Contentment

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn to Paul’s first letter to Timothy. If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word. 1 Timothy 6 beginning with the last sentence of verse 2.

This is God’s Word:

1 Timothy 6:3–10 NIV

3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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“'Cause we are living in a material world And I am a material girl You know that we are living in a material world And I am a material girl”

That’s not me; that was Madonna who sang that for the first time 35 years ago.

Regardless of what the song actually means or what Madonna meant it to mean, the chorus rings true, at least in part (grammar aside). We are living in a materialistic world, aren’t we?

We are about the acquisition of stuff. More stuff, all the stuff, better stuff, more expensive stuff, name-brand stuff, nicer stuff, new stuff. “We are living in a material world...”

It starts young. Pages-long Christmas lists. “I want this! I want that! I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!”

You know that we are living in a material world...

Madonna was a bit prophetic: we are living in a material world, or at least a materialistic world. We are living in a materialistic world and we are, most of us, ourselves materialistic.

Our materialism—our tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values—our materialism is blinding us to the needs of the world around us. Our materialism is killing us.

Of the 7 Billion people in the world, only one-third claim to be Christian (and a good number of those have a mistaken understanding of what it is to be a follower of Christ).

Subtract the professing Christian population, and we’re left with 4.7 Billion who are on the road to an eternal hell.

2 Billion of those 4.7 Billion have absolutely no access to the gospel. There is an urgent spiritual need.

There is, also, an urgent physical need. Several thousand people each and every day die due to lack basic needs and medical supplies. Food, shelter, medicine are not readily available in most places. Some 20,000 children will die TODAY due to starvation and preventable disease. 14 children die every minute while we eat popcorn and stream Netflix and Disney+.

If you own a car, if you have (at this point or any point) more than a few dollars in your pocket, if you work even a minimum wage job—if any of those are true, you are among the wealthiest people in the world.

We often compare ourselves to the 1% and think, “Well, I’m not rich. Jeff Bezos is rich. Warren Buffet is rich. All those professional athletes are rich. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah, Ellen—they are rich! Not me.”

But if we compare ourselves to the majority of people in the world, we’d realize that most of the world would look at us and see, in bright, flashing, neon letters: RICH!

“Look at them! They’ve got multiple cars, expendable income, a roof over their heads, more than one bathroom (and their bathrooms are inside with running water and everything!). They have food filling their refrigerators and their cupboards; they have so much food they throw it away. Look how rich they are!”

Comparatively, we are wealthy, wealthy people. And we give very little of it away.

Did you know that on average, Christians give about 2.5% of their income back to the Lord? And then, on average, only 2% of that 2.5% is given by the church to international missions?

To put it into a dollar figure: for every $100 a Christian gives, 5 cents of it goes to foreign mission work.

I don’t know what you give personally, percentage wise (and I don’t need to or want to know; and I won’t know unless you tell me). I don’t know what you give, but it’s good, from time to time, to consider how much you actually give. There’s no set percentage you must give, by the way. But there are principles in place.

Our church is a bit out of the ordinary in the amount that we give. I’ve mentioned this before: one of the first things that drew me to RHCC was the note in the bulletin stating 10% of everything given to RHCC was given to mission work. Now, all told, we give close to 25% of everything the Lord has blessed us with; we give it back to the Lord, helping local people here and we send it to help support like-minded ministries and missionaries, both domestic and international.

That’s not to say that we couldn’t do more. As long as the Lord gives me breath and the privilege of pastoring here, I’m going to work to increase what we give away. “The Lord has dealt bountifully with” us. He has blessed us so that we can be a blessing.

Unfortunately, not all people feel the same way toward their material possessions.

>As we know from our study in 1 Timothy, there are false teachers in Ephesus (the city where Timothy is pastor). These false teachers are causing all kinds of problems.

They are experts in missing the point. They are leading people astray. So Paul, writing to young Timothy is exposing these false teachers, their false teaching, and the false teachers’ character.

What they are teaching, how they are living, what they are selling is leading the people astray. Their teaching is anti-gospel and gospel+. They are denying the truth of Jesus’ death and burial or they are adding to it: “Jesus died for your sins, which is great, but you also must do this and this and that in order to be saved.”

False teachers teaching a false gospel.

In our text for today, Paul identifies two destructive cravings of false teachers and those who follow them.

1 Timothy 6:4 NIV

4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions

1 Timothy 6:10 NIV

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

They crave controversy and quarrels. And hey crave money.

These teachers were teaching another gospel, other doctrine, false teaching, teaching that is contrary to the truth. This kind of false teaching will always, always lead to division in the church.

Being ignorant and arrogant is a bad combination. A man who knows nothing about cars but arrogantly believes he can fix anything is probably going to hurt himself or someone else and will likely ruin the car in the process.

People who know nothing of the things of the Lord and yet have the arrogance to presume that they can teach or lead are going to hurt a lot of people.

What’s more, false teachers are going to stir up a lot of controversy and strife. Unbiblical doctrine taught inevitably leads to controversy and strife.

Envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, constant friction—all of these result from false teaching. These flourish among those who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Paul points out the cause and effect of false teaching, the damage false teaching does to the church and to individual Christians. He encourages us, urges us, pleads with us to:

Be Content in the Gospel

This is essentially what Paul is getting at in verse 3. He implies that there will be people who teach otherwise—people who teach something contrary to the truth about Jesus. There is much teaching that does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching.

Many, many people throughout the years have become either bored with or hostile to the gospel. They become discontent with the glorious truths about Jesus.

When people become discontent with the gospel, they go shopping around. They’ll turn on the TV or dial the radio or stream online something different, something that is, in their mind, better than the gospel. They’ll find a gathering of people who call themselves a “church” but who have no interest in the gospel and have, instead, traded it in for life tips and marriage advice. All it is is something contrary to the truth of the gospel.

People tire of the old, old story of Jesus and His love and, like a gift with the tag still on, they’ll exchange it for what’s new, for something bright and fancy, something that makes them feel better about themselves, something that tells them they’re able to make themselves right with God. They look at the gospel and say, “Eh. I don’t like this gospel so much right now; let’s try this.”

2 Timothy 4:3 NIV

3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Discontentedness with the gospel is a very real condition. There are countless people even right here in our small community who have become discontent with the truths about Jesus. It bores them. They don’t care to hear about it. And so they go shopping around and they will—you bet your sweet bippy—they will find someone who’s willing to tell them just exactly what they want to hear and who will never tell them any truth that’s hard to swallow.

Be Content in the Gospel

What Paul wants from his readers, what Paul wants from us is for us to hold fast to the sound teaching of our Lord.

There is no need to graduate to something beyond the gospel. As believers we are to remain in the truth and spend our lives there. As believers, we need to be saturated in the gospel of Jesus Christ—His life, His death, His resurrection, His commands, His teaching, His Word.

If we hold fast to the gospel, it will produce godly minds and godly lives; it will produce godly churches who are able to identify and slay false teaching when it creeps up and into the church.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis: Who would make mud pies in a slum when we’re offered a holiday at the sea?

We have the gospel, right here in our hands, sitting in our laps; there is no need to crave anything else. There is no other teaching that is, itself, the power of God unto salvation. Nothing else is going to change lives. Nothing else is going to give hope. Nothing else will lead people to Jesus.

You can mess around with false teaching, but it’s just a bunch of mud pies, so why would you?

Be content in the gospel.

The false teachers are teaching another gospel, and so Paul warns Timothy. The false teachers are living in a way that betrays their unbelief, and it shows.

Verse 5 says false teachers believe that “godliness” (the appearance of godliness) is a means of financial profit.

False teachers—all of them—use God to get what they want. This was true in 1st Century Ephesus and it’s true today. What they crave, what many people crave, are material possessions—“we are living in a material world...”

Costi Hinn, the nephew of false teacher Benny Hinn, is an evangelical pastor who has written a book entitled, “God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel: How Truth Overwhelms a Life Built on Lies”.

He says this:

“The prosperity gospel system is disgustingly simple when you think about it:

1. Preacher says Jesus will heal you or bless you if you give money.

2. People give money.

3. Preacher takes money to fund high life.

4. Preacher uses high life as evidence that teaching is true.

5. Repeat.”

Things and possessions are not inherently bad or intrinsically evil; we’ll read next week at the end of 1 Timothy that “God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

However, anytime something or someone becomes all-important or starts to receive any part of our heart or our worship or our allegiance, it has, at that point, become and idol.

We must be on guard against craving money or possessions, the next gadget, better clothes, etc. Financial gain is not the product of godliness..

Jesus warned us to watch our craving for this material world.

Matthew 6:19–21 NIV

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The craving for more money, more stuff here and now is foolish, especially when considered in light of eternity.

In verses 9-10, we see the deceptive nature, the danger, and the damning effects of materialism:

1 Timothy 6:9–10 NIV

9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Notice how materialism is advertised: temptation, trap, foolish, harmful, ruin, destruction, all kinds of evil, a wandering from the faith, grief.

When the craving is money and riches, bad stuff happens. If you chase after all that, you’re going to be miserable at best; at worst, you’ll be lost.

Knowing the dangers of materialism and the love of money, Paul urges us, encourages us to:

Be Content in God

False teachers use godliness (or the appearance of godliness) as a means to financial gain. Paul says in verse 6:

1 Timothy 6:6 NIV

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Instead of the financial gain false teachers crave, Paul is telling us to shoot for “great gain.” Paul wants us to live for great gain, that is eternal, infinite gain.

There’s something better than money. More accurately, there’s SOMEONE better than money.

Don’t settle for material riches. Don’t seek to be satisfied with money; be satisfied in the love of God. That’s what it means to have godliness with contentment.

Be Content in God

When you have God, when you know God, when you are in a living, breathing relationship with God, you don’t have to crave more worldly stuff.

1 Timothy 6:7 NIV

7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

“Never seen a hearse with a trailer hitch...”

What sense is there in depending upon earthly riches; it’s all gonna burn up in the end? It won’t be waiting for us on the other side.

Let us, instead, live simple, non-extravagant lives.

This will go against the grain of our culture, and fly in the face of our materialistic world. May the Lord give us grace to be content with the necessities of life and forsake earthly treasures for heavenly reward, giving sacrificially, working to make more and more disciples who are content in God.

Instead of accumulating more and more, Paul advises contentment:

1 Timothy 6:8 NIV

8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

This is something Paul had a good grasp of, even in terrible circumstances. Prison, ill-health, getting rocks thrown at him, shipwreck, desertion and betrayal from friends, hatred from enemies of the gospel—and yet, Paul was content whatever the circumstances.

Philippians 4:10–13 NIV

10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Paul learned to be content in every situation. I’m still working on this.

We stopped at Subway earlier this week and got our sandwiches to go. I was perfectly content with my sandwich, even looking forward to eating it when we got home. That is until I was backing out of the parking stall and saw an advertisement for cheesy garlic bread and then I instantly regretted my decision and started wishing I had ordered that. Discontentment creeps up fast.

Truth is: I have too much stuff, and I catch myself wanting more and more and more. I’ve got to keep up with the Joneses. “Look at what they have; I want that.”

I have too much stuff and have never known true need. I’ve never been oppressed or imprisoned. I’ve never really faced anything close to what Paul went through or what many Christians of his day went through.

Today, at this moment, there are many, many of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are living in horrible, unbelievable circumstances (persecution, torture, imprisonment, their very lives threatened)—and yet, many of them are content in Christ.

They have Christ and they realize that’s all they need.

Christ + nothing = everything.

Like the woman at the well who came to draw water and ended up meeting Jesus: when she realized He was the Messiah, she left her jug and ran to tell others about Him. She, that day, found her satisfaction, her contentment in Jesus. She needed nothing else. She’d never thirst again.

We have in Him absolutely everything we need and so much more besides!

Money will never satisfy; you’ll never be content with what you have. You’ll always want a little more (it’s a foolish trap with much grief associated). There’s always another gadget, a nicer car, a better house; if you crave those earthly trinkets, you’ll never find contentment. You have to keep climbing that ladder.

But in Christ, like Paul and like the woman at the well, you will realize, in Him, you have all you ever need. This is the message the world needs to hear.

A materialistic world will not be won by materialistic church.

If we don’t show the world that Christ is all-satisfying, who will?

Let us be content in the gospel and content in God so that the world would seek their contentment and satisfaction in Him alone.

Genuine contentment is not self-sufficiency but Christ-sufficiency.

The message is not, “Work really hard to be content; you can do it!” The message is, as always, look to Christ, trust in Christ, give your life and your desires to Christ and watch Him meet all your needs—and you will see how contentment in this world comes as a by-product of knowing and cherishing Christ.

Christians can be content because their needs are met by Christ. Each and every one of them. There is nothing you need that He won’t supply in due time.

Christ was rich and became poor for our sake so that we who were as poor off as could possibly be would find an eternity of riches in Him.

“Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.”