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Introduction I don't want to minimize at all what happened to our country on September 11 - in fact, I want to use it as a reminder of something very important. The World Trade Center, finished in 1976, was designed, ironically, to withstand the impact by the then "state of the art" aircraft - a Boeing 707. On Tuesday that theory was put to the test. At 8:45am a Boeing 767 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Then at 9:03 a second aircraft hit the south tower. Matthew Cornelius had just arrived for work at the Port Authority of New York in the World Trade Center when the first tower was hit. "We heard a loud crash and the building started shaking, moving like a wave," he said. People headed for the stairwells to get out of the building, Cornelius said, but there wasn't any panic. "We weren't aware of the situation," he said, "had we known what was going on it would have been a different story." At 10:05am the unthinkable got worse, as the south tower collapsed in a pile of rubble 7 stories high. Then at 10:28 the north tower collapsed - killing thousands. An engineer, who studied the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombing said that the combination of hitting the building in a vulnerable place - namely high up - taking out vertical strength, coupled with the fire that damaged the horizontal strength of the building - is what caused them to crumble. The World Trade Center towers had a central steel core and steel beams running up the side of the building. Once the planes damaged the central core, weight was distributed to the outer beams, which were themselves damaged by fire - and collapsed under the weight. Tod Rittenhouse said "I did not want to believe that a complete collapse could occur. But these were large bombs, strategically placed." We mourn the loss and know that our country will be forever changed because of what happened. But I wanted to take the opportunity to ask us a question: What do you rely on to get by? Are the foundations of your life secure? What would happen to you if something catastrophic and unanticipated took place? That's what we want to talk about as we finish up our study in the book of James. The Apostle has taken us to the woodshed about just about everything - calling into question the way we think, act, and speak. But he's not done - and this may be the most important lesson yet - questioning us on what gives strength to our lives, substance, worth. Verses 1 - 6 5:1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 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. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. James is actually criticizing the landlord class of his day in three areas: 1. Reliance on riches leads to sorrow 2. Material possessions offer no lasting assistance. 3. A life of self interest and irresponsible luxury while ignoring those around you is akin to murder For us the question is: what is our attitude toward sin? When the Lord points out weaknesses in our lives do we take it seriously? Or do we just ignore it, blow it off, or make half-hearted attempts to let the Lord cleanse us from that? This shows us that God takes sin seriously and that the consequences of sin are real. We read "weep and wail" and we think - what harsh words. But today if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then perhaps weeping and wailing over sin is appropriate. V3. Their hoarded wealth will be a witness against them - what will your life say about you? V4: What is your work ethic? V5: What is your lifestyle? Living extravagantly can distract you from serving God because the more things you have the more you serve them. Paul said: 1 Tim 6:6-10 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Riches are a trap - Godliness WITH contentment are the real riches. Contentment comes from a root that means "to ward off". We can push aside the temptations of the world pushing at us if we are content in the Lord. Speaking of contentment: Verses 7 - 9 7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9 Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Our focus should not be on what we get here, but what waits for us in heaven. We've got to adopt an attitude of patient watching for what God is doing - the crop He's growing in us. You'll grow impatient if you try to watch your garden grow - it happens without you being able to detect the movement. So too your spiritual life - just till the soil, water, weed - and wait. Also be firm - don't let time wear you down with temptation. Keep a watch. Finally - while you're waiting - don't start fighting with each other. As kids the longer the trip in the car the more chances we had to fight with each other. Keep your eyes on the goal and your head in the game. James gives us two examples of patience to go by: Verses 10 -11 10 Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. James uses the prophets and Job to show us examples of those who had patience. The prophets continued to speak God's truth and obey God despite almost uniform opposition to their message - so much so that many, if not most, died at the hands of those who opposed them. Job faced an enemy he could not see - and suffered from ills and calamities far beyond his control. 1. You have a job to do - so get to it and stop focusing on yourself. What's your job? Know God so well that you begin to act, speak, and think like Him. 2. And your job, believe it or not, is to undergo suffering. I know that was worth the price of admission this morning - knowing God means knowing suffering. "Great! That'll really bless my day" (you say sarcastically). The point is: far from complaining about each other we should realize that our real mission is to live a life that God can speak through - and that our real enemy is not our neighbor - and certainly not God. So whether the opposition is around you in the world or in the unseen realms of the spirit or in situations you can't control - serve God anyway - with patience not exasperation as we find in the next verse. Verse 12 12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear-not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. The subject here isn't swearing as in speaking profanities - that's covered in chapter 3 quite well. I think that a possible interpretation to this verse is that searing oaths or making deals with God - its futile and doesn't help us speak the truth for God. The Jews were well known for swearing by things: heaven, earth, Jerusalem, the Temple, parts of their body. In fact, Rabbi Akiba said that a man can swear with his lips, but in his heart he annuls it - so the oath isn't binding. If we say: "God if you get me out of this jam I swear I'll go to church every Sunday" and then you get lazy and don't go to church - what good did making the oath do for you? Just be sincere - when someone asks you something, say "yes" or "no" and let that be binding on you. Instead here is how we should respond to problems: Verse 13 - 16a 13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Here we have advice both specific and general. Specific Advice 1. James tells us to pray when we get into trouble - seems obvious enough, but do we? We have a tendency to run FROM God rather than to Him when things go south. 2. He says when we are happy we should ignore the Lord who brought about the blessing that made us happy. No. We should sing praises. Have you ever really done that? Have you sung a "new song to the Lord" as the Psalms exhort us to do? 3. When we are sick we should call for the elders to pray instead of isolating ourselves from others not wanting them to see us "looking like this". We also pressure each other to always look and feel GREAT! This is unfortunate because it masks suffering and takes away opportunity for ministry. 4. We should be real with each other - not fakey fakey. Being real lets other people be real too and then we can encourage and pray for each other and see healing take place instead of continual bondage to sin. General Advice God should be the focus of all life's activities - that sad times, the glad times, the times when circumstances get us down, the times when sin gets us down. You are not alone - you have your Lord, your church, and your brothers and sisters to help you at every turn - so take advantage of it. Don't just go off and hide so the enemy can divide and conquer. We need each other because God will use the strengths of others to uphold you in your weakness. And here's an example. Verse 16b - 17 The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. The story of Elijah is found in 1 Kings 17. An evil king and queen - Jezebel and Ahab. These two were very bad and so God told Elijah to tell Ahab that it wouldn't rain for 7 years - and it didn't. Later he faced off the priests of the demon-god Baal and you remember the story - fire came down from heaven and burned up Elijah's sacrifice and altar and the priests of Baal were destroyed. Later he prayed again and it rained and rained. We think of Elijah as one of the most powerful prophets that ever lived - and he was. In fact he is one of the two people the records as having never died but simply taken up to heaven. So you think - if I was Elijah of course when I prayed thunder would roll, fire would come down from heaven and big things would happen - but I'm NOT Elijah. But I think for us to understand what God is saying we must look a little closer at Elijah. Turn to 1st Kings 19. 1 Kings 19:1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. That's right - Elijah, the super-prophet with the big "E" stitched to his tights - ran for his life - much as we probably feel like doing when confronted with bad times or the enemy or someone opposing us. Elijah ended up hiding in a cave and whining to God that he was the only one in all of Israel that was left for Yahweh. He was wrong, of course - there were 7,000 who had not bent the knee to Baal. But it shows us something that James is trying to tell us. Elijah was "a man just like us." He put his pants on one leg at a time just like you and me. Elijah had fears - and he had weaknesses. And yet when he prayed - things happened. What's the key? I think that perhaps the only thing that set Elijah apart was that he relied on God. It's that simple. God gave him a job - and he did it. He believed he was doing God's will and he stepped out - believing in his heart that he was the ONLY one in the entire nation that still followed Yahweh. Would you do the same? We need to rely on God to focus our lives, move through us - we need to rely on Him for everything, as if He was the only thing we had left - not our money or our houses or our friends or our country - just God. Why is this so important - James gives us the clincher - the piece de resistance in the next two verses. Verse 19 - 20 19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. What's our job? What was Elijah's job - what is God about in the world? Saving souls from hell. Changing lives from darkness to light - bringing people into God's family. The entire book of James - all the talk of learning patience in trials, of not playing favorites, of faith that is active and alive, of knowing truth from false doctrine, then speaking like someone who is redeemed and learning to discern God's wisdom from the world's, and submitting to God in everything like there's nothing else --- all that is so that God can take your life - mold it into His image, then use that life to draw others to Himself because He is compassionate and full of mercy. So let your life go, let your ideals and wishes and dreams and weaknesses and sins go - give up and let Him rule it all. Conclusion You might have come here today and never experienced God's touch on your life. You not know anything of what I'm talking about. Today you can experience God's compassion and mercy first hand - and forever. You can have a foundation that will not crumble no matter what hits it. If not - you simply don't know when the end will come - are you ready? The only way to do that is for you to let your life go to - to God's Son: Jesus Christ. Christ relied fully on God - and then gave up everything to bring you back to God - forgiving your failures through the blood shed on the cross - so that you can have God's peace and His love. So right now - pray earnestly - tell God you are sorry that you've lived your life for yourself - tell Him you want Jesus, that you want Him to rule your life from this day on - that's all it takes. President Bush said this week: "We learn that God's purposes are not always our own." God's purpose is to know and save you - to provide a foundation that nothing in heaven or on earth can shake. Paul wrote: Romans 8:38 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
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