What a blessing that is to hear those young people sing in the specials. People say, I don't think I could ever do that. You'd be surprised what you can do if you just, well, kind of what we were being taught tonight, if you just surrender, it's that surrender part. It's like, I don't want to give off, I'm afraid, I have fear, pride, you name it. It'll always be there, but when you surrender, That's when victory comes. You get victory over that fear, victory over the pride, and God is glorified. That brings glory and honor to God. Thank you for that. If you have your Bibles and you've turned to... First Timothy chapter six, we're going to look at verses six through 10, and then we'll kind of get into our outline for this evening, and we'll look at what the Bible has to say as Paul is instructing again. Timothy, as we're working through this, keep in mind our context is the Apostle Paul giving instructions to a pastor here, and tonight we're gonna look at godly contentment. Godly contentment, we're going to deal with money and myths and we're going to get into all kinds of stuff as the Lord wills. We got plenty of time here, but 1 Timothy chapter six, if you found your place, look with me in verse number six, 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, let us be there with 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, which while some covet after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Heavenly Father, we bow before you tonight. And Father, we do thank you for the blessings we have enjoyed that you have given us today. And Father, just here in the last hour or so, the singing and the special singing, and Father, the lessons and the thoughts and the prayers that have went in to the services tonight. And Father, I ask that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit. And Father, as your word goes out, I pray that it would be used for edifying, for grace, ministering grace. And Father, allowing us to learn about you and about your way and about Father, what your word has for us and how we should live and how we should walk as Christians. And Father, we ask that our hearts would be attentive to this tonight in our lesson. Be with everyone here. I pray you'd give a blessing. Father, I want to say thank you for answering prayer that we've put before you this week. And Father, what a blessing that we can easily say, boldly say that we pray to a God that has the power to answer prayer and abundantly and we're thankful for that tonight and we don't ever want to take that for granted. Be with us tonight just in these few moments. I pray that we would lay aside our our dealings and father our business of the day just for a moment here where we can rest in your word and father we pray that you would be with us tonight. Be with those that are watching and those that are listening and I pray that you would give them a blessing as well that you would lift them up and father those that maybe we hadn't mentioned in our prayer request that need your healing hand on them and need lifting up, need a blessing, need encouragement, and need the strength that only can come from you. I pray that you would give them a blessing tonight and meet with them as well. We ask this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Here, as we just look at just a few verses tonight in Timothy, as we move on through the last chapter in 1 Timothy, we see some things. There are three myths that I want to go over briefly to get started here concerning money, and it will lead people, it leads Christians astray. And I want to deal with the first one, the myth, and now this is just my way of introduction now. I do have an outline, and I'll give it to you here in a moment. But myth number one, the prosperity is a divine right. Prosperity is a divine right. That is a myth. That is not true. It's not backed up by Bible. And you say, well, do we serve a God that can give us blessings? Absolutely. And a lot of times, you and I, matter of fact, I can say this on authority, we live in a world and in a country and a nation and a church around people, and we are blessed. We are blessed people. You say, well, I don't have very much. You don't have to have a lot. If you have somehow in your mind, got it worked up in your mind that, well, my blessing is based off of what I have, you're messed up. You need help. You need spiritual help tonight. And so here, the first myth is prosperity is a divine right. The Bible says in Job chapter 34 in verse 10, it says, how much less to him that accepteth not the princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor, for they all are the work of his hands. And so we see God doesn't view the rich any differently than the poor. He is no respecter of persons. And so we see myth number one, prosperity is a divine right, and that is not true, amen? I've run across a blue million, quite a few, let me say it the correct way, quite a few Christians who have made this statement come out of their mouth, allowed it to come out, well, look at everything God has given me, so that is my, I know I'm right with God. I was thinking, man. Satan can give you a lot of stuff too. Matter of fact, if you go over there and look at that temptation in the wilderness about Christ, he was trying to give things away and get him to do things. So Satan is more of the God of things and prosperity. God says, you're blessed because you're my child. You're blessed because you've received my son, Jesus Christ. You're blessed because you're saved by grace. And you're blessed because I have given and granted mercy to you. And that's why you and I are blessed tonight, A million dollars in the bank are just barely two pennies to rub together. Let's get into this second myth. Myth number two, it's my money. As a child, I grew up in a Christian, if you haven't been taught that what you have, what little money you have, or however much money you have, if you think it is yours, you're sadly mistaken. You're not, would be not classified as a good steward. So the myth number two is, it's my money. and other blessings originate with God. Amen? Even if we have worked to attain them. And so this is the mindset or the heart set. should be of a child of God. Even a young Christian, a young child of God, as they learn and develop and their relationship in their Christian life, they learn and realize from the word of God, it's not my money. God has given it to me, what I have, and I am stewarding of that, of what God has given me. The Bible says in James chapter one and verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variables, neither shadow of turning. Now we see myth number three. Myth number three is money is evil. You'll hear this. I've heard this from Christians and it's just the wrong concept or maybe they didn't realize what they were saying, but they make the statement money is evil. That is not true. That's another myth. It is not true. It's false. So you're seeing the third falseness. Money and other blessings that we find that we've already said come from God, but money is evil. It's not money itself that is the root of all evil. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. And you'll see that in verse 10, and we read it just a few moments ago, but it's in our text for tonight. Now let's look at our outline tonight. I'll see if I can get through the whole thing. But number one, if you're looking at an outline form regarding contentment, number one, regarding contentment, we're gonna find that in verses six through eight. And I'll break that down. And then we'll see secondly, regarding greed. We look in verse nine, and we'll see what he says about greed. And then thirdly, we'll have regarding covetousness. And so we'll see that in verse 10, and we'll break these down as we go through this evening if we have the time. Let's stick with our first one for tonight, so we got the myths out of the way. And we're gonna look at verses six through eight a little bit closer now. We'll examine some phrases and maybe some words that are used here. And I wanna say by starting this in verse six through eight, we'll see some believers view wealth and monetary gain as a sign that they were godly or that they are godly. The real gain is godliness with contentment. Amen? God says that this is great gain, godliness with contentment. This is great gain, not wealth or money or having things. And so we get a little bit, I'm gonna use the word backwards in our thinking or our approach when we deal with what God has given or blessed us with. So I wanna say that again, believers will view wealth and monetary gain as a sign that they were godly or that they are godly. That, again, is not true. The real gain here, according to Scripture, is godliness with contentment. Look at verse 6, and it just says it. But godliness with contentment is great gain. And we see that this is not walked around. This is very clear. Then we see in verse 7, 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, I wanna look at this in two different ways. Contentment comes through two types of living. Two types of living, I believe, is mentioned here, and I wanna say, number one, through godly living, all right? Contentment comes through godly living. You say, well, I don't know if I'm living a godly life. Well, if you have a strong relationship, a healthy relationship with God in his word, both of them, then you're going to have your heart pretty much, if you're open to being able to surrender to God, the Holy Spirit and His Word, you're going to realize that you're up for whatever God states or whatever He teaches for you, for your life, your Christian life. So we're saying that through godly living, So contentment comes through this. A godly life will be content with the sufficiency that God provides. One of the questions you could ask to see if you actually are in a godly living is are you content with what God has given you, what you have presently? Are you content and happy in the Lord in that, what you have? You say, well, I'm not. I've been busy about trying to. figure out where I can get the second job or do this or do that. Well, let me tell you this right up front, just a little counseling. If it takes you away from God and the things of God, I wouldn't be going in that direction. But I need the money. Well, let's pray. Let's pray to God and see if God can open those doors. You might be shocked. Your boss that you currently have might come to you and say, hey, I need to give you a raise. Can you do this for me? And by the way, I'm going to give you some extra time so you can be with your family or you can go to church on Sunday or Wednesday night and here you are. God can open, God can make a way for you. But when you have a tendency as Christians, we walk away from the things of God. God is not for that. Now Satan will make a way to you. His way, the Bible says his way is broad. It's easy to get through and it has lights and it's alluring and it's attractive. You ever have one of those kind of offers and like, man, this is great, but it takes you farther away from the things of God. So what God's got to be for, because it's for my benefit. No, not necessarily. That's not what the Bible teaches. And here we're seeing that contentment comes through godly living. I want to say this, look at the word there he uses. He says godly. Godly means to have true holiness, our spirituality, and virtue. And then he uses the word, if you look at verse 6, contentment. If you look at that word there in verse 6, he says contentment. Contentment, it means a condition of life in which no aid or support is needed. It refers to sufficiency of the necessities of life. You are content with what you have. I could easily say with honesty, not that I try to speak in dishonesty, but when I was younger, I was never really content with how much money I made or what I had, and I always wanted more, and I wanted to make more. But there was always that line when I began to go after that, that there was a line that I run up across. Now, I could have easily went over that and probably did, if I could look back and be even a little bit more honest with you. But that line was, well, how far are you going to go and still call yourself a good Christian? How far are you going to go? Are you going to kind of like, you kind of get into this area where we call it situational ethics. Depending on the situation you're in depends on what type of ethics you use. You say, was that biblical? No, it's satanic. But Christians like using that, so they'll get themselves in a situation, a pickle, or if you please, a bind, or maybe something they get interested in, but what you don't realize is it'll take you farther away from God, and what it defines you as is that you're not content with what God has given you. I'm all for bettering yourself. I'm definitely for that. I'm for, if you're a man, you should have a job. And if you need to, you get to, but you don't sacrifice your love and commitment to God, especially, he says here, contentment. And so here, contentment means a condition in your life that you don't need aid, you don't need more support. You are sufficient in what God has given you, especially dealing with the necessities of life. So we see, number one, that contentment comes through godly living, but something else here. I wanna share, actually, let's go to Colossians. We'll look at a few verses here. Let me add to this. Turn to the left. And Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, just back to the left there a little bit. You will read verse one. It says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ setteth on the right hand of God. Speaking of heaven, set your affections on things above. Set your affections on things, there it is, above. Verse two, not on things on the earth, And so you'll find sometimes dealing with Christians and the struggles that they have. just can't keep it together is because your affections are centered on things that are around you in your life, rather than things that are in heaven, rather than the things of God. And when you have a tendency to be disappointed, discouraged, struggling, not able to have victory, it's because you're thinking you're focusing on things on this earth, things of self, rather than things above and things of God, others. And it becomes a problem for the child of God. So we see here this contentment about contentment. Number one, through godly living. And we see something else. The godly believer trusts in the Lord. The godly believer is going to put their trust in the Lord. A good Christian learns to live in a true relationship with God, not a false one, not one that where we call putting on the dog, not one where you act one way in front of everybody and then behind closed doors, you're actually somebody else. He said, I don't think anybody can see that. You'd be shocked at what God gives people who have just a little discernment to see that there's two different types of people inside one person. Some of the stuff you begin to look at if they're saved is you look at victory in their lives, and they don't have any. You know, something is not being honest about it. But I'm saying tonight, I'm making this statement. I'm gonna share with you Philippians chapter four, and we're gonna read here in verse 11. And I'm making the statement, a good Christian learns to live in a true relationship with God. See, can you have a false one? Yes. Yes, you can. Verse 11, Philippians chapter four verse 11, the Bible says, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, and it does take some learning, some instruction, in whatsoever state I am, that means whatever state, that means whether you're up, you're down, indifferent, good, bad, wherever you're at, whatever state I'm there with to be content, verse 12, I know both how to be, what's he say there? abased, and I know how to abound everywhere. And in all things I am instructed, and you are too, and I am too, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer for need, or suffer need. So he goes on, let's look at verse 13. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. That's where the source comes from. That's why I'm making a good Christian, a true Christian learns to live in a true relationship, not a false relationship with God. I wanna say not only does contentment come through godly living, I wanna say secondly that contentment comes through discerning living, through discerning living. The believer has the spiritual foresight to see his life in the light of eternity rather than in the light of the temporal. Realize that a lot of the stuff that we deal with day to day is in the temporal. It's in a time management zone, you might say. But God says for the child of God, look, you want contentment. One of the ways it's going to come through is discerning living. You're going to discern it through eternity. You're going to look and view your life and what you do for God through eternity. Rarely do we We kind of look at our life that way. We look for the moment, this week, today, tomorrow, what our desires are, what our ambitions are, what our dreams are. And it's not through the lens of eternity. But one of the ways to have contentment is through discerning living. I have an illustration here in my notes. When John D. Rockefeller died, His aid was asked how much he left behind. And the man wisely answered, he left it all behind. And so it doesn't matter how much you have or how little you have. You're not taking anything with you in eternity. Eternity is different than time. And it's kind of hard for our minds, including mine, to grasp eternity. We want to put a beginning to it, and we want to put an end to it. It's hard, hard to see. I think some of the best light you get on that is if you're able or willing to view eternity through God's eyes. Whether it makes sense to you or not, you kind of put some faith with what the Bible says about it and how God views eternity. God is instructing you and I tonight through the word that, look, we need to be looking to have godly contentment. We need to have some discerning living about eternity. We need to be looking and viewing eternity with the decisions and the things that we do down here as Christians. I wanna say this, the believer has the spiritual foresight to see his life in the light of eternity. Why? Well, contentment is the opposite of covetousness. Number one, you got a person who's covetous or covets things, you're gonna have some trouble. 1 Timothy, let's go back to our text. I'm gonna say contentment is the opposite of covetousness Contentment produces the attitude of humility. Contentment produces the attitude of humility. I wanna say this, many people today have an entitlement attitude. You think you just, it's well, it's there, so if I need it, then I should take it. Well, I don't know about all you, but I grew up just a little bit different. There was no entitlement. ever given. You're not entitled to anything. You should have the attitude of just being blessed to be here. And so that that produces a humility. I know some people say, well, even if I was raised that way, I still don't have that attitude. Well, you can be rebellious. I still believe in the free will. You can be rebellious even with good training. and it'll be on your heart motive. But I wanna say this, one feels he deserves it, that's entitlement, that he wants it before someone else gets it. The attitude is I must have it to make my life better. Look at verse 17 in our text, 1 Timothy chapter six and verse 17. Now I have jokingly used this verse out of context. Sometimes and I here's what here I'm gonna show it to you. So I don't lead anybody astray Charge them that are rich in this world. That was my business motto verse But that's not what the verse is actually saying the charge there is in an invoice That charge there is kind of what I'm doing tonight to you and It's a challenge that I'm saying, look, you need to live your Christian life with contentment, godly contentment, and I'm going to challenge you, charge you to obey the scriptures. Now, you don't have to, I don't have to, but that's what he's talking about there. The context, the charge is like a preacher or a teacher would exhort you or charge you to do something correctly. All right, you've had those speeches at work. Now, this is what we need to do this week. We have this goal to reach. Everybody needs to do twice what they normally, you know, whatever, however they approach it. They're charging you, they're sending you a charge, so charge them. That are rich. Those people, those Christians that think that Great gain is godliness. Now watch what he says here in verse 17. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded. So it's not humility that they have, but high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. You say, what are you saying? Well, first thing I'm going to say is, look, you don't need to be high-minded about what God has blessed you with. Number two, you don't need to have the ability to trust in what God has given you, but to trust in the living God who give it to you. Not what you have. God is not in the substance. He is the provider. Not in the provision. He's the provider. And so we see not only just in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. They're to be enjoyed and to be used as good stewards. So verse 17 has to do with that. A lot of Christians have that entitlement type attitude and it's wrong, it's not scriptural. I wanna say this, we must decide between needs, wants and desires. This is what I would preach to my children is you have three categories. You have needs, you have wants and you have desires. The first thing that God is obligated and the only thing God is obligated to give you is to take care of your needs. And he defines them as food and raiment to be content with that. You're clothed tonight and you've probably eaten something in the last two or three weeks. Not today, not yesterday. You might have went a week, you might be on a fast. You can go probably somewhere around 30 days if you got a normal health about you. Some people are not able to. due to poor health or whatever have you, and I understand that. But God says that's the need. You say, that's not a lot. Well, again, our mind, I'm telling you, our mind is a lot of times, our imagination's so much higher than the knowledge of God. And what does the Bible tell us to do when we have that situation? 2 Corinthians chapter 10, what's he tell us to do? Cast it down. pulling down every imagination that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. So we must decide between needs, wants, and desires. I say this leads into the next thing. Look at verse 9 with me. But they that will be rich fall into temptation. in a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." And he says, but they that will be rich fall. Not all of them, but this is one of the problems with getting or exceeding or having God bless you, is you get the wrong heart motive and the wrong mindset. And he says, look, you need to be careful of this. This gets into greed. Money is a gift from God, but God calls us to contentment rather than greed. Let me say that again. Money is a gift from God, but God calls us to contentment rather than greed. What's one of the things? Being in a small business, we'd have opportunities to bid and estimate on jobs that had a lot of profit in them. You could make some good money. If the weather's right, The material lineup is right and the logistics is right. Your coordination with the subs and the GC that you're working with, everything lines up. And it's an easy job. Every job has its complexity. If you're building scaffold up 15 stories, it's gonna take a lot of manpower and a lot of scaffold rental. But if everything's down low and you can reach everything that you need and you can move around the job and the project line, you can move quickly, you can make some good money. And you go from, let's just say, 20% to 50%, 60%, whatever it is. And then you look at the next job. You look at the next job, and you want to do that on every job. And then you begin to say, well, I can do two jobs at one time. Then I can do three jobs at one time. And you begin to streamline and to really strategize when it comes to business. You grow a brain real quick when it comes to money, greed. And the last thing that ever enters the mind, because you're thinking of all the money you can make if you just work, is you're gonna forget God. Number one, that's your relationship with God. He's gotta go to the back burner. You love God, you're saved. God loves you, you know that. But you kinda just step out a little bit further because you think God's blessing you. God could be testing you. I've been there more than one time. And then God wants to know what you're going to do. Are you going to keep with what you've been taught and what you know is right? Or are you just going to kind of forget that and walk over that? Greed. Regarding greed. Look at verse nine. But they that will be rich. And he says, will be rich. Look at that project. That's a nice project. Fall into temptation. Man, I know James has a lot to say about this area right here. And he says, and into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. You say, what is that? All that's good. It all looks good, it all sounds good, and you can get paid on it, but I'll tell you what you're sacrificing on an altar. You don't realize you're doing it. You're taking a knife and you're whacking up your relationship with God and the things of God and the work of God. The next thing you're going to sacrifice on this altar of greed is you're going to sacrifice your family, and your relationship with your wife, maybe with your husband, and your children, and their relationship with God. Because all that's got to go on the back burner. You say, I can do both. That's from Satan. He's the guy of juggling. He can juggle. And he'll try to convince you you can juggle. God says, no, to obey is better than sacrifice. And so Paul's teaching this young pastor here, look, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. You say, why did he put that verse in there? Because more often than not, you're gonna fall into this verse right here. Now there are many Christians who have an excellent balance with their relationship with God, their relationship with family, and they haven't forgot those. They don't lay them to the side, but it might sacrifice some of their business or what they do. But God still blesses in other ways. He might bless you with health. He might bless you with a beautiful family. He might bless you with a number of things. A great ministry. He might bless you with a great business because he knows that greed is not going to get a hold of you. And he can give you more because you can manage more. And so here we see in this verse that, well, it's going to happen. And he says in the latter part, he says, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. And it is, it's going to be foolish and it's going to be hurtful. Ultimately, pain is gonna be involved because it was a foolish move. Looks good. And he says, which drowned men in destruction and perdition. So we see this, that a desire for wealth, you have to be careful. Riches and wealth are not wrong, but when that is the desire and motivation in your life, then that's when it's dangerous. He says, that will be rich, to will deliberately. That phrase, that will be rich, to have a purpose, be minded of willingness as an affection or desire. That's what you are about. You say, how do I know if I'm in that category? Well, you just talk three or four minutes and you can tell right where somebody's at. Maybe five or 10 minutes in what they talk about and what they don't talk about. And so here, it's not hard to pick up on. I wanna say two things here, and then we'll break one of them down. A desire for wealth, and then secondly, we see the dangers of covetousness under this greed in verse nine. Covetousness may appear innocent, but it has a serious consequence with it. Covetousness, it doesn't come off like you're actually truly coveting something. You might have a selfish desire to please yourself. That's covetousness. It's going to be a greed. And you're going to be all about uno, number one. What makes me look good? I don't like to look bad in front of people. So if that's happening, I'm out. Your mind can go a million different ways. Think about it. So covetousness can be many different. It has different looks and takes. But ultimately, as a serious consequence with it, a dangerous of covetousness, greed is a part of it. Let me, let me, let me look at the verse. Look at verse nine again, but they that will be rich fall into, what's he say there? All right. So number one, I see a bad trap. This is a temptation. This will work for any temptation that you have in your life. If you struggle with An addiction, and I'm saying addiction is something that you keep, you can't get a battle over or victory over. And it's a battle with you. Might be reading your Bible, might be praying, it might be coming to church, it might be witnessing. It might be looking at something that you shouldn't be looking at. It might be something that you do that you shouldn't be doing. So here, temptation, he says here, it's a bad trap. Temptation means an enticement to sin. A snare means to trap, like in a noose. He said in temptation and a snare. Some of us have either read books, that would be me, read books and you read about these frontier magazines that you get and how they set traps and snares for, you know, small game. And it's amazing how well those things work if you practice at it and work at it and then use them and you get experience with it. But a snare is a very effective tool to catch something in, whether a bird, rabbit, squirrel, you name it, even people, amen? I think the military will teach some of that stuff in their guerrilla warfare program. But a bad trap, and it's a temptation, it might be led into by temptation, a funnel into or desire to go into, into the snare. And he's saying here, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Number one, the dangers of it, it's a bad trap. I have a quote here by Albert Barnes, They are tempted to do wicked things in order to accomplish their purpose. That's some of the hardest things sometimes to get a Christian. You can say, if you just look at this and you, me, I get a little basic here, stick their head under the water and hold it until they start thinking right or something. I don't know. It's like, if you can see it, sometimes you just gotta be quiet and pray. They are tempted to do wicked things in order to accomplish their purpose. I think it's, here's the phrase, the ends justify the means. So if your end goal is to do something good and you have the means to do, to get that accomplished, it doesn't matter what you do in between to get that accomplished. The ends justify the means. Did that come from the Bible? No, it comes from Satan. That's why the quote says, they are tempted to do wicked things in order to accomplish their purpose. And they'll justify the wickedness and the wrongness by the means of making it look good. All to say, well, look at what I got. Look what I did. Look at what I accomplished. God is with me. God blesses that. Blessed be the name of God. What did King Saul said that? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Yeah, well, God rent the kingdom from his hand. because he was willing to sacrifice, but he wasn't willing to obey. So here we see a bad trap. Secondly, I see something else when we look at this is a bad end. The end of it is not good. The end of it isn't godly. The end of it doesn't have eternity. from its viewpoint, it's not looking at eternity at all, it's looking at the present or the temporal. These two words, destruction and perdition, look at that. Verse nine, now we're still in verse nine, stick with me, about done here. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. We could develop that, but here I wanna get to these two words, which drown men in, say it with me, destruction and perdition. So we see these two words, and they are strong terms, strong words. When you look at them, they define the destructiveness of the lust for money and possession. All right, many men are in hell because they let money deceive them into thinking they didn't need anything else. So I like to see Bible on that. Take your Bible and turn to James chapter five. Hopefully you do have a Bible tonight. James chapter five. I'm watching the clock here, I'm about out of time. James chapter five in verse one, quickly, he says in verse one, go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you. and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labor who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud." Yeah, I don't want to pay the servants worthy of his hire. Let's, well. And it says in Criath, by Franti, Criath, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. It says, ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton, ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. I like what Daniel told that king over there, over in Daniel's day when that hand wrote on the wall. And basically what it said is that You are being measured, you are found wanting. And so God's gonna require that wantonness from you tonight. And so he took that kingdom. God can do the same thing to you in your life, anybody. if we get wrapped up in this greed and covetousness. Regarding covetousness, let me just enter this real quick and I'll read through my notes. I am out of time. In verse 10, if you go back to our text and you read verse 10, it says, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet after they have erred from the faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. The apostle Paul walks us through a progression of what happens when a person covets. We see number one, a misplaced love. That love is misplaced, it's not in God and the things of God, it's in money. Money is in itself is not evil, but we see that our attitude toward it can be evil. Psalms 119.36 gives us light on this. It says, incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not unto covetousness. We see secondly this progression, a turning from the faith. A misplaced love, a turning from the faith. Greed has led some to abandon the faith. Alright? While some covet after they have erred from the faith. That's what the verse 10 says. And then we see that in this is, we see that it draws, it's drawn away due to income, due to money. Many faithful Christians have been drawn away from the church and the Lord for the dollar, almighty dollar. I need this. I have to have it. And it pulls you away. Secondly, turn away due to debt. Many stop giving to the Lord because they are so far in debt and they resent any preaching or teaching or speaking about giving or special offerings. They get mad, they get upset. You say, what is that? Well, two things. It's negative confirmation that you're probably teaching or preaching right, number one. Number two, you know somebody has a problem in the heart when it comes to giving. Paul instructs the disciples to remember the words of the Lord in Jesus Christ and how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive in Acts chapter 20 verse 35. Listen tonight, I know we would end kind of here regarding this covetousness and greed. Give is an honor and an opportunity that we have as Christians, yet many Christians Good Christians struggle with it. God's desire for his children to avoid greed, but beyond that, he wants us to be a people ready to give back the blessings that he has given you and I. And he blesses you and I each and every day. I would probably rather have God answer my prayer than have money or riches. I would rather have a relationship with God than have money or riches. I always found in my little bubble that anytime I had an excess of money that I was at ease and my relationship with God was weak because I trusted more in that rather than God. It always worked that way and God was always kind enough and merciful enough to bring that up to me and says, when I bless you, this is what I get. When he blesses you, what do you do? Hopefully you're stronger in your relationship. Hopefully you're giving in your relationship tonight. Heavenly Father, we bow before you tonight. Father, we ask that you would show us. And Father, as we've heard tonight, teach us from your word, instruct us not to be covetousness, not to have the sin of covetousness and not to be greedy, but to be a cheerful giver. And Father, not to give in to the world's philosophy or maybe a philosophy that we've had or love or adopt. I pray that our hearts would be soft and tender to your instruction here to Timothy and also to us as well. Be with our hearts. And Father, I pray if you find any air in our ways, in our hearts, that you would purge it and clean it. And Father, wash us in your hyssop. And Father, teach us and instruct us from your words and your testimonies and your statutes. Be with our hearts tonight. Let us not just walk out of the doors and go on our merry way, but let us contemplate, Father, what your word is teaching and how you want us to apply it in every part of our life not just in the ones we're comfortable with, but every part of our life tonight. Be with our invitation time, and I pray that you would have your will and your way in your people's hearts tonight. We ask this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Let's all stand, and we'll sing with Brother Jeff. He picked a song for us. Brother Jeff. 324. 324.