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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Chapter 5 of the book of James, the last
chapter of the book of James. If you made it this far, congratulations, you're
in the last week of our study together through this incredible and great book.
It's a book that's filled with encouragement from God's Word, but it's straight
to the heart encouragement.

And there is some encouragement in James, Chapter 5, verses 1 to 6, that may not
sound so encouraging at the beginning. I think some of the most frank language
in the entire book is in these first six verses of Chapter 5. Let me read the
verses for you first, and then we're going to dig into them and talk about what
they mean.

Listen to what James has to say, Chapter 5, verses 1 to 6. "Now listen, you rich
people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth
has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.

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.

Look, the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying
out against you. The eyes of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord
Almighty. You've lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.

You've fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and
murdered innocent men who were not opposing you. " Wow, those are some kind of
verses of scripture.

Horted wealth in the last days. The corrosion of your money is going to eat your
flesh like fire. You've fattened yourself in the day of slaughter.

There are some powerful phrases in these verses. Is James just trying to be
negative here? Is he having a bad day?

No, these are verses, these are words inspired by the Holy Spirit through James.
So why does God speak so frankly to us here about riches? We read this and we
think, "If I have a cent in my pocket, if I have a dollar bill with me, I should
feel guilty somehow.

I should feel bad about money. " It's not what he's saying here. The Bible
doesn't say that money is the root of all evil.

It's the love of money. It's the root of all evil. And James is talking here
about the love of money.

He's talking about material things. Notice as we read through this, he talked
about food that had rotted, cloth or clothes that had been eaten by moths, and
gold and silver that had been corroded. It's interesting that those were the
three measures of wealth in the ancient world.

If you had a lot of food, if you had really fine clothes, if you had gold and
silver somewhere, you were rich. James is reminding all of us that things don't
last. Nothing in this world lasts.

In fact, when he says after that that these things that you've hoarded are going
to testify against you, they're going to eat your flesh like fire, he's
reminding us that character does last. And he's writing to some people who had
been so enamored with their riches that they were living only for their riches,
and he's saying to them, "You're going to have eternal suffering over a moment's
riches. Is that really worth it?

Your character is going to last. " Now let me be very clear here. Being rich is
not a sin.

Many of God's greatest servants were rich, Abraham, David, Solomon in the Old
Testament. They were men of great riches. You can sin when it comes to riches,
but riches having things does not necessarily mean you are sinning.

You can sin in the way that you get riches. You can sin when it comes to things
in the way that you handle riches. And these people that James was writing to,
they were doing both.

They had gained their riches, they'd gotten their riches by cheating others, and
then they were using the riches that they'd gotten by cheating others selfishly.
You may get your riches in the greatest, most pure way, filled with integrity,
but if you use those riches selfishly, you're still sinning with the things that
God has given. You may take whatever riches are in your hand right now and you
may use them to serve others.

You may give much of the money that you have in your hand away, but if you got
it by cheating somebody else, you sin in the way that you handle riches. As we
walk through what James has to say here about riches, I don't know about you,
but I don't want to be like this. None of us do.

And I look at these verses and I think, "What did they do and what do I have to
do to avoid being like that? " If you live in America, you have riches and
you've got to learn to handle them in a way that don't overwhelm your life like
these riches had overwhelmed the lives of the people in these verses. So what do
I have to avoid?

What do I have to stay away from to not become this kind of person? Let me just
walk through these verses and talk about six specific things that James talks
about. First, he says, "You rich people, what do I have to avoid?

Don't be a rich person. " Now you may have riches, you may have things, but
don't let them ever become your identity. You rich people.

Rich had become the identity of these people. They had to have the riches
because it identified who they were. It made them feel great about who they
were.

You can hold riches in your hand, but never hold them in your heart. That's what
James is saying here. These were people, these rich people, who lived for the
purpose of their extravagance instead of living for God.

What I'm saying is this, you can be a Christian man, you can be a Christian
woman who has things and uses them for God's glory. But your identity is that
you're a Christian. Your identity is that you know Him, you have a relationship
with Him.

So don't let riches ever become your identity. That's how you avoid becoming the
kind of person that James is talking about here. As you continue to walk through
these verses, you read that they had hoarded wealth.

You've hoarded wealth in the last days. What a mistake. He's saying you've only
got a few days in this world and there's only a few days he's saying to them
until Jesus is going to come again.

And so because of that, you're hoarding of wealth. What a waste. You've hoarded
something that's going to be wasted.

Now why do we hoard wealth? Why do we gain for ourselves more than we actually
need? You read about people who have 8, 10, 12 houses, 10, 20, 30 cars.

You read about people who have bank accounts in every single country of the
world. Not to help those countries, but just for some reason that they can say
they have that many bank accounts. Why do people do that?

One reason. Pride. Pride.

We hoard wealth for pride. We hoard wealth so it can seem like we have a bigger
pile than anyone else. That's the only reason to do it.

So if you find yourself hoarding wealth, if you've got more than you need but
you still want to get more in order to impress the people around you, James says
that's what you watch out for. That's how you make sure you don't become this
kind of a person. James also warns us of a third thing here.

He says to these people that you've failed to pay the workmen who mow your
fields and that their cries have been heard by God. He says here they've been
heard by God Almighty. The literal phrase here is the Lord sabbath, the Lord of
hosts, the Lord who commands all the hosts of heaven, all the angels of heaven,
the Lord who has all the power in His hand.

God's heard their cries. We mishandle riches when we think somehow because I
have more things I am more important than the person who's working for me. I am
more important than the person who's making a lesser wage.

I am more important, more noticeable, not only to the people in this world but
even to God Himself. And James writes and says that's not true at all. God's not
hearing your prayers but He's hearing their prayers.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord. How do I avoid
being this kind of a person that James is talking about here? I treat every
single person that I ever meet as just as important in the eyes of God.

You failed to pay the workmen because you failed to see their importance in the
eyes of God. A fourth thing that he says to these who had become so caught up in
riches that they had ruined their lives is he says you've lived in luxury and
self-indulgence. There's a great difference between enjoying what God has given
and living extravagantly on what you've stolen from others.

And that's exactly what they were doing, living extravagantly on what they had
stolen from other people. Now you've lived in luxury and self-indulgence.
There's no American who reads these words.

There's nobody who lives in South Orange County who reads these words, hears
these words and doesn't think, am I doing that? When I look at the fact that I
even have a car, I even have a house, I have a place to live, I have a roof over
my head, there is luxury in that compared to the rest of the world. Am I living
in luxury and self-indulgence?

And if you're asking that question of yourself, I honor you in asking that
question because it shows you don't want to be living that way. How do you know
if you're living just for luxury and self-indulgence? One of the ways to know is
how much do you give?

How much do you hold on to so you can have more luxury? Are you willing to live
life with an open hand and give it to others? A fifth phrase that James uses as
he talks about these who had been caught up in riches is you've fattened
yourselves on the day of slaughter.

What a picture. Like a cow that was fattened for the day of slaughter. He's
saying when you live just for riches in this world, you might get what you
wanted, but it's just like a cow being made more fat, the day of slaughter is
coming.

What's the use of it? There is no use of it. And then he says a final thing.

You've condemned and murdered innocent men. You see, they had used others in
order to get things. They had gotten confused about what's really important in
life.

When you fall in love with things, you will use people to get things. When you
fall in love with God and people, you will use things to serve people and to
love people. It all depends on who you love.

That's where it starts. You want to stop? I want to stop from being this kind of
person whose life is identified by my riches.

The only way to do that is to fall in love with God and fall in love with people
and let whatever happens in my life, whatever comes into my life, be used to
express my love for God and to express my love for people. In fact, as we pray
today, I want to pray that God would put that attitude, that heart, that
priority into each of our minds. Jesus, you warned us about riches and that
material things can become what we live for, things that aren't going to last.

Lord, we want to live for what is going to last. So we pray that our love for
you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and our love for our neighbor
as ourself, we pray that that would be the guiding power, principle, priority of
our lives and that Lord, out of that, whatever comes into our hands, we would
use it. We would use it to love you.

We would use it to love others. We would enjoy it as given from you and we would
use it as a gift from you. Lord, never let us identify ourselves by our riches.

Always let us be identified by our relationship with you. We pray this in your
name. Amen.

Well, make sure you join us tomorrow. We're going to see what James has to say
in this fifth chapter about the important quality of patience in our daily
lives.