PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY-JAMES CHAPTER 5

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY

JAMES CHAPTER 5

VERSES 1-6: Gomer Pyle used to call it “Ill gotten gains”.  When I was watching him on the Andy Griffith Show I never actually realized what he meant.  I never gave it a second thought.  But somewhere along the line there in Mayberry Gomer must have read James chapter five.  Because many years before Gomer was ever thought of, James was writing to the scattered churches about the same topic.  James was warning, almost threatening, his people about getting rich from selfish acts.

I feel really foolish addressing a lesson on storing up wealth among this crowd.  I doubt that any of us in this room or any of you who are reading this lesson, would consider himself rich. The rotten economy, the recession, the general attitude of society today has drained the coffers of every one of us.  If we had ever accumulated anything it’s probably gone by now.     

Honestly though, it didn’t occur to me just how blessed and “rich” I really am until I encountered a lady the other day.  It was the day before the weather service was predicting snow for our area.  I was in the café eating breakfast and one of the waitresses said to me, “Bill, what’s this weather going to do”?  I don’t know why people ask me that.  I am not a meteorologist.  I have never been to a class that will help me predict or read the weather.    Weather maps look to me like something a little kid scribbles on.  But because I work with emergency management I guess people think I am at least supposed to know about what the weather is predicted to do. 

Well, I made my usual “off the cuff” remark.  It was something like, “It doesn’t matter.  We’ve all seen snow and ice before”.  I felt like James Taylor singing that old song, “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain”.

I quickly found out that although it didn’t matter to me because I get paid whether it snows, rains, or is bright and sunny; it really does matter to others.  You see, this lady’s husband drives a log truck.  He hauls big loads of logs out of the woods and out to the mills.  If he doesn’t haul logs, he doesn’t get paid.  “We can’t stand to loose a day’s pay”, she said, “If he doesn’t haul logs we can’t pay the bills”. 

 Suddenly this lady catapulted me right into the ranks of the rich. Because of the job that God allowed me to have, because of the place where He put me, because He led me kicking and screaming sometime into the position where I am today, I am rich without a doubt. And I imagine if you were to compare your situation to that of others, you would realize that you are among the “rich and famous” as well. 

In the first six verses of this chapter, James expresses a warning to his people.  I believe that the first warning is that it is not necessarily how much money, or possessions or “stuff” you have but how did you come by that “stuff”.  Secondly, James says that it is not the amount of things you possess but what you do with those things.

Look at the use of personal pronouns here:

                Your riches, your garments, your gold, your silver, your fields…It’s MINE, MINE, MINE you say!

I have a habit of writing down little quotes that I hear from time to time in the flyleaf of my Bible.  I flip back to them on occasion and they have proven useful to me.  (That might be a good suggestion for you too.)  Let me share one with you. 

“Satan can’t take what belongs to God but he can take what belongs to you”.

What does that say to me?  All this stuff, these things, this land, this house, this car, this bank account, this retirement account that I claim as MINE, if it is kept in my possession and in my care, it will rust, canker, burn or be taken away.  But if I place it in God’s “safe deposit box” let’s just see who is big enough to rob that bank.

If you were to ask me, I would tell you that I don’t watch too much television.  But from the amount of illustrations that I use from T.V. and movies, it is evident that I watch way too much.  I remember an old “Indiana Jones” movie from a few years back.  The wicked bad guy was chasing “Indy” across a rickety old rope bridge that spanned a long and deep gorge. Indy had a valuable golden treasure that he had discovered and this bad guy was trying to take it from him.  Suddenly the bridge broke loose from one side of the canyon and Indy and the bad guy were hanging on for dear life from what was left of the bridge.  They dangled over the chasm, Indy holding on to the rope with one hand and the treasure with the other.  The bad guy hung beneath him, clinging to Indy’s leg.  How could the hero escape?

He held out the golden treasure and as the bad guy watched, Indy held the treasure above the evil villain and slowly dropped it.  As the golden treasure fell toward the man he instinctively released his hold on Indy’s leg and grabbed for the gold causing him to fall to his death. 

A good “by line” for that story would be, “You can’t hold onto safety and gold with the same hand”.  The Bible says “you can not serve God and mammon”.  No matter how close I try to clutch my “stuff”.  Satan is bigger and is able to take it from me.  But when I release my “stuff” into God’s care (and can I just say that stuff doesn’t just mean possessions, it also means families, work, church problems you name it) well, just listen to what He says in Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh:;  is there anything to hard for me”?

How did you get what you have now? 

“Well, bless God, nobody ever gave me anything.  I’ve worked all my life for what I have.  I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth”.

If those are your words, or if they have been your words (they’ve been mine before) I believe James would call you a “fool”.  God gave you the knowledge, skills, strength and opportunity to work.  You have a strong back and a weak mind because God allowed you to have them.  You netted your catch by God’s will, not your skill. 

Now don’t get mad at me.  I’m not saying you stole anything.  No one is accusing you of robbing a bank.  But do you understand that you are rich?  Do you understand where your riches came from?  And the final question concerning riches, “What are you going to do with them”?

Do you remember the little story told about a wealthy man who passed away?  As the town’s people stood by the road and watched the hearse pass by taking his body to the graveyard, a couple of old men contemplated just how much inheritance this guy’s children would get.  One old man asked another, “Hey Joe, how much money did he really leave”?

“All of it, Tom, he left all of it” And you and I will too.

VERSES 7-11:

I can see James envisioning the people who made up these churches.  He had known many of them I am sure.  They were:

·         Chased from town to town by people like Saul of Tarsus

·         Their houses and land were taken by the Roman government

·         Tax collectors harassed them even as they entered the temple door

·         They were struggling to make ends meet

·         They faced famines and floods and acts of nature that fought against them

And James big old Practical heart was hurting for them.  He wanted them to understand that what was happening was just a brief moment in time; just over the horizon was home.

“Just be patient” he says.  “Jesus is coming back and He’s coming back soon”.

I don’t know what that did for them.  I don’t know what that does for you but at the very least that makes me feel loved. 

Read Hebrews 10:36-37….and James 5:8….and John 14:1-3.  He’s promised.  He’s coming.  Hang in there. Believe it.  Live like it.  Wait for it.  Be patient.  If that doesn’t feed you then your spoon fell out of the bowl. 

 VERSES 12-20:

Through out the whole letter James has been talking about, work, wealth, worrying and waiting.  Now he starts jumping around and talking about stuff that doesn’t seem to connect.  We have learned that he was a practical leader.  Why is he throwing out all of this “shotgun” instruction now?

I didn’t understand it at first, but I do now.  He was getting to the end of his letter.  He had so much he wanted to tell.  He wanted to cover all of his bases. 

I did this last week when we left for Orange Beach on vacation.  Granny doesn’t do well when you change her schedule.  She likes things to be the same way, all the time.  So when we were going to leave I wanted to make sure that she wasn’t going to be confused or afraid.  I wanted her to know everything was going to be alright.  So I found myself throwing out quick tidbits of information to her as we were going to leave.

• We are only going to be gone a few days
• You will have fun staying with Anita and Bo
• We’ve put all of your stuff in boxes so you can take them with you
• People will come by to see you
• We will call every day
• Derek and Lauren will  take care of the cats
• They will have a nice fire you can sit by

I was just throwing things out quickly for her to remember.  James was too. 

• Watch your mouth.  Talk like a Christian. Not just cursing, just an inappropriate slip can influence those around you. Granny’s Mom, Granny Taylor used to call them “Black Garden words”.  I have no idea what that meant, but I knew I shouldn’t say them.
• If you are in  trouble –pray
• If you are happy-sing (if you are happy and you know it, let your face show it)
• If you are sick-call for the elders, let them pray, have faith
• The effectiveness of prayer.  “The effective, passionate prayer that comes from a pure heart, goes a long way”
• Oh, and don’t forget the number one thing.

Ok, one more example from T.V.  It was a crazy movie called “City Slickers”.  Three men from the big city took a trip out west to hunt for lost gold.  A grizzled old cowboy tells them,

                “You’ve got to remember the number one thing”

Then the cowboy dies before he tells them what the number one thing is, that he is talking about.

But James didn’t.  He crammed in lots of important things that they should remember. 

“Oh, but wait.  Don’t forget the number one thing.

WIN SOULS. 

• Do good stuff
• Manage your money
• Help the needy
• Pray passionately

But first, most importantly, STAND IN THE GAP, MAKE UP THE HEDGE, SEEK THE LOST AND WIN THEM.

James says, that’s the most important thing I can leave you with.  And I agree.