![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/69.195.124.149\/~salvagh0\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/yield.jpg\" "\\"yield\\"")
<\/a>But one day a year or two ago, I was having a conversation with a friend, a fellow pastor, about the things that we cling to\u2026 the things we hold close and refuse to give to God.<\/p>\nI realized in the midst of that conversation that I had never willingly yielded my money to God.\u00a0 There had been times when I had given out of guilt.\u00a0 I have given because it was what I was supposed to do.\u00a0 I have given out of habit as the offering place went around and each person in the pew pulled out a buck and dropped it in.\u00a0 Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
But never had I prayerfully thought about what God wanted me to give.\u00a0 Never had I searched my heart to ask what I was willing to yield, what I was willing to joyfully give up in my life for the sake of our Lord and our church.<\/p>\n
I started out last year by giving a much larger percentage on a regular basis\u2026 and this year, my heart led me to give a full 10% of my income to the church.<\/p>\n
I joyfully give that money to God\u2026 and I have to tell you \u2013 I haven\u2019t missed one cent.\u00a0 I now give to the church first\u2026 the money comes out of my paycheck before it ever comes home with me.\u00a0 I give God my first and my best, instead of the change in my pocket \u2013 instead of the leftovers from my own spending and desires.<\/p>\n
I have been blessed through my giving.\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t have more money in the bank than when I started\u2026 but now I am reminded that the things that money buys \u2013 cable t.v. and new clothes and name-brand cereal don\u2019t last.\u00a0 What lasts is the kingdom of God.\u00a0 What lasts is the word of God.\u00a0 What lasts is the joy that I have found through letting go\u2026 through being willing to yield.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now\u2026 I\u2019m going to put my preacher hat back on.<\/p>\n
Because we all have different places in our life where we have been unwilling to yield.\u00a0 It might be money, like me, but it might be an addiction. For others the thing they grasp is their pride.\u00a0 Some of us are unwilling to let go of our schedules or our desires.<\/p>\n
Throughout the book of James, we get some harsh truths about what it means to live in Christian community.\u00a0 On Labor Day weekend, we heard about the source of our conflict \u2013 pride and a lack of humility.\u00a0 The next week we were reminded that rich and poor are all the same and we need to stop judging and stop loving.\u00a0 Last week, we were dished up some truth about wisdom and speech\u2026 and our tendency to ignorance and cynicism.<\/p>\n
In each message \u2013 we have been asked to let something go.\u00a0 Our pride and the need to \u201cbe important\u201d, our status and the desire to \u201cbe better\u201d, our knowledge and the need to \u201cbe right\u201d,\u00a0 and today we are asked to let go of the material things we cling to and the stuff we seek out.\u00a0 We need to let go of our desire to \u201cbe the joneses.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we read James\u2026 even though I have experienced the joy of willingly yielding and letting God have control of my money \u2013 I have to admit that each one of these admonitions still hits close to home for me also.\u00a0\u00a0 Each of these realities is something that I continue to struggle with, even as I know I am being faithful in some ways.<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Keeping up with the Joneses kills our souls<\/strong><\/p>\n James is quite clear in chapter four that our desire to keep up with the ways of the world means that our heart has gone astray from God.\u00a0 Familiar verse from the gospels reminds us\u2013 you cannot serve both God and money.\u00a0 And so every time that we choose the things we want over the things of God, we have cheated on our Lord and Savior \u2013 we have been unfaithful.<\/p>\n It is hard to accept sometimes, but God cares about what you do and what you have.\u00a0 If our gracious Lord and Savior makes sure that the birds of the air and the flowers of the field are taken care of\u2026 then he\u2019s also working to make sure that you have enough \u2013 that you have abundant life.\u00a0 But so often, we turn our backs on the life God has given us and want to be someone else and have other things.\u00a0 Verse 5 reads: Doesn\u2019t God long for our faithfulness in the life he has given us?<\/p>\n This life might not be perfect.\u00a0 We might not have everything.\u00a0 But Mother Theresa once said, \u201cgrow where you are planted.\u201d\u00a0 Don\u2019t look over the fence at your neighbors and want what they have\u2026 gratefully give thanks every day for the gift of life and the wonderful things that are a part of yours.\u00a0 When we humble ourselves before the Lord and give thanks for who we were created to be, God is right there, ready to lift us up.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Keeping up with the Joneses is killing other people<\/strong><\/p>\n James chapter 4 starts with the hard truth that war and conflict comes from our desire to have what we don\u2019t have and our desire to keep what is already ours.\u00a0 As he says in verse two:\u00a0 \u201cYou long for something you don\u2019t have, so you commit murder.\u00a0 You are jealous for something you can\u2019t get, so you struggle and fight.\u201d<\/p>\n That reality is lived out on our newspapers and television programs every single day.\u00a0 Bank robberies and drug related shootings.\u00a0 Civil wars in far off countries about the precious resources of those places.\u00a0 Jealous acts of violence enacted towards someone for cheating or stealing a person you loved from your life.<\/p>\n But there is a quiet hidden reality to these verses that we are not always ready to admit to \u2013 a truth that needs to be confessed about ourselves.\u00a0 The things that we have in this world \u2013 everyday, ordinary things that we buy and use and dispose of\u2026 our desire to have those things is killing people, too.<\/p>\n Take my cell phone, for example.\u00a0 This summer, I dropped my phone and cracked the screen.\u00a0 So I upgraded to something new.\u00a0 My husband upgraded at the same time, even though his old phone was just fine. But within these simple devices are resources and minerals that you can\u2019t find everywhere.\u00a0 In fact, the tin inside of these devices that are used to solder the metal parts together is mined mostly in Indonesia and China.\u00a0 I read recently about one province in Indonesia, two little islands where nearly half of the tin for cell phones comes from.<\/p>\n The tin mining industry has devastated these two little islands.\u00a0 The mining is done in shallow pits and these pits cover the island \u2013 thousands and thousands of pits dotting the ground.\u00a0 Most of this mining is done by hand, rather than machine and it is not a regulated industry.\u00a0 Small groups of men, often boys, work in these pits and scrape the walls by hand.<\/p>\n The reporter who visited the sites had this to say:\u00a0 \u201cthese dangerous pits \u2013 the walls literally just collapse and bury people alive.\u00a0 In one week, while I was on BangkaIsland, there were six men and actually a boy, a 15-year-old, who were buried alive in these pit collapses\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n My heart broke when I heard that story\u2026 how our demand for smart-phones and tablets has caused an industry to explode without regulation or safety and that people are dying so that I can have 3G. Our relationship with God and our command to love our neighbor means that we need to think carefully about the purchases we make in this world.\u00a0 We need to pray before we buy something.\u00a0 And we need to be informed about the far reaching impact of the things we want.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Keeping up with the Joneses doesn\u2019t get us anything but fat and dead<\/strong><\/p>\n We are often so focused on the things that we want today, that we do not stop to think about the far reaching implications of the stuff we accumulate.<\/p>\n As Brandon and I start to pack up our house, we have tons of things that we do not need and will never use.\u00a0 We are busting at the seams with cheap trinkets and clothes that no longer fit and craft supplies we don\u2019t have time to use. It has been a reminder that we have abundantly blessed\u2026 and so we are taking this opportunity to share and donate and repurpose some of what we have been given.<\/p>\n The reality is that the stuff we have will not last forever.\u00a0 And we won\u2019t be alive to enjoy it forever.<\/p>\n As James continues in chapter five, the wealthy get one final harsh warning.\u00a0 In this translation from The Message, I want to invite you to hear these words\u2026 remembering that we are each wealthier than 75% of this world:<\/p>\n Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you\u2019ve piled up is judgment.<\/em><\/p>\n 4-6 <\/sup><\/em>All the workers you\u2019ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You\u2019ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you\u2019ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse<\/em><\/p>\n All you\u2019ll to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.<\/p>\n The old adage says, you can\u2019t take it with you\u2026 and its true.\u00a0 Our time here on earth is short and piling on pleasures and wants and desires doesn\u2019t get us anything but a house full of stuff that someone else is going to have to sort through.<\/p>\n James\u2019s advice for us: remember that you are nothing but a mist that vanishes with the sunlight.\u00a0 Remember that you are nothing but grass that withers and a flower that fades.\u00a0 What good is all of the wealth in the world when tomorrow you are gone?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let’s take a deep breath.\u00a0 Because we can hear these harsh words and they cut straight to our core. We might want to give everything away when we go home because we feel so guilty.<\/p>\n But I need you to hear this.<\/p>\n God does not want your money, if he doesn’t have your heart.<\/p>\n God doesn’t have any use for your stuff, if he can’t have your soul.<\/p>\n God doesn’t care about the things that you own… even if they could be used to help other people… unless you are willing to give him your life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let us prayerfully ask about what God wants us to yield.\u00a0 Let us joyfully and freely give – not because we have to, but because we want to.\u00a0 And let us join with Christ in the world along paths “the Joneses” don’t often travel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I want to start out this morning with a testimony\u2026 and I think it is very important that you understand this is not me preaching about what you should go out tomorrow and do\u2026 I am simply sharing what my experience of God was this past year. That is an important qualification, because I\u2019m going…<\/span><\/p>\n