9-28-2025

“ETERNAL PROFIT”

Text: 1 Timothy 6:6-19

Sunday September 28th, 2025 – Pentecost 16

Trinity – Creston/Mount Ayr

Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our text for this 16th Sunday after Pentecost is the Epistle lesson from 1 Timothy 6 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us to be content with the gifts that only you can give.  Not only do you provide for our earthly needs, but you ultimately provide for our salvation.  May we use our blessing to point others to your saving work.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

It’s hard to make a profit, whether we’re operating a business or just a household.

If you’re in business, your revenues have to exceed not just the cost of goods sold but also all the overhead you have to carry. And, of course, a chunk of whatever profit you do make will go to taxes.

If you’re a mom or dad trying to make ends meet, your income has to cover food, clothing, housing, the gas pump, and a thousand other expenses. Often, there’s not much left over. Hard to make a profit.

Nevertheless, we spend most of our lives trying to do just that. In North American culture, we work not merely for daily bread but also for an increase of wealth and prosperity.

We strive to have more than our parents had when we were children, and we want to have enough not only for our lives but also a good deal to pass on to our children.

Making a profit has become the first priority for most of us. We are tempted to do anything in order to make a profit—and to do nothing if there’s no promise of profit.

But the famous proverb quoted by Paul tells us, “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (cf v 7). There is nothing we can gain for ourselves in this life that will last into eternity.

Although food and clothing are enough for our earthly life, we are always looking for a profit that we will never be able to take with us when we die. And in our search for profit, we are prone to pitfalls wherein we may lose so much more.

3.   The desire for profit comes with pitfalls.

a.   There’s nothing wrong with profiting financially.

(1) Paul gives instructions to the rich: Don’t trust in riches, share generously, store up eternal treasures (vv 17–19).

(2) It’s God “who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (v 17b).

b.   But the desire for the profit of worldly riches can be an entangling temptation, a snare, by which we fall into the pit, plunge to destruction (vv 9–10).

(1) It tempts us to dismiss the needs of others. The rich man ignored poor Lazarus (Lk 16:19–21).

(2) It tempts us to cast out godly desire for heavenly treasures. The rich man thought only of worldly luxury (Lk 16:19).

(3) It tempts us to trust a god that will surely fail us at the moment of death (v 7). The rich man was left destitute, in torment forever (Lk 16:22–25).

Illustration: “The Dog and Its Reflection.”

Many of us have heard Aesop’s fable about the dog and its reflection. A dog had received a juicy piece of meat and was hurrying off with the meat in his mouth to enjoy his feast. But as he ran, he came to a stream, and when he looked down at the water, he saw another dog with a piece of meat in its mouth. Now the other dog’s piece of meat, surely a tender steak, seemed much larger and even juicier than his. So he dived into the water after the other dog’s meat, in the process, of course, dropping his own. No sooner had he hit the water than the other dog and his meat vanished. So, too, did his, lost forever to the bottom of the stream. There was no juicy feast for the dog at all that day.

“Those who desire to be rich,” who aren’t content with what God has given them, Paul says, “fall into temptation, . . . senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim 6:9).

2.   Flee these pitfalls by holding fast to the different kind of profit God gives you in Christ.

a.   You were given the confession of the faith. The faith is that which we believe for our salvation, the good confession Christ himself confessed before Pontius Pilate (vv 13–16; Jn 18:33–37).

(1) That Jesus Christ is King, not of this world, but living in immortality and light.

(2) That Jesus Christ came to bear witness to the truth and is coming back to share with you the eternal treasures he has secured.

(3) That Jesus Christ willingly gave himself to suffer under Pontius Pilate for your sins.

b.   You were given eternal life when you yourself made that good confession before many witnesses at your baptism (v 12).

(1) Perhaps you were old enough to speak the confession with your own lips; perhaps someone spoke it for you. Even as an infant, you had that faith placed in your heart by the Holy Spirit.

(2) Small Catechism: “What benefits does Baptism give?” (Baptism, Second Part).

(a)  Forgiveness: of the sins of covetousness, abuse of wealth, neglect of those in need.

(b) Rescue from the temptations and traps of the devil.

(c)  Eternal salvation to the heavenly treasures of life with Christ.

c.   You have been given incomparable and never-failing profit in Christ!

1.   This is a way of profit without the pitfalls.

a.   Profit or pitfalls:

(1) In our text, Paul actually uses two Greek words that in our alphabet would also be p words: πορισμός (v 6) and πειρασμός (v 9).

(a)  The “pitfall” word, πειρασμός, literally means “temptation.” Yes, money can be a tempting temptation, a dangerous pitfall.

(b) But the “profit” word, πορισμός, is actually translated “gain.” And that, Paul says, God makes available to us without the pitfalls.

(2) “Now there is great gain”—that is, profit—“in godliness with contentment,” Paul says (see v 6).

b.   How so? It’s in the instructions Paul gave to the rich.

(1) Godliness doesn’t hope in riches but in the God who gives them (v 17). And that is Christ Jesus, who laid down his life to give you all good.

(2) Contentment means enjoying what God has given you (v 17b). And that includes eternal joy and eternal profit that exceeds anything with which the world can tempt us.

(3) If you have riches, do good works and be generous (vv 18–19). God has given you profit—his kind of profit—that will never run out, no matter how generously you give.

Therefore,

The Profit God Gives Us in Christ Jesus
Offers Contentment to Avoid Pitfalls into Temptation.

Conclusion: “We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (v 7). When it comes to money, we’ll never make a profit; in the end, we’ll only break even. But if we give in to the temptations of riches, we won’t even break even. We’ll fall into a pit from which we’ll never climb out.

All that we have comes from a gracious God who came into our world. It is to him that we must cling. Our true riches are in Christ Jesus, and he has showered us with eternal treasures in our baptism.

He is the source of our true profit, and if we are to hold onto it, we need to heed the prophets who warn us of how easy it is to lose the treasure. It’s as easy as opening your hand to grab what you haven’t been given. Treasure above all things the profit you’ve been given in Christ, for it will last for eternity. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.