The Madness Of Materialsim
James 5:1-6 7.11.21
God says in James 5:1 “Come now you rich” … I have something to say to you. To whom? Who are the rich?
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with his $190 billion or Elon Musk with his $182 billion? Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, who has a measly $28 billion? Those people and those who fly to the edge of space for a joy ride? Is that it? Or does it include all the people at the top, like the 20% of Australians who earn above the average wage?
It’s a problem if it is all the people at the top. If your income is just half the average wage in Australia, you are richer than 90% of people in this world. We are all at the top.
It doesn’t feel like the top if you are one of those Australians who struggles to pay the bills, or to clothe and feed the kids, despite doing your dead level best, and I don’t want to minimise that. Yes, we are spread along the wealth scale.
Even so, we are part of one of the richest countries in all human history where the benefits flow to everyone through a great health system, a social security safety net and so much else.
So, yes, these words “Come now you rich” are to us all, one way or another. Don’t rule yourself out of hearing what God says, as if it only for the person who owns several houses while you own none.
If we asked where our culture is pushing against us in 2021, we would certainly list an area like sexuality and sexual practices.
Even that is not as great as the pressure of having money and stuff. Materialism penetrates our minds and hearts without our even knowing it, and we often look about the same as everyone else when it comes to how we get and hold and use money and stuff.
As we look at what God says in James 5:1-6 we will find that everything God says here about wealth is negative.
That doesn’t mean that money or possessions are evil, or that enjoying what comes to us through them is sinful. God does not say that anywhere.
There are traps in being rich, in having wealth. Big traps which are deadly. Which is why Jesus warned us against wanting to be rich. James speaks about some of those dangers:
1. Having wealth can breed false security.
Why does Jesus say it is difficult for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven? It is because wealth gives the false impression that we are safe, when we are not.
How could wealth ever make you safe? In verses 2 and 3 James says they rot. Do nice clothes last? No – the moths eat them. How about your precious car, or jewellery, or the castles you build? They rust and corrode, James says.
Take the time one day to walk around your house and put a sticky note on your car “Destined for the junk yard”. On your clothes “lunch for the moths”, and on your investment annual report “ready for the fire”. Any sense of security those things give you is a false illusion.
Do you recall the story Jesus told of the man who became richer and richer, building bigger warehouses to store all he owned? He felt so secure that he said to himself “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years: relax, eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19). Once he thought he had arrived, and was now safe, God said “You fool”, and that night killed him.
2. Wanting wealth can lead you into sin.
When American millionaire John Rockefeller was asked which million he enjoyed making the most, he answered “the next one”. Rich people rarely live in the present; life is about what’s next. That leads into all kinds of sins, as you cut corners to get more.
You are tempted to HOARD. That’s the idea in verse 3 when James speaks about laying up treasure … stockpiling or hoarding it. Not using it or enjoying it, but just growing it. Like people who have wealthy collections of art or other beautiful things – admired and enjoyed or locked away in a vault while their worth piles up?
God is not against investing or saving for a good purpose, but the idea of “laying it up”, just to make the pile bigger. It’s what we might call HOARDING.
Then there is DEFRAUDING. The man in verse 4 could easily afford to pay those who labour for him, but he holds back their pay to advantage himself. Millions of people earn a day at a time. If they are not paid on Tuesday for Tuesday’s work, there is no money to buy food to feed the family on Wednesday.
God calls it ‘fraud’ in verse 4.He has always hated that, as many of the laws of Moses confirm.
Our industrial laws reduce the chance of that happening in our culture. How about when:
· we buy houses which means that the price gets beyond the man not so rich?
· Or we lease them out at maximum rent that further works against the poorer man?
· Or we do not pay our bills on time because we will make more by holding onto the money?
· Or we use an interest free plan to buy something, knowing that we get to do that only because some others can’t pay on time, and end up paying big fees, so that we paid none?
Yes, yes, I know life is more complex than this in an advanced economy like ours. I also know that some tradesmen hate doing jobs for Christians because they so often unfairly argue prices down, and even then defraud by not paying on time?
As one man wrote, our world is crying out for “the rebirth of clear and uncomplicated honesty”.
> Having wealth can breed false security
> Wanting wealth can lead you into sin – into hoarding and defrauding.
3. Using wealth can be self-indulgent
Verse 5 speaks of the rich who “have lived on earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts …”
God is not speaking here about the obviously evil use of wealth in drunkenness or prostitution or ripping gullible people off through deceitful schemes. He is speaking about our living in ease and luxury while other people starve.
We know that in our culture, we deserve the best, so why should we have it? Why shouldn’t we upgrade the car now that it is 15 years old? Or the furniture to something more swanky? Or bigger and better holiday accommodation next time? Why shouldn’t we or our children have the latest gadgets, like everyone else?
A family I visit when I go the Philippines is very poor. On one visit I asked where the little 6 year-old son was. He had died since my last visit. How? His parents could not afford the $20 for medication that would have saved his life. $20! I spend more than that on a meal out.
Yes I know we can’t help everyone. I know that some inequalities are a fact of life. I know that I am free to enjoy what God has given, and that I should provide for those under my care. I am not saying we should all sell up and live in tents, and never eat out, or never invest for the future.
Don’t you think there is a question to be asked about so much money spent in Australia by most of us, on making life easier and more enjoyable, and so much time earning it? While people sleep in park, and others die for lack of $20.
Isn’t it time to say: As God’s children, we refuse to be materialistic? We are no longer content just to be one car model lower than the rest and call that self-denial, or one cabin class lower on the cruise. Or one room smaller in the house we build. Don’t you at least begin to wonder whether our self-indulgence is too much like the rest?
Can we be different? Not tying our security to wealth, not wanting more so that we hoard or defraud and not being so self-indulgent. I think two things will help us be different:
1. SEEING THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD TO COME
Seeing the world to come for what it is, after the end of this present world, makes all the difference in this world.
Gold has always been valuable in this world, but God says that values are turned so upside down in the world to come, that you’ll walk on it – the roads are paved with it. James knows that silver and gold do not rust, but he knows that they will be as worthless in that world as a pile of rusty junk.
If wealth isn’t measured by gold in the world to come, how is it measured? At the end of that parable about the rich fool who ended up dead in his bed, bankrupt, Jesus says “So it is with the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21).
Rich toward God? Loving Jesus, betting all you have on Jesus. Making it your aim to please Jesus. Using your wealth of stuff and money and time to bring as many with you as you can into that world.
Who are the truly rich people once the banks have all been dissolved, all superannuation accounts closed down, and all the luxuries of this world made irrelevant? Those who belong to the King of the new world. Do you want treasure? “At his right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” (Ps 16:11)
One more thing about that world to come. It will be brought in with a judgment. “The cries of the [unpaid] harvesters” (v4b) and of “the righteous person” (v6) who did not have enough power to resist the oppressive rich man will call out. On that day they will be answered by Jesus. The defrauders and the hoarders and the self-indulgent not already forgiven by Jesus will pay. They will pay in full.
Friends in this world the rich get richer and the fat get fatter, the good guys lose and the bad guys win, as the cries of the downtrodden and the defrauded and the forgotten are ignored. The day is almost here, when all that will be put right. Forever.
If there is not a final and terrible judgment on greed and fraud and self-indulgence, then God is neither loving nor just. He is both.
If you are not governed in this world by a vision of that judgment, and of those treasures in the new world, then being rich and comfortable here will simply matter too much.
1. Seeing the wealth of the world to come.
2. BEING GENEROUS IN this world
God’s alternative to materialism is not to sell up, cut up your credit card, and buy nothing but the bare essentials. His answer is generosity. Listen to what God says in 1 Timothy 6:17,18
“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share …”
Did you get it? Sure, enjoy all that God gives you. At the same time to be generous with it as you share it with others.
What does generosity look like?
Ø You won’t be saying “If I help him, then I won’t be able to buy this for myself.” Maybe you won’t. When you have a generous heart, that won’t matter much.
Ø You won’t be holding back on hospitality because you are worried that you can’t cook fancy food, or sit on swanky chairs. That won’t matter when you have a generous heart.
Ø You won’t be working out what you do based on a formula of 10% or 30% or one that says you upgrade once things are 10 or 20 years old. Generosity doesn’t work on percentages.
Ø You won’t be thinking about how much you could have gained had you invested rather than given this away. Generosity doesn’t count the dollars or work out what was lost.
What feeds a generous heart? A vision of the world to come, and what true wealth is. Knowing what is secure there enables you to live loose to things here. The two are closely connected.
In the wealth measures, you might be up here or down here. No one is pretending this morning that we are all the same, or all have the same freedom to be generous. It’s never been about amounts.
Regardless of where you are at on this scale, if I asked people who know you well whether you are generous, what would they say? The answer matters, because your generosity says so much about what is in your heart, and what fill your mind.
THE MADNESS OF MATERIALISM Trinity
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