I did not finish my sermon yesterday, so I thought I'd write a few thoughts here that were on my mind yesterday. If you were not there you might go and listen to the sermon from 11-24-13am titled The Great Threat to Thanksgiving.
James in chapter 4 verse 13 was talking about a persuit of wealth that leads to evil. There is a WEALTH THAT LEADS TO OBSESSIVENESS. It becomes all we think about, and we have little regard for God, the lives of others or our own.
Then I spoke about a WEALTH THAT LEADS TO ADDICTIVENESS. These thoughts were from the fifth chapter when James speaks about hoarding. The attitude of hoarding is the evidence of an addictive behaviour.
When there is a lack of thanksgiving in your life it leads to a wealth that leads to pervertedness!
Notice, there is a deep digression here. There is a perverted attitude that says I'm going to withhold from others. I'm going to withhold the pay of laborers. He was talking to society, he said you will see owners have command and hired people to mow your fields and their such an obsession with getting the next dollar that you don't pay the laborers who work for you.
You don't give them their salary.
In the Old Testament there is a passage in Deuteronomy 24:14-15
When a man works for you we should pay them. Makes no difference what is skin color or ethnic background is. Be fair in your dealings with others. You should give him his wages that day. Very simply he is saying this: If I am a Christian employee I should pay my people an honest wage for an honest days work.
Wealth can get a grip on us and we can become so obsessed with it, we say I can withhold here, or pay less there and that will mean more for me!
Look at James 5:5.
There are verbs here that describe wasting, How much will be wasted in our homes this week? Will you waste anything? Good chance we will. We will throw away food even tonight.
That is where we are as a nation. We do it and do not even think about it... we have fattened our hearts, and we are like a fatted cow ready for the slaughter. I mean Happy Thanksgiving! Right?
But James says that is essentially the way you're living life! And the whole issue is this: we are discontent as a people. We are so discontent because of what we don't have, and because of what someone else does have there's nothing left in us to be joyful over. And you say what is the answer to that?
1 Timothy 6:6
| But godliness with contentment is great gain. |
Seek to be content. Be content with a clothes that you have be c content with the food that you eat. Our problem as a nation is we are not content.
Hebrews 13:5
| Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." |
The bottom line is simple: God will take care of your needs. So today, I want to take a time out from our lives, and let us give thanksgiving to God for the good things he has given to us! Take time for the challenging times he has given us! In Everything He is God and worthy of our praise. We need to enjoy what we have and be thankful for what God has given us!
Just remember: When a nation becomes governed by greed, Thanksgiving becomes a casualty. {AND} When Thanksgiving becomes a casualty discontent will rule the nation.
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