First Timothy lesson 33 continued

Chapter 6, verses 6 through 10. I'm going to read all the verses, or down to 6, 7, 8. Verse 6, I had a couple of translations. The first one was the King James that says, Godliness with contentment is a great gain. New American Standard says, but godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

So we spent one and a half classes talking about what is contentment. For we brought nothing into this world, we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment, let us be content. So that's what we've been working on a little bit on the last couple of chapters. If we have the things we need is food and clothing, and we should be content with what we have. Now you can't tell Macy's that, but that's really what it's about. It's not about fashion design.

So then we got down to verses 9 and 10. 9 said, But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and too many foolish and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition. New American Standard said, but those who want to get rich fall into temptation and the snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. And 10 says, 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. New American Standard, for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. So we had touched on question eight. About does the word will or want to come from emotion or from your will? It comes from our will. We know that.

Is it possible to be poor and have a burning desire still to be rich? The answer was yes, it is. Mature consideration has been given the matter of the acquisition of riches with the result that the desire has become a settled and planned procedure. So this means that the person that wants to be rich has decided that that's what he's going to do or she's going to do. This is a plan that you have. We've been sold for ever since I've been alive in this country that this is the American dream. healthy, wealthy, and wise.

And married. Well, now, yeah. But what's interesting is, is being rich the problem? No. What's the problem? The love of... It's the desire to be rich. You'll notice, and we've talked about this a lot, in Romans chapter 7. What's the big problem with Romans chapter 7?

The sin nature basic characteristic is one thing, it desires. It desires. And trust me, it doesn't desire anything for your good. That's what it does, it desires. So And wealth is one of those things, or money, is one of those things that the desire for it is the problem. The money is not the problem. It's the desire for it. Every once in a while in your life you'll meet a really wealthy Christian guy who has all this money, has no desire to have it.

You know, this friend of Miles Stanford's, Jake Deal from Amarillo, had millions of dollars, had no heirs, and was in a real quandary of what to do with the money when he died. And we talked several times about it. I don't know what to say to him. I have no experience in what a guy does who has a bunch of money and no heirs. I suggested he might give it to me.

But it was a real quandary for him. Because all of his life, his wealth, he wasn't the most spiritual guy in the world, but he understood about wealth. And if he supported, at one time he was supporting 100 new tribes missionaries, a hundred of them. And if they would come home on furlough, he would go out and serve their posts for three months.

That's the kind of guy he was. And he was a Texas guy, kind of a tough guy. When you meet him, he says, I'm Jake Deal, I'm a bulldoze driver. That's what he was. He drove me by his house one time in Amarillo, this sprawling ranch house with a trout pond in the back where I guess in Texas it's a bass pond. He said, what am I going to do with this? What should I do with it? I raised my hand, yeah. No, I didn't want to live in Amarillo. You know, wealth is an interesting thing. I mean, some people are smart and savvy and they can generate wealth. But a lot of times, too, I mean, you can have really hard-working people who never get rich. It's not because they mismanage things.

It's just, you know, so there's a lot involved in it that the Lord just and chooses to put certain people in certain circumstances. For some people it's a trial one way or the other, frankly. To have wealth is a trial of its own. To be in poverty is a trial of its own. The Lord uses it all very specifically and carefully in our lives.

It's not good or bad, it's just... Obviously there are situations where people squander wealth and end up poor. But again, it's just... Well, you read about these people that win millions of dollars in the lottery and then within ten years they're dead broke. I've often thought that God calls certain people to be wealthy and to be stewards of the money that He gives them. And it's interesting, you don't decide that, He decides that for you. And so a lot of times I think If you come into wealth, the first question you should ask is, Lord, what do you want me to do with this? I don't need it. I don't need any more clothes. I don't need to eat more expensive food. What do you want me to do? And that's a hard question, because what does he want you to do? Because all you have to do is let...

It's like Holly Hills for quite some time had a reputation within the homeless. and the gypsy community that we were a soft touch. And about every three weeks, here they came. But then we shut off the last two and we haven't had anybody since then. Not that we're not generous, we are, but people take advantage of us.

It's a hard thing if you're If you have more than two nickels, what do you do with it? How do you vet the people that need your help? It's a hard thing. It's a hard thing now. If you have millions of dollars and you give a million dollars to somebody, We think about this at Camp Heland, that's why it comes up sometimes. If Camp Heland got $20 million, is that a good thing? Because we have so many people who are invested, giving to camp, and it's a blessing for them to do that. be invested as much in prayer and time and effort if, you know, you've got a $20 million thing. So it's, even if, you know, it's, money can hurt people too, you know, not the other person who has it, but giving it away. So has your board turned down donations like that? We haven't had that yet.

We've had some amazing things. It's amazing. It's really rewarding to be on the board when you see these things. today. He answered in so many ways. In the financial, 2008, 2009, in the financial crash, we thought, boy, what's going to happen? And actually our giving went up in those years. Well, it's the same thing that's happened here. Over the last, I don't know how many years, 25 years, we were ready to close the doors. And the Lord has just provided And we don't have any multi-millionaire benefactors around here.

First, let's talk about question 10. The words or plunge our present tense. Is that harmful? I'll read what King James says. Those who want to get rich fall into the temptation and snare. And many foolish and harmful desires will full plunge them into ruin and destruction. So the question is, what does the word plunge, being in the present tense, what does that tell us? Fall into our present tense and refer to a repeated action. We might say to desire material things to be forever falling into temptation. That's what it's saying. Mine says go away from the faith. Okay. It's a snare. I'll give you a good idea.

My first lesson in giving And when I first became a Christian at 35, giving money to a church, that wasn't going to happen. I was going to keep all of my money. But then I met Miles Stanford and I thought, I ought to be magnanimous and send him some money. You know what he did? He sent it back to me. with a note that said, you're not ready to help me. I was almost embarrassed.

But that was the right point. He was right about that. My motive wasn't right. Sure. Yeah. You know, it's not the riches, it's the possession. It's the desire for the possession. It's the desire for the, you know, ten million dollar donation or whatever. And this applies to all, the whole spectrum of wealth, whether you got a hundred and fifty dollars in the bank, or a million and a half, or a hundred and fifty million. It doesn't matter whether you have money or not. It's the desire that's the problem.

See that? What you find, I think, over time, if these verses become part of your mindset, the Lord takes care of those who belong to Him with what He thinks is suitable for you and you're content about it. That's okay. And we know a lot of people that are like that, like the Hansons are like that. They're content. They would rather be involved. It has nothing to do with notoriety or riches or anything like that. They just want to serve.

I write these questions and then I look at them and think, what was I after? If what's written here is condemned ambition to excel in some lawful activity, in other words, if I'm excelling in any activity that's lawful, can my ambition for that be condemned? Yes. Well, you just can't say yes. You've got to explain. Who does the plunging? So then I was thinking, is this desire that leads into temptation and is trapped, that ends up in ruin and destruction, is that divine punishment? Or divine discipline? Or divine destruction? Yeah, I mean, I don't think we can discount the fact that the Lord sometimes will allow or even promote something like this happening in a believer's life. My friend Bob Strong used to put it this way.

He'd say, you know, the Lord will give you enough cotton candy so that you get thirsty. What he meant by that is that, you know, you eat cotton candy until nonstop and what's the result? I'm thirsty and I'm sick. Yeah. So there are circumstances where something like that will happen. Maybe ask this question. How long does it take the Lord to teach us that all the circumstances in your life, no matter what they are, were ordained of Him? So that you're aware of that and you're settled on that issue. no matter what they are. They came in your life.

You know, it's like the circle and the dot. You draw a big circle and you put a dot in the middle of it. The dot is you. The circle is God's sovereignty. And you live inside of God's sovereignty. And nothing comes to you that He doesn't ordain to bless you. Now, your sin nature doesn't look at it that way. But that's what he's doing.

How many of you are settled on that idea? That no matter what it is, even failure and sickness, whatever it is, that it's designed by God to bless you. Most of us, if we're honest, will say, oh, woe me. Why me? You know, rather than, Thank you, Lord. See that?

Especially in our country, wealth is... If there's ever been a guy that promotes wealth, it's Donald Trump. He's flashing cash all the way, you know. Everything's the biggest, the best, the most beautiful, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. A million dollar gold visa.

Yeah. Yeah, gee. Yeah, so... I wrote this down. Along with the desire for riches comes the desire for ease. For what? Ease. E-A-S-E. the desire for power and always the desire for more, the desire for material things creates ruin and destruction. I mean, our history books are full of that. They're full of that. Okay, last question, so you've got to keep it going until the time's up.

God's beating in me to sovereignty, which everything's in His control and He allows it. The second where I always tag on to it is that He loves you. He has an eternal love. Romans 8, 36, 71, where you have an eternal, He has an eternal love for you. So if He's sovereignly in control and He lets you sin, lets you go to trials, lets you do it, as long as you, I mean, you know He's sovereign, but the root of all of it is that He loves you. Then it gives you the peace. it for his purposes. And that gives you, at least gives me, a peace. I'm going through this again. A year ago, October, when I lost my email for six weeks. Oh, I remember that. Well, he's doing it to me again. I didn't pray for you. I have thought about that after. I'm much more peaceful this time. The Lord's in control of all this. He taught me that the last time. He allows all this and He's in control of it.

I like the documents. You're in His army. And if you just look at the world and how you're living in it, He's allowing you to do that. You still have a will, but He's using all things, material, all different kinds, everything. He knows about it. But the important part is that He loves you. And that whatever He's taking you through, a trial, a medical, whatever, He's using it somehow to conform you to the image of Christ or to glorify God or something. But He loves you. He still loves you.

Let's talk about that for a minute. I'm going to do something on the end of my sermon this morning that I got from J.B. Stoney, and it's called Grace in Practice. And Stoney's going to, I hope I can present this right, Stoney comes up with a thing called the Ladder of Grace steps. And the first one you're saved, The second one you begin to find out. Don't write them down. The third one is the most important one. I make acquaintance with him. What does that mean? That he's more than just somebody I read about. And from that, everything else happens.

So like you talk a lot about the love of God, the love of God is something that the Lord desires for every believer to have to some degree an intimacy with Christ so that you know without a doubt that he loves you. You've made acquaintance with him. And you can't be acquainted with the Lord Jesus and not walk away from that and think you're not loved, because that's what you learn. The God of the universe loves me.

And so when you have that in you, and if you don't, we used to say in the Marine Corps, stand by, your turn's coming. He will do that. He will do that because it's one thing to say the words. It's another thing to actually live your life based on the fact that God loves me. I know He does because He has shown me that He does, not because He gave me this or gave me that or protected me. I just see Him in the Word personally, that He cares about me, which causes, in the scenario that grace is what causes you to function on a spiritual level, pleasing to Him. It isn't because somebody gave you rules. It's because God loves you. All right, last question.

If your desires are set for earthly things, what desires suffer because of it? your union with Christ? Now think about what I ask. That's a nice answer, but do you have the desire to be in union with Christ? In other words, does God give you, through His Spirit, desires for Him?

Now some people think, well, God gave me a desire to be a scholar, a biblical scholar. I'm not so sure about that one. That's what seminary is all about. Your sin nature gives you desires like all sorts of evil, in this case the love of money. What kind of desires, maybe ask it that way, what kind of desires has the Lord given you for Him? What do you want? What does he put in you that, boy, I wish I had this? Now, I have people who, and actually, this is probably the question I get asked the most.

I don't have any rest. How do I find rest? Right there shows the need. Need is there. So what do I tell them? Memorize scripture? Go to church every Sunday? Twice on Wednesday? What do I tell them? Somebody came to you and said, I'm a believer, but I don't have any rest. Can you help me? What would you tell them? Cut the sugar. You'd say what? Cut the sugar out.

We're doing Galatians in the other class and we're coming up to the fruit of the Spirit and we're thinking about the fruit of the Spirit and we know it's singular, but the one that heads the list is love. And I think when we are settled, like you've been talking about here, when we're settled on God's love, all the rest flows out of it. Peace, patience, joy, all these things. I think it's all rooted in love.

And so I think it goes back to what desire does God give us spiritually? It really ultimately I think could be best defined as desire for intimacy with Him. Desire to know Him deeply and personally and to be like Him, to be able to fellowship with Him you know, like He is, which is exactly what He's doing in us. That's not what the sin nature wants, we don't...

No. No, and I think you're absolutely right about that, and I also think it's universal in every believer's heart. Because, I mean, salvation, the message of salvation is, come unto me and I will give you rest for your souls. That invitation means that where else are you going to get it? The Lord Jesus has something for you that you cannot get anywhere else. Rest for your souls. I'm gentle and humble at heart and you will find rest for your souls when my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That's the key right there. That's good. That's really good. I'll point out one danger about that.

I suppose we've all noticed that no matter what the appeal from the Lord is, the world's got an answer. You know what the world's answer is to that? Seminary. Why? Because if I get my mind right and educated, and I can say the right things, and I can do grammar, and I understand Greek, I'm going to have rest. It doesn't say that, does it? You come to me personally. I've got the rest.

That's where Bible study and prayer comes in. If you know that that's the motive why you do it. Every time you read the Bible and study the Bible, every time you go to Sunday school or sit in a sermon, what are you there for? I'm there looking for the person of the Lord Jesus. Yeah, I'm gonna get facts. Yeah, I'm gonna get grammar. Yeah, I'm gonna get history.

But all of that doesn't matter as much as, wow, I've got to spend I remember J.B. Stoney one time, I think it's in One of the Hungry Hearts, he said, when's the last time that you sat down with fellow believers and after you got through the niceties, you began to talk about the wonders of the Lord Jesus? When's the last time you did that?

Yeah, and I find that there are few Christians that actually understand what he's talking about. Because we always have programs to do, and we always have this and that, on and on and on. But if you have a place that you can go alone and be quiet with the Lord, boy, treasure that place. This is where I puff you up again. No. I hate doing it. Yeah, as I said, I'm terrible at memorizing scripture. We're going to find out. So terrible at memorizing, but I thought that was the way to really get close to the Lord, memorize. And I couldn't do it.

But you just told me, read it. Don't try to memorize, just read it. And that's the biggest help I've ever had. Just read. And I get so much more out of it, just the personal reading of it. Not to, you know, dig apart the Greek, not do anything like that, but just read scripture. Just read it. And that's the biggest help. It's so simple sometimes, and we really make it complicated. It's just so simple. It's kind of funny, Courtney. When I have a conversation with a person, just the way my brain works, I'll go, so what did Courtney say?

I'm like, I don't know. I don't remember any of the details. But I know, it's like, but when you converse, at least when I converse with someone, you come to know the person. There you go. you know it. I can't relate the facts of it, I can't relate the details of it necessarily, but it's the same way when you're reading scriptures. I can't quote that or tell you where to find that, but I know, I know the Lord, I know him personally.

I know Courtney, if I need help and I go to him, he'll help me. I just know he will, because I know him. Same with Phil. I saw this hat the other day. I almost bought it for Phil for Christmas, but it's too expensive for a baseball cap. It says, I fix things, and I know things. That's Phil. He fixes stuff, and he knows stuff. All right, we're done.

So I'll get the next lesson out to everybody in the next week, and we'll go from there. I think so, but if you guys want to meet Sunday after Christmas, I'm up for that. The 28th? The 28th. Raise your hand if you want to do it. Well, Galatians is on the 28th, because I'm teaching Galatians on the 28th.

OK, then we're going to meet. Good. So we only get a week off. And I told you last week that what I'm going to try to do is coordinate the end of Galatians with the end of this class, so that at that point in February or March, that if you want to go there, You can change without missing anything, and they want to come here, they can change without missing anything. So we'll see if the Lord puts that together. So are you going to go through second Timothy in two months?

Yeah. So you're going to have to pay attention. Let's close. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, our life. and we thank you that you're so desirous that we would know you through him and be conformed and just to be able to fellowship. We thank you, Father. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.