Continue our look at At money getting a biblical view of that as we are in the middle of our Building campaign destination beyond where faith leads and we're first to the 6th for 17 and if you don't have a Bible with you There's the text is printed for you in your bulletin on an outline as well. It's on the screen behind me You'll be there in just a moment The W.H. Vanderbilt once said the care of $200 million is enough to kill anyone. There's no pleasure in it Now, I'd like to test that theory and see if it's true And and I think you know if that's true, it would kill you and I think what a way to go You know that wouldn't be all bad would it and they think about money and about wealth and And it does seem to be though a mixed blessing we look at people who have mass-rate fortunes and And you know some have said you Rockefeller believes who it was said that millionaires rarely smile as that People when they get wealth it also seems to bring with it a host of trouble and you look at people who have quickly become wealthy And we see that very clearly you see that with with athletes. You see that with with music stars and so on How the wealth does seem to bring them into a whole new level of trouble But also, you know, let's be honest money comes in handy too. I mean, it's a nice thing to have around and Because of that, I think that many times we have sort of a mixed view of it We look at at wealth and we see the corruption that it brings and and the distorting the sort of thinking that it brings But we also see how it can bring many good things and this morning's we look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 The apostle Paul is going to talk about this He's going to talk about how with wealth there are certain inherent dangers that come with it There's certain risks, but there are also many rewards and if we as Christians are going to follow price as Lord of our life and Every area of our lives then we ought to need to understand and get a good biblical view of money about how we're to view it How we're to handle it even how we're to enjoy it in a way that brings honor to God So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning 1 Timothy chapter 6 beginning with verse 17 It's we seek to get a good understanding of wealth and how we can minimize its risk and maximize its rewards This is God's word Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant in order 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 and good deeds and to be generous and willing to share and this way They will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life This is God's word Again, as we look at this morning We're first going to look at the risk of wealth the risk of wealth and the first risk of the apostle Paul brings up in this text It's point a is arrogance Now Paul starts off this text he dresses those who are rich says command those who are rich in this world and immediately many of us will Breathe the style of releasing body's not talking about me because a few of us here any would probably consider ourselves rich Yet we know we know that that by my my most standards all of us here are rich by historic standards If you have air conditioning in a telephone you're far better off than 99% of the people throughout history Not only that if you have air conditioning in a telephone You're better off than the majority of people in the world today And so all of us by my really any objective measure On any international scale are quite rich. We may not be as rich as some other people we know But really we truly are rich. We are wealthy So the apostle Paul's words here are not just for those who who may live in Iowa or or Bay Hill But it's it's addressed to those who live right here in East Orlando command those who are rich in this present world And the first command is not to be arrogant now arrogance Oftentimes does come with wealth It's easy once you've obtained a certain measure of wealth to look down your nose at those who don't have it and and we see this sort of Snobbery all the time In fact, we most readily see it in those who are snobbs towards us not necessarily in our treatment of others But the fact is that we that all of us tend to look at social class Now that old adages do not judge a book by its cover Don't judge book by its cover, but the truth is that we all judge books by their cover We all judge people by appearances Research has shown this over and over again Studies have shown that the way you dress will affect the way sales people will treat you when you walk into a store You can conduct this experiment on your own You go go into a nice clothing store and if you are dressed nicely if you wear a nice suit or a nice dress and you go in You'll get one type of service if you come in and you look like you just walk off the street see how you get treated It will be radically different and and people do treat you differently Research also found that if the way you dress combines conveys high social status The people are more likely to return your change if you leave it in the phone booth than if your dress does not convey high social status Now what's interesting about this that means that the people who need money the least would get it returned to them the most And research also shows that if you drive an expensive car People are less likely to honk at you at the traffic lights if the light turns green and you don't give me a junker Research it's true. You get behind somebody in a brand new Mercedes or something and you're less likely to put on the horn Than if there's that corolla as just as a state of facts experiment show that subjects Characterized work favorably people pictured in front of upper middle class homes the those in front of lower class homes Just by looking at a picture people will like the person in front of the upper class home better than the lower class home We judge books by the cover all the time and and we all know this this is a research is just saying what we know and To it really is true that we judge by a whole set of criteria and money seems to be the primary scorecard on how we evaluate other people and Since we know that all of us are are in since become status seekers and we become very insecure in our place Professor Rutgers says that there's no one around that isn't fearful that somehow they're gonna fall from their place in society to a lower Stratum and so we live in the sphere and so we because we have this fear We become very attached to status symbols because what's the point of having wealth if nobody knows you have wealth And so somehow you have to display that you have wealth and so we become very attached to those things which seem to give us The appearance says here's where I've been into society here's here's where I've been in you can tell by my dress Here's who I am. This is my identity. This is my worth and this is my esteem And so we attach a lot of significance to a to a status symbols and that's my designer labels have become so important for us But there's a problem and here's the problem Designer labels have become so ubiquitous that everybody has them in fact You can't even buy anything at Ross without a Tommy Hilfiger or or or Polo logo on it And so I mean that means even the poorest among us where status symbols and so the question is then what if you really are rich? How do you let people know? I mean, you know if a status if everybody has a status symbol It's no longer a status and that's really how it's become well Fortunately in a great action compassion fashion designers have come through and George Yo Armani Ralph Lauren and Donna Karen have quietly begun catering to upper Stratis status seekers by providing a line of clothing that cost over twice as much as the other lines of clothing and these are only available They're boutiques for example of our money offers a group of beaded and embroidered gowns available only in his boutiques Price is about $12,000 that's in title not included and and don't know about betrayed in values of these But the $12,000 that Donna Karen has my my hand printed and and hand-died dresses that start from $5,000 One of the boutique owners was asked about these high-end clothing have so expensive clothes and she said well really women today are interested in quality Quality $12,000 will buy you a lot of quality That's quality. No. That's that's not it at all and we and we know that when we go shopping what we're interested in is Status we're interested in saying I'm of this social class, which is higher than yours social class And we tend to measure people that way and the reason is is is we we're drawing our identity from it and it's a human tendency And it's not just the rich we all do this at wherever we are in the pecking order Everyone and and it's a human tendency to look at those who have less as being worth less And we probably like to think that the reasons and we have more is because we deserve more and with that comes a sense of Erragance a sense of I am better than you and see I can prove it I've got the stuff to prove that I am better their possible Paul says no guard against that sort of arrogance and the reason we guard against that sort of arrogance It's because we don't have more because we deserve more we have more because everything that we have is a gracious gift of God Everything that you have your car your house your clothes your intellect your work ethic even was a gift of God Everything you have you may say I work for what I have but who gave you the ability to work for what you have Who gave you the opportunity to succeed in the way that you've succeeded Moses warned the people of Israel against the Stanger they were getting ready to go into the promised land and when they were going in he told them they were going to enjoy Incredible prosperity and when the prosperity came Erragance would come as well and here's what he writes to them He says you may say to yourself My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me But remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms this covenant which he Swords your forefathers as it is today Rather than being arrogant were to be thankful right we should see that if everything we have Your family your treasures everything that you have is a gracious gift of God that has come to you from his hand Out of his own divine grace and so arrogance is a danger that we're to guard against but the second risk It comes with riches is that we would point B is that we would trust in riches Trust in riches verse 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 And it's really difficult to pray the Lord's prayer when you have a full refrigerator It is very hard just to say give us this day our daily bread when it doesn't look like you're gonna run out of daily bread for a long long time and and we find that's true that It's when you have wealth and a strong income stream coming in you you find that you don't need to depend on God that much where it would become far less dependent the most You know the most objective measure to find out whether or not you're depending on God is your prayer life and And I think most of us would say that we one of the reasons we don't pray is because we don't necessarily feel the need to bring We don't pray give us this day our daily bread because the pantry is full Publix is around the corner. We know where the daily bread is coming from and so so we don't pray because we really don't see the need to pray In fact, we could probably go a whole week without praying and it might not make a bit of difference in your life this next week It might not And you know and we can say that's true. You know how you know that's true It's because most of us probably have done that and we're here to live in to tell about it And so we find that we are not dependent on God the reason we're not dependent on God is because we look at our bank accounts And we look at our jobs and we look at the checks that are coming in and we think I think I have it under control And so we put our trust in riches rather than trusting God money. You know money opens up all sorts of doors If you have money you have access and so it's easy to put your trust in money because money's power If you have money you have access to the political power look at the pardons If you have money you have access to legal power It is just a proven fact that people with money get better justice than those who don't have money But if you put a poor person under trial and put a rich person under trial Given that they have different attorneys is a different standard It is the way this system works if you have money you not only get to enjoy the good things of life But you get the best health care Money just provides access and power It brings with it the illusion of control It brings with it the illusion that we are able to manage our life But Paul points out that wealth is uncertain wealth is uncertain You know you think that someone like Bill Gates would be secure I mean Bill Gates has more money than the gross national product of a lot of countries He has he has a wealth even with Microsoft stock going down He's still richer than than anybody else you can imagine so here's a man who's got money If he's going to put his anyone can put their trust in riches he would here's a Bill Gates said he said in this business By the time you realize you're interoperable It's too late to save yourself unless you're running all the time you're gone What is the Bill Gates knows that we don't well is uncertain and he has a nagging sense of insecurity If you put your trust in wealth you have to live one or two ways if you can have to live with the anxiety of uncertainty of wealth Or you can have to live and denial about the uncertainty of wealth one of the two things great examples this week This week one week's time stock market loses 8% 8% now in mathematical terms that may not sound like a lot and Monetarily terms. It's a whole lot. I mean it sets you back years in your retirement program if you've been following them It is it can be a crippling blow 8% and that's after the NASDAQ being down What about 60% this past year and and we look at how people have put their confidence in riches and suddenly The wealth isn't there What makes us even more troubling is that under our time of economic boom and prosperity people have put more and more trust in riches One of the ways this shows ironically is that people have gotten more and more into debt In debt ironically is as a trust in riches It's assuming that the economy is going to continue It's assuming my salary is going to continue and it's assuming that things are always going to be stable It's putting your faith in riches And so what has happened during the past 10 years people have become more and more Trustful of the riches and so they've taken more and more debt for for 20 years ago The average household debt or the total household debt was about two-thirds of disposable income This past year for the first time household debt became over a hundred percent of Disposable income now you don't have to be a math major to know that that won't work very long That just won't work for this past year by January of 2001 Consumer debt reached the total of one point five trillion dollars Trillion not billion trillion dollars this past year for the first time people bought more things on credit than they did with cash And what is happening is people becoming more and more and more in debt and us news and world report and their cover story this past week As they talked about this said the problem is as long as the economy is good The debt will be manageable for most people not all but for most But the problem is we've had an incredible unemployment an incredible economy And if it turns south at all suddenly a whole bunch of people are going to be in trouble And as one expert says that we are right now in the greatest time of consumer vulnerability And so what happens ironically is as debt is assigned that people are putting their trust and wealth And it actually makes them even more vulnerable to the uncertainty of wealth And we have a have a nation of people who will be in crisis if the economy turns south at all In 1923 there's a very significant meeting at the edgewater hotel and at Chicago Attending this meeting where the the masters of the universe of their day There was the president of the largest independent steel company the president of the largest utility company The president of the New York stock exchange a member of the president's cabinet the greatest baron wall street The head of the world's greatest monopoly and the president of the Bank of international settlements these men were all there These men were the as I said the masters of the universe 25 years later 1948 the picture was much different Charles Schwab had died bankrupt after living on borrowed money for the last five years of his life You don't see that in the commercials do you Samuel Insul had died a fugitive from justice penniless in a foreign land Howard Hobson was insane author critten died of broad insolvent Richard Whitney had been released from singsing Albert fall was pardoned from prison so that he could die at home Jesse Livermore died a suicide as the Leon Frazier and Ivan Krueger All these men had all the wealth that the world can imagine at the time within 25 years their whole world had collapsed Paul says do not put your trust in riches which is so uncertain And that's the truth and we've seen it demonstrated time and time again Many gives us the feeling of control the control is just an illusion Those are the risk those are the risk of wealth the risk is you can become arrogant and you can put your your faith in the wrong thing But there are rewards to wealth there's a good side to it and the possible Paul gives us this as well And so we see this point to the rewards of wealth First we see a reward of wealth is point a it's a gift to enjoy A gift to enjoy Look again at verse 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 You catch that God is the one who provides us with our wealth And part of the reason he provides it for us is for our enjoyment We are allowed and in fact encourage to enjoy the bounty and the blessings that God has given us And the men have been attached to so much evil in the world that there's a tendency of some to sort of in a spiritualized mode to kind of demonize money In fact the scriptures have been often been misquoted as saying money is the root of all evil That's not what the scriptures teach The scriptures teach that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and there's a difference there One is an attachment to it another is seeing in money as a commodity to be to be used in an appropriate way And what has happened to is part of our problem is we tend to be dualist We tend to divide the world into the material and the spiritual and in the dualist mode We look at the material world as being evil and the spiritual world is being good And so what if you begin to look at the world that way as material things being evil and spiritual things being good Then it then it warves your perception of reality and how you look at how you look at life and the in fact the dualist We'll also look at these things and say since material things are evil They look at money as being evil pleasure as being evil Miracle intimacy as being evil and they look at these things as being corrupting influences on the soul And we've seen this happen in the church Historically much of the monastic movement monasteries were born out of this dualism And since people believed that that wealth I can't corrupt you and that that marital intimacy can corrupt you and the enjoyment of pleasures can corrupt you Men became monks and women became nuns in order to maintain spiritual purity They took vows of poverty and chastity and celibacy and they shunned all physical comforts in an attempt to grow closer to God And it was an earnest attempt, but it's a misguided attempt because Paul says here That that these physical blessings material blessings are our gifts of God for us to enjoy Now we tend to look at at these people who are called aesthetics for asceticism And we look at them people like like a mother tree saying to Gandhi and we think how great that they were willing to deny themselves And then it is good to deny yourself of the credibly corrupt or the sake of caring for others But denying yourself simply for the sake of denying yourself when there's no reason to it For example, if you have a comfortable bed and you choose to sleep on the floor, there's nothing spiritual about that If you have air conditioning coming to your house and and you just decide You know not to to enjoy it simply because you know You want to suffer for Jesus. You're not suffering for Jesus. You're just suffering And there's no reason for that Paul says we're to enjoy these things In fact, we see throughout the Bible that God gives us thanks for our enjoyment open up the Bible Genesis guy creates Adam and Eve. Where does he put them? Not in a durable cage with little bottle to come down a little grubby He puts them in this lush garden He doesn't just give them enough food to eat he gives them a bountiful garden And he doesn't just give them one through you know kind of like a one a day vitamin He gives them an assortment of trees They can eat of all the trees but one and then we've got to say here go and enjoy You know eat your full it's just pleasure. They didn't eat just a little Also for fun it was those pleasure involved and we see this that's the beginning The Bible is the Bible talks about how the world comes to an end with the kingdom of God coming The prophets talk about the kingdom of God and being in a time of prosperity and it talks about the hills dripping with wine and not just with with wine, but it says with aged wine Why doesn't it say with aged wine? It's saying it's gonna drip with a good stuff It's gonna be good. It's gonna be wonderful. You're going to enjoy it It's what the prophets were saying And then we see in the how God blessed his people as he gave them at times throughout the history of the Old Testament as As God called the people back to himself He gave them taste for taste of what the kingdom of God would be like and they had religious festivals If you read through the Old Testament you find out that the Jews were people who liked departing They had festivals all the time There are five major feasts some of these feasts went on for days for days and and these were festivals when they Celebrated to the glory of God where they enjoyed good things and enjoyed things to pull one another We got a new testament. We find Jesus Jesus that the first miracle they be performs is what Water to wine at a wedding now. What's the significance of that miracle was Jesus just showing see I've got power. I can turn into water to wine I can turn my wine to water He didn't turn wine to water. He turned water to wine. He did it at a wedding Why because the prophetic vision was was the coming of the kingdom of God is the is the wine is there and when they Turn the water to wine. What did people say? So wow you brought out the good stuff You know, they said you brought the good stuff as in other words it was festive It was in Jesus we find mine going around and the acquisition that the Pharisees to get against Jesus was that he was a glutton and a drunk Now we know that Jesus did not get drunk nor was he a glutton But we find Jesus is he celebrating with people and so that's why he's accused of this because Jesus said while the bridegroom is with you You party is what he said while the bridegroom is there you celebrate and you enjoy it And there's this enjoyment that we see in Jesus Jesus is the one who suffered But he's also the one who enjoyed and and the Christian life we see that as well Not only we encourage to enjoy the bounty of the earth But even even marital intimacy which which the monks shun we find God has given it to us Not simply for procreation, but also for pleasure the whole book is song a Solomon. It's not about I can't say everything here kiss the president. So it's uh, it's I'm in deep now. It's um It's about it's about loving enjoyment of one another. It's good to enjoy when a man and woman enjoy each other In the marriage union god is pleased god delights in that and so so god is not calling us Just simply to just look at money and things as being evil possible says no God's the one who gave them to you and you have you have the right to enjoy them And don't despise the gifts of the father don't despise them He is the giver of every good gift and so we can enjoy them to his honor and his glory well The second reward of wealth is not as a gift to be enjoyed. It's also a gift to be shared verse 18 Command them to do good to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share In this way, there will lay up treasures for himself as a firm foundation for the coming age So they may take hold of the life that is truly life
Ultimately when it comes to our money It's not our money When it comes to our money. It's not our money. We are not owners. We are managers It is god's will and god allows us to enjoy it in the same way You know a couple weeks ago is that a conference with some men And we're staying in this beautiful house and Breckenridge for free And I mean beautiful house Free two operative things and and there and it's in there thinking this is the life I mean, I thought Breckenridge Presbyterian Church has a nice ring to it and And it just doesn't know it's just wonderful But you know what it wasn't my house at the end of the week. I had to get out. I don't have a key It's not mine. I could enjoy it while it was there, but it wasn't mine to keep the same thing with our wealth We enjoy it, but it's not ours to keep in fact part of where usually god gives us wealth is to share is to be generous And so here Paul says command those who are rich to be to do good to be rich in good deeds to be generous and willing to share Now the word generous is a word somewhat open to interpretation What is generous? Well the average American gives about what now it used to be 2% now it's about 1.5% of their income to charity So if you give 5% of your income to charity to the average American you're considered generous But if you give 10% then the person gets 5% isn't generous You know anyway a person is generous as someone who gives as much as I do or more And that's typically how I measure it right Anyone who gives less than he's not generous, but that's The word generous isn't we can't just define it any way we want It's used in the context of scripture in a particular context by particular author this case the Apostle Paul Apostle Paul is a Jew who is a Pharisee and when he had the term generous in mind He's saying that in his own cultural context. What was his cultural context? Well as a Jew Paul had been taught all his life about tithing Tithing is where we give 10% of our income to the Lord That's gross not net as we give 10% of our income to the Lord and this is we find it in the book of Genesis where Abraham gets a tithe and Melchizedek We find it all the way at the end of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi where God says do not rob me of my 10% of my tithe And so we find it throughout the scripture in the Old Testament the the scriptures the Apostle Paul Beyond tithing the Apostle Paul Growing up in Israel israel had also in the early days they had a temple tax Beyond the temple tax they had certain required givings to the poor for example if you Harvested a field you couldn't harvest the edges the poor were allowed to come and get that beyond that They had sacrifices that they had to offer all in all the average Jew probably ended up giving about 30% of their income away Or there about and so if the Apostle Paul talks about giving generously I doubt that 2% would have met his criteria as he was using in this context And we have to look at that and say then the 10% there must be at least a floor I mean that must be at kind of a minimum target given the context in which the Apostle Paul is running And so here we're commanded to give generously to give liberally And so that means then if we are going to give generously and liberally in our particular cultural context That means it's going to have to be sacrificial as well You cannot give generously without it costing you You can't just give out of the excess if you're going to give generous There's it going to be a cost to it you're going to it's going to be a sacrifice on your part But of course, that's the call the gospel Jesus gave himself generously for us and he calls us to give to others We do this not in any attempt to pay God back that would be an insult Nor in an attempt to earn his favor that would be a denial of the gospel We do it simply at a gratitude for the gospel and for delight in seeing others enjoying the gospel as well Through giving we better understand the gospel and I think the three ways which giving helps us understand the gospel more clearly First of all As Christians the reason we give is because God has given to us It's completely an acknowledgement that we live by grace We live by grace every day your next breath is a gracious gift of God your bank account is a gracious gift of God You're you're checked that you get from your boss is a gracious gift of God your house is a gracious gift of God your car Your health your family everything you have you have by grace and you have by grace alone And so when we give we're acknowledging that God is a gracious giver And because God is our father and we love our father our calling is to be like him You are never more for Christ like than when you give Christ is the giver and the apostle Paul reminds us of this that everything that we have Particularly our salvation becomes because Christ was generous towards us And second Corinthians Paul says this for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich Yet for your success he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich And so when we give we're saying we believe the gospel's true I live by grace and so therefore I want to show grace to others Well secondly the second way to give it helps us understand the gospel better Is that when we give we discover what we truly love When we give we discover what we truly love You know we have a tendency to have our heart attached to things When we sacrifice those things for the sake of the kingdom we find out what it is that truly brings us pleasure What brings you more joy that which you're many can buy or God himself and when so we cut ourselves off from from things We find our heart being drawn more and more to God we find out that which is truly valuable We sacrifice that which brings us less pleasure for the sake of that which brings us more more pleasure Our heart is drawn more and more to God Now third way that giving helps us understand the gospel is that it aligns our heart with God's heart Giving aligns our heart with God's heart And Jesus came to earth on a mission. He said this in Luke. He said here's the reason I came I came to seek and to save that which is lost That's why Jesus came and when Jesus left He says that we are to continue the mission and so in John he says just as the father sent me So send I you and so Jesus has sent us out on a mission and it is his mission And when we are giving for the glory of God sacrificing for the sake of the gospel Then we are our hearts are being aligned with God's heart. We are doing that which God would have us do We are doing that which is his purpose and so that's why You know we unashamedly and unabashedly are asking people to make pledges towards the building program Because we believe that God would have us take the gospel to East Orlando We're not ashamed of that at all In fact, we delight in it that God has given us the opportunity to be a part of what he's doing in East Orlando No, it's not about a building. The building is just a ministry tool But it's a very effective ministry tool many of you would not be here if it weren't for this building The fact is that we have moved into this building We have had over 200 professions of faith in Christ since we've been in this building over 200 And you think of that Most of those would not have happened if we had not been here. There would have been no Christmas coffee house There would have been no worship service the way that we have this morning There would have been no kids nine out the children's programs wouldn't be able to do what they do Our youth ministry would never be able to house the number of kids that it holds on Wednesdays and Thursday nights There really wouldn't be a college ministry here of anything to speak of either the building Facilitates all those things where people are growing in their love for Christ growing in their knowledge for Christ And so Sacrifice and for the sake of the buildings not for a building It's for something is going to be used to see people come to know Christ for many many years to come And so as we consider this we remember the words of the apostle Paul That God has blessed us and he's blessed us abundantly with well And it's there's a risk that we can become arrogant or we can trust in it But there's also an incredible reward that we can enjoy his goodness But we can enjoy even more as we give it away to see others come in and enjoy it as well Remember the words of the apostle Paul says command those who are rich in this present world Not to be arrogant not 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 and to do good to be rich and good deeds and to be generous and willing to share Let's pray