The Danger Of A Dollar Series

Three little girls are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first girl says, “My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50.” The second girl says, “That’s nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100.” The third girl, who we will call Rachel, says, “I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon and it takes four people to collect all the money!”

Or how about this one…

Two men were marooned on an Island. One man paced back and forth worried and scared while the other man sat back and was sunning himself. The first man said to the second man, “Aren’t you afraid we are about to die.” “No,” said the second man, “I make $100,000 a week and tithe faithfully to my church every week. My Pastor will find me.”

Turn with me to James 5 as we continue our series through the book of James with a message titled The Danger of a Dollar. If you have been a part of LHC for a while, then you know that an important part of our DNA is to preach through books of the Bible, verse by verse, on a regular basis. To use a cliché, it is our bread and butter. We do this because we believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And we also do this because it provides a well-balanced diet when preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word.

But there is a side benefit as well. When you preach on a subject that people would prefer you avoid, like money, no one can question your motives. We are going to talk about money, not because we are struggling financially (quite the contrary actually) but because is just so happens that’s what’s we’re going to read about in James 5. And the reason we are going to teach through the first half of chapter five this week, is because we just finished teaching through chapter four last week! And as we read the first 6 verses of chapter 5, listen to James as warns us about some of the unique temptations connected to money.

James 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

Throughout this series, James has been challenging us about the genuineness of our faith. And he’s given us a series of tests about whether or not there is a gap in what we SAY we believe and HOW we actually live. He is rooting out hypocrisy in the church. And what I will tell you from all the years of serving in the church, I don’t know if there is an area of life where there is more willingness to live comfortably disconnected from what we SAY we believe and HOW we actually live. Or to put it simply, there is a tremendous amount of willingness to believe that how we view and handle money is not a spiritual issue.

Here’s a little test – if I asked you how you were doing spiritually this morning, would your even think about your finances when taking spiritual inventory? My guess is that most people would think about their Bible reading, prayer life, how often they are sharing their faith, how they are navigating a current trial, how they are doing as a parent, or maybe even some area where they are putting off doing good like we talked about last week. But if I had to guess, very few (if any) people would ever think to take inventory of their money as a part of that self-examination process.

James is helping us with that disconnect this morning and declaring clearly and boldly that there is a spiritual aspect to money. And what he’s leaning into specifically in these verses, is not wealth in and of itself. Very early in Scripture we see the account of Abraham who was incredibly wealthy, but yet he walked with God and was chosen by God to bless the whole world. There is no teaching in the New Testament epistles that condemns owning things or even making a profit. Instead, it’s the misuse of wealth that James is leaning into. Specifically he’s addressing those who were using their wealth for selfish purposes and were persecuting the poor in the process. In fact, he uses some pretty strong language to that end…listen again to verse 1: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.”