07/30/2023 = James 5:19-20 = “Preach Practicing: Bringing Salvation, Burying Sins”

(Click HERE to watch the FB Live Stream of this service, starts at 0:30, sermon at 35:00)

(Click HERE to donate to Lidgerwood Church’s mission and ministries – and THANK YOU for your generous support!)

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Mark Wheeler

James 5:19-20                                                                                                       

07/30/2023

“Preach Practicing: Bringing Salvation, Burying Sins”                      

Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church

Welcome to worship, friends! Thank you for a time away in southern Oregon last week. We had a great time visiting Jennifer’s family there. And I saw LPC’s worship service in the early afternoon – Vern did a wonderful job emceeing the service, and my friend Brad gave a beautiful message on the Lord’s Prayer – and you got out early enough to beat the lunch crowd to The (new) Sportsman Restaurant.

Much progress has been made in our construction, but we don’t have our new A/C yet. If you need a fan, let us know and we’ll get one for you.

In Luke 15 Jesus tells 3 parables about how much God loves us.  One is about a shepherd who lost a sheep and leaves his 99 other sheep to go look for the one that is lost.  This lost sheep just sort of wanders away from the herd and gets lost.  When the shepherd finds it, he brings it home and throws a party to celebrate.

The Second is about a woman who lost a coin.  This coin just sort of “falls through the cracks”.  When you see what the floors might have looked like in 1^st century Israel, it’s pretty easy to see how that could happen.  The woman sweeps out the house until she finds the lost coin, and then she throws a party to celebrate.

The Third is a story about a family: a widower and his 2 teenage sons.  One is older and responsible; the other is younger and a little less respectful.  You know the story, the younger brother tells his dad to drop dead and he gets his share of the inheritance.  He goes off and spends his whole wad, and ends up on the streets and living with the pigs.  He realizes how much better “home” would be, so he practices his apology and heads home.  His dad sees him coming in the distance and hollers for his staff to prepare a party for his son who “was dead and is now alive again.”  The older brother gets mad that their dad went to all this trouble for the young rebellious brother when he had been so obedient.  One brother stormed off in the opposite direction and got lost; the other stayed put and never really understood how lucky he was, lost in self-pity.

All of this is to teach us that Christians can fall away from God!  It is possible for us to get lost.  I don’t think we can actually lose our salvation, but our closeness to God can be blocked.  Our reception can be interrupted.  We can backslide away from God.

Today we finish our trek through the New Testament Book of James, and this is the theme of today’s passage – Let’s listen to James, to God’s Word, together:

2  Join in as Vern leads us in our Call to Worship – from Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi

3-7  And our Prelude of Praise and Worship –– #95 … All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name –

8  Good morning Friends!  Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!

Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!

Let’s take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe, to a moment of Sabbath in God’s presence and peace, and with others whom we love and with whom we grow together. Friends, may “The Peace of Christ be with you – and also in you!!”

Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.

Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.

9   Our Summer Special Music today comes from Dick McCarter –  “Be Not Afraid”

10   Thank You, Lord, for Dick’s gift and his courage and the wonder of the lyrics in this song. Bless him and Julie, and hold them close and safe.  Amen.

11  Vern opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving 

12  Gloria Patri

13-16   Mark receives the praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and [The Lord’s Prayer]

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18-20  Please stand as you are able as we sing ourSong of Devotion and Preparation to receive God’s Word – #114 – Alleluia –. I know this song is repetitive – use that repetition to not have to read the words – just sing, and rest in the prayer of praise – in the last verse we sing the Aramean word Maranatha – that is a proclamation meaning, “Our Lord comes/is coming”

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The Promise and the Power of Your vision for us, O God, is brought to Life as we recognize Your resurrection!  Challenge us to make the changes Your vision requires.  Call us to Your passion for living lives that are full and abundant!  Christ the Lord is risen today!  Praise God.  Amen.

Today we read the final words in the book of James, his final thoughts. Last time’s paragraph was about prayer, and especially about prayer for the sick; and then last week Pastor Brad preached on the Lord’s Prayer and talked about how this prayer holds us all together.  In today’s passage James writes about what the Church’s responsibilities are when our members “backslide”, or just wander away, or fall through the cracks.  Please follow along with me as I read James 5:19-20… —

21    ¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰ let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Like a great novel or a great movie, James’ letter to the early church closes in a way that ties its different themes together and leaves the reader with a sense of satisfied completion. 

James was intensely interested in helping Christians stay on track spiritually.  He didn’t want believers to adopt a double-minded way of thinking that could lead them back into sin.  He clearly warned against the dangers of allowing evils like prejudice, greed, gossip, and worldliness to infiltrate the Church or her members. 

In short, James offered a series of tests by which his readers could prove the authenticity of their faith.  And having written all that he did about the nature of true faith, James closes his letter with a plea that Christians practice a ministry of restoration for fellow saints who have wandered from the path.

Jesus’ Great Commission was to go into all the world making disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20).  James’ great commission is to go and bring back the ones that have left!  (BRING BACK OUR CHURCH COMMUNITY)

Paul wrote, “Brothers, if a man is overtaken in any sin, you who are spiritual should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1).

And Jesus also said, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother” (Matt. 18.15).

By now, we shouldn’t be surprised when we hear James call a believer a “sinner”.  Christians are capable of falling into sin, and the consequences of sin can be deadly if something isn’t done.  The Church in the city of Corinth is Exhibit A of this fact.  Some of the members had suffered physical death because of gross sin (I Cor. 11:30).  In last time’s reading from James 5:13-18, James even says that sometimes sickness can be the result of unconfessed sin.

Saving a fellow Christian from discipline this severe is something any member of Christ’s Body ought to be ready to do.  Notice that James gives no commands here.  The structure of verse 19 suggests that wandering from the truth is a distinct possibility for any Christian.  When he says “someone” needs to bring the person back, James leaves the door open for any Christian to act.  This is not directed at the elders or the deacons or the pastor.  Everyone is qualified to perform this responsibility.

How do we go about bringing salvation to a lost, wandering, fellow believer?

This is different from “judge not lest you be judged”.  James tells us, once again, that we do have a responsibility to watch after each other.  When we observe a lifestyle of sin it becomes our responsibility to help our brother or sister in Christ.

But how we carry this assignment out makes all the difference.  I find at least 4 places in Scripture that give wise counsel for how we bring salvation.

1. Jesus gives us what we have come to call the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would have them treat you” (Matt. 7.12), that means we do what we do with motives of help and love.
2. Paul tells us to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4.15), that means we don’t shy away from what we observe, but we approach the subject because we want the best for our erring friend.
3. Remember the passage inPaul’s letter to the Galatians: “If a man is overtaken in any sin, you who are spiritual should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal. 6.1).
4. And Peter encourages us to “never give up”! (II Pet. 3.9).

The mention of death as God’s final discipline for a sinning saint suggests the seriousness of this scenario.  The fact that the erring believer, once rescued, will stop the sin that caused the problem is another benefit James calls “covering over” sin.

This is different from trying to deny, or cover-up, or sweeping under the rug a sin.  Instead, the “covering” James is talking about involves dealing with the sin head-on and moving toward forgiveness and restoration. 

Killing the sin, burying it six-feet deep, and start living again.  A rescued, forgiven brother or sister then needs to be restored to fellowship.  James was in the business of developing mature saints, and putting sinners back on the path to righteous living.

Chuck Swindoll tells of a young man who once described going astray from God “like he was at sea in deep water, deep trouble, and all his friends were on the shoreline hurling biblical accusations at him about justice, penalty and wrongliving … but [he says] there was one Christian brother who actually swam out to get me and would not let me go.  I fought him, but he pushed aside my fighting, grasped me, put a life jacket around me, and took me to shore.  By the grace of God, he was the reason I was restored.  He would not let me go”.

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Is there someone you love who has wandered?  Would you like to see that dear friend restored?  We have the responsibility to bring salvation and bury sin.

It’s hard to invest this much time in the book of James without coming away a changed person.  I hope this James-series has had some of that impact on you.  The whole book is only a couple of pages long in your Bibles at home.  I invite every one of us to read it again this afternoon, and pray for God to impress His Word on your hearts.  Make a note of the verse or passage that touches you, and put that passage someplace where you’ll see it every day – for me that would be the refrigerator. 

… Now is the time of God’s favor!  Today is the day of salvation!  Amen!

23  Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.

– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or Click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)

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As our Communion Servers, bring the Communion elements to you, we invite you to take one piece of bread from the center tray, and one cup from the outer rings – or just one self-contained COVID-friendly cup – the wafer is under the cellophane wrap, and the grape juice is under the foil wrap – then hold your broken bread and poured cup of the fruit of the vine until we partake together.

25-27   Communion Hymn #776 – Let Us Break Bread Together –

28   Sacrament of Holy Communion

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30-33  Expedition Song #227 –  Rock of Ages!    

34   Benediction:     May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.

“May the Lord bless you and protect you;  may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”

35-36   Announcements      

• Thru-the-Bible Check-in – TOMORROW, 12noon, at church on Zoom
• Worship in the Park – NEXT Sunday, 10am, @ Harmon Park
• Breakfast Fellowship – in TWO Saturdays, 9am, @ Frankie Doodles Restaurant
• Furnace Fundraiser
• Garden o’ Feedin’ – Thursday afternoons – or whenever!

Resources: 

Hodges, Christ; Bringing the Wanderer Home; sermon preached; August 2002.

Holwick, Dave; What about those Backsliders?.

Today in the Word; Moody Bible Institute; August 1999; P. 38.

Wheeler, Mark; “Bringing Salvation, Burying Sins”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 07/02/2006.

07/23/2023 = Matthew 6:9-13 = “There Is No ‘I’ in the Lord’s Prayer”

(Click HERE to see the Facebook Live video of this service – starts at 1:00, sermon at 15:00 – note that we had some technical difficulties – no live video of speakers or singers, only the powerpoint slide show – and our audio of the music wasn’t set right, so the beautiful songs are mostly missed – and it is a short service, so when it concludes at 40ish minutes, you have not missed a part of it.)

(Click HERE to donate to Lidgerwood Church’s Mission and ministries – thank you for your generosity.)

Because Pastor Mark is on vacation, we have a wonderful guest preacher today, the Rev. Brad Buff. This means there is no “script/text” for this service. Enjoy the message, and find your faith and prayer-life enhanced.

07/16/2023 = James 5:13-18 = “Preach Practicing: What Do We Do Now?”

(Click HERE to see the FBLive video of this service – starts at 8:21, sermon at 30:40)

(Click http://www.givlia.com/g/lidgerwoodpresbychurch to donate to Lidgerwood Church’s mission and ministries – THANK you for your contributions!)

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Mark Wheeler

James 5:13-18                                                                                                       

07/16/2023

“Preach Practicing: What Do We Do Now?”                                      

Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church

Welcome to worship, friends! For those of us in Spokane, we’ve been almost 10* cooler all week, which is nice. But we’re meeting downstairs where it’s another 15* cooler than the Sanctuary.  Feel free to get yourself some coffee or a snack while we’re worshiping today. It’s Summer, so we can be a little more casual. Still though, if you need a fan, let us know and we’ll get one for you. OK, so what do we do now?  Have you ever asked yourself that question?  For Father’s Day one year, my family gave me a new BBQ … that needed to be put together.  I laid out all the parts, started into it, and found myself one bolt shy … what do I do now?

It’s amazing how many bad things can happen.  Bill Flick, a columnist for The Pantagraph newspaper, gathered these true stories:

—In Connecticut, a man driving a stolen car inadvertently stopped a police officer to ask for directions out of the city.  What Does He Do Now?

—A man in England, who sneezed several hundred times each day for 35 years, was told by health officials that he was allergic to himself.  He was cured after another doctor discovered that he simply had a reaction to the oatmeal he’d been eating for breakfast since childhood.  What Does He Do Now?

—And, in Thailand, an elephant ate 110 pounds of dried rice and then drank 65 gallons of water and, within a half hour, exploded.  What Do They Do Now?

In our passage for today, James starts out by asking a question: “Is any one of you in trouble?”  While none of us have ever eaten that much rice or been sneezing for 35 years, most of us have had more than one bad day in our life.  In fact, some of us, right here, are in the middle of some pretty tough stuff right now.

As we’re about to wrap-up our series in James, we’re going to discover What We Do Now from James 5:13-18. 

Let’s join into God’s Word and in worship together!

2-6  Join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship –

7-9  And our Prelude of Praise and Worship –– #130 … O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing –

10  Good morning Friends!  Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!

Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!

Let’s take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe, to a moment of Sabbath in God’s presence and peace, and with others whom we love and with whom we grow together. Friends, may “The Peace of Christ be with you – and also in you!!”

Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.

Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.

11   Our Summer Special Music today comes from Hope Davis and her dad –  “Hallelujah” – Listen to this beautiful song of praise

12   Thank You, Lord, for Hope’s and Jake’s  voices and the courage and the wonder of the lyrics in this song. Bless them, and hold them close and safe.  Amen.

13  This morning we have re-arranged our order of Worship a little, so we invite you to stand as Pastor Kathy opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving 

14  Gloria Patri

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16   And please remain standing as we sing ourSong of Devotion and Preparation to receive God’s Word – #447 – Seek ye First –

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The Promise and the Power of Your vision for us, O God, is brought to Life as we recognize Your resurrection!  Challenge us to make the changes Your vision requires.  Call us to Your passion for living lives that are full and abundant!  Christ the Lord is risen today!  Praise God.  Amen.

As we almost wrap-up our series in James, we’re going to discover What We Do Now from James 5:13-18.  Please follow along with me as I read… —

18    ¹³ Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 

19    ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 

20    ¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

21   ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

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When we find ourselves in trouble, What do we do now?  We pray!  James lists here 3 Kinds of Praying.

1^st, we are to pray for ourselves, in verse 13: “Is any one of you in trouble?  He should pray…”

2^nd, we are to call for the church leaders when we are really sick, in verses 14-15: “Is any one of you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him…” 3^rd, we are to pray for each other, in verse 16: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed…”

This passage not only gives us some indication of how to pray, but it also helps us determine when we are to pray.  There are 4 distinct times that we’re to come to God.  We’re to look to Him…
1. When we’re suffering. (13a)     2. When we have success. (13b)    3. When we have sickness. (14-15a)        4. And, when we’re in sin. (15b-16)

James recognizes that life is made up of triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow, wins and losses.  Illness and sickness trip us up and sin entangles us.  We never know what to expect.  Life is totally unpredictable.  Anyone who has had an accident or has had a family member suddenly get sick understands that life can change dramatically in just a matter of seconds.  And, we all know firsthand how sin can destroy lives; some of us are living today with the consequences of those wrong choices.

Let’s take a quick look at each one of these.

1. Pray when we’re suffering. The 1^st part of verse 13 asks a question: “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.”  The word James uses here refers to suffering of any kind.  It includes sickness but it also covers death, disappointment, and persecution.

When we’re in trouble, we have the privilege of prayer where we can go to God at any time, in any situation with whatever is on our hearts.  To be perfectly honest, I don’t know how people can go through hard times without the Lord in their lives.

The Bible is pretty clear that suffering is the normal expectation for every believer.  Peter puts it rather bluntly in I Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”  But, even though we know life is never easy, we can give way to self-pity or get resentful and discouraged.  When  the pressures of life are greater than we can bear, James says, “Pray.”

2. Pray when we have success.  Look at the last part of verse 13: “Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.”  “Songs of praise” is another form of prayer.  James is saying here that not everyone goes through troubles at the same time.  God balances our lives and gives us hours of suffering and days of singing.  Praying and singing were important elements of worship in the early church, as they are in ours.

The word “happy” suggests being in a state of mind that is free from trouble.  When we’re happy we sing songs of praise.  In Psalm 96:1-2, David calls us to, “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day.”  We are called to sing songs of praise when we’re going through times of success because good times can lead to spiritual indifference.

And so, we’re to pray when we suffer and we’re to pray when we have success.  Now, let’s look at what we’re to do when we have sickness.

3. When we have sickness.  This is the one we’ll spend the most time on this morning.  Follow along with me as I read verses 14-15: “Is any one of you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him w/ oil in the name of the Lord.  The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.  If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.”

This is a difficult passage to understand.  Let me state up front what the question is not:
The question is not, “Does God answer prayer?”  We know He does.     The question is not, “Does God answer prayer for the sick?”  Yes, He does.
The question is not, “Does God sometimes answer in ways that seem miraculous?”  Again, the answer is yes. All these things are true.
Furthermore, the focus here is not on what God is able to do.  We know that God can do anything He wants to do.  Paul writes that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Eph 3:20).

The focus in this passage is on what the church can do.  These verses tell us how a Bible-believing church responds to sickness in its midst.  What should we do for the sick?  The answer is both simple and profound.  We should pray that God would raise them up.

There are at least 4 steps in the process of praying for the sick.

Step #1: The sick person calls for the elders.  The word “sick” is very broad.  It includes any serious physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or relational problem that has become too heavy to bear.  The elders are called because they represent the church and because they know how to get in touch with God.  Our Church Elders are the men and women called by God and recognized by this church as spiritually mature.  They serve on our Session [our Elder Board], or they used to serve on Session.  But I once heard a pastor define Elders as those in the Church that “eld”.  If you want to be one who is called on for prayer, start “eld”ing – grow in your faith; live out your faith; share your faith; pray for the sick!

Step #2: The elders go to the sick person.  They go together because there are strength in numbers.  It’s OK to go alone, but when we meet in community we are a stronger force.  And, by going in person, our prayers can be much more fervent, heartfelt & earnest.  In addition, by going to the sick person, the elders communicate the message that the church has not forgotten those who are sick.

Step #3: The elders pray and anoint with oil.  When the elders come to pray, James tells them to anoint the sick person with oil.  The word literally means to “rub” oil on him.  The type of oil is not specified but it was probably not 10-w 40 or 3-in-1!  More than likely it was olive oil.

Oil in the Bible was often used as a symbol of health and vitality.  Kings were anointed with it as a visible symbol of God’s presence.  The same is true here.  There’s nothing magical or supernatural about anointing.  By anointing with oil, we are giving a humble reminder that all healing must come from God.  It builds faith and says to the sick person, “God is here and He is able to heal you.”

Notice that the anointing is to be done “in the name of the Lord.”  This is very important because it reminds us that God is the ultimate source of all blessing and healing.  The power is not in the elders, in the oil, or even in the prayers – but in the name of the Lord.

Step #4: There is healing – God heals the sick person.  Verse 15 makes a rather bold promise: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.”  This 4^th step is simply the expected result of steps 1-3: The sick person is healed.  James uses an unusual expression to describe the elders’ prayer.  He calls it “the prayer offered in faith.”  This particular phrase is used nowhere else in the New Testament.  In one sense every sincere prayer must be offered in faith or it can hardly be called prayer at all.  When the elders pray, they are to come to God with an attitude of complete trust that He can and will do what is needed in every situation.

The text says nothing about how the healing will come, nor does it rule out medical care.  In fact, oil also had a medicinal property to it and may have communicated to James’ 1^st century readers that God heals through prayer and medicine.  Whether quickly or slowly, by miracle or by medicine, or by some combination of the two, God is able to heal His children.

And so, we are to pray when we suffer, we are to pray when we have success, & we are to call the elders for prayer when we have sickness.  There’s one more significant factor in this text: we are to pray when we’re in sin.

4. When we have sin.  Notice the last part of verse 15 and verse 16: “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Do you see the close relationship between the physical and the spiritual here?  The Greek construction of the “if”-clause suggests that sin may be a contributing factor to the sickness.

Friends, it’s extremely important that we confess our sins to God and to eachother.  Sin can work its way into our bodies, causing us to feel like we’re wasting away – ulcers, eating disorders, heart problems, etc.

We need to own our sins don’t we?  If we can think of something right now that we’ve done, or are still doing, confess it to someone.  The word “confess” in this verse means, “to say the same thing out.”  Find a fellow believer and agree with what God says about our sin.

Not all sickness is caused by a particular sin, but some illnesses stem directly from our sinful actions and attitudes.  Until those things are confronted and confessed, it is pointless to pray for healing.  It’s a good idea to ask if the sick person we are praying for is conscious of any sin that is standing between them and God, blocking God’s healing power.  Sometimes they make a confession, sometimes they don’t.

Our greatest problem with this entire passage comes in verse 15.  It seems too confident and too dogmatic for us.  James states without any qualification that the sick person will be healed.  Period.  We’d probably like this verse better if it said “the prayer of faith might heal the sick.”

It is an undeniable fact that not everyone we pray for and not everyone we anoint is healed.  There are various ways of dealing with this reality and none of them satisfy me completely.  There is a mystery here that I cannot fully explain.  I do think it helps to compare this passage with other statements about prayer in the New Testament where similar sweeping promises are made.  Those statements are meant to encourage us about the boundless possibilities of prayer. They encourage us to believe that no situation is hopeless with God.  Just because the doctors have lost hope doesn’t mean the Great Physician has given up.

Can anyone here name a time when the doctors had given up on someone, but, by God, that person came out of their coma, or recovered from cancer, or walked again?  Let’s hear one story of a miracle… —

We should be encouraged to pray.  F.B. Meyer once wrote, “The greatest tragedy is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.”  What do we do now?  Everybody: we should pray!

It is true that it is not always God’s will to heal physically or no sick believer would ever die.  But it is often God’s will to heal. ­ That’s why this passage is in the Bible.

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When Hudson Taylor first went to China, he made the voyage on a sailing ship.  As it neared the channel between the southern Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, the missionary heard an urgent knock on his stateroom door.  He opened it, and there stood the captain of the ship.

“Mr. Taylor,” he said, “We have no wind.  We are drifting toward an island where the people are heathen, and I fear they are cannibals.”        “What can I do?” asked Taylor.

“I understand that you believe in God.  I want you to pray for wind.”      Taylor responded, “All right, Captain, I will; but you must set the sail.”

The captain was agitated and said, “Why, that’s ridiculous! There’s not even the slightest breeze. Besides, the sailors will think I’m crazy.”  Nevertheless, the captain finally agreed. 45 minutes later he returned and found the missionary still on his knees.

“You can stop praying now,” said the captain.  “We’ve got more wind than we know what to do with!”

Friends, God is willing to answer ­ when we pray with faith. He will heal and He will lead ­ through times of suffering, during times of success, in times of sickness, and even when we’re trapped in sin.

What do we do now?  Brothers and sisters, let’s pray …­ and set the sails!

Let’s submit ourselves to God, and give testimony to His greatness in everything we say and do! … Now is the time of God’s favor!  Today is the day of salvation!  Amen!

… Now is the time of God’s favor!  Today is the day of salvation!  Amen!

24-27   Mark receives the praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and Kathy prays 

          [The Lord’s Prayer]

28  Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.

– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or go to www.givlia.com/g/lidgerwoodpresbychurch, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)

29  

30-32  Expedition Song #621 –  I Must Tell Jesus!    

33  

34   Benediction:     May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.

“May the Lord bless you and protect you;  may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”

35   Announcements      

• Furnace Fundraiser
• Garden o’ Feedin’ – Thursday afternoons – or whenever!

Resources: 

Bill, Brian; How to Pray for Healing; Pontiac Bible Church, Pontiac, IL; 07/2000.

Wheeler, Mark; “What Do We Do Now?”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 06/25/2006.

07/09/2023 = James 5:7-12 = “Preach Practicing: Enduring with Integrity”

(Click HERE to watch this service on Facebook Live – starts at 8:00, sermon at 40:00)

(Click HERE to donate to Lidgerwood Church’s mission and ministries – thank you for your generosity)

1                                                                                                                                        

Mark Wheeler

James 5:7-12                                                                                                        

07/09/2023

“Preach Practicing: Enduring with Integrity”                                      

Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church

Welcome to worship, friends! Spokane Summer is here!!  No sweaters in the sanctuary this Sunday! And we don’t have our new A/C yet – but we’re getting closer. So, if you need a fan, let us know and we’ll get one for you. Once there was a little boy who lived in the country.  For bathroom facilities, this family had to use an outhouse.  The little boy hated it because it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter (not unlike this sanctuary this last year), but this outhouse, like outhouses do, stank all the time.The outhouse was sitting on the bank of a creek, and the boy determined that one day he would push that outhouse into the water.One day after a spring rain, the creek was swollen so the little boy decided that today was the day to push the outhouse into the creek.  So he got a large stick and pushed.  Finally, the outhouse toppled into the creek and floated away.That evening his dad sternly told him to sit down.  Knowing he was in trouble, the little boy asked why.  The dad replied, “Someone pushed the outhouse into the creek today. It was you, wasn’t it, son?”The boy nodded meekly.  Then he thought a moment and said, “Dad, I read in school today that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn’t get into trouble because he told the truth.”The dad replied, “Well, son, George Washington’s father wasn’t in that cherry tree!”

That little boy knew he was in deep … trouble.  The story about George Washington and the cherry tree is usually told to affirm the idea of “integrity”.

This is one of the themes of today’s passage in James – Let’s listen to James, to God’s Word, together:

2  Join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship – from Psalm 139

3  And our Prelude of Praise and Worship –– #536 … Open Our Eyes, Lord –

4  Good morning Friends!  Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!

Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!

Let’s take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe, to a moment of Sabbath in God’s presence and peace, and with others whom we love and with whom we grow together. Friends, may “The Peace of Christ be with you – and also in you!!”

Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.

Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.

5   Our Summer Special Music today comes from Diana and Linda and Andrea –  “Ten Thousand Angels” – Listen to this beautiful song of praise

6   Thank You, Lord, for these ladies’ voices and the courage and the wonder of the lyrics in this song. Bless them, and hold them close and safe.  Amen.

7  Pastor Kathy opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving 

8  Gloria Patri

9-12   Mark receives the praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and Kathy prays 

          [The Lord’s Prayer]

13

14-17  Please stand as you are able as we sing ourSong of Devotion and Preparation to receive God’s Word – #62 – Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise – in this song we declare the unique One-ness of our Triune God!

18   

The Promise and the Power of Your vision for us, O God, is brought to Life as we recognize Your resurrection!  Challenge us to make the changes Your vision requires.  Call us to Your passion for living lives that are full and abundant!  Christ the Lord is risen today!  Praise God.  Amen.

The story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree is about Integrity, the story about that little boy and his outhouse is about Enduring, even in the worst of times, enduring with integrity.

In just this past week I have talked with and prayed with one middle-age man who was laid off from his job; a woman who was told she might have a year left to live; a family dealing with “divorce” and unemployment and issues of homelessness; a woman looking forward to surgery; parents whose kids are lost and wandering into the unknown; a father whose children didn’t call him on Father’s Day. And did you see our Prayer list today? This list just seems to go on and on!

How do you cope with the pressure of these hurtful situations? 

The natural tendency is to become bitter, but God has a better idea.  James tells us how to respond correctly when we are treated unjustly.  He suggests four specific attitudes – TWO we should adopt and TWO we should avoid.

James has been getting us to think about our attitude toward the things of the world.  We have looked at wisdom, at accumulating things, at planning our future, at the hardship we face when our sole purpose is the pursuit of things that show we are wealthy.  Today we find ourselves hearing God’s Word about how to endure with integrity, especially when endurance is hard.  Let’s look together at James 5:7-12…. —    

19    ⁷ Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸ You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

20    ⁹ Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. ¹⁰ As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

21    ¹¹ Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.   

22    ¹² But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Two Attitudes We Should Adopt when we find ourselves in hard times –

A. Endurance.  We should adopt an attitude of endurance.  The NIV calls this attitude “patience”.  “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.”

The word “then” points back to the previous six verses.  James has just finished speaking to the ways wealth can abuse poverty.  Now he says to the abused, if that’s true, “then, be patient.”  A just God will deal with injustice.  His coming is certain, guaranteed – “be patient!”

The term “patient” means the opposite of “short-tempered.”  Patience is the 1^st mark of true love.  Paul says, “Love is patient; love is kind.  It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud.  It is not rude; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs” (I Cor. 13:4-5).  This patience puts the brakes on any feelings of revenge.  [“‘Vengeance is mine’ saith the Lord,” … I’m just doing the Lord’s work.]

“Be patient … until the Lord’s coming,” James says.  The Lord will return, though we don’t know when.  The promise of His coming was a familiar theme in the early church. There are about 300 references to the 2^nd Coming in the New Testament.  This truth offers comfort and hope to those facing stress and strain.  Christ’s return will end oppression and make our suffering a thing of the past.  This is where our dear brother Boris Zdorovetz says, “The finish will be good.”

James uses the farmer as an illustration of one who needs to be patient.  We don’t have control over when the rain will fall, or how much.  We might need to change some plans, alter crops, pay for irrigation, but the farmer’s life illustrates for us what it means to endure a difficult season.

A resentful spirit can drive us to do strange things.  I read about a divorced man who was ordered to pay alimony and child-support every month.  Every time the payment came due, he grudgingly left 160 pounds of nickels at his wife’s door.  Another divorced man was ordered to equally divide his property with his ex-wife.  His neighbors looked on in amazement as he carefully measured a $400,000 suburban home, revved up his chain-saw and literally divided floor, walls, ceiling, and roof—precisely in half.

The Lord is coming and He will vindicate His people.  In fact, Peter hints that the only reason Christ has not already returned is that He is as patient as He wants us to be.  “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9).

B. Integrity.  The 2^nd attitude we should adopt in times of difficulty is an attitude of integrity.  The NIV calls this attitude “standing firm.”

We develop this attitude of integrity by experiencing the hardships of life and learning to trust our Savior in the trials.  No one learns integrity without a test.  Remember how James started this letter by saying, “Count it pure joy when you face trials”?  That thought continues here.  When we learn to trust God before our prayers have been answered, we learn integrity and we “stand firm”.

John White, the Christian psychiatrist and author says that he gets letters from Christians around the world.  Those from the Western world, where we enjoy liberty and prosperity, request seminars on stress management.  The letters from the 3^rd World countries, where persecuted Christians are under the greatest stress, request instruction on faithfulness and on the cost of discipleship.  Where we start makes a big difference in what we think we need.

White explains this difference with these words: “By and large, 3^rd World Christians take stress for granted.  When they are not struggling merely to survive, their joy in the kingdom seems to make them indifferent to the cost of Christian service.  It may be that while we in the West live in an artificially secure environment our brothers and sisters have a better chance of seeing life as it really is.  Eternity is a little closer to them.  When the skulls of starvation grin at you, when danger makes life a day-by-day affair, or when technology no longer buffers the reality of the crudities of life, one has different values, values less inimical to Christ’s rule in our hearts.”

One group prays for relief from pain; the other prays for strength to endure, patience, integrity.

I wonder if James knew this poem about oysters:

          There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that sand had got under his shell;
Just one little grain, but it gave him much pain,
For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain.
Now, did he berate the working of Fate
Which had led him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse out the Government, call for an election?
No; as he lay on the shelf, he said to himself,
“If I cannot remove it, I’ll try to improve it.”

So the years rolled by as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny—stew.
And this small grain of sand which had bothered him so,
Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow.
Now this tale has a moral—for isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand;
What couldn’t we do if we’d only begin
With all of the things that get under our skin?

Now James gives us two attitudes to avoid when we find ourselves in hard times.

C. Criticism.  We should avoid an attitude criticism.  James says in verse 9, “Don’t grumble against each other…”or as the NEB translates, “Do not blame your troubles on one another.”

James warns us that criticism puts us in danger of judgment, and the judgment is imminent: “The judge is standing at the doors.”  Christians must stand before God and give an answer to Him one day.  We need to be sure that our conduct is above reproach.  Be a person of enduring integrity.

D. Dishonesty.  The 2^nd attitude to avoid is an attitude of dishonesty.  Or to state it more positively, be full of the attitude of genuine authenticity.  Look at verse 12, “Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else.  Let your ‘Yes’ be yes, and your ‘No,’ no, or you will be condemned.” 

James’ concern is not with swearing in courts of law, or even with profanity.  Yes, he wants Christians to be ethical in our conversations and private talk.  But, here he’s concerned with the dishonesty that creeps into Christian speech and with our casual disregard of truth.  There can be no double-standard of honesty — we should mean what we say and say what we mean.  Integrity is more important; our speech should guard our integrity. 

James includes two examples of Biblical people who demonstrated these attitudes of enduring with integrity, no criticism and no dishonesty.  They are listed here as examples for us to follow, but more importantly to give those of us who tend to whine just a little too quickly and to blame anyone else for our problems a little hope.  If it isn’t too late for these guys, it’s not too late for us.

1^st James talks about the OT Prophets: The true prophets “spoke in the name of the Lord.”  Their work actually provoked opposition.  No one wants to hear bad news, and sometimes these prophets told the people what they did not want to hear; and that can lead to trouble.

Nearly all the prophets suffered persecution and hardship.  Elijah was hated (I Kings 18).  Amos was falsely accused of conspiracy (Amos 7).  Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern and threatened with starvation (Jer. 38).  He suffered so many abuses that the Jews call him the weeping prophet, and look back to him for inspiration and courage in their own trials and persecutions.  Suffering and ministry went together in the lives of the prophets.  If Daniel had not been deported we would never had heard of him or benefited from his ministry.  Hosea’s painful marriage failure became his message!

But God is faithful.  “As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered” (v. 11).  Don’t focus on their suffering.   Look at how God deals with them.  Then call them “blessed” or even “happy.”  What a witness! 

Respond graciously to inconsiderate, uncaring acts, and we will notch out an opportunity for witness every time.  Those who endure with integrity until the end will be rewarded.

And then James mentions Job.  Job’s sufferings were so tragic and so intense, and for no legitimate reason.  At the very beginning of his story, we learn that Job “…was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil … He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.” (Job 1:1-3). 

Disaster fell upon Job like no other.  All his worldly possessions were taken from him.  His children were suddenly killed in a freak storm.  Painful sores covered his body from head to foot.  His wife urged him to abandon faith in God, and his friends aggravated him with their awful advice.  He knew the pain of material, emotional, physical and mental distress!  Yet Job’s loyalty was steadfast.  He endured with integrity, saying, “Though [God] slay me, yet will I [trust] Him” (Job 13:15).  Job’s faith was authentically genuine!

God is just as concerned about you and me as He was with Job.  “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”  The Psalmist says, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Ps. 103:8).  Warren Wiersbe has said, “When you find yourself in the fire, remember that God keeps His gracious hand on the thermostat!”

To endure under the pain of injustice is beyond ordinary human response.  Be patient!  Stand Firm!  God favors you!  Endure the pain of unjust suffering.  Endure with integrity when you suffer for doing good.  Hear God say, “Well done my good and faithful servant!”

23

We may have an opportunity to put this into practice very soon.  Many of us already know the terrible pain of unfair treatment.  For some of us life has been a series of injustices.  God will make it right.  Put your trust in Him.

Enduring with integrity creates opportunities to SHARE our faith with others every time!  Those who endure with integrity until the end will be rewarded.

Let’s submit ourselves to God, and give testimony to His greatness in everything we say and do!

… Now is the time of God’s favor!  Today is the day of salvation!  Amen!

24  Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.

– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)

25  

26-31  Expedition Song #60 –  Great Is Thy Faithfulness!    

32  

33   Benediction:     May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.

“May the Lord bless you and protect you;  may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”

34   Announcements      

• Furnace Fundraiser
• Garden o’ Feedin’ – Thursday afternoons – or whenever!

Resources: 

Jackson, Dan; Be Patient! Stand Firm!; sermon preached.

Wheeler, Mark; “Enduring with Integrity”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 06/18/2006.

White, John; Excellence in Leadership; InterVarsity Press; Downer’s Grove, IL; 1986; P. 93.

Wiersbe, Warren W.; Be Mature; Victor Books; Wheaton, IL; 1978; P. 161.

07/02/2023 = James 5:1-6 = “Preach Practicing: Scratching the Itches of Riches”

(Click HERE to see the FBLive video of this service – starts at 10:30, sermon at 35:00)

(Click HERE to donate to Lidgerwood Church’s mission and ministries)

1                                                                                                                                        

Mark Wheeler

James 5:1-6                                                                                                           

07/02/2023

“Preach Practicing: Scratching the Itches of Riches”                           

Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church

Welcome to worship, friends! Spokane Summer has returned, with a vengeance, this weekend, and we don’t have our new A/C yet – but we’re getting closer. So, if you need a fan, let us know and we’ll get one for you. (I’ve been living in my “collar cooler” all week long, because Caitlin, my “favorite daughter” loves me!)

A man was a regular diner at a restaurant.  The owner always did his best to please him.  One day this man complained that he only received 1 piece of bread with his meal, so the waiter promptly brought him 4 slices.

The man said, “That’s good, but not good enough.  I love bread!”  So, the next night he was given 6 slices with supper.  He said, “Good!  But aren’t you still being a bit stingy?”  Even a basketful the next day didn’t stop the complaints.  Finally, the owner decided to end this for good.  The next night he had a colossal loaf of bread baked.  It was 6 feet long, 3 feet wide.  It took the manager and two waiters to carry it to the complainer’s table.  When they laid it on the table the huge loaf took up 5 place settings.  They stood there and smiled, waiting for the man’s reaction. 

The man looked at the gigantic loaf of bread and said, “So, we’re back to ONE piece again?”

Have you ever had a problem with collecting too much stuff?  Why is it that another word for too-much-stuff is “junk”?  If you took an honest tour of your home, would you say you have more, I mean way more, than you need?  I believe that most of us would be guilty of that. 

This is the theme of today’s passage in James – Let’s listen to James, to God’s Word, together:

2-3  Join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship – from Psalm 100

4  And our Prelude of Praise and Worship –– … We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise – what do we offer to our God?

5  Good morning Friends!  Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!

Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!

Let’s take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe, to a moment of Sabbath in God’s presence and peace, and with others whom we love and with whom we grow together. Friends, may “The Peace of Christ be with you – and also in you!!”

Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.

Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.

6   Our Summer Special Music today comes from some pretty new Church Family siblings – Bless you, Destiny and Nick, for braving this service with your Christmas-themed song –  “Mary, Did You Know?”

7   Thank You, Lord, for Destiny’s and Nick’s voices and the courage and the wonder of the lyrics in this song. Bless them, and hold them close and safe.  Amen.

8  Pastor Kathy opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving 

9  Gloria Patri

10-13   Mark receives the praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and Kathy prays 

          [The Lord’s Prayer]

14

15-18  Please stand as you are able as we sing ourSong of Devotion and Preparation to receive God’s Word – #2 – Holy, Holy, Holy –.

19   

The Promise and the Power of Your vision for us, O God, is brought to Life as we recognize Your resurrection!  Challenge us to make the changes Your vision requires.  Call us to Your passion for living lives that are full and abundant!  Christ the Lord is risen today!  Praise God.  Amen.

I read recently that there are Three Stages of Life: in our Youth we Want Stuff; in our Adulthood we Get Stuff; and in our Senior Years we Get Rid of Stuff.

I don’t want anyone to think that having stuff, or even having wealth, is wrong.  No where does the Bible ever condemn people just for being wealthy, and neither does the book of James.

We have been studying the book of James for over two months.  And we can all see, James is the most practical book of the New Testament.  Today, James leads us to focus on the issue of wealth and our attitude towards it.  Again, if we seek to become authentic Christians, we need to look at these difficult and convicting, yet hopeful words from James.

Throughout this book, James has been getting us to think about our attitude toward the things of the world.  We have looked at wisdom, at accumulating things, at planning for tomorrow, and now James leads us to consider the hardship that comes into our lives when our sole purpose is the pursuit of things that show we are wealthy. 

You know the bumper sticker: “The one who dies with the most toys wins.”  That is simply not true.  They may have the most toys, but they may not have their salvation. 

Let’s look together at James 5:1-6…. —-

20    ¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. ² Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 

21    ⁴ Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

In the last chapter, the last few verses we read last week, James was writing to Christian business people on how they should plan their future.  Now James looks at the three greatest ways people in his day demonstrated they were wealthy.  They showed their wealth through — (1) grain, (2) clothing and (3) precious metals.  James says all of them will decay.  The grain will become rotten (we’ve all seen that), the clothes will be eaten by moths (they didn’t have moth balls in those days) and most importantly, James says, even their gold and silver will corrode.  I don’t think that really happens, so what is James’ point about the gold and silver?

I think his point is that whatever we are banking on will not last, even our most precious and indestructible things are doomed to decay.  This “corrosion” is proof of impermanence and ultimate valuelessness of all worldly things.  It is also a warning: James goes on to say that our desire for such riches will eventually eat away into our body and soul.  James uses extremely vivid imagery to bring that point home when he says “this corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.”

We certainly know people like that.  Their wealth – whether it’s a little or a lot – is all they ever think about – ulcers, cramps, heart attacks.  And when we hoard what we’ve been given responsibility to care for, we get sick and die AND the money, so far, has been sitting idle, wasted.

You’ve heard the stories of people who have won the lottery?  So many of them eventually file bankruptcy or squander their money, they no longer talk to family members, and life has become joyless.  Why?  Because they valued their wealth more so than a relationship with Jesus Christ.  When the “Rich Young Ruler” came to Jesus (in Matthew 19), Jesus told him he needed to do only one thing to inherit the kingdom of heaven, “give away all your possessions to the poor and follow me.”  That rich young man, turned around and walked away sad (Matthew 19:22).

Do you remember the TV show from almost 20 years ago, My Name Is Earl.  Earl Hickey is not a Christian, and his life philosophy is a bit off, but when he wins the lottery he uses it to help all the people he has hurt in his lifetime.  This fictitious non-religious follower of Eastern philosophy has something to teach us Christians about good stewardship and generosity!

In these final 2 verses, James points out three things the wealthy are doing which is wrong.  I want to briefly mention them and then discuss the proper attitude.

1. In verse 5 James says the people have used their money selfishly.  This is not an indictment against wealth; it is an indictment on how much power money has over us.  Remember the 2^nd of the 10 commandments: we shall not worship idols.  Is money or the accumulation of money what we worship?  If it is, then money is our idol.  There is nothing wrong with investing our money or planning for college or retirement or vacations, but James is pointing out when we are consumed by wealth, then we have gone over the edge.

2. The rich are fattening themselves expecting others to be brought to the slaughter, however, they will be the ones brought to the slaughter.  They lived for their wealth, rather than for God.  They sought one pleasure after another.  And there are not many pleasures that money cannot buy.  But these pleasures do not last.

3. And finally, they condemned and murdered people so that they could continue to accumulate their wealth.

What does this have to do with you and me?  It can teach us about the dangers of money – whether we have it or just desire it.  It teaches us how God views our use of money and the riches we have as a nation.  It teaches us how God deals with the sins of the rich.

We need to remember that the words here do not apply to all of those who are rich.  Some of the godliest of people in the Bible were rich – Job, Abraham, David, Solomon, Philemon.  But there are times when God is angry at the rich and James tells us when this takes place.

I know that nobody here would claim that money, or the desire for more money, is our idol.  “We don’t ‘worship’ money.”  I know we think that.  But James challenges us to test our thinking.  Some of us could claim that we have never unfairly taken advantage of someone financially – in business or with tips at a restaurant.  But James challenges us to consider our everyday actions more deeply.  And I’m pretty sure that there are very few of us here who have ever committed murder for financial gain – (however, notice that we are missing some of our regular members today).  But we live in the richest nation on the planet, and James challenges us to wonder if we in North America and our government do not condemn those in poorer countries.  We help them only when it is beneficial to our own interests.  We use our power to influence decisions and buy votes at United Nations, etc.

James teaches us, who in many ways are also rich, that we are to be careful how we obtain our wealth and how we use it.  May it be according to God’s will, for His glory and with a charitable heart to those with less.

Chuck Colson (from the Watergate scandal) told the following story in an address at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi:

Colson said, “In 1985 I was on the Bill Buckley television program, talking about restitution and criminal justice.  A few days later I got a call from Jack Eckerd, a businessman from Florida, the founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, the 2^nd largest drug chain in America.  He saw me on television and asked me to come to Florida.  He agreed Florida had a criminal justice crisis, would I come down and do something about it?  And we did.  We went around the State of Florida advocating criminal justice reforms, and everywhere we would go Jack Eckerd would introduce me to the crowds and say, ‘This is Chuck Colson, I met him on Bill Buckley’s television program.  He’s born again; I’m not.  I wish I were.’  Then he’d sit down.

“About a year went by and I kept pestering Jack Eckerd about faith in Jesus.  Eventually one day he read some things including the story of Watergate and the Resurrection out of my book, Loving God, and decided that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected from the dead.  He called me up to tell me he believed.  When he got through telling me what he believed I said, ‘You’re born again!’

“He said, ‘Marvelous!’  The 1^st thing he did was to walk into one of his drugstores and walked down through the book shelves and he saw Playboy and Penthouse.  He’d seen it there many times before, but it never bothered him before.  Now he saw them with new eyes.  He’d become a Christian.

“He went back to his office.  He called in his president.  He said, ‘Take Playboy and Penthouse out of my stores.’  The president said, ‘You can’t mean that, Mr. Eckerd.  We make $3M a year on them.’  Eckerd said, ‘Take them out of my stores.’  And in 1,700 stores across America, those magazines were removed from the shelves, because a man had given his life to Christ.

Colson called Jack Eckerd and asked, “Did you do that because of your commitment to Christ?”  He said, “Why else would I give away $3M? The Lord wouldn’t let me off the hook.  Isn’t that marvelous?  God wouldn’t let me off the hook.”

“And what happened after that is a wonderful sequel and a wonderful demonstration of what happens in our culture today.  Jack Eckerd wrote a letter to all the other drugstore operators, all the other chains, and he said, ‘I’ve taken them out of my store, why don’t you take them out of yours?’  Nobody answered him.  So he wrote them more letters.  Then Eckerd’s Drugs began to get floods of people coming in to buy things because they’d taken Playboy and Penthouse out.

“And so People’s Drug Store, and then Dart Drugs, and then Revco removed them from their shelves.  While the pornography commission in Washington was debating what to do about pornography, across America, one by one, stores were removing them.  And the 7-11 chairman, who sits on Jack Eckerd’s board, finally gave in, and 5,000 7-11 stores removed them.  In 12 months, 11,000 retail outlets in America removed Playboy and Penthouse, not because somebody passed a law, but because God wouldn’t let one of His men off the hook.  That’s what brings change.”

In our lives we are to find our riches in a life with God.  We are to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ.  It is a daily event.  It takes a great deal of discipline. 

Our wealth will ultimately come out of our relationship with God.  When we have that intimacy, we would not trade that for all the money in the world.  Get rid of Playboy and Penthouse? $3M.  Intimacy and communion with God? – as that old commercial says – priceless.  That is why the greatest comment that can be made to us is the one Jesus will tell us when we join Him in heaven, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

22

Finally, we need to learn a little more to let loose of our grip on our possessions, and let God take over.  Corrie Ten Boom once said, “I have learned not to hold on to things in this life too tightly because it hurts when God pries my fingers loose from them.”  How true that is.

As Jesus said in Matthew 10:8,“. Freely you have received, freely give...”  Again, God is not against us making money and spending it.  He simply wants us to give Him authority over everything, including our wealth. 

Let’s submit ourselves to God, and give testimony to His greatness in everything we say and do!

… Now is the time of God’s favor!  Today is the day of salvation!  Amen!

23  Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.

– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)

24  

As our Communion Servers, bring the Communion elements to you, we invite you to take one piece of bread from the center tray, and one cup from the outer rings – or just one self-contained COVID-friendly cup – the wafer is under the cellophane wrap, and the grapejuice is under the foil wrap – then hold your broken bread and poured cup of the fruit of the vine until Pastor Kathy leads to eat and drink.

25-27   Communion Hymn #770 – As We Gather around the Table – if this is new for you, listen to verse one, and join in on verse 2.

28   Sacrament of Holy Communion

29 

30-33  Expedition Song #5 –  Come, Thou Almighty King!    

34   Benediction:     May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.

“May the Lord bless you and protect you;  may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”

35   Announcements      

• Furnace Fundraiser
• Garden o’ Feedin’ – Thursday afternoons – or whenever!

Resources: 

Deutsch, Michael; Rusted Wealth; sermon preached at First Baptist Church, Dearborn, MI; 10/28/2001.

Hewett, James S.; Illustrations Unlimited; Wheaton, IL; Tyndale House Publishers, Inc; 1988; Pp. 46-48.

Jacson, Dan; Be Patient! Stand Firm!; sermon preached.

Wheeler, Mark; “How to Scratch the Itch of Riches”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 06/11/2006.