Remaining Faithful in our Wealth

Danny Butler

Stewardship • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Introduction

Pastor Mark taught us last week from , on how we should, and can, be generous in our giving. This morning, as we continue this series on Faithful Obedience, we want to answer the question: how we, as believers, can remain faithful in our stewardship and giving.

I’m going to give you that answer now and then as we unpack the text, we will flesh it out together.

How do we remain faithful in our stewardship and giving? By enjoying and sharing all that God provides so that we may embrace eternal life.

Background

Ephesus

largest center of trade in Asia, shipyard, gateway to all points east

temple of artemis, 7th wonder, citizens from all over Asia make deposits, goddess protecting assets

;

50000 pieces silver, 136 years of earnings

silversmith riots

Timothy Letters

promote sound doctrine

counter false teaching

prosperity gospel

love of money

Paul instructs Timothy on how to shepherd the believers to remain faithful in spite of all this temptation from their culture.

Avoid the Risk

“As for the rich...” Who is rich.

Relative comparison

richest people in the world. Jeff Bezos #1 this year, 152.9 billion

difficulty relating to that magnitude of wealth, but not to our own or others near to us.

Illustration: Navy Story

By today’s standards, i have much more wealth than I did as an 18 yr old seaman eating grilled cheese.

Rich is not a comparison between the haves and the have-nots.

Being rich means that we have more than what we need.

: If you have discretionary funds, you are rich. The problem typically is not with the amount of funds, it is with our discretion.

If you have discretionary funds, you are rich. The problem typically is not with the amount of funds, it is with our discretion.

Avoid Risk of Pride

Basically, here is what pride says. Get the hubris or arrogance of this: what do we need God for when I have such a great investment portfolio. God doesn’t provide for my needs, my salary does.

Proverbs 30:8–9 ESV

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

We have a tendency to glorify in the gift, rather than the giver.

Doxology (out of place sandwiched between the love of money and the command to the rich.

1 tim 6:14-15

1 Timothy 6:14–16 ESV

14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

How can anyone be prideful after this response of praise?

Avoid False Hope

Pro

Proverbs 30:8–9 ESV

in the uncertainty of riches.

Proverbs 23:4–5 ESV

4 Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. 5 When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

Illustration: Greek Financial Crisis

anniversary, cheap

2009; 240 Drachma to 1 Euro

almost overnight the drachma lost all its value.

Psalm 52:7 ESV

7 “See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

Embrace True Hope

We are finally answering the question. How do we remain faithful in our stewardship and giving? By enjoying and sharing all that God provides.

Don’t set our hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

1 Timothy 6:17 ESV

17 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.

1 tim 6:

God is the provider, and, in His provision, we should find joy.

Application: We avoid pride and false hope by acknowledging that God is the giver and finding our joy in Him.

Enjoy, find pleasure.. speaking of the fleeting pleasures of sin.

pleasure in sin?

Hebrews 11:25 ESV

25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

pales in comparison to the joy found in obedience and worship.

John Piper says it this way: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

When God is our source of our hope and joy, the response is worship. That is the first half of the answer, let me remind you.

How do we remain faithful in our stewardship and giving? By enjoying all that God provides but also in sharing all that God provides.

Pursue the Reward

1 Timothy 6:19 ESV

19 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.

Do Good

· We are to provide for widows (,)

· We are to provide for our families (,)

· We are to support the elders and pastors who labor in the word. (.)

Rich in Good Works

Rich = abundance. Superlative

Generous

not obligatory

1 Corinthians 9:7–8 ESV

7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? 8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?

2 Corinthians 9:7–8 ESV

7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

1 cor 9:

Financial principle: When we give cheerfully, God distributes back to us a dividend which equips us for further good works

Ready to share

Koinonikos (root means common)

koininos would be a business partnership where the partners held common shares.

koinos would be a social or religious membership united by a common cause.

Koinonea is the word we translate as fellowship we share in the common life.

Koinonikos: common with our generosity.

Acts 2:44–45 ESV

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Sharing riches in doing good is the way that we demonstrate that our hope is not in riches but in God.

Conclusion

So how do we remain faithful in our stewardship and giving? By enjoying and sharing all that God provides so that we may live the real life.

Let me end with my favorite quote by CS Lewis from his sermon entitled The Weight of Glory.

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

God has provided everything that we need and has done so abundantly. The question is, what are we doing with the abundance? Are we investing in self indulgent, fleeting and temporary joy or are we investing and sharing in eternal joy; the life that really matters?