If you take your Bibles, please, and turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're going to read verses 1 through 12. We were plowing into this one last week, and no pun intended, but we were plowing into this one last week. And we're going to back up and plow some more into this thoughtful passage. We're in a series called Christian contentment. We've dealt with Philippians 4 for two weeks, and now we have two weeks here with 1 Timothy 6, some other important matters on Christian contentment. Verse 1 of 1 Timothy 6. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed, And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren. but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself." But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil." And some Bibles say the root of many evils. which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. We end our reading there. And I confess last week that I almost skipped the first two verses. Oh, that's just about work-related problems. And then I was directed back to it and said, wait a minute, that's what started the whole conversation. You know, Paul had to always train his preachers to stay practical. He did it with Titus in the second chapter. He says, speak the things which a company, a company salvation. King James is a little different than that. Speak the things, which also the word just went out on my mind here. But I'll have it in a second. Speak the things which become sound doctrine. Now, sound doctrine, that's the whole balanced truth of the gospel truth, the truth as it is in Jesus. But he says, speak the things which become it. In other words, when something is becoming, it's appropriate. It goes along with it. You know, the brand new suit, wearing old beat-up tennis shoes, that's not becoming. That's not appropriate. We need to talk about attitudes and actions and behavior and performance because it's all part of the bigger testimony. And Titus 2 will say it, and 1 Timothy 6 will say it, that if we don't get this right, we will cause people to blaspheme the gospel, blaspheme the name of Christ. Jesus put His reputation on us. No wonder He stays with us 24-7, because He couldn't trust us with it alone. But if people are going to believe the truth, it's not just going to be the eloquent way it's presented, or the scholastic way it's presented, or the beautiful, elegant things that we put into it. It's going to be with lives that back up that truth, that demonstrate that truth. There are examples of that truth. So we get into a labor issue, and it's kind of an unusual treatment here. I listed other places where Paul talks about this subject of work ethic. and they're there to consider. But this one talks about how you should honor your boss. Now, I'm not going to re-preach this first half, but I've got to get us on the right footing here. It was a system of the culture and the economy to have servants, the word properly translated is slave. It's not to be associated with going somewhere, capturing people against their will, and dragging them in and make them unpaid servants that you can abuse and do what you want with. No, it was a part of society how this worked, how you became a servant, there was more than one way, working off a debt was one of them, but you were in a servant mode and so you were paid and many of the slaves in the Roman Empire were highly educated, cultured people. And it is thought that perhaps 50% of the Roman Empire, the population were slaves. and the masters had responsibilities and so forth. Paul is not fighting against the slavery that we had a civil war over, or what England had to fight so hard to get rid of. This is another matter. So we can rightfully equate this to you are an employee, someone else is an employer, and you respect the boss, you respect the supervisor, you respect the owner, you respect his property, you respect the time that he paid for, And there was a possibility that you were a slave and one of the guys that goes to your church who's also born again, he's your boss. He's your master. And there's a tendency to have resentment in any person who's the boss in this case. But even worse, if they were a brother, you'd think, oh, well, that would be better. No, no, there could be bitterness about this. In church, we're all equals. And here, you're telling me what to do and all this stuff. And they expect to be an exception. Hey, after all, I'm a brother. So what's wrong with this guy? He's being so harsh on me. He ought to treat me better than the others. And if he's a good boss, he won't. He'll be fair to all. So anyways, it was a complicated thing and Paul felt it was important to bring this up. And he says, if people don't consent to this, if people avoid this, if people argue and contradict this, there's something seriously wrong. In verse three, if a man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words. Let me skip for a second. He is proud, knowing nothing, doting about questions. It means here he has a sick, unhealthy desire, enjoyment of controversy. Now, I've met those guys. I couldn't wait to get away from them. And I've tried hard not to be one of those guys. And every now and then, especially in my younger years, I had to be taught of the Lord to get away from that love of debate, that snarly, I'm right kind of a thing. Test of fellowship with some preachers is you got to look through a keyhole with both eyes at the same time. If you're that narrow, you're in. But you can also be out in a moment. Well, anyways, They are doting about questions. They're craving to strive about words. They create envy, strife, and a whole bunch of other nasty words. You can figure out the idea here. This creates what I call Battlefield Baptist Church, where the love of a good fight, going to church is like watching the gladiators. Who's going to win today? Well, anyways, I skipped some important words. Verse three, if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words. What are wholesome words? First of all, they are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, reverence to the word of God. I do not expect every Christian to agree with me, but I have a right to expect that every Christian reverence the word of God. that we speak of it in a sacred manner. It is not like tearing apart political views and political people and not that we should be that way, but we have lowered Christianity down to this and the word of God. People fight like this, they've lowered this to like politics. And so it's the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are sacred. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, Colossians 3.16 is talking about the Psalms mostly in that particular reference. So don't think you can get off with just the four Gospels and the book of Acts. It's all the words of Christ. I'm not borrowing from somebody else's religion. A foundation has been laid and we give great appreciation to how God used Israel to bring us the prophets, to bring us the scriptures, to bring us the promises, and to literally bring us the Messiah. I reverence and respect that. But the fact is, the whole Bible is a Christian book. Okay, so I reverence it all as the words of Christ. And so with that respect, we come to a second part, which is according to godliness. To put it a different way, doctrine leads us to doing things that are right, that make us more like God. You know, you got godliness and you got righteousness. The root word of righteousness is right. And we want to be right, but right without godliness is very dangerous. The root word of godliness is God. If my doctrine doesn't make me more like God, if my doctrine does not bond me more with God and with His people, and you can go to 1 John 5, the first three verses, and if you love Him that begot, you have to also love those that are begotten. And so there's this reverence for this. I reverence what I'm doing. I'm talking to the Lord's sheep. You are not mine. I'm here tending the Lord's flock. So there's a certain reverence I feel towards this. So I wanna be gracious and kind and exemplary to you. And we should feel this way with one another in honor, preferring one another. But we must make sure we know something that we're not just here to fill our heads and pump them up like a balloon full of knowledge. This knowledge has to lead to godliness, which godliness, It smooths everything out. Some people are so right they're dangerous. They're like a nasty knife or something too sharp. I know the Word of God's like a two-edged sword, but I'm saying that godliness brings in the love, the compassion, the long-suffering, those wonderful qualities That's what godliness does. And you have to be right about what the Word of God says, because the scriptures are of no private interpretation. But if our right interpreting does not make us more godly, then something is seriously wrong. And so it goes into the workplace, as well as the home, as well as into entertainment. And everything else we do, our community life, everything else, we need this godliness. Okay. Verse 5, some people will have Bibles that do not have the last part, from such withdraw thyself. Okay? And newer translations are based on different manuscripts that this got omitted. Once they were sorting things out, they decided to omit it. I like it. I intend to use it. And if you don't want to see it here, I did offer to you Romans chapter 16, verses 17 through 18, which again would say those who cause divisions contrary to the law, turn away from them. Separate yourself. You know, one apple, one bad apple will spoil the whole bunch. And if you tangle with false teachers, you will get a snare and you might become like them, if not doctrinally, in disposition. I've seen it. I've watched it. I've experienced the effect. And so, while as we're trying to reach everyone, and we should be kind to people who don't teach the correct truths, we need to speak them in love, but we shouldn't put ourselves under the authority and submit to false teachers. 2 John tells us, don't bring them into your house. And he's referring to the assembly. Don't bid them Godspeed, don't bring them into your house. That doesn't mean the people that knock on your door, you have permission to be rude to them. As a matter of fact, I've learned the opposite. I've learned how to speak kindly to them and desire their best. And usually if you offer a good godly conversation, they'll walk away from it because they came to process you. with their thing, and if you really start teaching them. They have to get out of it for one reason. One of them is in training, and the other one has got to not get them confused, so they'll yank them out. And I have lovingly sent people flying from my house, not because I booted them out, because they wanted to get out. The heat light was on, I guess. Okay, that kind of covers the first page. The backside is where I said, okay, the snow plow just went through, we better make a break for it. And it was good timing. But now we go to verses 6 through 8. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 6 through 8. And it says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment or clothing, let us be there with content." Powerful, powerful things to think about here. Good ministry. Paul has gotten on the subject of bad teachers. They're foolish, they're divisive, they love to argue. He's going to bring up one other factor. in this next section in a moment. But first thing is that worldly things only last for our life in this world. Everything you have, and I have to think about this, I got some stuff I really enjoy. It isn't because of its monetary value, it's just stuff I really enjoy. Most of you know, it's books and it's music. You know, that's about my main thing. And most people would go to rob my house and walk away disgusted. Because I don't have very much of the stuff that other people covet. But good books and good music, and yeah, kids, they want me to go to MP3, but I don't have time to transfer all my good CDs over, so I'm putting up with my CD player. But anyways, it's still, I have to remember, it's only for this life. I told Susie a while back, you know, the hard thing is that the books I've collected and the music I've collected won't mean a thing to anybody else. It's specialized, it's my thing. I love this and I love this and I love this. Somebody's gonna come and say, ah, That's crazy. This doesn't do it. And they might like a little here or a little there, but all my life have accumulated things that I love, but they're not bad things. But I have to remember they're only for this life. The Lord isn't gonna let me take a U-Haul trailer in the rapture and take all my books with me. I won't need them. All the authors will be there and I'll have this perfect mind that won't forget stuff. And so, yeah, I won't need them. So I better make use of what I got while I've got it. But other people, I think the fastest growing industry in America is cold storage units. They're constantly building more and more and more. And I'm not trying to be mean. I realize people store equipment that's seasonal, but I also know people got more stuff than their house can hold. I was pretty much one of them. And having two moves in the last few months has absolutely put it out there where I can't avoid it, that we have more than we need. We don't get rid of what we don't need. think about it enough, but something feels good about it's still there, you know. Well, we got to remember, we brought nothing into this life and we'll take nothing out. Not even a diapers with safety pins. That didn't, you know, your mother's grateful you weren't born with that. Anyways, realizing that our needs are met, what were the two things he said to make us content? Well, no, that's not where I'm at. It's food and raiment, food and clothing. Yes, godliness with contentment is great gain, and we're gonna get there. But we need contentment so we can focus. Because when something's gnawing inside you, something's unfulfilled, something's incomplete, I need this. If I only had that, you're distracted, And so you need to get rid of the distractions so you can focus on greater things, things of eternal value. Okay, Jesus took time in Matthew 6. Notes are on the first page, up in that first paragraph. And he says, look at the lilies of the field, look at the birds of the air. God takes care of them, they're fed, they're clothed. Now, you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. What he's saying is get focused. God's got your back. He already told you a long time ago, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. And you'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I'll have what I need. He'll take care of it. Where he leads, he feeds. Where he guides, he provides. And as I said a while back, that's the very essence of the word providence. Provision, provide. So we can focus on greater things which are of eternal value. Now we get to that part that says godliness with contentment is great gain. And I dare say some people would not naturally put these two together. You know, it seems like godliness is about my attitudes and my behavior and contentment is about my stuff. But it's not about your stuff, it's about you. I didn't reread my first statement in this message, but it says, the things that we possess do not define us. However, unfortunately, things tend to possess us, and that is what can define us. Are you someone who is owned by your things? Are you under the control of the material side of life? Or the threat of losing your things? That can be defining a person, and that's sad, but anyways, godliness is incomplete without contentment. Okay, try to work this out in your mind. Try to imagine people who wanna worship God, they wanna worship Jesus, but they're restless and dissatisfied about life. Can they really sing the great songs of the faith? How great thou art, how great thou art, boy, how great that motorcycle would be, or how great that new addition on my house. Understand I'm not picking on anybody having stuff. It's does it own us does it possess us? It doesn't preoccupy our minds because what happens is the more you think about what you don't want what you think you need You can't concentrate On your relationship with God and and being an ambassador representing him in this world Okay, restlessness and discontent. This is the other side of the same coin Restlessness and discontent work against the pursuit of godliness And Godliness is what we're supposed to be pursuing. But after I get that job, after I get this settled, after I fix this, buy that, blah, blah, blah, blah, it's always that afterwards thing. You know how Jesus tells the story of a feast and he invited people to come and they made excuses? I just bought some oxen, I gotta go out and work with them. I just bought some land, I gotta go over it, make plans. I just got married. And there's nothing wrong with having oxen or having land or getting married. But the fact is those excuses led the master to say, well, go out into the highways and the hedges and go find whoever you can. People that are crippled, people that have disabilities and handicaps, poor people, have them limp on in. We'll let all the super plush Pug Poshy people go. They won't come to this. And that's why we're told many are called, few are chosen. Not many wise, not many noble are called, but God tends to pick the weak in the base. 1 Corinthians 1. So much for bragging that I'm a Christian. I'm associated with the lower side of life, but I might as well. That's where I belong, in the sight of God. I need to be poor in spirit, humble, knowing I'm a beggar. But this restlessness, this discontentment, it fights, it wars. And there are some very important passages here I do want to make sure I read correctly. Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 17. Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 says, this I say then. walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Verse 17 says, "...for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would." And you can go to Romans 7 and Paul talks about this awful thing. The things that I would do, I don't do. The things that I wouldn't do, oh, that I do. And he agonizes over the inconsistency that he finds that when he has something great before him, evil's also with him. and his mind is serving Christ, but his body is drugged down to other things, and there's a constant tug of war going on. And here's this battle described in Galatians 5, and there seems to be a choice that you can make to make this not such a battle, and it's called walk in the Spirit. And if you think about it, the way we walk in the flesh is pretty obvious. We let our flesh sleep, we let our flesh eat, we entertain our flesh, we do things, work hard to provide for our flesh, and we give a lot of attention to it. Now you can still do the functions of taking care of your body, but if you're doing it in the Spirit, it's saying, oh, what does God have for me today? What does he want me to do? What does he want me to say? What does he want me to hold back from? What should I give up for something better? Is this the best way to do this? Will this glorify the Lord? Will this be a good testimony for the Lord? You're doing the same actions in life often. But this motive is before you. You're walking in the Spirit. So you've got to feed the spiritual part of you. You have to nurture it. You have to exercise it. Just like things with our body or things with equipment. You know, I made a big mistake one time. I let a car sit. I was trying to save money and I let a car sit and I walked everywhere. And eventually that car rotted out from under me. It needed to be started. The exhaust system needed to warm up and get to working. And I had to, instead of saving money, I had to get a whole new exhaust system on that car because it rusted out sitting in my yard. And, well, just a whole lot of things in life don't work well if they aren't used. And if we don't exercise our spiritual self, and if we don't feed our spiritual self, something gets lost. You don't lose your salvation, but what you lose is the proportionate part of your life that can overcome the natural drag that your fleshly side has. Okay, so here's another place we need to observe, and that's 1 Peter 2, verse 11. It's somewhat past 1 Timothy 6. First Peter chapter two and verse 11. I'm passing up those wonderful things in verses nine and 10, all your position in Christ being a royal priesthood and so forth. But I go right to 11, after you've been told that you're part of a royal family and a royal priesthood, then it says, dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." Now he's not being mean and accusational. He's just saying, you're dearly beloved. You need to think of yourself as a traveler going through life. You're sojourning. It's like living in tents and you don't have the six foot tent pegs. You're staying mobile. You're staying free to be moved and used however the Lord wants. But there's these fleshly lusts and we've got them. Paul told Timothy the same thing about get away from these fleshly lusts, flee them. And he called them youthful lusts to Timothy. And the fact is, it's not about being young. Timothy was a bit past being young. He was considered a young man by Jewish culture. But the fact is, you think about David and his failure with Bathsheba, he was about 50. So old men, we can have youthful lusts. And I don't know about this acting your age thing, because it isn't just resigning to my age. I have to, every day, place before the Lord all my desires, all my wants, and I have to make sure he's involved with them or it's kind of like trying to have pet mice and you don't keep them in a cage. You're sure they'll stay in that little circle that you made for them, okay? Yeah, and one of the saddest things I ever had to do is I let the kids have a pet mouse. It was a cute little light brown thing with big brown eyes. And I'll be honest with you, I found out I was rather allergic to mice as soon as I walked in the door. It was in the other end of the house. I could smell it, but the sad part is I didn't want to hurt it. And they finally had a pet. I never let them have a pet. And I told them they are too expensive to care for and feed. I can't have animals, too. Well, they got this mouse, and it got loose. It got loose, and sometimes we'd see it. Do you think it would, out of the goodness of its heart, say, oh, let me come to my master? No, no. Get a dog. That's my message. Get a dog. And so I had to do a terrible thing. I had to trap my mouse. I caught it. I didn't want the kids to see it. But we think that we can take our passions in our habits and keep them subdued somewhat. And yet the words I see in the Bible is flee from or mortify, which means to kill. Okay? We got to get rough about this. We have to understand the danger we're in. We've got stuff in us that's so terrible, Jesus had to die on the bloody cross for it. He didn't accept just modified behavior. He died to deliver us from it. In this life, we will not completely get freed from those things. That's why Paul says in Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And the answer is the question. I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Now we're going to get delivered from these bodies, but we got to also be realistic that there's something in me that can't be trained. It's just as sure as gravity, it goes down if I don't mortify myself. And folks, I need a big mirror here, because it's like you aren't even here. This is my battle. I'm not talking down to anybody. But Peter says, abstain. abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. You let them get their foot in the door. Those things will tear you down and destroy your appetite for godly things and take away your time and your desire. The worst part I can think of is you might have time to do the right thing, but you just don't really feel like it. You've just gotten accustomed to the dark. So, pretty serious warning. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Having food, having clothes, be content. But when you have the contentment, now you're free to pursue godliness. And whatever else you believe, you want your belief to conform you to the image of Christ. It's a tall ticket. But Jesus says, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. Yoke up with me, we'll do this together. Okay, then there's what Jesus talked about serving two masters. Either love one and hate the other, or you'll cooperate with one and you'll forsake the other. You can't love God and mammon, which means riches. And it's the love of riches that we're gonna have to go to here. It's not having riches, it's not having things, it's the love. the passion, the addiction to those things. And James warns us in James 1, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. I'll let you ponder those things. I want to keep moving here. We now come to verses 9 and 10 of 1 Timothy chapter 6. And your Bible may read it more easily than mine. Mine says, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, et cetera. It doesn't mean they who become rich. What it means is they that want to be, will, desire. This is their passion. This wanting to be rich, this will produce temptation, snares, many foolish and hurtful lusts. which drown men in destruction and perdition." Destruction and perdition is probably aiming more towards the eternal destruction, where Jesus says, you believe in him, you will not perish. But quite frankly, if you're going to perish at the end, you're perishing now. And you're doing things in your life that are destroying you now. And so we don't want to get even close to the ramp that leads to the hell ahead. People that want to live like the devil will live with the devil. It's kind of simple. We don't want to be caught up in that trap. And most of advertising and much of other forms of media in our life are luring us to, oh, you got to have this. You want to look like that. You want to be this. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. You got to go there and all of that. Well, watch out for the will here. Literally, The love of money that you see there in verse 10, for the love of money, it is either the root of all evil or it is a root of many evils, but quite frankly, it works. Whatever way you want to read it, I'm not going to argue the point here, but it is that love, that passion for money, that will to be rich, that is a root system that destroys us. Now, I have learned about some roots in the scriptures. And in Hebrews 12, it talks about a root of bitterness springing up and troubling you. And I thought, no, roots grow down. What do you mean springing up? And then I lived in a place that had a tree, forgot the name of it, but it spread its roots out all over our yard and everywhere those roots were, other trees would come up from the root and pop up. If I didn't mow the lawn, I'd have a forest. And a matter of fact, my son and I, we picked one not to mow over. We thought it'd be nice to have a tree there. So we let that one go. But I had to get rid of all the other. And bitterness springs up. Love of money is a root. It springs up before you know it. Oh, I can't do this because I want that. I just bought this. I don't have time for that. And it gets to us. Now, this Greek word or expression, the love of money, it literally means I like silver. We're not talking about the Lone Ranger's horse or whatever that was. Yeah, Trigger. Sorry. Anyways, the affection for silver is the idea here. Now, this is true for all of us. This will wreck all of us. But don't forget the theme about those false teachers back there in verse 5. They suppose that gain is godliness. They not only love arguing, they not only love debating, they not only love attention, and they're proud, but they also have this thing about money. And they have made it so many people today, when you bring up church, oh, all they're ever trying to do is get my money. All they want is money. Some places that's true. Some places that's true. I've read of an old evangelist a long time ago, and he said that he would preach in a city, and when he could hang people upside down and no more money fell out of their pockets, that was the Lord saying, son, it's time to move to another town. You know, that's how crude he expressed it. And so, let's consider the false teachers here. After we first consider ourselves, Let's consider here that there are many ministers whose ministries collapse because of money problems. And sometimes the money problem isn't the lack of money that would take care of them, it's the greed for more and more and how they use it and how they are not faithful with those hard-earned given gifts that people give. They're dangerously attracted to wealth and they compromise the truth for the sake of money." Now it says there, the faith. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith. The faith is not talking about your ability to believe. The faith is another way to describe the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine of Christ, the faith. We are to earnestly contend for the faith, Jude says, because people want to defile and demolish the gospel. They pervert it. And everywhere we're told to protect it. But we also need to know those who handle the Word of God need to protect their hearts because if God starts supplying wonderfully and that gets to them, there's always the two things that seem to drag ministers down. One is women and the other is money. Two dangerous commodities for a person to have a lot of exposure to. So anyways, flee the lust. Flee the lust for worldly wealth. Flee it. Flee the lust for worldly pleasure and for worldly power. Let's read verse 11. Oops, I got to get back to it here. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Run for your life. Your life depends on this. It's not just a good idea. It's life and death. Flee these things. worldly wealth, worldly pleasure, worldly power. Make it your goal to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience. Other words would be endurance or steadfastness. Meekness, another word would be gentleness. While you're running away from one thing, you're running to another. It's a 180 degree turn. You know, I think of that illustration of how they trap monkeys. You take a jug that's big, it has a real narrow neck, and they put peanuts in it, and the monkey can slip his hand down there and grab peanuts. But when he makes a fistful of peanuts, he can't get out. And the guy can come up with a net, and the monkey, for his life, will not let go of those peanuts. And he's bagged. Yeah, and that is a picture of people who are hooked. They're hooked in the heart for the things of this world, and no matter what, they won't let go of it. It's a terrible, terrible trap. God, deliver us. But by the grace of God, there go I." Now verse 12 says, this is a battle. Verse 12 says, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses." When it says, lay hold on eternal life, that is not somehow, oh, I got to get saved, I got to grab here this and do this and do that and flee from this, then I'll be saved. No, he's talking about get your hands on the things that pertain to salvation. Okay, you can't take anything with you, except people. People, you can take them with you. And so when we lay hold on salvation, we're talking about the things that pertain to the gospel of Christ, keep a grip. You're only here for a while. Nobody's gonna leave this world alive. And we are here to help people before they die, be prepared to meet their maker. And hopefully well before that, not just before, but hopefully well before that, and see a life saved here as well as a soul saved for all eternity. And all I can say is, you gotta keep your hands in it. You know, Sue and I learned sign language for the deaf. And for a number of years, we didn't have any deaf people that we knew. And all that stuff we learned, you get rusty. And you had to be real humble. You meet a deaf person, hey, I haven't done this in a long time, so let's go slow. And you use it, excuse me, if you don't use it, you lose it. And your grip on the gospel, your grip on evangelizing people, reaching out, showing love, demonstrating Christ to others, you can lose your grip. And I remember, I love to throw Frisbee. I just love to throw Frisbee. Ask any teenager that's ever been a teenager in this church, I love to throw Frisbee. I always look for games where we can throw Frisbee. But I remember hurting my hand one time, and you know what? I lost my grip. It made me miserable. I couldn't grip it right and put the spin on it right. I'm desperate, taking my finger and trying to twirl the thing. But you've got to have that grip. You don't want to lose that grip. So lay hold on the things of eternal life. Timothy's been called to eternal life himself. Timothy has been called to the ministry, and he's been called to be an example to the other believers in all these areas that have been mentioned. And remember, folks are watching. Profess a good confession before many witnesses. I won't take the time to tell all my stories, but many a time, I've been surprised. I thought I was somewhere where nobody was that knew me. I've been somewhere doing something and I had an opportunity to not do something right or not do something well. And then later someone comes up and says, oh, I saw you the other day. And I was, I saw your situation. I wonder what you were going to do. And I'm sure enough. And thank you, Lord. You have no idea who's watching. I had been talking in a store aisle, and the aisles had lower shelves, and I'm talking away to somebody, and I look in the corner of my eye, and there's someone over there, their ears become a radar. You can tell they're listening to every word. I was sharing with somebody in a restaurant once, and Sue told me that the table next to us over there, which wasn't real close, but they stopped their conversation, listened to every word you said. You just don't know. And so, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, we need to run the race with patience, keeping our eyes on Jesus, lest we become weary and faint in our minds. That's Hebrews 12, by the way. Now, I throw in a bonus here, and that's verse 13. Christ is brought up. Good way to end a message. He says, I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickens all things, makes alive all things. He will take where you feel dead and make you alive again. He'll resuscitate you. An old expression from one of the prophets is, He will restore the years that the canker worm hath eaten. I don't know where that is. And your Bible probably doesn't say canker worm. It probably says some other pest. but where they had had pestilences and crops were wrecked and because of their disobedience, God had chastened them with that. He says, you know what? I can make it all up too. You get your hearts right with me, you'll get your crops restored. We'll make the next crop better. And I want you to know that whatever you're doing, whatever tailspin you might think you're in, or whatever deadness you're in, God can make you alive and can restore and get you back on the path. And he isn't gonna be whipping you on the back the whole time. He wants you to be on track with him more than you want it. And the angels in heaven rejoice at one sinner that repents. That would include safe sinners. But nevertheless, I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickens, who makes alive all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession. He brought that up. In the middle of all this, he brought up Jesus Christ standing before Pontius Pilate. Now about a month ago, I preached a message on that, John 18 and part of John 19. And of course you all have your notes and you'll go back and study them again, or you get on the website, you can look it up. What was the big deal? as Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, that would pertain to this message about contentment, about materialism, about staying focused on sound doctrine, and not giving ourselves over to worldly passions. Well, I gave you the whole bigger reference, but I decided, and last week's notes didn't have this, but I put them in for us today. John 18, 36. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this world, my servants would fight, but it's not from here. I want you to remember as we close, Christ's kingdom is not of this world, not of the stuff of this world. The average concept people have of a church is a building, a property, other facilities, denominational headquarters, universities, et cetera. None of that's coming up with the rapture, folks. You don't have to worry about flying bricks when you're caught up in the air to meet the Lord. That's all staying. The pews, the hymn books, even our Bibles, it all will stay behind. There's not a single thing here we have to fight for. Now, don't get me wrong, we're living in a delicate time when our rights as citizens of our country are being abused and challenged And some are trying to forfeit them. And I think as citizens, we have a right to defend the constitutional rights we've been given. And just don't misunderstand my point. But the fact is, they can take it all, and it's all going to the dump. And most of the things people have sold their souls for, it's going to hell in a handbasket, I think is the expression. It's all going to the dump. It's all going to dissolve, melt with a fervent heat. And so there's no things we actually have to fight for. If we lost our rights as citizens, if we lost our country as a constitutional republic, Christ's kingdom will still go on. The increase of his kingdom shall know no end. So I am not in the panic some people are. I am deeply concerned and I would encourage any way to peacefully stand up for what's right in this country while we still can. Be it known. I'm not as desperate as these other people. They're fighting for the only thing they've got, and that's power for a short time in this world with the world's stuff and the world's people. They want that control, and they might get it, and they won't keep it. They absolutely won't keep it. And he is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. So that's a good thought for this passage, and that's why the Holy Spirit told Paul to tell Timothy about Christ before Pilate, but there's one more in John 18, 37. And this is kind of a Christmas part, if you need a Christmas message today, because Jesus is talking about why he came in John 18 and verse 37. The last half, he says, to this end was I born. And for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Okay, the work of Christ's kingdom is to gain the truth and then to give the truth to others. The wealth we gain are the things of God, His Word, the things of His Spirit, We ask our Father for good things and he'll give us good things. He'll give us the things of the Holy Spirit, living and abiding in us in a powerful way. We become like branches attached to a vine that can bear fruit. And if we're not attached to that main part of the vine, we're done, we can do nothing. So for all that we're gaining, and it's making us more like Christ, and with contentment and godliness, we're gaining, we're gaining. Now it's time to give. Don't give till it hurts, give till it feels really, really good. Give the truth that will set people free. Give people the perspective that God has given you. Give them the words that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Give them that word that they may have life, eyes to see, ears to hear, that they'll quit being owned by their possessions and be possessed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, we have been told that godliness with contentment is great gain. Thank you for such wealth. Thank you for such heavenly prospects with earthly benefits, too. Yes, we get dividends now, Lord, just by knowing you. You provide for us. You've freed us from worry and fear and from greed. And I trust that also would include pride and lust. Material things try to tantalize that fleshly part of us and we'll let go of our grip of that which is good. But you had Timothy to know that we're to lay hold on eternal life. And I pray, Father, if there's anyone here who doesn't know Christ, they first trust Him for themselves and receive the free gift, but then they'll get their grips on this subject of salvation and may it become their vocation, Lord, to find ways to propagate the gospel, to bless others with the truth, and that we will apply the graces that come from the fruit of the Spirit to the benefit of others and not just think of ourselves, Lord, this is Christian contentment. It's not just being passive with worldly stuff, it's being aggressively hungry for the things of eternal worth. Help us to indulge ourselves in your great riches. Help us to understand our wealth and take pleasure in you. And I ask that you do it for Jesus' sake. Amen.