Ep 57 James Chapter 6 – Pt 1

okay, I am so glad that you joined us again for it’s all Greek to me and we are in the last chapter of James That’s James Chapter five and we’re looking at how to pray through all kinds of troubles. He is prayerful in trouble. The person is going to be a mature christian. Oh he’s gonna go through troubles. Like I said, we’re gonna have economic troubles, physical troubles, national troubles, church troubles, but he’s gonna pray through the troubles, join Vicki and me as we discuss that he is going to pray through his troubles. So Vicki and Tom are coming to the last chapter of the Epistle of James, this beautiful little jewel that helps us to grow in our spiritual maturity and get to perfection. God calls her perfection in James chapter one verse four and let endurance. That is IPO money, patience have its perfect result that you may be perfect And complete lacking and nothing. So actually the whole process is to prepare us and make us to be mature as believers. And that’s what this James 1234 and now five that we’re gonna be able to have these marks of a mature Christian. Being patient and testing chapter one, practicing the truth in chapter two, having power over our tongue in chapter three That we are a peace maker, not a troublemaker in Chapter four and then that we are prayerful in trouble, threw trouble when we get into trouble and how to come out of trouble, that we’re learning how to pray and so we’re gonna look at that today. So Vicky, let’s jump in and the various pressure and and problems that we have In Chapter five that we’re going to pray through the first one is economic trouble 51 through nine. Physical trouble 10 through 16. National trouble 17, 18 and church trouble 19 and 20. I have to tell you that a lot of our teaching, we beg borrow and steal and that is a worldly expression. But I want to give credit to where credit is due to one of our mentor spirit. Saadiyat is another one. Warren, where’s B? We’re using his outline and of course we’re adding all of our own study through the words and through the thoughts that were gleaning and getting. But we just thank God for the incredible professors and seminarians and theologians and scholars that God has used. We have them today. People like Tony Evans and others that are that you’re able to watch on television or even be able to understand their their their study bibles like john macarthur, David Jeremiah again, Tony Evans who have their own study bibles. Warren where’s B has a study bible, You can check with your bookstores and we want you to study what what these Godly men have said and others, uh dozens of others. People like Spurgeon from the past that we can learn from. We have nothing original truly everything we’re getting. We’re getting from God’s word and we’re giving him the glory for it. So we want to jump right into chapter five and look at this. If you pray only when you’re in trouble, You’re in trouble. You’re in trouble. So we should be praying. It says in first Thessalonians, chapter five all the time rejoice seven more. Pray without ceasing all the time in everything, not for everything, but in everything, Give thanks for. This is the will of God in christ jesus concerning you. So difficult for us to learn sometimes. And of course we’re talking about praying through economic troubles right now. You’re counting your pennies, your nickels, your dimes, you’re counting all the different monetary systems throughout the world. You say, boy, I wish I had more. God will give us what we need and we when we have pressure. And uh, and you have to remember Vicki that this chapter comes out of Chapter four. Remember chapter four. How does Chapter four end? It talks about if you know the right thing to do and you don’t do it, it’s sin. It’s talking about going and starting a business, uh, using money. The stewardship of money. The stewardship of time. The stewardship of what we do with our lives and that we decide, you know, I think I’m gonna go to that city and do this and do that. And yet we’re not even aware of what the will of God, the misuse of riches in our life economic money that God gives us. He’s very clear about us to be fair, always with other people. And to remember to give to the Lord 1st. He’s our number one priority to give back to him. Not only are our time in our lives, but also the resources that he has given to us to bless all the other people in the world. Back in the those days, it wasn’t just the the actual uh physical money, silver and gold and clothing, but it was commodities, whether it was, you know, horses and camels. You read about the wealth of of job and you the thousands of animals and you know, servants and houses and lands and you read about the same thing with abraham in the bible. So you know the resources, the wealth that God gives us. We need to know that first and foremost it belongs to God, we’re stewards of what we have. And so that’s the first thing. So I’m gonna let Vicki go ahead and read it in english and then we’ll get into it. Come now you rich weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted your garments, they have become moth eaten, your gold and silver have rusted and the rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up treasure for yourselves behold the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you And the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of say, both. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and lead a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. Slaughter. Therefore be patient brethren. Remember until the coming of the Lord that the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil. Being patient about it. Until it gets the early and late rains, you to be patient, strengthen your hearts. For the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain or grown from pressure like childbirth is the words dana’s oh, brethren against one another so that you yourselves may not be judged behold the judge is standing right at the door. So these are the first nine verses. You notice it, It addresses the rich first and it tells them that you know, you’ve you’ve gotten your wealth uh you know anyway, you could uh you haven’t even brought the Lord in on it when you go to do something in this city and make business and make a profit. And then the final word was you need to say if the Lord wills will do this or that. And if you know the right thing to do, you don’t do it, it’s sin. And then it goes into say, look, you’ve got all this money, but that’s not the goal of life to have stuff, jesus said it a different way, he said that life does not consist in what a person possesses your clothing, your gold, your silver, you’ve got all this stuff going on. And yet you’ve been unjust with the people that were working for you to be able to provide this resource, this treasure for you. And their cries because you haven’t paid them right is screaming out to the Lord and it uses the word the Lord of the sabbath, which is the Lord of hosts. You know, uh the Lord who governs the Myriads of the Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty. Yes. And he’s the one who’s going to judge every single one of us. Each one of us are going to appear before him uh with nothing in our hands but ourselves to give an account of what we’ve done in our life, how we’ve lived it and how the sad thing is, he said the men have worked in the in his fields and he’s held back the wages from them. Yeah. And he uses now some interesting words for being patient with people. Being patient with circumstances and we just want to address these. So Vicky’s gonna pick it up right here. So macro sumio properly long tempered and deferring anger refuses to retaliate with carnal anger based on human reasoning and we have a picture here of a long fuse and when you’re in a bomb about to go off when we don’t have a long fuse and we have to be so careful when we get angry in our spirit, we have to stop And know that God tells us do not be angry. Don’t sin. Yeah, it’s the first actually it’s the first of 16 of the qualities in love where it says love is patient, but it uses this word macro anemia which really is patience with people, you know. And uh so you have this phenomenal word that tells you to just not explode. Have macro or long tempered deferring this anger. And then the next word is IPO money illustrated here with this little you know, Donkey Vicky loves this picture so I’ll let her explain it epo is under and Meno is to remain or endure properly remaining under endurance and having steadfastness um especially of God enabling us to remain under these challenges that we have in our life. And this is I always think of in greek, the little guy do Rocky Rocky. Yeah, the donkey the donkey in greek he carries such a heavy load. He worked so hard and you know, sometimes that’s a part of our life and sometimes we’re not under that much pressure but all the time we have to remain constant and be faithful in our post. And then there’s the other third word is expectantly wait relates deep personal interest involvement, focusing on the end product of what is earnestly expected in the middle voice, the m ai And so it’s out and decide who is to receive and to be able to wait for what we are going to receive. And of course James 57. You can pick it up there, Vicki therefore be patient macros Umea brethren until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil. Being patient once again macro through media about it until he gets the early and late rains. It’s interesting you have both of these words for waiting but one having to do with you know having a long fuse and not getting angry in the process of waiting and then waiting actually for the reward because of your waiting. And that’s what it’s talking about until the coming of the Lord. See the illustration of God’s coming, jesus christ coming back really is the ultimate uh period on every pressure that we go through, whether it’s human and pressure that people put on us or whether it’s even the circumstantial pressure, government pressure, all of the stuff jesus christ is going to one day, make everything at peace and put everything down and order everything. Let’s get to the next point. Uh some of these words for crying out varro crying out, emphasizing manifest feelings while uh callow implies crying out and with a particular purpose or or uh achievement. Carazo is an interesting word in greek which literally means to cry out with harsh brutish, even inarticulate sound crazier is like if you’re moaning and and calling out with with pain or uh you know, inarticulate words and then it talks about these people that had money using this word jalape aurea literally a callous miserable condition, Wretchedness resulting from ongoing, intense affliction. So here’s you would think man, if I got money, I’ll be so happy if I had another house, if I had more clothing. And yet the word used here is wretchedness concerning the wealthy and it’s only used two times the other time, it’s used in romans 3 16 where it says destruction and Tala Perea misery are in their paths. It amazes me that God in in chapter one elevates the poor person because they’re rich in faith. And here in chapter five he lets you know that the real condition of those who just went after money made that the goal. The love of money. The love of money pushes God’s will away, I’ll do my thing. And it’s a route to all kinds of evil. And this is really the intention here, James 51 come now you rich weep and howl for your miseries are coming upon you tell Emporia and then romans 7 24 Wretched man that I am who will save me or set me free from the body of this death. The only two places. This verse this word is used and there is there is uh concerning the person who is this way is found in revelation 3 17, I’ll talk about this later where it says I, the leo to see and said, I’m rich, I have need of nothing. But you don’t know that you’re miserable and poor and blind and naked God is speaking to people who think they got it all together and they don’t see their spiritual condition of their heart. We’ll talk about this towards the end and of course this is describes the person left with severe side effects due to great ongoing strain or significant hardship. They keep picking up. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and lead a life of wanton pleasure. You have fat in your hearts as in a day of slaughter. It looks this this is the word used here for a breakdown in character. It’s interesting this word, he might a cloak, the outer garment worn over the heaton, which is the undergarments. So the, you know, the cloak, a robe was often made of wool with openings for the head and the arms and worn loosely over the heaton. The under tunic, he told the undergarments worn next to the skin. This is what they gambled for was the Khitan that jesus clothing. And then the other word, Visi knows the fine linen and uh focuses on a different, beautiful, more elegant. Uh And then of course the stoli, which is the official robe is also used. There are different words, but this particular one is the expensive code that you have to have in order to be able to be warm during cold. And and uh and this is what James is talking about. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten. And uh finally this uh this uh passenger scripture uh that we’re dealing with is when when it comes to the prodigal son. And God tells us that the father said, hey, break out the stoli stoli, which was like the sunday best get. I mean it was the most expensive stuff and that father wanted uh the son the prodigal to have the best robe and uh the ring and and sandals for his feet. And we’ll look at that concerning how he wanted to reinstate his honor and authority and also his relationship with his dad. So, uh the clothing end of it. What about women and the new york city and the fashion industry in paris. And what do you say about all of that? And how the wealthy spends so much money on clothes, clothing is a great thing. Fashions wonderful. It’s like an art. You know, they’re decorators of women’s bodies and men’s clothing. It’s it’s a great thing here in new york city. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s just when it becomes a priority in our life above. Uh really being concerned about inner things in our own spirit and in the spirit of other people. Yeah, like first peter. Chapter three talks about that. We need to be the inner person of the heart with a meek and and and and priceless uh spirit. Uh, it talks about that. So I think that uh here that the rich are making such a big to do about the clothing. I mean you in new york you can spend 5 $10,000 on address. Absolutely. We’ve got to dinners, banquets, big Dallas. Did people spend a lot of money there? They certainly did. Yeah. So just the final word about that and how our priorities and our and really becoming just and how we spend our finances. It’s not just with the rich people, it’s with the average person here in America. You know, I can only speak for America where I’m living right now people are very interested in an image. You know, they want this image and God wants us to have an image and that we would have the image of christ that is the reflection that you and I are supposed to have as women or men who say we love God and we want to represent him on this planet and imagine how beautiful we would be if we really acted like christ, you don’t have to be rich to have problems or you don’t have to be poor to have problems. Just an everyday person. You know, we have problems and we have to remember who we are on this planet and and and may may I say this time about prayer. The whole thing about all of this chapter’s, all these chapters are about pray, pray pray and and seek God’s will at the very beginning was if the Lord wills Yeah. So whether you buy a car, whether you buy a house, whether you buy a dress, whether you buy whatever you buy, you know you’re going to buy something, Where does God come into the picture? I mean, do do you say? Well look, I mean, what kind of a price tag do I have before I have to talk to God. We ought to be asking God for everything when the homeless person is asking us for $5 or $2 or so, maybe it’s good to get, maybe it’s not good to get. So you have to really ask yourself, you know, am I helping or am I hurting and to be conscious of God running my life with my resources with my time with my money and being just about it, not just doing what I want, what does God want me to do in my life and then God bless you. So we’re looking at marks of a mature christian in James the epistle of James, chapter one He’s patient and testing chapter two he practices the truth. Chapter three has power over his tongue. Chapter four, he’s a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. Chapter five he prays in trouble. So we’re gonna be looking at praying in trouble right now. He is going to be prayerful in economic trouble and that’s what we’re going to talk about in this session and he’s also gonna pray in physical trouble versus 10 through 16. A national trouble 17 and 18 and church trouble 19 and 20. So we want to look and see this incredible discipline or weapon I’ll say because in Ephesians 6 10 through 18, it gives us the weapons of our warfare the panoply to all of the weapons. But then you go to the battle and that’s prayer and prayer is really in the spiritual realm. So what we want to do is now look inside and check out what God’s instructions are. I love this. It says if you pray only when you’re in trouble, you’re in trouble. Prayer is a nonstop activity. First Thessalonians 5, 16, 17 and 18, rejoice evermore pray without ceasing and everything. Give thanks for this is the will of God in christ concerning you. So we’re praying an economic trouble and when you look at the economic trouble, you gotta go to luke chapter 10 and see the story of the good samaritan in luke chapter 10. And you realize this guy, the good samaritan in verse 30 ah is it’s about jesus is replying who is my neighbor. The question comes to and jesus gives our Lord gives this phenomenal lesson about uh a certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, he fell among the robbers. Now the priest came by the bible says he passed on the other side. The levi came by, he passed on the other side. But a certain samaritan, a business guy was going down. He you know maybe he prayed, maybe he didn’t pray but he was a businessman. And this guy 10 verbs. He came upon the man that was beat up and left to die. He bandaged up his wounds, verse 34. He poured the oil and the wine. He put on him his on his own beast. He brought him to the in, he took care of him and on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said take care of him and whatever more you spend when I return I will repay you. Which one of these do you think proved to be his neighbor to the man who fell into the robber’s hands and he said the one who showed mercy. That’s a good answer toward him and jesus said to him, go and do the same in other words. Look you don’t can’t think about, I gotta go to work. I got you know it’s gonna cost me money, it’s gonna cost me time. You know why should I be involved? God wants us when there is economic Problems Like this one, this guy was dead, he was gone. This good samaritan took him to an end, put his credit card down so whatever else he needs, put it on my charge, that’s the man who did the will of God. He treated him like he would want to be treated And our Lord tells us go and do the same thing, you go a little bit further in chapter 122 brothers are coming to him to find out, you know, to to arbitrate between them for their inheritance. It says the family inheritance. This is Luke 1213. And jesus says man who appointed me judge or arbitrator over you. And he took and he said to them beware, beware and be on your guard against every form of greed for not even when one has an abundance, does his life consist in what he possesses? The word is playing a Nexia. Going past what you should want for yourself. Play on is numerically more Geico is to have played a next year to have more than what you have lusting for greater number of earthly things. That’s what these guys wanted more. They got something, they wanted more. Do you know anybody like that? God tells us this is good, bad. And then he goes on and he began reasoning to himself saying what shall I do? And he tells this parable too To the to these two guys about, he told them a parable verse 16 that the land of a certain rich man was very productive. And uh he began reasoning to himself saying what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops. And he said, this is what I’m gonna do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come, Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, you fool this very night. Your soul is required of you. And now who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. And then the final one I think is in in Luke chapter 15 about the Lost Son, I just want to tell you about this law son. This lost son came home, he was eating with the pigs, ripped clothes, no money. He was taking care of the pigs. And he said, I gotta go back home. And the bible talks about how his dad took him in, Gave him this expensive outer cloak uh called the Stoli. This is used of the best robes given to the prodigal son in Luke 1522. And other passages of scripture at that time does not permit. But let me just go to the very end here. The father said to his slaves. Quickly bring out the best practice. First robe stoli and put it on him and put a ring dr Lillian on his hand and sandals, edema on his feet. Notice these three beautiful gifts that the father gave him. This young man that took his inheritance, that told his father off. That went out and lived in absolute immorality. Maybe in our day it would be sex drugs and rock and roll. This young man came to his senses repented when back home and his father put a robe which reinstated his honor and that is that beautiful robe talked about in James chapter five that that very expensive robe and then the ring and and the stoli he put on him the the best sunday clothes and the ring reinstated authority. The father’s authority being passed on to the sun again and and the last thing the shoes reinstated relationship refers to the sons reinstatement as part of the family. We have no longer were no longer a slave of the world. We don’t have to eat from the pig pen. We don’t have to open the garbage can and look for food. But we’re sitting at the banquet table with our Lord jesus christ who took our sins away because we repented of our sins. He said, O God be merciful to me, A sinner and jesus christ who bled and died was buried and rose again, covers us with his blood and his forgiveness and his love and his light and his life. God bless you. It’s all greek to me with tom and Vicky.