Love What God Our Father Loves - James 5- Konrad Stauffer

An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. And I'm going to say, I feel like a lot of Christianity today, especially in our country, is constantly trying to breach the rules of the Christian race.

But he says here, you're not going to obtain that crown unless you do it by the rules of the game.

For a title today, I'd like to use "Love What God Our Father Loves."

James 5:1-6.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are 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. 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. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You've fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

Just like to look just a little bit at that first phrase, come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. This passage is a warning to those who have spent their life in self-seeking pleasure. Obviously, it is hard for a person who is full and has a full bank account to imagine suffering.

Thus, James puts forth this strong warning of future suffering to those who are living at ease and in excess. He is also warning that the things they have that they are staking their value upon are transitory. They become old and rot away.

He says goes to say on to say that your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you. The very fact that a person has material goods that go to waste is evidence against them of a lifestyle of excess. The day is coming when that excess will eat at that person or persons as fire. That's what he says here. The memory of past pleasures is pure torment to the person who is in want and in deep poverty.

Too often, the lifestyle of excess of our nation fosters spiritual poverty and starvation. Again, what we build on now is what we will have in eternity. And I think that's something we need to think about. So if we value that which is material, we will suffer great want and continual regret in eternity.

And I think we all understand those first verses. I'm not really necessarily just putting this out there as if I were feeling that this is a major problem here. I think it applies to all of us in one way or another.

We find ourselves all at different levels financially and all of that. I understand that. But I think all of us know in our heart of hearts how it applies to us and how we need to deal with it.

And then he goes on to here to say, "Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud. Some have gained their wealth by shortchanging others, by playing on the ignorance and vulnerability of others.

God has a special place in his heart for those who are weak. And when something is done against such, it is like the blood of Abel that cries from the ground to his father. God sees and God hears.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts," James says. And I think of harvesters. They were often seasonal workers. They worked long and hard hours. We don't think of that anymore. Yeah, the harvesters today, they work long and hard hours, but it's not the kind of work like they did years ago.

I know that my dad talks about the harvest crews and stuff like that back in the '40s and '30s and such like, that they would go around with their old steam engines and stuff and go from one place to the next. Those men just went from day to day to day away from their families and just worked and worked and worked from dawn till dusk, basically. So we can have that picture in our mind. Harvesters were often seasonal workers, and they worked long, hard hours. I also think about the many great accomplishments here in the United States. I think of one accomplishment in particular that I look at, and it just makes my back ache just about think about it.

And that is when I go down the C&O Canal and I look at the Paw Paw Tunnel that is lined with bricks. And it was done all by hand. And that tunnel was made through the mountains by hand too. No jackhammers, nothing. Just a little bit of black powder and picks and shovels.

And they sunk a shaft down the middle of the mountain to get to the middle of that tunnel so they could have three different groups working on making that tunnel through the mountain. It's just something that I think about. And I think about all the workers who worked with that. Now, it was their choice. They were not slaves.

But there were people in past times who did that kind of work against their will. And I think of these Irish and German immigrants that worked there and just basically just spent their lives doing that kind of thing. That's what I think about when I look at this.

Just to build somebody else's dreams, a dream that was very short-lived. I think about the C&O Canal. It's just one of those things, a very short-lived dream. It barely got finished to the place where they wanted it to be, and then the train came through, and it just totally just the whole thing went flat.

It's nothing. We look at that today, and it's just a dip in the ground with some water sitting in a couple of different places and a tunnel through the mountain. But it's no good to anybody anymore other than to look at. It's just a testimony to the works of man, how they are.

And I can't think of mistreating people and holding back wages by fraud and such like without thinking about our dear African brothers and sisters who served so many years here in our country to build other people's dreams. And I know that I don't think anybody here is guilty for that because I don't even know if most of our ancestors were guilty for that. But it's just still something that is there. And we think about that. Their wages, they should have been paid. They should have been better taken care of many times.

And their wages were kept back by fraud. And God was watching that whole thing. He still thinks about it.

All this has come to the Father's attention, and he will punish those who have lived on the blood and sweat of others. So it's something I think we need to think about as Christians. Am I living on the blood and sweat of others, whether it's here in this country or it's in another country?

I've heard excuses in regard to the whole slave trade, one of them being, well, they were total heathens, and their own people sold them into slavery. But my response to this is, if there had been no market for slavery, there would have been no slavery. There was a market for it, and there were people who were demanding it, and their lifestyle was demanding it. So there was slavery.

I'm saying that to make the point that for every kind of thing like that is going on in one place, there's something else somewhere else that's making the demand for it. So I don't know where we put all of that, how we're going to handle that in our own lives, but it's something to think about.

Besides, if you read how and with just the whole thing about thinking about heathens, well, they're heathens over there. It's their problem. God is judging them. That's another kind of thing that I hear a lot. That may all be true.

But I just thought about something here. If we read how God worked things in the Old Testament, you will notice that God would allow heathen nations to punish his people when they did wrong for their idolatry. But then God would turn against those same heathen people and judge them with another group of heathen people.

So it's something to just keep in our minds.

"You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence." These are the words of James. The thought that comes to my mind as I look at this phrase is that our living is always at the expense or cost of energy from some other source. It doesn't matter what we do. It's costing someone something. "You have lived on the earth in luxury." In other words, you have eaten up the resources of this earth, engorging your own insatiable desires.

I think especially of that as I look at the United States. "You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter." I like the way the old King James says, it says, "As in the day of slaughter." Because I think about when we used to do butchering when I helped on the farm, they would dip right out of the butcher kettles and load their sandwiches out with the, I forget, the mixture that they used to make scrapple and stuff like that. And they would eat fresh meat that was cooked right then and there. And it was just everybody would eat enough and too much many times. Well, that's the way that he's saying that people are living now.

He said, "We're fattening ourselves as in the day of slaughter." Everything's at hand here. It's so easy to get. I'm just going to fatten myself up on that. Something or someone has given their life, energy, and blood, and we are living off the fat and marrow of that sacrifice.

On to verse 7 to verse 12. "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider them those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how he is compassionate and merciful.

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no know, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord."

You may wonder, what do these verses have in common with the first part of the chapter? It almost seems like he jumps from one subject to another. I'm not sure that I have the answer. Maybe James is just simply jumping to another subject.

However, I will share what I think about this. I think that it's part of the passage. It's very much a part of the whole. James says, "Be patient, therefore, brothers." That's the connecting word. "Be patient, therefore, brothers." That word, therefore, brings it together, the first part with the second part there. What happens when people get impatient and lose sight of their goal and purpose?

Many times, one of two or three things takes place. First of all, they become entangled with the things of this life. They get caught up in some side issue that has nothing to do with their goal. This often leads to covetousness and then mistreatment of others for one's own personal gain.

And second, they become disillusioned and discontented. This disillusionment and discontent often leads to discord, friction, and relationship struggles with others. This is why James says, "Do not grumble one against another." And thirdly, he says, the third thing I think about is people easily slip into revelry, which is partying, gorging oneself with the delicacies of this life, thus dulling the senses, the spiritual senses.

I just like to read what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3-7. "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled with civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules." And I'm going to say, I feel like a lot of Christianity today, especially in our country, is constantly trying to breach the rules of the Christian race.

But he says here, "You're not going to obtain that crown unless you do it by the rules of the game." It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

James uses the example of the farmer, how he plants his seed, and then he patiently waits with hope for that first rain, and then that brings nourishment and refreshment to those tender germinating seeds and plants. The farmer waits patiently throughout the growing season. He pulls the weeds out. He tends it through the heat of summer and through the last rains until it's ready to harvest.

You have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. He has experienced it. He knows kind of what to expect. He knows that if he hangs in there all through the heat of the summer and he does his job, he's going to have fruit in the end.

And that's what James is saying to us. Don't get sidetracked. Don't get caught up in this and that. But remember that you have a goal. Be like the farmer who knows he's going to reap something at the end.

What is the main ingredient that enables him to be patient until the fruit becomes evident? Hope, trust, and experience. But we're not going to have experience unless we have hope and trust and keep moving forward. He has seen it all happen before. Hence, he waits and nurtures his plants until harvest. In Galatians 6:9-10, it says, "And let us not grow weary in doing well, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up."

The old King James says, "If you faint not." So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Love what God loves.

And then he goes on to say, "But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth." Once again, James interjects something that almost seems out of sync with this particular section of the letter. And yet he uses this phrase, "But above all, my brothers." Once again, there's a connecting phrase there, "But above all, my brothers."

Do not swear. What does this have to do with the subject that we're looking at right now? I'd like to go back and just look at what Jesus said about swearing, just to see what James was thinking about when he what he's talking about when he talks about swearing.

I remember somebody saying that James, in the book of James, you just see the shadows of the Sermon on the Mount keep coming through. And I think that's true. And I think this is another one of those places where the shadow or the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount comes through.

Matthew 5:34-37, "But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head. You cannot make one hair white or black.

Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil." I'm going to say just simply, I think what he's saying here, keep your answers as much confined to the present as you can. Do not make big promises that you have no clue whether you're going to be able to keep them or not.

And I'm not going to delve deeply into the subject of oaths because we just had a really good message on that from Zach Johnson. But I'm going to look at this just a little bit. What I will say is simply this: as Christians, our word should be reliable and sure, like that of our Heavenly Father. Since there are so many variables in this life over which we have no control, we need to be super careful about making promises of any sort. The question still remains, what does this have to do with the subject of perseverance?

It is so easy to become careless with our words. I think that's why James is saying this. It's so easy to become careless with our words, especially if we become deeply involved with the affairs of this life. If we become deeply involved in the world and its value systems, it's so easy to become careless with what we say.

One of the key characteristics of the true Christian is that he or she weighs his or her words well before speaking because we can sin with our lips as well as with our thoughts and actions. It is very easy to get ourselves into binding situations that require too much of our time and too much of our mental energy. This leads us to become too involved in the values and obsessions of this earthly kingdom. I think that's why James says, "Don't swear at all. Don't get into this thing." You end up becoming a slave to the way the world operates.

On to verse 13 through 20. "Is there anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick." I just want to just pause there and just say, note what he says here. He says, "The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. It's like this, as long as that prayer continues, it has great power.

The old King James says, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. And then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruits.

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. To suffer, in the Webster's definition, is to feel keenly or to labor under. It's anything that puts pressure on us that we feel like we can't escape, and we're just struggle and struggle and work and work with this thing.

Suffering often eats at one's energy. I think many of you understand this. I haven't suffered very much in this life. But I think some of the rest of you have suffered a good deal more. So you understand this. It eats up one's energy and also takes away the desires for many of the other physical pleasures of life. One who suffers tends to look inward. It's a tendency of a person who's in suffering to withdraw and look inwards at themselves, to become withdrawn, to pull away from people, to pull away from groups of people. But suffering also has potential qualities if it is received with patience.

Just remember what we read in 2 Timothy 2:3. It says, "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Notwithstanding the good qualities of suffering, those who suffer tend to become discouraged. Hence, it is important that we maintain communication with the Father. Therefore, let him or her pray. That's what James says. If you suffer, pray.

And he doesn't say what we should pray, but I'm just going to take another step into that and say, pray for others because it'll get you out of yourself.

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. There's a principle in regard to all these different emotions or experiences. That is, we need to share. To internalize and to bottle up all that we are experiencing benefits us little. And depending on the kind of struggle or whatever it may be, bottled up, shutting ourselves up, in the end will do us more harm than good.

We like to be self-sufficient. We like to appear to people to be self-sufficient. But James is knocking this thing down with this. He's saying, if you're cheerful, sing songs.

So as we go down through this passage, we will see that all the different responses that James suggests for the different experiences of life involve our opening up and sharing with someone or doing something that others can participate if they will.

So if you are happy today, sing. Don't be afraid to let others see your happiness. It can give courage and hope to others. It's contagious. I know the word happiness is a light word in some ways, but I'm glad to have happy people around me sometimes.

And if you sing, if you sing when you feel happy, it kind of leaks over into your families, to your children, to your wife, to your church. It just does wonders for you.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Asking to be anointed requires humility.

I remember not too long ago, I asked for anointing for my wife because she was in a really low spell in her sickness. And I don't know why. It shouldn't be this way, but it's hard for me to pick up that phone and call Kevin or Justin and say, would you all be willing to come over and have an anointing service at our house? There's something in me that it's like, I don't want too many people involved here, you know? So it requires humility. It requires opening up. Just like so many other things that we experience as humans, we receive the help we need by sharing. In this case, if one is sick and calls the elders of the congregation and says, I have been struggling with a sickness, could you please come and anoint me?

And God chooses this way of healing us. He chooses the body of Christ to bring about healing in us. Remember, so many of the people who desired Jesus to heal them, they had to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And I don't know if you ever put yourself in that place in your mind, just thinking about you sitting beside the path as a blind man and all these people around there and with all their private agendas and all the other things that are going on, and they are walking past you and you're insignificant, unimportant. You might be a beggar because you're blind or you're crippled.

But you know there's no way that Jesus is going to be able to hear you and might not be able to see you because he's in the middle of a crowd. So you have to holler out at the top of your lungs, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Well, that's what we do when we need help. We sometimes have to put our dignity aside and cry out and ask our brothers for help.

I know that none of us enjoys that. This play, I will say, always got Jesus' attention, and it will still get his attention today. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. I would like to pause there, that thing of his sin, if he has committed sins, will be forgiven. I'm not sure how to explain all of that, how this works into all of that. We might be able to have a little discussion afterwards on that.

There appears to be a deeper message in this than just the physical sickness. Sin has made us sick as well. A foreign antibody has invaded our system and is eating up our energy, both spiritual and physical. Hence, we reach out to our brothers and sisters for help, for prayer. God loves this kind of sharing and bearing one another's burdens. He reaches down and heals, bringing hope and life back to our experience. I will go as far as to say that I believe supernatural strength and healing abide in the true body of Christ, the church, because Christ Jesus is our head.

I'd just like to read one account here in Luke 5:18-26, where the act of healing and the act of forgiveness of sins was kind of intermingled together. It's just something that I think goes along well with what James is saying here.

And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus. But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up to the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst there before Jesus.

And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

Why did he do that instead of just saying, "You're healed. Get up and go home?" And the scribes and Pharisees began to question, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, "Why do you question in your hearts?

Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise and walk?' But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." And he said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home." And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, "We have seen extraordinary things today."

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Or as the old King James says, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." There are at least two things in this phrase that I would like to look at. The first one is that prayer of a righteous person, that word righteous.

This is not imputed righteousness. It is a true right-living individual that really gets God's attention when he or she prays. Secondly, persistent prayer of a right-living person is powerful. The combination of righteousness and persistence is something that God cannot resist.

Do we believe that? We may think too in ourselves, "But I struggle so much in the flesh. Sometimes I feel so flat and ineffective. I tend to get cold feet before I really get started with anything of significance."

What does James say next? Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. James mentions Elijah as an example of how God answers the prayers of his people. But for many of us, Elijah is the kind of person that seems so far beyond our reach. We think of him as a paragon of virtue, and he was. But what was it about Elijah that got God's attention when he prayed? I believe it was Elijah's simple, trusting obedience to God. When God called on Elijah to do something, he got up and did it.

And many of us do not think of Elijah as having been of like nature as we are, but he was in many ways. And let me elaborate on this. He got discouraged. He suffered from depression. He got deflated after an emotional high. He was overcome with fear. If you don't believe me, go read over his whole story, and you'll see this coming out.

Remember after that powerful experience Elijah had on Mount Carmel, where he had experienced God's power in a very real way. He had seen it with his own eyes. And then to cap it all off, he prayed for rain, and it happened.

I don't know if any of us have ever experienced that. But then Jezebel found out what he had done to her prophets, and she said, "You're a dead man." Elijah ran. That was the fear factor. He ran, and he hid himself. And yet God sent his angels to sustain Elijah. Notice God did not even ask Elijah what he was doing until he had rested for some days. And his angels came and gave him food and sustained him until he was at the place where he could communicate again.

Wouldn't you say that Elijah is a man of like passions like we are? This might mean more to some of us than others. But he definitely was a weak human being in a lot of ways. Did God write Elijah off as a weak coward? No. He went on to disciple one of the most powerful prophets in the Old Testament, Elisha.

Elijah, in short, was a man subject to ups and downs, just like any one of us. And yet he was righteous before God, and he prayed, and his prayers were answered. That's what James is saying. You don't have to be a superhuman person like Elijah. You just need to be righteous and persistent.

Live right and persistent. Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. When we reach out to people who are in error, people who are struggling and are giving up, when we love them and care deeply enough about their souls that we're willing to discipline ourselves to pray for them. And prayer is a discipline for me. I don't know about the rest of you, but it's a discipline for me.

We are willing to discipline ourselves and pray for them. And yes, even in our human frailty, we are willing to venture out of our comfort zone to talk to someone who is erring from the faith. We can tell they're in error. We can tell that they're losing out. This is precious in the sight of God.

God does not care so much about what our weakness may be as he cares about the fact that we love what he loves. Let me just repeat that again. God does not care so much about what our weakness may be as he cares about the fact that we love what he loves.

And we demonstrate that by our continual, persistent daily living and prayer. As followers of Jesus, our ministry is that of reconciliation. We pray to God, our Father, for others. We plead with God on their behalf. We tell God of all the good qualities that we see in that person. Then we go and talk to that person. We plead with them. We do our best to represent our heavenly Father in the most favorable light as to draw that person's heart towards God.

This is the precious in the sight of God. Love what God loves. In conclusion, these last verses, even this last chapter of this book, almost seems like everything comes to a screeching halt, like an albatross landing. And I encourage you to look up a video online sometime on an albatross landing. You won't understand what I'm talking about till you do.

But that's what this book looks like. It comes to an end. It looks like an albatross landing.

However, in many ways, I think James has done a fine job of encapsulating what it means to be a Christian. The essence of a practical, effectual Christian life. Here is a little summary of some of his key points from this passage. And there again, I'd like to do a summary of the book. But I'm just going to go back through and just do a real quick summary of what we talked about today. Christian beware if you're living in excess. Living in excess always comes at a cost to someone.

If you have things that go to waste, very likely you are living in excess. God hears the cries of the poor, the mistreated, and the downtrodden. When we become impatient, we tend to become entangled with the things of this life.

There will be bountiful harvest if we patiently endure. Do not become careless in your speech because of boredom and impatience. Suffering tends to make us introverted. Therefore, we need to pray, which helps us to look outward, especially if we pray for others.

Sing when you're happy. It is a way of giving thanks to God, and it also shares your happiness with others. God sometimes allows sickness. It is an opportunity for us to humble ourselves and reach out to our brothers for help. This is pleasing in the sight of God.

Great power resides in our interaction and sharing with the body of Christ. Sickness-like sin comes about when a foreign antibody has invaded our system. To eradicate either of the two requires honesty and exposure of ourselves, and through this, we experience healing.

The prayer on behalf of others by a right-living or a righteous person are powerful. One of our main ministries is that of reconciliation, leading those who are erring back to a right relationship with God. And I'd just like to bounce back and read in closing what I've read earlier in Galatians 6:9-10. "And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith."