Final Faithful Instructions Pt 2

And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 6. 1 Timothy, chapter 6. We will finish up our study in 1 Timothy this morning. And we said that the theme of all of the pastoral epistles is faithfulness. And we, in each chapter, looked at how we are to be faithful in our lives. What Paul told Timothy he needed to do in order to be faithful as a leader.

And we said that as he came to chapter 6, as we come to this last portion of 1 Timothy, he gives some final faithful instructions where he really goes kind of rapid fire on Timothy with the last things that he wants to be able to tell him as he wraps up this book. And we said that there were six of them all together. And so since this is part two, I should say part two. Since this is part two, I will remind us what we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

The first three of the book. The final instructions that he gave is he said that those who were servants were to honor their masters. He told them the truth about false teachers. And then he talked to them about the necessity of contentment. And that aspect of contentment and the necessity of contentment flows directly into these next three. Because he's going to tell us to fight the good fight, to teach generosity, and to stand guard.

And so we pick up in verse 11 of chapter 6. And it says this. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep the commandment without stain or stain. And so he tells Timothy, fight the good fight. Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen at any point to be honor and glory, or to be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. And so he tells Timothy, fight the good fight. And when he tells him to fight the good fight, the faith of that heading, there's three main things he's going to say.

The first thing that he tells him is that if you are to fight the good fight, number one, you must flee. You must flee. Let me read verse 11 for you again. It says, But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. I would like to point out to you that when he tells him to flee, he refers to him as a man of God.

Now, I really appreciate that. And I bet Timothy really appreciated that. Because that is a phrase. That is reserved for some of the greatest saints in all of Scripture. Some of the greatest men that God used were referred to as man of God. I think of Ezekiel and some of the different prophets that were referred to as man of God. And so as Paul is giving this final instruction to Timothy when he refers to him as a man of God,

there would have been a great deal of confidence built within Timothy to have this statement made of him. And as a young pastor who clearly dealt with fear and a little bit of a lack of confidence, for Paul to remind him, This is who you are, therefore this is who you should be, was a confidence builder for this young man. And so he told him, That word flee means to run away from or to separate yourself from. And the idea in the Greek, when the tense that it's used, means to flee and to make it a habit of fleeing.

In other words, make it your habit to continually run from these things. Well, you should ask yourself a question right now. Probably the same question I ask myself. What are these things? Well, if we look at the direct context, we would jump back up to verse 10. And it says, So what's he telling him to flee from? Well, the direct context of what he's telling him to flee from is he's telling him to flee from the love of money.

Why? Why? Because the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And through it, many have fallen away from the faith. And so he tells him, this is the important thing that you need to know. You need to know to flee from the kind of evil that the love of money produces in our lives. You know, there's only one other time that we're told to flee in Scripture, and that's youthful lusts.

So there's two things that the Bible tells us that we're to run away from. Otherwise, we stand strong. But these two things we run away from, the love of money and lust. The two things that have brought. Down more pastors than just about anything else in the world are the love of money and lust. You throw in pride, and there you have the three things that can bring down any great leader.

And may I say, can bring down any great Christian. And so he says, flee from these things and make it a habit to flee from these things. In other words, if you see this start to crop up again in your life, which, by the way, it will. When you see these things start to crop up again in your life, run from them as fast as you can. Try to get away from them. Separate yourself from them.

But I'll remind us that Paul does not leave us in a vacuum and say, you should just run away from something. Because if we just run away from something, eventually you get tired of running, right? And so what he tells us to do is flee these things. Instead, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. You see, you can't just run from something.

We are to run. To something. Running away from something will just wear you out. Running to something gives you a goal. Running to something gives you purpose. Do you realize the exact same verbiage is used in 2 Timothy, where he also tells Timothy to flee youthful lust and instead to pursue righteousness and holiness and godliness. He tells them the exact same thing.

Because Scripture never tells us just to run from sin. It tells us to run to Jesus. And what does he tell us that we are to do? We are to pursue. That word pursue. It means to run swiftly to catch. The idea is an eager endeavor to acquire. What are we running after to catch? What are we eagerly endeavoring to acquire? Well, he gives us a list. The first thing he tells us to pursue is righteousness.

The idea of righteousness here is not right standing with God. You already have that. You don't need to keep pursuing it. That was given to you by the blood of Jesus Christ the day that you were born again. No, what he means by righteousness is he means right standard of living. In other words, pursue. Pursue the right way to live your life. Pursue a godly lifestyle.

The second thing he tells us to pursue is godliness. The idea of becoming like the one who you have been saved by. He tells us that we are to pursue faith. And again, we're not pursuing faith in as the faith. That could also be translated faithfulness. Pursue being a faithful individual in your life. How do you overcome being flaky? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted?

How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted?

How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted?

How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? How do you overcome being someone who can't be trusted? is faithful to your word who is faithful to your promises who always does what they say they're going to do you have to pursue the things of faithfulness he says you have to pursue love and of course that word is agape and the idea is to pursue to run swiftly to catch to eagerly endeavor to acquire the heart of love that god would have us to have for those that are around us and we are to pursue perseverance perseverance the kind of faith that overcomes in the midst of difficulty that bears up under in the most difficult of circumstances and then the last

thing that he tells us to pursue is he tells us that we are to pursue gentleness meekness a humble spirit the idea of being gentle is not the idea of being weak the idea of being gentle is having power that is under control and that's what we are to pursue and so as he tells them to fight the good fight the first thing he tells them to do is flee flee the things that will ultimately be your downfall and pursue the things that will lead you to a deeper understanding of jesus christ and a deeper walk with him the second thing he tells them to do underneath this heading of fight the good fight is he tells them literally to fight this is where i pulled this heading from verse 12 fight the good fight of faith

the word fight there means to contend with an adversary and in the greek language this word fight can either refer to a soldier or an athlete most commentaries that i read lean toward it being an athlete but warren weirsby brought it both together and i thought it was a fantastic way to do it and i thought what a beautiful way to bring both of these things together both ways in which this greek word of a contest or or contesting with an adversary how to bring them together i love athletics you know that i love working with athletes i love being around athletes and so i started asking myself a question i said so so if this is an athletic tournament we are to fight

the good fight of the faith that's what it means there is the faith of the christian faith if we are to fight the good fight of a faith of faith what does it look like for an athlete to do that how how does an athlete pursue becoming someone uh who who fights the good fight of faith well i thought of three things that an athlete does number one an athlete sets a goal an athlete sets a goal they they have a championship that they want to win they have a record they want to achieve they they they have a victory that they want to pursue whatever it is they have they have some sort of a goal in their mind and so so they have to set a goal where for you and i the goal is very clear for you and i the goal is to become like

jesus till the day that we go home to be with jesus right like that is our goal and so we so we have this goal the goal that we set is is knowing that we are pursuing a god that we're going to be with someday and we want to become as much like him and know him as well as we possibly can until that day and so so we have a goal in mind the second thing that an athlete does is an athlete makes sacrifices they make sacrifices all the time and and they have to sacrifice in the areas of their diet they have to sacrifice in the areas of their time they have to sacrifice in the areas of of their entertainment because they know that in those areas of their life yes they could live just like everybody else and maybe be a mediocre athlete

maybe be a decent athlete but if they want to achieve their goal if they want to become who they know that they could become then it's going to take sacrifice in their life i'll never forget listening to an interview with cale sanderson right after he won the olympics and if you don't know who cale sanderson is he wrestled for iowa state now he's a coach at penn state four-time ncaa undefeated champion and then after he wins his fourth he goes on to win the olympics and i'll never forget watching an interview with him right after he won the olympic gold medal and they said what are you what are you the most excited about after winning this gold medal and he said drinking pop and i was like that's my kind

of guy right there right he's like i don't even know when the last time i had a soda was and i really want to drink pop and i was like man that's perfect right because he'd made sacrifices they weren't fun but it's what allowed him to become an elite athlete in his particular chosen sport well you and i are gonna have to make sacrifices you say well i can do all these things because i have freedom yeah you can if you want to be a mediocre christian if you want to be somebody who doesn't really keep their eyes on the goal if you want to be somebody who doesn't really keep their eyes on the prize then yeah you have freedom to do whatever you want but the more you pursue your goal the more

you realize there are some things that are sin and you have to lay them aside but there are some things that are just weights that you have to lay aside and you have to make sacrifices to lay aside the weights that are keeping you from knowing your savior that's what it means to fight the good fight and then the third thing that an athlete does is he remains focused he remains focused you realize that every day of an athlete's life they have to get up and remind themselves of why they're doing what they're doing you know why because setting a goal and maintaining sacrifice is a hard thing to do so every day you have to maintain your focus you know why you need a daily

devotional life you need a daily devotional life because every day you need to reset your focus because every day it's so easy to get our eyes distracted from what god has really called for us to do so every day you have to reset that focus and that's what an athlete does i was thinking about this i thought that's not just an athlete it's also a soldier right and and i have a former student of mine that's now a navy seal and i got to watch him all through this entire process become one of the most elite warriors in the entire world right and so i remember it was the senior year of high school i think it was between his junior and senior year of high school that he decided that he wanted to be a navy seal so his dad bought him two books

one uh was called no easy day which is all about the life of a navy seal and the other one was called seal fit that gave all of the different workouts that navy seals do and so at the beginning of his senior year this young man would run to school every single day and then he realized that usually navy seals run with a rucksack so he would put a 40 pound rucksack on his back and run to school every single day and so i remember one time there was a flood over here and the chestnut bridge was shut down and he lived on the other side of it and he ran through the water across the chestnut bridge with a 40 pound rucksack on his back because he was really focused on what he wanted to do he knew it would require sacrifice and so so he was focused on what he

wanted to do and he started living like a navy seal before he ever became one and and he would do all of these workouts i remember his friends would spray him down with water while he was doing push-ups and sit-ups and i thought i just want to be the guy spraying him with water i think that'd be funny spray him in the face while he's trying to do push-ups but but that was his goal and that was his focus and i remember talking to him i was texting with him after hell week and if you know anything about hell week it's exactly what it sounds like matter of fact that's probably a really easy term for what he has to go through and i remember when he finished i i texted him and said brother i'm so proud of you

i've been praying for you man and and i just i can't wait to visit with you when you get home how did you do it so he starts texting me and he goes if i'm going to be completely honest the only reason i never rang that bell is because i knew my mom was coming to see me and i didn't want to let her down you see he had a goal he made sacrifices and he maintained his focus that's how he became one of the most elite warriors in the world and that's what paul tells us that we need to do is what he tells timothy he needs to do he says you need to fight the good fight of faith and it's going to take discipline it's going to take focus it's going to take a goal and it's going to require sacrifice but timothy you man of god fight the good fight of

faith i have a question for you right now are you fighting the good fight of faith or have you lost your focus are you living a life of discipline not because you think it earns you some place with jesus but because you know that that will keep you focused on jesus have you set that goal are you focused on the goal or have you just started floating again see i always use that term for myself when i when i find that i'm losing my focus and i'm not as as into the word as i should be i'm not as disciplined as i should be i say man i've started floating again in other words i'm floating downstream and i'm no longer swimming against the current is that you you dads i have a question for you and here this morning are you fighting the good fight of faith

are you fighting for your families right now are you maintaining your focus and your discipline because you know that your kids are watching you because you know that your wife is watching you and and they need you to fight for them see i'm i'm determined that so many young women settle for pansies that use them because they don't have a dad that fought for them and because of that we have a lot of women being used by losers right now because they don't know what it looks like for a man to fight for them your sons need to watch you do that so that they learn that that's what they're supposed to do for their wives ladies are you fighting for your kids are you fighting the good fight of faith

are you fighting to make sure that you're praying for your husband all the time to make sure that you're raising your kids in the in the fear of god and pouring scripture into their hearts or have you started floating into all the things that you're praying for and you really want to have a new life when you get to a new situation now and i'm doing that for the rest of section 6 grandpa we're going to need your help with just the ask for zijn fantastic mission As he tells them to fight, that fighting means to take hold of something. That phrase, take hold, means to seize upon or to take possession of. In other words, take possession of the eternal life to which you have been called, of which you have made the good confession.

Take hold of the eternal life that you claimed the day that you became a believer in Jesus Christ. Because you may not realize this, but eternal life does not begin the day that this life ends. Yes, eternal life for you began the day that you were born again. The day that your life ends on this earth and begins in the new one means a continuation of eternal life in a brand new body.

That's all it means. But eternal life for you began the day that you were born again. And he says, I want you to take hold of eternal life. I want you to take possession of the eternal life that you've been given. Listen, this doesn't mean eternal life is something that you earn. It was given to you, right? We're told in the book of Romans that the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's yours. He just wants you to take possession of it. Kenneth Wiest in his commentary said this, Paul wanted Timothy to experience more of what eternal life is in his own life. He wanted him to experience more of what eternal life truly is in his own life. Well, again, I started thinking about this.

I thought, what does that look like? What does it look like to take hold of eternal life? What does it look like to take possession of it? To own it for myself, to begin to experience it for myself? And I thought about Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17. Do you remember Jesus' prayer in John 17? One of the things he said is, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, Jesus speaking to the Father,

and him whom you have sent. You know what that means? It means eternal life is you knowing God. That's how you take hold of eternal life in this world. That's how you take hold of what eternal life is. That's what eternal life really looks like. Well, what does that begin to look? How do we do that? Well, he wanted Timothy to have a spiritual receptivity. He wanted him to be receptive to all of the spiritual things in this life.

In A.W. Tozer's book, Pursuit of God, there's a chapter where he talks about the fact that God is present everywhere all the time. The problem is we don't pay attention to it because we live too much on this plane and not enough on the other. We don't pay attention to it. We don't pay attention to it. We don't pay attention to it. We don't pay attention to it.

We don't pay attention to it. It's not the eternal plane. He said there's a difference between the presence of God and the manifest presence of God. The presence of God is everywhere right now. Like, he's in this room right now. And we don't always think about that. We don't always think about the fact that God is right here among us. He said, but the manifest presence of God

is when you start to become aware of the presence of God among you, where you start to become aware of the presence of God around you. And A.W. Tozer calls that a spiritual receptivity, and we need to start praying for that. So what does it look like to take hold on eternal life? Well, again, I think it looks like a handful of things. Number one, I think it's all about learning who God is

and what eternal life looks like through his word. As you are in his word, and he begins to reveal himself to you through his word, then you begin to understand what eternal life really looks like, and you begin to take hold of that eternal life. But it's going to take time in the word. But it's more than just time in the word. Because the word in and of itself,

apart from the working of the Holy Spirit, is simply just words on a page, and we need to know that. What makes them, what makes this alive, what makes this living and powerful, what makes this sharper than any two-edged sword, is not just the black and red words that are written on the page, or conveniently now, some with the words of Jesus in blue. It's not just those words written on a page. It's the Holy Spirit taking that word and making it real to you.

And so the first part of taking possession of eternal life, of living out eternal life now, of grasping it now and seizing upon it now, is to be in the, the word of God that declares to us what eternal life really looks like. Because the word of God declares to us who God is. And it brings us into our relationship with Jesus. But the second thing it will require is it will require the power of the Holy Spirit.

It will require the power of the Holy Spirit. Because the power of the Holy Spirit is what takes the word and speaks it to us. It's what takes God's word and makes it real to us. Remember what Jesus told his disciples? There's a whole lot of other things that I want to teach you. But you can't take them all in right now. But when the Holy Spirit comes, he will teach you the things that you need to know.

Because he will take of the things of me and he will reveal them to you. So what you need in your life, what I need in my life to truly begin to understand eternal life, to truly take hold of eternal life, to truly be receptive to eternal life that's all around me all the time through the presence of God, is for the Holy Spirit to manifest that presence to me. For the Holy Spirit to make it real to me. Well, how does that begin to take place?

It starts with a prayer. That prayer is, Lord, let me see Jesus. Lord, let me see the presence of God all around me. Lord, let me see your presence in the most mundane things of life. Because I want to see you. I want to see the truth of who you are. I want to live in the reality of who you are. Not just what somebody else told me about who you are. Not to settle for what the pastor says about who you are.

But for it to truly be revealed to me. And as we begin to pray that, I promise you God makes himself real to you. Because God begins to take the truth of his word manifest oftentimes through the things around us and he begins to make himself very clear to us. And you can kind of go, I can feel Jesus in the room with me right now. I can feel that Holy Spirit at work in this room right now.

And it's one of the most amazing things that you can experience. And so he tells Timothy, flee from these things. Fight the good fight. But then he tells him to keep. Notice what he says in verse 13. He says, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach.

Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about in the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion forever. I love the way he starts this out because he's ultimately going to tell him to keep the commandment. To keep the commandment that's been given to him.

But before he tells him to keep the commandment that's given to him, he says, I charge you in the presence of God. Because what he's about to say is really important. So basically he brings in the authority of God on this. But I want you to notice how he describes God. Because before the command and after the command, he reminds us who helps us keep the command.

He says, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things. Who gives life to all things. I love this because it is a reminder that the true life that we live, comes directly from God. He is the author of life. He is the source of life. And he is the sustainer of life. So he says, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things.

And of Jesus Christ who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate. Then he tells him, keep the commandment. And he tells him to keep the commandment without stain or without reproach or blemish. Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I hope you are asking yourself a question right now. What is the commandment? What commandment? Clearly this is important.

Whatever he is declaring to him right now is really important. Because he just said, I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, the giver of life and the one who made the good confession before Pilate, keep the commandment. Well, I think first of all we can look at what he has commanded him in this book. And that is that he is to, stay in Ephesus.

That he is to faithfully declare the word. That he is to stay faithful to prayer. That he is to faithfully treat the people the way he is supposed to in the church. That he is to remain faithful to the word. That he is to be faithful as a pastor. That he is to flee from the love of money. That he is to fight the good fight. Those easily could be any of the commandments

that he is talking about. But this is just me, and I am willing to be corrected on this if somebody sees something different. I think he is ultimately getting back to the one commandment that Jesus gave. Do you remember what Jesus said at the end? Right at the end of his life, he says a new commandment I give to you. That you love one another as I have loved you.

Because that is the commandment that Jesus left. Because listen, if you love one another as Jesus loved us, you will be faithful in all those things. Because Jesus was faithful to declare the word to us. Jesus was faithful to pray for us. Jesus was faithful to serve us. Jesus was faithful in the way that he treated people. Jesus was faithful in the way that he handled leadership.

Jesus was faithful in all of those things. And so we are to love one another as Jesus loved us. Whether that means being patient in moments, or whether that means declaring the truth in moments. Whether that means continuing to give more grace, or whether that means to stop casting your pearls before swine. He tells them to be faithful to keep the commandment.

And I think that ultimately the commandment that he's talking about here is the commandment of Jesus. That we are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. He says keep the commandment until when? How long do I keep this commandment? Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which he will bring about at the proper time. Now I don't know about you, but that statement brings me a great deal of challenge.

A great deal of challenge and comfort. How long do we keep loving other people the way that Jesus loved us? Well, until Jesus comes back. That's a long time, right? Or maybe today, who knows? But that's how long we keep loving. It's a challenge, right? To keep loving others the way that Jesus loved us until Jesus comes back. That's how long we keep the commandment.

That's the challenging part. You know what the comforting part is? Jesus is going to come back at the proper time. You know what I love about Jesus? He's always on time. Right? He's never late. He's never early. He's always right on time. And I'm reminded of that a lot. Especially in the past few months. That everything about Jesus is on time. And I can rest in the fact that he's on time.

Because sometimes we get a little bit restless, right? Every new little thing happens. And oh, this might be the big one, right? It's okay. Jesus is going to come back at the proper time. He's going to come back exactly when he's supposed to. So we can relax a little bit about stressing about when he's coming back. But we should also stay focused because we know he's coming back.

Right? I always use the example of the list that my mom used to give me when she would leave in the morning. My sister and I, when we got old enough to where we could be home by ourselves, my mom would leave a list. Listen, kids, we didn't have phones to text on when I was a kid. We had the back of an envelope. Right? And on the back of an envelope was written the list of all of the things

that you had to do. And it would be divided between my sister and I. And so she would text us on the back of that envelope. And it said, it better be done by the time I get home. Right? And so you always hoped she wasn't coming home early because that would be bad. So you start looking at the list and going, I got time. I got time. Pretty soon it's 2.30 in the afternoon.

And you're like, I ain't got no more time. Right? Because she's coming back. And that's the way it is with Jesus, right? He's coming back. We don't know when. We don't know when 2.30 in the afternoon is. So you got to stay focused. So there's a challenge and a comfort in that. But I want you to know, Paul sort of breaks into spontaneous praise here. He said,

He who is blessed forever, the only sovereign, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. In this moment, it's almost like, Paul had the presence of God revealed to him right here. And the Holy Spirit manifests himself in a powerful way. And Paul breaks out into this praise.

And I want to focus in on the last things that he says. Who alone possesses immortality. In other words, God alone is the one who has no beginning and he has no ending. Because he possesses immortality. And he dwells in unapproachable light. One of my favorite stories of the Old Testament is the story of Moses. When Moses asks one thing of God. He says, Lord, I just want to see your glory.

And God says, Hey, listen, here's the thing. No one can see my glory. Because if anyone sees my glory, they'll die. Why? Because God dwells in unapproachable light. And yet in that moment, he says, basically, but by my grace, I'll show you what you want to see. I will show you the backside of my glory. Hide yourself in the cleft of the rock. And I will cover you over with my hand.

And I will allow my glory to pass by. And I will remove my hand and you can see the backside of my glory. Because God dwells in unapproachable light. And yet, even though he dwells in that unapproachable light, and no man has seen or can see, God, he came in the form of a man. So that while we've never actually seen God, we have seen his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father,

full of grace and truth. And that beautiful praise, it says to him, be honor and glory and dominion forever. Amen. And I think in this moment, Paul was as geeked up as he could possibly be. If he truly is dictating this letter, he is pacing around dictating this letter. And then he was like, oh wait, two more things. And so he gives us two more instructions.

Verse 17. He tells us to teach generosity. Teach generosity. Notice what he says. Instruct those who are rich in this present world, not to be conceited, or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things, to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves

the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold on that which is life indeed. He basically says, instruct the rich about two different things. The first thing he says to instruct the rich about is number one, to not be conceited. Instruct the rich not to be conceited. In other words, not to be puffed up because they have wealth.

Not to be puffed up because they have the things that most people don't have. To not be conceited about the fact that they have so much. Now, I bet most of you sitting in this room are going, well, these instructions aren't for me. I'm not one of the rich. Do you realize that as far as the world is concerned, everybody that lives in this nation is rich? As far as the world's concerned,

that's the case. Because we contain more wealth than any other nation in the world. So really, these words are for us. They're for those of us that have everything that we want just about every single day of life. And he says, listen, don't be conceited. And I think, listen, I know it's probably going to get me in trouble, but I've never let that stop me before.

I think as far as the Western culture, United States of America is concerned, I think one of the best things we can be told is, don't be conceited. Because while I'm incredibly conservative in my politics, I understand that sometimes, sometimes that particular side can be pretty conceited. I'm also not very liberal in my politics, but I'm also well aware of the fact that that side can be pretty well conceited. Because sometimes just as Americans, we can kind of be conceited.

And I think this is a really good message for us to remember who we really are. That everything that we have is not because you worked so hard and you're so good at it. And don't get me wrong. I think you should work hard. But it's because God's blessed you with it. And that everything has come directly from his hand. So he says, instruct the rich not to be conceited.

And the second thing he says to instruct the rich not to do is, he says, instruct them to not set their hope on riches. To not set their hope on riches. As a matter of fact, he uses the word to describe riches there. To not set their hope on the uncertainty of riches. Because that's what they are. They're uncertain. Because you can have them today and they can be gone tomorrow.

You can have them today and everything can be wiped out tomorrow. Let's say something were to happen and some crazy attack happens to this nation and all of a sudden your money is worth zero. And all of a sudden you're going, oh no, what am I going to do now? Those riches were so uncertain. I remember learning about the Great Depression. And the day before that stock market crash,

America was rolling. And then the stock market crash happened. And the uncertainty of riches. fell apart. And those whose faith was in God handled it pretty well. Those whose faith was in riches jumped off of buildings. And that's just reality. He says, don't set your hope on the uncertainty of riches. But set your hope on God. Set your hope on the truth of who God is.

That he is your ultimate sustainer. That he is your ultimate provider. That he is the one who supplies all of your needs. According to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. He says, set your hope on God. And then he says, instruct the rich about a second thing. He says, instruct them to do good and to be rich in good works. To be rich in good works. In other words,

you have two choices with your money. You can either use your money to build your kingdom. Or you can use your money to build God's kingdom. The choice is yours. I'm not saying you can't own nice things. I'm not saying you can't have nice things. I'm not saying you can't work hard to make lots of money. I'm saying what's in charge? You or your money. Or better yet, what's in charge?

God or your money. He says, instead teach them that they are to be rich in good works. To be rich in the way that they build the kingdom of God. And then he tells them a second thing. That they need to do. They need to store up their treasures in heaven. And I love the way that he words this. Storing up for themselves. Verse 19. Storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation

for the future. So that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. He says, store up your treasures in heaven so that you can really have life indeed. You see, what the world says real life is, especially in America, what the world says real life is, is owning your own home, owning your cars, having a beautiful family, right? And hopefully a really good savings account

to where you can retire someday and retire comfortably. That is everything that the world teaches you. The Bible says that's not really life. There's nothing wrong with those things, but that's not life. Where do we say life is? Life is in Christ. In the book of Matthew, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You can store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupts and where thieves break in and they steal, or you can store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal. But ultimately, here's the test. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So the question is always this.

Where's your treasure? Because that's where your heart is. What's the most important things to you? Because if you tell me what's the most important to you, I'll tell you where your heart's really focused. And sometimes it's on the things, right? It kind of goes back to what A.W. Tozer was talking about in that book. He has a prayer at the end of that particular chapter

and he says, Lord, deliver us from the distractions of this present life so that we can see into the reality of real life. That's what he prays. And I love that because it's a reminder that Jesus is real life. Everything on this earth is going to fall apart. Everything on this earth is going to burn up. Focus on what real life is. He says store it for yourselves,

treasures in heaven. And so after he says teach generosity, he gives the last command in verses 20 and 21. And he tells Timothy to stand guard. Notice what it says in verse 20. He says, O Timothy, guard what has been in your heart. What has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed

and thus gone astray from their faith. Grace be with you. He tells Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. That word guard or to keep means to guard as a sacred trust or treasure. To guard as a sacred trust or treasure. There's a kind of a wild movie that I watched one time. I'm not at all saying you should go watch this movie because in good conscience,

I can't tell you to go watch this movie. It's kind of a fascinating movie. It's called The Book of Eli. Have you ever seen The Book of Eli? Don't go watch it. Anyway, it's got Denzel Washington in it. And it's sort of an apocalyptic movie about after like the destruction of the world and Eli has this treasure and then he's got to get somewhere to be able to give this treasure out.

And he's a blind guy. You don't realize that. Spoiler alert. And so he shows up and they're like, all right, what's the treasure? And he just starts quoting the word of God because he had the word of God hidden in his mind. And I love that because I think that's the perfect picture of what Paul is saying to Timothy when he says guard that with which you have been entrusted.

What has Timothy been entrusted with? He's been entrusted with the word of God and the message of the gospel. So you have to guard it. Why does he have to guard it? Because evil men will come in who will preach a different gospel and will try to pull away disciples unto themselves and many will follow after them. But you, Timothy, guard what you have been entrusted with.

Guard the word of God. Hold it with such a passion that it's the treasure of your life that you won't let anything pervert it, that you won't let anything twist it, that you won't let anything pull you away from the simplicity of it. Guard that with which you have been entrusted and the message of the gospel that it doesn't become some social gospel, that it doesn't become some easy gospel, that it doesn't become some seeker-friendly gospel, that it becomes a gospel that truly changes people's lives not just to give them a better life on this earth but to give them real life which is eternal. Guard that with which you have been trusted.

And I would tell you we possess more of God's word in this culture today than any other culture before and we guard it less than anybody else. We do not take it seriously. And he says guard that with which you have been entrusted. And then he warns him. He said avoiding worldly and empty chatter and opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge which some have professed

and thus gone astray from the faith. You see there was a false teaching out there that always centered around one word and it's called Gnosticism. The word Gnosticism comes from a root word of knowledge. And it was some superior knowledge that pulled people away from the simplicity of God's word and pulled them into some philosophy that took them away from Jesus.

So we have to be careful about that. We have to be careful about worldly and empty chatter and vain arguments. And somebody came to me the other day and they were asking me about an ism. I won't tell you which ism it was. And they were like what do you think about this ism? They say it's some doctrine with a man's name attached to it. And there's another doctrine with a man's name attached to it

that completely opposes it. And they were like where do you stand? I'm like well somewhere in the middle. Because I feel like the Bible is always in the middle of arguments like that. The simplicity of Scripture is always in the middle of arguments like that. And they were like well I feel like maybe I have to make sure that I really have a place where I land.

And I said one thing. I said listen. When it comes to the doctrines with man's names attached to them just make sure you don't lose Jesus. Just make sure you don't lose Jesus because that's always the danger that we have when we start arguing about doctrines with a man's name on them is that we will end up losing Jesus. And that's basically what he tells them.

He says guard that which has been entrusted to you so that in the middle of all of your arguments you don't lose Jesus. Because sometimes in all of the arguments Jesus is who gets left out. And then many who have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. And then he closes with one simple little phrase. He says grace be with you. Paul starts it in so many of his letters

with this one word grace. The unmerited favor of God. Because it is grace truly in our lives that allows us to come into the faith. It is grace in our lives that sustain us in our faith. And it is grace in our lives that will complete and finalize our faith. I shared at the end of every one of Paul's letters that I teach but my favorite line out of the song Amazing Grace

and I write it in the cover of all of my Bibles says his grace has brought me safe thus far. And it says grace that will lead me home. And as I watch the grace of God lead a great man home I can tell you that's 100% true. Grace to you. Amen. Well this morning is Communion Sunday. And so we're in just a few minutes the group will come up here and sing one last song

and the ushers will get ready to hand out the elements to all of us. But before they do all of that we'd like to take just a moment to talk to you about Communion. About what it means. About what it means for us. And about what we're truly celebrating when it comes to Communion. Inside of each of these trays as always are some cups that are stacked together.

The bottom cup has the cracker in it and the top cup has the juice in it. And in and of themselves those are pretty meaningless elements. Except for what they stand for for us. What they represent for us. Because you see on that last night of the feast Jesus took that bread and he broke it and he said this is my body which is broken for you. Take and eat. So every time we take the bread

and we take a bite of it. Actually eating the body of Jesus. We are reminded that it is his body that was broken for us. We're reminded of the fact that he endured the beatings. That he took the crown of thorns. That by his stripes we are healed. And that he was pierced through for our transgressions. We are reminded that his body was broken for us. And then every time we take a

drink of that juice we're reminded of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because he took that last cup the cup of redemption on that night of the Passover that they celebrated together and he said this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. Take and drink. And when we drink of that juice we are reminded of the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ is what was enough to cleanse us from our sins.

Scripture tells us that every time we partake in this meal together as believers in Jesus Christ this is a family meal. That every time we partake of this together we declare the death of Jesus. And so we have to do so in a worthy manner because this is holy ground that we tread on right now. This is a holy thing that we do. So we're told to make sure that we do so in a worthy manner.

As always I'd like to remind you that the first aspect of partaking in a worthy manner is that you need to be a born again believer. Because otherwise this meal really isn't for you. This is a family meal. If that's not you this morning you'll be one of those confessing your sins to the Lord and asking for Him to come and make a home inside of you and become born again.

But that's the first aspect of taking it in a worthy manner. But then we're reminded that to take it in a worthy manner means to make sure that we really understand what we're doing here. That we don't do it haphazardly or flippantly but that we do it with great honor. That we do it with great reverence in our hearts for what's taking place right now. And then we're reminded

that if there is sin in our lives things that have come into our lives that would break that fellowship between us and the Lord now is a great time to get that dealt with. So I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up and they're going to share one last song with us. And as they sing this last song and as the ushers hand out the elements I would just invite you to ask God to search your heart so that as we partake of this meal together as we declare the death of Jesus together we do so with the most reverence possible. Amen.

Would you receive your elements if you'd please stand and then we'll partake together.

Would you bow with me? Father we come before you and thank you so much for the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us. Father I thank you for the body of Jesus that was broken for us. And Lord I praise you for the cross. So Father keep us always in mind of your sacrifice. In Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father we come to you now.

Lord we praise you for your word. And just ask that you would continue to do your work in our hearts. Father draw us near to you and help us to continue to fight the good fight. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.