First Timothy lesson 33

We're in Lesson 33, so we're working our way through Chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, and we're looking at four or five verses. The verses are, verse 6, but godliness with contentment is great gain. We could spend a lot more time on that. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. You can ask more questions about that if you want. For we brought nothing into this world, and we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us therefore be content. So we talked about contentment. And we've gotten down to question three, which seems innocuous, really.

I ask the question, why is the word with important here? Now, the word with is the word between godliness and contentment. Why is that word really? It's the word meta. and it's a preposition showing a close association between two things. So why would you think this word with is really, really important?

Just to reiterate, verse six says, but godliness actually is a means of great gain. and accompanied by contentment. And before that it said, but godliness with contentment is great gain. So maybe I should have asked the question, can you have godliness without contentment? Or can you have contentment without godliness? Oh, interesting point. But that's why the foundation has to be understood, which is great.

Yeah, so legalism wouldn't give me contentment, it would just make me anxious. Agreed? Because whenever I'm in a... I've always referred to legalism as the tyranny of the oughts. I ought to be doing this, and I ought to be not doing that. So there's no contentment under a lost system Because you never know if you've done enough Or if you're going to continue by this afternoon to continue doing the right thing Yeah, but under grace the life is supplied By the Spirit of God So back to this Why?

What's the word with? important. Why is it important? It's pretty obvious. I think, where do you think contentment starts? With godliness? I think of Romans 5. You know, knowing that the war's over, that Okay. Finding peace. You found peace in terms of salvation. Right. You are saved. But I don't think the war is over.

Matter of fact, it's just heating up about that point. Yeah, see, that's where conditioning and possession come in. Well, maybe I could have asked this a different way. And I'd ask it again. I'm waiting for your minds to get engaged. You okay with that?

Why is godliness and contentment linked together? It would be almost like the confirmation. How do you mean? That if it's true godliness, not legal, if it's true godliness, there will be contentment. Yeah. That's pretty good. You weren't looking at my notes, were you? Now, run that by me again. What was that? Run that by me.

If you're walking in true godliness, you'll have contentment. I've noticed the contrast between what is positional and what is conditional. I'm positionally placed in Christ, therefore I have godliness. And as a result of that, I have contentment. Because you don't have contentment positionally, I don't think. Like, it's the source of You don't hear very many sermons that you Christians ought to be content. You don't hear that, do you? you Christians ought to be working, that's what you hear.

If you look at, and we looked at this last week, Philippians 4.11, not that I speak from want, but I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am, teaches us that this sort of content is not the innate, But it's learned.

You learn how to be content. I think one of the hallmarks of growing in Christ is contentment. You're okay with circumstances. You're okay with the trials the Lord brings in your life because you understand. And you're content about that. You understand that not only did the Lord send them, but he's in charge of them. and they're designed for him to grow you up in Christ.

So it would free you up to behold the Lord? You know, it's almost like, I think it's almost like coming to the realization that I have a sovereign God. He controls everything. including how I think, what I do. He is sovereign, he works the circumstances, and he's got a purpose. His purpose is pretty simple.

I'm going to conform you to Christ. And the reason I'm gonna do that is because the man that I sent on into the earth, Christ, is the man I'm really pleased with. And he's not an earthly man, he's a spiritual man. And I'm going to conform you to him because I am totally satisfied with him. And so as that process unfolds in your life, you learn to be content because it's what your father wants. That's why he goes on to say that And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Sure.

So we, you know, just kind of a really cool verse right before that, verse 7, For we brought nothing into this world, and we can carry nothing out. Boy, that's a wake-up a wake-up call sometimes when you realize, I'm really working hard to get as much stuff as I can get.

And the Lord says to you, that's all well and good, but you're not taking any of it with you. So, do you understand the word with? Both these words go together, contentment and godliness go together. You're not going to get one without the other. You all right with that? So, okay.

Verse seven and then verse eight, for we have brought nothing into the world because, so that we cannot take anything out either. So what's the fatal flaw in verse seven? What does verse seven really tell us that's a fatal flaw? that worldly cares? Okay, more than that.

We're talking about things here. In other words, there isn't anything material that you have, that you think is your possession, that is going to last. That they're not eternal. And that will free you up? Well, think about what I just said a minute ago. The Lord Jesus comes into the planet. I'm going to talk about this. I found all this cool material. I'm going to talk about it on Christmas. He's a different man. There's never been this kind of man on the earth before. And he's a spiritual man. things that are not spiritual or temporal.

And those of us who belong to him have become spiritual like him. And those that don't aren't. Those that don't, material in this world is everything to them. Those that are, belong to him, recognize that any and everything that you're the steward of, including family, is something that God has given you as a gift and a responsibility.

It's like if you have children, can you save them? No, he's got to do that. You can't save them. You can't make them do anything, really. So the point is that material things burn up, because the earth is going to burn up. And if you're a material person, you're going with them.

So there isn't any content in that. I am able to have something I've never had before that I really wanted. Why, five minutes after you have possession of it, it ain't that big a deal anymore. I'll tell you, this is how I deal with that. I walk through Home Depot, right? There's a lot of cool stuff in Home Depot. So I see something and I think, I've got to have that.

So I put it in my cart. And about a half hour later, I put it back because now I've already owned it a half an hour and I'm not satisfied with it anymore. How about you just go wrap up the one you have, put it on your front porch, wait 45 minutes, and then go get it again. By the time I get to checkout, I'm taking things out. Do I really need this? Yeah, impulse buying.

Do you think material things can be used to bring eternal rewards? You're thinking you can use material things to bring eternal rewards Jake deal Jake deal was a let me better tell you everybody know who Jake deal is nobody knows he's from Amarillo, Texas And he was mile Stanford's biggest financial supporter Jake was a guy that grew up and learned how to drive a bulldozer.

And that's what he did for a living until he decided he wanted to invent something. So he invented one of those portable rock crushers that road builders can take out on the site with them and crush rocks for road building. And by the time the Lord took him home, he had an international company out of Amarillo, Texas, and he had more money than he knew what to do with. He had more money than he knew what to do with.

So at Miles Stanford's funeral, he got up and spoke. He said, my name is Jake Deal. I'm a bulldoze driver. That's what he said. And I mean, New Tribes Mission built a chapel in Sanford, Florida, where their retirement community is. He paid for the whole thing. He called me up. He said, should I go down there? They want to give me an award. I said, ah, Jake, I don't know. I said, well, I don't want to go down there. He said, well, no, don't go. OK.

But he was a really interesting guy. I met him in Amarillo one time. When my son moved to Texas, we stopped and had lunch there. And Jake talked to John for half an hour. It's like I wasn't even at the table. It was really cool, encouraging him, because John was like 18 and starting his first job. When I think of Miles, I think of a man who put his hand to the plow and didn't look back. The spiritual plow, sure.

And when Jake Deal read Miles' stuff and he wanted to meet him, Miles wouldn't meet with him. He'd call him up and say, I'm in Denver, I want to come meet you. And Miles would say, no, I can't do it today. So Jake, Jake went to his, Miles lived in a motor, a mobile home. He went and knocked on his door. Miles answered, he said, hi Miles, I'm Jake Deal. Miles said, come on in.

So, but I mean, I can remember when I first met Miles, he had a car, I forget what the car was. I'm chasing rabbits, I gotta stop doing that. I'll tell you the story and then I'll stop Jason. I think the car repair had gotten to the point where it was probably not worth repairing.

So he was talking to Jake on the phone about it and two days later we were at Betty's at Tuesday Men's Bible Study and here comes this flatbed truck with a brand new Honda on it. And they'd walk in and hand Miles the keys. You know? And like Miles had a $12,000 copy machine to compliment the Jake deal. That's the kind of guy he was, but he didn't know what to do with his money at the end of his life. You know? I don't know where it went. He must have given it all away because he didn't have any kids. You know? Well, he was probably dealing with this, you know. contentment with Godliness? You know what? He was a content guy. He sold his company to the four guys in his company that were Christian guys. And he told me that those guys did better with it the first two years than he'd done the whole time he'd created it. He was a contented man. You meet very few wealthy Christians that are content because the money is in the way or the love of it is in the way.

So we brought nothing into this world because we carry nothing out. So what I ask in question 5, part of this verse 7 proves that we brought nothing into the world. What part is it? Let me read the note that I found. The fact that we brought nothing into the world is shown by the impossibility of our taking anything, taking with us anything out of it. Since if anything belonging to us in our preordinary state, existing before the creation of the world had been brought by us into the world, it would not be separated from us at the time of the end of the world.

Do you understand what he's saying? Quotes Job 121, and he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So these verses go to contentment, what contentment really is.

The whole premise of these verses is that, how did you show up? What did you bring with you when you got here? Nothing. And you come totally dependent. You're the same way. Unless you've met the Lord along the way, what do you have to take out with you? Well, you have that sin nature you came with. You don't want to leave with that.

So do you think you can be content without knowing the Lord? I don't think it's possible. I don't think it's possible. They don't know Godliness. Do you know why? Why can't you be content without the Lord? Well, I think it's in nature of desires. Okay. So that in and of itself is Yeah, because you can't fill them all.

I also think that the cosmos that we come into, run by Satan, is always in turmoil. Never enough. Never satisfied. Always moving. Always looking. Always, you know, you're just never okay with not only possessions, but I'm not okay with me. I'm not okay with you. You know? You know, when I went boondocking, to find out just what you really need. You don't have a big house to throw things. Why don't you come over to my house and start clearing stuff out? You need to do it around yourself.

Oh, no. Ecclesiastes 5.15 says, And as he came naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. I'm going to put 20 bucks inside my fist.

Somebody look up Matthew 6.25. Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life. what you will eat or what you will drink, more about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? And Luke 12, 15, I'll read. Then he said to them, Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed. For not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possession.

A lot of times we have, and before I was a Christian, my goal was to be wealthy. That's what I wanted to be. Because I thought, gee, that's where it's all at. But then I got to be 35 and I had the American Dream. You know what the American Dream was? It's a wife, a child, a house, two cars, and a dog. I got all of that. I live in suburbia.

And then the question was, why am I so empty inside? Because those are the wrong things. Hard lessons to learn, though, but obviously I think we need to be aware that what we have spiritually is way, way more important than what we have physically. And that if I have to sacrifice something physically for spiritual growth, I'd be content to do it. I'll lay it aside.

Well, isn't that where godliness comes in? Well, it's interesting. You could spend the rest of your life describing what godliness is. What is it? I mean, you can define the word with the word. It's being godlike. What is it like to be God? Well, it means three-tenths.

Knowing Him. Yeah. The point is that God is totally satisfied with who He is, isn't He? He's fulfilled in every way. So He creates us in His image and likeness to what? To depend on Him. That's what He wants. And your fulfillment is Him alone, not what He can give you, Him.

That's why Philippians 3.10 is so important that I may know him, that I might know personally, intimately, face-to-face the Lord Jesus above everything else. He's the pearl. It's not that he's got a pocket full of pearls and he's going to give you one. He's it. And I think in Christianity that is not talked about enough. All right, I'm moving on.

Verse eight, and having food and raiment, or clothing, let us herewith be content. The word content, same as in this verse, is the same in six, except that the pronoun self is not prefixed. In other words, it's not self-contentment. to be possessed of unfailing strength to suffice to be enough as against any danger and so to defend or to ward off. So my question is, why should we be content with what we have? Because we've found that nothing else satisfies us.

Okay, read, somebody other than Mike, read 2 Corinthians 12, 9. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So he says there that my grace is sufficient for you. It's understanding what your infirmities are. And then he makes an interesting statement, and we're studying this on Tuesday. My power is perfected in weakness.

What we're talking about on Tuesday in Mark is that the disciples, they're not apostles yet, they're walking down the road and they're all discussing who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. And the Lord says, what are you talking about? He said, those who are last will be first. The greatest among you is the least among you.

So the contrast between the mindset of the world system and the mindset of the life of grace is totally 180. You see that? To be nothing is everything in Christ. So he says, because why? It puts you in a position that you have to depend on God's grace just to get up in the morning or to go to sleep at night. But you know, you understand that his grace is enough, and it is perfected by your weakness.

Oops. That's a hard lesson. I was kidding a guy the other day. I said, you realize when we go to heaven, there's going to be no NFL, no NBA, no college football, no competition. Why? because everybody's going to be weak. They're going to have to depend on the Lord. Well, can't we play golf? I said, well, what fun is it if you shoot 18 every time you go out? What I meant by that is one stroke per hole. every time you swing, the ball goes in the hole. So that's no competition there. We think competition, and competition is fine, but we really think that there's kind of an end all in the end all.

And here the Lord is saying, and Paul is saying, that God's power is perfected in your weakness, not your strength. What's he mean by that? The cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved. But, I mean, make it simpler than that. He says, my grace is sufficient for you, for the power is perfected in weakness. And Paul says, then, therefore, I would rather boast or brag about my weaknesses. Why? So that the power of Christ may dwell on me.

I mean, if you were If you were strong, you wouldn't be dependent. But what he really wants is a relationship with you, a fellowship with you that supplies what you do not have. Like raising kids. That's a good one. Or any type of environment you're in where you have responsibility for some benefit to human beings. And God calls us to be servants. And so it's hard learning how to be a servant. Self-strength.

I can do this. Yeah, I got this. That's where the will comes in. The will? Yeah, don't you think? You know, the will is an interesting thing because it's part of the soul that God gave us. We have a mind, we have emotions, and we have a will. And, you know, the world would tell you, and always tells you, that if you will it, You can do it. I always thought, well, I'm going to will to fly by myself. Go up on the peak of the building and jump off. So much for will. You better get an airplane first.

No, but J.D.' 's point is right. It seems so ungodly, and if you're a man, so unmanly, to be a person who understands that Christ's perfection in me is due to my weakness, not my strength. That's a hard lesson to learn. But, you know, every situation that the Lord puts us in has somewhat to do with that principle. That whatever it is, it's designed for me to trust God about this, that, and the other thing. You don't shirk your responsibility. A lot of times it's responsibility.

How do I do this? I know I have the responsibility, but I don't know how to implement it the right way. See that? before the Lord about I know that I'm going to physically have to do a thing or mentally have to do a thing but I can't do this without depending upon you to direct and guide me through this process with your strength because I know I have to go do it It's just a calming down of saying like, hey, I'm not running into this thing on my own. This is not something that I can truly accomplish in my own faculties. I'm weak. And in my weakness, you are the strength. So it's by faith that you walk through those situations.

Every situation. Yeah. Suffering is part of it. Work, family, everything. Oh no, that's right. It's all in that bucket, same bucket, you know. And guys like me, when you get older, you know, stuff you can't do. people say, can I help you? And you think, I got this. No, you don't. Accept the help. Sure is. Yeah. Uh-huh. Donna's dad had a great saying. He said, when you're young, you're clear-eyed and unafraid. You think you can do anything. I'll tell J.D. you cannot get on a ladder. No ladders. No electric scooters. No motorcycles. I can't get on a ladder. I can't go on the roof anymore. I won't get on a scooter.

The personal relationship with the Lord, you have to learn to let Him do it. Do you understand what I mean? I can't be begging God to do something. I have to let Him do it. accidentally drained the transmission fluid. Not cool. Not cool. No. The junior guys were trying to help him. Yeah. So, like, I needed specific tools, and I didn't have. So I just went down the bottom, you know, instead of, hey, it feels like that. I could borrow it, too. Yeah, I've never done anything like that. It's hard to part them. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not good at that.

But to your point of letting them do it, like even with parenting, kids who are believers and they're going through certain things, we give advice and we point them to the Lord, but we don't tell them what to do because they have the Holy Spirit. Yeah.

Well, sometimes you see, especially when they get close to the age of emancipation, that down the road and to the left, there's a train wreck waiting for them. And you know it's there. And you can even tell them about it. And they think somehow they're going to avoid it. And what you begin to realize is that train wreck is really good for them. Get out of the way and let the train wreck happen.

Walk beside them after they hit the wall. And, you know, every young kid has got to have trials in their life, and we're so used to protecting them from anything and everything that's painful, that when they start getting older, they've got to learn how to fail. That's where parenting comes in. You know, I never had that. You didn't? No. How did you get here? I don't know. From the School of Hard Knocks. Well, see, you came into the world without anything, and look what you got. The School of Hard Knocks. It's time.

I see everybody going out to sing, so let's close. Dear Father, we thank you again for this time to study and to learn, I guess, about our weaknesses and that we are really totally dependent on you for absolutely everything. And so my prayer today is that we may continue to grow in weakness so that we can grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray in his name. Amen.