United
Being Jesus to the Under-resourced
1 Timothy 6:17-19
In 2015, over 290,000 people in Tarrant County lived in poverty income: $23,850 for a family of four 1/3 of Hispanic and African American children live in poverty in Tarrant county; in Arlington the percentage is 19%.
This in a city, and a county and a state with almost record low unemployment… and in the richest country in the world.
When you step outside the U.S., the problem of poverty takes on tragic proportions. Children in Haiti, Central America, parts of Africa and Asia.
With a few possible exceptions, everyone listening to my voice this morning is wealthy compared to much, if not most of the world. Now, you may not consider yourself wealthy, but when you travel to Nairobi (pic) like I have and seen the largest slum in the world, or you travel to India (pic) and see the rampant poverty or even to our own Plan del Pino campus in El Salvador (pic), you realize quickly how even the most modest income families here at Rush Creek are wealthy compared to them.
So what should be our response to this need? We say in our vision statement that we want to become more like Jesus so that we can be Jesus to the overwhelmed and under-resourced. We believe deeply that Christ-followers should be involved in relieving suffering. And here we are with much more money and wealth than most of the rest of the world.
Turn to 1 Timothy 6:17-19 This passage gives us three morsels of wisdom and instruction concerning our money. Let’s read it together: 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (on screen)
Three morsels of wisdom and instruction about our money:
1. Get the right perspective v.17
I chose that word perspective for a reason. Perspective is a point of view. If I look at a (help me think of an object) from this direction (pic), I see it one way. If I look at it from this direction (pic), I see it another way. Perspective is everything…
What is your perspective about money? I can tell you that prevailing American perspectives are fairly temporal: get all you can, spend all you can, or conversely, hoard what you can. But what is the biblical perspective on money?
What is the right perspective about our money?
a. Wealth is a passing thing Notice v.17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age” 17a That phrase present age refers to the “now age”; the world that is now but will not be for long. I don’t know how long this world has been here and I don’t know how long this world will continue to be. But what I do know is that this world has a limited duration—and relative to eternity, is just a flash of light. (use magic fire paper)
The wrong perspective is to think that your wealth and how you invest it in this world is a long-term investment. In the scheme of eternity, it only lasts a brief moment.
b. Wealth is a lowly thing Notice what God says after that, “ Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant.” Arrogant is a strong word isn’t it? It means to have arrogance: an exaggerated view of your own worth, importance or abilities. There is something about money and the privileges it gives us that causes us to gain an exaggerated view of our importance.
I was reading in the book of James a few weeks ago and this passage jumped out at me: “The brother of humble circumstances should boast in his exaltation, 10 but the one who is rich should boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will wither away while pursuing his activities.” James 1:9-11
Well, we don’t have time to dig down into that passage very deep, but what stuck out to me was how upside down our values are. We think that people with money are of higher value; but God—and He states this over and over again in the Old and New Testaments—God values those who have lower income. There is something about having money that overinflates our worth and importance.
c. Wealth is a risky thing v.17 again, “Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth.”
We need to be careful about our investments of time and money. One guy from Australia recently lost all of his $3M investing in a risky get rich scheme in the silver industry.
When we invest our money, we don’t want to invest it in fly by night schemes, do we? We work hard for our money and we want a high level of certainty that our money is going to be secure and grow more wealth.
But Let me just say, if you put your hope in the stock market or your investment advisor, your hope is in the wrong place. In God’s investment plan, money has a different purpose than just gaining more money. God uses money to test something: where our hope is; where our faith is.
Those that put their hope in money end up being sadly disappointed. If our hope is in money, we will try to get more of it for ourselves; and when our motivation is to get more for ourselves, we will become enslaved and addicted to it.
Neuroeconomists (scientists who research how the brain is affected by money) have performed several brain scans on individuals who were about to make money, and the results were staggering. The studies show that these people had the same neurological response to making money in their “pleasure centers” as someone who was high on cocaine. Gaining money for self is more addictive than cocaine! Point is this: if you pursue wealth, it will enslave you to it.
d. Wealth is a received thing rest of v.17 “Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.”
One of the ways our arrogance shows up is in thinking that we are the generators of wealth: “I studied hard; I work hard; it’s mine!”
Let me just summarize what the Bible says about your money:
If you have it, He gave it to you.(build)
If He gave it to you, invest it in joy
There’s a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness depends on emotions and circumstances; joy is deeper, less temporal, and longer lasting. If you invest in happiness, the impact of those purchases and experiences will diminish fairly rapidly. If you invest in joy, the impact can last sometimes for an entire lifetime. So utilize your money in a way that brings lasting joy. Let me give you a suggestion: Don’t buy stuff for your family—create experiences that bring lasting memories. Stuff wears out or disappears, but experiences can be remembered for a lifetime. Invest in experiences, not stuff.
And then invest in giving other people joy.
In a recent study, brain scans showed that when people made the decision to donate to what they felt was a worthy organization, parts of the midbrain lit up—the same region that controls cravings for food and sex. The subgenual area—a gumdrop-size region near the midpoint of the brain, part of the frontal lobes—is strongly active when study subjects made the decision to give to charity. This confirms what Jesus said: “It is better to give than receive.” Jesus
2. Get the right response v.18 “Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share”
a. Wealth is to be used for good Instead of being rich in money and worldly possessions, God instructs us to be rich in good works; that is, being involved in kingdom work. There’s no better work than kingdom work. When you hold the door open on Sunday morning or teach a squirmy group of 3rd grade boys or work on our tech team or go on a mission trip, that’s the best work you can do.
And whatever money God has given you can be put to good work, right?
When you give to RC (***Some of the annual aop stuff that their money goes for…., great turkey takeway). When you buy toys for Operation Joy (logo) coming up soon, your wealth is being used for something good and wholesome.
b. Wealth is an opportunity for generosity
God says “Be generous and willing to share.” Are you a generous person? Are you generous with God? It’s amazing that so many so-called Christ-followers don’t at least tithe on their income. Who gave it to us? God. What does He expect in return? At least 10% off the top. It’s called The Principle of First Fruits. Find it all the way through the Bible: God expects us to give back to Him the first and the best off the top, not what’s left over. (bowl of 10 apples; 10th only a core) Doesn’t show much gratitude, does it?
Are you generous with others? When you calculate the gratuity, are you aiming high or low? When someone asks you to contribute to their mission trip or good cause, are in our out?
Story?
3. Get the right outcome v.19 “storing up for themselves a good reserve for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real.”
reflects back to v.17 “in this present age”: contrast between this age and the age to come. The foolish person focuses on short term benefits; wise person on the long term return on investment.
Which would you rather invest in? an investment that paid 10%/annum for 10 years, or an investment that would pay 5% for 30 years? $10k @ 10% for10 yrs=$16k; $10k @ 5% for 30 yrs=$20k. Your investments in kingdom work are not for 5 yrs, 10 yrs, 10,000 yrs, 10 billion yrs---but for eternity!
Jim Elliot story
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” Jim Elliot
(Tammy Minor video? Not sure it fits here—maybe after the opening song or during offering)
