DID THEY GROW UP RICH OR POOR?
All right, Bible trivia time, you ready? Bible trivia time, you ready? Youâre not. All right, weâll do it anyway. All right, first question, weâre going to start with the easy ones. OK, weâre in the book of James. You can go to chapter 1. James had a big brother. Who was Jamesâ big brother? Jesus. I gave you an easy one out of the shoot. First-time visitor, non-Christianâs like, âIâm going to say âJesus.ââ Good job, all right, you got the first one. Going to get a little tougher.
OK, Jesus and James are brothers. Theyâve got a mom and dad. Who are their mom and dad? Mary and Joseph. You guys did so good.
OK, now weâre going to get a little more difficult. OK, James and Jesus, did they grow up rich or poor? Poor. All indications are they grew up poor. They grew up in a town called Nazareth, right? Really rural, little, poor, hick, middle-of-nowhere town in that day. Somebody in the Bible asked the question rhetorically, âCan anything good come from Nazareth?â It was that kind of town. Maybe you grew up in a town like that. Congratulations, you made it out.
In addition, the other indicators that they were poor areâwhat was his dadâs job? What was Jamesâ fatherâs job? Carpenter. Donât make a lot as a carpenter in a small town, and he had a big family, a lot of kids. Probably a poor family. And it tells us, I think it is in Luke, when his family went to the temple in Jerusalem, they made the pilgrimage, they were going to bring their sacrifice.
If you were someone who could afford it, you would bring a certain kind of animal, a little more valuable. If you were poor, there was a provision and a law for you to bring a lesser sacrifice. They brought that sacrifice. They were not a rich family; they were a poor family. So, James and Jesus grew up together poor.
NOT RICH OR POOR, BUT GODLY OR UNGODLY
Hereâs the next question, a little more difficult: Should Christians be rich or should Christians be poor?
Some of you went to college and you said âyes.â That was money well spent. That was money well spent. Itâs the wrong question, isnât it? Thatâs a question thatâs economical or political, but itâs not biblical. If you ask the wrong questions, you head down the wrong road, and you end up in the wrong place. Thereâs a lot of class warfare, thereâs a lot of rich versus poor, thereâs a lot of political infighting.
If you ask the question, âShould Christians be rich or poor?â youâre like, âI donât know, thatâs not the right question.â Hereâs a better question: should Christians be godly or ungodly? You didnât say it as enthusiastically as I would have hoped. Itâs pretty clear, right? Christians should be, by the grace of God, godly. Godly. So, it doesnât matter if youâre rich or youâre poor. The question is, how are you living your life, particularly in regards to your wealth? Is it godly or ungodly?
So, what youâre going to meet today are two categories of people, the rich and the poor. They are going to appear in James 1, starting in verse 9, and theyâre going to appear repeatedly through the course of our study of the book of James. So, I want to introduce these categories today so that youâre familiar with them through the remainder of our study in the ensuing weeks and months through the book of James.
4 CATEGORIES OF PEOPLE WE SEE IN THE BIBLE
And so our sermon today isâJesus, of course, is the centerpiece, and itâs âRich Jesus and Poor Jesus.â I want to share with you the four kinds and categories of people that we see in the Bible. And the reason I want to do this is today, when we learn about the poor and the rich, those are two of the four categories in the Bible, OK? Here are the four categories.
1. THE GODLY POOR
Number one, the godly poor. Can you think of people in the Bible who are poor but godly? Can you think of people like that in the Bible? Actually, there are a lot of them, right? We just looked at the fact that Jesusâ family was a godly family. He had a devout mother and father, but they were a poor family. A lot of people in the Bible are godly, they love the Lord, but theyâre poor. Thereâs a widow in the Bible who gives a percentage of her income generously, but she was very poor. The Bible commends her as being very godly. Godliness regarding your wealth is, how do you get it, how do you invest it, how do you tithe it, how do you save it, how do you spend it?
2. THE GODLY RICH
Category two, the godly rich. Can you think of anybody in the Bible or people in the Bible who are rich but are very godly. The way they get it, the way they share it, spend it, save it, invest it, is very noble. Can you think of anybody like that? There are a lot of people like that, actually. Joseph is overseeing a tremendous amount of wealth in Egypt, right? Daniel has a lot of influence in Babylon and is in a prominent position. A man named Nehemiah raises a great amount of money to rebuild the entire city of Jerusalem. Abraham was a very affluent man. Job was rich, and then he lost everything, and then he kind of got it all back. Joseph of Arimathea is a wealthy guy, and when Jesus dies, he gives Jesus his own tomb. There are some godly people who are wealthy in the Bible.
3. THE UNGODLY POOR
Category three, can you think of people in the Bible who are ungodly and poor? Ungodly and poor. Proverbs talks a lot about these people. The sluggard, like, the guy who literally wonât work. The people who, they get their check, and the first thing they do is run to the casino and they gamble away their money. Theyâre not smart with it. People who chase âget rich quickâ schemes. People who are involved in nefarious business dealings, and as a result, it doesnât go well for them. You need to be careful to think biblically and not just politically. Just because someoneâs poor doesnât mean theyâre godly.
4. THE UNGODLY RICH
Category four, the ungodly rich, and of course, weâre very familiar with them, right? Weâre the nation that loves the story of Robin Hood: the rich guys are bad, and the poor guys are good. And the truth is that there are some ungodly rich, and theyâre mentioned in the Bible. A lot of the political leaders like Pharaoh, Herod, or Nebuchadnezzar are godless people. Theyâre not godly people, but theyâre very powerful and rich.
Maybe the most legendary example is of a guy who comes to Jesus. Heâs called the rich, young ruler, and he basically asks Jesus, âHow do I inherit eternal life?â And Jesus says, âWell, you canât love me and your money. Youâve got to pick between the two.â And the Bible says that he literally turned his back on Jesus and walked away because when it came down to his stuff or his Savior, he loved his stuff more than his Savior. He was ungodly and rich.
Why do I give you these categories? Because I want you to figure out what category youâre in. Are you godly and poor? Are you godly and rich? Are you ungodly and poor? Are you ungodly and rich? And I donât want you just to think, âAm I rich or poor?â I want you think, âAm I ungodly or godly?â
IT DOESNâT MATTER IF YOUâRE RICH OR POOR, IT MATTERS IF YOUâRE GODLY OR UNGODLY
As we get into the book of James today, weâre going to be dealing primarily with categories one and four. Weâre going to be dealing with the godly poor and the ungodly rich.
Hereâs the last question for you: Jesus Christ, rich or poor? Which oneâs Jesus? What a timid crowd you are. What a timidâyouâre the worst sports fans ever, right? Youâre likeâitâs like weâre in a library. Youâre like . . . very quiet, OK. Jesusâhow many of you think Jesus Christ, poor? OK, OK, Jesus Christ, rich? OK, OK, yes. OK, yes. OK, yes.
Iâll read a verse to you. I have a verse, 2 Corinthians 8:9. Hereâs what the Apostle Paul says, âFor you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,â it says, âyet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.â What he says is, âJesus Christ has known riches and poverty, therefore itâs not simply riches or poverty. Jesus Christ is God, but he also acted, of course, in a godly way when he was rich and when he was poor.â
The big idea is, it doesnât matter if youâre rich or poor, it matters if youâre godly or ungodly. So, what heâs saying is, âJesus Christ was rich.â So, for eternity past, Jesus is ruling and reigning, King of kings, Lord of lords, in his heavenly kingdom. Rich? Yeah, yes, yes. I mean, the picture of heaven and Godâs kingdom in Revelation, I told you before, streets paved with gold. All right, even rap moguls are like, âThatâs amazing. I didnât even think of that. Thatâs unbelievable.â
OK, so, rich, and then he came down to earth and he was poor. He couldnât pay his taxes, had nowhere to lay his head. He was poor. Didnât have the economic income to purchase a tomb to put his own body in after they murdered him. So Jesus, on the earth, was poor. So, it says he went from glory to humility, from riches to poverty.
And so if you are poor, we want you to, by the grace of God, be poor like Jesus. And if youâre rich, we want you, by the grace of God, to be rich like Jesus. And itâs less about rich and poor, and itâs a lot more about godliness and ungodliness, and itâs always about Jesus.
THE GODLY POOR WILL BE EXALTED
Well, now heâs going to talk firstly to category one, and then secondly to category four. So, Jesusâ bold little brother has this to say to the godly poor: James 1:9, âLet the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.â
We learn a lot here. First of all, heâs writing to Christians. He calls them brothers. Some of you ladies, maybe youâre offended. Maybe you say, âWell, there it is. Itâs a sexist, discriminatory book. Written by guys, talking about guys, and only refers to the brothers.â Let me tell you that nothing could be further from the truth, that in that culture, it was the brother who had the legal position to represent the family, receive the inheritance. And by calling all of Godâs people to the position of brother, it is actually taking women and elevating their status to being equal to men, equal in the sight of God, and equal in the inheritance.
And so ladies, this is the Bible honoring you as they would have heard it two thousand years ago. But heâs talking to Christians, calls them brothers. So, weâre brothers and sisters. Jesus is our big brother. As Jamesâ big brother is Jesus, so Jesus is our big brother spiritually. He comes to help, to seek, to save, and to serve us. And through him, we get adopted into the family and God becomes our Father. So, heâs talking about Christians, and he says that they are lowly. Lowly.
Some religions are really about the rich, the affluent, and the powerful. And the more money you give, the more access you have. All right, in certain religions, you actually buy your seats like you would for a sporting event, and the more you have, the closer you sit up front, and the less you have, you stand up in the back. In some religions, itâs all about a caste system where, wellâhow much do you make? And thatâs where you are on the order of priority.
WHAT BEING LOWLY FEELS LIKE
Here, God starts by talking to those who are lowly, and what this means is theyâre poor, not rich. How many of you feel lowly? I put out the category of lowlyâyou donât have to raise your hand, but you say, âYeah, lowly.â
Hereâs what that feels like: Iâm not rich, Iâm poor. Iâm not brilliant, Iâm average. Iâm a C student. Iâm not beautiful, Iâm pretty typical. Iâm not successful, Iâm average. People donât ask my opinion; they donât want to be like me. People donât pay a lot of attention to me. They sort of overlook me. Iâm lowly. This is the identity that they have received from the culture around them.
The truth is, the culture we live in today is not trending favorably toward Christians. And for the most part, those who follow and love Jesus are seen as lowlyânot that smart, not that gifted, not that competent, not that capable, not that valuable. People can do a lot better than that, so off to the side you go.
Hereâs whatâs happened for them, and it can happen for you: Their net worth has established their self-worth. You need to know thereâs a difference between your net worth and your self-worth. In their day, like our day, if you make more, youâre more valuable. Well, that may be true economically, but thatâs not true emotionally, thatâs not true spiritually; your net worth and your self-worth are not corollary. In fact, thereâs no one more valuable than Jesus, and while he was on the earth, he was poor.
BOAST IN THE LORD
How many of you are feeling that today? You feel like, âYeah, I feel very typical, very average, very normal, very regular, not very special, lowly.â Hereâs what he says: âBoast.â Doesnât that sound weird? âIâm a D student!â âI got fired!â âI was engaged!â Youâre like, âBoast?â Right, boast? I mean, they never do a parade for the losing team. Have you noticed that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They never do a parade for the losing team. What, boast? Get happy, celebrate, what? What is this?
Itâs a paradox. G. K. Chesterton, the great British writer, says, âA paradox is truth standing on its head, shouting for attention.â He says, hereâs something to be excited about: âIn his, in your, in our exaltation.â Youâre like, âBut Iâm not up there, Iâm down here.â God says, âBoast because I see you up here and Iâm bringing you up here. Youâre starting down there, but youâre going to follow the Lord Jesus as the Lord Jesus has been exalted into heaven so you too will be exalted with the Lord Jesus in heaven.â
Thatâs how the Lord sees you. He sees you not where you are, but where you will be when heâs done with you. And thatâs to give you an identity along the way, an identity thatâs received from the Lord, not achieved by you.
I want to revisit briefly, if I might, some of the things that we hit in the book of Ephesians. But heâs really here getting to the issue of identity because in the eyes of the world, theyâre lowly.
DONâT GET YOUR IDENTITY FROM THE CULTURE AROUND YOU
Some of you feel that way, and as a result, itâs hard to boast. And this is good boasting. This is not boasting in yourself; this is boasting in the Lord. This is not saying, âHereâs what Iâve done.â Itâs saying, âHereâs what heâs done for me.â Any of you have a problem with boasting, the solution is boasting in the Lord. Thatâs the corrective.
What heâs saying is that your identity cannot be received from the culture around you and the way that others see you, it has to be received from the Lord and how much he values you. Even if you canât afford anything, itâs OK, because when it comes to salvation, on the cross, Jesus paid for everything. Arenât you glad you donât have to buy eternal life? Today, you are lowly, but one day youâll be exalted with Jesus forever.
The only rich and powerful person that may ever choose you is Jesus Christ, and his choice is truly the only one that really matters. Today you are poor, but one day you will receive a rich inheritance from Jesus. And today, you may not have any treasure, but you are rich if Jesus is your treasure. Thatâs what heâs saying.
So, theyâre seeing themselves through the worldâs eyes; their net worth establishes their self-worth, and theyâre lowly. And here, through James, whoâs a pastorâand this is what a pastorâs supposed to do: take the Word of God and present it to you so that you see yourselves through the eyes of God. And this is God the Father through Pastor James, meeting with his kids and saying, âKids, youâre sad, youâre bummed out, youâre discouraged, youâre depressed. You feel like youâve been rejected and dejected. And youâve got this trial going onââwhich is where he begins in chapter 1. âAnd the trial is that youâre poor and godly, and youâre looking at all the people who are rich and ungodly, and youâre asking, âHow come life works like this? All right, I understand the people who are ungodly and poor. All right, they made bad decisions, and life is hard. I understand people who are godly and rich. Theyâre really generous, good tithers, givers, and stewards, and so God gives more to them.ââ
But how many of you find yourself in a similar predicament emotionally where itâs like, âI love the Lord, and life is hard, and Iâm a nobody, and I got nothing, and all the people who are somebody and got something, use it to dishonor the Lord. How does that work? That doesnât seem fair. That doesnât seem right. How come Iâm lowly? Why is it like this?â Have you been there? Today?
SEE YOURSELF AS THE FATHER SEES YOU
James says, âLet me explain how this works. Boast in your exaltation.â See yourself as the Father sees you. We all, we all, we all deal with this. If I asked you this question, âI wish I wereâ,â fill in the blank, how would you fill it in? âI wish I were beautiful.â âI wish I were smart.â âI wish I were funny.â âI wish I were rich.â âI wish I were popular.â âI wish I were successful.â âI wish I were promoted.â However you would fill in that blank indicates the way in which you feel lowly. Godâs a Father, and James has the Fatherâs heart. Thatâs what a pastor should have.
Itâs literally like a dad whoâs got a daughter. Iâve got daughters, and I love them with all my heart. Iâll use them as a hypothetical analogy and illustration. Letâs say one of my daughters went to school and it was one of those days at school where the kids were picking on them, making fun of them, bullying them, criticizing them, discouraging one of my girls. Not beautiful enough, not smart enough, not successful enough, not popular enough, whatever the case may be. Letâs say one of my girls came home, my daughters, and you could just tell, lowly, and literally lowly, like their cadence, their gaze is low. Their shoulders are low. Their posture is low. Everything about them is just discouraged.
As a father, this would be my opportunity to do ministry. And literally, what a dad should do at that moment, dad should get right down at the eye level of the daughter. âWhat did they say?â âThey said Iâm ugly.â âYouâre not. Theyâre lying. Youâre beautiful.â âThey said Iâm stupid.â âTheyâre wrong. Youâre not. Youâre great.â âThey said Iâm not valuable.â âOh, theyâre wrong. Youâre priceless.â âThey donât want to be with me.â âWell, thatâs OK. I canât live without you.â
What a fatherâs trying to do is take the spectacles that others have put in front of the eyes of the child, take them off, take his spectacles, put them on. âI need you to see yourself as I see you. I need you to see not just who you are, but who youâre becoming. I see you as a grown woman, I see you as a mature woman, I see you as a glorious woman, and I need you to see yourself as I see you so that you can become who you really are.â Do you understand that?
IâM NOT GREAT, BUT HE IS
This is where our identity is received from our Father; itâs not achieved by us. Our identity is received by our Father; it is not achieved by othersâ perceptions of us. And here, James is having a pastoral moment with his church, and Iâm glad to have one with you to say, âYouâre not lowly, youâre exalted. Youâre not unimportant, youâre important. Youâre not worthless, youâre priceless. Youâre not somebody that he can live without; youâre somebody he canât live without.â
Immediately, youâd say, âBut Iâm not great,â and I would say, âBut your Father is.â Your Father is great, and your Father sees your eternity, and your Fatherâs plan is to make you great. Do you understand that? Thereâs so much hope and encouragement there.
Itâs not lying to someone and saying, âOh, thatâs not true. Youâre tall.â Theyâre like, âNo, Iâm short.â Itâs being honest about where someone is. Itâs about being honest about who someone is and having hope for who they will become when God is finished with them in exaltation, after the work of Jesus is fully completed, and theyâre like him and with him, together forever.
Boast in your exaltation. If you belong to the Lord Jesus, the seat in the kingdom alongside him is already reserved for you and fully guaranteed. And the Father sees where youâre going, and the Father is going to take your hand and walk with you, and he is going to help you, mature you, love you, and grow you. And then one day, he is going to call you forth from your grave, and you will be absolutely perfect as he always intended.
Between now and then, you need to see who you are becoming instead of who youâve been, and how he sees you instead of how others see you. If you do that, thereâs great joy and then you can obey his decree, âBoast in your exaltation.â Even if somebody comes along and criticizes, you can say, âYou know what? Praise be to God, my Father loves me, heâs working on that, and in this life or the life to come, thatâs going to be totally different. Iâm really excited that what youâre saying will not always be true.â And then he transitions to the ungodly rich. How many of you are poor? The question is, are you godly?
THE UNGODLY RICH WILL BE HUMILIATED
How many of you are rich? The question is, are you godly? Hereâs what he says to the ungodly rich: âLet the rich boast.â Thatâs the context in accordance with chapter 1, verse 9. âBoast in his humiliation.â How many of you donât boast in your humiliation? Right? âI got fired!â âI lost!â Itâsâagain, those who are humble will be exalted. Those who are exalted will be humbled. Thereâs only two options: Godâs plan A is humility. Godâs plan B is humiliation. If you donât take plan A, you get plan B.
You say, âPastor Mark, how do you know that?â Experience. Lots and lots and lots of experience. So, God tells those who are lowly, âBe humble. Let God exalt you.â He tells those who are arrogant, âIf you have exalted yourself, God will not just humble you, he will humiliate you.â âBecause like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flowers fall, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.â
One great New Testament commentator translates that Greek to say, âWhile heâs still working on his business.â Now, I believe heâs talking here about a non-Christian. The scholars disagree. Theyâre split fifty-fifty. You could talk about it in Community Group and study it for yourself. But he just told us that the poor were brothers. Here, he doesnât say anything about brothers. And there, he talks about their eternal exaltation, but here he talks about their eternal damnation. So, I believe heâs talking about the ungodly rich, and in light of that, what heâs really getting at is the issue of identity.
IDENTITY WE CAN PURCHASE
You need to know that when it comes to riches, much of the reason that we treasure our treasure is because the identity we can purchase, right? You say, âIâm not smart. Iâm not powerful. Iâm not popular. Iâm not beautiful.â If you get enough money, you can fix that. All right, you could pay to correct almost anything, physically, socially speaking, not spiritually speaking. And then you can reestablish yourself and represent yourself with a new identity so youâre not lowly anymore. Youâre not one of those people over there, out there, down there. Youâre one of the people in here, up here, right there.
This is why we treasure our treasure, because of the identity it can provide. We can go from lowly to exalted, from nobody to somebody, from unpopular to popular, from unattractive to beautiful, from someone no one knows to someone everyone knows. And itâs an issue of glory, and we want to be in the center, and we want to be in the seat that God sits in, and we want everybody to know who we are what we do, says the guy up front with a light on him whoâs feeling convicted right about now. And the sociologists will talk about conspicuous consumption, and this is where we buy things, not because of their functionality but because of the identity that they provide for us.
GETTING OUR IDENTITY THROUGH CLOTHING
Iâll give you some examples. We do this with clothing. How you dress says who you are. I noticed this not long ago. I was in the SoHo district in New York, and theyâve got a couple shops for old guys like me, and one of them was a suit store. High end, really nice, custom-made, tailored suit. You can go in, spend a whole bunch of loot, get a really nice suit, walk out, walk around, everybody knows, âBoy, thereâs a business leader, power broker, Wall Street.â Look, that says something.
Not far down the street, another guysâ shop for old guys my age. How do I know itâs for old guys? Things are expensive. Any time itâs expensive, itâs for an old guy. But this was an old punk rock club, and it was filled with like $500 pairs of vintage Levis. So, itâs like faux chic humility, kind of weird, but really expensive humility. âI donât wear a suit; I wear $500 jeans, more expensive than the suit.â Anyway, in addition, old Levis jackets, Sid Vicious T-shirts, old Ramones T-shirts. You kids donât know who Iâm talking about, but old guys like me, âYeah, yeah, yeah, it feels pretty good.â
So, you can go in there, and actually to get an outfit at the punk rock store was more expensive than the suit store, but both of which were presenting an identity. One is, âIâm the manâ; the other is, âIâm down with the man,â right? Those are the two menâs fashion alternatives. We do this with our clothes. Right, ladies? OK, moving on.
GETTING OUR IDENTITY THROUGH THE TECHNOLOGY WE OWN
We do this also with technology, right? Because your technology establishes your identity. How many of you feel lowly if the phone rings, and you pull out a flip phone? A flip phone. You just turn around. Youâre like, âI donât want people to see me. Iâm so ashamed.â Because they have a smart phone, that means you have a dumb phone. Really?
I had this experience not long ago. Our contract on our phones came up, so as a family, we got in the car. For those of us who have phones, we went to get new phones. Weâre driving in the car, one of my children who will remain nameless because this is a negative illustration said, âHey Dad, what kind of phone you going to get?â I said, âIâm gonna get aâânot a flip phone. No. If I were more secure in Christ, I probably would have gotten a flip phone. What I said was, âIâm going to get an iPhone.â And my child said something to the effect of, âYeah, thatâs what all the old people get.â Really? Iâm driving and we have not yet purchased your phone. You may want to rethink the timing. I prophesy a flip phone in your soon-to-be future.
So, to defend myself, I said, âWell, you know, a lot of people love iPhones, and when a new iPhone comes up, they line up down the block.â He said, âYeah, the old people do line up around the block.â Really? OK, clunk, OK. Itâs true, right? Because your technology says something about you.
We do this as well with our vehicles, right? Do you drive a scooter? Is that cool or not cool? It depends on the scooter, right? âI drive a Vespa.â âOh, youâre cool.â âWhy?â âI donât know, because we decided.â Like, a committee got together and said, âThat scooterâs not cool. That scooter is cool.â
How about, do you drive a car? Now, what kind of car? German car . . . Korean car . . . OK, itâs different. Hey, this is offensive but true. And then itâs like, do you have a two-door or a four-door, because four-door is not cool. Two-doorâthatâs cool. Do you have a truck or an SUV? Yeah, I can get a whole deer in there. A whole deer and a table saw. Thatâs good.
Do you drive a minivan? Whoever marketed the minivan, if they were hoping to entice men, shouldnât have started with the word âmini.â Just throwing it out there as a marketing insight. Because if youâre a man and you drive a minivan, you feel like a mini-man, right? I mean, itâsâright? Some of you guys are like, âHow am I now going to go out and get into my minivan to drive away?â
No, hereâs what Iâm saying: the lowly will be exalted, right? Mr. Harley, you know, heâll be driving a minivan in the kingdom of God, OK? And your minivan, at the end of time, God will set it on fire, glory be to God, and you will enter into the eternal kingdom never to drive a minivan again, forever. So, this life is a short while, right? âEndure hardship,â the Bible says, and thatâs what youâre doing, and we respect that.
Iâll talk about myself. Itâs this issue of identity, that we want to spend money to set up an identity so weâre not considered lowly culturally.
GETTING OUR IDENTITY THROUGH OUR APPEARANCE
And Iâll just be honest. Since I picked on everybody else, Iâll pick on myself. I am at the age where there are some complex variables regarding my appearance. Can I say it like that?
People ask, âWhy do you wear boots?â Iâve always worn boots, my dad wore boots, my grandpa wore boots, and boots make you taller. Iâm short. This stage is fifty-seven feet high. I am short and I wear boots, in part, just to be honest with you, because Iâm not that tall. People always come up to me, they see me on video, âOh, Pastor Mark, Iâve always wanted to meet you. I thought you would be taller.â My answer is always, âI always wanted to meet you. I thought youâd be nicer.â You know?
âPastor Mark, why do you wear a vest?â Because I have a bit of a gut. I wish I had a six-pack, but I have a cooler. And what I find is that if I tuck my shirt in, it sort of does things that Iâm not pleased with. And then if I put a jacket on, Iâm left with a horrible dilemma. Do I just wear the jacket and stick my gut out there or do I close the jacket, then everybody knows what Iâm doing and it looks ridiculous. So, I bought a vest, OK?
And I used to have a lot of hair, now I have less hair here. I still have the same amount of hair, itâs just relocated without permission, OK? How many men are understanding this? Youâre feeling my pain, OK? And all of a sudden now, my hair has gotten what color? Sort of gray, pretty white. Like, I went from young guy to Santa in like fifteen minutes. I donât know what happened. Some of you are like, âIâm going gray.â Iâm like, âIâm going white.â Iâm going white.
Men, you reach a point where youâre like, âOK, Iâm seen as lonelyâlowly, old, not very cool, not very hip.â Not that I ever was but less so. So then the question isâmen, whatâs the question then? Do I dye my hair? OK, so weâll vote on this. Weâre going to have a little congregational Baptist meeting here. Vote yes, dye my hair? How about orange? OK, no. So, youâre with this dilemma. So then youâre at this dilemma and are like, âMaybe if I dye my hair, Iâll look younger.â Maybe, but then the problem is my beard. My beardâitâs like Kenny Rogers and Santa got together and made my beard. And so, my beard comes in really, like, sort of Gandalf white.
Then the question is, âWell, if I dye my hair and I donât dye my beard, donât I look crazy?â Yeah, because itâs like the topâlike, the northern hemisphere heâs thirty, in the southern hemisphere, heâs that guyâs grandpa. So, you look kind of crazy. So, then you got two choices. You shave your beard, but I get another one in seventeen minutes. Iâve timed it; I grow a beard in seventeen minutes. My dadâs a Wookie, my momâs a Chia Pet, and I grow a beard in seventeen minutes, OK? I mean, Iâm just letting you in on my life.
I can tell you this because, like, it used to be Iâd preach all day, and Iâd preach the morning, and then Iâd preach the afternoon, and then Iâd preach the evening. I asked the video guys, âWell, the part of the first message was good and the part of the second message was good. Can we splice them together?â Theyâre like, âWe canât because in the first sermon you donât have a beard and in the last sermon you do.â Iâm not even kidding.
So, then the question becomes, OK, I canât clean shave because then Iâd have to just literally walk around shaving all the time to preserve the illusion that Iâm young. So then the question is, do you dye your beard? Do you? OK, if youâre a guy who came today and you dye your beard, I admit, this is a bad day for you, but I just wonât. Because what I would have is, like, a half-dark beard and a half-white beard, and my wifeâs even laughing. But you know what Iâm going through, OK?
Hereâs the big idea: there are so many things and ways that all of us are made to feel lowly. Lowly. And we struggle with, âWell, how can I fix that and create an identity. Maybe if I had more resources, I could reinvent myself and then I wouldnât be lowly, Iâd be exalted. Iâd not be one in the margins; Iâd be one in the center. Iâd be different. Itâd be better for me.â
YOUR IDENTITY: BELOVED OF THE FATHER
Thatâs where heâs going with this issue. He says, âHey, if youâre lowly, rejoice and be glad that Godâs going to exalt you and he sees you as though heâs completed his work in you.â If youâre exalted, proud, full of yourself, and all about you, he saysâitâs a bit of a scathing rebuke. You can âboast.â You want to brag? In your humiliation.
He says itâs like a flower, and some people are like a flower. You ever seen a beautiful flower, straight, tall, alive, flourishing, glorious? You donât even want to pick it because itâs so amazing. People are like that. Some people are amazing. Weâre all looking at them and are like, âGosh, look at that. Thatâs aâwhat a person. Thereâs a real special person.â He says, âBut you know what? At the end of time, the heat comes, and the wind comes, and it scorches, and it torches, and the flower is gone.â
Hereâs the big idea: always live with the end in mind. Weâre all like a carton of milk in the fridge. Weâve all got an expiration date. Weâre all going to die. Itâs all going to come to an end. All that we have, all that we do, all that we are comes to an end, and we stand before God. And so much of what weâve done just burns. And I hope, I trust, and I pray that you donât burn. And heâs inferring and referring here to eternal judgment, where, for some of you, this life is as close as youâll ever get to heaven, and hell awaits you. And for some of you, this is as close to hell as youâll ever get, and heaven awaits you.
He teaches us, he tells us, he trains us in what the solution is. Whether youâre rich or poor, hereâs the key to being godly. Do you want to be godly? Hereâs the key to being godly: God gives good gifts. James 1:16â18. Weâre going to jump down, and then next week weâre going to cover the section in the middle. âDo not be deceived, my beloved brothers.â Thereâs your identity. Heâs going to say Godâs a Father and youâre beloved. God loves you. God adores you. God is committed to you. God has affection for you.
Some of you say, âBut Iâm not special.â He is. âBut Iâm not good.â He is. âI donât deserve it.â Thatâs why itâs grace. The Father loves you. Youâre his beloved. Us, corporately, absolutely. You, individually, especially. Whenâs the last time that somebody told you they really, deeply, truly, passionately, committedly loved you? God does with a perfect, never-ending love.
âEvery good and perfect gift is fromââwhere? Good things donât come from the bottom up, they come from the top down. âComing down from the FatherââGodâs our Father âof lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will, just because he wanted to, just because heâs good, just because he loves us. Of his own will he brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.â
He gives us a warning, âDonât be deceived.â You can be a Bible-believing, Spirit-filled, Jesus-following Christian and still be susceptible to deception. You can believe things that are not true. You can receive an identity thatâs not from the Lord. You can live in light of things that are not connected to Godâs reality. You say, âWell, I donât want to be deceived.â None of us want to be deceived. Actually, Paul says on a few occasions in the New Testament that the problem with our first mother Eve was she was deceived.
I donât want to be deceived, so how do I avoid deception? He says, âBy the word of truth,â that the spiritual life he births in us and through us to get us around the opportunities for deception come from the word of truth. It comes from the Word of God. If you want to avoid deception, you need to familiarize yourself with the truth. If you want to combat lies, you need to know the truth, and the truth is found, he says, in the word of truth, the Word of God.
So, friends, every opportunity I get, I want to encourage you, read your Bible, study your Bible, pray over your Bible, memorize your Bible, get in a community group, discuss your Bible. Spend time in Godâs Word and get Godâs Word into you so when the enemy comes and lies to you and deception sets its face in front of you, youâre able to see it for what it is because Jesus says, âMy sheep hear my voice, and they know me.â You say, âThatâs not Jesus, Iâm not going to go that direction. Iâm not going to believe that instruction.â
3 THINGS JAMES WANTS US TO REMEMBER
1. HE DOESNâT CHANGE
He then tells us three things: First of all, God is our Father, and he doesnât change. Thereâs no variation or shadow due to change. See, tomorrow, you and I will not be anxious, âWill the stars be in the sky?â Theyâll be there. So it is with the Father of lights. Heâll be there. God does not change, and for us, that is good news. When he decides to love us, when he decides to seek us, when he decides to serve us, when he decides to save us, he doesnât change. Heâs a Dad who doesnât walk out on his kids, doesnât give up on his kids. He always loves, pursues, and invests in his kids, and thatâs really good news.
God the Father does not, will not, cannot change. And in a world filled with so much change, the one thing that will never change is the Father heart of God toward his people. The second thing he says is that all good gifts come from the Father. It doesnât matter if youâre rich or poor, the way you can live a life filled with joy, rejoicing, and boasting in your exaltation is to acknowledge that everything that is in your hand came from his hand.
2. WHAT YOU HAVE IS WHAT HEâS GRANTED
I would beg you, spend time thinking about what you have more than what you donât have, more about what he has given than what you wish had already been given. One of the great deceptions is, âWhat I have is what Iâve earned.â No, what I have is what heâs granted. And this is all by grace; itâs gifts. For those of us who are fathers, dads, hear me in this: One of the ways we can practically, functionally teach our children the gospel is by being generous and good gift-givers.
My son Gideon came up to me recently with a candy bar, and he looked at me, and he said, âDad, if I do my homework, can I eat the candy bar?â OK, thereâs a gospel moment right there. I said, âGideon, just eat the candy bar. Eat the candy bar before you do your homework.â He says, âWhat if I donât do my homework?â We had this little negotiation. I said, âEat the candy bar. If I make you do your homework and then give you the candy bar, Iâm teaching you to be religious and to do works to earn gifts. If I give you the gift and tell you I love you, I hope that that would compel your heart to do the right thing, not to earn my love, but as a result of the love Iâve freely given you.â
God is like that. God doesnât look at you and say, âIf you obey me, I will love you.â Jesus says, âIf you love me, youâll obey me.â It starts with Godâs love. It starts with Godâs grace. It starts with Godâs generosity, and he gives gifts. You donât need to do anything to make God give you gifts. God is a God who loves to give gifts, and I would encourage you to be thinking, âWhat are the gifts that heâs given me?â Everything that I have is a giftâsalvation, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, the saving power of Jesus, the Scriptures. What gifts has he given you? And those are all gifts that he has given you because he loves you. And as you meditate on those things, youâre able to have joy and to boast in your exaltation.
3. HIS GREATEST GIFT IS PEOPLE
And number three, the greatest gift that God gives is people. All the gifts come down from above. Ultimately, the greatest gift that comes down from above is Jesus, and the greatest gift that God gives is people. Thatâs what he says, that we should be a kind of âfirstfruits of his creation.â That concept of firstfruits is really a mind-blowing one in the Bible. Itâs the first, itâs the best. So Proverbs says, âGive your firstfruits to the Lord, your first and best,â right? Jesus is called the firstfruits, right? His resurrection is the beginning of our eternal life. Heâs the firstfruits, the first and the best.
This is mind-bending. I have not yet fully gotten my mind around this. Iâve studied it, Iâve prayed about it, Iâve been working on it. Iâm going to give it to you as far as Iâve got it, and I need you to take it from there. God sees you as his firstfruits. He loves you, he sees you as first and best, and he sees you as a gift.
Some of you would come to the Lord Jesus and you say, âI am lowly. I donât have anything to give,â and God is saying, âGive me you. Give me you.â And youâll say, âBut Iâm not in a good place,â and God says, âIâm a Father. I take kids like you, and I give them gifts, and I help them, and I change them. So, give me you, and Iâll love you, and Iâll help you, and Iâll serve you, and Iâll change you, and one day Iâll exalt you, and you can be forever with me.â At that point, your mind should explode because thereâs no god or person like this, but thatâs how God is. Thatâs how God is.
I want you to know that the people in your life are a gift. Youâre the greatest gift that God has given. The greatest gift that God has given other than, of course, God giving us himself is giving us his people. And what this means is, we receive gifts and particularly the gift of certain people in our life. We give glory to God, and we give gratitude to them. And I want you to know that all good gifts come from the Fatherâs hand, and sometimes they come through the hand of another.
I want to do some course correction, because occasionally religious people misunderstand this. Someone does, says, or gives something nice to them, and instead of saying, âThank you, God bless you, I appreciate you,â they say, âGlory be to God,â and they overlook the giver through whom God gave the gift.
And sometimes even religious people have a hard time receiving a compliment. âThank you.â âWell, all glory be to God.â âI know, Iâm just trying to say thanks.â And thereâs a difference between gratitude and glory. All the glory goes to God, but gratitude can go to his faithful servant. I glorify God for the book of James, and Iâm grateful that James wrote it down. God brought us his word through his servant.
Iâll give you an analogy. The greatest gift in my life are people, especially the ones with my last name, Grace and the kids. Recently, Gideon had his eighth birthday, and my quirky little line I always say to Grace when the kids are around or weâre visiting someone is, Iâll walk up, put my arm around her, and I say, âThanks for the people. Thanks for the people.â
See, Jesus gave me these people through my wife. Literally, without my wife, we donât have these people. I want you to understand that God gives great gifts, heâs a great Father, and sometimes he gives those gifts through brothers and sisters, and sometimes those gifts are brothers and sisters.
If you see your life in this way, that youâre a recipient of great gifts from a great God and that youâre high, exalted, and he loves you, and he sees you in the completed, resurrected, exalted state in his kingdom where you are like you were intended to be and as he sees you, that who youâve become, and between here and there, the Father lavishes gift upon gift, grace upon grace toward you, then youâre able to do exactly what he says: âLet the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.â âThis is who my God is. This is what my God does. This is where my God is taking me. And everything I have comes from a Father who loves me, knows me, sees me, adores me, is aware of my imperfections but has overcome that with Jesusâ perfection, and is bringing me eternally into his presence to be with, like, for, through, to Jesus forever.â
The result is, you can boast in your exaltation as you have an attitude of gratitude, and thatâs where he wants us to be as Godâs people.
Note: This sermon transcript has been edited for readability.