want you to be pondering as we go continue our study and as we look at this is what difference does the resurrection make as we continue into 1st Timothy chapter 6. Chapter six, verses one through 10. It says, let all who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine may not be spoken against. And let those who have believers as their masters not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but let them serve them all the more because those who partake in the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles. If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. But he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into this world, so we can take nothing out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang. Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, as we dig into it a little bit this morning, I pray that you would open our hearts, open our minds to understand the truth that it brings us. Lord, as we continue this series, I do pray that we would recognize that even the resurrection makes all the difference. Even as we handle this section, Lord, we need to be constantly reminded that it's only because of Christ that we can possibly live the way that you want us to. So Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for this day. And help us to love you as you deserve. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. We're going to continue as we normally do. We're going to kind of dig into this. Now, I was reminded yesterday, because it's Easter, and I have a tendency to wax eloquent, that I need to be careful not to go too terribly long. And so I promise you that I will not go too terribly long. But even if I do, yeah, the regulars are chuckling because they know that's really hard. The result is we may not catch everything that's in this passage. But as I was even pondering on that, I realized, you know, we haven't gotten everything that there is out of 1 Timothy even still. Now partly that is a little bit my fault. This is the first time that I've been able to go through an entire book and exposit it, and I'm loving it, but I know that I've missed some things. But also, that's partly because the Word of God is so awesome and amazing that as we go through it over and over and over again, He is able to use it to help us understand things that we didn't catch the last time. Maybe we're at a different place in life, or maybe something's going on, and God is able to use His Word to help us understand things. So even if we don't get everything that we possibly can out of this passage today, which I guarantee we aren't, I want to encourage you, go back, I've said this several times during this series, but go back and read through 1 Timothy again and find those things that stand out that maybe we glossed over, maybe we missed, maybe we were focusing in on something else and we didn't get that part. I wanna encourage you, even though we're finishing up 1 Timothy, actually next week we'll be finishing it up, even though we're finishing it up, I wanna encourage you, go back and study through it again, and look at it again, and find those things that we didn't necessarily hit on, but that you're able to then take and apply to your life so that you can live the way that God wants you to. We are gonna jump into 1 Timothy 6, and it starts off, all those who are under the yoke as slaves. Now, obviously, today in America, we don't have slaves anymore, right? So, it would be really easy to look at this and be like, well, I'm not a slave, I can just throw this away, I don't have to deal with this one, it's gone. But we can't do that. See, all of scripture is given to us by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. If you've been coming to Sunday school, you've heard us say that several times over and over and over again. Well, even this has something that we can learn from it. But as we begin to look at this idea of under the yoke as slaves, we realize that these are our servants. That's what slaves means. But more than that, they are the laboring servants. They're working hard. And so any servant who is working hard as a slave, they have this instruction. And this isn't just a nice suggestion. It's a command that Paul gives to them. Regard their own masters as worthy of all honor. Now, who remembers what honor means? We've been looking at honor for the last couple of weeks. To place value on, or to recognize the value of something. And when we looked at it at dealing with widows a couple of weeks ago, what impact did that value have? Was it just respect, like, oh yeah, yeah, they're important, we should really honor them? Or was there something else? a commitment to take care of them, right? Yeah, it was more than just respect. Now, respect is part of this idea of honor, to view them as valuable. But when we view them as valuable, it means that we do something about it. It means that it can cost us something. And so, two weeks ago, we looked at widows who are widows in deed, and how we were to take care of them, of their financial needs, as a church. There are certain ones that we step in and make that commitment to do. Then last week we looked at elders who have ruled well. We are to give them double honor. We are again to take care of their physical needs as well as give them respect. Well, here we come to slaves. Now, there were a lot of ways in this time period that someone could become a slave. They could be sold into slavery, they could have massive debts that they just couldn't pay off, and so they gave themselves into slavery to pay off that debt. They could be born as slaves, they could be captured in war, there were all kinds of different ways that someone could become a slave. But you'll notice Paul doesn't point out any of those. He doesn't limit this to just certain types of slaves. He's saying any slave, any slave who is laboring, you have a responsibility to regard your own masters as worthy of honor. Now, how does that work? If this is a slave who has no rights, no privileges, doesn't have large amounts of money, they're kind of getting their sustenance and they're living from their masters anyway, how can they value their masters? How can they take care of their master's financial needs and physical needs? How would that work? That is a question you can answer. Any ideas? That's probably the best example right there is by going ahead and working hard to take care of the physical needs of that master. Now, as I mentioned, we don't have slaves today. So how would this work for us? How would we take this? Well, I got to thinking about it, you know, not all masters are really nice. Right? I mean we look at American history and we realize that there were masters who were terrible, wicked, evil. You'll notice he doesn't say only if your master is really nice do you treat them with honor. Do you show them this kind of value? All of them. Most of us have a job, right? You go in and you labor and you work hard. How do you do that? Do you do that in a way that says, you know what, I'm just here for my paycheck. I really don't care. I don't want to be here. Or do you look at your bosses and value them and say, you know what, you have value, you have purpose and reason. That's one of the ways that we can go ahead and apply this, even though, no, technically we're not slaves and they don't own us, but if Paul can encourage someone who has no rights or privileges to act in this way, can't we at least do that same to our bosses, to those who have some level of authority over our responsibilities and what we do? Just something to think about. The reason that he gives for why they're supposed to do this, it's not about the physical stuff. It's not just so that the master makes lots of money. Instead, it says, consider them or regard your own masters as worthy of all honor so that for the reason, for the purpose, that the name of God and our doctrine be not spoken against. Now that idea right there is be not blasphemed or thrown in the mud. The reason that we do these things is not to get glory for ourselves or to get focus on us. It's so that the name of God is not maligned and demeaned. It's so that the doctrine, the teaching, the things that Paul has been talking about, the things that the church preaches, so that they are not worthless or viewed as worthless. See, I mentioned that I wanted you to think through this idea, this question of what difference does the resurrection make? If you're a follower of Christ, if you claim to be a follower of Christ, and people know that and hear that, the way that you act at work is going to have an impact. Either you're going to carry the name of Jesus and it'll be looked at like, oh, hey, they're a Christian, they work hard, they do what they're supposed to, good things, or, oh, they say they're a Christian. I don't know that I want to hire Christians because of the way that that guy works. That's the difference that's going on here. Paul is setting this up. Yes, he's dealing with slaves, but we can apply this to ourselves in the way that we interact with our own bosses, our own leadership. Do we count them as worthy of all honor? Do we treat them as valuable and as important? And as I was pondering on that, I came to realize, you know, what is the best way that we can value someone, that we can recognize that they are important? I would contest, and this isn't necessarily in here, but I would contest the best way that we show someone that they are valuable is by sharing the gospel with them, by letting them know who Christ is. We claim to be Christians. We claim to be followers of Christ. If we think that they're important, isn't it necessary then that we share the gospel with them? That we tell them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? Because that's how valuable God thought that they were. If God puts that level of value on them, shouldn't we also care enough to at least tell them those things? Now that may be uncomfortable. And in this era in which there was slavery, and oftentimes slaves, they didn't have freedoms. They weren't even allowed to go to church. They weren't allowed to do the things that they would want to as followers of Christ. We are so blessed to live in America where we can freely come and go as we want to. We have the ability to live, excuse me, to live the way that we want to. Doesn't it make sense then that we would apply this even more to our own lives and to put value on others by sharing the gospel with them and letting them know who Christ is? Verse 2 continues on, it says, See, that puts a whole new aspect to it. In the first verse, we have masters who, regardless of how that master treats them, and I'm sure that you know enough about history to know that there was slavery in which masters were horrible. There was also slavery in which masters took good care of their servants. They provided for their needs. They even paid them to some extent. They were technically slaves, but they were well cared for. Verse one does not make any distinction as to what kind of master it was. But we get down to verse two and we find out, well, what if the master is a believer? In this section, Paul does not address the masters. And so regardless of what you might think about, well, why are they still owning slaves if they're believers? We're not getting into that in this section. We can discuss that in others. This is addressed to the slave. If your master is a believer, how should you then interact with them? you must not disrespect them because they are brethren. Instead, or contrast that, you must serve them all the more because those who partake in the benefit are believers and beloved." So if you're working for a godly boss, you ought to work even harder for them because they benefit from what you're doing and that shares that value with them all the more. If you were a slave and you had a master that was a believer, work all the harder, work all the more for that reason. Because in both of these, whether they're a believer or not, the way that we live shows what we believe. it shows who we claim to be followers of. So if we claim to be a follower of Christ and we live like the world, the name of God is blasphemed, is spoken against. But if we live like believers, like followers of Christ, recognizing that this world is not all that there is, then it makes a huge and a massive difference. Paul ends that section saying, teach and preach these principles. Now, like I said, this is part of a larger section that we've been working our way through. And I think that what Paul's doing here is gathering all of that. So not just this one little thing that we've looked at this morning, but all of what we've been looking at. that Paul is telling Timothy, proclaim these things, make these things known, share them, teach them, encourage them, and you'll recall that idea of preaching is to call alongside. So he's telling Timothy, I want you to live a certain way, and I want you to call others alongside of you to live that same way, because, as you'll recall back in chapter three, we found this is the way that the church is supposed to function. So as followers of Christ, we ought to live as a family, and that impacts how we interact with each other, how we interact with older men and older women, with younger men and younger women, the way that we deal with certain issues and cultural relationships and problems that come up. Well, in this next section, we're gonna find yet another way in which the things that we believe, Our doctrines, they make an impact. They change how we interact. And this time, it's gonna deal with the way that we interact with stuff. How many of you like stuff? Anybody else? Couple of you? Okay. No matter what that stuff is, as we get into this, I want you to keep an eye out for the change that the resurrection makes, the change that being a follower of Christ makes in the way that you view stuff. Verse three, if anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. So we've got two doctrines. types of people going on here. The ones who preach and teach what Paul has been telling Timothy. And that's why Paul wrote this, is so that Timothy would be able to instruct and to help the church to be able to be better followers of Christ. He says, obviously that's what we want you to learn, that's what we want you to do, that's what we want you to believe, but there might be some who advocate, who preach, who teach something different. And if they're teaching a different doctrine, if they don't agree with what is sound words, sound being solid or full or healthy, so if they're disagreeing with the words of Christ even, then they know nothing. They're conceited and they understand nothing. Instead, verse four gives us kind of a picture of who they are. He has a morbid interest in controversial questions. Do you know anybody who's just always questioning things? And not the questioning of like actually wanting to learn, but questioning just for the sake of arguing. That's what's going on here. is not that they are seeking to learn, because there's no issue with asking questions so that we can learn. That's not what he's talking about. And he's not saying someone who believes something wrong, because all of us end up accidentally believing wrong things. We haven't studied, we haven't learned, we don't understand it. He's saying those who teach it, Those who advocate it, those who encourage contrary doctrines, different things. Those who don't agree with what is true, what is whole, what is full. Those are the ones who, they get so self-centered, so focused, that they're conceited. They think that they're so smart and they've got it all figured out, or they just want to argue and bicker over the little tiny details. They develop a morbid interest, a fleshly interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. Well, what happens when somebody does that? What's the result of that? That's what the rest of this verse then talks about. Out of that arise envy, strife, abusive language. Interesting thing about that, that abusive language, we've already seen that before. That's blaspheme. That's the same thing that the servants, the slaves, who were doing the right thing, they're avoiding that by living out their faith. Here, the ones who get so self-centered and so focused on knowing everything and not ever being wrong, they develop into envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, constant friction between men. Are those kinds of people enjoyable to be around? No. And I'm going to guess, I could be wrong, but I'm going to guess you're probably thinking of someone in particular. I'll admit, I do that sometimes. I can think of people who are just argumentative and bickering about nonsense. I mean, things that don't even matter. And yet, that's what they focus on. Even to the point we find that they become depraved of mind. That word, that idea is that they've lost even the ability to process spiritual things. They claim to know all that there is, and yet their minds are so messed up that they can't even continue to learn and to understand. Their minds have been corrupted by that. And then the next is deprived of the truth. The idea is that the truth has been removed from them. So they put themselves so focused on arguing and bickering about these things that they end up, they have no clue. They don't understand. They can't understand anymore. They end up supposing that godliness is a means of gain. Now we've seen this in the United States. We've seen this around us. How many of you have ever heard of health, wealth, and prosperity gospel? Anybody know what I'm talking about? That idea that, well, if I preach the gospel, then I get money. I get benefit from it. That's what this is talking about. They don't believe the truth. They don't understand God's Word. They don't spend time delving into it, learning from it. They just look for, what's the benefit to me? Where do I get the payout? this health, wealth and prosperity idea. Okay, let's, everything comes to me and I get all the benefits and everything like that. And that's not what the gospel is about. That's not what the word of God is about. That's not what living as a follower of Christ is about. See, their beliefs, these wrong beliefs have read to wrong actions. And the way that they live that out just does not work. Instead, we see in verse six that it says godliness actually is a means of great gain. Well, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. What just happened? Didn't Paul just say that they're assuming that godliness is a means of great gain? That doesn't work. And then now he's saying that it is. Well, that's where you gotta finish the verse. When accompanied by contentment. So what's going on here? What's happening? Why is he saying, well, it's not, but it is? when they're self-centered, when they're focused on themselves and on gaining as much as they can and that they're just trying to do these things so that they make money out of it, make benefit, make profit out of it. And I'm referencing money, but sometimes they'll do that for other reasons, for the prestige, for the focus on themselves, for the connections that it gives them. You look at some of these big-name preachers who travel all around the world, have their own jets and all of that stuff. Are they doing it because of right doctrines, because of right beliefs, or are they doing it for their own gain? Yeah, for money, for themselves. And I'm not going to name names and start pointing those out. I think you guys can evaluate that. You can identify which ones are which. I'll leave that to you. But then he contrasts that and he says, godliness, living the life that God expects us to. Another word is piety. It's submission to who God is and to what he's commanded us. Learning the scriptures, obeying them, living according to them. And no, that doesn't mean doing that perfectly. Because as I said earlier on, we're not perfect. We all have issues and problems and things that we don't get right. But as we are drawing closer to Christ, as we are learning more of him, as we become more like him, are we putting that into practice, not for our own personal benefit, but because that's who God wants us to be. That's how he wants us to live. When we have that kind of godliness, it is a means of great gain. but not the same type of gain that he was talking about with those financial benefits. It's a gain that is accompanied by contentment. And here in verse seven, he gives you the reasoning or the basis for that. We have brought nothing into the world, and so we can take nothing out of it. So then, if it's a means of great gain, what kind of gain are we talking about? We didn't bring physical financial well-being in here. Anybody else born with like gold in your hand? I don't think so. Okay. We're not going to take it with us. When we die, there's no, what's the phrase? There's no U-Haul behind the hearse. You don't get to take it with you. It just doesn't work. That's what verse seven's all about. So then, it's about do we have this understanding, this mindset, if we have food, enough to eat, if we have covering that's really clothing, a little bit of warmth. With that, we can be content because we recognize that that's sufficient. And that's really what this idea of contentment is, that what we've got is enough. We're not doing good things so that we get benefits, so that we get stuff, so that we get this financial well-being. We do it because of who God is and what he's done for me, in me. And what is the great gain then? Do what? Peace. The peace of God which passes all understanding, right? What other benefit is there in following Christ? I mentioned it earlier. The resurrection, right? When we view things, not in this short-term little right here, right now, but we start to view things in the view of eternity, no, we didn't start this life with anything and we're not taking anything with us. So what are we talking about? What kind of gain is there? There's something more eternal. There's something further beyond. And there is great gain. That idea is mega, like lots and lots of gain. Now, that's not to say that there's no physical benefit as well. When you do the right thing, is that beneficial? Are there positives that come out of that? If you decide that, hey, I don't care what the speed limit is, I'm going to go out here and do whatever I want to because I do my own thing, you're probably going to get pulled over and that's probably going to cost you something, right? So there's no benefit there. If instead you say, you know what, God has called me to obey him primarily, and in doing that, to obey the authorities that are around me, right? Like the government, like speed limits. So therefore, because God wants me to be obedient to the governments around me, I'm not gonna speed. There is a practical, physical benefit from that. And we could go through and come up with all kinds of different examples of ways in which this gain is both. There's an eternal gain, and that's the biggest, that's the major one. But there's also practical gain that comes from living the way that God wants us to. That's what godliness is, living how God expects us to. There's great gain from that. Verse 9, but those who want, the idea there is resolve or make the decision that they are going to get rich. Do you know anybody who says, you know what, my goal in life is money. I want to get lots and lots of money and that's all I care about. A few of you are nodding your heads. I've known some who that is all that they want to do. Nothing else matters, I just want to get rich. That's what he's talking about here. Now, we do need to recognize that there is a distinction. There are those who want to do well. They want to live the way that God wants them to. And as a result, God blesses them. And they have opportunities. And they use their skills and their abilities. And they are good stewards of everything that God blesses them with. And as a result, they become wealthy. That's not what we're talking about. At this point, we're not talking about those who have lots. We're talking about those who focus on wanting to get lots. Okay? Big difference. Big distinction. I was blessed to have a friend back in Pennsylvania. who, he got saved. He'd been in prison, got out, and realized, you know what? My life is messed up. I want to live the rest of my life for the Lord. He gets saved, and he begins doing that. Well, this guy, he had businesses. In the past, those businesses got him sent to prison. We'll leave it there. But, he said, you know what? God has changed me from the inside out and I want to live for him and I want to do what he wants me to. But God had wired him and built him in such a way that he created a new business, a perfectly legal business, a business that became reasonably profitable and resulted in him hiring lots of people. And his mindset changed, his focus changed. It had been, I want to get for myself, I want all my own benefit, I want all my own stuff. And as a result of being saved and the change that had taken place in him, he said, you know what, I want to use my businesses as an opportunity to help others. And so he would hire people that couldn't get jobs otherwise. And he would give them an opportunity, and he would train them, and help them. And sometimes they didn't work out, and that cost him a lot of money. But sometimes they did, and that profited him a lot of money. And he ended up actually having multiple businesses, and he said, you know what? If God allows me to make millions and millions of dollars, then that enables me to serve him all the more. And so his focus, his mindset, completely shifted and completely changed. It wasn't about, I'm going out to make lots of money. It was, I'm going to serve the Lord with my life. And God allowed him to make lots of money in that process. That's the picture. That's the idea of what we're talking about here. Those who want to, those who focus on and spend themselves trying to get rich, they fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires. Like I said, that guy, he ended up in prison because of some of the businesses that he had. It caused him all kinds of problems. In fact, it plunges men into ruin and destruction. He hit rock bottom. He really did. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, called that man back and said, you know what? Your life's not over. You're not worthless. The things that you were doing, they were, but you're not worthless. And someone presented the gospel to him and he accepted it. He said, you know what? I was living for myself. I was focused on myself. But Jesus wasn't focused on himself. He gave himself for me. He came to earth, he could have stayed up in heaven and enjoyed it, but instead he came to earth and was born as a baby. And you guys know what babies are like. But he did that, he endured that for me. He lived on this earth, and you can look around and see that this world is not a great, wonderful, perfect place. Jesus, who's God himself, left heaven, perfection, to live here. He never sinned, but he was accused as a criminal. In fact, more than just accused, he was rounded up and beaten. and given a mock trial and was executed, one of the worst deaths that there is. If you start studying what crucifixion is, I'm not going to get into the gory details, but it's nasty. And Jesus did that willingly so that he could pay the penalty for our sins. Wow. Wow. That ought to make you just pause and say, thank you, Jesus. Well, this man that I've been talking about, he recognized that. And it changed his life. And it changed his outlook. It changed his focus and what he was doing. He had experienced what verse nine says. His desire, his focus to get rich caused him to fall. He fell into temptation, he fell into a snare, he fell into foolish and harmful desires. Things that were worthless and pointless and had no value. And they plunged him into ruin and destruction because, now verse 10 is one of those verses that is so often misused and misunderstood. But in light of verse nine, because we understand that the love of, the desire for, the focus on money is the root of or the start of all kinds of evil. And by it, some longing for it, desiring money, focusing on money, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Now I gave the example of a non-believer. who got saved and his focus completely changed. And he said, you know what? I'm not in it for the money anymore. I'm in it to live the way that God wants me to live. And he was changed. And God was able to use that. And he did become fairly wealthy yet again, and was able to do all kinds of things for the Lord based on that. But I think we also here start to see that it's not just those who are of the world, those who aren't followers of Christ, those who hate Jesus. They're not the only ones who fall into this temptation and this trap. It's possible even for some of us. for our focus to get off of living for the Lord and get on to living for ourselves and our own benefit and our own things. And we go back to verse 9. When that's our goal, when that's our aim, when we want to get rich, instead of living for the Lord, we fall into temptation, a snare, foolish and harmful desires that plunge us into ruin and destruction. Because the love of money leads to those things, the focus on getting for myself leads to all sorts of evil. even those who have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves. Now that one stuck out to me as I was reading through it and studying. I'm like, this wasn't something that was done to them. This is what they did to themselves. If I get my focus off of the resurrected Christ and onto the things of the world, the physical things, the money, the prestige, the whatever it is, I harm myself. I do damage to myself. But if my focus is on Christ, if my focus is on who he is and what he has done for me, if I remember the resurrection, if I remember these principles that Paul is telling Timothy to preach, to teach, to proclaim, if I remember that the life of a follower of Christ is different from the life of the world, then there is great gain. There's great gain in this world, not the same type of financial gain, that's not what we're focused on, but the relationships that we can have, the interactions that we can have, the life that we can live, the joy and the lack of sorrow and pain that often associates living for yourself. But more than that, the life that we have in eternity, the life that is coming ahead for followers of Christ, is great gain. So much more than what this world has to offer. So I began with a question. What difference does the resurrection make And I'll end with another question. What is your focus? The resurrection makes all kinds of difference when we focus on Christ, when we focus our lives on living for him, on godliness. But it makes no difference if we focus on ourselves and focus on worldly things and gaining material benefit. Whether you're a believer or not, whether you've accepted Christ or not, you pierce yourself with many pains, with many problems when you allow your focus to get away from Christ and instead be on yourself. Next week, we're going to continue looking through 1 Timothy chapter 6. I want to encourage you, go ahead and read it. It starts off, flee from these things. I don't want to leave you hanging, but I do want to encourage you. This isn't just a, oh, okay, you know, this is nice, a wonderful Easter Sunday sermon, like, yeah, good feely good things. Like, no, there's a flee, a run, a get out, escape. is coming up next week. So I want to encourage you, continue to study through 1 Timothy. Read through it, prepare for it. We're going to dig into it some more next week. For now, how can we live our lives for the Lord? Because he gave his life for us. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I would thank you for your word. I would thank you that it challenges us. Lord, I pray that it would change us. And it's so easy to get focused on ourselves and our own things and our own way and completely ignore you. Even followers of Christ can fall into that temptation. So Lord, I pray that you would help us to love you, to love your word, to hear good doctrine, to proclaim the truth so that we're drawn back to you, so that we live a life of godliness. Lord, as we've been studying through these various relationships, we see what a difference a life in you makes. So, Father, I pray that you would help us to live for you and not for ourselves, recognizing that you gave your life for us. but you rose again. What an amazing thing. And with that, you give us new life. Help us to live differently because of it. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.