treasuring up for themselves a firm foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.
3 sermons cite this verse
Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Paul, in this letter, is providing practical instructions for the conduct of God's people within the framework of the church. It is therefore no surprise to us that very quickly he addresses the matter of money, because money is inevitably one of the barometers by which we might be able to gauge the temperature and strength of our own Christian experience. He addresses it in relationship to those who are called to leadership in the church, when in the third verse of the third chapter, he makes it clear that the person who is going to be an elder must not be someone who loves money. Deacons, in verse 8 of the same chapter, are to be individuals who are not pursuing dishonest gain. In the matter of family care, in the fifth chapter and in verse 8, an individual who does not provide for his relatives has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. A quite staggering statement. …
All right, instead of all this stuff that we've thought maybe might make us happy and then never really does and leads us to the next thing we gotta acquire. But here's what he says. We have to do good to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share. And in that way, we take hold of the life that really is life. All right, I wanna mention, so if you're tuning in for the very first time, once a year, I preach a sermon where we're asking you to fill out a pledge card if this is your church family. If this is not your church family, this doesn't have anything to do with you. You can just listen in and kind of hear how we do this. But once a year, we ask our members to pray and to think about what part of what I have, am I gonna return to God in the coming year? And that's how all the ministry that this church does is funded is by your generosity. …
… They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, 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. He just tells those who do have a lot, not to get arrogant, and not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of that, but to set their hopes on God, to be rich in good works, generous, ready to share, so that you store up treasure in the future. And he says, and this isn't to ruin your life. He says, it's so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Why does Paul want Timothy and all those who have possessions to let go? It's not to destroy our lives, but that we would take hold of that which is truly life. And he goes on in 2 Timothy and you know, the things that, uh, that really, you know how you're going to read things and it'll jump out to you and then I'll read things and, and it'll be different. Uh, different things jump out to me, minister to me, and it'll be different next year when I read through second Timothy. Um, but as I was reading through second Timothy and Titus, um, there's this timidity that I see in Timothy and in Titus. …