True Wealth

Intro

Do you think of yourself as wealthy?

Often i reckon we think of our wealth in comparison to someone wealthier.

“We’re comfortable, but we’re not loaded.”

“I’m pretty well off but my boss makes way more than me, he’s really wealthy”

We in our western mindset are often oriented to our next big purchase. We need to save up to buy a house, replace the car, buy a luxury item like a caravan or boat. Maybe you’re thinking about that next house renovation or interior make-over. And because the world is trying to sell us stuff constantly, we can see others who are better-off than us, we’re trying to pay down the mortgage, and we can’t afford that big-ticket item right now, we can think of ourselves as not being very rich. We feel financially constrained, but just because you can’t go out and buy a new car out of pocket, doesn’t mean you’re not incredibly wealthy.

But let me lay down some statistics for you.

If you’re a single person on the Australian Average wage, you’re earning 17 times more than the global medium - even taking into account cost-of-living in Australia.

If you’re a family of 4, and you earn a little over $60K annually in Australia, then you are in the top 20% of wealthy globally.

In the scheme of history I mentioned this the other week, but let me remind you again: We live in an age of Super-abundance: It is estimated that an ancient Babylonian had to work for 41.5 hours for 1000 lumen-hours of light with a sesame oil lamp. In the 19th century you could get 1000 lumen-hours of light by working just 0.23 hours (14 min). In 1992 you only had to work 0.000119 hours (4 sec) to get the same amount of light from a compact fluorescent bulb. We just take for granted that we can switch on the lights, leave them on, even leave them on when we’re not home to make it look like someone’s home. That not even considering how easy it is to heat or cool our homes, travel, how cheap food is comparatively, and how many appliances we have to do hard work on our behalf.

You are wealthy even by virtue of living in Australia. Even if you lost everything in one day - got fired, your savings account hacked by scammers, your house and car burnt down in a fire and your family rejected you - even if you lost it all in one day, you can go to a local charity and get some food, possibly get crisis accommodation and then you can access emergency payments from the government. You can have food in your stomach, roof over your head and money in the bank within a relatively short period of time. You won’t be rolling in cash, but you’ll be able to get by.

We are wealthy.

If you’re not concerned about where your next meal is coming from, you’re in secure housing and have sufficient clothes to be warm in this winter weather, then you are wealthy.

If you have a box to automatically wash your clothes, you’re wealthy.

If you have a

You are wealthy in the scheme of history, your are wealthy in comparison to the world, most of us are no-where near poverty, as far as i know all of us here are wealthy. An I dare you to try an prove me wrong.

So, knowing this what does it have to do with God? Knowing that you are wealthy what now.

Well, the first point of our passage is what you need to hear:

Trust God, not Wealth

This is what the wealthy must do!

We are in the last couple verses of Timothy

Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy on how to lead the church

Timothy second generation church leadership

Letters were not easy to send, everything in them is very important. No firing off multiple emails one after the other. Months to arrive.

These closing verse touch on a couple themes that have come up a bunch of times in the letter: Wealth and False-teaching.

1 Timothy 6:17 ESV

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.

Haughty - High minded, proud. In what way? Trusting earthly wealth and effort instead of God.

Wealth is uncertain - God is not!

Trust the certain provider.

Enjoy the stuff! But trust God.

Trust God, not wealth.

How should we act in trust?

Be Wealthy in Good Works

1 Timothy 6:18–19 ESV

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.

Replace pride with action - good works!

Generosity - ready to share, ready to “fellowship” your wealth.

Providing out of our wealth for others is just like God, who provides abundance out of his storehouses, not the least of which is grace to cover all our sins.

Building wealth is wise, savings accounts, etc. But don’t love money - is the root of all kinds of evil. But you do need to have something in order to be ready to share what you have.

Think of your wealth like a tool, to be used for God’s glory in serving people - your own family first, then your spiritual family, then the wider community/country.

Use your wealth to lay up everlasting assets - in the way you donate, in the way you build, in the way it enables you to use other gifts.

If you reach a point where you don’t need to work a job to make ends meet, you don’t stop working you keep working but with a more selfless focus.

This includes when you retire. The fact that you have super and a pension means that you are now free to serve God in ways you couldn’t when you were holding down your 9-5.

Work for eternal life, not just for a cushy life here. You don’t earn eternal life, but the life of faith is one where you are seeking the fullness of obedience and receiving of God’s will. Your endurance through life in faith is like holding onto or reaching for Christ, our eternal life.

Guard the Deposit of the Gospel

1 Timothy 6:20–21 ESV

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.

Specifically, you who are considering if God may have you lead in the church, you will need to be able to Guard the deposit - defend the faith.

Timothy has a particular charge as a church leader, but this to some extent is important to all Christians

What is the “good deposit”?

The Deposit is a great treasure that needed to be guarded. Adam was to keep/guard Eden, and in his failure we all feel. Jesus the second Adam restores us to fellowship with God through this gospel/faith/deposit, now don't let it be stolen like Adam!

We must keep a distinction between truth and falsehood. Avoid it! Be aware, but don’t get sucked into the latest theological trend.

In Timothy’s day he was probably seeing the formation of what would later become “gnosticism”. It didn’t reach full fruition til later in the 2nd century. Gnostics are a loose group of syncretistic sects that place a high value on secret knowledge - gnosis. Paul want’s Timothy not to get sucked into whatever form of this was shaping up in Ephesus.

These special “knowledge” is actually a false-gospel that leads people away from the faith.

We have a resurgence of Gnosticism in our own day. There has always been false teaching to identify and avoid, but there is a particularly pernicious version afoot in our own day.

It is the idea that you need to have experienced certain things in order to have true knowledge. And, if you haven’t had my particular experience, then you can’t speak to that particular thing.

Examples:

Single vs married, e.g. "you can't know what it's like for me in my extended singleness" "you'll understand when you get married"

There may be an gained experiential knowledge, true, but it doesn't disqualify others from sharing wisdom with you, observing sin in your life and encouraging you to be faithful in your estate.

Non-parent.

Ethnic background

Gender

Other perceived victim groups - LGBTQI+, Disabilities

Modern Jewish movements - You don’t need the perspective of a modern day Jew in order to understand the Bible Properly.

God doesn’t have an issue with the fact that his church leaders are not representative of all human experience, God’s truth has universal application and he appoints men to teach it.

You don’t need a “women’s” study bible, you don’t need to be taught the Bible by preachers who have experienced all the same things you have experienced. There’s no special knowledge to be uncovered in the scriptures based on gender, ethnicity, marital status, suffering and so on. You don’t need the perspective of a modern day Jew in order to understand the Bible Properly. You need the HS and faithful shepherds who will guide you in the truth.

Be on your guard for those who would lead you astray and say "we have rediscovered the truth" or "you have the basics, but now come and hear the special truth that has been kept from you"

If someone is representing the true Christian faith, we would expect to find true Christians throughout history. We’re a mixed multitude, there will be false teaching that surfaces in our Christian history. But if someone turns up and say “this is the true Christian faith that has not been seen since the time of the Apostles” then what you have is someone suggesting that Christ’s church is not the Bride whom he has been washing and caring for 2000 years and counting.

The temptations are multiplied with the modern mass of teaching proliferated online.

"Grace be with you all" - Plural

So What?