Instructions to the Rich

Transcript

GR1779
10/19/2014
Instructions to the Rich
I Timothy 6:17-19
Gil Rugh

We are in I Timothy chapter 6 in your Bibles, Paul’s first letter to Timothy and the closing section of this letter will have one more study in this letter before we complete it. He’s dealing with the subject of money and this somewhat pervades this chapter in this letter to Timothy and the problems of it. This subject comes up often in Scripture. It’s often addressed and it’s often addressed in the context of warning about the danger of earthly wealth, of riches; even made clear by Christ that riches, earthly wealth can be a serious obstacle to salvation and becomes more difficult for the rich to experience God’s salvation.

If you come, leave a marker in Timothy and come back to Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, Luke chapter 18, verse 18. A ruler questioned Him, questioned Christ during His earthly ministry obviously, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God.’” Recognize something of the person of the one you are talking to then he tells him the different commandments and verse 21 the young man says, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” Jesus heard him and said, “You have one thing still lacking. Sell all that you possess. Distribute it to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven. Come follow Me.” It becomes key, “Come follow Me.” Let go of everything else, come follow Me. “When he heard these things he became very sad for he was extremely rich. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.’” A Jewish believer anticipating the kingdom the Messiah would set up, true salvation was necessary to enter that kingdom. Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again or you will never see the kingdom of God.” Then He also said verse 25: “It easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard said, ‘Then you can be saved?’” Then the comment, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God;” even as we heard in the song that we sang but riches are an added obstacle because we come to trust in those riches.

Back while you are in Luke, come back to Luke chapter 12, verse 13: “Someone in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family heritance with me.’ He said to him, ‘man who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?’ Then he said to them, ‘beware and be on your guard against every form of greed. For not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. They told Him a parable saying the land of a rich man was very productive. He began reasoning to himself saying what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns. I will build bigger and new barns that will hold more.” Then verse 19: “I will say to my soul, ‘soul you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink and be merry.’ God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night your soul is required of you. Who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Then He applies it even to His followers. He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, ‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor for your body what you will put on. Life is more than food, the body more than clothing and God knows you have need of these basic necessities’ (to summarize) but then come down to verse 31: “Seek His kingdom and these things will be added to you. Do not be afraid little flock Your Father has gladly chosen to give you the kingdom. Be willing to sell your possessions and have nothing, trust Him day by day.” And then the challenge, verse 34: “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. “

As we will see as we look in our passage in a moment, wealth and riches in and of themselves are not wrong but when they become the focus of our lives, our trust in is them, they become the treasure of our life then it is a real problem.
One more passage while we are in Luke. Come over to chapter 16, Luke chapter 16, the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, verse 19: “There was a rich man. He habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, living joyously in splendor and a poor man named Lazarus laid at his gate covered with sores longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.” The point is, he is in abject poverty with nothing in contrast to the man who has wealth and splendor. Verse 22: “The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment,” and calls to father Abraham, ‘I’m in agony in this flame’ and Abraham says ‘there is a great chasm it cannot be bridged after death.’ There is no salvation after death contrast to some doctrines. Then he said, ‘well send somebody back from the grave to tell my family’ and then that statement in verse 31: “If you do not listen to Moses and the prophets they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead;” in all this context you see that warning about riches, the danger of riches becoming the focal point of life, the confidence of life. You know men who have acquired vast wealth often interviewed, articles are written, books are written about them but you don’t find them except in an extremely rare case giving any credit to God or acknowledging the transitory-ness of these riches.

So when you come back to Timothy, I Timothy chapter 6 he’s warned him early in this chapter about false teachers and false teachers are driven by several things. One of which is money and personal gain. Verse 3 he said, “If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness he is conceited and understands nothing.” People often like to debate the Scriptures, talk about them, argue about them; all it produces is envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicion, constant friction between men of depraved mind, deprived of the truth. They suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Important to see this matter of money and material things has been an issue through this chapter. It is coming back to it more clearly in the section that we will be looking at. He reminds him, godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment for we have brought nothing into the world so we can take nothing out of it either. If we have food and covering with ease we shall be content. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation. Verse 10: “The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. Some longing for it have wandered away from the faith, pierced themselves with many pangs. You flee from these things man of God.” So that warning.

You know the world around us constantly presses in. Do you have enough? How secure are you financially? Have you stored up enough for a comfortable retirement? Are you prepared for this kind of disaster or that? I am not saying there is anything wrong with planning, being wise but we live with a different focus than the world. Our confidence and trust is not in material things. Our confidence and trust is in our God and His provision for us.
Timothy is to be careful not to get drawn into that kind of thinking, not to allow as Romans 12 says, the world to press us into its mold, to shape our thinking and the focus of our lives.

Then you come down to verse 17, they are warning Timothy not to get drawn in to some of those things that characterize false teachers and the people of the world. Then he gives instruction to those who are rich and this makes clear he’s not saying if God has blessed you with abundant wealth that is wrong. You should give it away and be poor to prove you just trust the Lord. Scripture doesn’t say that has to be done. Scripture does say that even when we are wealthy we hold those things lightly so to speak. If everything you have materially was gone when you woke up in the morning would it change your trust in God? Confidence that He will provide for me today what I need, minimal may it be but I know His will is best for me.

So the instructions in verses 17 to 19 are those who are rich. “Instruct those who are rich in this present world.” And here are authoritative instructions to be given to those who have wealth. There are not going to be a lot of those in the church. Remember Paul wrote to the Corinthians in I Corinthians chapter 1and said, “Look around at yourselves, our own church. Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble.” But by God’s grace some who have abundance are believers and we thank God for His grace in trusting them with this wealth but it has its own dangers. That is true for us living in a prosperous country.

Frances Schaeffer many years ago said that the characteristic and the motive for people are what, personal peace and affluence. We see that in our country. We don’t want to be bothered with other things. We don’t want to get involved in other parts of the world. We just want our own comfort zone and to enjoy the wealth that we have. We as believers live differently.

This word ‘instruct’ this is a word that we have seen before in this letter to Timothy. It was used up in verse 13 as it was translated, ‘I charge you.’ It’s a command and it’s a word that means a command. We might say authoritative instruction and when he said in verse 13, “I charge you in the presence of God,” I command you, I give you this authoritative word. So here, “You authoritatively instruct, you command them.” This is not a recommendation this is a requirement.

We saw this, come back to chapter 1, verse 3. We have mentioned Timothy even as we are getting ready to start II Corinthians and in this letter, second letter it comes out maybe even more clearly, Timothy might tend to be reluctant to step forward with the authority that he should and through this letter he was reminded, you have to authoritatively instruct them. You have to command them. Verse 3 in chapter 1: “I urge you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct.” You note that is the same word that we are talking about, chapter 6, verse 17. “You command certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” Down in verse 18 of chapter 1: “This command (and there it is translated command – we are talking about the same word) I entrust to you.” Over in chapter 4, verse 11: “Prescribe.” There’s our word, ‘command,’ authoritatively teach and instruct these things. Down in chapter 5, verse 7: “Prescribe.” There it is our word again, ‘command,’ authoritatively teach and require these things. And so we have over in chapter 6, verse 17: “Command, (authoritatively teach) those who are rich in this present world.” And that initial command, it is an imperative, a command, something you must do. You must authoritatively teach these things.
Verses 17-19 which we are looking at is one long sentence. And it all flows out of this initial command, you authoritatively command or instruct and then he will elaborate on that through this one long sentence.

It’s addressed to those who are rich. “Timothy you instruct and command those who are rich” who have significant material resources and in verses 17 and 18 that word ‘rich’ is used, various forms of it four times, rich, riches, richly, rich. There were those in the church at Ephesus who were well off, who had much more materially than the needed for just getting by. His instruction here is for them and what they are to do. They don’t have to give everything away so they all, everybody lives on the same level.

God distributes everything including material things according to His purposes. We are blessed to live in a country where all of us live on a different level than people when we look at other countries they are destitute in extremes but we here comfortable; wouldn’t know what we would do without air conditioning and heat. You go to the grocery store and what do you pick? I mean there is just an abundance of everything. We get around comfortably in our cars. You know, it’s a good life. So we are doing well even as a country and then among us there are those who have more and those who have less. So he is talking about those who are rich and the Gospel had impacted some of wealth as well as some who had less.

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world.” I love that expression, this present world. It is literally in the now age. Instruct those who are rich in the now age, in this present period of time.
Over in II Timothy chapter 4, verse 10 Paul said, “Demas having loved this present world” or this present age literally, having loved the now age. What happened to Demas is one of those that Paul warned about in I Timothy chapter 6, verse 9: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation, and many foolish and harmful desires. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some have wandered from the faith.” Demas, this is a man who has been with Paul and now had something happen. You know, it is just too costly. You know I’ve got opportunities here. I am just drawn. I want to do better. I want to have a more comfortable life. He loved the now age.

This reminder, it is transitory. In Titus chapter 2, verse 12. Verse 11: “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the (now age) in the present age,” this present period of time.

Come back to chapter 6 of I Timothy. We are those with our focus on the age to come. So we don’t want to allow ourselves to be conformed and conditioned by this present age. There will be a balance, we will see in a moment. That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the things that God gives us but we don’t want to fall in love with them.
He is going to give a couple of negative instructions followed by positive. I Timothy 6:17 – “Instruct those who are rich in this now age not to be conceited.” You know pride can become the curse of the rich. They think they are innately smarter, better and we have a very rich man in our state, he is called the oracle of Omaha. I am not saying anything about his character or anything but it is how the world sees it. Here’s a person you go to for wisdom. How often do you see the poor? Who wants to interview the poor? They interview the rich and they can bestow on us some of their wisdom and insight and they have some things to say about being effective and successful in this life but it can lead to pride. You begin to trust your money. You are self-sufficient. You are self-confident. All of us who aren’t independently wealthy probably have thought at one time, “wouldn’t it be nice to have enough money you didn’t have to think about making a living.” Of course we think about how much more time we would give to the Lord. We want to put that into a spiritual context but it breeds pride. I’m not dependent upon anyone. I have more than enough money. It usually produced that sense of self-security, self- sufficiency and so on.

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited,” high-minded. Come back to Romans chapter 12 and you will see basically this same word used, a compound word, the two words used here in Romans chapter 12, verse 16: “Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind.” You think the expression haughty in mind takes these two words that we have put together as a compound word in I Timothy 6, high-minded but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. You know, here in the body of Christ we are one. Some of us have maybe much material possessions, some of us may have very little but that is not important and we enjoy one another’s company. We don’t divide and say, “Well we have a Bible Study for the wealthy here and a Bible Study for the not wealthy over here.” No, we blend together because we are not known and we don’t have our focus on what we have materially but our relationship in Christ. They are not to be high-minded, come back or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. Command them not to be high-minded, not to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. You know this has the idea of a hope fixed and settled on something. The uncertainty of riches involved in two things, life is uncertain. We read in Luke chapter 12: “You fool, this very night your soul is required of you. Now who will own what you have prepared?” Life is uncertain. The richest man in the world could be dead tonight. Material riches are uncertain and tomorrow if he dies tonight everything he owns will still be here and secondly, there is an instability in the possessions of the world. In Matthew 6 Jesus said, “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal.” I mean all you do, you watch the stock market. It goes up and down, up and down, up and down and they can talk about how much wealth has been lost, how much wealth has been gained. There is a certain uncertainty. You know when we come into the tribulation having money is not going to account for much when the judgments of the tribulation come on this world.

So don’t fix your hope on your riches even if you have them. It doesn’t say it is wrong to have them, it’s wrong to have your hope fixed on them. It’s not wrong to have them but it’s wrong to be in love with it. You fix your hope on God in verse 17. “Not to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God.”

You know no matter what God gives to us materially doesn’t change the focus of our hope. Our hope is fixed on God. You know this is not new but we are constantly warned. What is the Spirit of God doing here? He is telling His people to be careful. We live in this world. We are part of this world in that sense. This world is not our home. Our citizenship is in heaven but none the less, we have to get by in this world. We have to pay bills. We have to buy food. We have to buy clothes. We do live in this world but we want to be careful that we don’t get shaped and so now our thinking is no longer focused on God and we begin to develop the concerns of the world and the fears. Will I have enough? What will I do if this happens or that happens? My hope is fixed on God.

Come back to Jeremiah chapter 9. I was just going to read it to you here but I want you to see it. Jeremiah chapter 9, some verses you may have memorized. Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 23: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his riches but let him who boasts, boasts of this; that he understands and knows Me that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord.” That’s true for all of us, the poorest member of this congregation to the richest member of this congregation. We share the same boast, the same cause of glory. Our hope is fixed on the living God, who He is. I delight in Him and the things that please Him and it is His purpose for me to be very poor, His grace is sufficient for me and in His gracious purposes He makes me wealthy and He gives me extra, my hope is still fixed on Him, not on the things He has given me.

You can hold a finger in Jeremiah if you want. We are not coming back to Jeremiah but we are going back to the Old Testament. We are told that it is God who richly supplied us with all things to enjoy back in I Timothy 6:17. Now note that. Whatever you have, if you have earthly riches, whatever you have it is not wrong to enjoy it. You know back in chapter 4 of this letter Paul warned about those false teachers who promoted a teaching of some kind of self-denial, ascetic kind of living was more spiritual and more godly; and these false teachers in chapter 4 of I Timothy, “by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience, they forbid marriage, they advocate abstaining from foods.” I mean if you deny your body and we see holy men, so to speak as they are referred to in countries like India and they are bone thin and they live this ascetic life and we have had the monks in past ages of the Catholic Church and so on. This idea, oh boy, look at the self-denial. It is not the Biblical teaching. He says in verse 3 of I Timothy 4 that God has created these things to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. They are created by God as good, nothing to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude. So we are not to be ashamed and say, “Well boy, you know, I feel a little awkward, I have so much. I don’t know why God has blessed me with so much. Why has he prospered me but I thank Him for it.” I don’t want to lose my focus that it all comes from Him but He has given it to enjoy. I don’t have to try to promote. You know I deny myself these things because I think it is good, you know I want to discipline my body to be used properly for the Lord but this whole idea of asceticism and the ascetic life and all of that. That is not honoring to the Lord. That is a denial of the Lord. We have Roman Catholics who think the priesthood ought to be celibate and no marriage. Well men who forbid marriage are classified here as false teachers. The idea of you abstain, no; again, that doesn’t mean you have to eat everything. Eat the way you want, exercise the way you want but be careful we don’t tie that to being spiritual and Biblical. So God has supplied us, the same thing he said back there, reminded them of, he reminds them here in verse 17, “with all things richly to enjoy.”

Come back to Ecclesiastes. This is the passage I said we were going to come back to if you were in Jeremiah you have to go back in your Bible quite a bit, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, look at verse 18. A reminder in verse 15: “As he came naked from his mother’s womb so he will return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry away in his hand.” Just a reminder like Jesus talked about, the rich man who would, “this night your soul will be required of you then whose will these things be?” Don’t become attached to these things in a wrong sense. You are not taking them with you. They are not what life is all about for us as a believer. Even when you have an abundance of possessions your life as a believer does not consist of your possessions but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy them. Verse 18 of Ecclesiastes 5: “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting. To eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun in the few years of his life which God has given him. For this is his reward. Furthermore as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth he has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and to rejoice in his labor.

This is the gift of God.” I mean that is part of God’s blessing for us. It’s not wrong to enjoy life. It’s not wrong to enjoy the things that God gives us. You say, ah, I feel guilty having this or doing that. Well, do I have real guilt or do I just have guilt feelings? I don’t have to feel guilty because I enjoy the things God has given me, whatever it is you know I enjoy air-conditioning on a 100 degree day. I shouldn’t sit there saying, “You know, I shouldn’t enjoy air-conditioning, it’s not right. There are people in the world who don’t have air-conditioning. I ought to, ‘turn the air-conditioning off, Marilyn,’ I don’t think we ought to be enjoying air-conditioning.” Why not? I enjoy it on a 100 degree day. I am thankful to have a car so I don’t have to ride a horse to the store. Marilyn likes to ride horses, side statement. I tried it a couple times. It just doesn’t work. You know, I don’t know what it is. Every time the horse is coming up I am coming down and it is just unpleasant. I like the car. Get in, turn the key or push the button, push the pedals, steer the wheel, put the window up if it’s too windy. I enjoy that. I don’t drive down the road, and think, I should be walking. Paul walked everywhere. What am I doing driving? I can drive down the road and say, “Thank you Lord for providing a car;” when I get home “Thank you Lord for providing such a comfortable home for us to live in.” Ecclesiastes says this is God’s reward for us. It’s a blessing.

Now there is a caution. Come back to Deuteronomy chapter 8, Deuteronomy chapter 8. He warns Israel, “I am going to bless you. I am going to give you material abundance. Now let Me caution you. When I do that don’t lose your perspective.” So he is telling them in this context when He brings them into the land they will prosper. Verse 7: “The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and water, fountains, springs, wheat barley” and so on. It would be like us living in this country. Again I’m not saying this is the land to compare it but we live in a land that is prosperous so in that sense it is similar compared too many other parts of the world and in this land you are coming into, verse 9: “You will eat food without scarcity. You won’t lack anything.” Verse 10: “When you have eaten and are satisfied you shall bless the Lord your God for the land He has given you.” He doesn’t say, “Go in there and feel guilty or be ascetic and don’t enjoy it.” He says, “Go in and enjoy it.” It is just like we read in Ecclesiastes. God gives us these things. Verse 11: “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His ordinances, His statues which I am commanding. Otherwise when you have eaten, you are satisfied, you have good houses, your flocks, all of this, your stocks, everything is going well,” verse 14: “Then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God and what He has done.” Verse 17: “Otherwise you may say in your heart, ‘my power, the strength of my hand has made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord our God for it is He who has given you power to make wealth.” I mean this is God’s grace. Why are we born here? Why did He give you a mind that enabled you to think through these things; put you in a position where you are wise? Why are we born here? Why are we not in one of those countries where you see people whose homes have been destroyed and they are just carrying their possessions, whatever they have, around in a bag, trying to find a safe place. Why are we here? The Lord has graciously put us here. Why am I here and someone else… I don’t know. It’s God plan. Why do we have our – does that mean well we shouldn’t enjoy this? A man who used to be here and sometime people will say, “Well your grandmother tells you ‘eat everything on your plate. There are people starving in the world.’” I don’t know how my eating everything on my plate is going to help those who are starving in the world and his response was, name one. You know He has given us good things to enjoy.

Come back to I Timothy. What are the rich to do? God has given us all we have. I may not have as much as someone else. I may have more than another person. That’s fine. I live with what God has given me. I realize what He does is best for me and if He gave me what He gives someone else I might not be able to handle that kind of wealth. I might not be here teaching the Word today. I might be down relaxing on the beach in the Caribbean, who knows? The Lord knows what I can be trusted with but He also cautions me with what I have to be careful.

Verse 18 of I Timothy 6, this command carries over, it’s repeated. They repeat the word ‘instruct them’ because it’s all built out of that initial command, authoritatively instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, to be ready to share. You know it doesn’t mean you have to give everything away but obviously when you have much more than you need you have opportunity to use it wisely. I want to be careful that I just don’t get carried away with my wealth. I have opportunity to give more and to be generous and to be rich in good works, generous, ready to share.
You know, good works and this is an emphasis in this letter to Timothy is not a cause of salvation. They are a result of salvation and people get confused on this and unbelievers think if they do more good works it will be more pleasing to God and assure them of their salvation. There is a place for good works but it’s not to earn your salvation but those who have experienced God’s grace in salvation, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8-10 you know, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, that salvation is not of yourself, but it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” But then he tells them in verse 10: “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.” So getting the order correctly so God has blessed us with extra so we can be generous doing those things which are good, helping others, supporting the ministry in a greater way and so on.
We have studied Hebrews chapter 13 and in verse 16 the writer said: “Do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” and we will be talking about this in II Corinthians 8 and 9 when we get there.
Verse 19 of I Timothy 6. We are to do these things because they are “storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” “Storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.” In other words doing all these things because what? My hope is in the Lord and I don’t lose focus. He has given me much more than He has given someone else and I want to use everything that He has given me. We are not our own. We’ve been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies and I want to honor Him with all that I have and so I’m sensitive to what He might have me do and how He might use that.
And our congregation has been blessed and people who have more have been generous and helped in a variety of ways in the ministry and in other aspects that is what they are doing. What is it we are doing? The problem is we are storing up a good foundation, the treasure of a good foundation. We are not earning heaven but the idea is we are looking to building our treasure in the future. Lives lived for the Lord to be pleasing to Him.

Turn over to I Peter. We are going to chapter 1, look at verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born-again to a living hope.” That is the focus of our life, our hope is in God and what He has promised through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. “To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” That is what we are talking about. We are living our lives, all we do and all we have in the context of what? The age to come. We live in this now age but we live with our focus on the age to come and that’s why if we don’t have much now that is not a big deal. It doesn’t matter a lot. What really matters is what will we have after this life, after this age?
So that is what he is talking about, “storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.” I am looking to build treasure in heaven, not earning my salvation but the reward that will come for faithfulness with my life and with all that God entrusts me with.

Back to I Timothy chapter 6. “So that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” Rather take hold, same expression was used up in verse 12 when he commanded Timothy, “Fight the good fight, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” and that eternal life, you hold onto it. You maintain your firm grip. So here is the wealthy, the rich. They are storing up for themselves a treasure of a good foundation. They are maintaining their firm hold on that which is life indeed. In other words, earthly riches haven’t distracted them. They maintain their equilibrium. Like Paul could say, “I’ve learned to be content with whatever circumstance I am in.” To have abundance I learned to have nothing, Philippians chapter 4. The rich now, they haven’t been swayed, they haven’t been changed, their focus hasn’t been altered. They maintain their firm grip on that which is life indeed or as he said up in verse 12 – “take hold of the eternal life.” That is life indeed. We understand what real life is. It’s eternal life in Christ and the riches we have in Him and the heavenly inheritance we have. It doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the material blessings we have now. It doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them but they don’t become the treasure of our heart and we need to be careful.

You know with prosperity seems to come often a weakening of that commitment and determination to serve the Lord. I shared with you many years ago that I did some studies and revaluated studies around the world and found as Christianity comes into an area it impacts people usually in the lower economic parts of life but those people become more responsible and as they rise in the social and material scale it seems like the passion level of Christianity deteriorates and you know it happens in our country. It’s hard isn’t it? There are so many good things to enjoy it’s hard to even fit church in anymore. We just get caught up in everything else. Now wait a minute. That’s sort of like what God told Israel, isn’t it? When you come into the land and start to enjoy all the good things I give you, don’t forget, I gave it to you. Isn’t it amazing? It’s just hard to fit the Lord in, my life is just so busy, so many things to do, well we ought to be careful. That’s an indication that perhaps my blessings have become the focus of my life in the wrong sense. I just want to be as passionate for the Lord, as committed to Him as I can be, to use my life, my possessions properly but it doesn’t mean if the Lord gives you possessions and you can take a vacation to a nice comfortable place, God bless you. Get all refreshed and get back here and get to work. That’s true for us all. I am not saying we can’t enjoy things but keep them in perspective. That is true for us as a church today. Whatever you have, thank the Lord for it; whatever you need trust Him to give you. When He has given you extra, thank Him for it. You can enjoy that. It frees you up to do some things that people who don’t have as much can’t do but don’t let that drain you away and alter your focus and the challenge for us, keep our focus on the God who gives us good things to enjoy. Thank Him for it and be passionate in your service for Him.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your grace. Lord You have blessed us. You have privileged us to live in a country that You have seen fit to bless, to enable us to have abundance to have more food that is necessary just to get by, to have homes and cars and extra money to do things that would not be possible in other settings. We as a church have been blessed. We have good and comfortable facilities where we can teach the Word and fellowship together. We just give You praise for Your goodness to us. We want to keep our focus on You. Lord, how sad it would be that we would lose the focus on You because of the good things You have given us. We are reminded we cannot serve God and riches and we want to serve You with all we are and with all that we have. Thank You for the privilege of enjoying what You have given us and thank You for the privilege of serving You with what You have given us as well. Bless us in our service as a church family in the various places You put us in the days of the week ahead we pray in Christ’s name, amen.