All right, well, hey, welcome to Mercy Hill. My name is Brian Miller, one of the pastors here, and we are just one week away from church at the ballpark. I'm so excited about all of our campuses getting to come together in one location for one service. It's going to be a great time, it's going to be fun. I'm putting my name in the hat for the Disney Bat Race.
I don't know about you, right? But there's going to be some fun games we're going to do there, but also incredible worship of service. And it's going to culminate in celebrating baptism. And for some of you, baptism is your next step as a follower of Jesus. Baptism is letting other people know, making public what Christ has done in your life personally.
And if you've been wrestling with that question, you've been thinking, hey, I don't know if baptism is right for me. Your opportunity to do it is next Sunday. And I want to encourage you, if you've been thinking about it, to go ahead and text baptism to 87217. And what's that going to do? That's going to spark a conversation with one of our leaders to just talk through.
Hey, is getting baptized at the ballpark? Is that the right time? Is it the right place for you? And so we look forward to celebrating with those of you who are going to be baptized. Invite your friends.
One week left. It's going to be incredible. Today, we're going to wrap up our built sermon series. You know, the lives that we are building, the quality of our lives, they are built in the day-to-day, moment-by-moments. We've been looking at issues that can really trip us up.
Issues in our life that, if we don't handle them with wisdom, they can cause undue stress on ourselves personally. They can cause a lot of relational strain and pain. They can even deteriorate the family if not handled with wisdom. And so we've looked at issues like unrighteous anger. We've looked at issues like gluttony.
We've looked at things like sexual temptation. And today, we're going to look at money. Money. Money is something that can really trip us up. Don't worry, we're not going to pass the offering buckets again.
That's already happened, right?
So you can just relax. But it is something that we need to talk about. It's something that's important in all of our lives. This week, as I've been just thinking about this message or preparing for this message, I've realized how much, even in my own family, we just talk about money a lot. This past week we had something in our house that needed repair.
And so, my wife and I, we're weighing on the options. You know, is this something that I try to repair myself, or is this something that we hire somebody to do? And that's my wife's vote that we would hire somebody to do it. But it's like. That whole conversation, it's circling around how much is it going to cost?
How much is it? Driving my kids to school, and one of them asks, Hey, can I have more money for snacks at school? I got another son who. Asked, hey, will you give me $5 to go to soccer practice? I'm like, it's your soccer practice.
Like, you should want to do this, but I guess he's looking for an NIL deal or something at eight years old. Hey, we just Money is everywhere. We all deal with it. Yes, we deal with different amounts. But there are some of you who are here today and you're on the front end of life and you're earning careers and you're thinking about what could be and how much potential you can earn over the course of your career.
Others of you on the back end and maybe you're living on a fixed income off of what has already been amounted. Right, but young and old, we all deal with money. Money is A big issue. How we handle it matters.
Now, let me be clear. The Bible Never says that money Is evil. It never says, sometimes people say that, that money is evil, or money is the root of all evil. No, the Bible never says that money is evil. In fact, the Bible commends earning money through hard work.
The Bible commends saving for the future. The Bible commends sharing with others. The Bible presents people who love God supremely, and some of them are incredibly wealthy, and others of them are very, very poor.
So it's not necessarily money. That is evil. But the Bible does say that money is powerful. Money has great power. And how we handle money.
Our relationship to money is going to determine whether we are living our lives enslaved to its power. or freed from the power of money.
So, our text for today, our passage, is going to be 1 Timothy 6. I invite you, if you have a copy of God's Word, you can go there. If not, there's going to be. The the verses on the screen.
Now, 1 Timothy chapter 6. It's all about Not missing out. on true life. what it really means to flourish and live an abundant life. And the big idea of 1 Timothy chapter 6 is that the love of money.
produces all sorts of pain. It's the love of money. That will trip you up and sideline you from living the life that God has called you to live.
Now before we dive in and read this, understand that this passage is coming at the end of Paul's letter to Timothy. He's writing to Timothy, and Timothy was a young man that Paul had invested so much in and had entrusted to lead this church that Paul dearly, dearly loved. And so, this is kind of like his final warnings, right? His final charge to Timothy. It reminds me of a football coach at the end of the game.
The game's on the line, less than a minute left. He calls his final timeout, he huddles the team. Right? He is not going to mince words in that huddle. He is going to go straight to the point.
He's going to tell them and remind them what matters. He's going to say things like: hold on to the ball. Get out of bounds. Don't get a penalty, right?
Some of you Or parents, or maybe you can remember your own parents doing this. You're driving to a friend's house. And they turn on that last street right before they drop you off, right? Parent doing? The parent is reminding you: make sure you say, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, right?
Yes, sir, no, please, thank you. Don't be afraid to come. It's those last final things.
Well, 1 Timothy 6, Paul is telling Timothy, giving him this charge: hey, these are the important things that I need you to know. And what does he talk a lot about? Money. He talks a lot about money.
So let's look at the passage. 1 Timothy 6, beginning in verse 6. He writes, But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these we will be content.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, a trap. Into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 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.
and pierce themselves with many pangs. Skip to verse 17. 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 own God. who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future.
so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
So there are three takeaways from this passage. The three charges from the coach in the huddle. And they are that we need to rethink what you need. Fight against greed. And build for eternity.
So we're just going to take those three things in turn: rethink what you need, fight greed, and build eternity. Let's look at the first one: rethink. Your need. In 2017, there was an art auction in New York City. with some very famous pieces of of work that were gonna go up for sale, the most famous of which was the last known privately owned artwork by Leonardo da Vinci.
It was a painting called Salvatore Mundi, Savior of the World. And the winning bid of that painting went for 400, a little bit north of $450 million.
Well, after the painting was sold, some art critics in different museums around the world, they began publishing these papers critiquing the artwork. And they didn't think that showing evidence that why that artwork was probably not painted by Leonardo da Vinci himself. Yes, Da Vinci probably had a hand in it. But it was more likely actually painted by his apprentices, people in his own studio, the people that were trying to learn from the great painter himself. And so it is reported that that painting, that the new owner of that painting, then took that painting and put it away in storage.
And to this day, people are like, well, we don't really know exactly where it is. There's some mystery around it. Can you imagine investing so much money? into something that turns out To not be what you thought it was? Yeah, it would be hard to even look at that thing, right?
You'd want to just kind of tuck it away.
Well, what if the way that we have been conditioned to think about money and possessions? The way that we've been brought up, and our culture tells us all the time: what if it's not? What he thought it was at all. What if You get everything that you ever desired out of this life. Only to realize That you've been duped?
You have Fallen prey to a scheme. You've been climbing a ladder that was propped up against the wrong building. Paul's burden for us in this passage. is that we not miss out. on what is truly life, that we know we not get duped.
You know, nothing will rob us more than believing a lie. And the lie that money and possessions says. Is that The more money you have, the better life's going to be. The more money, the more content you're going to be. The more satisfied you're going to be.
You just need a little bit more. The next thing, and then you'll be happy. But the truth is Money and possessions never deliver the contentment that they promise. See, I believe that's what we're really after, right? We're really after contentment.
And inner peace, regardless of the situation that we find ourselves in. That's what we really desire. to be truly okay. Not on the basis and the limbs of what's going on around us.
Well true life The true life that God desires for us to have. It's lived by a growing awareness. of who God is and his character and his presence.
So Paul, what he's saying, he's saying that True contentment is the result of godliness. Godliness with contentment is great gain. What is godliness? Godliness is living in alignment with God. By keeping our attention on God.
Right, so it's living according to his design. That's what the wise living is: it's living with awareness of his presence, and it's lived by keeping our attention focused on him.
So your best life is not going to be found by chasing after that next promotion that next possession But your best life is going to be found by chasing, pursuing after God and the life that He has for you.
So we need to rethink. Our need. Look back at verse 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.
It's like, hold on, wait a minute. Did we miss something there? Did did I misread that? If I have food, And clothing. That's it.
Food and clothing? With this we will be content? How often do we tend, I know I do, we tend to think that contentment is just around the corner. It's with that one more thing, that next thing. I can remember early on in my wife's in our marriage, Before we had any kids, we thought that the next thing that we needed was a puppy, right?
And that puppy was so cute for all of 20 minutes, you know. But we enjoyed that puppy. But then, you know, we started thinking: you know what? You know, be really, the next thing that we need is. Our puppy needs a friend.
Our puppy needs somebody else to play with.
So we got two puppies. And we thought, you know, having two puppies, then that's gonna be great. You know, then we're gonna be content. But then we're walking those puppies on their leash, and we thought, oh man, it would be really great if we had a backyard we could just let them out into.
So then we go house shopping, we buy a little bit bigger house, we find a house with a yard, and then you know what? Are we continued? No. Because then we're thinking, well now we need a fence, right? The line of contentment keeps moving.
It's like if you ever heard a kid, or maybe you said this yourself: if, mom, dad, if you give me this one thing for Christmas, I won't ask for anything else. Six months later, don't even remember what that thing was. It's in a pile going to Goodwill. Right? Money and possessions will never deliver what they promised, the contentment that they promised.
It's always moving to the next thing. Have any of you Ever struggle when you're packing for like a trip. Yeah, I know some of you don't struggle, right? There are some guys in the room and at our campuses too that, man, you have all that you need in that 42 and a half pound pack. You can survive for weeks in the woods, right?
But for most of us, I think packing can kind of be a little bit of a hard, stressful thing. It's like, okay, you mean I have to fit all that I'm bringing with me into this one little suitcase? It's like, well, what if the weather changes? Like, what if it's cold there? What if it rains there?
Now I'm going to take my rain jacket, which is black, but all I prepared to bring were these brown shoes. And now I'm going to have to bring my rain jacket. I got to bring another pair of shoes. And what if the pillows in the hotel aren't firm enough? Do I need to bring one pillow?
Right? It's just on and on. One more thing, one more thing. How am I going to fit it all? What I need into this one little thing?
Was any of you ever had this experience? You guess at the end of the trip? You're putting things back into the suitcase to fly home or whatever, and you look and you realize, Well, I'd even use the half of it. Right. We need far less than we think.
And what gives us the best perspective of what we actually need. is remembering the brevity of life. I imagine that many of us will get to the end of our life, we'll look back and we'll realize: well, I didn't need the half of it. There's a story of a millionaire who Passed away, and at the end of his celebration of life service, someone came up and they asked the pastor, like, why? Did you hear how much did he actually leave?
And the pastor said, All of it. Left a hall of it. If you've ever played the game of life, the board game of life, you know that to win the board game of life, you need to. Receive, gain the most money above your opponents, right?
So get the house and sell the house and all these things, get the best job. Whoever has the most money at the end is who wins. That's what our culture teaches us: success. But the Bible reminds us that the end of the game, It all goes back in the box. It all goes back in the box.
Jesus said in Luke 12, 15. Take care. And be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Don't miss out.
on true life. Let's rethink what we need. But second, we need to fight against greed. Fight against greed. Now, I started to say we need to avoid greed.
But then I began thinking: well, what are the things that I avoid? I avoid traffic, right? I avoid long lines. I avoid inconveniences that are a little bit annoying. But greed is too destructive.
to merely just avoid it. We need to fight it. Look back at the passage, picking up in verse 9. But those who desire to be rich Fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 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 and pierced themselves with many panks. And notice it says those who desire to desire to be rich. Does it say that those who are rich Some of you are rich, you can't help it. You were born into it. Right?
You make money. Everywhere you go. It's not a sin to be rich. In fact, he's just going to address those who are rich a little bit later. But it's this desire.
For more, that's what greed is. Greed is this desire for more money, it's the love. of money that leads to all sorts of other sins. and greater and greater destruction.
So we must fight against it. Fight against greed. Now, some of you hear fight greed. You're like, yes, let's go. Like, let's fight against big corporations taking over Main Street and they're monopolizing everything.
Like, yeah, let's fight greed. Like, we all have these pictures of greed in our mind. Like, I think of Ebenezer Scrooge, just a stingy old man. working you know, overworking his employees, not paying them fairly. We can think of Ponte schemes, we can think of price gouging, we think of casinos and racetracks and betting, like all these pictures and images of greed.
There are plenty of them. But most of those pictures of greed are pictures of other people out there. But what God is telling us is that greed is a root. It's a root in our own hearts. If you know anything about roots, you know.
that they're unseen. They often They grow buried beneath the surface. Yet they can do a lot of damage. They can destroy foundations. And so the point is that greed It may not be obvious to us.
Because it hides. You can be extremely wealthy. And so be greedy. Still wanting just a little bit more, a little bit more. You can be poor.
And be greedy, longing for more. to satisfy and secure you. One of our pastors, as we were talking, Actually, Pastor Seth Brown at our Clifton campus. Me and the other campus pastors were talking about this message, preparing it. He said, You know what?
In all my years of ministry, no one has ever come to me and confessed a struggle with greed, a struggle with love. for money. And I thought, yeah, that's true in my own experience too. Yeah, I've had people come and they share that they're struggling with sexual temptation or they're struggling with an addiction, they're struggling with anger, but no one has ever come and said, Hey, I'm struggling with this love of money. And then I thought a little bit deeper, and I thought, you know what?
I don't know that I've ever confessed to others. A struggle with money. But I've certainly had it. Even even this weekend, it's just... reminders of how I am struggling with this, out of the temptation.
It's so easy to want more, to think happiness is in that next thing. Do we really think that we have this beat? I think the better question, the question that I'm learning to ask myself, is not. Am I greedy? But Where is there greed in my heart?
Where is this temptation? to hold on to money for security. to want to cling to it, to think that happiness is in that next purchase. See, the love of money, it loves to hide. It hides in that app account you used to place one more bet.
It hides in the way that you Record your paytime off hours. It hides in the deductions you claim on your tax return. It hides in that item that's in your garage or your closet that you paid for on credit you couldn't really afford. See, sooner or later, that root is going to grow and it's going to trip you up. And it's going to cause you to fall.
The plunge. I think we don't take it very seriously because we don't really confront other people about it. When was the last time you went to a community group and you were asked, hey, I think you're loving money a little too much. I think you're putting your trust there. We don't tend to confront others about it, but make no mistake, God's word is clear: He will confront us.
He will hold us accountable. And really it's because He desires for us to true perish. He desires that we're not duped, that we don't miss out on that which is truly life.
So here's some questions. To help us uncover where a root. of a love for money may be growing. Does your mood change dramatically? depending on whether money is coming into your account or going out of your account.
is your security and your financial accounts and assets. Are you trying to appear wealthier than you are? Is your desire to accumulate Is it harming others? Is it causing relational damage, strain? maybe with other coworkers, maybe with employees.
It's robbing your own family of Quality time. And here's the big question: this is the big test. Do you gladly give money away? Have you ever heard of the illustration of Uh a monkey trap. Maybe you've heard this before.
Now, trapping, trying to catch monkeys, that's not something that I've ever done. I think that's something that maybe Pastor Andrew has maybe tried to do. It sounds more in line with him. Supposedly, you know, one way to capture a monkey Is there's a cage, and you put food in the cage, this device, and the monkey will slip his hand in and grab the food. But as soon as he grabs the food, he can't get himself free of the trap.
He can't get his hand back out because the fist is clenched and it's too big for the gap. In order to release himself, in order to free himself, he would have to. open his hand and and drop all the food to get out. And I think the same is true for us. In order for us not to live enslaved to the desire for more, the desire for money.
We have to find our contentment in something other than money and possession. We have to live our lives open-handed. That we can take it. or leaving. Then we will find.
true contentment and freedom. Yeah. When I was nine years old, this story came to me this week. I hadn't thought about this in a long time. I was nine years old.
My mom comes into my bedroom and she says, Hey, we've got to go. Your cousin's house is on fire. And I thought, oh my, okay.
So in that moment, I very quickly went over to where I kept my money, all my possessions, right? And I reached in there and I saw there I had two. Crisped $20 bills, $40 to my name. It's all that I had. And I don't remember how I came across that money.
It was probably a gift, probably a birthday present or something. And I've been hanging on to it. I don't know what I was hanging on to it for, but I grabbed it. And then I went with my mom. We went over to my cousin's house, and I was literally standing there with my cousin, watching her house burn.
And I gave her both of those $20 bills, gave her all that I had. And so it's like maybe once in my life I got something right, right? But As I reflect back on that, I could not have articulated then the way I can now. But I realized what allowed me to give all that I had Was that I wasn't relying on those on that $40 for my own provision. As a nine-year-old boy, who did I rely on for my own provision?
My mom and dad. They're the ones that provide everything for me. And so I think we can translate that into our lives as believers and remember that: hey, what do we rely on is not what we can amount for ourselves, not for what we can save and try to keep, but what we rely on for our provisions, ultimately, our Heavenly Father. Who wants to give generously and provide all that we truly need.
Now it's hard to fight Against greed. It's hard to fight against anything, really, unless we know what we're fighting for.
So as we Fight against greed, what are we fighting for? Let me tell you. In the fight against greed, we are fighting for our faith. Our joy. in our witness.
These are what's at stake. Our faith, our joy, and our witness. We're fighting for our own personal faith. It really is. a test of our beliefs.
I can think of nothing else that can really be a God replacement. More than money. Jesus said to pray for daily bread, but We often don't pray for daily bread when the pantry is full. Right, when we have money, we don't need God quite as much. That's the danger of money, is that we can end up forgetting God.
It makes life easier. And it also makes life easy to forget God. And so It's a true test of, well, do I really believe? That there is an eternity awaiting. That lasts forever?
Where am I? Functionally just believing this life is all that there is. Do I believe that God is the center of an abundant life, not possessions? In the parable of the sower, Jesus described people. Who hear God's word?
But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches overtake them and they bear no fruit. Paul said to Timothy in this passage, because of the love of money, Some have wandered away. From the faith. Here's the point I'm trying to make. There are spiritual consequences for the way we handle money.
It's not separate things. It's not that, hey, we handle money this way and then we live our spiritual lives over here. No, they are connected. The way we handle money has spiritual consequences. And how devastating for us to hear one day at the end of our lives from God Himself: you thought that you were a follower of Jesus, but you loved money and possessions too much.
Depart from me.
So we fight against greed. to fight for our faith. But also, we fight against greed to fight for our joy. Very simply, The most generous people are those Who are the most joyful people are those who are generous. And I think the reverse is true, right?
Like stingy people are oftentimes not really fun to be around.
Now this is something that I can see my own life, this struggle, right, for the temptation to love money, possessions. I see it in with the vehicles I drive, right?
Okay, so. I've got this truck, it's 10 years old, it's been a great truck. You know, I really want to take care of it. I'm all for taking care of your things, right? And that's why I park usually like really far away.
And this was so funny.
So I just shared this in the service before this. And my oldest son came over and he goes, I thought you parked so far away to give other people the better spot. And I had to tell him, no, usually I park far away so that other people don't like bang my doors and scratch my truck. You know, so a little bit of, you know, he sees right through things, right? But.
But like, I can remember times where it's like I see a scratch on my truck, and I think, like, it just sours my entire mood. I mean, something's gonna rust anyway. Right? But but yet I get so upset over a little scratch. And I compare that to: I have a friend here who he has a truck that is objectively a much nicer truck than mine.
And he gladly allows other people to use it. Anytime someone's like, hey, I need a truck, he's like, yeah, sure, here, here, you drive it. Just take it, take it, and use it. And I just think, like, man, there's so much joy in being able to release things rather than. My mood can be so controlled over you know, getting a little scratch on a temporary possession.
So we fight against greed to fight. For joy. For our own joy. But then third, we fight against greed to protect our witness. Our witness is God's people.
Church, we believe that God is the most generous being in all of the universe. For God so loved the world that what He gave His only Son, God is.
So generous. He lavishes his grace upon us. And now we get to represent him. We are his body before a watching world. And so, how generous would others believe our God is based on the way they see us live our lives?
See, true generosity, whereas greed likes to hide, generosity, it does show itself, it's evident. I know the Bible talks about: hey, don't give just so that other people see you giving, right? But that's not true generosity. What that is, is that's buying a reputation that your character can't. But true generosity, it's going to be evident.
It's going to be evident in the people who get. who are in your home. People that you allow to be around your dinner table. It's shown and evident in the way that you serve others, the way that you give of your time. Serving in Mercy Hill Kids or out in the parking lot, rain or shine, right?
Like generosity. Though others not might not see you know, the checks and the donations that you make, but Generosity is evident. It is something to be seen. This is another reason why I love that we're doing church at the ballpark next week. It is a display of generosity.
When else can people in our community go to venues like that or when we do Christmas at Tanger? And it's free. Right, but what we get to do is we get to say, hey, come, parking's free, the event's free, snacks are free. It's going to be a fun time. You're going to hear a life-changing message.
We get to do that as a demonstration that we serve a generous God, and so we get to be generous to others in turn.
So, the fight against greed is the fight for our faith, the fight for our joy, and the fight for our witness.
So let's rethink what we need. Let's fight against greed. And then, third and finally, let's build for eternity. Let's build for What matters? 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 17.
As for the rich in this present age, now I know most of us, just like with greed, we tend to think of, well, those are other people, right? And we think that rich is anybody that has twice as much as us. But let's just say at this room and at our campuses If we're living In our society today, Pretty much most of us are rich. Like, we are rich. Maybe not as rich as the next person, maybe not be flying private jets, you know, to vacate wild, exotic vacations, but we are rich.
So Paul says to us, God's word to us is charge them not to be haughty, prideful, conceited. Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 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.
You see, when we are tempted to love money. and love possessions. We are tempted to believe that this world is center stage rather than the dress rehearsal. Right, that this world is the destination rather than the road to the destination. And we may be able to build something impressive in this life.
But it's only like building a sandcastle on the shore.
Sooner or later, the tide is going to come and erase it all away. And so what truly lasts is what will last in eternity. I want you to imagine with me. A child, a boy who is born into a family that is extremely wealthy, just opulence beyond what you would believe. Three years old, they give him a birthday party by renting out.
Disney World privately, right? I mean, just like incredible wealth. And then at five years old, the family's wealth completely evaporates. He goes on to grow to be a man, and he lives to. 85 years old, let's say.
And for the rest of his life, since five years old, He lives in poverty. He lives struggling to provide. He lives with strained relationships. The pain of his foolish decisions and consequences. And yeah, it wasn't his decisions that lost the money, but that's just where he's at.
So you look at his life, first five years. Incredible, lavish opulence, wealth, the next eighty. poverty, brokenness. When we look at the totality of that man's life, would we say that he lived a truly rich life? If we live the rest of your days, the rest of your years on this earth.
in ease and comfort. But then you spend the next billion. Apart from God and hell. Is that really a rich life? Jesus said in Mark chapter 8.
He said, For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world? and forfeit his soul. It's a church. Let's be a people who take hold of that which is truly life. Let us be rich in good works.
Let us be generous to others because that's how you build on a rock. That's how you build a foundation that lasts into eternity. What this message has taught me, this passage, is that generosity. It really is necessary. for spiritual health.
You know, something is off if we're not growing in generosity. Because if Spiritual health, the way that the Bible would define it, is becoming more like Jesus. If Jesus is the most generous being in all the universe, if we're not growing in generosity, how can we say that we're growing to be more like him? But now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying the generosity.
Earns. Your eternal life. At least your generosity doesn't earn eternal life. Actually It's God's generosity that does. Romans 6.23 says that for the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life. in Christ Jesus. Our Lord. Every single one of us has taken this life that God has entrusted to us, that He has given us. And there have been times where we have ignored him.
We say, God, I've got this on my own. I've got this figured out. I know how to live. We have squandered and mismanaged the resources that He's allowed us. to possess There's not a single one of us that haven't.
At times, lived foolishly, lived loving things that lead us away from Him. We've all wandered. And according to this passage, we deserve The logical consequences. of pain of brokenness. Piercing.
But yet, what does the Bible say? The storyline of Scripture says that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and what did Jesus, His Son, come and do? His Son came and He was pierced. for our wrongs. He was pierced for our mistake so that He could offer us.
eternal life with him. And so, eternal life is not something that we need to try to obtain by giving more to this or. Serving more there. No, it's a gift that we have to receive. By trusting fully in what God's son Jesus has done.
on our behalf. Eternal life. is a gift. Let us hold on to that. in faith.
But us. Rethink what we need. Let's fight greed. And let's build for eternity. The practical application of this message is simple.
Is there a saying that we've used for many years here at Mercy Hill, and that is to live sufficiently.
so that we may give extravagantly. Live sufficiently, what does that mean? Is there like a number, a percentage, a threshold that I can give you? I can't do that for each and every person, right? It requires wisdom to understand what does living sufficiently look like for me.
Not comparing my life to my friends' lives or to other people's lives, but like For what God has entrusted me with. And I'm going to be accountable to him. What does it look like for me to live sufficiently? That requires wisdom. for all of us.
And one way to grow in that wisdom of living sufficiently is one of the tools that resources we use is Financial Peace University. And so you can sign up for our next FPU class by simply texting FPU, Financial Speech University, to 87217. You know, wisdom is not just knowing the right thing, but it's also doing, taking action. In that right thing?
So for some of you, The best action to take, the most the wisest thing you could do. Applying 1 Timothy chapter 6 in your life is simply to sign up for Financial Peace University. To learn the biblical principles of how we can live sufficiently in a God-honoring way. But then, second, let's give extravagantly. The most extravagant gift in all of scriptures.
Jesus' own life that he gave for us. But then there's another extravagant gift, and that was the example of the widow who gave two small coins that were. We're not worth hardly anything.
So extravagance is not measured in amount, but it's measured by attitude. It's an attitude that says, God, you have given me so much. How could I not give more? I want to give more. I'm eager to give.
I'm giving now. When is the next time that I could give? See giving is not only the best task to know How we're doing in the fight against the love of money. It's also the greatest tool we have to grow in freedom. To release our hands so that we are free from the love of money and not living under its power.
So church, may we be a people. who show the world. that all we need for everlasting joy is found in Jesus and Him alone. Let's pray. Father.
Thank you for your work. This speaks so clear. And it challenges us.
So, God, I ask that as we discern in our own lives. A gap between what we say we believe. About you being supreme and eternity being forever versus the way we actually live, which oftentimes I know in my life. Looks like I'm just building a sand castle, a kingdom for myself here. God, when your spirit identifies that gap in our lives, God, would you?
Increase our faith. to trust you more. God, teach us how to truly live. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
