"My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride." Let those words echo in your mind and in your heart a little bit this evening, "My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride." It is so hard for us to keep what is important-important in our lives. It's so hard for us to keep what is important-important in our lives. Things, that weren't designed to be as important as they become, rise in levels of importance to us; while things that are important descend into unimportance--that's a struggle for all of us.
When You First Come to Christ
When you first come to Christ, you have a powerful and penetrating sense of the thing that is important in life. You are filled with an amazing sense of your need. And it's like God has opened the curtains of the universe, and you finally get it; you finally understand what life is about; you finally understand what's worth living for; you finally understand the deep privilege that can only be found in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. But sadly, we don't stay there. Those things become familiar to us.
They become regular. They become mundane. Somehow, someway, in the way we think and act and respond, they begin to descend in importance, and things that aren't intended to be as important as they become, rise in levels of importance. I would ask you this evening, "What is important to you? What do you boast about? What do you take pride in? Where do you stand back in your life and say, 'Yes, this is what I wanted my life to be like? Yes, this is what's important. Ahah, this is worth living for?' Where do you look for your deepest, most meaningful satisfaction?
Is what is important-important to you?" Oh, not this evening, but on Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Friday night, Saturday evening. Is what is important-important to you? Look with me again at James 1:9 through 11. As we've said again and again, James is writing to people who are being hammered. They're suffering in many ways, and it's a sweet pastoral instinct for James to want to remind them again in the midst of all of their suffering, in the midst of all of their loss, what is actually important in life.
It's the heart of a pastor that would do that. Let me read these words again, Let the lowly brother boast in his exultation, (What?) and the rich in his humiliation, (Now, I'm really confused.) because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. (ESV) Let me just read that first phrase for you again. "Let the lowly brother boast in his exultation."
It could be translated, 'Let the brother of humble circumstance,' or more directly translated, 'Let the poor brother boast in his exultation.' Now, before we look exactly at what those words mean, let me make an observation for you. In case you hadn't realized it, you live in a materialistic, pleasure-centered, despiritualized, no-eternity culture. Let me say that again, in case you missed it. You live in a materialistic, pleasure-centered, de-spiritualized, materialistic culture. By means of the values of that culture, life is all about the pleasures of material creation because there is no spiritual world, and there is no eternity.
And so the culture would look at a poor man and find nothing in that man to be excited about, nothing to boast in, nothing to celebrate. If the game is material possessions and physical pleasure, this man has miserably lost! Now, let me warn you, you can't live in this materialistic, pleasure-centered, despiritualized, no-eternity culture without somehow, someway, being influenced by that. And this struggle to keep what is important-important in our lives, can I say this?--well I will; is a struggle of everyone in this room.
And so we, too, need the sweet pastoral reminder of James. Now, listen to what he says, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exultation." The key to understanding that phrase is the word 'brother.' He's talking about a Christian who, in terms of the material things of this world, is poor. He has no possessions to look at and say, "Look what I've acquired." Because he's poor, he most likely doesn't have the esteem of people around him. And because he doesn't have the esteem of the people around him, he lacks power.
And yet, this man, standing in the midst of nothing, can say, "By the miracle of the grace of God, I have been invited into a personal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords in the one way that is truly important even though I have nothing. I'm rich! Brothers and sisters, the day you and I can stand in the middle of nothing is the day that we understand the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, if in the middle of that nothing, we can say, "I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm rich!" Now, this passage is not saying it's wrong to have things; the issue is being ruled by them.
The Man Who Has Nothing but Everything
And, here is this man, who although in the estimation of the world, in the way the world accounts for what is valuable, he has nothing! But he has the deepest, most expansive, most satisfying cause for celebration. He has been given the gift of gifts, the treasure of treasures, the accepting justifying grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! I would ask you, "Is what is important-important to you? Does that grace give you your sweetest sense of well-being? Do the thoughts of that grace make your heart rise with joy?
Or, could it be that a little bit of material loss produces in you discouragement and envy? Is what's really important-important to you?" Could it be that maybe you've filled your schedule following the values of the surrounding culture, so full with a frenetic pursuit of things that won't last? They have little time for actual celebration of the grandeur of this glorious gift. You will know that you understand grace when you can stand in the middle of nothing and say, "I'm rich! I'm rich! And I wouldn't trade these riches for anything the world could give me!"
But James isn't done. He adds this, "And the rich in his humiliation." See, this is the other side of the coin. If you were the richest man on earth, if you had more esteem of human beings than ever has been known, if you had more power than any man has been able to acquire, you stand before God in the exact same way as the poor man. Because in terms of God's favor, in terms of His grace, in terms of His love, all of those things account for nothing. Listen, grace absolutely levels the playing field.
And that man of grand possessions, and grand accomplishments, and grand power, stands before God as one who is unable to earn, deserve, or merit His favor. He has one plea--the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love the hymn that says, "I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me." That's the Gospel. People say, "James doesn't preach the Gospel." They haven't read the passages we're looking at. This preaches the Gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ--take it in; celebrate it this evening.
Now the problem is these things that are the important things of the universe, I was made for relationship with God; I was given life and breath so that I could have relationship with God; that's not just about spirituality--it's the very nature of my humanity. This is what I was made for. And so there could be nothing more important than the gift of acceptance into the favor of the God for whom I was created. Nothing is more important than that; but hear this, "It's not always the case for us believers, that what is important is important to us."
I shared a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning a little bit about my trip to Dubai. It is an amazing place. Now I said that the national bird of Dubai is the crane--there are so many amazing skyscrapers being built. One section of Dubai--150 major skyscrapers being built at once. I read an article just recently that said, "Eighty percent of the construction cranes in the world are located in Dubai." And that's an amazing statistic. We were told as we were leaving Dubai that we could go to a luxury upscale mall once a week for the entire year and never hit the same mall.
The Emirates Mall in Dubai has a full ski mountain in the middle of the mall. Yes, that's true; ski lodge at the top, chair lifts. You can swim in the Persian Gulf in the morning; you can shop around lunch time; you can ski in the afternoon in your mall. Now, all of this is some background for you; I'm not just giving you a tour of Dubai. I was talking to the pastor of the church, where my ministry took place, about just his work as a pastor and the struggles of his congregation--I love to interview pastors.
And he said, "Paul, here's what happens. Almost everybody who was a member of our congregation is a believer who has come from someplace around the world to work in Dubai as this great explosion of its economy is taking place. But almost every one of those people also comes with ministry and missionary zeal. They're not there just because there's a good job, but they want to be part of the amazing Gospel opportunities that are in Dubai." Well, that sounded great, and then I could see a sad look come on his face, and he said, "But you know what, Paul?--Within about two years, those couples have lost their missionary zeal.
Caught Up in the Affluence of Dubai
They've been caught up in the affluence, and the wealth, and the luxury of Dubai. We feel its success just to get them to worship with us, let alone participate in ministry." He said to me, "I can tell right away the couple who is new to Dubai and the couple who has been here for several years by their willingness and their availability to participate in ministry." I would ask you, "Is what is important-important to you this evening?" It's grace! It's grace! It's grace! It's grace! It's grace--A glorious gift to the poor; a glorious gift to the rich--the thing of utmost importance.
But James wants to reinforce this for us. Look, if you would, at verse 10 again: ...and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. (ESV) You see, the surrounding created world is a reminder to us of what is important. That rich man's life of acquisition is really very short in comparison to eternity.
Luella and I love fresh flowers. We very often have fresh flowers in our home; we love the beauty and the smell of fresh flowers, but they're frustrating because just about the time that blossom opens to its fullest glory, it begins the decay. My home is a source of consternation to me. It's a four-bedroom house, and there are only two of us living in it, but it seems like it's a constant state of decay. Things we don't even use break. I think there's another family living there. They should share the cost.
Luella's birthday is on December 31, and we don't celebrate it as much as we should because that's a holiday, and so this year we decided to give it an adequate celebration. And my son, oldest son, Justin, did a wonderful thing. He searched throughout our house; we didn't know he was doing this, and found all the old family photos, and he made a wonderful album of photos of our children throughout the years, and he made an album of Luella and me throughout the years. The first album we enjoy! The second one was sad!
I must confess it was first a shocking compendium of shocking hairdos. But there was a dramatic difference between what this couple looked like on the first few pages and what they looked like on the last few pages. We've thrown those pages away. It's too painful! You see, you need nothing more then the surrounding creation, the withering of the grass, the fading of the flower, to understand the poor investment it is to let those things rise to levels of heart-controlling importance. Here's the struggle--the temporary begins to replace the eternal.
The physical begins to replace the spiritual. And in the midst of that, we, who have been given this awesome gift of grace, lose our sense of what is important. And in losing our sense of what is important, we lose the exultation of knowing we've been lifted to a position that we could've never earned. And we lose the humiliation of knowing, in all of our good efforts, we stand with nothing before our Redeemer. I would ask you this evening, "Is what's important-important to you? Do you live with a keen sense of what's really important?"
I think it would be good for all of us, this evening, to once again get on our knees before a gracious Redeemer who has covered all of our sins, past, present, and future, and say again humbly to Him, "Lord, I so often get it wrong. I so often fret over things that aren't nearly as important as I make them. I sometimes celebrate the temporary more than I do the eternal. Lord, help me to be like the apostle Paul who said, 'I fix my eyes not on what is seen because what is seen is temporary. I fix my eyes on what is unseen because what is unseen is eternal.' Oh Lord, please help us to live with a cogent sense of what is really important."
Let's pray: Lord, thank you for the heart-exposing clarity of these words. Thank you for glorious grace that makes us all the same. Thank you that we've been blessed by that gift of grace, and may we, by Your grace, what is truly important be the thing that is important to us in the situations and relationships of our daily life, for the sake of Your children, for the furtherance of Your kingdom, for the glory of Your name, we pray, Amen.
