All right, 1 Timothy, turn to 1 Timothy, if you would, this morning, chapter number six. And just give you what the Lord's put in my heart. I see kind of a common thread here in this chapter that is matching kind of what's going on in our world today. seeing a lot of people that are motivated and living for and by the wrong thing. And I guess it's always kind of been that way, but it seems like more and more here in the last days, I'm sure that's what we're going to see. So I wanna talk to you this morning, just preach on this, again, I'm not great with titles, but here's what is on my heart, is godliness and gain. And so from this chapter, most of us know, we all try to read the whole chapter, but there's nothing wrong with gain. I think everybody wants gain, right? I mean, we don't wanna just remain the same. Does anybody just wanna stay where you're at? I mean, there's always a desire in the Christian heart to wanna be more like Christ, to wanna do more, to wanna go beyond, to wanna move forward. And then there's times where that's maybe not so, but is anybody satisfied? And if your boss came up to you and said, look, I'd like to give you a $10 an hour raise, you'd say, no, it's okay. No, I don't want that. You just put that in the company. Pay the CEO a little more. No, that's not gonna happen, right? So, there's nothing wrong with gain. Gain is not godliness, but godliness can lead to gain. Right? So, there's people somewhere along the way that get, get distorted in their mind a little bit, and they live for gain, for the sake of gain itself. And they're motivated to live their life just for gain, for the sake of gain. Gain that they can't take with them. Gain that'll be likely, according to the wisest man that's lived other than Jesus, probably misused by the family it's left to. Gang that they'll hardly have enough to enjoy. That'll never bring them peace or joy in their life. And so they're motivated to live just for the sake of gang. And there's definitely a pull of the enemy on young men to take them at the moment that they become of age to begin to handle life themselves is to allure them with the thought of gain. I don't know about you, but when I first started working with my Papaw, I didn't want to, by the way, I had to, and trust me, I tried everything I could do to avoid working with him, especially. And, but when we would go to work, when he'd pay me, there's something that just felt really good about that. You accomplished something for yourself. Young men, you ought to feel that way. When you graduate high school, or if you work younger than that, or whatever your life situation is, you ought to feel a sense of accomplishment that you earned something. And, you know, that whole idea Usually, if you get something, your parents just kind of give it to you, allowance or something. But the idea of being able to work and get my own thing, man, that can give you a really good feeling inside. In fact, it'll make you want to do more. You mean if I work the second half of the day, you'll pay me the same amount? Might want to work a little more. Why? For gain? When you're young, you want to have money to whatever. And that goes on in your life. There's something that your flesh likes about gain. The flesh is constantly wanting to gain. If it has one car, it wants two. If it has two cars, it wants them both to be nicer. They'll trade them in and go upside down in them to get one nicer that has heated seats that they don't need, right? It just wants gain. You just, you know, the flesh will never be satisfied with what you do gain. Elon Musk has more money than you could spend in a hundred lifetimes. And it's not slowed him down from wanting to make more. Right? So, so the flesh will never be satisfied and content with, with, with gain. You'll just always want more gain. And there'll be people in your life, there'll be people you'll work with along the way that they live for gain. All they care about is gain. Doesn't matter how you gain, doesn't matter what it costs you to gain it, just as long as you gain. They're not gonna work if they don't gain. How about working cause it's right? I'm talking about your mindset. I'm not saying signing up for a company ain't gonna pay you. But your mindset is, I work because it's right to work. It's right to provide for my family, and it's right to do my boss right, who's hired me, right? To reflect God's character, it's evidently very important that you and I do right. whether that's on a job, whether it's at church, whether it's in a relationship. If the Bible said for things concerning me in 1 Corinthians that you wrote to me, here's what I'm gonna tell you. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Then it means you don't put your arm around them. It means you don't touch them. As far as I know, right? It means you don't hug them. It means you don't sit in the back of the car and hold hands. It certainly means you don't get alone together and hug and kiss and fool around. It's good for man not to touch a woman that he's not married to. Right? Because when you hold her hands, you know what you're going to want to do? You're going to want to do more. The flesh is never satisfied with the game. If I could just hug her, it'd be all right. Problem is, your flesh will never stop at hugging her. That's the problem. You can't give your flesh game. That's why Paul said, I keep it under subjection. It's not gonna tell me how to live my life. Right? So, in this chapter, you've got people that he's gonna go on to describe that live their life in the pursuit of gain. I don't know how many people, how many young men our churches have lost because of the pursuit of gain. They get disconnected from the church. They don't think about where they're going to go to church. They don't think about how many services it's going to cost them. And at the expense to what? To their character or God. This makes more money and I'm going to do it. Right? And so it's a pursuit of gain. They forget totally what they're motivated by. They forget what their life should be. They forget what they're called unto. And they begin a life in pursuit of gain. And it becomes all about money. Where can I make money? Where can I make more money? It doesn't matter what it's costing them along the way until it catches up with them. and they wind up divorced because they're living with somebody they don't even know and doesn't even know them, with children that have gone haywire because they spent their life with their head on a mission to pursue gain. They didn't raise their children, they didn't love their wife, right? I've seen the pursuit of gain destroy many families. I've seen it rob people, take them out of churches. Listen, God's not against me and you having things. God will give you a lot of things. Listen, all we got to do is look around in here this morning to know God will give Christian men again. He will give them things in this life. All of us are looking pretty healthy this morning. Rode in here in vehicles that worked. Was able to afford gas to get here. Come from a house with power. Warm shower this morning, right? And if your wife wasn't ready in time, you left her, she'd drive herself. Some of you ain't gonna do that. Cause you got two cars, right? So my point is this, I'm not preaching against having things or whatever at all, but what we've got to do is set, and especially you young men, that's where my heart is. My heart is to help you young men get with all of this confusion that you're surrounded by. Well, what decision do I make here? What am I going to do about health insurance? What do I do about car insurance? What am I going to do about this? Am I going to do that? Am I going to have a job that's going to pay 401K? Am I going to have a retirement? Am I going to, ah! Where do I go? What do I do? Do I buy a house? All this is overpriced. Do I buy something cheap? Do I flip it? Do I find something already done? Right? I mean, how many decisions are young men facing along the way? That's not even the ones that you're having to bear up that you're already dealing with. Now, there's gonna be something in here for all of us, but I'm just saying that's kind of what's motivated my heart is I wanna make it very easy for you, young man. I'm gonna make it very easy for you, okay? God's gonna make it very easy for us this morning, okay? So let's read, let me read a text verse and then come back. First Timothy, first, excuse me. Okay, that ain't gonna help us. How'd I get to 1 Timothy? 1 Timothy, I got 1 Thessalonians. 1 Timothy chapter six, you with me? All right, we're gonna make it very easy. We're gonna go to verse number 11. Remember, we're talking about godliness and gain. All right? But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Okay? Now, we're gonna come back here. We're not gonna start there yet. Let's go back to verse one. That's our text verse. Godliness and gain. Now, that's gonna make more sense because it'll seem like we're not spending a lot of time there, but it will in the end if I can go. All right, so in chapter number six of 1 Timothy, verse number 11, the Bible just told you to flee some things, right? All right, so if it said for you and I to flee these things, O men of God, what's he been talking about? Well, go back to verse number one with me. Let's get the context of what Paul is saying to this young man. Let as many servants, verse number one, as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemy. Okay? Now, it uses yoke because it's given us the most worst situation that you could be in, would to be a slave. You would not use the word yoke to talk about a wife and a husband or a child in the sense of servitude. So what is being saved? You know how many slaves were alive when Jesus walked the earth? They're still slaves. We're not talking about indentured servants necessarily. It's talking about all the way down to a man who has a master. Okay? So, but it also includes the actual situation where a person is voluntarily just in service to someone. So your position that you're in, as many servants, right? Are you a servant? So you and I are servants, and we have someone over us. You have someone over you on the job, don't you? Here's what he said to do. As many servants that are under the yoke, count your own masters worthy of all honor. Now that's not easy, because a lot of them ain't worth nothing, let alone honor. But that's not what the Bible said to do. It didn't say to go in there with a bad attitude. and go in there and say, well, I'm here to take your money and do as least amount as possible until I can go to house. That's not the attitude of a Christian. Some unions may teach you to work like that, but that ain't how God tells you to work. God said to go in there and be thankful you got a job and thankful God saved you and put you in his family and headed you to heaven and go in there to that job that day and do the best that you can, whether your master saved or lost, honor him. That's honorable to do. A lot of people don't like it, but that's what the Bible teaches Christians to do. So, and I was in a union too. Don't start that stuff with me. I already know, right? And a Christian can be in a union. He just got to remember who his allegiance is to, right? So if a company's dumb enough to sign the contract, your allegiance is to the contract. My allegiance isn't to the United States President, it's to the Constitution, right? So you just gotta understand that. They signed the contract, they made the rules, abide by them. It's easy to do. People get caught up in a bunch of junk. Don't get caught up in all their liberalism and all their drunkenness, that's what a lot of it is. But anyway, let's not go into all that stuff. So here's what you and I have though, you and I are Christians. First and foremost, we get on the job and the motivation of our heart is not to get the most I can get out of them. The motivation of our heart is to honor them, reflect Christ while we're there and give them all I can while I'm here. That's the reality, now that's not the reality of where most of our hearts are each day. But that's what God wants us to do as Christians. Now listen, I don't like that any more than you do. But don't get mad and shoot the messenger. Okay? I don't like it, I'm just gonna be honest with you, I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Because I feel like you want me to work hard, you're gonna pay me what I'm worth to work here, because you got a bunch of sorry people you're paying the same amount and they ain't doing nothing. But that's flesh attitude, see. We gotta be Christians, see. And I just gotta work hard cause it's right to do so. I can't worry about because they got a dope head over here they don't want fire, and he ain't doing nothing and we're making the same amount of money. Don't get caught up in all that, Christian. Don't get caught up in all that. You just go do right. And you worry about reflecting Christ on that job. Right? So, all right, I don't wanna waste time. So he said, all right, now, if you've got masters, count them worthy of honor, okay? And he said, now, he said this in the next verse. He said, and listen, somehow, if you don't do that, Christian, God's gonna be blaspheming somehow. Now, I've seen it happen. I've been on a job and had an unbelieving boss and had a man that claimed to be a Christian and he was sorry. And that boss would bring up the fact that he claimed to be a Christian for every reason. There were guys on the job that snorted pain pills, he didn't say nothing about them. But the one man that didn't do right occasionally, that claimed to be a Christian, was constantly berated for it. I'm telling you, that's the expectation. If you're gonna claim the name of Christ, people are gonna expect a whole lot out of you. And so, God'll give us strength, we're gonna have to do right. Because we're bearing his name. So again, I got sympathy for you. I'm with you. I don't like it either. But unfortunately, it's not my call. I gotta tell you what God said. So we gotta work hard, do right, okay? And I'm gonna leave it there, because I don't make no jokes. God's serious about that kind of thing. In the name of God, could be blasphemed if we don't, we gotta do right. All right, so then he takes it a step further. He said in verse number two, and they that have believing masters, now this is the part that gets you. You're a slave. You're probably making pennies for the day, right? And you got a man that claims to be saved who's your master, who's been set free by Jesus, but keeping you working. Boy, that'd be hard not to get bitter over. When I had a Christian boss, you know what I did? I did like everybody else. I expected him to treat me better than other bosses. Usually it was not so. Usually, I didn't say if they were Christian or not, I said if they claim to be, your life was headed in for a lot of hardship. Now that's not always the case, but you'll find that to be sometimes. And what you'll find out in your heart, bitter about it, because they ought to be treating me better. They ought to be doing right, because they're a believer, right? It'd be hard not to get bitter over that kind of thing. I understand why a lost man does what he does, but I can't understand, I had a lost man that treated me 10 times better, would let me off and understand things with my children, my family, and I had a saved man that, buddy, he didn't care if your whole family was at home, the house was on fire. He's supposed to be saved. Boy, that'll get you bitter now, you can't do that. Here's what he said, if you've got a believing master, here's what he said. Don't despise them. Why would they despise a believing master? Evidently because they had an expectation that they probably should have been let go. Their expectation was higher. He said, don't despise them. Here's what you're gonna do. They are brethren. Could have fooled me. Rather do them service. Boy, this Bible ain't easy all the time, is it? Because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort, and if anybody tells you to do anything else, they're wrong. If they consent not to wholesome words, or they teach you to do anything else other than what I just said, Paul speaking here, If you do anything else other than what verse 1 and 2 said, number one, whoever's telling you that ain't got a clue what they're talking about. Number two, you're wrong to tell people to do that. You are wrong to tell a man who's saved that, well, I wouldn't put up with that. I'd go in there and tell them, and I'd tell you what I'd do. I'd take a two-hour lunch if they said something about it next time. You're wrong to tell them that. You know what you ought to tell them? Well, all the bosses take three-hour lunches, and they only give me 30 minutes and won't write me up over 30 minutes? I'm sorry, sir. That's the game you signed up for. It's just the way it goes, it ain't right. And you know, I've had people tell me, well, I'll tell you, if they did it again next time, I'll take 45 minutes. I understand all that bravado stuff, but that ain't Christian. So anybody telling you to do that's wrong, and you're wrong to tell anybody else to do that. You know what we ought to be telling them? Do them service, honor them, and do right. And that's good for you, not for me. End of the doctrine. wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus, and of the doctrine which is according to godliness. Evidently, it's godly to work right. A lot of people don't pay attention to that side of their life. As long as they live fairly clean, they come to church, and then at work, you wouldn't even hardly know there's, evidently, that ain't the way it should be. Evidently, how you and I work a job has a lot to do with how godly we are. That's scary. And we can't remember that we're not just there for gain. He said, do them service, a believing master. Honor one that's not even a believer. Do right. Why? The only reason that I drive to that stinking place is for what they give me every two weeks. That was my attitude. I'm gonna give somebody else some bad ideas, oh man. Until I got saved, God wouldn't let me buy all that stuff no more. But before I got saved, that wasn't my idea. And if I drove down the road and there was an AT&T building on fire and all the cables falling in the road, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna keep driving the strawberry planes. It ain't my problem. I work, they pay me from eight to five. That's somebody else's problem. Now that's a bad attitude, people. We're supposed to be going somewhere else, but I'm gonna keep on hammering it. That's hard stuff to do. See, I'm not there just for strictly gang. He's gonna go into this, and if you think I'm wrong, you tell me. Even if you're not gaining, that's why he uses the yoke of a servant and a master. Not much gain there in a slave. They're lucky to get fed, to get something to eat and a place to stay. That's just the way it is. And he uses that relationship and tells you and me now to do right by our bosses. Now, I think that's pretty good, but I just don't like it. But it's godly to do it. Evidently, it's not godly to just go in there and try to get all you can get. You ought to be there to do them service. Right? Did I do Brother Easley right? Cam, did I do Brother Easley right when you get up to work? It's not, well, I don't know how much, and it can't be all about that paycheck. You got to do that man right. Did you do him service last week? That's what you got to ask yourself, right? Chris, same, you know, all of us, man. Listen, I feel it here. That's not our relationship necessarily. I work for God, but this church pays me very good. And every single time I miss a service, you know what's on my mind? I owe them people to be there. Now that's not exactly how the relationship of a pastor, I understand that, but it certainly is in my heart. We ought to all feel that way. I don't care what your job is out there. I gotta do right, I got a name to keep. If you didn't pay me enough, I still got a name to keep and it's God's name. And I still ought to do right if you paid me half of what you do. That's what ought to happen. So let's get to where I'm going. So he's dealing with this game. And he's talking to those at work, and he's saying, you can't live a life that's completely controlled by what you're gaining tangibly, because that's what he's referencing. All right? He's talking about this person that won't listen to that, and they don't like that, and they mock at that, and they scoff at that, whatever. That person is proud. They know nothing. They're ignorant of what Christ is really teaching a man to live like. Anybody, listen, you young men will face people and all they'll ever talk to you about is how to make money. Every time they talk to you, they're just trying to tell you about how to make money. There is vastly more important things in this life than making money. Now I'm not for none of y'all to be broke, just set out to be a broke nobody, you know. God don't want that for you. But you can't have a life that's motivated by gain. It's gonna destroy your family, it's gonna destroy your church life, it'll destroy your testimony. And I've seen it rob many people of what they could have been for God. And all they care about, your boss can, listen, God wants you to come to work when you don't feel good, can't make it. Your boss calls you when you're sick and asks you to do something, all of a sudden you can do whatever he asks. Why? Because you're in pursuit of gain. And that man's a ticket to the game. You're not doing it because it's right and it reflects God's character. Because if that were so, you'd be just as faithful to the house of God. But you don't serve God that way because the gain you're looking for is only seen. God's gain that he gives is unseen. And you're so carnally minded on the gain you're concerned about is the one you can touch or look on a bank account record. God said, I'll give you a lot more gain if you'll be godly and content about it. But you can't see that. I can't buy food with that. I can't buy new clothes with that. I can't buy a car with that. I can't afford a big mortgage on that. You got to touch it. You got to taste it. You got to handle it because you're carnally minded and you're in a pursuit of gain. And he said, That kind of person that's like that, a man that lives his life controlled by tangible gain, is the kind of person who's proud, knows nothing. He goes about with questions and strife of words. Why? He's always trying to excuse his behavior. Because if he's saved, he knows he ought to be doing better. If he's saved, it hits him in his heart when he realizes he gives the world 10 times more than he does God. If he's saved, And so he goes about with words and questions and it's not that hard. It's easy, it's black and white. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Having food and raiment be content. And instead the exact opposite, there's people trying to take our young men and push them towards worldly gain. Go ahead, come see me in 10 years. You won't because you'll probably hate me in 10 years. Because I represent everything you despised and turned your back on so that you could get money. That's what'll happen. So here's this kind of person, here's how he lives. He wants gain, sure we all want gain. What kind of gain are you looking for though? The world's richest man? You want what Elon's got? Is that the gain you're looking for? Is that what's motivated you? Is that what gets you up and go to work every day? That's why people are in debt up to their eyeballs. Because they want gain. And when they can't save for it, they'll use somebody else's money to get it and pay them money for the honor of doing so. Why? Because they're motivated by gain. They're motivated by carnal things. They have to look at the tangible and the seen. You'll ruin your life like that. Imagine just being content with such things as you have. And imagine spending all of your effort in the pursuit of godliness. That's where we're going. So I'm gonna make it real easy. All these decisions you gotta make, I'd say none of them matter to the one I'm about to give you. All that other stuff will fall in place if you believe the book. He said, seek you first the kingdom. All these other things. All the things you're going for, they'll be added to you. Maybe not in this life, maybe not tomorrow, but you'll get them one day. Payday someday. You think God's not gonna give, well, let's not, I've kind of killed it a little bit in here. Everybody's mad because now I gotta get up and go to work and try to do right. That kind of stuff, Brother Jeff used to hammer that stuff, Brother Clemens used to hammer that stuff. It made me so mad. I thought, I want you to come to work with me one day. One day you get up there and preach like that. He's telling it right though. Transformed my life, helped me a ton. Because I had a boss, I don't like to have pushed off into a manhole and put a lid on it and park a car over it. Forgive me for that one, I shouldn't have said that. We gotta go quick. Here's this kind of man. Here's the man living a life that is in seek of gain. Temporal, tangible gain. He knows nothing. You know what his life's gonna be filled with? Envy. You know what's gonna happen to you? You mean to tell me if I work my tail off and try to be successful financially and just really give myself to the financial life and world and try to get gain, I'm still gonna have envy? You're gonna eat alive with it. The content man is the one that doesn't have envy, not the rich man. Now again, I'm speaking generally here, right? It's okay to have riches, don't let riches have you. Now those kind of people do all right, because it doesn't have them. But for the most of us, we can't handle that. I wonder why God wouldn't let me win the lottery. I'd give at least, you won't give 10% of what you got. You weren't gonna give what you get in the lottery. I'd give money to miss you. No, you'll be as in debt as you are now. Just take a little more time, because there's more of it to waste. Come on, I don't dial home. If I said something wrong, I'm saying it with a smile. Look at this smile. It's beautiful. Don't answer that. What about it, young men? I gotta get game. I gotta have a wife. I gotta pay for a wife. I'm gonna have children. I gotta pay for children. And sure, you do. But God'll take care of that if you'll work hard, cause it's right. I promise you, you'll give God plenty to work with, and there'll be somebody value that labor and that commitment. They will. This world's not full of good, hardworking people because they wanna do right. Men will notice that. God will help you. Don't you worry about none of that. What's more important is you got a family you can't fail to lead to God. That's what's most important. He said, he prayed knowing nothing in verse 24. Here's what happens to men like that. Full of evil surmisings. You ever work with anybody like that? They just step on anybody's throat to try to get ahead, because all they care about is gain for themselves. Right? You can help them a thousand times, they'll always be too busy to help you. Right? They'll throw you under the bus, them kind of people. Them kind of people, their life, I don't care what you see on social media, their life's full of envy, strife, railing, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men. Why? They have a corrupt mind. Their mind's corrupt. They're not living to honor God. They're not living to be godly. They're not doing things because it's right to do and God told them to do it. They're doing it for what it gains them. Right? There's men in the church like that. They'll honor Brother Jones because they want what it'll gain them, not because they honor Brother Jones. Right? They just use people. Why? Because they're motivated by gain. Whatever that gain is, it's got to be realized and recognized in real time. They gotta put their eyes on it. They gotta see it and feel it and know it. They're not content with the gain that is to come. Right? So, he's proud knowing nothing. Men of corrupt mind, they're destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is coming. What they think is, what they're doing is right. It's godly for me to get what I can get. God wants me to have these things. Boy, you see them on TV all the time. Turn those people off. Gain is not godliness, not the kind of gain he's talking about. So, let's push on. Here's what else he says to do. Supposing that gain is godliness. You ever notice how people will excuse that kind of behavior? Won't give God five minutes of their life, hardly. And they would kill themselves to make another dollar. They're just giving to it. And they make a god out of it. They think they're doing right. And listen, the enemy will even motivate you by right things. Well, you gotta have this. You gotta have this to be able to give your, you know what your kid needs from, you know what your kids and my kids need? They need to see us in love with God. Kids can do without a lot. In fact, the generation that has far exceeded ours is a generation that didn't have nothing. When the depression hit, my grandmother didn't even know it existed. They didn't know it was a depression. And they had the month, they had the least, and they ended up having the most. We've given our kids everything, and they still stay at home playing video games, and they got no money to do nothing, and they got, that's how the average American is, right? They got no money, they're broke, they're not motivated to do anything, right? So, so don't worry about all that, let God work all that out. What you've got to worry about most of all is living godly in Christ Jesus, living a life that's motivated for one reason, to glorify Him on this earth, to reflect to a lost and dying world who God truly is. That's what He's going to go on and say. It's about to get good. You know what my job is that I have to maintain in my heart and mind every day of my life? Well, I got to make this decision. I got to do this. I don't want them to think this about me. I better go because I don't want to think I'm not doing it. No, no, no, no. You're going to go crazy like that. You just keep your mind on one track. I have got to reflect the character of Jesus to a lost and a dying world. I want them to see who God really is. I want them to know how loving he is, how just he is, how righteous he is, how holy he is. And I want them to see who God is through me. And if I work harder and get paid less in the meantime, God'll make up the difference. I just got two right. I'm gonna let people know who Jesus is. I'm gonna reflect that character upon the world. That'll simplify a whole lot of things you're worried about this morning. I don't know what kind of decision you're gonna make there, but I can tell you this, you better not be worried about it at the expense of reflecting the character of God to a world. Right? Instead you got people They're not both. They're not thinking about none of that. What they're thinking about is how can I do more? How can I make more? How can I get more? right and Here's what God said when you get into this and you get out there on the job man, and you run into people like that I've watched young men get this right here. They'll get around somebody on the job who could care less about their family and will be divorced in 10 years. The divorce rate at AT&T was unrealizable. Crazy, the divorce rate. They don't care about that. They don't care what it's costing them at home. They don't want to go home because their wife won't shut up and they don't really like being a dad because they don't want to father their kids. They'd rather stay and make double time. make big money, and then grow up and their kids are insane, and they'll think they were done wrong. I've worked my whole life to give you, you worked your whole life for vanity, sir. And they despise you, not because you didn't work hard and give them everything they wanted, they despise you for that very reason. You were absent to do it. You're gonna miss it. Oh, you'll have a big 401k, you'll do well in retirement. Pension will be good. but it'll be at the expense of God and your family. Why don't you just let God take care of you and focus your life? I mean, some people out here making decisions about stuff and then you ask them about it, they've not even thought about what it's gonna do to their church life. Why? Because all they care about is gain. Well, what's going to happen to you? How are you going to be faithful? What are you going to do? Who's going to pastor you? Who's going to tell your children? Who do you have confidence in to stand up with a King James Bible and preach to your children? I don't know. That's going to pay more. You're a fool, sir. Foolish to think like that. But that's what's motivating our young men. And so then they get out there and they live that American dream. and do nothing for the church, do nothing to serve others. They don't reflect Christ's character. Oh, they don't end up drunks, and we're thankful for it. That's the expectation. You actually can shine today. You can be a super saint if you just show up to church when the doors are open. That's where the bar is set. You can live for the world the whole rest of the week, and you show up to church, people will think you walk on water. You can never serve nobody. You can never serve, you can never do nothing. That's how low we've set the bar for our generation. And they can't even do that. Why? I got the sniffles this morning. Funny them sniffles don't keep you from going and making money. If it kept you out of church on Sunday, it sure ought to keep you out of work on Monday. But it doesn't, why? Because you value your job more than you do God. That's the truth. You can tell yourself whatever you want to tell yourself, you're lying to yourself. You're in love with money. You're in love with the world. You're in love with what you gain out there. Because it costs you not to be there. But you don't realize that in real time. It costs me every service. Every time I'm not preached to, I feel like I'm missing something. It costs me. You said two weeks into that, it's gonna cost me. I don't care who likes that and who does not. I am telling you, the Christian life cannot be sustained and maintained successfully for God apart from a local church and faithfulness. Can't be done. I don't care who you are. It'll affect you. But you won't realize it immediately. It'll take some time. but you'll miss that one day paycheck, you know. Well, we gotta be careful. What's motivating us to get up every day? You know the miserable life for a man is when he wakes up every day, goes into a job he can't stand? To work for a man he can't stand, with people he can't stand, for money? That's far too short. It's miserable to make himself get up and fight through the pains of his body and the everyday repetition and to go into a job that undervalues him, underpays him. You know why? Because he's got his mind on the wrong thing. All of that stuff's probably true. Probably not y'all making what y'all do. I'll write you a letter, tell them to give you a raise. They can't help you. But you know, whatever one of us can do, we can get up and say, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to go in there and be the only man who's going to reflect God to this whole job. They're gonna see who God really is. I'm gonna go in there to that old hateful guy, that old guy that cusses all the time, that old guy, and I'm gonna go and tell him how much God loves him, how much I love him. Oh, we're gonna have a good day today. We're gonna go out here and work hard, and we ain't gonna get paid enough for it, but we're gonna go and do it because it's right. And we're gonna do it right until Jesus comes. Because you know what Jesus did when he lived on earth? He did rights. Woo, maybe that'll help you a little bit till Tuesday, but I'll give you at least Monday. Come on now. Men, young men, there's a life to live for God, and it's not about making money. It ain't about what you can gain. Now do the best for yourself. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying this. If you're motivated by that, you're gonna miss the mark. So here's what he said to do. Don't hang around people that are trying to throw your life off course of what God has intended for it and trying to just get you to make a bunch of money. I know very well young men that get on a job and they go find some boss and this is the way this boss is. You know that's how he is because that's how he got to where he is now. And all he cares about is making money. He don't care about you. He cares about you so long as you're helping him make money. Because that's what he's motivated by. And what he wants, he wants little disciples that he can teach to be the same way. Not because he cares about your life, because he knows it'll destroy your life. But he's already come to that. He already is okay with that. He's already reconciled with that. It'll make him look better if he can be treated, he'll go to the company and say, look how I'm doing with this one. They're wicked people, I'm telling you, they're wicked people. People living for gain are wicked. You know what he said to do from people like that? Withdraw thyself from them. You stay away from people, I don't care where you find them, who are motivated to live a life for what they can gain tangibly. They're dangerous people. They're like a snake coiled up on a tree when you sit down to go turkey hunting this week. And you didn't see it. They're gonna bite you. Stay away from them. You know why? Here's why, because of verse six. Oh great, so God don't want us to have gain. No, no, no, God wants you to have gain. He's gonna give you a lot. Sounds like a new body's a lot of gain to me. Mansions in heaven sound pretty good to me. Here's what he did say though. Here's what is the mindset. But godliness, read it with me, verse six, with contentment is great gain. You can take the outward, you can take, listen, you take a man who owns nothing but the clothes on his back and the food that's already in his stomach. And if he'll live godly, if he'll reflect the character of a holy God to the world, and he's content with nothing more than the clothes on his back, you take that man, I'll show you the richest man in the planet. That's who's rich. LeBron James ain't rich. He's a sissy anyway. I don't know where that come from. Donald Trump ain't rich. You take a man who's got nothing but the clothes on his back, owns nothing. He don't have an acre to his name. He don't own his own home. He probably don't even own the car that he's got. He may walk everywhere he goes. God said, if you have the clothes on your back and you got food in your stomach, and you're satisfied by that, you know what that is? That's not just gain, that's great gain. That's something you can have far beyond the man who's motivated to live for the temporal and just the gain. And people live their life always thinking, if I can just have this, I'll be so much happier. My home life will be so much better. I'll be so much better to my wife. If I could just have this one thing, if I can just get that one gun, if I can just go on that one hunting trip, if I can just do this one thing. And man, you'll be chasing your tail the rest of your life at the expense of your children watching you chase your tail. I'm telling you this morning, listen to me. You've got everything you need. Don't be chasing nothing else. Just live godly. Be content with what you've got. That's great game. I'm not smart enough probably to be Elon. I'd love to have that kind of money. Who would? You'd be lying if you said you wouldn't want it. But I'm pretty sure I ain't gonna get it. I don't have the tenacity he does about work and money and all that, I just don't have it. Kinda hopeless to want things you can't have. But when I think about what God said, you want great gain, young man, here's all you got to have. Clothes on your back, you got that? I got that. I got that. All right. You fed pretty good, what do y'all think? Amber doing pretty good. This is her body. Look how she's abused it. I blame her for this overweight stuff. That's what the Bible said. It's not my own, it's her. Look at what she's doing to it. She's killing me. I ain't miss no meals. God said, all right now, are you okay with that? Are you fine with that? May not ever give you a house. May not ever have your own car. May not get new shoes. May not, I don't know, but you might. There's some men in here could testify, God sure has given them a lot. I'm not saying that's always the case. I'm saying, but in my heart, you know what, God? If you don't ever do anything else, I'm content, you've saved me, you've called me, I'm gonna reflect this over your character, and I'm gonna be happy if you'll just clothe me. If you'll just feed me, I gotta eat and drink, and I gotta be clothed, I mean, that's necessities, and you'll be content with that. You now, okay, all right God, so what do you want out of me? I want you to pursue a life of godliness. Just as tenacious as you are to get up and hit that button and to turn that alarm off and get yourself up and get in the shower and get in the car. Some people drive, for three years, I drove over an hour one way just to get to work. There's people who drive an hour to go to work and they'll do it six, seven days a week and be glad to do it. They wouldn't drive 10 minutes to go to church. They're messed up in their mind. You know what, all right? Just as ferocious as you are about that, you better get up and you better say, all right, God, I got in this flesh, I got no ho in this flesh to do right today. I'm gonna need your help. I gotta get to this job and I gotta get there. I gotta have a smile on my face. I gotta do right. I gotta do what's right by men. I gotta do what's right by God. I gotta love people. I gotta be misused and mistreated. I gotta be spit on. I gotta have my hair pulled out. And I gotta do it with a smile. You better take God with you, that ain't gonna happen. That's what God said, show this world who God is. That's what he's telling us. I gotta go, I'm building it too slow. He tells us that exact thing in the end. Oh my, oh, I'm too slow of a preacher. We're not gonna do what we did last Sunday. We just have to come back tonight. Built this thing too slow. Didn't get to our first point. But are y'all with me on the context of where we are? I'm tired of losing young people to the pursuit of this world. I think some of it's innocent. Because there's things that they need and they get worried about that. And pressures are applied to them. You better figure out what you're gonna do. You better know where you're gonna go to college. You better figure out what you're gonna do for a career. And they don't even know how they got up that morning. They don't know, right? And it feels like this world of pressure. I'm told there's a needle in a haystack out there. I ain't found her yet. That's a lot of pressure on a young man. And I want to simplify it for you. Let God work all that out. You set out to just live a life to reflect who God is to the world. God will take care of everything else. If you can be content with what he's gonna do. If you can look God and say, God, I'll be happy with clothes and food, and you can say that in the realness of your heart, God'll take care of all the rest. You just work on living godly. God'll take care of the rest of it. Now, I know there's practical, that sounds wonderful, there's practical things along the way, I understand that. But I'm saying the overall motivation for life, we're robbing our children of that and putting their focus on things, and so they're losing track of God. and they're in the pursuit of those things. We can't do that. We got the, we got the, oh, I can't think of a saying now. Anyway, you got it backwards. You pursue after God and let God help you with those things, right? So now we're gonna see that. I'm done. Our first point now in that verse number 11, but thou old man of God, we've got several Fs I'm gonna give you. All right preacher, you told me I don't need to be just living for the world, living for gain. What should I do then? Don't just not do it, flee it. So my first point is, the first thing you gotta do, all of us what we ought to do, but young men especially, you gotta flee these things. What things? What we just talked about. That life of pursuit of gain comes with disputings and perverseness and corrupt minds. Flee all that. I'm not going to wrap myself up with people who live like that. They're not going to influence me, and I'm not living a life like that. I'm going to flee that. So first on your mind is flee those things. And what I'm telling you to flee from is the very thing some are in pursuit of right now while I'm preaching. I'm telling you to run from the very thing that you wake up for every day. You want to get you out of bed when nothing else will? The thought of making money. I'm telling you to flee that. This Bible's directly opposed to the natural mind. I'm telling you and me to get up every day because we got an opportunity to shine forth as lights. Now, that little light of mine that you gotta let shine, it's gonna take you to work. So don't get that twisted up. But it'll make a new man out of you when you get there. Flee those things. Flee those things. The love of money and gain and riches. Some people are evidently not serving and doing right on the job because they're more concerned with gain. They work for gain. Not because it's godly to do right, not to benefit their master in any way, but just for the gain that they can get. Somehow they suppose that that gain is right, not the work itself. The work itself is what's right, right? They're so full of pride and ignorant of Christ's teachings. And let me give you this before we go. That it leads to what is listed in verse number four through verse number 10. Their self-centered life of gain for themselves destroys their life with hurtful lusts. They drown in destruction and perdition and they suffer an entire loss primarily of the soul. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith 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. Not money, but the love of money, is the root of all evil. Which while some coveted, after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I'm done preaching, I'm gonna tell you this. I know a story, I'm not gonna tell it, because you might know it. But I will tell you this. As our musicians are coming, come on, make your way up here. I will tell you this. Young man, I want you to know something that's hard to see from this end. But when you get to the end of your life, and you look back on things, the regrets and the shames and the accomplishments and all that you look back on, and you will do that. You may not do a whole lot of looking back at 21, but you'll do a lot after 40, I'd say, for sure. And you're gonna look back, and you're gonna look back over the life that you've had. I guarantee you, no matter what the age is, every one of us laying on a deathbed will do it. There's been many a people who took off after the pursuit of gain. I'm talking about saved people. Is that not what it just said? It's talking about saved people can do this. And they can get so caught up in that kind of life. And it starts out just little by little, an expense on the spiritual side. But it's doing so much better, because it's providing for their family some things, and they can see it. And that's why they resort to just buying gifts to send to the party and not going to the party. Because they think that that's what their children want, gifts. Because I didn't have it. And they think providing it provides something. Well, I spent this money on you for Christmas. That didn't mean nothing to me. What am I gonna do with that when I'm facing a situation where I don't know if I need to marry someone I love or my husband, my wife has cheated on me or I'm going through the most destructive time of my life and you're working? What am I gonna do with the new gun you bought me? Young man, what he needs, he needs you. He needs you to be there. He needs you to get a hold of God. So my daddy said, Amber called them, you remember me telling you? Amber said, you better pray for Clint. God's doing something, I don't know. He called just a minute ago. And she called my daddy. Daddy went in there, he went to get my family together to pray. Dad said, I can't pray. I can't get hold of God, I don't even talk to God. The one time I needed daddy the most was to help me where my soul was gonna go. Where my soul would spend eternity. Dad couldn't even pray. Because my daddy killed his self working. He'd do it now, am I telling the truth? He about outworked me and Tyler 80 day. He's a working man. Now God saved him, y'all know that. He's done tremendous since God saved him. But do you see how we can get ourselves messed up, men? We feel such a drive to be and to provide. Don't let that drive knock you off track. You should keep going after God and you may leave nothing but the clothes you was wearing. And we may have to bury you in the only thing you owned. But I promise you, you'll leave a whole lot more behind than any man that'll pursue the tangible goods of this life. Let's stand to our feet. Young man, don't forget that as you're being pushed and pushed and pushed. I wanna push you towards God. Just keep going after godliness. We'll come back, Lord willing, tonight unless Jesus comes. He sure could come today too. Wouldn't that be something? But Lord, we'll come back there and we'll look at several other things. But if you need to come, you come this morning. Let the Lord help you. Lord, I love you. Help our hearts and minds, Lord. All of us have to do these things. We gotta work and provide and we gotta have things. We gotta have shoes and things like that. Just help us reprioritize our lives. Remember, Lord, we ought to be putting our all into allowing our position to be fully viewed on display for the rest of the world to see. And that will take quite the endeavor of the human heart. So do help us. We love you. Forgive us our sins in Jesus' name. Amen, and amen. All right, brother, he's gonna sing. If you need to come, you come on, we'll let you go.