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Northview Church in Kodak, TN exists to point people to the love of Jesus Christ and help people fall in love with Jesus and love others.
So, we're ten weeks into our study in the book of James. We just got a couple of weeks left to go and we get to today's text and it's probably the most direct, challenging in your face passage that we've gotten to so far. To which many of you who've been here through this whole thing is like, great because this has been hard enough already. James pulls no punches and and this text as I was studying it this week, I came across an article about it and it said this is the passage that almost all pastors skip. They rarely preach this at when they're preaching through James and it was true.
Pastor Greg:I had trouble finding other pastors who had preached through this. Although there were some but we're gonna take the whole of scripture and we're gonna look at all of it. So, we're not skipping this. We're gonna talk about the hard stuff and James as he gets into this is talking about the one thing that everyone of us love to talk about in the church, money. To which I just lost two thirds of the room when I said that.
Pastor Greg:We're gonna be in chapter five today looking at the first six verses. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up and get ready to dig in. There are Bibles spread through under the seats as well and it will be on the screen. When he opens this passage, he opens with this phrase, look here. And when he says look here, he's actually bridging it back to what we talked about last week.
Pastor Greg:That that first section of this when he he said, look here, it's the exact same word that he used in verse 13 of chapter four where he was talking about the presumption of tomorrow. If you remember last week, we were talking about planning for the future and how there's nothing wrong with planning. There's only a problem when we cut God out of the planning and make it all about us. Well, now he's he's gone from the presumption about tomorrow to the exploitation of today. How are you doing with what God has given you today?
Pastor Greg:So so let's dig in and see how he opens this. Look here, you rich people. Weep and groan with anguish because all of the terrible troubles ahead of you. Look here, you rich people. He opens to which all of us are like, 'Whoo!' He's not talking about me because I've never met anyone who actually says, 'Yes, I'm rich.' I know there are some.
Pastor Greg:You just don't run-in my circles. Most of us look back at that and say, well, he's talking to them. He's not talking to me. But but here's the truth, as I was looking at statistics this week, if you make over $25,000 in a year, and most of us do, if you make over $25,000 a year, you are in the top 8% of the richest people in the world. Richer than 9292% of everyone else in the world.
Pastor Greg:$25,000 a year. For a family, goes up. It's like $65,000 a year because you got kids to take care of, I guess, and all that. I think most of us in this room would fall into that category. Yet none of us would say we're rich, or very few of us.
Pastor Greg:But here's a truth that we're looking at as we dig into this. It's not that we don't have resources, it's that we don't spend them wisely. And when we look at our wallets, it doesn't lie about what we worship. You see, for most of us, the problem isn't what we have, the problem is how we use it. The choices that we make with it.
Pastor Greg:It's a difficult thing to talk about especially as your pastor standing before you, seeing your faces right now, hoping this gets over with quickly. Our wallet does not lie about we worship what we worship, but most of us would say we don't worship our money. But what does your wallet say about it? What does how you use the resources God has given you say about it? We look in boy, these slides are totally out of order.
Pastor Greg:You're gonna have to follow me back there. Okay, Donald? We look in first Timothy chapter six and a passage that many of you are familiar with, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. Timothy says for or Paul says writing to Timothy, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He doesn't say that money is evil.
Pastor Greg:Scripture never says that money is evil. It never says that wealth is evil. It never says that having resources is evil. It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The love of money.
Pastor Greg:In other words, when you are driven by what you have and what you are trying to earn and the money that you have, it leads to all kinds of evil is what the scripture is teaching us. When that drives you, it takes over and when it takes over, it costs you and here is a truth. Comfort now cost you the kingdom later. I'm not talking about your salvation. You are securing your salvation if you have a relationship with Christ but it will cost you your effectiveness for the kingdom.
Pastor Greg:It will cost you the legacy that you are sowing in God's kingdom. So here's the question. He says, weeping groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. When is the last time you weeped over money? Now, lot of us can say, last paycheck, I weeped a little bit because there wasn't enough on that paycheck to pay the bills that I got to pay.
Pastor Greg:Totally get it. That's not what James is talking about. Weep and groan because God has provided resources. We're not using them for the kingdom. Remember, James is writing to Christians, Jewish Christians in the early church, but he's writing to believers nonetheless.
Pastor Greg:He says, Weep and groan, you rich people. You're not using the resources God has provided for you and because you are doing this, all these troubles lie ahead of you. Comfort now pursuing, comfort now is costing you the effectiveness for the kingdom. You were not able to sow the seeds into the kingdom because we're so worried about our money and our resources today. Then he continues here and we jump over into verse two and we see this, your wealth is rotting away and your fine clothes are moth eaten rags.
Pastor Greg:Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment. James is writing to those who have stuff, who have accumulated stuff, and he's saying this that that what we hoard becomes evidence against me for how I'm using my resources for the kingdom. What are you hoarding?
Pastor Greg:But the truth is most of us don't even look at it that way. We don't sit back and say, well, I'm hoarding this for myself and it's not how we we do it. So let's talk about how we really do it. Timmy, don't come take this from me. Where is Timmy?
Pastor Greg:Oh, there you are. This is not your $100. This is my $100. I got a $100 in singles here. This $100 represents your annual income, a 100% of your annual income.
Pastor Greg:Hopefully, you make more than a $100 a year, but if not, then this message does not apply to you. The average income in East Tennessee is right at, it's like $97,000 for a household. In Kodak, it's a little bit lower than that. So we're just going to take a $100 and this will be for every $100. This is the average of what an American spends it on.
Pastor Greg:Out of every $100 that you make, you spend on average, an American spends $33 on their home. 33. Count that and make sure that's right, Christie. You can give that back to me in a minute. I'm never getting that money back.
Pastor Greg:$33 out of every 100 is what the average American spends on our home. But then we've got to get to work and we want nice vehicles. So $17 out of every 100 is what the average American house spends on transportation. Verse 17, out of every 100. Then you got future to think about and some of you save, some of you don't, but some of you have life insurance or retirement plan.
Pastor Greg:However, you it plays out for you, you think about the future, the average American spends about $13 out of every 100. Oh, but you gotta eat, right? That's a necessity. We've got to eat and we like to eat good stuff and the average American, $14 out of every 100. Sometimes you get sick.
Pastor Greg:Is that right? Hey. It was accurate. I deserve a round of applause for counting that right. Thank you, Timmy.
Pastor Greg:Where was I at? Oh, we just finished health care. We want to I didn't do $8 to health care? Oh, yeah. $8 to health care.
Pastor Greg:So $8 out of every 100 average goes to health care. But you want to enjoy life, right? Most Americans, whether it's going to the movies or going on vacation, you'll spend on average through the year $5 out of every 100 on entertainment. You don't want to go naked. We don't want you to either.
Pastor Greg:And the average American will spend about $2 out of every 100 On clothing. About $2 out of every 100 on education for them or for their children. And as your children get older, that definitely goes up. About $2 out of every 100 just on random miscellaneous stuff that you didn't expect. I've not even talked about gas yet.
Pastor Greg:You've noticed that, right? About $2 or $1 out of every 100 goes to personal care, making sure you got your haircut and take care of yourself. The average American will give a that leaves you $3 We ain't even got gas in our car yet. We'll put that in the transportation category. That leaves you $3 for generosity to give to kingdom causes if you're a Christian.
Pastor Greg:But the average American only gives two and a half percent. I checked to see if that was illegal, by the way. It's not, as long as you tape it back together. The average American only gives two and a half percent to kingdom causes if you're a Christian. The sad part is the average American gives two and a half percent whether you're Christian or not to generosity causes.
Pastor Greg:And we throw that other half a percent back in on our house because we like nice places. And that's all we got left. It's not just pointing fingers. This is a thing for me and Christie too. We've had a conversation this week as I study in this.
Pastor Greg:Our home is just like you, the biggest investment that we've ever made. Most of our resources go into our home, whether it's upkeep of our home, paying the mortgage, all that kind of stuff. Most of it goes into the home, yet most days, that home is not used much for kingdom causes. It sits there for me and my wife and my kids and my mother-in-law to to just enjoy our home. Most days, it's just us there.
Pastor Greg:And then I think about us as a church and as we are talking about this future where we're going to plan to build a new building, and keep in mind this has nothing to do with that building but if you'll remember when we were presenting this plan, we want it to be a building that doesn't sit empty, that's used every day for the kingdom. But we have a building now. Why don't we do that now with what we've got? And some of you will sit back and say, well, do it pastor. We're in this together.
Pastor Greg:That's not my job, that's our job. My job is to walk alongside of you and show you how to do, live like Christ and to teach you scripture and then we go do kingdom causes together. So why don't we do it now? Why do we wait? Then it gets even more uncomfortable.
Pastor Greg:I can get to the right slide. In verse four, he says, for listen, hear the cries of the field workers whom you have create cheated for their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the lord of heaven's armies. Have cheated and maybe you're a business owner and you have cheated workers and you know it. You've shorted them so that you can have more or maybe you're just a believer who hoards everything to yourself and doesn't use it for kingdom purposes or or maybe you really don't have the money to be generous because Sometimes, we really don't but the question is, is it because we don't have enough or because we don't use the things god has given us for the mission he's put before us?
Pastor Greg:Now, if you're a visitor here today and you think, well, this is terrible. We don't talk about this stuff every week but we are gonna preach the whole council of scripture here and Jesus talks about money and James nails us with it. Maybe it's more about the resources than it is about the dollars. Some of us, we genuinely don't have enough left over to use our our money to go be generous but you have resources James says, do you hear the cries? Do you hear the cries of those who are cheating because we don't have use our stuff to share the gospel with them, to provide resources and opportunities for people to hear the love, see the love of Jesus in your life.
Pastor Greg:Verse five, you spent your years on earth in luxury satisfying your every desire. You fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. Well, that's not a comfortable verse. Here's what I think James wants us to know. I'm a steward of what God gave me.
Pastor Greg:I'm not the owner. But most of us, we are so concerned with making sure our house is whatever level of living we want it to be, making sure we have the nice car so that we can enjoy driving it around, making sure that we take the best vacations and I'm just as guilty. I just took a great vacation with my family. And James isn't saying any of that is bad. He's saying if that's all it is, where your comfort has just become like an anesthetic, it's just numbing you to the reality that we have a world that's hurting the world around us who needs the gospel and everything that we have can and should be utilized for kingdom purposes.
Pastor Greg:So, Christy and I talk about this house that we have sitting there that sits empty just with us in it most of the time and, yes, we are discipling our kids in the house. Sometimes. Sometimes we're just yelling at them, Shut up, Braxton. Where is Braxton? He's supposed to be on video.
Pastor Greg:Sometimes we will host a life group in our house. We'll do things like that. But we asked this question the other day. How do we use this resource? What can we do to use our home?
Pastor Greg:Because that is the biggest asset we have. We don't have a ton of money left over every month. I'm not gonna say we can go and spend all our money being generous, although we are. But we have a home sitting there that we could use for kingdom purposes. How do we do that?
Pastor Greg:I'm not gonna stand up here and say I've got the answer. We we haven't figured it out yet but we know we could use our home for more hospitality purposes. I mean, many of you all we we've been to dinner with but we don't, you don't come to our home. Typically, we'll go out to the Mexican restaurant up here and grab a taco. But there's something different when you're in a home gathering around a table just enjoying each other's company and learning who we are.
Pastor Greg:So we're figuring out what that's gonna look like. But I wanna use my stuff for kingdom purposes. It does not mean you can't enjoy life. It does not mean you can't take a vacation with your family. It does not mean your kids can't be involved in in whatever activity or sport they wanna be in.
Pastor Greg:It means that if that's all it is, what are we doing? Comfort now cost you the kingdom later. Are you pouring into your own comfort? Are you pouring in to kingdom purposes? James, as he continues, you've condemned and killed innocent people who do not resist you.
Pastor Greg:And James is telling us there will be punishment and justice for that. And maybe you're on the receiving end of it. Maybe you have an employer who's cheated you. Maybe your your financial situation is just really difficult for whatever reason it may be. Health issues happen.
Pastor Greg:Job losses happen. And maybe you have been taken advantages of, of for whatever reason. And James is giving comfort to those who've been crushed by that. God has heard. God sees it.
Pastor Greg:Nothing done by anyone in this room goes unnoticed. If you've been faithful while you're being crushed, God sees it. But if you're the one doing the crushing, God sees that too. Comfort now, cost the kingdom later. It's a hard passage.
Pastor Greg:I think I actually asked Christie how can I not preach this this week, but it's here for a reason? Are you using your resources for kingdom purposes? It's not just about money. He has blessed you with all kinds of things. If you're an American who makes more than $25,000 a year, you were in the top 8% worldwide.
Pastor Greg:And I know you can play the game and say, well, cost of living and all that stuff's higher. That's true. It doesn't take away the fact that you have more resources than 92% of the rest of the world. When is the last time we used it for kingdom purposes? Me too.
Pastor Greg:Not just you. This is for us as a church. And this is why we've got to figure out how to use the resource he's given us here in a building that we all know is not adequate for what we want to do. How do we use it for kingdom purpose? Every day.
Pastor Greg:This week, it was used for kingdom purpose every day. Our children came in and they did music camp this week, had about 20 kids in the church every week. I mean, every day of the week. I found out music camp was happening, so I worked from home because I was not going to get anything done. But music camp wasn't just for them to have fun.
Pastor Greg:They did. It was for them to learn about Jesus, to learn the story of Jonah and to make fun of Larry for falling asleep in church. If you were here Friday, you know what I'm talking about. We've got to figure out how to do more of that. How do we utilize this for the community?
Pastor Greg:What do we do to reach the people? Kodak's hurting. We can't keep ignoring. It. We've got to use every resource he's given us for kingdom purposes, Whether it's a dollar, a house, a car, or a church building, we're in it together, church.
Pastor Greg:We're going to close a little bit differently today because when we think about using our resources for kingdom purposes, It's really about aligning ourselves with God. And maybe you're here this morning and you're not a believer. So what is your answer? You give yourself to God. Today is the time where you surrender and you say it's not about me, it's about you, Lord, and I know I need a savior.
Pastor Greg:I know I just heard a money, a sermon about money and that's uncomfortable, but God, know you're calling me to something greater than what I am. Scripture says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, it says you will be saved. It's not just saying, yes, Jesus is real. It is confessing him as Lord. You know what that means?
Pastor Greg:That means he's Lord of your resources too, of all of it. If you've never done that this morning, you can. He's there. He sees it all and he wants a relationship with you and the ball's in your court. If you've never surrendered, you can this morning.
Pastor Greg:But a lot of you in here, you're believers. Judging on what you've told me, most of you, I would say the vast majority of you would say you're believers. Are you really using your resources for the kingdom? So here's how we're going to do. Everybody take a wallet out.
Pastor Greg:I know you got wallets. Lady, it's in your purse. Take it out. And no, we're not going to do an offering. You notice we did the offering early in the service.
Pastor Greg:I didn't want this message to come across as a way to increase our giving today. So this is not about an offering. It's not about a tithe. It's about a surrender. So pull your wallet out.
Pastor Greg:And if you're willing to surrender all your resources to the kingdom, then I want you right now, bow your heads and hold your wallet out to the Lord. It's yours. It's just a symbolic gesture. I'm not gonna come around and take your wallets out of your hands. We'll let the elders do that.
Pastor Greg:So just take a moment, hold what you have out to the Lord, and let's pray. Father, you have blessed me and my family. You have blessed everyone in this room with resources, some great, some less. But all of us have resources to use for the kingdom. And Lord, every single one of those resources can have a huge impact for kingdom growth.
Pastor Greg:So Lord, as we raise our wallets to you just in symbolic surrender, I pray that you would use everything we have to reach more people. I pray you would use our bank accounts and they would reflect kingdom work. I pray you would use our homes and our cars that would reflect kingdom work. I pray you would use this church building every single day. Lord, show us how you want us to use it and let it be all about kingdom work.
Pastor Greg:In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're gonna spend some time this morning aligning ourselves back with the Lord. And the Lord gave us the sacrament of communion. In communion, we're gonna partake of that in just a moment.
Pastor Greg:But I want to be clear on something. If you are not a believer, don't do it. Your response to this communion invitation is to come up here and talk to me. I'm gonna be over here on the side and if you want to see what it takes to follow Jesus, I'm gonna be right there and I'd love to walk with you through that. If you are a believer, scripture says that we need to come to the table with clean hearts and a clean conscience.
Pastor Greg:So Anthony is gonna come up here and he's gonna lead us through the table. But as he comes, I want every one of you to spend some time with God. Maybe you need to confess that there are resources you're not using for the kingdom. Maybe you need to confess sin. Whatever it is, however the Lord leads, spend some time with the Lord in repentance and confession.
Pastor Greg:And then Anthony will lead us through communion together. Go ahead. Get along with the Lord and begin to pray.