Now if you would turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 3, the first thing we
talked about was we are supposed to have our affections on things above, not on things
on the earth, and that wherever our treasure is, that's where our heart will be also.
And so when we look at the uber wealthy preacher, we can see right away where his heart is.
Well you can't see his heart.
Oh yes I can, because the Bible said where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also.
If I can see the treasure, I can see the heart.
If I see the treasure, then I've seen the heart, because if you've seen the one, you've
seen the other.
That's where the heart is.
First Timothy chapter 3 verse 2, these are qualifications for the pastor.
It says in verse 2, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant,
sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker,
not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous."
And I believe that not covetous is a little bit redundant with not greedy of filthy lucre
because I think these are two aspects of the same thing.
You say, "Why would God repeat that?"
Okay, well why did he repeat no striker and not a brawler?
You see that?
Not a brawler, not covetous, not a striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, these are repetitions
really driving in the point here, hey, you don't want a guy who's into money leading
the church.
You don't want a guy who is following after and seeking after filthy lucre.
Now don't let the word filthy lucre bother you as far as, you know, I don't know what
that word lucre means.
I think we all know what the word lucrative means.
Even if we don't really use the word lucre, I think pretty much everybody knows what lucrative
means.
Something that's lucrative is profitable.
So the word lucre simply means money or profits, okay?
That's what it means.
And so not greedy of filthy lucre, it's basically talking about filthy money or filthy gain
or filthy revenue.
So what does that mean?
It's talking about a dishonest gain or greedy or the wrong, because here's the thing.
Money by itself is not bad.
There's nothing in the Bible condemning money.
And it's always weird when people are like, "Oh, I hate money."
It's like, come on.
We're not supposed to love money.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
But let's put a guy behind the pulpit who's filthy rich, right?
Even though the love of money is the root of all evil.
But anyway, some people go to this opposite extreme, which makes no sense.
They're trying to just overcompensate or something like, "Oh, I just hate money."
I don't think we're supposed to hate money.
Obviously, money has its place.
It's something that we use.
We need it to live.
I saw some bozo podcaster the other day.
I was watching something on YouTube and this podcaster guy, he's just like, "Oh, I hate
money," and blah, blah, blah.
The first several minutes of his podcast was all like a word from the sponsor.
There's all these ads coming up.
It's all monetized.
"Oh, I hate money."
It's like, "Come on."
Nobody's asking you to hate money, but we just shouldn't love money.
We shouldn't have our affection on money and be obsessed with money.
Money is a tool that we use in our lives, but it's not something that should be the
focus of our lives.
We shouldn't wake up in the morning and check the portfolio, check the Wall Street Journal.
We should wake up in the morning and check the Word of God.
This is where our heart should be and our mind should be on things of God, especially
as a minister.
How much more should your heart be on the things of God rather than worldly things?
Not greedy of filthy lucre, not covetous, and even not given to wine.
We would normally look at not given to wine and think of that as saying, "Hey, sober,
not being drunk."
But you know what?
Also, wine is a symbol of wealth in scripture.
Nowadays, you could probably go to CVS and buy some El Chippo wine for a couple bucks
or whatever.
But back in the Bible days, wine is something that's very expensive because they don't have
machines and technology, so obviously it was a lot harder to produce wine.
It's not something that you need to live.
You could live and die without ever drinking a drop of fruit juice because you could just
eat fruit and eat food.
The point is that wine, even today, are rich people into wine today?
Is that like a wealth thing or a symbol of wealth?
How much more in the ancient world do you think that wine was a status thing?
Okay, it's expensive.
And it's used in the Bible, corn and wine and oil are often used as just symbols of
wealth.
Okay, so I believe that part of what he's saying here when he says not given to wine,
obviously, yeah, he doesn't want him to be drunk either, but I think he's also just saying
he's not given to all these rich delicacies because that's also what wine represents.
And think about, every rich person is really into their wine cellar and drinking expensive
wines and ordering expensive wines.
Wine is a wealth status thing, okay?
Go if you would to verse 8 in the same chapter, it says, "Likewise must the deacons be grave,
not double-tongued, again, not given to much wine, and again, not greedy of filthy lucre."
So the deacon should also not be one who is into money.
Go, if you would, to Titus chapter 1, Titus chapter 1, just a couple pages to the right
in your Bible.
And look, folks, this stuff's in the Bible for a reason, you know.
I'm not just up here giving my opinion.
I'm showing you these verses.
There's a reason why God brings this up many times in regard to pastors and many times
just in regard to Christians in general.
This is a temptation that's out there.
This is a major sin that's out there in this world, and the love of money is the root of
all evil according to 1st Timothy 6.
Look at Titus chapter 1 verse 7, this is again, qualification for the pastor.
For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not
given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre.
What does it mean to be given to something?
You know, given to means that you have that propensity.
You have that proclivity.
It means that you're the type of guy who leans that way, you know?
Like the Bible says, "Hey, if you're a man that's given to appetite, you know, put a
knife to thy throat."
What's he saying?
He's talking about you're the kind of guy who, you know, that's something that you struggle
with or that's something that you would kind of be drawn to like a magnet.
Some sins are more of a temptation to us than others.
You know, there might be a sin that I really struggle with and for you it's nothing and
you don't struggle with that and you would never do those things.
And then vice versa, you know, you might have a sin that you struggle with and I'm just
looking at it like, "I would never do that, that's not even a temptation for me."
But here's the thing, we all have sins that we struggle with, it's just different people's
sins are different.
Well, there are certain things though that are not compatible with being a pastor, you
know, and somebody whose propensity is toward being prideful and the love of money and being
given to wine, given to filthy lucre, given to wine, you know, this is not compatible
with being a pastor, okay?
Not everyone's cut out to be a pastor and you could be a great Christian without being
a pastor and we just want to be really careful that the pastor's not the kind of guy that
is given to money.
Why not?
Well, let's see why.
Jump down to verse 10 and we'll find out why we don't want the pastor to be greedy and
filthy lucre.
Why don't we want him to be covetous?
Why don't we want him to be given to wine?
As the Bible says in verse 10, "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
especially they of the circumcision," Titus chapter 1 verse 11, "whose mouths must be
stopped, whose subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's
sake."
And here is what we find, the result of having a guy behind the pulpit who loves money, having
a guy behind the pulpit who's covetous of gain, is that he will teach things that he
ought not for filthy lucre's sake because he's interested in getting paid more than preaching
the truth.
And let me tell you something, when you preach the truth, a lot of people aren't going to
like it.
Not everybody is just lined up to hear the truth.
That's why the preachers that are on TV and on the radio for the most part and the ones
that are going to be featured in Barnes and Noble and the ones that are going to be featured
in the Christian bookstores, you know, these guys are not preaching the truth.
They're preaching to be popular.
And the Bible says broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go
in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way that which leads them to
life and few there be that find it.
So if the broad way leads to destruction, the broad way is what's glorified by this
world.
The Bible says friendship with the world is enmity with God.
So you can't serve two masters.
You're either going to love the one and hate the other or else you're going to hold to
the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
What is mammon?
Money.
You can't serve God and mammon.
But I'm supposed to believe that some multimillionaire preacher who's on Barnes and Noble's bookshelf
and on the Christian bookstore's bookshelf and he's on TV and the radio and everybody
loves him and praises him, I'm supposed to think that that's a righteous man of God?
It doesn't make any sense.
How could he be serving both God and mammon?
I know he's serving mammon because I can see that.
I don't even have to have x-ray spiritual vision to see that.
I just look at that.
Okay, well then that means he's not serving whom?
You know, the apostle Paul said, "Do I now persuade God or men?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
You can't please God and men.
You can't serve God and mammon.
And so if you see somebody who's a man-pleasing mammon server, take it to the bank, they're
not serving or pleasing God.
This is not complicated, folks, but I'm telling you, a lot of people don't get this.
But this is important that we understand that they will teach things which they ought not
for filthy, lucre's sake, so we can't trust their teaching.
We shouldn't listen to them because we know that there's this evil motivation in the background
that could be tainting and corrupting their preaching.
Go to 1 Peter 5.
Not only do they teach things which they ought not for filthy, lucre's sake, but you know
what's even worse is the things that they don't teach.
You know, the problem with most pastors is not what they say, it's what they don't say
because they're afraid to say it because it's all about popularity, it's all about money.