"6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
Good Morning Beloved,
Welcome to worship this Lord's Day!
We are so pleased to have our beloved our brothers and sisters from all around the world are here with us today. Please know, that we continue to pray for all of you, daily and throughout the day.
Ungodly, false teachers today, have become very popular in our society. They are telling people exactly what they want to hear. They are twisting God's Word, praying upon those who are of depraved mind and seek to feel better about continuing in their sin and
ungodly lifestyles. Therefore, they soak up depraved teaching like a dry sponge
soaks up water.
And, the reason that it works so well, is because they are deprived, destitute of truth. They don’t know the teachings of Jesus, so they hear Satanic lies and because their minds are depraved, the lies sound like truth, they sound right. All the while the false teachers are getting rich. These false teachers are being elevated by the church, to celebrity status, catering to their love of fame and fortune, more than they loves Christ. Feeding the beast within.
I believe the greatest issue to our problems in regard to money, begins with our failure to recognize the true ownership of all that we possess. However, Deuteronomy 10:14 clearly speaks to this issue, "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it."
Psalm 24:1 teaches "The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it."
Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word. Accomplish in every life present with us, in my heart as well, Your would desire. Lord, we pray for the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to bear much fruit in all of our lives. Fill our hearts, our souls, and minds with love for You, not with the things of this world.
Protect us from the evil one and his armies. Help us, that we might be found faithful in all things pleasing to You. Lord, I pray especially for every man and woman here with us, that we flee from any and all temptation, pursue that which is godly and true, for the sake of Christ.
In His precious name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Content In Christ
Open your Bibles, and turn with me please to I Timothy chapter 6, as we continue in our on going study of this wonderful and practical epistle, we come to verses 6 through 10.
I would encourage all of you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our mind, while we prayer our hearts for what the Spirit is saying to us both, individually and collectively. I Timothy 6:6-10.
"But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For
the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing
for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with
many griefs."
In Proverbs 30:8-9, we read the words of Agur, son of Jakeh, who said "Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, "Who is the Lord?" Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God."
The teaching of today, what is commonly called the "Prosperity Gospel," saturate the
airwaves. Radio, television and podcasts, are being barraged with teachers who advocate that a lifestyle of wealth and
opulence are the evidences of God’s blessings. Beloved, allow me to boldly proclaim, this teaching is wrong for a number of reason, however, allow me to draw your attention to two of them. First, it is ignorant of the sound principles of biblical
interpretation. Second, it is an attempt to justify the love of money
by making it appear to sound spiritual.
Verse 6 "But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment." Here, the Apostle Paul is contrasting the attitude of the false teachers with true
godliness. He is urging Timothy to embrace true godliness, while
rejecting succumbing to the allure of immediate gratification. In doing
this, I believe that he has performed a great service for contemporary Christians and the modern church today.However, the problem being, many are not confronted with the Apostle’s Paul teaching, we therefore find ourselves
drawn toward self-destruction; and in the process, we congratulate
ourselves that we are godly.
So what does God expect from believers, concerning their relationship with money?
God desires that we accumulate it carefully. In our passage today, the Apostle warns us of the dangers of materialism. In verse 7, Paul writes to Timothy, and all of us, "For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either." How wise is it, to spend our lives, accumulating wealth, and possessions we cannot keep? And, more often than not, we spend so much time accumulating them, we have not even the time remaining in which to enjoy that which we have acquired. Depriving our families, especially our children, of our presence, that I believe is desperately lacking today. God is not only concerned with what were have got but also how we got it, you see.
We work far too many hours for all the wrong reasons. It might well be that you
are working fifty-five or sixty or even more hours each week, in order to maintain your current lifestyle. Allow me to call it what it is, a demonic system that demands people sacrifice their families and personal
health, so that stockholders can get two or three cents more per share, to acquire even more wealth!
In the next verse, verse 8, which says,"If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content." Here, we find the Godly attitude toward material goods is summed in a single word "content."
James, speaks very boldly, warning that dishonest acts are not forgotten by God! In James 5:1-6 he says "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your
gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness
against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you."
And in Proverbs 13:11, teaches "Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, But the one who gathers by labor increases it." AS a footnote, we are warned at least six times in the book of Proverbs, not to become involved in "get rich quick" schemes.
In Ecclesiastes 5:13-17, "There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him. As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger."
We could easily sum it up in this way, in the end, beyond having what we need, all their hard work is for nothing.Unless we are using it to help others, storing up for ourselves, treasure in heaven and glorifying God in the process. Any creature comforts that we enjoy here is merely temporal.
God expects us to manage what He has given us wisely. Perhaps the greatest threat to successful Christian living is debt, along side our unwillingness to share what we have with those in need.
The Apostle Peter also addressed these false teachers, in II Peter 2:1-3, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." Interestingly enough, the Greek word Peter uses here for false, is the word "plastós," from which we get our English word plastic, and it is only used here in II Peter 2:3. And, much like plastic, it allows the words of these false teachers to be formed to suit the needs of the hearer, therefore, being able to say anything they want it to.
In fact, in verse 14 of this same chapter, Peter goes on to say "having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children."
Much like modern mysticism, promising to reveal secrets about the unseen world and of the
future, was a very lucrative profession in the last days of Paganism,
and it passed over to Christianity as an element in various heresies. Though the way of error is harmful, many will always walk therein.
Compare what is written and the tenor of the Apostles’ stern words with the emphasis in some religious circles today.
Sadly, for people who are characterized by such free-spending in our lives we
can become awfully frugal when it come time to give some of the back to the
Lord’s work in giving generously to those in need. A 2017 Barna Research study shows that 20% of Christians give to serve the Lord. 42% prefer to support the lifestyle they want. And according to Gallup polls in the average church 17% say they tithe, yet 3% actually do! 91% say they make more money than they ever have in their life.
I am reminded of our Lords words, in Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
In I Corinthians 16:2, Paul says " On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come."
How much should you be giving? I'm glad that you asked. The amount you give depends on how much the Lord has blessed you with. It is proportional. It's proportional.Obviously, you cannot give what you do not have, but we are to take 10% of our first fruits. Not what's left after we've paid everything else. The meaning of the word tithe is very simple it means "a tenth." To
tithe means to bring one-tenth or 10% of our income to God. To speak of
anything less is to misunderstand its meaning, or out right disobedience to God.
In verse 9, the Apostle Paul writes that "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction."
Verse 10 says "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
In other words, any attempt to live without God's wealth management principles, as found in His Word, you are going to be in trouble. Financial freedom is to make Jesus Christ, the Lord of your life, your first priority, not your last.
In Closing...
In most churches today, people are invited to make a decision for Christ. So long as they pray the right prayer, they are assured they are saved. If that is you, I would encourage you to listen to the Apostle Paul's words in Colossians 3:1-5, "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."
Jesus tells us, "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Your treasure is that which you would most hate to lose should it be taken from you. Your treasure is that which you most love. I would encourage each of us to examine our hearts, to see where our treasure is. It is there, you will discover where is our heart.
Beloved, we have been given a tremendous responsibility to manage God's wealth. May we caution ourselves against the things which are destined for dust.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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