The Purpose of Wealth
Generous: It is better to give than to receive • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewIn 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Paul instructs his protege Timothy to command wealthy Christians to become rich toward God through good works and generous living. Believers are to give for their own good and will receive blessings in this life and the life to come.
Notes
Transcript
Goal: The goal of this sermon is to encourage (command!) people to take a next step of generosity for their own good.
Core Teaching: There are many good reasons to give, but giving is ALWAYS for the good of the giver.
Props Needed: Home baked cookies – enough for everyone. Funding Wolverine Camp and providing meals for the campers so they can experience a relationship with Jesus Christ.
[Introduction] How many of you grew up in what you would consider to be a strict household?
Show of hands
Scale of 1-10
I would describe my household somewhat strict: Here’s what I mean:
Outside - Must wear a hat and apply sunscreen.
School - I had to apply myself and get good grades.
Around the house - Drink lots of water and be in bed by 8 pm.
My parents were lucky, I was a pretty compliant kid. Or maybe I wasn’t. I don’t know. I probably want to think I was better than I actually was. I certainly remember a lot of spankings (I remember one good one that dad gave me with a belt). But even as a kid, I rebelled and disappointed my parents. I rebelled against things that were good for me.
As a kid, at some level I may have understood that this was for my good. But I didn’t understand why or how.
[Transition] When has someone done something for their good, that did not feel good at the time?
What about you?
I’m guessing YOU had parents who made you do things that you didn’t like at the time but ultimately ended up for your good.
If you didn’t have parents that gave you this kind of structure, I bet you wish you had.
[Summarize Introduction]
Point is that we all have been told to do things THAT WERE FOR OUR GOOD but we thought they were TO MAKE US MISERABLE.
As adults, we look back on it and have better understanding.
Our parents didn’t want us to brush our teeth to make us miserable or have us take showers just to make us suffer or spank us because they enjoyed it.
ALL OF THAT WAS FOR OUR GOOD.
[Transition] Isn’t God the same way with us? Gives us instructions that are for our good, but we don’t THINK they are for our good.
Starting in the garden – with the fruit – don’t eat the fruit. THIS IS FOR YOUR GOOD. But it didn’t FEEL like it was for Adam and Eve’s good, so they ate it.
10 commandments – have you ever lied and had it turn out WELL?
Murder
Lie
Steal
In general, can we agree that when God gives us an instruction, it is for our good?
Even if it doesn’t feel like it, even if we don’t understand it, even if we can’t see it, when God tell us to do something it is for our good.
That is ALWAYS true – with our behavior and with our relationships (kids, parents, coworkers).
[Accusation Audit] We are going to look at a specific passage this morning where we are given a specific command for our good. BEFORE WE DO THAT, though, I am going to warn you: At the end of this message, I am going to ask everyone in this room to give something. I don’t think you are going to hate it, but I don’t want you to be surprised when we get there.
Also, there will be delicious cookies. Fair enough?
PRINCIPLE: Giving is for our good.
Read text – I Timothy 6:17-19.
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. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 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.
Point out a few things from this passage:
Paul is writing to his protégé, Timothy, about how to pastor a church.
This is the kind of letter that pastors and ministers use to learn how to be a better pastor and minister
And what does Paul tell Timothy to do?
Paul tells Timothy to COMMAND his people. Some versions say INSTRUCT.
Command them to hope in God, do good, be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
Timothy is to COMMAND rich people to be generous.
Saying to yourself that you are not rich – you are
Rich people have margin
There is someone in the world who would trade places with the poorest among us TODAY because you have so much more than he does.
This passage is applicable:
To me, as a minister of the gospel,
And to you, as a people of margin and means. As rich people.
We get weird about giving in church.
How many of us feel that?
There is a rich theology around giving, tithing, offering, generosity, and stewardship that we are not going to cover today.
Trust me, as the stewardship guy, I want to.
But all of that theology and practice around giving is not in this passage.
My goal today is not to teach giving theology, but to get everyone to understand one principle and to take one next generosity step.
Here it is: We think giving is for the good of others. GIVING IS FOR OUR GOOD.
In the same way that my parents made me do things I didn’t like, but became part of who I am, GIVING while not natural, is for our GOOD.
That may strike you as counterintuitive, for a few reasons:
The first: when we give at church, don’t we feel like it is for the good of others?
Well, yes. It does do good for others. Here’s a list of reasons you might give in church:
“Because you give”
Work of the church
Missionaries
Projects
Disaster relief
Salaries
Light bills
God says so
“Because you give”
Give to look good
Give to get
We don’t see ANY of those reasons in this text. Anywhere. We see them elsewhere in scripture, but not here.
It doesn’t even say who to give TO. It just says to command rich people to be generous. Why?
The second: when I give something, I don’t have it. How can NOT having something be better for me than HAVING that same thing?
If we’re honest, when we think about GIVING, we think first about NOT HAVING.
This is a human problem.
Happens at every level – those with less think that those with more won’t have this problem.
Does NOT go away with wealth.
All of us are rich by global and historical standards, anyway.
HOW IS GIVING FOR OUR GOOD?
Nature of money:
Makes us arrogant
Promises we can trust it, when we can’t. Wealth is uncertain.
Giving is for our good because:
Protects against arrogance, hope in wealth
Builds up eternal reward
And it gets better:
When we give, we (somehow) invest into our future reward
Forget about the good that happens to others when we give. OUR LIVES ARE BETTER WHEN WE GIVE.
Paul understood – and wanted Timothy to understand – that money – unmanaged – can wreck our lives.
And you know this is true
You have seen it, you may have experienced it
The more we have, the more we are tempted to trust in what we have
The more open-handed we are – the more generous – the less of a hold money has on me
All the instructions God gives us about money – and especially about giving – are for our good.
If it’s for our good, why wouldn’t we hold our money with an open hand?
God provides money for us to ENJOY, and God makes the rules.
We are to hold the things God gives us with an open hand.
Illustration with cookies – give them all away
I love cookies.
Okay to enjoy the cookies. I should.
When I give them away, even better. I should.
Give everyone chocolate chip cookies
Here are my instructions:
Enjoy the cookies
But you must exchange them with a neighbor
And no one can refuse
Be prepared to be generous with the cookies
You are holding cookies that I gave you.
You wouldn’t have any cookies if it weren’t for me.
I am telling you to enjoy them AND
To be generous with them.
How tightly do you want to hold that cookie?
How much sense does it make that God gives us more than we need, commands us to be generous for our good and we try to hold onto everything.
APPLICATION: Wolverine Offering
I told you a few minutes ago I was going to ask everyone in the room to give something.
Practice being generous:
If you tithe – give 10% of your income, this is for you.
If you have never given at all, this is for you.
This gift is for YOUR good.
To prove it, I am going to take everything off the table.
The money I am going to ask you to give is not for the church.
It isn’t even for a ministry of the church.
It is for Wolverine Camp
We want to fund one week of ministry
My ask: Everyone here to give to this offering.
Everyone, husband, wife, kids – all of us make our own contributions.
Command you to be generous
WHAT IS GENEROUS? – YOU DECIDE
$2.50
$25 (I think that is about right for most of us)
$250
$2,500
If we get more money than what we need to fund one week of camp to change lives for eternity.
But it is even for our good, too.
VISION: A generous church
Timothy was to command rich people to be generous.
I have commanded you to be generous. There isn’t anyone in here who can’t take a next generosity step in response to this teaching.
And what if we all did?
God’s generosity to us changed the world.
Our generosity to others can change the world, but it will change us even more.