Chasing Wealth or Choosing Prosperity
Who doesn’t want to win the lottery?
Graphic of lottery tickets & wealth
"Winning the lottery isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.”
Evelyn Adams, 5.4 million dollars
Evelyn Adams: "Winning the lottery isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be," says Evelyn Adams, who won the New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice (1985, 1986), to the tune of $5.4 million. Today the money is all gone and Adams lives in a trailer.
Chasing Wealth or Choosing Prosperity
"I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare."
William “Bud” Post, 16.2 million dollars
Bud Post: William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his Social Security. "I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare," says Post.
A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings. It wasn’t his only lawsuit. A brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him, hoping to inherit a share of the winnings. Other siblings pestered him until he agreed to invest in a car business and a restaurant in Sarasota, Fla., -- two ventures that brought no money back and further strained his relationship with his siblings.
Post even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Within a year, he was $1 million in debt. Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps.
Dissatisfaction with what we have is an American epidemic.
I’ve lived that story many, many times in my life and I’m sure you have too.
When I was a boy it was a train set – one that made smoke as it went around the track. Later it was a two-speed Schwinn Bicycle with a speedometer. During my high school years it was having a girlfriend, thinking that if I just went out with the right person, my life would be complete. As an adult it’s been focused on the right car, getting the fastest computer, and having the nicest lawn – well not really – but you get the drift – don’t you.
Dissatisfaction with what we have is an American epidemic. Perhaps its an epidemic we’re susceptible to because we live in the most affluent society in the history of the human race. Dissatisfaction is an epidemic that’s carefully fed by the advertising industry, as it promises us again and again that our dissatisfaction will disappear if we just buy this or that product.
We all know those advertising promises aren’t really true, but something deep inside our soul that’s not rational cries out, "Maybe this will make my restlessness go away."
Dissatisfaction is what leads husbands to leave their wives after fifteen years of marriage; it’s what tempts people to max out their credit cards to buy new clothes.
This restlessness inside of each of us is especially strong at Christmas and immediately afterwards.
Chasing Wealth or Choosing Prosperity
"The holidays should be a time to honor our best values, not a time to muffle them in layers of stuff."
Anna Quindlen
Anna Quindlen in an editorial in Newsweek in December of 01 made this point. (, "Honestly--You Shouldn’t Have NEWSWEEK 12/3/01 p. 76)
She pointed out that our nation has more malls than it has high schools, that we as Americans spend more time shopping than we do reading. The author concludes, "The holidays should be a time to honor our best values, not a time to muffle them in layers of stuff."
Muffled in layers of stuff…what a graphic description of American life today.
Chasing Wealth Never Satisfies
Perhaps this is one reason why so many people get depressed during the holidays and why marriages start showing the signs of strain and stress. Maybe it’s why January is the grimmest month.
4 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich;
be wise enough to control yourself.
5 Wealth can vanish in the wink of an eye.
It can seem to grow wings
and fly away like an eagle.
Proverbs 23:4-5
Today we take the first step to making a decision about life that will lead to either dissatisfaction or to tremendous joy filled life.
Today we discover what God says about how to measure real wealth and how to be a prosperous person
Choosing Prosperity Prosperity is having all you need – and knowing it. You must choose to be a prosperous person. As we study 1 Timothy this morning we will see that there are three decisions that form the foundation for a prosperous life.
What is a prosperous man or woman? We’ll define this as we examine the text this morning.
To Choose Prosperity… Choose Respect
1 All who are slaves under a yoke should show full respect to their masters so no one will speak against God’s name and our teaching.
2 The slaves whose masters are believers should not show their masters any less respect because they are believers. They should serve their masters even better, because they are helping believers they love.
1 Timothy 6:1-2
To Choose Prosperity… Choose Respect
You must choose to respect your boss and do your work well
According to a recent Gallup poll one out of five working Americans is dissatisfied with their job.
You know you’re dissatisfied with your job when you feel exhausted after every single day, when you find new work assignments frustrating, when you find yourself taking longer and longer breaks. You find yourself regularly checking the want ads and updating your resume.
Now on the surface 1 Timothy doesn’t seem to apply to us – most of us would not apply the word “slave” to our present status in society.
But in the Roman Empire when the New Testament was written, one-third of the people in the Roman workforce were slaves. And this slavery in the ancient world wasn’t based on race like it was in our nation’s history. Most people went into slavery for mostly economic reasons, or political reasons. Either because they couldn’t pay their debts, or their country was overrun and they were taken captive.
For economic slaves, slavery was temporary, just until the person could pay off their bills. For political slaves it was a reality of life.
There was a certain security of slavery and some simply choose to spend their entire lives as slaves. Some people became slaves to advance their social standing because you could get an education as a slave that you often couldn’t afford on your own. Upon release, an emancipated slave could advance in Roman society, even becoming an Roman senator.
Don’t misunderstand – slavery was scut work. It was never a good thing. Kinda like being an employee of a grease pit washing the dishes. This is not fun.
Slaves occupied the very bottom level of the workforce. Slaves truly worked dead end jobs, and even though slavery was often temporary, slaves were at the bottom of the ladder economically. So I don’t think it’s a leap to apply the principles between slaves and masters to people in their jobs, even though our jobs are voluntary – the work is often just as demeaning and low.
To Choose Prosperity… Choose Respect
1 All who are slaves under a yoke should show full respect to their masters so no one will speak against God’s name and our teaching.
Now with that said, look again at these verses – we are called upon to respect and work well for our bosses – whether they are believers or not. If not – as an example of our trust in God and if they are a believer the burden is even greater.
So here we find the key to dealing with dissatisfaction with our job. Prosperity can be found in viewing your work as service to God. How do you see your job? Every Monday millions of followers of Jesus Christ go to work without ever giving the slightest thought to what God thinks about what they do.
Most of us will spend more time working than doing anything else in our lives. Isn’t God concerned about what we do with all that time and energy? Does God care about selling insurance or repairing cars? Is God interested in computer networks, building houses, and making movies? Most Christians have never even asked the question.
You see, most Christians view their jobs as a necessary evil. They see their job as a kind of toil that they must experience so they can do the things they really want to do. Things like spend time with their family, go to the beach for the weekend, and so forth.
But God created us to work; labor is a part of God’s intention for us. The entrance of sin into our world made work more difficult for sure, but work in itself is not a result of sin.
In the book of Genesis, Adam was told to take care of the garden long before sin entered into the equation. There are over 230 different occupations mentioned in the Bible because God cares about our labor.
Part of our service of God is our job, whether it’s digging ditches, being a factory foreman, or selling clothes. We serve God in our jobs when we communicate God’s character through the quality of our work and the quality of our workplace relationships. That’s why Paul’s especially concerned about Christian employees with non-Christian bosses. You might be the only real Christian your boss has ever met, and how you treat your boss, how you do your job, and how you interact with your co-workers all communicate your commitment to Jesus Christ.
When we have a Christian boss, we should work even harder because it becomes even clearer that this is service to God. Unfortunately, I know lots of Christian business owners who prefer to not hire fellow Christians. The reason is that often a Christian employee thinks that he or she doesn’t have to work as hard, that they’ll get special breaks because they share a common faith with the boss. Paul would say working for a Christian boss means we should work all the harder, seeing our work as an expression of Christian love to our boss.
Are you dissatisfied with your job? Maybe the job isn’t the problem. Maybe you haven’t yet learned to view your job as service to God.
Now this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t get a better job if we can. In 1 Corinthians, one of Paul’s other letters; he encourages slaves to gain their freedom if they can, to move on to better kinds of employment. But even in the midst of a dead end job we can find contentment if we look at our job as our service to God. Do you view your job as service to God?
To Choose Prosperity… Choose Jesus’ Lifestyle
3 Anyone who has a different teaching does not agree with the true teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that shows the true way to serve God.
1 Timothy 6:1-8
There is a contrast here between two kinds of teaching – different and true.
The word “different” refers simply to unsound teachings. The word “true” could be translated as “healthy” or “sound”. It’s about wellness and rightness. It’s about being like what God designed you to be – in his image. Another way to say that is to be a “godly” man or woman.
The other way is to be “ungodly”. To be a false follower and from here you can easily become a false teacher.
The false teacher gives “different” teaching that is unsound instruction and ungodly.
The results are clear
The False Teacher…
4 This person is full of pride and understands nothing, but is sick with a love for arguing and fighting about words. This brings jealousy, fighting, speaking against others, evil mistrust, 5 and constant quarrels from those who have evil minds and have lost the truth. They think that serving God is a way to get rich.
1 Timothy 6:1-8
This person is puffed up with him or her own importance. The "unhealthy interest in controversies" in v. 4 is a deliberate contrast with the "sound instruction" of v. 3. The word "unhealthy" literally means "sick" or “an unhealthy ailment of the mind”
This sick, morbid interest in debates and controversies leads to a break down in relationships. So rather than promoting authentic Christian community, these teachings destroy community while they build up religion.
They become a body of people with a sick interest in controversies and are obsessed with the latest fad to sweep through the church. In the church in Ephesus it was over the Jewish dietary laws, while in our day it might be controversies over the rapture of the church or keeping the Sabbath or whether the tension in the middle east is a signal that Christ is about to return. This morbid obsession with controversies tears apart churches.
This foundation of false and sick teaching leads to a culture where the false teachers look to get rich from religion. Then they go so far as to teach their followers that their new teaching will help them get rich too. This reminds me of those preachers who proclaim the prosperity message in so many churches today. These preachers claim that God’s will is for every follower of Jesus to be wealthy. These preachers drive a expensive cars, wear expensive clothes, costly jewelry, Rolex watches, and flaunt their wealth because in their mind wealth is a sign of godliness, while poverty is a sign of ungodliness. They teach that godliness is a means to financial gain, just like the false teachers in Ephesus addressed here.
I am not a religious person. I don’t want to be a religious person. I want nothing to do with religion. Religion leads to a variety of false teachings that use God to satisfy hunger for wealth – in one form or another. Some use little titles or slogans like, “Name it and claim it”; “Health and Wealth teaching; or “Pray it and believe it.” These are all ultimately me-centric and oriented to personal wealth
Religion leads to a community of believers who’s love
of God is muffled in layers of stuff. Here we find the key to dealing with dissatisfaction with our faith. Contentment can be found in cultivating accurate beliefs and spiritual practices.
We teach people about how they can build these truths into their lives in the Family of God Seminar that we teach. If you haven’t yet attended a FOG seminar I want to encourage you to sign up and come on Feb 5th.
To Choose Prosperity… Choose Service
6 Serving God does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. 7 We brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out. 8 But, if we have food and clothes, we will be satisfied with that.
1 Timothy 6:3-8
Finally we come to the wealth part of the lesson. Some of you were worried we wouldn’t make it to this part!
But here is where we struggle the most when it comes to discontentment.
Most of us don’t think of ourselves as wealthy. Surveys have found that people tend to look at those who make exactly double of whatever they make as rich, regardless of their income level.
So someone who makes $30,000 a year thinks of someone who makes $60,000 as rich. And those who make $50,000 think of the wealthy as those who make $100,000, and those who make $100,000 as those who make $200,000.
It’s all Relative…
"It’s all relative. I sit down and say, ’I’ve got $10 billion, but Bill Gates has $100 billion; I feel like a complete failure in life"
Ted Turner, People Magazine, 6/12/00
Even billionaire Ted Turner struggles with dissatisfaction with his income. He said recently, "It’s all relative. I sit down and say, ’I’ve got $10 billion, but Bill Gates has $100 billion; I feel like a complete failure in life" (People 6/12/00 p. 62).
People will do incredibly immoral and bizarre things for money. They’ll go on Fear Factor and eat unspeakable stuff for a chance to win $50,000.00. Just a chance – mind you!
We hear about teenagers robbing liquor stores to buy an expensive pair of tennis shoes. And business people sacrificing their health, their family, and their dignity to get that six figure income.
And it’s never enough.
Prosperity is being satisfied…
6 Serving God does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have.
SATISFIED: AV translates as “sufficiency” once, and “contentment” once.
1 a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed.
2 sufficiency of the necessities of life.
3 a mind contented with its lot, contentment.
To Choose Prosperity… Choose Service
“Money will buy you a bed but not sleep. It will buy you books but not intelligence, food but not an appetite, a house but not a home, medicine but not health, amusement but not happiness, religion but not salvation—"
Look what the Bible says about dissatisfaction with our income. Godliness holds great advantage in our lives if it’s accompanied by true contentment. The Greek word "contentment" refers to feeling satisfied with what you have in life.
Contentment isn’t simply giving up and saying, "Well I guess this is my lot in life." Contentment goes much deeper, and its much more positive than mere surrender to fate. Contentment is not obsessing about having more, but being secure in what you have today, even if it’s not everything you want. Contentment is able to distinguish between what we really need--like food and shelter--and what we want, like motorcycles and recreational vehicles.
The implication of v. 6 is that a God-centered life brings true contentment into our lives. A God centered life fills that empty place in our soul that that advertisers exploit. Only a God centered life can fill that empty place.
Paul reminds us that all of us have an appointment with death. And when death does come, we can’t take our money or our possessions with us. We enter into the world broke, completely dependant on the generosity of our parents. In our lives we accumulate lots of stuff, make some money, and have a family, but when we leave, we leave alone. None of our possessions go with us.
What’s most important in your today? Is it the value of your stocks or the kind of car you drive? Is it the amount of money you spend on your kids at Christmas? Or is it the quality of your relationships? Is it knowing that God loves you deeply and has rescued you from sin by bringing you to Jesus? What is most important?
These are the Decisions that Lead to Living and Loving Life
Choose Respect
Choose Jesus’ Lifestyle
Choose Service
But like any key, these keys do us no good unless we use them to unlock God’s promised contentment. This is why so many Christians are dissatisfied with their jobs, with their faith, and with their income, because they’ve been given these keys, but they haven’t used them. We unlock contentment today by deciding to view our work as service to God, by deciding to cultivate our soul with accurate beliefs and spiritual practices, and finally by deciding to focus on what’s really important in life. Will you do that today?
Imagine being on a beach, and God asking you to make an elaborate sandcastle on the beach. Imagine that this sandcastle is your life: your job, your accomplishments, your achievements, your bank account, and your home. So you build it. As you finally finish, you stand back to look at your beautiful sand castle, the life you’ve built for yourself. But just as you do, the waves begin to touch the base of the castle. Soon the waves are destroying your castle, as you see all you’ve worked for, all you’ve poured your life into, turn back into sand. You cry out, "Stop. It’s my castle" and you try to stop the waves, but the ocean is far too powerful.
But then you remember, you only built the castle because God asked you to. Which is more important? The castle you’ve built or God who you were trying to please by building the castle? That’s the question we need to ask ourselves every day.
