Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
we're in the epistle of james and really this is a sermon that i'm going to share this morning that i had meant to share the first week that we started our study in the book of james i had planned to go all the way through verse 12 in a sermon that i titled the playbook for trials and what i have found in my studying and really meditating on the book of james that it's almost like a rich dessert that comes in a very small bowl and yet it takes so long to get through it because every bite has to be savored and really uh weighted on so as much as i thought we could get through the first 12 verses in our first week i now realize that i had prepared three separate sermons so this is the third part of the first sermon that i had written and so i'll share with you um by way of really a recap of where we've been what that sermon was and then it will really give you the theme of our morning what i loved about the book of james as i started to really study it and pray through it for our time in the word as a church is that it seems to speak in such real time to the world that we're living in because james starts his letter by saying to the churches who are scattered abroad which means it sets out the gate the context is challenge and difficulty remember the church was scattered because of the persecution that early christians early followers of christ went through and we see in the picture of the stoning of stephen that the church scattered from jerusalem and started being displanted all around different regions and all the way to asia minor and so james is going to write to them to encourage them and say this is a challenge it's hard to go through persecution it's hard to be uprooted and planted somewhere else but in the challenges of their lives and now in the challenges of our lives there is joy in the trial and so wow grateful to receive that because the last few months have been kind of a trial on a global scale which typically trickles down into trials in your life and by the way this is not a unique time that we live in you're either going through a trial or you just got out of one you're about to get one because that's the nature of the life that we live in so i appreciate james teaching us how to navigate the challenges of life and so the playbook or the strategy for trial starts with a perspective of joy meaning when we are so rooted in the love of god of our life in the sovereignty of god in our life and the picture of god's goodness that takes us through the glory to glory to glory to salvation into heaven we can have joy because it's not rooted in the things of this world but as last week we looked at it's not always to see that it's not always easy to see the joy you don't wake up out of bed in the middle of a trial or in the middle of the darkness of our world and say i can't wait for the joy that is going to unfold through all of the frustrating things and that's why james goes on to say if you lack wisdom if you're not seeing the joy if you're not experiencing it yet that's okay you need god to give you his wisdom so that you do see it so the second aspect of the strategy is to go from the perspective of joy to the position of prayer oftentimes trials in our life are meant to bring us to the presence of god where there is the fullness of joy and that begins through a lack of wisdom where we say god i don't know but you do and now the relationship with god is being enriched by the trial so you have a perspective of joy turning into the position of prayer and now we get to verse 12 of the strategy that james has given to these believers and us that says blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved he made it through the trial he made it through the temptations to give up and not persevere he made it through the temptation to be double-minded to trust god when it's good but look to your own strategy when it's hard as you persevere and continue to trust god he says when you've been approved you will receive the crown of life which the lord has promised to those who loved him so the final aspect of this as we do it really a three-part series in joy in trials is to have the promise of eternity in our minds and that is the only way that you can make sense of the temporary although very painful at times circumstances of your life is to have a view of eternity and that is going to be given to us by james in a teaching that will mirror the sermon on the mount and one of the best ways for eternity to invade your life is to challenge the positions that you hold on earth one of the best ways to hold on to your position of eternity is to allow your positions on earth to be shaken and that's exactly what james is going to give us as he walks us now with actual wisdom for the trial that has to do with the positions that so often challenging times will shake in your life and that's where we'll start this morning he says this in verse 9 let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation glory here is a way for james to encourage the readers to take joy or to really be encouraged by exaltation a word that means to be lifted up so as a trial it has pushed someone down as you are a lowly brother of low stature james is saying if you're low glory or enjoy the way that god brings you up and then he says but the rich in his humiliation he says if you're if you're poor if you're lowly the trial is going to teach you something by the wisdom of god that he will lift you out of the pit and if you're rich remember the position of heaven invades the position of earth if you're rich glory and humiliation do you see why this is going to take us some time to get through the book of james because this is going to take us meditation and a pace by which we can actually consume this and not just read through it james is saying if you're low be grateful that you're high and if you're high be grateful that you're low so we'll discuss the paradox of that today and then he says by way of illustration keep your mind on the temporary verse the eternal verse 10 because as a flower of the field the rich man will pass away for no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat then it withers the grass it flowers fall and its beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man also will fade in all of his pursuits in other words no matter your economic status no matter how low you are or how high you are on this side of eternity it is all fading away easy to preach hard to practice but very important when you think about the strategy for your trial what timeline do you live in are you living in an eternal perspective for how you can navigate the circumstances of your life and if you aren't james appear appealing to nature much like jesus did says consider the lily look at the flower consider the book of creation that lives all around you to teach you about the brevity of your life the flower comes up and it is so beautiful until the sun hits it and then the petals fall to the ground and it's thrown away i get a reminder of this every month because my wife always brings in fresh flowers at the beginning of the month which i love until about two weeks in and then they start to wither and the beauty turns into something that is actually kind of annoying because it gets messy and it starts to smell and you gotta change it out and then she throws it away and gets new ones and every time that happens it's a reminder that such it is with all the positions of my life the ones that sprout up and they have beauty it is only a matter of time before the sun of this creation will shine down on my life and my looks and my money and my position will fade away and with this grasp or this illustration james says so live for the crown of the eternal life in god that you have and the best way for us to allow that to invade our hearts is to present our positions of economic status before god so that's just a common theme throughout the bible is that he uses the money that sometimes defines our identity as a way to contrast earth with heaven and as much as we wish it wasn't true your wealth often defines your identity you show me your neighborhood and your closet and your car and i can tell you a little bit about your paycheck for better or for worse and so with that in mind james is going to speak to the poor and something that god is doing on this side of eternity to lift them up and to the rich on this side of eternity to teach them the lowly state and so we're going to learn about that today as a way for us to cling to the actual promise what is it in your life that is a non-negotiable promise that will get you through any storm because it has a timeline that will last outlast any trial and so welcome to church this morning we're going to talk about money sorry if you bought a friend actually i'm not because this is a good news message it's a gospel message and to look at this as you study the bible but specifically in studying the book of james i find there are three helpful lens to filter the positions of earth through whether you're poor or rich and as you listen to this you're probably thinking about your own condition the first lens is the historical lens what is james speaking into for the context of the people he's actually writing to so we look at the historical lens and then we are going to look at the cultural lands what is james saying to us to these people for now and then most importantly so i hope i save it the most time for this which is always challenging when it's at the end is the personal lens what is james not only saying to our cultural experience with god and church christianity but what is he saying to me what is he saying to you so historical cultural and personal as a way for us to cling to the eternal first we get the historical version of this and we find it in the book of james you also find it in any honest reading of most expressions of history there are typically up until very recently in human history there are typically two classes of people there are typically the poor and the rich the middle area called the middle class that we often enjoy with the comforts of kind of a foot in both is really a new human experience that we can talk about for our cultural experience but for james time of writing he was specifically writing to believers that were scattered they were uprooted and brought into new areas and so he has a lot to say to the poor people that he is writing to most people were either in a class of servant or master slave or owner rich or poor and he's going to say to the poor to glory in their exaltation this is a radical comment that is sometimes lost on us because we are culturally speaking not able to relate to the poor in ways that james would easily be able to write to the people of his day he's saying to them regardless of your economic status as you've been scattered abroad and you find yourself looking for jobs to just make it in this new area of the world he says as you go through that trial glory in something glory in exaltation what james is saying is you don't necessarily have to have master status on earth to glory in the riches that god will give you now this is a radical view we get a little hint at how radical that would have been to the audience who heard it that the poor in christ those who have earthly poverty are actually lifted up to the heavenly riches as gospel good news message and radical to the listener when you get a when you get the story of the rich young ruler remember that story in mark chapter 9 there was a man who had the question of eternity on his heart what must i do to inherit eternal life the question of the hour how do i in the midst of trials and difficulties and the ups and downs of life hold on to something that will outlive all of it and what does jesus say he says sell everything that you own and give it to the poor and follow me not a absolute remedy for all riches but for this man he says will you allow eternity to radically alter the position of earth that you have and of course it's an important story to study because the man gives a proper response as most of us would as we're challenged to give up our portfolio goods and our earthly wealth it says the man walked away sorrowful because he had a lot of riches he had a lot of stuff he was rich he was young he was a ruler jesus says forget all that and then you can really cling to eternity he walked away sorrowful to which jesus says how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of god not impossible difficult the disciples hear that and say if he can't be saved who can be if material wealth and blessing and riches and strategy for life that turns into abundance of life now doesn't give you some sort of preview for the favor of god in your life then what would it's confusing to hear that riches on earth have nothing to do with riches in heaven jesus says it's actually impossible for man but it's possible with god salvation is no respecter of economic status god exalts the poor and he exalts the rich to heavenly places that make all earthly wealth seem like nothing in comparison and before we go further it's important for us to grasp this historical message because it's often mispreached oftentimes you'll hear let the poor glory and exaltation as a way to say you come to church poor but by faith you will leave church rich you give to the tithe basket and the lord will give you even more that is not what james is saying james does not say pray for wisdom so that if you're poor you would have a blueprint for some business model that would help you find earthly riches he's saying pray for wisdom so that even in your poverty you would realize you're already rich you would understand that regardless of what is happening on this side of eternity what god has waiting for you is so worth whatever you give up there's a theologian who says that this i shouldn't say theologian it's a musical artist named bob marley but i find it helpful he says don't gain the world and lose your soul wisdom is better than silver or gold this is just a surface reading of the book of proverbs by the way james says seek wisdom in trial and as you seek wisdom you're reminded that the wisdom book of the bible is always contrasting the value of wisdom against gold it says get wisdom it's worth more than precious gold yes even rubies what we're not asking god for is to throw money at all our problems what we're asking god for is to give us wisdom despite of our status so that we could cling to the promise regardless of how the problems are worked out here so the historical view is very important because god does exalt the poor into spiritual riches that's why the apostle paul and james could be co-pastoring this moment uh paul will appeal to who god calls he says in the book of corinthians as they were dealing with their own version of status in the church he says if you see your calling brethren not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many mobile or noble are called but god has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and god has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and base of the world to put to shame those things which are despised by god and chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing so that the things that are so that no flesh should glory in his presence it is the wisdom of god that he calls us out of our spiritual poverty into the riches of heaven why so that there is no boasting there is no extra money there is no dime there is no economic status there is no blessed neighborhood or community or brand of clothing that gets you closer to god he calls the weak so that no one would glory in anything but the free gift of salvation do not despise poverty of earth be exalted into the riches of heaven that's the historical overlay that we can look at this through but now we look at cultural culturally speaking we are a rich brother we are the rich brethren in fact we have maybe the most unique of all blessings of all time in the world that we live in i don't think we understand how much comfort and blessing we have been given just by our birthright on the in the country that god has given us and so some of you are listening and saying you don't know my bank account you haven't seen my closet or my neighborhood you're rich in the view of the history of man in the view of the current state of the world what we are experiencing in the resources of this building and the instruments on this stage in the cars in the parking lot and the freedom to do what we do gives us so much privilege from god listen to one way to understand this comment from the world bank on poverty real poverty according to the world bank is a yearly income of six hundred dollars see central africa or most of human history in everyday terms absolute poverty is to live with less than two dollars per day america simply doesn't have any of this it just doesn't exist and it really hasn't for at least a century and even then it was rare by no means do i want any of your needs for provision to be diminished you have real hurts and pains economically speaking but in the scope of the culture that i'm preaching into we are a blessed people when you think about the history of the world that has unfolded up until this point we actually had a visitor to our church last week and i have a feeling we have some today too that's just the current state of things and uh they came from another part of the world and they walked in and i was just greeting them and as i was talking to them they just looked around and said i have never seen a church this nice and i was thinking really because when we look around we just think all the stuff we want to do that make it nicer it's make it better make it you know more polished and make it you know you got to keep up with the joneses of the american church am i right but it was sobering because it makes you think to all of those gatherings that are happening some underground some only in homes some outside some in tiny little places and all of the things that people do to worship the lord in exaltation we come here and our need is to worship through humiliation we are so blessed that sometimes we depend on everything but god and so the challenge for us is to accept the call of something we really don't like we accept the call of humility i was a couple januaries ago i was walking downtown and i found myself walking into the area where a number of homeless people hang out and i was talking to the homeless guys and i found myself kind of looking through the trash because it was i don't know it was just available and inside this trash can i found loads of really nice and warm boots and so i started getting them out and pulling them out of the trash and maybe i looked homeless myself but i pulled out a couple pairs i was like hey everybody there's a bunch of boots in here and one of the guys came up to me and said it's january is when we get our surplus of everything i mean we have everything that we need so much so that we have to throw some things away now this is not to say don't give to the poor this is to say let us not think that we're called to eradicate the classes that god has placed into our world jesus says the poor you'll have with you always thank god that we live in a city that has an abundance to give so that the even the least of these has an abundance that's a beautiful blessing but it's also a reminder of who we are in our stuff the echoing of the sermon on the mount rings true here remember what jesus said about riches he said don't store up yourself riches where moth and rust will eat away and thieves will run in and to the church audience you're like yes and amen and yet if you found someone who wasn't numb to that verse and actually took it into their life they'd think that is the most anti-american thing i've ever heard all americans do is store up stuff that's what we live for we want more of everything the car garage always gets bigger the closet always needs expanding the thrift store always needs a donation i was talking to my neighbor the other day and my neighbor's been on my street for longer than i've been alive so he's got a really good history on it i said you know i think we've outgrown our house it's only 1400 some square feet i got four kids they're sleeping on bunk beds and stacked on each other and he said you think so i said yeah he said well you know 30 40 years ago this neighborhood had nothing but families bigger than yours i thought oh okay so maybe i don't have too many kids i just have too much stuff maybe we outgrow our houses not because we just continually have to gain and gain more things but maybe we're actually being called to have less you know driven down around our city and just counted all the storage units we have don't store up for yourself treasures on earth and you're listening to the sermon on the way to your storage unit who are we the lord has a way to tell everything through story and one of the reoccurring themes of his story was the rich man a man who had much wealth a man who had an estate a man who was ruling over uh over property and servants and a man that he literally calls a rich man remember in luke chapter 12 jesus says be careful of all sorts of greed your life consists more of the than the abundance of things you own and then he tells this story and i can't help but think of the rich man being some version of a man just living the american dream he's got a guy that's going through a bumper crop he's had years of plenty and he's got so much stuff he's got so much grain that he doesn't know what to do with it so rather than give out the extra he says i know what i'll do i'll tear down what i have and i'll build up even more sound from here the constant expansion and so he fills up these new storage units and he's got all the grain he's got enough food to last him years early retirement he sits back to enjoy his life and the lord says this is a lesson on wisdom because that man was a fool on this night your soul will be required of you and who gets all this stuff your flower withered away your riches are gone and now you stand before the lord of eternity with what to present and so culturally speaking james is saying love glory find humiliation in the same way that we have to make sure we're not preaching to the poor people that there's a way for wisdom to make them rich in the same way james is not saying to those of us who have an abundance of things that we have to become poor what he's saying is hold so loosely to anything on this side of earth that you can cling to eternity and for one of the challenges of the modern day church the thing that we cling to is not eternity but the stuff look what paul says to timothy as he's just giving him wisdom for leadership he says command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty not to be proud not to go around in their identity of riches as a way to find some esteem in themselves nor to trust in any in uncertain riches but to trust in the living god riches are not inherently evil it is a question it is a is a measurement of how much eternity has invaded the position of earth and paul says to timothy just make sure that they're trusting in the living god and not trusting in riches he goes on to say let them do good that they be rich in good works ready to give willing to share storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal life you want trials to somehow be soaked with wisdom you better be able to look at them through the lens of eternity because if you zoom in too close all you're going to see is bank statements and the ups and downs of your economic status on this side of earth and you will have no joy
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.