Let's take our Bible, shall we? 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're continuing the series that was started last week on generous living and how can we as Christians live a little more generously. And this morning, I would like to look at the topic of a well-invested life. How can we, as believers, make sure spiritually that we are investing our life well in our short period of time down here on earth? When I was younger, I did not believe my life down here on earth was short. Because every day seemed long, especially going through math class. That was long. And then I'd never turned 16. And now I'm looking back and I'm thinking, my life is short. How can we, in our short time down here on earth, invest ourselves well? We'll get to 1 Timothy chapter 6 in just a moment. On his deathbed, Alexander the Great, summoned his generals and told them as they gathered around him his three dying wishes. His first wish was that the best doctors in all of the land would carry his coffin. His second wish was that all of the wealth that he had accumulated, his money, the gold, the precious stones, everything that he pillaged from, the enemies that he had conquered, this should be all scattered along the processional to the cemetery. And his third wish was that his hands would be let loose, hanging outside of the coffin for all to see. The lead general was surprised to hear these very unusual requests and asked Alexander the Great to please explain the reason for these three wishes that he had. And in a weak voice, he begins to explain, number one, I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that even in the face of death, The best doctors in the world have no power to heal or bring you back. Number two, I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everyone could see that the material wealth that has been acquired down here on earth actually stays on earth. And number three, I want my hands to swing in the wind so that people will see that I came into the world empty-handed and we leave the world empty-handed. An author said this, the great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it. How are we spending our life? Is it something we're investing in that will outlast it? In our key passage this morning, we're jumping into the tail end of Paul's very first letter to the young pastor, Timothy. Timothy is struggling in the church with false teachers. And some of the false teachers are promoting that poverty is a more spiritual and holy way to live. And as Paul is writing to Timothy, he's reminding him to tell the wealthy to go ahead and remember where their wealth came from. It came from God, therefore they are resources God has loaned to us in our short time down here to use for his glory. From a global point of view, every American is rich. We live in a top percentage group. And none of us this morning should have to be reminded at just how blessed our lives are. Now let's dive in and let's look at what the Apostle Paul is saying to those who God has richly blessed. We'll start in verse number 17 of 1 Timothy chapter six. 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, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate." Now, let's really hone in on verse number 19 here. in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Look at the very first word of verse number 19, the first two words, laying up. The words laying up are from one Greek word. And it's actually a compound of two different words. The very first part is the word apo. The word apo means to put away or to store away. It has the future in mind. It's not like I put it right here under my couch, but rather it's something that is meant for the future. That's what apo means. And then you have thesaurus. And I know what you're thinking. You know what the word thesaurus means. That's actually a dinosaur that used to live. Now, a thesaurus is a book that English teachers just love. Well, why is the thesaurus, why does that word mean treasure? Well, when the book was put together, they thought it was so rich and so useful, they decided to call this book of synonyms, Thesaurus, because it is a treasure. So we have oppo, to lay ahead, to put away, with, Thesaurus, which is treasure. So the idea is to put away treasure sometime in the future. The new word depicts people putting their investments in a safe place where they cannot be stolen. They cannot be ruined. They cannot be diminished in any way. And the Bible speaks often about investing in time and eternity. Something that will outlive us on earth. Someone once said, the real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all of our money. If we lost all of our money, how much then would we be worth? In order to move forward in faith, in order for us to live generously, We need to set the right goals. We need to have the right priorities. We need the kind of wealth that will survive loss and the kind of investments that will never decline in value in any way. And this morning, I would like to look at three ways that we can live a well-invested life. The very first way that we can live a well-invested life is by investing ourselves in scripture. The cost of an education these days is a very pricey road. The average cost of college tuition and fees at a public four-year institution has risen over 179% over the last 20 years. The rising cost of college tuition has outpaced inflation by 171%. The average private non-profit university student spends $55,000 a year to live on campus and take classes. Education is important. However, there's an education that is the most important. And a matter of fact, it's free. You're like, sign me up. Careful what you're signing yourself up for, because I'm calling it the school of the Bible. All we have to do is have a willingness to open it and spend time in it. The time that we spend in God's Word is an internal investment, but it's also an eternal investment. The Bible is the final source of all matters of life. It's the source of truth. Today we have what we call your truth and my truth, and we have their truth. People make up their own truths, and that's the standard they want to live by, but we have to remember there is only one truth that matters. And when we hear something that is being spoke as truth, we need to go to the Bible to see if it lines up. And if it does not, this we know, that's not truth. This is truth. when Paul was writing his second letter to Timothy. In chapter 3, verse 16, he told Timothy this, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And then he goes on and says, Scripture is profitable in four areas. Number one, for doctrine, for reproof. Do you like to be reproved at all? That hurts. For correction, do you like to be corrected? No, but it's necessary. And also for instruction in righteousness. When we invest ourselves in scripture, we receive reproof. We receive correction. We receive instruction. And it helps us bring us a little closer to God. The Bible was inspired by God and it is the absolute authority of God himself. No human opinion, no decree, no church policy or group can override the truth of the Bible. No current day prophecy, no current day revelation supersedes scripture. The Bible is our guide for belief and behaviors. God's word will never cease to exist. Psalm 119.89 says, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. The Bible is simply God's wisdom for us to learn and for us to pattern our life after. But in order for us to receive that instruction, we have to invest ourselves in it. There's two ways we can invest ourselves in God's everlasting word. The very first one is we can study it. Paul, again, writing to Timothy in his second letter in chapter two, verse 15 says to Timothy, Study to show thyself approved unto God. Be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. When we invest ourselves in scripture, when we read it, God gives us the ability to divide what is truth from untruth. Prayer is when we talk to God. Reading the Bible is when God speaks to us. Here is our problem. We do more talking than listening. I'm not talking to the husbands in here. They never do that. We all do that. We talk, talk, talk, talk, and then end the conversation. How about we pray? We throw up our petitions and our requests and all of our asks for God that we would love if he did in our life. And then we say, amen, and we head out the door and get on with our day because we are so busy. We're doing the talking. And then when it's God's turn to talk, like, oh, we're done here. Get into God's scripture. That's when he talks to us. Is what you have to say more important than what God has to say? We do have busy schedules. We have distracting schedules. And they could cause us to drift away from our very own Bible, the eternal Bible, the source of truth. And if you're here this morning and said, I am so ashamed. If you asked us to raise our hands, if we haven't been in the Bible in a while, I don't even think I'd raise my hand. But I say, if you have not been spending time in the Bible, let me challenge you, start with 15 minutes a day. Just open it up and read it. And as you're reading it, God will speak to you. Read it, highlight it, journal alongside of it, pray, listen to God speak to you. And soon you'll find out something. 15 minutes just simply is not enough. I want more because God is speaking to me through Scripture. It's a great investment to soak ourselves in Scripture. And this is what's gonna happen. As we take in scripture, and as we saturate our lives with it, it's gonna fill us up. And we're gonna have a joy. We're gonna have some biblical, scriptural wisdom within us. And we're gonna want to tell someone else about it. We just saying the Lord is good, tell it wherever you go. And when you truly feel the Lord is good, you can't keep it in. Have you ever been told a secret that was just too good to keep to yourself? And so you go to someone else and you preface it with this. Don't tell anyone but. Who's done that? Yeah. Don't tell anyone but. What is it? It's something that is so good. It's good news. And you just can't bottle it up anymore. You have to tell someone. That's what it's like. When we take in scripture, we see how good God is and God speaks to us and he directs us. He helps us with decision making and we get to the point where I cannot keep this to myself. I must tell someone. So we invest ourselves in scripture by studying it and then also by sharing it. I believe that as Scripture fills our mind and our heart, God will then open opportunities for us. But we need to invest not only in Scripture to have a well-invested life, we also need to invest in service. From God's perspective, life is defined by serving others. And Jesus, the great example, led the charge with that. Look at what Matthew 20 verse 28 says. Notice. And to give his life a ransom for many. Here is the King of Kings coming down to earth. Here is the long-anticipated Messiah, the one that people would throng to and listen to and hear the teaching. And Jesus says, I didn't come down here for others to serve me. I came down here so I can serve others. And how dare we? As sons and daughters of God say, I kind of like it when others serve me. I don't have to do the serving myself. The word ministry actually means to serve. If we're gonna minister to one another, we must serve one another. Jesus invested his life in service and he's simply saying this, just do the same. Serve those around you. Some may be called to occupational ministry, but everyone is called to minister through their jobs, through their families, within the church, in the neighborhood, on the kids' sports team, whatever the hobby that you have, wherever that takes you, you are to use that as a platform to spread the kingdom of God. There is no such thing as a random placement by God. God does not have a couple of dice in heaven deciding whether we're gonna get that job or not. He doesn't have a wheel that he spins determined if the house in another city is actually gonna open up and is for us. God places us. God gives us a position. He gives us a title. He gives us a neighborhood. He gives us opportunity. And all of that is a platform he has given to us to serve others. It's not something we earned on our own. Think of your time, your activities, your abilities. What can you do for the Lord? God's plan is for every one of us to have a personal ministry. Ministry means service. And God has equipped everyone in this room with exactly what they need to perform the ministry God calls us to. We have the skill set, we have the talents, we have the temperament, we have the personality that is needed to use the platform God has given to us and to spread his word and to serve. Everything that we've experienced in life, both the good and the bad, can be used in the life ahead. How are you serving? Are you investing yourself in service? Romans chapter 12 verse 4 says, We all have one body, but we serve in different ways. And when we submit to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes. It gives us a little burden within our heart of how we can serve someone else. We'll look across the room, we'll see someone that we can serve. We'll hear a conversation. I could serve this way, I could help this individual. We're one body serving one another. But here's the problem. It's hard to invest in the work of the Lord if we are ignoring and neglecting everyone God brings across our path. We get very small minded sometimes. We get narrow focused on our own life and what we have to do, what we have to get done. And sometimes God could bring someone across our path that we truly can minister to and they could bump into us and we could see that as an irritation and just continue to go down our small world path, trying to accomplish what we need to and God's trying to get our attention. Look, there's someone you could serve. Invest yourself in something that will last for all of eternity. Invest not only in scripture. We need to invest ourselves in service and also we need to invest ourselves in souls. In souls. As believers we know heaven is our eternal destination. Therefore we need to make sure that we are laying up. We are storing up treasures and investments, our lives, things that will last for all of eternity. No matter how hard we try to visualize heaven, it's very hard for us to know really what it's going to be like. And this I know, when we get there, it's going to far exceed anything that we thought it was going to be like. We know it's going to be a grand reunion. We all know people have gone on ahead. and we're gonna be reunited with them. Heaven's also gonna be, I think, kind of like a meet and greet, where people we've never met really in person, because we've read about them in the Bible, or we read their biography, and one day we're gonna get to heaven and we're finally gonna meet them for the very first time. But then we're also gonna meet those that we don't even know the names of, because we have invested ourselves in souls, And somehow our resources caused them to be able to hear the gospel. And it sent out a missionary. And that missionary presented the gospel and they got saved. And us not even knowing it while we're down here, we get to heaven and our eyes are opened to how souls were saved because of our investment. Jesus says pretty much there's two ways that we can invest. Earthly treasures and an eternal treasures. Just two ways. Invest in earthly things. All the things on this one hand, they stay down here on earth. Kind of like what Alexander the Great was trying to get across. I could accumulate all I want. I could gather all I want. Earthly treasures stay down here for others to fight over and grab. And then there's eternal treasures. Those are things that keep appreciating. Those are things that will last for all of eternity. I like how one author put it. Christ offers us the incredible opportunity to trade temporary goods and currency for eternal rewards. By putting our money and possessions in his treasury while we're still on earth, we assure ourselves of eternal rewards beyond comprehension. Consider the implications of this offer. We could trade temporal possessions we can't keep to gain eternal possessions we can't lose. This is like a child trading bubble gum for a new bicycle, or a man offered ownership of the Coca-Cola company in exchange for a sack of bottle caps. only a fool would pass up the opportunity. If we give instead of keep, if we invest in the eternal instead of the temporal, we store up in heaven treasures that will never stop paying dividends. And I love this last sentence. Whatever treasures we store up in heaven will be waiting for us when we arrive. What's going to be in heaven, waiting on you when you arrive. Did you ever get a surprise birthday party thrown for you? You had no idea it was coming, I just saw someone shake their head no. We will do that for you this year, I promise. Throw open the door, turn on the lights, surprise! And then somebody starts off, happy birthday off key, you know how it goes. You walk in and there is a celebration and there's people there that you were not even expecting. Imagine our entrance into heaven being that way. Laying up treasures that far exceed our expectation. Luke chapter six, verse 38. In this chapter, Luke is telling us God is such a good God. And when we give to God, He likes to give back to us. So while we're talking about eternal gains for all of eternity, God is saying, yes, there are eternal gains. And those are going to exceed your expectation, but know this. Even when you give down here, I want to give back to you. Luke chapter six verse 38 says, give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together. And running over shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet withal, it shall be measured to you again. When we give to God's efforts, God loves to maximize our investment and give back to us. And he's saying the more that you give away your time and your talent, and the more you give away your treasure, the more God is going to give to you. Generosity brings God's blessing. It's interesting, when you go through the Bible and you see very important words, And you look at how often those important words are mentioned throughout scripture. I believe that the word believe is a very important word. Would you agree with me? The word believe is used 272 times throughout the Bible. The word pray is a very important word. It is used 371 times. The word love, after all, God is love. That's a very important word. That's used 714 times. The word give is used 2,162 times. Because I think God is the biggest giver of all and he wants us to be like him and give. I read a comedian once told a story about a preacher in his church and the preacher was trying his best to get his people to be more enthusiastic about their church. And the preacher stood up on a Sunday morning and said in his sermon, if the church is going to go anywhere, it has to learn to crawl. And the church said back to him, let the church crawl, pastor, let the church crawl. Then the pastor said, well, if the church is going to crawl, then it also has to learn to walk. And the congregation said, let the church walk, pastor, let the church walk. And the pastor got very excited now and got a little emboldened. He said after that, and after the church learns to walk, it needs to run. And the people said, let the church run, pastor. Let the church run. Now the pastor was very emboldened. He said, and if the church is going to run, it's going to take money. And the people said, let it crawl, pastor. Just let it crawl. We like the idea of running as a church. We like the idea of making an impact and being a people of faith. But when we find out there's a cost that comes with moving forward, we start finding out how badly we want the church to run. And we could settle and say, you know what, just let it crawl. We don't need to have that big of an impact if it's gonna cost that much. When we faithfully devote our resources to the kingdom, it propels the gospel to the community. It propels the gospel around the world through our missions program. Souls are saved and heaven gets a little more populated. We may never, while we're down here, see the returns, but when we get up to heaven, we will. And imagine the joy we'll have of learning that our gift helped others to get there. So in Paul's writing, Timothy said, yes, you have a wealthy congregation, Timothy. There is nothing wrong with that. God gave that to them to enjoy, but charge them with this. Lay something on ahead. Lay treasures up ahead, something that's going to be waiting for you. Let me conclude with this illustration. Imagine your friend invites you to a party. Some of you saying that's never happened before. You arrive and there's lots of people, there's decorations, and there's plenty of food and drink. There's absolutely enough for everyone. When you're hosted by someone that generous, you don't have to worry about your needs. You can just go to that party and you can just enjoy yourself. That's what a good host wants for their guests. And that's the picture that we find in Genesis. Creation is an expression of God's love. He is the host. We are his guests in a world of opportunity and abundance. And we are called by or as his people to keep the generosity going and to spread his goodness. But sometimes that's not how people experience the world. Rather, they see it as a world of scarcity and struggle and, quite frankly, not abundance. Before the fall, Adam and Eve lived perfect lives in a world of abundance. They had everything that they would need and then even some after that. But then they reached a point where they felt that the world was not abundant enough for them because in the middle of the garden was a tree that they were not allowed to eat from. Notice the tree was in the middle of the garden. Surrounded by all of God's goodness. But all they could see was that one tree. And they went from God is so good and abundant and all of our needs are meant to, but I want that too. And we know how that story played out. They went from a state of opportunity and abundance to a spirit of wanting more. Our problem of feeling like we don't have enough is not caused by a lack of resources. Rather our problem is the mindset that God cannot be trusted. Maybe God is kind of holding out on me. Maybe there is not enough and maybe I need to take matters into my own hands. And once we are deceived by the mindset of scarcity, we can justify the impulse of taking care of myself first and taking care of mine before anyone else. And that leads to envy and it leads to anger and sometimes violence in a world where it seems like there is not enough. The party is over and it's turned into a battleground and there's fighting. And everyone is just grabbing what they want and getting whatever they can. But this is true, God has always wanted his creation to experience his generosity and share it. And just how generous is God, he gave the best gift ever, his son. Jesus came to join mankind and Jesus lived with the conviction that there is enough and that our generous host of life can be trusted. Jesus's mindset of abundance allowed him to live sacrificially and even generously, even towards his enemies. And Jesus in this life is inviting us to live by a different story. Not the story that everything is so scarce and we need to grab it while we can, but rather we serve a very generous God. Jesus knows we can be deceived by this lie, that there's not enough. And he even gave himself as the best gift one could ever receive. Jesus' death was the ultimate expression of God's generosity to us. Through Jesus' death, death was turned into life and scarcity was turned into abundance. And my concluding sentence this morning is this. When you believe that there is enough, you start seeing opportunities for generous living everywhere. We sometimes look at God as he's holding out on us because we compare ourselves to others. And resources really are scarce. And we need to scatter and grab in as much as we can and scratch here and there. And God has said, I want you to live generously. Trust me. Give, it's going to be given unto you. I own all that there is. Nothing is random. I disperse at my will. And he's inviting us to come in and live generous lives. How generous are you? Is there room for improvement? Would you close your eyes and bow your heads with me, please? Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church Podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.