23 Sep 10/11/26 James 5 “Not Ready to Give Up”
10/11/26 James 5 “Not Ready to Give Up”
Have you ever seen an article in the newspaper about something really not very practical? I might say that half of what politicians say would fall into this category. Have you ever looked at the list of so called charities that are supported by the United Way? I think you would be a little surprised at some of these. A few years ago, someone came up with a campaign to save Twinkies. It seems rather fruitless to me. There was a soda pop named Surge that was resurrected because a few people got behind it. As far as I know it really did not sell much better than the first time around. Sometimes we get duped into things that aren’t very practical or very wise. Today, we are going to finish our quick look at James which, some say, is the most practical book in the Bible. Let’s see if we can find some departing wisdom here for our lives.
Michael Deutsch tells about a man who was a regular at a restaurant. The owner liked the guy and always tried to please him. One day the man complained that he only had one piece of bread with his meal and the waiter promptly brought him 4 more. The man was grateful but said that it wasn’t good enough because he loved bread. So, the next night he was given six slices with supper. He said, “Good! But aren’t you still being a bit frugal?” Even a basketful the next day didn’t stop the complaints. Finally, the owner decided to end this for good. The next night he had a colossal loaf of bread baked. It was six feet long, three feet wide. It took the manager and two waiters to carry it to the complainer’s table. When they laid it on the table the huge loaf took up five place settings. They stood there and smiled, waiting for the man’s reaction. The man looked at the gigantic loaf of bread and said, “So, we’re back to ONE piece again?” I can’t help but think that at times we forget just how much we have. We start to look at things as one instead of many.
Once again James is pretty harsh by our standards as we have seen in other chapters. James would never win an award for being politically correct. He says, “All right you rich people, get ready. Your time of misery is coming. All your wealth and money has rotted away your insides. You have oppressed people with less than you. You have done every conceivable thing to earn the wrath of God.” Today we know that this type of thing has been happening since the beginning of time.
But maybe what you don’t remember is that we are one of the richest nations on earth. I heard someone say one time that you would be hard pressed to find people starving to death in this country unless there are extenuating circumstances. There are places in the world where real starvation is quite common. There are places where drinkable water is hard to find. We are the rich people of the world even if we are poorer than our neighbors.
So I think that this passage applies to us also. We have to be serving those who have less. I challenge you to adopt a child through Compassion International or World Vision. You would be a huge help and there really shouldn’t be any reason that each of us does not do something like this. We have to also be on the lookout for hurting people in our area. When I served a church, we would get $1000 every month for this. There are many other projects that we can be involved in that will make a difference. Let’s not be accused of not helping poor people in the last days just because there are not many in this immediate area. Let’s just keep this in mind. There are more here than you think.
Then James takes a look at the other side of the coin. He looks at the victims of these rich people. These are the ones that have no money or power. James tells us to be patient in your suffering. James is writing at a time when the persecution is just cranking up a little against Christians. It won’t be long before they will be fed to the lions. Times are dark and James is trying to give them a little light.
He tells them to take a look at the prophets. None of them had an easy time of it. Moses met strong opposition from just about every factor including his brother. Job had to put up with almost unbearable pain, loss of wealth and loss of family. The Old Testament prophets were the prophets to the kings. They were not afraid to tell the king that he was wrong. This of course led to much persecution. And still they all persevered. They continued to look to the Lord for guidance and safety.
One of the things James tells us is not to grumble. If you are oppressed or hurting in any way, do not complain. It is really easy to turn on each other when the evil one is attacking us. We like to be able to blame someone or something that we can see. Of course the devil works through others around us to make us we grumble against each other. We are not supposed to be doing these things. Instead we are to hold each other up. If we do so then we are working for the Lord and we will not be judged for this sin.
James is one of those books in the Bible where he tries to get as much in here as he can so he then tells you not to swear for any reason. Don’t swear by God or by earth or anything else. We talked about one facet of this a couple of weeks ago. I think swearing is out of control in many parts of the country. I have been known to turn off movies due to swearing.
But there is also another form of swearing where we swear that we will do something. We make a promise or an oath that we will do something. I have learned, sometimes the hard way, that when someone tells me that they swear to God they are telling the truth, they are usually lying. It has happened to me so many times that when I hear that phrase, I just assume that what follows is false. This section is all about integrity. It used to be that if you shook hands on a deal it was as good as done. Now we have to have contracts and other documentation because there is no way we can trust anyone. I think you all know that this is true. In just about every chapter of James I think we have to stop and ask, “What is wrong with us?” How sad a world we live in where we really cannot trust anyone!
Then we finally come to the crux of the matter and this is what the whole Bible is about. Is anyone of you in trouble? Are you sad, hurt, hungry, or broke? You should pray first. When crisis arise, pray! It’s that simple. Once again, we have trouble with this because we are a society where you can handle anything. Don’t worry about me because I can take care of myself. Well, I might be right. I can take care of myself. But I know from experience that I can take far better care of myself with the help of Jesus working through me.
We are reminded several places in the Bible to go to God and Psalm 34:4 says, “I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.” Remember that this is the end of this letter of James. Tou have already learned how to pray the right way. You have to have a right heart. You need to be praying for God’s will, not my will be done. We need to always remind ourselves that you need to be in line with God and not that God be in line with my world. When you are on the same page as God when you pray, things will happen but they will happen in God’s way. Far too often we want God to heal our health, give us food, help us find a mate and the list goes on and on. We do not ask for God’s will be done.
People, this is not hard. You need to be in fellowship with other believers or you will backslide. You need this time together. We need each other. Those who do not feel they need to attend services like this are the ones who probably think way too highly of themselves and how important they are. We should know that we are only as important as God allows. We learned that to love importance in this world is to hate God. To hate God like this is to mean that you do not have a heart that is ready for prayer. This is important for everyone. You have to learn that this world is not important and only God is.
Let’s move on or I will never finish. Then James asks if you are happy? Is anyone here happy today? Then you are to sing songs of praise. And for those of you who are monotone or two-tone like me, hum along. Sing out loudly in your heart because you have a lot to be grateful for in your life. There is no place that you can look where you do not see God and His wonderful works.
One of the things that happen when we praise the Lord together is that we help each other and we may not even know it. Being joyful and happy in our praise is contagious. I always ask Sharon to choose songs that we know are uplifting for the end of the service. I want you to leave with joy in your hearts so you can spread this to others. This is one of the complaints that non-Christians have against us. We are too happy. If you are a Christian you will almost always find joy in no matter what happens. If you cannot because it is too personal, then someone else will help you find it.
This leads us into the next part where we are supposed to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other. We need to do this so we may be healed. Personally, I think that some of the things that the Roman Catholic Church does is spot on being right. One of them is confession. I might do it a little differently as I would have the pastor be a representative of us, the congregation, as the person confesses directly to God. I think that confession is one of the most powerful tools we have. And here we have James telling us that we have to confess to each other.
Prayer is powerful and effective as we can see by the example of Elijah who prayed earnestly and it didn’t rain for 3½ years. That was a powerful prayer. Elijah was one of the most faithful, fruitful men that has ever lived. Jesus has promised us the same thing if we are faithful. He will give us all that He has. I always tell you how important it is to pray and I hope you prayed for patience this week as it was our assignment. Let’s make our prayer this week for patience once again plus kindness.
And finally we come to the part where we are to reach out to those who have strayed from the faith. We live in a world that has really fallen away from God. We have people believing that God has said and condones things that are totally against the Bible. We have twisted the Word to a point where it is almost unrecognizable. Many people feel that all is lost because of this. But I’m not quite ready to give up yet.
We have revival meetings every year for this very reason. We want people to come back to God, the real God of the Bible. Revival means to come back to God again. I don’t want anyone to give up on someone who has turned their back on God. We need to do the things that James talks about. We need to pray for the person or persons. When we go into places like a cancer clinic, we need to tell people why we have so much hope. James talks about so much stuff in his letter and this is where he was going. No matter who you are, no matter what you do, if you can help a sinner turn from his evil ways, God will take care of you. If you need a refresher as to how to help, then go back and reread this short letter.
One thing is for sure. James loved Jesus. Philip Harrelson tells the story of a man who was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and Jesus appeared. The Lord told the man He had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the devil entered the picture by placing thoughts into the man’s weary mind. “You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it.” This gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened him. “Why kill myself over this?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time, giving minimal effort and that will be good enough.” And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. “Lord” he said, “I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by 1/8 of an inch. What is wrong? Why am I failing?”
The Lord responded compassionately, “My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back rippled and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock.”
People, we are called to pray and obey. We can only win the world back for Jesus one person at a time. Use the fundamentals that are outlined in James to help you obey. Jesus loves you and He will never, never leave you. Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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