The Christian's Call to Contentment, Part 3

All right. It's great to have you with us tonight and glad you're not watching the Dodger game because they're getting beat, so it's good you're not watching it. So those of you who are a little anxious about that, Roger. Got your Dodger Blue on the link. But anyway, we're glad you're here and I'm going to spend time in the word.

Just for FYI, the box is in the back for the Christmas project. You know, if you've already got one, you can get another one. We're trying to use them all up. And so if you've yet to get one to fill it, you can get two of them if you choose to, or three, whatever you want to do. But they're in the back for you to use as you see fit. But we want to only have two more weeks before we have to turn them in anyway. But if that's something you want to do, we'd love to have you do that. It's a great opportunity for us to meet the needs of young children who are not as fortunate as we are and to be able to do something unique and special for them. That's great.

So we want to begin our time with a word of prayer, so let's pray together. Father, we thank you for tonight. We are so grateful for the opportunity you give us to study the word of the Lord in the middle of the week. We realize, Lord, that every day of the week we can open your word and read the glorious gospel of Christ, that great old, old story that never gets old because it is new every day with the beauty of your holiness. We thank you, Lord, that as we gather together and pray, we can trust you to do great things.

We pray for our election process, and less than two weeks away, and we're asking for your will to be done. We trust you for the outcome. We trust you to do what you're going to do. And we know, Lord, that you have a wonderful plan. And that plan is running on schedule. And we're going to trust you to put your man in office that will lead us further and closer to your return. We long for the time in which you are going to come and take us home to be with you. Until that time, Lord, we need to be found faithful in our service of the King.

I want to pray for the families of our church. We ask that you do a mighty work in their lives. We pray, Lord, for those who are on their way. They might not be here yet. We pray for their protection. We do pray, Lord, even for our journey home tonight, you'd give us safety. We pray, Lord, for those who are unable to be with us because they're sick or not feeling well or they're on vacation, out of town. We just pray for them. That, Lord, you'd bring them back again this Lord's Day as we worship you again.

We thank you, Lord, for the fact that you provide for us in unique and special ways, and we pray for our church that you continue to supply all of our needs, take care of us week in and week out, as you have done so faithfully over all these years. And we just ask for our children tonight that you'd be with them, watch over them as they hear the word of the Lord, that they be challenged in their walk with Christ, and they realize what it means to be a follower of the Lord.

Pray for our young people. As they gathered together to hear the word of the Lord, that you'd be with them and stretch their minds and stretch their hearts to be able to understand the beauty of your word and that they'd be challenged to live for the glory of your kingdom. And so, Lord, we just thank you once again for a chance to open the word, to be able to read it again, to be able to understand it, and to be challenged by the things that we hear, that we might walk in newness of life. And that we might not walk in the flesh, but walk in the spirit, that we might honor and glorify your great and precious name. We ask all these things in the name of our soon coming King Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

If you have your Bible, 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6, as we continue to look at what the Bible says concerning contentment. How is it we as Christians fulfill our call to live a contented life? What does it mean to live in the realm of contentment? Paul is writing to young Timothy, who happens to be the pastor of the church at Ephesus. And as he writes this letter to Timothy, he's going to challenge Timothy about conduct in the church, how people are to live their lives on a regular basis and their responsibility to honor the Lord. By the time you come to chapter 6, he's going to pinpoint a certain topic, and that is contentment.

And we've told you that contentment is simply the fact that we are at peace, at peace with Christ's sufficiency. Contentment is a word that was used to describe self-sufficiency, but in biblical terminology, it deals with God's sufficiency. The Stoics use the word to talk about self-mastery, to be able to master the inside of yourself so that you are unaffected by circumstances outside of yourself.

Well, we understand how that is applied to us as Christians because we have the indwelling Christ in our lives. And because Christ dwells in us, there's not a self-mastery, there is a Christ mastery. He masters our life. And because he indwells us, and he is the all-sufficient God of the universe, we live a life of God-sufficiency. We live a life that is dependent upon the Lord. It's independent of the things around us, but totally dependent upon the God inside of us.

Unfortunately, we live lives as if we are independent of God and dependent upon the things around us. But that's not going to help you understand contentment. Contentment comes because we truly live dependent upon the God who is all-sufficient, who dwells within us, so that we are independent from the things around us.

Now it's important to understand that as you look at the scriptures, we realize that God is all-sufficient, that the Lord doesn't need anything about us. He has created us. We are used for his glory. We also understand that the Bible teaches us concerning the fact that he is the possessor of heaven and earth. That he is, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, all in all. He is everything. And so, therefore, because John 5 tells us that in him is life, that he is the author of life. There is nothing about life that we understand that will do anything to enhance his life.

And so, because our God is all-sufficient, that's a great study in scripture when you begin to realize that because he creates everything, and by him all things exist, all things are held together, he's in charge of everything. So he is a totally self-sufficient God. Well, that God dwells in you and me. And because he does, and we depend upon him, we look to His sufficiency to move us on each and every day. And so we can be independent of the things all around us because we are dependent upon the God who lives within us.

And so, as Paul addresses Timothy, he hones in on how man deals with his possessions, how he deals with his money, how he deals with the pursuit of things in this life that are external. Because Paul knows, as our Lord said in Luke 12, verse number 15, that man's life does not consist in the abundance of things in which he possesses. He understands what John has said when he talks about loving not the world, neither the things that are in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. They're not of the Father, but they're of the world, and the world's passing away in the lust thereof. But he who does the will of the Lord abides forever.

But don't think that worldliness is about the acquisition of certain things. It's all about our attitude toward the things of the world. You can have a lot of things, but not be worldly. You can have nothing and be extremely worldly because the attitude of wanting more and having more and coveting more rules your life. You don't have to acquire things to be worldly. There are many people in the Bible that were well off, that were wealthy. Abraham was very wealthy, but he wasn't a worldly-minded man. And so you need to understand that.

In fact, one of the ways we can come to grips with that is in the story of the rich young ruler. If you've got your Bible, turn with me, if you would, as we introduce this to us tonight, Matthew chapter 19. You know this story because we've covered it in Luke's Gospel when we went through that gospel for a number of years, but it says in verse number 16 of Matthew 19. Someone came to him and said, Teacher, what good things shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?

Now, if you read Mark's account, if you read Luke's account, this is a rich ruler. And he's a young man. And he comes to the Lord and he says, Good teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life? And the Lord responds by saying, Why do you call me good? Because there's none good except God alone. In other words, if you're going to call me good, you must recognize the fact that I am God. And if you recognize the fact that I'm God, then you're willing to do whatever I tell you to do.

So, our Lord says these words. Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good, but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. So the Lord is going to challenge him. He is going to assess, or have this man assess where he's at. He says, Look, if you want to enter into eternal life. If you're asking how to inherit eternal life, I want you to do one thing. I want you to keep the commandments.

So the man responds, well, which ones? Because if I don't have to keep all of them, but certain ones, maybe I can do that. And so the Lord responds this way: You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man said to him, All these things I have kept. What am I still lacking? In other words, in his mind, he believes he's not a murderer, a liar, an adulterer. He loves his neighbor as he loves himself. He honors his father and mother. In his mind, he really believes he's pretty good. He's righteous. But he says, But what do I still lack? In other words, I'm still lacking something. If you're saying I got to keep the commandments and I've done these things, why am I so empty? Why is it there's something in my life that's missing?

So the Lord responds this way. If you wish to be complete, if you wish to be perfect, if you wish to inherit eternal life, Go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me. In other words, he says, Listen, I've already talked to you about the latter half of the Ten Commandments. Let's address the first half. In other words, if you really want to follow me and you really want to enter into glory, you cannot have another God. You must worship the only true God there is. And after all, you've already called me good, and only God is good, so you've recognized evidently that I'm God. And so, if you do, then you're going to obey what I say. So, therefore, I want you to go sell all that you have and follow me. Because the Lord knew that in the man's heart there was another God. He was an idolater. And because he was an idolater, he had violated the first four commandments. There was something that was a priority to him other than God.

And so the Bible says in verse 22, but when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. In other words, this man knew that he had violated the Ten Commandments. He knew that he was an idolater. Because he was unwilling to do what the Lord had told him. He was unwilling to follow the Lord because if he did, he would have to recognize he was the Lord God of Israel. He'd have to bypass all the things that he worships, all of his possessions, all of his money, all those things that mean so much to him.

So we realize that Christ goes on to say these words: Truly, I say to you, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, Then, who can be saved? And looking at them, Jesus said to them, With people, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

So here was a man, for all practical purposes, who was self-sufficient. Here was a man who had everything that the world could give. Here was a man who, by your standard and mine, would be lacking nothing materially. And yet, in the inside of him, there was a huge hole. Because eternity has been set in the heart of man. And you can't fill the soul of a man with that which is external. So he was, in his own mind, sufficient to do whatever he wanted to do, but he was unable to enter into glory because he worshipped another God.

And so, when Paul addresses Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, he's going to deal with this issue. He's going to deal with those things that mean so much to us on the outside. To help us understand that, in order for us to be content, to be at peace with Christ's sufficiency, we need to realize that if He indwells us, there are certain things that we are able to accomplish, and He outlines them for us so that you and I can learn. As the Apostle Paul said, to be content in whatever state we are in.

And for the most part, we would say we're pretty content. Until we see things that we wish we could obtain. For instance, we think that our car is great. Until we realize that there's another car I could get that's better. And then everything about my car is wrong. Windshield wipers don't work, the glass is not as clear as it used to be, my brakes don't work as well, I need a new car. Or my house is great until I realized I could buy a new house. And therefore, maybe I should sell my house because, after all, my water heater is old, my air conditioner is old, my paint's falling off the house. Maybe I should buy a new house. It was fine until I saw a new one. Once I saw the new thing, then it began to trigger something on the inside of me that says, I want that. I want more of this. I want something better. I want something that's the best. And that can tend to grip every single one of us to some degree.

So we looked at last week point number one, which is found in verses six and seven. Paul says in verse number six, but godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. Remember, godliness, you say, is God-likeness. It's that word of great reverence. It's the highest of all human virtues, that we might somehow be like God. And godliness with contentment is the highest of all gains. There's nothing greater to gain in all the world than to be a godly person because godliness leads to contentment. If I'm not content, it's probably because I'm not very God-like. For to be God-like would mean that there is the all-sufficient God who indwells me that I aspire to imitate. I want to be like him.

And so Paul says, Timothy, understand this: that godliness with contentment is the greatest of all gains. And he says this. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And that's principle number one. Recognize the ultimate reality of our coming and going. Realize that when you came into the world, you came with nothing, and when you leave, you leave with nothing. But have you ever noticed that in between all that? We do everything we can to accumulate as much as we possibly can. As if we're going to take it with us when we die. We just kept accumulating more money and more stocks and more items and more materialistic things as if we're going to live forever in this life. But we're not. So Paul says, let's start at the very bottom. The most basic kind of thing. You brought nothing into the world, and when you die, you're going to leave with absolutely nothing. And yet, we know that. But we can't help ourselves trying to accumulate everything that we possibly can in this life.

Listen to what Psalm 131 says. Psalm 131. There are three Psalms with three verses in them, okay? And there is one Psalm with two verses in them. So Psalm 131 is one of the three of the Psalms that are the second shortest Psalms in the scripture. So, as it's one of the shortest psalms to read, it is the longest psalm to learn. Okay? Mark that down. It is the shortest psalm to read. Well, one of the shortest psalms to read. But it's the absolute longest psalm when it comes to learning and applying it to our lives.

So, psalm says, O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty, nor do I involve myself in great matters or in things too difficult for me. Now, remember, he's not talking to another man, he's talking to the Lord, right? So he's not lying. He's being honest because he knows the Lord knows his heart. So he says, Lord, you know, I'm not trying to do things that I can't do. Trying to involve myself in things that are too difficult for me. I'm not being arrogant. I'm not being prideful. That's just the way I am. He's being completely honest.

And then he says, This. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul. I have composed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child rests against his mother. My soul is like a weaned child within me. That's contentment. My soul is like a weaned child within me. A weaned child in Judaism would be around the age of three or four. But when a child's not weaned and they have the opportunity to eat, they cry, they scream, they do everything they can in order for their mother to feed them. Right? But when they're weaned, no longer are they fretting around for milk, but they're able to rest in the fact in their mother's affection, in their mother's embrace, and lean on the chest of their mother and just rest there. To be at ease, to cease from striving.

You know, we are so involved in wrestling with life that we can't quiet our souls. Our souls are not like a weaned child. And he goes on to say this about Israel: O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever. So instead of resting quietly, we are wrestling constantly. And we're wrestling with who? We're wrestling with God. We told you the story about Jacob and his name being changed to Israel on Sunday. Why? Because Jacob was the constant supplanter. And he always was wrestling for a place of prominence and authority, always supplanting those around him. So God says, I'm going to change your name to Israel because I'm going to strive for you.

And we told you on Sunday that Israel's whole life as a nation is learning to let God strive for them. Now, why is that important? That's important because the Bible says in Psalm 46, verse number 10, cease striving and know that I am God. In other words, as long as we're trying to supplant God's authority in our life, as long as we're trying to supplant God's call upon our life and do our own thing, we're going to wrestle, we're going to be frantic, we're going to be anxious, we're going to be fighting God all the time. Until we learn to let God strive for us. So the psalmist will say, cease striving and know that I am God. In other words, if you know that He is God, He is Lord, you can hope in him. You can rest in him. And your soul can be like a weaned child.

Think about it this way. Isaiah 30, verse number 15: The Lord God said to Israel, In quietness and trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling. In other words, all you had to do was rest in me, trust in me, look to my sufficiency. Let me strive for you. But that's not what you wanted to do. And so, therefore, you were in constant turmoil. Always struggling against me in my plan and purpose for your life.

Why do we tell you that? Because between the time we're born and the time we die, we have to live our lives as a weaned child. We have to live in quietness and in rest and in confidence and in trust in the God who lives within us, who is our total sufficient God. Trusting him for everything. And so Paul says to Timothy, listen, let's start at the bottom level. Let's let you know that when you were born, you came with nothing. When you die, you're leaving with nothing. So stop spending your whole life trying to accumulate all that you possibly can, because in the end, the person with the most toys doesn't win. So, just realize that you need to live your life like a weaned child.

So, if you're going to learn contentment, then you must come to understand, as Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, recognize the ultimate reality of your coming and going. Once you recognize that, number two, you rejoice in the sufficiency of each day's provision. Rejoice in the sufficiency of each day's provision. So Paul says this in verse number eight. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. We shall be satisfied. We will live a sufficient life with food and covering. We can be content.

So, you need to understand exactly how to rejoice in the sufficiency of each day's provision. In other words, God provides for us each and every day. And yet, for the most part, we're not grateful for the things He's given to us. And so, when you rejoice in those things, realizing that He is giving you your food, He is giving you your covering, He's going to take care of all those things for you, and you begin to rejoice in that. Then you can begin to learn to be content. But one of the reasons we're never content is because we refuse to give thanks to God for the things that He has given us. We always see things that we don't have instead of the things that we do have, right? We're always seeing that we could have more of this, or more of that, or better this, or better that. Instead of saying, Lord, this is what you give me. I rejoice in what you give me, Lord. Thank you for those things. And sometimes the Lord is just waiting for us to give thanks for the things that He's given.

So, if you have your Bible, Matthew chapter 6, the Lord says these words, that great Sermon on the Mount. Because we're to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven and not on this earth, he says in verse 25 of Matthew 6: For this reason, because you're laying up, storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven. I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life. I just love that verse because we really do think that if we eat right, exercise right, we're going to live longer. That's not true. Now, in our mind, we might think that you might feel better as you go through life, but all your days are numbered before there's even yet one of them. Psalm 139, right? So, it's an appointed time for man to die. We always die on time. So, you can't do anything that's going to prolong your life, even though you might think you are. You cannot. And after all, why would you want to prolong your life to stay out of the place you say you want to go? Right? Think about it that way. Why would you want to stay here any longer than you have to when in all reality you're going to go to glory anyway?

So the Lord wants them to understand, you can't prolong your life. You can't add one cubit to your life. No matter what you do, no matter how you do it, you're not going to live any longer than I've already ordained for you. Although, we tend to think we can. So he says, and why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat? What will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For your Heavenly Father knows what you need, or that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

That portion of Scripture speaks so pertinently to our times and to any time. But remember, Christ is talking to people who had been healed. We told this three weeks ago when in Matthew 4, everybody was coming to be healed, and he healed them all. But he wants them to understand that you need to rest in his sufficiency. You need to seek first His kingdom, not your kingdom, His kingdom, His righteousness, and all these things God has promised you, He'll take care of. He'll watch over you.

Now, if you go back earlier in Matthew chapter 6, he says these words. He says, Your father knows what you need before you ask him. That's verse 8. Your father knows what you need before you ask him. Now, just think of the ramifications of that. You don't even have to ask God what you need, because he knows already what you need. I mean, after all, he created you, right? He knows everything about you, he knows you better than you know yourself. So he knows exactly what you need.

So the Lord is trying to help these people there on the mount to understand that your Father already knows what you need before you even talk to him. Then he says these words: Pray then this way: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. That's the provision for each and every day.

So when Paul talks about rejoicing in the provision that God gives you every single day, because he's going to give you the food. He's going to give you your clothing. When he taught the people on the mount how to pray, he helped them to understand that each and every day, you pray this way. First of all, deal with God and His glory. Deal with God's name. Deal with God's kingdom. Deal with God's will before you do anything for yourself. And then when you pray, pray this way: God, give us, forgive us, deliver us. Not give me, forgive me, and deliver me, but give us, forgive us, and deliver us. Why? Because so many times, all of our prayers are just all about me. Just record yourself praying one day. Pray out loud and record yourself praying. And just count the number of times you say me, mine, my, I. Just count them up. We love to pray for ourselves.

But when you're praying and you have God's will, God's kingdom, and God's name uppermost in your thinking, then you're going to think of everyone else around you more prominently. Give us this day. Don't give us tomorrow, just give us this day our daily bread. So many times we're worried about next week. Next month. How will we eat next month? You know what? You're not in next month. You might not make it to next month. Just worry about today. Jesus goes on to say, each day has enough trouble of its own, right? So when you pray, pray this way, give us this day our daily bread, because you want to be able to rejoice in how God provides each and every single day.

Give us this day our daily bread. We know from a physical standpoint that that deals with our food. But think about it this way. We know that your spiritual food is more important than your physical food. And so there are certain things that God's going to do in your life. He's going to give you a certain kind of daily bread, and it could be the bread of adversity, it could be the bread of affliction, it could be the bread of loneliness, it could be the bread of whatever He decides. But remember, he's the Father. So the Father always distributes to you what you need that day. So when we pray, Lord, give us this day our daily bread, we are asking God to give us that day what we need to make it through that day. Whatever it is that will cause me to be more dependent upon God and less independent from God is what I need to have happen on that day.

And you know what? God, at different times, makes sure that the bread we have is a bread that's going to cause us to lean completely on him so we can live that quiet life that as a weaned child leans against its mother and rests in her affection and rests in her arms, knowing that she is providing and protecting him. So too, we rest in the arms of our Lord, knowing that he will care for us and watch over us.

The psalmist said these words in Psalm 33. Psalm 33, verse number 13, the Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men. In other words, he knows, he sees everything, right? It says in verse 16: the king is not saved by a mighty army. A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness. To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. In other words, the Lord knows what you need, not only because He already knows, but because he sees, and as he looks down from heaven, he's already put into provision that which will supply for your daily needs.

Over in Psalm 34, verse number 8: O taste and see that the Lord is good, and how blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you saints for to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions you lack and suffer hunger. But they who seek the Lord should not be in want of any good thing. So the Lord says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. If we seek the Lord, the psalmist says, you should not be in want of any good thing. Paul tells Timothy, you need to understand that with food and clothing, that's enough. That's sufficient. That's where contentment is.

So if you realize that you came with nothing, you're going to leave with nothing. If you happen to be fed and clothed, you already have more than what you came in with and what you're going to leave with. So rejoice in God's daily provision. Having recognized that you come with nothing, leave with nothing, rejoice in what you do have because you're giving thanks to God. When you begin to do that, you're on your way to learning contentment. But remember, it's a lifelong journey. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in a few weeks or months or even years. It's something you're always going to be learning more and more about. But godliness along with contentment, is the means of greatest gain. And so we're shooting for the great virtue of godlikeness, that we might live a life totally dependent upon God and independent of everything around me, instead of living a life independent from God and dependent upon everything around me. That's how the world lives. And so we want to live differently than that.

So the third point is simply this. Verse number nine. But Paul knows that when you recognize that you came with nothing, you're going to leave with nothing, and that what you have are clothing and food, and that should suffice you. He also knows that for most of us, that's not going to suffice us. There's something else we want. So Paul knows that. So, this is what he says. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

If you recognize the ultimate reality of your coming and going, if you are to rejoice in the sufficiency of each day's provision, then you can reject the tyranny of money love and material lusts. You can reject the tyranny, the oppression, the control that money has over your life and material lusts. You can. So he says, but Timothy, listen. There are those who want to get rich. In other words, they set their mind and will about obtaining more and more things, more and more money. He goes on to say that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Money's not, but just the love of money is. And so he talks about those who set their life's ambition upon getting rich, obtaining more of the things of this world. He wants to warn Timothy. He wants to warn those in the church that if you have a conscious choice, a will desire to gain more and more, it's going to cost you. And it's going to cost you greatly, he says.

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires. He wants them to understand that there is a certain trap when it comes to money, there's a certain trap when it comes to materialism. We tend to think that we are excluded from that. We love the Lord, we want to serve the Lord, and you know what? That's not going to tempt me, but there is a certain trap about that.

In fact, way back in the book of Deuteronomy, the seventh chapter. The Lord, through Moses, is warning Israel about what happens when they go into the land of Canaan. He says this in verse number 25. Deuteronomy 7. The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it. For it is an abomination to the Lord your God. You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ban, you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned. In other words, it's set aside for destruction.

The Lord says, when you go into the land of Canaan and you tear down those graven images, they're going to be filled with gold and silver. Don't covet it. Don't long for it. Same word used in 1 Timothy 6 about stretching out and doing all you can to grasp it. You're just longing. It's a word that we describe, covetousness. Well, the word is used here in Deuteronomy. Don't covet the silver and the gold that's on the graven images because they're under the ban. That is, they're fit for destruction only. If you bring it to your house, you're in danger of having your house destroyed. Why? Because it's going to entrap you, it's going to ensnare you, and I can't have you moving off into another direction trying to worship another God, when I am your God, I am sufficient for you, I am all your need, all you need, I want you totally dependent upon me, I want you independent from everything in Canaan and totally dependent upon me.

And what happened to Israel? They became independent of their God and totally dependent upon everything in the land. And it turned their hearts away from the Lord. Same thing happened to Solomon. He became dependent upon the things in the land, the wives of other kings, the silver and gold of the land. And because he became dependent upon those things, he acted as if he was independent of God himself.

So the Lord says, you've got to be careful. Paul, picking up on that same kind of terminology, says, But Timothy, there are those who seek, who will, who covet, who want more and more just to be rich. Not knowing that they're going to fall in all kinds of foolish and hurtful situations that will lead men, he goes on to say, to ruin and destruction. It's going to plunge men into ruin and destruction. And the word for plunge is, you know what it means when you're plunged underneath the water and you begin to sink down to the bottom? And the word for ruin and destruction are two words used to describe what happens to the body and the soul in hell. Because what happens for those people who go after and crave the things of the world, their lives are going to be destroyed. Satan is called the son of destruction. When the false prophet and the beast are cast into the lake of fire. They are cast into a place of ruin. So ruin deals with the body, and destruction deals with the soul. In other words, your love for money affects everything about you. Everything externally, everything internally. It does more to affect you than you can ever begin to imagine.

So Paul says to Timothy, you've got to reject the tyranny of money love and material lusts. It is a control on you, it is an oppression on you. But we don't see it that way. We see it as if I just had a little bit more money, a little bigger house, a little nicer car, just a little bit more of this, a little bit more of that. Then I'll be satisfied. Then everything will be okay. Then I can rest at ease at night. Until you realize that once you have a little bit better of this and a little bit more of that, you don't rest easily. You want a little bit more of this and a little bit more of that. A little bit better of this. You want the best of that. It doesn't end because it ensnares you. It traps you. And Satan loves to entice us. He knows our weaknesses. He knows how to move us away from God.

And so Paul is telling Timothy, you want to learn contentment? Because in Philippians 4, he talks about learning to be content in whatever state he was in. I want you to learn contentment, Timothy, as a pastor of the church at Ephesus, the church that I started. To do that, you got to recognize you came with nothing, you're going to leave with nothing. Therefore, rejoice in every day's provision, the daily provision that God gives you to clothe you, to give you something to eat. If you do that, you can reject the oppression of being ensnared by loving money and wanting more and more and more. Because it's only going to destroy you.

And then he says this: verse number 10: For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it, stretching out after it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. So now he goes even further. He says, Listen, those who love money is the root of all kinds of evil. And those who love it, they have wandered away from the faith. What's the faith? It's not the belief in God, it's the body of truth that we know to be true, God's holy word, the doctrines that we believe in. They've wandered away from the truth and they've pierced themselves through with many griefs. It's a word used to describe a skewer when it goes through the pig and you put it in the pit or on a spit. Remember that? And so your soul is being run through with a skewer. That would be very painful. He says, This is the pain that's going to cause you all kinds of unrest.

Think of Judas Iscariot. He was a lover of money. Remember, he was one of the twelve, but he was the most trusted of the twelve. How do we know that? Because he was the one who kept all the money, the money purse. And you don't give the money to somebody you don't trust, right? Didn't give it to Peter, didn't give it to James, or John, or Matthew. I mean, after all, he was the tax collector, right? So they got to be careful who they give the money to. They're going to give it to the guy they trust the most. Who do the twelve trust the most? Judas. But Judas was a lover of money. He loved money, so much so that he would sell our Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

In fact, he had had everybody. All the twelve completely fooled. For three years, they all believed that he was the most trusted, most confident, most reliable disciple of the twelve. But he was never a believer. He followed Christ, but he followed Christ for his own selfish ends. What can it do for me? And so he followed the Lord for that purpose. And he was one who loved money. Demas? He loved the world. 2 Timothy, verse number 10. He loved this present age more than anything. That's why he would forsake Paul. He would turn his back on Paul. He would fall away from the truth. Paul knows the effects of loving money. He knows the effects of being swept away.

So realize, this is important before, realize the inability of the world to satisfy. Realize the inability of the world to satisfy. It will always cost you, and it costs you greatly. Remember, way back in the book of Genesis, the 12th chapter, in Genesis chapter 12, Abraham, having received the call from God, ends up in the land of Canaan, the land of promise. But during that time, there came a famine in the land. So what did Abraham do? He went down to Egypt. Now, the Bible never tells us that Abraham sought the Lord when he did that. He was willing to move his family from the land of promise to Egypt without ever consulting the living God. This is the father of our faith. He decides to move because, logically thinking, he realizes there's a famine in the land. I can't survive, but there's a famine in the land. How am I going to feed my livestock? How am I going to take care of my family?

So, logically thinking, he's going to say, you know what? I know it's the promised land. I know the Lord led me here, but I'm going to move anyway. Because I know what's best for me better than God knows what's best for me. We're like that all the time. We make decisions without ever seeking the will of God, without ever letting God lead us. We lean on our own understanding. That's what Abraham did. We're trusting the Lord with all of our hearts. Lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways, acknowledge Him. He'll direct your paths. Abraham didn't do that. He knew that in his mind it was the rational, logical, most simple thing to do. Move where there is food, move where I can feed my family, move where I can live easily, but it cost him greatly, it cost him dearly.

They went down to Egypt. So he tells his wife Sarah, listen, you're a beautiful woman. So when the king sees you, tell him you're my sister. So now he's going to lie, right? His moving without consulting the living God leads him now to lie and his wife to lie. Now she is his half-sister. So theoretically, to say you're my sister is not totally wrong, but to tell a half-truth is to tell a whole lie. And so he tells Sarah, just tell him you're my sister. So she did. And the king gave him all kinds of livestock and all kinds of things. And so Abraham's saying, this is great. All this stuff I'm getting, boy, God is blessing me. I didn't even seek his face. And look, he's blessing me. God's just taking care of me. Wow, so amazingly, until the king realizes that this is Abraham's wife and not a sister, but his wife. Because there's a plague that takes place in his house. Because God's going to protect Sarah. That's what God does. He protects the wife when the father makes a stupid decision. That's what Abraham did. And so God protected Sarah. And so he left there. Okay? They went back to Canaan. There he built an altar. There he called upon the name of the Lord because I really firmly believe that Abraham saw the error of his way.

But they brought Hagar back with them, right? That's a whole other story for another day. But while they were there, Abraham's nephew Lot got a glimpse of the things of the world, got a glimpse of Egypt in all the beautiful fictions of Egypt. And so when they came back in Genesis chapter 13. Abraham says to Lot, Listen, you want to go that way, I'll go this way. You want to go that way? I'll go this way. You choose which way you want to go. He looks out over the Jordan Valley. What's he see? Nothing but what he saw when he was in Egypt. He goes, I'm going to go that way.

So, what did he do? In his heart, he longed for that which was in the world. Because he longed for it, it would cause him to look toward it, right? So he looked toward Sodom way before it was ever destroyed. If you read on from Genesis 13 to go to Genesis chapter 14, you realize that not only did he look towards Sodom. He began to lean towards Sodom. He moved closer and closer towards Sodom. It became more and more appealing to his eyes. And then, once he leaned towards Sodom, he then began to live in Sodom. He actually pitched his tent in Sodom. And not only did he live in Sodom, he then led in Sodom. He became one of the leaders there in the city of Sodom.

So, because he longed for what he saw in Egypt, if Father Abraham had never done that, maybe the whole story of Lot and Sodom would have never happened. We don't know that. But Abraham had led his nephew to pursue the things of the world because of what he saw when he was down in Egypt. He longed for it. It caused him to look toward it. And then it caused him to lean in that direction. And then to live in that direction. And then to lead in the city. And that where he led, he loved so much, he lost everything with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But he lost not just his city. He lost his family. He lost his testimony. He lost his credibility. He lost his integrity. He lost everything. Everything. Because he was ensnared by money love and material lust. He craved it so much so that that's all he could see, he could overlook the homosexuality in the city because he loved what he had in the city. He's never mentioned again until 2 Peter. In Peter's epistle, we learn about how God can deliver the godly out of temptation. That's the only way we know that Lot was a godly man. Because the Old Testament never says that. But Peter, in the inspiration of Scripture, tells us that he was a godly man. And yet he lost so much because he was ensnared by the things of the world.

You know, Psalm 1 tells us that God gives us the desire of our hearts, but sends leanness to our souls. A barrenness to our souls. We need to be careful of the decisions we make. The decision you make today is going to affect your tomorrow, good or bad. And unfortunately, so many times we make a decision that affects us not just tomorrow, but the succeeding days as well, because we never sought the Lord, never looked to Him. We just made the logical, rational, methodical decision because we thought in our own mind, this is the best thing for us to do. Abraham thought it was the best thing for his family. Little did he know the ramifications of one choice amidst a famine, how much it would cost his family and a nation.

And so when we think about that in the life of Lot and all the loss that Lot had. Because Father Abraham, his uncle Abraham, took him down to Egypt. And what he saw, he craved it more and more and more. Lot was not a content man. He was a very discontent man. May God give us the grace and the wisdom to look dependently upon our God, who is all sufficient. So we can live independently from those things around us, trusting only Him.

Let me pray with you. Father, I thank you for tonight. Lord, the great opportunity we have to study your word. What a joy to be reminded once again that Lord, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It ensnares us, it plunges us down into the depth of despair. We don't think it's going to do that. We can read it, but so many times we just don't even believe it. But it's true. May we live lives that truly honor you. Help us to live lives free from the love of money. Help us to live lives totally dependent upon the God who is all-sufficient. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.