OPEN: Many years ago a Chicago radio station, WKOX, offered $10,000 to the individual who could devise the most outlandish way to get the money. More than 6,000 people responded to the challenge.
The eventual winner was Jay Gwaltney of Zionsville, Indiana, who consumed an 11-foot birch sapling - leaves, roots, bark and all. For the event he wore a tuxedo and dined at a table eloquently set with fine china, sterling silverware, candles and a rose vase.
Armed with pruning sheers, the Indiana State University sophomore began chomping - starting from the top of the tree - and working his way down, branch by branch, to the roots. The only extra flavoring he used was some French dressing for a massive birch-leaf salad.
Consuming the tree took 18 hours over a period of three days. When it was all over, Gwaltney complained of an upset stomach.
APPLY: Paul writes: People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 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. (I Timothy 6:9-10)
Now eating a tree sapling might seem to be foolish, but there are people who would apparently do even more than that to get money!
ILLUS: In their book, The Day America Told the Truth, authors James Patterson and Peter Kim revealed some shocking statistics on how far people in this country would be willing to go for money. When asked what they’d do for $10 million dollars:
(25%) Would abandon their entire family
(23%) Would become prostitutes for a week or more
(16%) Would give up their American citizenship
(16%) Would leave their spouses
(10%) Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free
(7%) Would kill a stranger
(3%) Would put their children up for adoption
ILLUS: As one cynic put it: “everyone has their price.” As the above survey indicates, some people will sell just about anything to gain financial security.
I. But, certainly not Christians.
Christians wouldn’t act like that. Christians wouldn’t have “a price” for which they’d sell themselves for, would they?
Well (Paul tells Timothy) yes they might… and (in fact) yes, some had…
"Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (I Timothy 6:10)
ILLUS: My 8 year old son was reading over my sermon and came to that passage and asked me "Daddy, what’s ’griefs?’"
I explained that "grief" was something people experience when they’ve lost someone or something that is very precious to them. And now that that "something" is gone, they feel a deep hurt and sadness.
What Paul was saying was, some Christians had walked away from their faith, their salvation, their relationship with God - to pursue financial gain. And in the end they would realize what they had lost.
It’s a terrible thing. Why would Christians even consider casting away their faith for the sake of earthly riches? What mysterious power does money have, that it could cause someone to do a thing so foolish?
II. First we need to understand… there’s nothing wrong with money.
I like money. You and I need money. We need money to cover our bills, pay our mortgages, maintain our vehicles, feed and cloth our families. We need money to support this church, pay the staff, underwrite missionaries and Bible colleges.
ILLUS: Every Sunday morning we pass an offering plate up and down the aisles. What do you put into the offering plate? Money! (pause…) At least I hope you do.
There’s not a thing wrong with money. It can be a useful tool to take care of our families, and meet our responsibilities and build up the Kingdom of God. Money can be a wonderful thing. One man (Alexander Bloch) commented: "Money is a wonderful thing… but it is possible to pay too high a price for it. (repeat)
Money is nothing more than paper and coin, and yet, Jesus warns us that we can get a little too attached to money and what it can buy:
Luke 12:15 “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot (you cannot, you cannot) serve both God and Money."
Paul tells us pretty much the same thing here in I Timothy. It’s the “love of money,” the “eagerness for money,” the "desire to get rich" that can cause even good Christians to wander away from their God. Why? Because you cannot "serve two masters… you cannot serve both God and money."
It has the power to become a trap and a snare for our feet.
(1 Timothy 6:9) Paul writes: People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
III. So, how do I avoid being caught up in this “money trap?”
(I Timothy 6:11-16) Paul writes:
"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 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. 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 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time— God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 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."
When I first read through this passage I thought it was odd that Paul would put that long passage right in the middle of his comments on money and what rich people should do with their riches.
Then I began to realize that this was deliberate. This seemingly irrelevant bit of writing was stressing exactly what Christians need to do to avoid falling into the "money trap."
We need to focus on God and focus on the things that God considers precious.
Paul’s saying (that as a Christian) we need to think differently than the rest of the world does.
We need to focus on the things God hold’s precious:
“…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” (vs. 11)
and "take hold of the eternal life to which you were called" (vs. 12)
Nothing that money can buy can equal the value of these valuable gifts from God
And we need to focus on God Himself "who gives life to everything" (vs. 13)
And who is "the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 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."
Paul is saying: Change your focus – don’t look to money for your security. FOCUS instead on God and the things that please Him.
That’s exactly what Jesus said: “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. He said:
“…do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33)
IV. You see, the trap of money (riches), is the belief that – if I have enough of this money, these riches - I can take care of all my wants and needs.
If I have enough money I won’t have to worry, I can enjoy life, I can do the things I’ve always wanted to do.
Have you ever felt that way? So have I.
ILLUS: As Spike Milligan once said: “All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.”
And the congregation said: Amen!
But Jesus said we shouldn’t think like that:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
ILLUS: I have a beautiful 1991 Chevy Caprice. You know what happened to it this week? It got in an accident. It needs $1600 worth of repairs. You know what that proved to me? Everything in this world breaks, gets damaged, rusts, gets lost, falls apart, gets stolen. There is nothing in this world that is going to last.
ILLUS: How many of you had money in the stock market? What happened to the stock market? It fell! What did that prove to us? It proved that there is nothing in this world that will last forever. Nothing that is certain. Money cannot provide ultimate security. Only God can provide ultimate certainty and security.
Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:17 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.
ILLUS: In the book Money Madness the authors made this observation:
“… (when people) devote themselves to money… money seems to eat them away, inside out. Inside they lose their joy and spontaneity and generosity of impulse. Outside, they seem to wither, to become pale and drawn and fragile looking. It is difficult, of course, to decide how much of this is because of the aging process. But certainly not all old men look as ravaged as Howard Hughes did or as desiccated as Mellon or J. Paul Getty. These men all complained of fatigue, sleepless nights and digestive ailments. They all appeared wispy and mummified.”
In other words, even if we could reach that level of prosperity these men enjoyed it still would give you and I NO security, no SURE satisfaction.
V. You see - if we let it - money can run our lives
And money can be a cruel task master robbing us of the very pleasure and security it promises but rarely supplies.
ILLUS: Ray Stedman once told of the time when he was in Hollywood, Florida, on the so-called "gold coast" of Florida. “Every morning I taught the Scriptures to a crowd of five hundred or more. These people, I was told, represented well over a billion dollars’ worth of accumulated wealth. I had the opportunity to talk with many of them individually. I found that most of these, by their own testimony, though they had all the money to buy anything they wanted, had arrived at the place where they were suffering from what someone has so aptly called ‘destination sickness’ - the malady of having everything that you want, but not wanting anything you have, and being sick and empty and lonely and miserable because you can do anything you want to do.”
VI. What’s the answer then?
What can I do to avoid the money trap?
First I can focus on God and what He thinks is the most valuable things in life. But there is one more thing I can do.
Paul says – learn to give money away.
Look at I Timothy 6:17-19 “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. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 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.”
Oh, well (you might say) that’s just a command for the rich…. No, it’s a command for ANYONE who finds themselves controlled by desire for money
Consider this command from Ephesians 4:28 “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.”
Why must the thief stop stealing and go to work? So that he can make money to share with others. Why does the thief steal? Because he is controlled by the desire to have money – your money. How does he cure himself of this desire? He gets a job and he learns to give money away.
A good clue that you are in danger of the “money trap” is if you find it hard to give it away.
Close: The very first person to reach the status of billionaire was a man who knew how to set goals and follow through. At the age of 23, he had become a millionaire, by the age of 50 a billionaire. Every decision, attitude, and relationship was tailored to create his personal power and wealth. But three years later at the age of 53 he became ill.
His entire body became racked with pain and he lost all the hair on his head. In complete agony, the world’s only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest milk and crackers. An associate wrote, "He could not sleep, would not smile & nothing in life meant any-thing to him." His personal, highly skilled physicians predicted he would die within a year.
That year passed agonizingly slow. As he approached death he awoke one morning with the vague remembrances of a dream. He could barely recall the dream but knew it had something to do with not being able to take any of his successes with him into the next world. The man who could control the business world suddenly realized he was not in control of his own life. He was left with a choice.
He called his attorneys, accountants, and managers and announced that he wanted to channel his assets to hospitals, research, and mission work. On that day John D. Rockefeller established his foundation. This new direction eventually led to the discovery of penicillin, cures for current strains of malaria, tuberculosis and diphtheria. The list of discoveries resulting from his choice is enormous.
But perhaps the most amazing part of Rockefeller’s story is that the moment he began to give back a portion of all that he had earned, his body’s chemistry was altered so significantly that he got better. It looked as if he would die at 53 but he lived to be 98.
You see God knows us. He created us. He built us to be giving, loving creatures. That’s why He set us the example of what it meant to give things away. You see, God is the most powerful being in all the universe. He owns everything. And yet, He loved us so much... that He gave... His only begotten son, so that we might have eternal life.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
The Money Trap - 1 Timothy 6:6-6:19
The Envy Trap - 1 Timothy 6:6-6:10
Debtor’s Prison - Luke 15:11-15:24
We’ve Got A Secret - Philippians 4:4-4:19
