PENTECOST
15
September
20-22, 2025
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19
“GOD WANTS YOU TO
BE RICH!”
As part of the second lesson you heard
Paul warn, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and
many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into complete destruction
and utter ruin.” and so perhaps it surprised you to see the title for
today’s sermon, “God wants you to be rich!” Maybe you wondered if I got
converted by the prosperity Gospel preachers. If you are unfamiliar with that
term prosperity Gospel preachers are false prophets who say that if you live
the right way and if you give a full tenth of all your income to God (through
the prosperity preacher) then God has to make you wealthy by American
standards. You will be rolling in the dough. Now, of course, if that does not
happen, it is your fault. You have not given your heart fully to the Lord,
shame on you. Next time give me more and God will respond! Shameful false
teaching. All of us know plenty of people who are quite wealthy by American
standards who live in open defiance of God. All of us know plenty of humble
Christians who give even beyond their means and are not wealthy by American
standards. As I said, false teaching.
So how can I look you in the eye and
tell you God wants you to be rich? Because it’s true--as long as we are talking
the right kind of riches. Let’s start with what does not have to be, but can be,
the wrong riches. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For
we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly cannot take anything
out. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these
we will be satisfied.” Some strong words when you live in a country like
America. Do you think you could be satisfied if all you had was food and
clothing? Pretty tough with what we are used to. Now let’s talk money. Not
looking for a show of hands but how many of you bought a lottery ticket when it
was up to $1.8 billion? Do you think the two winners were disappointed when
they found out they had to share? True confession. I thought about buying one.
In my mind I thought about how much good I could do if God put me in charge of
that much of His money. I could fund more missionaries in countries where the
door to the Gospel appears to be open. I could help all our schools update
their campuses. I could help the truly poor and needy. I could support all the
wonderful veterans groups. I could buy K 9 officers for every department that
wanted one. So much good I could do. Just thinking about that gives me joy
again. But then I read about what has happened to most big lottery winners. Most
often their lives became no fun. Divorces happened. I don’t want that. You get
targeted by scammers. Some have had home invasions. Others have had their
children or grandchildren targeted. People come out of the woodwork looking for
a reason to sue you. Could I still serve as your pastor? Or would you think I
could not relate? Would my money be more important to you than the words of God
I point you to? Would you be able to find joy like you do now in generously
supporting St. Jacobi’s ministry or would you be led to think, “Let billionaire
boy take care it.” Helps us understand the Apostle Paul’s warning. “Those
who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and
harmful desires, which plunge them into complete destruction and utter
ruin. 10 For the love of money is a root of all
sorts of evils. By striving for money, some have wandered away from the faith
and have pierced themselves with many pains.” No, there is nothing wrong
with money itself. And if the Lord has blessed you with money riches, thank Him
for that, because money is not the problem, love of money is. All of us need to
watch out for that.
And still it is true, God does want
you to be rich, just rich in the more important blessings. “Instruct those
who are rich in this present age not to be arrogant or to put their hope in the
uncertainty of riches, but rather in God, who richly supplies us with all
things for our enjoyment.” If you visit my wife, Chris’ room over at our
school you will find it filled with frogs. Not live ones. Despite growing up on
a farm she has become fully citified, which of course, is my fault. She no
longer enjoys slimy squirmy creepy crawling things. No, the frogs are inanimate,
in all shapes and sizes and in different mediums. Pictures, clay, stuffed, you
name it. A good challenge for you students is to see if you can find and count
all of them. Not while she’s teaching you though! You might wonder why she has
a room full of frogs. It’s what they stand for. Years ago when she had
something to deal with a kind soul gave her a frog and told her what it meant.
Fully Rely On God. F.R.O.G Every time you look at a frog remember you can
always fully rely on God. This is what we want to be rich in. Rich in faith.
Rich in trust in God. Living in wealthy country when standards of living are
high it is so easy to do the opposite that Paul warned us about. We can become
arrogant that our self sufficiency is our own doing. We can gladly proclaim
trust in God but really have it in the fact that we have no debt or we have a
full savings account. That’s not what we want. What we want is the be rich in
faith like Job was when he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away,
may the name of the Lord be praised. And later when he said about the Lord
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him!” God wants you to be rich in that
kind of faith and He has given us what we need to have it. His word. Faith
comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of
Christ. There is no limit in how often you can visit the gold mine of God’s
word! Go often. Daily devotion and Bible reading. Weekly worship. Rack up the
riches of faith.
Because when our faith account is
fully funded so we can get rich in another way. “Instruct them to do good,
to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share.” God
wants you to be rich, rich in good works. This is why the riches of faith are
so important. When someone has no faith in Jesus nothing he does is pleasing to
God. It might be pleasing to people. It may accomplish a lot of earthly good
but God has clearly spoken, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
That means people like us, with faith, can. So let’s get rich, rich in good
deeds. Good works are those things God has told us are pleasing to Him. Things
we do out of love and thankfulness for what He has done for us. Things like
being kind and compassionate. Things like helping those in need, like an
elderly neighbor, someone needing a ride. Things like being a friend to all the
kids at school. Things like being a faithful dependable worker. Things like
being generous and willing to share. Parents, you have enormous influence on
helping your kids get rich. You know how? By the questions you ask you are
teaching what is important. So if after a game you ask how many points they
scored you are teaching them that is what matters and what you care about and
what you want to be rich in. If you ask them were they a good sport, did they
help the team, listen to the coach, got your homework done, were you nice to
someone today, that is what they will want to be rich in. And that is what God
wants all of us to be rich in, good deeds.
See, it is true, God wants you to be
rich. He wants me to be rich, but not just for now. Look at what He tells us
happens for those who are rich in faith and good deeds. “In this way they
are storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future,
so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” Being rich in
faith and good deeds is followed by being rich I heaven. What that means
exactly God has reserved for Himself. We will have to wait to find out. So, as
we’re waiting, might as well spend our time getting rich in the ways that
matter to God. Amen.
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