Right On The Money Series

This sermon was preached by Scotty L Killingsworth to the Evergreen Church on November 9, 2003

This sermon is the last in a series of sermons from 1 Timothy called The Biblical Church.

The title of this message is The Biblical church is right on the money

Biblical Text First Timothy chapter six

Once in a while my grandson Jason comes to our house for the day. He is two years old and his little hearty is totally transparent. You can see what is in his heart. He hasn’t learned to hide it. He announces his entire agenda for anyone interested to hear. He keeps nothing secret.

My granddaughter Amanda is in the sixth grade. She is loosing her transparency and what is in her heart is very hard to detect. In fact she will soon be to the point where she doesn’t want her parents or grandparents to know her secret life at all. Her heart is about to become an adult heart. The human heart is well hidden and deceitful.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can

understand it?

I am still being surprised by my heart. I thought I knew it very well, but every once in a while something will pop out I had no idea was lurking there. A temptation that I thought would never bother me walks up and tests me again. Or, some temptation I was sure would never tempt me all of a sudden has a tremendous attraction. My heart still surprises me.

Sometimes God uses trying circumstances to show us what is in our hearts. We rarely will ever know the deep issues that exist in our hearts while we are on vacation, but in tough times we see it very well. What is really there pops out.

I’ll bet Abraham was surprised by what was in his heart. On his faith journey he found himself in a strange place. The ruler of this place had a thing for Abraham’s wife Sarah and made a move on her. Out of Abraham’s heart of faith leapt a huge dose of fear. He was afraid if it was discovered that he was Sarah’s husband he would be killed to get him out of the way. So he told Sarah to tell the man she was Abraham’s sister. Who saw that coming? I t is good to see what is in our hearts even though it is not always what we hoped lived there.

Noah built a boat and saved the righteous race. Upon landfall he planted a vineyard, made wine and got drunk and had incestuous sex with his daughters. Was that in his heart all the time? Where did that come from?

Moses the deliverer was God’s chosen leader and accomplished an amazing thing by his amazing leadership skills and obedience to God. On one occasion when the people he was leading began to get negative and complain he lost his temper and instead of speaking to a rock, as God had directed, he hit it. Temper and disobedience jumped out of his heart and derailed his leadership permanently. Where did this temper come from? His heart had hidden it for decades. His heart had deceived him.

Martha Stewart, the sweet home-making guru, in a moment of weakness may have found greed in her heart and acted on insider information that was unlawful for her to have. Was avarice and greed hidden behind that sweetness all the time? Did her heart deceive her and in turn all of us? At least she now knows that she is capable of greed.

When God uses life to reveal our hearts we get an opportunity to grow from the experience. The tough times in life test us, but the tests are not for God’s information-

He knows everything already. When life challenges pop up they become opportunities for us to learn what is hidden our hearts.

How we use our money is a great tool for us to look deep into our hearts and see what we have been cultivating under the surface. Don’t allow yourself to remain in denial about what your heart is hiding in regards to your money.

A Biblical Church is right on the money. A Godly person has mastered certain principles and gained certain insights about money.

What will life teach me about my money?

Money can’t buy what you really need

1 Timothy 6: 1All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered.

What you really need is love, forgiveness, acceptance and respect. There is no price tag on any of these items.

The Roman Empire had more slaves than it did free men. Ephesus was a Roman colony and many of the new Christ followers were slaves or slave owners. A huge issue arose over this vile practice. Should a slave owner set his slaves free? If you were a slave should you respect and serve someone who owned you?