Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain

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Don Filcek; 1 Timothy 6:1-10 Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filseck preaches from his series,
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Blueprints for a Healthy Church, following the plan from the book of 1 Timothy. Let's listen in.
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I'm Don Filseck. I'm the lead pastor here and welcome to all of you. I really am glad for this particular gathering of God's people here today.
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I want to remind you just at the outset of this that we are, I think it's good for us to reflect on this from time to time, we are just a sliver of the big picture of what
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God is doing on the face of this planet this morning. I really do think it is awesome to gather together and there's something that is unique and I hope that this gathering is unique to you, not just because of our technical difficulties, but it's unique to you because you love the people that are gathered around you.
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And I encourage you to actually legitimately look around you for just a second. Go ahead and take a second to look around.
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We are a family here, you guys. We are being shaped together by his good news.
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We are being shaped together into deeper faith, deeper community, and deeper service. And so I noticed when
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Spencer was talking about this, I had kind of browsed out in the entryway out there this morning and I noticed that there's a lot of empty slots in the community group signups.
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I just want to clarify that as a church, we don't have a really big ask of people. We don't have a ton of programming.
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We're not asking for every night of the week and three times on Sunday and that kind of stuff. We believe that everybody, at the end of the day, needs these three things in your life.
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You need to be growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service. And this has nothing to do with the need of the church to have people involved.
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We could just do Sunday morning and walk away and do Sunday morning again next week and walk away and do Sunday morning again next week. But what we believe is that you need these three things.
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And so I want to state this pretty strongly. If you're not involved in Christian community, you are not getting all that you need to grow up in Christ.
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If you're not connected to a community group or connected to at least some form of Christian community with intentional accountability, intentional prayer, intentional relationship, then you're missing something.
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It's kind of like, how many of you, when you were growing up, if your mom and dad laid a hundred dollars out in twenties would leave half of it on the table?
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Like if they offered that to you and they said, here's a hundred dollars, how many of you are going to leave 50 of it laying there or 40 of it laying there or 60 of it laying there?
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You weren't going to leave it there, right? If they gave you a hundred dollars, how many of you are going to take it? Go ahead and raise your hand if you were going to take it. But by not getting involved in community, it's like you're leaving money on the table.
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God is providing you an opportunity to get engaged and involved for your betterment. And so I would encourage you, my hope and prayer is that after connection time and after the service, some of you are moved to go out there, put your name on a list and take a chance on a community group.
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So I'm convinced that you, I'm convinced that you need that and I need it as well. And so Linda and I are involved in community groups here, not just leading them.
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We actually participate in one as well. And we need that. We need that community. And I'm convinced that all of us do here.
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This morning we're going to encounter a text of scripture in first Timothy that addresses a radical level of contentment, a radical level of contentment in our lives.
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So much of scripture can be perceived as countercultural, but I would suggest to you that nothing is quite as abrasive to the
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American lifestyle and the American heart as a call to contentment and a call to satisfaction.
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We are a culture that values the striving and reaching for more, right? Is that true of America?
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Is that true of the American heart? Striving for more, achieving more, climbing the rungs of the ladder of success.
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That is almost the definition of what it means to be American. And I would suggest to you that this striving after more and longing for more and never quite being content, never quite being satisfied has found its way into the church with lines and Christian songs that some of you maybe even have heard or sung yourself that declare, we were made.
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This is a quote from a Christian song. We were made for so much more than ordinary lives.
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We were made for so much more than ordinary lives. Or titles of Christian books like this,
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Restless, with the subtitle, because you were made for more.
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Think about that title, Restless, Christian book, Restless, because you were made for more.
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You see, when the church starts to marry the message of our culture to the gospel, we end up with radical calls to social reformation.
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We believe and we begin to adopt the idea that the primary reason that the church is here is to change our culture, is to change the way that the world is working, to change the way that others are thinking, to use our social cloud and our social platform as a means of trying to change other people to act the way that we want them to act.
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We forget that the gospel of salvation through faith really impacts the world in one heart at a time and that that is our purpose.
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We say that our mission is to worship him and find more worshipers for his name. That's what we say here at Recast. And that's us, church.
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That's what we do. We worship him and we go out to find more worshipers for him.
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Not more people who agree with us politically. Not more people who will stand with us in our social cause.
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Not for more people who will view the mask mandates in the same way as us. Not for those who view vaccination the same way as us.
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Who are we looking for? Those who will bow their knee to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we say, come on in.
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Come on in. That's what we are all about. We certainly hope that our culture improves, right?
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As people, but it's only as people accept the gospel and individual lives come under submission to his lordship and as people are transformed by his great love that has the power to set a heart free.
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And so we can quickly miss the plot and if we're not careful we will begin to place our hope in the here and now.
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If we're not careful, we will wake up one day and find that our hope has somehow been placed in social agendas. Our hope is subtly shifted to a political platform.
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Or we will find our schedule filled up with merely pleasing ourselves and striving for sweeter cars and larger houses and more and more and more entertainment.
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So our text this morning starts with an extremely radical example of contentment and then exposes the greed of those who abuse the faith for gain and it concludes with blaring sirens warning us away from the discontented pursuit of wealth.
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So let's open our Bibles if you're not already there. Open your device if you have one in front of you to 1
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Timothy 6 verses 1 through 10. Again 1 Timothy 6 verses 1 through 10 and recast this is
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God's holy and precious word. This is what he desires for us to hear in this gathering this morning and this is not a you can hear my voice but you need to recognize that the words are
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God's. 1 Timothy 6 verses 1 through 10. Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.
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Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.
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Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our
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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.
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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 but godliness with contentment is great gain.
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For we brought nothing into the world and we will take nothing out of the world but if we have food and clothing with these we will be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into 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.
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It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
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Let's pray. Father I thank you so much for your word that will tackle and wrestle to the ground the thoughts of our hearts and the way that we can be so prone to discontent so you provide us with text like this that will clarify for us and convict us and draw us deeper into you.
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Father if this message serves to just encourage us to do better then
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I have failed in my charge because the solution is not for anyone of us to pull ourselves up from the bootstraps and just be better.
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We need a savior who has done it for us. So father I pray even now that if there's anyone here who does not know you as savior that today might be a day of salvation that you might open eyes to the reality of the hope that is only only only found in Jesus Christ and him dying on the cross for our sins.
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And then for those who do belong to you who have already been embraced by your love and have already received that love through faith in your son and through asking him to be their lord and master
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I pray that you would help us to be set free even now in our hearts to rejoice and delight in our savior as that you would meet us here in this place with joy and gladness and produce within our hearts an overwhelming overflowing contentment in Christ.
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I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. I encourage you to get comfortable and keep your Bibles open to first Timothy six one through ten recognize that you might have lost your place there or set your device down so grab that make sure that the
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Bible is open in front of you so that you can see the things that I'm saying are coming from God's holy word and if at any time during the message you want to get up and get more coffee juice or donut holes while supplies last back there take advantage of that and you're not going to distract me bathrooms for those of you that maybe this first time here out the double doors down the hallway on the left hand side if you need those at all too but let's do the best that we can to try to keep our focus on God's word in the balance of the time that we have left here.
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Our text breaks down into three sections and I'm going to throw these in these three points
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I'm going to use alliteration just to remind you that I used to be a Baptist pastor so I can do this from time to time and I just kind of try to keep you guessing what's he going to do next so we're going to we're going to all start with eyes on this one.
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The first is instructions to Christian slaves verses one and two the second is indictment of the greed of false teachers verses three through five and then the third movement is invitation to contentment verses six through ten so instructions of Christian slaves indictment of the greed of false teachers and the invitation to contentment so our text starts in a strange place this morning one that might just immediately make us a bit uncomfortable and it starts with instructions from Paul to Timothy about slaves and although the translation of ESV has bond servants it says under the yoke of a bond servant that's a nice gentle way that word is the word it's the word for slave in Greek there's no other word for it than that Greek word and that's exactly what is intended by it now
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I originally had this as a separate sermon but after studying it I saw a fairly significant connection between those first two verses in chapter six and what comes after and I began to understand as I studied it why in the world did the did the the guy in the
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Middle Ages who was setting up the chapters and the verses why did he include this in chapter six instead of including it in chapter five it makes a little bit of sense there's this connection the big connecting point between what happens in the first two verses in the remainder is the required contentment that really is the only way that a slave could be moved to serve his master with honor and with respect and with diligence the radical type of contentment required in the
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Christian life is imaged in these first two verses these instructions are radical they're a little bit jarring to us where we live and in verse one in verse one
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Paul calls all Christian slaves in his ancient culture to serve their unbelieving masters in verse one for two particular reasons he says here's why
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I want you to serve them well he wants to make sure that the name of God is not reviled and he also desires that the teaching of the good news is not perceived as a negative thing to society at large so that the teaching is not reviled nor is the name of God reviled and so in verse two
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Paul calls Christian slaves then who have believing masters to be respectful and to continue their work the implication of course in this that he has to give this instruction is that some slaves in that ancient culture thought that they could slack off due to having masters that were believers okay we're just we're brothers in Christ now
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I don't have to do anything but Paul says you should serve all the more diligently because you are benefiting a fellow believer who is now also equally someone that you love in Christ and obviously there's instruction to Christian masters and other books of the
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Bible the obvious instructions here to the church in Ephesus through Timothy has something to do with the way that slaves were responding in that ancient culture so I believe that we have no struggle with understanding what this text is saying you can read it in English and understand it how many of you like just just read it at face value you get what it's saying it makes sense like you can understand it our brains can apprehend what it what
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Paul was saying to Timothy our struggle is likely in what he is not saying it's likely that our minds go there why doesn't
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Paul just tell masters release your slaves and be done with the whole broken social institution just be done with it just just can it release them how many of you would like like that's kind of what you want it to say go ahead and raise your hand if that's kind of what you want it to say so we have to lean into why it doesn't say that why does
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God's Holy Word revealed through the Holy Spirit not say just right at this point release all your slaves and let me clarify a couple of things that need to be expressed before we can fully deal with slavery is expressed expressed in this text as well as throughout anywhere in the
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New Testament the first thing that we need to take on for this is slavery was not racially racially driven in Rome so we're already talking about a different type of thing than what we experienced in the
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American South 150 years ago slavery the second thing that you need to understand is that slavery was the engine of the
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Roman economy that doesn't make justify it doesn't make it right but what you need to understand is that when this was penned it's estimated that up to one third of the entire population of the
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Roman Empire were slaves up to one third think think what that would mean if one out of every three people that you saw one of one out of every three people that you interacted with on a daily basis in the
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Roman Empire was a slave how many of you think that that might be a little bit hard to extricate it might be a little hard to remove are you getting what
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I'm saying it might be a little hard to tear apart and to and to oppose it would be to tear apart the very fabric of that society now
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I'm not saying that's not a good thing but there's a time coming for that we know historically there was but the third thing that you need to understand is for many slavery was preferable now that sounds strange but for many slavery was preferable in the
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Roman Empire to poverty poverty was to come under a certain painful death with no food and exposure full stop and so they would prefer to literally enter into an arrangement or an agreement of slavery to a master a master would provide food and lodging there was contractual relationship and you would actually sign into the the work at a farm or in a household or something like that and you would work for him and he would provide food and lodging and to demonstrate that it was preferable we have many documents ancient documents where people submitted themselves to slavery in order sounds strange in order to get ahead in order to get ahead in Rome well how could you get ahead well the fourth thing that you need to understand is that the average age of manumission which is the the achievement of freedom or liberty for a particular slave the average age of release in the
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Roman Empire was around 30 years of age so they would they would go into this relationship with a master and work off a debt that they had arranged for a certain amount of years or whatever and then they would be released now
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I'm not saying that there wasn't abuse I'm not trying to make a cheery a cheery thing about a slavery I'm not trying to be it be apologists for slavery
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I think it's a terrible thing really glad how many they just say really glad that it's done with anybody with me on that super super glad that they're that it's not not a routine thing anymore and that it's opposed where it still exists but it would be unhelpful for us to read into the text of the
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New Testament American racial slavery in the south as the same as the slavery that Paul is addressing that would be anachronistic it would be not understanding the time and taking the time difference between that ancient time and our more recent history but there's a deeper level to what
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Paul is doing is doing here that speaks into our current social context loud and clear
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I hope it's loud and clear despite the fact that it's it comes through implication the expectation is increasing that we are called as a people primarily to change social systems and structures how many of you hear that the primary thing that you're here to do is to change social structures to to be all about changing the systems of society and all of that but this text shows us one thing through instructions to these ancient slaves in Ephesus that's very valuable for us social social change why doesn't
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Paul this is the answer to the question by the way why doesn't Paul say get rid of your slaves just just go ahead and release them social change is not the end goal of our faith that might come as a radical shock to some of us but social change is not the end goal that's not our target that's not what we're shooting for church personal redemption that leads to eternity with Jesus Christ is the end goal of his church that is our hope full stop changing broken social structures leads to guess what church new broken social structures did you know it already to reap what's it gonna be replaced with something else that's broken every single human endeavor results in broken social structures it will not hit this is it church it's not gonna be fixed here settle in it's not gonna be fixed here we are not gonna come up with a social program we're not gonna come up with the political party we're not gonna come up with the the endeavor that it takes for us to usher in utopia that is not our hope there is no human utopia coming there is the reign of God coming there is the return of the king coming so the reason that Paul doesn't tell slaves to demand their emancipation or to even command the masters to release their slaves here is that he's not looking for the church to be radically subversive to cultural norms that's not his standard there is a right time and a right place to take on slavery and that right time and place will prove to be
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England and America from the place where Paul is writing the church had a gospel message to bring to the world and that's that that gospel message will eventually result in radical social changes like abolition but without the church focusing on the central call of the gospel during Paul's era without them focusing on living and loving well in that context we would have neither gospel witness nor the abolition of slavery the church would have been squashed trying to oppose the
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Roman Empire it was so entrenched in Roman society that to oppose it and call for its abolition would have been to upset the entire fabric of that ancient society and I'm not saying that there's not a time to upset social fabrics of society but I am also equally saying the only way to upset the social fabric of a society is one life reached with the gospel at a time that's our call church one life transformed at a time until eventually there is a push and a move towards what is good and right but I like the way that Murray Harris says in his book slaves of Christ he says this in a quote the gospel lays the explosive charge that ultimately led to the destruction of slavery end quote church we play a long game we play a long game a long game that was started 2 ,000 years ago and we are just a blip on the radar of that long game that God is working towards his glory and his honor and towards the return of his
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King amen so we do not expect it to come in our lifetime although how many of you would be glad if he came in our lifetime but the change is not going to come through us the change is gonna come through him that's our hope so talk about a radical model an example of contentment and grace
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Paul tells the slaves in the church in Ephesus of which there would have been many serve with honor and respect and do so so that the gospel has inroads into your broken culture how many of you think that sounds like a radical call to contentment that's pretty serious and again
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Paul reminds Timothy to teach and urge the content of the message that he's been bringing in first Timothy he says
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Jesus remember it's that Jesus is the only hope it's all about him just like Paul said back at the end of chapter 3 and so the second movement is this reminder to teach what
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Paul has been laying out calls it causes Paul now to launch into an indictment of those who refuse to teach the truth in verse 3
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Paul identifies that the nature of false teachers in Ephesus they are those who teach a doctrine different from Paul and different than the other
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Apostles further they do not agree with the healthy words or the text says sound words which can be translated healthy they don't agree with the healthy words of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and lastly they do not hold to teachings that lead to good living that accord with godliness that accord with a life lived of good worship to God moment by moment hour by hour day by day so let me point out that to disagree
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I mean he's referring to teachers there in Ephesus but teachers in any Christian context that would disagree with the
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Apostles disagree with Jesus and that he says that requires quite a significant arrogance
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Paul explains that part of their motivation according to verse 4 is the fact that they are the toxic combination of both arrogance and ignorance
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I think about those two together in a single person arrogance and ignorance and that's what these false teachers have
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I've mentioned before that these two combine in a single person to form an obnoxious toxic combination and yet I'm convinced that we've all played this role at times haven't we you ever been both arrogant and ignorant at the same time go ahead and raise your hand
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I just want to see if I'm alone in this or all of us are in agreement on this okay we've been arrogant and and ignorant at the same time but of course we can get that way about different things so much more is at stake with spiritual teaching where somebody both spouts confidently something that they know nothing about it's a lot more at stake with spiritual teaching than a debate over her won the
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World Series in 2010 right I mean you ever been confident about a sports a sports fact that you weren't right about anybody we may be arrogantly ignorant about sports facts with little at stake except a little bit of pride right like okay
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I'm shamed I kind of said that with confidence and I was wrong but there are false teachers who would just flat out make stuff up with confidence despite the fact that they really understand nothing and they would do so about God they would do so about his word they would do so about the nature of Jesus Christ himself how many of you know that there's more at stake there that's pretty serious stuff there are people who would just make it up the further the further the indictment on this all so there are those who would just make stuff up but there's an indictment that these false teachers have a craving for controversies and for quarrels about words sound and healthy teaching in verse 3 results in godliness it results in a life of good worship a life where all that we do is turn back to the honor and glory of our
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Lord but look at the fruit of these false teachers they love to stir things up they don't love to land on answers ironically this passes off as a lot of spiritual leadership today just asking questions and as I said in an earlier message you can use a
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Google search I'm talking pretty narrowly I mean there's some good stuff out on the internet and I'm not a Luddite I'm not anti technology
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I've got my iPad up here and I've got an iPhone and I will I will I will look for things from time to time so don't hear me say that I'm completely against technology but what
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I what I will say is that you can use a Google search to try to find an answer to your questions you can be confused about a verse type it in a search and you will encounter no end of those who crave controversy you will go you can go down the rabbit hole quickly you can go down that rabbit hole of quarrels about words and about all kinds of error what
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I mean by this is that we are increasingly valuing the impersonal over personal when it comes to us seeking knowledge we think we have
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Google why ask someone why ask anyone I could just reach in my pocket and find an answer to that is it a good answer is it a right answer probably not but you can find an answer we value immediacy over the time that it takes to wrestle to understand scripture we would rather just look up someone's opinion rather than sit in the text and let it wash over us until we come to a conclusion and we let the
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Holy Spirit work in our hearts to come to the knowledge of what His Word is saying I'll let this indictment stand as a warning to all of us if the fruit of a leader if the fruit of a minister or a teacher is that those under their teaching are in endless debates and are in endless argument if the people under someone's teaching are left with an impression of wealth and envy for more if they are left with unhealthy relationships toward one another then it is not of God that's what
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Paul is saying here there's an increasing style of ministry that refuses to land on answers but rather multiplies questions there's a way of teaching the
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Bible that leaves people with more doubt about the Bible than trust that God has revealed Himself in the pages of His Word that it's inspired by Him so be sure to know those you would let teach you get to know them be sure that they love these things in this order and I would say
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I have no problem saying that you should lean into this and take this on as a standard in this order ask the question do they love the
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Lord Jesus Christ that's first do they love Jesus second do they love the
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Word of God do they love God's Word and lastly and often left out of the equation do they love you do they love you do they have your best interest in mind and I have never
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I have never searched and found an answer on Google that I was confident that the writer loved me they don't even know me and so what am
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I calling for I'm calling for a more personal together look at God's Word taking it on and studying it make sure you land with what you think it's saying first before you ever consult with another and then go you come to me come to Spencer come to a parent who maybe is a someone who's spiritual and connected to God and loves
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God's Word and loves Jesus and loves you go to them and ask them is that making sense to you guys
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I'm not saying that Google doesn't have its place I just I think it's I think it's a terrible place for spiritual advice it's horrible tried it a few times this week just to test it out not good not good stuff and especially
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I would suggest to you now now some of you are like I'm strong enough for that and I think there's some truth to that like if you're if you have some knowledge of God's Word you can filter through the things that are just junk and and you can find some nuggets in there you know
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I'm talking about but man if you're if you're not spiritually strong and you're not connected to His Word and you're not knowledgeable about this there are all kinds of subtleties that will drag you away like that be careful there are some who will be satisfied with leaving you in envy they will leave you in dissension they will leave you eager to slander your brothers and sisters they will leave you with evil suspicions and they will be satisfied with leaving a church or a people with constant friction the word there is like a sore it's kind of a gruesome
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Greek word it's like an abrasive sore that just keeps the the scab keeps getting pulled off constant friction chafing but because there are people who will leave you like that and believe it or not there are spiritual leaders who will gladly deprive people of the truth and they can only ever lead people to a depraved mind because the truth is not in them people deprived of the truth will be left with a depraved mind and constant friction among themselves and this sounds like a lot of churches today unfortunately
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God forbid that we would become a people a church deprived of the truth a fundamental need for for health in a church is biblical literacy so that we continue to grow in our faith together without the truth we will quickly become a people who only ever do what is right in our own eyes everyone with their own standard everyone with their own morality everyone with their own opinion and that spells the end of fellowship church without the truth will quickly spiral into depravity and poor relationships of slander and envy and all of these things so why would a person keep preaching that which is speculative at best and is just flat -out false at worst like maybe maybe they know it's false and they just keep teaching it why would faith healers keep deceiving why would prosperity preachers keep going to Africa to promote their messages of getting wealthy in a place of abject poverty think about it why do they keep doing this
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Paul gives an inspired answer here he proposes to know the answer he says they do so to get gain out of quote -unquote godliness in other words to simplify what
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Paul is getting at here in this text there are teachers that are in it are you ready for the money there are teachers that are in it the final indictment on false teachers is that they are willing to say whatever is needed to get into your wallet
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Paul is clear that giving is indeed a spiritual act and he talked about it last week but a healthy church leader is not after your wallet they are running hard after the truth that is a healthy leader and that leads to the final movement in the text we see starting in verse 6 the invitation invitation to contentment
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Church it gives us a formula in verse 6 that provides the structure for the remainder of the text a life of good worship which is the direct translation of the compound word in Greek for godliness so when you see godliness you could think good worship it's the the prefix
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EU which means good in Greek and it's the word for worship it's literally a compound word in other words when you're living out your days when you're living out your hours when you're living out your minutes for your
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Lord and Savior that's that's good worship it's a life of godliness and you are satisfied content with what he has given to you
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Paul says here in this text that's a great life that's a great life that's great gain you want you want and it's not talking about material gain that's not not saying that you're gonna gain a lot it's that's the gain when you're content with life and you're living out good worship that church is the life you want to have one reason to take the two verses about slavery together with this passage is to demonstrate exactly how radical a life of good worship looks it looks like honoring a pagan master what good worship touches every level of our very human and very fallen lives good worship defines the way we drive our cars it defines tucking your kids into bed it defines the way we work for our employers good worship defines the way we respond to authority the way we study the way we exercise the entertainment we enjoy the way we pray indeed the the way that we seek to know him through his word more and more day by day godliness with contentment says
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Paul is great gain what can make a slave honor his master godliness with contentment and I can hear you say but Don what is contentment
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I'm glad that you guys asked thank thanks for the question I'm gonna I'm gonna answer it and Paul gives us a stark definition in verses 7 through 8 he tells us how he perceives how he conceives of contentment contentment begins with an acknowledgment of the temporal nature of this world in our very lives we know it to be true it's proverbial in our culture and yet it has very little cliches and Proverbs have little effect on the daily lives of people especially
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Americans but we brought nothing into this world and we won't take anything away from it we'll take nothing with us this is proverbial you can you can't we will say the phrase like you can't take it with you or no u -hauls attached to hearses right how many heard those phrases you're familiar with them how many of you think of those every day and they just really are like a core guiding principle of your life not a ton right
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I mean none of these truths none of these cliches none of these Proverbs can assuage the desire for more on the
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American heart right it's cute to quote cliches it's cute to quote proverbial sayings in our culture but it's less convicting if we can keep it at the level of cliche cliches
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I suggest to you that they exist to keep the truth from sinking in too deep that's why we say them so let's move to verse 8 to let our greedy hearts be smitten verse 8 is the shocker in the text because it isn't just false teachers and emphasis that are for sale every single one of us needs to wrassle with this teaching we will be content with food and clothing some of you may very well be thinking
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Paul I hope you're referencing fine dining I can be content with that and some nice fashionable clothing
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I can be content with that but I can suggest to you in all honesty there are very few days that I woke up and thought well
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I don't have to be naked today and I got some food in the cupboard all else is good how many of you have ever woke up on a day and said that like that's just not it okay how does
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Paul define contentment and I think lest we come at this with a sliding ruler he says is your birthday suit covered did you have something to eat today then be satisfied and content in that kind of radical kind of shocking anybody feeling it a little bit like man did the temperature just turn up in here
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I mean is it it's like there there is a serious heat to this text and let me confess to you that I have a long way to go in my heart on this passage so I think we could all stand up and testify to our own unique situations of where greed or coveting comes in for us where discontent settles on us and I'm gonna tell you a
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I'm gonna tell you a settle a settling thing in my heart just to kind of they say confession is good for the soul right so I can covet this is this is your pastor
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I don't think you think of think of me less after you hear this I could be moved to covet your lawnmower
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I could be moved to covet your lawnmower now let's think through what a lawnmower is for for just a second this is the confession of an
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American suburbanite right here I pay for chemicals to spray on my grass so the weeds die and the grass achieves like a level of mmm and it gets green and it gets lush and it fills in and it starts to grow faster and then
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I have a system of buried lines through my lawn that pop up at certain times of the day by a pre -programmed timer they water it and they make it grow faster and you know what
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I have to do when it grows faster I have to mow it and I have to mow it more and more and more and more frequently because I put that chemical on it
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I pay for the chemical that makes it grow better and then I pay for the water to water it so it looks nice and lush so I have to mow it more and more and more and by the way you guys
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I have a lawn tractor I use the lawn tractor to cut it down now the interesting thing is my alternator is out so I literally have to jump start my little power pack
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Joe sir so lest you think that I am living in the lap of luxury here I literally jump start my lawn tractor every single time the starter won't work it won't hold a charge but it's not a zero turn
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X mark you see what I'm saying oh there she is so I want that we laugh churches is serious what is it for you what is it for you that you just need more of what is it that what is it for you that that your clothes and your food is not enough and it's like I got to have more of that and you have it and it's not satisfaction to have it but you've got to have better you've got to have more you've got to grow and grow and grow in and more and more and more the desire to be rich says
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Paul the desire to have a little bit more causes many to fall into temptations and traps the hunger for more money leads us into senseless and harm harmful desires that lead down the road says
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Paul to ruin and destruction this is not a plaything church materialism is not just like something oh yeah
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America struggles with that move up move along to the next point let this settle in your heart church the love of money he says is the root is a rather of all kinds of evil it's intentionally stated it's a root not not all evil comes from money but it is a root of all in other words all kinds of evils come from the love of money particularly in Ephesus he says this to Ephesus remember and I would say especially in America many have self -inflicted wounds that have torn them away from the faith torn them away from faith in God due to the desire to be rich and the love of money
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Paul's point in context though is primarily and you need to understand in context is primarily about teachers who surrender the faith for the cause of gain
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Paul is showing us something that we cannot readily see on the outside of a person we can't see on the outside of a leader we can guess at it when we see pastors buying new
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Gulfstream private jets and things like that but this craving happens on a smaller scale in churches too and it isn't always shown in by the way a watered -down doctrine we might think that you can tell a teacher who is hungry for money because he waters down the truth to tickle itching ears so that people will give more money but the love of money can also certainly cause people to water that down but it can also lead the more arrogant to another conclusion and I've seen this in the church
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I'm listening to a podcast about it and I think that this is kind of a kernel of it some will be successful in ministry by the world's standards and they may even preach the truth but they begin to believe that they are the secret in the sauce they are the necessary component to the success of their church or their ministry and if I begin to believe that I'm the secret in the sauce of this church and I'm caught in the grips of the love of money if that was true of me then the logical conclusion goes like this everybody better do things my way and honor me so that we can continue to be successful this is the way that many good teachers become tyrants don't assume that the only way for the love of money to express itself is through watered -down doctrine the love of money can also tempt the leader to tighten his reins and grip on a congregation so how do we apply this text what are we gonna do different this week as a part of encountering this well let me let me suggest a couple of things that struck out to me the first is let's recenter ourselves on the gospel the founding of a church must also must always start with a gospel and never with the point of social change the two will compete by nature hear me carefully church either our hope is to change the world or our hope is for God to save our world which one is your hope for you to change the world or for God to save our world and the reality of the one fuels a deeper change the church's purpose is to make known a
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Savior a blessed byproduct of course is a changed and improved world as more and more and more are redeemed this was at risk in that early church change without the gospel is as fleeting as presidential executive orders the change is temporary at best and will be the first thing to go under a new administration gospel change sends down deep roots that break up rocks and pull down fortresses so let's double down on the gospel as our only hope church not by politics not by medicine not by social change but by his glorious gospel changing one life at a time that is our hope recenter your life on the good news of Jesus Christ the second encouragement is to dig into the word how will we know if we're being sold false teaching only in as much as we remain connected to his word will be able to discern what is false so be aware church and yes
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I'm actually encouraging you to be cautious there are many false teachers who want your loyalty and your money there is so much content being produced every day by people who are puffed up enough to disagree with Jesus and to disagree with the
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Apostles do not get drawn into the teaching of those who do not love God do not love his word and do not love you the third thing is of course lean into contentment
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I have clothes praise God I have food but more centrally
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I have what matters most anybody want to guess what that is eternal life through Jesus Christ my
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Lord so let's come to communion as the fountain of our contentment this is where contentment flows from from those tables flow the reminder of everything that I need in my life
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I need us I needed a substitution to take my place I couldn't pay the debt my own sin had racked up and so Jesus went to the cross to take my punishment and to pay my debt so let's come to the table and take the cracker to remember his body that was broken for us and come to the table to take a cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for us and then let's go out from here remembering that godliness with contentment is the life of great gain we have available to us this week great gain through a life of good worship coupled with an abiding contentment coupled with a satisfaction and what has already been given to us through the cross of Jesus Christ father
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I pray that you would help us to center our thoughts on the right things right now that by your spirit you would you would provide correction where correction is needed challenge where we need challenge conviction where we need to be convicted encouragement where encouragement is necessary thank you for Jesus Christ and I pray that our contentment and our gladness and our joy and our satisfaction is found more and more in him and less and less in the things of this world that you would lighten our grip on the things that grab our attention and hold us as thralls in their their own kingdoms transfer us more and more day by day into the kingdom of your glorious son let us be satisfied and enamored with him with the entertainment with the cars and the stuff and the things even our own skills and abilities and ministry opportunities that you give to us or whatever it might be that we might take pride in and over own
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I pray that you would meet each one of us here in this place and in this time to allow this communion time for those who belong to you
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I pray that as they go to those tables they would reflect most importantly on the place and the source of contentment for it's only at the cross that we can be truly content our deepest and greatest needs are met there get some clothes get some food thank you for that the real needs