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Does the issue of poverty in the world today bother you? Did you know that God has quite a bit to say about it? Today, Pastor Wei continues our study of the book of James with his message entitled, Poverty Excels Wealth.

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This morning, uh, in our continuation of our study of the book of James, uh, we have come to a very specific topic that uh James will return to later on in chapters chapters 2 and then in chapter 5 as well. Uh and this is the issue of poverty and wealth. Right? Uh in fact, the whole of scripture is particularly concerned with this uh issue with with the poor and with the rich. Um and I think before we begin, I would just want to say also, uh, even though we are kind of looking at these few verses in in chunks, right? We are meant to read uh the current uh three verses, verses 9 to 11, in the in the context of what has gone on before. Right? Uh trials and the perfecting our faith is related to asking God for God's wisdom for us so that we may uh go through the trials and really allow the trials to complete our faith. And it is only with the wisdom of God that we can grasp uh at what James is trying to get at in uh verses 9 to 11. Uh we cannot make sense of the passage apart from God's wisdom. And so let's look at uh you know James chapter 1, verse 9, in our passage today. Uh James writes this, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. Um and when when he uses the word brother here, I think what James is trying to say is he he's referring to the Christian, a fellow brother or fellow sister in Christ. Right, and this fellow Christian is described as lowly, right? Sometimes translated as humble uh or translated as poor. Uh is a is a word that's been used to describe those who are treated as insignificant by the world. These are people that you know the world kind of looks down on, they they don't really um have and pay any attention to them. And so it is in scripture often paired with the words orphan or the widows, right? They are the socially marginalized and socially insignificant ones. Um in this passage, then James is clearly uh referring to someone who is socioeconomically poor, right? Someone who is poor and because of that he is low, he is humble. And and James uses that in contrast to the rich. And and he says this let this poor, socially insignificant person boast, right? What is there to boast about when when for a poor person to look at uh his circumstances and realizing that there's just nothing, right? What has the poor to boast about? James tells us the poor and the lowly can boast in his exaltation and comes from the Lord. And so how is the poor and lowly exalted? Right? God has chosen the poor for this exalted position. Um we find in scripture that God has a particular concern for the poor, for the lowly, for the socially insignificant ones. Right? The world may not pay attention to them, but God pays his attention to these people. Uh throughout scripture we read that God, um, in Psalm 68, verse 5, God is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. That's in Deuteronomy chapter 10. And so also James later in chapter 2 will say that God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith. God has a particular and a special concern for the poor. And it is uh often also that the poor are the ones who find themselves having no other recourse than to rely on God. They are the ones who would lean into God, pray to God, ask God for his help, and they are the ones who are who tend because of their circumstances, because they're driven by their need, they are the ones who tend to um to be closer to God, to to rely on him for his grace and his providence. And so we read the same thing coming out of Jesus uh in his sermon, right? Uh in in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3, and then in Luke chapter 6, verse 20. Right, Luke chapter 6, verse 20 especially says this that blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. In other words, though lowly in the sight of men, they are in a high position in the sight of God. God has regarded them favorably, and that is why the poor can say that they boast in the Lord, they can boast in the exhortation that comes from the Lord. But what about the rich, right? This is a comparison between uh people of both uh ends of the socioeconomic uh spectrum, right? Um, if the poor boast in his exhortation, James tells us that the rich can also boast. But oddly, he says he boasts in his humiliation. Right? Verses 10 and 11, the rich, um uh the rich let the rich boast in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. Uh for the sun rises with his scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuit. Um again, the rich likewise is called to boast. Uh, but for them it is to boast in his humiliation. Um, if you think about it, socioeconomically, they are speaking, there should be people who are doing well in their lives, they probably have high-paying jobs, probably well educated, uh, probably have many things in their possessions, a well-padded bank account, and there's so many things to boast about, right? If they were Asians, their parents would have so many things to boast about to their neighbors. But James says, you boast not in your riches, but in your humiliation. Um, and just just on the first part, not boasting in their riches. For the ancient people, um they they they that's their main way of showing people their their their wealth and their sense of worth. Right? Uh, Plutarch, uh, who is a Greek philosopher and a historian in that time, uh, he wrote that most men think themselves robbed of their wealth if they are prevented from displaying it. And that display is made in the superfluities of life, not in the necessities of life. In other words, if you are you were wealthy at that time, you feel like you are being made poor if you are not able to show it off. And that's what precisely is James is doing here, right? Don't show off your wealth, don't boast in your wealth, rather, boast in your humiliation. Um, and what does that mean to boast in their humiliation? The rich believer is to boast in his identification with Christ and with his people, right? These were uh especially in those times, the lowly, the poor, Christ himself was lowly, was meek, he was rejected, he was despised, right? And so to boast in his humiliation would mean to follow the way of Jesus, which is a matter of humiliation in the eyes of the world. Um, and you know this James probably had in mind Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24, where the prophet writes, let the wise man boast of his let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches. But let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in this I delight, declares the Lord. And so in the eyes of God, there is no point at all in boasting in their riches, because in the end they are nothing. And we have just read that James uses an analogy from nature the withering of grass and flowers in a scorching heat. Uh, and it's something that biblical writers have done so uh done so elsewhere in scripture where they talk about the transitoriness of the transient nature of life and all the things of this world. So Isaiah 40, for example, uh writes, uh All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Uh the psalmist in Psalm 103 writes this As for men, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

unknown 9:21

Right?

SPEAKER_02 9:21

There's just this feeling that things are here today and then gone tomorrow. They are all fleeting and transient. And so Psalm 49 uh kind of just skips the whole metaphor and it just goes straight to the point. Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases, for he will take nothing with him when he dies. His splendor will not descend with him. Um funny enough, recently uh Beth and I we chanced upon a Bentley parked at our estate, uh Multi-Storic Park. When we live in HDB and then, you know, Multi-Storical Park. And there it was uh a Bentley parked parked there for days. Uh I think Bentley is like in the neighborhood of uh at least a million dollars. I think it starts at a million dollars and it just goes uh more expensive from there. Yeah. And what's even funny, funnier is that someone actually left a note on this guy's car. I went forward and read the read the card, and it's all um uh well, what a nice, what a beautiful car. You know, uh we're also thankful for for being able to see this car. You're such an inspiration. I hope that one day I become like you, one day I get to afford something so beautiful, like your Bensley. Right? Um Ecclesiastes in the in in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes will say vanities or vanities, all is vanity. Right? It's all this is it's vain, it's futile, it's it's fleeting, it will just disappear after a while. And so to boast in something that is so transient, that is so temporal, that does not count for eternity is to actually be foolish.

unknown 10:59

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SPEAKER_02 11:00

James is turning the wisdom of the world upside down, right? As a wealthy man, I need to boast in my wealth and I need to show it all off. And James is saying that is foolishness. Boast instead in knowing and in following the Lord in all his ways. And so when we read uh these three verses, right, uh we see that actually wealth is beside the point. Right? Wealth is beside the point. The the solution to the poor is not to become rich, and the solution to the rich is not to become poor. Right? James is not saying no, the poor should now be the wealthy people, the affluent people in society, and the poor people should be brought down so that they be in poverty. All of us, whether we are rich or poor, need to view ourselves as God views us. And that's where I think the wisdom of God comes in. Right? We need to see ourselves as God as God sees us. The poor is exalted, not because he is poor per se, but because he can only rely on God. And God will lift up the lowly, God will see him as blessed. And the rich also needs to view himself as God does, who pays no attention to his riches, only to his faithfulness, in identifying himself with Jesus, with the lowly, with the meek, with those who are despised and rejected. In other words, to dare to be shamed, right? To dare to live a life following Jesus that is humble uh and and almost shameful to the wisdom of the world. And so rather than thinking of our lives in relation to our socio-economic circumstances, we are called to live, to think of our lives in relation to relation to God instead. Right? Rather thinking thinking of our life in terms of how much we have or how much we don't have, we think of our lives in terms of what God says about us. Right? It is our spiritual identity that is the measure of our ultimate significance. Um James will have more to say about the rich and poor in the later parts of his letter, and I think we'll come to them uh in in due time when we study the later chapters. But this morning, I think we can see something else that is rather interesting in just these three verses, uh, which is this uh yeah, which um James, uh if you just look at the three verses, right? James has much more to say about the wealthy than about the poor. He has much more to say about the rich. And in talking about the rich, he offers uh a reminder or if you if you will, a warning to those who are rich. Right? And I think it kind of shows uh a side of human nature, which is that we in our nature we tend to worry about poverty more than wealth, right? But scripture seems to tell us that we should worry more about wealth, or at least be more careful with riches than with poverty.

unknown 14:10

Right?

SPEAKER_02 14:11

It is in our nature to worry about money, and and I think on some level it is it is almost a given, right? It is almost uh a common sense, right? We worry about the state of our finance, we already worry whether we have enough for ourselves and for our family, right? Do I have enough for the next six months if something happens to me? Um, and I think there is wisdom in being prudent with our finance, there is wisdom um in having all these uh basic things met. Uh and it is always good to have these financial management skills, right? Um, but there is something to be said about being anxious all the time about money. And scripture seems to always one you say, don't be too anxious, don't worry about the lack of money. Uh Matthew chapter 6, verse 25, uh, and following, Jesus says this do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Uh in Philippians chapter 4, Paul writes this in verses 6 and 7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That is in the same chapter in Philippians where he talks about how he is in such a low position now, how he is uh uh facing uh such dire needs, and the Philippians uh were kind of helping him in that way. And he says this do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Uh but we worry, right? We worry a lot about the lack of money. We worry uh not just whether we have enough for ourselves, we worry about people looking down on us because we are poorer. Um some of us may rely on welfare, on assistance for our daily needs, and and we may feel like people are kind of looking down on us. Um we we may feel like people choose not to befriend us because of our satisfactors or because we don't dress well enough, because we cannot afford their lifestyles, we cannot afford to go to the places they go to, to to eat at the places they go, shop at the places they go. And we feel like like we are missing out on something, right? We feel like we are we are losing out, we feel like we are insignificant. And the Lord tells us not to be concerned, not to be so concerned with these things and not to be ashamed. Though we are lowly, God Himself, our Heavenly Father, exhorts us and welcomes us in his kingdom. And so we need not be overly anxious about our lack in this life. On the other hand, uh I'm gonna take a guess and say that almost none of us here uh is concerned or worried about having uh wealth, right? I'm gonna say I'm gonna just guess that all of us will think the more the better, right? We don't worry about money that much. Right? Who here is afraid that you have too much in your bank account? Who here is afraid that tomorrow if if this huge sum of money can come into my bank, I'll be in trouble, right? Nobody thinks that. Nobody is really that concerned or really that worried about having uh riches. Um yeah, at this point I should be clear that that in these few verses, James is not actually critical of the rich. Interestingly, he's he's not saying it is wrong to be wealthy, right? Uh and and there's nothing inherently evil about that. Um it is interesting though that he sees the need to remind his readers about the transient nature of wealth and to warn us of the foolishness of building up our wealth and our possessions. Because that is like like planting grass all over yourself, right? Just planting grass and waiting for them to wither in the scorching heat. And James is not alone in his warning, he is following biblical tradition in our attitude towards money, uh in rather in what our attitude should be, right? And especially in the New Testament, we see a lot of that. Um, and I think there, yeah, this slide uh just kind of shows you a whole bunch of verses. Uh, just gonna quickly go through them, right? We will not stay on them too long. Uh, but Jesus in his parables of the sower says this about the ground with with the thorns, right? The they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. Uh, Matthew Matthew 6, his Sermon of the Mount, Jesus says, Do not lay uh 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. Uh later on he says this no one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one or love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Um, in Luke chapter 18, Jesus says how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus tells a story about the man who built bigger and bigger buns. If you remember that story, right? He's just getting more and more, his barn is overflowing. Just build more so that I can have more, right? Jesus says, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays out treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Um, Paul also in 1 Timothy chapter 6, I think it's not on, but uh chapter 6, verse 17, he says, As for the rich uh in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Um in a strange twist, right? All this to say that in a strange twist, it is the rich that has more to worry about. Again, scripture is not saying that there is anything inherently wrong with being rich. So, what exactly are the uh Jesus and the apostles trying to get at here? Why do they feel the need to keep reminding or to keep warning about riches? Um we are we should be quite familiar with this. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 says this that for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Uh in the past, uh we kind of just remember this verse as love is uh yeah, money is the money is the root of all evil, right? Um Paul here is saying that it is the love of money, not money itself, but the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil. Paul continues continues to say that it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. So the writer of Hebrews write this in chapter 13, verse 5 keep your life free from love of money. Keep your life free from love of money. It is an issue of inordinate love, of idolatry, of a warped relationship with wealth. And we are prone to love money, far more prone than we we probably think. Right? Um, Timothy Keller wrote a book called Counterfeit Gods. Uh, in his in his book, he shares that there was a season where he was doing a series of uh talks at a man's breakfast. And this talk was him uh taking seven weeks to talk about the seven deadly sins. Right, and if you are not familiar, seven deadly sins refers to the sin of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Um, for the most part, the series was very well received, right? People came, uh, many gathered to hear him speak, except for one session. Anyone guess which session it was? Most people did not attend the session on greed. Right? It was the most poorly attended. And he proposes that most people do not think themselves as greedy. I think we are more ready to admit if we are prone to pride or lust or envy. We are quite ready to admit, yeah, I know this is an issue in my life. But most of us probably don't think that we are greedy. We don't think that we have been blinded by the love of money. We don't think we have a problem with it. We don't think we are serving mammon. One major reason he puts forth in his book is that we sort of settle in our own economic uh situation, right? Economic class, right? And we are settled in that economic class. We compare ourselves with those who are higher than us. Yeah, I'm not like these people are they all always go here, they always eat that, that this other place, they are so much wealthier than us, they spend so much more than us. But we are not like them. You know, we don't spend as much. We save, we we are more frugal, you know. So they are the ones that are greedy. We are the ones that are more, you know, we are more um normal in the way we think about wealth. Um and there's something insidious about the sin of greed and the love of money. Um it presents itself in our lives as something innocuous, something uh innocent, sometimes even reasonable, right? When in fact it is a festering idolatry in our hearts that is really pulling us away from the Lord. Um and the love of money is so insidious, I think so good at disguising itself as something innocent that it even easily creeps into the church. Um this is quite a sweeping statement here, but the the this phenomenon goes by many names, right? The prosperity gospel, the word of faith movement, health and wealth, name it and claim it. Um they're just different names selling the same fraudulent product, trying to turn invisible faith into visible rewards. Believing that the power of God is demonstrated and measured in dollar bills. As a Chinese, I keep thinking of the Yao Tin Shu, the this this money tree. I keep thinking of like God as this like heavenly tree that they want to shake and and heavenly money tree, right? That they want to shake so that money will just drop off from the sky. Um when I was a teenager, I was listening to pastors, uh, not from this church, from other church, right? But we I was I was hearing pastors encouraging congregants to boldly have faith in God and give the church large sums of money, right? How do you think I I manage to afford my mercy? It's because I give to the Lord. So if you dare give it to God, right, in offer three and tithing, right, see that God will multiply two times, three times, ten times in return. Today, some of them will tell you that that you are the princes and princesses of the heavenly king who has boundless riches. So why would you be poor and struggling? And there are many ways, many ways where the love of money is corrupting, is is having a negative impact on the church's teaching, the church's worship, and our faith. And so the love of money is much more uh insidious and much more present than we dare meet. Right? Wealth itself is not evil, but the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And the numerous warnings of scripture against the idolatry of money is a way of the is a way for the whole council of scripture to remind us that it is more insidious and more cunning than we think. And we are much more prone to it than we think. A while ago, I jokingly asked if anyone here is afraid that there will be too much money in your bank account, right? Uh, there is one man who is actually very wary of that kind of money, right? He's uh and he his name is John Piper. You probably uh know him as a pastor and as a teacher, you know him as a famous Christian thinker and writer. Um he has written many books, right? He has sold many copies of those books, and he has refused to take a single cent from the royalties, right? Which chopped up to about hundreds and thousands of dollars, right? He has refused to take a single cent from the royalties because he says this he doesn't trust himself with that money, right? He's already being paid with his regular job as a pastor and as a teacher. And he feels that there's no need for more. In fact, it is dangerous to be rich. So instead, following the scriptural verse, you know, it is better, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Uh he set up a foundation uh with his wife, uh, I think Desiring God foundation. Yeah, uh, he set up a foundation where all his earnings from the book sales will go to, and all this will be given away to those in need. Um, it is dangerous to be rich, uh John Piper says. And for all its allure, it amounts to nothing more than planting and accumulating grass that withers in the scorching sun. It is more blessed to give than to receive. More blessed to give it away in order for the kingdom of God to be established. And so, if I may um offer an I an ironic illustration to end this sermon, um yeah, strange to be using this illustration, but I know a couple, again, not from this church, just someone I know from outside. I know a couple uh who always had in mind to upgrade their home every five years, right? This is a truly unique Singaporean investment scheme. Right? You buy a house five years later, price value goes up, sell, buy a better one, buy a better one. And then I mean, to their credit, they really did very well. Yeah. Um in every house they move into, they will never do major renovations, right? They will they will have no building wardrobe, no expensive furniture, nothing, right? Because what is the point? They rather have loose furniture, they want to have those that to them are disposable, right? In five years' time, if I need to move, I can just throw them away without worrying, right? Um, and you do that because they know they're gonna move out. So why bother getting all this built-in uh stuff, right? And I say irony because I think, friends, this is uh the way our lives is ultimately on this earth, actually. What is the point of building permanent fixtures in our lives with our wealth, with our material possession? If we will not be here forever. When we pass on, we cannot bring it back, we cannot bring it with us to heaven, right? When we pass on, all this will fade away. So, church, let us not be fooled into thinking that we are we are almost immune to greed and to the love of money. Let us not plant grass that will wither. Let us not give in give into the perils and temptations of wealth, and let us not sacrifice our lives on the altar of mammon. May we instead be free from the love of money, that we may boast in our humiliation, we may boast in our identity in Christ and our identification with those who are poor, those who are lowly, those who are despised, so that we may be counted as blessed as we learn to freely give.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

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