JAMES: PRACTICAL FAITH - Warnings to the Rich (James 5:1-6 NIV) 6-22-25
INTRODUCTION
The joy of perseverance to maturity
True religion
Equality in the church
Faith and works
Taming the tongue
Sowing seeds of peace
Trusting God
Danger of pride
James 5:1-6 NIV
“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 5:1-6 NIV
Matthew 6:19-21 NIV
““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 treasures 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.”
Matthew 6:19-21 NIV
I. WEEP AND WAIL
Ella Wheeler Wilcox in her poem, Solitude.
“Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own.”
James 5:1-3a NIV
“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.”
James 5:1-3a NIV
A. Misery that is coming on you.
B. Wealth has rotted, moths have eaten clothes, gold and silver corroded.
1. Their corrosion will testify against you.
2. Eat your flesh like fire.
II. YOU HAVE HOARDED WEALTH IN THE LAST DAYS
James 5:3b-4 NIV
“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.”
James 5:3b-4 NIV
Is getting rich wrong?
The Bible says the love of money, not money itself is evil.
What is your motivation in building wealth?
John Wesley said, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”
Selfish reasons for wealth building will reveal pride and greed in our lives.
In the Bible, many heroes of the faith, such as Abraham and David were rich.
Margaret Thatcher said, “No one would have remembered the good Samaritan if he hadn’t had money”.
Howard Dayton of Crown Ministries says, “Nothing is wrong with becoming wealthy if it is a by-product of being faithful.”
Aaron Mishoe, Sermon Central, April 2, 2009.
A. Failed to pay wages to the workers who mowed your fields.
B. Misused the harvesters.
III. YOU HAVE LIVED ON EARTH IN LUXURY AND SELF-INDULGENCE
“Contentment is natural wealth; luxury is artificial poverty.”
Socrates
James 5:5-6 NIV
“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 5:5-6 NIV
A. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.
B. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you.
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
Charles Kingsley (19th century UK English teacher) or Albert Einstein
CONCLUSION
It is not a sin to be rich. It is a sin to abuse what God has blessed you with.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21 NIV
Paul Harvey told this in 1977 as part of his The Rest of the Story radio program. “It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket.
Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark…ten feet long. But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred.
In Captain Eddie’s own words, “Cherry,”(that was the B-17 pilot, Captain William Cherry) “read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off. Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food…if I could catch it.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice.
You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know…that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset…on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast…you could see an old man walking…white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls…to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle…like manna in the wilderness.”
Gratitude and sharing
Giving and fellowship
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
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