1 1 Tim 6:6-19 The money you keep Tim Anderson 1/7/18

Transcription

1 1 1 Tim 6:6-19 The money you keep Tim Anderson 1/7/18 This is the last Sunday in our sermon series on money. Up until today, you could have said this was a sermon series about giving or about generosity. And the more cynical amongst you might well ask, Is there such a thing a sermon about money that s not about giving? Today we prove that there is. Because today s sermon is about money but it s about the money you keep, not the money you give away. Now the astute amongst you might ask the question about balance. How is it that if I keep most of my money and only give away a small portion, that we had five sermons about giving it away, and only one on the part you keep? The reason is because when we balance the subject matter of our sermons, we balance them according to what God is interested in, not according to what we are interested in. We might be more interested in money we keep than the money we give away, but God isn t. You can tell what a person is interested in by what they talk about. I had a bishop over for dinner one night, not our bishop, a different one. And he talked about himself all night without pausing for breath. You know what he was interested in himself. When God is talking about money in the Bible, overwhelmingly it s about the part you give away. 1

2 2 But he does sometimes speak about the part you keep. And that s where we are going today. I want you to think for a moment about the time in your life when you were most contented. Do you have a picture? Now test my theory for me. I think people are most often contented not when they are surrounded by luxury but when they have people they love spending time with them and when they are relaxed and not under stress. I ve had times of my life when I was surrounded by luxury. When I worked for Comalco, I had to travel on business to Brisbane, and we stayed in flash hotels and ate at fancy restaurants. And while it s kind of nice telling people the story of the all you can eat seafood restaurant at breakfast creek paid for at the company s expense, it certainly didn t make me feel contented. The times I ve felt most contented have been on holidays when there s no stress, sitting around with Cherida and some friends, playing 500 and talking. A pack of cards only costs $5. And that s the nice shiny ones that shuffle well. Paul is writing to Timothy about how he should lead the church in Ephesus. And in Ephesus there are some people who are driven to get rich. Paul says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing we will be content with that. Now that s not about being rich or poor. 2

3 3 It s about being content. As far as contentment goes, it doesn t matter much whether you are rich or poor. You can be poor and feel unhappy with your lot, you can complain about the people who are paid more than you despite not doing nearly as good a job as you. You can feel envious of those whose family situation has brought them into money. Or you can be poor and content because you have food, clothing and shelter, a beautiful world to live in, you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face, listen to the birds sing and love the people who share your life. Contentment is about attitude not wealth. You can be rich and be discontent. It doesn t matter how rich you are, there s always more you could have. And you can be discontented because of all the stress in your life that managing your wealth brings. You can be unhappy because no one wants to be your friend because of you they all just want your money. There are lots of rich unhappy people out there. But you can be rich and content too. Maybe God has blessed you financially, and you re grateful to him, you don t let possessions rule your life, and you get real joy from being a blessing to others. It doesn t matter whether you are rich or poor. The virtue Paul says to strive for is contentment. You can do it. You can choose to be contented with your financial situation. You can choose to be contented with your life. 3

4 4 Some people think that contentment is something that just happens to you. You wake up one day and you feel happy. But contentment is the result of attitudes and decisions about how you think. You might not be able to snap your fingers and change how you feel over night. But if you feel discontent, and you make a few key decisions about how you will think about life, within weeks you will feel contentment. And that s almost irrespective of your situation. Here are three things to do to make you content. First of all, thank God for his blessings. Often we aren t content because we focus on life s problems. We get them out of proportion. If you want to get things out of proportion, go the other way. Dwell on the positive and thank God for it and ignore the negative. Don t let it have space in your brain. It s your brain so you can evict unwelcome tenants. Even when there are problems, thank God for the opportunities they present. Thank you God that I can spend time with some frustrating people. You are helping me become more patient. Thank you God that I don t know where the money for the phone bill is coming from. You are helping me trust in you more. Thank you God that I m getting older and I can t do all the things I used to be able to that means you ve given me a long life. Thanking God is key number 1 to contentment. 4

5 5 Key number 2 to contentment, don t compare yourself to others. As soon as you compare yourself, you will either become proud or discontented. Proud if you think you re better off, discontented if you re worse off. Now I m the sort of person who values intelligence more than money. So I ll be more likely to be tempted to compare myself with you to see if I m smarter than you. It s not likely to worry me if you re driving a Rolls and I m driving an Echo. But it doesn t really matter if it s intelligence or money or personality or looks, whether it s godliness or spiritual gifts or hard work or wisdom. The bottom line is, don t compare yourself with others. God made you to be you. Everything you have comes from God: intelligence or money or personality or looks, godliness or spiritual gifts or hard work or wisdom. They re all gifts. When someone give you a gift, the right response is to be grateful. You don t turn around and see what the person next to you is unwrapping before you decide to be grateful. The giver could have decided not to give at all. So don t compare with what others are given. Key number three for contentment: Remember that life is transitory. This one is particularly about being content with your possessions. Paul says, For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. I find myself reading that verse out at funerals quite often. 5

6 6 Nobody yet has asked me to read it out while they are having a baby. But at a funeral it s a stark reminder that possessions are not what life is about. Throughout history, people have tried to get around this fact. The ancient Egyptians buried their kings with all the possessions which would make them happy in the afterlife. That included a small army of servants too. Not the nicest thought. You give the best of your life to serve the king, and when he dies you get a knock on the door. Come on. It s time for us to mummify you so you can serve the king in the afterlife too. But it s actually not reality. Those Egyptian Kings won t be any better off in the afterlife than the servants who were buried with them. Now I don t suppose that anyone here is tempted to deny the truth of this verse in theory. But in practice we will be more content if we regularly remember that possessions aren t coming with us. It helps keep them in perspective. The camellias are a favourite flower of mine. My mum planted a camellia bush to mark my birth. They re beautiful. But I don t pick them. I like having cut flowers in the house but I leave the camellias on the bush. Why? Well if I pick them, they don t last long anyway. Within a day they look past it. Here today and gone tomorrow. The message is all possessions are camellias. All possessions are camellias. 6

7 7 Here today and gone tomorrow. And if we remember that, it will help us to be contented. Money is the root of all evil. It s a sweeping statement that s become a bit of a proverb in our society. It s actually a misquotation of the passage in front of us. Did you see it there? It s in verse 10. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The actual quote from the Bible has some important differences from the proverb that s become embedded in our minds. Firstly and most importantly it s the love of money that s the problem, not money itself. Secondly the love of money is not the root of all evil, it s a root of all kinds of evil. That means though there are many and various evils that come from the love of money, there are also plenty of evils out there that don t. So let s get the quote right. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Turn to the person sitting next to you and tell them, "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Here are some examples. The love of money is a root of theft, fraud and covetousness. If you ve been listening to the news recently, it's been hard to miss the revelations of the banking Royal Commission. The love of money has certainly given rise to theft, fraud, lies and covetousness there. Here's a news report from earlier this year. A Queensland mother accused of murdering two of her impaired adult children allegedly carried out the "calculated" killings for insurance payouts. Maree Crabtree was arrested and charged on Wednesday with the deaths of her 26-year-old son Jonathan 7

8 8 and 18-year-old daughter Erin, five years apart, following a complex police investigation that also spanned other states. The love of money gave rise to murder. The love of money also gives rise to families in court suing each other, bitter struggles over inheritance. The Reinhardts have been at it for decades. Those are all examples of love of money leading to evil evil fit to make the front page of the newspaper. But there are plenty more evils at a more mundane level. The love of money leads to social snobbery. Some people won t talk to others because they need to be seen with the right people. You might have encountered the situation where you are talking to someone at a function, a wealthy or important person enters the room and the person you are speaking with stops mid sentence and sidles up to the wealthy person. That s evil. The love of money leads to hard heartedness towards the poor. Did you know that Australians spend more on pet food than we give in foreign aid? That s evil. The love of money leads to all kinds of evil. Possibly the saddest is when the love of money causes people to abandon their faith. That s the example Paul gives. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. I ve met people like that too. People whose work meant so much to them because they were driven to make as much money as they possibly could that they no longer had time to meet with God s people. 8

9 9 And soon they no longer had time for God. Others find meeting with God s people uncomfortable. Their priorities in life are so much askew that when they meet with God s people, the different priorities are so obvious and uncomfortable for them that they choose not to connect with God s people. The people Paul is referring to are a little different. They are preachers who instead of teaching the truth have chosen to teach error because people will pay them more to do that. They ve wandered from the faith. Paul s last comment in that verse is worth remembering. They have pierced themselves with many griefs. In practice, often this is our attitude, The love of money is great fun, it really helps you enjoy life but it s wrong so you should avoid it. Maybe if you substitute money for liquor there s some of Alfred from My Fair Lady in us. The Lord above made liquor for temptation, To see if man could turn away from sin. The Lord above made liquor for temptation-but With a little bit of luck, With a little bit of luck, When temptation comes you'll give right in! But that s not reality. A consuming love of money like a consuming love of liquor will pierce you with many griefs. We ve spoken lots today about the perils of loving money. 9

10 10 And it would be easy to think that there s an implied condemnation of the rich. But that s not true. It s quite possible to get rich without loving money. Some people are just good at what they do, and people will pay them handsomely to do it. They get rich because they love their work and they re good at it. Riches aren t a problem, it s the love of riches that are the problem. So what should you do if you are rich? I mean apart from being generous which we ve spoken about at length in other weeks. Paul has two instructions in verse 17. And these are instructions not pieces of advice. The language is very strong. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Two commands. Don t be arrogant. Put your hope in God not wealth. Don t be arrogant. It s easy for a rich person to be arrogant. All they have to do is to start thinking, My wealth comes from my cleverness or my wealth comes from my hard work. And they are on the path to arrogance. It s true in human terms that wealth often comes from cleverness or hard work. But the Christian wealthy person has to realise that they are God s creation. If you are clever 10

11 11 that s because God made you that way. He decided how your genes would be put together. He decided that you would have good teachers. If you are hard working that s because God made you that way. He gave you the capacity to drive yourself harder he enabled you to forgo sleep, he gave you the parents or teachers that showed you a disciplined life. There s no room for arrogance in the Christian. Where ever you are good give the glory to God. That s rule #1 for the rich. Rule #2, put your hope in God not wealth. You see, it s easy to buy approval from ministers. We re only human. We genuinely think that if someone is contributing generously to the work of the church they must be walking on the straight and narrow. It s easy to buy approval from the church members. They will regard you as a model Christian if you pay your dues. But you can t buy approval from God. God will only be satisfied if he can see love for the Lord Jesus in your heart. When St Peter asks you the question at the pearly gates, Why should I let you into heaven?" If you re planning to give St Peter a list of all your generosity. Think again. God wants your hope to be in him. Contentment. Decide what ever your circumstances to be content with what God has given you. The love of money leads to all kinds of evil so avoid it. 11

12 12 It will pierce you with many griefs. And if you are rich be humble not arrogant hope in God, not wealth. 12