This is an excerpt from the book "Homiletics Handbook" by Pastor Andy. You can purchase the entire thing as an ebook from any of the major retailers or in printed form on Amazon.
After giving a practical step by step strategy for protecting the Church, Paul describes, in 1st Timothy 6, the kind of life and attitude that a man of God must strive for. In verses 11 and 12 he uses three words to encourage Timothy to be a man of God.
1. FLEE
There are some things that are too dangerous to be treated casually. Just as it would be foolish to see a tornado coming and simply stroll along, there are some things in the spiritual realm that we must make a habit of steering quickly and even violently away from. There are two overarching dangers in view in 1st Timothy 6:1-10.
First of all, we are to flee from a false message (vs.1-5). Satan has been perverting God’s message and drawing people away from the truth since day one. One of his primary means is the pride that lurks in every human heart. It is a constant temptation to lean on your own wisdom. To make subtle changes to the Word of God based on your experiences or biases. Sometimes the changes are so subtle that you don’t recognize that you’re changing anything. Even when you do find an obvious discrepancy between your preconceptions and scripture, it is shockingly easy to rationalize an adjustment to the text whether it be an addition or an omission.
If you are going to be the preacher or teacher that you should be, you must come to scripture with an attitude of complete submission and dependence. You must accept its truth and flee even the smallest deviance from it. It’s easy to preach denominational dogmas or sensational opinions instead of carefully serving scriptural meat.
When confronted with an idea or teaching that goes against your beliefs or traditions, you must search the scriptures for it is in them that you have eternal life. You must consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. If you don’t, you are proud and know nothing.
The second danger that the man of God should flee is a faulty motivation (vs.6-10). A very rich man was dying and wanted someone to pray with him. He had never attended church as an adult but he remembered that his granddaddy had been a Presbyterian, his granddaddy on the other side had been a Methodist and his uncle had been a Baptist. So he opened the phone book and called a preacher from each of the three denominations and asked them to come be with him in his final hours. Just before he died he gave each of them a hundred thousand dollars and asked them to put the money in his casket at the funeral. After the funeral the three preachers stood around the graveside with something obviously on their minds. Finally the Presbyterian blurted out
“I have to confess. I couldn’t stand to see all that money just get buried so I kept out twenty five thousand dollars for our building fund.”
They stood there in silence for a moment before the Methodist broke down.
“I feel so bad. I only put half of mine in”.
The Baptist just shook his head and clucked in disapproval.
“I’m so disappointed in you men. I want you to know that I put in my personal check for the entire amount.”
Wealth is temporal and fleeting. If you listen to many of the Christian financial gurus today, it’s easy to come away with the idea that monetary and material prosperity are encouraged or even expected by God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul was taught of God both to abound and to suffer need.
Many like to point to all those “rich men of faith” in the Bible. They’ll rattle off a list including Abraham, Joseph, Solomon, Job, Daniel and maybe one or two others. When given a closer look however, none of these men lived an American dream type of life and they are certainly not good examples of how Christians should all be well off.
Abraham was told to leave his home and live as a nomad in a land that did not belong to him. His riches were not a result of the blessing of God. In fact, they were the result of his backsliding into Egypt and lying to Pharaoh. On top of that, it was his ill acquired riches that caused the division of his household and ultimately led to the destruction of Lot and his family. It’s no wonder that later on when offered spoils by the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham refused not wanting to be made rich by a heathen king again.
If the life of Job teaches us anything about money it’s that poverty does not necessarily indicate a failure on our part.
Joseph was a slave and a prisoner for many years and also just happened to be smack dab in the will of God.
Solomon wrote an entire book detailing the emptiness of his wealth.
Daniel was the emasculated slave of a plurality of Babylonian despots.
Those in the New Testament who are noted for their riches include the rich young ruler, the rich men who were casting their offerings into the temple treasury, the rich man outside whose gate Lazarus sat and the rich man who started a building expansion project just before his untimely death. Although there are some believers in the N.T. who were well off, their wealth is always mentioned as an incidental part of their stories.
Having said all that, I’m not preaching against money and I’m certainly not asking God to make me poor. There is nothing inherently wrong with being rich. But it is very dangerous to make it your goal to be rich.
The road to temporal prosperity is fraught with temptation and snares and many foolish and hurtful lusts. The preacher or teacher who serves God with a monetary motivation will likely err from the faith and drown in destruction and perdition often dragging others to the bottom with him.
Written by: Andy Wallace
Twitter: @hrbcpastorandy
Twitter: @hrbcpastorandy
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