praise god wouldn't that be great as well for more people to love the lord jesus christ all right we'll dismiss the younger ones to go to class with mrs shore and the rest of us can turn into our bibles for our final lesson lord willing on 1 timothy chapter 6 we are completing our bible study tonight i think and assuming that we can get through everything that we have here but i want to i want to thank the lord for his goodness to us in allowing us the study of one timothy it's been a good study i've enjoyed it i hope you've enjoyed it as well very practical book on pastoral theology and and how the church is organized and structure of it and um and also how we work within our church and so it's been a it has been a blessing all right and so paul paul is going to end this chapter as we come to chapter six where he's gonna end his letter his epistle that he wrote to timothy uh with kind of two sermons all right there's two audiences here uh that he's gonna target at the end the first sermon he gives to timothy uh to preach to the wealthy all right and then the second sermon uh is from paul to timothy himself and so that's the way we're gonna look at that tonight let's pray ask the spirit of god to help us as we come to the word of god father we're grateful to you for your goodness to us in our study of the book of one timothy it has been a rich study and god we're grateful please help us to retain that which we've learned may our church be better because of our time uh studying books specifically given to a church to understand how to organize and how to structure it and how to find leadership and how to develop leadership and uh father's a very needful uh book and father how to protect yourself from false teaching and other things and so may this spirit of god bless these things that we've learned but tonight as we come to our final study uh father would you bless us once again father would you set the table uh before i said we could eat uh of the good truth of the word of god and take it into our hearts i do pray father the spirit of god would speak to hearts tonight and father you're faithful to do that and i just pray that each one of us could have something that we could take away from our time together tonight that help us in our personal walk with god i pray for the children's class tonight bless mr shoreshi guides that class i pray spirit of god do a great work there too and father what's interesting uh is we never know the significance of our time uh together and father um i i just pray tonight would be very significant in our hearts and our lives to help us in our walk with you i can't speak uh without your enablement i pray the spirit of god give me liberty tonight as we come to the word of god uh and that you guide me as i guide our thoughts tonight around the word of god uh it's in christ's name i pray amen all right so two messages tonight and and there's gonna highlight some truths in both of these and so the first one is a five-point message uh to the wealthy okay a five-point message to the wealthy it says in verse 17 charge them that are rich in this world now sunday night we looked at the idea of riches i i talked about the fact that britain ranks in the top 30 richest countries uh per capita uh in the world i think it was number 27 uh or something like that uh if you think about what we have in our day we have uh so much we've got health care that's free at the point of use that somebody could have a major health crisis or not and and they're okay not out of pocket too much and they can get generally speaking uh the health care that they need we've got vehicles that are incredible we're not being pulled around by horses we're being pulled around by horsepower we've got air conditioning we've got cruise control uh some of us have the ability to hit a button that parks our vehicle you know and pulls it down it's just amazing buttons and gadgets and some even today have self-driving cars and things i like that uh we've got technology step trackers you know up and down stairs telling you for whatever reason how many steps you've taken how many floors or flights you've gone up or down uh we've got health monitors on those some people have health monitors on their watches they're they're keeping track of health data uh for them things like that we've got smart phones incredible technology at our hands we can talk to people by facetime our other gadgets that are their incredible gadgets that we have in our day we've got teles we've got computers uh we got robot lawn mowers we've got robots uh hoovers in our houses uh we've got doorbells i can see us and things like that i mean just if you stop and think about the world we're living it's pretty amazing uh what we have we feel like we deserve high-speed internet that's a human right you know that you've got to have access to this if you don't have this you're deprived somehow or something like that and then we've got toys toys and more toys i mean the list really i mean the list just goes on and on you stop and think about that you think what we're wealthy pretty much anybody living in scotland uh now we might not have as much as our neighbor has or somebody else has but generally speaking we look at that and say you know fact is i'm pretty uh wealthy and so uh tonight timothy's got a sermon to preach to us all right paul's gonna give him a charge to give to the wealthy and so here it comes then and so he says verse 17 charge them that are rich in this world okay and that's us uh be humble be humble it says that they be not high minded you know when you're rich you can become proud because you feel entitled or you've got this or that and there's just a sense that there could be pride uh an air of pride about that now i've said that my least favorite person to share the god i hate to say share the gospel with but i should say share a gospel leaflet with because a lot of times they don't even know what it is uh but as i hand it to a rich older woman uh down in edinburgh that's from maybe a an elite part of uh edinburgh uh and i see her nose go up in the air and it's almost like there's a bad smell in the air and maybe i'm not dressed appropriately or you know to walk on the same street that she's on or something like that that just bothers me you know and you think what is that that's that's that error of pride uh that might be sensed in somebody uh like that now a proud person thinks they're special because they're rich you know because they've got uh all this and so they're they're a special person because of that now their character might be worse than somebody else they might be worse than our character uh they may be less intelligent uh than than somebody that has a lot less than them they may have poor manners you know they may maybe never learn to be as gracious as uh as somebody that grew up in poverty uh might be in the way that they treat other people or something like that they might have less talent less ability less athleticism less beauty or things like that but in their pride they really think they're special and this could be us because in a sense we've got wealth and we've got all these uh things you know the thing about that is a lot of times god chooses the poor the bible says over the rich james 2 verse 5 it says hearken my beloved brethren hath not god chosen the poor of this world rich in faith heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him but you have despised the poor do not rich men oppress you i mean here's the pride of somebody that's wealthy do not they oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called and he's saying to the church don't try to cater to these people that that hate god hate religion because they're proud people because they're self-reliant on the riches god has often chosen the poor people because they recognize their condition just like we talked about on sunday nights we're looking at edgar on sunday night understanding his his dependence upon god that everything that he has is from god and so don't be proud don't don't get to the point where you think well you know i've got it in the bank and so i'm i'm somehow better than maybe somebody else and so charge them that are rich and things in this life that to be humble and then secondly that they be faithful in other words keep keep their trust in god we ought to no matter what we have we ought to keep our trust in god and so it says nor trust in uncertain riches you know your trust is misplaced if it goes from god to finance if it goes to our bank account if it goes to our resources our means uh and the things that we have and certainly money can steal our affection from god so we begin to live for that bank account rather than living for god proverbs 23 verse 5 says with us set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings they fly away as an eagle towards heaven you know there's a lot of times riches are really uncertain we're kind of in those days right now we're not in the great depression or anything like that but we're seeing inflation levels like we haven't seen and i think they're saying 40 years 45 years the price of goods and things are just uh rising uh incredibly and money notice what i said uncertain riches i mean they it's they seem solid they seem stable you got in the bank and that's solid there were people that invested in a uh some cryptocurrency that was called tara luna you might have heard about this earlier uh this year uh but uh tara luna in april was worth 120 dollars i guess for that cryptocurrency coin i think is what it would be in may it lost 98 of its value so went to less than a dollar incredibly the dramatic collapse occurred in the space of just 24 hours with its market cap spiraling from above 40 billion to just 500 million uh the shock crash sparked holders of terra luna to flood to discussion sites reddit to tell of the nightmare financial ruin they were now staring down the barrel of i mean if somebody had all of their stuff in this tara luna then they basically lost everything when that collapsed bitcoin that's the strongest uh cryptocurrency that there is but bitcoin has plunged more than 52 year to date it's now hovering around 21 000 per coin according to the data from coindesk uh this most popular cryptocurrency has shed about 70 of its value since hitting an all-time high of around 69 000 dollars per coin i guess in november that was amazing people are looking at it's just going up but if it goes up it could come down and it can certainly crash and certainly we ought to be wise about finance we have to be somebody that's a good steward of our resources but no matter what we have as easy as it would be to trust in that we need to remember guard your heart from that not trust in uncertain riches but keep your dependence upon god so be faithful and then the third thing uh he's to charge them that are rich is to be mindful be mindful and that is that the source of your blessing is the living supreme supreme being god and not a bank account so what's it say there it says but trust in the living god who giveth us richly all things to enjoy uh god is the source of what we have i our my boys and i enjoy going to um charity shops and we got out this past week we haven't been able to go for a while because this has been working logan's working i've been kind of busy but we got out to charity shops and i found a treasure we like to find treasures and uh and see what we can get and and my treasure was a snoopy bank account a paddington bear our bank account that'd be nice a bank a metal bank uh and a paddington bearer bank just a coin bank you know from the 1960s or something like that it just brings back memories as a kid you know as a kid you got that that that bank you know you're filling it with money and uh and then you got it you got to get some money out and back in the day maybe you had the kind that you couldn't get money out of without shaking it and so you shake it you know it sounds like you're so rich and you get a coin out uh and then you go back again and you're shaking it sounds so rich and then you get a coin out and pretty soon you shake it and it sounds like you know what there's not much left and then that last coin comes out if that's the source of your trust when that shaking stops and that last coin falls out you're devastated because there's nothing uh left a lot of times in in life there's things like that uh and uh you know we got car repairs we've got dentistry we've got uh other things that just might come at us and we don't we don't see it coming and uh our sun that that bank account that was so strong that that was so secure for us and maybe our our investments in this past year i don't know how your uh retirement savings account is done and i look at the last seven months and it's like this where the year before it was going like this and i i mean if our security is in those things then when that's going down all of a sudden life's getting kind of rough it's getting kind of shaky because our dependence is not in the living god but on that bank account you know psalm 37 4 gives us a great statement delight thyself also in the lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart god is the living god is the one that is going to give us all the good things that we're going to enjoy in life and and frankly a lot of times we don't need a bank account because we've got a god that loves us and cares for us and is meeting our knees and praise god he puts some money in the bank there for us to use but it's to remember that he is the source of our provision so be mindful and then be generous uh be generous it says in verse 18 that they uh do good okay that they do good a rich person could live a really self-centered life they could support their hobbies their entertainment their activities their things a lot of times you think about a rich person you might think of the word private all right private yachts or private uh islands private clubs private schools private parties you know uh it's just that eliteness of being rich and it's all about it's all about you and yet what paul's saying is speak to them about doing some public good with the with the great resources that uh they have been given so let's just consider what paul's going to say here and he says to timothy teach them uh to be generous with their time and their efforts the things that that they get involved in that they would use their resources for the good of those that are about them and so it says that they be rich in good works so somebody no matter what they've got their idea ought to be not living their life for those things and again that could be us our hobbies our things that we enjoy things that we like to do it could all be about us because we got the resources to put into uh entertainment we got the resource to put into support we've got the resources to put into activities and yet that's not valuable what is valuable is to impact others for god and so rich in good works matthew 25 34 says then shall the king say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my father and here at the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for i was unhungered and he gave me meat i was thirsty and he gave me drink i was a stranger and he took me in naked and he clothed me i was sick and he visited me i was in prison and he came unto me then shall the righteous answer him saying lord when saw we then hungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink once saw we be a stranger and took the inner naked and clothed thee when saw were thee sick or in prison and came unto thee and the king shall answer and say unto them verily i say unto you and as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me then shall he say also unto them on the left hand depart from me cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for i wasn't hungry and you gave me no meat i was thirsty and he gave me no drink i was a stranger and you took me not in naked and you clothed me not sick and in prison and he visited me not then shall they also answer him saying lord when saw we then hungered or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee then shall he answer them saying truly i say unto you and as much as he did it not to one of the least of these he did it not to me and these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into and to life eternal and so the lord's illustrating the fact that somebody that's godly somebody that's living their life for god is not living their life for themselves they're living their life to minister to others so that they're constantly seeking to to meet the needs of those that are about them and in serving others there's a sense in which as they do that as unto the lord and so paul says challenge them that they be rich in good works and so generous with your time and efforts but then generous with your things your things it says ready to distribute the more that i have the more i ought to share right with holiday bible club we've got oftentimes we'll have a pinata i think some of you have been here when we've had the pinata uh and normally in the off season holiday bible club we do that and it's fun to watch the kids you know they're they're eager and you try to warn them not to get in there too early uh with the bat and and hitting that and and so but when it's broken open you watch him uh just scramble in there and it's like on nemo when the seagulls are crying out and they're saying mine mine mine you know they're they're grabbing all those things but then sometimes you look down there too and there's there's a child that is is it seems like they're hoarding they're grabbing all those things and then you watch them take those things and they go over to somebody else maybe a little kid that's there and they're dumping it into their lap why because they're ready to distribute you know that really is a good way for us to look at our life the things that god's given to us if god happens to bless us that we take those things and use those things for god you know god has at times used wealthy people to be a blessing um when we're at camp we're talking with gary uh gary's kind of an inventor of uh different things you know i told him about a man called rg laterno and there's a biography that you can read about r.j latourno it's called movers of men and mountains and uh rj letourneau at the age of 40 he was a failure but he was an inventor trying to invent things and then god blessed and right as world war ii took place he became a competitor of caterpillar in making earth-moving equipment and something like 60 of earth-moving equipment that was used in world war ii was invented by rg laterno he invented huge platforms that could walk out in the sea flora you know and the oil platforms and things like that and as he got blessed god blessed him with riches he took around instead of tithing 10 eventually at the end of his life he was tithing 90 of his income to god's work he started later no university another man named patz he was inventor as well he didn't have a high school education i don't think but he invented a machine that would clear uh the waste out of barns uh and uh he also became wealthy he founded northland baptist bible college in wisconsin and had a huge impact for god uh we know the story of george mueller but what we don't often think about with george mueller is that george mueller didn't all the money that was given wasn't just given to the orphans that were there but george miller would turn and take the money that was entrusted him by god he was also massively supporting missionaries including missionaries like hudson taylor in the china inland mission ct stud uh when he surrendered to ministry gave what his fortune he gave it to hudson taylor china inland mission he gave it i think if i remember correctly to mueller and to the salvation army so these are men that that you look at they were rich in goods but they took those goods and god that got entrusted to them and they turned around and invested in god's work and again tonight we prayed for our missionary stephen colleen and we've got um we've got uh leighton kelly in ireland we've got uh uh up north danny and sue olmsted in northern scotland in our church praise god we're not a big church we give 375 pounds a month to these missionaries i pray that god will help us in the future be able to take more on for god and for god's glory but that'll take place as our church responds like this uh ready to distribute invest in god's work and so praise god for those that got trust with finances that they could use for god and then generous uh with your society with your society it says willing to communicate communicate has the idea of communicative or sociable in other words sharing blessings with others and getting uh down it's not a snobby person though they have wealth they're able to work with those that maybe don't have wealth and i think about that i think about william borden william borden uh was another wealthy young man that died in his 20s as uh he went as to egypt to learn a language to go to a muslim nation as a missionary he's the one that wrote in his bible those words no reserves no retreats no regrets and he died at i think the age of 26 or something like that on his way to the mission field but as his friend spoke about william bored what do you think of when you think of william borden what they pictured was a rich man with his arm around a drunken man on the side of the street seeking to reach that man for jesus christ again what a picture of what paul is saying to timothy timothy teach those that are wealthy that they take their wealth that they invested in god's work and use it for god's glory and so be generous and that brings us to the last point that's be wise in this five-point message that he had for the rich people uh be wise and so be humble be faithful to keep your trust in god be mindful that's where your blessing comes from be generous uh with that which you have be and that will lead to this point of wisdom be wise why because you're laying up treasure in heaven it says in verse 19 laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come all right so you're here as you take what you've got you use it for god in this life finances and things that that is an investment in eternity laying up yourselves uh a good foundation against the time to come you know most people if you said to them uh would you like to be born wealthy what would they say yes definitely right okay so if you could hit a button that could take you back in time maybe make mom and dad wealthy because you still want to be a part of that family i hope you know or something like that and you could enter this world wealthier if genies and lamps really existed and you know you could uh do that and make at least one of those wishes would be something to do uh with finance that that's just the way uh that's the way we're wired that's the way we think i i want to i want to do well in this life but listen this life doesn't last right but what is laid up in eternity does last the well that's there is not vain you can you can keep that you can't take riches earthly riches with you and so the bible says in matthew 6 19-20 lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor was death corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal so if say a young person had an opportunity to be a very a successful businessman and an opportunity to to be a very successful servant of god whatever capacity that was and uh maybe in in doing this there's no way he could serve god and doing this even if it's business uh maybe lesser salary lesser but more time for god whatever uh but you got serving god or you've got this what's better serving god and so it's not about finance and the bible is great on economics and and true wealth and things like that and and proverbs is full of it earthly riches are temporary we look at them as as that's a pinnacle if i'm rich that's that's what most people want but the thing is what we ought to want is to be rich in eternity so that someday in glory we've invested and we've laid a good foundation for that time to come and then living for eternal life living for eternal life that they may lay hold on eternal life and the meaning is is not that you earn your salvation by doing good things and uh you know arms deeds and things like that but that's that's not bad that's good but you're not somehow earning your salvation but what it is you're grabbing hold of the point of of uh reality that's more real than anything else you're living for the greatest reality you're grabbing hold of eternal life paul already used this terminology with timothy uh here in chapter six and look back at verse 11. it says but thou o man of god flee these things and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life and so tonight if i want to live my life the way paul says i ought to live it i ought to be stretching out reaching out to those things that are eternal that means taking the the resources that god's given me and investing them in god's work being a blessing to others caring for others ministering to others why because that's laying up a good foundation and that's me taking hold of the real purpose that god has me here and so five point message to the wealthy be humble be be faithful be mindful be generous and be wise all right now we'll go to message number two and it's a shorter message it's two points and a blessing all right for timothy two points and a blessing and so he turns now in verse 20. he says oh timothy all right this is a personal letter and he's writing it to his son in the faith and uh so he ends here oh timothy uh he's got a challenge for him and the first part of it is guard your stewardship guard what god's given to you it says keep that which is committed to thy trust all right timothy i've given you a lot in this letter all right here comes comes down to this keep that which i've committed to that trust let's just think about those things that timothy had as a stewardship he had his doctrine that that he was to defend and his testimony one timothy 4 16 says take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee so guard uh guard the doctrine guard your testimony uh he had church leadership and practice to teach well one timothy 3 15. but if i tarry long that they'll thou mayest know know how thou ought us to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth all right so that's the stewardship that you're acting right and leading right in a local church and then the spiritual gifts and calling that timothy had one timothy 4 14 neglect neglect not the gift that is in thee which it was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery all right timothy got a big stewardship stewardship is what god has entrusted to us what god has given to us and paul says you're to keep that which is committed to thy trust guard that with your life you know soldiers back in the day in jesus day if a prisoner escaped that was their life was lost because they forfeited their trust you know again god says to paul said to timothy timothy guard guard that stewardship you know i wonder today as as we think about that is god less interested in us keeping our trust god would be as interested tonight what if timothy hadn't by the way you look at him he's early church he's the first generation of the church if he hadn't kept his trust where would the church be where is the church going if we don't keep our trust keep that which is committed to thy trust and then secondly do not be led astray avoid the lies that lead astray it says avoiding profane and vain babblings in oppositions of science falsely so-called even back then i mean this is 2 000 years ago paul warned about false science that would impact the bible and hurt the bible and under undergird the doctrine and he says stay away from that those things that would undermine you know if if this was kept in our day evolution would have no platform in the church if this was kept in our day homosexuality transgenderism abortion rights would have no voice in the church avoid that stay away from that the the profane invading babblings in opposition of science uh falsely uh so-called paul already warned about it one timothy chapter four verse 1 where it says now the spirit is speaking expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron so be very careful that which would lead astray and then he warns that some have already departed from that verse 21 it says which some professing have erred concerning the faith they've already departed they've walked away why because they got caught up in the movement they got caught up in all the buzz of uh this is popular this is the way it is and and they went off the path and then paul ends with to timothy grace be with thee and it says here at the end the first of timothy was written from laodicea which is the chiefest city of phrygia pasa tiana okay and so is our study of to timothy and so let's pray father just pray tonight may the spirit god speak to our hearts the reality is we think about it tonight we are wealthy and father i just pray that the spirit of god guard us from living for things instead of living for god and father i pray that we'd invest that which we've got in eternity and father i pray as well that regard the stewardships that we've been given that the spirit of god give us grace to be very careful with these things that we guard our testimony that we guard the doctrine that regard our calling that we guard the church practice and father that we not let lies lead us astray and so father may the spirit of god just take the word of god tonight encourage us to stand uh and to go back to that truth that paul told timothy fight the good fight of faith it's in christ and we pray amen amen all right well we'll take prayer requests and praises we'll let the evil turn off first yes pray for safety for our families we travel