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James 4:13-5:8 - The Wealth Idol · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Good morning, faithful listeners, Welcome to the Bible
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  Speaker 1: Explain podcast on this lovely morning. And Hi, my name
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  Speaker 1: is Jen I'm the host of this podcast. I'm so
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  Speaker 1: thankful that you're here to share a delicious cup of
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  Speaker 1: coffee with me as we discuss James Chapter four and
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  Speaker 1: five the Book of James. Out of all of the
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  Speaker 1: letters that I've read so far, I feel like connects
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  Speaker 1: the most with each other. So James is referencing stuff
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  Speaker 1: that he talked about back in chapter one, so I'm
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  Speaker 1: just ignoring the chapter breakdowns at this point. So today
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  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about part of both James four
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  Speaker 1: and five today and it's going to tie together very
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  Speaker 1: well as you're going to see. But as usual, faithful listeners,
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  Speaker 1: before I get into today's episode, please listen to a
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  Speaker 1: sponsored advertisement. Well, thank you so much, faithful listeners for
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  Speaker 1: listening to that sponsored ad. And while that was playing,
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  Speaker 1: hopefully you got a chance to grab your Bible and
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  Speaker 1: also a cup of coffee or tea for this discussion today.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to start in James four and read
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  Speaker 1: verses thirteen through James five, verse eight. As usual, I'll
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  Speaker 1: be reading from the web or the world English Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, let's go
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  Speaker 1: into this city and spend a year there, trade and
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  Speaker 1: make a profit. Yet you don't know what your life
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  Speaker 1: will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For
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  Speaker 1: you are a vapor that appears for a little time
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  Speaker 1: and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, if
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  Speaker 1: the Lord wills, we will both live and do this
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  Speaker 1: or that. But now you glory in your boasting. All
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  Speaker 1: such boasting is evil to him. Therefore who knows to
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  Speaker 1: do good and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.
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  Speaker 1: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries
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  Speaker 1: that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted, and your
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  Speaker 1: garments are moth eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded,
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  Speaker 1: and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you,
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  Speaker 1: and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid
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  Speaker 1: up your treasure in the last days. Behold the wages
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  Speaker 1: of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you've kept
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  Speaker 1: back by fraud. Cry out, and the cries of those
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  Speaker 1: who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord
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  Speaker 1: of armies. You have lived in luxury on the earth
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  Speaker 1: and taken your pleasure. You've nourished your hearts as in
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  Speaker 1: the day of slaughter, you've condemned, and you have murdered
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  Speaker 1: the righteous one. He doesn't resist you. Be patient, therefore, brothers,
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  Speaker 1: until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits
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  Speaker 1: for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over
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  Speaker 1: it until it receives the early and late rain. You
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  Speaker 1: also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord is at hand. So hopefully you can see
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  Speaker 1: how James four and James five connect to each other
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  Speaker 1: so well the two passages we read today, And if
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  Speaker 1: you don't see the connection, we will definitely talk about
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  Speaker 1: it together. But so far in this letter, James has
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  Speaker 1: addressed multiple things that might pull our hearts away from God,
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  Speaker 1: specifically selfish ambition, being friends with the world, being partial
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  Speaker 1: to people who are rich over people who are poor,
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  Speaker 1: desiring riches and wealth for yourself. In fact, in James four,
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  Speaker 1: verse four, here's what he says, you adulterers and adulteresses.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility
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  Speaker 1: toward God. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of
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  Speaker 1: the world, makes himself an enemy of God. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't believe James in this passage is talking about, you know,
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  Speaker 1: having friends that aren't necessarily Christian, or going to establishments
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  Speaker 1: that aren't Christian, or spending your money on something that
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  Speaker 1: is secular or you know, not related to the Church.
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  Speaker 1: I don't believe that's what James is talking about. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we have to live in the world and we're going
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  Speaker 1: to encounter people who are not Christian all the time,
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  Speaker 1: and we have to navigate those kinds of situations in
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  Speaker 1: a healthy way. So what James is talking about here
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  Speaker 1: is not necessarily that, But he's talking about wanting to
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  Speaker 1: be like the world while being a Christian, wanting the
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  Speaker 1: things that the world offers. Kind of like in the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament, where the Jewish people were supposed to be
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  Speaker 1: set apart as God's children, as holy, and yet they
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  Speaker 1: were always looking at the other nations. They were always like,
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  Speaker 1: what are the other nations doing? What kind of gods
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  Speaker 1: are they worshiping, what kind of prosperity do they have,
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  Speaker 1: what kind of kings do they have? And they were
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  Speaker 1: constantly saying, we want to be like the other nations.
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  Speaker 1: We don't want to be a set apart holy nation
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  Speaker 1: to God. This is the kind of attitude that James
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  Speaker 1: is talking about with us Christians, do we want the
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  Speaker 1: things that the world offers us, or do we want
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  Speaker 1: the things of God? We can't have one or the other.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus himself, on the Sermon on the Mount said, you
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  Speaker 1: cannot serve both God and Mammon, or in other words,
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  Speaker 1: money wealth. You can't serve two masters, because you'll either
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  Speaker 1: hate one and love the other, cling to the one
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  Speaker 1: and despise the other. James was seeing this as an
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  Speaker 1: issue in the early Church, where people were desiring wealth
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  Speaker 1: and riches and selfish ambition and personal prosperity. That's why
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  Speaker 1: he said, and verse thirteen, which is our passage for today.
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  Speaker 1: Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, let's go
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  Speaker 1: into this city and spend a year there, trade and
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  Speaker 1: make a profit. Yet you don't know what your life
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  Speaker 1: will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For
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  Speaker 1: you are a vapor that appears for a little time
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  Speaker 1: and then vanishes away. So what is James saying here, Well,
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  Speaker 1: he's not saying that it's wrong to make money. He
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  Speaker 1: is not saying even that it's wrong to make a prophet.
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  Speaker 1: What he is saying is that it's wrong to completely
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  Speaker 1: forget the one who grants you wealth, to believe that
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  Speaker 1: you are the one who grants yourself this kind of wealth.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, in Deuteronomy chapter eight God warns against this
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  Speaker 1: very behavior in verses eleven through eighteen. So let's read
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  Speaker 1: that it says, beware lest you forget Yahweh or God,
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  Speaker 1: in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes,
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  Speaker 1: which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten
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  Speaker 1: and are full, and have built fine houses and live
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  Speaker 1: in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and
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  Speaker 1: your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that
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  Speaker 1: you have is multiplied, then your heart might be lifted up,
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  Speaker 1: and you forget Yahweh, or God, who brought you out
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  Speaker 1: of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
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  Speaker 1: and who led you through the great and terrible wilderness
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  Speaker 1: with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there
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  Speaker 1: was no water, who poured water for you out of
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  Speaker 1: the rock of flint, who fed you in the wilderness
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  Speaker 1: with manna which your fathers didn't know, that he might
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  Speaker 1: humble you, and that he might prove to you to
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  Speaker 1: do you good. At your latter end, unless you say
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  Speaker 1: in your heart, my power and the might of my
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  Speaker 1: hand has gotten me this wealth. But you shall remember
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh or God, for it is he who gives you
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  Speaker 1: the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant,
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  Speaker 1: which he swore to your father's as it is today.
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  Speaker 1: So this is God himself in the Old Testament, warning
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  Speaker 1: his people to not forget him, to remember where they
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  Speaker 1: get everything from. Who gave them the promised land, who
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  Speaker 1: gave them the wealth that they're going to receive. It
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  Speaker 1: is God himself. It says that all good things come
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  Speaker 1: from God, because he created everything. Everything belongs to the creator,
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  Speaker 1: and he shares his creation with us. He shares the
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  Speaker 1: wealth with us. It belongs to him first. So when
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  Speaker 1: we get to wealth, it's not coming from ourselves. And
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  Speaker 1: sometimes people have a tendency to boast in that. Look
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  Speaker 1: how much wealth I gained from myself, from all of
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  Speaker 1: these different things that I did. That's what Deuteronomy eight
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  Speaker 1: is warning against, and that's also what James is warning
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  Speaker 1: against in James four. He says in verse fourteen, yet
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  Speaker 1: you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: For what is your life? For you are a vapor
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  Speaker 1: that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Basically,
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  Speaker 1: our lives are nothing in the grand scheme of eternity.
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  Speaker 1: Our lives are like a breath. That's all they are.
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  Speaker 1: It is minuscule when you think about the the time
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  Speaker 1: of our lives versus all of eternity. We have short
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  Speaker 1: lives here on earth, and we do not know when
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  Speaker 1: the end of our life is going to come. We
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  Speaker 1: are like a vapor that appears for a little time
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  Speaker 1: and then vanishes away verse fifteen. For you ought to say,
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  Speaker 1: if the Lord wills, we will both live and do
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  Speaker 1: this or that, and all such boasting is evil to him. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: who knows to do good and doesn't do it to him?
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  Speaker 1: It is sin any kind of boasting that a Christian does,
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  Speaker 1: where they act as if their achievements gained them anything.
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  Speaker 1: That kind of boasting is a sin us. Christians, we
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  Speaker 1: should be boasting in God. This is something that Paul
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  Speaker 1: actually said quite often. He's like, I don't boast, but
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  Speaker 1: if I'm going to boast, I will boast in the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: because he is the only thing worth boasting about. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Philippians ties pretty perfectly into this portion
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  Speaker 1: because Paul talks about contentment and how he learned content
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  Speaker 1: and how he used to be a really well known pharisee.
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  Speaker 1: He was also a Roman citizen, so he had some
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  Speaker 1: prestige that he ended up rejecting completely because the Gospel
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  Speaker 1: was so much better to him than any earthly achievement
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  Speaker 1: that he could ever have. So he says, I have
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  Speaker 1: learned how to be content with a lot, and I
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  Speaker 1: have learned how to be content with a little. And
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  Speaker 1: the secret to that contentment is that I can do
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  Speaker 1: all things through Christ, who gives me strength. That's what
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  Speaker 1: James is talking about right here. It is God who
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  Speaker 1: gives us strength. It is God who gives us the
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  Speaker 1: ability to work and to make wealth. It is God
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  Speaker 1: who is giving us these things. So we should be
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  Speaker 1: thankful in our hearts toward God if we gain any
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  Speaker 1: kind of success whatsoever, because it was God who gave
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  Speaker 1: us that success, instead of turning it around on ourselves
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  Speaker 1: and being like, oh my gosh, look at the amazing
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  Speaker 1: thing that I just accomplished. Look at how cool all
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  Speaker 1: I am. Look at what I was able to do.
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  Speaker 1: Look how much people like me. That is why I
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  Speaker 1: am so successful in this area. Instead of doing that,
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  Speaker 1: which is it's easy to do that, right because we
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  Speaker 1: are proud of some of those successes. We worked hard
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  Speaker 1: for some of those successes, and it's easy to turn
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  Speaker 1: them around on ourselves. But ultimately it is God who
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  Speaker 1: has given us every single one of those things. So
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  Speaker 1: we need to turn those things back to God and
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  Speaker 1: be in complete thankfulness to Him for the successes and
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  Speaker 1: achievements that we receive here on earth. It says in
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  Speaker 1: verse seventeen, to him. Therefore, who knows to do good
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  Speaker 1: and doesn't do it to him, it is sin. So
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  Speaker 1: if somebody knows that they should be doing something good,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's something good for somebody else or even just
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  Speaker 1: giving thanks to God for the achievements that we receive,
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  Speaker 1: and we don't do it, we are actually sinning this
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  Speaker 1: verse my mom When I was a little kid, I
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  Speaker 1: was homeschooled for eight years, and my mom that verse
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  Speaker 1: actually on my desk because I was a very lazy
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  Speaker 1: student looking back on things, so she taped that verse
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  Speaker 1: to my desk. So I've had this verse memorized for many, many,
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  Speaker 1: many many years. Because if you know to do something
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  Speaker 1: good and you just don't do it because of laziness,
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  Speaker 1: or fear or pride. You're actually sinning if you do
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  Speaker 1: not do that good thing that you know you should do.
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  Speaker 1: And this actually ties perfectly into the next verse in
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  Speaker 1: James five one, it says, come now, you rich, weep
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  Speaker 1: and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.
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  Speaker 1: Verse two. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are
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  Speaker 1: moth eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and
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  Speaker 1: their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and
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  Speaker 1: will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up
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  Speaker 1: your treasures in the last days. Now in this portion,
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  Speaker 1: James is not necessarily addressing the church. For the most
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  Speaker 1: part in this entire letter, James has been addressing the church,
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  Speaker 1: but now it doesn't seem that he is. Instead, now
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  Speaker 1: it kind of seems like he's addressing the rich that
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  Speaker 1: he previously mentioned in James two, six and seven. Going
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  Speaker 1: back to that, here's what this says. Don't the rich
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  Speaker 1: oppress you and personally drag you before the courts. Don't
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  Speaker 1: they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called.
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  Speaker 1: So it seems that the people that James is addressing
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  Speaker 1: have been persecuted, specifically by the rich and we don't
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  Speaker 1: know who these rich people were, but they were targeting
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  Speaker 1: the church. And now in James chapter five, it sounds
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  Speaker 1: like he is addressing these people directly for two different reasons.
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  Speaker 1: I would guess. The first reason is to give comfort
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  Speaker 1: for the persecuted, saying that yes, the rich are getting
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  Speaker 1: away with all of these evil things that they're doing
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  Speaker 1: right now, but they are not going to get away
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  Speaker 1: with it for long. That's the first reason. And the
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  Speaker 1: second reason he's addressing this is because he's noticing a
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  Speaker 1: problem in the church where the average congregant wants to
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  Speaker 1: become like these wealthy rich people and want to do
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  Speaker 1: the same things that the rich are doing. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he addresses that in James chapter two, where he mentions
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  Speaker 1: how some church congregants are showing partiality against poor people.
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  Speaker 1: The poor are walking in and they're making the poor
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  Speaker 1: sit on the floor while the rich and the wealthy
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  Speaker 1: that walk through the doors get the best seat in
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  Speaker 1: the house. That kind of partiality is a sin, because
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  Speaker 1: in the eyes of God, everybody who is a child
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  Speaker 1: of God is the same, whether you have an abundance
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  Speaker 1: of wealth or whether you are extremely poor. If you
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  Speaker 1: are a child of God, then you are the same
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  Speaker 1: as all the other brothers and sisters in Christ. It
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  Speaker 1: does not matter your status, or your class, or your
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  Speaker 1: heritage or your culture. None of that matters. You are
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  Speaker 1: equal as a child of God. So those are two
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  Speaker 1: reasons I believe that James is addressing the non saved
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  Speaker 1: wealthy to give comfort to the oppressed and to warn
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  Speaker 1: the church not to be like these wealthy men and women.
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  Speaker 1: And here's what he says about them. You rich, you
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  Speaker 1: need to weep and howl for your miseries that are
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  Speaker 1: coming on you, meaning the punishment that Jesus is going
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  Speaker 1: to give them. And here's why. Your riches are corrupted,
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  Speaker 1: and your garments are moth eaten verse three. Year gold
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  Speaker 1: and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be
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  Speaker 1: a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
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  Speaker 1: So this brings me to a parable that Jesus stated
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  Speaker 1: in Luke twelve thirteen through twenty one. In fact, we're
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  Speaker 1: going to spend some time here in Luke twelve because
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  Speaker 1: much of what Jesus says in this chapter relates to
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  Speaker 1: our passage in James. Starting in verse thirteen, Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: speaking to the multitudes, And here's what it says. One
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  Speaker 1: of the multitudes said to him, Teacher, tell my brother
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  Speaker 1: to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him,
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  Speaker 1: man who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?
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  Speaker 1: He said to them, beware, keep yourselves from coveteousness. A
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  Speaker 1: man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of things which
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  Speaker 1: he possesses. He spoke a parable to them, saying, the
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  Speaker 1: ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. He reasoned
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  Speaker 1: within himself, saying, what will I do? Because I don't
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  Speaker 1: have room to store my crops. He said, this is
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  Speaker 1: what I will do. I will pull down my barns,
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  Speaker 1: build bigger ones, and there I will store all my
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  Speaker 1: grain and my goods. And I will tell my soul,
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  Speaker 1: you have many goods laid up for many years. Take
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  Speaker 1: your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said
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  Speaker 1: to him, you foolish one tonight, your soul is required
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  Speaker 1: of you the things which you have prepared. Whose will
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  Speaker 1: they be? So is he who lays up treasure for
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  Speaker 1: himself and is not rich toward God. So that parable
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  Speaker 1: was Jesus kind of warning these two brothers over the
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  Speaker 1: sin of greed that they had. They are apparently fighting
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  Speaker 1: over some inheritance that was left to them. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure some of you faithful listeners listening have experienced the
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  Speaker 1: messiness that inheritances can sometimes cause. And that's what's happening
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  Speaker 1: between these two brothers. They're fighting over something regarding the inheritance.
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  Speaker 1: And so Jesus first and foremost, he's like, who made
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  Speaker 1: me the arbitrator for you guys. He's like, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: going to judge this for you guys, but here's what
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  Speaker 1: I will do. I will warn you over the dangers
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  Speaker 1: of greed. So he says to them, beware and keep
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  Speaker 1: yourselves from conveteousness. For a man's life doesn't consist of
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  Speaker 1: the abundance of things which he possesses. So the things
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  Speaker 1: that we gain for ourselves here on earth do not
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  Speaker 1: matter in the grand scheme of eternity, is what Jesus
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  Speaker 1: means here. Yes, we need them to survive, and Jesus
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  Speaker 1: and the Father know that we need these things to survive,
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  Speaker 1: but they are only here for a temporary protection for
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  Speaker 1: us and for temporary entertainment, temporary needs. That is what
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  Speaker 1: all of our stuff really comes down to so Jesus says,
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  Speaker 1: life consists far more than the things that you gain
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  Speaker 1: for yourself. And then he's beaks this parable to them.
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  Speaker 1: In verse sixteen, the ground of a certain rich man
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  Speaker 1: produced abundantly, and he reasoned within himself, saying, what will
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  Speaker 1: I do because I don't have room to store my crops.
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  Speaker 1: So basically, there's this rich guy who has been blessed
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  Speaker 1: abundantly by God. In fact, his crops are producing so
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  Speaker 1: much that he doesn't even have enough barns to be
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  Speaker 1: able to hold all of the crops that he gets
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  Speaker 1: from his fields. So here's what he decides to do.
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  Speaker 1: He says in verse eighteen, this is what I will do.
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  Speaker 1: I will pull down my barns and I will build
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  Speaker 1: bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain
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  Speaker 1: and my goods. So he's like, Okay, I'm gonna get
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  Speaker 1: rid of the little barns and I'm going to make
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  Speaker 1: brand new, big barns so I can store all of
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  Speaker 1: these crops. And then I'm going to take a many
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  Speaker 1: year long vacation because I have so much food, I
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  Speaker 1: have so much wealth, and I'm just gonna sit back
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and enjoy life and eat, drink and be merry. That's
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: what it says right here. But this was foolish for
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: many reasons. Because here's what God says to this rich man,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: You foolish. One tonight your soul is required of you.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: So this man was far more interested in the things
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: that he could gain here on earth than he was
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: in the eternal. He was only focusing on this life.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: He was not focusing on the life to come. He
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: probably never even thought about it. In fact, it's clear
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: from the way he's talking that he wasn't thinking about it.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: He was only thinking about this retirement that he's going
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to have, this vacation he's going to take and all
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: of the food and wealth that he now has. He
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: can just take it easy and rest and relax. That's
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the only thing that was on this man's mind. He
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: was not thinking of the eternal. And God said to
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the man, tonight your soul is required of you. Essentially,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: tonight is the day of your death. So now what
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the things which you have prepared, Who's will they become?
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: And then Jesus concludes this parable by saying, so is
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: he who lays up treasure for himself and is not
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: rich toward God? So this man made several flaws. He
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: didn't think that he was going to die that very night.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: He thought he had way more time ahead of him.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: He's planning out years in the future. He was not
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: thinking I could die at any moment, and I don't
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: know where my soul is going to be. And he
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: was building up all of his treasures for his temporary
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: earthly experience and not for the eternal which was to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: come after his death. And he could have been a
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: young man for all we know. And maybe that's why
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: he thought that he had so much more time, that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: he could enjoy life here on earth before thinking about
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the eternal. And that's what James chapter five is talking
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: about here. He's talking about the rich who are doing
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the exact same thing as that rich man in the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: parable that Jesus gave. They are building up treasures here
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: on earth without thinking about God, without thanking God, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: also while mistreating other people. In fact, they're not even
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: paying the hired workers that they have. It says in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: James five, verse four, Behold the wages of the laborers
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: they cry out, And the cries of those who reaped
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: have entered into the ears of the Lord of armies.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: You have lived in luxury on the earth and have
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: taken your pleasure. You've nourished your hearts as in the
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: day of slaughter, and you have condemned, and you have
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: murdered the righteous one. He doesn't resist you. Don't be
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: like these evil wealthy people who break the laws, who
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: mistreat the Christian who are laying up their treasures here
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: on earth. This is not the model that you want
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: to follow. In fact, just as a side note, in
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Deuteronomy twenty four fourteen through fifteen, there's a law that
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: God gave to the wealthy for paying their hired hands.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Here's what it says. You shall not oppress a hired
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: in your land within your gates. In his day, you
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: shall give him his wages. Neither shall the sun go
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: down on it, for he is poor and sets his
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: heart on it, unless he cry again to Yahweh, and
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: it be sin to you. So that's God actually telling
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the wealthy landowners that have hired hands to pay them
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: every single day and to not withhold their payments, because
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: something that wealthy landowners might have liked to do was
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to withhold the payment from their hired hands, to almost
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: force them to keep working so that they had to
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: finish out the year on their farm, and then the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: wealthy guy would be like, Okay, here's your payment at
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the end of the harvest or something like that. But
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: that was corrupt and evil because these people were poor.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: They were living day to day, and they needed those
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: wages on a day to day basis. So God actually
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: commanded the landowners to pay their hired hands every single day.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: But these wealthy individuals in James chapter five aren't doing that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: They're withholding the payments from all of their workers. They
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: are persecuting the church, they are murdering the righteous ones,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and nobody is resisting them. That's what it says in
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: James five, verse six. They aren't having any resistance against them,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: which is why they think they can keep doing these things.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: But James, to conclude in verses seven and eight, gives
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: some comfort to the persecuted church. He says, be patient, therefore, brothers,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: until the coming of the Lord. Behold. The farmer waits
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: it until it receives the early and late rain. You
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: also be patient establish your hearts for the coming of
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the Lord is at hand. Now this could mean several
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: different things. James could be talking about the second coming
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of Christ, that it is near, that it is not
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: as far as we think, especially when we look at
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: everything in the grand scheme of eternity. Jesus is close
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and he's getting closer every single day. But James could
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: also just be talking about the normal life span, like
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: death is coming for all of us. The day of
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the Lord is at hand for each and every individual.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So these wealthy individuals are not going to get away
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: with their evil that they are doing towards the church
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: for much longer. But we all have to be patient,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: just as the gardener or the farmer has to be
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: patient and water their vegetables every single day, and you know,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: clip the little vines and weed the garden and you know,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: do things to make sure that the crops grow better.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: As a farmer is patient for the crop, so we
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: also have to be patient for Jesus's return, and not
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: just for his return, but for his vengeance for his
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: judgment that he's going to do towards these wicked people
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: that are constantly hurting the church. That is the encouragement
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: that James gives the persecuted believers who are persecuted because
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of the rich. All right, faith for listeners, you guys
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: know the drill. I'm going to play one last sponsored
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: ad for you, and then I'm going to conclude this
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: episode with one last little point. So to conclude, you
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: can really see how James is warning each and every
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Christian to not store their treasures on earth. In fact,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I would guess that that's the main point of the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Book of James. Think outside of the temporary, think outside
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: of the earth, think into the eternal, and have faith
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that Jesus is who he says he is, that Jesus
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: is going to come again. You know, James, if anybody
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: had probably more faith about who Jesus was because James
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: was the brother of Jesus. He grew up with Jesus,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he lived in the same household as Jesus, he had
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the same mother as Jesus. So James knew who Jesus was,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and he is encouraging the church to also know who
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Jesus is, to know that eternal life exists, that eternity
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: is not something just made up that Jesus is going
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: to come again and that every single person, everyone will
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: bow in front of Jesus and declare him as Lord.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: We are all going to stand in front of Jesus
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: someday and we're going to have to take everything that
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: we did to the throne of Jesus, and Jesus, being
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the good judge, is going to review everything that we
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: did here on earth that was either helpful or hurtful
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: to the gospel message. And Jesus is the same yesterday
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and today and forever. We've been talking about how God
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: is so against the idols in the Old Testament, but
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: James is warning us against an idol that unfortunately is
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: in the church today, the idol of selfish ambition and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: wealth and money and prestige. These things can become idols
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: if we allow them to. And that is why we
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: need to be thankful for the things that God gives us,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: not become boastful if we do get any kind of accomplishment,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: any kind of wealth. And we also need to make
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: sure that if we do gain wealth from God himself,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: that we don't become like these boastful, arrogant and corrupt
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: wealthy individuals that James warns against. So faithful listeners, if
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: this episode encouraged you or convicted, you share it on
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: your social media platforms and tell people that the Bible
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Explain Podcast exists. I will see all of you guys
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: tomorrow for the last episode of Neamayah, and also Thursday
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: we'll be discussing another portion from James. I don't know
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: if f'll finish up James or not on Thursday. I
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: have not decided yet, but either way it'll be a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: really good episode. So I hope to see you guys
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: tomorrow or on Thursday six am or whenever you choose
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to wake up and listen. Faith a listener, happy listening,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and God bless. I just want to take a second
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: with me on the Bible Explain Podcast. In fact, if
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: you go to life audio dot com, you'll find dozens
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.