September 30, 2007

How to Stay on Track

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Illustration

Letter intended to provide church leaders guidance in dealing with certain problems in the early church. The author’s advice still teaches us today about how to stay on track in the Christian life.

Previous topics include: how to run and orderly worship service; qualifications for church leaders; how women and slaves must conduct themselves.

This passage deals with two problems in the church. First, greedy teachers in the church.

Author reminds them to be satisfied with food and clothes.

Love of money is the root of all evil:

Desire for more leads people to do things which violate their understanding of the Christian life.

Financial success causes people to be conceited.

Pursuit of riches brings misery.

Second: Some teachers integrated teachings from other sources – contradicted church’s original confession.
Church’s teaching derives from the confession Jesus made to Pilate – Jesus is Lord.

Timothy made this confession when he was baptized. Church leaders probably did too. They should enforce it now.

Teachers are wrong to claim anyone else has gone to heaven. Only Jesus has gone to heaven and no one has followed him yet.

Jesus will return as Lord very soon. Keep church teaching pure until he returns.

Life Application – Letter written to a church that had gotten off track. Sometimes we also get off track. Two lessons:

One: Love of money leads to all kinds of bad things and can make us act in hypocritical ways.

People with money tend to think they’re better than people without. Christians see all people as equals.

Preoccupation with money almost always leads to destructive, fraudulent behavior. From taking what’s not yours to cheating on taxes.

Preoccupation with money reveals a kind of dissatisfaction with who we are as people created by God. Try to make ourselves more satisfied with possessions.

Two: To stay on track, remember Jesus is Lord, even in 2007.

Christians can get off track by forgetting about Lordship of Jesus. Other Lords include self, job, hobbies.

Christians get off track when they look at society and don’t recognize the lordship of Jesus in current events. Jesus is Lord over this world and is working in current events towards the salvation of the world.

Christians participate in Jesus’ work of salvation by living lives that announce the kingdom of God. When we do what is right, when we bring people to church events, when we stand up to injustice in Jesus’ name.

In his new book “The Way of Prosperity: The 7 Stages of the Prosperous Mind” Duke Clarke presents the concept that God has set up Laws, both biblical and universal, to help all people prosper spiritually and financially.

Illustration: “It seems like a cruel joke to ask people to come to God in order to enjoy peace, victory and a wonderful life and then once they accept, you tell them that’s all in heaven. But for now, your life will be filled with trails and suffering—what kind of message is that?”

“It is time that all Christians finally understand what God really intended for them financially here on earth. You should happily reap the benefit of your rewards now as well as in heaven,” declares Clarke.

Let’s look at today’s passage again, “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”

‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

That’s the heart of today’s message. Keep your heart on track and the rest of your life will follow. People get off track all the time. It’s part of being human. Life changes us, we lose focus, and before you know it our lives are going in an entirely different direction from the one we hoped.

That’s been the case ever since the beginning of the church, ever since someone began trying to live a godly life. The good news is that God help us stay on track. We are not in this alone. We do not control our own destiny. We are in this together with God and God is with us for the long haul.

When you need to get back on track, remember that God is God and not your or your job or your problems. Remember that our motivation, our reason for living the Christian life is not because we hope to gain something out of it, but because we have already gained Jesus. And when you get off track, he’s always there to pick you up and get you going again.