I Timothy 6
Thesis: God wants you to build more than a sandcastle.
I was reminded this week of a trip I took to Cancun once. I assume you have all visited a beach, or at least played in a sand box as a kid, and built a sandcastle.
Well, one day we were playing on the beach, and of course, we decided to build a sand castle. So I found this big rock that was well up on the beach, and I built my castle off the back of it, away from the ocean to keep it safe from the tide. It was a typical castle with a mote and a wall and such. But as evening approached, so did the tide. The waves would roll in and slid out, roll in and slid out, each time a little closer to my rock, and my castle, like it was teasing me saying, �It�s only a mater of time.� With rhythm like a clock pendulum, it got closer and closer. Eventually, it reached the rock. And then, I stood back to watch it fill my mote and washout my castle.
There�s something about sand that makes us want to build and shape it. I wonder if that is part of God�s image showing in us, the artist, the creator. I think God likes it when we work with our hands and make beautiful things.
I heard a story once about a rich man who desperately loved a woman, who desperately loved chocolate. So He made her a beautiful castle all out of chocolate. You can probably guess how the story ended. The sun came out, melted the castle and all was lost.
There are a lot of things in life that we invest time, energy, and recourses in to, and they just don�t last.
We fix our cars up and they break down or rust out. We buy the latest tecky gadget or CD and in a few weeks it�s outdated or out of style. We save up a bunch of money and in a moment of weakness or crisis, it�s all gone. Everything physical that we base our hope and happiness on in this world is like a sandcastle, that will eventually be washed away. But God wants you to build more than a sandcastle.
Today, we�re looking at the last chapter of I Timothy. Here, Paul is giving Timothy some final thoughts and advice about greed vs. contentment. This is an especially appropriate topic as we enter into the greediest and most generous time of the year, the Christmas season.
Let�s take a look, I Timothy 6, starting with verse 3.
3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9People 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. 10For 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.
Paul's Charge to Timothy
11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight 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. 13In 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 14to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which God will bring about in his own time�God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who 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.
17Command 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. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In 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.
20Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.
Grace be with you.
Money poses a strange paradox. On one hand, it�s highly dangerous and can destroy families, lives and reputations and on the other hand, we must have it to function in this world.
Jesus dealt a lot with money matters because money matters. For some of us, though, it matters too much. How we handle money reveals a lot about the depth of our commitment to Christ and our faith. That's why Jesus talked a lot about money. One-sixth of the gospels, including one out of every three parables, touches on stewardship.
Our Daily Bread, August 26, 1993.
Now, I understand that most of us in this room are not managing huge incomes, and some of you may not even have an income yet, but this still applies to you.
I don�t know how many of you are familiar with the Dave Ramsey teachings. He�s a popular Christian financial advisor. Well, my dad was telling me about how my brother and his wife were getting help through the Dave Ramsey program, and Dave Ramsey this, and Dave Ramsey that, Whoohoo. Well, in my typical flawed financial reasoning, I said, �I don�t get into the Dave Ramsey teachings. As I see it, it�s like he�s teaching us how to be a rancher and how to manage cattle, and unless I have a head or two, that doesn�t do me any good.� Almost as soon as I said it I realized how foolish it was, because whether you have a little or a lot, whether it�s today or tomorrow, you will still have to manage money. A friend of mine said the other day, �you can be as poor as a church mouse and still have the love of money.�
And that�s the premise of our text.
What do you value?
What do you invest your life in?
What are you investing today in?
If it�s anything but Kingdom work, it�s a sandcastle, and God wants you to build more than a sandcastle.
Let�s talk about two reasons. First,
Your sandcastles won�t last, it�s temporary.
Outside of relationships, primarily your relationship with God, everything is temporary.
Let�s take a look at Matthew 6:19-21
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
And Luke 12:21talks about laying up treasure for yourself vs. being rich toward God.
So what does it mean to be rich toward God, or lay up treasures in heaven?
Well, verse 18 says to be rich in good deeds, to be generous, and willing to share. In other words, live for others. Love God; Love others.
One day an old, rich man, who was terribly depressed, visited a rabbi, who took the rich man by the hand and led him to a window. "Look out there," he said. The rich man looked into the street. "What do you see?" asked the rabbi. "I see men, women, and children," answered the rich man. Again the rabbi took him by the hand and this time led him to a mirror. "Now what do you see?" "Now I see myself," the rich man replied.
Then the rabbi said, "Behold, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver, and no sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others, but you see only yourself."
Source Unknown.
The love of money will buy you no treasures in heaven.
Contentment, not greed, will buy you treasures in heaven.
Verse 6-8 says,
6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Paul is again reinforcing the teachings of Christ that we find in Mathew 6:25-34.
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I was looking at these verses with an advisor, a Bible college professor, recently. It says, �do not worry about your life�do not worry about tomorrow.�
And I asked, half jokingly, so what about all these college students, preparing for the future? Doesn�t this verse discourage that? We should just live in today, right? Don�t worry about tomorrow. And he didn�t answer me. He just kinda shrugged and seemed to agree with my question.
So what does a guy do with that?
This is what I found.
Be content with what you have, never with what you are. Did you catch that? Be content with what you have, never with what you are.
Always be growing, always learning. Always peruse knowledge and wisdom.
Proverbs 8:10
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
A group of the world's most successful financiers met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. The following were present: The president of the largest utility company, The greatest wheat speculator, The president of the New York Stock Exchange, A member of the President's Cabinet, The greatest "bear" in Wall Street, The president of the Bank of International Settlements, The head of the world's greatest monopoly. Collectively, these tycoons controlled more wealth than there was in the U.S. Treasury, and for years newspapers and magazines had been printing their success stories and urging the youth of the nation to follow their examples. Twenty-five years later, this is what had happened to these men:
The president of the largest independent steel company, Charles Schwab, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died broke.
The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cutten, died abroad, insolvent.
The president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, served a term in a Sing Sing Prison.
The member of the President's Cabinet, Albert Fall, was pardoned from prison so he could die at home.
The greatest "bear" in Wall Street, Jesse Livermore, committed suicide.
The president of the Bank of International Settlements, Leon Fraser, committed suicide.
The head of the world's greatest monopoly, Ivar Drueger, committed suicide.
It�s been said that all of these men had learned how to make money, but not one of them had learned how to live.
Source Unknown.
But you might say, �I want to be wealthy so that I can give more.� There�s some credibility in that, very little, but some. The problem is that a life or a ministry based on money will be empty. Look at verses 9&10.
9People 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. 10For 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.
Now, I�m not going to go into detail here on all the temptations and traps he might be referring, but this leads us to the second reason God wants you to build more than a sandcastle.
Your sandcastles won�t ever get big enough
Have you ever seen a sandcastle big enough to live in? I doubt it.
I used to day dream about what I would do if I ever was given or won a million dollars. An ironic thing about this sort of daydreaming is that I don�t even play the lottery. But I saw a comic once where this guy is looking at the newspaper, and his friend asks him what section he�s reading. He says he�s checking the lottery winners to see it he won. He�s friend says, �But you don�t play the lottery.� �Ya� the guy agrees, �but I figure I have just as many chances of winning.� So I figure, God can do anything, I could inherit it or win it somehow.
Anyway what if?
Perhaps I would give it to my church. What would they do with it? Maybe build a new building. Would a building be the best investment of God�s money?
Perhaps I would give it to some relief effort for the starving of the world, but how far would my one gift go to curing poverty?
Perhaps I would invest it and bless the Lords work through the interest it would accumulate.
One day I was day dreaming about this while I went door to door passing out fliers for a small church. And it dawned on me; hello, I�m daydreaming about money while trying to do God�s work. That just didn�t seem right, so I figured I needed to get focused on the task at hand. So I started praying for each house as I visited it. It wasn�t but two or three houses later, there was a man outside, and out of the blue he asked me, �What size of pants do you where?� I told him. He reached in the back of his truck and pulled out about a dozen pair of pants, just my size.
And he just gave them to me.
As I walked away, God and I laughed inside. It was like He said, �Get your mind and heart in the game and on others, and I will take care of your needs before you ask.�
John G. Wendel and his sisters were some of the most miserly people of all time. Although they had received a huge inheritance from their parents, they spent very little of it and did all they could to keep their wealth for themselves. John was able to influence five of his six sisters never to marry, and they lived in the same house in New York City for 50 years. When the last sister died in 1931, her estate was valued at more than $100 million. Her only dress was one that she had made herself, and she had worn it for 25 years.
The Wendels had such a compulsion to hold on to their possessions that they lived like paupers. Even worse, they were like the kind of person Jesus referred to in Luke 12:21, "who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
Daily Walk, June 2, 1993.
The issue is not if your rich or poor. The issue is what you value vs. what you are willing to give up freely. And that comes from what you put your faith in, God or your stuff. Is your focus on having the latest and coolest stuff or being a link between God and the people around you? You are called to �pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called...do good,� be rich in good deeds, and �be generous and willing to share. 19In this way � lay up treasure for [your]selves � so that [you] may take hold of the life that is truly life.� God wants to you to devote yourself to building His kingdom, not your sandcastle.
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