How We Should Live?

Part 2 of our series: How to be Rich

We are in a second part of a series called, “How to be Rich”. This past summer I read an amazing book by a Pastor named Andy Stanley. He is a well-known pastor in Atlanta, Georgia. The book was called, “How to Be Rich’ – It’s not what you have. It’s what you do with what you have.”

I really enjoyed this book because it challenged me to see things through a different lens. Andy challenged me with two thoughts: (1) to think and realize I am rich and (2) since I am rich, how am I going to act, behave, and live. How am I going to be generous with my time, money, and possessions?

---

November 22, 2015
1 Timothy 6:17-18 How We Should Live?
Pastor David Pranga, Brewster Baptist Church

Let me just get this out of the way in case you missed last weeks message. Let’s get the elephant out of the room. We are going to be talking about money today. First, I realize nobody wants to hear message about money. It is not my favorite thing to preach on. I realize you don’t want to hear it. We all feel uncomfortable. We may even squirm around it makes us so uncomfortable.

Yet the Bible spends a good amount of verses discussing money. The question we may need to ask ourselves is why? Why do we feel so uncomfortable when we talk about money? I believe it is because we place money so close to our heart. It is our treasure, we don’t want anybody to give us advice. We don’t want anybody giving us advice. Why? Because it is our money. We don’t look at money as a gift from God. We look as something that we own.

I just want to spend a few minutes this morning reviewing last week’s message to bring everyone up to speed. There are many passages in the Bible that speak to people who are rich. If you are anything like me, I typically just skip those passages. I do not pay too much attention to them. Why? Because I am not rich. I don’t make very much money. I figure those passages are for the top 1%. Those elite people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. Those famous celebrities, movie stars, or athletes. Those verses just could not apply to me.

Here is the problem with defining rich.   It does not matter who we are. It does not matter what our income level is. Nobody believes they are rich. (Pause). Yet every one of us knows somebody, a person, that is rich. Rich is person with a bigger house, fancy car, and they go on amazing vacations. They have more stuff, than they know what to do with. Rich is the person we would trade places with in a heartbeat.

Last week, we looked at an important passage that was written by the Apostle Paul to a pastor named Timothy. These instructions were for rich people and how they should live.

1 Timothy 6:17 said,

“Command those who are rich in this present world”

As we can see, Paul is addressing those people who are “rich” in the present world. I realize that nobody in this room believes they are rich. When I read about instructions for the rich people, I just naturally think they apply to someone else. Paul must be talking to the elite and the top 1% of people.

Then last week, I shared with you about a website called www.globalrichlist.com. It is a great website that will tell you just how rich you are compared to every person in the world. If we are honest with ourselves we all compare ourselves to other people.

This website does the best at comparing everyone in the entire world. All you have do is type in your salary that you make in a year. I decided to type in a yearly salary of $48,000 a year. To my amazement, I found out that if I made $48,000 a year, I was in the top 1% of the entire world.

Then I took it another step and decided to type in my first job after college. Which was $20,000 a year. Do you realize what percentage of the world makes more than me? I was in the top 4% of all wage earners. That means 96% of people, in this world, would want to trade places with me. That means almost everyone would look at me as rich.

Many of us have crossed the line from not being rich, to actually being very rich. The people of this world would view you and me as “rich”. Not only are we rich. People would line up to trade places with us.

Even with these amazing stats, here is the problem that many of have. We don’t feel rich. There is a difference between “feeling rich” and “being rich” for most of us.

I shared two stories from last week. The first time I felt rich was my first job in high school. I worked as a bus boy making $3.35 per hour. I remember getting my first pay check for over $200. As I drove home, all I was thinking about was how rich I was. I dreamed about all the things that I could buy. Yet, I put the money in the bank. Pay check after pay check I put in the bank and dreamed some more. I felt powerful and king of the world.

Why did I feel so rich? I had no expenses. I lived with my parents. My parents paid for my room. I took food from the refrigerator.  I used my parent’s car. My parents paid for the gas and insurance. Since I had no expenses, I felt rich. I was rich. I had huge margins. I had money coming in and very little expenses.

For most of us, we make more money but our expenses have risen to same level. Most of us don’t have much margin in our life. So we don’t feel very rich. Even though we are rich.

The moral of the story. If you want to feel rich, get a job and move in with your parents. I did not realize how rich I was until I moved out and had to pay for things myself.

The other time I felt rich had nothing to do with me. I believe some of you can relate to this story. It had everything to do where I was. I had the opportunity to visit some third world countries. I’ve been to places like Mexico, Belize (Central America) and Ghana, Africa.

I’ve been to places where people did not have reliable transportation. In fact, most of the people did not own cars. They walked everywhere. Women had jars on their heads, carrying water. Houses were made of tin. Kids slept on the dirt floors. People had a few set of clothes. A soccer ball was a luxury. Diseases were rapid and medicine was hard to find and uncommon. There were no cell phones, no IPad, and no televisions.

And in those moments of visiting those countries. Serving and helping people, you felt rich. Not only do you feel rich, people look at you as being rich. They would trade places with you in a minute.

The truth is by international standards we are rich. By living in America, we are rich. By living on Cape Cod, we are rich. Most of the world, looks at you and they look at me, and they want to trade places with us. Each of us are rich.

Then we turned to these verses about rich people… 1 Timothy 6:17,

• Paul addresses with us how we are not to live

“Command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

Paul warns us rich people about two things. First, rich people should not be what? (Arrogant) We should not be full of ourselves. We should not be prideful in all that we have. We should not feel superior in anything. We need to remember that we have been blessed. We should act humbly. The fact is we should really be fortunate in where we live and what we have.

Second, rich people are told not to put our hope into wealth. Rich people are plagued by this thing called discontentment. It is where rich people often buy things to make us happy. We upgrade our things to make us feel better. The more we have, the more we want.   The more we buy, the less happy we are. Our hope migrates from God to stuff. We continually run after things. Many times our heart does not realize it.

We begin to believe the more we have, the happier we will become. So we buy more and more things. Part of the reason why we buy things or stuff is, we want to make ourselves happy. We all have done it.   We are happy for a short time and then it fades.

We are wanting happiness. We are wanting joy. We are wanting peace. Yet we don’t find it.

The last part of the verse reminds us where we need to put our hope. We need to put our hope in God.   Even though we know this to be true, it is hard to do. We need to put our hope in God. It is not through things, but through God who richly provides us with everything. Only God can fill our lives with joy, with peace, with happiness, and with contentment.

Now we go on to Part 2 of this series: How do rich people live? What advice does Paul give to rich people on how they shall live? We pick this up in 1 Timothy 6:18.

“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

Let’s take on the first part of section. Paul is commanding them to do (what?) “Do Good”. Paul does not begin with saying, “be good”. Everyone should be good. Christians are supposed to be good. Here Paul is instructing rich people to “do good”. We all know that all Christians (whether we are from poor, middle, or rich income) are supposed to do good.

Yet, Paul is writing to the rich Christians and he explains to them, they are do gooders. I realize gooder is not the proper word. Here me out on this. Paul is trying to emphasize to the rich Christians, that they should be above average in doing good works or doing good things for other people. They should be looking for opportunities to do good for people.

Why, should these rich Christians be on the lookout and doing good? Paul is saying to this group of people. You have been blessed. Since you have been blessed. Use your blessing for other people.

Story: I had a friend in my previous church that was a mechanic. He owned his own shop. His name was Bob. Bob was one of the most trustworthy, honest, reliable, guys you can meet. I got to know him very well since my vehicles were older and in need of repairs. As I got to know Bob, he came up to me one day and let me know that if anybody needed work done on their vehicle and could not pay for it, just to let him know and he would take care of making the repairs.

He had one condition. He did not want anyone to know. Bob just wanted to do good deeds for people. I was amazed at how many cars Bob worked on for people that were in need. I was impressed. In fact, one winter I went up to Bob because I felt guilty because I gave him quite a few vehicles during the winter months. I said, are you ok with me sending you another vehicle?

Bob’s answer was always yes. Bob and I were good friends. I asked why he did it? I love Bob’s answers: (1) He felt like owning his own shop and having five employees was a blessing from God. (2) God always took care of him and he believed that if he took care of other people, that God would take care of him. That God would bring in more business when he need it.

Bob was an example of “doing good”.  Many Christian business owners don’t take the next step and look for ways to do good. Bob did not have to do it. Many people would say he lost money by fixing up those cars for people that could not pay him back. But to me, Bob was the real life example of a person “doing good”. As Christians, we should be leading the way in doing good in our community.

Let’s go back to 1 Timothy 6:18

“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds,

In other words, don’t be just average in doing good deeds for people. Be above average in doing good deeds. Since you are being blessed. Since you have more. Then you have more of an opportunity to do good than average person.

Paul is just saying that because you have been blessed by God, you have the opportunity to help more people out. Since you have more money, you have might have more time. This will allow you to help more people. Most of us focus only ourselves. We are quite good at doing this. We need to focus on helping people with our time.

One advantage of rich people is they have time to do things. They have time to make a difference in the life of someone. Many people don’t have the time. Life is very busy for most people. Many of us have to work. Some of us have children we have to take care of. I realize that all of us are busy.

Here is what Paul is challenging the rich people. He is saying many of you are rich. One of the ways you are rich is, you have time. You have time to do good deeds for other people. You will have opportunities that will come your way to change the world or a group of people for good.

There are lot of people that wish they had time to give to something but cannot. They have to work. They have to take care of children. But those of you that have time, don’t let all your time be consumed with your hobbies on you. Which is easy to do.

The challenge is to spend time or better yet, schedule time. Make it a priority to spend time in helping people. We need to take time out of our busy schedules to help other people. We need to serve other people. It is when we help and serve other people, not only are we making a difference, not only are we blessing someone else, we are being blessed ourselves.

Story: I was talking with a lady, in our church a few weeks ago. This past year she, took a big step and started leading our children’s ministry. I asked her how things were going and if she was still glad she volunteered for the position since I knew it was so time consuming. I also knew a few other things.

She had just retired from working in the school system and Barbara challenged her to give up her time and make a difference in a dynamic way. See, I knew this lady just retired and she had some big plans for herself. Travel, visiting her family, and time to be with her husband. By taking this position, she gave up some of the things she looked forward to in retirement. I wanted to know how things were going for her.

Many of you know who I am referring to. I am referring to Pat Lindquist. Listen to her response: “I am having the time of my life. I am having a ball right now and who would have thought it. For the longest time, I could not wait until retirement. I had many plans of what I was going to do. Places I was going to visit. People that I wanted to see.

Then God changed it. God opened a door in serving children here at BBC. Everyone wants to be happy in life. By serving other I have found a new happiness. I am the most happy when I am following God’s will for my life. Doing the things God wants me to do.  I could not be happier. I feel like God is using my gifts and talents in some incredible ways. I feel blessed to be able to do good deeds and help out these children.”

I think this is just one example of many examples that I could have shared with you this morning. I really believe that some of us are blessed with time. The time to do things and make a difference with people. God calls us to be rich in good deeds and to bless other people, with our time and our energy.

Let’s move on 1 Timothy 6:18

“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and be willing to share”….

Now why would Paul tell rich people to be generous and be willing to share? The assumption would be that a rich people would be the most generous people? Guess what I found out this week? In the United States, the more money people make, the less generous they are. The rich may give larger sums of money, but it is smaller by percentages.

Paul tells us that we need to be generous people and be willing to share what we have.

When I was thinking about the word “generous”, it reminds me about the word “rich” to some extent. Last week, if I asked you if you are rich. Nobody would raise their hands. Nobody wants to be known as the rich guy. We all know rich guys. But none of us are one.

Yet, if I asked you today, if you are generous. How many of you would raise their hands? I am betting that I would see a large number of hands that would go up. Most of us believe we are generous. We give when we see a need.

Generous is one those words that is open to interpretation like rich. There is no real grading scale for people to say if they are or are not generous. It is hard to define because there is no line that says, yes you are generous or “no” you are not generous.

So many of think to ourselves, if I do one small thing. Then of course I am a generous person. If I asked you what percentage of people are really generous?  I am guessing most of us would write down a smaller percent. Everyone believes they are generous but most of us know that the number of generous people out there is pretty small.

STORY: I am remind of a story that Jesus shared about the “widow’s mite”. Back in the day offering plates were not passed. There was box and it sat in the place where people walked up and dropped in their coins. It was located where everyone could see. Jesus was watching as the crowd was putting their money into the temple treasury.

There were many rich who threw in large amounts. They made a spectacle as they did it. But then there was a poor widow that came up. She put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents in the box. It was almost embarrassing how insignificant her donation was. Especially compared to all the successful, prosperous people who came before her. The woman was obviously dirt poor.

Listen to what Jesus says in this story. It was so extraordinary because it was not what anyone thought Jesus would say. But it is through this story that we see how Jesus deals with our wealth.

Jesus comments in this story are found in Mark 12:43-44.

“Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, the poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.”

Why do we like this story of the poor widow? We like this story because Jesus stands up for the little guy. The person who had little.

At first glance, the message is warm and it’s uplifting. Jesus is showing favor to someone with whom we sympathize with, the poor widow. We all know that she does not have very much. We all can feel her pain. She only has two little pieces of copper and she gives it all.

If you’ve ever heard this story before, it’s easy to miss what Jesus says about giving because we have compassion on the poor widow but we miss the main part of the story. Let me ask you the question:

Who gave more in the eyes of Jesus? The widow….

Why? Why did the widow give more in Jesus’ eyes? She gave a higher percentage than everyone else. The poor widow gave all she had.

I believe Jesus cares more about the percentage of what we give, than about the amount or how large the check was. Jesus watched many rich people give. They gave large amounts of money the text said. They may have had many zeros on their check. Yet, Jesus says nothing.

Why? They gave a smaller percentage compared to the poor widow. I believe Jesus cares more about the percentage we give than the sum of what we give. Let me repeat this because it so very important.

Jesus cares more about the percentage than the sum of what we give….Here we have a story of a poor widow that is practicing generosity.

I just want to make this clear, I don’t believe Jesus calls us to give everything we own. I am not telling you to go and sell all you have and give it to Jesus. That is not what Jesus is saying. That is not what the parable is saying.

Paul is challenging the rich Christians, not to be average in being generous. Since everybody is supposed to be generous, I want you to be above-average in generosity. I want you to be leading the pack in generosity.

Paul is reminding the rich people that everything really belongs to God. We are only stewards of the gifts he has given us. I want you to be willing to share your wealth. Since God has blessed you. I want you to share the wealth that he has blessed you with.

I will be honest with you. Many of us don’t think of percentages when we give to the church. The only time we may think of percentages are when we tip in a restaurant.

A question you might ask is, what percentage should a person give to God? The Bible actually has a lot to say about the issues of tithing. The short answer is God tells us to be cheerful when we give. The bible also mentions 10% of our income.

For some people that’s extremely uncomfortable. They cannot image giving so much to the church. I really understand that this is new way of thinking. Yet, many of us have no problem tipping a waiter or waitress 20% for a meal. Some of may have to think that maybe God is worth at least 10%.

For some in this room, I understand giving 10% is terribly difficult. You don’t have much margin in your life. Giving such a high percentage would be difficult. Let me tell you first… God cares about your heart. God knows and understands the sacrifices you are under. The bills you may have in your life right now. God loves you very much. I believe whatever you give, God will be joyful

What I would tell you is to pick a percentage and try to meet it every month. Whether it is 5% of your income, 7 % or 3%. Pick a percentage of your income and then learn to give thanks to God. Then give that portion to God. Then the next year, add another percentage point to it. Work in giving more to God. Work on being generous with your money.

For some of us in this room, we want to be generous givers. Maybe you have been giving at 10% for years or decades. You were taught this at a young age. You have mastered it. It is not really a struggle for you. You were taught to give 10% early on and it has become second nature to you. God may want to challenge your to give 12% or 15% or 20% of your income back to him.

I really believe the reason why God wants us to give back to him is to teach us a valuable lesson. God wants us to rely on him and not ourselves. God wants us to put him first in our life. This includes our money. God knows our deepest treasure is what we hold to the most. God knows that is our money.

Many of us have bought into the idea that we have to be self-sufficient. We have grown to believe that we need to take care of ourselves first. Then give the leftovers to God. God does not want your leftovers. God wants your heart. God want you first.

Here is the deal, God wants to us to put him first. God wants to be seen as our provider, not as God who gets our leftovers. As we put God first with our money. We will begin to see God at work. We will see God do miracles.

I have seen God come through so many time. I have seen God’s blessing my family when I just was not sure how we were going to pay for thing. I have seen God bless us through people. That is why I know God is real. I have seen him show up countless times in my life and the life of so many people.

Summary:

Then Paul challenges us in three areas

• Do Good
• Be Rich in good deeds (focus on time), many of in this room have the time to help people. By helping people we will have joy and satisfaction of helping someone
• God calls us to be generous with our money. The challenge is to give God our first fruits. To trust him when we give our tithes to him.

Let us pray….

 

Questions for Reflection or Discussion:

1. Talk about a time when you gave money to someone in need. How did it make you feel?
2. What commands are given to those who are rich? What are they and why do you think it is important? (Read 1 Timothy 6:18).
3. What are ways that we can be rich in good deeds when our schedules are so filled up with activities?
4. How do you think the early Christian church practiced generosity?

(Read Acts 2:42-47).

5. In what ways do people place their treasure here on earth?
6. How can a person lay-up treasure in heaven?
7. In the past three weeks, the focus has been on stewardship. Share one or two things that were most meaningful to you from this series.