1 Timothy 6--Be Content

Don’t Worry, Be Content

Intro: How

Read Verses:

Main Point God wants you to be Content in Him

I. You can be Content in The Present Situation (1-10)

During the first century the slave and master relationship was a difficult one. Many times the slaves were captured after military victories or because people were too poor to purchase their freedom. They had to work whatever tasks their masters had for them and they could be sold or rented out at their master’s whim. To do household work or work in mines or on farms If money got tight, parents would sometimes sell their children into slavery.

Slaves could be given or buy their freedom depending on how their master decide on how to set them free. This was called manumission. If they became free they could become rich but even then people would still know them as slaves. “But the legal position of a slave was not dissimilar to that of a prisoner and so adds further relevance to the exhortation that Paul will make for a slave. Paul is not a prisoner of “Caesar” or the “state” but of the Messiah Jesus, since it is the cause of the Messiah and the gospel for which he is in chains”. Paul uses both the slave and prisoner analogies to explain his position and Paul encourages Timothy to do the same for the church members in Ephesus.

When Jesus came and he made people of all different types and social status equal, that no one was better than another. And so now Paul is encountering situations where master and slave are worshipping together. It may even be the fact that some slaves may actually behave become elders or leaders of the church and their masters are essentially following their lead in the church. But Christ guaranteeing freedom for all and also calling slaves to keep working humbly for their masters seems to beat odds and maybe a contradiction. It was tempting to want to real because They are in charge their masters in the church setting, but not the rest of the week.

Likewise, some people saw a way to make money or increase their own wealth by using a false gospel to take advantage of their generosity and that “godliness is a means to material gain.” Listening to the language that Paul uses, people who were in the church doing this were conceited and they were concerned with trivial things that are get people stirred up.Topics that generate a lot of light but no heat. They did not even have social media, and the same things were happening.people. Wanted to argue about unimportant things.

Both of these groups of people are being asked to humble themselves, to work for people, and to not try to teach what you want, but teach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

How many of you have shot a firearm? Whether its a rifle, a handgun or maybe even a bow and arrow? How did you aim the rifle. Do you focus on the front site or do you focus on the target so the

Application #1 Learn to serve where you are with what you have

Michael Bird, says Servants and slaves seek not honor for themselves, but honor and glory for their master.

Service is about humbling yourself and looking for things to help another person.

Work. Paul says when you work, serve their masters even better (verse 2)

Money—Godliness with contentment is great gain. (V. 6)

When you move your eye off of God, and focusing on things you want , what would be ou target, you start to miss your shot, because you are trying to look past God and only at what you want. But if you keep focused on the front site,which is god, you will hit your target.

If you are constantly looking at the job, a new job, you are looking at your target and you will miss that God has provided you with the job. If you focus on God, if you have a love of God, you do not have to have a love of money. Psalm23 is our guiding scripture for this idea overall, but we see it with Abraham and also how He will provide everything you need. He will lead you and provide for you.

urges us to Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you

Our love for Anything else, particularly the love of money will lead us astray from the faith

TS: But Not everything will be easy and of course you may want more sometimes, but you can look around at what God has given you. There will be conflicts and challenges as you are growing in Godliness.

II. You can be Content in Conflict (11-16)

Timothy is seeing everything that is happens at Ephesus and Paul has heard what was going on. The events may have motivated Paul to put Timothy in charge of the church so he could have someone that understood the Gospel message and Paul’s method of how to lead a church. In his letter, Paul urges Timothy to flee from this love of money and the twisting of the Gospel message for his own gain and fight the good fight.

So what are things worth fighting for? Furthering God’s message is the best fight we can engage in. People fight for all sorts of ideals: freedom, friends, Morals, love, taking over land or possessions. The Greeks at Thermopylae, our Revolution, and Civil war freed people and united a nation. World War II fought to rescue the world from a few tyrannical leaders. But none of them come near to fighting to make sure that The truth of the Gospel message is upheld.

Charles Spurgeon says there are Three things are of the utmost importance just now, and, indeed, they always have stood, and always will stand in the front rank for practical purposes. The first is our armoury, which is the inspired Word; the second is our army, the church of the living God, called out by himself, which we must lead under our Lord's command; and the third is our strength, by which we wear the armour and wield the sword. The Holy Spirit is our power to be and to do; to suffer and to serve; to grow and to fight; to wrestle and to overcome. Our third theme is of main importance, and though we place it las

Paul tells Timothy to take hold of eternal life to which you were called. What is he saying here? God saved you, he provided you with eternal life, you should start acting like it it is like winning the lottery and just sticking the money in your mattress nd jut living poor again and starving while your bank account has several zeros in it.

Application #2 You can persevere in your time on Earth with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul wants Timothy to succeed. It is terrible to start something and then quit. The larger context of what all is saying to Timothy is to not fall into the traps that other false teachers and other church members had fallen into: greed, jealousy, disrespect, incorrect or bad doctrine and usurping authority. Timothy is encouraged that although the fight is ahead of him, he must fight against falling into the same traps.

We must do the same as Timothy because it’s siesta to quit, t is easy to teach almost correct doctrine, it is close enough for government work.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Paul gave Timothy a similar charge in the first chapter of the letter in This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,

TS: We wage this good warfare because our everlasting soul is in question and we also serve an everlasting God that rules over all things.

III. You can be Content with The Everlasting (17-21)

Remember that Ephesus was a richer city with a lot of merchants and merchandise coming in and out s there were a lot of business people and it seems many of them became Christians but they were still used to buying their way into positions f leadership, better seats, better houses etc. By the sounds of Paul’s letter, they were arrogant and probably looked down on others who could no. The same thing or dress as well as the richer crowd could.

When you ave a lot of money, you may think that it will last forever, but, markets ebb and flow and sometimes they hit like a tsunami. The stock market crash of 1929 was a four-day collapse of stock prices that began on October 24, 1929. It was the worst decline in U.S. history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 25 percent. It lost $30 billion in market value. That is equivalent to almost 400 billion dollars in today’s money.

People lost their life’s savings, lenders called in their loans and this ripple effect caused the Great Depression. And we have seems the pictures of people standing in the soup lines or holding up signs for work. People had put their trust in something that is temporary instead of something permanent.

Jesus says but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

This is not some socialist or communistic view, But it is about the rich man getting rid of the things that he thinks are important and looking toward God to provide what is actually important. And this is what we are still faced with the same

Paul tells Timothy how to prevent this disappointment from happening and this applies to us as well.

Do what is good, be rich in good works, and be generous. This all goes into the spiritual bank account and makes the good foundation for your future. This does not mean you earn your way into heaven, but what it does mean is you are spending your gifts and your actual money and time on things that are worthwhile. It is nice to have nice things, but it is also better to do something nice for someone.

Why, because you have the means to do so. God has given you something to share with someone’s else that is in need. God hadn’t he means to send Jesus down to earth as or sacrifice. We can do something like pay for someone's dinner bill, Just like Jesus paid our sin debt. He is the reason we act in a like manner. We do not do so to earn favor with God, because we were so far out of favor there was nothing we could do to earn it.

TS: Paul concludes with encouraging Timothy to protect the church and the Gospel message that the church is responsible for.

Conclusion:

Through all of life’s challenges and ups and downs, god wants each of us to be content with Him. AsPaul says he is the only sovereign one in the universe.he is providing everything for us.That means the good as well as the bad. We can be content with God being in control.

When we have problems with our jobs, money or the fights that come with being an alien in this world. But we can succeed because God is allowing us to succeed even if it feels like we maybe going backwards or losing.

In the entire letter Paul is encouraging Timothy to build an outpost in the frontier. We are doing the same thing. We have been stationed here in Tanglewood to over our section of the city to bring the Gospel message to people. To help them focus, to on worldly, temporary things, but on things of the Everlasting Realm of God, to bring the Kingdom of God here. That is our important charge of the great commission.

Action: How Content are you with God and what he has provided for your life? Are you looking at the things and events in your life from the standpoint of Why has God given me this? What does he want me to do with it? What lesson for my spiritual growth is in this situation?