True Religion: Eternal Perspective

James 5: 1 - 11

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SPEAKER_04 0:18

You now stand for the reading of God's Word. Our passage this morning is the book of James, chapter 5, beginning of verse 1. It's page 1077 in your Red Pew Bibles. If you didn't bring a Bible of your own this morning, it should be one that looks like this. If you want to hunt one of those up, turn to page 1077. Again, it's James chapter 5, beginning of verse 1. We'd like for everyone to be able to see the passage as it's being preached.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on 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 workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you. Be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door. Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Thanks be to God. Thank you, Emily. Goodness, James. Make us uncomfortable this morning. Let's pray that God would help us to hear what he wants to say to us this morning. Let's pray together. Lord, before your word that is often disturbing, that often serves like smelling salts to our lives that become so comfortable, that become so dull, that become so distracted in this world filled with distractions, Lord. We need the smelling salts of your word to wake us up from the things that our hearts become attached to, that we would see their emptiness, Lord. And that we would see Jesus lifted up in all of his glory and that we would be drawn to him. Would you come and be our teacher this morning? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So question to ponder as we get started this morning. Do you ever find it hard to be patient? To wait on something? You know, life is full of that, right? Where you are ready. You are ready for something to be there. You know, it can be a season in life, it can be something that you're looking forward to that's coming in the future. All kinds of different areas of life. We are called on to wait for something. We're called to be patient. And it's so hard because everything in us wants it now. I especially feel that. I'm one of these people that finds delayed gratification very different, very difficult. Like if it's coming, I want it now, and I don't want to wait on it. You know, it's kind of thing that we see every evening at dinner. You know, our boys at this time of year are rolling in late at night. Usually they're coming off of a football practice, or H is coming home from work and Ashley's been cooking, and there's something good in there, and they come in and they are ravenous. You've seen this, right? Ravenous teenagers. Some of you are trying to feed them right now. It's extremely hard. But they come in and they're ravenous and they're just dying of hunger in that very moment. And our job is to hold them off for dinner, right? Because the tendency is they're gonna go to that pantry and they're just gonna raid it, right? You ever had that temptation? Like I'm just so hungry and I can't wait any longer, then I'm just gonna eat a bunch of junk to where the dinner, well, it doesn't taste so good anymore. Maybe I'm not even hungry for it anymore. I find this too. That it can be so hard to wait on something. But here's what I found makes waiting a lot easier to do. It's when you know what is coming is gonna be so good. Like sometimes whenever they come home at night, Ashley's been, she's been cooking ribs. She does ribs pretty good. Or maybe it's steak or something. And those are the special nights where you're like, hey guys, if you can hold off just a minute, listen, we got steak tonight. You don't want to mess with that. You don't want to eat any of that junk. Don't eat the chips, don't eat any of that other stuff. Like we got steak, like you want to save everything for this because it's that good. When you know something is coming and it is really good, and you know it's gonna be satisfying, it gives you the ability to wait. It gives you the ability to be patient. Now, why do I why do I share this? Because Christianity is really at its core. Our faith at its core is a future-oriented reality. Christianity is all about something that is coming. Yes, something that has happened, something glorious that has happened, but that thing that has happened guarantees for us something that is in the future. And so you cannot remove that from Christianity that we, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are spending your life going somewhere, looking somewhere, waiting for something, looking ahead to something that is not yet here, but yet is in the future, a new world, a new reality that is ahead of us. Now, here's the challenge. We live in a culture where the underlying message of our culture, and we get it everywhere, from the marketers that are bombarding us, from the things that we see and the things that we are enticed to chase after, we get the message that this life is all that there is. So you better live it up. This life is all that there is, so you better get all you got. You better get all that you need right now. You get but you better have every experience. Don't hold out, don't wait. You know, you only go around once, so you got to fit it all in now, right? That's the message that we get. And so when we're in this culture, the temptation for us is so strong to look to this life now to fulfill all of our longings. And there's a problem with that because we're in a broken world. We are in a world of death. We're in a world where our bodies are breaking down. We're in a world where those things that you long for, that you were made to long for, don't happen or don't come along. Or don't come along the way that you had hoped they would. That's the reality of living in a broken world. And so this tension hits us. And the temptation in this world is to just go harder after the things of this life now. It is so easy for us as followers of Jesus in this culture to forget about forever. It's what Paul Tripp calls eternity amnesia. We forget the fact that we are made for a future world. We forget that this life is like that. We're called not to live for this life and this world, but the one that is to come. Well, as we come to our passage here, we're in the book of James, we're calling our series True Religion, where really James is concerned to help us understand what is authentic Christianity, because it is so easy to see a counterfeit, to be misunderstood about what is Christianity. And this is an especially important book for us in the Bible Belt because it is very easy to claim Christ, to claim salvation, but yet be deceived at what does that really mean? It is really easy to be deceived about what it really means to follow Jesus. That is James's burden. That's why we're calling it true religion. So here's what we're going to see in our passage today: that true religion is seen in a life that is lived in the now, in this life that is lived here in light of eternity. A life that lives here in the everyday, where you are, in light of a world that's coming. Those are the marks of authentic Christianity. So let's jump into our passage here. And we're looking at kind of two sections in our passage here in the in chapter 5. We see the first section, verses 1 through 6, where really James is speaking about the dangers of wealth. And then you pick up in verse 7, verse 7 through 11, uh, James seems to be speaking about uh patience in suffering. Now, at first glance, those can seem to be unrelated. James likes to kind of sprinkle all kinds of stuff in there, right? And at first glance, it's like, how are these connected? But as we look deeper at this, we see that they are both connected by a common truth he wants to root us in. In other words, the thing that we need to understand as we face the allurement of wealth in this world is the same thing we need to understand whenever we're called to patience and suffering in this life. And that is what James wants us to see in this passage is that we've got to have an eternal perspective. That this life is fleeting, it is passing, it is short, but the life to come is forever. And James wants us to live in light of that reality. So let's look at each of these that he wants to deal with here. First, James wants to warn us about the dangers of wealth. Now, this is, if you were paying attention when this scripture was read, this is very strong language. James doesn't pull any punches here. But what James is doing here is he is wanting to, well, the the context here, it's important to understand this. Uh, James was a leader in the Jerusalem church. And the Jerusalem church was a church that struggled heavily with poverty. Most of the believers in the Jerusalem church were Jews, and so when they converted to Jesus, they were disowned by their families. They were persecuted in society, they many of them could not uh find employment anymore. They were suffering greatly. We know this through the book of Acts and many other epistles. They were suffering with poverty, and they were suffering at the hands of the wealthy. And so there's this dynamic at play in them in which they are suffering at the hands of the rich, and there is a temptation for them to either envy those who have wealth and power, because they don't have any, to say that's life, and to be tempted to chase and and and go after that, or to have this mindset of retaliation in the world. And so what James is calling them to here is to see wealth from God's perspective. So a question arises as we look at this here. The question that naturally comes up is wait a minute, is wealth sinful? Is it sinful in and of itself to be rich? Because what he says here is a very strong thing. Look again at verse one. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Yikes. Right? So the question is, is it sinful to be rich? Is wealth sinful in and of itself? And the answer is no. In fact, Scripture portrays wealth as a blessing from God, right? But what Scripture is overwhelmingly clear about is the danger of living for wealth. That is sinful. And it is so very easy to be lured into that. Jesus talked about money and the dangers of money, the deceptions of money, almost more than any other subject that he touched on, which might tell us he knows something about the inclination of our hearts here. Now just think about this for a minute. The deceptiveness of wealth. Wealth and money, stuff, it feels so real, doesn't it? It feels so tangible. It feels so powerful. You ever find yourself acting a little bit different when you are around someone of great wealth? You know, maybe you're around somebody and you know they got a lot of money, or as my kids say, they're loaded, right? Right? Do you find yourself, maybe you act a little bit different. Maybe you're a little bit more self-conscious about what you say, maybe you're a little bit more concerned that you make a good impression over them. It's almost a natural inclination of our heart. Now, why does that happen? Because we just, we think wealth is a big deal. And even me saying that, you might say, Well, it is. Well, the Bible says it's not nearly as big of a deal as we think it is. But there's something about wealth, it feels real, it feels powerful. There's something about a new thing in our life that just it feels good, right? I mean, it brings like a surge of happiness. I I I often think, you know, I've shared this before, you know, here in Dade County, people like their trucks, right? If you've noticed, there's like hundred thousand dollar trucks rolling around town all over the place, right? And and I gotta be honest, I'll often look at those and I'll be thinking to myself, I need to be up in one of those. I need a diesel, like a big, powerful power stroke diesel. I need to be riding up high. That's what I need to do, right? There's something in our hearts that is so lured into money. You know, another thing about money is that it just makes us feel secure, right? If if I can just have a little bit more, then I'll be okay. And and and you you you can see that very clearly whenever it's threatened or taken away, we immediately are struck with terror, right? I am. That unexpected bill comes in the mail, the the AC unit goes out at the house, transmission goes out. I mean, we'll just seize with worry. Why? Because my security is in money. And the thing about money, here's the greatest danger of wealth, the most dangerous part. You cannot see the danger. It blinds you to it. Very few people are walking around worried about getting lured away from well with wealth, right? And a part of that is because nobody thinks they're rich. Yeah, we're probably hearing this and being like, I'm well, you know, at least I don't have to worry about what James is saying here because I'm not rich. Right? Did you know that no one thinks they're rich? No one. It doesn't matter what you have, no one thinks they're rich. Why? Because everyone compares themselves to someone above them. We probably know rich people, but it's certainly not us. But let me tell you something. We live in the most affluent and secure culture the world has ever known. And I know that's hard to believe, and I know I'm not trying to act like we don't worry about money and that we don't have real problems paying bills. I know that we do. But you see, wealth is options. That's really what wealth is is the ability to choose things. I can choose where I go, I can choose what I do, I can choose where I live, I can choose where my kids go to school, I can choose what we're gonna do this weekend. That's wealth. So, really, this danger is something for all of us, and it is so enticing for our hearts. Uh, this past week, H and I went to go see The Odyssey. Anybody seen that? New movie out. You know, it's about this ancient Greek Greek mythology story, and uh Matt Damon is, you know, Odysseus in there. It was good movies, well done, pretty true to the book. But one of the scenes in there is a scene where Odysseus and his men are on their ship. They've been off at war and they're trying to get home. Really, the movie's all about getting home. And in order to get home, they've got to go through all of these dangers that they have to pass through. And one of those is through their ship, they have to sail through this area where the sirens are. And the sirens are like these sea monsters that live in these jagged cliffs, and they have to sail through this area, and they sing a song to everyone who passes by. And this song is like the most wonderful and enticing and delightful and irresistible thing you've ever heard. And what it does to those who are sailing through is that it draws them and entices them, and that men would jump into the ocean to their death trying to get to these things, or they would guide their ships into it and crash on the rocks and perish. But it's almost irresistible. And so as they're going in, Odysseus has his men put wax in their ears. Because he knows as we're going through here, even though they want to go home, they have their eyes focused on home. The moment they hear the siren call, they forget about home altogether. It's just like, I gotta have that. I gotta have that. And he has them tie him to the mast. Odysseus is tied to the mast, and he says, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, because he's not gonna put wax in his ears, no matter what I say, don't untie me. Because he knows the temptation is gonna be so irresistible. Everything in me is gonna want to get loose and get to it, right? And I thought about that this week, and I thought, I think that's what the Bible wants us to understand about wealth. I think that's what Jesus wants us to understand about wealth. But you see, James is kind of cutting through that here, and he wants us to see wealth from God's perspective. He wants us to see that it is passing and it is empty. Look at some of the things that he says here. Verse 2 your wealth has rotted. Mauls have eaten your clothes, your gold and silver are corroded. The things that we collect, the things that we uh hoard, the things that we go after, they they they fade. That's the reality about the things of this world. It is passing, it is fleeting. And so this living for wealth leads us to consume. It's like the basis of our culture, right? We are consumers, right? Constantly going after more stuff. And and so James wants us to see it's it is foolish and empty because all the things we are so tempted to live for, they're passing away. But he also calls out this thing that wealth does, and that it leads you to oppress others. Look at what he says in verse four. He calls out the injustice of wealth and riches. Verse four look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. Right? The temptation with wealth is that it is so easy to take advantage of other people. I mean, when you have wealth, you have power, right? And and this is the story of the world that those who are in power. Those of wealth use that wealth to exploit those who are weaker and have less. And you know, the tendency is so great. The more that you have, the more that you don't see people, you don't see needs. The more wealth we have, the more that we can kind of be with people who are like us. We don't even see the reality of the people around us. It's gonna be really easy to withhold what really we owe to other people. So injustice is the reality of the rich. And then finally, just this extravagant self-indulgence. Look at what he says in verse 5. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. When we are living for wealth and under its spell, we are living after just consuming, it becomes about us. But a part of what happens in our hearts when we begin to be enamored by wealth is that we become consumers living for ourselves. So what is James saying in the face of this? The truth that he wants us to see is that it's empty and it's fading. And you see that most clearly when you see it in light of eternity. You know, James wants us to see this life is so quick. It's fading, it's passing, the world to come is forever. And there is a day that is coming when we will stand before the Lord. And that puts wealth in perspective. Look at what he said. A number of places that he points to this in these verses here. Look at the second part of verse 3. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. It's a reminder here that it's this ironic thing that we are in the last days. The time is short, we will soon meet the Lord. And yet here we are, about to meet the Lord, and we are collecting things. We're living for things. It's foolish. Second part of verse 4 in the face of our injustice, look at what he says about that. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You know, it's this putting in perspective that we might think our advantage taking of other people goes unnoticed, but it's seen by the Lord. And the cries of those who are taken advantage of, it reaches the ears of the Lord, and we will stand before Him. And then finally, this chilling line in verse 5. You second part of verse 5, you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You know, in if you have livestock and you're getting ready to butcher that livestock, what you do is you want to fatten it up right before you take it to the butcher, right? You want to put weight on it. And so that animal might think, hey, this is getting good, man. You know, I'm getting fed grain. I mean, I'm I'm anything I want. But what you're trying to do is you're trying to marble that steak, right? You're trying to fatten it up and get it ready, but the animal has no idea. All it knows is like luxury. This is great. Keep it coming, right? So what James is saying to us when we live for wealth is that's not being done to you. You're doing it to yourself. You are fattening yourself for the slaughter. Because you will stand before the Lord. See, when we see that eternal reality, when we see that we very soon will stand before the Lord, it puts our wealth in perspective, doesn't it? Well, secondly, here in verse 7 in this section, he calls believers to patience. That in this life we can face suffering, we can face hardship, we can face persecution and oppression. But his call here is to patience in this life. Patience, this word is just repeated over and over and over in the passage. Verse 7, be patient then, brothers and sisters. Verse 8, you too be patient and stand firm. Verse 10, brothers and sisters, and as an example of patience, and then he goes on to mention the perseverance of Job. The call here is to patience. That's what we're called to as believers in this life. It takes patience. It takes waiting. It takes saying, you know, I'm not gonna live for everything that's held out in front of me now. I'm gonna wait on something that's coming. And what does James root that patience in? It's eternity. It's that very soon you're gonna stand before God. And that this life, as we know it, and this world as we know it will come to its conclusion, and the life to come will begin, and it will last forever. We're called to live in light of that. Right? That's the perspective that this life is to be lived in. Second part of verse seven. Well, first verse in first sentence in verse seven. Be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. Verse 8, you two be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Verse 9, second part. The judge is standing at the door. What does he want us to see? You're about to meet God. Jesus is coming back. You know, whether he comes back tomorrow, whether he comes to us or we go to him, it's gonna be soon. You know, it is vital that we learn to live life in light of that truth. Because again, the temptation of this world is just to think, man, this life is gonna go on forever. It's especially hard when you're young. I turned 48 today. I don't know how that happened. I told Bo this morning, he said, Happy birthday, Dad. You know, he's making breakfast. He said, How old are you? And I said, I'm 30. He goes, Oh, cool. And I said, Bo, you really think I'm 30? And he goes, Yeah? Like, all right. I said, Bo, I'm 48. He goes, dang. I don't feel old, and and there's many of us in this room that are like, you think that's old, you just wait a minute, right? But how quick does it happen? You know, and the thing is, when you're young, you don't know how quick it's going. But as you get older, you have the benefit of wisdom to say, man, this thing is quick. You know, sometimes in this life we're tempted to live for retirement, right? It's all about that, that, those glory years that are ahead of us, you know, and you're just laboring and working and everything. And then you get there and you realize, oh great, my body's falling apart, right? You see, when we encounter the brokenness of this world, what it ought to do is to say, life will not be satisfied in this world. We got to be clear on that. That's what James wants us to see. This is fleeting. And you know what? You are about to stand before God. Now, I don't know how long that's gonna be for us, but I do know this. It is guaranteed for every person in this room. We will stand before him. We will give an account of our life. You know, we we will stand before him and he will say, All right, here's what I entrusted to you. You know, it's different for us. Some of us got more, some of us got less. You know, some of us got more time, some of us got more resources, some of us got more gifts. It really doesn't matter how much. What matters is what did you do with it? So we're gonna stand before him and he's gonna say, I gave you 10 talents. What did we come up with? What did you do? And and you know what's not gonna happen in that time? We're not gonna say, you know, I took so many amazing trips. It's okay to take trips, right? It's not okay to live for experiences and trips. Why do I say that? Because our world is telling us it is. You you need to you need to have amazing experiences. This world says that life is about good feelings, good stuff, and good experiences. So go have it, right? But we're not gonna stand before God and say, I felt good, I had great stuff, and I had great experiences. We're not gonna stand before him and say, my golf game was incredible. We're not gonna stand before him and say, my football team was so good. We're not gonna lay out our successes. We're not gonna do any of those things, right? We're gonna give an account for what we did and what he gave to us. When you live in light of that, I'm telling you, it changes how you walk through what he gives to you now. Whether it's suffering, whether it's poverty, whether it's wealth, what are we gonna do with what he's given to us? Because so soon we're gonna stand before him and give an account. And based on what we do here, it's gonna echo throughout eternity. That's what he wants us to see. So here's here's my question for us. Application. Do you believe this? Do you believe that the world to come is forever? Do you believe the promises that the Bible tells us about what God has in store for those who are united to Jesus? Do you believe that? Do you think about it? Like often. Because you know, honestly, in our world of wealth and affluence, we don't think a lot. But if somebody's suffering, they think more about this. If somebody's facing death, you're gonna start to think about this. That's wisdom. Do you think about the life to come? Do you think about standing before God? Because the world is saying, live for now. Live for now. So let's be honest. Does it seem a little unreal to you? It does to me. Very often I struggle with that. You know, I said, you know, the things of this life, the things that are now, it's tangible, right? I can get my hands around it, I'm like, man, that feels real. This can feel distant. It can feel ethereal. So sometimes we're honestly wondering in our heart, is that for real? Is that really coming? Is heaven for real? Is the new earth for real? Am I really going to stand before him? Right? So the question is, how do you know? How do you know it's real? Here's how you know it's real. Look at the cross. Look at the cross. As we see the cross, we see the most definitive thing that has taken place in human history. That Jesus came into our world and he bore the cross. The creator of all things came into our world and he was nailed to a cross. Three days later, he was raised again. That reality is the guarantee of our future. Look at the cross. Jesus became poor on the cross. This is how Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 7. He who was rich, rich, how rich was Jesus? All things were his. How great was his poverty. Well, it doesn't get any more poor than a shameful cross. He who was rich became poor so that we through his poverty might become rich. See, Jesus went to the cross that we might inherit the earth. Do you know that's the promise of the Bible? The promise to Abraham and the promise to us, Paul repeats it in Romans, we will inherit the earth. How do you what? What a crazy thing to think. That's the guarantee. We're going to reign with Christ. What do you think that means? We're going to be rich. We are going to reign. We are going to reign in the new earth for eternity. How do you know? The cross. You got to see Paris before you die. What's on your bucket list? Our world says you got to have yourself a bucket list, right? Go checking it off and let everybody on social media know. I'm getting my bucket list done. Why do you need a bucket list? Because you think this life is all that there is. If you got to see Paris now, can you imagine Paris in the new earth? We're going to live there. We're going to enjoy it. We're going to go into the museum and handle the painting. Right? That's what this means. Because of the cross of Jesus, we're going to live forever. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we're going to get new resurrection bodies. All those prescriptions, you can throw them in the trash. Right? We're going to reign with Christ. How does that become true for us? Well, it says we are united to Jesus in his death. When you're united to Jesus in his death, it is the guarantee you will be united also to him in his resurrection. How are we united to Jesus in his death? Well, here is his call and his promise to us. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. If you live this life seeking to hold on to your life, that's what he means by save your life. That's the great challenge of human life is that we're trying to save our life. We're trying to stave off aging and stave off our bodies falling apart and getting sick and we're trying to accumulate now. We're trying to hold on to our life. He says, if you seek in this life to save your life, you will lose it. Fact for everyone. But if you lose your life for me, you will gain it. The whole world. If you let go of your life to Jesus, you surrender it. You say, You have all of me. You have my future, you have my kids, you'd have my money, you can have everything. I am yours. And Jesus says, and you will have all that is mine. That is the only way it works. There's no way around it. You cannot go to Jesus and say, I'm keeping this. Will you give me some of that? Does not work that way. You lose it all. But the glory is, you get it all. That is the promise of Jesus. Let me just close with this. We talk about it for a second. But Martin Luther's great hymn, I just want to end with this. You know, this what I'm describing, this is Christianity. Now it's hard in the American church because we Christianity is about good feelings now, right? That is not biblical Christianity. Historic Christianity taught this, and it was something that the persecuted church knows very clearly. But Martin Luther's great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. I love the closing stanza. It just wakes me up. He says this let's let goods and kindred go. Everything that we got, our children, our stuff, let's let it go. This mortal life also, even our life. Just let it go. The body they may kill. It's true. It might happen. But God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. His kingdom's forever. Don't live for this life when you're going to inherit a kingdom and we will reign with it. So stop there for just a few moments and interact with that. What's happening in you as you think about the future hope we have in Christ and how hard it is to remember it and live in light of it. Let's hear from each other. What's happening in you? How are you challenged? How are you encouraged?

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Um, I admit that I often am not thinking um about heaven, and I'm kind of consumed with this place, and and I feel like I've been waiting for a while for some things, and um yeah, that may never happen. So I think I'm wondering um how to long for heaven and long for restoration and um to live for heaven, but also not become like apathetic and uh cold now. Like how do I not just shut off well, unfortunately, I've been unsuccessful in shutting off my heart. Yeah. Um yeah, I think just how do I I hold those things in tension where it's okay to still hope here, but yeah, I does that make sense? I don't know how to do it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 41:59

I and I think it's a great question because I think at some level we can all resonate with that. Because one of the realities of this world is that unfulfilled longings and desires is a fact of life. And I think the wisdom of that, when we encounter it, when we encounter it, uh whether it's death, sickness, something we long deeply long for, that's really good that's that hasn't happened, that's with withheld in our life. When we encounter that, it should remind us wait, I am not home. This world is not my home. And it should generate and drive our longings towards the world that is to come, but but that doesn't make us um not be present in this life. It should make us more present in this life. And and it gives us this kind of differentiation with the things of this life, which is I'm I still really care and I still really desire. And and there are good things in this life that God intends me to enjoy and to long for. And so we're fully present, but we're not bound to it, we're not defined by it. We can experience peace even when we're not, when we don't have something, because we have this faith in future grace, this faith in future provision. So I think it it creates that kind of balance, that differentiation, that like I really care and I can be hurt. And I'm not just somebody who's like, oh, I'm just waiting on heaven, you know, and I'm not present in this life. I think it makes us more present in this life, especially when we realize what we do in this life is. Connected to the world to come. So I think the more that we dwell on this future hope and experience joy in it, longing for it, I don't think it will shut us down in this life. I think it makes us more present. But I know that tension you're talking about for sure. Thanks for sharing that.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

Hey Hutch, uh something I was thinking about with contentment and wealth. Um, I can often use wealth like a measuring stick or a report card. Uh where especially if my peers, if my peers are making more than me or are wealthier than me, I'd get thinking of like, well, what am I doing wrong? Yes, not up that level. And then to cope with that, I can flip to the other side of like, well, I'm actually way holier than my peers because I'm I'm making less. Yeah, we can go both ways, yeah. And ends up being both are about my own effort, and it's this cycle that's exhausting. And so I can understand the the answer is like to look to Jesus and the work he's done. And I even thinking of the kingdom of like being kind of released from that constant back and forth and that constant striving. Um and yeah, looking forward to being free from that sounds very nice.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

Yes, Mark, thank you for sharing that. I I often think of Jesus' perspective on money. I think I would summarize it in this way it's just money. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just money. Like, why are you why are you so worked up about that? And of course, we would say, I mean, that's kind of revolting to us. It's like, yeah, it's money, it's important, you should know what you're doing with it, and all this stuff. And I think Jesus would say, it's not as big of a deal as you think it is. That's also someone who cares deeply how we use it, how we steward it, right? It can do things. Money is useful, it's very useful. Like it can care for people, uh, it can lift people, it can protect people, it can do all kinds of things, right? It's a tool God gives to us, but it's just a tool, and that's the problem is that we take a good thing and we make it an ultimate thing, and it's in every one of our hearts. I mean, Jesus like talked about this constantly. I mean, he there was only one sin that he said, be careful and be on your guard against the love of money. Well, why would he say that? He didn't say that about adultery, right? Why? Because you know you're doing it, right? No one knows they're greedy. I love what Tim Keller, one of my mentors I've never met, he was a pastor for like 30 years. And he said, as pastor, I've had people come to me and confess every sin imaginable, except for one. No one has ever confessed greed to me. I'm like, I think that's pretty right, because none of us think we have a problem with it. We should probably assume we have a problem with it. But I think Jesus would say, What? It's just money, and it's all God's. Like, why are you looking to that? We we look to money as if it is God, and that's the problem. But I I I resonate with what you're saying, Mark. Thank you for sharing that. It's it's easy to think my my status is this, my value is this, and it's like, what? No, it's got nothing to do with your status and value, but we think it does.

unknown 48:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Um yeah, I think Hutch, I even this week, I feel like I've kind of been confronted with wealth, and I feel like I feel like I'm pretty good at it, like I'm pretty content until I see something that I'm like, oh, that's pretty great. You know, like I mean, really, like I'm like Mark and I are like, we're not spenders, we're savers. So I'm like, oh, we are like we're good in this area, like we really don't have a money problem. But I think it's because um like even us living in Trenton versus people in Chattanooga is like we save a lot of money because we don't eat out, but it's also like not tempting really to eat out. Um, I mean, there's anyway, sorry. There's there's other reasons why that's true. I can't eat a lot of things, but anyway, like I guess what I'm trying to say is I think I feel really good about this until I feel like I'm blindsided by like, oh my goodness, my heart is so much greener than I thought it was. And it and just like the enticing of like, whoa, what a great life that I'm missing out on. And then that sends me in this spiral of like kind of like what Mark is saying, what do we do wrong? Or I'm like, um, I start resenting wealth, and I'm like, uh, you know, like out of jealousy, I'm resentful. And then I'm like, no, that's not the answer. Like, I know um the Lord gives differently, and there's generosity and wealth. And anyway, but it just, yeah, it's like I feel like if I just keep my head down and I don't face it, then I'm okay. But then it like really throws me when I just feel like those muscles are weak because I'm not flexing them, because I'm just avoiding being discontent. Does that make sense what I'm trying to say? Yeah, so it feels like I'm just like set up way worse than when I am confronted with something that I'm jealous of or that I long for because I've just been avoiding dealing with it.

SPEAKER_04 49:48

Yeah. No, it's thank you for sharing, Sarah. I totally resonate. Like I I often will think to myself, I don't think this is a problem for me. Or I'll think, I think we're doing pretty good. And and and it's like there's an innate blindness to it, you know, and then something comes along and shows me, oh, this is a real problem from my heart. And I just think that's universally true. But I think the the the crucial thing James would want us to see is like when you see what's coming for us who are united to Jesus, like money ain't nothing. Worldly status, nothing. Experiences you gotta have nothing when you compare to what we're gonna inherit. And I think that's the work we gotta do, is that we gotta take those promises more seriously. We gotta dwell on them, we gotta meditate on them, we gotta work out like the specifics. I wonder what that's gonna be like. Like, think on it, talk on it. And and I think past generations of the church have done that a lot better than the American church, which makes sense. Like, why would we care about eternity if right now it's pretty good? Well, at least the marketers tell us it will be very soon. You just get this, right? We're like this constant carrots out in front of us, and I really think if I get that, I'm good. That's all I want, right? And then I get that, and it's like it's corroding over in the corner. Like, what's the next thing? And I think James is saying, Do you know what's coming? Do you know what's coming? Like, none of this matters in the way that you think it does when you when you know what's coming. So let's close in prayer. Lord Jesus, help us to look at the cross. Help us to know this, it's not just like some ticket to heaven. That it is the purchase of a new world, and that a kingdom has been inaugurated through your cross. And it's breaking into this world in one day in all of its fullness, and we will reign in that kingdom with you. Help us to understand this, Lord, so that our hands are open with our possessions, and so that we have the strength to suffer and endure with patience. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.