Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
(Christian Survivors; Living Godly in a Godless World)
James 1.9-11 & 5.1-6 January 14, 2001
When down-and-outers get a break, cheer!
And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer!
Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don¡¦t ever count on it.
You know that as soon as the sun rises,
pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers.
Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem.
Well, that¡¦s a picture of the ¡§prosperous life.¡¨
At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration,
it fades away to nothing.
The Message: New Testament
The closing statement of Entertainment¡¦s Online website, regarding Survivor II warns:
And thus begins another season. Take cover.
Our contemporary society is characterized by an awful reality that there is a growing gap. The rich get richer, and the poor are getting poorer, and the gap (the middle class workers) are disappearing! A gap between the rich and poor is eternal.
There is an even more disturbing phenomenon ¡V the mentality that¡K You should JUMP THE GAP (from poor to rich) at ANY cost! Survivor mentality ¡V do whatever it takes ¡V win the big bucks ¡V is all about jumping the gap.
It is even so in the church. A modern day TV personality, Creflo Dollar is a prosperity preacher. He maintains that it is every believer¡¦s right and destiny to be rich (his name alone conveys quite a picture-message!)
Dollar ¡Kgives some tips to help people determine if they have the spirit of prosperity. First of all, ¡§you don¡¦t settle for anything less than the best.¡¨ You also will support those who support prosperity¡¨ (Dollar, www.worldchangers.org/wealth_t5.htm).
(¡¥Nother words ¡V keep those cards, letters and donations coming!)
While the Bible never condemns wealth or being prosperous, it presents quite a different perspective from that of Mr. Dollar. Scripture condemns the heart preoccupied with wealth:
For the love of money is the root of all evil;
1 Ti 6.10a KJV
The reality is that wealth may be a test of faith, not a proof of faith. In chapter 5, James returns to the theme of materialism tests. When he refers to rich men, he is identifying those whose hearts stop and start with the rise and fall of the stock market¡Kthose among us who are preoccupied with wealth.
Incidentally ¡V you can fall into that category no matter the balance in your account. James warns those self-serving rich, and the envious poor ¡V and everyone in-between. We can all have dollar-signs blinding our Christian walk.
James gives us some spiritual stabilizers against the waves of economic tides.
The Results of Materialism in a Believer¡¦s Life
(What you can expect if you opt for being like Madonna, the material girl)
Result #1. THE CRASH THAT COMES FROM DEPENDING ON THINGS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE MEANINGFUL
However else you care to characterize greed, it is just that. James compares the prosperity of having things to the life span of wildflowers. They are beautiful, but their reign is short-lived.
Materialism is the desire to get things ¡V material, position, power, recognition. It is the desire to gain, no matter what you have to do to accomplish your goals.
In a Scottish cemetery, the story goes, the following epitaph appears on a new tombstone:
Here lies Hamish McTavish,
Whose deeply sorrowing widow continues
To carry on his flourishing greengrocery business
At 11 High Street
Open daily until 8:oo
Michael Donahue is founder of an Internet business. He saw his stake rise to $448 million ¡Kin August 1999. He then did what many red-blooded Americans would have done: He splurged, big time.
Mr. Donahue bought a $9.6 million second home in Palm Beach, Florida. A polo enthusiast, he ponied up $100,000 to help sponsor his team in Florida. He spent a bundle more sharing the rental of a Hawker Sidley private jet, the better to whisk off to Palm Beach on weekend jaunts with his wife. It was a lifestyle thing, he explains.
Today, Mr. Donahue is a member of another club-call it the 90 percent club-of executives whose companies¡¦ stock price has fallen that much or more from their peak. The value of his InterWorld stock has plunged ¡Kto $2.94 from a peak of $93.50 on December 31. (Lost 436 million!)
He was asked to repay part of a $14 million loan he took out with his InterWorld stock as collateral. And the Palm Beach house? To help satisfy his lenders, he has put it on the market for more than $13 million. Going up was easy. But when it starts going down, no one wants to talk to you, he says¡K
At least he has plenty of fellow sufferers. ¡K eToys Inc., Webvan Group, and Priceline.com Inc¡Kaccording to market trackers .¡KLike so many Humpty Dumptys, executives of those companies have had a truly great fall, with the combined losses of the largest shareholder at each company adding up to about $14 billion. There is always a crash when it comes to materialism.
We used to have a dachshund ¡V a hot dog dog! Geri was nicknamed Piranha. One day when our daughter Carrie was very small, Piranha lived up to her name. She stole Carrie¡¦s sandwich. The crash came when she discovered it was a peanut butter & jelly sandwich (with emphasis on the peanut butter). The dog tried for twenty minutes to get her mouth unstuck!
God has told us in many ways that meaning in life will be found in fellowship ¡V relationship with Him, and other people, not in things. When things, or power or experiences become your focus, you lose meaning. It¡¦s a crash. There is another crash, which is the result of materialism in a believer¡¦s life¡K
2. THE CRASH THAT COMES FROM REALIZING THAT THINGS HAVE REPLACED RELATIONSHIPS
This is related to depending on things to make life meaningful. It is when we begin to get things at any cost ¡V even using people to get things. James says that will eat us from within.
And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament.
You¡¦ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you.
Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink.
Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut,
destroying your life from within.
You thought you were piling up wealth. What you¡¦ve piled up is judgment.
All the workers you¡¦ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment.
The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar
in the ears of the Master Avenger.
You¡¦ve looted the earth and lived it up.
But all you¡¦ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.
In fact, what you¡¦ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons,
who stand there and take it.
James 5.1-6 The Message: New Testament
The concept of people defrauding each other isn¡¦t new. Jesus told about a guy who owed a ton of money. He was going to prison because he couldn¡¦t pay back the debt. He pleaded, and was forgiven all. He went out and found the guy who owed him just a few measly bucks, and was in the process of choking it out of him. His greed was found out, and his fate became worse than before. When riches replace our respect for people relationships, there is a crash on the horizon.
A New York family decided to leave the crowded city and head for the wide-open spaces. They bought a ranch out West, where they intended to raise cattle. A month later some friends visited the ranch and asked if they had picked out a name for the place. Well, said the man, I wanted to name it the Bar-J and my wife wanted to call it the Suzy-Q, but one of my sons liked the Flying-W and the other preferred the Lazy-Y. So in the end we compromised and called the place the Bar-J/Suzy-Q/Flying-W/Lazy-Y. But where are all your cattle? asked the visitor. The rancher replied, None of them survived the branding. Relationships crash in the wake of greed¡K
The Cold Within
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story¡¦s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back
For on the faces around the fire
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn¡¦t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store.
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy poor.
The black man¡¦s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death¡¦s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn¡¦t die from the cold without,
They died from the cold within.
There is little doubt that focusing on materialism takes your focus off God, and for that which He has created you. How then do we combat that in our lives? How can we accomplish destroying the habit of materialism? How can we become Christian survivors of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire fever?
How Christian Survivors Combat Materialism
1. CHRISTIAN SURVIVORS REMEMBER GOD¡¦S PRIOR CLAIM
The earth is the Lord¡¦s, and the fullness thereof;
The world and they that dwell therein.
Psalms 24.1 KJV
It is true that God has given us all the world to enjoy and have a wonderful life. We just need to view that in its proper context. He is the owner¡Kwe are stewards, caretakers. When you consider even your life, remember Who owns what! He has prior claim on everything you see.
2. CHRISTIAN SURVIVORS REVIEW THEIR LIFESYLE
Paul taught the early church about coming to worship with wrong motives or unconfessed sin¡K
But let a man examine himself¡K
1 Corinthians 11.28 The Message: New Testament
This is good advice for believers. We should review every line in the checkbook.
„« How did I get what I¡¦ve got¡K?
„« How am I using what I have¡K?
„« What is my attitude about things¡K?
If you¡¦re going to combat materialism in your life, you have to understand your own motives and the way you see material things. Materialism begins in the heart. The devil is a master at manipulating even the smartest, most disciplined person who refuses to honestly examine his life and confess his sin of materialism quickly.
A group of natives in Africa found a very clever way to catch monkeys alive. They made a hole in a hollow log just big enough for the monkey to squeeze his hand inside. With very desirable bait inside any passing monkey could reach in and grab the bait. The problem (for the monkey) is that when his hand closed on the bait, it became bigger than the hole. If he refused to let go ¡V which is what stupid monkeys do ¡V he would be trapped by his own greed.
A question we must ask in review is, Am I any maturer than a stupid monkey?
3. CHRISTIAN SURVIVORS RE-COMMIT TO GOD¡¦S WAYS
Jim Elliott was a missionary who went to minister to the Auca Indians. He was brutally martyred by the very people to whom he went to share the Good News. His famous statement, taken from his diary was:
A man is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep
To gain that which he cannot lose.
Jim Elliott was committed to Christ, no matter what the cost. That¡¦s what puts materialism out of business ¡V recommit to God¡¦s way, whatever the material, emotional, physical or worldly cost. See how blessed is that life!
And so we end where we began. James says (1.9) that the humble should rejoice. Rejoice in your high position in Christ. Being poor or rich by the world¡¦s standards is just measuring by the wrong bank account.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,
And loving favor rather than silver and gold.
Proverbs 22.1
KJV
ƒt
A reality check for the Christian includes
„« Remembering His prior claim¡K
„« Reviewing how I think about and use material things¡K
„« And recommitting to God¡¦s way, so¡K
In knowing that we are exceedingly rich in Christ, and because we are, we live a life that is filled with meaning and joy!
These things have I spoken unto you,
That my joy might remain in you,
And that your joy might be full.
--Jesus
John 15.11
