1 Timothy God Design ch6

Previously in 1 Timothy

With the modern streaming we binge watch so many things. We can sit down and tear through a series. We put on episode one and then fly through it.

It used to be popular and necessary to have a recap at the beginning of shows. They would say something like previously on Tarzan, or last week on Doctor Who.

That is where we will kick off this week. If you are just joining us or if you missed a week or if you just forgot here is what you missed.

Week 1 we looked how the goal of the instruction Paul was writing to Timothy was

1 Timothy 1:5 CSB

Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

We want to love from the right places.

Week two we how we can chose peace or we can chose chaos and how we are called to be a people who chose peace.

Week three, we looked at how character is key. How as leaders in the church we are called to have character.

In week four, Pastor Howie talked about how service is important, and the gift is not as important as serving is.

Last week, in week five, we looked at how we have to guard ourselves against idleness and that time is finite.

This week we will close out our 1 Timothy series looking at Contentment, Fighting the Good Fight, and how we Keep our Eyes on the Prize.

1 Timothy 6:6–14 CSB

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you have made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all, and of Christ Jesus, who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to keep this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Contentment

Paul is a master at contrast. It is far and away one his favorite ways of explaining something. So often he uses either a “not that but this” or a “this and not that” formula.

In Philippians 3 for example he does this by giving his credentials and then says they mean nothing compared to knowing Christ.

In Ephesians 4:28 he say the thief must no longer steal but work.

In Galatians 5 he compares the works of the flesh or fallen human nature to the fruit of the Spirit.

This or that.

That or this.

Here in 1 Timothy 6:5-10 we see that. He is saying false teachers think that teaching Gods Word is a means to get rich. But that is not that the case. They should be content.

This truth goes beyond just those who teach God’s Word. Some people are obsessed with wealth. They desire it more than Godly Contentment.

So we can ask, is there anything wrong with being wealthy. This is often the question that comes up and it is natural.

I would argue the answer is no, there is nothing wrong with being wealthy in and of itself. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be blessed with material things. There is nothing wrong with wanting to do better. With wanting to accomplish gain.

Wealth becomes a problem when it becomes more important than Christ.

Either Christ is preeminent or money is.

Matthew 6:24 CSB

“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Money is a useful tool but a cruel master.

The problem is not money it is a love of money that supersedes all other desires, the wellbeing of others, and more important things.

When the rich young ruler comes to Christ he ends up leaving because he had many possessions. His money, his possessions, his stuff was a stumbling block.

In the parable of Rich Fool in Luke 12, Jesus says the man is condemned not because he was rich, but because he was not rich towards God. He trusted in his wealth to save him, he neglected the poor around him, he thought money was the key to success.

He placed his hope, his trust, his wellbeing in money, in possessions. This not only causes people to have a false sense of security, it causes us to place people as objects or hindrances to our wellbeing.

Money, wealth, stuff, is in itself not inherently bad but our obsession with it becomes the reason we cannot see God or experience His goodness. We have no need for Him because we are too self sufficient and think we can do it ourselves.

Self sufficiency is a silent killer of the soul.

Yes of course it moves God from the center, this is a given but also we start to see people as threats that will affect our wellbeing.

What are the greatest commencements, the royal law of love?

Love God with your whole being, and love your neighbor as yourself.

To place money or anything else in the spot God is supposed to occupy means we will love ourselves at the expense of our neighbor.

The solution is always godliness with contentment. This means it is not just about money but anything that might attempt to sit in God’s seat.

Psalm 20:7 CSB

Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses, but we take pride in the name of the Lord our God.

What do you take pride in? Fill in the blank for yourself. Like we said last week, I am not going to ask you the question.

Does something else get the position God is supposed to sit in?

If there is anything else on the throne of your heart kick it off the seat.

We will always have to fight against things that want to take the seat God belongs in and as people filled with the Holy Spirit we have been enabled and empowered to tell them no.

Fight the Good Fight

When we understand this we fight the good fight of faith.

1 Timothy 6:12 CSB

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you have made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

I want to share with you the story of Jospeh in the Old Testament. Joseph was good man. He loved God and wanted to do the will of God. In his youth he struggled with a bit of vanity or maybe tact. He struggled with communicating what God was telling him in a loving and kind way. He told his brothers of a dream he had. The dream was that he would rule over them. Naturally they threw him in a well and then sold him into slavery as brothers do.

After some time and a few more difficult situations Jospeh found himself in prison but making good with the warden he proved to be useful and was soon running the place. He was still a prisoner. he had privilege but he was still in jail. He did not want to be there but he found contentment in his situation. He wanted out, he wanted more, he wanted freedom, but because God was his focus he was able to thrive in a bad situation. He never stopped wanting his freedom. After some time he was taking care of two other prisoners who had upset the pharaoh or king, they had some crazy dreams and Jospeh was, by God’s gifting, able to interpret the dreams. He told them the interpretations and then said,

Genesis 40:14 CSB

But when all goes well for you, remember that I was with you. Please show kindness to me by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison.

Jospeh had contentment but that did not mean his situation was immediately changed. He had contentment in the situation and he stayed in that situation for another two years. So often we think, ok now I have contentment God will change the situation tomorrow. Sorry folks that is not always how it works.

Sometimes you fight the good fight with contentment and you need to keep fighting. Contentment is not a magic formula that changes everything in a moment. Instead it is the strength we need to fight the good fight.

James 1:2–4 CSB

Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

We have to keep pressing, keep fighting, keep pushing. If you fall down, get back up, if you slip acknowledge the failure and move forward. Just keep going. Don’t quit. Fight the good fight.

We start with contentment and then we can fight.

Eyes on the Prize

The way we do this is to keep our eyes on the prize. We keep a good confession.

1 Timothy 6:13–14 CSB

In the presence of God, who gives life to all, and of Christ Jesus, who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to keep this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is power in the tongue. I am not suggesting we manifest reality that is not possible. Instead we understand that what comes out of our mouth informs what we believe. It is a feedback loop.

We believe or think something and then we say something. This then informs what we believe or think so then we say something. This happens negatively or positively.

If we think bad and speak bad we think bad and then speak bad.

But the cycle can be broken.

We just need to change what we say. We adjust our confession.

I love this study,

In 2021, a team of researchers led by Michael F. Scheier conducted a meta-analysis of 61 studies. Findings across these studies demonstrated that less pessimism was a more powerful predictor of better physical health outcomes than MORE optimism.

It is not just about saying the right things it is also supremely important to stop saying the wrong things.

It looks like Thumper was right,

If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. This is not just for other people it is for ourselves too.

A good confession, or keeping our eyes on the prize means being like Jesus. Sometimes He spoke the truth to those accusing Him and sometime He did not say anything at all. He was quiet because He knew nothing He said would have changed the situation so He just kept a good confession.

Sometimes to keep a good confession we keep quiet.

Sometimes the biggest problem we have is our inability to be quiet.

Sometimes to break the feedback loop of negativity though we need to speak the positive reality God tells us about.

This is one of the reasons reading the Word of God is so important. When we see what God says about us, we begin to think differently.

Romans 12:2 CSB

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

We need to transform our minds to think God’s thoughts of us.

We need to transform our minds to think God’s thoughts of others.

We need to transform our minds to think about the world rightly.

After Easter we are starting a new series called Level Up to see how we can do this and part of this is making a good confession.

My question to you today is;

What are you confessing?

So often when we talk about confession we think of it in terms of confessing some sin or something, but confession is just telling the truth and when we tell the truth it informs us and brings glory to God.

Contentment, Fighting the Good Fight, Eyes on the Prize.

We need to finish strong.