Make the Most of Your Mist, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Don't wait to get saved. Don't wait to reconcile that relationship. Don't wait to say you're sorry. Don't wait to tell that person about Jesus. If you unexpectedly die tomorrow morning when you're standing in eternity, who are you going to wish that you told about Jesus?

Who are you going to say, could I go back and have 10 minutes with that person? Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. I don't know about you, but I've been loving this brand new series through the book of James.

It's so practical and applicable. Today we'll pick up again where we left off yesterday in James chapters four and five. Pastor J.D. gives us a helpful perspective on how to approach our lives in light of the fact that God is the one in control, not us. You see, the choice is ours. We can have a life characterized by trust in God, leading to humility and generosity, or we can choose one characterized by self-sufficiency, leading to arrogance and greed.

So which sounds better? Remember, if you missed yesterday's teaching, you can catch up online at jdgreer.com. But for now, let's rejoin Pastor J.D. in the book of James. So James says, rather than boastfully saying tomorrow, I'm going to do this or that, verse 15, instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

Reject. Even in your speech, he is saying the arrogant assumption that you really are in control of your lives. Don't make God do something to prove that to you. Don't provoke God.

The three most dangerous words in the English language might be, I got this, I got this. No, you don't. Not necessarily. God determines that. By the way, I think we should take James literally here. We ought to say often when talking about our future, if the Lord wills. I don't think James is trying to impose some legalistic rule that you're going to now, you know, blow the whistle every time somebody talks about the future and doesn't say these words. But he's saying that we should acknowledge to ourselves and to others that ultimately we're not in charge of our lives.

God is. It's how the apostle Paul talked. In Acts 18 21, when Paul left Ephesus, he said, I will return to you again if God wills. In 1 Corinthians 4 19, he writes, I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. Paul didn't know if when he went to a new town, it would end in revival or execution, maybe both.

You were equally uncertain about your future and you should often acknowledge that. I found by the way that just saying those words cultivates humility in me. Here's the second word that should define a fleeting, forgettable, fragile life. Eternity. Eternity. Humility. Eternity.

If your life is a mist, then you need to actually think about what actually matters. If you think about how short your life is compared to eternity, death comes for us all. The question is, are you going to be ready for it? Do you know that you know that you know that you're saved? If you died this afternoon and you stood before God tonight, would you be ready? How is that not the most important question in your life?

You're so busy working toward this or that or trying to accomplish this and build that and earn this over here and get your kid into this or that school. Do you ever stop and ask what difference is any of that going to make in eternity? Are you prepared for eternity and you live in for the things that matter?

James' whole point is make the most of your mist. Like Amy Carmichael, the single missionary to India said, we will have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few hours before sunset to win them. Only two things in life last eternally, and that is the word of God and the souls of people.

So build every chapter of your life on them. Which if you'll give me a minute, always makes me think about the people around the world who've yet to hear the gospel. Whole people groups with no access at all in light of eternity. Is there anything more urgent for us to focus on? Anything more important for us to do with our money and our time? 10 seconds into eternity will we have thought anything else was more important?

Some of you need to consider doing this with your life. I realize you didn't grow up thinking this is what you do with your future, but if our lives are missed and eternity is forever, then getting the gospel around the world is what should characterize this brief, brief mist of a moment that we call life. Let your life be characterized by eternity. Live for the things that last forever. Make the most of your mist.

Because we got all eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few hours before sunset to win them. One more word, and then I'm going to briefly hit those words in chapter five that are written specifically to the wealthy. But here's your third word. If we have lives that are fragile, fleeting, forgettable, then we should live lives that are characterized by humility, eternity.

Here's your third word, immediacy. James ends this section, verse 17, by saying, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it's sin. You can read that in context. Because life is fleeting, fledged, fragile, and forgettable, don't put off until tomorrow anything you know you should do today. If you were to die today, what would still be undone in your life? I love the words of another missionary, Jim Elliott, make it such, Lord, that when it comes time in my life to die, all I have left to do is die. Don't wait to get saved. Don't wait to tell that person about Jesus. If you unexpectedly die tomorrow morning when you're standing in eternity, who are you going to wish that you told about Jesus?

Who are you going to say, could I go back and have 10 minutes with that person? Don't wait to reconcile that relationship. Don't wait to say you're sorry. Make it such, Lord, that when it comes time in my life to die, all I got left to do is die. Don't wait to be generous. Don't be one of those people who's going to be saved. Don't be one of those people who's going to be one of those people who save up all your money so you can live richly on it now, telling yourself that you're going to instruct other people to be generous on your behalf when you die. James is saying, no, you be generous now. Do you see something good in front of you to do and you fail to do it?

It's sin. There are needs around you now. There are missionaries who need your support now. The church needs to do things to reach this community now. Don't wait to be generous. Be generous today. There's a wealthy man at our church.

He's retired now. He told me, my goal, JD, is to give all my money now so that my last check bounces. I said, so in other words, how you see this thing going down is the doctor tells you that you got 30 minutes left to live, and you call me and a few of your family to your bedside, and then you hand me a check for the church that's no good. He said, yeah, that's about right. I said, could you write us your second to last check?

That's what I want. Here's the question. Is there anything God has put on your heart that you haven't done yet? It's like Veronica and I tell our kids, delayed obedience is disobedience. Make it such, Lord, when it comes time in my life to die, all I got left to do is die.

Whoever knows to do the right thing and fails to do it for him, it is sin. For lives that are fleeting, fragile, and forgettable, fragile and forgettable, we should live lives that are characterized by humility, eternity, and immediacy. Now, with that at the forefront of your mind, I think you're ready for the first few verses of chapter five. Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidenced against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Don't you love it? James, positive, encouraging.

Brother James. These two sections, end of chapter four and beginning of chapter five, really do tie together because, follow this, when you have a proud outlook on life, the place that will most often manifest is in how you spend your money. Money's not wrong, and being wealthy is definitely not a sin. The three things characterize proud, world-center wealth.

If you're taking notes, here's your first characterization. Verse three, letter A, hoarding. Hoarding.

I don't mean you have a trailer and you got so much stuff that didn't close from when you were 19. I'm not talking about that kind of hoarding. I'm talking about hoarding your savings.

James says you have laid up treasures for the last days. Saving is not wrong, of course. In fact, Proverbs commends certain kinds of saving. Saving up money so that you're not a burden on others when you're older. Saving up money because you want to provide for others. The book of Proverbs calls that wise. But just piling up wealth on earth, especially at the expense of generosity or in a way that ignores the needs of others, that's evil, James says. I know you say, well, how much, pastor, how much can you save up before it is considered hoarding?

There's no magic number I can give you. You just need to take passage like this one seriously. At the Summit Church, we say that we should save sufficiently and give extravagantly, rather than give sufficiently and save extravagantly. In fact, I would guess that most of you that I'm looking at right now, most of you give some and you save some.

So the question is, which one do you do sufficiently and which one do you do extravagantly? Which leads me to the second thing James says that characterizes worldly wealth. Self-indulgence, verse four. Self-indulgence. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. We're not talking about simply enjoying a few nice things, driving a reliable car or being able to bless your family with a college education or the occasional nice vacation. James is saying you live in a way that is totally disconnected from the people around you and their needs.

And particularly when you do things to flaunt your wealth, when the clothes you wear, the bags you carry, or the cars you drive, or the watch you wear, the neighborhood you live in is supposed to make a statement about you. Now again, you say how much, pastor, how much is too much? And again, I would say here the question is one of proportion. I'd say most of you in here have some nice stuff and you give. So again, the question is, which one do you do sufficiently and which one do you do extravagantly?

Do you live sufficiently and give extravagantly or do you give sufficiently and live extravagantly? You're listening to a teaching titled Making the Most of Your Mist here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. To learn more about this ministry, visit jdgreer.com. We'll rejoin Pastor J.D. in just a moment, but I wanted to tell you about a daily email devotional that we think could become an important part of your journey with Jesus. Couldn't we all use encouragement first thing in the morning to remind us of God's love, His promises, and His guidance? I know the busyness of life can quickly erode any joy that we feel in our walk with God, so why not shore up those foundations each morning with a each morning with a word from the Lord? The devotionals even follow along with our current teaching here on the program, so you can stay plugged into Summit Life regardless of your schedule. Sign up for this free resource right now at jdgreer.com slash resources.

That's J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R dot com slash resources. Now let's return for the conclusion of today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. I challenge you as a family, as a married couple, as a single, to write out these three words. Write out the words spending, saving, and giving, and look at that and say, which ones of these do we do sufficiently, and which ones do we do extravagantly? Characteristic number three. Third word to characterize proud worldly wealth. Injustice. James says in verse four that the way you got the money was by exploiting and defrauding others. James is probably not talking about outright theft here. In fact, he's talking about those ways that the wealthy can manipulate the legal system to keep people from their due. For example, employers who pay low wages or delayed wages just because they can, or who use their wealth to manipulate the court system to benefit themselves even if it's not entirely fair to others.

Listen, I want to be super careful here in how I say this. There are a lot of people in our tradition who oppose the Affordable Care Act. We hate discussions about raising the minimum wage, and I know many of you think that because you think those kinds of government impositions onto the market do more harm than good. Free enterprise, you say, is the only thing that prospers everybody in the society, and I am not here to debate that one way or the other.

That is not my calling to tell you what to think about that. I understand that line of reasoning, and in many ways I'm very sympathetic to it. What I'm saying is that Christians shouldn't need government mandated programs to treat their workers justly and fairly and generously. James is not talking about government programs here. James is saying that regardless of your politics or whatever political solutions you think help society, the poor around you are your responsibility. So if you run a business, your question is not only what am I legally required to do, it should be how can I take care of my employees in ways that are just, even generous.

It means when you go and you eat at a restaurant, you tip not the bare minimum, you tip generously. It means that those in our small groups, in our neighborhoods, our kids, friends at school, we shouldn't need the government to tell us to take care of them. We should do it. They shouldn't have to take money out of our paycheck to do it.

We ought to do it. In the early days of the church, the church was the soup kitchen. It was the orphan care. It was the foster care.

It was welfare. Historian Eberhard Arnold notes about those first few centuries of Christianity. He says, most astounding, most astounding was the extent to which poverty, the outside observer, poverty was overcome in the vicinity of the communities through voluntary works of love. Christians spent more money in the streets than the followers of other religions spent in their temples. The Roman emperor Julian, one of the early Christians primary persecutors said in disgust, it is a scandal that there is not a single Christian who is a beggar. These godless Galileans, that was his name for Christians, are not only, they not only care for their own poor, but they care for ours as well. While those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them. That's a pretty good thing when your critics are saying that.

Critics are saying that about you. I don't think it's impossible to overstate how seriously God takes this. Just read the words in this chapter, come now you rich weeping out for the miseries that are coming on you. You've lived on the earth. Verse five, in luxury and in self-indulgence, you fatten your hearts as in the day of slaughter. James says to rich people, you think you're living it up now. Your lives are fat with money.

You live, you save extravagantly, but in God's eyes, you're just fattening yourself up for the day of slaughter. A couple of years ago, Veronica and I went on a mission trip to visit some of our missionaries in Germany and Eastern Europe. Two of the ones we went to see were Rich and Julia Rudolph, who were at the time living in this small rural village out on the German countryside. We got to their house really late at night, so we couldn't really take in our surroundings when we first got there, but when we got up the next morning, I pulled open the shade. I'm like, Veronica, come look at this, because out of our window was the most idyllic German hillside I'd ever laid my eyes on.

Six or seven sheep grazing on this vast green hillside flanked by the mountains. The windmill you could see off in the distance. At any moment, I was expecting the little Swiss Miss girl with blonde pigtails come dancing or Captain Von Trapp to come out singing Edelweiss or something like that. It was perfect.

I mean perfect. These sheep looked like they were living the dream. Nothing but grazing all day long in this amazing countryside, but only one word popped in my mind when I saw those sheep mutton or lamb shanks. I guess that's two words, but you see right over the hillside, you could see the slaughterhouse.

These sheep were being prepared for the day of slaughter. Their idyllic lives were just an illusion. James says that this is what the lives of the rich are like. This hoarding, self-indulgent, luxurious life is just fattening you up for when God executes justice on behalf of the poor. Here's the question James wants those of us who have money to consider. Why did God give you that? After all, what we saw in James 4 was at the end of the day it was God who made you rich, right? That was his point in James 4.

God did that. You have to ask what was his purpose in making you rich? At the summit we use the word steward to describe our relationship with our finances. A steward understands that none of what they have truly belongs to them. Everything, our time, our treasure, and our talents are given to us by God for a purpose and our responsibility as stewards is to figure out what that purpose is and fulfill it. So if you are blessed with a lot, you have to ask why did God give me this? And the answer is he gave it to you so that you could channel it to the needs around you.

He didn't give it to you for you to hoard or to live in self-indulgence. You parents, say that you learn that there's a really poor kid at your kid's school who never has anything to eat at lunch. So as you're preparing your son's lunch for the day, you pack him two of everything. Two Lunchables, two juice boxes, two packs of goldfish.

But you get busy and you forget to tell him why you did that. All he knows is that when he opens up his lunch box at lunch, he's got two of everything. And right beside him is this kid with nothing. As a parent, what do you hope that he does instinctively? Do you hope that he eats two of everything?

He sits back and says, mom and dad love me so much. And I've been such an awesome son lately that I've been rewarded with two packs of Oreos. And then he gobbled it all down saying that I'm glorifying the generosity of my parents by eating two of everything.

That's what the prosperity gospel people will tell you that you're doing. Or do you hope that he takes the second Lunchable and stealthily finds a place that he can hide it in case you forget about him tomorrow? That way if you forget, now he's got a spare lunch saved up and he's ready for a rainy day. Is that what you hope he does? Or are you most pleased if instinctively without instructions or commands, he hands the extra lunch stuff to the kid who has none? If he did that, would you say, oh, well, great. Now my kid's never going to be rich because he doesn't know how to save.

There goes the whole free market system right there up in smoke. No, my guess is that you'd be supremely pleased that his instinct was to share and not to hoard because you know, and you know that he should know that you're going to pick, you're going to pack another lunch for him tomorrow and he's got nothing to worry about. So why would you think God is pleased when we pile up our money and extravagance in case God doesn't take care of us tomorrow? God made you wealthy, James says to the rich, to give so you can meet needs.

He prospers you not so you can just increase your standard of living, but also so you can increase your standard of giving. At the Summit Church, we teach that three words ought to characterize your giving. If you're a follower of Jesus, priority, that means giving should come out first, not last. It is the first thing Veronica and I do every single month.

We call it the first fruits. Before anything else gets spent, we say, I'm going to put this first in my life. You say, but if I do that, I won't be able to make the rest of my ends meet. You know, listen, all I can tell you is I've done it now for 40 years and God has always been faithful. And I've heard countless testimonies in this church of people who experienced the same thing. He promises multiple places in our Bibles that if you put him first, he will make sure you are sufficient in all the rest of your needs.

In fact, in Malachi, he actually says, test me, just try it and see if I won't be faithful in how I come through. Priority, second, percentage. One of the ways you can bring discipline to your giving is by setting a percentage each month. We're not talking about just throwing in your lunch money into the plate whenever the pastor talks about it. Tithe literally means 10%. And that's a great starting point for us. But that leads to the third word and that is progressive. As God prospers you and me, we are to increase that percentage year by year.

Veronica and I were given 10% when we were bootstrapping it as new college graduates. But now that we have more means than we did, we have year by year tried to progress our percentage. I would encourage you to consider the same. Let's return to our central thread. Our lives are fleeting, forgettable, and fragile. So we should live lives that are characterized by humility, eternity, and immediacy in regards to money and all other areas. Only the fool lives as if dismissed is all there is. Live for eternity.

Don't we have an incredible model in doing so? Jesus, who used his brief stint on earth not to pile up treasure and power, but to pour his life out as a sacrifice for joy, the writer of Hebrews tells us Jesus endured the cross. He embraced the sacrifice. He despised his shame. Despised his shame means he didn't even think about it. He didn't think about the sacrifice.

You don't want to know why? Because he lived with his mindset in eternity. He knew the sacrifice was temporary, but the people he was saving were eternal. That's how you and I should live. Because only two things in life last forever, the word of God and the souls of people.

So build your life on them. Only one life to live will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. How true that is and what a great reminder for us all. This is Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. There are only a few more days to get our latest resource that I've shared about several times this week. It's a handy set of 52 scripture memory cards. You might remember we offered something similar this time last year, and it was so popular that we decided to bring it back. If you want to carry God's promises in your heart, these new Summit Life Memory Verse cards make it easy and convenient to memorize scripture. The cards are a small two and a half by three and a half inch size for quick reference, putting on the fridge, or even sticking in your wallet.

Pin them to a bulletin board or a mirror for extra encouragement to help you memorize them. It's a whole new set of verses for 2024 that we are committing to our hearts and minds. It takes friends like you partnering with us to make Summit Life possible so that more people can hear gospel-centered Bible teaching on the radio, TV, and web. Will you join that mission today either with a one-time gift or as a committed monthly gospel partner?

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It's quick and easy to sign up at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovich inviting you to join us Friday as we talk about something many of us struggle with, patience. Don't miss it right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.