Faith and Reality (James 5:1‐20) – Part 1 ‐ Possessions

Day 1 – Our Perspective on Possessions vs. God’s Perspective

I love sci‐fi films, and one of my favorite movie franchises is the Matrix trilogy. For those of you haven’t seen it, it’s a science fiction movie trilogy set in a dystopian future where human beings have been enslaved by machines.

The thing about it is they do not know that they have been enslaved by the machines because they have all been plugged into a computer that simulates a world, in which they are free, so well that they do not realize that they are slaves.

They are completely ignorant about what is real and what is simply a computer generated deception. There are a few human beings that have broken free from the Matrix and they make it their mission to fight back and free people from their slavery.

In many ways, the Christian discipleship journey is much like this. Our pursuit of the Kingdom of Heaven is one that begins with our rescue from a place of deep deception. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to reality. Then we are called to utilize our newfound clarity to help to rescue others who are still enslaved to the lies of the world around them.

In our passage today, James sheds light on three of the biggest lies that enslave us, the lies of wealth, time and control. Very often we are not even aware that we have been deceived by these lies. In the Matrix, the main character has to be shocked into confronting the reality of his situation. Often God has to do something similar to us. He has to hit us between the eyes to bring us back to reality.

Sometimes, He uses circumstances in our lives to open our eyes. Other times he uses the people around us to reveal things to us, but by far the best way that we can have our eyes opened and we can set aside enslaving lies is by faithfully reading His Word and, like we read in James chapter one – we should be doers of the Word and not just hearers of it.

Here in chapter five, James is reframing reality. He says what you thought was real, what you thought was important, is not just meaningless – it is the very thing that will destroy you if you don’t let it go.

Things are not what they seem.

James starts with a warning about wealth. He tells us that our possessions will very quickly come to possess us. (vs. 1‐6)

You see, possessions are not what they seem. From Our Perspective: Wealth has Meaning.

We spend a lot of time thinking about money don’t we? We worry about it constantly. Here we are living in the wealthiest country in the world…everyone reading this is in the top 5% of wealth in the world, but we certainly don’t appreciate that fact.

We spend more money on a cup of coffee than many families have to spend on groceries for a week. We’ve completely lost perspective on what money means. For most of the world, what little wealth they have is devoted toward survival, but we have so much that we have to invent new things to spend it on.

Social scientists have studied American perspectives on wealth for decades and they have found that for most Americans, people value money for four main reasons.

Some value it for the security that it gives them. They see money as a means of insuring that nothing bad will happen to them. They horde money against a rainy day and buy into the illusion that money can solve any problem.

Others value money because it means status. For them, dollars are just a way of keeping score. If their bank account is bigger, then that means they are somehow better or more worthy than the people around them. Some only believe that money has value if you spend it. They spend their money entertaining themselves. “You can’t take it with you.” They say. Then they pour out their wealth on extravagance.

Still others value money for the control it gives them – control over their own lives and over the lives of others. They hold money over the heads of their children or over their employees and use it to get their own way.

But James reveals God’s reality in verse 3: “The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.”

Not only will your wealth not bring you the security, status, entertainment or control that you thought it would bring you…it will destroy you. “The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.”

This is not a new idea in the Bible. This warning against putting your trust in wealth permeates scripture. Over and over again, we are warned that wealth is incredibly dangerous. Solomon, the wisest and perhaps the wealthiest man in the Bible, warned us about wealth repeatedly in the book of Proverbs and in Ecclesiastes chapter five he summarizes those warnings when he says:

“10 Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! 11 The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!”

The implication is clear – while it may not be sinful to be wealthy – it is certainly incredibly dangerous.

Jesus taught about that repeatedly.

In Mark 10, Jesus spoke with a rich young ruler and concluded that it is incredibly difficult for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. In Luke 16, he warned us that we cannot love God and money at the same time. In Matthew 16, he asks us “What good does it do for a man to gain the whole world if he forfeits his soul?” And, the apostle Paul warns us that the love of money is the “root of all evil.”

We are blinded by dollar signs…enslaved by our possessions. “The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.”

We live in a consumer driven culture constantly bombarded by marketing and social pressures to spend our money on the next big thing. We are taught that our purpose in life is chasing the almighty dollar. So how do we do it, how do we reject the lies and live by faith and not by money?

Jesus told us there is a solution and while it may be difficult, it’s not complicated.

That solution: “Store your treasures in heaven…” (Matt. 6:20)

We have to allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to reality. Jesus tells us that all that we have – even the flesh on our bones is only on loan to us. We can’t take any of it with us. We have no control over when our lives will come to an end and when they do, the only thing that will matter is the wealth we have invested in the real world – in the Kingdom of Heaven.

When we see reality through the eyes of faith, we move past our enslavement to wealth and possessions. We invest our time and our energy in pleasing God. We store our treasures in heaven.

Discussion Questions: What does money mean to you? How are you laying up treasures in heaven?

Memory Verse: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)

You see, possessions are not what they seem. From Our Perspective: Wealth has Meaning.