Ill-Gotten Gain

SERMON: 2006-06-22--js0621--ill-gotten-gain SOURCE DURATION: 00:39:15.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the main sermon exposition (segment [0]). The material concludes with a sustained acoustic music interval covering segments [171] through [183]. Since this final musical section is part of the continuous flow and reflection at the end of the recorded content, it must be included as the last segment. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:35:41.280-00:39:12.860 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- How many of you here are familiar with the English veterinary writer James Herriot? Look at this. This is a literary crowd. What you may or may not know is that James Herriot is a pen name. Did you know that? His real name is James Alfred White. And of course he practiced veterinary medicine in Yorkshire, in England for a good many years. And then at the age of 50, he sat down and he began to write out the story of his encounters in the practice of veterinary medicine. Those were eventually published as a series of books became immensely popular. And here are some of the titles. You'll recognize them. All Things Bright and Beautiful, published in North America by that title in 1972. All Creatures Great and Small, published in 1974. All Things Wise and Wonderful, 1977. And then The Lord God Made Them All in 1981. How many of you have read one or more of those books? As I said, you're a great literary crowd. Now as you may or may not know, the titles of all of those books are lines from a well-known children's hymn. Called All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All. Now I'd offer to sing that with you and for you, but you know my vocal limitations, so we'll spare each other that agony this morning. The song has a lot of verses. This is the refrain. Verse one, you'll recognize each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings. He made their glowing colors. He made their tiny wings. What probably you don't know, I'm willing to bet, is that the second stanza of this very well-known hymn has been dropped out of almost every hymn book that contains it. Did you know that? And the reason for that is that it raises some theological issues that many people have difficulty with today. Let me read you the stanza and see if you can figure out why that would be. The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, he made them high or lowly and ordered their estate. Do you see why some people might have difficulty with that verse? The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, he made them high or lowly and ordered their estate. In a day and age when people believe in democracy and we like to emphasize the equality of all people, this verse could be read as implying that God not only created social classes, but that he favors them and that he wants to keep you in your place. And so it has been used historically, that kind of teaching of course, to keep people in their place. And it's not my job or my purpose this morning to try to validate or invalidate the theology espoused by this little verse. But what I want to do is point out to you that since time immemorial in almost every society and every age there has been a great gulf between the rich and the poor. And almost inevitably the rich become richer and the poor become poorer and often the rich become richer at the expense of those who are poor. And that is the subject that James now begins to address in James chapter 5 when he writes these words, he says, "Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. The corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look, the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing you." Very strong language. And as we take just a little bit of time this morning in preparation for communion to look at those verses I want to make two observations. Number one, the Bible never condemns riches as such. The Bible never condemns riches or wealth. Now a lot of people think it does, but that's because they misquote 1 Timothy 6.10 to read, "Money is the root of all evil." You'll have heard that quoted, but it's a misquotation of scripture because what does 1 Timothy 6.10 really say? "It is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil." Paul goes on to say, "Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs." Money, like many things in this world, in and of itself is inherently neutral. And money can be used for great good and it could also be used for great evil. When we try to find our security in money outside of God, when we scratch and claw to build our own kingdom and to extend our own influence, often at the expense of others, money becomes evil in its use and the love becomes the root and the cause of much evil. But if, on the other hand, we know how to find our security in God and know that God is our Father and we receive with gratitude all the blessings that He has to give from His hand, we learn how to hold them loosely, steward them wisely, invest them in His kingdom, share them with those around us who are in need, then money becomes an incredible tool of good. Think of all the philanthropists in the world who have not only had the gift of making money, but who have been able to use that gift of money to do immeasurable good for other people. I think, for example, of Ruth Lilly. You've probably never heard her name. She is the heiress of the Eli Lilly estate. It's a family that made their money over the years in pharmaceuticals. Hundreds of millions of dollars have flown through her hands and her fingers for worthwhile causes, particularly, I might add, religious causes. When our denomination sponsors pastoral excellence programs, when a number of us pastors travel to San Diego to meet together for mutual encouragement and refreshment, some of that funding comes from the Lilly Foundation. She has, in recent years, given away as much as $750 million or 250% of her net worth. And then, of course, there is Bill and Melinda Gates. Now, regardless of what you think about Microsoft and their software, we were here until after midnight last night trying to make these computers talk to each other, just for the record. So I'm a little biased this morning. I want you to know. But Bill and Melinda are tops on the list of the 50 greatest philanthropists of her time. In recent years, they have given away, if you can believe, $27 billion. That is 58% of their net worth. And a lot of that is being invested in health type programs, the cause of AIDS and other things like that around the world. Money itself is neutral. It can be used for good, and it can be used for evil. And what God wants us to do is receive it graciously from His hand, hold it loosely, and steward it wisely. Here is how Paul talks about it later on in 1 Timothy chapter 6 when he says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which of course is always the temptation, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous in willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." God, He says, gives us all things to enjoy richly. The Bible doesn't teach a particular ascetic or stingy lifestyle. God has made everything, and He blesses us with His good gifts, but He wants us to steward them in such a way that we recognize this life is but temporary. And the best way to lay up treasures in heaven is to take what God has given us in the here and now, and invest it for the glory of God in the work of the kingdom and in the lives of other people. That's what distinguishes men and women of faith from men and women who do not have faith. Men and women who do not have faith tend to want to lay it up for themselves, or if they give it away, it is often so they can receive glory and they can receive credit. In the kingdom, the left hand should know what the right hand is doing, and we're doing it because we love God and we want to honor Him. Now it's important to understand what scripture teaches about this, because my suspicion is that many of us who call ourselves Christian have somewhat of an ambivalent attitude towards our riches, particularly if we're doing reasonably well. On the one hand, we are human and worldly enough to want to accumulate wealth and to enjoy a nice home and drive a decent vehicle and have the sort of amenities of life that make life comfortable and pleasant. But on the other hand, we have those twinges of guilt. You read those passages, if you have two coats, give one away, and sell all that you have and come follow me. And we sort of live in that vaguely guilt-ridden place that says, "Well, I've got all of this, but I really ought not to be enjoying it." Well, relax. It's okay to enjoy what God has given you. God says in His word, "Richly enjoy what God gives you." But understand that what God gives you is a trust given to you. You are a steward of it, and come the final day of judgment, we're all going to stand before God and we're going to give account of what it is that we have done with what it is that He has entrusted to us. And if in that day it has been spent selfishly for selfish indulgence, well, we're going to know about that, and I suspect we're going to suffer loss. But if on the other hand, as good stewards of God's varied grace, we have invested it in Him and in His kingdom, then that will lead to eternal reward. Because if we've been faithful in little, we can be entrusted to much. So the Bible never condemns riches or wealth in and of themselves. What scripture does do, however, is condemn what I like to call riches that are ill-gotten. That is to say, riches that are obtained by illegitimate means. Go back with me for a moment to what James says here in James chapter 5. Why does he launch into this almost a rant against rich people? Listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. Now, what's particularly interesting about that rant against wealthy people is that it is addressed to a people who probably don't have very many rich people in their midst. Remember, these are exiles. They've lost everything. They're trying to make a new goal of life and a new land. There may be the occasional rich person, but generally speaking, most of these people are poor. So why this rant? Because every society and every culture not only has people who are rich, but many of those rich over the years in many cultures have become rich at the expense of the poor. Their riches are ill-gotten. They are illegitimately obtained. Now, notice with me that as the passage unfolds, Paul gives us in very rapid succession four examples of ill-gotten gain. I'll walk you through that very quickly. They are hoarding wealth. Your gold and silver, verse 3, are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Now, the word "to hoard" means to store up for the purposes of preparation or future use. It's different, again, from saving your wealth. There is a legitimate place for savings as long as we hold it loosely and dedicated to God. But hoarding implies storing it up because you want to accumulate wealth as a protection against the future. And we've all heard stories of people who, in times of shortage or famine, buy up the resources, whether that be sugar a number of years ago or gasoline or bread or, years back, silver, driving up the price and then using the increased price to exact greater finances out of needy people who now are at your mercy. Sounds like good business dealings, doesn't it? But the Bible always condemns it as greed at the expense of those who don't have it. So hoarding wealth, in that sense, is biblically wrong. They defraud their workers. Verse 4, "Look, the wages you fail to pay the workmen who mold your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty." That's an incredibly powerful picture of people who are not being treated fairly. They are not receiving their due wages. The powerful are using their power to defraud them. In their desperation, they cry out to God. He who is the judge over all keeps track of all of this and there will come a day of accounting when those people who have thus defrauded the others are going to pay the price for their dishonesty. They defraud their workers every so often in history. You will see examples of that as in the recent Enron scandal and the fact that the CEO, who, by the way, is a Christian and who is quite vocal about his Christianity, is going to jail for many years because multitudes of people have been defrauded out of their investments. They defraud their workers and then they are self-indulgent. Verse 5, "You have lived unearthed in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fatted yourselves in the day of slaughter." Luxury is really living for your own pleasure. You are no longer worried about simply meeting your needs. You want to have much more than your needs so that you can parade and enjoy your riches. Self-indulgence means you are living for your own pleasure. The Bible never condemns enjoying things that we have. The Bible never condemns taking a vacation or resting up, Jesus did. As long as our motivation is to be restored so that we can more wholeheartedly serve God and be about the business that he has entrusted to us in life, those things are good. But you see, it crosses the line when it becomes self-indulgent. It crosses the line when it's all about me and I just want to feel good and I just want to have my needs met. That produces ill-gotten gain because that's almost always at the expense of somebody else because all around me are needy people who would just as gladly share in my self-indulgent activity. And then he says, "They take by force what is not theirs." Verse 6, "You have condemned and murdered innocent men who are not opposing you." I read that verse again this past week and the first story that came to my mind was the Old Testament story of Ahab and Naboth's Vineyard. You'll remember it. Naboth had a beautiful vineyard. Ahab wanted it to add to his own gardens. Goes to Naboth and he says, "I want to buy it." Naboth says, "You can't have it because it's part of the family inheritance. God does not want me to sell my family inheritance." Ahab, like the pouty child that he is, goes back home with his face hanging on the floor and his good wife Jezebel, who always knows how to cheer up her being, says to him, "Why are you so sad? Are you not the king? Leave it in my hands." And you know the story. She arranges for Naboth to be falsely accused and to be murdered. And sure enough, the vineyard becomes Ahab's by murder and by fraud. And you'll remember how God sends the prophet and holds him accountable because of his murder and his dishonesty. Imagine the day of judgment and how many people are going to be held accountable because they have used their power and their authority illegitimately to get what is not theirs to get. The Bible never condemns riches as such, but it surely condemns riches that are illegitimately obtained, riches that are ill-gotten. And if you're going to handle it all of what James is saying here and what I'm trying to communicate to us this morning, then you'll understand that all of that has some profound implications for your life and for my life. It's not good enough not to be dishonest. It's not good enough not to cheat. Those are very important things that ought not to be happening in the Christian community. Though unfortunately, most of us, when we have our back against the wall, we discover tendencies inside us that we're not very proud of. But more than that, loving our neighbor means that we go out of our way so that whatever is within our power, we can communicate that to them in a way that does justice and that loves honesty. And that works out in things like this. We need to treat people with respect. We need to treat people with respect whether they're rich or whether they're poor. Ever notice how easy it is to gravitate towards the rich and how easy it is to shy away from the poor? James talked about that earlier, you will recall, and we become judges with impure motives. From God's point of view, rich and poor are all part of his creation and he looks at the heart, not in terms of the possessions that people have acquired. One of the distinguishing characteristics of God's people is that we are not to show partiality either to the rich because they can benefit us or to the poor because they're going to cost us. We need to love them equally with the love of Jesus. We need to pay fair wages. Now fair wages are going to vary depending on where you live and what your economy is like. A fair wage in Mexico or China is going to be very different from a fair wage in Canada or the United States. But a fair wage is giving people fair return for the work they do. The converse applies too when you're a worker. You have an obligation to give a fair return to your employer for what they are asking of you. I can't believe sometimes how many good Christians there are who defraud their employers by not giving them their best and by taking advantage of the situation. Scripture says whatever you do, work at it heartily as serving the Lord. You say, "I don't like my boss. He doesn't treat me well. I don't have to give him my best." You're not working for your boss if you're a Christian. You're working for the Lord God. And if your boss doesn't reward you, take notice of you or give you the promotion that you're looking for, well then keep your eye on Jesus because he's keeping track of it all and when he dishes out the final inheritance in the new creation, you will not have suffered loss because you have demonstrated the character of Jesus in your dealings in the marketplace. That's where Christians ought to be shying and too often we're too much like the world. Pay fair wages. Make fair deals. We live in a time that I call the age of the discount. Everybody wants to get as much as they can for as little as they can. It's become a cultural phenomenon and the discount stores have put more traditional stores virtually out of business because they know how to play on our desire to get as much as we can for as little as possible. Now understand there's nothing wrong with a good deal and there's nothing wrong with bargaining. But understand that at the end of the day a fair deal not only means that you the buyer are happy, but that also the seller is happy. There's a verse in Proverbs that I like, Proverbs 20 verse 14, the buyer says it's no good, it's no good, and then he goes off and he boasts about his purchase. You get the drift. Sometimes you'll find happening that Christians in doing business with other Christians or people they know, have you ever noticed this? We go to them and say well you know because I'm your friend and I have a special relationship with you, you ought to give me the better deal. Have you ever noticed how often we do that? You have noticed that we all try to get the best deal that we can and there's a place for that. Let's turn that around for a moment. Let's suppose that we try to give the better deal to our brother or sister in Christ because they are the children of God. Wouldn't that transform the way that we do commerce and relationships? It's a stretch and I'd be the last to say that I know how to live that way all the time, but I'll never forget a number of years ago in a relationship with a young man called Phil, the Lord taught me that in a very concrete way. Phil was a new believer. I had the privilege of leading him to the Lord. His mother was of Christian reform background, his father was Jewish, his father and mother I think had split up or something and he and his mom had come to the church. I had the privilege of leading him to the Lord and discipling him and he and I spent a lot of time together. We had some common interests. Phil had a piece of electronic equipment that he didn't need, that he was more than willing to part with and it would have been ever so easy for me to lean on my friendship with him and to lean on my relationship with him and get that from him for nothing. And I remember the Lord speaking to me in a prayer situation that not only should I not try to get that from him for nothing, though I could have certainly appealed to him for all the things I did for him, but the Lord wanted me to pay him a very specific amount. And then later on it dawned on me that the reason for that was that he never, the Lord never wanted that young man to ever be able to say he took advantage of me or he took something from me without paying me for it. And I don't know how that relates to you, but not only must we try to do what is right, we must always try to do also what seems to be right. Well, very quickly, the final one, and this is a huge topic, we need to work for economic justice. As I said, that's a huge topic. Christians of all faiths and persuasions disagree how to implement that in terms of the marketplace. But surely we can agree to this, that whatever economic system we participate in, it ought to be of such a nature that it demonstrates love for our neighbor. That is to say people need to be able to make their own way. They need to be able to rise to the top by fair and honest labor. And we need to make sure then that there is a fair and honest return. Not just in terms of our individual dealings, but also in a much bigger picture of the economic marketplace in the world. Huge. And most of us, most of the time feel we can't even begin to touch that. But we can try to be faithful in the little and in that way begin to operate counterculture to the culture of our day. Well, you say what does all of this have to do with communion? It's got a lot to do with communion. Because if anybody is generous, it's God the Father. And if anybody has demonstrated his generosity in selfless sacrifice, in selfless giving, it is God our Father in the death of Jesus on the cross. And you and I, when by faith we become the children of God, are meant to become imitators of him through faith in Jesus. You know, just as well as I do. By nature, none of this comes naturally to us. By nature, given the opportunity, given the temptation, given the situation, we're not a whole lot different from these people that James is addressing. Because there isn't one of us here who hasn't fallen into that trap at one point or another. And unless God is your Father and you know that he is the supplier of all your needs and you walk before his face, it is very easy to get caught up in the rat race of how the world runs and then to justify one's behavior because everybody is doing it. You know what's the antidote to that? The antidote to that is a revelation not only of the Father heart of God, but a revelation of Jesus. The things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And so this morning as we celebrate communion together, here's what I want us to do. In a moment of reflection and prayer, I want us to ask the Lord, "Lord, show me if there are places where I have crossed the line where the possession of worldly goods has become more important to me than the pursuit of holiness and righteousness." Show me where my hope lies, where my trust lies. And Lord, help me to repent in those places where you're calling me to repent. And then Lord, help me to look to Jesus. Help me to have such a revelation of Jesus that I so see the glory of the ages to come that I so understand your provision for your children. That through faith in Jesus, the deep patterns of my heart, the places of unbelief may be yielded to you so that increasingly I may reflect in my lifestyle the generosity of the heart of God. Can you imagine what would happen if increasingly in a selfish and greedy world, God's people could somehow or another model, as so many of us already do, but model before God and before one another a generosity in terms of the stewardship that God has entrusted to us. We so know that our hope and our trust is in God, that we want to honor God above all, and we want to love our neighbor as ourselves. What a different place the world would be if nobody could ever fault you or me for leaning towards the world's values as opposed to the values of God. And you know what the good news is? That in Jesus Christ, God has made provision so that more and more we can live that way for the glory of God. And so as we come to him in repentance and in faith, let's invite him to just infuse us with the spirit of Jesus, knowing that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, everything for which the Gentiles work so hard, food, clothing, shelter, you name it, [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:35:41.280; remove through 00:39:15.000] God will give to us as his children because he loves [CUT] us with an everlasting love. I have counted lost strength and worth less now compared to this. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're by all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. All my heart's desire is to know you, Lord, to be found in you, and know there's yours to possess my faith. What I could not earn, I'll surpass in gift of righteousness. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're by all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Oh, to know the power of your risen life, is to know you in your suffering, to become like you in your death, my Lord, so with you to live and never die. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're by all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Are you Lord? [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:39:15.000; resume after this marked segment]