WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.120 We are today finishing up this letter from Paul to the very young pastor Timothy. 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:16.640 And the very last thing that Paul does in this letter is he gives commands to rich Christians. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:24.199 And no one likes it when preachers talk about money and the preachers like it, I think, 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:25.199 the least. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:30.800 So know that as we get started, Derek had taken this subject up two weeks ago in the 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:38.280 back half of his sermon because Paul treats money twice in his last chapter here in this 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:39.280 letter. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:43.200 He returns to the subject again here today. 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.840 And so it's Paul's fault. 00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:48.320 We work through the Bible. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:52.280 We preach the whole counsel of God as Paul put it in Acts 20. 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:53.480 And so here we are today. 00:00:53.480 --> 00:00:59.439 There's too much to say about the subject because, you know, if we talked about money 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:05.280 from the pulpit in the same percentage that the Bible does, I'm not sure that anybody 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:06.840 would still be around. 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:14.159 Jesus, New Testament scholars will say things that like Jesus refers to money and addresses 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:20.680 rich people about 20% of the time in the Gospels, about all of his words, 15 to 20%, something 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:21.680 like that. 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:28.520 But in this chapter in 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 to 10 where Derek was a couple weeks ago, 00:01:28.520 --> 00:01:34.000 is actually likely probably being addressed to the poor Christians in the church. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:39.440 He's saying those who have a particular love of the idea of having more money. 00:01:39.440 --> 00:01:43.840 And then here in our passage, verse 17 and 19, he's specifically coming back to rich 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:49.719 Christians in the church and saying that there's particular issues with having that money. 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:56.400 And so it's interesting because what Paul does here is basically say that money offers 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:02.719 particular temptations to every socioeconomic status, whether you're a poor Christian or 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:04.159 a rich Christian, he addresses. 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:08.560 He's saying there's a particular way to be tempted by either the money you don't have 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:10.599 or the money that you do have. 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:13.400 So temptation comes particularly in different ways. 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:17.120 And so let's see three lessons this morning briefly. 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.800 First we have to ask who are the rich that he's addressing? 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:26.280 Secondly, why the rich must be poor, which is what Paul teaches us here. 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:29.240 And lastly, how to be a rich Christian. 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:33.719 So first, who are the rich here that Paul's addressing? 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:40.520 Tim Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods, he talks about all the years of pastoral ministry 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:46.319 and how many people have come to his office to talk about their sin struggles and to work 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:47.319 through some of these. 00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:52.319 And he writes this, I've had every manner of person come to me with every kind of sin 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:58.199 that you can imagine to confess and work through in my office as a pastor, but not once in 00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:03.000 the 30 years plus of ministry has anybody ever come to me to say, I think I'm struggling 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:04.680 with greed. 00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:13.000 And Paul is saying here that all of us, because we deal with money period, we have an objective 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.879 temptation to greed. 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:20.479 Whether or not that temptation is grabbing you subjectively or not, objectively, when 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:25.919 you handle money, you face an objective temptation, a temptation that stands outside of you and 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:27.079 is against you. 00:03:27.079 --> 00:03:28.639 And that's greed. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:33.240 And Keller's point in that is that one of the reasons for that is that greed is different 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:36.199 than the other sins. 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:40.359 You know when you're committing adultery, you know when you're stealing, and you know 00:03:40.359 --> 00:03:44.120 when you're raging in anger against someone, you know it. 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:48.080 There's no hiding from it, but greed is very different than that. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:51.120 It's one of those sins that hides itself from us. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:52.480 We don't quite see it. 00:03:52.480 --> 00:03:55.280 It's one of those things that we might be blind to. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:02.740 And I think here when we see Paul say, Paul, Timothy, you need to talk to the rich Christians. 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:07.879 For all of us, there's an immediate, I think he's talking about somebody else. 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:14.359 And the reason that we do that, I think, is because we don't want to realize our wealth 00:04:14.359 --> 00:04:17.680 because we compare with everyone else around us. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:21.480 And the reason for this is because people like Elon Musk exist. 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:27.000 And we always know there's an Elon Musk out there, and he's rich, and that's not me. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:33.079 But closer to home we compare by just knowing, you know, there is a person to the right of 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:36.560 me that has 10 times the money I have, and I know that. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.600 And there's a person to the left of me that has 10 times less. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:43.860 But there's a person to the right of the person to my right that has 20 times more than the 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:46.120 person that has 10 times more than me. 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:51.439 And we look at people's lifestyles and we immediately think, you know, I do live quite 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:58.519 modestly compared to this person and then that person that's to the right, wealthier 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:00.360 than me in these areas. 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:07.240 Jesus Christ in the Gospels comes and gives more warning about this, about the heart in 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:12.120 relation to money than almost anything else that he warns about, that he talks about. 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:16.439 And I think the reason for that is because it's very tempting, both when you read the 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:21.360 Gospels or when you come and listen to Paul here to say, I'm not the person that he's 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.439 talking about. 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:28.080 And the Bible actually calls that out very clearly. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:32.919 Craig Blomberg, a New Testament scholar, has a fantastic book that I read this week called 00:05:32.919 --> 00:05:37.120 A Biblical Theology of Material Possessions where he worked through the whole Bible on 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:38.359 this issue. 00:05:38.359 --> 00:05:43.639 And one of the things that he helpfully points out is that the Bible is a lot more simple 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:49.000 about what it means to be rich or have riches than we are in modern terms. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:56.000 We think of economic statuses and lots of many subclasses and they exist in degrees. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:00.319 And while that was true to a degree in the ancient world, this is what he points out. 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:05.839 He says in the Bible, there are really only three economic statuses that you can have. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:12.360 And this is laid out really clearly in Proverbs chapter 30, verse eight and nine, very famously, 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:17.199 the writer prays, Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:22.199 And the three economic statuses of the Bible are one, poverty, which is to have less than 00:06:22.199 --> 00:06:28.399 what you need every day, or sufficiency, which is what that prayer is about, to have what 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:33.639 you need every day, or riches, which is to have anything more than what you need every 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:34.639 day. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:38.800 And that's the way across the Old and New Testament that the three economic statuses 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:39.800 are often written. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:44.439 One of the great examples of this is in the Gospels and the Lord's Prayer when Jesus 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:48.839 says to pray, give us this day our daily bread. 00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:51.719 It's the prayer of economic sufficiency. 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:56.240 It's a prayer that for most modern people in Scotland, we don't really have to pray 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:58.040 exactly like Jesus meant it. 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:00.560 We know we have food on our table for that day. 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:05.760 We have to use that prayer in different ways, but that's not true for everybody, of course. 00:07:05.760 --> 00:07:12.200 And so the Bible comes and says, when I, Jesus, Paul, when I'm talking to rich Christians, 00:07:12.200 --> 00:07:18.200 I merely mean anybody who has anything more than what they need to survive. 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:23.199 So that has anything left over all the way from to be able to have a savings account, 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:27.439 to buy an Apple Watch, whatever it may be, all the way to Elon Musk. 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:33.480 We know that riches exist in a completely relative sense for us, but at the same time, 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:38.439 the Bible simply says, if you've got more than you need to survive, then you have some 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:39.439 riches. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:42.319 You've got more than you need. 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:47.959 There's a very famous economist that died a few years ago named Angus Madison. 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:52.479 He was born in Newcastle, and he was studied at St. Andrew's. 00:07:52.479 --> 00:07:56.759 He taught at Harvard and then in the Netherlands, and he started something called the Madison 00:07:56.759 --> 00:08:01.159 Project that still is going through universities in the Netherlands now. 00:08:01.159 --> 00:08:06.839 And it's a very respected study, and what Madison did was he measured what's called 00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:12.879 GDP per capita for the last thousand years, which is basically, and he took it in US dollars, 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:16.120 to take today's value, one dollar. 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:17.839 What will one dollar buy you? 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:23.799 One US dollar today, in today's money, and tried to chart out how much people had on 00:08:23.799 --> 00:08:30.159 average in each country in the world for the last thousand years in terms of today's money, 00:08:30.159 --> 00:08:31.319 what it's worth. 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:37.039 So one famous example of that is that you'll see in the publications is that in England, 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:43.439 in the year 1600 AD, the GDP per capita, the average person had about 1,000 US dollars 00:08:43.439 --> 00:08:46.720 to spend per year in terms of what today's money is worth. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:54.399 Now that is 1.5 times what we call the absolute poverty line today, which is about $600 per 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:56.600 year to spend, $1.90 a day. 00:08:56.600 --> 00:09:01.200 The estimations are that if you don't have $1.90 a day in US dollars, that you're below 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:04.480 a life-sustaining possibility. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:12.519 And England in 1600 lived at only about 1.5 times the GDP per capita, only about 1.5 times 00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:15.480 the poverty line, the absolute poverty line. 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:17.879 Today in England, it's 40 times that. 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:23.560 The average person in England has 40 times the amount of the person in 1600 in England. 00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:29.200 And so what that means is that Paul here, when he says rich Christians, it's the case 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:35.120 that most of us, not all, but most of us are actually wealthier in terms of just things 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:42.039 left over in our lives than every single person he was talking to in Ephesus at the time. 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:47.279 And it also means that abject poverty, absolute poverty, has actually stayed very consistent 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.559 throughout history. 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:54.519 There's always been that kind of $1.90 in terms of today's money, push backwards amount 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:57.879 that you need to live on throughout all of human history. 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:04.399 And we still have immense absolute and abject poverty, and we have more wealth across the 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:08.919 population than ever at the same time, which means that we have the problems we've always 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:12.159 had and the gaps are bigger than ever. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:17.159 Now to come back to what Paul's doing here, that simply means this, we've got to be willing 00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:20.319 to come here and say, hey, he's talking to me. 00:10:20.319 --> 00:10:21.399 He's talking to me. 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:30.039 And because I'm a sinner, I've got to be willing to say that I may be struggling with materialism 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:31.240 in some way. 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:35.759 I may be struggling with it because I know I'm a sinner and I know I have a little bit 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:39.960 more, if only it's a little bit more, than I need to survive on. 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:46.879 And one way to measure that is to ask, am I willing today to evaluate whether or not 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:52.840 I'm using my money for the glory of God from top to bottom? 00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:56.399 And it at least means this, that we're the audience here today. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:03.519 And I don't think until I was studying this week that I was willing to say this, but I 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:09.240 don't know if there's ever been a free church minister who got hired into their post in the 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:13.679 free church and all of a sudden called their mom and dad and said, I'm rich. 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:16.559 I got a job in the free church. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.159 I don't think that's probably ever happened. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:23.919 But Paul comes to us today and says, yes, because I can fix my computer if I need to 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:25.840 and I can put food on my table. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:30.679 And that's what Paul means here, is to have something extra. 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:31.679 So he's talking to us. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:33.799 Secondly, what does he say to us? 00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:39.799 He tells us that rich Christians must be poor. 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:46.319 Now that is no guilt trip because what he doesn't mean, what we don't mean by that, 00:11:46.319 --> 00:11:52.279 Paul does not say here, divest of your money and become materially poor. 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:54.120 He doesn't do that at all. 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:57.919 The reason he's addressing rich Christians here is because he assumes there is such a 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:03.799 thing as rich Christians that there are plenty of Christians who have extra, who have some 00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:07.919 manner of riches, whatever, wherever you might be on that spectrum. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:09.279 He assumes this is a real category. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:16.919 In fact, in verse 17, he says, for those of you who have extra in the church in Ephesus, 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:20.240 God provides us with everything we need for our enjoyment. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.599 So he turns and gives thanks to God for the fact that this is real and that there are 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:29.159 rich Christians, people that have more than they just sufficiency. 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:36.040 And he, to push us back to chapters, he says, step one, be thankful, lift up everything 00:12:36.040 --> 00:12:37.720 you have in gratitude. 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:39.000 So that's step one. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:44.720 And so we know he's not calling us here and saying, step one, become materially poor, 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:46.080 be in abject poverty. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:47.080 That's not what he's saying here. 00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:51.879 But he does tell us here, I think, that we do have to become poor and we have to put 00:12:51.879 --> 00:12:57.840 on a certain type of poverty, and he makes it very clear in verse 17. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:03.899 Last week, we looked at fighting the good fight of the faith, and we said that that 00:13:03.899 --> 00:13:08.840 means running from some sins and running to certain virtues. 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:11.679 He's carrying on the exact same logic here. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:16.240 He's saying, you've got to run from some things as a rich Christian, and you've got 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:17.799 to run to some things. 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:23.799 You've got to impoverish yourself in some ways and then make yourself rich in certain 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:26.000 ways in order to be a rich Christian. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.240 And so first, the negative side of it, we've got to run from some things. 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:33.719 And the first thing you see is in verse 17, second to last clause there, he says, do not 00:13:33.719 --> 00:13:37.759 set your hope on riches but on God. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:39.879 So this is very simple. 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.799 There's nothing new here for anybody who's been in the church very long. 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:51.679 And the first thing he tells us is that we absolutely have to be poor in hoping in money 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:54.079 instead of hoping in God. 00:13:54.079 --> 00:13:57.879 That's where we have to be impoverished is in setting riches as the treasure of our 00:13:57.879 --> 00:13:58.879 heart. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:02.159 And he's picking up here, he repeats it in verse 19. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:06.919 He's picking up here on Jesus' language in Matthew chapter 6 when Jesus says, do not 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:11.279 store up treasures on earth, instead store up treasures in heaven. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:17.839 And Jesus there was talking about the heart and saying, you've got to hope in God and 00:14:17.839 --> 00:14:20.799 not let money be your hope in this life. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:26.199 And so Paul's going to, in the rest of verse 17, give us two ways that you can test and 00:14:26.199 --> 00:14:29.639 ask, is this a problem for me? 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:31.480 Is this my problem? 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:36.039 Do I have hope in wealth? 00:14:36.039 --> 00:14:37.600 And this is the two things he says. 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:45.320 First, it might be a problem if in 17 part A you are haughty. 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:51.279 So the first thing he says is run from pride, be impoverished in terms of pride that money 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:54.960 might bring to you. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:59.200 All of us are in different places on this, of course, in terms of what we have, the extra 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:02.600 that we might have in wealth accumulation. 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:10.320 But again, what Paul is saying here is that money is an objective temptation to vanity. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:15.399 Whether or not it's gripping us is a second question, but the first thing to realize is 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:18.960 that money is an objective temptation to vanity. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:23.480 It's something that we are facing if we have extra at all. 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:28.360 And the more money we have, obviously the more the temptation rises. 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:35.480 And I think that the tendency here, what Paul means by being haughty, prideful, he's referencing 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:42.440 the tendency, especially in the first century, of people to pity economic classes that are 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:50.039 below them, but to pity in such a way that in the heart we feel superior. 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:54.519 That not only do we have more, but we actually are better. 00:15:54.519 --> 00:15:59.159 And that's the temptation that money might bring, that when you see somebody that is 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:07.319 in a state of real poverty, begging perhaps, the heart wants to say something like, I want 00:16:07.319 --> 00:16:12.600 to help you, but the desire underneath that desire is the reason I want to help you might 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:16.360 be because I actually do think I'm superior. 00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:20.679 And so I want to offer you pity instead of true help. 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:25.799 And I think that's what Paul's referring to here, that money gives us the objective temptation 00:16:25.799 --> 00:16:32.719 to vanity and pride that casts somebody in a different economic status as less than the 00:16:32.719 --> 00:16:36.479 image of God, less than what we are as the image of God. 00:16:36.479 --> 00:16:37.479 And so that's a real temptation. 00:16:37.479 --> 00:16:42.079 That's one of the things that if you find a slight temptation to that in the heart, he's 00:16:42.079 --> 00:16:47.279 saying it might be pointing towards a love of money that has become greater than our 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:48.719 love for God. 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.960 The second thing he says here is 17B. 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:58.480 He says in 17B, do not set your hope on the uncertainty of riches. 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:03.399 And so the second thing he says, we've got to be poor when it comes to looking at money 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.519 as our security. 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:13.360 Be impoverished in the way you look at money as your hope or security in life as that thing 00:17:13.360 --> 00:17:16.319 that is protecting you. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:21.200 And so some of us don't struggle at all with pride in relation to money. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:27.000 That might not be at all where we might be, but some of us may be tempted in ways to struggle 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:34.679 with looking at money accumulation as a source of our ultimate hope and security in life. 00:17:34.679 --> 00:17:38.159 And this is not saying at all, don't have a savings account. 00:17:38.159 --> 00:17:39.359 He's talking about the heart. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:45.319 He's saying, where is your heart in relationship to your savings account and your security? 00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:51.079 And what he says here is that, well, he takes us back to Jesus, Matthew 6 again. 00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:56.559 Remember Jesus says, don't store up treasures, money as your treasure in your heart. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:03.679 And he says, remember, you cannot add a second to your life, meaning truly your wealth offers 00:18:03.679 --> 00:18:06.480 you no security. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:09.559 Your death date is determined. 00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:11.319 And so it doesn't add a second to your life. 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:13.279 It can't be your security. 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:14.759 Not truly. 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:20.039 And so he comes to us here and I think pushes us back to remember the book of Job. 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:24.519 Job is, Derek mentioned this actually a couple of weeks ago, Job is the greatest example 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.480 in the Bible of what it means to be a rich believer. 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:32.200 And remember at the very beginning of Job, Job said, Job had everything materially. 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:34.160 He lost everything materially. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:39.119 And then he said, naked I came into this world, naked I shall return to the dust. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:42.839 And that's exactly the truth that Paul wants us to remember here. 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:48.519 Many of us know well that if you keep up with your pension, your investments, whatever it 00:18:48.519 --> 00:18:56.119 may be, that today because of the U.S. market, many of our investments are worth up to a 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:01.519 half less than what they were four months ago, perhaps. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:09.079 And right now, as things turn in some markets really negatively, we're reminded there is 00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:11.079 no security and wealth. 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:14.919 It can go away so quickly in just a matter of a few months. 00:19:14.919 --> 00:19:21.720 And so Paul's coming to us and saying these temptations might reflect, evaluate your heart. 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:25.799 These temptations might reflect where we are in relationship to our love of money. 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:33.399 We could conclude by saying this point, back to Proverbs 30 verses 8 and 9, give me neither 00:19:33.399 --> 00:19:35.639 poverty nor riches. 00:19:35.639 --> 00:19:37.879 We always stop with that line. 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:47.800 It keeps going and 38 and 9, it says, lest I have a full belly and deny God, lest that 00:19:47.800 --> 00:19:51.040 my stomach be so full that I forget God. 00:19:51.040 --> 00:19:58.080 And so the Old Testament too says that having more than we need is a real temptation, even 00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:03.520 to the point where we forget the power of God and the fact that we need God more than 00:20:03.520 --> 00:20:06.400 anything else, more than wealth in our lives. 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:09.680 And John Stott says money is fire. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:11.840 You know, it's so good. 00:20:11.840 --> 00:20:14.840 Fire is so good and it's so dangerous at the same time. 00:20:14.840 --> 00:20:15.840 We need it. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:18.480 It's a gift and yet it can really burn us. 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:20.640 It can really take hold. 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:26.519 So to conclude this point, how the question then becomes, how can we overwhelm the power 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:29.240 of money in our hearts? 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:30.680 Because it's a temptation we face. 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:32.800 How can we overwhelm that power in our hearts? 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:40.720 And at the very end of the passage here, Paul says to Timothy, guard the deposit. 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:42.279 Guard the deposit that I've entrusted to you. 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:48.919 So Paul takes a money metaphor, the deposit, and says Timothy above all else, guard the 00:20:48.919 --> 00:20:52.119 deposit in the life of the church in Ephesus. 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:55.519 And you ask, what exactly does Paul mean by that? 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:57.200 Guard the deposit. 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:05.000 And again, back to Matthew 6, when Jesus says, store up treasures in heaven, not on earth, 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:10.600 he means in the way you use your earthly treasures, use them in such a way that it's about the 00:21:10.600 --> 00:21:16.680 life of the heart, that the true treasure, in other words, wherever you put your money 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:21.920 and holistically steward your money often unveils the life of the heart. 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:25.920 And he's saying there, wherever we can look at ourselves and see how we use our money 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:30.440 to know, well, what is the deposit of my heart? 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:32.440 Deposit just means treasure. 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:35.039 What is the treasure that's inside my heart? 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:38.519 Is it my wealth or is it something else? 00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:44.800 And you see he says here, the only way to overwhelm the power of money or any other idol 00:21:44.800 --> 00:21:51.000 that you may face is to have a better deposit in the heart, a treasure that is much more 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:56.319 powerful than the treasure that is earthly finances. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:02.920 And you see, he's saying, in other words, build a fence around the vault, the bank, 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:08.440 that is your heart, and don't let false treasures be at the very center of that vault that is 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:09.440 in your heart. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:11.839 Now, what is the treasure? 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:13.839 What is the deposit that he's talking about? 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:23.240 And look, the New Testament, Paul so kindly comes to us and says, let me pitch the gospel 00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:27.279 in such a way that it fits this command perfectly. 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:32.279 Second Corinthians 8, 9, here's a way of understanding Jesus Christ's entire life. 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:40.079 This is what it says, the grace of the Lord is this, that he who was rich became poor 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:45.240 for our sake, so that in him we might become rich. 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:51.519 And you see, what Paul does there is revolutionizes the concept of wealth and treasures. 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:58.439 He says that true treasure, true wealth above all else is that Jesus Christ, who is the 00:22:58.439 --> 00:23:05.039 Creator of all the universe, who is the one who possesses all riches, the steward of creation 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:06.039 himself. 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:11.759 Elon Musk is very wealthy, but he's got nothing on Jesus, the king of kings. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:12.920 Jesus owns everything. 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:20.799 And he who is absolutely rich and possessing all made himself nothing, he became poor so 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:24.599 that he might give you a deposit, a real treasure, make you truly wealthy. 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:30.480 And so he's saying true wealth is to be possessed by Jesus Christ. 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:35.920 And Jesus Christ, he's the one who came from heaven and became naked on the cross and 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:37.400 ultimate death for us. 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:39.680 He lost everything for us. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:45.519 And he's putting that before us and saying the only way to cast out the idols of the 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:51.440 heart, including money, and whatever else it might be, is to have the explosive power 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:53.680 of a much greater affection. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:59.039 And that much greater affection is the man, the Creator himself who became poor so that 00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:02.880 we might become truly rich, so that we might possess him in eternal life. 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:05.160 And so the first thing Paul tells us here. 00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:09.840 Step one, as we move to the final point, how to be a rich Christian before we get there. 00:24:09.840 --> 00:24:16.040 Step one is we must become poor in spirit. 00:24:16.040 --> 00:24:20.440 And poverty of spirit is what Jesus calls us to, and this is what he means by it. 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:27.560 He says that poverty of spirit says, if I was to bring anything of my own, my riches, 00:24:27.560 --> 00:24:34.880 my works, my beauty, my prosperity, my family, my children, my manners, my decency, before 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:41.240 God, and offer that as my hope, as my treasure to get into eternal life, then it would be 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:43.640 utterly worthless. 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:48.880 In other words, poverty of spirit says, I and everyone else in the world, Elon Musk, 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:55.680 all the way to the poorest of poor, is absolutely poor in heart before the living God. 00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:57.040 And that's the attitude. 00:24:57.040 --> 00:25:01.640 You see, because if you're there, if you're there, that all I have is sin to bring to 00:25:01.640 --> 00:25:02.640 God. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:07.880 And in Christ, he swallowed my poverty to make me everything. 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:10.880 He became nothing to make me something. 00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:15.520 If that's where we are in heart, then we can come back and say, you know, I can never 00:25:15.520 --> 00:25:21.640 be prideful about my possessions because I'm just as poor as everybody else. 00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:30.060 And I can never have certainty and hope in my wealth accumulation because since God has 00:25:30.059 --> 00:25:34.119 made me rich in Jesus Christ, I don't need any other security. 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:39.039 I have ultimate security in the deposit that is Jesus Christ. 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:41.839 So thirdly and finally, how to be a rich Christian. 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:48.679 Paul comes to us in verse 18 and tells us, just like last week, finally, Paul says, 00:25:48.679 --> 00:25:51.879 Timothy command the rich. 00:25:51.879 --> 00:25:56.679 He had said last week, charge and command the Christians to fight the good fight of 00:25:56.679 --> 00:25:57.679 faith. 00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:00.880 He says command the rich Christian. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:06.000 And again, just like last week, that is a real gift because when we have Jesus Christ 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:10.480 and we have the gospel, commands become duty, becomes delight. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:13.960 It's actually a gift to us to hear God say, do this. 00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:16.759 This is how to go and live in the light of Jesus. 00:26:16.759 --> 00:26:18.000 And this is what he says. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:20.680 And I'm just going to put it in one simple point. 00:26:20.680 --> 00:26:22.120 It's all of verse 18. 00:26:22.120 --> 00:26:23.960 You can see it in verse 18. 00:26:23.960 --> 00:26:30.000 He says, rich Christians are to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:32.360 and ready to share. 00:26:32.360 --> 00:26:35.600 So that's the command, how we're to live. 00:26:35.600 --> 00:26:38.160 And this is what it means, I think, very simply. 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:39.160 Jesus says it. 00:26:39.160 --> 00:26:46.400 He says, Christian, don't spend all your money on yourself. 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:53.039 Store up treasures in heaven means allow your heart to be so moved by the gospel that you 00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:56.359 don't spend all your money on yourself. 00:26:56.359 --> 00:27:02.920 And we have very clear commandments throughout the Bible where he says, first, we look at, 00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:08.839 we provide, we're wise, we're stewards, we take care of what we need to take care of, 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:12.839 and then we look and say, how are we giving some of our extra away? 00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:19.039 And that is, of course, first for Christians in giving to the ministry that God has given 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:23.319 the world through the Great Commission to the church that's giving in the life of the 00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:28.720 church, and then secondly, giving stuff away to people that have needs or to other ministries 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:30.440 that are doing that. 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:33.680 And so it's a very simple command, really. 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:36.559 And there's no hard mathematics on it in the New Testament. 00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:37.839 There's no percentages. 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:39.559 There's nothing like that in the New Testament. 00:27:39.559 --> 00:27:43.799 Christ has fulfilled the ceremonial law, the law of the tithe even, even. 00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:44.960 And so we come to the New Testament. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:45.960 We don't have numbers. 00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:48.039 We don't have anything like that in the New Testament. 00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:54.559 Instead, what he gives us is the concept of what we call proportional generosity. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:57.200 And we see that in the parable of the widow's might. 00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:01.000 Who's the most generous person in the New Testament after Christ? 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:03.639 It's the widow who gave the penny. 00:28:03.639 --> 00:28:06.559 And Jesus says, that's proportional generosity. 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:09.359 She had almost nothing, and she gave a very tiny amount. 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:15.720 It won't fund very much, but she was so proportionally generous. 00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:23.799 And Jesus Christ is the God who can take a few pieces of fish and feed 5,000 people 00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:24.799 with it. 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:28.200 And that's why he loves the widow's might, because he can take very little and do so 00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:29.880 much with it. 00:28:29.880 --> 00:28:35.000 And so we have this example of the widow's might, proportional generosity. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:42.519 1731, I heard this story this week, John Wesley, the great English evangelist. 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:49.039 John Wesley, while he was in his ministry, he made a resolution that he wrote about in 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:54.720 some of his works, where he decided that he would try to take what he needed to live on 00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:59.079 for he and his family, and then give the rest away. 00:28:59.079 --> 00:29:05.639 And the story begins by he realized he and his family could live on 28 pounds a year. 00:29:05.639 --> 00:29:08.240 Those were the days. 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:10.879 And he made 30, 31 pounds that year. 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:12.920 And so he gave away three pounds. 00:29:12.920 --> 00:29:16.760 After his giving to the church, he said, I'm going to give three pounds away to anybody 00:29:16.760 --> 00:29:19.640 I think might have real need. 00:29:19.640 --> 00:29:24.400 But then, as he became very famous, his income increased dramatically. 00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:29.080 And they say that Wesley's income the next year was about 60 pounds, and he and his family 00:29:29.080 --> 00:29:31.400 lived on 28, and they gave away 32. 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:35.560 And then by the time the end of his ministry, Wesley was making well over 1,000 pounds a 00:29:35.560 --> 00:29:40.840 year, which is an immense wealth at the time in 1731 to 40. 00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:43.359 And he lived on about 30 pounds. 00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:45.799 It increased very little across his ministry. 00:29:45.799 --> 00:29:52.399 And the government actually chased after him for tax fraud, because at the time the way 00:29:52.399 --> 00:29:56.919 taxes were calculated was based on the amount of registered possessions that you had. 00:29:56.919 --> 00:30:03.759 And they said a man of this much wealth is listing a tiny amount of possessions. 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:05.399 And this is how Wesley responded. 00:30:05.399 --> 00:30:06.599 This is Wesley's own words. 00:30:06.599 --> 00:30:12.519 He says, I have two silver spoons in London, two in Bristol, and this is all I have at 00:30:12.519 --> 00:30:19.039 present, and I shall not buy anything else while so many around me lack bread. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:20.919 Now that's good. 00:30:20.919 --> 00:30:24.039 I'm not saying that that's Paul's command. 00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:26.240 It's not. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:31.719 That was the power of the gospel moving upon a particular individual in a particular time. 00:30:31.719 --> 00:30:33.240 But here's what I will say. 00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:39.759 But I think the example here of Wesley is, does Jesus Christ in the gospel cause you 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:46.240 to live simpler than you would have lived on the same amount of money if you didn't know 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:47.799 Jesus? 00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:50.599 And I think that's what Wesley's example calls us to. 00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:57.240 And so just a few questions that I'm asking myself this week and asking you as well. 00:30:57.240 --> 00:31:03.200 Again, has Jesus Christ caused you to live simpler than you would have apart from him 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:04.359 by the power of the gospel? 00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:05.359 That's number one. 00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:11.640 Number two, if you're a Christian today, are you giving to your church and giving in other 00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:14.799 ways to do good works like Paul calls us to? 00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:19.839 If you're not a Christian today, or if you're even exploring St. Columbus as a place to 00:31:19.839 --> 00:31:21.880 make home, let me say this. 00:31:21.880 --> 00:31:24.079 We don't want you to give anything. 00:31:24.079 --> 00:31:26.200 We ask you not to. 00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:27.559 We don't want anything from you. 00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:34.039 We only want to offer you Christ and what we've said today about he who was rich and 00:31:34.039 --> 00:31:35.680 became poor for you. 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:36.920 That's it. 00:31:36.920 --> 00:31:41.640 But if you're a Christian, are you content with how you are holistically stewarding your 00:31:41.640 --> 00:31:44.360 money? 00:31:44.360 --> 00:31:46.240 It's just a call for examination. 00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:48.559 And lastly, do you have a plan? 00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:49.559 Do you have a plan? 00:31:49.559 --> 00:31:54.720 Do you know how and where you will spend some of that money and steward some of that money? 00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:56.000 How you'll be generous? 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:57.440 Now the last word is this. 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:04.200 Paul ends this passage by saying, grace be with you. 00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:12.000 And that, of course, is the grace of Jesus Christ, the true deposit that he's offered 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:14.680 us in the gospel. 00:32:14.680 --> 00:32:25.519 But when we ask, you know, when I ask myself, how am I able to take some of what I have 00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:29.039 and do something else? 00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:32.240 How am I able to cast away idolatry in my heart? 00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:35.720 And it's for me and for all of us more than money. 00:32:35.720 --> 00:32:40.720 There's all sorts of idols that are tempting our hearts all the time to be the treasure 00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:42.720 that is more than Jesus Christ in our hearts. 00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:47.519 And here's one way to think about it. 00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:57.160 Just to ask this question, what was the deposit, the treasure in Christ's heart as he came 00:32:57.160 --> 00:33:01.879 to give us the treasure of eternal life? 00:33:01.879 --> 00:33:05.639 And you see, another way. 00:33:05.639 --> 00:33:09.000 What is true wealth to Jesus Christ? 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:13.440 What is it that Jesus Christ saw as true treasure? 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:18.840 What does it mean for Jesus to get rich, to put it provocatively? 00:33:18.840 --> 00:33:28.360 And we know, Hebrews tells us that while Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, dying, swallowing 00:33:28.360 --> 00:33:36.519 our idols, that he lifted up his head and looked out and it was the joy set before him for 00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:40.039 which he endured the cross. 00:33:40.039 --> 00:33:43.400 And what was the joy set before Jesus as he endured the cross? 00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:45.240 What was his treasure? 00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:47.600 And Jesus said it. 00:33:47.600 --> 00:33:54.160 He said that it was you, that it was us, that it was the church, that it was his people, 00:33:54.160 --> 00:34:01.120 that Christ became poor because we are his treasure, that he wanted us more than anything 00:34:01.120 --> 00:34:02.920 else. 00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:10.920 And it's in that power, that gospel that is so powerful that we can have the safety to 00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:17.960 rest in him above all other hopes of earthly securities. 00:34:17.960 --> 00:34:19.720 So let's pray and ask for that heart now. 00:34:19.720 --> 00:34:29.119 Lord, we ask now for the heart that Jesus Christ would be our true deposit. 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:36.800 And so we just, we ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to move in our lives now and to 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:39.800 help us to think about everything on earth. 00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:45.400 All of, not only our possessions, but the creatures of this realm that we tend to take 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:52.240 and make our true treasures, that we would sacrifice them to you, O God, because you, 00:34:52.240 --> 00:34:54.120 O Christ, sacrificed for us. 00:34:54.120 --> 00:34:59.880 And so we ask for these hearts now in this very difficult and challenging word from Paul 00:34:59.880 --> 00:35:00.880 that we would hear it. 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:01.880 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:11.880 Amen.