Sermon Tone Analysis

I Timothy 6:17-19

 

! Introduction

            What is this?

Yes, a $20 bill.

If this were your $20, and I burned it, (rip it up or hold lighted lighter under it and pretend and then actually burn it) what kind of an impact would it have on you?

Would you be annoyed because I wasted money?

Would you be upset with me because I spoiled the plans you had for it?

Would you be angry and afraid because I caused you to starve or be sent out of the place you live?

I suspect some of us wouldn’t really miss it and some would have to change plans because of it, but I am quite sure that none of us would starve or be evicted because of it.

What that means is that all of us have enough so that at the very least, $20 can sometimes be considered discretionary income.

The point I am making is that we are all rich enough that when I Timothy 6:17-19 says, “Command those who are rich, in this present world…” it is speaking to all of us.

So as we examine this passage this morning, we all need to listen.

Now before I go on, lest someone be upset with me for ripping up a $20, let me assure you that it was not a real $20, so I didn’t just waste $20.

When someone suggested that we should have a message on stewardship and giving, I was a little reluctant to do so.

Somehow it seems that money is a subject that we are afraid to talk about.

Perhaps because we don’t want to step on other’s toes, perhaps because we know that we will need to apply it in an area we find difficult, but I believe that it is an important subject that we need to learn about and so we will do so this morning.

As I speak, however, please understand that I do so as a fellow struggler.

The context of this passage follows along from what Paul said earlier in verse 6 and following.

In this passage, he warns about the love of money.

In this he does not condemn riches, but warns about the dangers which riches bring.

Dangers, which, as I have shown, we are all subject to.

There are several ways we could approach this subject.

We could talk about stewardship, envy, materialism, and all these are important matters, but, I believe that these are all matters which are at the edge of the problem.

This morning, I want to get to what I think is the core of the problem with money.

The words in this passage are not hard to understand, but they are hard to live.

I hope this morning as we examine this passage together we will be encouraged in our thinking and challenged in our living.

Let us read the text.

!

I.

The Pride of Possession

            Earlier we read the story of the rich man who trusted in his wealth in Luke 12:16-21.

The context of the story is a request by someone from the crowd for a ruling on dividing an inheritance.

Jesus did not make a ruling, but warned the people, by use of this parable.

Jesus draws us into the parable by describing a windfall for the man.

The windfall of wealth which came to the rich man is what all of us wish would happen to us.

There is a commercial I have seen on TV which reminds me of this story.

It shows a picture of a young looking middle aged couple enjoying themselves on a tropical beach.

The commercial suggests a way to plan for early retirement and a life of ease.

As we think about these things, we realize that Jesus is talking about us.

Most people would call the man wise because he prepared himself for the future.

He could be looked at as a wise investor, but Jesus calls him a fool.

How shocking!

A fool for doing what most of us dream of?

What made him a fool?

He was foolish in his presumption.

The rich man presumed two things about the future.

!! A.

Not Arrogant

First, he was arrogant and presumed that he would live forever.

“Concentrating on ‘my…my…my…my’ he discovered, too late, that all, even his own being, was a short-term loan from God.”

The word “demanded” in NIV or “required” in RSV and KJV is a word that suggests that life is a loan which must be returned to God.”

Kefa Sempangi (whose story is told in the book A Distant Grief,) was a national pastor in Africa and barely escaped with his family from brutal oppression and terror in his home country of Uganda.

They made their way to Philadelphia, where a group of Christians began caring for them.

One day his wife said, "Tomorrow I am going to go and buy some clothes for the children," and immediately she and her husband broke into tears.

Because of the constant threat of death under which they had so long lived, that was the first time in many years they had dared even speak the word tomorrow.

Their terrifying experiences forced them to realize what is true of every person:  there is no assurance of tomorrow.

The only time we can be sure of having is what we have at the moment.

To the self-satisfied farmer who had grandiose plans to build bigger and better barns to store his crops, the Lord said, "You fool!

This very night your soul is required of you" (Luke 12:20).

He had already lived his last tomorrow.

!! B.

Not Hope in Wealth

Second, he presumed that he would have his wealth tomorrow.

The passage in I Timothy warns of the uncertainty of riches.

You cannot count on what you have, for you may not always possess it.

Russell Bake said, “Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories--those that don't work, those that break down, and those that get lost.”

This is very personal for me.

I have finished reading my great-grandfather’s diary.

It was a good thing that he was not a man who trusted in his wealth because he found that it did not stay forever.

He was a wealthy businessman in Russia and after the revolution in 1917, he lost everything.

What a contrast it must have been when at age 40 he had a thriving business, a large home, a growing family and at age of 60, when he made a living by walking door to door in Winnipeg selling eggs.

If we depend on wealth, it may not always be there.

If we are depending on our wages, our insurance, our pension plans or our savings account, we do not know the kind of things that can happen that will cause us to lose them.

So the warning in I Timothy 6:17 is, “do not be arrogant nor put your hope in wealth, which is so uncertain.”

!

II.

Hope In God

!! A. Hope In God

            Instead, Paul tells Timothy to teach that they should “put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

Here we get right to the heart of something that is a problem for me and I suspect for most of us.

Paul does not condemn making money, saving money, buying insurance or making investments.

These things can all be done while being obedient to what he is teaching.

It is possible to have a huge bank account and put absolutely no confidence in it.

It is wise to have insurance and a pension plan, but still not to have an attitude of dependence on that insurance or on the pension plan.

It is possible to lack many of these supports and to be filled with worry because we don’t know how we are going to make it.

What he condemns is an attitude.

He gets right to the heart of the matter when he causes us to ask, “Where is my hope?”

I have to confess that my hope is easily in my money.

Life is a lot easier now that I have a steady income than it was when I was on unemployment.

Even then there was a certain security in what I had.

It is so easy for us to place our security in what we have because we have so much, but Paul warns us not to do so.

Jesus taught this important lesson in the story of the widow in Luke 21:1-4, which we read earlier.

While the disciples were admiring the great gifts which many wealthy people were giving, Jesus saw something else.

He saw a woman give a few small copper coins.

Why did he commend the woman?

Was it because she was so sacrificial, giving all she had?

I don’t think that is the whole story.

What she was demonstrating was that she depended on God.

She had nothing else to depend on.

Humanly speaking, we might say that it was an easy decision for her.

She was simply deciding that she would starve today instead of tomorrow.

But I would suggest that Jesus commended her because she had nothing and had to depend on God.