James #3: I Got My Mind on My Money

Today we looked at part three of our James series -- What do I do with my money? James speaks harshly to the ‘rich people’ about hoarding wealth, living in luxury, and finding our security in our cash store.

Take for example James 5 :

“For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.“

Yikes! James specifically speaks to our attitude on money. First, we learned the money isn’t ours. It’s God’s. Everything we have comes from him. Time, talents, resources. God wants us to be STEWARDS for him.

Remember, a steward is an ‘asset manager’. So we are ultimately managing God’s money.

Here are some questions to consider:

• Is our security in our wealth rather than in God?
  
• How much time have we spent fretting over economic loss and the % loss of our 401K in the past 6 months? Or how much money we make? Or how much we have or don’t have in savings?
  
• Is our attitude that of hoarding what we do have, or giving generously with confidence in God’s provision?
  
• How can we make investments in God’s kingdom here on earth?
  
• Have we spent our years on earth in luxury, satisfying our every desire?
  
• Has anyone ever gone without on our account, because we weren’t willing to give obediently?
  

We also touched on the idea that our instant gratification mentality causes us to spend more than we have-- via debt. It chains us to the lender and ultimately forces us to serve two masters.

Proverbs 22 says. “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.”We’ve all been given one extra dollar to intentionally invest in God’s Kingdom.


Please comment below on how God led you to invest the dollar. My hope is that it would be an encouragement to everyone who reads it.

Note from Doug Humphreys

I am so happy that I and my family am now counted among that word, "Creeksiders." I am so excited and thankful to God to have been called as your Lead Pastor. I hope you sense the excitement that I, the PST, Staff and Leadership Team all feel. God is a big God - the author and sustainer of everything - who continually invites us to join Him on an amazing journey, partnering with him to allow his Kingdom to break down into the world in which we live. Can anything be more exciting?

Some things that you might want to think and pray about this week related to the topic of Hope through Hopelessness are:

1. Where is your hope? Try to answer this question not with the "church" answer, but with the "heart" answer -- they may be the same thing. They most likely are not the same thing all the time. Think through yesterday. Where was your hope at various points throughout the day?
   
2. Read Paul's charge and promise from Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Meditate on the passage -- let it sink into your soul as you ponder these questions:
   Do you believe God can fill you -- not me or your spouse friend or neighbor, but YOU -- with all joy and peace? Ask him to fill you and see what happens. What would it look like for you to overflow with hope? Notice how this is not possible without the power of the Holy Spirit: Ask him to do this in you.
   
3. Try this experiment: Throughout the day, regularly ask God to fill you with hope and peace.
   At the end of the day, ask yourself how successful you were in asking God throughout the day for hope and peace. Give yourself a grade, 1-10. How'd you do? Write it down on a piece of paper and if you did great, wonderful. If not so good, give yourself a break (we are under grace, remember) and then start over the next day. God will give you peace!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I can hardly wait to be up with you all in July, to get to know you all better and to see the amazing things that God is going to do in and thorough us as a gathered people of God.
God bless you all and have a great week.Doug Humphreys

James #2: What do I do with my WORDS?

Yesterday was Week 2 in our sermon series on the book of James. We’re asking four questions that serve as a “Personal Litmus Test.” The first question was What do I do with my FAITH? Yesterday we asked ourselves What do I do with my WORDS?

Our words are so important and powerful. We know the impact others’ words have on us. A compliment – or slam – that we heard years ago still sticks with us. A fight we had with a loved one that we can remember – verbatim – for decades. And yet we often say things without thinking that OUR words will have lasting impact as well.

The first lesson from yesterday was that God takes this “word stuff” seriously. For example look at what James says in 1:26:

“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”

Seriously? Worthless? Yowza! And yet we tell ourselves “Oh, gossip isn’t that big of a deal”. “He’ll get over it…I was just blowing off steam.” “I’ll just send this email and get this off my chest.”

The second lesson we learned from yesterday is that our words have positive power. It’s not all negative. Our words have the power to encourage, heal, teach, and call on the Spirit of God. We looked at chapter five of James where James – in one paragraph – lists out five ways our words can be used in positively powerful ways.
1. We can pray.
2. We can praise.
3. We can pray for others.
4. We can call for help.
5. We can confess.

(By the way…this list isn’t exhaustive. Come up with a few hundred of your own. wink)

Questions:
1. Do I take God’s command to “keep a tight rein on my tongue” seriously?
2. In what ways do I need to improve when it comes to what comes out of my mouth?
3. How have I seen words used positively?
4. How can I use my words to encourage someone – today?!?

James #1: What do I do with my FAITH?

Sunday we kicked off a 4-part series on the book of James – “A Personal Litmus Test.” We’re going to be asking four self-examination questions.
1. What do I do with my faith?
2. What do I do with my words?
3. What do I do with my money?
4. What do I do with my attitude?

James is an extremely uncomfortable book to read. James calls us to a life of faith that is far from easy. It’s a life of whole-hearted surrender and service to the One who surrendered His very life to serve us.

This week’s question was “What do I do with my faith?” We looked at four different passages in James that talk about our faith and our deeds working together.

James 1:24 – Faith + Deeds = A sign of BLESSING
James 3:13 – Faith + Deeds = A sign of WISDOM
James 4:17 – Faith + Deeds = A sign of OBEDIENCE
James 2:14-26 – Faith +Deeds = A sign of LIFE

Questions:
1. Am I simply a “hearer of the word” or am I a “doer of the word?”
2. Am I really willing to do whatever God calls me to do?
3. Is my faith just something I believe or is it something I do?
4. Is my life characterized by a pursuit of God’s glory or a pursuit of comfort?

Reminder: Between now and July 5th, I’m asking each of you to read James four times each week. We have to be in this together. If I simply preach these sermons on Sundays, this book won’t change us at all. But if we are reading together, praying together, struggling together, and challenging and encouraging each other, God can use this time to grow our faith into a faith that truly changes us, our community, and our world. Truly.

“But God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He call us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.”
(Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, page 124)