The Economics of Wealth

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning. My name is Daniel Oster, and I'm a deacon here at South Burleson Baptist Church. It's always a good sign when you're scheduled to preach twice, and they allow you to do it the second time. Here I am, and we're finishing up 1 Timothy today. But first, I wanted to give you a few quotes. We're going to be talking about wealth and money and all those fun things. I'm going to give you a few quotes from different perspectives about this to kind of set the stage. first one here is, I am tired of hearing about money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, and wear Reebok. That's Shaquille O'Neal. And if you're not clear, these listing sponsors who pay him money. Capital as such is not evil. It is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed and that's Gandhi okay who is rich he that is content who is

that nobody and that's Benjamin Franklin all right last one it is like the more money we come across the more problems we see notorious B.I.G. that's a rapper I mean I just listen Ben Franklin and Gandhi and notorious B.I.G. a rapper gets applause. Okay, I've got my word cut out for me today. You know, anytime people get in a pulpit or they hear somebody pulpit talking about things like money and wealth, they get nervous. But I don't want you to be nervous. We are only going to pass the offering plate around two or three more times during this time. And just to be clear, that was a joke. But the reason people get nervous is because it's linked to a lot of false teaching, a lot of false gospel. You know, a lot of imagery that comes to mind a lot of the times is televangelist preaching. And they're teaching this idea that somehow, if you give enough to God,

He is then indebted to you and is going to give you these things. And that's not true. But at the same time, we as believers shouldn't ignore the topic of money. And to further illustrate this, look at the Bible. The Bible has about 500 verses that specifically talk about faith. Approximately 500 more around prayer. Money and possessions is listed over 2,000 times through scripture. I mean, Proverbs is like Old Testament Dave Ramsey. Let me just read that thing. It's talking about how to use your money well, right? And so as we finish up our last week in the sermon series called The Economy of Jesus, we're walking through 1 Timothy and we're looking at this idea of economies through things like love, gender, authority. And last week we talked about it through ministry. Now we defined ministry last week as a life-giving response to a life-giving gift, a life-giving response to a life-giving gift.

And that response we talked about needs to be both nurtured in God's word and requires effort on our part so that we can model it for others to see and to encourage other believers. Just remember the context of this letter, Paul's writing to Timothy, not First Timothy, his name's not First Timothy, it's just Timothy, who's in Ephesus and is a pastor, young pastor, and he's preaching amongst a lot of chaos. Men or women are jockeying for power to be heard. False teaching is flooding the church. It is as if there's a bunch of people with a lot of instruments and they're just trying to blow them as loud as they can. And it's just a ton of noise. So Paul's writing this letter to eliminate unnecessary noise and to help structure the rest that is required to make a beautiful sound. And the way he refers to this organization is in the first chapter of verse four, He talks about this stewardship or this God's work

or this administration of God, all from the word economea, which is where we get our word economy. So the goal is to put these things in order to rise above the noise so that God can be magnified and glorified. And so we're gonna jump right in. We're gonna look at this. We're gonna look at this through the lens of wealth and what Paul teaches about this in chapter six. So if we turn chapter 6 verses 6 through 8, let's go ahead and read those, says, but godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of the world, but if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. So the word but there is pointing to the false teaching, where we have false teaching teachers that are propping up God as a way to further drive their agendas and to make money and to prop him up based on pride and selfishness. And Paul though, it's interesting

that Paul first pairs these two things of godliness and contentment. It's like a math equation. Godliness plus contentment equals great gain. And so why is it important for these two to be together? I mean, can they even be separated? So when you look at godliness as believers, Christ dwells in us and makes us holy through our union with Him. And this is from the foundation which we grow in godliness in our lives. It's the pursuit of who we are in Christ.

So because of Christ, we have the absolute satisfaction. We need nothing more. We are content. And through this process, we receive great gain. So Paul illustrates this point in verse 7 if you look there, it says, it says, we have brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out. It is as if he is saying, if you look at like funeral processions and you see the hearse drive by, it's never pulling a U-Haul trailer, right? Why is that? Because we don't get to take any of this stuff with us, right? And he is pointing that out, he's pointing that out to these people to think about where are your desires, what satisfies you because just remember you can't take any of it with you. So then if if contentment is paired with godliness because true contentment is satisfaction found in Christ then what leads to this lack of satisfaction, this lack of contentment in our life? To Paul's point, as my grandfather would say, you

were brought into this world with nothing, right? He would say, you came in butt-necked. That's what he would say. However, look around. Thankfully, we are all dressed, right? Thankfully, we're inside of a building that has climate control. We left our houses or apartments, most likely driving in our cars to get here. So we came in with nothing and we have these things now and we still find ourselves shaking our fists at God saying like I need something more I need something more and to further illustrate this try this experiment I didn't do it this week because I was afraid it wouldn't work and I wouldn't get to use this illustration so but try it take two siblings or just two kids and I want you to hand the other first one I want you to hand them ten dollars and say look I love you you don't really have much I want you to have this $10, it's for yours. You didn't have to do anything for it. Here's $10. What is

the reaction going to be? It's going to be, wow, thank you. This is great. I love you. This is the most wonderful parent friend, etc. Then turn to the next kid and say, look, I love you and you don't have much. Here's $50. Wow, that kid's really going to love you. Now go back to the first one. What's their reaction going to be? Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, right, that's not fair. But what changed about their situation? Nothing, nothing changed about their little world. They became $10 richer one minute ago. But the thing that caused problems was the fact that they looked over and saw somebody else getting something more. And they wanted that. Kids, right, kids.

So now put yourself in a situation where you and a coworker walk into your boss's office and he says, Daniel, you are getting a $2,500 bonus. It's amazing, thank you. Sally, you're promoted as Daniel's boss and you can have the corner office down the hall. Most likely, I'm not gonna go, good for you, high five. I'm gonna be like, wait, what about me? What about me? And so we see, what is my heart saying? It's saying, what I have is not good enough. I am not satisfied. I want what you have and more. And the terms that this reflects is coveting and greed. And there's a whole sermon series. I mean, if you think about the Ten Commandments, the last two specifically mentioned coveting, we could talk about that. But the point I wanna make is the fact that our sinful nature works directly against our contentment, works directly against our satisfaction found in Christ.

If we were satisfied, then our situations around us would not change our joy found in Christ. So another way to look at this is if you ate your favorite meal and you got good and full, you do the tap of the napkin and you are done. somebody walks in with a three-layered chocolate cake. It's really going to test your satisfaction and if you're full and that meal, right? But if you're truly full, if you have had everything you need, maybe even more, you're gonna look at that and go, I am so full, I can't have any of that. Maybe even the look of it is like makes you nauseated, right? And so what we don't always realize is what Christ has done for us and what he has invited us into should leave us that full. That's satisfied. So much so that we really don't need anything else. Remember what David said in Psalm 23. He refers in verse 5 as his cup overflows. The truth is we through Christ are given

more than we can even think of. Yet somehow we still become dissatisfied. But what Paul is saying, he's saying not to strive for... he's not saying don't strive for great gains. What he's saying is if you want to experience great gains that have internal implications both now and after that hearse has taken away your body. If you want to have great gains, that's only found in Jesus who's calling you into a relationship with Him. Our walk and journey with Christ is so satisfying that it leaves nothing to want. So let's continue reading. Let's look at now verses 9 and 10. It says, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and

pierced themselves with many pangs. So Paul's first saying that the desires of this throws opened the door to so many other desires. Notice he's not saying if you have a lot then it points to the fact of your desire not what you have. So we refer to this as materialism and it's the fact that we want money to buy things so we can have these different things. But Paul's warning us here of three of three dangers of this desire. The first one is that materialism is deceitful. It says, fall into temptation, into a snare. It says, when our hearts desire is to gain possessions for the reasons of being perceived as somebody who has a higher status, maybe it's how you find your own worth in these things. It's Maybe it's create security or deceiving ourselves. And what do traps do? They hold you captive and you struggle to be loose. There's a scene in a movie called Ice Age.

I don't remember which one it is. But there's these monsters in the sea that disguise themselves as your deepest desires. And the thought is that they're going to draw you over to them. And when you get over to them, they're these horrible monsters and you're captured or I don't remember what they do with you. But it kind of points to the fact how we can paint our desires of this satisfying thing, work our way to it, and then it fails us. The second thing here is materialism is dangerous. And he refers to this as many senseless and harmful desires plunge people into ruin or destruction. It's not a stretch for us to see this in a week of news, right? We hear this around us from robberies to murders and bezelments, all from the desire to be rich. It doesn't discriminate between poor or rich. It's similar to seawater where the idea is that if you're thirsty and you drink saltwater,

seawater, you feel like maybe you're quenching your thirst, but what it's really doing is dehydrating you until you actually die. Psalm 119 says, so are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners. So materialism is deceitful, it's dangerous, and it also is damning. It is through, and Paul refers to this by saying, it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith. The effects of greed wanting more to lead people away from the faith, essentially choosing possessions over money, possessions and money over Jesus. There's no clear picture of this in the story of the young ruler, which we're all familiar with that's recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Mark 10, 21 says, And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing, go sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and your treasure is in heaven, and come follow me.

Disheartened by the saying, he, this is the rich young ruler, went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. His money and his possessions is something he chose in lieu of following Jesus. Mark 8 36 says, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? So right in the middle of these scriptures is one that we hear often. It's for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Many times though we hear it, misquoted and it's shortened and it says money is the root of all evil. Have you heard it said that way before? Few words are missing there and one of the important words is the fact of the love of. See all this points to, we walk through our summarized here but notice it always begins with our love, our desire. What this highlights is that how we can miss finding ultimate satisfaction in Jesus Christ. Once you begin to understand that,

once we can kind of grasp the idea that Jesus is all that we need, that he is satisfying, it changes our actions, it changes our own desires to align more with him. And what happens is our actions in time were directed to do what he wants us to do. And so there's a story of, in 2010, a millionaire named Forrest Fenn. This is Forrest Fenn. Obviously he likes books. And he was a, he's a millionaire and he launched a treasure hunt. I've told this story before, I think in Bible study. It was fascinating to me. He launched a treasure hunt when he announced that he hidden a million dollars worth chest in the Rocky Mountains. And he wrote a 24-line poem that was clues to this treasure. And Newsweek grabbed ahold of it and wrote an article about it in 2012, and it sent a firestorm of people into the Rockies looking for this treasure. One lady interviewed said that she spent

probably 10,000 hours in research and over 300 trips looking for it. The journalist who was writing the story, I think because he's like, I just need, I want to help write a really good sermon illustration. He says, I think a lot of people really wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves. Maybe there's something missing in their lives. Thank you for that quote, because he's right. Think about what this treasure did to these people's daily lives. Think about how their actions changed when their desires changed. desire all of a sudden came to find this treasure. Why? Because it was a lot of money. It's over a million dollars. Their desire then was to find that this million-dollar treasure could satisfy their life. So much so that they climbed the Rocky Mountains, five people ended up dying. One was a youth minister, come to find out, putting hours of work into this to try to find the treasure. It was

found by the way and this guy actually faces lawsuits from the people who died looking for it. Interesting enough. But the treasure they sought was to fill this void and they thought when they found that they would be satisfied. What I don't want to be missed there is their desire was focused in the wrong place. Million dollar treasure. But think about their actions. They loved that thing so much that they were risking lives climbing through the mountains, spending days, spending hours risking their life to find this.

So then when your desire is correctly oriented and you still have that drive, think about what that would look if you valued Jesus like these people value or like you would value a million dollar treasure. You know, would you be willing to spend hours devoted to seeking him more? Would you would you even risk your life for him? Jesus says in Matthew 6 21 he says, for where your treasure is there your heart will be also. So as Paul continues to write 11 through 16 we'll move through it pretty quickly but he just he is encouraging Timothy in saying pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness tells him to fight the good fights and to take hold of eternal life to which you were called, and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." Says, you made a good confession in the presence of witnesses. So that confession was that Christ alone is all that he needed. And later he

references Christ's own confession in front of Pilate, that he's the Messiah. And so Paul is commending him on that confession and encouraging him in that. And then he continues, and before Before he closes the letter out, he writes to the rich in the present age. Let's read verses 17 through 19. It says, As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life." So Paul moves from the desire of those who are without to now the responsibility of those with. Why would Paul now turn his attention to the rich? I mean he's closing up this letter and he wants to be sure he's addressing this people group.

And the question is why? When someone has much, they're more susceptible to things like pride and self-sufficiency. Does this sound like a possible attitude found in Berlison or America? This is something that we as believers struggle when we talk to people about Jesus that these two thoughts are usually working against us. And the first one is that they don't really have a need for Christ. Like they there's no I'm pretty good where I am. You know my kids go to a decent school. I live in a nice home. I'm not really sure what Jesus does for me. And Paul refers to this as he says sets their hopes on uncertainty of riches. Second, they become proud of things they have. They may brag or show off what they have accomplished and really find that they're the reasons that did this and Jesus isn't really going to bring anything to the table for them. And that's where Paul says to charge them not to be haughty.

People have come up to us and have said, you know, we really would like our kids to spend more time with your kids. We think they're great. They'd be a good influence on you on our kids and you know, we just we would we would like that so that's when I puff up my chest and I'm like Yeah, yeah, they are good kids. Look at their parents, right? Look right and then God reminds me like things like weren't you the dad who Tied your son's arms up to his side and spun him around and then when he was falling to his face realized he couldn't reach out and catch himself. That was me. Yeah, that was me. I have plenty of parent fails, and he can only speak to the grace of God. So when people say things like that, I say, yeah, Kenneth and I are winging this thing. We don't, every day, we have a teenager in a pre-teen, we don't know what we're doing, we're winging it. But by the grace of God, by the grace of God,

we're trying to point our kids to the truth. So what's the secret? I don't hand them my new Five Points of Parenting by the Osters book. I say we consistently try to point our kids to the wonderful truth that's found in Jesus Christ. Like if we just continually remind them of that, we just pray and we pray like crazy for our kids. So I can't boast about it and nor should I. Most of you are going, yeah we don't even know how you know how you do that because it's not me. So instead of me saying yeah my kids are great I say it is from the Lord it's from the Lord and it's so so you have a wonderful house that is great it is from the Lord. You have an impressive 401k and retirement plan great that is from God and it's temporary it's temporary. Your church is growing fast, seems healthy and vibrant. That is from the Lord, right? And just be thankful that we we get to be used by Him in these

ways and that we we get to enjoy the blessings that He gives us. When we realize what what we have in the Lord, we are happy to be blessed by Him and all that we'll enjoy, but ultimately those things don't bring us the same satisfaction as Christ does. So my perspective then of what I strive for changes. Jesus says in Matthew 6 19 through 20 says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and rust destroy and where thieves break in and still but lay up your treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in. So laying up treasures in heaven is done through obedience and selfless living where we're investing in people's lives so that they may know this same great satisfaction that we have, right, this contentment, leaving nothing needed or wanted, only found through Jesus Christ. So when we realize the wealth that we have found through Jesus, there's only one way to

respond and that's the same way Jesus did through sacrificial living. And that's why Paul mentions this this theme of generosity at the end of his letter. So as we close today, I want you to stop and think about what might be keeping you from realizing this satisfaction that Christ brings. What are ways to identify where we are dissatisfied in our lives, where we feel like we need something more? One of the ways to do that is to think about what you daydream about. When you have nothing when you are driving in a car and you get to just have this wishful thinking, where does your mind go? What might you Google on your phone when you really don't have anything else to Google? Now I'm not saying those things are sinful. I'm saying they're really good things to put under the microscope and just kind of think what am I really, do I truly believe that maybe some of these things would give me

additional satisfaction that I need these things? It's good things to think through. Another way to do this would be to go through the things that you have. Try to identify if you really find pride in something or if you really take ownership in something that you have. You like to point to people something that you have so that you feel good so that they see that and they look at you and say, wow, you're really awesome. Then maybe play the game of what if these things were taken away? What would my reaction be? If I lost my job, if I all of a sudden came down with really bad health, like what would my reactions be? And this is really good to do in front of the Lord. It's a way to be vulnerable. And it may be that you don't have a relationship with Jesus at all. And that you resonate with the things that I'm saying about not being satisfied, that you've tried to put your trust in things and they fell through and you are really looking

for some way to just find your identity, trying to find something you can really put your feet on that are firm. I would just encourage you to continue to pursue Christ and to start a conversation with us about that. What a great feeling it is to know that this invaluable treasure that we have in Christ. This great satisfaction is not tucked away in the Rockies somewhere where we have to go find, but rather it's on display through through us as believers. And so let us be a body that in word and deed live this out of a life of great contentment and great satisfaction in Jesus Christ. Let us pray. God I thank you for, I thank you for the fact that I can get up here and I can brag on you and know that no one can do anything better. I can point to you and I can truly say that there's no greater happiness, there's no greater satisfaction, there's no greater love, mercy, grace found in anything but you. And I just ask that as believers that

we are rooted in that truth. And I believe that there's people in this room who don't understand that Lord, that you stir in their heart questions that draw them to you, that we can be a body that points to you in your glory. It's your name I pray, amen. Amen. Thank you Daniel. And for maybe for some of you, as Daniel was asking some of those questions, just where are you at whenever you daydream? What are some things that you Google search on your own? Or what are some questions? Maybe just things that have been gnawing at you.

Take it from me. I just want to be an encouragement to you. That is the Lord God in heaven speaking to you, driving you crazy with a question that you can't answer. That is, that is the Lord God in heaven really reaching out in relationship to you. For each of us, we've got to do business with that. We've got to reckon with that. And so that's why every week we have a time of response. As we stand and sing, I'm going to be right up here. And if you would like someone to come pray with, if you need to make a decision about baptism, or if you'd like to join our church, that's great. We can do that right up there. But it might be something different than that. It might be something that you need to begin to pray through. Some forgiveness that you need to seek. Or if you just need prayer and you want to ask the person next to you, maybe somebody that you came with, that's great too.

encouragement is to respond. Respond to those questions that Daniel's asking, more specifically respond to the things that are gnawing at you that the Lord God has put there. Let's stand and sing and respond. Just as I am without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bits me come to thee, O Lamb of God! And I come, I come, just as I am in waiting not to win my soul. A one-life thought to the ears, but can't claim the spot of God. I come, I come, in just as I am though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fighting and fears within, without a land of God. I come, I come, and just as I am, Thou wilt receive, We'll welcome part and claim supreme Because I promise I believe O Lamb of God I come I come