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NewCity Orlando Sermons
The Art of Divine Contentment | 1 Timothy 6:6-10; 17-19
Senior Pastor Damein Schitter finishes our series, The Art of Divine Contentment, preaching from 1 Timothy 6:6-10; 17-19.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damian. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:Lead us and give us life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen, please remain standing, if you're able. Scriptures from 1 Timothy 6, verses 6-10 and 17-19. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world, but if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Speaker 2:But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 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. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 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. This is God's word. Thank you.
Speaker 1:God Well, good morning. My name is Damian. I'm glad that you all are here Now. I know that all of the Bible is equally inspired, but, wow, that one right there Every single time. I think this is so important.
Speaker 1:As Ben said earlier, we're completing a four-week series on the art of divine contentment, and the last two weeks last week and now this week we're preaching on money, and I mentioned last week that, if you take the percentages of how many parables of Jesus's are speaking to the deceitfulness of riches, the danger of riches, we would regularly preach every other week on that topic, or twice a month. So this is the one week this year where we're going to do it. But as we think about that, it doesn't surprise me that the feedback that we've been getting in this sermon series has been really positive, in the sense that things like, hey, I really needed that, or I'm really challenged by that, really needed that, or I'm really challenged by that. And what I've loved is it hasn't been in terms of some strange guilt, but rather an increased awareness, and the reason we're so pleased by that is, of course, we'd want that to happen all the time, but there was something about this series that resonated with Ben and me, and to know that it's landing with you is equally encouraging and not surprising, because when we talk about contentment in a radically consumeristic culture, it is either very attractive Siri thinks I'm talking to her. So many jokes came to my mind, none of which would have been edifying. So let's continue.
Speaker 1:So, when we think about the fact that we live in a radically consumeristic culture, when we speak to contentment, it's either going to be something that's very attractive or something that's very threatening, and it could be both of those in equal measure. But what I'm hearing from you all is that it is attractive, because when we begin to understand the Bible's teaching on contentment, it's like we receive the vision of an oasis. As a stranded traveler in the desert, we see that there's a place where we can drink from and be content, where we can find rest, and, honestly, many of us don't find rest very often. As Ben said, there's always the next thing, there's always the next goal, there's always the next zero in the paycheck or in the bank account, and so today we're going to be exploring, for the second week in a row, the topic of money as it's related to contentment, and I'm going to just suggest that for most of us, without regular intervention, money plays an oversized role in our life.
Speaker 1:Without regular intervention, money plays an oversized role in our life, and it could be for lots of different reasons. I mean for one. At the heart of it is money makes incredible promises. Now, for some of us, we grew up without money or with less money than those we were around, and so we begin to orient our life around money, thinking that it will give us the power that we wish we always had. It will give us the control that we longed and longed to have. It'll give us the prestige that we saw in others and felt radically lacking in ourselves. And money offers us a way to all of those things in the version that we can think and imagine.
Speaker 1:For others, you grew up and money wasn't the issue in terms of not having it. You had it, but what you saw your parents do was spend it frivolously, unwisely using it. And so, for you, you experienced as a child the overwhelming comfort that we must have a lot of money, because look at all of these things that we have. And then the pendulum swung and all of a sudden you weren't so sure anymore, and so maybe now, to protect yourselves. You want money to hoard, to keep, because you looked at the way your parents spent it frivolously and now you vowed not to live like that. But it's still about control, isn't it? It's still about power. You've become stingy and you call it frugality, all while feeling more righteous than everyone else. And so, everywhere in between and on those two extremes, money without regular intervention, I believe, plays an oversized role in our life. So how do we right-size it? How do we right-size it?
Speaker 1:I want to share a quote with you that sort of sums up this introduction to me. What is it about money that does these things for us? Well, look at this quote by JH Bovink. He says money is itself nothing, but it contains the promise of everything. Money is pure possibility, pure potentiality. That is the real romance of money.
Speaker 1:Think about that Money used by the evil. One hijacks this God-given beautiful thing about human image bearers. When God creates us, he says be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. We are to spread God's glory all over the earth and we're to do so by developing the world and culture. Well, what else does it take but to see potentiality, to see possibility? God has made us this way. The thing is is that when we put ourselves at the center, we now lack the resources to live a life overflowing, and the biggest counterfeit we can get to the power of God is the power of money, because it is ultimately exchangeable for all of the things that we desire, and presumably, the more we have, the more we can do. The more we have, the more potential and probability I'm sorry the more probable we can bring about our vision of the world. And so I believe that there's something really true about that, that the real romance of money and what we'll see more specifically, the love of money is that it romances us with possibility and potential. Where we get to be at the center, we're independent, self-sustaining and unable to be harmed.
Speaker 1:Okay, just two points today. One is Paul has a warning about this for us in verses six through 10, and then we'll skip down to verses 17 through 19 and we'll see Paul's instructions regarding money. Okay, so first let's look at Paul's warning. This is one of those passages where the thought-by-thought preaching expositionally, which is what I normally do, isn't going to cut it, so we're going to have to go word-by-word today because there's so many rich, nuanced words. Several words in this passage only show up here in the New Testament, and so let's walk through it together at a good pace and stop where we need to. So that means please open your Bibles, click on the app whatever would be helpful have it in front of you, starting in 1 Timothy 6, verse 6.
Speaker 1:But godliness with contentment is great gain. So the context here is that there are false teachers that Paul is interacting with in the background of this passage, which shows up directly earlier, and one of the key things that these false teachers believed and taught is that godliness can be peddled for material gain, and they, in fact, were doing this. And so what Paul is doing here is flipping that and he's saying godliness with contentment is great gain, but not how they're teaching you. First of all, he adds contentment, and this word great in front of gain is where it's mega. When you read it, it's mega, it's like megalodon, like huge, bigly right, big gain, all right. So Paul is emphasizing that godliness with contentment is great gain, but then, in verse seven, he makes this really helpful transition in seven and eight, and this is what he's doing. He's speaking to how do we appraise real wealth, how do we appraise real gain? And essentially, I'll say this now. I'll read it and say it again is that what Paul is saying is real gain is gain that can never be taken from us. Okay, verse 7,. Okay, verse 7,. For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. As some of you have heard, there are no U-Hauls behind hearses Verse 8,. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. And so what Paul is speaking to here is that the way we know we can appraise what is truly valuable, what wealth truly is, is that when we receive it, it also continues with us. This is what Paul is saying is true gain, actual gain.
Speaker 1:Thomas Watson has this quote in his book the Art of Divine Contentment. He says when we look at our empty pockets, but it is not so, god may presently seal a warrant for death to apprehend us, and when we die, we cannot carry our estate with us. That's just a fancy way of saying as you're trying to build bigger barns and fill them up, your life could be required of you. And what gain was that right? He's just saying it in a very Puritan way. And what gain was that right? He's just saying it in a very Puritan way. He says honor and riches do not descend into the grave. Why then are we troubled at our outward condition? Why do we disguise ourselves with discontent? I love this. Oh, lay up a stock of grace. Think about stocks. Lay up a stock of grace. Be rich in faith and good works. These riches will follow us. No other coin but grace will be accepted in heaven. Silver and gold will not go there. Labor to be rich toward God. So this is what Paul is saying, is he's trying to reorient not our desire for riches, but to orient and invest ourselves in riches that last and mega gain great gain, he says. He says be a better investor, invest in things that cannot be taken away, that will always increase.
Speaker 1:Now I want to say something here about verse 9, as we continue on Particularly pay attention to the word desire. Here he says but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. I mean so graphic. This word desire at the beginning of verse 9, is a different word than harmful desires. So this is our first word, that this is the only time this word for desire, the Greek word shows up in the New Testament and the word outside of the New Testament always speaks to. Let's read it, so I don't mess it up to desire is to have or experience something, with the implication of planning accordingly. So here's the point.
Speaker 1:As Paul says, those who desire to be rich, what he means is those who have decided in their mind I will be rich, come hell or high water, I will be rich. And then not just say that or want it or think it, but then to order their lives around it, to do everything, what you study decisions, you make friends, that you spend time with networks, that you seek to enter into people, that you look over the shoulder of the person you're talking to in a room to find those people, because everything in your life is oriented around this one aim, the center of the bullseye, which is I will be rich. That's what he means by those who desire to be rich. And he says when we order our lives in this way, we fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires. Harmful here.
Speaker 1:Another one, a word that's only used here in the New Testament. Outside of the New Testament it's used as the opposite of profit. Think about that. So profit is what we want, but this word that is translated harmful, here would have been used as the opposite of profit. So, for example, we might say did you make a profit on that investment? The response here, to use this word, would be no, it was a harmful investment. It actually was the opposite of profit. It harmed me, it took from me, it wounded me, and so we have these desires that are disordered, that we think will profit us, but they actually harm us.
Speaker 1:This is what Paul is talking about. This word plunge people into ruin and destruction is so powerful and I'll get to verse 10 in a second. But here's the idea so far of what Paul is saying. And I'll get to verse 10 in a second. But here's the idea so far of what Paul is saying Is, when we organize our life, we always organize it around a telos, around something that's worthy of giving ourselves to. And Paul is warning the people who make money or riches, the thing this is what will happen to their life.
Speaker 1:This phrase fall into temptation is present tense, which simply means that it's likely to happen. Whenever it's used in this way, it's just it's likely to happen. Paul's saying high probability, very high probability, that if you set your life on riches you will end up destroyed. So he's saying that when you organize our life around the desire for riches, the desire only gets frustrated. So then we aspire to strive harder and organize more and plan better. All he says for a false source of life. And so what he says is that real gain, gain is found in godliness and contentment, and contentment refers to satisfaction with one's circumstances. It's been unpacked for us so well the first two weeks.
Speaker 1:Now what Paul is saying here is that whatever exceeds the basic necessities of life but is not turned into a necessity, let me say it this way what Paul is saying is that contentment finds itself resting in the necessities of life. And when we have excess of necessities which I'm just gonna go on a limb and say all of us have the excess of necessities of life and when we have excess of necessities which I'm just gonna go on a limb and say all of us have the excess of necessities we should receive it we'll talk about this more later we should receive it with gratitude. But the danger is we will make that excess of necessities no longer excess but necessity. And anytime we make excess necessity, we lose all contentment. This is what Paul is saying. If we make excess necessity instead of gift, we will not be content. But if we keep necessities, necessities and enjoy excess above that as a gift to be received, we still can experience excess and contentment. Okay, let's keep going.
Speaker 1:Last word I want to point out is it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many, and pierced themselves with many pangs. Craving here could be translated immoderate desires, foolish desires and seeking to accomplish as a goal. So the reason I'm pointing this out is because he starts this idea with those who orient their lives around money. He uses a certain word, a certain idea, and then he uses a different word to communicate a very similar idea. At the end it it's this craving, and so he's bookending it.
Speaker 1:Making sure we understand money is not the issue. It's our craving, disordered hearts that are the issue. It's using money to be our God as opposed to looking to God to provide what we're demanding. Money provide Power, control, safety, prestige. This is what Paul is warning here the false teachers I mean. The good thing is is that we don't have any false teachers today telling us that money will give us everything, like Paul did. You know what I mean, so I understand that it's relatively benign nowadays. We certainly don't have preachers using godliness as financial gain. We certainly don't have preachers using godliness as financial gain. I mean, can you imagine that? I mean, can you imagine if there was a whole industry made to decide where to put things on the shelf, to stir up in you competition and craving to get more money, to get that thing Like billions of dollars poured into this? Can you imagine if there was a whole industry of marketing and commercials to find out what your exploited weaknesses are, based on your internet searches, to show you exactly what you think you need and you want to orient everything around? I mean, if that were true, this would be insanely relevant. So let's just imagine that it's true as we keep going.
Speaker 1:So I want to illustrate this from a person, a woman, who's not a Christian, as far as I know. I first came across this article in Fast Company online. It's called Three Common Traits of Workaholics. She wrote a book. This excerpt is from one of her books and her name is Manisha Thakur.
Speaker 1:And listen to what she says. She says, having worked in money management for over three decades, I've seen how an obsession with work, money and career advancement can destroy relationships. Now, what am I illustrating here? I'm illustrating everything. But think about particularly here, for the love of money is a root, not the root. A root. The word the is not there in Greek, so if it's translated, the, it's a presumption, a root of all kinds of evil, harmful desires, senseless desires. So this is multifaceted. What this orientation of life and the corresponding snares and traps produce, it's our relationship with ourselves, with God and with others. So hear some of those things in her testimony here.
Speaker 1:She says ironically, in my own case, it wasn't until I faced a serious health crisis on the cusp of turning 50 that I paused long enough to realize I had done exactly this to myself. So here's the picture she's in the financial industry, working with people that she's seeing all around her giving way to this temptation. She's watching their lives blow up and she's secretly thinking man, I'm glad that's not me, I'm glad that's not my life. Then she gets sick and looks up and guess what? No one's around her. This is what she says in that reflection.
Speaker 1:I had optimized my entire life around, remember. Remember Paul's word Right here, verse eight, but verse nine rather, but those who desire to be rich, those who orient their life around riches money. This is what she says. I had optimized my entire life around the equation net worth equals self-worth, she goes on to say, convinced that the more money I earned, the more valuable I was as a human being. I simply would not step away from my desk, no matter the trail of wrecked relationships in my wake. She goes on.
Speaker 1:What I call self-worth equals net worth mindset psychologist Deborah Ward describes as quote financially contingent self-worth or quote a desire to achieve financial success. Translation Financial contingent self-worth is organizing one's life around the superordinate goal of becoming rich, because self-worth equals net worth equals self-worth. So Ward and her co-author studied nearly 2,500 subjects. That's a lot, in case you want to know, it is a lot. They studied nearly 2,500 subjects to find that people who exhibit high levels of financially contingent self-worth suffer from loneliness, disconnection and self-imposed pressure to work more, which then in turn makes them more lonely and puts even more stress on their relationships. In a follow-up study, they turned their attention to couples and found that those of us who tie our net worth to our self-worth experience less satisfying relationships, in part because we prioritize money over relationships.
Speaker 1:So she goes on to reflect on this. And she says I'm embarrassed to admit that I've chosen to earn more money rather than invest in my relationships. Many times over I even skipped my grandmother's funeral because I was too busy with a project which I can't even recall today. She said I remember thinking well, gran knew I loved her, but she's dead now and I have important work to do. End quote.
Speaker 1:She said it hadn't occurred to me that funerals are not about the person who passed. They're about those who are grieving and need support and, I would add, and self-reflection have you ever been to a funeral? Have you ever left a funeral feeling more invincible? Have you ever left a funeral thinking, man, I need to go back to work? I doubt it. And, in all seriousness, if you have most people don't. Most people don't leave funerals and think that Most people leave funerals and think about how vulnerable we are. Most people leave funerals and think about how do I enrich relationships, how do I repair with those who I've ruptured relationship with? Who do I repent to? Right Now? Listen as we close here, paul's warnings.
Speaker 1:This is not a pronouncement of judgment on wealthy people. It's not. And if that's what you hear so far, you're hearing what I'm not saying. Okay, but we'll say more about this. Paul actually wants to speak directly to wealthy people. No, what this is is Paul's making a point that the pursuit of riches is spiritually hazardous and does not contribute to contentment or godliness. Net worth and godliness are not directly correlated. Contentment and net worth are not correlated directly. This is what Paul is saying. If you organize your life around that thing which you want contentment in, he's saying, you won't find it. Now. I drew this out earlier, but before we move on, I need to draw it out again.
Speaker 1:Love of money. Again, this is one of those other words that it's the only time it's used in the New Testament. This particular word, and what it's describing as we look at its uses outside the New Testament, is the person who sets their heart on possessing money and thus breaking the first commandment, because they're setting their heart on possessing money, having it, and they do everything to have that thing. Now, in Jesus's parables if you remember a parable, jesus says there was a man who was wise, who had a lot of money, and he did something because he saw something worth giving everything for and orienting his life around. And what he actually did was he took all of his money because he found a treasure buried in a field and he sold everything he had. He put it all to buy that field and I'm sure all of his friends looked around and said this guy's foolish. He has no idea what he's doing, but rather what he recognized as the thing that I think riches will give me. I've actually found somewhere else, and of course the parable is that it's in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the true treasure hidden in a field. He was willing to give everything for that, and so Paul, over the place, is alluding here actually to the Sermon on the Mount. Ben and I were talking about this earlier.
Speaker 1:So many allusions to the Sermon on the Mount, for example. Almost a direct quote. But if we have food and clothing with these things, we'll be content. This is almost a direct quote of Jesus, from Jesus, rather. And so when we make riches our goal, we fall into temptation. Paul's making it clear I'll say it one more time the pursuit of riches as your life aim will not lead to contentment, because contentment is found in relationship with Christ and experiencing him as enough, because he cannot be taken away. You did nothing to earn his life, death and resurrection for you. You received his gift and he can never be taken away. And so, if these are the warnings, pretty heavy.
Speaker 1:What are Paul's instructions here as we close? Well, look with me in verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, charge them to feel terrible about themselves. No, that's not what he says. What he says is charge them not to be haughty. What is this? This is a warning against self-sufficiency, because haughty people look around and they think good thing, I don't need anybody else. Good thing, I'm superior than everyone else. Good thing, I have more control, more power, more influence than everyone else. That's what haughty people do. But Paul says charge them not to be haughty, right, in other words, warn them of the temptation to self-sufficiency.
Speaker 1:And then he says History shows that riches are uncertain, and not only that. Several of us, statistically speaking, will find ourselves at some point, no matter how wealthy we are, no matter how connected we are. We will receive some diagnosis by which the connection to certain hospitals and physicians, the amount of money we can deploy to something, will not save us. We will find ourselves there. And then we will read verse 7 and we'll think oh, I get it, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world.
Speaker 1:Paul is saying warn them against self-sufficiency and not to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches. Okay, but where do we set our hope? But on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. I love this. God wants us to enjoy the excess that he's given us the excess, of course, in relationships, the excess in friendships. So many of us are so wealthy and yet we're so distracted by what we don't have that we can't even enjoy the excess, the riches that God has given to us as a gift. And Paul is saying remind them that it's God who richly provides everything for us to enjoy. There's something so powerful here.
Speaker 1:But then he goes on in verse 18. How do we enjoy the excess we have? And, by the way, if you're wondering, am I rich? The answer is yes. I mean, historically speaking, yeah, where we are right now, I mean you are in the top, like 1% globally, of human beings who live right now. If you make the, I think, like the median household income, even a little less than that, and certainly in human history, this is the wealthiest time that any person could experience life.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, we should enjoy it. We should receive it, but then the question is how do we enjoy it? How are we to enjoy it? And Paul tells us they are to do good and to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share this word share. What Paul's instructing us rich to do is that we are to utilize both our riches and our lives in truly rich ways. I love that, just how many times he's using the word rich To use our lives and our riches in rich ways, that is to say by sharing and being rich in good deeds and investing in our lives and our wealth in that which will lead to permanent treasure. That's what he says in verse 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. And that last sentence we'll come back to at the end.
Speaker 1:But I just wanna pause for a moment and think, like self-diagnostically how often do we enjoy what God has given us I mean truly enjoy and how busy are we rather than not enjoying and rather grasping for more? Because here's the thing, this is really what I'm getting at no matter how wealthy you are, if you have a little bit of excess or a lot of excess until you learn to enjoy it. You cannot be generous Because you'll always be holding on, even if you're letting go your heart's holding on. You're thinking, ah, I just, it's a zero-sum game. I can't, I can't, I can't let go of this because, because you're so acutely aware of what you don't have, it causes fear and it causes miserliness.
Speaker 1:But rather, if, if we can learn to enjoy whatever excess we have, we begin to loosen our grip, because what we're doing is receiving rather than grasping. We're saying, oh Lord, thank you for these gifts. Thank you for these gifts. I want to share them, I want to be open-handed with them and, as Ben has said, I think in both sermons, so hopefully in the first two weeks, wherever our attention goes, our awareness grows. So if our attention goes to the zeros we lack, the things we lack, our awareness will grow of all the other people around us who have those things, which will shut down our heart and our hands. Our generosity will shrink Because, listen, however wealthy you are, you will always find yourself in a group of people that have more than you. That's just how it is.
Speaker 1:Some of you are recent college graduates and you think, man, once I get a full-time job, and you're gonna get that full-time job and you're gonna be hanging out with your friends who also just recently graduated and you're gonna be acutely aware of the people who are in your stage of life, who are making more money than you, and then that's just, without intervention, going to continue. Those people who are really wealthy, who are millionaires, they're always aware of who's in the next bracket above them. Those who are millionaires always have at least one person. They know truly who's a billionaire, and there's a big difference between a millionaire and a billionaire. My point is our awareness and until we enjoy, until we learn how to receive as gift, we cannot be generous with anything that we have Our time. If you think, man, I can't get everything done, how likely are you to be generous with your time, your energy, your attention, your emotions and, of course, your finances, any resource you have? Have you ever heard of Charles Feeney? Probably not. He wants it that way.
Speaker 1:Feeney was raised in a working poor household, but he ended up quietly becoming a multi-billionaire and gave nearly all of his $8 billion fortune to charity In his life. He left $2 million for himself in his last years of life. He lived till 92. He just died a couple years ago. He gave nearly all of his $8 billion fortune to charity, much of it as quietly as he had made it in his lifetime and that is to say, how quiet Anonymously. By the early 1980s he was funneling tax-free annual dividends of $35 million a year into hotels, land deals, retail shops and clothing companies. He later invested in tech startups, multiplied his income exponentially by age 50, he had palatial homes in New York, london, paris, honolulu, san Francisco, aspen and on the French Riviera by 50. But all of a sudden he became troubled by what he called an opulent life of black tie dinners, grand yachts and values, far from his family and friends where he was born, in New Jersey. He was beginning to have doubts about his right to have so much money. That's what he said His biographer wrote of Mr Freeney in the book the Billionaire who Wasn't.
Speaker 1:When asked many years later if he was rich at this point in his life after all those things, he replied how much is rich? How much is rich? That's what he wanted to know. What do you mean by that? How much is rich? No one thinks they're rich, not. Ultimately, they're most aware of who's more rich than them. But then he said, yes, by all expectations, he's rich Beyond all deserving, so to speak, he said. He said I just reached the conclusion with myself that money buying boats and all the trimmings didn't ultimately appeal to me. But check this out His name appeared on none of the 1,000 buildings on five continents that he gave $2.7 billion to build.
Speaker 1:He gave grants to institutions and individuals that were paid by cashier's checks to conceal the source. By the way, he never got tax benefits because he didn't want to be able to be known that it was him. Beneficiaries were told that the money came quote from a generous client who wished to remain anonymous end quote. Those who learned his identity were told not to reveal his involvement. Forbes magazine said that no one of such riches had ever given away a fortune so completely while still alive. But as Mr Frini said as he signed on to the pledge quote, I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give, while one is living, to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition end quote. Warren Buffett later said that most people don't know who he is, but if they did, he would be their hero like he is mine. We've heard of Warren Buffett.
Speaker 1:Now, the point, of course, in this illustration is not that money must be given anonymously and that you're somehow doing it wrong if you don't. No, that's not my point at all. The point I'm trying to make that I was so like overwhelmed by, is that, from all intents and purposes, from what I read on him, I don't think that he even did this as a Christ follower. I think what happened is that he tapped into a reality that many of us need to experience, and very few of us will get to experience the extreme to which he experienced it. And we have to, by faith, listen to Mr Freeney. But guess what? More than that, a more trustworthy witness might be Jesus and Paul. And I think he discovered what Paul is teaching here Is that, again to quote him, I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living.
Speaker 1:He could have just left it to someone else to make the hard decisions of where to give it and how to give it and how much to give it. He could have done that, but no, he organized his life in such a way not to pursue it but to give it. And if you read on, he said I gave my, my children, uh, something like a reasonable or responsible amount, nothing over the top. Gave the rest away at five children gave the rest away and kept two million to myself to live the rest of his days. He had to close down his offshore. He put his organization that he gave through offshore so that he didn't have to follow tax code to reveal his identity. So it wasn't to like scam more money, it was so that I don't have to tell people who I am. And when people found out who it was, it's because he closed it down, because he had given all the money away.
Speaker 1:You see, the point is that he caught a rare glimpse of a true fact that money did not bring contentment. You see, to be like God, going back to verse six, godliness with contentment is great gain is to live a life full and overflowing with love and generosity, not a life that's inward oriented and grasping in desperation. And you don't have to be poor to be desperate. You just have to be acutely aware of the fact that you've organized your life around riches, around potential, around possibility. That romance, oh my goodness, I deeply resonate with this.
Speaker 1:I mean studying these last two weeks has shown me, when I think of money and making more money, my first thought is not generosity. My second thought also not generosity. It's not until I feel convicted that my first through five thoughts should have been generosity. It's not until I feel convicted that my first through five thoughts should have been generosity. Like I'm not exaggerating, I just realized how much how I have a miserly heart, a heart that is not so often in this area, is not filled and overflowing, but it's actually close-fisted and doubtful. And, honestly, I don't think it's ultimately because I think my net worth equals my self-worth. I think it's just because I think about all of the ways that I wanna make my life easier, all the ways that I wanna make my life less dependent on others.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's a whole movement to retire as early as possible, not to be necessarily generous although that does exist, because you can be generous with your time, you can be generous with your resources, but it's so that I don't have to answer to anyone. It's so that I can be in control of my life like I've always wanted to. It's so that I can do whatever I want, and I resonate with that so badly. Oh, if I was independently wealthy, I think what would happen is it wouldn't change my character, it would reveal it. I think that it would reveal to me how real it is in my own heart that I think having more money alone will make me more content. And I just have to believe that many of you feel the same way, that you resonate with this experience that I'm trying to communicate to you. And so what have I done and this is where I'll close, what have I done this week, as I've just become acutely aware of the temptations that Paul say come uniquely when your heart begins to love money, believing it will give you what only God can give you, which is what I've uncovered some this week in my own heart.
Speaker 1:It's that godliness is to receive an overflowing abundance, a generosity that once we receive we can actually give. And in not only receiving, but only receiving and giving, do we experience the contentment, because we recognize that that generosity we receive from God will never end. It will never end, and what we see is to be like God, is to be full and overflowing with love and generosity. And of course, we see this ultimately in our Lord, jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, equal in power and glory. Yet he emptied himself. He emptied himself so that he could fill us with his power, fill us with his righteousness, fill us with his joy, fill us with his righteousness, fill us with his joy, fill us with his contentment and, ultimately, to make us like himself. This is the goodness, this is the invitation we have to experience godliness with contentment, which is great gain.
Speaker 1:And so, before I pray, I just wanna prime you for the reflection which I'll come to in a minute, which is join me today, even now and this week, to enjoy the goodness of God and his gifts to you, so that in that we can begin to take one more step towards godliness, towards contentment and towards generosity, because it's only when we let go of that which we're grasping on that we think is truly life, but it's not. We let go of that so that we can take hold of that which is truly life, which is Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, I ask now that you would come, send your spirit and that you would do two things simultaneously that you would reveal any love of money in our hearts and separate that from money itself. That we would know that the issue is our hearts.
Speaker 1:We have a good desire to be filled, to be overflowing, to be secure, yet our bad strategy makes our hearts turn to money, to love money, as we ought to love you.
Speaker 1:We trust money so often instead of trusting you to provide. And the second thing I ask is that you would give us insight into how richly you've blessed us and that we wouldn't turn our face in shame but we would actually receive it with thanksgiving, that we would receive with open hands and then experience both contentment and a generosity that wells up from within, that doesn't come from a guilty conscience, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Now I just invite you to take a moment and reflect on anything, of course, that you've heard in the sermon, but maybe you can turn your attention to what fears you have after hearing this. What fears do you have and what desires do you have? Whichever one's stronger? Take a fear, take a desire and, rather than sort of cowering inside, away from the presence of God, come boldly into the presence of God and be honest and let him heal you, let him speak to you in this moment. Let's take a few moments.