The Letter of James (Part 4) | Take Pride | James 1:9-11 | Dallas Herndon

Chosen the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith. Those of us in humble circumstances, that is what we have. From the world's perspective, we don't have enough, we're not good enough, but from heaven's perspective, the Lord says, they are the richest people on the earth.

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We've been in a series over the the letter or the book of James, and and you could really sum the book of James up into a simple question. Are you walking the walk, or are you just talking the talk? Right? Because in our culture, it's incredibly easy to say you're a Christian without actually living like one. And that's why the book of James is really written to help close that gap, to help us become people who are increasingly more and more like Jesus, to be doers of the word, not just hearers.

Look at your neighbor and say, doers. Doers. Doers. So last week I guess two weeks ago now, we were in verses five and eight, and today we'll be in verses nine through 11. So we'll be in James one nine through 11 this morning.

And if I'm completely honest with you, I am completely tanked and exhausted from the funeral this past weekend. So if this is not a long winded sermon, you're welcome. Alright? Is that okay? Alright.

Sounds good. James one nine through 11. This is the word of the Lord. Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position, But the rich should take pride in their humiliation since they will pass away like a wildflower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant.

Its blossoms fall. Its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business. Let us pray over the word this morning. Lord, we thank you for your word.

Thank you that we've got to gather today. Lord, help us to be receptive in our hearts to what your word has for us. Lord, we love and we thank you. In the name of Jesus, everybody said, amen. Amen.

I gotta tell you a really embarrassing story. I'll just just open myself up to you this morning. I remember being in fifth grade at GW Carver Elementary School in Salem, Virginia. And I had a wonderful fifth grade teacher named mister Walker. And mister Walker was a great teacher.

I had a good relationship with him. He really loved me, really cared about me. And we were studying math one day. And part of a part of something that you need to know about me, I'm not very good at math. Okay?

And thankfully, I'm a preacher, and I don't have to work with numbers too too much. Math's just not my thing. But we were in math class one day and I remember him talking about income, talking about money and how much money people make and how much people, you know, money don't people don't make. And I remember him saying something along the lines of, just as an example, like, you made a $100 a week, it would be this. And then I completely zoned out for a minute because I was thinking to myself, wow.

He's talking about something, and I'm like, a $100 a week? If you make a $100 a week, you're poor. You're gonna be so poor. And I remember raising my hand. I said, mister Walker, I said, if you only if you only made that much money, you'd live in a trailer park.

And and he was like, thank you, Dallas. And and and it was really awkward in the room, and I didn't understand why. And and so we had a ice cream break now long after that. We're standing in the hallway, and he says, Dallas, come here. I need to talk to you about something.

I said, yes, mister Walker. He said, I just wanna let you know half of your classmates live in a trailer park. Okay? And so I would be mindful of how you say that next time. And I was like, oh.

I said, okay. And this sense of embarrassment came you remember this. Right? The sense of embarrassment came over me. And at that moment, I realized how privileged and blessed I had grown up.

My parents lived in Roanoke, and we lived in this big beautiful house, big beautiful yard, and I thought that was normal for everybody. And and to me, I didn't realize it, but we were very rich. And and my mom and dad probably wouldn't have said that. Right? But to me, we were really rich.

And because my perspective is is if you make this little bit of money, you just live in a trailer park. And lots of people do that, and I didn't realize how privileged I was. I told a a similar story about Lewis not long ago talking about the antennas, right, that you use to watch the main channels on the TV. And I was like, that's for poor people, Lewis. He's like, no.

That that's for everybody. So the point is, I grew up very very blessed and privileged. I was very rich in a way, and I did not even understand it. And I tell you that story just as a playful thing just to expose my heart and just be humble before you, if you will. Because the topic of which comes up in verses nine through 11 really has to do with money, being poor, or being rich.

So look at your neighbor and say, I'm rich. And look at your other neighbor and say, stop lying. Alright. So here's the really weird thing about this passage. Right?

Almost anywhere in the scripture, the topic of pride. You see the topic of pride come up? It is a negative thing. Pride is not a good thing. When you meet a prideful or encounter a prideful person, you don't really wanna be around that person.

They're boastful. They're prideful. And it's like a big turn off. It's like, don't wanna be around you. You're just it's all about you or all about your thing.

And and this is really how the devil or the enemy or what Semi calls the sneaky snake in the Bible, the enemy of our souls came to be. Satan decided that he was going to exalt himself before God and his throne. There was pride in his heart, and he said, I'm going to be like God and become greater than him. And that's why Satan falls because of his pride. And so pride is one of the greatest vices and greatest pieces of destruction of our souls in the Christian life.

Pride is the ultimate reason why people don't come to know Jesus. Right? It's sin. They don't believe in Jesus, but they're prideful because they truly don't believe in their hearts. I don't need to be saved.

I'm not a sinner. I don't need a God to save me. That's pride. And so anywhere in the scripture, all throughout the Proverbs, things about pride come over and over and over. It's almost like pride is treated like the Grinch.

Like, you don't wanna touch it with a 39 and a half foot pole. Right? It's a bad thing. But in James, right here in verses nine through 11, he tells two groups of people to take pride in something. And that is very peculiar, and we have to pay attention to it.

Now this is different than taking pride in certain things of our life. Raise your hand, grandparents, if you're proud of your grandkids. Right. I've always my mom keeps saying, I love being your mama, but boy, I love being a Grammy better. It's so much better.

And that's the testimony. It's wonderful being a grandmother or a grandparent, and you take great pride in it. We take pride in our kids, our grandkids, our sports teams. Even if they're not good, we take pride in our sports teams and things like this. And having pride isn't a bad thing.

Being proud about being an American is not necessarily a bad thing either. Right? We're about to celebrate a huge birthday, and my daughter has requested that we buy lots of fireworks. So I'm gonna set a budget, and we're gonna have a $100 worth of prideful, you know, fireworks at the Herndon household, if you will. And so being prideful, if you will, about these things is not a bad thing.

But we're more so talking about the other thing. When that you're so prideful that you don't believe you need anyone or anything, that you can do it all on your own. I got it. I don't need no help. And you boast about that too, that I can do it.

It's all about me. And so that provides a little confusion, so we have to sort that out. So when we look at verses nine through 11, James tells us, tells one group of people to take pride in their high position because they're in humble circumstances, and he tells a group of people called the rich to take pride in their humiliation. So we get two groups of people, both are being told to take pride in something. Let's sort this out.

First, let's deal with the humble. Look at your neighbor and say, the humble. The humble. The humble are those in the world's eyes who have very little significance. Right?

When we think about children, this is a perfect example. These children are humble. They're not seen as much in the world's eyes in some ways. And and what was really crazy, let me give you a little history lesson because we've come a long way. Praise God.

But when when Christianity first took place, it took place in the early Roman Empire. And in the early Roman Empire, when you had children, the only children that were worthwhile were boys. If you had girls, most of them would drop them off somewhere. People did not care about having little girls, and they would just not take care of them because they didn't see them as significant. People back in the day, that same period of time, women in general weren't seen as significant.

They were seen as lowly and unsignificant with no real voice. Slaves, same way. All these groups were seen as less than in the world's eyes. They had very little significance. I read you read in Matthew five three through Matthew five three through five, which is known as the beatitudes, the beginning of the sermon on the mount.

Jesus says something like this. Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Being meek and being humble, those two things are closely tied together.

And so that's what we're talking about when we say humble. I love what Luke one fifty two says. Luke one fifty two says, he has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the humble. The point is God has a very special attention upon the lowly of humanity. Right?

When Jesus came as a baby, let's just talk about that for he was born in what? A manger, in a stable, next to animals and what things animals do. He was born in lowly, humble circumstances, and he didn't go straight to the throne. He didn't go straight to all the leaders of Israel, but he started just talking to the lowly people of Israel. He spent most of his time, most of his ministry ministering to the lowly people.

He's talking to people who are who are poor in spirit, people who are mourning, people who are meek, people who have been overlooked. These are the people that Jesus is bringing the good news of the gospel to. I'm bringing the good news to the poor, those who are held captive, the humble. Look at your neighbor one more time and say humble. And in this passage, the humble, because in verse nine it says believers in humble circumstances, this means something very specific.

This is another way of saying believers who are poor financially. We've already seen this issue arise in James. You got all these believers who were living in Jerusalem, and then they were dispersed. They were kicked out, and they were facing persecution and hardship elsewhere. And one of the big hardships that these early Christians were facing that James is writing to is a financial issue.

Because they are Christians, because they are following Christ, they are struggling financially. Meaning, they're trying getting get employed in a new area, and they're not getting fair wages. Right? Or if, hey, I need to be able to barter with you. No.

I'm not bartering with you. They're having a hard time financially, and James says something incredible to them. He says, believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. He wants them, these people of humble beings, these poor folks, if you will, in some way who've been overlooked, neglected, and trampled on, he wants these folks to take pride in their high position, which is weird because these people are what? They're lowly.

They want them to take pride in their high position. This is a really weird little series of events because usually, if you're in a high position, you take pride in your high position. But he says, no. No. No.

Let's flip this. If you're in a lowly position, you should take pride because that is a high position in my eyes. Right? And I don't know about you, but this really takes a perspective change for me in order to believe that this position is a really high one. You know, when I was a youth pastor, before Emily and I moved back to the great state of Virginia, I didn't make a lot of money as a youth pastor.

I made $277.66 a week. And that's pretty much what we lived on for two years. And and those what I I would call humble circumstances. We were given a parsonage, but I tell you what, this parsonage had had no windows either. It was crazy.

It was a penthouse, though. We had, like it was a crazy amount of square footage, but we we we didn't make a whole bunch of money, and and we didn't have any windows. It was a really interesting period of time. And I'm like, I'm in humble circumstances, and I did not view myself in a high position. I'm like, I I'm struggling.

I'm in a lowly position. Maybe I haven't, you know, been faithful enough, and God hasn't blessed me with what I really deserve. I'm finding myself lowly, but but according to the scripture, I was actually in a very high position. Why? I have found in my life, and you probably know this as well, that people who have less less finances, less resources, less connections, they have more faith in God than anybody else I've ever met in my life.

I was in Summerfest two weeks ago in Saint Louis. I met this, like, four foot eight black lady from Chicago. She came up to me and she was, like, kinda had her finger at me and she's, you preached a great word. Need you to pray for me. I said, what do I need to pray for you for?

She goes, well, I got cancer, pastor. I said, I'm so sorry. And she said, and I ain't taking none of that medicine. And I was you know? And I'm a proponent that you should probably be wise and take medicine and and, you know, I'm you know, that that's my position.

But she said, I ain't doing it. I ain't taking it. Cause if God's gonna do it, he's gonna do it. I said, come on somebody. And she basically started having this little sermon right there in the middle of the foyer because she's finding herself in a lowly position, overlooked, and she's like, I have faith that God will deliver me.

I've heard stories of old saints who've had stomach issues, and they would just lay in the bathtub and contend with God and say, I am not going anywhere else in God until you do it. Because those who are lowly in the world's eyes are rich in faith in the kingdom of God. And that's why it takes a perspective change for us to see why this is something that we should take pride in. Desperate and desolate places make great place for faith. And taking pride in their high position, they're certainly fulfilling a piece of scripture found in the book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah nine twenty three through 24 says this. Listen to God's word through the prophet Jeremiah. This is what the Lord says. Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength, or the rich boast of their riches. But let the one who boast boast about this, that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth for I in these I delight, declares the Lord.

That the lowly, those who've been overlooked, who don't have everything that they need in the world's eyes are actually the richest folks around. And that is why James is telling to these persecuted believers in financial hardship, oh, my friends, take pride in your high position even though you're feeling poor. No. You're rich. Now does that mean that we should all try to be super poor so we no.

No. That's not what I mean. Right? We obviously need some money and coming in so that we can eat, but it's a part of the striving issue or striving for money where the issue comes to arise. And that's why what's interesting is what happens next or what what James talks about next.

So we first have those in humble circumstances. Now James deals with the rich. Look at your neighbor and say, the rich. James one ten through 11 says this again. But the rich take pride in their humiliation since they will pass away like a wildflower.

For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant. Its blossoms falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business. The rich take pride in their humiliation. A lot of people who are rich and let let let's let's discuss this as well.

Because there is a little bit of confusion amongst commentators. Commentators don't know this. There's two options. Can you say two options? James is either talking about believers, Christians who are rich, who are trusting in their riches more than they're trusting in God, or James is talking about people who are not Christians, who are rich outside the church.

And to be honest with you, it probably goes for both. Because there's people in the world who do not know Jesus, who really think their riches can take care of them. They really pursue wealth, money, and resource, and they think that's what can save them and set them free. And then there's believers. There's Christians who exalt money over everything else.

That is why Matthew six nineteen and twenty four is so important for us to hear. Matthew six nineteen and twenty four says this. Jesus says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, the whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then that light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Now listen closely to the end of this.

He says, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, you or will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Other translations, KJV, NKJV, say you can't serve God and mammon. Mammon pretty much the God of money.

And Jesus is just laying out this beautiful case. And remember, James is pulling a lot of his information, lot of his inspiration for his book from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. And so that's the idea he's pulling on here, that that we cannot take pride in our riches. And and so if the rich take pride in their riches, they're going to be humiliated. That is their plot.

That is their destiny. That's what they're gonna give. That's why I love this beautiful little poem or or this this beautiful picture he paints. He calls the rich. He says, for the sun rises, scorching heat, and withers the plant.

He's talking about the rich is this plant. It blossoms, falls, and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business, like a little flower that pops up and the sun just destroys it. The flower thinks it's beautiful, it's gonna last forever, but it is utterly destroyed. The rich.

You have the humble, and then you have the rich. I love what Proverbs three thirty four says. It says, he mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed. And so today, I don't know if any of you all here are rich. I don't know what your bank accounts are.

Right? I don't know if you have lots of money that you trust in more than God. But there there's not a topic that really Jesus talks about more than money. Almost 60% of Jesus' teachings that we have of Jesus in the four gospels have to do with money and the the the the death that comes with pursuing riches. So this word that James gives us is extremely important for us to understand.

I saw this study. Actually, brother and Glenn and I were talking about this yesterday briefly at the funeral. I saw this study, and all of us think that the more money we make, the happier we'll be. Right? Well, if I make just a little bit more money, I'm gonna be happier.

And that actually has a cap. Studies show once you make 75,000 to a 100,000, there is no more happiness that comes after that with more money. Once you hit that cap, it's over. So if you pursue anything after that to try to make you feel better, to try to make yourself feel more secure, so on and so on, it is a fleeting matter. And if you do that, if you give your life to that, you're gonna find yourself like that plant withering.

He's saying that, hey, you should just take pride in humiliation. You are going to utterly fall and fail. And so we're called then those of humble circumstances, and that's what most of us find ourselves in, to take pride in our high position. I love what I love what this commentator said. He said, believers must look beyond the world's evaluation to understand who they are and look to God's view of them.

He has chosen the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom of God he promised to those who love him. James two five. Chosen the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith. Those of us in humble circumstances, that is what we have. From the world's perspective, we don't have enough.

We're not good enough. But from heaven's perspective, the Lord says, they are the richest people on the earth. You're storing up your treasure in heaven. You trust in the Lord. You say, I don't really care about money.

Right? And then and then you just allow God to make you rich in faith. He's saying that this is a high position. Chase, you can go ahead and come up this morning. So this is a very simple exhortation from James in God's word.

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. And if you wanna take pride in their high position, can give you a few recommendations on how to do this. Number one, you have to change your perspective. Look at your neighbor and say, change your perspective. You have to begin viewing yourself.

That's a long that's a long high. That you have to begin viewing yourself from heaven's perspective. Right? You have to begin viewing yourself from heaven's perspective, as I said. He's saying that we're in this high position.

And so if you wanna begin to understand, hey, I I am actually really blessed. I'm in this high position. Then you have to look at yourself from heaven's view. Look at yourself from heaven's view. And the number two is that you have to just exercise faith.

I tell you what, in that season where Emily and I didn't make much money as youth pastors, I saw the Lord show up again and again and again and again. I remember coming home once, Emily and I had no groceries at the house, and we had been doing something, and our somebody decided to stock our pantry. Walked into the house, it was completely stocked. The whole the counters are full of food, the fridge was full of food. The freezer was full of food.

It was all there. We didn't know they were gonna do it, but the Lord put it on their heart to provide for us. And we just believe the Lord will take care of us. I remember our first Christmas there, brother Tino, I didn't have money to buy any Christmas gifts really for anybody, especially my family. And this one family reached out to us two weeks before Christmas and said, hey.

Hey. We just wanna bless you for Christmas. Like, we know that you're struggling financially and, hey, just tell us what you want. And so we gave them a few items, and a few weeks later, on the twenty fourth of Christmas, they knocked on our door, and they delivered. There was Santa Claus there.

And guy kinda looked like Santa Claus too. It was pretty crazy. And he just blessed us, and we were we received this gift. And and to be honest with you, my faith really rose in that season. I learned to just trust in God as my provider.

And I wish I would have understood what James really said, but now I understand it now, That we ought to take pride in our high position even if we're in humble circumstances. And that's the word. Don't trust in riches. Don't trust in resources. Even if you feel like you don't have a lot, you have more than the whole world.

You have Jesus and you have faith. And that my friends is worth a lot. So look at your neighbor and say, take pride. I want you to be prideful this week in that sense. Not in the other senses.

I want you to take pride even if you find yourself in humble circumstances.