Pray together about what you could do to change things.Īlso examine your household budget. Share your findings with other believers. What can you do? Find out more about exploitation in our world today. How can we break the mastery of money in our lives? How can we center our hearts on God rather than wealth? Is it more important to us than God is? How many of our decisions are based on the bottom line rather than our higher calling? We might find it hard to admit how important money really is in our lives. James has been saying this all along.īut all of that starts in our hearts. James writes to believers who know suffering, who've faced trials, and who ultimately desire a deep relationship with God.Francis Chan unpacks the dense truth contained in the book of James in front of the iconic backdrop of San Francisco, the city where he lives and ministers. We should certainly do what we can to help the poor. God will turn the tables in His coming kingdom.Īnd maybe we should “weep and howl” a little more about the injustice in our world. When rich people exploit poor people, that’s a big problem. In the first six verses of James chapter 5 we learn what God cares about and we learn what makes Him mad. In the video, Francis Chan got us off on the right track when he said, “Let’s look at our hearts and go, Why long for these earthly things so much? And, why am I acquiring more and more for myself and neglecting those who are in need?” How does God want us to use our resources? That’s the question we want to zero in on today.

God wants to speak to us, and we need to be ready to listen, even if it’s uncomfortable. They’re the problem.īut whenever we come to Scripture, we want to see what’s there for us. And most of us don’t think of ourselves as rich, do we? We’re always looking at someone else who has more, and we say, Go after them, James. We want to say it’s their problem, not ours. If we can dodge this barrage, we want to. Do you think this letter is written to all “rich” people ever, to rich people in that time and place, or just to the rich people who were guilty of exploitation? The deeper question is: What are we going to do with this? James really lays into these people, and it makes us uncomfortable.

Francis chan book of james