1 Timothy 6, What’s In It for Me?

1st Timothy chapter 6 starting in verse 3 actually technically the very end of verse 2 to the end of the chapter

Hear the word of the Lord Teach and urge these things If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with Godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy dissension

Slander evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth

Imagining that godliness is a means of gain now There is great gain in godliness with contentment for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world

But if we have food and drink with these we will be content But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare and to many senseless and harmful desires

That plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs

But as for you a man of God flee these things Pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness fight the good fight of the faith take hold of the eternal life

To which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses

I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus Who is in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach?

Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Which he will display at the proper time

He who is the blessed and only sovereign the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who alone has immortality

Who dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has seen or can see to him be honor and eternal

Dominion. Amen As for the rich in this present age Charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches

But on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy They are to do good to be rich in good works to be generous and ready to share

Thus storing up treasure for themselves is a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Oh Timothy guard the deposit entrusted to you avoid the irreverent babble and Contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge for by professing it some have swerved from the faith

Grace be with you And the Lord has blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Commitment they say is spelled m o n

E -y If you want to know what someone is really committed to look at their checkbook

Beyond paying for the basics of life, you know food and housing What is their spending show that they are really committed to what they really love?

Recreation new cars nice restaurants expensive clothes

Whether whatever trinkets that happen to be flashed before them on the home shopping network, or maybe they just hoard it away

Trusting and their savings to keep them safe against whatever future uncertainty

Well, some people are sure they're not greedy because they don't spend much but save Other people are sure they aren't greedy because they don't hoard but spend freely

But it's neither the ability to save nor the ability to spend that shows whether you were greedy or not, but for whom

You are saving or spending if with every dollar that comes into your hand you are asking yourself

What's in it for me? You are greedy Whether you spend it or save it or even give it

What's in it for me has to be one of the most pressing questions of our day It's the one that isn't constantly on most people's minds most of the time

It's at the heart of the love of money now here. I might have to Try to convince you of why it's best to follow

Christ I'm doing right now. I'm trying to try to persuade you. I might fail if I can't

Persuade you that you are the happiest that you are better off that More good things will come into your life

If you follow Christ, especially in the long run, but even immediately even right now by being a

Christian more good things will happen to you Or I might succeed And you decide to believe because I've shown you

I've sold you on the idea That it's best for you. You've seen ha what's in it for me, but I have to make the case don't

I? Money, however has no such burden Money never has to sell you on on the merits of getting it money tells us with every cent that it is always for us

All the time all of it is Oscar Wilde supposedly said when I was young, I thought money was everything now that I am old.

I know that it is I Might laugh because we know so many people think just like that money is their

God and this is why one of the most disappointing Disgusting disillusioning disgraceful things is at best ridiculous and always an absurd kind of life

It's a supposedly religious life supposedly Christian life That uses religion uses the church uses the faith as a as a means of gain of a way to get rich What's in it

Christ the church the Bible What's in it for me? Well money, that's what that's what they think

And what do we do with such people with such opinions and we have to for honest

Ourselves with the inclination that tugs even at us Just to stray from what's been revealed to us to make it the faith all this about us

About our comfort our luxuries. What are we to do? Well six things six commands here six verbs first urge second flee third pursue

Fourth fight fifth set and finally guard

Well first urge Timothy is urged to urge in verse 3 teach and urge these things

Actually say in the verse 2 where he says that what he's been what Paul has been teaching Timothy but the instructions for the church and it's all that we've seen up until now the

Warnings against what he called earlier the doctrines of demons the charge to stay Stay Timothy and they're where you are and teach sound doctrine

All that we've seen so far urged those things those who taught differently Those who thought they had, you know, maybe they thought they had new exciting insights

They heard some guy at the market or they thought something up as they were reading and they just knew

Great thing they were gonna spread in the church, but it wasn't true Well, they are to be

Paul says there to be silenced He tells Timothy here that these self -important teachers who wouldn't consent.

They won't submit to the healthy words You got healthy words. You got unhealthy words like food, right?

They won't submit to the unhealthy words of the Lord Jesus such people he says are sick

He says they have an unhealthy craving never have any unhealthy cravings Like the craving

I used to have drink coca -cola all the time As a thirst for that which makes us unhealthy

Right, he calls these people in verse 4 according to one commentator puts it he calls them pompous ignoramuses

It's a strong language. I mean, it's a little off. It's a little childish. They need to know these these are false teachers

Yes, they think they're self -important. They think the church then is a venue for their opinions

Unchecked by the Word of God and such a person needs a Timothy to urge him to stop

Timothy is to urge these kinds of people to be quiet. You can't teach that here

But these people they have a sick craving Particularly for arguing they just love to argue

They'll pick a fight about no matter what about they are implacable. They'll go from controversy to controversy

Never satisfied always looking for an argument to win and so in their wake

They produce Paul says they produce envy, you know, they're gonna make you feel These people they have more than you are they have advantages you don't have and they're just stirring that up a dissension

Divides up maybe on race you got one kinds of people and the other kind of people might be slanderer

There's they're talking down people. We saw that in the earlier chapter There's people slandering the elders of the church evil suspicions

The so -and -so is up to something Constant friction as they try to make us divide against each other with their constant agitation.

They want to cause parties You're for that idea. You're for this idea constant

Agitation with their rumors their accusations and they end up poisoning the air for everyone in these rebels these agitators these poisoners

These dividers are particularly successful with a group of people

That we find in verse 5 a group of people he calls comes. It comes across very nicely in English He calls them depraved and deprived

People who are depraved in mind Their mind is bent in a way that it should not be

Who come to the message of Scripture and instead of loving the great truths? They want to argue about Some triviality some minute thing.

They have no real love for the major things You know the things maybe they'll say they believe them because they kind of have to say they believe them to be part of the

Church, but they're far more interested in something else. And so they are deprived of The truth now they may have lots of little truths facts that they've learned from years of Sunday school

But they have lost the truth. He says the great truths of the gospel At least they've lost the importance of it the value of it

The great truth that the gospel makes the great truth of the gospel that makes sense of everything else

The truth that Jesus is Lord, you know the one he celebrates in chapter in verses 15 and 16

You notice that there is like Paul is a model of the one who was enraptured of the great truth

He can't really get away from it It just comes out of him the truth of the gospel of who

Jesus is and you see that in this very chapter He just he meant comes across mentioning Jesus. And so he kind of celebrates him as he's the

Lord of Lords He's the King of Kings is the one who has immortality. He's so holy. He dwells in unapproachable light

What makes him just kind of burst out in praise like that because he's not depraved and deprived

He's the opposite of he's healthy and he's he sees that's the great truth and he just comes out of him the truth but the the truth that Jesus has

Sorry, I've lost my place but there's this great truth that Jesus himself has become the sacrifice for all who believe that he bore our sins in his body on the cross for us sinners that These people he's depraved and deprived people.

They may kind of agree with that. They may say they That's fine.

They won't argue about that particularly, but they they'll say lots of things about the Bible. They'll quote their favorite passages They'll cite facts, but they'd rather debate about something else maybe it about in times theories or boast of a lifetime of church attendance or whatever my new little

Doctrine they want to argue about and they're so depraved that they'd rather talk about these other things Makes them deprived of the truth or the quarrel about controversies

It may be up maybe about church politics how it should be organized the right words winning winning an argument is

What's in it for them You realize there are people like that they just live for the argument and to win for others though religion is the business is like business is

To many maybe to the rest of you, you know, you have your business You got to make money to support yourself for them religion is their business that they use to support themselves

It's where they get what's in it for them And so for them church is not a you saw a couple of chapters ago

Remember the gymnasium of godliness where you train to be reverent for God For them the gospel is is not that what he calls here in this chapter this great deposit

So there's some treasure that's been revealed and left with you and your care That we must be willing to fight the good fight for even if it means great loss

No, rather it's for them. It's it's a good way to make a living You can you can you can make money out of it and Timothy's day that they're there may have been teachers who claim to be

Christian who would tour and conduct what we would call I guess seminars and Charging a handsome fee for their lectures go on to the next place and do the do the things same things.

And of course If that's the case, they're always gonna alter their message by what brings in the most cash aren't they and Certainly, we still have that today

We also have a more though. I think a more incipient a more a subtle more threatening form to the church this

Making godliness a means of gain we have it in the lives that claim that they are for God But at which every decision

It's made every word that is spoken is all we guided by one dominant thought

What's in it for me? You know the man who takes a job in religion is a pastor or whatever because you know, no heavy lifting is required

Note who calculates every sermon every lesson every prayer every visitation, you know who he visits

I'll visit these people and they'll court their favor because yeah, they have a lot of money and they give these other people

Ignore them because they don't have money. I don't care about them That's the way they think They don't think about what they need the truth.

They need to hear They think about what will advance my career what will not put off anyone what will keep the cash flowing my way

Well, maybe make this church grow a little bit so that it looks good on my resume

So that when the next opportunity presents itself I could go to a bigger church in a bigger city and get a bigger salary

Such a man imagines that godliness at least the appearance of godliness the showy that he can put on is a means of gain

It's a it's a way to get ahead This is the professionalization of Christianity and we have it in the ministry when scriptures put aside when it says things that may turn away the crowds

That may challenge a you know, a hefty giver, right? You're not if he gives a lot you don't want to challenge him

But you know if he doesn't give a lot you don't mind if you rebuke him. So what what's the loss when you think that way?

You're totally guided by what's in it for me Where the money comes from and we have it in the church when it's just when it is decided that instead the church is

Instead of being a gymnasium of godliness of where it's a place of to be trained where King Jesus rules

We'll make it into what? we want What keeps the people comfortable especially the big givers comfortable make it into a set of a gym for godliness make into a lounge for cool religion

Or perhaps make it into a motivational club We're affirmed and warmed maybe massaged and told how great we are, you know, whatever the market will bear the key difference between a true church, it's an assembly where King Jesus rules as we saw in Psalm 72 he rule the difference between that and something else

Something that's called together for our profit for what we can get out of it a place where the dominant question is not

What's the Lord's will may he rule here from not only from sea to sea but in my own heart the key difference is

What's in it for me? Key difference is for whose profit is everything being done.

Is it for hours to make us happy to Keep us going are for the glory of God This is why you know when we have outreaches

VBS coming up I guess the next big thing we have Jim every Sunday Jim jr

Our primary goal should not really be to grow this church, although we need growth. We desperately need growth

But our goal our prayer Should be that people are saved that the kingdom of God be advanced again

It's a Psalm 72 is about the kingdom of God being advanced from sea to sea all over the world to all kinds of people

If we do what we do we reach out we reach people and they're some are truly saved and for whatever reason

They don't become part of this church. They go somewhere else We rejoice that God has sovereignly grown his kingdom.

That's good. That's a win for us Because we're first about the kingdom of God not about what's in it for us

That's the best profit of all The key difference is that we're not first driven by what's in it for us

But by the glory of God Now the self -centered, you know, what's in it for me kind of person doesn't understand this for him everything even religion

It's about what gets me ahead What's gonna keep the money flowing my way? He thinks it's got to be a way to get something for me something

I could hold on to or put in the bank he is partly, right though now godliness is gain

Paul says a verse six. It's great gain. He says not just a little bit. It's great.

It's rewarding But the vital difference is that the truly God -centered person doesn't pursue godliness a

Lot, which is a life of reverence before God living under God's rule. He doesn't pursue that For the profit he can get out of it because you know, it's not really pursuing godliness at all

Does it make any sense godliness is what Jesus talked about Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 seek you first the kingdom of God You're living under his rule.

It's what it means to be godly. You can't live under his rule and be seeking your own Gain first, that's two contradictory things.

But if the person who's Pursuing a life of reverence for God not doing for the profit.

He can get out of it But in other words, he's not doing it for something that else The one who's pursuing it for the right reason is not doing what he can use godliness for is it is a tool

Mainly to get more money get To get a livelihood maybe to be somebody maybe that's what he craves

But he you know He wants to be some venue where he is the man where people will listen to him where he gets looked up to Maybe just get his wife to look up to him

So maybe that's why he goes to church the truly God -centered person isn't using godliness for gain

He isn't using godliness at all He is pursuing godliness for its own sake verse 6 literally says but godliness with contentment is great gain

It's not a way to get gain it is in and of itself gain

So a God -centered Reverent life the kind of living under the kingdom of God that Jesus called us to it's worth having period

You know along with it Paul says comes contentment happiness independent of circumstances

Christian contentment does not depend on external things, you know winning the championship some athletes put I black

Philippians 411 I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me and that's their motto their t -shirt And of course they think they can win the championship

Through Christ who strengthens me and maybe he will or maybe he'll want to teach you how to be content while losing

You know It is as so it is as Paul writes in Philippians 411 a secret of being happy No matter whether you have a lot of money in the bank

Or very little whether you're winning the championship Tim Tebow or whether you're losing No matter what your house or car is like the

Christian secret is is not to be found in ourselves In the championship or in the car and the cash what we can hold in our hands

But in Christ in our hearts the Christ who after a true conversion

Dwells in us and gives us this secret He is the great gain

He's not a means to a gain He's not like a secret weapon there now we can use he helps us play harder

So we can win the championship or he helps gives us the secrets of success so I can get that Rolls -Royce He's not the supernatural power to get healthy and wealthy and then once now having used him having

Conjured him to our advantage now, we're wealthy and we're healthy and we have the trophy in our case

Now we're content No He himself is gain not a means but the end

If we have that secret we can be satisfied he says just with food and drink

You're alive you're surviving we need not a new car or a bigger or nicer house We're not not a new suit or the latest gadget put out by Apple or Samsung We're not driven and restless

Until we can have just a little bit more Of course once you get it just a little bit more still

We're not driven like those in verse 9 To be rich They he says

I was driven to be rich Says ball verse 9. He says they fall Into a trap like a booby trap, you know

Well, they dig a pit they cover it up the thin something walk on to it collapse into it

That's what that's what being rich brings you to you'll fall into That kind of pit a trap and they expose themselves to many foolish and injurious desires would sink people into ruin and destruction

The tragic irony is those who set their hearts on gain, that's what they're gonna live for That's what they're gonna work for day in day out.

That's what all of life is for. They'll end in total loss Even the loss of themselves as the

Lord Jesus asked in Mark chapter 8 verse 36 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses a soul?

Perhaps they began with the quest for just a little bit more. I just want to be a Little better off can afford nicer vacations nicer cars, but then they couldn't stop and the craving consume them

Assume that all they were was an economic animal They live for business for the cash they could get for gaining one more dollar

So they had to work every hour. They could Everything was about that. Perhaps they were successful financially

Perhaps they made it Of course, they're never gonna think that are they I was gonna want a little bit more

Don't they can expand another franchise another business and something perhaps they're not successful though Then they get devoured by the desperation of being buried in debts

They lose the secret of contentment whether in much or in debt. It is through Christ in us that we can be content

They lost that secret because they kept asking What's in it for me? Their lives never stopped being about themselves and so they never stopped loving what they could hold in their hands and And make serve them money

But that that love of money You know, it's really a love of ourselves That's why we love money

It's a love of the power and the comfort the happiness that we imagine them money can bring us

It's the root he says of all kinds of Evil, it produces all kinds in our lives.

If you look if you have enough money you think I'll solve all your problems. All right, just like You know what we say about God.

He can solve all our problems We think the same thing about money when it's our God if you have enough money one old

Chinese saying goes you can make you can even make the Devils grind your rice You can pay them off Money is one thing that seems that at least in this life can make us like God himself if we have enough of it

We think we can get anything we want. We can make everyone anyone do what we want If we think if we if we have enough of it

We are that we are the kings of our domain when we see money we don't have to ask You don't ask when you see money what's in it for me what's this hundred dollar bill for me never even occurs to you

You know money is always and entirely for you So we love it and that love he writes in verse 10 draws us away

From the faith from what we're supposed to believe from truly trusting Christ alone

So that hankering for money he says pierces us with with great pains it hurts us

I mean, I notice it at first but after a while we will would be impaled by it a

Man named Jay Gould a financier in the 19th century Made over 100 million dollars in the 19th century that's 1800s back then much more of a treasure than it is still is today and his last words were

I Am the most miserable devil in the world In the 20th century one of the wealthiest men was

Howard Hughes He famously died with piles of money, but no enjoyment and so alone and isolated

There was no one that he could will his great wealth, too So Timothy and those who follow in his steps now are urged to urge us

Not to fall into the money trap instead he says flee from it in verse 11

That's the second command flee Flee like from the gravest danger

Run away from it like you're being chased by a grizzly bear Take constant evasive action to avoid the love of money

It's running after you you better be running away from it run away from this evil this threat

As if it were imagine if you heard the threat active shooter in the building You would flee you would run

Imagine that that's the love of money. It's prowling for you. Get away from it

Flee from this evil that arises so easily in our hearts the love of ourselves the subtle little whisper in our ear

So appealing It's really so natural What's in it for me?

Money says I'm all for you Flee from that But the

Christian life isn't just about running away It's also about running toward it's about chasing the pursuing

That's the third command pursue He says in verse 11 pursue righteousness godliness

Faith love endurance and meekness You seek a life that's first about the glory of God That's the godliness living under his rule a love for others that seeks what's best for them a

Steadfastness that is patient under difficult circumstances and a gentleness that is patient with difficult people

Now just knowing the theology without doing it is not good enough first flee run away then pursue run after go in hot pursuit of a

God -centered Life to be content with him It will take some struggle

It's a fight And that's the fourth command fight Struggle contend

Agonize literally the word in Greek is where we get our word agonized from it's gonna hurt some But because it's a fight and the other side will get in some punches, too

Sometimes it's a fight against misguided people who want to make the church into something that Other than a gymnasium of godliness people who don't want to be trained for godliness

But who will maybe they want to rule like a king or a queen over the little their little domain perhaps over no one other

Than themselves, but they want to rule nonetheless. They don't want to be ruled Sometimes we have to fight such people just as Timothy had to here

No, spiritually healthy person enjoys a fight only the pugnacious spiritually sick person wants to fight.

It's nasty business Fighting is undignified. It's painful and it's dangerous Sometimes innocent bystanders are hurt even in the fight over truth and goodness for truth and goodness.

There is something sick about anyone who relishes a fight nevertheless, it's a

It's a good fight It has to be fought for truth is at stake the person who sees truth under attack

Maybe sees the church being divided by these depraved and deprived people who sees as we saw last week chapter 5

Elders being falsely accused and who won't stand up and stop it

You know who maybe who thinks yeah, I have no dog in this fight That person is really just thinking.

I really don't care about God's truth Nor even really about godliness after all

What's in it for me Sometimes the fight is with others But most of the time the fight of the faith the good fight is within our own hearts

That that pull of the love of ourselves The love of money of what it can provide of what it tells us it can get

Telling us that it's always for us We have to constantly struggle against the draw of our hearts that wants to organize the whole universe even the worship of God the church

Around ourselves It's that old lie from the Garden of Eden when we were told that we can become like God We can be the one that gets to decide who gets to rule and we believe it

So that since then up until today Even religion is thought to be about what's in it for us.

That is indeed It's a fight to resist that temptation

Notice here by the way urge flee pursue Fight and so on.

They're all present right now fight Keep fighting.

You know, it's not a one -round knockout and then you go home to your mansion and relax the fight

Keeps going to win it. We must in verse 12 take hold Keep holding on It's not a one -time just snatch and then you can release

It's not just an eruption of struggling for a few seconds and it's over It's a continual clinging we hold on he says to eternal life

Hold on to the gospel Grasp that confession that we made what we believe that Jesus himself held on That he kept fighting

He kept fighting the temptation to grasp for equality with God to choose that for his will

Over the will of the Father to not take that cup of suffering that he didn't want to But most of all he said your will be done.

He held on and he fought all the way to the end Through bearing witness to Pontius Pilate when he could have talked his way out of suffering but he held on through the cross to rising from the tomb and will return as the king of Kings the one who rules them the sovereign over all other governments and authorities and powers so now you

You keep fighting keep holding on Even if you can't see him

Paul charges Timothy in that exalted language from verses 12 to 16 again where he Starts to mention the

Lord and he can't help himself Just celebrating who he is He's calling us to this

God centered life and what a God He is

You wouldn't you see him you understand who he is That should grasp your hearts so that you're not living all about what's just in it for you

He's the only one who has immortality to give he sent his son who stood up to Pontius Pilate Even when it met the agony of the cross, he's the only ruler.

He's the Lord of Lords He's the only one immortal from eternity past to eternity present future living in unapproachable blinding light immortal invisible

God only wise and light inaccessible hid from our eyes

Yet he reveals himself To us so that we can we can't see him, but we can see who he is

Not so that we can use him for our purposes, but so that we can enter into the joy of honoring him

Set your hope on him That's the fifth command What are the

Christian rich And I have a feeling with all our luxuries and you know modern technology

Probably all of us here qualifies the Christian rich What do we do what do they do here the

Christian urge the rich what are they to be urged to do they to flee their money

Just just leave it pursue poverty They fight against capitalism

Well first they need to set their hope on God Not on their bank account To love money is a root of all kinds of evil

But to have it is not But the rich are warned Don't be like those pompous ignoramuses in verse four people who was so proud of themselves

Or they were too proud to listen to health giving Christian teaching and said they just wanted to listen to whatever they wanted to hear

And for the third time in this short letter Paul focuses in on what we set our hopes in He's gonna tell the rich that they all must

Divest themselves of all their money all their property They have to give it all the way that they have to give it all to charity and then they have to become voluntarily poor

He doesn't say that There were centuries in the history of the church that poverty and chastity were believed to be the hallmarks of the truly spiritual person

And there's still kind of vestiges of that thinking in our culture today. There's some but in this book in this letter

Paul attacks the disapproval of marriage and Here he does not prescribe poverty.

Notice that to the rich. He doesn't say you've got to become poor He could say that he doesn't indeed.

He says that Here that God has given us all things For enjoyment, right our money our luxuries.

We can't enjoy them without being guilty So whether you have money or not is not the question.

It's who the money is for As it has said money is an end is money abused money is a means

Can be money well used But what's the means what what are you going?

What are you using the money for? Be careful Be careful that allowing some to be rich in this present age, which he does but be careful

That's not as an excuse to avoid the dangers of it You know in our culture America, we're very quick to say what

I just said That you don't have to become poor that it's fine to be rich and they'll just stop there

But here there is a warning there is dangers the rich are warned watch where your hopes are set

You know, it's easy enough for the poor to hope in riches. They do there are a lot of poor people who hope in wealth

They hope if only they could win the lottery You know, then all their problems would be solved that's the desperation that the lottery and gambling kind of feeds on and So even the poor often hope in wealth.

That's why I saw I've never seen that in, California There will be long lines in the lottery ticket windows in the poor neighborhoods rich neighborhoods.

No, they wouldn't line up Yeah, we got it. They already got their wealth The poor though that were desperate that will solve the problem if I only could have that that windfall

So even the poor often hope in wealth. Well, they don't have how much easier it is for the rich to do

So for them to think that if if they have they have growing mutual funds, they have a lots of property

They have real estate. They have rock -solid pensions. They have sound investments. Their business is working fine

There is booming. They have a sizable nest egg. Ah They think I'm set

But Paul says that that very mindset is itself dangerous its pride

It's a haughty boasting. I'm set without God my money. It takes care of me

It's a false security this money. He says is is uncertain

They aren't set at all until their heart is set on God if money is what your heart is set on if your faith is in what you can buy things with Then that is sin

Whatever is not a faith of faith in God Is sin

Paul says in Romans putting hope and wealth whether the desperately hoped -for wealth of the poor lottery ticket buyer

Or the real wealth of the rich That's sin

Now I sometimes wonder Reform people Think that because they have such good theology and they can say it so well

That they're kind of this talk of this basic talk about money Really doesn't apply to them.

We don't need to hear that. This is baby talk They want to hear great lectures on sophisticated.

They want to hear in for laps area and super lacks area And they want to hear that kind of stock And they'll use their great reasoning their fancy words

To get out of these warnings or just to ignore them altogether. And so they talk about theology sophisticated theology they love to dwell on it while year after year they give a penance and lavish themselves with luxuries

They might be they might have great excuses But they show where their hopes are set

For the third time like a patient coach in the gym Paul says in this little letter

Set your hope in God You know if you understand who he is you believe he's the omnipotent

Omnipresent he's the sovereign the Lord of the universe That should encourage you to set your hopes on him

The reform should help you set your hope on him, but you you know, he determines all things why should you

Not be willing to do that and of course if you do it will show when you're in oh in Ey When Mary was a teenager in 1970

Singapore an old Christian lady there came up to her in church and gave her $400 probably the equivalent of thousands of dollars today she put the money in the hands of Barry and a friend there after they told the church of their desire to go on a

Mission trip to Thailand and Mary and her friend tried to turn it down, you know give it back to her But she said this money was for my funeral

But your mission to Thailand is more important unlike the self -indulgent

Women that Paul mentioned in chapter 5 verse 6 remember those they live for pleasure went for now

Those we saw last week Whom he calls he calls them. He says they're dead even while they live this lady

Had set her hopes on God and people like her as in verses 18 and 19.

They're rich in Good works. They're generous. They're treasuring away

For themselves a reward in the real life. They are alive

They were alive then even while they served in this earth and they're even more alive today.

Well, finally Timothy guard the sixth and last command in verses 20 and 21

Guard the deposit he calls it the trues the the faith of the light the life

This thing that has been entrusted to you. You didn't make it. You didn't produce it Does it come from you but it's been given to you temporarily

Guard it You here right now

Guard what's him entrusted to you a Deposit it's been put under your care a deposit of truth of life of light

You have it. You've heard it. Are you guarding it?

Guard it because it will be under attack. That's the assumption right? You're warned to guard something. There's going to be an attack

People will try to people are demons or Temptations or whatever it is. We'll try to steal it from you to destroy it to cheat you out of it to guard it

Your own inclination will be maybe Kind of forget about it turn your attention elsewhere

Be distracted be lured off Here Paul tells Timothy don't be lured off by babble by debate of over other things

Whatever it may be in times theories for blood moons politics sports Anything but the gospel the sound words of Jesus himself

Guard the life the light that you have by urging yourself to stay with them by fleeing the love of money by pursuing the love of the

Lord by fighting that good fight by setting your hopes on God That's how you guard

Here we see from the utterly destitute widow You saw in chapter 5 to the wealthy man Is his advice is pretty much the same, isn't it?

Put your hope in God No matter where you are. You might think These utterly different situations would bring about different advice from Paul, but it doesn't because in the end

Our situations aren't that much different No matter how much health or wealth We have we're not that much different from the person in Ethiopia that has nothing and we're not that much different From a

Bill Gates a Warren Buffett who has all the money in the world The time comes when all of us will have to give account to the real true owner the real owner of every penny that we have and Most importantly of that deposit of faith and light that's been entrusted to us

Did we guard it or do we kind of neglect it as we chased after another dollar

Did we invest in the kingdom of God Because that's where we set our hope

Or did we splurge our time and our money on? ourselves as we ask

What's in it for me? as he says in verse 7 We brought nothing into this world

And you're going to go out the same way You won't take anything out. You don't see hearses towing u -hauls

Checks left in caskets are never cashed Whether in our old age we are impoverished widows

Or we are comfortable retirees We all in the end will take the same thing out

Your children can burn all the money in the world to you as you're going into wherever your reward is

It's not going to get to you the reward we have waiting Depends not on our money or what people can try to get to us.