Store Up Treasure in Heaven

0:341 Timothy 6, 17-21. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

1:08O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you. This is God's Word. You may be seated. Eric Little was a committed person. Christian from Scotland who won the gold medal in the 400 at the 1924 Olympic Games. He could have won many more of them, but he refused to run in three other races because those events were being held on Sunday.

1:48And that was when Eric Little gathered with the church to worship God. After the 1924 Games and his somewhat miraculous 400-meter victory, he could have continued to compete and win for years to come. In fact, that's what most of his countrymen expected him to do. But after his Olympic victory, instead, Little enrolled in a theological school in order to receive training to take the gospel to China. He grew up as the son of missionaries there, and he had a great burden for the people of China. He wanted to return and continue the work. And so after graduation, that's what he did. He worked there for 15 years or so, only returning back to his native Scotland a handful of times during those years.

2:34But of course, by the late 1930s and into the 1940s, the world was at war. And by 1943, the Japanese had taken control of most of China. And many people, including Liddell, were sent to an internment camp. Eric Little was not able to continue his mission work as usual there, but he looked for every opportunity that he could find to serve the people who were imprisoned along with him. And that went on for nearly two years. But the harsh conditions of the camp took a toll on everyone, and that was true of Eric Little as well.

3:08He suffered a minor stroke in February of 1945, and then one week later he died. Many people hear the story of Eric Little, and they conclude that it was a waste of talent. Why would he give up the fame and the fortune, the notoriety that would come from being a professional athlete to go and serve people in China? Not his own countrymen, not people who were wealthy, not people who would give him anything in return. Why would he do that? They thought it was a waste.

3:47But Eric Little didn't see it that way. He believed that the purpose of his life was not to store up treasures on earth in the form of Olympic medals or money or fame, but to store up treasure in heaven. And, friends, today we're going to be concluding our study of the book of 1 Timothy in chapter 6, verses 17 through 21. And today we're going to have the chance to consider where we're storing up treasure. And not just where we're storing up treasure, but why we're storing it up there. What we're going to learn in this passage is that when we set our hope on God, we'll store up treasure in heaven. So let's look together at verse 17 now as we go. Begin.

4:33Paul begins this final section saying, as for the rich in this present age, Paul's focus here is the rich in this present age. Now, almost no one reads that and thinks, oh, he's talking to me. I better pay attention. Almost no one thinks that they are rich. Because in nearly every case, we all have people, examples that we can think of, whether they're our neighbors or they're people who live in another neighborhood in our city, or whether they're people that we see on television, we can all come up with examples of people that have more than we do. So we conclude: as long as I know someone who is wealthier than me, I must not be wealthy.

5:19But consider these statistics. The average American house has almost tripled in size over the last 50 years. The average American home contains 300,000 items. The average American family spends $1,700 per year on clothing and disposes of 65 pounds of clothes every year. America has more shopping malls than high schools, and 93% of teenage girls say their favorite activity is shopping. We don't think we're rich, but we are. And what's more, we don't think we're greedy. Listen to what Pastor Tim Keller says in his book, Counterfeit Gods.

6:08As a pastor, I've had people come to me to confess that they struggle with almost every kind of sin. Almost. I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying, I spend too much money on myself. I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family, my soul, and people around me. So, friends, as we look at this address to the rich in this present age, I think it's helpful for us to first define what we mean when we say rich. What does it mean to be rich?

6:43Could we define that word as having more than we need? More money, more food, more clothes, a bigger house, a nicer car than what we actually need. I think we can define rich as having more than what we need. And if we can agree that that is an acceptable definition of what it means to be rich, then almost every single one of us in this room today is rich. So, Paul is not just talking to the first-century Ephesian church and the wealthy men and women who are there. Paul is talking to you and me today, nearly every one of us in the room.

7:24So, what is Paul's charge to the rich? Look at the text. He says, charge them. not to be haughty. Charge them not to be haughty. That word means arrogant, conceited, prideful. Racism is a huge problem in society and in our country today. Our church has sought in different ways to seek to address that problem from a Christian standpoint, and I pray that we will continue to make efforts toward that end. But I have said before, and I will say again today, that I believe along with racism, one of the greatest problems in church and in the society that we live in today is classism.

8:07Look at this definition of classism from the dictionary. Classism is defined as prejudice against or in favor of people from a particular social class. You see, in a wealthy society, many people learn to adopt an arrogant and prideful stance toward the poor. So we'll see a poor person, we'll think to ourselves, or we'll say to someone who is with us, they're just lazy, or we'll say, they're just reaping what they've sown. But of course, we don't know their stories.

8:45Some of them may be lazy. Some of them may have made poor choices that got them into the predicament that they're in today. But have we stopped for a moment to consider why we aren't in their shoes? Why it is that we ourselves are not in poverty. What if we had been born into poverty and did not have the means or the opportunities to pull ourselves out of it? What if just one or two things had been different in the course of our lives?

9:19What if mom or dad lost their job? What if an illness drained the family's finances to zero? What if there was an unplanned pregnancy in high school? You see, if just one or two things were different in the course of our lives, then we might find ourselves in the exact same place. We might find ourselves in poverty. And so Paul says, don't be haughty. Don't be prideful or arrogant. We did not choose to be born in America. We did not choose our parents. We are who we are, and we are where we are by the providential grace of God. So there is no room for boasting for any one of us. There's no ability for us to say, look at me, I'm wealthy. So much of that was completely outside of our control. And so we need to not be haughty. That's Paul's first charge to the rich. But then, secondly, look at what he says. Charge them not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who Richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

10:36You see, setting our hopes on riches is foolish because they are so uncertain. Not just because they can't save us, but because they are so uncertain. Look on the screen to Proverbs chapter 23. Do not toil to acquire wealth. Be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. The old saying is that many people have gone to bed rich and woken up poor. And that is true from the scripture as well. And yet, how many of us have done this very thing that Proverbs warns us of? How many of us have set our hope on the uncertainty of riches?

11:29We think to ourselves, if I just had a little bit more money, then I could do this and this, and then I'd be set. But you've lived enough life to know that once you do this and this, you say to yourself, if I just had a little bit more money, then I could do this and this, and that's all I would need. Every step of the way, we convince ourselves all we need is just a little bit more money, because that would open the doors that are currently closed to us. In whatever part of our lives. But, friends, it never stops. There's always one more thing. And the result is that our hopes are never fulfilled because we can go on convincing ourselves that we need just one more thing.

12:17That's the real problem. See, the real problem is not that riches are so uncertain, although certainly they are. Riches are uncertain. The real problem is that riches cannot bear the weight of our hopes. Riches cannot bear the weight of our hopes. And that's why, if you listen to some of the wealthiest people who live today, some of the wealthiest people who have ever lived, they will tell you after earning all of their money that it has not brought them peace, it has not brought them joy, it has not given their life meaning or fulfillment. Hundreds of years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote this: Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.

13:13That's the old way of saying, Mo money, mo problems. Instead of setting our hopes on riches, we are called to set our hopes on God because God can actually bear. The weight of our hopes. See, many times in our day and age, you'll hear people talking about faith. And you'll hear people talking about faith on television shows and in movies, particularly this time of the year. And the message seems to be: faith is all you need. Faith is all you need. Like, faith in and of itself is all you need. Well, the problem, friends, is that faith is only as good as the object of that faith.

14:00So you can have great faith in a false Savior like money, and you will be disappointed every single time. Or you could have tiny faith in a true Savior, Jesus Christ, and he will never let you down. The scripture says that Jesus is our true Savior. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Money sprouts wings and flies away. Products lose their luster over time. They get broken, stolen, and lost. I was reminded of this this past week. Somebody backed into my wife when she took my car, of course, to the grocery store.

14:50And so, you know, at first I was like, oh, I can't believe this. You know, we got to go get this thing fixed now, whatever. And so I go to the dealership where their insurance company wanted me to go. They're going to set me up with a rental car for this past week. And I'm like, this is such a hassle. And they're like, Mr. Duty, we've put you in this Buick, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, you know, it's Buick.

15:09So, like, what could that even mean? I get out there, and the thing is like a Mercedes. There's a computer screen bigger than my television on the dashboard. The seats are heated. There's like two moon roofs that open up. So, you know, I'm driving this thing all week long. And this thing has become glorious to me. I don't ever want it to go away. So, Thursday afternoon, they call me and they say, Mr. Duty, your car is ready for pickup. Can you come by before I was like, I can't make it?

15:44I'm a very important person, and there's no. So I go Friday morning to give this car back, and I get my car, and I open the door, and it's like, ka-chunk. And they had put a bolt that was too long, and it was actually scraping the paint on my door. And I was like, oh man, this isn't going to work. And they're like, oh, no problem. We'll take care of it. You'll just keep the car longer. I was like.

16:11Sadly, it went back Friday afternoon. And I am back in my 2004 Chevy Malibu. But praise God. I have a car, it runs. What was I talking about? Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the true Savior who will not let us down. Money flies away, products lose their luster, vacations come to an end. God will never let us down, though. And the good news about God, as we see in this passage, is that not only can he bear the weight of our hopes, he says here in the text that he gives us everything to enjoy. Every good and perfect gift is from the Father. And one thing that you notice all throughout 1 Timothy and all throughout the scripture is that God never goes to rich people and tells them, you need to get rid of all your money. You need to sell all of your stuff. In fact, in all of the scripture, there's only one instance.

17:10Jesus with the rich young ruler, where he tells him, you need to sell everything that you have. You need to get rid of all of it. That was his idol. In every other case, the rich are instructed, as we see here, to not set their hopes on riches, but to set their hopes on God. And so let's consider now not just the negative instructions, what we should not do. We shouldn't be haughty. We shouldn't set our hopes on riches. What should we do? Look at verse 18.

17:41They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. So, first thing, Paul calls the rich to do good and to be rich in good works. In other words, the wealthy members of our society, you and me, we should do so many good works that people would say of us, they are wealthy in good works. Not just that we have a lot of money, but we do so many good works, we could be considered rich in those. And friends, that resonates with us today. That resonates in 21st-century America. We live in a time where causes are promoted 24-7.

18:35Not that long ago, major American and multinational companies did not have non-profit partners. That was not a thing. That's a fairly recent phenomenon. But now, every major company has a non-profit partner. And people go to work for companies, not always simply because of what the company does or what their job is going to be, but who their non-profit partner is because they so resonate with that. When I was in business school in the early 2000s at AM, I did not know a single classmate, not a single classmate who wanted to work for or start a nonprofit. Not one.

19:20Every single week here at New Life, I meet business students and other students. When I ask them, what is your long-term plan? What do you want to do? They say, I want to work for this non-profit. I want to start. A non-profit, that was non-existent even 12 or 15 years ago. But today you see it everywhere. And so, what this means is that we are living in a time where people are wanting to do good, they're seeing this void that living for career advancement and money and wealth that it just leaves you. And so, they want something more. But what that means is we are bombarded constantly with advertisements, with emails, with promotions on social media, with every one of these organizations asking us for our time and for our money.

20:04And so, one of two things happens to us. For a lot of us, we just get paralyzed. We get 12 emails a day from different organizations, different ministries asking for time and money, and so we do nothing. Or I think for a lot of us, we give a little bit of time and money to a dozen different ministries and organizations. Well, friends, no one can do everything. We simply cannot give our time and our money to every single good cause that's out there. But we're called to be rich in good works. So, being paralyzed by the modern reality is not an option for the Christian. We've got to step in and do something. So, friends, I would encourage you today to get focused. It would be far better for you to say, I am going to give the majority of my limited time and money. To my local church, to a missionary, and to this one great cause.

21:07It would be far better for you to pick three avenues or two avenues where you are saying, This is where I'm going to channel my time and my money and make a considerable impact rather than make a tiny impact across a dozen ministries and organizations. If we want to be rich in good works, we have to get more focused. Because more focused effort in fewer directions leads to better outcomes for everyone. And so, as we think about this, as we think about being rich in good works, we need to think about where we're spending our time and where we're spending our money. Are we rich in good works doing the most possible good as Christians?

21:48So, first he says, do good and be rich in good works. Then, look what he says in verse 18. Charge them to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. Have you ever asked yourself, why has God enriched me? Why has he given me more money, more clothes, more technology, more tools, more books than I actually need? Look at what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 on the screen: You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way. Way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

22:36Well, that's a struggle, isn't it? It's a struggle for us to believe, I have been enriched in every way to be generous in every way, because if you're anything like me, you tend to see your money and your possessions as your stuff. You don't see yourself as a steward, but as an owner. And I know because that is my struggle. It's very hard for me to see myself as a steward instead of an owner. But we've been blessed to be a blessing. The whole reason that God has entrusted us with the money and possessions that He has entrusted us with is not so that we can hoard them, but so that we can be generous and we can look for opportunities to share with others.

23:20And friends, as Christians, our lives should be marked by generosity because that's what the gospel message is. The gospel message itself is a message of generosity. We found ourselves enemies of God, dead in sin, unable to do anything about our condition. And so God sent His Son Jesus to do for us what we could not do. The scripture says that He emptied Himself and became poor. He took on the very form of a servant. He took on flesh. He lived and died and rose again on our behalf. And through faith in Christ, you and I have become rich.

24:00Spiritually rich now, and in the age to come, we will be rich in all things. The gospel message is a message of generosity, and so we as Christians should be known as people who are generous and ready to share everything that we have. See, the ultimate aim in doing good works and being generous and ready to share is what Paul says here: it's to store up treasure in heaven as a good foundation for the future. And of course, that teaching comes right out of Jesus' own teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Look on the screen at Matthew 6: Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

25:01The wonderful reality is that as Christians, we have the opportunity to store up treasure in heaven, to make an investment that is guaranteed. And friends, because God is infinite, he has infinite capacity to reward, so this is not a zero-sum game. It's not as though he has a limited amount of treasure and blessing to go around, so if your neighbor gets it, you can't have it. He has infinite capacity to reward. So when we encourage One another to store up treasure in heaven, we're all able to store up great treasure in heaven.

25:36See, we can be rich in this age and poor in the next. That's what Jesus' teaching on the rich man and Lazarus is intended to convey: that you can be rich in this world and yet have nothing in the next world, or you can have nothing in this world and then be rich in the next world. And so, we should focus on storing up treasure in heaven. And if you go back to verse 12 from two weeks ago, where Paul tells us to take hold of the eternal life to which we were called, we see how those principles tie in together here at the end of verse 19. Look what he says: storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

26:26See, Christians, we should not live our lives to acquire money and possessions, to store up treasures on this earth, because riches are so uncertain, and because they can't bear the weight of our hopes and our expectations. Rather, we're called to take hold of life, which is truly life. We seize it, and we seize that life now by living with that eternal perspective today. By saying, I'm not going to live my life to invest only in this world, I'm going to live my life investing in. In the next world, in eternity to come. And every time we do good, every time we do something generously, every time we are ready to share what God has entrusted to us, we are storing up treasure in heaven. As Jesus Himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

27:20So these are the positive charges that Paul has given to the rich. It's not just that we shouldn't be haughty, it's not just that we shouldn't set our hope on riches, it's that we should be rich in good works, we should be generous and ready to share. And so, with all of that instruction, now, Paul is going to close his first letter to Timothy with the same charge that he began the letter with. Look now at verse 20.

27:49O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you. One of the first things you notice here is the passion that Paul writes with. O Timothy, he's not speaking to somebody that he barely knows, he's speaking to his true child in the faith, one that he loves and one that he wants to see grow. And succeed in pastoral ministry. And so he says, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Now, the word deposit translates a Greek word meaning that which is entrusted or what is someone's responsibility to care for. It's entrusted to us, it's our responsibility, and it often referred to money or valuables that were put in someone else's care for safekeeping. So, not necessarily in the terms of a bank, but in terms of a friend who would hold those things for you. Because I think sometimes when we think in terms of banks, we think of a cold institution, we're talking about a friend who's guarding your most valuable assets. That's what Paul is saying here. And what is this deposit that Timothy needed to safeguard? Well, we know from the context of 1 Timothy that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of his life, death, and resurrection that Jesus passed down directly to the Apostle Paul. And that the Apostle Paul is now passing down to Timothy. And so Timothy's job was to preserve the gospel, going back up to verse 14 from a couple weeks ago. He is to keep the gospel unstained and free from reproach.

29:45But how do we do that? How do we do that? First, by avoiding falsehood, and second, by professing the truth. First, if we're going to preserve the gospel, we have to avoid the irregularity. Irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. Let me remind you of how Paul began this letter to Timothy. Look on the screen at chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

30:32See, one of the main problems with the false teachers is that they were pulling people in to pointless debates over things that did not matter. They were promoting speculation rather than stewardship, which was from God. And, friends, of course, we see the same problem today. You have false teachers all over making all kinds of speculations rather than proclaiming the biblical gospel. So, think about all the false teaching that's out there about eschatology, about the last days. You have men and women all over our country and all over the world who are saying, I know exactly when Jesus is going to return. And people have been saying that for thousands of years. I know exactly when Jesus is going to return. The scripture says Jesus Himself said, No one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son, but only the Father. And yet, you have entire ministries. In America and around the world, built on false teaching about the last times, promoting speculations rather than stewardship.

31:40Think about all the false teaching that's out there about spiritual gifts. There are entire ministries, entire churches that are built around teaching you that you need to receive a second baptism from the Holy Spirit. Entire ministries and teachings built around the idea that you need to have visions and dreams if you're going to be a mature Christian, that you need a private prayer language, that you must speak in tongues, or else you are missing out on the fullness of the Christian life.

32:12Paul clearly refuted that teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12. But I want you to really focus on what he writes in Colossians chapter 2 because none of this is new. Look at what he said almost 2,000 years ago. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Now he goes on, and look at what he says in verses 18 and 19. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head. from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

33:10Friends, guarding the deposit includes avoiding the irreverent babble and contradictions of what many people then and what many people today call knowledge, call the mature and blessed Christian life. So that's the first step. The second step then for Timothy and for us is to profess the truth about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. You see, if Timothy failed to profess the truth, then more and more people would be led astray by the irreverent babble and contradictions. So friends, for us, it's not enough to say, this is not the truth. We have to state positively, this is the truth.

33:54I think many of us are mature enough and discerning enough to recognize error, and we may even call it out privately or publicly. But friends, if we aren't loud and clear with the gospel message, then we will continue to be seen as little more than cultural critics who are disappointed in the direction of our society, but who are not offering a better alternative. It's not enough for us to say, this is irreverent babble and contradictions. This is not knowledge. That's not enough. We have to also profess the truth. We have to also... Point to the glorious reality of the gospel as the answer to our deepest and most pressing problems and needs. That's the reality. So, Timothy and we ourselves need to avoid false teaching and clearly profess the truth.

34:48And I think that's why Paul ends his letter with the four words that he does: grace be with you. This you is plural, so the alternative Texan translation would be grace be with y'all. He's not just talking to Timothy, he's talking to everybody in the church. Grace be with you. See, Timothy and his church would need the grace of God to fight the good fight of faith, and that same thing is true of us. We need God's grace to preserve and proclaim the gospel. Contrary to how things look today, we don't live in a time of peace. Many Christians around the world would be never fooled, never be fooled into thinking that they were living in a time of peace, but for us in America, we can be lulled to sleep and thinking that we live in a time of peace rather than in a time of war. And that war is not being primarily fought in business or politics or the culture generally. It's being fought in the spiritual realm. Look on the screen at Ephesians 6. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces. Of evil in the heavenly places.

36:04So, friends, to fight that kind of fight, we need the grace of God. We cannot do it alone. We need grace to boldly and courageously speak the truth and love, and we need to be willing to pay the price financially, socially, even physically, to win that battle. You see, Eric Little was willing to pay the price to win that battle, to fight the good fight of faith. He passed up on the opportunity to win many other Olympic medals. He passed up on the opportunity for a luxurious lifestyle and a successful career by every standard. He could have just gone on living life for himself.

36:48But after his Olympic victory, he didn't. And that's because his hope wasn't set on money. It wasn't set on the things that money could buy. His hope wasn't set on this world. His hope was set on God. And he wanted the people of China to have the very same hope that he had. Today, we've had the opportunity to consider where we're storing up our treasure and to ask the question: why are we storing up treasure there? Because where we store our treasure reveals what we truly love and where our hope is. And so my prayer is that we would emulate the Apostle Paul and Timothy and Eric Liddell, men who set their hope on God.

37:35Because when we set our hope on God, we'll store up treasure in heaven. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would teach us to set our hope on you. Every advertisement that we see is calling us to set our hope in a product, in a person, in an experience. And all of the advertisements this time of the year are saying, if you have this product, if you have this experience, if you align yourself with this person, all of your hopes will be fulfilled. You'll finally find what you're looking for.

38:34But, God, we know from experience that that's not true because we've spent our money and it's run out. We've had experiences and they've come to an end. We've bought products and they've gotten old, they've gotten stolen, they've gotten broken, they've been lost, and they didn't satisfy the deepest needs or desires of our hearts because they couldn't. Bear the weight of our hopes. And so, God, we come to you today asking for your help, that we would see through the lies and that we would choose to set our hopes on you.

39:17God, I pray that as the rich in this present age, that we would not be haughty, that we would not set our hope on riches, but that we would be rich in good works, that we would be generous and ready to share. I pray that we would be known, not just in the Christmas season, but all year long, as being people who hold our money and possessions loosely because we have everything through Jesus Christ. God, thank you for Him. I love this time of the year where we get to sing so much about Jesus coming.

39:58And I pray as we meditate on His coming and how He became poor so that we could become rich, our hearts would be filled with gladness. And that we would do these things that we talked about today, not out of duty, but out of delight, out of worship. God, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for your church. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.