pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness, fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Please be seated. So there's a story of a very wealthy man who left instructions that when he died, he wanted all of his money to be buried with him. Well the day came and at the funeral home they had ordered an extra large casket because he was worth about ten million dollars. And the bank truck rolled up and he started putting bags and bags and bags and bags of cash inside the casket. He got to the very end. And at the last second, the mortician takes all the cash out and he puts it in a safe. And then he writes a check, he puts it in the casket and he seals it up. That's it. The moral of the story is you really can't take it with you. And we've had several readings lately about our relationship with stuff, right? There was there was the rich man who built bigger barns and made a place for his stuff. In Hebrews we were told not to be lovers of money. Paul wrote to Philemon, encouraging him to think differently about his slave, Onisimus. And then last week's gospel was the parable of the unfaithful steward. And the bottom line of that was it is impossible to serve, to love, to worship both God and money. And the overarching theme has been this. There are two paths to follow in this world. There's the way of heaven and the way of the earth and the way of the world. And if it's not obvious by now, through all of these creatures that are attitudes about things of this earth and especially money or attitudes are very important to the Lord. If anybody has taken a crown ministry's class, I know there's a few people here who are taking crown ministries. If anybody taking crown ministries, you've learned that one of the first things you learn, that there are more scriptures on their more verses on the topic of money than any other single topic in all of the Bible. And even in our epistle reading, which we're going to focus on a moment, the verse, the piece that I pulled out at the beginning, talking about fighting the good fight of faith, taking hold of eternal life. That comes right in the middle of this admonition, two admonitions about wealth, money and contentment. And he says, fight the good fight of faith. I bring all this up because we're coming into our stewardship season as a church. And starting next week, you're going to begin to hear from the stewardship committee about that next year, this coming year, things that we want to do as a church and where the budget is going to go. And then we're going to ask you, all of us, to make pledges towards making that happen. Now, first of all, as we talk about stewardship, let's talk quickly about what is in that. Stewardship is not about you giving everything to God so you will somehow earn favor or blessings or God will do something big. You give him a dollar, he's going to give you 10. That's not what this is about. There are whole sections of the church that not our church, but there are whole sections of, I want to use church loosely, but there are those in represent Christianity that teach that. And quite frankly, it's heresy. We don't pay so God will multiply that. That's not how it works. The other thing it's not. It's not like spiritual arm twisting. It's not about an emotional plea for you guys to keep the doors open. You know, I mean, those, those things are necessary. We want to keep the lights on and keep the doors open. But if that's the only reason why we're giving to the church, then it's not a really good reason. Good stewardship, especially according to Paul in 1 Timothy, is the byproduct of this heavenly perspective on wealth. It's having a God's perspective on contentment. And it's asking ourselves, what does God want to do with church of the Holy Spirit? So that's what we're going to address this morning as usual. Please take out your scripture inserts. We're going to rock it through most of this stuff. I don't know why I do that to myself. Try to hit on all of us. But I'm convinced that that stewardship season is actually codified into the election area because when you look at all the scriptures are pretty much all stewardship based. So whatever I don't hit on, you go ahead and read on your own tonight. Okay, so we're going to start this morning looking at Amos and the gospel briefly because I want to set up the context of Timothy. Now, if you remember, the book of Amos is God's indictment of Israel. God is bringing charges against Israel. And he's telling them that because of their wealth and but the way that they've abused and neglected the poor, they're going to be judged and they're going to be sent into exile. And then you have the parable. Now in a parable, you have two characters in this and it's a comparison of exaggerations. Really? Both characters are an exaggeration. You have the richest of the rich and you have the poorest of the poor. But it's more than that because the rich man is flaunting his wealth and he pays no heed whatsoever to Lazarus. Lazarus, on the other hand, is left begging at the rich man's doorway and there's no indication that he even received scraps from the table. The only attention Lazarus gets are from the dogs. And then they die. And Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom and the rich man goes to hell. And in a very real sense, this parable is a picture of God's judgment in Amos playing out because just like the Pharisees were lovers of money, Jesus is saying this same thing is happening in a rich man. The rich man is being judged for that very same thing. And remember, this parable is part of a string of parables that are all in response to the Pharisees. Remember a few weeks ago we read that the Pharisees looked at Jesus and said, why do you hang out with tax collectors and sinners? And one after another Jesus shares these parables. In this parable, Luke had just called the Pharisees' lovers of money and then Jesus tells this story to make a point. Lovers of money will not inherit heaven. And more than that, not just that, that it's actually the tax collectors and the sinners that are going to end up in Abraham's bosom, why is that? Because they were genuinely seeking to know and understand God. Remember the story? Jesus is teaching and all of these outcasts are getting close enough to write they can just hear they were longing to know what he was saying. Now just a rich man goes to hell because he's rich? Absolutely not. It's because he was a lover of money. He loves everything about money. He loves everything he could do with money, the purple robes, the linen, the sumptuous feasts. He loves flaunting the money. He loves everything that he could do for himself.
There's heaven's way and the way of the world and he chose the ladder. Okay, so how do we know if we're lovers of money? Are you a little uncomfortable right now? Yeah, I'm there. I mean, how do we know that we're lovers of money? Because I don't know about you. I like money. And I'll be honest, I would like to have a little more right now. There are things that I want to do. There are things I want to fix or there are things I like money. So how do we navigate through this turmoil of we've just been convicted about, you know, my bank account or whatever? This is where first Timothy comes in and becomes very, very helpful for us. So in a Timothy passage, we find one of the verses of scripture that is one of the most misquoted verses. There's a lot of bad ones, but this is one of the most misquoted in all the Bible because money is not the root of evil, but it's the love of money. And just, we talked about what the Pharisees love is of money, just we talked about Israel. It's the love of money, that what it reads to all kinds of evil. So what is it about loving money? That's so awful. Well, I'll answer that question. It's about contentment. It's about contentment. It's about being content with what God has given us provided for us. It's about being content with not having everything in life or at least everything that we want to have. And the thing is, just as you cannot serve God and money, it's impossible to love money and remain content. And in one of the characteristics, a godliness is seeing everything that God has provided for us and being okay with that. That's contentment. The things that He's given us right now and not longing for more that is contentment. So again, it's a matter of keeping this heavenly mindset, this heavenly perspective, it's putting everything into this context that we're only here for a little while. Paul says, we brought nothing into this world. We are taking, like the millionaire with check, we're taking nothing out with this. And in the sermon of the mount, Timothy says about food and clothing. Where, remember what Jesus says in the sermon of the mount? Don't worry about what you will eat or what you will wear. I take care of the birds of the field and the flowers. Don't worry about these things. Paul is referring to that same understanding. And what contentment really is, it's about giving up self-sufficiency and becoming Christ's sufficient. It's living in the space where we are dependent upon Him for the things of life. Because, quite frankly, lovers of money who are actually really good at it, they don't need God, right? If you can rely on yourself, what do you need God for? I mean, that's why Jesus says it's harder for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven than a camel to go through the eye of the needle. That's because a camel so big is because those who are rich, capital R, those who are lovers of money, are self-sufficient and not God sufficient. But when we are content with Christ, when we're content with the things that He has given us to live on, then godliness with contentment becomes great gain. But what kind of gain is it? It's that gain that lasts. It's spiritual gain. Do you see the irony in Paul's words? He's talking don't grasp or gain, don't grasp or gain, don't grasp or gain. This is the way you get gain. But what kind of gain is it? It's spiritual growth and contentment in Christ. Now, we may not, I probably, I mean, I know most y'all, I don't think we're all lovers of money. So let's just assume we're not lovers of money. But are we content? Are we content? I don't know about you, but this is a challenge I face every day. Living in contentment is hard. How do we survive a life when, you know, I wouldn't like to have more or, you know, I got a leaky oil pan in my truck or whatever it is, you know. How do I live at that? Well, this is, this is why Paul says that phrase right in the middle. This is where he talks about fighting the good fight of faith and holding on to eternal life. Remember, that phrase comes between two comments about living with contentment because contentment is hard and it's a struggle that demands faith, it demands fighting the good fight of faith. So that we may take hold of the eternal life. So that verse applies to everything in a life. We could, we were decided to change our mission, which I'm not suggesting, but we could use that fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the term. I mean, not to good phrase. But in Paul's argument, he's talking about money and contentment. We are constantly, we must constantly fight the war, the battle of our desires. Because discontent needs to entitlement. We begin to justify our lifestyles. We redefine the necessities of food and clothing. Instead of jeans and steak and shake, it's our money and cowty-ar. This food and clothing, right? I hope like none of you have in our money, because I just like make you feel awful. Maybe you do. I don't know. Our money is okay. But we start redefining what is a basic necessity when we become discontent, who will save us from this. And Paul answers it in the next, in the next portion. He says, I charge you to keep a command with us, spot our blame until a manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings, and the Lord of lords. He is the one that saves us from our battle. The one who dwells in unapproachable light is so close to us that he knows our needs, that he provides for us, and that he helps us be content with that. Because he, when we're walking in that space, he becomes our sufficiency. And he saves us from ourselves. He saves us in that battle. And here's the thing that doesn't matter whether we have a little or a lot. We can be discontent, or we can be content in a, in Paul's biblical way of being content. Paul says, I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. Paul ate the bread of a prisoner several times, the gruel of a prisoner, and he also ate at the table of the wealthy. He was able to do that by keeping his eyes on Christ that prize. The one who is his sufficiency, whether he's eating gruel, or whether he's feasting. One writer put it this way regarding possessions. Possessions are only the traveling luggage of time. They are not the stuff of eternity. And again, it's about perspective. We've talked about several times recently. We've talked about looking towards glory. That's our perspective. We hold a heavenly mindset today, but we have a place where we're going. And where we're at today, the things it's just traveling luggage. It's just to get us from point A to point B, because there's so much greater. You want to know about contentment? We're going to fight with contentment every day of our lives on this earth, but let me tell you, there's a day common where contentment will be perfect because we will dwell with Christ. He will be our perfect sufficiency then. This is why the Bible says to store up for yourselves treasures that are in heaven because that's where we're going. How do we do that? We do that through generosity. Paul, the last part of our passage, Paul is actually addressing those who in this time are wealthy, and he basically says be generous. Contentment frees us up to be generous with the things that are given. And it's not just money, it's our time, our talent, our treasure, and we invest in the things that are eternal when we invest in the kingdom of God. We invest in those things that really matter. We're able to be content with less than what we would desire to have. And then use that extra to invest in what God is doing. And in doing that, we're able to build a foundation for a future that is full of praise and glory and honor to the blessed and only sovereign as Paul puts it. This is why we're going to ask you to pledge, not because we want to keep the lights on of that, that's important, but because we want to invest in the future. We want to invest in the future kingdom work that is the church of the Holy Spirit and all the things that God might have to do in the future. But we're also investing in eternity. We're taking the things that are given us up on earth and we're changing them into eternal treasures. Our mission statement is to no Christ and to make him known. This is what we are about. So your pledges go to that work. It's it goes to helping us as a congregation grow. It goes to not just in numbers, although I want that to happen, but it helps it goes to help us to grow in our spirit. It goes to help us to help others grow. It goes to help us reach out into the community to bring God's light to the community so that there is eternal growth in the kingdom. We do that by enabling our coming together and worship. We do that by enabling our Bible study and prayer time and by going out. And the last thing that I want to ask is, what does God want church of the Holy Spirit to do? What does he want us to impact the kingdom? Because he has a plan. Well, I think he wants us to grow. I think certainly he wants us to flourish. In the coming year, God wants us to grow in our knowledge and understanding and love for him. He wants us to grow deeper in the word and he wants us to reach out. He wants us to impact our neighborhood in the city and central Florida. He wants us to put our fingerprints on our little area of the world and we do that by investing in his work in the kingdom. But we can only do that when we get to that point where we're content and we're able to trust in Christ. And I got all the fingers pointed at me at this point. And we are able to trust in Christ to get us through what our needs are so that we may invest ourselves and our time, time, time, time, and time together into what he's doing. But all of this is what's involved in knowing Christ and making him known. Amen?