How are we doing, guys? All right. It is good to be with you all if we have not met yet. My name is Ian. I'm one of the pastors here. It's a joy to be able to open up God's Word with you today. We are finishing up our series Families Built for War. And so I hope that you've been challenged over the course of the last four weeks. I hope you've been encouraged. But we want to have a church that's full of strong families. We want to have a church that's full of families that are ready for war, because the reality is, whether you believe it or not, we are in a war and we are in a war against the world, and the enemy wants to destroy families. God created families. He created them the way that he designed them to be. And then the enemy comes in and tries to distort God's good design for the family. And we see this happening all around us in the world today where the family is being attacked. God's idea for the family is being attacked. And so we, as a church, we want to have a church filled with strong families, a church filled with families that are ready to step into the world that we live in, ready to step into culture, and that they won't get taken out. And but in order to have strong families, we need to build them. They don't just come by themselves. They need to be built. And so we've looked at the importance of family. We've looked at parenting, we've looked at marriage. And this morning we're going to talk about a trap that a lot of families, especially here in America, that a lot of families can fall into. And it's a trap of money. And if we want to have strong families, we need families that do not fall into the trap of money. Now, every once in a while at our dinner table, we we play a game and we play a game called Would You Rather. Are you guys familiar with. Would you rather. All right. Usually it's. I present two options and they have to decide which one would they rather have. And they're usually something pretty silly, like would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands? Any feet for hands. People out there. Good, because that is the wrong answer. Like most of them are pretty subjective. That one is just objectively wrong. Right? So I want to play. Would you rather this is not like I would say, just consider these things in your own head. Which would you rather, would you rather have your dream home or your dream family? Would you rather retire early with no cares? Or would you rather have godly kids? Would you rather have a nice vacation every summer? Or family you actually want to go on vacation with? Would you rather have your kids future secure? Would you rather have their faith secure? The thing about would you rather is it makes you decide where's my value? What am I putting my value in? It makes you decide that. Or at least it makes you say what you should value. But we all know it's not what you say that determines what you value, but it's actually how you live. It's what you do. And so maybe we should ask a few more pointed questions. Do you have a five year plan for your career, but no real plan for your family's spiritual growth? Do you already have a summer vacation planned for next year, but you have no idea on the spiritual conversations, in the discipleship that you're going to have with your kids? Do you often consider what retirement will be like, but hardly ever consider the legacy of faith that you're leaving behind for your kids and your grandkids? Oftentimes, we know what we should value, but when you look at the lives that we live, it shows that we value something differently. And now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't have both of the things in those scenarios. I know very many godly families who do have both. They have the vacation and a family they want to go on vacation with. They don't have to worry about retirement, but the faith of their kids is also secure. So you can have both. But which one gets your priority? Because what you do, what you spend your time and energy and thought life on reveals what you really value. And oftentimes we see families chasing a lifestyle and a future financial security at the cost of a strong family. For many of us, not just in America, but here in the church, we've bought into the lie that if we can make this much money, if we can have this kind of car, if we can have this kind of security, then we're going to be okay. And that's actually what's going to make our family stronger. We've bought into this lie that being rich means building financial wealth for our family, instead of seeing the real richness of building a family. Because the trap of money is all around us and we have to see it as a trap. I mean, just look at First Timothy chapter six, verse nine. You can actually stay there. That's where we're going to be most of the morning. But it says this. It says, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. The desire to be rich is a trap. Are you falling into it? Are you leading your family into a trap, into a snare, into all kinds of temptations for evil? How can we be a church filled with families who avoid the trap of money? Who are concerned more about building strong families and keeping up with the Joneses? A church that is filled with families who would rather build a life for their family, not a lifestyle for their family. How can we be that kind of church? A church filled with families who can honestly say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Not a lifestyle. So we're going to start right in the middle of our passage this morning. We're going to get a closer look at what this trap of money is and why it's so dangerous. And so go back to first Timothy six nine. We're going to read verses nine and ten. We want to look at the trap of money, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. First thing I want to do is I want to take a look at who falls in to the trap of money. Who is it that falls into this sort of trap. There's two types, two types of people, and I think they're actually the same. It's those who desire to be rich and those who love money. Now pay attention to what it says. It doesn't say those who are rich or those who have money. Pay attention to the words. Words are important. What does it say? Those who desire to be rich and those who love money. I know a lot of people who desire to be rich and love money and have very little of it. Just because you don't have riches, just because you don't have a lot of money, which we could argue if you're rich or not. We'll get to that in a little bit. Actually, I know a lot of people who would say they're not rich and don't have money, but still fall into the love of money and still desire to be rich, because this isn't primarily about what you have, but what you want, about what you love, about what you treasure. If we're honest with ourselves, more of us probably fall into this category of desiring to be rich and loving money than we want to admit. A couple of things you can look at to consider is this me. Look at your Amazon account. Look at the screen time for your Amazon app. Actually, how much time do you spend on Amazon? How much money are you spending there? Look at those things. Look at the balances on your credit cards. Look at the Pinterest boards you create for what you'll do when you have the money that you actually want. Maybe this next one steps on a few toes, but I also think our desire to be rich and our love for money is seen in how families prioritize having a double income. Now, I know that there's plenty of families who they need a double income. Like I understand that, I understand that there are situations like this. And Paul literally just wrote to Timothy. He's like, you need to provide for the family. If you don't provide for members of your own household, you're like, you're as good as an unbeliever. So he did just get done saying that you need to work hard, you need to provide for your family. But is the purpose of having a double income to provide for your family or to provide a certain kind of lifestyle for your family? If I had to bet, I'd be willing to place a bet on that. A lot of families, the reason where both spouses have to work has more to do with keeping up with the lifestyle and less about keeping people alive. And if you have to work like that to keep up with a certain kind of lifestyle, maybe you're not doing it just to provide for your family, but because you want to provide a certain level of a lifestyle for your family. Maybe you think that making more money is a better investment than time spent discipling and raising your kids. Because we're all prone to fall into this trap of money, the desire of riches. Well, we'll do anything to just earn another dollar or two so that we can get X, Y, or Z. No one is immune to the lure of money and riches because we have to understand how dangerous that is. We have to understand how dangerous that is. Look at the words that Paul is writing to Timothy here. He says, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. And I want you to see the certainty that Paul writes. He doesn't say that those who desire to be rich might fall into temptation. He says they will. There is a danger to the pursuit of money, The love of money, the desire for richness. This craving causes people to wander away from the faith and be pierced with many pangs. It's dangerous. It leads to destruction. Sometimes the destruction is obvious. It's obvious in the sense of it becomes a gambling problem that sends your family into financial ruin. That's obvious. Sometimes it's parents more focused on pursuing a raise instead of raising their kids to know the things of God. Sometimes it's obvious like that. But sometimes it's less obvious, and sometimes it's less physical. Because I think the destruction that Paul is talking about, he I think he's less concerned about financial destruction as much as he is spiritual destruction. I think he's less concerned about financial ruin for those who love money and desire riches, but the spiritual ruin of those who love money and desire riches, that their heart is so hardened by love for wealth that they no longer see a need to love and pursue the things of God. And this isn't just something that Paul warns about. This is something we see all throughout the narrative of Scripture. We see it in Deuteronomy chapter eight. This is verses ten through fourteen. He says, and you shall eat and be full. And this is right before the Israelites are about to take over. The promised land says, and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses, and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up. You'll. You will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt? Out of the house of slavery. We see it in revelation chapter three to the church in Laodicea. It says, I know your works. You're neither hot nor cold. Would you that would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich and I have prospered, and I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Their wealth had blinded them to the fact of their spiritual blindness. See it in Matthew nineteen, verse twenty three and four. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with great difficulty or only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. The love of riches makes it difficult to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a common thing we see in Scripture that money can harden our hearts to our need for God, and it leads to a damning and destructive end. It's what we see back in first Timothy six ten that causes some to wander from the faith. The danger of the trap of money is that when you think money can get you what you need, there's no more need for God. And that is a trap that we're all prone to falling into. But since we're talking specifically about families and having families built for war, parents listening, and especially husbands and dads. Your love for money isn't just dangerous for your soul. It is. But it's also dangerous for your wife's soul and your children's soul. You're leading your family down a destructive path. If you see a lifestyle as more important to you than building a family of faith. Don't lead your family into the trap of the love for money. If your family sees that money, wealth, and prosperity in a lifestyle is more important to you, don't be surprised when they follow suit. It is far better for your family to have intergenerational faith than it is for them to have intergenerational wealth. Don't fall into the trap of money that has a destructive end. So how do we avoid this self-inflicted pangs that come from the love of money and the desire of riches? How do we avoid it? And you can, because when you look at verse ten again, at the very end, it says, they have pierced themselves with many pains. The love of money has caused them to hurt themselves. So how do we avoid hurting ourself with the love of money? We're going to go up a few verses and we're going to be in verse six. But before we get there, I just want us to know the context that we're looking at. Paul is writing to Timothy to be on guard for false teachers. They're teaching false doctrines. They're teaching a different way to follow Jesus. They're teaching things that are not true and a false gospel. And Paul ends verse five by telling Timothy that false teachers aren't just teaching the wrong things. They're thinking that their apparent godliness, so that them appearing godly, them being in a role of teaching others spiritual things, they think that them being in that sort of role and position is for their own benefit. It's for their own personal and financial gain. That's what that's what the false teachers are doing and thinking. And I love what Paul says. He says that these people are depraved in the mind, deprived of the truth, and they understand nothing. So Paul is saying, hey, these false teachers are actually idiots. You shouldn't listen to them. You shouldn't do what they're doing. He says they think that their godliness is a means of great gain. But then he goes into verse six to talk to Timothy, and this is what he says. He says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment is great gain. And in this verse, we're going to see a few things that keep us from falling into the trap of money that will help us to build strong families. In this verse and the verses surrounding, we're going to see what we need to actually build strong families. And so here's the first key to avoid the trap of money have a better baseline for contentment, a better baseline for contentment. Look at verses six through eight says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. The first key to avoiding the trap of money is having a better baseline for contentment. And what is contentment? It's being sufficient, like a state of not being in want, a state of not being in need. And I want you to notice it's not that Paul thinks that he is content in and of himself. Paul doesn't think that, but he's content because he's in Christ and in Christ. He has all that he actually already needs. We see this painted a little more clearly in Philippians chapter four. These verses might be familiar, This is not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Paul understands that it's not what he has that brings about contentment. It's who he belongs to, that he is Christ. That the power of Christ is strengthening him. The power of Christ is undergirding him so that he doesn't need all these other things. He can be content with what he has. And so when Paul is writing to Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain, he's saying that true gain and lasting treasure comes from godly character and contentment. It's being sure that Christ is enough in every circumstance. Paul is telling Timothy that he needs to have a Christian baseline for contentment. And what's that baseline that Paul gives to Timothy? If I have food and clothes, I've got enough. Can you say that? Because I know I have a hard time saying that. If I have food and clothing, then I have enough. Paul understood. It's like, hey, if I could just have food for my belly, clothes for my body, Christ. Christ is going to be enough. Can we say that you won't avoid getting your family caught in the trap of money? You need a better baseline for contentment. So a question I need to ask is, is your baseline for contentment a cultural baseline or a scriptural one. Is your baseline for contentment that you have set for yourself and your family a cultural one or a biblical one? Because nowhere in Scripture does it imply that you need to have a three bedroom, two bathroom house, a two stall garage, a Netflix account? A certain year car. Now those things aren't wrong or bad, but if that's what you're relying on for yourself to be content, to be satisfied, to be fulfilled, you're going to be in a world of trouble. You're going to fall into that trap of money. And the reasoning he gives for that in verse seven is that we brought nothing into this world, and we can't take anything out of it. You're not taking your house with you. You're not taking your car with you. You're not taking your Costco membership with you. It's like you brought nothing into this. You're leaving with none of it. So be content with the food for your belly, the clothes on your back, and with the power of Christ that strengthens you throughout all of it. Church. What baseline are you setting for your family? What do you think? You need to be satisfied as a certain income? A specific school, college for the kids, a vacation, a certain sized house? What do you think? You need to be satisfied and content. Can you say with Paul, if we have food and clothes, we will be enough. Church, we need to fight for the right kind of contentment. We need to be people who fight for contentment in the right things. And so how do we do that? A couple of quick things I just want to throw at you how we do that. Set and stick to a budget that reflects kingdom values, not earthly ones. Set and stick to a budget that reflects kingdom values, not earthly ones. And can I encourage you to bring other people into that conversation? It's really easy for us to start justifying things that we say we value based on the wealth that we have. Get some brothers and sisters who love you and love Jesus and say, hey, can you look at what I'm valuing based on what I'm spending? Because I want to make sure it lines up, set and stick to a budget that reflects kingdom values, not earthly ones. Second, correct the I need statements that's thrown around your home when Johnny comes home from school, or when your son comes home from school and he sees Johnny with a new pair of Jordans and he says, I need a pair of those. Say, no, you don't. You don't need those. You might want them, but you don't need them. Correct those statements. They don't need a new pair of Jordans. They need shoes so they don't step on rusty nails, right? So often we say, if I have food and clothing and a Netflix subscription and free two day shipping in Lululemon and free people and organic groceries and a stocked freezer and a newer car, then that's enough. Because you don't need those other things. You need pants. Like that's what you need, right? You don't need those other things. Set a better baseline for contentment. Then discipline your kids when they're being greedy, envious, and coveting. It's easy for us to discipline disobedience, lying, stealing. It's easy for us to discipline those things. But do you discipline those other things that scripture calls sin? Do you discipline and point out and train when your kid is just being been envious and jealous of what other people have. Discipline those things. Then finally, this is super important for us as parents. Model a life that shows that you believe that you can be content with food and clothing. Deny yourself some of the things that you want in order to show your kids that I'm content with what I have, because it's really hard to preach contentment when your kids are bringing in Amazon packages for you every week or every day, maybe multiple times a day, right? It's really hard to preach contentment when all of those things are happening. You don't want to have your family fall into a trap of money. You need a better baseline for contentment. But where does that better baseline come from? Comes from? Our second key. A better pursuit. Jump forward a few verses to verses eleven in the beginning of verse twelve says, but as for you, oh man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Remember, Paul is writing to Timothy, a younger pastor, but I think it's right to apply this to our character as well. And Paul is telling Timothy, flee those things that the false teachers are like promoting, flee the desire for riches, flee the love for money, but don't just flee those things. It's not just good enough to flee those. You need to have a better pursuit. You need to pursue righteousness. You need to pursue godliness and faith and love and steadfastness, gentleness. You need to pursue all of these things. Don't just run from the bad things that are going to lead you to destruction, but pursue the best things that are going to lead you to life. Saying you want a better baseline for contentment. You want to be content with food and clothes that you have. Pursue godliness and can be summed up with pursuing godly, living and godly character. So are you leading your family to actually pursue those things, to pursue godly, living, and godly character? Because if you want to cultivate contentment in your life and in your family, you need to pursue godliness. There's no substitute for it. Because notice how Paul writes, it's godliness with contentment is great gain, right? When you look back at verse six, godliness with contentment is great gain. It's not contentment with godliness. Godliness comes first. Contentment comes along with it. You're not going to get contentment if you just try to be content. But I'd be willing to bet that if you pursue godliness, if you pursue righteousness, if you pursue the things of God, I bet you'll find contentment along the way. Contentment with godliness is great gain. And so we need to pursue godliness. So parents once again, especially dads, as the head of your home, are you pursuing godliness and helping your family do the same? Are you being intentional about what your family is chasing after? Are you being intentional with it? Or are you just hoping that you arrive there someday? Because pursuit doesn't just imply like a willy nilly arriving at something, you have to work for it. You have to chase after it. You have to intend it. Are you intending godliness for your family? Because your kids will see what you love and what you chase after and pursue. Or are they seeing that you love and pursue Christ likeness? And an increase in your faith. Or they seen you pursue a certain career, a certain hobby, a certain lifestyle. And which one are you pushing them to pursue? Are you pushing them to pursue success in athletics and success in academics, but not pursuing pushing them to pursue a life of godliness in an increase of their faith? What are you pushing your family to pursue? We need a better pursuit for ourselves, and we need a better pursuit for our family. And I want to point out something at the very beginning of verse twelve, again, it says, fight the good fight of faith. What are we fighting for? What are we fighting for? Faith. Not fortune, not wealth. Not a lifestyle, not popularity. Faith. We are fighting for the faith of our family. That's why this is called families Built for war. Because we are in a fight. We're in a war, and we need to fight the good fight of the faith for our own heart and for the hearts and souls of our family. We need to fight, and we fight by having a better baseline for contentment through a better pursuit of godliness. And it brings us to our third key, a better hope. Look at verses seventeen and eighteen. It says, as for the rich in this present age, which I would argue is all of us, there might be some extreme situations where there's not. But by and large, if you're sitting in this room, you are considered rich in this present age of the world. So it says, 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. Don't set your hope on the riches that are uncertain, but on God. What you hope in and what you set your hope on has implications for the rest of your life, and especially how you spend your money, and especially how you view your finances. What is your hope set on when your hope is set on wealth and a lifestyle and having certain amounts of money, you become greedy, stingy and you just seek ways to gain more and more without looking at ways that you can bless others. You keep chasing the next dollar because you think the next dollar is going to bring satisfaction, because that's where your hope is. You think that having more is going to satisfy you and be the answer to your problems, guys. And that's the way this world thinks. That's the hope of someone who doesn't follow Jesus. That's the hope of someone who doesn't understand that this life is not the end. So where is your hope? Because when your hope is set on God, it changes the way that you use your money. You do what it says here. You do good. You're rich in good works, and you're generous and you're ready to share. Does that describe you? If that doesn't describe you, maybe your hope is in the wrong place. Maybe your hope has shifted from being in God to having a hope that is on the riches of this world. When your hope is set on God, who richly provides all things for you to enjoy, you enjoy those things, but you don't worship them. You enjoy them, but you don't worship them. You don't believe that they can satisfy. And so you're freed to give to your church, your family, your friends. You're free to be generous with meals for others, to give your time to go serve others. Don't see your house as a fortress of solitude, but a way to show hospitality and share what you've been richly blessed with. Because there's a handful of families in our church who've done this so well this summer, and we've had groups of college kids and high school kids spending evenings, sometimes multiple evenings a week at different houses and families houses in our church because they realize that God is richly blessed them with what they have, and they want to be generous. They want to share it. They want to enjoy it with other people. They see what God has given them, not as a resource to hold on tightly to, but as a tool to bless others with. So what is your family doing with what you've richly been given by God? Are you being generous with it? Are you sharing it? Are you being rich in good works? My plea is that your hope would not be set on these riches that will fade, that you can't take with you, that you didn't bring in here with you and your hope would be set on God. The key to having to avoiding the trap of money is to have a better baseline for contentment, a better pursuit which is godliness, and a better hope, which is God. There's one more thing I want to point out. This is the motivation that makes not just something makes us something that we should do, but something that we want, something that we desire. It's what we see in verse nineteen. It says, thus storing up treasure for himself as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Your motivation for all this to not fall into the trap of money is a better treasure. There is a better treasure waiting for you. If you are a follower of Jesus than anything this world can provide you. It says storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. That word future can be translated the coming age. That when your hope is set on God and you see him as the greatest treasure, you're looking forward to the next age. Not this one. You're looking forward to eternity, not this life. You see Christ as your greatest treasure. Not anything that this world can buy you. It reminds me of Jesus words in the sermon on the Mount. In Matthew six nineteen it 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 destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Guys, our motivation for living in this way is that we know that everything in this life fades, but Christ doesn't. And we're living for a better treasure. We're living because we have the greatest treasure. We have Christ. Our motivation for a life freed from the love of money is that we're promised a better treasure and a better future. So, guys, you want a family built for war that won't fall into the trap of money? Show them the overwhelming value of the treasures of heaven. Life with God in a future that can't be shaken. You could say it like this. Strong families aren't built by pursuing earthly treasures, but the greatest treasure. Strong families aren't built by pursuing earthly treasures. But the greatest treasure. Is that your pursuit? Is that the longing of your life more concerned about intergenerational faith than intergenerational wealth? More concerned about a strong family than a strong bank account. And guys, we can only do this because our hope, comfort, peace, and joy isn't in what we have, but in who we belong to. And we belong to Christ. And Christ came to make us his, to bring us into his family, bought with his blood. And when you see Christ as the greatest treasure, you no longer look for money to be your hope and comfort and peace and joy, but you see him as the place where you have real hope, real comfort, real peace, real joy, and real life. I want to end by trying to help paint a picture for why this is so important. A beautiful reality of what happens when we prioritize building a strong family over falling into the trap of money. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to figure out the number of your family tree and ten generations from now. Alright, so I did the math and by me I mean ChatGPT did it for me. But here's the math. If my five kids each had three of their own kids, and then every single one of their kids had three kids do that for up to ten generations. My wife and I would be responsible for one hundred and forty seven thousand six hundred and twenty two people. That's over one hundred and forty seven thousand souls. Now think about that. And now think about what's more important that my kids now have a college fund, or that my kids have a faith that is strong enough, secure enough, and transferable enough that it can make it down ten generations, that it can affect over one hundred and forty seven zero zero zero people. Don't fall into the trap of money. It's dangerous. But invest in your family. Invest in your kids. Invest in your grandkids. Invest in the kids that you want you haven't even met yet, but you're going to meet someday. Prioritize the right things for your family. Avoid the trap of money by pursuing the greatest treasure, and beg God that your kids would do the same. Let's pray. Father, I confess that it's so easy to fall into the trap of money. To desire earthly riches and wealth to want the next best thing. God, show me that you are the best thing. Remind me of that truth. Remind our church of that truth, God, that we would be a church filled with strong families. Families that prioritize you, your word growing in knowledge of you, training and discipling our kids so that they would one day know you. God, we ask that you would be kind to our church in that way. That in years from now, we'd have a church filled with families who love you, desire closeness with you, and are more concerned about their faith than their financial security. God, we ask you to do that in us. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.