House Rule #20 Be Rich…in Good Works (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Kootenai Church

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Good morning, everyone. Good to see each one this morning. We're glad you're here and ready to study

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God's word in our adult Sunday School class. We're going to return to 1st

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Timothy Chapter 6 this morning, and there's an outline out there someplace. If you don't have one, raise your hand.

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There's the outline monitor. We'll pass you one. Let's commit our time to our

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Lord this morning as we usually do and ask his blessing on our study this morning. Our Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to gather together in the name of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to open your word and be taught by your spirit. Pray now that you would accomplish every divine purpose that you have for us and that you would be glorified in it.

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And we just thank you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. So this morning, once again, back to 1st

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Timothy Chapter 6, we're going to be looking at verses 17 through 19 this morning. And this is house rule number 20, be rich in good works.

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Okay. I thought if I didn't add that last part, I might have a great big gathering here of people that wanted to get rich this morning.

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So I just put that on there because, well, that's actually what the passage says. So it has to be there. And that's where we're going to be looking at this morning.

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During the second week of January in 2016, the United States was in the midst of a presidential campaign, as you remember.

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It's like we're always in the middle of a presidential campaign. But also in the news was another story that was becoming very, very popular.

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And that was the Powerball Lottery. Since the previous November, 18 drawings had failed to yield a winner, causing the grand prize to increase to over a billion dollars.

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The drawing was scheduled for Wednesday night, the 13th of January, and it drew so much publicity over the weekend prior to that, that the estimated payout prior to the weekend was $1 .3

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billion. The lottery's own projections even had trouble keeping up with the amount of money that was pouring in.

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And by Monday, the estimated payout had reached $1 .4 billion.

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And on Tuesday, it hit $1 .5 billion. The time of the drawing, it topped out at $1 .58

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billion, making it the largest Powerball jackpot payout in history. Ultimately, three people shared the winnings on that one.

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If you win the $1 .5 billion Powerball jackpot, you may not be as lucky as you think.

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Many winners befall the so -called curse of the lottery, and some squander their fortunes in a very short period of time, and others meet very tragic ends.

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An author named Don McKay, he's a financial consultant to lottery winners, and he's also the author of a book called

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Life Lessons from the Lottery. In an interview with Time Magazine, he said this, So many of them wind up unhappy or wind up broke.

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People have had terrible things happen. People commit suicide. People run through their money.

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Easy come, easy go. They go through divorce or people die. It's just upheaval that they're not ready for.

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It's the curse of the lottery because it made their lives worse instead of improving them.

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Studies show that about 70 % of the people who suddenly receive a windfall of cash will lose it within a few years, according to the

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National Endowment for Financial Education. Here are some of the stories of past winners that those who participate in the lottery should know about.

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One man named Jack Whitaker was already a millionaire when he won $315 million in a lottery in West Virginia in 2002.

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The then 55 -year -old West Virginia construction company president claimed he went broke about four years later and lost a daughter and a granddaughter to drug overdoses, which he blamed on the curse of the

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Powerball wind, according to ABC News. He says, My granddaughter is dead because of the money, he told

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ABC. You know, my wife had said she wished that she had torn the ticket up. Well, I wish that we had torn the ticket up too, he said.

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Whitaker was also robbed of $545 ,000 sitting in his car while he was at a strip club eight months after winning the lottery.

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He said, I just don't like Jack Whitaker. I don't like the hard heart I've got, he said.

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I don't like what I've become. And in his interview with Time Magazine, this author,

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Don McKay, said of Mr. Whitaker, He's the last person I would have prototyped for going completely crazy, but he did.

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No question, it was because he won the lottery. Another man,

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Abraham Shakespeare, was murdered in 2009 after he won a $30 million lotto jackpot.

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The 47 -year -old Florida man was shot twice in the chest and then buried under a slab of concrete in a backyard,

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ABC News reported. A woman, Dee Dee Moore, who authorities say befriended him after his lotto win, was found guilty of first -degree murder in 2012.

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His brother, Robert Brown, told the BBC that Shakespeare always said he regretted winning the lottery.

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I'd have been better off broke, he said that to me all the time.

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Another one, Sandra Hayes, won the Missouri lottery in 2006 and split a $224 million

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Powerball with a dozen co -workers. The St. Louis woman is now a retired social worker and wrote a book,

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How Winning the Lottery Changed My Life. She told the Associated Press she had to adapt to this new life, which changed how she saw her closest family and friends.

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I had to endure the greed and the need that people have trying to get you to release your money to them, she said, in 2012.

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That caused a lot of emotional pain. These are people who you've loved deep down, and they're turning into vampires trying to suck the life out of me, she said.

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Another, Donna Micken, won $34 .5 million in the New York State lottery in 2007.

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She said the big win ruined her life and led to, quote, emotional bankruptcy.

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Most of us think that winning the lottery is the ultimate fulfillment, she said, but I found that wasn't the case.

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She wrote a blog post in 2014 saying most people look at winning the lottery as some magic pot of gold waiting for you at the end of the rainbow.

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She said she had considered herself a happy person before the win. When we won the lottery, my inner dialogue was manic.

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I became more concerned about how I was being judged and perceived, not realizing I was the one doing the judging in the first place, she wrote.

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If you ask me, my life was hijacked by the lottery. This article and others written at the time talk about how so many people win huge sums of money, and they are within a few years, or at least by the end of their lives, bankrupt.

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And, of course, many questions come to mind when we hear these stories. How do you lose a massive fortune like that?

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And right now, some of you are probably thinking, well, that wouldn't happen to me. Well, maybe not. Hopefully, certainly, as believers in Jesus Christ, we should be able to bring a biblical perspective to this.

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We're going to be talking about that later. But it's not always just lottery winners. A man named

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Huntington Hartford, he lived from 1911 to 2008. So you can see his lifespan there, 1911, 2008.

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Huntington was the heir to the great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company fortune. This company, which started just before the

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Civil War, is better known as the A &P supermarket chain. A &P was the first U .S.

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coast -to -coast food store, and from World War I to the 1960s was what Walmart is for today's

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American shoppers. Huntington inherited approximately $90 million when he was 12 years old, in 1923.

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He had $90 million when he was 12 years old. What could go wrong, right? Adjusting for inflation means that he was given almost $1 .3

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billion as a child after taxes. Huntington declared bankruptcy in New York in 1992, approximately 70 years after being handed one of the largest fortunes in the world.

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Huntington had the reverse Midas touch. He lost millions buying real estate, creating an art museum and sponsoring theaters and shows.

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He combined poor business skills with an exceptionally lavish lifestyle. That's a bad combination, too.

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After declaring bankruptcy, he lived as a recluse with a daughter in the Bahamas until the end of his life in 2008.

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Huntington's life story, coupled with academic research that suggests people quickly spend their windfalls, means not only that you have very long odds of winning the

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Powerball jackpot prize, but you have just as long odds of keeping the money around after winning it.

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What's going on? That's more than 70 % of the population. Where does this desire to be wealthy come from?

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And why does wealth not satisfy that desire, nor improve the lives like people thought it would?

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And in some cases, their lives end absolutely tragically, as we have seen. Secular psychologists, secular sociologists certainly are going to have their answers, right?

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We've seen a couple of them. But you and I who know the Word of God know that the

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Bible has the real answer to this. We saw Paul deal with the issue of money back in chapter 3, back in verse 3 and following of chapter 6.

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And it was the false teachers. You remember he said that the people who are false teachers, who abandon the

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Word of God, and the people that listen to them, he calls them, they are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

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And of course, we understand the godliness there is not real godliness. It's that they just simply think being somehow attached to Christianity or religious things is going to be profitable for them.

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And he goes on to talk about it is a desire to be rich, and they fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

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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, we've seen that before in 1

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Timothy, and pierced themselves with many pangs. And notice how every single time he references this, he focuses on the internal spiritual aspect of that person.

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It's not their environment. It's not their social situation. It's not their marriage, their spouse, or anything else.

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It's not their job. It is a function of who they are internally and spiritually.

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So this morning, we're going to see Paul really balance out this passage. He's going to, in this passage, verses 17 through 19, address the issue of people who are rich.

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And it's a very interesting passage because it really does almost read like a proverbial statement. And so it can be applied to both unbelievers, and specifically in the case of the church here at Ephesus, to believers.

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I'm just going to read through these three verses to just sort of set this up a little bit, and then we'll walk through the passage together.

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He says, 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.

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They are to do good and 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.

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Well, that's our passage this morning. And it's really pretty easy to outline. Essentially, again, it reads almost like a proverbial statement.

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There's a negative statement, and then there's a but right in between the negative and the positive, the but just sort of a hinge point there.

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They're not to do this, but they are to do this. And so this morning, what we're going to see, if we want to be rich in good works, it's really important that we don't do what he says, and that we do what he says we are to do.

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And so we're going to see this morning that it extends from those who are false teachers, of course, who need to view their riches, their finances in the proper perspective, but also it applies to those who are in the church.

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So the first thing we're going to see this morning from this passage is that when we set our hope on money, our focus is on the present.

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He says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches.

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The word haughty here literally means high -minded, an elevated mindset, an elevated mindset from which you could very possibly look down on other people who don't have the same amount of material wealth as you do.

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Christians who get distracted by thinking that having more money will bring happiness or security, forget who they are and where they are going.

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They lose what we commonly call an eternal perspective on life, an eternal perspective on life.

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And we see this all through the Bible, how important this is. And the Bible is full of warnings to believers and their attitude toward money or possessions.

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And of course, Proverbs, the wisdom literature, is just chock -a -block full of statements concerning how we are to relate to riches and material things.

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For example, Proverbs 11 .4, Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

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Now, there, that certainly is applicable, right, to an unbeliever. If you focus on this life and the riches and all that that you think are profiting you, out there on God's calendar is a day that He has ordained that is a day of wrath.

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And all of your money, all of your riches, all of your material possessions will not profit you in that day.

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But righteousness delivers from death. And again,

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Proverbs 16 .16, How much better to get wisdom than gold.

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To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Very simple statements comparing two things.

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It's better to get wisdom. The wisdom of knowing God and having a personal relationship with God is much better than any kind of material wealth you can imagine.

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So the believer is encouraged to pursue wisdom rather than riches because of the fact of eternity.

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Keep your mind focused on eternity, not just on what's here and now. For the

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Christian who has trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation and has set their hope on money or material things, they're in danger of forgetting what their

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Savior taught. In Matthew 19. Very familiar passage. Matthew 19 .16

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-30, an encounter with a man. It says, And behold, a man came up to him, to Jesus, saying,

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Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? Now, right out of the starting blocks, there's a problem.

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What must I do? Okay, so you know what his mindset is concerning salvation. What must

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I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus responds to him by saying,

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If you would enter life, keep the commandments. And then he says, the man says back to him,

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Which ones? Give me a list. Give me something I can do and I'll do it. He thinks he can do what it takes to enter the kingdom of God.

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And Jesus said, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.

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Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him,

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All these I have kept. He really hadn't. What do I still lack? Jesus said to him,

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If you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

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And come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

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And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

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When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said,

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With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

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There was a prevailing mentality in the day that if a person had material wealth, that they had riches, that that was a sign of God's blessing.

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And we're going to see, of course, it came from God. They also thought that if a man or a woman was somehow physically disabled in some way, or born with a certain disability, that that was a sign of God's curse.

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You remember when they encountered the man born blind, the disciples said to Jesus, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?

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And of course the lesson was, neither one of them did. But that was a prevailing attitude. It was a common view in ancient times.

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Wealth or health was a sign of the blessing, or lack of it, of the cursing of God. Paul says to charge the rich not to be high -minded or haughty.

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Riches can blind a person to their spiritual needs. And that's true both of unregenerate people in particular, but also it applies to Christians as well.

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It's easy to fall into the thinking that wealth is always a sign of God's blessing.

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Be careful, because there's false teachers, there's con artists out there as we know, who will propagate that and build great big ministries where they get very, very wealthy.

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So if we set our hope on riches, on material possessions, our focus can become fixed only on the present and on ourselves, and we can easily become high -minded, as Paul says.

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A second thing can happen. Our funding is selfish. This is a counterpart to what we're going to see in verses 18 and 19.

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We tend to spend our money only on ourselves. Well, of course, if your focus is only on the here and the now, you're going to focus on funding only your personal needs.

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If you set your hope on money, your focus is on the present, our funding can be selfish. Listen to James chapter 5, verses 1 through 6.

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I mean, this is just some blunt forced counsel here. James says, Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

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Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth -eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire.

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You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you.

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And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

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You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self -indulgence, and have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

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In the day of slaughter, the slaughter is for that which has been fattened for the slaughter, right?

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Like a fattened calf, right? But these people have fattened their own hearts for the day of slaughter.

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In other words, this is going to come back to judge them. The present focused and self -focused world of unregenerate people forms the backdrop in this passage, and also a warning to believers.

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And the wages of sin is still death, is it not? Wages of sin is death, and God says, Vengeance is mine,

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I will repay. And payday is coming for those who have rejected eternal life, for the temporary here -and -now life and luxuries that they can enjoy.

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In fact, as we know, the so -called prosperity preachers, their focus is always on the present, always on the here -and -now, right?

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Very well -known, very popular book written by Joel Osteen, was not your best life in eternity.

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It wasn't your best life in the kingdom of God. What was it? It was your best life now, right?

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And if you just don't recommend it, but if you just analyze them a little bit, every single one of those folks talk about the here and the now, your wealth now, the money now, your health now, all of it.

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So if we set our hope on money, our focus is on the present, our funding is selfish. And there's a third one.

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Our foundation is really shaky. That's why he calls it the uncertainty of riches.

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Don't set your hope on the uncertainty of riches. Setting your hope on material things is like building a high -rise building, 30, 40 stories, a high -rise building, but building it on cardboard boxes, okay?

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It's not going to last, it's not going to stand. This is, as we can see, and I'm not well -versed in economics, there's some people here that are, some of you guys are, but I mean, we can all see the uncertainty of the financial situation that even right now is taking place in our country.

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I mean, it's volatile, it's crazy things. What can you count on for next week and next month as far as what is taking place?

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And again, back to the wisdom of the Old Testament and the wisdom literature, Ecclesiastes 5 .10,

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he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.

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This is also vanity or emptiness. And again, from Ecclesiastes 6 .1

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and following, there is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind.

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A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them.

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This is vanity. It is a grievous evil, and we see this all around us.

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People work hard, and yet other people enjoy the fruits of their labor. And clear back in the wisdom literature of the

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Old Testament, this is called an evil. And again, back to Proverbs 23, verses four and five.

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

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Boy, can you ever identify with that nowadays? What would we call that? When money just sort of sprouts wings and flies away, or it devolves in value because of inflation?

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Or, I'm talking to Brother Dave about the Weimar Republic in the 1920s in Germany. I mean, a person could have a bushel of money, but it wouldn't even buy him a loaf of bread.

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Because of inflation. That's what can happen when you put your trust in wealth, in money.

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Jesus told a parable in Luke chapter 12 to highlight the foolishness of trusting in material things.

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Luke chapter 12, and the well -known story, Luke 12, 15 and following.

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And he said, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

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And he told him a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall

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I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this.

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I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. He's going to build his own storage center, okay, for his stuff.

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And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

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Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

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And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

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So if we set our hope on riches, our focus is on the present, just the here and the now, our funding tends to be selfish.

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And our foundation is really, really shaky. And if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you don't have a foundation.

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It's not just shaky. You're like this man who went to bed that night thinking that he had his whole life planned out.

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And he didn't wake up on this planet. He woke up in the presence of God as his judge.

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And God said, you fool. That was a foolish thing to do. So when we set our hope on riches, that's what can happen.

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But, and we have that very strong contrastive term here. But, Paul says, don't set your hope on the uncertainty of riches.

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But, and I'm going to supply what's not in the text, set your hope on God.

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It's actually there, but it's very common in the Greek text for there not to be a verb the second time it's used like that.

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But set your hope on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

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When you have your hope set on God and not on the temporary uncertain things of this world, first we see our focus is also, also on the future.

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Of course, it's on the here and the now. God knows that we have to live in this world. He's the one that put us here.

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But he's also the one that provides what we need. We have to focus on what we have to take care of here.

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We have families to provide for. We have jobs to go to. We have bills to pay. All of that, God knows that. And that's why

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Paul says he richly provides us with everything to enjoy. We need to understand that.

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And it's not an either or situation. It's a both and. Our focus is not just on the here and now, however, it's also on the future.

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This makes all the difference in the world. When our hope is on him, we won't be haughty.

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We'll understand where our material wealth comes from. It comes from him. He supplies it. That precludes us, hopefully, from being conceited or prideful.

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We will acknowledge that it is God who provides all that we have. And he richly provides us everything to enjoy.

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That's contentment. Not because we have everything, but we know that everything we do have came from God.

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And he wants us to enjoy what we have. In other words, we will be content. You remember that?

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Back to chapter six, verses four and five and following. They imagine that godliness is a means of gain.

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Now, there is great gain in godliness with contentment. True godliness is going to be godliness with contentment.

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Why? Because you're gonna understand that everything you have is a gift from God by his grace, and that it is to be enjoyed because of that.

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And then he even says, but if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.

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So again, this little three -verse section here is a balance for what he talked about before concerning our material possessions and things.

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So our focus is also on the future, not just on the here and now. And scripture is so important about the believer keeping an eternal perspective.

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In Hebrews 13, five, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

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For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You can only do that if you understand the second part of that, right?

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I mean, if you wanna have your life free from the love of money, if you wanna be content, keep your focal point on God.

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Keep your heart and mind fixed on God and his promises to you. I will never leave you nor forsake you, okay?

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And the apostle Paul, Colossians 3, 1 and 2, if you have been raised up with Christ, he's speaking to Christians.

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This is a conditional sentence that he's assuming is true, okay? He's not questioning this. If you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

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Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

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Doesn't say don't pay any attention to them. When he says set your mind, he's talking about the major part of your thinking, your focal point of your thoughts, and your heart and mind will be fixed on Christ, seated at the right hand of God.

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So if we keep our hopes set on God and the things of God, the things of this life will be kept in their proper perspective.

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And we will live in the present, of course, we have to, as long as the Lord has us here.

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And we can enjoy with contentment what the Lord provides for us, but we will do all of that with an eternal perspective.

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And B, our funding will include others also. Paul says that the rich Christians are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

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Paul says this because he understands if you keep that perspective, an eternal perspective on life and eternity, you'll have an eternal perspective on your possessions.

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Back to Proverbs 11, verse 24. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer.

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Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want. You take these things and you tell them to a person who doesn't understand scripture, who is an unbeliever, they're absolutely counterintuitive, right?

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And there's Proverbs telling you, yeah, one gives freely, yet grows richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want.

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Generous giving or sharing is a mark of true Christianity. In fact, at the birth of the church at Pentecost, Luke records what happens when 3 ,000 people were saved, okay?

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This goes back up to the upper room to John chapter 17 in the high priestly prayer. And you can just track this flow of characteristics all the way through.

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People come to Christ. There's unity and that unity produces mutual love within the body of Christ.

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But in Acts chapter two, verses 41 through 47, Luke says this. Remember, Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.

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He then calls people to repentance. And here's what happened. So those who received his word were baptized.

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And baptism is the first step of obedience. It's the first visible, objective evidence of salvation.

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Why? Because it's obedience. They were baptized and there were added that day about 3 ,000 souls.

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And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. And that fellowship is made up of the breaking of bread or communion and prayers.

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And awe came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

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And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

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Very important, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising

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God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

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There's a revolutionary thought. The church is made up of people who are being saved. And it's the Lord who adds them.

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But for our purposes here, distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

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Very important. This passage and many others are commonly used to promote some sort of a Christian socialism, okay?

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Nonsense. You can't get that out of that passage. They distributed to people to meet their needs, of course. Again, Acts chapter 4, verse 32 through 35.

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The persecutions were taking place and they had been imprisoned and beaten. And Peter, they came back out and Peter preached again, preached the gospel.

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And it says, Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own.

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But they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them.

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For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was said and laid it at the apostles' feet.

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And it was distributed to each as any had need. They met the needs in the church.

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The preaching of the gospel produced people who were saved. That salvation, as they fellowship together, produced unity in the spirit and working of the spirit.

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And that resulted in love within the church and the meeting of needs within the church. And so if we set our hope and keep our hope set on God, our focus is also not just in this life, but on the future.

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But our funding will include others as well as we have seen. And finally, C, very important, our foundation is solid.

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Verse 19 says, thus, I'll go back to 18, 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.

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Truly life. We set our hope on God and not on the things of the world. When we are generous stewards of what

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He has given us, we are storing up treasures for ourselves as a good foundation for the future.

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Paul makes use here of what's called the reflexive pronoun. This is an investment in the future, but it's also an investment in yourself.

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Just like Proverbs said, just like the Lord taught, and He taught it consistently in Matthew 6,

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Jesus said, do not lay up for yourselves, notice the reflexive nature of this, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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That's, again, a reference to keeping an eternal perspective. If your treasure is just physical in this world, that's where your heart's going to be.

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But if you have made an investment in the future by obedience to the

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Word of God, then your heart and your mind and your thoughts are going to be fixed on Christ and who

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He is and what He has accomplished for you and the fact that He's coming back. And that's what

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Paul is saying here. And by doing that, you will be laying a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

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We've seen Paul use this little phrase, take hold. Remember what he said to Timothy back in 612?

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Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. He's not talking about getting saved.

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He's saying, wrap your mind around it, Timothy. Get your head in an eternal perspective so you can live your life out based on that.

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And this is the same thing he's saying here. Take that same principle and teach it to the people in Ephesus so that they'll understand that they have to lay up a good foundation for the future so that they can lay hold of that which is really life, truly life.

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And that is a good foundation. The flip side of that is people that don't know

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Christ, people that are unregenerate, they don't have a foundation, but they've also made an investment in the future except payday for them is going to be the wrath of God for their sins.

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And that is an infinite difference compared to what God has called us to.

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So, when we set our hope on riches, our focus is only on the present. Our funding tends to be selfish and the foundation is really shaky.

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But, strong contrast, when you set your hope on God, the focus is also on the future.

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You'll have an eternal perspective. The funding of our, the way we handle our funds will include others.

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And our foundation is solid. Very interestingly here, Paul, many commentators have noticed that he sort of is using a kind of a, he takes a hold of these words and it's kind of almost a play on words.

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Have you noticed? He uses the word rich as an adjective, as a noun, as an adverb, and as an infinity.

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And I just sort of made a sentence there on your outline. Rich believers should not set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on our

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God who richly gives us all things and motivates and enables us to be rich in good works.

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Do you have any thoughts or questions about what we've seen? Yeah, there's been quite a few, in fact.

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Having wealth is not a sin. As we've seen, it's all about how do you relate to it?

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How do you relate to it? Where is your mindset? Where is your focus? And understanding that it all comes from God, no matter how much or how little.

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And yeah, there's a lot of men of God and women of God who have used their wealth to advance the gospel as they should and to bless the church.

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Anything else? Oh, yeah.

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Yeah, and the definition of rich. Basically, the biblical definition of rich is having enough food, shelter, and clothing, and a little bit more.

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That's it. Okay, based on that, probably most of us would be considered rich by biblical standards.

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Now, I know when we hear, think of rich people, and they're in the news all the time, you know, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, like that.

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Well, of course, they're rich, fabulously wealthy. Not meant to be envied.

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Not meant to be envied. One heartbeat away from eternity. And when that happens, they leave it, okay?

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They not only leave all that wealth, they leave this earth house behind. They don't even take that with them, right? And so, you can only have that perspective from understanding the word of God, okay?

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Any other thoughts or questions you might have? Let me just close with this.

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Back to Proverbs. Just absolutely full of good wisdom. Proverbs chapter 30, verses 7 through 9.

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And it reads just like a prayer. Two things I ask of you. Deny them not to me before I die.

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Remove far from me falsehood and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me.

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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

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God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word today.

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And thank you for your spirit who is our teacher. Apply these rules to our heart, these words, and cause us to be obedient.

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Help us to keep an eternal perspective so that we may do all things for your glory.

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And now, Father, as we gather to worship, we pray that you would bless our time of fellowship, that you would give strength and great joy to those who would lead us in worship and in the preaching of your word today.

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Take your word, apply it to every heart that is here, every mind. Accomplish every divine purpose.