Morning Message Text: 1 Timothy 6: 6-21
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Final Charge to Timothy
11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you
14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,
21 which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith. Grace be with you all.
Morning Message:
What is true godliness? True godliness means that a person trusts God to provide for everything and learns to be content with what He gives. God is not opposed to our having good things; in fact, every good thing we enjoy comes as God’s gift. But, we must not confuse the gift with the giver. This is really quite simple. This is not a complicated riddle like; what came first the chicken or the egg? If you are a Christian, you know the answer to that one as well. The chicken, God created the chicken and blessed it to reproduce. The gift and the Giver is even easier because one can’t exist without the other. Without God, the Giver, there would be no gifts, so why would we ever worship the gifts. But we do this all the time. If a chicken laid golden eggs, would we take the eggs and forget about the chicken?
The subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) temptation of any culture is to disregard eternal values for temporal gains. Let me be clear about what temporal means. It’s not a word that you hear much these days. I like to look words up in the dictionary so that I don’t misuse them and so I can make sense of things for our congregation. Temporal means: Pertaining to the present life; worldly, temporary. Eternal of course means forever. No person takes their money with them when they die. This is why money is such a poor object for our affection and trust. It does not last beyond this life. It has been said that you will never see a U-Haul or a Brinks truck in a funeral procession. I read a story once about a man who loved his car so much that he wanted to be buried with it. It would have made more sense to me for him to watch them bury the car before he died, because afterwards, he would have no knowledge of it. At my wife’s uncle’s funeral, a relative put a bottle of whiskey into his casket before they closed it up.
It is not money in and of itself that causes sin; it’s the love of money, because, like anything else, we put before God it becomes our god, our idol. The story of the rich man and Lazarus should give all of mankind pause. You must take a closer look to understand that the rich man’s sin was not being rich. Listen to the description that Jesus gives of him. He is dressed in purple and fine linen. The purple clothing in that time had to have been imported and colored with an expensive dye, selling for about fifteen dollars per pound. Back then that was a lot of money to spend on clothing. He also lived well. The word translated into luxury comes from the Greek term that means brilliantly. The term that we used to use is, “He was living high on the hog.” Nothing terribly wrong with living large unless God has laid a beggar at your door and you have ignored him.
We must read into the story that Lazarus, who’s name means, God is my help, trusted in God. He didn’t end up in the arms of Abraham in heaven just because he was poor and neglected. Jesus called him Lazarus because God was his help, and he was faithful. The rich man did not end up in hell because he was rich, but the love of money over God and others revealed a sinful unrepentant soul. The ability to step over someone day after day and not lift a finger to help him reveals a heart that never allowed a Holy God to penetrate it. I find this story very sobering. There is a heaven, and there is a hell. There is a place of eternal rest and a place of eternal suffering. And here is the truly terrifying part. Once you leave this life and go there, no way out, no relief for eternity.
It is not wrong for Christians to have money—even a great deal of money—as long as that money does not control them. According to Paul, the problem comes when accumulating wealth becomes the focus of one’s life. When money begins to rule lives, people fall prey to greed. And greed is not only an obstacle to achieving godliness and contentment but a gateway to all kinds of evil. We see this so often. I know that I am not the only one who thinks this way. I see a very wealthy person constantly striving for more and I think to myself, why? I try not to judge without having all of the facts. Maybe they are trying to make more in order to give it away. But, unfortunately, that is seldom the case. Greed gets a hold on you, and it can be very hard to shake. You don’t have to be rich for this to happen.
The question becomes: How do we avoid this trap of greed and pride? The first thing that we must do is not allow ourselves to become too focused on this life. I know that’s not easy, but we must constantly remind ourselves that this life is not true life. The second thing that can help us is to focus on good deeds. That sounds simple enough, but I am not talking about just doing a good deed when it happens to come our way. We should actively plan good deeds. Don’t wait for needs to find you. Focus! Look for needs, search for them. If you do that, you won’t be focused on yourself.
Third, practice being generous. No, it’s not the same as looking for good deeds. Push the limits of your giving. Stretch yourself spiritually. If you like to help out and volunteer a little, do more. Develop a generous attitude in everything you do. Once again, when you are helping someone else or doing something that is not solely beneficial for you, that frees you from selfishness.
And lastly, you don’t have to wait until you get to heaven to experience a life that is true. You must develop a trust in God. The kind of trust that comes when you realize that nothing on this earth is truly yours. You can have a truly glorified life right here on earth by letting go of the things that you are holding onto so tightly. Understand that they are temporary and live for God alone.
I can’t get passed the image in my mind of that poor, once rich, man. He lived a life of luxury, but as he stood looking up to heaven from the hell that he was in, he would have given it all away. He realized how worthless it all was. But, it was too late. He even begged for his family to be told so that they might not meet his fate. He was basically told they have the same opportunity that you had. If you want your loved ones to know, you better tell them now. There is life, and then there is LIFE.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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