Christian Contentment — Mark Turner

How refreshing to be in worship this morning. Amen? Amen. Open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter six, if you would. 1 Timothy chapter six. You're looking at verses three through 12 today. You wanna read along with me?

1 Timothy 6, three. The apostle Paul is speaking to Timothy, young pastor Timothy, and Paul said here, if anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

From such, withdraw yourself. Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and as certain we can carry nothing out, and having food and clothing with these, we shall be content, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness and godliness and faith, love, patience and gentleness, and fight the good fight of faith.

Lay hold on eternal life, to which you are also called, and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time to be in your word. Teach us, instruct us, encourage us, exhort us, and again, we thank you that your word is a lamp into our feet, and it is a light into our path, and thank you that it's the sword of the spirit.

It's the discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart, Lord, and we thank you that it was written to us personally, your love letter to us. Thank you so much. We love you in Jesus' name, amen. Now, Paul had opened this letter with a warning to young Pastor Timothy, and I do appreciate Paul as a older man in the Lord writing an encouraging letter to Timothy.

You can imagine how Timothy felt when he received this incredible encouragement from Paul, and Paul had such a heart for Timothy, his son in the faith, that he had led to Christ, helped nurture in Christ, but he opened the letter really with a warning, urging Timothy to charge, and really to command the false teachers in the local churches to stop teaching false doctrine, to cease and desist from teaching doctrine that did not line up with the true gospel of Jesus Christ, that did not line up with the apostolic teaching, and really, there's nothing more dangerous to Christian contentment and unity in the church today than troubling the calm waters of the spirit and the sound teaching of the word of God with false teaching and with false doctrine.

This Timothy had not only to be aware of, but he was also to expose it and also to rebuke it. These false teachers had infiltrated the churches, and they were acting like, you've heard the expression like wolves in sheep's clothing, wolves in sheep's clothing, that's what was going on here.

They were fleecing the flock, you've heard that term before. They were really using their religious profession as a means to make money off of the people. And they were really kind of running a religious business, not truly ministering to the needs of the people, but more concerned with how they could pad their own wallets.

Really, this was an ongoing problem with the leaders that went all the way back to the time of the prophet Ezekiel who warned the irresponsible leaders of Israel in chapter 34, "'Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves.

"'Should not the shepherds feed, not fleece the flocks? "'You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with wool, "'you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock, "'the weak you have not strengthened, "'nor have you healed those who are sick, "'nor bound up the broken, "'nor brought back what was driven away, "'nor sought what was lost.'".

Now that was Jesus's own ministry, wasn't it? As the good shepherd, and as the great shepherd, to seek and to save that which was lost, not to rip people off. But this the false prophets and teachers were doing.

They were ripping off not only the people's joy, but they were ripping off their resources as well. Jesus said in Matthew 7, 15, "'Beware of false prophets who come to you "'in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.'".

Jesus also said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, the woe chapter, "'Woe to you, hypocrites, "'you pretenders, you phonies.'". "'For you devour widows' houses, "'you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, "'but inside you're full of extortion and self-indulgence.'".

So instead of loving the people, they were lording over the people and making money off of the people, oftentimes. Now, not only do false teachers refuse to adhere to sound doctrine, but they're full of pride, 1 Timothy 6, 4 tells us.

Instead of being humble, a false teacher is often proud and conceited, and that's a danger to look for when you see pride and conceit in someone who's teaching up in the pulpit, that can be a very dangerous thing.

There needs to be the fragrance of humility coming from those who would stand in the pulpit and tremble before the Lord, knowing that it's God working in them and through them and nothing in and of themselves.

And this was a problem with the false teachers, pride and conceit, and Paul's telling Timothy here that really, that's showing that they really know nothing, but they're obsessed with disputes and arguments, literally with word battles.

The false teacher obsesses over terminology and information and maybe lots of head knowledge, but they have a heart that's far from God. As Jesus warned, you prophesy with your lips, but your heart is far from me.

All this will lead those who are being swayed by this false teaching into envy and strife and reviling and evil suspicions and useless wranglings, and that's better translated, they're constant friction, verse five says, constant friction.

It's sad but still true today that sometimes the reason why a particular church seems to be in constant friction is because of the upheaval and the undermining that the false teachers are bringing with his teachings.

The reason could be gossip, it could be immorality, but oftentimes it's due to false teaching as well. You know, all it takes is for one half truth or a lie to worm its way into the church and it could be the death blow to that fellowship, right?

One half truth, one lie. I know the church that Pastor Pat and I came from up in Walnut started off as a wonderful church, started off with just a few folks, ended up with about 5 ,000 people, maybe more, and the pastor went up Northern California, met some Christian counselors and got caught up in the primal scream therapy movement and got convinced that it was the right thing to do to take his staff and some of the people in the church through the primal scream under hypnosis to bring them back to their birth event and just scream it all out and that would take care of all your problems.

And it got so bad that people in the church were standing up in the congregation rebuking the pastor during his teachings. And Pastor Pat and I had come down here to Escondido, right when everything broke loose and hit the fan, but it didn't take long for that man to get off into something false and error ruined the church.

He lost his wife through divorce. His son died tragically. It was just a horrible set of events and it was due to the false teaching, a lot of it, that he willingly brought into the church as he was deceived.

Many churches in our own area have fallen due to self-seeking false teachers as well here in North County. And Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, verse 30, that also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking misleading things to draw away disciples after themselves.

Therefore, watch. Watch out for their methods, for often behind their methods are their motives and often their motives are for, not all the time, but a lot of the times, is for money. So don't discard your minds from them, guard your wallets as well.

Verse five goes on to clearly expose one of these primary dangerous motives that we're talking about, supposing, supposing that godliness is a means of gain. Literally, it says that they were teaching that godliness was a way of financial gain.

Hey, you know, I can pretend to be outwardly godly and know the Bible and then mix in some error with truth and voila, I can get an audience, I can get their trust, start receiving offerings, get a big following, and then fund, oftentimes, a lavish and outrageous lifestyle for myself.

Sound familiar? So almost always behind the efforts of the hypocritical, lying, false teachers of Paul and Timothy's day, and really our day, is the driving motivation for monetary gain. Why? Why is that?

Because, unfortunately, the false teachers have learned over the years that God's people are often very gullible, that many believers do not first check out their teaching against the word of God. It's often carte blanche Christianity for the undiscerning believer.

We are to come and hear anyone who teaches the Bible with a discerning heart, not just with an open mind, though, right? We're to be like the Bereans of Acts chapter 17, who search the scriptures daily to find out whether Paul and Silas brought the truth or not.

You've heard the term sola scriptura. In the Latin, it means scripture only. Let the scriptures interpret the scriptures, especially in the area of money. Check it out before you write a checkout, amen?

The apostle Peter also warned the church of his day by giving them an example of this in the Old Testament. In 2 Peter chapter two, verse 15, in speaking of the depravity of false teachers, Peter said, they have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages, the wages of unrighteousness.

Remember Balaam, Old Testament prophet, a compromiser, a compromiser. He was really for sale. He had a sign on him, I am for sale, for sale to whomever would pay me. And really, he preferred wealth and popularity over obedience to the Lord.

That was his problem. Of course, the Lord rebuked him through a talking donkey, right, from cursing Israel. I wonder how many pastors of the churches today would reconsider and rework their messages if they knew a donkey was gonna be sitting in the front row.

But going back to 1 Timothy 6, 5, Paul warned young Timothy not to fall into this trap as Balaam, but what did he say there to Timothy? Withdraw yourself from them. There is a time to withdraw yourself.

It's biblical and righteous to do. Because these men were not coveting God's glory. They were not after the sign of the cross, but instead they were glorying in their lust and they were glorying in the dollar sign, not the sign of the cross.

Paul also warned the church of these men in Philippians 3, 18, where he said, for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame.

Listen carefully. Who set their mind on earthly things. That equates to covetousness. Covetousness is a huge danger to any and every Christian today, whether you're a minister or not. The lustful desire to have more than God gives us to meet our daily needs.

To delight after something in a lustful way often at the expense of others. Covetousness, it really destroys Christian contentment. Now, the 10th commandment is what in Exodus 20, 17? Anybody know what the 10th commandment is?

It's about covetousness. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

Translation to us in 2004, don't lust after what your neighbor has. Whether it be his house, whether it be his wife, or anything he may have. His Mercedes, his boat, his high-priced mate, his overpriced dog, his giant screen plasma TV, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Remembering the thoughts and desires of our heart do not escape the attention of God. You may appear outwardly that you're not longing for these things, but inwardly you are, and God sees it. God knows all, God sees all.

You can't hide a thing from the Lord. He knows if you're hiding covetousness in your heart. If you're longing for them inwardly, he sees that. It's wrong, and it's sin. But verse six of 1 Timothy six tells us the proper and pleasing attitude to God that we're to have instead.

What does verse six say? Now godliness with contentment is what? That is great gain. Godliness with contentment. Now the Greek word for contentment here means an inner sufficiency that keeps us at peace in spite of our outward circumstances.

An inner sufficiency that keeps us at peace in spite of our outward circumstances. A person who is unflappable and unmoved by his or her external circumstances. So what application is Paul giving to young Timothy here?

Be satisfied and be sufficient in the Lord. Don't seek for more than what God has already given you, Timothy. That God and God alone must be your source of true contentment. That I would be content, that I would be joyful, that I would be happy, satisfied, and fulfilled with my relationship with God alone.

It's not the things that God gives me that fulfills me, but it is God himself and my love for him and his love for me that is what truly satisfies me. As King David prayed, I love this verse, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul longs after you.

As that deer knows it needs to drink from the water in the stream to keep it alive and to nourish it, so the Christian comes regularly into God's presence to nourish himself there and to keep his walk alive and living with his living Lord.

Where David said, in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's where contentment is found. It's by spending time with the one who loves you and died for you.

That's where true contentment is found. So, wealth does not bring contentment. That's what Paul's trying to tell Timothy here. Wealth does not bring contentment. It's a huge lie being perpetrated by the media today and the mastermind behind much of our media today, who's the devil himself.

True contentment comes from godliness in the heart, not wealth in our hands, right? True contentment comes when I can look in the mirror in the morning and see that I have grown more in Christ-likeness than the day before.

We all have to look in the mirror every day, whether we like to or not, but what are we seeing? But more importantly, who are we seeing? Are we seeing the Lord, the fruit of Christ in our life? We should be content with that.

Paul also said in Philippians 4 .11, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased or to live humbly, and I know how to abound or to live in prosperity.

Paul knew both ends of the spectrum, but he went on to say, everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Now, another danger to Christian contentment is that wealth is not lasting either. Let's read verse seven. For we brought nothing into this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out. Let me ask you a question.

What did you bring with you when you came into this world? Clothes, a car, a bank account? No. We brought nothing in with us, nothing. And Paul reminds us we're going out of this world with what we came in with, nothing.

And whatever we amass while we're here is gonna go to someone else anyways, right? So our children, our heirs, the government, the church, give it to the church before you give it to the government. We're gonna leave it all behind, right?

Left behind, the true story, you know? So we're really called to be a good steward over the things that God gives us, the things we accumulate, but we're not to get too attached to them. That's the danger, the danger of attachment.

Keep a loose grip on the material things of this life and store up your treasures where? Store them up in heaven, Jesus said. Where what? Where moth and rust do not corrupt, where thieves do not break in and steal.

That sounds and looks like my neighborhood lately, lots of rusty cars and stolen tools. I keep telling my neighbors, keep your garage door shut at night. They complain that they're getting ripped off all the time.

Well, shut your garage door. But that shiny car that you have that you wash and you wax, and then of course it rains this weekend, it's just gonna fade in time and you can't take it to heaven with you.

Be a good steward over it, but don't be possessed by it. Don't be consumed by it. Be a good steward with it. And maybe someone else has more need of it than you. Are you willing to give it away? Well, that's a real test, isn't it?

If possessions possess you, that's a test. Are you willing to give it away at any given time? Yes, Lord, it's yours, or it's yours, brother, or it's your sister. God bless you with that. Jesus also said in Luke 12, 15, that one's life does not consist in what?

In the abundance of the things he possesses. So really, money and material things start getting dangerous when we begin to use the word what? Mine. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. It's mine, get away. You know, we take too much ownership over things sometimes, and really, God owns it all, doesn't he?

He owns the cattle on 1 ,000 hills, and he owns everything that we have. We need to remember that. We're just the stewards, we're not the owners. That's what can really trap us. To illustrate that wealth is not lasting, Pastor E .V. Hill was invited to speak in a suburban church of a large city in the south.

In the introduction to his message, Pastor Hill commented on the difference between the affluent suburb and the poor urban area where he ministered. I know what's missing, he said. You folks don't have any graffiti anywhere.

I'd like to volunteer to provide some for you. I'll get a bucket of paint and walk through your neighborhood writing this one word on your million dollar homes and expensive European cars, temporary. That's it, temporary.

None of it will last. Good illustration. Maybe we need some paint brushes and paint buckets after church today, and we need to paint that on some of the things that we have, temporal. It's gonna be here one minute and gone the next.

Don't get too attached to it. Get attached to the Lord, right? Detach from things and attach yourself more to him. That's the key. So we enjoy and we take care of what we have, right? And that's as it should be.

But Jesus said we shouldn't be, again, possessed by our possessions because they won't last into eternity. You know, a house is just a box, isn't it, in which to stay warm and dry. A car is a way to get us from one place to another, usually.

And since we can't take them again with us when we die, we're far better off to view them as Jesus did. And again, that's as temporary. Remembering that the temporal can be the enemy of the eternal, can't it?

The temporal can be the enemy of the eternal if you're not careful. You know, materialism is really sucking the life out of many a Christian today, especially here in affluent Southern California. We really need to be on guard to keep up with the Jones mentality.

We've really gotta be on guard that, no, Lord, that's not what you've called me to do. Help me to be content with what you've given me and be ready to give it away if necessary. Remembering that all is temporal, Lord.

Keep my mind on the eternal as I live in the temporal. Verse eight. Here's a good verse. In having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. How many of you today are content with food and clothing?

Okay, a few of you, that's a start. What's Paul saying here? The basic necessities of life are what ought to make the Christian content. Thank you, Lord, for the food you've provided for us at this dinner table tonight.

We as a family are thankful and content with it. It may not be steak and lobster, but instead soup and crackers, but it will meet our need of hunger tonight. Thank you, Lord, for the new shirt I was able to buy at Target today.

Yes, Lord, it is not from Macy's or Bloomingdale's, but it will meet my need for warmth and covering today. Our basic needs. These are what God has promised to meet and provide for us. Not what we think we need, but what God thinks we need.

Big difference, right? You may think you have need of a new suburban, but God knows instead you have need for something smaller and more economical. Don't fight him on it, you'll be miserable. Take the smaller economy car, quit whining about the suburban.

Be content with the basics. Warren Wiersbe was reminded of the simple living Quaker who was watching his neighbor move in with all of the furnishings and expensive toys that successful people collect.

The Quaker finally went over to his new neighbor and said, neighbor, if ever thou doth need anything, come to see me and I will tell thee how to get along without it. How true. Could we get by today without our cell phones?

A few groans. Would our lives fall apart without the use of our laptops? High speed internet? Shall we go on? Too many of us today know the price of everything but the value of nothing, it seems. We have acquired so many luxuries compared to most in the world today that we've forgotten how to enjoy the value of our basic necessities that God has so graciously given to us.

And you know, most of all in this fast paced society in which we live today, I think many of us have forgotten the value of one another. Isn't that the greater value? The value of one another. We've forgotten the value of friendship.

Forgotten the value of love and kindness and compassion and concern for others. It's the longing for more material things that puts this kind of wedge between us and it can be deadly. We're so busy trying to keep up with the Joneses that we forget about the Joneses in a sense, about the people, about the person, about your neighbor.

When was the last time you took a visit to your neighbor's house just to say hi, how you doing? And introduce yourself and your family to them and put value on them and not on their stuff. Well, I like them because they have these nice things.

No, like them for just for who they are and who they are in God's eyes, not for what the stuff that they have, but for who they are as a person. Value what's important today, value friendships, value people.

Of course, Jesus did say in Matthew chapter six, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you of not more what? Value than they. What did he put the value on? Those things were important, but he put the value on us.

We are the apple of his eye. We are important to the Lord, people, right? Ministry is people, not paperwork, people. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.

The application there, be content in first seeking God's kingdom and rule in your life. Don't seek after things, seek after God and he will provide the things and the stuff you will need in this life.

So God should still be, again, our most valuable possession. Next to people, God should be our most valued possession. Our relationship with him, our friendship with him, the incredible gift of himself to us.

Not even the gift of eternal life to us, but the giver of that eternal life. He is my reward, not eternal life in a sense, but himself. He is my reward, not even where I'm going, but to the one I am going to.

That should be my one and greatest desire, amen? As David cried out in Psalm 27, four, I love this verse. One thing, David said, one thing I have desired of the Lord and that will I seek, here it is, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

That was his primary thing that he desired, to behold the beauty of the Lord. Does this describe you and I at the beginning of the day? Beholding and fixated on his beauty? In the middle of the day, at the end of the day?

Is my quest the pursuit of God or is my quest in things? Am I content with Christ and Christ alone? If everything I had was taken and stripped away from me, would I still be desiring that one thing as David did?

I'd still be content, Lord, because I have you. You can take away all that I have. Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Right? Can we say that? That's a tough one, but that's God's desire for us.

Verse nine and 10. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

This is a picture here of a man who's drowning, right? He's going under, he's going down, he's drowning, sailing along, having the good life, all that this life has to offer, but missing out on the abundant life and maybe even the everlasting life that God has to offer in Jesus Christ.

And then suddenly what happens? A storm comes, his sails burst, and he sinks. Likewise, the person who has to have more and more material things in order to be happy and feel successful, sailing into a trap, sailing into possible bondage and destruction.

And notice there it says, his desire to be rich, not God's desire for him, but his desire to be rich is his constant temptation and snare. Greed has become his God. Greed has become his God. How many of our dear friends lately have been shipwrecked by greed at the gambling casinos?

Too many, too many. And I want to encourage you today and exhort you that if you're involved in gambling at any of these casinos, that you flee and run away now. It's not of God, it doesn't honor him.

You're throwing away his money to the world. You're not being a good steward of what he's given you, and you're gonna fall into sin, and it's gonna shipwreck your faith. Stay away from them, they're not from the Lord.

But notice it's their love for money, not money in and of itself, right? Since money's a gift from God, isn't it? But the love of money that brings them down and still brings countless millions down today.

The love of money. You can't serve God and mammon, Jesus said. You can't serve both, right? You gotta choose one or the other. You're gonna serve God or mammon. You're gonna serve one of the two. Proverbs 23 five warns those who would be rich in this world that riches certainly make themselves wings.

They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. Riches are flighty and fleeting, here in one minute and gone the next. We should be like Solomon though, who instead worked to be rich in wisdom, not rich with riches.

So you know, rather than wearing yourself out pursuing wealth, instead pursue the wisdom of God. That's wisdom, isn't it? Pursue the wisdom of God and what glorifies him, and he will bless you with prosperity as he chooses.

Remember too that Jesus warned in Mark 8 36, what shall it profit a man? What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Application. To have all that the world has to offer, yet not have Jesus Christ is to be bankrupt eternally.

All the world's goods will not compensate for losing one soul eternally. You can have everything the world has to offer, and it still will not get you to heaven. Better to be rich in God's forgiveness.

Better to be rich in God's love. Better than to be rich with riches. And even then somebody will always be lusting after what you have and trying to figure out a way to get what you have, right? You know, all it takes today is one stumble into sin, and a corresponding lawsuit, and you can go from prince to pauper overnight in this country.

One look at Hollywood today reminds us of that. Hollywood though should be reminded of Jesus's words in Luke 18 25, that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Translation, that's next to impossible, isn't it? It's next to impossible for a rich man to go to heaven because those who are rich delude themselves into thinking they have no need of God. Money is their God.

Things are their God. That temporal satisfaction that those things bring is their God. They're self-sufficient, self-made men and women. Yet deep inside they're what? They're miserable, and they're empty.

Many Hollywood stars, many sports superstars have confessed to this, after years of indulgence, that something is still missing, right? You've heard the interviews. They're miserable after living a sinful, wicked, perverted, polluted life.

And they go, what is missing? Well, we know what's missing. His name is Jesus Christ. He can satisfy the soul. Jesus meets man's most deepest needs and desires for love and for acceptance and for forgiveness.

It's found in a person, not in a program. There are no substitutes to Jesus Christ. James 1 says of the rich man, as a flower of the field he will pass away, for no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass.

Its flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes, so the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits. You know, let's pray for Hollywood. Let's pray for the salvation of those in Hollywood who are lost in the colors of green and of gold and of silver.

And I pray that they instead would find the joy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ through the color red, right, through the shed blood of Jesus for them. That's the blood, that's the color that we glory in because it was his blood that gave us the opportunity to be saved, the shedding of his blood, the color red, the color red for that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Verse 11, okay, Timothy, but you, O man of God, flee these things, what things? All the things we were just talking about. Flee those things and pursue these things, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, fight that good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, which we're also called, and then also be faithful.

The four Fs of this passage, flee, follow, fight, and be faithful, if you're taking notes. Let's talk about these very briefly. Flee. There are times when running away is a mark of cowardice, right? But there are other times when fleeing is a mark of wisdom and a means of victory.

A good example of that was with Joseph. Remember Joseph fled when he was tempted by his master's wife Potiphar? In Genesis 39, for you men in particular today, remember it says that so it was as she spoke to Joseph day by day that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her.

When she finally pounced on Joseph and grabbed him, it goes on to say that he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. His method of victory, men, and your method of victory today over sexual temptation and sin, which is all around you, run away.

Run away as fast as you can. You are not strong enough to stand up to it on your own. Flee, run. You got two feet, that's why God gave them to you. Run as fast as you can. And what was Joseph's motive for victory?

Because men, let me tell you this. Your feet will run when honor is in your heart. Your feet will run when honor is in your heart. Your heart for God will move your feet to victory. Your heart for God and for his glory will move those feet to victory.

Joseph's motive was, how can I do this thing and sin against God? That should be embedded in our hearts and minds, men, especially. How can I do this thing and sin against my Lord who died for me? His love for God was preeminent, first and foremost, over any lust for women.

And men, if Jesus Christ is the love of your life here today, if Jesus Christ is the love of your life, you'll have no problem loving your wife. And the victory comes for you because it says in the Bible that a threefold cord is not easily broken, right?

A threefold cord is not easily broken. Nurture, maintain your personal walk with God and with your wife. Be a man of prayer. Be a man of the word. Love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

Be satisfied with the wife of your youth. These are the hedges of protection in this sexually perverted world in which we live in today. Amen, men? Amen. We're also told to flee fornication in 1 Corinthians 6 .18.

We're also told in 2 Timothy 2 .22 to flee youthful lusts. We're also told in 1 Corinthians 10 .14 to flee from idolatry. There are things the Bible specifically states you are to flee from, from fornication, from lust, from idolatry.

Remembering that an idol is anything in your life that takes the place of God. What's an idol? Anything in your life that takes the place of God. Now, you may not bow down and worship a stone idol or a stone image, but you may be bowing down to keeping up your self-image or your self-esteem and to what others think about you more than what God thinks about you, right?

Sometimes what the idols in our life are self-esteem, self-righteousness, anything doing with self and protecting ourself can often be idolatry. We're often our greatest idols. We worship ourselves.

We love ourselves too much. I am often my greatest idol. I idolize me. I'm too much in love with me, and that's why I can't love thee as well. And you, because I'm too concerned about me. Me, me, me, mine, mine, mine.

I, I, I. I have an eye problem. You've heard that before. I didn't make that up. Do you have an eye problem today? Think about it. But any possession, any person we put our hope in to bring us fulfillment, any goal or aspiration even that becomes more important to us than God, even if it's a goal or an aspiration, these are the little gods that attract our daily allegiance and subtly control our lives.