Freed from Greed!

October 5, 2008

Freed from Greed!

Gospel-Driven Contentment as the Biblical Alternative to
an Economic Bail-Out

Sunday Morning, October 5, 2008

Church in the Boro
Rob Wilkerson

Increasing debt rooted in the greed of inherent depravity is what has brought
our nation to the point of needing a $700B bail out. And it this supposed
economic crisis has come upon our nation this past week because of two
major influences in our lives, neither of which we will ever be able to escape
from until the day we die.

Human Depravity as a Major Influence

The first major influence in our lives which has brought us to this crisis in our
nation is our own depraved hearts.

• By nature we are not content with what God has given us in life.
This is rooted in our inherent depravity.

• Two of the major fruits that grow from this root are pride and greed.

o We show our pride by believing that things somehow ought to

be better and that we deserve something better.

o We show our greed by acting on our pride. The result is that

we listen to the voice of pride and give in to spending and
borrowing until we are upside down, not just financially, but
spiritually, emotionally, and mentally as well.

Worldliness as a Major Influence

The second major influence in our lives is this fallen world. Our world,
our nation, our society and culture today are all dominated and largely
controlled by prideful and greedy human beings who, with the tools of sales
and marketing, weave the world’s messages into the fabric of our souls
through a daily, steady trickle of information that fuels our inherent
discontent.

Those in this fallen world who are not followers of King Jesus live like it.
They spend for themselves, on themselves, and by themselves. And when
they run out of money, they borrow money to spend more for themselves, on
themselves, and again all by themselves. Through worldly methods of sales

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and marketing that are themselves developed out of greed, people are
intentionally made to feel more discontent with their situation life. As a
result, the worldly sales and marketing tactics work when these discontented
en masse spend money they do not really have on things they do not really
need in order to attain a happiness that does not really exist. In short,
discontented, greedy people make lots of money by making other people
more discontent and greedy. It is a cycle of madness that will ultimately
implode financially and spiritually ruining everyone inside the bubble.

There is a third major influence I offer you today, and it is a subset of

both the first and second influences. Yet this third influence is not so
inseparably connected with the influences of inherent depravity and the
world such that we cannot escape it, because we can. It is the influence of
the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. And it is a subset of the influence
of inherent depravity and worldly influence, not because I believe it to be,
but because God’s Word says that it is. Paul spoke of such a theology as
taught by “men of depraved mind and depraved of the truth, who suppose
that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Timothy 6:5). These are men who
“advocate a different doctrine” which “does not agree with sound words,
those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness”
(v. 3). The health, wealth, and prosperity teaching so prevalent in the world
today is not a doctrine that conforms to godliness in any way shape or form.
Instead this doctrine conforms to the fruits of pride and greed rooted in the
heart of depraved humanity.

A Brief History of Our Current Crisis

Working in the background of our lives for the past twenty plus years
has been an economy that skyrocketed through the atmosphere of a real
estate bubble. Houses were increasing in value an average of 20% per year
up until early 2007. And working in conjunction with this background was
our federal government taking advantage of that bubble through
organizations like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Fanny Mae,
Freddie Mac, ACORN, among the most notable. These organizations
themselves took advantage of the skyrocketing real estate percentages to
make money by promising banks the funding needed to get the
“underprivileged” members of our society into a home. Simply put, this
meant gaining votes from minorities and poorer segments of our society
through the promise of homes neither these citizens or the banks or the
federal government could ultimately afford. Multiply this out times many,
many years and it caught up to the government. The institution and
organization whose sole job is to protect us from enemies and provide for the
common welfare of the people, decided to turn itself into a business and
attempted to turn a profit.

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Working in conjunction with the real estate bubble and the federal
government’s decision to make a little money on the side was that silent but
financially deadly influence of health, wealth, and prosperity, on which I’ll
say more in a minute. Breathing the poisonous air of this belief, taught both
in the world in general as well as in the church, we began believing that not
only do we deserve more, but we can actually get more if we try. And try we
did, by going into debt…for cars, school, homes, and virtually anything and
everything else we could possibly dream of. From boats and yachts and
third homes to stereos and flat screens to home furnishings and
remodelings, most Americans have indebted themselves up to and
sometimes over 100% of their income. What this means is that the average
American actually owes as much as, if not more than they make each year.
And why? Because the subtle influences of inherent depravity through
discontent and greed, working together with worldly marketing taught us
that we should be able to get whatever we want, whenever we want,
however we want.

That is mostly why we are in the financial jam we are in today. Many
of us sitting here today have gone out and gotten ourselves in financial
trouble. We are to blame by going to banks and asking for loans for things
we knew full we could truly not afford, if we had taken the time to sit down
and responsibly figure things out. So banks not only lent to the
“underprivileged” and “economically disadvantaged,” but they also lent to
us who were over-privileged and over-advantaged, who should have paid
cash for what we needed or wanted, but instead kept our cash and chose to
use someone else’s, thus cutting our financial stability out from under our
own families.

Thankfully, though sarcastically so, many have become filthy rich

through what we now see is a scam. Giving money to people they know
could never pay it back in an attempt to get rich quick paid off well for them.
They have received their payoffs and retirement settlements to the tune of
tens of millions of dollars, while that segment of society who should have
never received a loan got one, couldn’t pay it back, had to foreclose on their
homes, costing banks tens of millions of dollars over the long haul.
Ultimately, many of these banks who were promised backing by the federal
government (as a part of lobbying for votes) ,who told them to do it in the
first place, looked to the government to make good on their promise, and
viola! The government now has to borrow $700 billion from itself, which just
broke the $10 trillion debt barrier on September 30, 2008. Earlier this
morning, according to the U.S. National Debt Clock,

The Outstanding Public Debt as of October 5, 2008, 1:52:56 GMT is:

$10,155,416,982,450.64.

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The National Debt Clock also tells us the following discouraging but helpful
information:

“The estimated population of the United States is 304,849,365

So each citizen’s share of this debt is $33,312.96

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $3.8 billion

per day since September 28, 2007!

So imagine my shock then when I hear that the President initiated a

plan to borrow $700 billion from a checkbook that is $10 plus trillion in the
red already! How does that happen exactly? Also no shock to any of you are
taxes, and this is precisely how the government will “bail out” the banks who
loaned so much of their money to people who couldn’t afford a home in the
first place. You and I and our children will be buying back those foreclosed
loans from banks who voluntarily decided to sleep together with the
government in the sleazy bed of greedy profit.

The Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel as a Major Influence

I lay part of the blame for our economic mess today at the feet of
those who claim to be followers of Christ. And part of that blame squarely
falls at my own feet. For I don’t come to you this morning as a person or
pastor unscathed by the fruits of pride and greed lurking in the depths of my
own fallen heart. And without excusing my sin in any way, most Christians
cannot excuse theirs either. For whether we recognize it or not, and whether
we like to admit it or not, the fumes of the health, wealth, and prosperity
gospel have polluted the very theological and ecclesiastical air we breathe in
this country. “We do deserve more,” we tell ourselves. “God does want to
bless us with stuff we want,” we reason. And so we borrow and spend like
we believe these things, or something similar we have told ourselves over
and over again, probably subconsciously.

I was perusing the current issue of TIME Magazine this past week and
found an article there in the Business and Tech section by David van Biema.
Entitled, “Foreclosures: Did God Want You To Get That Mortgage,” this
presumably unsaved journalist rightly identifies the health, wealth, and
prosperity gospel for having turned some of “its followers into some of the
most willing participants – and hence, victims – of the current financial
crisis.”i

You see, many of those underprivileged and economically

disadvantaged to whom I referred earlier were minorities who attended
churches which promulgated the doctrines of health, wealth, and prosperity.
The result is not so difficult to see. Given the background just recounted for
you of the skyrocketing real estate bubble, the federal government turning a

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profit by partnering with banks to give loans to underprivileged people in

order to gain their vote at the next election, people in these types of
churches which teach these types of doctrines would go out, get a loan, and
despite their financial unworthiness believe that their home loan was truly a
miraculous answer to their prayers and supernatural harvest to the seeds
they had sown in “the kingdom.”

No doubt you’ve heard the messages and outlandish statements made

by the most famous televangelists, and no doubt you know their scheme.
“Sow a seed into the kingdom and reap a harvest of prosperity.” By sowing
a seed into the kingdom they mean, of course, that they want their
congregants to give money, and lots of it, to their church, which of course
goes to the pastor and his leaders. The resulting harvest of prosperity is
promised largely in the form of a bigger and/or nicer house as well as a
bigger and/or nicer car.

Cited in the article by van Biema was Jonathan Walton, religion

professor at the University of California Riverside, who believes that the
health, wealth, and prosperity’s promises – “that God will ‘make a way’ for
poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional,
dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that
this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe ‘God
caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first
house.’ The results, he says, ‘were disastrous, because they pretty much
turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.’"ii

In similar form, Anthea Butler, an expert in Pentecostalism at the

University of Rochester in New York has written, “The pastor's not gonna say,
'Go down to Wachovia and get a loan,' but I have heard, 'Even if you have a
poor credit rating, God can still bless you — if you put some faith out there
[that is, make a big donation to the church], you'll get that house or that car
or that apartment.’”iii J. Lee Grady, editor of the magazine Charisma added:
"It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, 'If you give this offering,
God will give you a house.' And if they did get the house, people did think
that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking
policy."

The challenge I offer myself and you as well this morning is this. To
what degree have we been influenced by these kinds of doctrines? If this
kind of doctrine results in a kind of lifestyle which does not conform to the
gospel and to godliness, and if financial chaos is a reflection of a kind of
lifestyle, what has caused that lifestyle in us and our families? Is it the
fumes of the health, wealth, and prosperity doctrines which have, in some
form or another, made their way into the lungs of our souls? Or is it
something else we have not yet identified?

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Irresponsibility and Ignorance of Basic Finance as a Major Influence

Perhaps that unidentified influence in our lives may be a fourth major

influence I want to offer, in addition to the others. Simply put, it is
irresponsibility and financial ignorance on the part of Americans, which
obviously includes American Christians. I put irresponsibility first because of
the generations represented here today. There are the veterans, baby-
boomers, Generation X-ers, and the Generation Next-ers. Born after WWII,
the baby boomers were the objects of much affection as their veteran
parents overindulged in providing for their children, out of a basic desire to
provide more for their children than they themselves were able to enjoy at
that earlier age in life. The problem, however, was not necessarily in the
overindulgence, for this is simply a reflection of parental love. The problem
was in the result of that overindulgence which was expectation. Because
baby-boomers had become the recipients of so much love and attention,
chiefly through financial blessings such as the purchase of automobiles and
college degrees, they began to grow into an attitude which expected these
things in every other area of their life the older they got.

There was a caveat, however, and it was one which turned the
advantage of overindulging parents into a curse. As baby boomers grew
older, their parents often failed to tell them what kind of life was lived before
they were born that enabled them to be the recipients of so much blessing.
In a nation crawling out of the first World War and into the mire of the Great
Depression, only to crawl out again back into the trenches of the second
World War, the parents of baby boomers had learned a lesson that had
enabled them characteristically and financially to be to the source of so
much blessing to their children. They learned the hard lessons of
contentment and resourcefulness. They learned to make due with what they
had. But the technological revolution which was born out of the second
World War fast created a world of ease, safety, comfort, and security such
that baby boomers really had nothing to fear. Their parents before them had
already faced those fears and dealt with them as a nation. And now their
children were enjoying the fruits of that harvest of death and suffering. I
suppose it is almost impossible to completely pass on to your children
everything you’ve experienced and everything you know. One person simply
cannot live the life of another. But there are, however, lessons learned in life
that ought to be impressed upon the hearts and minds of our children. And I
wonder whether or not the parents of the baby boomer generation failed in
that regard.

Fast forward a few decades and my wife and I, along with many of you,
are the products of baby-boomers. Our parents were so caught up in
pursuing and enjoying the American Dream that they were unable to pass
along to us whatever, if anything, they learned from their parents. Their
pursuits took them both, dad and mom out of the household picture,

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because a two-income household became the requirement to attain that

American Dream and pay off the debt that was supposedly getting them
there. The result now is easy to see. Gen-Xers, who are currently anywhere
from 30 to 45 years old, were raised with little education about the affairs of
life, including finances. Our parents were too busy to teach us. So we, like
they, assume that our pursuit is the same as theirs: get all you can, while
you can. Yet our caveat is that because we do not understand their pursuits
through the lens of hard work, we assumed that we could have it with easier
and faster means. Enter the Dot Com explosion of the 90’s and the then
explosive real estate market and what you have is a generation, my
generation, who thinks that getting rich ought to happen quicker than it did
for our parents. Again, there is this attitude of expectation. And thanks to
bank loans, home equity lines of credit, and credit cards, me and my parents
can basically have anything we want, whenever we want, pretty much
however we want, for whatever reason our whims and fickle natures dictate.

Finally we come to this current generation, called Generation Next.

Like us, they are growing up in an ever technologically advancing society
which has made life far easier, and more comfortable, and more secure for
them than it ever was for us. And like us, they too are growing up now
without the same education we didn’t grow up with. This necessarily
includes finances. We, like our parents, and like our grandparents,
overindulge our children with blessing without the necessary companion of
also blessing them with wisdom and instruction. Like our parents did to us,
we give to our kids whatever they ask for, whenever they ask for it, and we
often go into debt to get whatever it is we need after that, always throwing a
little more in for the kids. As a result, the current generation is one marked
often by laziness. Work is a more a chore than anything. They’ve gotten by
in life this far without hard work. Their parents seemed to acquire what they
had quickly, so why shouldn’t they? Yet it never occurs to them that sitting
in front of a video gaming system or a flat screen HDTV watching T.V. and
movies isn’t the road to that same wealth. Because they have been left
handicapped by their parents, they sit mindlessly before their digital baby
sitters waiting and wondering when their big turn will come. So while they
wait, they take out and live off of school loans, grabbing life’s extras with
credit cards, playing the lottery, partying themselves deeper into debt,
waiting, waiting, and waiting until….

Well, that big turn has come this past week. But it wasn’t quite the
turn that Generation Next-ers are hoping for. In fact, it’s probably safe to
say that this whole economic bail out thing entirely missed them. Updating
Facebook friends, keeping up with the “Jones’s” in the World of Warcraft,
maintaining their iPods, feasting on internet porn, and just wasting time in
general keeps them far too busy for world economics and financial
responsibilities. Yet this very generation, who by and large has missed this
whole crisis, will be the ones to pay the price tag that we as their parents,

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and our parents as their grandparents have written on their future. Yes, our
failure to take upon ourselves the responsibility to deal with our personal
finances morally, ethically, and just plain wisely has meant that our children
receive basically zero education on financial matters. They’ll grow up as
dumb as we are, and they’ll do things as dumb as we have done, all while
expecting that life should somehow be better…because they, like we, have
breathed in the air of discontentment, greed, and pride.

Also in this week’s current issue of TIME was an insightful and frightful
article by Niall Ferguson, who is currently one of the world’s leading
historians. His article entitled, “The End of Prosperity?” puts into focus for us
the possibility of another Great Depression, though to be sure he argues that
it is not altogether unavoidable. What is certain though is that our country
will from here on out be forced to make two life altering decisions: live on
less and reduce their debt load. Pursuing these two courses will necessarily
entail a change of mindset that doesn’t run into material gain so quickly.
Ferguson wrote in his article,

"The U.S. -- not to mention Western Europe -- is in the grip of a

downward spiral that financial experts call deleveraging. Having
accumulated debts beyond what's sustainable, households and
financial institutions are being forced to reduce them. The
pressure to do so results from a decline in the price of the assets
they bought with the money they borrowed. It's a vicious
feedback loop. When families and banks tip into bankruptcy,
more assets get dumped on the market, driving prices down
further and necessitating more deleveraging. This process now
has so much momentum that even $700 billion in taxpayers'
money may not suffice to stop it."

The hope here is not Washington, friends. And it’s not even the
church. The real hope is King Jesus. And those who are followers of King
Jesus should and will live like it. Their hearts are truly committed to the
financial outlook both held and proclaimed by Him personally while He was
on this earth. And they work hard on this earth to attain blessings not on
this earth. Simultaneously, however, they also work hard to identify and
destroy the spiritual parasites which both imbed their bacteria of discontent
and greed into the soul, while at the same time draining the soul of true
happiness in King Jesus. Ridding themselves of both the parasites and the
source from which they come, on a daily basis, is as ordinary a task to true
Christians as following any other command the King has issued in His Word.

This is the “big picture” mindset Paul was attempting to give Timothy
when it came to the issue of money, in 1 Timothy 6. Consider again the
short list of the reflections of greed in our culture today: two-income
households, technological explosion, national debt, personal debt, mortgage

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crisis, health/wealth/prosperity teaching, etc. All of these and more are the
fruits of our irresponsible and ignorant “labors.”

Please hear my heart on what I’m about to say. When a nation falls to
greed it will also fall because of greed. And when this happens, Christians in
that nation will always suffer along with the rest. So instead of crying “No
Fair!” and because of our parental irresponsibility allowing our children to
grow up in that same “No Fair!” default mode, we would do well to live as
Jesus and Paul taught us to live. I believe, based on the promises God
Himself has made in His Word, that such a life will NEVER truly be affected
by a nation’s financial downfall because of greed. Why? Because the kind of
life a follower of Jesus must live never, EVER rests on the rise and fall of a
nation’s economics, but upon the faithfulness of God to His people. This life,
I submit to you this morning, is a life of contentment.

Dave Ramsey, a solid, Christian, financial advisor put it in perhaps the

simplest form in a recent interview with Christianity Today magazine, some
two weeks ago. When asked “What will the crisis do to people’s lifestyle?”
here’s how he replied.

“I don't know that I have necessarily heard anyone say, ‘I'm now
convicted to straighten out my life.’ I think the net result is that
when the emotional moment leaves, people will hopefully find
some contentment in what they currently have and not have to
constantly own something bigger and better just to feel good
about themselves.”iv

I am personally indebted to men like Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey

for helping me make the turn around in my family, back upstream, against
the flow of my generation. But they, like me as your pastor, get their
information from a divine source. Can it be stated with more authority and
simplification than this statement by King David? “Better is a little with the
fear of the Lord, than great treasure and turmoil with it” (Psalm 15:16,
NASB). This is the root for the Apostle Paul’s statement to a young pastor
named Timothy in the first letter written to him. In 1 Timothy 6:6-10.

“Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After

all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world,
and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we
have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people
who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many
foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and
destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true
faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” (NLT).

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Truly this is the task of a pastor, according to the letter Paul wrote to
the Ephesian church, which became the church where young Timothy
eventually served as pastor. In that letter, Paul wrote that the function of
the pastor and teacher in a local church is to equip people to do the work of
ministry with the result that people “will no longer be immature like children.
We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will
not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound
like the truth” (4:13).

The passage in 1 Timothy 6 is what I want to point your attention

toward this morning. This is what I want to equip you with as you leave this
building today. Part of this equipping comes this morning in the form of a
warning, admonition, and exhortation to do two things. First, get rid of every
form of that dreadful and damning doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity.
You just flat out don’t find anything of the sort in the Bible, and wherever it is
supposedly found, it’s in the white spaces, and you’re not supposed to worry
about those anyway. Godliness is never and will never be a means of
gaining true wealth. It only earns condemnation for those who use God to
make a lot of money.

Second, educate yourself about finances so you can be responsible

with the resources God has given you. You’re going to be judged one at the
Judgment Seat of Christ for the works you’ve done while on earth in the body
God has given you. Part of that is how you “worked” your money, that is,
how you spent it, gave it, saved it, invested it, or whatever else you did with
it.

I. Godly Contentment is the Ultimate Issues

Both warnings, however, are rooted in one particular truth that is

rooted in and driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That truth, as I’ve already
stated, is contentment. What exactly is contentment? It is being
internally satisfied with what God has already given you, so that
you live like your satisfied by spending like you’re satisfied,
because you believe the promises God has already made and kept
to you to take care of you.

What It Is

Contentment is connected with your affections and passions. And it

shows up in all areas of life, with money being just one of those areas. Do
you struggle with lust and pornography? Do you find it hard to quit longing
for sexual interaction with someone else who is not your spouse? Do you
know someone who can’t seem to quit sleeping around with other men or
women? If so, discontentment is the root. Such a person is not content with
the spouse God has given him or her. This discontentment creates a desire

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for something else. That desire is sin. Sin associates with greed which then
fuels the discontent. That’s why people get addicted to pornography or any
other sexual sin. It’s because they are not satisfied with what God has given
them. And they aren’t satisfied because they do not truly believe the
promises God has already made and kept to take care of them. Their
happiness doesn’t lay in what God promised, but in what they don’t have
and can’t stop wanting. This is often why sex and money are almost always
connected, whether in the lives of politicians or preachers. The problem, of
course, is that in the case of the latter, much more is at stake than politics.
The very name and reputation of Jesus Christ is stained.

Daily contentment rests on the foundation of God’s wisdom. This

morning we sang the hymn John Piper wrote called “God Alone is Wise.” One
thing that struck me while singing is that if God has not given something to
us, it’s because He doesn’t think we need it. He doesn’t think it’s good for
us. And we show our disagreement with that often times, though not always,
through consumer debt and credit cards. If He is truly wise and knows
everything, then trusting Him is reflected in contentment.

II. Why You Must Be Content (vv. 6-7)

A. Because This is the Nature of True Godliness for the Christian

(v. 6).

When Paul writes to Timothy that godliness must accompany contentment

in order to have real wealth and gain, he means several things by this.

1. He’s not referring to financial wealth. He’s making a contrast in this

passage with the men (and women) who make it their aim in life to
financially profit from God and His Word and His people. So the
kind of gain Paul is talking about here has nothing to do with
money. That’s why Paul begins the verse with a contrasting
conjunction, to make a separate and opposite statement from what
he just talked about. It’s always fascinating to watch health,
wealth, and prosperity teachers take this verse out of the very
context which condemns them, and make this verse refer to
financial wealth and gain. They will reap the full reward of their
shame in due time.

a. Godliness is the pathway to great gain. Paul just hit on that

back in verse 3 with regards to those who teach a different
doctrine which doesn’t end up conforming to godliness.
Godliness, of course, is living like God. And God, of course –
there’s a lot of assuming going on here that the health,
wealth, and prosperity folks either miss intentionally or
ignorantly – God lives as a giver.

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• He loved the whole world so much He GAVE His only

son (John 3:16).
• God gives the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23).
• God didn’t spare His own Son but gave Him up for all
of us (Romans 8:32).
• On top of that He gives life to every man and He gives
rain and food to everyone. He gives sunshine to everyone.

If true godliness means living like God, then living like God means
giving, not earning! “It is more blessed to give than receive,” were
the words of Jesus in Acts 20. So true godliness is living and
therefore giving like God. Where’s the health, wealth, and
prosperity in that?

b. Great gain is therefore spiritual in nature. It is reaping for

ourselves what Jesus Christ reaped for Himself. And what did
Jesus reap? GOD!!! He got His heavenly Father! My oh my!
We are so consumed so very often with so much that really
matters so little! When we have God, we have all of His
promises and blessings!

• Paul said in Ephesians 1 that we’ve already been

blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places when
we got Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4).
• The writer of Hebrews calls Jesus the Author and
Finisher of our faith and therefore we are to fix or fasten our eyes
on Him! If we’ve got Him we’ve got everything else!

• Ultimately True Godliness Means That Since You Have Jesus

You Really Don’t Need Anything Else.

That name is the very reason why every Christian must be content
with wherever they are in life right now. Now I don’t mean, of course, that
you should be content with regard to your pursuit of God or your current
degree of holiness. No Christian can ever be content in those areas because
there’s always so much to work on! But in the area of what kind of money
we currently make and what we currently own, we must be content. And
why? Why can’t we live like everyone else in the world, vying for the next
easy buck so we can buy something we are eager to consume in our
selfishness? For one reason. The Christian has something the non-Christian
does not have: forgiveness of sins. Romans 8:32 brings the “why” and the
“how” into focus more for us.

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“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things”
(NASB).

Do you see that?! God didn’t hold anything back from us. He gave us ALL
He had when He gave us Jesus Christ, His Son. And in giving us Jesus Christ,
we are thereby given forgiveness of our sins and made right with God. All of
you here are thinking persons, so I ask you: what greater thing could a
person possibly have in this life than to be made right with the God of the
universe? What greater status symbol of wealth could any person possibly
have than that of “forgiven”? Why is that so significant? Because even if
you have gained the whole world as your wealth and you lack Jesus Christ
and forgiveness of sins, then you will die not right with God, and the next life
will be unimaginably more worse than any thought of an inconvenienced
lifestyle with lesser material possessions here and now.

“Oh, but you have no idea how hard and inconvenienced my life would
be without the stuff I enjoy now. The Bible talks about trials and tribulations,
and my life would be filled with them if I didn’t have my stuff!” I answer this
silliness with the words of Horatio Spafford. Here is a man who was one of
the wealthiest businessmen in Chicago during the late 1800’s and lost it all
in the great Chicago Fire of October 1871. Then putting his wife and children
to sail for Europe to start a new life, their ship wrecked and sank, taking the
lives of all his children, with only his wife Anna surviving. Several weeks
later, as Spafford’s own ship was sailing near the area where his daughters
were lost he penned the words to the famous hymn, “It is Well With My
Soul.” Listen to the words of the second verse.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Do you hear the words of this wealthy businessman who had lost all his
wealth, including his daughters?! Even IF trials should come, there is one
incredibly blessed assurance that controls our lives. Jesus Christ took pity on
my soul, shed His own blood for me, and forgave me! So no matter what
else happens to me, it is well with my soul!

This is what Paul means when he said to Timothy that godliness with
contentment is great gain. The godliness he speaks of is that godly mindset
and attitude which accompanies contentment in the Christian. You see,
contentment without godliness is just apathy. And godliness without
contentment is empty religion. But kind of godliness with contentment Paul
experienced was driven by the gospel. Unafraid of what lies ahead, while he
awaits trial in prison, He can say to the Philippians, “I have received

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everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied…And my

God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus” (Philippians 4:18, 19, NASB). Did you get that last phrase? All of his
needs and the needs of the Philippian Christians, and therefore the needs of
all Christians will be supplied out of the abundance of what we already have
in Christ Jesus. Again, when we got Jesus Christ and forgiveness of sins, we
got everything else! Listen to the kind of empowerment this gives to Paul,
even in his imprisoned lifestyle.

“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be

content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost
nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in
every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with
plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives
me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13, NLT).

Ultimately, true godliness is living like we believe that Jesus Christ is the
once-and-for-all expression and fulfillment of a promise-keeping God. If God
promised to save us from eternal condemnation in hell, and if He kept that
promise, then do you think He’s going to let us starve to death or run around
naked? Even David, a man who never knew Jesus, knew that! In Psalm
37:25 he wrote, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have never seen
God’s righteous forsaken or His children out begging for bread.” Did He send
His Son the cross to die to make you right with Him only to leave you naked
and hungry, stranded on this planet until He comes back?

Some of you have either been fly fishing before, or else you’ve seen
someone else do it, if only on television. The concept is simple: throw a
manmade “fly” on the surface of the water over and over again, letting rest
on the surface of the water a few seconds at a time, in hopes that the fish
will jump up and grab it. This is what we are like, far too often: jumping to
the surface at fleeting pleasures which when caught only ensnare us.
Instead, God wants us to stay anchored to the bedrock at the bottom of the
ocean of the knowledge of His deep love for us. Staying anchored there
means we will not be so quick to swim to the surface out of a desire for
instant gratification, attempting to grab those fleeting pleasures which are
only there momentarily.

B. Because You Came Into the World With Nothing, and You’ll
Leave the Same Way (v. 7).

Backing up to the text in 1 Timothy 6 once more, the second reason why
we must be content as Christians is a rather simple one. You came into the
world with nothing, and you’ll end up leaving the same way. Job said it too,
in 1:21, didn’t he? Remember that famous line he spoke after losing
everything he owned, including all of his children?

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“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the
Lord.”

• Ultimately, your life never has and never will be measured by

the things you possess.

Jesus told a story once about a man who didn’t get this truth. And Jesus
introduced the story with these famous words: “Then he said, "Beware!
Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you
own" (Luke 12:15). The story Jesus went on to tell is also familiar to you. It
was the one about the man who was so bored in his discontent that he
decided he’d just tear down all his warehouses and build bigger ones in order
to sit back and enjoy life. Do you remember Jesus’ response to this man?

"But God said to him, 'You fool! You will die this very night. Then
who will get everything you worked for?' "Yes, a person is a fool
to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with
God" (Luke 12:20-21).

III. How To Be Content (v. 8).

So how should this rich fool have lived? And how then should we live?
Paul ends verses 6-8 with the short quip that sums up the mindset of every
Christian here this morning. If you’ve got enough clothes to wear and
enough food to eat, you need to be content with that. This begs the
question, of course: “how much food and clothing is enough?” Simple. If
you’ve got clothes on today and you’ve eaten in the last 24 hours, you’re in
good shape and probably a good candidate for the biblical definition of
contentment.

I look at my closet and see the living color definition of

discontentment. I have lots of shirts and pants and socks. And I look at my
fridge and pantry storage and there’s lots of food. We run out of a few items
and remark we don’t have anything to make dinner with! We’re so
conditioned to enjoy so much that when we have even slightly less than we
have we feel like we’re supposed to have, we’ve got to get to the grocery
store fast! I remember the days when we had so little, but we enjoyed the
presence of God so much more! Better is a little with the fear of the Lord,
than to have a lot of food and clothing along with a lot of turmoil. Pursue the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, rather than your own, and then God
will give to you the things you need to have in order to live. Put Him first
and He’ll take care of you. You can expect it. It’s another promise.

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If 1 Timothy 6:8 is one of the greatest and most practical ways you can
be content, then this will make it easy for you to get out of debt. Gospel-
driven contentment is the way out of debt. This simply means that you have
got to live within your means. In fact, to live like Jesus means to live below
your means, as much as possible. Become content with the basics when it
comes to food and clothing. It is not terribly financially difficult to eat food
that’s good for you on a low budget. It’s called oatmeal for breakfast,
sandwiches for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner. And it’s not difficult to
purchase fashionable clothes on a low budget. It’s called Goodwill and
Salvation Army thrift stores for clothes, furniture, and other needs.

Conclusion: The Message of the Gospel is the Real Hope for our
Economic Crisis, not the Message of Washington

In closing, this is truly the point to take home with you today. In a few
short days we will vote in a new president and vice president. The Christian
must stop thinking that Sarah Palin, as conservative as she is, isn’t “all that
and a bag of chips.” She’s NOT the answer to our economic crisis! We’ve
got to stop putting our hopes in Washington, acting as if life will all be better
if we get Sarah Palin in office with John McCain. Vice versa, Barack Obama’s
message of “Change” and “Hope” are not the biblical solutions of change
and hope that will actually change our nation and give us real hope. These
are empty political speeches designed to strike a chord with some people
who for the most part can’t even describe the chord that’s been hit.

Titus 2:11-13 tells us about the real hope for our country, our
churches, our families, and our personal lives.

For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all
people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and
sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom,
righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with
hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.

My friends, you’ve all been freed from greed by the grace of God that
has appeared to you and saved you from this present world. The greed and
discontentment that seem to rule our lives has been crucified with Jesus,
with God Himself being given to us as the replacement for all our empty-
headed fickle desires and whims. This grace of God teaches us to turn from
godless living rooted in greed and pride and discontentment. It demands
that we turn from finding our pleasure in all of the things this lifestyle offers
us, and find it in the person of God. Wisdom, righteousness, and godliness
should mark our lives from this point forward. Looking forward to the Second

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Coming of Jesus Christ, should fill our vision, and not the Second Coming of
Reaganomics!

Jesus Christ has been revealed once before as your all in all. Set your
mind on things above where He is seated at the place of authority beside
God. He is already the king over your checking account, your investments,
your 401K, your home loan, your job, your life! Let’s start acting like a King
lives with us by trusting that since He died for us He loves us enough to
provide for us all the lesser petty little things we enjoy so much. And if this
rules and guides our households and our checkbooks, then it will rule and
guide our local church. And if rules and guides our local churches, it will
change our city. And if it changes our cities, then it will change our state.
And when it changes our states, it will change our nation.

The gospel is the answer to the economic crisis.

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i
Source: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1847053,00.html.
ii
Ibid.
iii
Ibid.
iv
Source: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/septemberweb-only/139-51.0.html.