“A sermon by Pastor Dave McMurry. More about Grace Bible Church: https://begrace.org

Summary

Pastor Dave opens his message from 1 Timothy 6:17-19 with a concept everyone understands: return on investment. Whether it’s a business, a product, or a project, we all want to know that what we pour ourselves into will pay us back. He grounds the sermon in the story of Memphis’s enormous glass pyramid — a $65 million arena built in 1991 that sparkled over the skyline but flopped as a venue and sat empty for eight years. It became, Pastor Dave says, a symbol of investing in the wrong things. The Bible, he reminds us, speaks directly to this tendency. Jesus warned about the foolish businessman in Matthew 12 who tore down his warehouses to build bigger ones, only to be told, “You fool, you’re going to die tonight.” The question Paul is pressing in this passage is the same one Jesus pressed: where is your ultimate investment, and are you ready for eternity?

The passage speaks to “the rich,” but Pastor Dave is quick to point out that if you have food in the fridge, a couple changes of clothes, and you’re not dying, you qualify by Biblical standards. That means the charge lands on most everyone in the room. The charge itself is straightforward: don’t be haughty or prideful, don’t set your hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides everything to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17). Riches go up and down. They’re temporary. As Ecclesiastes puts it, life is like a vapor — hard to hold onto. God, by contrast, is ultimate and unchanging. Hoping in Him rather than in our stuff is the foundation for everything else Pastor Dave wants to say.

The first response to genuinely hoping in God is learning to be humble. Pastor Dave draws on C.S. Lewis’s famous passage from Mere Christianity to reframe what humility actually looks like. It isn’t the person who constantly says, “Oh, I’m nobody, I’m a worm.” Lewis says that person is probably not humble at all. Real humility looks like someone who is cheerful, genuinely interested in others, and simply not thinking about themselves very much. That kind of humility, Pastor Dave argues, can only be produced in us by the gospel. When we truly believe that the God of the universe humbled Himself, gave Himself for us in Jesus Christ, died in our place, and rose from the dead — that melts our self-importance. We stop having to manage our image like the Wizard of Oz projecting a grand illusion, and we start being free to actually care about other people. Lewis also notes that the first step toward humility is simply realizing you’re proud. If you think you’re not conceited, that’s probably a sign that you are.

The second response is sweating for the right things. Verse 18 calls believers to “be rich in good works,” and Pastor Dave unpacks what that kind of labor actually looks like. The Greek word for work — energon — is where we get the word energy. Work is what you sweat for, what you grind on, what you hustle toward. The question is whether that sweat is going toward things that produce real, lasting fruit. Pastor Dave gets personal here, describing years of digging and re-digging a drainage ditch around his house that keeps filling back up — a vivid picture of effort that doesn’t pay off. Scripture, he says, is clear about what good works actually count. James points to moral purity and caring for orphans and widows in their distress. First Timothy consistently lifts up the proclamation of the gospel as a noble, beautiful task. Whether it’s fighting for purity in your own life, serving those who are truly in need, or supporting the speaking of the good news — these are the works worth sweating for. They’re the ones that lay up treasure in heaven.

The third response is to always be generous. Pastor Dave acknowledges that “always” is a strong word, and none of us will do this perfectly. But the posture he’s describing from verse 18 is one of readiness — always at attention, always looking for the next opportunity to share. He connects this back to the gospel: the more we believe that God has shared His very life with us in Jesus, the more that reality loosens our grip on our own stuff. If our ultimate treasure is in heaven, we can hold the things of this world more lightly. He encourages a practical approach: set aside some funds or time in advance for giving, make some commitments to specific ministries, but also leave some wiggle room so you’re ready when God surfaces a fresh opportunity. The classic framework of time, talent, and treasure is a helpful guide — are you being generous with all three?

Pastor Dave brings the sermon home by returning to the Memphis pyramid. After eight years of sitting empty, Bass Pro Shops moved in, bought it, and transformed it into one of the most unique retail destinations in the country — complete with a swamp, fish tanks, a hotel, and an observation deck. He’s careful not to overplay the analogy, but the point lands: all of us have made failed investments. All of us have poured ourselves into things that didn’t work out. And the good news of the gospel is that Jesus specializes in resurrection. Dead things, broken investments, wasted years — He can repurpose all of it. As we give ourselves to Him, He reclaims our lives for His glory, and we begin to see the eternal return on investment that 1 Timothy 6:19 promises: “that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”