Radical Living
1 Timothy 6:7-19
September 16, 2012
A husband and wife decide they’re going to pay off their credit card debt. They owe $15,000 and believe God doesn’t want them to be in debt, so they cut up their credit cards and begin to pay off the $15,000. They will never make another purchase on that credit card. They will make a minimum monthly payment of $225, until the debt is gone. How long will it take to pay off that credit card, assuming 18% interest? One clue . . . they will pay it off! Go ahead, tell your neighbor how long it will take.
If you said 23 years and 8 months, you guessed right. You will have paid $48,692 in interest, thus paying over $63,000 for a $15,000 debt. Now do you understand why credit card companies are willing to use all that postage to send those mailings to your home every week? Let me put it to you this way, in the last quarter of 2011, Visa’s net income was $880 million. Not bad! Maybe we need to do some plastic surgery, and remove those cards.
Here’s another question — as of December 2011, how much is the average household credit card debt in the U.S.? It’s $15,956! Consider that the $15,956 doesn’t include your electric and gas, water, garbage, cable, cell phone, gas, insurance and food bills. Oh . . . did I forget to mention that the $15,956 also does not include your mortgage, rent or car payments. WOW!! That’s a lot of money folks. It means that every family in this room owes on average, $15,956. Now, obviously some of you don’t owe that much and some of you owe more.
Let me take this one step further for you . . . According to a USA Today article in September 2008, “the average American household is now buried under mortgage debt of $84,911, car and tuition loans of $14,414, and home equity loans of $10,062 — totaling, an outstanding debt of $109,387. The worst is that, according to statistics the average family will save between $392 and $2,400 this year.
Now, I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad. The purpose is to help you realize, claim and start to find solutions to the problems you may already be in. If you’re married and you’re having financial problems, you know what it’s like to argue about money.
Did you know credit cards didn’t really become popular until the late 1960's, early 1970's. In 1983, just 30 years ago, the average credit card debt was below $1,000 per household. Do you understand what that means? In the past 20 years, credit card debt in this country has gone up, 1500%. That’s an average of, are you ready, 50% per year increase in credit card debt. You know something’s got to give.
Last week we talked about being a generous giver. I loved the passage from 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 stating, “6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.”
As we seek to bring glory and honor to God, let’s look at what Paul tells Timothy; and what it means for you and I. Let’s look at 1 Timothy 6 ~
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
17 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.
18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
19 In thiming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Let’s look back at what Paul said, For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it (1 Timothy 6:7). What a true statement. Yet, how many of us buy into the adage, ‘the one with the most toys, wins?’ When that happens we lose what Paul spoke of, in Philippians 4 . . . contentment. We’re no longer content with life, because we have to increase our standard and style of living. We no longer live modestly and comfortably; instead, we become extravagant; especially to the point where it hurts us in all aspects of our lives, it consumes our thinking, it wears us down physically, it depresses us, and tears at our soul.
Even when we look at the economy we are presently in, so many people have lost jobs, so many are struggling to make ends meet, to simply put food on the table, but even in the midst of our struggles, how much are we really willing to give up for the sake of our family, even for what God calls us to do.
Ann Landers had an interesting letter in one of her columns. She wrote about a man who earned a very good living, but refused to spend the money on anything. When he was dying, he said to his wife, “I want you to promise me one thing. Promise me that when I’m dead you’ll take my money and put it in my casket so that I can take it all with me.”
Amazingly, the wife agreed to do as she was asked.
After her husband died, her friend saw her put something into the casket and asked what she put in there. She told her friend, her husbands request, and how she agreed to it. Her friend was aghast, she couldn’t believe this woman would do this. The friend asked how she would live, and she replied, ‘well, I promised him, and a promise is a promise. But, I should be able to live comfortably, unless he finds a way to cash a check in heaven.
Remember, we came into the world with nothing, and we will leave the world void of all of our possessions.
Paul reminds us the desire to have money and possessions can lead us to do things, and even accept things in life which we normally would not. In fact, Paul tells us “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” There is a very common misconception in this statement from Paul. Many people think money is the root of all evil. But money in and of itself is not evil, it is not sinful, in fact, money is neutral, it’s wonderful to have money, just don’t be consumed by the desire and love for money. Understand where the source of all of your blessings comes from . . . God.
Because of our desire for money, we end up doing wrong things. Look at how Paul concludes that verse, he wrote ~ Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Think of former Illinois governors . . . Jim Ryan was indicted on fraud and bribery. He received 1,000's in kickbacks. People knew about this, even before he was elected governor, but they elected him nonetheless. He’s in prison.
Then take Rod Blagojevich. He was impeached, removed from the office of governor, because he was trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. He’s also in prison.
Why did this happen? Easy answer . . . the love of money and perceived power.
Then Paul tells us in verse 17, 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. Think about what Paul is trying to tell us.
Put very simply, if you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it!! Don’t put your hope in your wealth, it could disappear just as quickly as it arrived. Instead of trusting in yourself and your wealth; and what you can do because of your wealth, Paul commands us, put your hope in God, who get this . . . richly provides us with everything for . . . for what? FOR OUR ENJOYMENT!!
Do you get that? What an amazing statement from Paul. God provides us with blessings and more blessings and tells us that we can use money for our enjoyment, but just don’t covet it, don’t make money and possessions your treasure, because then they will own you.
nstead, we are to place our hope in Christ. He is the only source of hope we can and should have in this lifetime. Without Christ it’s easy to be defeated. I truly believe Jesus is not only the only hope of the world, He is the final hope of the world. When life gets tough, and it does and it will, we know we have a God who is there for us, even in the tough times. God will never run out on us, He will never abandon us, He will never tell us . . . well, you lost a few brownie points, so you better shape up and do more things for me to prove you love me.
Nope, God does not say that, He expects us to serve Him and to give to Him. Because He gives to us, He gave us His Son, that was what we did a little while ago when we celebrated communion, we remembered the great gift, the sacrifice God gave to us in Jesus. He gave us the greatest gift ever . . . Jesus.
So how could we not want to give back to God for the blessings He’s already given to us.
But that’s where it gets tricky. We want to keep our money for ourselves, we think who needs my money. And in a sense God does not need your money, He can do more things with a penny than we could imagine. Yet God calls us to give back to Him out of gratitude for the blessings He has given us. And the first blessing in our book is the gift of Jesus . . .
. . . and the gift of hope, life, faith, grace, forgiveness, peace, joy, and the list goes on and on. We are called to give back by serving God and by giving our resources to God, so the church can help build the kingdom.
So, Paul tells Timothy in those middle verses, 11-16, which seem to be an interlude, but really aren’t - - he tells him - -
11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.
Flee from that money and possession craving. Put that behind you because of your faith in Jesus, the one who is the only righteous One, the One who rescued you from your sinfulness and has made you into a new person, instead of holding on to the things of the world and pursuing wealth and possessions, instead of those things, pursue righteousness, pursue a right relationship with God, and besides that pursue, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
WOW!! All that as it relates to money. Never knew talking about money and possessions could get so deep, did you? You see where Paul is going with all of this? He wants us to live lives which bring honor and glory to Christ. And when we live according to those virtues Paul mentioned, we will become more Christlike and when we become more Christlike we become more attractive to the world . . . a world who needs the hope of Jesus, because they are stuck pursuing the wrong things.
And it is a fight for the faith, because the world will call us to do something very different, and we will be tempted over and over and over - - - again and again and again; but Paul’s point and mine is that when we have Christ, we gain power over the temptations and struggles of the world. But we must do what Paul commands us to do - - - FLEE . . . run as quickly and hard from what pulls us into the pit.
As we come to the end of our time, think on this . . .
What is it you treasure?
What is your greatest desire in life?
How much does money - -
the love of money / the fear of money drive your life?
As Paul told Timothy that great truism, you came into the world with nothing and you will leave with nothing, it’s what you do inbetween which will make the difference. How you serve . . . how you give . . . how you live . . . those will be your legacies.
