Hoarding
James 5:1-3 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.
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.
If I say a certain phrase, I think you can finish it: “Lifestyles of the….” Country music had a song back in the 90’s “Lifestyles of the Not so Rich and Famous.” Are you rich? Are you sure? You may not have a lot of money, but you’re rich. Are you poor? There’s poor, and then there’s college student poor. That when half your single drawer is all the clothes you own, and the other half is packed with Ramen noodles.
Anytime pastors have to deal with what the Bible says about money, there are always visitors who have come in thinking “I bet he’s going to preach on money,” and guess what I’m preaching on today!
The average US income last year was somewhere between $45-$50,000. In Indiana, it’s somewhere around $43,000. That’s not a lot. It’s decent, you can get by on that with some Ramen and hot dogs. Last year the average household income in Russia was $11,000. Costa Rica was $9,000. A year! In Sri Lanka, the average household income is $3,000. That’s it! In the Congo, the number drops to $2,000 per year. The Congo is especially sweet to some folks in here, and it’s adoption month – we have a family here who has adopted a child, and can’t get him home from the Congo! He’s living with foster families, and we have so many foster families in our church, which is awesome – but would you want your child living in a country where the average income – meaning half the people are below that! – is $2,000. If you go from the Congo over to Liberia, that number drops to $780 for the entire year. So if I ask you again “Are you rich?” the answer should be a resounding, “Yes!” Even if you’re below that average of $43,000 in Indiana.
Here’s why I say that: let’s say we had somebody from Liberia or the Congo come stay with us – and Chiza is going to experience this when he finally gets to come home – he’s going to see this house with lots of rooms. Well, this is the room just for our food. We have a room just for food! “Really, because I have a place for food (my stomach) and that’s it!” We have a fridge here, and it’s full of food, and the freezer is also full of food. “Well, then what’s in this cabinet?” That’s all the food that won’t fit in the fridge! “Where does it come from?” We go to a store that sells nothing but food, aisles and aisles of it, and we just pick out what we want. Sometimes we even go to a really big store like Sam’s Club or Costco where you have to have a pallet and pickup truck, and they’ll carry it out for you. All the food won’t even fit in your car! “What?!” Are we rich? I think we’re rich.
Some of us just got out our box from the attic that has all our winter clothes in it, and we put it in a different room in our house that’s just for our clothes. Then we take out all of the clothes that were in there, that we wore all spring and summer and early fall, and put all those in the tubs and put those in another room called an attic that is just for storage. This blows the minds of most people outside this country. And Pastor James talked about this in chapter 5.
Anytime pastors have to deal with what the Bible says about money, there are always visitors who have come in thinking “I bet he’s going to preach on money,” and guess what I’m preaching on today!
The average US income last year was somewhere between $45-$50,000. In Indiana, it’s somewhere around $43,000. That’s not a lot. It’s decent, you can get by on that with some Ramen and hot dogs. Last year the average household income in Russia was $11,000. Costa Rica was $9,000. A year! In Sri Lanka, the average household income is $3,000. That’s it! In the Congo, the number drops to $2,000 per year. The Congo is especially sweet to some folks in here, and it’s adoption month – we have a family here who has adopted a child, and can’t get him home from the Congo! He’s living with foster families, and we have so many foster families in our church, which is awesome – but would you want your child living in a country where the average income – meaning half the people are below that! – is $2,000. If you go from the Congo over to Liberia, that number drops to $780 for the entire year. So if I ask you again “Are you rich?” the answer should be a resounding, “Yes!” Even if you’re below that average of $43,000 in Indiana.
Here’s why I say that: let’s say we had somebody from Liberia or the Congo come stay with us – and Chiza is going to experience this when he finally gets to come home – he’s going to see this house with lots of rooms. Well, this is the room just for our food. We have a room just for food! “Really, because I have a place for food (my stomach) and that’s it!” We have a fridge here, and it’s full of food, and the freezer is also full of food. “Well, then what’s in this cabinet?” That’s all the food that won’t fit in the fridge! “Where does it come from?” We go to a store that sells nothing but food, aisles and aisles of it, and we just pick out what we want. Sometimes we even go to a really big store like Sam’s Club or Costco where you have to have a pallet and pickup truck, and they’ll carry it out for you. All the food won’t even fit in your car! “What?!” Are we rich? I think we’re rich.
Some of us just got out our box from the attic that has all our winter clothes in it, and we put it in a different room in our house that’s just for our clothes. Then we take out all of the clothes that were in there, that we wore all spring and summer and early fall, and put all those in the tubs and put those in another room called an attic that is just for storage. This blows the minds of most people outside this country. And Pastor James talked about this in chapter 5.
James 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
If you’ve been paying attention, most of the time James says “you brothers,” addressing his fellow Christians. Now he’s addressing “you rich.” Not everyone in this room, just like everyone listening to James, knows Christ. Some people show up at church because it’s the right thing to do, or they want to network and grow their businesses. “You rich” means all of us.
As I was thinking about this passage this week, I was getting fired up ready to preach a fire and brimstone message, but the more I studied and read through different commentaries, I thought you know, this isn’t a get mad and yell passage, it’s a “we need to get really serious about how we deal with this subject.”
Why do we need to weep and howl?
As I was thinking about this passage this week, I was getting fired up ready to preach a fire and brimstone message, but the more I studied and read through different commentaries, I thought you know, this isn’t a get mad and yell passage, it’s a “we need to get really serious about how we deal with this subject.”
Why do we need to weep and howl?
James 5:2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
You have so much stuff. You have So. Much. Stuff. So many clothes, your cars are rusting out because you’re not driving them, because you have too many of them. Your clothes are getting eaten by moths because you haven’t touched them in so long. What’s he saying? You are a hoarder. We’ve all seen that show. I have a couple of family members who struggle with that, and when people in my family found out about that, they went in the house and literally there were boxes everywhere, and a path that you could barely walk through, shoes and clothes and just stuff everywhere. It was sick.
James 5:3 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.
and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
You’re in trouble, because you have shown up time and time again to church and you think you’re okay. You think because you have enough stuff to get you through life, because your 401k is doing well, because the stock market is up, because you have enough clothes, a big enough house, because you can afford these things you’re doing fine. James says that you’re believing a lie, because here’s what’s happening: you’re not going to heaven after this, you’re going straight to hell and you don’t even understand it. You are showing up for the wrong reasons. So he’s talking to rich, possibly non-Christians.
Now where does he say, “Don’t be rich, it’s a sin to be rich.”? He doesn’t! Being rich isn’t a sin any more than being poor is. It’s not about the outward stuff, it’s about the inward stuff. I know rich people who are amazingly God-fearing, Jesus-loving people. I’m thinking of one guy right now who used to be CEO of a software company here in town. Fantastic, loves Jesus, loaded out of his mind, and gives like you can’t imagine. There are Jesus-loving rich people, just like there are Jesus-loving poor people. My grandpa used to say when he was growing up in southern Mississippi during the Depression, “We didn’t have two nickels to rub together.” But they loved Jesus, they preached Jesus.
On the flip side, there’s also rich people and poor people who don’t give a rip about God. Not in any way, shape, or form. What’s in your heart? The outcome here is hell. It’s not that you don’t have a right to take your wealth and buy something. If you’re sitting here, you’re already fairly wealthy. That’s probably not the only set of clothes you own. You’ll go home and the heat will be on. You’ll open the fridge and see food – some of it’s already spoiled because you haven’t eaten it in time. It’s not that you don’t have the right to purchase things with your money, but if you have things you don’t need, that you haven’t used in who knows how long, what is your heart like? Is your heart open to helping others? It’s unbelievably busy around CommUNITY Church right now. We just came off of 400-500 people showing of for Trunk or Treat, and we’re getting ready to go serve over 100 people Thanksgiving dinner, and a few weeks after that we’ll be having people here for Breakfast with Santa. If you have it, what are you doing with it? If you’re not using what God has blessed you with to bless others, then you don’t really have the heart of God.
God’s heart is a giving heart, He’s a giver. God’s heart is a sharing heart. What do we teach preschoolers and kindergartners? To share. And then we don’t. Somewhere between there and the end of college, we forget how to share and start worrying about accumulating enough stuff to make sure that we’re going to be fine. We do that so much that we don’t help our brother in need right next to us. God’s heart is a glad heart.
Now where does he say, “Don’t be rich, it’s a sin to be rich.”? He doesn’t! Being rich isn’t a sin any more than being poor is. It’s not about the outward stuff, it’s about the inward stuff. I know rich people who are amazingly God-fearing, Jesus-loving people. I’m thinking of one guy right now who used to be CEO of a software company here in town. Fantastic, loves Jesus, loaded out of his mind, and gives like you can’t imagine. There are Jesus-loving rich people, just like there are Jesus-loving poor people. My grandpa used to say when he was growing up in southern Mississippi during the Depression, “We didn’t have two nickels to rub together.” But they loved Jesus, they preached Jesus.
On the flip side, there’s also rich people and poor people who don’t give a rip about God. Not in any way, shape, or form. What’s in your heart? The outcome here is hell. It’s not that you don’t have a right to take your wealth and buy something. If you’re sitting here, you’re already fairly wealthy. That’s probably not the only set of clothes you own. You’ll go home and the heat will be on. You’ll open the fridge and see food – some of it’s already spoiled because you haven’t eaten it in time. It’s not that you don’t have the right to purchase things with your money, but if you have things you don’t need, that you haven’t used in who knows how long, what is your heart like? Is your heart open to helping others? It’s unbelievably busy around CommUNITY Church right now. We just came off of 400-500 people showing of for Trunk or Treat, and we’re getting ready to go serve over 100 people Thanksgiving dinner, and a few weeks after that we’ll be having people here for Breakfast with Santa. If you have it, what are you doing with it? If you’re not using what God has blessed you with to bless others, then you don’t really have the heart of God.
God’s heart is a giving heart, He’s a giver. God’s heart is a sharing heart. What do we teach preschoolers and kindergartners? To share. And then we don’t. Somewhere between there and the end of college, we forget how to share and start worrying about accumulating enough stuff to make sure that we’re going to be fine. We do that so much that we don’t help our brother in need right next to us. God’s heart is a glad heart.
Matthew 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
My grandpa has a couple of small farms, and there are a couple of barns on them. Sometimes I’ll call and ask how he’s doing, and he tells me how he can’t sleep because he’s so worried that people are going to break into his barns and steal stuff. Sometimes we get so worried about our stuff, and protecting our stuff that we don’t contemplate that there’s a whole world out there that might be able to use the stuff that we haven’t used in years!
Matthew 6:20-21 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Too many of us, our heart is in our house, our car, our degree, our stuff, that new pair of shoes, that new Coach purse…
Where’s your heart? Where’s your focus?
Where’s your heart? Where’s your focus?