James: Authentic Faith - Week 11: More Money Equals More Responsibility | James 5:1-6

Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan.

Thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.

Today's sermon we moved into James chapter 5, as we consider God's wisdom or the way that we save and spend our money.

James 5 · chapter mention

In James chapter 5, verses 1 through 6, James teaches us that more money equals more responsibility.

James 5:1–6

In the year 1870, John D.

Rockefeller founded Standard Oil.

That is a pivotal moment in American industry and in American history because within 20 years, Standard Oil controlled 90% of the market.

90% of the refineries, of the pipelines, of the shipping, shipping, and oil markets in the United States.

As a result of that 90% market control, Rockefeller soon became the world's richest man.

He became the first man in America to be a billionaire.

To give you a little perspective on John D.

Rockefeller and his wealth, at the height of his wealth, he was worth 1% of the entire U.S.

economy.

And then if you adjust for inflation and you bring it to the year 2021, that means John D.

Rockefeller would have been worth north of$400 billion.

That's more than the combined net worth of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Like they're like combined about$360 billion, depending on how the market's doing today.

So they're$50,$60,$70 million behind Rockefeller.

It's easy to be blown away by the wealth of that one man.

But maybe because he had so much wealth, uh, Rockefeller would be the perfect person to ask that question that we've all wanted to ask at one point or another, or our children have asked it of us.

It's this question: How much money is enough?

Surely someone with uh$400 billion, he is a guy who could answer that question for us.

Well, one day he was asked that question, reporter asked him, and that was his answer.

Just a little bit more, just a little bit more.

Mr.

Rockefeller, CEO of Standard Oil, how much money is enough?

Just a little bit more.

Mr.

Rockefeller, world's richest man, how much money is enough?

Just a little bit more.

Kind of an interesting response from someone who has 1% of the entire U.S.

economy in assets.

I just need a little bit more.

Why would he answer that question with that statement?

Well, maybe John D.

Rockefeller believes what so many of us believe.

More money equals more happiness.

So that actually is true for some people.

It's true for people who live at or below the poverty line.

That if they have more money, it does lead to an increase in happiness within their home.

Because with more money, everyday pressures are relieved.

They don't have to worry about how to pay rent or how they're gonna buy groceries or paying for reliable transportation to get to and from work or being able to go to the doctor and to afford medical care.

For some people, it is true that more money equals more happiness.

But it's not true for everybody.

Yeah, research shows that once people reach the level of middle class, that even a significant jump in income only brings a slight temporary increase in happiness.

In fact, Americans who annually earn more than ten million dollars, their level of personal happiness, it's comparable to the blue-collar employees who work for them.

Yet we still want to believe that it's true for everybody that more money has to equal more happiness.

One reason we believe that statement has to be true for everybody is at least in part to the marketing strategy of advertisers.

It's a strategy called inadequacy marketing.

They all use it.

That strategy tells you that your life is missing something, that your life is incomplete, that your life could achieve another level of happiness.

And so these ads begin, and what they do is they create a sense of anxiety within the human heart.

I'm missing out on something in life.

And then do you know what they do?

They provide the magic bullet, the perfect solution that solves all of your problems.

By the end of the ad, the once anxious actor is happier and thinner and prettier than they were before.

And often they're surrounded by a group of friends who are happier and thinner and prettier than they were before.

And you're thinking, man, I want that life.

More money has to equal more happiness because I need that product.

I can have more upgrades.

I can have more experiences.

I can have more freedom.

But again, research doesn't back that conclusion.

Researchers have now know that since 1950, um, consumption in America has more than doubled, and personal happiness has actually declined.

Maybe that's why Ecclesiastes tells us this, chapter 5, verse 10.

Those who love money will never have enough.

How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness.

Life becomes meaningless if we believe that more money equals more happiness, because that statement, for most of us, if not all of us in this room, it really just reflects the wisdom of the world.

It reflects the wisdom of marketers and salesmen, of Instagram influencers.

It's the wisdom that drives big government and big tech and big banks and big business.

A few weeks ago, James in chapter 3, verse 15, he said that worldly wisdom like that is satanic, it's demonic, it's unspiritual.

Or Proverbs 16, 25 says, worldly wisdom like more money brings more happiness, it's a way that looks harmless enough, but look again, it leads straight to hell.

Then what's God's wisdom, God's life-giving wisdom with regard to how we understand and use money?

How do we, as God's children, as people who earn money, who have money in our checking, our savings, our retirement accounts, how do we live according to God's truth in that area of our life?

Um, how do we think about the way that we save and spend in a way that says that God, that the Lord God, He has possession of my life.

He has possession of all my bank accounts, all of my savings accounts, all my checking accounts.

And this morning, James, the half-brother of Jesus, he is going to give us a piece of godly, life-giving wisdom that's gonna stand in stark contrast to the wisdom of our world.

And here's James's piece of wisdom for all of us.

More money equals more responsibility.

More money equals more responsibility.

Think about that that contrast between the two pieces of wisdom, the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.

The wisdom of the world that says more money equals more happiness.

It's focused on personal fulfillment.

It's a piece of wisdom that can lead us to be selfish and self-centered.

Instead, God's wisdom focuses on what?

Personal responsibility.

It's a piece of wisdom that is selfless and sacrificial.

And like Eric said, money is really personal, right?

We can talk about almost anything in church, but money makes us uncomfortable.

We don't want anybody to know what we make or what's in our accounts, and we don't even want God to know what we make or what's in our accounts.

We want to keep it from everyone.

And we'll even say, I want to live according to God's wisdom when it comes to my relationship with my kids, with relationship with my wife, my friends, how I conduct business, how I treat my neighbors, but money, like that's off guards.

Like he has no right.

Like I've earned this, I deserve it.

But scripture says you cannot ignore God's wisdom in any area of life, especially when it comes to how you save and spend money.

Scripture throughout, when it talks about money, it draws this connection, that there is a clear connection between how a person understands and uses money and the condition of their soul.

This means that if we want to have this authentic, actionable faith that we've been talking about since the beginning of the summer, we have to honor God's wisdom when it comes to how we understand and use money.

We have to accept the fact that God says more money equals more responsibility.

So we're gonna read James chapter 5, verses 1 through 6, but before I read it for you, I just need to remind you of something.

James 5:1–6

I didn't write what I'm about to read.

I did not write it.

So if what I'm about to read makes you uncomfortable and angry, don't blame me, blame James.

Blame the fact that James spent his childhood and a lot of his adulthood with his half-brother and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Blame James.

He's the one who was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he wrote these words.

I didn't write them, I'm just reading them to you.

And trust me, they make me as nervous and as uneasy as they're gonna make you nervous and uneasy.

But just because we don't like what he has to say doesn't mean we don't need to hear it and we don't need to obey it.

Check out what James says, chapter 5, starting in verse 1.

He says, Now listen, you rich people.

Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.

Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.

Your gold and silver are corroded.

Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.

You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.

You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you.

James starts chapter five by directing his instruction to a specific group of people.

He says, You rich people.

And you think, oh, that's not me.

No one would ever call me rich.

I mean, I've got money in my accounts, and I've got a car to drive, and I've got a house where I live, but no one, no one, I'm not rich.

I'll just move on.

Like, I'm I'm out, guys.

See you later.

You rich people, y'all pay attention.

But we don't get off the hook quite that easy.

Rich is this adjective that demands a point of comparison.

So I'm not rich when I'm compared to John D.

Rockefeller.

You're not rich when you're compared to John D.

Rockefeller.

But maybe that's not the best point of comparison.

Maybe when we read John or James chapter 5, verse 1 in First Baptist Church of El Dorado, and we hear James say, uh, you rich people, the point of comparison is not some historical figure, it's the community that's outside of our walls.

James 5:1

Um we hear you rich people, we we should compare ourselves maybe to the 20% of people in Union County.

That's households in Union County that live at or below the poverty line.

Just so you know, that's 8% above national average.

Or when we hear James say, you rich people, our point of comparison is not um Jeff Bezos, it's not Bill Gates, it's the 26% of children in our community who live at or below the poverty line.

Again, that's 8% above the national average.

That word rich, it requires a point of comparison, and our best point of comparison is the community in which we live.

Which means James is talking to you and he's talking to me.

Pay attention, you rich people.

Listen closely, you rich people.

You've been living according to the wisdom of the world.

You need to hear the wisdom of God at this moment that more money equals more responsibility.

Apparently, those first rich people back in the ancient world, they had abdicated, they had failed to live up to that responsibility.

Now, remember, James is a key leader within the church of Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem in the first century is a city that is segregated along socioeconomic lines.

So the rich and the affluent live in one section of town, and all of the commerce flows through that section of town, all the resources go to that section of town where the educated and the elite live.

So while they live in one section, the poor live in poverty and squalor.

So literally, what happened in the city of Jerusalem when it was constructed and as the infrastructure began to take root was that cash flowed to the affluents, resources flowed to the wealthy, and literally all of the waste of the city was redirected away from that uh wealthy area of the city, and it flowed through where the poor people lived.

All the sewage was redirected towards them.

So in Jerusalem in the first century, there was this ever-widening income gap.

The rich got richer, the poor got poorer.

And it was also exacerbated by um the taxation policy of a man named King Herod the Great.

King Herod the Great was known in the ancient world for all of the building programs that he um went about completing.

And to pay for those building programs, he taxed the poor and let the rich, wealthy elites, this smaller group, keep as much as they wanted.

Herod had these tax policies where he could take just a little bit more from fishermen and just a little bit more from farmers and just a little bit more from carpenters and just a little bit more from craftsmen.

He took just a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more from people who lived paycheck to paycheck, who couldn't make ends meet, who struggled to put food on the table.

Because why?

King Herod lived according to the wisdom of the world.

King Herod said, more money, more power, more privilege equals more happiness.

King Herod had a selfish and a self-serving relationship with money.

And it's my guess that James is worried that those few people who are rich within the Church of Jerusalem, that they're gonna follow the lead of King Herod and not the lead of King Jesus, that they too will have this selfish and self-serving relationship with money.

And James is worried for them.

He is concerned for them.

That's why he tells them judgment is coming.

Judgment's about to fall on you, and your money, no matter how much that you have, is not gonna save you.

It just won't do it.

The image he gives is that the cash that's in your wallet, it's torn in two.

The expensive clothes on your back, they've got holes in them.

Those things you thought were so valuable are now valueless.

James, like you you heard me read that passage, and he doesn't hold anything back.

He doesn't try to soften the blow.

He doesn't do some uh gymnastics around to make sure they feel good about themselves at the end of the day.

He just wants them to know that the way that you spend and save money, this is a lot about you guys.

And it's actually got the power to condemn you.

That's his message to them.

James is teaching about money.

It reminds me so much of what his own half-brother said about money.

One of the places where Jesus talks about money is in Matthew chapter 19, when he just says, Truly, I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Jesus makes that claim because it's easy for us rich people to believe that we can find security and satisfaction and significance in the balance of our accounts.

You see, money is the great blinder.

Too much money is the great blinder that prevents us from seeing our most basic need is Jesus Christ.

Our security is not in securities, our security is in Jesus.

Our satisfaction doesn't come from having a greater net worth.

Our satisfaction comes from knowing Jesus Christ as our.

Lord and Savior of drinking of the living water.

And our true significance.

It's not attached to status that we earn or how people look at us.

Our true significance is that we are a child of God.

Listen, James and Jesus are in agreement of this.

That if a person has a wrong relationship with money, if they have a faulty understanding and they use it unwisely, their soul's at risk.

Because a wrong relationship with money says that you have not been captured by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You still don't know the one true God because you worship and follow another God.

In the Bible, he's the God named Mammon or wealth.

But a life, an imagination that's been captured by the gospel of Jesus Christ, you begin to have a new perspective on money, on how you understand it and how you use it.

A life that's been captured by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is a life that is willing to honor God's wisdom in every area of life, including how they save and spend money.

You're willing to accept the fact that really it is true that more money equals more responsibility.

So how do we use our money in a responsible, God-honoring way?

That's the question, right?

Well, I want us to consider three words that James uses.

Three words that name how the rich folk in Jerusalem had abdicated their responsibility.

And the first word he uses is the word hoard.

A definition for the word hoard, the excessive or extreme accumulation of anything, particularly money or possessions.

Don't confuse hoarding with saving.

Hoarding and saving are not the same thing.

Hoarding is foolish, saving is wise.

Saving, uh Proverbs chapter 21, verse 20 says that the wise man saves for the future.

Proverbs 21:20

What separates the hoarding from saving is the motivating factor.

Why do you save and why do you hoard?

They are two different factors that motivate you.

So when it comes to saving, it's motivated by a healthy fear of God.

I'm going to save because I want to be a steward of God's resources.

Hoarding, on the other hand, is motivated by an unhealthy fear of the future.

Hoarding says life could fall apart at any moment, and I have to be prepared for any one moment in the multiverse that may occur.

Like I, that's a reference if people watch Marvel movies occasionally, but I have to be prepared for what could occur.

Saving says, like, there's a few things that I could like see occurring, and I should be prepared to like if the dishwasher goes out or if the refrigerator needs to be repaired, or if I need something else done at the house, or I need to have my car uh fixed.

Hoarding says, like, there could be a day, and I don't know when that day is gonna be, when I wake up and like it's just like totally everything's out of control, and I have to be prepared for any scenario in that moment.

And so we have excessive, extreme accumulation that if those things happen, like, I'm ready.

Here's the thing when it comes to hoarding, we have to remember what did we say?

What have we been saying?

God is in control, God's in control of the future.

So if that multiverse moment happens that you cannot predict and everything goes haywire, guess what?

God's in control.

God wants you to trust in his goodness, God wants you to trust in his plan.

God doesn't want you to hoard wealth or money in the present.

Because hoarding is an abdication of responsibility.

We say for what might happen instead of addressing needs that are currently happening.

So how do we accept responsibility?

We flip the script.

Instead of being hoarders, we practice generosity.

We made it define generosity this way: sacrificially giving away money and possessions.

Generosity can occur when you give clothes that your kids have outgrown to a single mom.

You had the option you could have sold them on Facebook Marketplace, you could have sold them to friends or family members, taking Barra Lana, but instead of making money off those second-hand clothes, you just give them to someone who really needs them.

Generosity occurs when you give somebody a break on their rent so they can keep their lights on.

Or generosity occurs when you just write a check to someone in need, no questions asked.

Not expecting anything in return.

Generosity exercises responsibility because we use God's money and his resources not to increase our personal happiness or our personal security, but to promote the welfare of someone else.

How do you begin to practice generosity?

It just begins with a plan.

Like just to set a monthly amount that you give away and then you do it.

Or, man, one of the amazing things about being part of this First Baptist family is that many in this room today are generous.

Like generosity is a habit of their heart.

And one way not only to learn generosity is to surround yourself with people who are already doing it and to see the hear about the joy in their life as they give things away, to see how they aren't worried about what could happen because this need is so pressing and urgent.

I've just got to take care of it.

I've got it.

Let's just be generous in that moment.

Because what we want generosity to be is not a law of our life, but a habit of our heart.

We want it to be woven into who we are as people.

Because we want to be people who trust.

We can be generous because God was first generous towards us.

We can give because God first gave.

And God always provides what we need.

So first we practice generosity.

Let's take those second and third words together.

James uses them side by side.

Here they are, the word luxury and self-indulgence.

So there are moments in God's word when the divide between the ancient world and the modern world is like razor thin.

Right?

When it is just like He is talking to us.

Luxury and self-indulgence are two of the great temptations in modern America.

It's why so many people want to keep up with the Kardashians and why a previous generation watched lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Luxury and self-indulgence, listen, it calls us to pamper ourselves with only the very best.

You deserve it.

Luxury and self-indulgence, they lead us to confuse, to confuse our wants for true needs.

Because luxury and self-indulgence say, if you don't have the very best, if you don't spend this amount of money, if you don't have this product, if you don't have this privilege or this experience, you will never have true happiness in life.

So in our world, luxury and self-indulgence, it often involves a purchase, but it's more than a purchase, isn't it?

It's an actual habit of the heart, it's a condition of the soul.

And you know if you're a person, if luxury and self-indulgence is something you're struggling with based upon how you view other people.

So psychologists have determined that people who live lives of luxury and crave luxury and desire self-indulgence and fulfill their self-indulgent desires actually become people who cannot express compassion towards others.

A very specific example they give is that men and women who drive luxury cars, they're more likely to cut someone off at an intersection.

They are more likely to blow through a crosswalk even if they make eye contact with a pedestrian.

Ultimately, James condemns luxury and self-indulgence because it's a lifestyle that disregards other people.

It's selfish, it's self-centered.

And I think this point was especially moving to James because it was not the lifestyle of his half-brother Jesus.

The Gospels tell us that foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head.

No luxury, no comfort, no self-indulgence for Jesus.

So if luxury and self-indulgence are an abdication of responsibility, how do we accept it?

Well, let's go to the next slide.

We practice simplicity.

A lifestyle of modesty, which disciplines our desires for status and glamour and luxury.

It's a lifestyle summarized in those words of Jesus to seek first the kingdom of God.

So one way we can connect simplicity to how we live our life is by actually, I think, submitting our purchases to God.

Submitting our purchases and saying, God, do I really need this?

Do I really need this?

Or am I just buying this for status?

Am I buying this for usefulness?

Or am I buying this to make people think more highly of me?

And here's the natural overflow of simplicity.

Instead of being consumers who spend everything we earn, we can become worshipers who share, who give, who practice generosity.

So two practices: practice generosity, practice simplicity.

Two ways, two daily ways, two practical ways that we honor God's wisdom and accept the fact that more money equals more responsibility.

So, child of God, the question James asked of that first church, and he asks of this church is Are you ready to accept responsibility for the way that you save and spend money?

Because the way you save and spend, it should reflect the way that God has showered the riches of heaven upon us.

That familiar verse in John 3.16, for God so loved that he gave.

In light of James chapter 5, God didn't hoard grace in heaven.

James 5 · chapter mention

He didn't keep Jesus from us.

Instead, he sent Jesus to save us.

Or 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9.

2 Corinthians 8:9

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.

Jesus didn't cling to comfort or self-indulgence or luxury.

He became poor for us so that we might have a share in the riches of God's kingdom.

And I share those final thoughts with you.

Those two verses, John 3.16, 2 Corinthians 8.9.

Because I want you to see this.

James's instruction for us this morning is more than wisdom for financial management or wisdom on how to create a godly budget that honors the Lord.

His instruction is truly godly wisdom because it's rooted in and it's a reflection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So when we live according to the wisdom that more money equals more responsibility, we actually demonstrate how the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for the here and now.

We demonstrate the ways how the gospel of Jesus Christ in the here and now can transform the world for God's good.

We prove, in some sense, that the gospel is what the world's longing to hear.

It's what they're looking for.

It can fulfill their deepest longings and desires.

That the hot happiness they think they can find in money, the fulfillment the world thinks they can find in money, they can only find it in Jesus Christ.

But that only becomes clear to the world when we live according to a wisdom that is not of the world.

When we accept the fact that more money means more responsibility for us, more opportunities to practice generosity, more um a greater calling to practice simplicity with the resources God has given us.

So let us submit our lives to Jesus Christ, our entire life to him, including the way we save and spend money.

But to first submit your um to submit your wallet to Jesus first, you must submit your soul to him, your life to him, and trust him as your Lord and Savior.

To begin that journey where God transforms the way you use and view money, it begins by first how you view Jesus Christ, how you see him, that you would realize he truly is the only Son of God and the Savior of this world.

Jesus, listen, Jesus is the savior of us rich people, and poor people, and those in the middle, and those who are forgotten, and those who have seemingly have it all together, and those who are broken, and you see it on the outside.

Jesus is the savior of all.

No matter how much money you have in your wallet or in your accounts, the grace of heaven is for you.

Submit your life to Jesus today, child of God.

Accept the responsibility.

Or today could be the day when you put your trust in Jesus, his great gospel message for the very first time.

Let's stand together to pray.

Almighty God and everlasting Father, the wisdom found in your word, it speaks to something that is so very real for each of us.

How we see and view money, how we use it.

Father, may we accept the responsibility that comes with having material blessings in our life.

Spark within us a desire, the ability to be abundantly generous, to live lives of simplicity, to submit our purchases to you.

We want to live according to life-giving wisdom, the wisdom of your word.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.