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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. 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.
‭‭James‬ ‭5:3-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I. The Travesty and Tragedy of Hoarding
A. Hoarding is not saving but setting back so much for yourself you can’t serve others or God with your wealth.
B. Hoarding is not saving your wealth but wasting it. (Matthew 6:19-21)

II. The Travesty and Tragedy of Fraud
A. To not pay what you owe in any circumstance is to defraud & is an affront to God.
B. Jesus owes no man or even God anything and yet He pays what we owe to God because of our sin. (Colossians 2:13-14)

III. The Travesty and Tragedy of Hyper Indulgence
A. It’s a travesty to indulge in eating, drinking, and purchasing in excessive amounts with no thought about the fact that a day of Judgment is coming. (Luke 12:15-21)

IV. The Travesty and Tragedy of Homicide
A. The courts may do nothing to those who use the systems of the world to feed their greed, but God hears the cries of the poor and will take up their cause.
B. What do the cries of the poor say about us, the church, the American church and more importantly, our church, NJ, to God? (2 Corinthians 8:9)

V. Next Step
A. Take the generosity challenge: Privilege means we have the the means to make the name of Jesus Christ known and renowned in all the earth.

Next Week: The Truth about Perseverance James 5:7-10