Surviving Money Problems | James: Surviving the Challenges of Life Week 8 | Pastor Andrew Cromwell

James 5 MSG

 

And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.

 

All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.

 

Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

 

Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.

 

Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.

 

And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don’t add words like “I swear to God” to your own words. Don’t show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can’t be used against you.

 

Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.

 

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

 

My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

 

Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 

 

1. God desires that money circulate. Sin is it.

James 5:2-3 ESV: Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

2. God desires that you earn money honestly. Sin is it.

James 5:4 ESV: Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

3. God desires that you not waste money. Sin is it.

James 5:5 ESV: You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

4. God desires that you use money not abuse it. Sin is it.

James 5:6 ESV: You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

 

 

1. Money is to be saved and .

Keys to Saving and Investing are:

• • • Limited Living

Proverbs 21:20 TLB: The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.

 

• • • Contented Living

Hebrews 13:5 NIV: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’

2. Money is to be for.

Proverbs 13:11 TLB: Wealth from gambling quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows.

Proverbs 14:23 NIV: All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

3. Money is to be .

Proverbs 21:5 NIV: The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

Proverbs 27:23 TLB: Riches can disappear fast. And the king’s crown doesn’t stay in his family forever—so watch your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds.

4. Money is to be .

Proverbs 11:24–25 TLB: It is possible to give away and become richer! It is also possible to hold on too tightly and lose everything. Yes, the generous man shall be rich! By watering others, he waters himself.

 

Matthew 6:20 NIV: But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.