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Sermon Notes for July 1, 2001
Summer Preaching Series
“Handling Greed in Your Life”
I Timothy 6:6-12
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Introduction
A. WHEN Is Enough . . . Enough?
1. 4 billion dollars spent on recreation this year.
2. Our nation is three trillion dollars in debt.
a. That amounts to $15,000 for every man, woman and child in America.
b. If our government decided to pay back this debt at 1 million dollars a day . . . it would take 3000 years to pay that debt back.
3. However, some people can make it on less money.
a. Ron Blue worked with a Pastor who never earned more than $8,000.00 in one year.
b. This man wanted to know if he had enough financial resources to live out the rest of his life.
1. He was 80 years old.
2. He had been retired for 20 years.
3. His wife had just been put under full-time nursing care.
c. After asking some questions:
1. Did he have any debt? – NO –
a. He didn’t want to have to pay someone back.
b. He wanted to feed his family.
c. He wanted to tithe.
2. What resources did he have? He indicated that in his wife’s
name, he had approximately $250,000 in cash, money market
funds, and certificates of deposit. Additionally, in his name,
he had another $350,000 in cash and cash-type investments.
Needless to say, I was impressed! Over $600,000 in cash
accumulated by a couple who had never earned more than
$8,000 per year! One thing bothered me though. He had not
yet mentioned any stock investments, and yet in looking at his
tax returns, I noticed a substantial amount of dividend income.
He revealed that at retirement he had invested approximately
$10,000 in the stock of a new company, and at the present
time, the market value of his stock in that company was
$1,063,000. WOW! $1,663,000 of cash and stock and they
had never earned more than $8,000 per year!
B. THE BIBLE Tells Us When Enough Is Enough.
1. Paul uses a term here that we shall look at closely – “Godliness with contentment.”
a. Do you not agree with me that contentment is the hardest struggle that we deal with?
b. We are more like our nation who is three trillion dollars in debt THAN the Pastor who learned to live AND save on only $8,000.00 a year.
2. We, AS CHRISTIANS, must learn that God is showing us HOW to be content.
a. Philip Towner – “Nowadays it is difficult to decide which is more dangerous, the love of money in a materialistic society or the Christian’s rationalization for joining in the chase!
b. You would THINK that Christians think differently about greed.
1. Sam Erickson of the Christian Legal Society once did a
personal study of average charitable giving. His conclusion
was that all Americans gave on the average, $.25 a day or
$91.00 per year, and evangelical Christians gave an average
of $1.00 a day or $365 per year.
2. J. Robertson McQuilkin, former President of Columbia Bible
College, said that if members of the Southern Baptist
denomination alone would give an average of $100 per year to
foreign missions, over $1.4 billion dollars would be given in a
year.
I. A GODLY Contentment.
A. WHAT Is A Godly Contented Person?
Vs. 6 – “But godliness with contentment is gain.”
1. Worldly contentment
a. Contentment defined.
1. The Greek word has two parts – autarkeia
a. autos – self
b. arkeo – suffice
2. The Greek philosophers looked at contentment as “A perfect
condition of life, in which no aid or support is needed.”
3. “A mind contented with its lot.”
b. Contentment applied.
1. The definition would suggest that contentment does not require
anything else.
2. As the Greek philosopher said, “to whom little is not
enough, nothing is enough.”
2. Godly Contentment.
a. The only problem with the world’s definition with contentment is that IT DOES NOT WORK!
1. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit in one’s life, no one can be
truly, spiritually content.
2. That’s why man has to “work so hard” at his contentment.
a. Become a monk
b. Pierce their body
c. Pray until you reach nirvana.
d. Do it with drugs, alcohol and money.
b. That’s why Paul says, “Godliness with contentment.”
1. THEY GO TOGETHER!
2. Eusebia meta autarkeia
a. The word meta means with
b. but it also means after or behind!
c. Contentment does not precede godliness, IT FOLLOWS
IT!
3. NOTICE:
a. Our problem, as Americans, is that we think that we can
be content only if:
1. We are successful.
2. We are wealthy.
3. We are loved.
b. When Paul is saying is that you will never have
contentment until you have a right relationship with
God!
1. As St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless
until we find our rest in Thee.”
2. You see, our lack of contentment is from our
broken relationship with God.
a. Fix that brokenness and you will find
contentment.
b. That’s why Paul says in Phil: 4:10-13
that he has “learned” the secret of
contentment – AND WHAT DOES HE
SAY, “I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.”
1. He is not talking about getting the
strength to climb the Matterhorn
or to start a business or score a
touchdown.
2. He is talking about a more
difficult achievement – that of
finding contentment.
B. WHY Should We Be Godly Contented People?
Vs. 7 – “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”
1. We brought nothing into this world.
a. For those who have had the blessed experience of watching your child being born, think about this FACT.
1. WHAT did your child “have on” when they were born?
2. What did they have in “their hands?”
3. We all were so overwhelmed about their birth that we never
thought about it. All we wanted to know was:
a. Did they have 10 fingers?
b. And 10 toes?
b. The Scripture bears this out very clearly –
1. Job 1:21a – “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and
naked I will depart.”
2. Eccles. 5:15 – “Naked a man comes from his mother’s
womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing
from his labor that he can carry in his hand.”
c. The Greek word for nothing is emphatic –
1. Nothing, no thing, nada, zippo
2. The Scriptures want us to get the impact of NOTHING!
2. We will take nothing from this world.
a. For those who have attended funerals, it is somewhat harder to grasp that we take nothing out:
1. There is a funeral procession.
2. There are flowers and arrangements.
3. All of the families and friends are there.
4. But that dead person HAS TAKEN NOTHING OUT.
5. The miserly millionaire called a family conference. “I’m
placing a box of money in the attic,” he said. “When I die, I
intend to grab it on my way up to heaven. See to it that no
one touches it until it’s my time to go.” The family
respected his wishes. After his death the millionaire’s wife
looked in the attic. The box was still there. “The fool!” she
said. “I told him he should have put it in the basement.”
b. Some commentators believe that the proper translation for Job 1:21 should read . . . “We brought nothing into this world BECAUSE we can carry nothing out.”
c. In fact, a Chinese proverb says: “At birth we bring nothing – at death we take nothing.”
1. An old Spanish proverb says – “There are no pockets in
shrouds.”
2. John Stott:
a. “Our life on earth is a brief pilgrimage between two
moments of nakedness.”
b. “Possessions are only the traveling luggage of time,
they are not the stuff of eternity. It would be sensible
therefore to travel light.”
3. Philip Towner – “Human contact with the material world
begins at birth and terminates at death.”
4. In his book Spirit Life, D. Stuart Briscoe writes, “When I
moved to the United States, I was impressed with the number of
total strangers who visited my home to wish me well – they all
sold insurance! One day my visitor was talking about the
necessity to be prudent in the preparation for all possibilities.
“If something should happen to you, Mr. Briscoe . . .” he
started to say, but I interrupted with “please don’t say that. It
upsets me.” He was a little startled, but tried again, “But with
all due respects, sir, we must be ready if something should
happen to us.” “Don’t say that,” I insisted. He looked totally
bewildered and said, “I don’t understand what I said to upset
you.” “Then I’ll tell you,” I replied. “It upsets me that you
talk about (life’s) only certainty as if it’s a possibility. Death
isn’t a possibility, it’s a certainty. You don’t say, ‘If,’ you
say ‘When,’ whenever death is the subject.” Then I added,
“By the way, when something happens to you, what will really
happen?”
3. So, do you see the absolute foolishness on “depending on stuff?”
a. This stuff, or whatever is tied to this world, is going to get us down.
b. Think about the true story of the Titanic – WHY WAS THAT A TRAGEDY?
1. Was it because they all died so tragically?
2. Well, by now, most of the people on that ship would be dead
today, if there had never been a tragedy.
3. No, the Titanic is a colossal illustration of what Paul is saying,
a. With some of the richest people in the world on that
ship, John Jacob Astor, being one,
b. They realized EARLY AND PHYSCIALLY
EXACTLY what Paul was saying in our text.
II. A PHYSICAL Contentment.
A. BEING CONTENT With Your Physical Needs.
Vs. 8 – “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”
1. God provides our physical needs.
a. Make no mistake about it, WE MUST HAVE OUR PHYSICAL NEEDS MET.
1. We MUST have water.
2. We MUST have food.
3. We MUST have sleep.
4. We MUST have protection.
b. We CANNOT survive without our NEEDS being met.
c. The Word of God says that God will provide our basic NEEDS:
1. Food
a. Sustenance.
b. That which sustains our bodies.
2. Clothing
a. Suggests covering our bodies.
b. But also suggests a covering over our bodies.
2. God provides our spiritual contentment.
Vs. 8b – “We will be content with that.”
a. Now, this is not as easy as it looks.
1. God says that He will provide our NEEDS, and we should be
content with THAT.
2. HOWEVER, our problem is that we are not content with THAT
– food and clothing. WE WANT MORE, . . . in order to be
content!
b. The Word of God CLEARLY says that God alone can give you contentment.
1. Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 – “What does the worker gain from his
toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made
every thing beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the
hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from
beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men
than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone
may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this
is the gift of God.”
2. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 – “Then I realized that it is good and
proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his
toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God
has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives
any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy
them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a
gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because
God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”
a. IN OTHER WORDS, it is not the lack or abundance of
stuff, success and people in our lives that makes us
contended.
b. It is God ALONE who grants us contentment.
c. LOOK AT ECCLES. 5:19 – “Moreover, when God
gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him
to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his
work—this is a gift of God.”