The Christian's Call to Contentment, Part 7

Okay, 1 Timothy chapter 6 is the text. Contentment is the topic. We've been looking at it for six weeks, and this is week number 7. Next week, we're going to talk about perfect peace. It's our Thanksgiving Eve service on Wednesday night at 7 o'clock. We'll see what the Bible says concerning how the God of peace gives his people perfect peace. And so after you understand contentment, then you make your way toward understanding the Peace that passes all understanding. And so we'll talk about that next Wednesday evening as we celebrate the things that God has done, as we anticipate this wonderful holiday season and how God is going to be able to use us in the lives of our family, in the lives of our friends, in those we work with, helping them understand the beauty of God's holy word.

And so as we close out our series on contentment, we want to help you understand that contentment is being at peace with Christ's sufficiency. That's what Jeremiah Burroughs says as he explains to us that this is a rare jewel. And it is rare, for very few people find themselves in a state where they are content, where they can sit back and say, Lord, I am absolutely satisfied with who you are and what you are doing. And that's where we're trying to go. That's what we're trying to help you to learn because Paul had to learn that. He never woke up one day and said, Today is the day I'm going to be content for the rest of my life. It's something that he would have to learn. And I'm sure he learned it every day. And you'll have to learn this for the rest of your life. But yet, as you move toward it, you are able to rest in the sufficiency of Christ because He dwells within us.

The essence behind the word content is a Greek word that means self-sufficiency, but because we don't depend upon ourselves but upon the Lord who dwells within us, it is a Savior sufficiency. And so we learn to be at peace with the fact that God who dwells within us is the all-sufficient God of the universe who causes us to be able to be sufficient with who He is and what He's done. And tonight, hopefully, we can spread even more light upon that as you begin to understand exactly what God's word says.

So, 1 Timothy chapter 6 as we look at contentment in understand that no matter what the chaos, no matter what the confusion, no matter what the crisis. No matter what the clamor or the corruption around us, we can be content. And God wants us to be that way. He was content, and because he lives within us, his sufficiency allows us to depend upon his sufficiency. You know, being a Christian is a great thing. Not just because you have life everlasting, but because of what God does in our lives, even this very moment. That we learn to live in the light of who He is. He is our life. The Apostle Paul says, when Christ, who is your life, appears. He truly is our life. And that allows us to understand true biblical contentment.

So let's go back and let's read through this together. 1 Timothy 6, verse number 8. But godliness actually is the means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. In other words, God is godlikeness, and the more like God you are, the more content you're going to be. And that is the greatest of all gains. There's nothing greater than that than to be able to walk with God and be content in whatever situation you're in.

Paul says this in verse number 7: For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. Helping you to understand that when you recognize the reality that you bring nothing into the world and you take nothing out of the world, and yet we spend all our lives accumulating all kinds of things. In between the birthday and the death day, we think that somehow the more things that we accumulate, the better off we're going to be, but not so. You came with nothing. You leave with nothing. In fact, all the things you accumulate, you're going to leave to somebody else one day. And so it's never really going to be yours anyway. And so when you realize that, you begin to move toward content.

And then we said you need to rejoice in the sufficiency of each day's provision. That is found in verse number 8. If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content or we shall be satisfied. Knowing that God is going to clothe us, knowing that God's going to feed us. Matthew chapter 6 speaks about the fact that he clothes the fields with the beauty of the lily, that he takes care of all the birds that they never go hungry with food and clothing, therewith be content. Be satisfied. In other words, we pray for God to daily provide for us. And sure enough, each and every day, God takes care of his own. And so you move to point number three, you reject the tyranny of money lusts or money love and material lusts.

It is a controlling element of our lives, but we have to reject it. Listen, if you believe you're going to leave with something, you're not going to reject it. If you're not satisfied with daily provisions, You're not going to reject it. You're going to be controlled by it. So Paul says, But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and the snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men or which drown men into ruin and destruction. You know, when when you go underwater and you're being drowned, you fight for air. And little do we know that when you are drowned with the love of the things around you, and you make it your pursuit to accumulate more and more. There is a drowning effect upon your life that causes you not to breathe, not to be able to be or feel the freedom of being alive simply because the things that you want so much drown you. And Paul makes it very clear that the temptation and the entrapment of those things is very dangerous.

Number four, he says that you need to realize the inability of the world to satisfy. It just doesn't satisfy. So he says, For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. In other words, you have been impaled spiritually. Your soul has been impaled by all kinds of grief simply because you love money. And that love is the root of all kinds of evil. And so you must realize that what the world has will never satisfy.

And then number five, we talked about resisting the innate carnality with true spirituality. Paul says, But you, O man of God, flee these things. Flee the love of money. Flee the entrapment of the world. Run away from those things. You've got to resist those things because the innate desire is for us to accumulate more. To want to be a part of what the world has, but you have to run from those things, and you need to run after righteousness. Run after faith. Run after godliness, love. Run after gentleness. Run after those spiritual virtues that will truly make your life godly. Run after those things that truly resemble the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you do, that will enable you to live a life of contentment.

And then resolve with tenacity to fight the good fight of faith. That's what he says: fight the good fight of the faith. If you're engaged in warfare, if you're going to war, then the only thing you can think about is how to defeat the enemy, how to stand strong against the enemy. You're not worried about the things around you or the things inside of you, you're fighting for things that matter. And you're fighting for the truth. And when there's a war on truth and you're fighting for truth, all it does is keep you focused on things above and not things below. And Paul says, you need to fight the good fight of the faith.

And then he says, make sure that you revere eternity as your most treasured prospect. He says, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. And then make sure you retain the certainty of his coming again as your only hope and stay. 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 at the proper time.

Now, those are just principles. Principles that walk you through a text. Paul wants Timothy to understand that he learned contentment, and Timothy needs to learn contentment. But we find ourselves every day fighting an attitude of discontentment. Maybe it's because of a crisis I'm facing. Maybe it's because of the situation surrounding the election. Maybe it's because of the situation around my work or my lack of work thereof. Maybe it's a situation surrounding my marriage or my family. There are certain things. Remember, the battle you are fighting is not against flesh and blood. It's against the principalities and powers of the air. And Satan is looking to distract you. Satan is looking to discourage you. If he can get you discouraged, he can defeat you. He can get you to think only of yourself. And the Lord is saying, Look, I want you to understand that if you follow the principles of Scripture. Those things will begin to fall by the wayside, and you'll be able to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

So let me give you point number nine and point number ten this evening. They're just ten very simple principles out of this text. And I'm sure that if we went to other texts in Scripture, we would be able to devise more principles that would help us. But this section of scripture just gives us simply ten principles. And here is principle number nine. Remember your priority to honor Christ always. You have a priority. And that's to honor Christ always.

Listen to what Paul says. He says, He who is the blessed and only sovereign. The king of kings and 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. Amen. Paul has this great crescendo because he says you're looking for the appearing of Christ. You're longing for that. You want to make sure that you retain that certainty. But as you do, remember that you are to honor the one who is the absolute sovereign Potentate. He is, as Paul says, the one who is the blessed God.

To bless God. Way back six weeks ago, we began in Matthew chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 5. Remember that? We talked about how all these people were being healed from all their diseases, and they felt better because they could walk and they could see and they weren't sick anymore. And because of all that, they felt better. And the Lord knew that they would one day get sick, or they could one day become lame again, or they could lose their sight again. He knows that. So he sits them down on the side of the mountain and says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And he goes through those beatitudes, the beatitudes of blessing. It's the same word used here. Our Lord is the blessed Lord. He is the Lord who is filled with joy. He is the Lord who is undisturbed by outer circumstances. Why? Because of who He is.

And that's what the Lord was offering to all those people on the side of the mountain there in the Galilee to help them understand that: look, all the external things should never affect what's on the inside. Because if you really want to be changed, you've got to be changed on the inside out. Things on the outside don't change you, but my spirit can change you on the inside. And I want you to have my joy. This is the blessed God. And he says this: the psalmist says these words. In Psalm 2, verse number 12, Blessed are all they who put their trust in him. The God of blessing, the God of all joy, the God who's unaffected by circumstances, says, Listen, you too can be unaffected by circumstances if you trust in the Lord.

Psalm 112, verse number 1: Blessed is the man who feareth the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments. Again, he says, listen, if you want to be undisturbed by external circumstances, and have joy on the inside, you need to delight in my commandments. Not just trust in me, but delight in all my commandments. And then over in Psalm 128, verse number 1. Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, who walketh in his ways. Listen. Fear me, walk in my ways, delight in my commandments, trust in me, and guess what? You will have the exact same blessing that characterizes me as your God. This is the blessed God. This is the God that's unaffected by circumstances, situations, attitudes, simply because He is self-sufficient, He is totally content. And therefore, he offers that to those who follow him. That's the God you honor. That's why you want to honor him.

He is the sovereign. He is, as the King James Version says, the potentate. He is the one who is absolutely powerful. He is the one who is in absolute control of everything. He is the potentate. He is the sovereign one. That's the one you want to honor. You want to honor him because he controls everything. He's the king of kings. He is the Lord of Lords. In other words, of all the kings that have ever existed, he's the king of all those kings. Of all the Lords that have ever existed, he is the Lord of all those lords. And remember when our Lord returns. He's going to return with written down his thigh, King of kings and lord of lords. It says, Written on him is, He who is faithful and he who is true. King of kings and lord of lords, Revelation 19.

And it's almost like it's God's humor on the world. Because he's faithful and true. In other words, he says, You know, I told you I was coming again. I told you I was going to return. You might not have believed me, but I told you. And that's why I am faithful and true. And not only am I returning again, I'm returning because I am king of kings, I am Lord of lords. And that's who's coming again. That's the God you honor. He is the sovereign king of the universe.

And then he says, This: not only is he king of kings and lord of lords, he is the one who alone possesses immortality. In other words, he is deathless. He cannot die. Everybody dies except the Lord God of Israel. You say, wait a minute, didn't Jesus die? Yeah, God had to become man in order to die because God's a spirit. You can't kill a spirit. He possesses immortality. And because he possesses immortality, He gives immortal life to you and me, that we then will be able to live forever in his presence. That's why we honor him.

And then he says, he dwells in light that's unapproachable, that no man can ever see him. It speaks of his purity and his holiness. Remember, Moses said, Lord, let me see your glory. And the Lord says, I can't let you see my glory because if you see me in the brightness of my being, I'm going to have to kill you. In fact, you'll be consumed. You won't be able to see me. And so he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, and he was able Moses was able to see the afterglow of the Lord as he heard him talk about the attributes that described him. Because that's the beauty of the Lord. But he dwells in unapproachable light.

Remember when the Apostle Paul was saved, then, when he was saved on the Damascus Road, and there was this bright light that would shine down because it was a presence of God who would speak to him. Remember that in the eternal kingdom. There's no need for a temple because it's the Lord God Himself who lights the eternal city of God. The brightness of the Lord enlightens all that. He dwells in unapproachable light. So, in other words, Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, look, this God that you're serving, you need to remember that you need to honor this one, give him glory, give him honor. Because this is the one who has dominion forever. Honor this person. Remember, this is your priority. Honor the Lord.

Now, why is that so important? Paul said he made it his ambition to do what? To please the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5, verse number 9, right? I make it my ambition to please the Lord God of Israel. That was his priority. He wanted to honor him. God said to Eli in 1 Samuel 2, verse number 30, He who honors me, I will honor. He was speaking of the fact that Eli did not honor the Lord. Eli honored his sons above the Lord. He valued the relationship with his sons more than he valued his relationship with the Lord, and therefore he honored them above the Lord as the priest of Israel. His sons who were committing immorality on the footsteps of the temple, he did not discipline, he did not deal with, he did not handle that situation. Because he valued his relationship with his sons more than he valued his relationship with the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said, You've chosen to honor your sons above me. He who honors me, I will honor. But you have chosen not to do that.

Paul tells Timothy, Timothy. This King of kings and Lord of lords, this blessed one, this potentate, this sovereign God, who dwells in unapproachable light, who has immortality, this is the one you need to honor. This is the one you need to glorify. This is the one you need to put on display.

Now, why is that so crucial? Listen to this. When I was going through seminary a long, long time ago, I had a professor who used to always emphasize living a life of contentment. His whole thing was: you're going to get out of seminary, you're going be involved in a ministry, and there's going to be all kinds of things that are going to cause you to be discontent with your job, with your church, with the people in your church, with the situations surrounding your church. All these things are going to come at you in all kinds of ways, but you need to be content. He said, this is how it's going to happen. He said, he gave us the definition and then he explained it.

Here's the definition: contentment is adequacy in reaching my most valued goal in spite of great suffering over unmet desires. He goes, if you can remember that, you'll live a life of contentment. Adequacy in reaching your most valued goal in spite of great suffering over unmet desires. And then he began to define what is a true goal and what is a true desire. He used to always say, if you get your goals mixed up with your desires, you'll always be discontent. You can't get them mixed up. You should always say you have one goal because a goal is something you have absolute control over. In order for you to reach your goal, it totally depends upon you and nobody else. A desire, though, is something that you can influence, but you have no control over. None. If you try to gain control of your desires, you're going be frustrated. You're going to be angry. You're going to feel insecure, insufficient. It's going to bug you. So make sure you understand goals versus desires.

A goal is something you have absolute control over. What is the one thing in life you and I have absolute control over that no matter what happens, we can do it? It doesn't depend upon anybody else. It doesn't depend on where I'm at. It doesn't depend upon my circumstances. There's one thing I have absolutely control over, and only one thing in life. And that is, I have control over whether or not I will glorify and honor the name of my God. That relies totally upon me. I don't need you to do that. I don't need the circumstances to change and do that because I can glorify the Lord when things are horrible. I can put my Lord on display no matter how hard the rain, how deep the snow, how cold the day, no matter how hot the fire. I can always say, Lord, I'm going to put you on display. Right?

That was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were threatened to be thrown to the fiery furnace. They didn't care. King, do whatever you want. We are not going to bow down for you. Why? Because we're going to honor the Lord. We're going to honor his name. They threw them in the furnace. Everybody who threw them into the furnace was burned up. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They didn't fear the furnace. Why? Because they had one goal in mind: honor the Lord, glorify his name. No matter how hot it gets, no matter how deep the threat, I'm going put them on display. I'm going to honor my God.

Adequacy in reaching my most valued goal, which is what? Putting Christ on display. Radiating his beauty, showing others who Christ is, in spite of great suffering over unmet desires. What is a desire? A desire is anything else that I would love to see happen, and I can even influence it happening, but I can't control it happening. For example. I might want my spouse to be saved. I can't control that. I'm not in charge of saving my spouse. God's in charge of that. I can influence it. I can pray about it. Pray about your desires, accept responsibility for your goals. Pray for your desires. Accept responsibility for your goal. You don't even have to pray about your goal. You just got to do it. You just got to honor the Lord. Put them on display, no matter what the situation. But you pray about your desires.

Can I influence whether or not my spouse is saved? Yes. I can live a righteous life. I can honor the Lord in the relationship. But I can always put them on display. So I can always reach my most valued goal in spite of great suffering over unmet desires. In fact, he might not ever get saved, or she might not ever get saved. But I can always put God on display. I can always reach my goal. I can always accomplish my goal because I accept responsibility for honoring God. But I pray about my desires and I ask God to do something great.

We might want our children to walk with the Lord, honor the Lord. I can't control that. Neither can you. But you can't influence it. You certainly should pray about it, right? But you can't control your children. Yes, we discipline our children. Yes, we do the right things for our children, but when push comes a shove and they get out of the house and they begin to live on their own, you have no control over that. You do all you can while they're in the house because you want to train them to live for the Lord God. But once they move up, get out. They're on their own. You don't control them. You can influence them, but you can't control them. So you pray that they would walk with the Lord. But whether or not my children walk with the Lord, or whether or not my spouse is ever born again, I can always reach my most valued goal in spite of great suffering over unmet desires.

You might be physically ill, physically in pain every day. And you want to get better. You really do. But if you make it your goal to get better and you can't get better because you don't control it, you're going be frustrated. You're going to be angry. And you're going to be so, but, but you can honor the Lord amidst your pain. Apostle Paul. Whatever his thorn in the flesh was, right? He prayed three times that God would remove it. God said no. His desire was remove it. But God said no. But could he honor the Lord amidst his pain? Yes. He accepted responsibility for his goal, but he prayed about his desires.

So a desire is anything in my life that I do not control, my friends, that's everything. Everything. My goal is the one thing I can control. I assume responsibility for that. And that is my main priority in life. What's my priority? See, we have other priorities. We don't want to honor the Lord. That's not our chief priority. We want to be honored. We want to be looked at in a good light. We want things to happen our way. And then we say, well, honor the Lord if things are good. No. I mean, look at the scriptures. How many times did things go bad? Look at Joseph. I mean, how many years went by with everything negative in his life? But he honored the Lord. He put the Lord God of Israel on display. That was his priority. That was his ultimate goal. There was great suffering over unmet desires. Yes, finally his brothers repented. Finally, they asked for forgiveness. That was a great thing. But that wasn't his goal in life. His goal was always to put God on display.

My friends, we're going to learn contentment if you remember the one priority in your life: to honor the one who dwells in unapproachable light. The one who is the potentate, the sovereign, king of kings, and lord of lords, who is the blessed God, who truly wants to bless you. And if you honor him, he promises to honor you. You don't honor him so that he will honor you. You honor him because that's your responsibility, and God fulfills his promise to honor you in due time. But you put him on display. No matter how hot the fire, no matter how deep the ravine is, Lord, I'm going to put you on display. In the midst of my conversation, in the midst of my actions, no matter where I'm at, no matter what I'm doing.

You might say, look, I want my goal is to reach this position in my place of employment. That's my goal. Let me tell you something. You can't control that. You might think you can. You might think, well, I'll get the right education. I'll be number one in sales. I'll be number one in this. I'll do whatever I have to do, but I'm going to reach this pinnacle of my life. I'm going to be right here. You have no control over that. Can you influence it? Yes. Can you pray about it? Yes. But if you never make it, what happens? Can you still reach your most valued goal? Yes. By honoring my God, no matter what.

And see, so many times we get our desires in place of our goals. And we get so frustrated because we think we can control them, but we can't. Friends, we can't control anything. We can't control one little thing. We think we can, but you can't. Except whether or not, in that situation, in that circumstance, I say, Lord, I'm going to put you on display. I'm going to glorify your name. I'm going to honor you because you are the sovereign king of the universe. You placed me here. You did this for me. You did this to me, you allowed this to happen to me, Lord. Because you're in charge, Lord, I'm gonna honor you. Adequacy in reaching your most valued goal in spite of great suffering over unmet desires.

Listen, there are people in this room that have suffered greatly over this year and years gone by. Suffered greatly. You know, I think of Debbie McCord, who's down here, and does she want her husband to die? No. Is she glad he's with the Lord? Yes. But it wasn't her goal to keep him alive. Her desire was that he'd be alive. That's her desire. But her goal is to honor the Lord whether He lives or whether He dies. Adequacy in reaching my most valued goal, in spite of great suffering over unmet desires.

Listen, if you begin to understand that, your whole life is going to change drastically. Drastically. I have no control over anything in this church. You might think I do. I don't. I just pray about the ministry of the church. I pray about the people in the church. I can't control you. I can't make people come on Wednesdays. I can't make them come on Sundays. I can go around driving to everybody's house, pick them up, and bring them here, but they might not want to come. I can't make them come. So I pray that God would bring them. And then God would bring others that they might hear the word of the Lord. What's my responsibility? My responsibility is to honor the Lord. On Sundays and Wednesdays and every day, honor the Lord at home. Honor the Lord in my office. Honor the Lord in each counseling situation. Just put God on display. If I choose to do that, I've reached my most valued goal. And that's where you want to be.

And Paul tells Timothy, honor this one. Honor the Lord. Remember, that is your priority, your number one priority in life, to please your commanding officer by lifting him up on high.

Point number 10. Ah, we're all done. There we go. Ready? Point number 10 is simply this: rest in the sovereignty of God for all your needs. And once. Okay? Listen to what Paul says. Instruct those who are rich in this present world. Remember. Remember. Earlier, in verse number nine, he was concerned about people's passion to become rich. Now he's talking about people who possess riches. There's nothing wrong with being rich. Dorcas was rich, Acts 9. Lydia, Acts 16. She was rich. Abraham, he was rich in material things. David, he was rich as king over Israel. Solomon Incredibly rich, right? So there's nothing wrong with being wealthy. There's nothing wrong with being rich.

So Paul comes back, takes a step back, and says, Timothy, by the way, there are people around you that are very, very wealthy. So, I want you to instruct them because people who are very, very wealthy tend to think that they can just do whatever they want to do. And they depend totally upon themselves. That no matter what happens, they got the money to pay for it. They got the money to buy themselves out of the situation. It's okay. We got the money. Don't worry about it. They depend totally upon themselves.

So Paul tells Timothy, listen, you're going to have people in your congregation that are going to hear what you're saying or hear what I'm saying, and they're going to think, you know what? I'm good. I'm good. I'm okay. But their contentment is based on their coins, on their riches, on their wealth, and they're trusting in that alone. So Paul says, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. Paul knows riches are uncertain. You can have some today, it can all be gone tomorrow. You can have everything in your house, and your house burns down tonight. You can lose it all. You can put all your money in a stock market. It crashes. You lose everything. The uncertainty of riches. There's nothing certain about them.

So some say, well, I'll spend it all while I can. But the fact of the matter is, we begin to trust in those things, but they trust in something that's uncertain. So Paul tells Timothy, he says, these words: Those who are conceited or fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Trust in God because He is the one who supplies us with everything that we have. Not one thing do you have that God didn't give you. Nothing. And they need to recognize that if you're wealthy, it's because God made you wealthy. God allowed you to accumulate riches. God did this.

We tend to think it's our education. It's our ingenuity, it's our smart mentality, it's our talent, it's our wit. It got us where we are. It's not, it's all of the Lord. It doesn't mean you don't try. It doesn't mean you're dumb or stupid. It doesn't mean any of that stuff. It just means: recognize: God did this, God's in charge. And so you trust only in him. Solomon says in the book of Proverbs, the 23rd chapter: those who trust in their riches, they will fall. They will fall. And great will be that fall. Solomon also says in the book of Proverbs that your riches are, they have wings. They fly away. They're here today and gone tomorrow.

Isn't that true? We get paid today and we, wow, we got all this money. Then the bills come. Next thing you know, they're all gone. Where'd all my money go to? It just flew away. That's how it works. There's never enough money by the end of the month. That's just the way it is. And so Paul says, Timothy, you instruct him. You instruct them. You teach them. Not to put their trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in God who richly supplies us with all things. That's why you rest in his sovereignty. Because he gives you what he gives you. He chooses to give some this amount. He chooses to give others this amount. But do you rest in what he's given you?

Solomon says this in the book of Ecclesiastes, the fifth chapter. Verse number 18, he, See, here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink. And to enjoy oneself in all one's labors in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him. Solomon knows that God has given us life. And so you eat, you drink, and enjoy what God has given you. And he says this, for this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor. This is the gift of God.

So he says, What you have, if you're wealthy, God's given you riches. Enjoy what you have. But always remember this: it's a gift from God. God has given you what you have. Listen, do you think all those unbelievers who are wealthy receive their wealth for any other reason other than the fact that God chose to make them wealthy? You see, we forget that every unbeliever is still accountable to the revelation of God. They're still accountable to the truth. And the truth is, God gave them what they have. And Solomon is recognizing that's a gift from God, and you need to rejoice in the gift that God has given to you. Rejoice in the food you eat. Rejoice in the drink that you have. Rejoice in the days that you have. God's given you the days, and God's given you the means to live in those days, rejoice in them. Because God is sovereign. He controls everything. If He doesn't control one thing, He doesn't control anything. He controls everything. Solomon knew that. Paul understood that.

So Paul tells Timothy: instruct those who already are wealthy. Not to fix their eyes, fix their heart, trust in the uncertainty of riches. But in God, who in his sovereignty gives us all things to enjoy. The problem is, we always look at the things that we don't have instead of the things that we do have. Wishing we had more of this or more of that or better of this or better that. Instead of realizing that God has given us so much. And to whom much is given, much is required.

And then Paul says this: 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse number 18. 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 of that which is life indeed. In other words, there is a life indeed. Earlier he says, Timothy, get a grip on eternity. Take hold of eternal life. Now he says, Timothy, instruct the rich to take hold of that which is life indeed. How do you do that? You share with those who are in need. You give to those who have needs. And store up for yourselves treasures in glory. Where real true riches are to be stored.

So instruct the rich person to see the needs of those around them. And instead of accumulating more and trusting in the uncertainty of riches, look for those who have needs. Give to them. Serve them, help them. In so doing, you're storing up treasures for yourself in glory, and you're really attaining, which is true life indeed. We know it's eternal life, but there's a life to live here. And if you want your life to be content, what did the Lord say through the pen of the Apostle Paul? Acts 20, verse number 35: remember the words of our Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. How true is that?

So, Paul instructs Timothy: this is how you begin to learn contentment. This is how I learned it, this is how you're going to learn it. And may God give us the grace that every one of us here will learn to be content, that there will be adequacy in reaching our most valued goal in spite of great suffering over unmet desires, because we have one priority: that is to honor our Lord above ourselves, above everything else, in every situation, in every circumstance. Put him on display.

Let me pray with you. Father, we thank you for tonight the chance you've given to us to live for you. Lord, we thank you that all that we have is from you. You've given us everything. You are the sovereign God. The king of all the kings, the lord of all the lords. You are the one who possesses immortality. You are the God who never dies. You can't die because you are life and you give life. And Lord, the life that you give is, as you said, more abundant. See, abundant life. The life that really causes us to live for you. At the base of everything is our heart's desire to lift you up and put you on display in our marriage, in our church. In our home, in our work. We want you on display, Lord. That's all. And if we do that, you're our priority, Lord, there will be so much joy. Because you are pleased. And you are the blessed God who bless those who honor you. You. So we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.