The Invaluable Lessons of Poverty
James 1:9-11
September 21, 2014
As you know we are currently studying through the book of James.
We love James because he has such a direct form of communication
About what a true Christian ought to look like.
• Whereas the world complains about various trials, the genuine Christian rejoices in them.
• Whereas the world asks “why” in regard to their hardships, the genuine Christian asks “what”.
And tonight we see yet another very distinct description
Of what a genuine Christian should look like.
And this description has to do with how we handle poverty.
Hopefully you remember the people that James is writing to.
James 1:1 “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.”
James is writing to those who have been “dispersed abroad”
Perhaps the writer of Hebrews
Sheds some of the best light on this group of people.
Hebrews 10:32-34 “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.”
I cannot definitively say that both of these letters were to the same people,
However I want you to realize that things like “seizure of property”
Were real things.
There were believers (particularly Jewish believers)
Who paid a steep price for confessing Christ.
People lost jobs
People lost rights
And some even had their property seized.
Certainly when James refers to a group of people
Who have been “dispersed abroad”
We’d be naïve to think they left home with all of their possessions.
No doubt some had their possessions taken and were forced to leave,
Others most likely had to leave their possessions behind as they fled.
But the reality is that of all the persecutions and hardships these believers faced, poverty was no doubt at the top of the list.
One minute they were financially secure,
The next minute financial security was removed from them.
And of all the issues they were facing,
This must have been one of the most difficult.
I don’t have to tell you how you’d be tempted to respond to such a thing.
• The natural human response would be bitterness
• The natural human response would be anger
• The natural human response would be frustration
In fact we often feel those emotions when we just can’t have more,
Let alone when what we have is taken away.
No doubt these believers were in a tough spot.
And yet James saw that as a tremendous opportunity to remind these believers what a true follower of Jesus looks like.
And might I remind you that Jesus was poor?
Matthew 8:19-20 “Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
• In Matthew 17 Jesus had to borrow money from a fish to pay the tax in His own
temple.
Jesus lived a life of poverty.
And yet, never do we find Him complaining about His circumstances.
He did a lot of teaching to the disciples about being
Men of God, Good Shepherds, and Good Leaders,
But He never told them that a healthy budget was something they needed.
The reality is that money was not a snare to Jesus.
He lived in poverty with a grace and contentment
That is absolutely foreign to our culture.
And yet that is the example that James is drawing from here.
So you’re poor…
So you lost everything…
James’ answer is “glory” in that!
Are you kidding me?
• You want me to boast about being poor?
• You want me to boast about losing everything?
• You want me to rejoice in my financial difficulty?
And James would answer with an unflinching “YES”
Well in a culture such as ours
That thinks happiness is so dependent on wealth,
I suppose this is a very relevant couple of verses.
So tonight let’s look at THE INVALUABLE LESSONS OF POVERTY
There are two points I want you to see.
To lessons poverty teaches us.
#1 HIGH POSITION IS BETTER THAN HAUGHTY POSSESSIONS
James 1:9
Here again is that peculiar statement.
“But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;”
Now let’s pay careful attention to what James said.
First of all “But…”
We understand what the use of that word indicates.
It means that to some degree verse 9 is given in response to verse 8.
James just finished talking about wisdom.
He was referring to how, when you face trials, you should ask God for wisdom.
In short, you should ask God what to do.
You should definitely ask in faith, being willing to obey,
But you should ask God what to do.
And then James says, “But…”
That is to say, when you face trials, ask God what to do,
But if your trial is poverty, there is no need to ask God,
I can already tell you what to do.
If you’re facing trials, ask God what to do,
But if that trial is poverty, I can already tell you what He’ll say.
“glory”
It’s a word also translated “boast”
But please notice there is more to this than just that.
James is NOT saying that all poor people should boast about being poor.
That is not the point.
Read the verse again.
“But the BROTHER of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position”
We aren’t talking about any and every poor person.
We are talking about the poor Christian.
We are talking about the person who has been
• Redeemed by Christ,
• Forgiven of all his sin,
• Restored into a relationship with the Father,
• Filled with the Holy Spirit,
• Who will one day receive an inheritance and reign with Christ.
This is a “brother”
TURN TO: Ephesians 1:3-14
• Our past in Christ (3-6)
• Our present in Christ (7-10)
• Our future in Christ (11-14)
That is the reality for all Christians.
Every Christian, rich or poor,
Has that exact same “position” in Christ.
Would you agree that this is a “high position”?
Would you agree that this position you hold is something worth boasting about?
Would you agree that this position is something worth glorying in?
Well so would James.
• So you don’t have a lot of the world’s money…
• So you don’t own a condo in the Rocky Mountains…
• So you don’t have the nicest car…
• So you don’t have the newest iphone…
WHO CARES!
• You are a child of the one true King!
• You have been forgiven of all your sin!
• You have been reconciled to God in a secure relationship!
• And you have an inheritance that will not fade away, reserved for you!
In light of your heavenly position, complaining about your earthly circumstances does come across as a little ungrateful!
Even when your circumstances are less than favorable,
You don’t have to ask God “what” to do.
James will tell you.
You look past your present circumstances and you “glory”
You boast about your high position in Christ!
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
A Christian that grows bitter about their “humble circumstances”
Is a “brother” who has forgotten about “his high position”.
At the very least, it wreaks of INGRATITUDE.
It is to say, you can no longer be happy with the cross of Christ,
The death of the Son of God, His intercessory death on your behalf,
Or your promised inheritance for all eternity…
Those things are no longer enough
Because you don’t have all the toys you want to buy.
Could it be that your focus is way off?
Sure it is.
Well, that is one of the invaluable lessons of poverty.
Poverty teaches us to focus on our truest riches.
If you are rich in this life, you will be prone to let them identify who you are.
But if you are poor, you are far more likely to boast about your heavenly riches.
Being poor in this life teaches you to be more grateful
For the “high position” Christ put you in.
So, if trials are present you can ask God what to do,
Unless that trial is poverty,
In which case you simply need to overlook them
And boast in what Christ has done for you.
Poverty teaches us that.
High Position is better than Haughty Possessions
#2 BEING LOW IS BETTER THAN BEING LOST
James 1:10-11
Here is the second lesson poverty teaches.
Again, pay careful attention to what James is saying.
We are not necessarily referring to a brother here anymore.
James doesn’t say, “the brother of lavish circumstances…”
James simply calls this guy “the rich man”
I’m not saying he is lost,
But let’s face it Scripture rarely paints the rich in positive terms.
James certainly doesn’t.
James 2:6-7 “But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?”
James 4:13-16 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
James 5:1-6 “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.”
Now based on that, I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say that
When James calls him “the rich man”, he doesn’t have a believer in mind.
James is talking about a “rich man” and one who most likely
Has rejected the Lord and put his hope in the security of his riches.
The Bible talks plenty about them:
Psalms 49:11 “Their inner thought is that their houses are forever And their dwelling places to all generations; They have called their lands after their own names.”
Psalms 73:4-9 “For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth.”
Jesus even talked about this type of fellow:
Luke 12:16-19 “And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”‘
Those all refer to the same guy.
The guy who has done very well for himself in life,
And he even expects that he did it in spite of God.
And now that he has amassed great wealth and security,
He can sit back and laugh at the world.
He is untouchable, he is secure, he is without worry or problem.
OF COURSE THERE IS ONE MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THIS GUY.
Jesus finished the parable:
Luke 12:20-21 “But God said to him, ‘ You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
That man was wealthy
That man was comfortable
That man had financial security
BUT THAT MAN WAS LOST
That is the problem.
Riches can buy a lot of things, but they can’t buy salvation.
Psalms 49:7-9 “No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him — For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever — That he should live on eternally, That he should not undergo decay.”
How much does a citizenship in heaven cost anyway?
You can’t buy it!
That’s why Jesus said:
Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
There is no amount that you can pay to go to heaven when you die.
And that is the problem with this rich man who is lost.
Because his life has been so full of comforts,
Unlike the poor man,
He has never been forced to evaluate his true spiritual condition.
James told the poor man that…
His poverty was good because it caused him to focus on his spiritual position,
But the rich man has been so comfortable that he has never cared.
That is why when James sees an occurrence
Where a rich man gets humbled,
James says that is a good thing!
“and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation”
• If there is a day when the rich man is brought low
• If there is a day when the rich man sees his money fail
• If there is a day when his money can’t save him
THE RICH MAN SHOULD THANK GOD FOR THAT DAY!
Because it might just open his eyes
To how shaky his security really is.
Look, financial security is NOT security
(That’s a lie)
“because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.”
Financial security is NOT security
Psalms 49:16-20 “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself — And though men praise you when you do well for yourself — He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”
AND THINK ABOUT IT.
Go ahead and think of a number.
A monetary number, that if that was in your 401k or your savings account you’d feel financially secure.
• Would 1 million do it?
• How about 2 million?
Well then for security sake, let’s say you have 4 million in your account. You would then be financially secure.
• Now, can that 4 million keep you from getting cancer?
• Can that 4 million keep your children safe on the road?
• Can that 4 million keep ISIL terrorists from hating you?
• Is that 4 million inflation proof?
Financial security is NOT security.
The term “Financial Security” should be added to the list of oxymorons.
The only real security in the world
Is the security afforded to us by God through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13-14 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
But financial security is not security.
The problem is that most of our world doesn’t know that.
Most of our world thinks financial security is the best kind to have.
And most are so enamored with obtaining it
That they never even think about obtaining the real one.
And so James says, “Hey rich man! Did your money fail? Did you get humiliated? Did you lose everything? Did you face a situation where your money wouldn’t help you?”
Praise God for that situation!
For maybe it opened your eyes to your real needs in life.
And that is true for you and me as well.
I don’t suppose anyone in here would consider themselves to be rich,
But let’s face it, in the global economy of the world,
That’s exactly what we are.
We all have more financial security than most of the world has ever known.
And when we face situations where that wealth fails
We are prone to whine and complain and grow bitter.
But we shouldn’t, we should praise God for those moments
When our money was tight, or when our money wouldn’t help us.
Those moments teach us that being low is better than being lost!
1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
And so I think you get James’ point.
• If you have trials count them joy
• In the middle of your trials ask God what to do
• But if your trial is poverty, no need to ask, I’ll tell you – “glory!”
Glory because High Position is better than Haughty Possessions
Glory because Being Low is better than being Lost
That is how a genuine Christian responds to financial hardship.
