Money Talks // Putting Money in its Proper Place // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen.

Amen. If you have your Bible today, go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter number 6.

What a great service already here today. And my heart has been blessed and also reminded. Listen, we're not here just to do church.

We're here to meet with the Lord today. It's all about Him. And it's not for any other reason.

It's for Him. And that's why we gather each and every day. And I want to remind you that if it was not for Him, you wouldn't be here today. Think about that.

We don't deserve anything from Him. And the only reason you are where you are here today is because of the grace of a loving God who loved you in spite of the brokenness that you caused in your life. And listen, don't think I'm preaching at you.

I'm preaching right to me because I was right there with you. And so it is all about Him here today. Well, listen, I mentioned this earlier, but we are in week number two of our series entitled Money Talks. Entitled Money Talks.

In fact, let's say that title together. Money Talks. Money Talks. And here's the idea behind this series is really what would our money say to you if it could talk? What would it reveal to you if it could talk? Last week we were looking and maybe your money would speak to the fact that maybe you are investing your life in things that will eventually corrupt and things that will eventually decay.

Things that you can never take with you. And maybe you need to start investing into things that will last forever. And so today I believe that as we continue this series, I think it will challenge all of us.

In fact, it's already challenged me and I think it can help a lot of us. I said this last week, but I know that there's always, you know, anytime the pastor starts talking about money, we get a little nervous, right? We get a little uncomfortable just a little bit. And I want you to relax.

In fact, look to your neighbor and say, hey, relax. Okay. Listen, I am not going to drill on a lot of things here today.

Here's what I want to do. I want to look at what the scripture says about money for your family and for your for your life. In fact, before we get too nervous about about a pastor talking about money or a church talking about about money, I want to say a couple of things. I mentioned this last week, but some of you, if you weren't here, I want you to know this. I've been here for about 13 months. And so just over a year and last week was the first time that I talked about money from up here.

And so I felt pretty good about that. Okay. And so if you think, hey, this church, all they do is talk about money. Well, we have not talked about it. So that's just not not true. But the second thing that I want you to understand is that Jesus had a lot to say about money. He had a lot to say about money. So if you're in here today and you're like, man, that pastor's talking about about church, let me just say this, that if you were around during Jesus's day, you would have been really, really frustrated because he talked about money all the time.

In fact, think about this. He talked about money more than he talked about heaven and hell combined. He talked about it regularly throughout his earthly ministry. And he mentions it. And you say, why in the world would Jesus have so much to say about our money, about our finances, about our possessions? Why in the world would he have so much to say about it? Here's why is because we learned this last week that there is a correlation between our money and where our heart is at.

There is a correlation. That's why Jesus talked about money a lot is because Jesus wanted your heart. Jesus wants every one of our hearts.

In fact, he wants to be on the throne of your heart here today. And so the reason why he addressed money so often is because money probably more than anything else pulls for our heart more than anything else in your life. And so Jesus talks a lot about it and not only Jesus, but the apostle Paul, he talks a whole lot about money in his different letters and here in Timothy as well. And here's the idea that I want you to understand about money is money is a gift. Money is a gift. Now, I want you to think about that idea. Money is a gift.

And the reason why I say that in my introduction is this. I don't want you to think that if God has blessed you here today with a lot of money or more than enough, I don't want you to leave here thinking, man, so guilty, you know, like, I mean, man, I must be doing something wrong if if God has blessed me with money. I don't want you to feel here in a moment when we, you know, invite you to make a decision about about your life. I don't want you to feel guilty and say, man, I must go down to the front and and just give it all away. Now, if you want to, we'll take it.

But other than that, I don't want you to feel guilty about it because money is a gift. But here's what I want you to see today. And this is really the the idea behind today's message is this. The problem with money is we have turned the gift of money into an idol. We have turned what turned out to be a gift and you're going to see that idea today. But we have turned the gift of money into into an idol.

You say say what does that mean? Well, you have to understand what idolatry is. When we think about idolatry, we think about the Old Testament or or in scripture days, we think that there's these, you know, like you're building a shrine or you're building something or or you're bowing down before a little statue in your home and things like that. And here's the thing. I don't think that those are the kind of idols that you and I might be facing here today.

But let me tell you this. Money is as much an idol for a lot of Christ followers as a little statue of Baal in a lot of people's homes in our world. You see, money is constantly going after after your heart. If you're in here today and you want to know if if you have turned money into an idol over the gift of God, I was thinking about this today and what that would look like. Here's a few things that that came to mind to know if you've turned money into an idol. Maybe you have unmanageable debt in your life. That money has has become a a burden.

Or for some of you, this might hit home to you. If you want to know if you've turned money into an idol, maybe you struggle with impulse buying. In other words, when you've had a bad day, you just need to go somewhere and just spend a bunch of money. Doesn't that feel good sometimes? You know, you just had a terrible day and you're like, man, I just want to go out and I want to just buy me something good because that will make all the pain go away. If that's you, then you probably have turned money into an idol into your life.

Or how about this? You have no financial plan or budget in your life. In other words, your money owns you and controls you. Or how about your money brings anxiety and fear. In other words, your money keeps you up at night. You go to bed thinking about the stock market and if that doesn't do well, you don't know what on earth you're going to be doing. If that is you, you might have turned money into an idol.

How about this one? That your security is attached to money. In other words, money is your hope in life. Or how about this?

Relationships are impacted. You look at people as a means to a financial end. You look to people and if that's you today, then maybe money has become an idol in your life. Or how about this one?

This will be the final one. Maybe you just struggle with giving. You struggle with being generous and you look to escape any of those times where you are being challenged to be generous with your money. If any of those hits home with you about your money and the way you handle your finances, then maybe you have turned money into an idol. So in the next few moments, I want to answer this question.

How can we put money in its proper place in our lives? Here in 1 Timothy chapter number 6, Paul is writing to young Timothy. And he is writing this letter really to a man that would eventually take his place. He's mentored Timothy. And he's writing this letter to Timothy and it's directed to him and he's talking about a whole lot of things. And here in chapter 6, he talks about that very idea about money and money staying in its proper place in our lives.

He mentioned several things. Number one, if you want to keep money in the proper place in your life, here's number one. You have to, and if you want to jot these down, you can. You have to simplify your life. In other words, Paul is telling Timothy here, you have to be content with your money. You have to be content with your money.

We're going to pick it up here. 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 6 says this, but godliness with contentment is great gain. What a powerful word or a powerful verse. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

How many of you want great gain? Okay. That's all of us.

All right. You don't have to be nervous. Some of you are like, man, I don't know.

If the pastor asked me to raise my hand, I'm not doing it. And listen, all of us want great gain. That's every one of us.

There's not a person in here. If we went around and said, Hey, do you want great gain? Do you want great gain? Do you want great gain? You want great gain?

Everybody in here is going to say, yes. Well, Paul gives us the, the secret recipe to getting great gain. And it's very simple. He said, godliness with contentment equals great gain. That's a pretty easy formula.

It's not hard to follow. So if you want great gain, that is, that is what you need. Now here's not what great gain means because there's a lot of people.

If you turn on the television later today, you might hear people that, that will say, if you just want to be prosperous or, or whatever. And if you want a lot of good stuff in this life, then, then this is what you got to do. And, and listen, that's not what great game is talking about.

In fact, great game might not even be talking about your wallet here today. And we're going to look at that. But he says, godliness with contentment is great gain. No godliness.

That's just Christ's likeness. That's just God like, and he says with contentment is great gain. The word great here in verse six, it's from a Greek word where we get the word mega. So in other words, what, what Paul is saying is if you want mega gain, Timothy, then you need to be godly and you need to be content in your, in your life.

And that's where you will find great gain. And then he goes on in verse seven, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we carry can carry nothing out of it. For we brought nothing into this world. If you think about that idea, we came into this world with absolutely nothing, right? You came into this world with nothing. And Paul, he brings that up to Timothy to say, listen, you brought nothing into this world.

In other words, when you came into this world with nothing, you were content there. And, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. We know that listen, you're not able to carry everything, all these possessions that we get, you know, you're not able to carry those things with you be reminded of that here today. You can't carry anything with you. That's what we learned about last week is that the possessions that we have and, and the toys that we try to accumulate here in this life, we cannot take us with with, they're not going to be able to go with us in the, in the future.

And so we, we should be investing our life beyond the future. And he says this, Paul gets super practical in verse eight. In fact, he, he gets transparent about his own life. He says, listen, Timothy, and having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Isn't that a real powerful verse?

And here's why it's powerful. It's cause Paul gets real personal with them. And he says this, he says, listen, here's where I'm at in my life. That's what Paul said. And Paul, remember, he's, he's a church planter, the greatest church planter to have ever lived and, and wrote half of the New Testament. And uh, and here's what Paul tells Timothy. He says, listen, here's where I'm at in life.

If I have food and I have raiment and clothes, then guess what? I'm content. And, and he says this in Philippians, I mean, he's writing to the church of Philippi and he says, Hey, I have learned in my life whatsoever state that God puts me in, I'm going to be content right where I'm at.

I'm not going to want a lot more. I'm going to be content and a happy and secure with wherever I am at. And here's why. And we're going to get to this here in a minute. Paul understood the deep secret of where his contentment lies in. And guess what?

Spoiler alert. It was not found in possessions. It wasn't found in money.

It wasn't found in a lot of those things. We're going to find that it's found in something different and deeper. So he goes on in verse nine, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lust, which drown, that's such a powerful statement, which drown men in destruction and perdition. He says, those who, who experience riches fall into temptations and into snares. In other words, they fall into, into traps. And by the way, if you think about your life and the people around you, we've all seen people fall into similar traps, haven't we? They experience a little bit more money than usual and next thing they know, they fallen into a temptation or they fallen into a trap.

In fact, many, we might even say, Hey, they fell out of church because they started to chase things other than, than the Lord and their, their life. Paul's warning Timothy. And he says, listen, those who are rich, they're going to experience some temptations and traps in their, their life. And they're going to be so deep, so deep that, that he said, listen, they're going to be so deep into that trap that they're going to fall into that it it's as if they're drowning inside of this pool of destruction, not being able to get out.

Now does that sound like anything you want to be involved in? It doesn't mean when I read that verse I'm thinking, okay, then we need to be beware of the danger and the temptations and traps that that riches can bring into our life. And then he goes on, he says in verse 10 for, which is a very important word because of anytime we see the word for, we need to remember what is it?

What's it there for? So you have to go back to what the apostle Paul had just written. And so he says, for this reason, all these things for the love of money is the root of all evil. Notice he didn't say money is the, is evil in and of itself. He said the love of money. In other words, if money is what you love more than anything else and money is what wakes you up in the morning and money is at the center of your heart and leading in your heart, then that is the root of all kinds of other evil in life. Wow.

That's powerful. Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many, with many sorrows. Then he says in verse 11, but thou O man of God, flee these things.

Remember he's writing directly to Timothy. He says, Hey, listen, Timothy, man of God, flee these things and replace it with something else. So, so he's saying this, he's saying, Hey, flee the love of money.

Don't, don't allow money to rule in your heart. In fact, flee that lifestyle and replace it with something else. And he says, replace it with, with this or follow after righteousness. That just means right living. That means living that is pleasing to God, godliness. That's just Christ's likeness. Again, faith, love, patience, and meekness.

And he says this in this, in this passage right there through verse verse 11 is he's telling us this. We need to simplify our life and be content with where we are. We need to be content with where we are.

Now in our society, contentment is a real struggle, isn't it? And, and listen, let's not, let's not think about everybody outside of there. Let's think about who's in here.

If you're watching online, you think about, about yourself. Listen, let's think about not everybody else. Here's what I don't want you because listen, I know what it's like to sit in church.

A lot of times we're like, man, if that family would have been here, they could have really used this message. How many of you have ever thought that? Be honest. Okay. A few of you are honest in here. The rest of you are just liars.

Okay. I never thought I'd call my congregation liars, but it just, but here's the thing. We've all thought that from time to time. We're like, man, if they had been here, they could have really used this message. Pastor, keep preaching because they really need it.

I hope they're watching online today. Right? You've thought that. Okay. We all have. I want you to put all that out. I want you to think about, about yourself. Listen, we all, us, you, me, we struggle with the idea of being content with where, where we are at.

Don't believe me. We all love upgrades, right? My generation loves upgrades, right?

I want you to know, and if you're younger in here, this might just completely blow, blow your mind. But there was a day in our world where we use things until they broke. It's a true story.

It's true. We used to use things in, and then this will even blow your mind even more. I mean, cause like my mind gets blown when I think about this, when it breaks, sometimes we fix it. Crazy, crazy, man. Like we, we fix things and then we use it again.

Think about this. When I was growing up, you know, like my parents, here's what they did. Like we didn't go shy. If I needed new clothes, they just wanted people older than me to like pass clothes down to me. I'm thinking, mom, dad, I'm going to wear what they, you know, wore. And they're like, absolutely, son. Feels good enough for them.

It's good enough for me. You know, all these sayings and stuff. But listen, we used to, we used to do that. And now we, we have grown to just love the idea of, of more and, and love the idea of, of a new thing. And, and listen, I'm not remember, I'm preaching with you.

I'm not preaching at you because I struggle with this. Like, it's like this, you know, you got your TV in the living room, works completely fine. But when you watch the big game and you invite somebody over, you just all of a sudden realize me and my TV needs to be bigger. Right.

And, and so you're watching the game and I mean, it works great. I mean, there's no problems with it at all, but you immediately are thinking man, I need to go and invest in a $800 brand new TV. What's wrong with the one you have nothing but, but I just need bigger.

The one you have is 50 inches. Do you realize how big that is? And then you go on and you're like, well, I need a 70 inch, right?

We just need more, right? Or how about your phone? Works fine, right?

No problems with it. But yet you watch a brand new iPhone release party, right? All of a sudden you want a new iPhone. Like I need it. I need it.

I say that all the time, right? I need it. I was a, me and my wife went to Atlanta the last couple of days. We got back yesterday and we stopped at the outlets and, and, and there, and this is just me confessing my sin to you. Is that okay?

Okay. So we went to the outlets and, and I, my favorite store when I go to outlets, I like to go in the Nike store. So I went into the Nike store and I always look at shoes and, and man, I had like new shoes on at the time, you know, I don't need shoes. And so I'm in there and I walked past this, this sign and a true story, this sign, like there's all these shoes, you know, 80 bucks, $90, 120 bucks and all this kind of stuff. And, and I knew I didn't need shoes.

And so I'm thinking, man, I just, I'm just looking, I'm browsing, right? Well, as I was browsing down the aisle, not joking, there was a sign for two pairs of shoes. There was two displays and both of them underneath it said that the shoes cost $9 and 99 cents. Now brand new Nike shoes and they looked good. I know what some of you are thinking.

You're like, man, Josh is going to be wearing some nerdy old looking shoes. Okay. But I saw that I don't need them, but I said nine 99 Abby, I'm getting both of them.

So I said 20 bucks and I'm doing it. And I know that's a silly story, but here's my point is, is our culture has become infatuated with, with more, and we have missed the opportunity to apply what chapter six says and say, Hey, listen, in whatsoever state, we can be content. You see the apostle Paul, he's given us a completely different way to approach possessions in our world. And it's found in this one word contentment.

Let's all say it together. Contentment. He wants us to be content. You say, what exactly does the word contentment really mean? It means this. It can mean an inner sufficiency that keeps us at peace in spite of outward circumstances. It's an inner sufficiency.

And you know what that means? That just means it's an inner desire, this inner voice that says, what I have is really enough. In fact, it goes on and say, what I have is actually more than I, than I deserve. And because of that, that sufficiency that is inside of us that the apostle Paul is talking about, it actually plays itself out into life by keeping us at peace.

When things around us want to destroy your peace. You see, it's this inner sufficiency that says, hey, whatever I am doing, whatever I have, I'm content. I referenced this earlier, Philippians four verse 11, Paul writing from prison. And he says this, whatever state I am there with, I will be content.

Now this is why this is so important. If I said that it might be important when the apostle Paul says it, it's very important. And here's why the apostle Paul was writing that from a prison cell.

He's sitting in prison. He's pinning this letter to the church at Philippi. And he has the nerve to say, Hey, listen, here's what I've learned church. Here's what I've learned. And this is what he would say. If he was here to you today, he'd said, Hey, listen, I've learned that there is no reason in this world to ever invest your life into things that will one day decay and things that will one day be thrown away, things that will one day just corrupt, things that are going to be held in and you know, like a barn that are never ever going to be used again.

Why invest your entire life in those things? Here's what I've learned. Apostle Paul saying, he says, I've learned whatsoever state I am, wherever God places me, I am going to be content. Whether that's a prison cell, I can be content. Whether that's getting bit by a poisonous snake, which the apostle Paul did get bit by a poisonous state, I'm going to be content. Whether that means I'm going to be shipwrecked on numerous occasions, I'm going to be content. Whether I have very little, as long as I have a little bit of clothes to put on my body, I'm going to be content. I might not be eating steak every single night, but as long as I have something that I can eat, then I am going to be content. Sounds much different than our culture today, doesn't it?

The apostle Paul, what he's challenging us, it sounds much different. Don't believe me, 2011, Gallup, they put out this poll to see what people thought was rich. I thought this was fascinating. This is back in 2011. They went to everyone who made just a household income of $40,000 and they asked them, they said, hey, just what would qualify you? What would you feel like if you were just, you would be rich? And the ones that made $40,000, they said, if we could make $75,000. So they went to the people that made $75,000 and they're recording this, and they went to the people that made $75,000 as a household income and they said, hey, what would qualify rich to you? And they said, those that are making $100,000. They went to those who made $100,000 and they said, what would qualify rich to you? And they said, if we could just make $150,000.

And listen, here's the point of that article is that every time you make a little bit more, the needle of what you originally thought was enough begins to move. And isn't that true of your life and my life when it comes to possessions? We love to stretch ourselves.

We love to stretch ourselves as far as we possibly can. And listen, here's why the apostle Paul, he's saying, listen, do not fall into the temptation and the traps that riches and chasing after money can do in your life. Learn the secret of being content with wherever he has you today.

Listen, that's the message of 1 Timothy chapter six. Listen, this is the idea of contentment. It will leave you richer than constantly desiring to have more. It'll leave you richer.

In fact, learning the secret of contentment will actually leave you richer than having a whole lot of stuff because you're learning that the secret of contentment, it's not found in possessions. It's not found in money. It's not found in more stuff. It's not found in more clothes. It's not found in a newer house. It's not found in all of those things. It's only found in one thing and his name, it's not a thing.

It's a person. And his name is Jesus Christ. And what the apostle Paul was saying is he's saying, listen, like stop wanting more because when you want more, that's where you fall into temptations. That's where you fall into stress traps. And Paul says, I've seen people fall so deep into the temptation and trap that the love of money can bring that they're like a person drowning in the midst of destruction and they hardly know it.

And the only reason is is because they love money. He says, don't do that. Invest your life into something greater. If you want to make sure money has the proper place in its life, you have to simplify your life. You have to be content with where you're at. The second point that he makes here in verse 17 is you have to place your hope in God. You have to place your hope in God. Let me remind you, you are a steward of God's gift. The money that you have today, it's God's anyway. It's not yours.

He's blessed you with the gift. And if you want to make sure money is in the proper place in your life, you have to simplify your life, be content with where you are. But secondly, you have to place your hope in something greater than money. Look at verse 17, Paul writing to Timothy, he says, charge them, encourage them that are rich in this world. In other words, those who have extra, those who have enough, charge them. Notice, by the way, I just want to say this. He didn't say, hey, if you've experienced riches in this world, you're living in sin.

No, he's saying, listen, that's okay. Remember, money is not bad. It's the love of money that's bad. Money in and of itself, riches is not a bad thing. If God has blessed you with more than you could have ever dreamed of, guess what?

And you had riches. Listen, money in and of itself is not bad. So he tells Timothy, he says, encourage or charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. So he says, place your hope in God.

He mentions how we do this in three different ways. He says, don't find your significance in money. Don't find your significance in money.

Verse 17, he tells us, those that are rich, don't be high-minded about it. In other words, don't brag about your money. Have you ever been around somebody who has money and they want everyone to know it? Ever been around them?

I don't enjoy being around them. It's just people that flaunt their money and they're just like, you know, they just want everyone around them to know that they have money. Paul warns about that directly to them. And he says this, listen, he's saying, Timothy, charge the people that God has blessed that has money in their life. And he says, listen, don't be high-minded about it. Don't brag about your money. Don't get online and say, listen, I just have all this money.

So therefore I can do X, Y, or Z. Listen, nobody, that's high-mindedness. Paul says, don't brag. Don't be prideful about your money. But the second thing he says is don't find, don't find your significance in your money. But then he says, don't find your security in your money.

He says, don't even trust. Don't place your faith in uncertain riches. I wrote in my Bible next to that verse, I wrote, don't put money number one. Don't put money as number one in your life. Don't let it rule your life. Don't find your hope and your security and your paycheck or in your retirement or your 401k or your investments. Don't put it in your possession.

Don't qualify that. He says, don't find your significance, your worth, value. Don't brag about money. Don't find your security in money. And then he says, but rather find your significance and your security in God. He says, don't trust in money, but instead replace it with trust in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.

He giveth us richly all things to enjoy. So he says this, he says, don't find your significance in money. Don't look for your worth.

You know, you're not, you don't walk into our church and we look at you and size you up and say, Hey, they could be a really good church member because they can tie the whole lot. Like we don't, don't look at life that way. Don't brag about it. Don't find your security in money. Don't wake up every day and just think about money and go to bed thinking about money. And the stock market says, don't do all that, but instead replace it in a trust and something that is unchanging and the God of this world who changes not, a God who owns a cattle and a thousand hills. He says, Hey, listen, trust in him.

Why? Because of what we learned last week, because that is what's going to last, not the money and possessions you're chasing after here on this earth. So, so Paul says, listen, don't do that. Place your hope in God. Don't delight in money, delight in God. Don't delight in money, delight in God. So Paul says, if you want money not to be an idol in your life, you have to find contentment in him, not money. You have to place your hope in him, not money.

And then number three, and this is when it gets tricky and this is when it gets real practical for you. He says, Timothy, you need to live generously. You need to live generously.

We need to have an others first in our spending. Look at the latter part of verse 17. He says, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, verse 18, that they, those who he's given things to, that they can do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute and willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Listen, Paul tells Timothy, he warns him about the love of money. And he says this, listen, please, if you've tuned me out, tune me back in for just a moment. He says, listen, we need to be generous. We need to be generous. He mentioned some very specific things.

He mentions his outline here. Number one, we need to enjoy money. At the end of verse 17, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Let me tell you this, money in and of itself is not bad. God gives you money.

I think that you should invest. You should think about your kids and grandkids, things like that. So don't feel bad if you, if you're spending money, you know, some of you, like, I don't want you to feel guilty here today. He tells us we should enjoy it. He's given us richly all things to enjoy. That just tells me money's a gift.

It's not a bad thing. Paul's just warning that when money becomes the ultimate thing, that's when it becomes bad. So he says, enjoy it. But number two, verse 18, he says, do good with your money. He says, do good with your money. Let me remind you, your money was given to you as a tool to advance the kingdom of God.

I cannot be more direct and specific than that right there. Our money was given to us to advance the mission of God. I wrote in my Bible, this statement after do good with money. If you are given a lot, you better be doing a lot. If you've been given, that's what Paul's saying.

Paul's saying, listen, hey, charge those who've been given money. And by the way, all of us in comparison to the rest of our world and the rest of our cultures, you might think you don't have a lot, but I want you to go around the world and actually see, hey, you really have way more than what you deserve. Okay, listen, I've been on mission trips places, and I haven't been where some of you might've been, but, but I've been different places. And I sometimes think, man, we don't have enough.

And then I come back from those trips and I'm thinking, man, we have a whole lot more than I realized, right? Here's what he's saying. Those who, who God's blessed with money, you better be doing good with it. Don't, don't be, you know, investing your life in just as many possessions as you can gain here on this earth. No, if I've given you a lot, you better be doing a lot with it.

That's what Paul's telling him to do. Do good with your money. It was given to us as a tool to bless other people. And he says that they be rich in good works. That they be rich, be rich in good works. Listen, God gave to us richly so that we should give to others richly. Christians should be the most generous people on the planet.

Let me say that again. Christians should be the most generous people on the planet because we are the ones who recognize that we can't take money with us. Listen, the people that, that like are not Christians, they're not Christ followers and they're, they're just like focused on possessions.

Listen, we should not be surprised that they're focusing on those possessions. The ones that we need to be surprised with that are focusing on their possessions are those who call themselves Christ followers. If you're a Christ follower and all you're doing is focusing on possessions and focusing on money and, and focusing on accumulating and focusing on all that stuff, Paul is warning you that money has become an idol in your life and he's telling you to give it away. He's telling you to be generous to those in front of you. If he's given to you richly, be generous to other people. And then he goes on, I mean, he's not done. I mean, he is really harping here on money and he says this, ready to distribute.

And this is where it gets real uncomfortable. Ready to distribute. Create margin in your life so that when a need arises, you have the money to meet the need. Acts, the book of Acts. I love the book of Acts.

We went through a series on Wednesday nights here, walking through the book of Acts. Here's one thing that's so fascinating to me about Acts. It's like the early church, when it was formed, they, they would gather from house to house. And, and one thing that was so interesting to me, as much as anything else, they, they would gather together, they would study, they would preach or they would pray together, all these different things. Those are things we understand a Christ followers are doing, and that's important and stuff. But one thing that they would do that just blows my mind, it says that they would sell things of their own in order to meet a need of somebody else in their church.

It says that they would sell in order to distribute. So, so that would be like, Hey, we got a need in our church or, or we got something that needs to be done. And, and so therefore we as Christ followers, we're going to say, Hey, listen, I have way too many TVs in my house.

I have, I have way too many clothes or shoes or, or outfits or, or whatever possessions that, man, I could get rid of a lot of this and I'm going to use all the money and I'm going to give it right over here to this person because they need it. You see, that's how the early church understood. The early church did not understand because they had walked with Jesus. They had seen how Jesus was generous to them. They were all dead in their sin and dead without hope in their life. And they had absolutely no reason to live. And guess what Jesus came along and he showed them generosity.

They had seen it with their own two eyes. And I guarantee you that if we could see that, and I want to remind you, listen, he has been just as generous to you as he was to them. So the only proper response to what Jesus has done for you and the only proper response to what he's done for me is for me to give my life away, to give my whole life away for him because he gave his whole life for me.

That's the point. That's the reason why Paul was saying this. He's saying this, listen, Timothy, and I'm going to read into this text for just a little bit.

So stay with me. We'll be done here in just a minute, but I want you to think about this. Paul is writing to Timothy and think about Paul's life. If you don't know much about it, maybe you're new to church and, and you don't understand Paul's testimony.

Let me just fill you in just a little bit. Paul, he was not always this super Christian church planner kind of guy. In fact, Paul, I bet every time he pinned his letters, he's probably thinking of the brokenness and the hate and all the things that he caused in this life.

And listen, I could imagine as he's writing this, there might even be tears on the page of as he's writing and pinning this to young Timothy, he's probably thinking in his head, he's listen, Timothy, there is no reason to invest in life here on this earth because of what Jesus did for me, Jesus. And, and he's probably thinking in his head, listen, you know, he's thinking, you know, going through his life and thinking about his testimony and he's thinking, man, I, I used to kill Christians. I used to used to hate Christians. I would arrest Christians and try to put them to, to death because I hated the name of Jesus. And yet in the midst of all that, on my way to Damascus, to, to, to find more Christians who love Jesus on my way to arrest them and to kill them, Jesus showed up into my life.

And guess what? I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve what he freely offered me. And let me tell you this, you didn't deserve what he freely offered you. And he freely offered you grace and mercy and love and redemption. And he offered you payment for a sin that you could never pay for in your life. And let me tell you this, that's why you and me need to be generous and give it away because he gave it all for you.

That's the point. That's the reason for why Paul is saying, Hey, listen, Timothy, don't fall in love with money. Give it away. Be generous. The value of a life.

It's not determined by how much you get, but it's determined by how much you give away in your life. Listen, I've been to a lot of funerals and I've never been to a funeral where they talk all about a person and what they had in their life. I haven't. I haven't been to a funeral where everybody's like, man, he was really rich. I had a lot of money.

No, you know what I've been to funerals with and here's what I hear. Man, they gave their life for this person. They, they gave money here. They, they were generous here. They gave of their time. They gave of their time when they didn't have to. Everything that is remembered at a funeral is about what they gave, not what they achieved.

You ever think about that? And I don't know about you, but at my funeral, I don't want them to have absolutely nothing to say about my life. And I don't want people to gather in a room and be like, well, Josh cared a lot about money.

I don't want my kids to say, dad, he chased money. That's all he cared about. I want people to gather and say, Josh recognized that he came in with nothing and he's leaving with nothing. Josh recognized that he realized he did nothing to earn what Jesus freely offered him and because Jesus was generous to him, Josh realized he's going to be generous to everybody in front of us.

That's why we need to be generous. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying, listen, church, he's saying, be content with where you're at. Don't chase money. Place your hope in a person, not a position.

Place your hope in Jesus because blessing never changes. Don't put, don't place your hope and your faith in a position. And then he says, give it away.

You know what that means? That means give it to those who have need. That means give it to the church.

You know, the Bible talks about giving. I don't know a person in this church who doesn't want our church to grow. I don't know a person in this church who doesn't want us to advance the mission forward.

Everybody does. That's why we're here. And listen, I believe like that's why we're here. We want this place to grow. We want more people to come in. We want to do more ministry in this world. And the only way for any of that to happen is for his people to be generous, to give, to tithe and to give so that more ministry can take place.

Let me tell you this. I do not want you as your pastor. I do not want you to give your money to the church just so that we can make more and things like that. I want you to be faithful because I believe God has something for you when you're generous that withholding it back, you will never experience. And so I don't want you to give just so that I can get your money. I want you to give because I think God's going to do something in your life because you were generous.

I said this last week. There's a lot of older people in our church who could stand up here today and they'll say, hey, listen, I might not have had a lot, but I had enough because I made a decision years ago that I'm going to give faithfully of the first things that God has blessed me with. And because he pursued me first, he went first to me.

I'm going to give him back first back to him. And there's a lot of older people that will say, hey, listen, I gave to the church and I gave to missions and I invested when people would get up and say, hey, there's a needy family. I was the first one to give. And there's a lot of older people that would say, and because of that, I didn't have a lot, but here's what's awesome about it. They had enough and what they found in giving far surpasses what you will ever find in withholding.

And that's the principle. What we find as Christians and Christ followers with giving it all away, whether it be your life, whether it be your money, whether it be your possessions, what you find with giving it away far surpasses what you could ever experience by withholding and keeping it for yourself. Be a generous person.

Be content with where you are and place your faith and hope in a person, not a possession because in Jesus you'll find all the joy, all the happiness, all the security, everything your soul's looking for is found in him. So what's your money telling you today? What's it revealing about your life? If your money can talk to you, is it saying, hey, you're struggling with contentment in your life. You're struggling with generosity in your life. You're struggling with placing your hope in something, not a person in your life. Listen, I'm going to pray and I hope you today will make a decision to start being content, trusting in him and being generous with your life.