God’s Will for Our Wealth
I Timothy 6:17-19
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Sept. 26, 2010
*Are you rich? -- Most of us would say, “I sure don’t feel rich.” But think about it.
-Last year, “Parade Magazine” noted that if all of the money in the world was redistributed so everyone had the same amount, everyone would have $9,000.
-For half the world’s people that would equal more that 12 years of income, for many it would be a lot more than 12 years income. (1)
*Are we rich? -- Years ago, Lucy Pearson at Clemson wrote this comparison of the world’s population: If the whole world only had 100 people:
-70 would be non-Christian.
-One half of the entire world’s wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people.
-70 would be unable to read.
-50 would suffer from malnutrition.
-80 would live in sub-standard housing with no plumbing or electricity.
-And only 1 would have a college education. (2)
*Are we rich? -- One of the Sunday School lessons this month was on Jesus and the rich young ruler. After studying this same Bible story, William Boice wrote the following prayer:
“Dear Lord, I have been re-reading the record of the rich young ruler and his obviously wrong choice. But it has set me thinking. No matter how much wealth he had, he could not ride in a car, have any surgery, turn on a light, buy penicillin, hear a pipe organ, watch TV, wash dishes in running water, type a letter, mow a lawn, fly in an airplane, sleep on an innerspring mattress, or talk on the phone. -- If he was rich, then what am I? (3)
*I know we don’t feel rich, but compared to most of the people who have ever lived, we are incredibly wealthy. What is God’s will for rich people like us?
1. First: choose humility over being haughty.
*As Paul said in the first part of vs. 17: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty.”
*Don’t be haughty.
-Paul is talking about people who are conceited.
-People who think they are better than others.
-People who are in love with themselves.
-People who don’t understand that every good gift and every perfect gift comes from God.
*He’s talking about people with excessive and unrestrained self-esteem.
-People with a high and unreasonable view of their excellence or importance.
*In this passage the focus is on wealth. Why are we wealthy people tempted to think too highly of ourselves?
*Pastor Coty Pinckney explained “we are tempted to believe that we deserve whatever we have and to think that people who have less than us are not as smart, not as hardworking, or not as talented as we are.”
*He says, “It is true that the person who is a diligent worker, who is wise in making investments, who is saving regularly is likely on average to have more than the person who is the opposite in all those ways. However, there are many, many accidents (from a secular point of view) that lead one person to have more than another: birth place, birth parents, native language, primary school teachers, people you happen to get to know.”
*Pastor Pinckney then gave this example: “Some of hardest working people I know, who also have made the wisest investments available to them are East African farmers. And their hard work and wise investments have indeed improved their lot, but because of poor government and their initial poverty, these people are still among the very poor, having to raise a large family while earning only $3 to $4 per day.” (4)
*Don’t you see?
-Every good thing we have really is a gift from God.
-And it’s only by His grace that we have anything at all.
*In Deuteronomy 8:14-18, God warned His people about getting lifted up with pride, when they were prosperous. In the NLT, Moses said:
14. Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
15. Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock!
16. He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.
17. He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’
18. Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
*In 1 Timothy 6, Paul focused on pride coming from our wealth. But this kind of pride can rise out of beauty, strength, skill, intelligence, success, family, nationality, even religion. -- And spiritual pride is the worst kind.
*C.S. Lewis said that pride is the only disease that the more you have, the sicker people around you get. (5)
-Pride was the original sin. All of the hurt that has ever come into this world came because Satan was lifted up with pride.
-And all of us are subject to pride from time to time.
*Don Shula, was the legendary coach of the Miami Dolphins for many years. Ordinarily he is known as a very humble man, but Shula told about the time his pride got the best of him.
*He and his wife went to a small town in Maine to avoid being noticed on their vacation. They went to see a movie on a rainy, messy night. And when they walked in, the people began to applaud. The famous coach whispered to his wife, “I guess there’s no place we can go where people won’t recognize me.”
*Don sat down, shook hands with the man on his row and said, “I’m surprised you knew who I am.”
*The man replied, “I’m supposed to know who you are? We’re just glad you came in because the manager wasn’t going to start the movie unless there were 10 people here.” (6)
*We all can get lifted up with pride, but God says: Choose humility over being haughty.
2. The second thing to do is this: Trust your God more than your gold.
*Again in vs. 17: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” Notice here that it is foolish for us to put our trust in money, because Paul tells us that riches are uncertain.
*And if you think about it, money is a heartless master.
-Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
*Mammon in this verse means “riches” or “treasure.”
-The NIV calls it “Money” with a capital “M”.
-A.T. Robertson tells us that this word “Mammon” comes from the Chaldee word for the money-god. The servant of mammon will obey mammon while pretending to obey God.
*And the problem with serving Money is that it is a heartless master.
-Money will always demand more of you, and make you desire more of it.
*I once heard a quote from Ted Turner that went something like this: “I don’t want to own all the ranches, just the ranches that are next to mine.”
-Do you see the trap? -- Money is a heartless master that never says, “Enough.”
*And you can’t put your trust in money, because eventually it will let you down.
-Someone once said: “Money talks: It says bye-bye.” (7)
-And one day it will.
*Proverbs 23 puts it this way.
4. Do not overwork to be rich; because of your own understanding, cease!
5. Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
*We can’t trust in money. But we can trust in the Lord!
-Listen to Paul again in vs. 17: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.”
*John Gill tells us that almost every word in this verse gives us another great reason to trust God. We can trust Him:
-Because He is living.
-Because He is the Almighty God.
-Because He gives to us.
-Because He gives to us richly.
-And Because He gives us richly all things to enjoy. (8)
*On top of all this, we can trust God because He loves us!
-All of us have sinned many times and have fallen far short of the glory of God.
-But the wonderful Good News of the Bible is that God loves us in spite of our sins. God loves us in spite of our flaws and failures.
*Romans 5:6-10 is one of my favorite Scriptures. There God’s Word says:
6. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
*See how much God loves us!
-He loved us when we were without strength!
-He died for us when we were ungodly!
-He demonstrated His love toward us while we were still sinners!
-He reconciled us to God through the death of His Son when we were enemies!
*Jesus Christ left all of His riches in Heaven to become poor for us.
-He even died on the cross for us, because He loves us.
-And because He rose from the dead, Jesus can love us forever, and He will!
-He has said that He will never leave us or forsake us, so we can trust Him forever.
*Whatever may happen in our lives, we’ve got a message from God: “I love you! You can count on me!”
*Ron Dunn was a wonderful preacher and evangelist for many years. He went home to be with the Lord in 2001, but I got to be in one of his classes in the early ‘90s. And Ron Dunn told the story of a trip he took to Colorado in the middle of winter. He went with a friend to visit some trout lakes and they came to pond that was frozen over.
*Ron’s friend gave him this challenge, “Ron, why don’t you get out on the ice?”
-Ron replied, “No sir. -- It’s not thick enough!”
*Ron’s friend said, “Go ahead Preacher. It may be your only chance to walk on water!” Finally he persuaded Ron, and Ron very carefully tip-toed about one foot out from the bank.
*Then they drove over the hill to another pond, and there was a man right out in middle of that pond. He was sitting on crate, surrounded by all kinds of fishing gear. That man even had a heater with him out on the ice!
*Ron asked his friend. “Where did he get up enough nerve to get out in the middle?”
-And his friend answered, “Oh: He lives around here. He knows the ice.”
*Church, the more you know Jesus, the more you will know that He is worthy of your trust. So, who are you going to trust, Christian?
-Trust your God more than your gold.
3. Then choose generosity over greed.
*This is God’s message to well-off believers in vs. 18: “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.”
*Even though we don’t feel rich, God has blessed almost all of us with an abundance. And He doesn’t want us to be greedy about it.
*In my lifetime, Howard Hughes was a living example of the bitter fruit that comes from greed. At one time he was the richest man in the world. But an article Leadership Journal, described Howard Hughes this way:
“All he ever really wanted in life was more.
-He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets.
-He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a filmmaker and star.
-He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every (carnal) urge.
-He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world.
-He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two U.S. presidents became his pawns
-All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction.
*Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. Howard Hughes concluded his life emaciated; colorless; sunken chest; fingernails in grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; rotting, black teeth; tumors; innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction.
*Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more.
-He died a billionaire junkie, insane by all reasonable standards.” (9)
*Howard Hughes may have been one of a kind, but greed is a very common temptation.
-Is it a problem for you?
-Are you hungry for the things of this world or the things of God?
-How important is your stuff to you?
*Greed is still a sinister temptation, so God says: Choose generosity over greed.
-Do good things for others.
-Be rich in good works.
-Be ready to give.
-Be willing to share.
*God tells us to do all of these things in vs. 18. Then in vs. 19, He promises a wonderful reward.
18. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19. storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
*John Gill explained that when we are generous, we are laying up a treasure in heaven, which we will enjoy to all eternity! (10)
*God promises to bless generous givers.
-As the New Living Translation says in Proverbs 11:24-25:
24 Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.
25 The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
*Of course, Jesus Christ is our model for generosity.
-In 2 Cor 8:9, Paul spoke to the church about giving and said: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
*God wants us to be givers, because HE is a giver. He wants us to generously give our time, our talents and our tithes and offerings. In short, God wants us to give our lives and our love to other people, every way we can.
-They will be blessed, and so will we.
-Sometimes even a small gift can make a giant difference in someone’s life.
*Most of you know that baby Jacob recently died in a tragic accident. His older sisters and brothers are part of our church family. Their mom is Sarah Smith. Here is an email Sarah sent to us this week:
Dear church family,
*I just wanted to thank all that are praying for my family. This has been hard on everyone. Please continue to pray for the family of Jacob Alan Jones.
*Today was hard on everyone because it would have been his first birthday. We cannot know what the reasoning is for taking him so young, but God knows and we pray one day that John and Cathy and the children will know why their precious son and brother was taken so young.
*After years of prayer, even after our divorce 5 years ago I still continued to pray for John’s salvation. One morning while alone in the woods after this terrible accident he began to talk to God and God talked to him. Tonight in his living room surrounded by his loved ones on his son’s birthday he accepted God in his life. So please pray that he will find peace in knowing that he will see his beloved son again one day.
*If you ever have anyone that needs your prayers for salvation never give up on them. This is an example of answered prayers, although not in the manner we would of wanted it, but one just the same.
*I want to thank each and everyone that prayed, brought food to John’s house and my house, and that came to grieve with us. Having a great Christian family around makes times like this so much easier to handle. Thank you again for all the cards, food and prayers and hugs we have all received. I know that your words and acts of kindness will live in all our hearts forever.
Sarah and family. (11)
*“I know that your words and acts of kindness will live in all our hearts forever.”
-So much blessing from such small gifts! That’s what God can do through us, if we will choose generosity over greed. So be a giver for God.
*Give all you can. But first give your heart to God.
-You can do that right now as we go to God in prayer.
1. Parade, 8/23/9, p.18 (Source: “In Other Words” April 2010 #3 - produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry - 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 - www.iows.net)
2. Peachtree Presbyterian Pulpit - “Let’s Hear It for the Helpers” (or “Three Cheers for those Who Help!”) by Dr. W. Frank Harrington - 1 Corinthians 12:27-31 - Sept. 15, 1996
3. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Jeff Strite
4. Online sermon “How to Be Rich and Still Be Happy” by Coty Pinckney - 1 Timothy 6:13-19 - Desiring God Community Church, Charlotte, NC, 6/22/03
5. Original source unknown
6. Source: “In Other Words” Spring 1998 - produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry - 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 - www.iows.net)
7. Source: online sermon “Where’s Your Heart” by David Hoke - Matt 6:19-24 - 09/17/95
8. John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible - 1 Timothy 6:17
9. Bill Hybels in Leadership, Vol. X, #3 (Summer, 1989), p. 38 - (Found in SermonCentral sermon “Mastering Your Money” by Joel Smith - Matt 6:19-33)
10. John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible - 1 Timothy 6:19
11. Names changed
