in this part of the world they've come to me wow he felt a little insecure i said i better impress him with what i have and so hezekiah said here let me show you my house and he took him on a tour of the rich and famous said here's my armory look at all the gold that i've got here's my treasury here's all my jewels and look at all the weapons that we have and look at all the marble and and they wanted to find about the god who made the sun go backwards he didn't say anything about god just showed him all his stuff and then they left and isaiah came to hezekiah and he said these men came to you where'd they come from what did they see in your house he said oh they came from babylon and what'd they see oh i showed them everything in my house there was nothing among my things i didn't show them and isaiah said hear the word of the lord these people from babylon are going to go back and they're going to tell their leaders about all the treasures and they're going to come and they're going to take it all and they're going to take all of your treasure and they're going to take your grandchildren and they are going to be eunuchs in the palace of babylon because you didn't exalt god you showed them your treasure and they're going to want your treasure your treasure was your stuff and not your god jesus said lay not up for yourself treasure on earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal last 24 hours i had two friends told me someone broke into their house actually karen told me one of our neighbors broke into a friend's house and it's just always it's happened to us just you always feel kind of violated when that happens nothing in this world is going to last the only thing that's going to get out of this world that's worth anything is people who have been transformed by the power of god hezekiah everything was taken by king nebuchadnezzar a little while later and daniel shadrach meshach and abednego some of the royal line they were made eunuchs in the palace of babylon the exact same thing that isaiah said would happen but then you get to the apostles and this is acts chapter 3 and their attitude is a little different at that point you remember the story about the beautiful gate and i think one of you is going to be reading for me um in just a moment proverbs 3 27-28 who has you'll be doing that just a moment okay you remember when peter and john they go into the temple people are there begging there's a man crippled begging at the temple gate and he's wanting some money wanting a handout peter stops and looks at him because his heart you know goes out to the man when you've got the heart of jesus you care about suffering and he sees this man who's suffering not only because he's poor but the reason he's poor is because he's crippled so what's the best thing to do if you can help a person who's poor because they're crippled and you can save them from being crippled what would they rather have a handout for one more sandwich or would they rather have legs so they could work and feed themselves so he stops and he looks at him and the man says oh good i've got a live one here he's going to give me something and peter says unless you misunderstand silver and gold i do not have but such that i have i'm going to give you i'm going to give you something but it's not silver or gold sometimes i've stopped where you know you have people at the intersections and they're holding out the sign and they're asking for handouts and and i pause and you know sometimes if they look like they're not going to use it the wrong way and it's hard to tell but i used to panhandle i did it quite a bit and so i know a lot of times when i was panhandling sometimes i bought food sometimes i bought beer and so you don't want to help a person get drunk and hurt themselves that just kind of enables their prodigal living but i'll pause and i and i'll have like a magazine or book or something like that it happened last week here in town and you give them something that's like they go oh thanks that's you say to a mouthful silver and gold i don't have but i got this track oh thanks a lot right and so when he says to uh this man peter says silver and gold i don't have he's no what's he gonna preach to me but i've got something better now that man had come we read some of the background material that man had come to jerusalem because he had heard about jesus he had come a long way because he wanted to be healed he got there and found out that about 50 days earlier jesus had been crucified can you imagine how devastated he was because christ healed just about everybody around the temple and so this man was someone new and he said in the name of jesus stand up and walk and peter took him by the hand and gave him the ability to walk what would you rather have what kind of riches should we desire if god says i'm going to give you silver and gold or i'm going to give you the ability to walk the christian walk what would be worth more you know that song it's a kind of an interesting story have you all heard of george beverly shea he was a famous singing evangelist with a billy graham for 60 years karen and i saw him once when billy graham came to northern california oh 25 years ago or 20 years ago anyway and well when george beverly shea was in his late 20s may have been early 30s he was an insurance salesman loved to sing sing in church father was a methodist minister and his singing was becoming more recognized he'd sing on the radio usually hymns he'd do this program called songs in the night or something he'd sing beautiful bass baritone voice and you're good musician too he could play piano he was offered the opportunity with a big contract to sing on nbc on this radio program but it would involve him singing secular songs and he said you know i just i really believe that god wants me to sing for him and i don't think this is what he wants me to do and people say oh man it's the opportunity you've always wanted to sing full time this is your opportunity to sing full time he says yeah but i'm not comfortable singing worldly music i want to sing for god so he turned it down and it wasn't long and they said you're going to miss it no one will ever hear from you again his friends told him this is your chance at fame they said no one will ever hear from you and then a young evangelist called him said like you he heard him sing and he said i want you to sing for some meetings i'm doing that was billy graham and so he went and began to sing for billy graham well you know since then he lived to 104 he died last year they estimate the george beverly shea saying his voice was heard live by more people than any other voice in history because he's saying for these billy graham crusades live that were broadcast around the world and so when you give your gifts to god he will multiply them and he'll take care of you anyway so what would you rather have earthly silver and gold you know george beverly shea saying this song that's what made me think of the whole story i'd rather have so i'd rather have jesus than silver and gold right and uh that worked out that way for him all right let's go down cries of the poor and um read for us please proverbs 3 verse 27 and 28 withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it say not unto thy neighbor go and come again and tomorrow i will i will give when thou has it by thee if you have someone working for you or they do a job for you and you're able to pay them don't say to them oh yeah checks in the mail i'll get back to you yeah i don't have it right now it's not with me right now but when someone has done work for you now i know if you work for a company and you get your paycheck every two weeks you shouldn't say ask for it every day but they didn't have those kind of pay systems in the bible you had to trust the person to pay you you know the parable jesus tells about the workers in the vineyard it says at the end of the day the steward brought everyone there paid him right then because they might need that that data to be fed and so a good man did that back then they wanted to make sure that people were fed and they didn't have to wait a long time to get their paycheck and so this is a principle james talks about this in chapter 5 verse 4 behold the higher of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the lord of sabioth now that word savio the first time i read that i thought that meant lord of sabbath no sabiof means hosts or the lord of armies it's a different word it means the lord of the armies of the angels of heaven he sees what you're doing and they'll be judgment for that so when you owe somebody and you're a christian you should pay them i remember when i first started reading the bible but i wasn't really converted yet i used to steal and i started saying well i'm not going to steal from people anymore because you know it hurts folks but i have no problem shoplifting because they're rich companies and they charge too much anyway and i would justify it never did occur to me the reason they charge so much is because there's so much shoplifting that the prices go up for everybody else you know why insurance is so high because of insurance fraud you know one reason medical expenses are so high because people often abuse the system and so when people take advantage of those things they end up driving up the cost for everybody else leviticus 19 3 the same principle you were just reading here you shall not cheat your neighbor nor rob him the wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until the morning that's pretty clear that you're to pay people right on time and back then it was at the end of the day as i said you know if you're in a a typical system where it's a computerized usually bi-weekly there are some companies that still do it monthly but usually bi-weekly people get their their paycheck because it all has to be processed with taxes and things like that but you know there's a lot of places in the world still someone does some work for you you pay them right then and and whenever you're able to you need to do that because it's a principle you have something that belongs to somebody else i don't know about you but whenever i have to borrow and i owe somebody i am uncomfortable until i pay him back i don't like owing anybody anything i'd like to be because i feel like i've got something that belongs to someone else it's i felt it's like almost temporary theft or something and i want to get it back to him and then as soon as you borrow it it breaks you ever hadn't noticed that the pastor who baptized me i borrowed his rototiller and he said oh no problem i've had this mary tiller for 20 years it starts full time and the first time you crank it it just goes and goes well first time i used it i probably didn't know what i was doing but i broke it and i felt so bad i never could get that thing running again i felt so bad and so uh i think we ended up getting another rototiller or something james 5 5 still on that section you've lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury you fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter this is talking about the the cries of the poor but it really fits under the section fat and happy because it says you've fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter now you know just before thanksgiving the turkey gets cooped up and he's just fed the very best and he thinks wow i'm in paradise but what's happening it's being fattened for the slaughter right and the calf might get pinned up and the other cows are just getting hay he's getting grain he thinks wow look at me you guys you're just getting the straw i'm getting grain but he doesn't realize he's being fattened up for the slaughter and here james is using that terminology and he's saying do not think because you're living in luxury in this life that is going to translate to the favor of god in the next life how many of you remember the parable of the rich man and lazarus you've got the poor man and this is in luke chapter 16 it starts with verse 19. you've got the poor man oh by the way that's our our book that free offer that we've got for this program poor man is struggling he's desiring the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table the rich man is feasting he's in a palace the poor man's at his gates that means he got a house with gates he's clothed with purple he's got you know the picture is that he's got great abundance and luxury and he's probably thinking to himself obviously god loves me more than poor lazarus at my gate because look at how i'm blessed and look at how he suffers that is not biblically true because a person is prospering doesn't always mean they're prospering spiritually i think we all know people that may be rich and they're very cold to others and they're they're abusive and they're uncaring who was it leona helmsley they called her the was the witch of wall street uh owned these hotels and left like one dollar to her children and grandchildren left millions of dollars to her maltese dog i was just not everybody that has money uh really loves their neighbor and what happened in the judgment the rich man he goes to torment and the poor man he goes to glory and he's in abraham's bosom and so james is saying do not think because you have an abundance in this life that somehow god loves you more than others keep in mind god and the devil can send prosperity jesus said god is love he will send rain and sunshine on the good and on the evil and there are certain laws of life that god respects there are some people who work very hard they use the wisdom god's given them to get very rich and they live very selfish lives he won't stop them from ever making money or being rich but they might be getting fat for the day of slaughter all right someone i think has jeremiah 22 13 is that you all right i think we're ready for that if they're ready for you 22 13 woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice who uses his neighbor's service without wages and gives him nothing for his work here are just a few more verses that talk about that principle that we need to be fair with i was traveling with a friend who was a christian a very successful businessman and we were in a hotel room together and in india somebody brought his bag to his room and he took out and handed the fella a 20 tip and first the young man he took the money he put in his hand he walked out he then when he got in the hall evidently opened up and saw what it was well you know in india a 20 american dollar tip is like giving a hundred dollar tip in the states he actually walked back in the room and said sir i think you may have mistakenly given me the wrong bill and my friend said no that's for you and he went out and i thought wow that that's really generous instead of giving no you know you might tip a person for bringing your bag to the room but uh instead of giving maybe what would have been normal he said i want to make his day i'm going to bless him above what's normal and wow it just i thought to myself he just wants to go above and beyond with everybody i had someone tell me you doug do you realize you paid that person too much for that i said i know but i said maybe they need it too i mean you know sometimes we always try and when we deal and negotiate with people get the very best price christians shouldn't always necessarily be stingy that way i think we should be economical but sometimes you might even pay a person a little more than you know it's worth because you're wanting to be generous you ever think of it that way all right let me give you another example we're talking about under the section fat and happy now but it doesn't stay that way james 5 5 you've lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury you've fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter now we read that already but how many of you remember the story of ghazai when you think of the word gehezei you could actually think of the word greed elisha the prophet he was the attendant of elisha of the prophet just like elisha was the personal attendant of elijah elijah didn't want an earthly inheritance when god said to elisha elisha rather didn't want an earthly inheritance when god said to him what do you want before i go to heaven he didn't say i want a million dollars like you know a genie or something he said let me have a double portion of your spirit well elijah goes to heaven and a fiery chariot elisha gets a double portion of god's spirit now elisha is training his apprentice who could be the next prophet of israel gehesai but he said i didn't want the spirit he wanted the stuff and gaheza sort of resented that when naam and the prophet came to be cleansed of his leprosy nam naming the leper rather came to be cleansed he was a syrian from his uh leprosy he brought all this money with him you know millions of dollars by today's standard to pay for his healing and he tried to pay when he was cleansed from leprosy and elisha the prophet said won't take anything not of nothing because your healing is a symbol for salvation and it's free god wants you to know it's a gift and he flatly refused even though naaman urged him to take something but gaheza was watching he's thinking are you crazy man we could look at the house we're living in look at the pews in the church we could use a little bit he doesn't need it we need it but there's a principle involved it represented salvation he wasn't going to take anything so after naam and leaves and elisha settles down in the house get his i said i'm not letting the guy get away with all that money he's a syrian they don't deserve it we deserve it who knows what he said ran after him chased him down and pretty soon he caught up with the chariot he's huffing and puffing and name and stopped and said what can i do for you something up he says you know elisha said we don't need anything but right after you left we have two poor sons of the prophets that came from another place and they could really use some help and he said happy to help i mean naaman's so happy he's just been healed of leprosy he's got life he'd give it all he didn't care right because for him life was worth more than the means he said well if we could have some silver he said take two and he he loads them down with all this silver elisha i'm sorry tries to sneak back to elisha's house without him knowing and he comes in to check on his master and elisha said so where were you okay he said you disappeared for a little while why didn't go anywhere and elisha said did not my heart go with you when you turned back after the man he said is this a time to get houses and vineyards olive yards male and female servants he said because you've done this thing the leprosy of naaman is going to cling to you and your descendants forever and it says he went out of the presence of elisha a leper white as snow so he because of his greed was he happy then when he got those earthly riches can you think of somebody else in the bible that was preoccupied with earthly riches and it backfired on them what about judas he was willing to sell the savior for silver and you think what in the world came over him here he's got a friend who's offering him eternal life golden streets and all judas could think about was 30 pieces of silver right now that price of a slave and by the way the bible foretold isn't that amazing prophecy the bible foretold how much jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver that it would be cast to the potter in the house of the lord judas came with that 30 pieces of silver he was overwhelmed with guilt when he realized that jesus was going to be executed he threw down the money he said i betrayed innocent blood he threw it down in the house of the lord they didn't know what to do with the money because it was blood money and so they said let's use it to buy the potter's field a field that a potter had nothing would grow there he potter got his clay out of this field because it was a clay field to bury people in so the money that was used to betray jesus ended up becoming graveyard money to buy a a worthless field for burying criminals and strangers in i mean how perfectly that prophecy was fulfilled how happy was judas did that money make him happy what profit is it if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul and this is what james is saying in this whole section he's talking about this kind of increase doesn't bring lasting joy all right let's talk about another character who has the book of jude verse 11. okay you're going to read that next but before you do i'm going to read genesis 14 verse 22 and through 23. some of you remember when abraham rescued lot lot had been carried away there was a battle where these five kings of the north led by a man named chedo leomer from up by damascus they came down and they attacked the four kings of sodom gomorrah zor and another city and sodom and gomorrah and those cities of the plane fell they were captured they were being carried off to the north abraham with mamrie and hesco they got escuel they got together and they formed an alliance and they went and attacked the invading army and rescued everyone that had been captured including lot well by rights abraham had the rights of all of the bounty of the war because they were all lost they were all dying they said you keep you can keep it all just give us our lives and you know what abraham said i'm not going to take any of it abraham said to the king of sodom i have lifted up my hand to the lord the most high god the possessor of heaven and earth he owns everything that i will take i will not take a thread even a shoelace from the things that were taken from this war lest thou should say i have made abram rich he said if i am blessed it's going to be god that makes me rich i'm not going to take anything from sodom now there's a principle there i think we all understand yeah sodom even back then was known as a wicked place it says it before this story said i'm not taking anything from sodom i don't want you folks saying yeah abraham's rich because he took everything from us so god wants his people when the blessings come let it be by integrity all right read for us jude verse 11 woe to them for they have gone in the way of cain have run greedily in the air of balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of qura all right so he talks about kane and he talks about korra but the main one there in the middle he uses the example of greedily running after gain like who balaam what was balaam's occupation he was a prophet of god but what went wrong he was being offered a substantial raise and a lot of benefits in order to compromise his his gifts and i remember hearing a story about a man who was a missionary in indonesia years ago at an oil company i don't know if it was chevron or exxon one of these oil companies was doing work there and they said we need somebody who knows the culture knows the people that can speak the language that um can be a liaison among these tribes where we're going to be doing some drilling and they said the best person is this missionary it's been there for years he's very bright he knows the people knows the customs they went and they offered him a job and he turned it down and they would send another group back to him and they said we'll give you more and he turned it down and they went back from the third time they said you name your price and he said it's it's not that the price isn't enough the price is more than high enough he says the job isn't big enough he says i'm working for god you're asking me to work for an oil company he said that's not a big enough job for me and so balaam though he wanted the honors and he did everything he could to take his gift that god had given him a prophecy and he tried to use it to curse god's people and he knew that was wrong but he wanted the money and you know what happened balaam ended up losing his life he may have gotten some of the rewards of balak but it didn't last didn't bring him any happiness so moving on then you've got the the section called uh fat and happy for now amos 4 1 hear the word of the lord you cow's of basian who are on the mountains of samaria who oppress the poor who crush the needy who say to your husbands bring wine let us drink now the fact that they're saying to their husbands means are these men or women women uh boy you just get a lot of trouble if you're teaching a class and you're talking about fat women but what does a woman represent in prophecy a church this is spiritual language that is talking about the religions of the people that were drunk does revelation talk about a woman who's drunk does it say she's rich wearing pearls and gold persecuting the prophets and the poor are there religious institutions that take advantage of the poor matter of fact one of the the worst things false representations that happens to the christian church is when people in the name of god take advantage of others and they rob the poor and the widows i mean we've all heard stories about unscrupulous preachers that say you know just send your your last check to me and god is going to consider it a seed of faith and he'll open the windows of heaven for you and and people are are destitute because they're being led to give and to give jesus said to the pharisees you rob widows houses and for a pretense you make long prayers so even in the religious world that james is talking about there were some who were very rich was nicodemus religious and was nicodemus rich you know so even in the early church back then many the priests converted and many of them had a lot of resources and they were taking advantage of others under the last section here it says blame the victim james 5 6 you have condemned and you have murdered the just and he does not resist you he's talking here about taking advantage of people because of the position of power have we seen in history that sometimes people with money and influence they're not held to the same standard they can hire better lawyers seems like their jail terms is not as long as others maybe and when politicians are caught in corruption have you ever noticed that they kind of get put in these jails that are like a country club uh not always but several times if your average person did some of the extortion and corruption that they do they'd be locked up in a common jail but because of their money and their influence it seems like they get special favors and they take advantage of people who has james two verse five okay you got the microphone i think i'm going to have you read that for us now james 2 verse 5 listen my beloved brethren has god not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him now god wants us to be rich and heaven will be the richest of all because we will live in the greatest most glorious kingdom walking on golden streets wearing crowns but he wants us the first before we can enjoy and handle riches like that we must be rich in faith and that's why uh he says jesus says matthew 5 3 blessed are the poor is god saying that there's some virtue in being poor he says blessed are the poor in spirit that means the humble for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now we need to be careful not to trust in uncertain riches the bible is very clear about that what jesus said to the rich young ruler he didn't say to everybody go sell all that you have give it to the poor you'll have treasure in heaven i think that everybody when they become a christian in their heart needs to make that decision lord everything i have belongs to you and i will use it the way you direct and be willing as god presents needs and his will to freely distribute and at the same time christians need to know how to work they know how to save they need to be open to the holy spirit and know how to give and witness for jesus i know one one wealthy fellow he wanted a witness for the lord he had money but he was always very shy talking to people and so what he did is he took a cab to this evangelistic meeting in in the city and he said to the cab driver i had lots of money he said i'm going to go to this meeting it's really good and i don't want to look for a cab when i get out he says you leave the meter running you come in with me and so he paid for the cab driver to leave his meter running and come in and sit and listen and hear the gospel and i understand the guy was ultimately converted i mean he just felt that some not all of us could afford but he could and that was his way of witnessing and so all of us can do something to share our faith and we want to make sure that we don't become distracted with a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses important for us to remember because we live in the generation where we have more things that we can buy now than any other time in the history of man it's easy for us to be distracted with things and forget about what really matters which is eternal life amen i want to remind our friends that are watching with us we're coming to you from albuquerque right now but we do have a free offer it's called the rich man and lazarus by dennis cruz offer number 118 when you call 866-788-3906 that's 866 study more god bless you until we get to study god's word together again next week did you know that noah was present at the birth of abraham ok maybe he wasn't in the room but he was alive and probably telling stories about his floating zoo from the creation of the world to the last day events of revelation biblehistory.com is a free resource where you can explore major bible events and characters enhance your knowledge of the bible and draw closer to god's word go deeper visit biblehistory.com

Channel: Aaron

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Id: HRfBhVLPJYY

Length: 56min 25sec (3385 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 30 2020