24 Sep Sept. 26, 2021 1 Tim. 6:6-19 “Have a Great Life, Now and Forever!”
Sept. 26, 2021 1 Tim. 6:6-19 “Have a Great Life, Now and Forever!”
There have been times when I will get a call to do a service at the very last minute. I normally don’t like to do this because I need a little more time to get ready. I know some pastors like to have their sermons done months ahead of time. I usually write mine on the week of the service because I want it to be fresh in my mind. Either way is good as long as it works. Similarly, I think that we plan some of our vacations the same way. Summer is over and most vacations are in summer but some are at other times. I also know that there are many ways to prepare for a vacation. Some people are now getting ready for vacation next summer and its only September. Others will start to plan after we get done with the Christmas rush. And still others will wait until next spring or so and do a lot of last-minute planning. There is no right or wrong way to do this. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I am one of those people who plan this out more in the last minute. Well, life is the same way. We make plans and either they work or they don’t. I would say that most of the time they don’t work specifically like we would want but generally they might work. This is for anything but one decision. Let’s look at our Scripture and see if you have made the right decision here or not.
Jeff Strite tells the story of a preacher and a poinsettia plant. He was talking about God’s free gift of salvation as he told the people that anyone who wanted this beautiful plant could come up and take it. It’s free. He waited and waited for someone to take it and finally a mother said, “I’ll take it.” Then she nudged her son to go and get it for her. The pastor then said, “Whoever wants this gift must come and get it personally. She didn’t want to be embarrassed so she declined the offer of this absolutely beautiful plant. Then someone asked, “What’s the catch?” “No catch. It’s free,” the minister replied. Still, no one came forward. A college student asked if it was glued to the altar. The pastor reassured them that it wasn’t glued to the altar. There were no strings attached. It’s free for the taking. People were having a hard time with this because it was free.
Finally, a woman in the back that he had never seen before came forward and said, “I’ll take it.” Then the pastor launched into the text of Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In other words, the gift of God is eternal life! And it’s free, absolutely free. I think that this might be one of the biggest hang ups we have with trying to be Christian.
Paul begins this passage with a gentle reminder to that we brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing out of it. I think it’s pretty easy to see that we bring nothing into the world but it really isn’t fair that we take nothing with us at the end. I mean we work, and sometimes very hard, to amass great fortunes in our lives. It’s the American dream to get as much as we can as fast as we can. That is why there aren’t many Christians on Wall Street or in Washington, D.C. Satan has his hooks into most of these people. As Paul says, Satan traps many of these and it seems very hard to get out. But, of course, they always can get out but we will get back to that.
Then Paul tells us one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. Verse 10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Many places tell us that money is the root of all evil or the root of all sorts of evil. Take your pick because they are both wrong. There are many reasons why this is all wrong. According to this, there are no other causes of evil, only money. We know that this isn’t right. Oh, it is a big cause of much evil but not the only cause. I read a book one time and the whole premise was this misquote. By the time I finished the book, I had to wonder what else the author had wrong as it semmed this wasn’t the only thing.
Remember last week we talked about the devil and hell. Well, if you think about it, the devil is the root of all evil. Money can’t be. Money is just paper or an object. It means nothing unless you give it meaning. Money can and does do a lot of good in the world. Churches and missions use money. We use money to get food, clothing and many other things that we need for life. The problem with money is us. We are greedy. We want to have more than we can charge on our credit cards. We want everything and we want it now. One of the privileges that I have as a pastor is to preside over weddings. These are always fun because they always have lots of love flowing generously. But one of the things I have noticed in some cases is that parents will try to give the new couple a huge home or a huge boost in life. We can debate the merits of this all day. The only thing I have to say is that this deprives the young couple of making their own way in the world. We get so caught up in the money world by giving more than we should. How will these kids know what they can do if they are given everything?
And who is behind all of these things. Satan is the author of all evil and here we see him again as he is trying to ruin young people. He is trying to get all of us to fall in love with money above all else. You hear things like time is money. Money, money, money. But what will it buy you in heaven? As a matter of fact, what will it buy you in hell? And that is the question we should be asking ourselves today.
Will money help you with anything in the afterlife? The answer is yes it will if you are able to resist all of its bad implications. I know many people who give away most of their money and possessions to the poor. They only keep enough to live on. One of the ways to start this is to give back to God like He tells you in the Bible. You are to give 10% of your income to God. Do you do this? Why not? Years ago. when I first learned what tithing was all about, I was pretty much broke. The kids and I really had some tough times. There was no money. But I had heard about this thing called tithing. I looked it up and I wrote a check that Sunday and I have been doing it ever since. We have been richly blessed just because of this one small sacrifice. The best part of all this is that God has helped us to never miss the money. It’s not ours so how could we miss it. Remember this next time you put a $5 bill in the offering. Is this what you are supposed to be doing?
The Paul moves on to tell us exactly what we are supposed to be doing. Please remember that these are not orders from God but only reminders of what we are to be doing for eternal life. Once again, Jesus is showing us the way to a better life in this world. All we have to do is look around and see all the bad things happening right in this country. We have a Congress that is totally worthless. Our beloved two-party system is broken beyond repair as communism has slowly reared its ugly head in our country! We have riots about minor things. Our own government wants us to be scared and feel unsafe in all we do. Due to social media, we now think we are experts in everything and our opinions matter more than anything else. Do you see a trend here? This is Satan trying to break us at every turn.
None of these things I just mentioned matter in any way. Instead, we need to get our focus on righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. This is the only way to a happier and better life. I’m going to add the rest of the fruits of the Spirit that Paul wrote about in Galatians. They are joy, peace, patience, goodness and self-control. Flee from all this bad news that you are always reading about and embrace these fruits. Flee from them as fast as you can. Concentrate on the goodness that Jesus has for you.
We hear about these fruits all the time but we really don’t use them. We are much more eager to rely on ourselves and this evil world where we live. Let’s take peace, for example. Did you know that there has only been about 250 years of peace in the world since the beginning of history? That isn’t very much. There is no peace in the world today and it’s getting worse as we have dictators even in our so-called democracy. But what about peace for yourself in your world, your life? One of the best ways to achieve peace in your world is to turn off the news. They only want to scare you and lie to you. This week we have found that they are lying about the hospitalization rates around the country. It’s no wonder people get worked up when we are bombarded with constant lies. Turn news off and concentrate on the peace of God. You will find that you are a new person.
Or what about love? You have heard me say that you cannot have real love without knowing Jesus on a personal basis. If you are worldly, you will think you have love but it isn’t even close to the real thing. Once again, Satan is working overtime. Concentrate on the love that Jesus has for you and then try to give that love to someone else. If you do this one little thing, you will open yourself up to a whole new world.
As a matter of fact, if you use any of these fruits in the ways you are intended to use them, you will find yourself in a very satisfied life. Put your hope in Jesus. I have known many, many people who are very frustrated and unhappy in life. They have been chasing the dreams of a new car, more income, and better relationships. The world tells us that this is all there is to life. But they are wrong. They will be eternally wrong. This is Satan leading you down the wrong path. They first thing you have to do is give your whole life to Jesus. There are many who haven’t done this and yet call themselves Christians. They aren’t happy or satisfied. All you have to do is confess your sins to Jesus. You can list these individually or in one bulk statement but you have to get rid of them. Then acknowledge that Jesus is exactly who He has always said He is. He is God, period. Then ask this wonderful God of ours to live as Lord and Savior in your heart. You should feel great relief right away. And this is just the beginning.
Now you can start to work on these fruits. You can’t really have any of them without first knowing Jesus. By doing the right things then you will be laying up treasures in heaven. As Paul says, “Fight the good fight of faith.” It may be a lot harder for the rich to do this but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. There are many Christian run businesses out there who do very well because they try and do follow Christian values. Look what Chic-Fil-A has done. It wasn’t that long ago that we were supposed to boycott them just because they were Christian. That was the only reason we were to boycott them. Since Satan’s attack to shut them down, they have thrived. They are doing better than ever. There are many businesses like this. We often don’t hear about them because they just try to keep a low profile and do business but they are there. We served a country church once where they didn’t work on their farms on Sunday. It was their day of rest and honoring God. They did and are still doing very well.
People, fight the good fight of faith. That doesn’t mean we take up arms against others. That would be worldly. It means that we do what we are called to do through our gifts and the fruits of the Spirit. It means loving our neighbors as ourselves. It means getting off of social media enough so that you can actually do things to help others physically instead of through cyberspace.
I have known of a very rich family and several average families who have followed Jesus properly. The rich family inherited a mansion and all the servants. They decided that they would help out some of the less fortunate. They had many children and young people come and make their homes with them. There was always plenty of food and good company around. They also invited groups like AA to come and use their house. They would take trips together as much as they could. They went to Paris on this family vacation and the dad said this. “I’ve been to Paris many times but each time feels like the I’ve never been there before because the young people we bring had never been there before.”
People, there are many out there who are trying their best to follow Jesus and be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. There is a lot of evidence in the Bible that Jesus is exactly who He said He is. Plus, there is a mountain of evidence in our world today that Jesus is exactly who He said He is. I ask you to look at the evidence and then choose Jesus. He will not only make your life great in this world but also for eternity. Now that is a deal that you shouldn’t, you can’t pass up. And thank you Jesus for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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