Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy 6, we will read verses 9 through 12. But as we read 9 through 12, remember verse 8, that as we have food and shelter, we have enough. Because godliness with contentment is a great gain. And Paul says, since we have food and shelter, as we have it, we have enough. And then he starts verse 9 by saying, but Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierce themselves through many or with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you made a good profession in the presence of many witnesses. And that is the reading of God's Word. And we will only cover this morning verses 8 and 9, but I wanted to read the whole context. We have started this series on thinking biblically about finances. And it's part of that series the elders have asked us to talk about regarding thinking biblically through current issues. What can be more current than finances? Than money? We don't like to talk money, we don't like to talk about politics, but money, as we said before, is mentioned more in the Bible than heaven and hell. It sounds unbelievable, but it's true. And this morning we come to consider this issue about the love of money. Somebody has said, in fact, I Googled it because I had heard it 35 years ago or 34 years ago, but I Googled who also said this. And it is attributed to Charlie Kirk to have said, I have seen more covetousness among the poor than among the rich. However, to be honest, I heard that quote from a pastor named Eduardo Saladin many, many years ago, 30 plus years ago, who was a man of means. He's a pastor. He's a pastor voluntarily. He doesn't make a living out of the ministry. He has his own businesses. But it is true that covetousness, even though it doesn't seem to be the case, is more prevalent and pervasive among the poor than among the rich. And it sounds contradictory, I know. But let's get into our text in what we just read. If we isolate from the text every clause, every sentence, and stick to the verbs in the passage, The verbs that point to the actions that are occurring in this section of scripture, we would read something like this. Those who desire to be rich fall. And craving, they wandered away and left pierced, therefore flee. That's what the text is about. What is the sermon about? That those who love riches fall. And as they are coveting many things, they fall into a snare and a temptation. And many, even because of the love of money, have wandered away from the faith and destroyed themselves. Now, in this passage, I want to just see three things. Realism. Secondly, the implied commandment. And thirdly, the caveats. The things to be guarded against. Let's go to the realism. The realism is something we considered last week. And it's that statement about being content with food and shelter. And basically, food and shelter is the things we need for this life. Interesting that this word, being content, has an origin. I'm not saying the word content means that, but it has a root that is similar to that of raising a fence. Why do we raise our fences in our properties? Well, to sort of protect ourselves. We close doors, we put our fences, and when we go to sleep at night, because there's a fence, and there are doors and walls, we feel secure and sheltered. Paul says, having food and having shelter, or food and clothing, we have our fence set up. And he says, and that's enough. Jesus was very realistic about this. Why do we say that? Because when he taught us how to pray, yes, he taught us to pray for what is really important. Our Father in heaven, let your name be hallowed. May it be magnified, sanctified, esteemed, set in honor. And may your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. That's what we really need to pray for. But He didn't stop there. But you also pray, give us this day our daily bread. And that daily bread is that portion to be alive. We are not disembodied spirits. We are human beings who have needs to be covered and to be fed and to be protected and to be sheltered. So, Jesus was very realistic also when He encouraged or actually commanded His disciples not to be anxious. Anxiety is a depression about the future. Oh, what's going to happen tomorrow? How am I going to feed my family? What's going to happen when I grow up? What's going to happen with this and that? Don't worry about those things. Don't be anxious about what you will eat or what you will cover yourselves with because your father knows that you need these things. God knows that we need to eat. God knows that we need to pay our mortgages and our car payments and our insurance and that we need what we need. Since God knows that, He goes back and connect to the Lord's prayer. Seek ye first Primarily, primordially, the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God, the things that belong to God and no worries. All these things you need for this life will be added unto you. That's a promise from Jesus and it is true. I've been 62 years around on the planet earth and it is true. He takes care of those things. We may think we're smart and we're this and that. He takes care of his own. Jesus was a realist and it is legitimate to procure food and shelter. It is legitimate to procure that even for those entrusted to our care. As a matter of fact, If we don't provide food and shelter for those we have to care for, not me, Paul says in the New Testament, we are worse than an unbeliever. You go to South Beach and find the worst of the worst. If you don't cover for your family, if you don't work hard to put bread and butter on your children's table and to cover their backs with clothing, you are worse than an infidel. This issue of being a lazy bum doesn't work with God. The Bible is very crude when it says, if somebody doesn't want to work, let him not eat. That simple. Oh, but we have to be merciful. Yes, to the one who has a real providential need. To the one who's lazy. No, I'm not called to be merciful. I am called to actually let them go hungry. And let the birth pangs be their motivation to work hard and with excellence. We also have a commandment to share for those in need. That's a mark of being a believer. In that day when we covered that, Jesus will say, you covered me, you fed me, you sheltered me. Lord, when did we do that? You did it to one of those who believe in me. You did it to one of those who are my little brothers. But at the end of the day, we come to this truism that money isn't everything. And it's not, but it sure helps you sleep at night, doesn't it? That's a phrase from our friend Otto Sanchez in Spanish. El dinero no es todo, pero calma los nervios. Could not even translate that into English. So I came with the best rendering. And also, yes, money doesn't buy happiness. True, but poverty buys even less. So yes, we need money. We need to talk about money, but we need to have a biblical mindset about money. Now what is the commandment number two? What is the implicit commandment in the passage? Please read verse nine. Those who desire to make riches or to be rich. Do you notice how the verse starts with a but, B-U-T? It's an adversative conjunction. Whenever you find an adversative conjunction in scripture, remember it's contrasting two things. It's putting two things in opposition. And the writer wants you to pay attention to what happened before and to what's coming next. But, but those who want to make rich. It's understandable and realistic to need food and shelter and to find and procure and provide food and shelter. But those who want to make rich, fall. Very sobering. There's a warning here. That expression, those who desire to make rich, I'm going to give you the Greek word and you will figure out where it comes from. Boulomai. What does it sound like? Bulimia. What is bulimia? It is this nervous craving to binge on food. It is this nervous craving to wake up at 2 a.m. when according to your circadian rhythm you should be sleeping and your body fixing itself for the next day, but you just wake up and go to the fridge and start binging. Or you see that nice chocolate cake that we have left over from birthday yesterday and you say, chocolate cake! That's bulimia nerviosa. Paul is referring to that here. Those who have a bulimia to be rich. And it's important to make the distinction because the problem is not with being rich. The problem is with wanting to be rich. See the difference? You may say, but wait a minute. What's wrong with wanting to be rich? Well, I could give you my opinion. But probably you don't want my opinion, you want what the text says. According to the text, everything is wrong with it. That's pretty radical. Paul says those who want to be rich, those who live to become rich, those who make their sole objective in life, their purpose to move on, is to be rich and to have money. Paul says they will fall. That's a problem. And according to our text, you shouldn't want to be rich. Now we have to be careful because we're human beings and we're always in this pendulum, right? From one side to the other. This is not a call to passivity or being a conformist or a conformist. This is not a call to be lazy and to not care about life. I remember when I was 17 years old and I just had come to the Lord. and my mouth was filled with cavities. And I was sent to the dentist. But I had recently learned that Jesus was coming again. And the world was coming to an end. And I really didn't want to go to the dentist. Not only because I was afraid of dentists. What's the point? If the Lord is coming and everything is going to end. Well, that's not what the text is teaching. The text is not saying, well, therefore, just do as little as you can. Just go by. No. Proverbs 22, 19 says, Do you see a man skilled in his work? Well let me tell you what's going to happen. He will serve before kings. He will not stand before men of low rank. Do you apply yourself of what you do? And you say, why did such and such do at the end of his life so much better than such and such? You can trace back their life history. One was diligent and applied himself, herself with skill to whatever they wanted to do or wanted to be and triumphed. And the other one just wanted to see what was the minimum possible that could be done. That simple. Proverbs 10.4 Lazy hands lead to poverty. You're lazy, you'll end up poor. But diligent hands bring wealth. You work more, you'll make more. You work with more excellence, you'll be promoted more. A little sleep, a little slumber, says the proverb writer. I can take another half an hour. There's a job interview today, I can call and say that I can have a job interview later. I don't need to kill myself. Well, the text says, okay, little sleeps, little slumber, little folding of the hands, rolling in the bed, and your poverty will come like a thief. It will come like an armed man when you're not even expecting or waiting for it. That's what the Bible says. The prohibition is not to be rich. The prohibition is against a bulimic desire to binge on riches. Big difference. Successful businesses are successful today. Do you know why? Not because they have a smart guy figuring out how to make more money. No. They are successful because they have a person who understood what was a need that needed to be met and they meet the need. And then they make money as a result. Successful salespeople, you can go any industry, any area, any time. The successful salespeople are the ones who solve problems for their potential customers. They are not the ones who want to make a quick buck. They see the problem and they become the coaches, the counselors, the problem solution person. Oh, lo and behold, they make more money in commissions. Christian work ethics is precisely to work with diligence, with effort, and with excellence. It's not just work harder, but it's work smarter. And those who apply that, their aim is not to make money, it's to honor Christ. That's what Colossians says. You serve without your boss looking over you. It's not that you're in the computer googling or finding things and chat GPT, and then you hear the, oh the boss is coming, and you switch the page. That you're working in your Excel sheet. No, Paul says if you're a Christian, you do not work under the eye of a boss or a supervisor. You killed yourself working hard because it is the Lord Jesus whom you serve. And from Him, you will receive the reward of the inheritance. Now, if you have that work ethics, it is unavoidable that your business will progress and that you at work will be promoted and you will make more money. It's unavoidable. It's like the law of gravity. But again, the passage says, then is it wrong to be rich? No. It's not wrong to be rich. Why do we know that? We'll cover that later on. Because later on, some few sentences later, Paul says, I have some words for those who are rich in this world. It's right there in your chapter 6. And He doesn't say to the rich in this world, you should sell your possessions and become poor. You should now apply communism and just give away what you have. No, He doesn't say that at all. He doesn't even imply that they are sinning for being rich. All He says to them is, if you are rich, then be generous. Be a giver. Be generous in good works. Do not trust in your riches, but treasure for yourself. that treasure which is eternal. Nothing to do with being rich is wrong. Again, the problem is not the riches or the money. The problem is loving money. It is the desire to binge on money and to have money. Why is it wrong? And that brings us to the third point. Because they will fall. And that's the big caveat. They will fall. I don't know if the guys in the screen can put the subordination of the sentences. I don't know how it came out. I know that between my notes and the computer there, things are different. But if you read verse 9 and 10, remember Paul is a Jewish rabbi. And remember when we studied the Psalms that you have this poetry and this rhythm in Jewish poetry. That they have parallelism or contrast. They rhyme ideas or they put them separate. And Paul does that in this passage. He says, they fall into temptation and into a snare. And that's the first clause. And then you come to the second step. They into many senseless and sinful desires. It's the same. He's repeating himself. But they plunge people into ruin and destruction. And then for the love of money is the root of all evils. Why? Because through craving it many wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves through many pangs or pains. It's just like going on a stair or on a ladder going down. That's why desiring to be rich is wrong. Because you will fall. They fall. The verb is a present indicative. And what does a present indicative mean? It means that it's a real action. Paul could have written perfectly well. Those who desire to be rich, if they are not careful, they might fall. He didn't write that. Those who desire to be rich, well, if you are really solid and biblical, you could remain standing, but be careful. He doesn't say that. He says it plain vanilla. If you desire to become rich, you will fall. That's pretty sobering. So like, dude, don't do it. Don't climb on the tree or you will fall. The desire for riches. What's the problem with it? Paul says it brings you into a temptation and a snare. Similar concepts, it's gonna bring you into a trap. What trap? The deceitfulness of riches. Remember the parable of the sower? Some people hear the word, oh, that's great, what a nice sermon, what a nice message, I wish I could live that way. I wish I could have your religion. But the deceitfulness of riches The huffing and puffing for the world chokes the word and makes it unfruitful. That's the deceitfulness of riches. The deceitfulness of riches is that it fogs eternity from our eyesight. All of a sudden we believe that all we need to do is become rich and we'll be happy and everything will be solved and we stop losing sight of this unavoidable reality. April 15th marks one of them. You will pay taxes. If you don't, you're going to be in trouble. Oh, but I didn't make too much money. Then you need to file for taxes. And if you don't file, you're going to get in trouble. So solve your issue. The other reality, we don't know the date, but it's even more sure than that one. We're going to die. I was at a funeral this Monday and talking to the funeral and as I was looking at the coffin I told everybody, one of these days we're going to have ours. We'll be the ones in the coffin and somebody will be speaking about us or preaching a sermon and we'll be the ones dead. That's a reality that's unavoidable. But when you pursue and love money, you don't even think that you will die. You spend 40 years running after this stick that somebody ties on your forehead and they put a carrot on it and you spend your life running after the carrot on the stick. It's a corporate world, the development, the buying a bigger house, the buying a better car, the getting a better promotion, the getting a corner office, the getting a window office, getting, getting, getting, getting. And at the end of 40 years, you know what you get? This plaque. I have one. to engineer, it's in Spanish, they bring your title when they, to engineer Edwin Gonzalez for his valuable contributions to Comatsu, Mexico. He says, I have my plaque, I was working on the sermon, where's my plaque? It was hiding behind some Coca-Cola bottles in the hidden shelf that I could not even see it. And that's me, the owner of the plaque. Do you think if I go to Comatso, Mexico today, oh, here comes the guy with his valuable contribution. They don't even know me. That was eight years ago. Do you think it's going to be different with you? No, it's not going to be different with you. You can have all the achievements, all the accolades, all the accomplishments in this world. You can gain the whole world. And it's going to be forgotten. Thank you for your contributions. Goodbye letter. If you're lucky, they make a nice lunch for your retirement and you're gone. Temptations, Paul says. You will fall into temptations. Temptations whose engine, whose motor, whose wind in the sails of those temptations, the text says, are mindless and foolish desires. And the word for mindless, I know that some of you parents tell your children not to use this word, but I'm gonna use it, stupid. That's the word. Temptations driven by stupid desires that bring injury and hurting to your life. And sometimes you say, boy, this person, this individual had an accident. And what were they doing? Oh, they were hanging off a cliff and there was... What were they thinking? Nothing! They were not thinking! It's stupidity! Because somebody has well said that IQ has a limit. 160, 170, 180... But stupidity is infinite! It doesn't have any limit. You can be as stupid as you want. Paul says, if you want to become rich, you will fall into hurting, harmful, destroying, stupid desires that sink people. Plunge is the word our ESV uses. Sink people. illicit sex, substance abuse, wrong associations, illegitimate activities, things that at the end destroy you. There's a passage in Proverbs, Proverbs 5, 5 through 11, I don't know if the guys can put it, but at least from verse 11, describing the life of the person who had fun, caroused, enjoyed life. Then comes to this old age, When I'm hurting so much, I know what I was doing yesterday was just plucking out weed. And I told my wife, I feel like if I went to a taekwondo tournament and lost. When you come to this age, Proverbs says, this is what's going to happen to you. At the end of your life, you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent. And you will say, how I hated discipline. how my heart spurned, despised correction. I would not obey my teachers. I would turn a deaf ear to my instructors. You know what happens when you get to be my age? that you see it for real. I read it the first time when I was about 18. And I said, jeepers, I don't want that to happen to me. And now I'm 62 and I've seen it happen to friends, people who we grew up together. We rode bicycle together. We played basketball or baseball or whatever together. We studied together. And they came to that place. Guys, you probably can relate to this. Sorry ladies, this is a guy's example. But haven't you noticed that there were a lot of beautiful, gorgeous, pretty girls in high school. And you see them 40 years later. You say, what the heck happened? Or this athletic, tall player. And you see the guy 40 years later with a big belly. What happened? Life happened, but carousing happened. Because the ones who kept themselves clean usually end up better. Because there's this invoice that sin gives to you. Have fun. You're having the life. But as you're coming out, it says, hey, here's the bill. And the bill is what Proverbs 5 through 11 describes. The regret, the remorse, the waste of having spent a life in nothingness. Now the passage then doesn't bring it. But it's a reminder that Paul says they bring ruin and destruction. Same concept. Ruin, losing it all. Destruction, a polluthero, just losing it all. What did Jesus say? And we said that last week. What does it profit a person to gain the whole world? and lose their soul. You know what's your most precious commodity? It's not your 401k. It's not your bank account. It's not your beautiful house. It's not even your family. It's not your accolades. Your most precious commodity is your eternal, everlasting, never-dying soul. And Jesus says, what does it profit a person to win the world if they lose their soul? Paul says, those who want to become rich, those who make their lives sole purpose being wealthy end up losing it all. And the passage has this word pictures I would say that those who know it A.T. Robertson word pictures is a great little commentary that many of us used in our youth to try to understand the Bible. And the word picture is the love of money is the root of all Kinds of evil. Chasing it, many destroy themselves. And if you could picture love of money is the word philarguria. Love of amor a la plata. Amor a la cojante. If you want the French version, it's the same. Love of money. I like silver. I like money. And the picture in the passage is a person that is running and stretching themselves. You've seen that super nice picture of Air Jordan. When he's there with a ball dunking and you see this guy flying in the air stretching as he jumps from the foul line. That's the picture. A person who is stretching himself or herself because they want to be rich. But they do not dunk. They end up pierced as if arrows were shot at them. Pierced all over by many pains, the text says, torments. Torments. That's one of the descriptions for hell, being tormented. Children forsake their parents because they become a burden. And so they can have more money, they forsake their parents. And parents disown their children because they need to have more money and also forget their children. And for the love of money, men forsake the mother of their children My wife works with a family law lawyer and she tells me, we live in a bubble. We Christians live in a bubble. We don't know what is out there. You take a bride, you promise love to her, you have children with her and because some Rinky-dink lady goes by you, you forget the wife of your youth? And you just waste your money and forsake your wife. And when the divorce comes, you just seek to cut as much as you can for you. And women do the same, by the way. I'm not being sexist on this. For the love of money, women forget their children to pursue a career, to accomplish their life dream. And after 40 years, they don't have children and they get the little plaque that is rusty and forgotten. For the love of money, we get the carnage of wars. That's why we war. Whether it is Ukraine and Russia, whether it is the wars in Africa, whatever war it is, I'm not going to say it because I'm going to get in trouble. But I am not into the, oh, we're there defending liberty and defending. No, we're defending our interests. It's the love of money, James 4 says. It's ambition that causes wars. It's not altruism. For the love of money, heinous crimes are committed. The plague of our day, narco traffic. Have you seen the documentary of Pablo Escobar's son? It's shocking. There was one of them that it really moved me to tears. He said, we had millions of dollars in cash in our house, stacked all over the walls. Millions and millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. And we were hungry and we could not go out to buy bread. You're dying of hunger. Drowning in cash money. But we couldn't leave the house because if we left the house somebody would have killed us. So we had to go hungry inside. For the love of money. For the love of money, Dimas, Paul's companion, who sent greetings to the churches, who was there with Paul preaching the gospel, and Paul had to write about him at the end of his life. Dimas has deserted me, loving this world. He stayed in Thessalonica. For the love of money, pastors thrash their ministry, exploit people, steal, do all kinds of things. for the love of money and end up trespassed by arrows of destruction and torment and pain. This Argentinian pastor I like to hear, I'm not going to mention him because I was advised not to mention him just to avoid confusion, but I love the guy. He says, guys, the applause ceases. And he made this test. He was in an arena and said, who remembers the last 10 Nobel Prizes? Anybody? Raise your hand. You remember who were the last 10 physics or chemistry or peace or literature Nobel Prizes? OK, give me the last one. Come on. No? Huh. A Nobel Prize. You saw Big Bang Theory, that was Sheldon Cooper's life to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Who remembers the last Oscar? Okay, not the one that went recently, but at least last year. No? No, the last Oscar either. So what do you live for? The applause ceases. They can clap and clap and clap and you did a great performance and people are just going crazy. The applause ceases. You saw Kershaw's last game when Dodger Stadium was clapping for him. Great pitcher over the last 18 years. What a great guy. Next year he's going to be just one more guy. He would be sitting on the stands and our children would not know who he is. Because the applause ceases. And Jesus gave this parable about the rich fool who had all this money. And then he said, what shall I do? I have all this money. I know what I'll do. I'll do a construction project. I'll make bigger barns. I'll store more grain. And I will say to my soul, O soul, you have so many treasures and gifts and goods stored for the future. Now it's time to enjoy life. All retirement, 65, the golden years. What golden years? I cannot even walk sometimes with the pains in my knees. What golden years are you talking about? But enjoy life. And how the parable ends. And God told him that night, you fool, stupid, empty headed. Today they will ask for your soul and what you have stored for, whose will it be? And then he ends up saying, thus will be with a man who is rich, but not before God. What is the greatest richness you can store? Jesus is described in the Gospels by himself as the pearl of great price. The pearl that you sell everything you have and give everything you have because you want that pearl that has eternal value. Jesus himself. Savior, God, object of your love, your lover, the one who loved you to the point of death and you live for him. To the rich in this world, remind them not to put their trust in riches, But in God, who gives us all things abundantly to enjoy. And those who want to be rich, don't. Because you will fall. May the Lord help us to apply His Word. Father, we bring to you the Scriptures read and explained today. We pray that you bless the hearing of the Word, the preaching of the Word, and that the fruit may germinate. 30, 60, 100, but that you would not let your word go void. That it may return to you a profit for what you send it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.