Midweek Bible Study | 1 Timothy 6 | Gary Hamrick

let's open our Bibles together if you would please to first Timothy chapter 6 we're gonna finish out our study in the Epistle of first Timothy tonight by looking at the last chapter chapter 6 if you don't happen to have a Bible the ushers are making their way down the aisles right now with some Bibles in hand so just raise your hand in their direction and they will be glad to give you a Bible if you take a Bible from one of our rushers it's page 841 in those church Bibles first Timothy in your New Testaments chapter 6 the last chapter of this epistle next week Lord willing we'll be in to second Timothy as we just make our way straight through the Bible here on Sundays and Wednesdays Sundays were in Isiah presently and tonight finishing out first Timothy next Wednesday night will be in to second Timothy so if you have your Bibles handy there let's first pray and then we will look into this last chapter together lord thank you for this time now as we worship you through the studying and the application of your word and we thank you Lord for your love for us and your grace and your patience and your mercy speak to us now through the pages of Scripture we love you Lord and we thank you that you first loved us in Jesus name we pray and everyone said amen if you haven't been here for our study of first Timothy I'm gonna summarize the last several weeks and bring us up to speed Paul is writing what we call a pastoral epistle to Timothy who is relatively speaking a young pastor the church at Ephesus he is believed to be about thirty years of age but he refers to him as a young man so it's all relative but here Paul writes this letter as an encouragement an exhortation and some direction to Timothy as he pastors this church and we've come to realize that in the course of this letter Paul is spelling out what will end up being on our list seven things that should define the church so we've already been through six of these things he talks in chapter one about the need for the church to be a place of sound doctrine in chapter 1 verse 3 he says as I urged you when I went into Macedonia stayed there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrine any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies so the church should be a place of sound doctrine number two it should also be a place of grace Paul goes on in Chapter one to talk a little bit about his own testimony in verse 12 he says I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who was given me strength that he considered me faithful appointing me to his service he said even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man those are three terms that he uses to describe his own past what would be some words I'm not asking you to call out loud but what would be some words that you would describe concerning yourself and your past and yet he says and this is good news for all of us despite my past I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief and he says the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus so the church should be a place of grace where people understand you can have a past and you can be forgiven and God can make a new life out of your you know somebody once said out of my mess comes my message which is now my testimony of God's grace and his wonderful forgiveness in in my life and then also he says number three should be a place of Prayer he starts out chapter two by saying I urged then first of all that requests and prayers and intercession be made with Thanksgiving for everyone and then he gets specific especially for kings and all those in authority that we might live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness remember for he also tells us that the church should be defined as a place with godly elders and deacons and into chapter three he says that there's a trustworthy saying if anyone sets his heart on being an overseer or an elder or a pastor he desires a noble task and then he goes on through chapter three to talk about the qualifications for elders and deacons number five on our list is that the church should also be a place that is clearly teaching the Bible in chapter 4 verse 13 Paul exhorts Timothy he says until I devote yourself to the public reading of scripture to preaching and to teaching so that's why we devote a large portion of all of our services and all our gatherings to teaching God's Word to the public reading of Scripture because it is really through God's Word that we are equipped that we come to salvation faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God so it is important not to dilute God's Word not to deny God's Word but to apply it to read it to teach it and so that's why we do what we do around here and then last week we talked about number six on the list is the caring of four people in Chapter five Paul draws particularly to widows and he distinguishes older widows from younger widows and how the church should come alongside but but not in every case because sometimes a widow has family members that should step up to the plate and have first priority and taking care of family members so he discusses that at length in Chapter five and now we come here to chapter six and the main point out of chapter six is number 7 on our list it's the last point on our list and it is that the church should be defined as a place where people are pursuing godliness now Paul loves that word godliness as we've mentioned before through this letter because the word godliness does not appear anywhere in the New Testament until you get here to first Timothy and then when you get here to first Timothy that word godliness or NIV sometimes we use the word godly but it is a word that appears in the original Greek language eight times in the book of first Timothy so nowhere in the New Testament until first Timothy and then Paul drops at eight times so it's really emphasized a lot here in this sixth chapter let me just do a quick survey with you and show you here in chapter six look at verse three he says if anyone teaches false doctrine and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching and that's that's the same word some translations say enter the teaching of godliness so that's a use of the word and then he goes further down verse verse four I'll just keep reading he is conceded underst nothing he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy strife malicious talk evil suspicions verse 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind who have been robbed to the truth and who think that godliness there's a word again is it means to financial gain next verse verse 6 but godliness there's the word again godliness with contentment is great gain and then also it uses the word in verse 11 when he says but you man of God flee from all this and pursue righteousness godliness faith love endurance and gentleness now we'll come back and we'll talk about all these verses but I just wanted to point out to you that you know four out of the eight times that Paul emphasizes godliness in this letter is here in Chapter six so he really ends strongly on this theme of the church being a place where people pursue godliness now we've talked about this but again just to kind of define it godliness is from an old English word God likeness and the breakdown of the word in in the Greek the original language of the New Testament is the word you see biya from two Greek words EU u is the prefix of this word meaning well and tsubame E is the suffix of the word and it means devout worship or reverence so God likeness or godliness is when we are living a life that is devoted well to God that worships well God that it Revere's well God and that we should be intent about this we should be intentional about wanting to live lives of purity and holiness okay look you know when when you not get saved the Bible speaks about our sanctification in in a few different progressive terms we are sanctified when we trust Christ as our Savior because the word sanctified means to be set apart to be made holy under the Lord that happens the moment you trust Christ as your Savior you are marked by the Lord set apart for the Lord and you're sanctified in him but the Bible also speaks of sanctification as a progress and process of your Christian walk where it's not just a one and done it is a lifestyle committed to living for the glory of God that we want to honor him and the way we speak okay get rid of all filthy language we want to honor him and the way we live okay love your wives respect your husbands be devoted to one another in love don't be sleeping around your boyfriend or your girlfriend honor the Lord and in everything about the way you conduct business and and everything about our lives should reflect the godliness the God likeness and then and and and then you know progressively until the day that we are ultimately with the Lord and then our sanctification is sealed once and for all because there is no flesh that is warring with our soul but as Christians we need to be devoted to the Lord and God likeness and holiness and walking in this reverence and worship and devotion to the Lord doing it well because it honors him and and so this is the life of the Christian and this should be our constant pursuit so let's start here at chapter 6 and make our way through this chapter this evening and and see here as as Paul ends this letter with some final exhortations here so he says in verse 1 he says all who are under the yoke of slavery should consider that their masters worthy of full respect Circle that word respect so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers instead they are to serve Circle that word serve them even better because those who benefit from their service are believers and dear to them these are the things you are to teach and urge on them so Timothy is instructed here by Paul that when he's addressing those within his congregation who might be slaves and I'll define that in a moment this is 1st century Rome that the expectation here is I want you to serve your masters with respect I want you to serve them well I want you to honor them whether your masters are believers or not now again we need to get context on this passage because I don't want anybody to think and sometimes skeptics and critics of the Bible accuse the Bible of somehow condoning slavery because it speaks of slavery here I mean why doesn't Paul just come right out and say this is wrong this is evil this is inhumane which it is all those things the reason why he's not saying those things in this passage though when you look at the sum total of Scripture God clearly as opposed to slavery man's inhumanity to man the reason why Paul's not dealing with it on a moral level is because first century Roman Empire gang listen 30 to 40 percent of the entire Roman Empire were slaves they were not slaves in the way that our own history has marred America they were not slaves by virtue of someone's race a person was a slave in first century Roman Empire because they were either prisoners of war I'm stunned it's still not justified I'm just explaining prisoners of war or in the Roman Empire you could actually sell yourself into slavery because you owed a debt that you couldn't repay when someone became in over their heads financially they could sell themselves and so we would say more or less an indentured servant but you would now be property to somebody within the Roman Empire that you as a Roman citizen sold yourself into slavery now you could purchase your freedom back and once you got back on your feet you could regain your freedom purchase your freedom or your master might give you your freedom as a gift but the typical slave in the Roman Empire was either a prisoner of war or someone who sold themselves ourselves as a Roman citizen into slavery what Paul is doing here he's saying okay listen if you find yourself in this circumstance either by virtue of you were taken against your will as a prisoner of war or you sold yourself into slavery make the best of that circumstance so he's not condoning slavery here okay the Bible is clear about the mistreatment of one person to another and and and yet what he's saying is if you find yourself in that situation this is my advice to you I want you to respect your masters now this is you can translate this to 21st century friends okay in your place of employment or whatever structure you find yourself in within some structure of authority respect authority that's one message that is clear to take away from this instruction here okay again we're living in a day when people don't respect authority as much as they used to and it's tragic and it's sad but you know it used to be much more you know yes I remember growing up and my dad usually watches from Virginia Beach so where is hey Dad but I can remember growing up that it was you know until I got older it was yes sir and no sir in my house and it wasn't it wasn't like with you know a heavy hand it was just my dad was teaching me respect from an early age and then you know I remember I think around being a teenager you know then then there was an understanding of respect but I remember just as a little so I didn't have to keep saying that but as a little kid I just remember that was it was yes sir it was no sir it was yesterday it was no ma'am and it wasn't even just with mom and dad it was with older adults that I would meet how many of you remember saying yes sir no sir yes ma'am no ma'am okay and and but what that did was it it instilled within me just a measure of respect and we're living in a culture now where that is just not as prevalent and I think we have to do a better job of instilling those things in our children the next generation because when they grow up they're gonna have to have a boss that they report to or they're gonna have to have some manager or they're gonna have to have you know some somebody in their life who is an authority figure and we have to learn to be respectful so Paul says here you know if you find yourself in the circumstance I want you to be respectful he even adds here as a believer and one of the beautiful things about Christianity is it levels the playing field okay there's no better than or worse than people it's men aren't better than women women are better than men whites not better than black blacks not better than white and in this context of first century slaves not better than free and freeze not better than slave because Christianity's is is the universal equalizer where where we are all valued and we are all equal in the eyes of God because of the cross Jesus Christ died for all and God is no respecter of persons because God loves all and died for all okay so we all have equal value and one of the things that Paul was doing intentionally was when I validate the value of slaves that in the culture were regarded as second-class citizens I'm actually making people aware that the playing field is level and so one of the things that he says here is now listen if you happen to be a slave and you're serving a master if your master happens to be a believer don't slack off in your responsibilities because he said it would be easy to just start to relate to one another as you know and don't do this with your boss either by the way right so like if you work at a place where you're your boss is a Christian don't be just like yo bro I guess I can just slide in here like a half hour late tomorrow morning cuz we're all Christians word you know don't do that because it would be like word you're on your way out and so Paul's saying here like okay listen if you happen to have the pleasure of observing a master who is a believer he says he says don't he says in verse two those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they're brothers just like I guess you'll show me favors now because we're bros your right or sisters but you know and and he says but instead he says they're to serve them even better even better so the other word I ask you to serve the circle is the word serve because I think respect and serve respect and serve are terms that should never die in the heart of the Christian we should always be showing respect to other people and we should always have the disposition of serving them you know Jesus washed his disciples feet for a reason because he wanted to teach a lesson to all of us beginning with his own disciples to serve and to just be willing to humble yourself and not to be better than but to just be willing to serve and to help and to just to just consider others better than yourselves and to show that in the way that you treat them and serve them and love them well then he goes on here in verse three to address the potential problem that material ambition can pose in the life of the believer so he warns here verse 30 if anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching he is conceited and understands nothing he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in every strife and sorry Envy strife malicious talk evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a mean - means to financial gain now in this passage here what what Paul is referring to are those within the congregation he's not addressing this with Timothy he's saying listen I want you to be aware that within the numbers there's going to be some people who have this on the helots assistance' this this unhealthy obsession with wanting to argue over words and not just one to argue over words but want to argue over words that are about false doctrine so it's it's a double whammy here David music and his commentary said this section here is basically a warning against the argumentation of heretics we're where people get together and they want to talk about doctrine that is that is incorrect doctrine and then they just want to argue about it and and that's just not healthy in any church okay it's not healthy to just start to debate and split hairs over words so I mean look words important words important and and the corruption of a word or two can mean the difference between solid doctrine of false doctrine so I'm not downplaying the importance of words but some people can just like be obsessed with a word and then they want to argue with Christians over what does elect me and let's talk about elect and who is elect and were you elect before you were elect or have you always been elect I mean do you know people like that it's not healthy it's okay to just have discussions but some people obsess about it and this is the warning here and what makes it worse is again when they quarrel about words that are really false doctrine so it's just a double whammy here argumentation of heretics and then he at but then that last part there in verse five seems a little out of place he says he says who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gains what in the world does that mean you know I think today when we think about some false doctrines that float around and they can be ever so subtle I think one of those is how Christianity is commonly presented in terms of what you gain by following Jesus and unfortunately people think that coming to faith in Jesus is a stepping stone to material success or happiness and you may experience material success and happiness after coming to know Christ or before coming to know Christ but we what we need to realize is that the gospel of Jesus Christ I mean what we gain is what we don't deserve anyway and what we gain is forgiveness and redemption and acceptance and and and and for that we have an eternal inheritance in in heaven okay but if we think this life in following Christ is all about just how my life can be improved and what I gain out of it we are sadly mistaken because the Christian life is about dying to self and it's about taking up your cross daily and dying to self and it's about living a sacrificial life for the glory of God and it is it is about seeing ourselves as as dead and alive in Christ and no longer living for the pleasures of this world or for what I can get out of it but it's what what I can give to the kingdom how I can serve the kingdom how I can honor the Lord in my life of sacrifice and and self-denial and just dying the self so I think we have you know kind of almost a Western concept of Christianity these days where we think you know come to Christ and Jesus makes you rich and you just you know you never have another sickness in your life and if you do is because you don't have enough faith and all this kind of nonsense gang and listen what God calls us to is a sacrificial life of following Jesus because we can never out give what God has given to us and and what we gain in Christ in terms of his forgiveness is is far exceeds anything that we could ever hope or imagined and what God has done on our behalf that we didn't deserve and so he that there's just this warning here do you know don't think that godless is this means to just a more comfortable life and a more you know financially beneficial life God may bless you financially but he's going to go into this next section and talk more specifically about money so let's let's talk about it verse 6 but godliness with contentment is great gain that's a great verse godliness with contentment is great gain circle the word contentment that really is the issue in our lives is contentment we're often discontent because we never think that what we have is enough in Philippians chapter 4 Paul would write in verses 10 through 12 he says I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me indeed you have been concerned for you had no opportunity to show it I'm not saying this because I am in need for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances he says 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 so one key to godliness he says here is contentment just be content be content now that doesn't mean you should never achieve it doesn't mean you should never you know desire to be promoted or desire to have a raise in your salary but if if those things are our ambition if those things are the driving thing behind us instead of the drive to be more like Jesus then we're not content we're gonna be constantly just you know feeling like we're lacking and we never have enough so he cautions here godliness with contentment is great game and he adds verse 7 for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it you know but all three of my kids I was there when they were born not one of them came with a wallet they quickly wanted one when they were old enough to know that I had one but nobody they didn't come in with a wallet or a cellphone it was amazing they were born with nothing a job said in job 1:21 naked I came into my mother's womb and from my mother's womb and naked I will depart you know I came naked I'm gonna depart take it I didn't have anything when I came I ain't gonna take anything with me there's a lot of people who try to take things with them case in point take a look at this picture mrs. Sandra West now it's black and white because she died in 1977 but she was a Millionaire heiress to a oil a Texan oil tycoon and her wish was to be buried in this car that she's sitting on it happens to be a 1964 powder-blue 250 GT Ferrari dirt cheap now is it well literally because she was buried in it in the dirt that's how dirt cheap it is here's actually a colored version of it it's a pretty car pretty car but she her wish was her dying wish she died March the 10th 1977 in her Beverly Hills home she wanted to be flown back with Ferrari to Texas where she could be buried next to her husband Ike West and so she was and so here's a picture an old newspaper clipping of of the plot that was dug now if you can see so this is the big plot and here they're lowering this was the delivery of her Ferrari in this wooden container here and then they're gonna lower it down into this big hole in the ground and she's inside it and her instructions were I want to be in my white lace nightgown in the front seat behind the wheel at a slightly reclined position and so they followed her wishes and so they dropped her so she's in the box or they dropped her in the dirt so his dirt cheap now and and she's buried there but you know somebody needs to tell her you you can't take it with you but some people try he adds in verse eight but if we have food and clothing notice he's talking about the basic essential elements if we have food and clothing we will be content with that now verse nine and ten he says people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs so I'm going to put these two verses up on the screen because I want us to just spend a little bit of time understanding this because we need to get proper context and and understand the intent and the meaning behind it question is money bad no money is not bad and that's not what he's saying here and I know some people who misquote this verse from time to time who talk about how money is the root of all evil that's a misquoting of the verse it doesn't say that money is the root of all kinds of evil it says in verse 10 what's what is the what is the real problem the love of money it's the love of money in the Greek it is filigree ax from two Greek words fellows meaning love and Argos meaning silver so literally means just the love of so the obsession with the covetousness of it the the greed of it the love of that is a root not the only root but a root of all kinds of evil and he talks about how you know people you know eager for for money with that obsession plunge themselves into ruin and destruction and some people eager wander from the faith pierced themselves with many griefs I mean we don't have to look very far to understand a lot of different stories that have emerged as the result of the harm that money can do in the hands of people who don't understand the right management of it not just the squandering of it I'm talking about you know how many foolish wicked things have been done over money how many people have fought over money how many families have been split because somebody's will was red and now there's a fight in the family over money how many how many people have gotten divorced over money I mean money can do crazy things to people how many people have been murdered over money and again it's probably because I watched too many Forensic Files but I mean you know it's the classic you know take an insurance policy on the husband or the wife and then all the sudden they end up dead you know a life insurance policy there's worth you know hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars Allisyn they were people do crazy wicked evil things over money I mean how many people have sold secrets of the United States I mean people have have betrayed their own country and betrayed people over money so this kind of thing we don't have to you know debate this everybody understands that money in the hands of wrong people with wrong mode who loved it too much it's likely to cost people do some very crazy and evil things and he says here that in verse 10 some people eager for money have wandered from the faith the word wander is a greek word that can mean seduced so you can be seduced by money you can be seduced by the love of it by the power of it by the pursuit of it and Jesus even warns in matthew 6:24 that we cannot serve God and money because they will end up both competing with it with each other so there's only one master in our lives and it's either gonna be God or not and a lot of people will end up if it's not God making material things their God and Jesus says you can't serve both God and money as masters you're either gonna hate one and be devoted to the other or the other way around and so there are too many people who are devoted to money like it's a god and and they have sold their souls for money so so there's this caution here but also realize that the whole counsel the Scriptures basically teaches us that money makes a terrible master but it makes a wonderful servant and money in the hands of godly people who understand the right stewardship of it that all of it comes from the hand of God and all of it belongs to God and we're just entrusted with it to manage it and to use it money can then be used for great purposes for the glory of God okay now I don't say this disparaging poor people but no poor people builds churches no poor people build hospitals build orphanages okay wealthy people build churches and hospitals and orphanages and homes for unwed mothers so it's not like money's evil it's not like don't ever make money okay the Bible is not like putting down success and achievement accomplishment it's warning though the potential of greed and covetousness in our own hearts and and the remedy to to being free from greed and covetousness is generosity that's always the remedy if you have a fear of being I don't want to be greedy I don't want to be covetous then be generous and Paul actually glanced down further to verse 18 where Paul says in verse 18 command them to do good to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share so even reminds us that the key to not be consumed and obsessed with money or material things is to always practice generosity what God wants from us is an open hand not a tight fist that's what God always wants so his warning here against those who are tight fisted it's worn here against those who it's all about money that's their ambition God's not priority just make sure that God is the Lord of your life not material things and then use what God has given you for the furtherance of the kingdom and to honor God and to glorify Him because when God blesses you he blesses you for a reason and the reason it's not that you might just retain it all and hoard it all but the reason it said you might be a conduit the reason is that you might be a funnel of what God has given you know what did God say to Abraham when God blessed Abraham so much I will bless you that you might be a blessing and when God blesses you he blesses you in order to be a blessing now along these lines let me put some things in perspective and I think it is important for us as Americans to always get the right perspective so Forbes magazine a couple of years ago on forbes.com you can look this up just to help us get a perspective the typical person in the United States of America in the bottom 5% of the distribution of income okay so the 5% the lowest 5% of Americans in terms of economic class are better off than 68% of the rest of the world the lowest five the poorest person in the United States is wealthier than 68% of the rest of the world's population to give even a more it to give you an even greater perspective if you are stuck in the lowest 5% of US income your standard of living is equal to that of the top five percent of the entire country of India they say that again if you're in the lowest 5% bracket in the United States the equivalency is you're in the upper five percent of the entire country of India over four billion people 95 percent of them are living inferior to your lifestyle so it's an amazing thing when we stop and consider just perspective for a little bit Huffington Post there was an article that somebody wrote when you see if I have it here somewhere which I thought also kind of helps us to get perspective I'm just gonna read a little excerpt of it with money there was no such thing as enough unlike food entertainment sleep or social outings few people ever say that is sufficient no more needed there is no X amount of dollars in the bank that feels satisfying in fact a multi-millionaire I know in San Francisco said to me once when I asked him why he works at a job he doesn't like he answered you can never have enough money he says if we live a life of comparison we set ourselves up for misery someone else will always have a bigger house a grander wedding fancier vacation this never ever ever ends no matter how hard you work what you buy or where you live this is a this is like a trap this article says we we start out small get a little promotion we're thrilled my first job paid me 28,000 this article says I got a promotion of 35,000 I thought it was the Hyatt I thought I was the highest roller for a couple of weeks and over the course of my career I earned 50,000 that I earned a hundred thousand and so forth none of which seemed enough after a couple of months in my new salary bracket very quickly as human beings become used to each new standard of living and want more psychologists call this heat an Inuk hedonic from hedonist hedonic adaptation is that we get used to our upgrades very quickly and if you own a boat and a cool car you'll be looking a kingly at a yacht and the newer version of your already sweet ride pretty sweet pretty soon and then he adds this and I thought this is a pretty interesting comment true wealth is an internal condition and the sooner we make up our minds that we have enough no matter our circumstances the happier we are I think in a secular sense he was trying to say what Paul was saying in a biblical sense you know contentment is the real key so again John Wesley once said earn all you can save all you can give all you can so the Bible's not a downer on achievement accomplishment and making money but the Bible is a strong Warner about how the power of money can sometimes control us and we become obsessive and we serve money as a god instead of the Lord so be good steward of what God has given him and bless the kingdom and bless others and be a funnel for God's goodness - to be a blessing now he's gonna come back to money a little bit on the end but let's carry on to verse 11 he says but you man of God flee from all this and pursue righteousness godliness faith love endurance and gentleness now I want you to notice there in verse 11 he says flee from all this I ended up counting 7 final exhortations of Paul in this last section 2 Timothy which I think are good for all of us he's going to say to him flee these these are the the commands the imperatives flee fight take hold of keep command talking about as a pastor command others guard and turn away from so let's make our way through this passage and see how he uses these words so again flee from all this pursue righteousness godliness faith love endurance and gentleness verse 12 fight the good fight of the faith okay Paul's going to reiterate that in his next letter 2nd Timothy 4:7 Paul's going to say about himself I have fought the good fight I finished the race I have kept the faith so he warns us fight the good fight of the faith take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses okay talking about you know Romans 10:9 and 10 is with your heart you believe and are justified as with your mouth and you confess and are saved and so you know to confess Jesus as Lord he says hold on to that verse 13 in the sight of God who gives life to everyone everything rather and of Christ Jesus who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession okay now what was that good confession well basically what Jesus was standing in front of Pontius Pilate and Pontius Pilate prodded him with a few questions for example in Matthew 27 11 Pilate said are you the King of the Jews jesus said it is as you say so he's giving a faithful testimony I'm the King of the Jews well how not of this world I'm of a greater Kingdom Jesus would also say to Pilate in John 19 verse 11 you would have no power over me except that it was given to you by my father which is in heaven so he testifies to the sovereignty of God so there are different things in that conversation of Jesus in front of Pontius Pilate where Jesus is just being in the face of death faithful to the aunt and that's what Paul say here did to all of us in the Timothy's like you know just be faithful to the good confession it'll be true to your testimony don't deny the faith don't be embarrassed about knowing Jesus those would be young you going back to school in a couple of weeks be faithful in your testimony of Jesus don't don't don't care so much about what other people think of you you know live your life to honor Jesus don't worry about who doesn't like that you love Jesus live your life in such a way that you hold on to that good confession he says I charge you verse 14 to keep this command without spot or blame unto the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ as Jesus coming again which God will bring about in his own time God the blessed and only ruler the king of kings and Lord of lords who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light whom no one has seen or Kensie to him be honor and might forever amen okay John would also say in first John 1:5 that God is light and in him is no darkness at all verse 17 Paul says to Timothy and I want you to command these things were 17 command those who rich in this present world not to be arrogant in order to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment isn't that good amen everything every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows James tells us he adds in verse 18 command them to do good to be rich in good deeds you know God makes us wealthy in many ways besides materially it right so be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation notice this they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life you know Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 he said something similar he says do not in Matthew 6 19 to 21 do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but store for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also I really do believe that Jesus meant and I think Paul reinforces it here that you can actually use the money that God blesses you with to make an eternal investment that we can by virtue of how we are good stewards of what God has given us in this lifetime use our finances in a way that have eternal dividends you know to to use money for the Advancement of the gospel and and and that in its various forms so build an orphanage that shares the gospel that brings Christ as centric to those orphans you know home fraud unwed mothers and again building churches and hospitals wherever the gospel can be advanced and you have that ability to financially advance it in a way you're making any eternal investment that pays eternal dividends because it translates in a way of being used for the glory of God in the in the advancement of the gospel for the transformation of Saltz so you know it's it's so an interesting concept here we talked about you know don't light up here on earth but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven and then he adds there at the end verse verse 20 Timothy guard what has been entrusted to your care you can insert your own name there guard what has been entrusted to your care turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith and then as Paul ends most of his letters grace be with you amen well we'll pick it up there next week into second timothy so read ahead second Timothy r Paul's dying words it's the last letter that he writes before he's beheaded so think about what would be your final parting words are the most important things you'd ever want to say to people that's what we're gonna read starting next week let's pray together Lord thank you for your love toward us thank you for your word thank you for this sixth chapter Lord may we take these things to heart it wasn't just written to Timothy for Timothy's benefit it was written Lord that inspired by your spirit for the benefit of all so may we apply these things in our own hearts and lives and we just give you praise and thanks together in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 2,261

Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Calvary Chapel

Id: gbaUO4utam4

Length: 46min 20sec (2780 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019