Readings: Deuteronomy 8; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Mark 10:17-27
Theme: We enjoy God’s rich gifts by giving.
Goal: That the congregation show their faith in God the Giver by giving.

Congregation loved by Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, I’m not a farmer and even though I grew up on a farm, it was very different from farming here. So every spring when there is a lot of fretting over how bad things are and how there won’t be any crops this year, I tend to believe what I’m told, after all what do I know about agriculture in this region? And so I begin thinking ahead to my Thanksgiving sermon. What will I say at Thanksgiving if things are as bad as I am told they are? And every year I begin reflecting on Habakkuk 3. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Well, the doomsday scenario so far hasn’t turned out. Every year the harvest is bigger and better than the year before. Yes, even if there were no harvest, we would have plenty to be joyful about, thankful about, but there has been a harvest, and a good one. The Lord has blessed us. The Lord has richly provided. And so this year, like every year, I have had to change my text and start over for Thanksgiving. So this evening we are looking at 1 Timothy 3 verses 17-19 because it says right there what we have experienced once again this year: The Lord richly gives, richly provides. That’s the message this evening. The Lord richly provides us everything. And there are three things about that, about those riches the Lord gives.

1. What not to do with them
2. What to do with them
3. And the eternal consequences of what we do.

1. First what we should NOT do with what the Lord has given us. Our text begins with a warning. Let’s read it together. It’s on the outline in bold italics: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain.” What we should not do with money is trust it. Trust it. That’s what you should write in the blank. What not to do with money: trust it.

Paul’s warning doesn’t surprise because the Bible is full of warnings about money. In our gospel reading it is Jesus himself who says (the next text on the outline): “How hard it is for those who have money to enter the Kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” He says these words as a rich young man leaves him. The young man was sad. He really wanted to inherit eternal life. But Jesus had told him: “Sell all you have and give to the poor and then come here.” But he couldn’t do it, because he was rich. What power money holds over people. The writer of Proverbs 30 prays to God: “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” Don’t give me poverty, because then I might steal and dishonor the name of God. But in any case don’t give me riches, because then I might deny God
saying: “Who is the Lord?” I might become proud and arrogant. Moses already warned God’s people for that in Deuteronomy 8, as they were about to take possession of rich Canaan. “When you get there, and have abundance: food, drink, clothing, houses, harvests, vineyards, olives and all kinds of fruits, abundance of cattle, gold and sliver, be careful you don’t become self satisfied, that you forget the Lord your God!”

Poverty can cause people to sin, to go against God’s commandments. But it looks as if riches are just as--if not more--dangerous. They can make you proud. So that you look down on other people. But worst of all, they can make you indifferent and forgetful towards God.

Now, brothers and sisters, these warnings don’t make money and wealth and riches evil. Being given a lot is not sinful. Wealth is a blessing. It is a gift of God. God made Abraham rich and Genesis 24 says this about that: The Lord blessed Abraham abundantly and he became wealthy. And we read that Isaac became rich, and that he continued to become richer, until he was very rich, because the Lord blessed him.

The promised land Israel was given, was a blessing, a blessing of the covenant, of God’s relationship with them. As New Testament church we focus more on so called spiritual blessings, but that does not change the fact that when our land brings forth a harvest and our cattle offspring, it is a blessing from God. A blessing from the Lord. We gather in the spring to pray for it, and we ask for it every Sunday here in church, and when the Lord gives it, we must see it as a blessing. That’s why we also now assemble to give thanks.

Wealth is not a curse. BUT we people can make it a curse. We turn God’s blessing into a curse when we use his blessings the wrong way. When we begin to lean on them, on the things he gives us, rather than on him himself. When we begin to depend on wealth what is a blessing we turn into a curse. Write that down: Money is a blessing but we turn it into a curse when we depend on it.

Maybe you are thinking you don’t have anything to worry about, because you aren’t wealthy. I’m not rich, you say. I’m not part of the rich of this world. This text isn’t about me. But then you need to think about the people Paul is writing to. In his day things were quite different from what they are now. At least with how things are here, though in much of the world things are still exactly as they were in Paul’s day.

In Paul’s day there were very few rich people, a handful at the very top. And they were extremely rich. Then there was another group. Also a very small group. A group of people who could just get by. And then there was everybody else. The vast majority of people. The poor. Who had nothing. We can’t imagine it--our world here in North America is so different. Yes, we have our differences in income and wealth, sometimes huge differences. I don’t ignore that. There are people we might even call poor, people who financially speaking are on shaky ground. And then compared to the people Paul is writing in Timothy’s congregation, we all are rich! We are wealthy. That goes in the last blank on the first page of your outline: We are wealthy.

Our fixed incomes and salaries, our crop subsidies, our crop and unemployment insurance, our health insurance, our social security and Medicare, allow us not just what is necessary but in the vast majority of cases much more than is necessary. The necessities, Paul says in verse eight, are food and shelter. And Jesus? He said all we need is our daily bread. But look what we have and do and use! Houses that are more than just a roof over our head, more than one room. Furniture, appliances. Look what we eat and drink. Our vacations. And not just those who work or who are established enjoy such luxuries, but even those who are students! Our students are a many times richer and better off than the majority of people in Paul’s day.

We modern Americans are very rich, all of us including as I said, you students. So the message of this text applies to us, to all of us: Don’t become arrogant or proud. Don’t build your hope on uncertain wealth. Now you are thinking: I don’t do that. I don’t depend on my wealth. My hope is in the Lord, you say. But what hope are you talking about? When we talk about the Lord being our hope, we are usually thinking about our hope for the next life, our hope for forgiveness, our hope for salvation. But in our text the hope Paul is talking about is a whole lot more down to earth. He’s talking about the hope of a good life here on earth right now and tomorrow. Paul is talking about whom we are counting on to provide food on the table, a car, clothes, school tuition and so on. Are we expecting it from ourselves or from God?

We have to watch ourselves because it’s so easy to live as if we are in control of our own lives, so easy to believe that we provide for ourselves by our work. We have to be on guard against that idea that we take care of ourselves, of thinking that we even can because of what we have or are able to do. Because the spirit of our time with all its prosperity affects us. Even in spite of all our worries about the economy and rising costs, our society’s feeling of self-sufficiency rubs off on us. The Bible, however, says that if in our daily lives, to provide for our daily lives we are depending on ourselves, on money, or whatever, we don’t really believe in God. Period. Not at all. You can’t separate dependence on God for your daily life and dependence on God for salvation. The two go together because God is the God of all our life. Moses already says that when you depend on yourself for daily bread you have forgotten the God who delivered you from slavery. You have forgotten the God of salvation.

We need to realize that. If we are depending on money to make it in our day to day living, then we don’t believe in God who saves us through Jesus Christ either. That brings us back to the text we looked at several times during the 40 days of purpose. No one can serve two masters. It’s not just that you may not. It’s you cannot. It’s one or the other. And then one or the other exclusively, entirely.
That’s why there are so many warnings about this in the Bible. Because God might just allow our false gods to go to seemingly hold us up through this life, but in the end those false gods will fail us. And we will go down with them. We will turn out to be eternal losers. So who or what are you depending on for your daily life? Are you depending on your job? On your harvests? We need the warning of this text because so easily we replace God with his gifts, and instead of depending on him, we depend on the things he gives us. We make them our gods in practice all the while talking about God and Jesus. We deceive ourselves. Don’t put your hope in uncertain wealth, but in God. In the LIVING God the majority of Greek manuscripts say. When it comes to our expectations for this life, for our food and shelter, for what we need and for what goes beyond that, we must expect it to come from no where else than the God who lives. That’s whenand how we also give glory to God.

God wants us to do that. It’s his grace that we may do that, that we may depend on him! That we may put our hope in him. And hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking like “I hope it’s true.” Hope in the Bible, when it is about God, means that you know beyond a doubt, that you are deeply assured he cares for us. It is trusting the living God who says: you need bread and water. And who gives us so much more than that!

That’s why we have gathered together to thank him. Thanksgiving. Because it all comes from the Lord. We come together to confess that we do not rely on our efforts or on our crops, that we do not build on our money, that those things are not our god, but that we live entirely from what comes from the hand of the living God, our God. Totally depending on him, totally trusting in him. And when we do that, when we trust and depend on God, we will use those things that God does give us rightly. We will live in a Christian way, a god-fearing way, with the riches he gives us. That is our second point.

2. Paul says what we must not do with riches, we must not depend on them, that was our first point. Now what we must do with them? Our second point. Let’s read what the text says: do not put hope in wealth… but in God (read it with me) who richly provides us everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. He says God gives us riches, not to trust in, but to ENJOY. Write that down. What to do with money: Enjoy it. Now before we talk about that word “enjoy,” notice first that word “us.”

God richly gives US everything. That word US stands out. It’s unexpected. Since Paul is talking to the rich in the congregation (via Timothy), we would expect him in this context to say to the rich: “God richly gives YOU everything.” But Paul says “us.” He doesn’t say “you,” he says “us.” That’s everybody. Paul, Timothy, the whole congregation. The rich, those getting by, and the poor. They ALL share in that “rich giving” of the Lord. Us is all of us together. God gives all of us together everything.

What’s Paul saying here? What does he mean? Well, first of all, he’s proclaiming who God is. How God is. God is a God who gives richly. He is not stingy. He gives royally. Yes, he gives divinely! He is the overflowing fountain of all good, in every aspect.
Just look at creation. It’s an abundant creation. Rich in creatures, rich in possibilities, rich in assets, rich in resources. And God gave it all to man. God gave Adam management of the whole thing, that whole wonderful rich creation. And though we sinned and made a mess of things, that does not take away the richness of the creation God gave us. As far as that goes the world could still be like the garden of Eden. God is a generous God. Richly giving to his own, richly giving even to those who do not know him. He left a testimony to himself, says Acts 14 “by doing well to the nations, by giving them rain from heaven and fruitful times and to their hearts an abundance of food and joy.” That same God gives riches to his church, to our congregation. And, yes, Paul knows that not every member gets the same amount. He knows from his own experience what poverty is. He knows what it is to be hungry, to do without. And yet when it comes to these riches, he dares to use the word “us.” God richly gives us everything. Paul is proclaiming and affirming that the eternal God gives his rich creation to his children. And that fact has everything to say about how we are to use those riches.

Because us means that what God gives is meant for all. When he pours out an abundant harvest, that is not just for the land owner, that is for the world. When you get a good salary, that’s not just for you. That’s on behalf of everyone. God richly gives US everything. That word “us” is a pointer on how to understand the word “enjoy.” Not by ourselves, but together.

God richly gives us all things TO ENJOY. We may enjoy them, Paul says. Enjoy. That is a rare word in the Bible. It is used only one other time in the whole Bible. In Hebrews 11, about Moses. Moses preferred to endure evil with the people of God than enjoy sin for a season. That is the exact same word Paul uses here: God richly gives us everything to enjoy. We may use his gifts with pleasure. That’s how it is with our eternally rich God; with our royal Father.

But what does that mean, to “enjoy?” Does it mean that we can spend whatever God gives us for our own pleasure. Save for a new car with even more options. Set aside for a vacation even more exotic. And in the mean time plenty to go around for going out, eating out, drinking out, sports and so on. What ever you want and you can afford go for it. Enjoy it.

Now I dare say you’ve never taken that message home with you from church before. Well, you aren’t going to now either. Because that’s not what that word enjoy refers to in our text. If that’s what we do, then we will be doing precisely the opposite of what God tells us to do in our text. And then our relationship with God is gone. Because then all our activity, all our interests, all our expectations once again revolve around that uncertain wealth of this world. And we would be doing exactly what we are not to do: depending on things: running after savings accounts, stockpiles, and so on for our own enjoyment.

But the point is this: a child of God cannot enjoy that way. A believer cannot use God’s gifts that way with joy. God wants us as his children to be like him, to imitate him. That’s literally written in the Bible, in Ephesians 5:1: “Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and walk in love.” And that is a giving love, for the verse goes on to say: “just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”And that is the message of our text as well, that we are supposed to be imitators of God. Our Father gives richly for our enjoyment, for our joyful use, inorder that we too, just like him, will be rich in good works. God gives to us richly in order to see us also give richly. A Christian enjoys like God. God enjoys by giving. Therefore a Christian enjoys material goods by giving. We CAN do that, because we aren’t depending on our savings accounts, on that limited and uncertain wealth. We CAN give because we don’t depend on our salaries or incomes, no matter how stable they may be. No, we rest with all our expectations for this life on God, the God who lives, and who gives and who gives again and again. In his time and in his way, but always good. And now it comes down to this, that we as children of this God enjoy what he puts in our hands. Enjoyment like God doesn’t come automatically. WE, born sinners, have to re-learn that. We have to learn by the renewal of our life, by allowing ourselves to be taught by the Word and the Spirit of God. Are you allowing God to teach you or are you resisting him? Do you tithe, give a 10th of your income, which is God’s training wheels for us as, it were, to get us started in trusting him, and in being like him, so that we can eventually outgrow those training wheels and do even more than 10 percent.

Enjoyment of wealth, God’s way. Yes, some of it is for our own use. Father wants to care for us, faithfully and royally. But he also wants us to enjoy it by using it with him and for him “in every good work, generous and sharing.” Can you imagine that for yourself? Enjoying what you have by helping in good works with the very gifts God gives? That giving for you is a joy? It is possible. Look at king David, how happy he is when he and the people hold a great offering for the building of the temple. They thanked God that they could give him what came from his own hand! That’s how we are to enjoy what God richly gives us.

Giving has to become a joy for us. It has to be a joy for us to give. For the church and her mission. For the building fund and for needy churches, for diaconal work within and outside our own congregation. Are you enjoying the riches God gives as one of God’s children by giving, by sharing generously? That’s what you do when you trust God, when you are his child. People who don’t trust God, don’t give or do so grudgingly and stingily. The budget of our congregation falls far below a tenth of our combined incomes, and way below most churches our size, and yet we have more than a 60 thousand dollar shortfall in our budget. People are being brought into hardship because they are not being paid, the outreach of the gospel is being stopped. New ministries are in jeopardy. To say nothing of Christian education in our community. As put in an email to me last summer: the good news is that the money is there. That’s the good news. The money is there. God has provided. The bad news is it’s in your pockets. The shortfall in our budget is not because we don’t have it. It’s because we don’t give it.

God richly gives us everything to enjoy. To enjoy like him. When we ordain deacons we promise to supply them with the means to carry out their work. We promise to be good stewards of what the Lord entrusts to us, and we remember that we are called to serve. Let’s show ourselves God’s children by enjoying like God what he has given us. And that brings us back to our text: “to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” The Greek word for share is the word we know as fellowship, communion, koinonia. That’s why the King James says “be willing to communicate.” In that word we see the word “communion.” Sharing is what communion is all about. Without sharing communion is an empty word. If we don’t share our wealth we can’t claim communion with God or his church. God richly gives US everything for our enjoyment, and in that US the poor are included. They may EXPECT help from those who have more, so that they too in our communion may enjoy the riches God gives. And when we have taken care of those within the household of faith, there is a whole world out there waiting for our good deeds. Because the Scriptures say: do good to all people, even though it says to begin with our own fellow believers. No, you can’t do this out of yourself. Out of yourself you will hang on to money. Out of yourself you will depend on it, out of yourself it is a god. You can only enjoy like God when you believe, when you have faith in him, when you are his child.

That’s the only way. Because we can only know, acknowledge and recognize God by faith. It is through faith that we know him as our Creator and as our Father. As our rich Giver or Benefactor. And we learn to know him as Giver not just from the creation he gives us, but from the gift he gave us that is worth more than the whole creation: his Son, our Savior. Only in faith can we as children of God accept and give gifts. Let’s exercise ourselves and strengthen ourselves in that faith.

3. Which brings us to the third point. The eternal consequences. Paul tells us the eternal consequences to strengthen our faith, so that we act on it. He explains what happens when we enjoy God’s rich gifts by doing good. Let’s read the text, 1 Timothy 6:19: In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. What happens is truly mind boggling. Because when we give and give like God, it seems like we will have to cut back, it looks like we will be losing, but that’s not what’s happening at all says Paul. When you tithe, when you give to the church budget for all her needs, when you pledge for the new school, you aren’t losing anything, you are saving and investing in your own future, Paul says. You are laying up for yourself a priceless treasure. A treasure that is the foundation for your future, for true life, eternal life. Write that in the blank: the eternal
consequences with how you deal with money concern your eternal life.

We are to use earthly wealth to buy, as it were, eternal treasure. Hang on to earthly wealth which today seems so necessary, and you will lose out, because it’s going to be devalued, totally. It will be so worthless that on the day of judgment you will throw it away as dung, say’s Isaiah. But right now you are able to exchange this earthly treasure into heavenly treasure. You can get a rate of exchange that no bank can give you. That’s what the Lord says. He says give freely, share, do good, be rich in good works. And you won’t become poorer. You are saving for yourself a treasure. By doing good to others, you are laying up a foundation that will insure your life for ever. The people of this world try to lay a foundation under their life by SAVING earthly goods. And they may very well be able to amass a fortune that way, but it is an uncertain fortune, it can disappear in a second, and one day it WILL fail them. Utterly. Keeping money for self leads to eternal poverty. Giving money for others leads to eternal riches. Good works done on earth lead to a treasure in heaven. That’s nothing new in our text. The Lord Jesus himself already said it to the young ruler: “Sell your possessions, give them to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven.” And he says to his disciples that it is a treasure that will never be exhausted, it will never run out (Luke 12).

Hebrews 6 says “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” Your good works are noticed in heaven. And in Revelation 14 we read concerning those who keep God’s commandments: “Blessed are they, for their deeds will follow them.” If you go to work with God’s rich gifts to you with love and are in that way rich in the good works of faith, your feet are standing on solid ground, on God’s ground. And your life is sure. Now and forever. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And all God’s people say: Amen.