Godliness with contentment is great gain, as taught in 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19. The sermon contrasts the pursuit of wealth with the pursuit of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. It emphasizes that true riches are found not in material possessions, but in good works and a generous spirit, storing up treasures in heaven. The message concludes by urging believers to guard their faith, avoid false teachings, and trust in the living God who provides all things richly to enjoy.
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Our reading is in the last chapter of First Timothy. While I get strung up here again, turn to it. Nice to see you, Don. Welcome. First Timothy chapter six, verse number one. Read all of the twenty-one verses so that we're together as we look at what the Lord has to say. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.
Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve, because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. If anyone teaches otherwise, it does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy strife reviling evil suspicions useless wranglings interesting it means constant frictions of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means towards gain from such withdraw yourself but godliness with contentment is great gain For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and clothing with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep this commandment without spot. blameless unto our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing. Which he will manifest in his own time. He who is the blessed and only potentate sovereign. The king of kings and the lord of lords. Who alone has immortality. Dwelling in unapproachable light. Whom no man has seen. Nor can see. To whom be honor. Everlasting power. Amen. Demand those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty. nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
Let them do good that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and vain babbling, the empty chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. By professing it, shall have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. Well, we end this most practical book, this most practical letter to a young leader in a very important church. Instantly, the Apostle Paul, talking to a specific group whom we heard mentioned last night.
In fact, they were before us in the entirety of the meeting last night, those who were bond slaves. And so to them he first addresses specifically those slaves who have unsaved masters, and he said, count them worthy of all honor. There's a huge subject at stake so that the word of God, the name of God, and his teachings are not able to be blasphemed. We can use that, of course, and spiritualize it towards our dealings with our own employers, I'm sure, those who are employed secularly and have unsaved bosses. Very difficult at times to work for the unsaved, especially when they don't really share our faith and especially when they not only don't share it, but they don't respect it.
Certain things that people are asked to do that us believers we cannot do. And it's very, very difficult, I understand, to work under a boss like that. I only had one, to be honest, who was like that. Thank the Lord he has become a Christian. He has gotten saved. He's totally different. But boy, I'll tell you, once upon a time when I first went to work for him, he was tough. I've never in my life seen a human being with more natural native talent at passing the buck than that particular individual. It did not matter what he did, when your number was up, you were the one that somehow was to blame for it. And you could just do nine hundred and ninety-nine things out of a thousand right in your job.
You'd never hear a word about them. All you would ever hear about is that one that maybe you did wrong. That was the kind of man he was. But he's come to Christ. He's really a much different human being. Great man to be around now. He's a lot of fun. And I would think that he's a much better boss to work for. But I think of him. Every time I read, one Timothy, six, one, I'm reminded of that dear man. And how he used to be. Because it was difficult. Now, I wasn't a bond slave, obviously. And so in that regard, the analogy falls apart. But, But just to a small degree, I remember and I realized what it's like to work in the supervision of an unsaved boss who is, quite frankly, not at all impressed with the fact that you're a believer.
Slaves with unsaved masters. Count them worthy. Count them worthy, he said, of all honor so that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Now, those who work for believing masters... have extra difficulty in their life and so they receive an extra warning. And to them, Paul writes to Timothy, let them not look down upon them because they're brethren. Now you can imagine that. If you were a bond slave and your master was a believer, what a strange dichotomy that could be. And so the injunction here is very specific. He said, don't look down on them. Now you and I are very aware of coffee room and water cooler talk. It always concerns the inequities of the boss, the management.
That's the fun one. I used to be in construction and it was really interesting to hear the workers talking when they didn't know I was nearby, talking about the supervisors and the like, the construction workers. There's that built in, I don't know what it is. I think it comes from pride or something and it's probably very close to that in the military. that the officers are the ones who never do the work. You know, you want a job to be done. You don't send an officer. Send those of us who are enlisted. And that seems to be in many things. Now, you add to that a bond servant under a master, but he's a believing master. And so, says Paul to Timothy, don't teach them not to look down upon them.
But he said, because they're brethren. Rather, serve them. Because those who are benefited are two things, wonderful things, believers and beloved teach. and exhort these things. And so I suppose if we could use this analogously, it is probably safe to assume that some of you might work for a Christian employer, maybe even in a Christian firm. And so it is a very special need and requirement for those of us who perhaps work with Christians and have those above us that are believers, that we have to serve with them, not with any resentment of their position and their status as boss, but rather giving them a very special accord because they are believers and beloved and your work not only benefits them but then it also of course benefits the Lord and his people and says Paul if anyone teaches otherwise and doesn't consent to wholesome the word means healing words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness here is exactly what they are they're corrupt in mind number of things they're proud first of all falsely so certainly They know nothing, but they're obsessed with minutiae, with trivia, disputes and arguments over words.
And it's interesting because the word obsessed has the connotation of leading to physical sickness. Physical sickness. They've actually become sick with their silly wranglings over words, arguments and the like. Very, very practical chapter because frankly it's easy even today, even in the church, to come to become so enamored with words and arguments and the like that we lose sight of the practicality of it all. And so says Paul, just make sure that these people are pointed out for who they are. They are certainly the reintroduced false teachers. And now some other descriptive adjectives. They are envious.
Well, no wonder. That's what comes from an argument over words, silly wranglings of words. Envy comes. Also, they're quarrelous. The word strife in the New King James that I'm reading from is quarrelous. Reviling or blasphemous. They have evil suspicion, evil intent behind the scenes. And then they're involved in this incessant, useless wrangling. Verse five says, the constant friction of men of corrupt minds destitute, devoid of the truth. And here is the ultimate sin. They suppose that godliness is a means of financial gain. I need to spend a moment or two today on this. Our brother Bill touched upon it, certainly alluded to it, and the simple fact is we live in an age where we have to be very, very cautious, extremely cautious.
It is easy, I'm sure, to get sucked up into the pleasures of those that are well-known and those that are prominent among us. You turn on a radio, you turn on the TV and the like. And I think of one gentleman in particular. I'm not being judgmental. But if he has a half an hour radio program, it seems that twelve or thirteen minutes of it are involved with raising funds. And I don't know what his motivation is. I honestly don't know if that's just for the expansion of the ministry or for personal aggrandizement. I do not know, and I don't want to judge. And I want to tell you, that's not God's way. That's not God's way of raising support.
And it certainly is an abdication of the life of faith. that people that serve the Lord are called to. And so in that instance, think of the article that I read on one of these gentlemen who has two private corporate jets, one of which cost him twenty-seven point three million dollars. That might surprise you, but I have never earned that in a year in the Lord's work. Never once. I cannot answer for our brother Bill, but that may shock you. Twenty-seven point three million dollars, and I thought to myself, wow, And just think, if that one has a little mechanical malfunction, there's another one waiting in the hangar to take them wherever. They estimated the value of this home at three point eight million dollars.
And you sit there and you think, wow, we're going all the way back to the sin of Balaam in numbers twenty two, three and four. The simple fact is that among his sins, he sought to become wealthy from the work of God. We are not to be judges, but I think we're to be fruit inspectors, as someone has said earlier. And let's just be very, very cautious where we send our funds, each one of us, where we send our support, our financial support, because it would appear these false teachers supposed that godliness, the image of godliness, was a means of gain, financial gain. So what does Paul say? He can't be any more clear. He said, from such withdraw yourself. Now, I know the oldest manuscripts omit that phrase, but that's immaterial.
The principle is absolutely true. From such we must withdraw ourselves. God is their judge, and he ever will be. Sometimes they're judged even in this life, sometimes it will be in that life which is to come. God's their judge. We don't have to be. But I think we also have to be very cautious as to whether or not we would support them. Ah, what a verse. It's taken him a while to get to it. I consider this the most phenomenal verse, actually, not only of the chapter, perhaps of the book, at least when it comes to the youth, to a young man in Christian service. Godliness with contentment is beyond price. It's a great game. Does it take a lifetime to learn this?
Does it take a lifetime? I sometimes think to myself, Parks, when will you ever learn this verse? I memorized it when I was a child. It's easy to memorize. It's life-changing to practice, isn't it? Godliness with contentment is beyond price. have really utmost respect in one sense for those that are in the advertising business they have a rather unique job their job is to create need where there isn't any in some instances they take wants and elevate them to the artificiality of need and they do an incredible job of it incredible job just imagine the next time you listen to look at in a newspaper see on TV or whatever just imagine this just take one hour and examine the ads on TV or radio, or just take one newspaper and examine the ads for it.
Ask yourself a question, do I really need this? Do I really need this? But from constant reinforcement and repetition, it gets to the point where we do need these things. We cannot imagine how we live that long without them. And so we sit back and we have had this wonderful but artificial need in many instances created by some amazingly creative people. And it's so easy to buy into this as believers. At bumper sticker, he who dies with the most toys wins. Ever there were ludicrous words printed on a piece of sticky paper. That's them. It's like Chuck Swindoll said, of all of the funerals that he's ever been to, he has never once seen a succession of Brink's trucks in the funeral processional.
As if people could take everything that they amassed in life with them to the grave like the potentates of old. It's amazing how we buy into this stuff. And the society in which we live so amazingly materialistic, it is a constant clamor for things. And it's a vicious circle. It's the quicksand of materialism. It will suck you in. It's amazingly difficult to get out of it because it's a downward helix that is very unsatisfying as it progresses. The more you get, the less it satisfies. The more you get, the more you want. And I think one of the saddest people in life has to be somebody that is so very wealthy that they could buy everything that they wanted or anything without even thinking about it or saving for it.
I mean, the part of the great pleasure is the journey to get something, to save for it, some of our needs, to see the Lord provide for this. Ah, but boy, we just have totally reversed the process. Put the cart before the horse today in American society. And so again, we must say inevitably this. gradually infiltrates the church and it has and it has the local church fellowships that we call the assemblies that we love that happens too never forget our friend Neil Dougal once we share amongst several other things we share a great love for some of the islands in the Bahamas and we were talking about one island that I've spent I guess probably fifty eight weeks of my life on that over a year on that one particular island And we were talking about it.
He said, when were you first there? I said, nineteen seventy-eight. And he said, the first time that he had ever been there was nineteen sixty, early sixties. And he said, can you imagine the change even from when you were there? I said, yeah, it's incredible. He said, you know what I attributed to? I said, what? He said, I went for a walk one day. He said, I stopped counting at satellite dish number one hundred and sixty-eight in the yards of the people. He said, when all of a sudden they realized that two hundred miles off their shores to the coast of Florida lay a state in which they could fly in about an hour's time and by all of these things that they didn't even know existed. A lot of wisdom in that.
A lot of wisdom in that. And materialism has crushed the spirits of the people on that island. Some of them. Thank God for the exceptions. But what once used to be almost paradise found. Now it's just like a little microcosm of America, a couple hundred miles offshore. Because into their homes, and I'm not mucking TV necessarily and throwing some blanket indictment over it, but into their homes came the advertisements of all of the things that they didn't even know existed. And they couldn't live without them. And so they bought into this. What does the Apostle say? Godliness, coupled with contentment, is of such value that a price can't be put upon it.
May we learn that lesson. It's an enormous lesson to learn. The Apostle Paul said to the Philippian church that he recognized in whatever state he was in, therewith he could be content. There were lessons to be learned. He knew both how to be exalted and how to abase. He said, everywhere and in all things I am instructed both in being full and in being hungry. You see, there are lessons to learn. When we have a surplus, when God gives us actually more than we need, At those instances, we can fall on our knees and thank the God of the universe for giving us above and beyond just what we need. He can be instructed in having more than you need. It instructs you in the attitude of thanksgiving in a thankful heart.
But he said everywhere and in all things, because there are those times and perhaps you have them, and I know we do, when there is not enough and you have no idea how the next bill will be paid. And it's at those moments when the instruction comes by literally prostrating yourself in front of the Lord and saying, Lord, where do we turn? We don't know where this is coming from. I can't go out and generate these funds. And so once again, you're going to have to show yourself for exactly who you are, the God who owns all. And he does. And if you don't think there are lessons to be learned in that, they may be difficult ones at times. It's funny, I'm watching all the full-time workers here nodding their heads. The lessons may be difficult at times, but when they come, Boy, it's a wonderful thing.
Romans five comes right before us. Tribulation works patience. Patience then experience and experience hope or confidence. And it's a hope that will never, ever let you down. We have a marvelous God. A marvelous God. Let's learn that lesson. Even the youngest people here today, that godliness coupled with contentment is beyond price. It's beyond price. Fabulous verse to learn. Verse number seven, we brought nothing into this world that's certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Now the word clothing, as I understand it, and if you disagree with me, then I apologize, but I understand that in other places it is called covering.
And so while it is certainly a covering of ourselves and the human body, it may also infer the covering of a house, shelter. And so he said if we have food and clothing for our persons, and also a covering for ourselves and for our family shelter with these we shall be content and I asked myself this morning as I read it am I am I not too often I'm afraid no there are wants there that I elevate to an artificial place in my life and I spoke that this morning to my own shame certain that we can carry nothing out of this world now they tell the story of Charlemagne when he died he had conquered all but one known world And evidently there was a Bible that was laid on him in the coffin, and underneath it, by his own request, a finger pointed underneath Mark's gospel, chapter eight and verse thirty-six.
What shall it profit a man if he shall gain this whole world, the whole world, and yet lose his own soul? It's pathetic, isn't it? So incredibly wealthy, so powerful, and so empty as he faced eternity. Now there are very special injunctions here for those who will to be rich. Verse nine. By the way, verse ten, one of the most misquoted verses in all of the universe, isn't it? Money is the root of all evil. How many times have you heard it? How many times I have? Ah, boy, there's a very critical word that's left out. Those who desire to be rich, those who will to be rich, those who will do whatever it takes, may we infer.
Verse nine, to be rich. Fall into temptation and snares. into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Verse number ten, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their grief pierced themselves through with many, many sorrows. If you were to travel with me for a year, I'll tell you what could happen. Chances are you could hear the stories of some who have willed to be rich. Generally one, two, or three a year, I've met people who have gone in and life for the specific purpose of becoming wealthy.
These are professing Christians. Again, they seem not to have ever learned or believed the words of the Lord Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter six, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. They had a desire to be rich. It was a strong desire to be rich. When I look at young people at conferences and certainly even this morning, I was thinking specifically at young people's conferences, I look into these faces of curious and eager, bright young people, and in my mind I know that every one of them, if they chose to, could probably be hugely successful in this life. They could be. That's what they wanted above and beyond all else.
And you just try to get the desire into at least one or two of them there, not to will to be rich. Walk away from it. That after all will pass. Certain, says Paul, we can't carry a thing out. Like we brought nothing in. We came in naked, kicking and screaming. And some people go out just about the same. But the one thing that we know is that we all go out empty. And so he said, if we can just paraphrase his words, what is this life relative to that life which is to come? Go in for the riches of godliness, of a sanctified, set-apart life. What a wonderful teaching. For years I thought sanctification was a negative teaching.
A list of do's, some of which I didn't want to do, and a list of don'ts, some of which frankly I wouldn't have minded doing. That's what I thought sanctification was. So I've come to realize it's actually among the most important and positive teachings in the entire Bible. The omniscient, almighty God of the universe has looked upon you and he has looked upon me and he has chosen to set us apart for his own pleasure and to affect his work while on this earth. That's an enormous truth. How could we ever consider that anything but positive? Well, we have been set apart to glorify God and to become wealthy and rich in good works than in godliness and in holiness.
But he says, those who desire to be rich fall into an amazingly treacherous trap, foolish and harmful lusts which drown they swamp men. in destruction and perdition. Some have strayed from the faith for greed. They've pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I had a man come up to me once and he was, by this world's standards, very, very comfortable and then a bit more. In fact, then a lot more. They came up and he said, you know that old song, Wasted Years? Wasted Years? Oh, how foolish. Turn around, turn around. God is calling. He's calling you from a life of wasted years. I said, yes, I've heard that. He said, that's my autobiography.
If I ever had to write it, that would be my autobiography. And unfortunately, he had already set it up in trusts for his kids, and they had become ruined. Sometimes the people that make the money can handle it, but it might be their children that cannot. His children could not. He was pierced through with sorrows that because of the lifestyle that he had gone in for at the expense of spirituality, And think of God. His children now were paying the price. Mind you, this is not a condemnation of those who are well to do. Not in any way, shape or form. It is the condemnation of those who desiring to be rich do whatever it takes to get it.
So be very, very cautious. I'm thinking even now, maybe some of you have heard me tell this before, of a young man that had a burning passion for the mission field, specifically as it was known then and now again for the Congo. And so he petitioned, not an assembly man, but he petitioned a very well-known board, a missions board. And he asked if he could please be ordained or commended for the mission field. And they asked him if he was married. And he said, no. And they said, well, we do not make it a practice. In fact, our practice is we don't commend anybody that is single to the mission field. And so he couldn't go. Very, very upset. But he went. And he prayed to the Lord, and lo and behold, and that's another story in itself, as they always are, the Lord brought into his life not only somebody that he fell in love with, but somebody that at least shared the same passion for the very same country in Africa that he did.
In fact, she'd been praying for it even before he had started. And the Lord brought them together, and they were married, and the mission board commended them to the work in the Congo. They were there less than a month when his wife contracted it. a very almost fatal disease and so they had to return once she was stabilized in her health they had to return broken-hearted they didn't even begin language training they just gotten settled in and when she contracted this illness and they had to come back to the states doctor after doctor examined her finally they went to the Mayo Clinic with her and the doctors there were totally in agreement they said listen if your wife ever contracts this or even one in that family of viruses again, it will undoubtedly be fatal.
And our recommendation to the board will be that you not be allowed to return to Africa. He was totally devastated. He had prayed for years and prepared for over three years to go to that country. And in three weeks, his dream was shattered. He didn't know what to do. He had no formal education or training or schooling. He didn't feel that he had many things to give an employer on job interviews. After all, his resume was three weeks as a missionary. So what could he do? His mother decided to help out. Everybody loved her grape juice and her grape jelly. And so with her help, he started peddling it on the street corners and door to door. And by the time Joseph Welch died, he had donated over two hundred million dollars to the work of the Lord specifically in missions around the world.
Welch is great Jews. God has plans for us that are enormous. We have no idea what is available and what is awaiting to us. See, that was his test. It was almost like an Abrahamic test, if you'll allow me to say that, at least in part. He put into a severe test, he and his wife, but he had to work for him at home. And it was actually a secular work that he used as a springboard to advance the work of God. God knew, and he still knows, who can handle money. Here was a man who could. And he gave away a lot, sadly, as my understanding is that the family hasn't continued it. Now, of course, it's long since a gobbled-up corporation, and those days are gone.
But in his day, God saw somebody who could handle money. He didn't will to be rich, but God made him rich. And he was used tremendously in the advancement of the work of God. Now says Paul to Timothy, you, O man of God, verse eleven, flee these things. Flee these things. Notice all of the verbs in these verses. Flee. Pursue. Fight. Verse twelve begins with. Verse number fourteen. Keep this commandment. Verse number seventeen. Command those who are rich. Verse number twenty. Guard. And there are several others, in fact, that we could put in here. Very, very positive action verbs here.
you oh men of God flee these things rather he said pursue righteousness godliness faith love patience gentleness gentleness our lives and our hearts and our all they would really be changed wouldn't we wouldn't they if we would take these verses and memorize them and with God's help live them fight the good fight of faith by the way this is less warfare before us here than the athletic arena. And so he said that it's a contest of athletics. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you are also called and have witnessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses from flee and follow to fight or to contend.
Now that the solemn charge is twofold here. There are two very concerned eternal eyewitnesses. And here is what Paul charges. I urge you in the sight of God. Let me phrase this, who gives life to all things. Now again, you may disagree and you're very welcome to, but this is what I think in this, and I see this a bit in fear and trembling. He says, I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things. I am wondering if this isn't a reference to martyrdom. Potentiality of martyrdom. That Paul knew, do you remember what the Lord said, that he would teach him? We were looking at this with the young people the other night in the conversion of Saul when we do the staff devotions.
He said, I will show him how great things he must suffer. I wonder if one of them was that ultimately he would have to lay his life down for the cause of Christ. We don't know. Find out someday. Nonetheless, I wonder if this is actually perhaps Paul, maybe behind the scenes, just subtly in between lines alluding to Timothy that even if the cry was for martyrdom, the God that he served is still the God of resurrection. Give life to all things. The second witness before Christ Jesus, who witnessed that good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot and blameless. What a commandment.
And what commandment? Certainly the truth of Christian faith. Without spot and blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing. Of all of the things that we could take from our little sessions this week, boy, this would be one. And I speak first to my own heart. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? We could actually stand one day before our king. And I know we're not perfect, but if we could stand and have these words said of us without spot, no major stains in our life. Blameless, marvelous thing. Which he will manifest in his glorious doxology, Paul writes. In his own time, he, the blessed and only sovereign, king of kings, and lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in the unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honored and everlasting power.
Amen. I'm one of those who believes that you just cannot improve on a doxology. Nothing I can say could ever improve upon what we've just read. And so in verse seventeen, the apostle now goes back for a final charge to these who are already wealthy. Command those who are rich in this present age that they not be haughty. The thing that kills so many people and so many ministries is when we start to believe our own press. Absolutely have to guard against this. If you find a person who appears to have the arrogance because of knowledge of the word of God, be very cautious. Be very cautious.
Oh my goodness, the number of ministries that arrogance has sunk. How do we ever get haughty if you go in for getting knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had to say that knowledge puffs up. How can this happen? Well, I guess in a church like Corinth, it was so incredibly carnal. Maybe anything was possible. There were over twenty distinct evils and sins that they were guilty of as you read that first letter. But we think and we say, wait a minute. If we were to read the Word of God and everywhere we read, we can find, even in prophecy, the pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ we read the Gospels we read the Acts of the Apostles we read these epistles these letters for teaching and we look for the Lord Jesus and we look for the doctrines of Christ isn't arrogance or haughtiness or pride the exact antithesis of what that kind of study should lead us to how can we ever well you know what it is it's that old nature it's a succumbing to the old nature and when you find a person that has worked for knowledge of the Word of God and the person of Christ.
And then to see what appears to be an arrogance in it, you sit there and you think, it's all been in vain. In fact, it's even more than that. Command those, he said, who are rich, not to be haughty. Dare us ever, no matter whether we're rich or poor, gifted for public ministry or whatever, in anything in life, God forbid that ever we should become haughty. God forbid that we should ever become haughty. And he says, also warn them, do not trust in the uncertainty of riches. I sat at my desk at Merrill Lynch, the investment firm, on October nineteenth, nineteen eighty seven. Do you remember that was called Black Monday? And of course, now everything's fine and they're just waiting. At least I'm waiting for the next one.
Larry Burkett called it the coming economic earthquake. And I'm convinced it's going to happen. We in the West have built ourselves an enormous house of cards. We have been so long off of the gold standards. And everything is built on perception rather than reality. And I'm just waiting for the next wind to come that's going to blow it all apart. And it might. I have a feeling that it might be even in our lifetimes that we'll see this. But I sat there at that desk that day and we watched twenty-two months worth of work on paper evaporate in five hours. Five hours. And I sat there and I said, wow, command those who are rich in this world not to trust in the uncertainty of riches. It's amazing. And yet to some people right behind their health, that's number two.
And in some people, you wonder if they wouldn't mind rather being a little bit sick but rich. You wonder if it's not number one. It's incredible. The uncertainty of riches. And you know what? Even if we get them. And even if, indeed, we maintain them. The only truism left is that we will leave them. Now who are we going to leave them to? May we leave them as we make them. with the work of God to advance His kingdom on earth. That's the principle in this. Let them do good. Let them be rich in good works, verse eighteen says. Ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life.
I know that some of you have heard me say this. Do you remember the widow and her two months? All that she had. A mathematician with entirely too much time on his hands. Sat down at a computer in nineteen eighty needed to math. Figured out what the widow's two mites were worth in Jerusalem and he used by default AD thirty. That was his starting point. And he went a thousand nine hundred and fifty years to AD nineteen eighty. And so he invested them in a fictitious bank, the first national bank of Jerusalem I read in the illustration, at eight percent simple interest compounded annually. That's the worst way you can invest. Anybody knows that. interest simple interest not compounded once a year that's just not the way you do it it's not the way that the folks at CMML do it with anything in their accounts just not the way to do it but that's what he used and do you know what he found the answer would be from nineteen from from AD thirty to nineteen eighty at eight percent simple interest compounded annually whatever the widows nights were worth then in US dollars this is what it would be worth in nineteen eighty twenty four with seventeen zeros following it in U.S.
dollars. He said that by the year two thousand, by the way, that would double again. You know what? That dear soul that the Lord gave to us for constant preservation of her wonderful work, that dear soul invested where moth and rust don't corrupt, where banks never fail, and stock markets never crash, and real estate never depreciates. That's where she sent it on a hand. Boy, we're going to have, it's going to take eternity to thank that dear woman because she gave all that she had. She stored up for herself a good foundation for the time to come. Finally, he said, oh, Timothy, guard, preserve that which was committed to your trust.
Be proactive in this. Avoid the profane, empty chatter and the contradictions of that stuff that's falsely called knowledge. He said, because some have professed it, but because of it they have strayed. They have fallen from the faith. Finally, he says, Grace be with you. And all the people said, Amen. We're thankful, our Father, for the great privilege of reading together the Word of God. Closer to us, we pray, as we give thanks for it. Take it, Father, and may it find a lodging place within our hearts. Help us to be those that are not just hearers, but with the help of God also doers. Bless now the remainder of the day. We pray as we have a little time of fellowship, one with another. As our beloved brother, Paul, comes and shares with us again...
the practical subject of sharing faith with those that follow Islam. We pray our Father that we might each one learn. Help us to take it seriously because the likelihood is it is such a fast-growing religion that if we haven't already, before too long, we're going to find some who follow this teaching. And we pray our Father that it will undergird and strengthen us in our dealings with them, that we might get some wisdom that the Holy Spirit can take and impart to us at the very moment that we may need it. And so undertake for him we pray, Father, and for the rest of us today, bless us we ask as we give thanks in our Savior's name. Amen.