1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,240 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're almost finished with 1 Timothy. We probably will finish next 2 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:22,320 week. We might not, but we probably will finish up 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 6. We'll start 3 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:34,440 in verse 1. Last week we ended off with some instruction for God's people to honor the 4 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:40,840 elders, but also some good instruction in there for those who are elders. Tonight we 5 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:48,080 are picking up with kind of the same idea of honor in these first couple of verses kind 6 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:53,520 of thrown in here, not much context, but obviously Paul was writing to address something that 7 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:59,120 was going on in regards to slaves and masters. And so he talks about that here for a couple 8 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:04,440 of verses before he moves on to his next topic. So let's pray and then we'll get started. 9 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:09,840 Father God, we come to you tonight and I thank you that we can be in your house. I thank 10 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:13,760 you for your word and I pray that you would hide me behind the cross, that you would help 11 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,440 me to preach and teach this word and the way that you want us to hear it. I pray that your 12 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:23,480 Holy Spirit would speak to us tonight. I pray that we would understand your word and that 13 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,920 we would grow in it, dear Lord, that you would help me as a pastor to grow in these words 14 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,920 tonight, that you would just help us as Christians, dear Lord, to grow in these words tonight. 15 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,520 And I pray that you'd be good to us in these next few minutes, free us from distractions 16 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:42,160 and worries and bless the time we have. And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen. 17 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:52,240 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 1, all who are under the yoke as slaves must regard their own 18 00:01:52,240 --> 00:02:00,960 masters to be worthy of all respect so that God's name and his teaching will not be blasphemed. 19 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:06,040 Those who have believing masters should not be disrespectful to them because they are 20 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:12,680 their brothers, but should serve them better, since those who benefit from their service 21 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:19,360 are believers and dearly loved. Teach and encourage these things. 22 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:26,080 Now this passage and passages like these come with some difficulty. We commonly see in the 23 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:32,220 Old Testament and even in the New Testament, we see mentions of slavery. We don't really 24 00:02:32,220 --> 00:02:38,700 see condemnation so much of slavery. We see instructions on slavery and for masters of 25 00:02:38,700 --> 00:02:45,300 slaves and for slaves themselves. And this is somewhat of a difficulty for us, especially 26 00:02:45,300 --> 00:02:50,760 in modern times. It's either just as bad as it has always been or maybe even worse in 27 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:57,760 modern times when it comes to slavery. Now part of that has to do with culture. Part 28 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:02,840 of that has to do with the way things may have been in biblical times and the way things 29 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:08,760 were in slavery that we most commonly think of. Now when we think of slavery, we typically 30 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:14,500 think of slavery as it was here in the United States. And on some occasions here on the 31 00:03:14,500 --> 00:03:21,360 United States, it was very bad. Some occasions perhaps it wasn't as bad as other occasions, 32 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:27,800 but nonetheless based on kind of what our culture knows as slavery, what little bit 33 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,920 I guess we could say we've experienced for lack of a better term because it's somewhat 34 00:03:31,920 --> 00:03:41,840 recent to us, slavery is often held as negative in every possible way that it could be. However, 35 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:47,300 when we see slavery in the Bible, it's good for us to recognize that there's a big cultural 36 00:03:47,300 --> 00:03:53,080 difference there. Now that's not to say that it's ever okay to steal another person or 37 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:59,400 to own another person or to take somebody's rights or to mistreat them. That type of slavery 38 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:04,640 or treating someone in that way, whether they're your slave or not, is certainly not biblical 39 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:09,560 and that's never what God intended. So some would look at passages like these and they 40 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,380 would say, man, well the Bible's not very good and God's not very good because we see 41 00:04:13,380 --> 00:04:19,260 slavery throughout all the scripture. So what are we to make of passages like these that 42 00:04:19,260 --> 00:04:24,040 address slavery and deal with slavery? Well, I think what we are to make of passages like 43 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:29,720 these is what I said. We have to realize that there's a cultural difference and as hard 44 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:38,380 as it is for our minds to fathom that maybe some forms of slavery are acceptable and certainly 45 00:04:38,380 --> 00:04:44,840 that's not a popular view in our culture. Perhaps that is the case. Now, again, as we 46 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:50,280 see this idea perhaps of one group of people stealing another group of people to enslave 47 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:55,080 them, this is nothing new. It's not like when we saw American slavery that this was the 48 00:04:55,080 --> 00:05:00,120 first time this happened. There has been slavery since early on in the Bible. There is slavery 49 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:06,320 all over the world amongst all races. Slavery has been prominent for centuries. You can 50 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:12,520 search and find plenty of examples where lots of people have enslaved other people. However, 51 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:17,800 perhaps there are some instances where slavery is a benefit to the slave. Now, again, that 52 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:23,720 sounds crazy to us if we have our preconceived notion that all slavery is bad, but we have 53 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:28,300 to remember that perhaps not everyone who is a master of a slave mistreated their slave 54 00:05:28,300 --> 00:05:34,520 and in many cases they probably did not. There are some instances where it is likely that 55 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:39,480 what we consider a slave or see a slavery here in the Bible, it may benefit us to think 56 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:45,480 about that in terms of a bond servant. That is to say that someone owes a debt to someone 57 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:52,000 which they are unable to pay and the only payment that they can make for that debt is 58 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:58,600 their service, is what they can do. And so we see this type of example, at least I believe 59 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:04,800 this is the type of example that we see in scripture, and it may be for the benefit of 60 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:07,880 someone. If you have got no money, if you have got nowhere to live, if you have got 61 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:13,560 no food and you go to someone and you say, I will be your slave, well with that is going 62 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:18,440 to come some benefit. Yeah, you are going to lose some freedom in a sense, but there 63 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:21,760 is going to be some benefit in that you are going to have a place to stay, you are going 64 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:26,840 to have food to eat, and as we see in the Old Testament, you are not enslaved forever. 65 00:06:26,840 --> 00:06:30,720 It is not like that person owned you. It is not that that person was better than you. 66 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:35,480 It is not to say that those who are enslaved are inferior to those who are masters. Now 67 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:40,240 that is part of the problem where slavery becomes evil. And some would hold that view. 68 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:46,000 Some would say, well, we should enslave certain people because we are better than them. Well, 69 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:51,000 that is certainly not acceptable. That is certainly not ever accepted in scripture and 70 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:56,800 it is not celebrated. We should never hold that type of view. But in the sense that perhaps 71 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:02,180 someone's livelihood could be sustained by them saying, I will offer myself in service 72 00:07:02,180 --> 00:07:07,000 to you to work for you so that my needs will be met and I can pay off whatever debt I may 73 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,880 owe. Well, then in that sense, slavery may not necessarily be such a bad thing. And what 74 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,800 we see in the Old Testament is the command that if someone is your slave, that they are 75 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:21,480 a slave for six years, but in the seventh year, you let them go. Now the Bible is pretty 76 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:27,600 clear that masters are to be good to their slaves. Now that's not to say that there have 77 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:32,380 not been many masters throughout the centuries who have mistreated their slaves. There have 78 00:07:32,380 --> 00:07:37,640 certainly been people from many countries in the world, regardless of race, who have 79 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:43,120 enslaved other people and who has mistreated them, who have treated them as not equals, 80 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:47,720 as not human beings and not treated them like human beings and abused them. And that is 81 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:55,600 certainly wrong. In the Bible, nowhere promotes that as being this is the way God wants things. 82 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:59,720 Now there are certainly Christians throughout the years who have perhaps used passages like 83 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:06,960 this or other passages that talk about slavery to kind of back up their argument. Slavery 84 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:11,120 is okay and we should own slaves, but oftentimes those who would make those arguments are the 85 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,720 very ones who would mistreat their slaves. And so certainly some would call themselves 86 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:20,560 Christians and use scriptures like this to support their view, but then their actions 87 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:25,140 would go against everything that scripture would say. And so when we see scriptures about 88 00:08:25,140 --> 00:08:30,000 slavery in the Bible, then it probably brings questions to our mind. Well, wait a minute, 89 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:36,200 I thought slavery was wrong. Well, in many cases, slavery is wrong, but perhaps there 90 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:42,080 are instances in which slavery, that is someone working for someone else saying, I'll give 91 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:49,040 you my labor and return for a debt that'll be paid. I'll work it off. We joke about that 92 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:53,280 sometimes. You go eat at a nice restaurant, you get the bill and it's a lot. And you say, 93 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:57,360 well, I'm going to have to go back there and wash dishes. We kind of understand that concept 94 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:02,040 and say it kind of jokingly. Now, thank the Lord, we can pay for our dinner most of the 95 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:07,420 time, hopefully, but what in the instance, what if it came that you couldn't pay? Then 96 00:09:07,420 --> 00:09:12,200 perhaps this idea of being a bond servant of offering your service to pay off your debt. 97 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:17,760 Well, that may be the same kind of idea that we see in scripture. Now, nonetheless, there 98 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:22,640 were masters and slaves. And while that certainly isn't the ideal, and I don't know that God 99 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:28,360 desires for things to be in that way, the scripture gives us commands on how masters 100 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:33,480 are to treat slaves and how slaves are to treat masters. And that's what this passage 101 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:38,760 is talking about here in these first two verses. It kind of seems out of place, but nonetheless, 102 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:42,920 he brings it up. So it must have been something that was going on there. Now, we see this 103 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:48,280 idea that's brought up here of the master and the slave both being Christians. He's 104 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:53,200 talking about Christian slaves here and Christian masters. And as we see in the scripture, there's 105 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:59,200 no Jew or Gentile, there's no male or female, there's no slave or free. We see that in scripture. 106 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:04,440 That is, those who are in Christ, there is no distinction. And Paul says that, hey, if 107 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:09,560 you can get out of being a slave, then by all means do that. I don't remember that verse. 108 00:10:09,560 --> 00:10:15,000 Maybe 1 Corinthians chapter 7 or somewhere in that area. But even Paul encourages people. 109 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,640 The book of Philemon, if you've never read it, you can read it tonight in about five 110 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:24,000 minutes. It's really, really short. It's in the New Testament. And there was this slave 111 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:31,120 by the name of Onesimus. And he had been helping Paul out, but he was a slave of Philemon. 112 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:37,680 Onesimus was a Christian, and so was Philemon. And so Paul writes him a letter and he says, 113 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:42,560 hey, look, I know that Onesimus is your slave, but he has been beneficial to my work and 114 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:47,040 the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so I'm going to send him back to you, but 115 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:53,280 I'm asking you as a brother in Christ to let him go, to freedom of his obligations, to 116 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:58,520 freedom of his debt. Whatever time he has left to serve, I ask that you would free him 117 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:04,080 of that so that he can serve and do the Lord's work. Now here Paul says, look, if you're 118 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:08,040 a slave and your master is a Christian, then don't take that for granted. Don't say, well, 119 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:11,760 wait a minute, we're both Christians. We're equal, so I shouldn't be a slave anymore. 120 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:16,640 Paul says just the opposite. Be a good example and show what it means to be a servant and 121 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:21,760 what it means to be a slave. Work that much harder. You should work even better for your 122 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:27,680 master. Now this language is harsh as it may seem and is politically incorrect as it may 123 00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:34,160 seem in our culture today, is the same language that is used for Jesus Christ and for us. 124 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:40,960 We are servants of God. We are slaves of Jesus Christ. And so we see this idea of God being 125 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:46,160 our master, of Jesus being our master, and we are called to be servants and slaves for 126 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:54,200 God. Now that's certainly a beautiful relationship. There's nothing evil about that. There's nothing 127 00:11:54,200 --> 00:12:00,040 evil about God's relationship with us and our relationship with God. It's quite beautiful. 128 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:05,160 As our master, God provides for us and takes care of us and sends Jesus Christ and Jesus 129 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:11,520 gives his life for us. Jesus came and served the Father faithfully while he was on earth. 130 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:16,720 And so when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are called to be servants of God. That 131 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:22,600 is to say, God, what we have is yours. What energy we have, what gifts we have, God, it 132 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:29,120 is yours. We live to serve you. Now, not in the sense that we are indebted to God. Okay, 133 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:32,760 God, you've forgiven my sins and I'm indebted, so I'm going to work to pay that off. That's 134 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:37,600 totally not what the gospel says. The gospel says Jesus has paid everything for us, so 135 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:44,160 we're not working to pay off a debt. Jesus has covered our sin, but we work to serve 136 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:49,000 God because God has been good to us and he has blessed us and he has taken care of us. 137 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:54,360 So this idea of being a servant or being a slave, when it's carried out in love, can 138 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:59,840 be both a beautiful thing for the master and the slave. So we need to remember that when 139 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:04,600 we see this language that certainly there are some people who have not been good masters 140 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:09,120 and those people are not living by the word of God. But there are other occasions perhaps 141 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:15,080 where maybe slavery, as we often may think of it in our culture, may not be the best 142 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:20,520 way to think of it. There may be a brighter side to slavery than sometimes what we may 143 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:28,520 recognize. All right, verse three. If anyone teaches other doctrines and does not agree 144 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:33,080 with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that promotes 145 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:40,320 godliness, he is conceited, understanding nothing, but he has a sick interest in disputes 146 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:47,320 and arguments over words. Okay, so he appears to switch gears here to talk about false teachers 147 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:52,320 and we've kind of seen some talk about that already in First Timothy. But there appear 148 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:57,920 to be those who are false teachers. They're teaching doctrines that are not right. They 149 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:02,720 don't go along with what scripture says. They're not sound teachings. And what does he say 150 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:10,280 about those who would do this? It says they are conceited or they are proud. They understand 151 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:15,480 nothing. Okay, so maybe they think they have some understanding of scripture, but really 152 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:20,120 they don't have much understanding of scripture or the truth of scripture. Instead, it says 153 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:27,120 they have a sick interest in disputes and arguments over words. So they're not interested 154 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:32,320 really in learning the word of God or in teaching the word of God, but getting into disputes 155 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:37,680 about things in the word of God. Now, we have to be careful about this. This is, I think, 156 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:45,280 an easy trap to fall into because as we begin to study God's word and we begin to talk with 157 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:51,600 other Christians, there are sometimes differences of interpretation. And those differences over 158 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:58,200 interpretation, even amongst other Christians, can really turn into arguments and debates 159 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:03,840 and we can really become consumed with these things. We can become consumed with certain 160 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:09,200 views. And I was reading this today and I was thinking, man, I need to be more careful 161 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:13,800 because when I study and probably when you guys study or when you encounter other people, 162 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:17,640 you study those views and you want to give a good defense. And so in trying to give a 163 00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:22,320 good defense and be true to scripture, it's easy to cross over that line where we become 164 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:27,920 consumed with a few different things. And we begin to want to dispute and argue about 165 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:33,360 those things and those differences of interpretation. And those things are not healthy. They're 166 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:38,440 not healthy for us and certainly for anybody who's going to be teaching scripture. And 167 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:44,480 so he gives, I believe, a good warning here for any who teach or preach in particularly 168 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:51,640 to not have this interest in disputes and arguments. That is, don't get pulled away 169 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:55,480 from what matters. Don't get pulled away from the word of God and the grace of God and the 170 00:15:55,480 --> 00:16:00,000 love of God. Don't miss the forest for the trees. Don't get so caught up on something 171 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:05,680 that maybe is not significant that you miss the meaning of God's word and the love of 172 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:12,400 God's word. Continuing on in verse four, from these, that is the sick interest in disputes 173 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:19,280 and arguments, from these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions. Okay. Well, these 174 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:23,400 are, none of these things are good things that you become envious of other people or 175 00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:28,920 you resent other people who may be smarter than you or know more than you. And you don't 176 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:33,440 like it when there's arguments that arise or different views that arise. And so you 177 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:38,540 want to dispute, you want to argue, and you always want to kind of prove you're the best. 178 00:16:38,540 --> 00:16:43,340 And that's where that pride comes in. And that's something that, again, if you're going 179 00:16:43,340 --> 00:16:49,120 to teach or you're going to preach, this passage may be especially helpful. But I think for 180 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:55,160 all of us, it's helpful in some way. So he talks about envy, quarreling, slandering the 181 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:59,640 other person, talking about the other person in such a way that you're trying to make them 182 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:04,600 look bad. Maybe not even necessarily lie about them, but bringing up things they say or trying 183 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:10,320 to poke holes in their argument in such a way that you want them to look bad so that 184 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:16,100 you will look better. And that's a bad motivation for teaching and that's a bad way to preach. 185 00:17:16,100 --> 00:17:22,960 And so we have to be careful about those things. Evil suspicion. You become suspicious of the 186 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,520 person. Oh, they got a different view than me. I don't know if they can be trusted or 187 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:31,960 not. Maybe not very godly. I'm really surprised at that. I'm disappointed at that. And we 188 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:36,760 begin to have these suspicions that are evil that really are unfounded because they may 189 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:41,660 be good Christian people that just have a difference of opinion. But too many times 190 00:17:41,660 --> 00:17:47,880 it's easy for us to make things that don't matter too important to us. And so some of 191 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,440 you may say, I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Others of you may say, yeah, 192 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:55,760 I know what you're talking about. I've seen that. I've experienced that. And so we need 193 00:17:55,760 --> 00:18:02,480 to be on guard that we don't fall into that trap to become these people he's talking about. 194 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,960 Constant disagreement in verse five. Constant disagreement among people whose minds are 195 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:13,360 depraved and deprived of the truth. Well, that's a pretty bad place to be. So if we 196 00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:18,280 get to this shape where we become proud and we begin to slander others and we just want 197 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:23,280 to argue and dispute all the time, that's a very scary place to be. So we need to check 198 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:27,880 ourselves. We need to test ourselves from time to time in the scripture and see if we're 199 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,760 kind of falling into those traps. And maybe this is one of them that we need to make sure 200 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:35,560 that we don't fall into that trap and pray that we, we don't, because we don't want to 201 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:39,720 be those who are depraved and those who are deprived of the truth. We want to know the 202 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:45,280 truth of God's word. We want to understand it. We want to be able to, to love one another 203 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:49,920 as brothers and sisters in Christ and not get caught up in the weeds. And sometimes 204 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:55,280 maybe we do get caught up in the weeds. And I will admit that I am guilty of that sometimes. 205 00:18:55,280 --> 00:19:01,880 And so we have to be careful that we don't fall into those traps. What does it say here? 206 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:06,940 Those whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth who imagine that godliness is 207 00:19:06,940 --> 00:19:12,640 a way to material gain. So it appears that these false teachers that he is speaking of 208 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:18,880 here, they're not promoting the truth of the gospel. They are, they are just interested 209 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:23,800 in causing trouble essentially and causing disputes and arguing. And it appears that 210 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:28,480 this group that he's talking about, their, their real concern is not about doing the 211 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:34,120 work of God, but it is about material gain. I'm going to do this because it's going to 212 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:40,400 get me money. Well, that's a bad start. That's a bad place for someone who is going to teach 213 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:46,080 or preach the word of God to start. That should not be a, that should not be a question in 214 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:51,320 my opinion, very high on the list of a teacher or a preacher or someone who's serving. Well, 215 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,680 before we start, how much are you going to pay? Now I've heard stories of preachers and 216 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:59,960 people in the ministry who have said that before, I'll come, but only for X amount of 217 00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:04,880 dollars. That's not a good place to start. And perhaps those are the type of people that 218 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:10,960 Paul is talking about here. Those who are, who are looking at ministry as a way for material 219 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:17,320 gain. And it's sad to say that perhaps there are many in our world today that preach and 220 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:22,400 teach and make a big to do about a lot of stuff. And sometimes you wonder when you hear 221 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:27,080 the things they say and you see the things they do and you see that they taken up the 222 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,720 offering plate. And sometimes even some of these big names, you see the offering plate 223 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,880 will come back up and they'll look over in it and they'll say, that ain't enough for 224 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:38,000 God to work tonight. God wants you to give more. And they'll pass the plate back around 225 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:42,760 again. Now this is crazy stuff, right? But yet these are the types of things that, that 226 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:47,600 you hear about. You hear these stories or maybe you see some of these things on TV. 227 00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:53,280 Now I would say that those who do such things might be in danger of falling into this category 228 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:59,680 of those who are using the ministry as a way of material gain. That is they're not doing 229 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:03,080 it for the God, for the Lord. They're not doing it for the kingdom of God. They're doing 230 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:08,160 it to say, this is how I'm going to stuff my pockets full of money. But listen at this 231 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:13,120 next verse. This is one of my favorite verses and man, I fail at this so bad. And I wish 232 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:19,740 I, I wish I was, I lived this out and maybe you guys do too, but this is such a good verse. 233 00:21:19,740 --> 00:21:24,840 Maybe you don't struggle with it. I hope you don't, but godliness with contentment is great 234 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:32,080 game. Now I think that is a good verse because the problem is, and maybe not for you guys, 235 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:36,920 but for me sometimes is I'm not content. Man, I wish I was content. You know, sometimes 236 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,920 you see people on the street and they ain't got anything and you say, poor them. But then 237 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:45,280 on the flip side, maybe poor us. Maybe they don't have anything. They may be more content 238 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,840 than we are. They may be happier than we are because when we're discontent and we begin 239 00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:54,400 to get desires for the world and we begin to want some things in the world, which may 240 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:59,720 not necessarily be bad, those things in some way kind of become a burden to us. They become 241 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:04,080 a, they become a vice to us because we have to work to get those things. And then we're 242 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:08,320 miserable at work sometimes and then we're tired and then all these things come up and 243 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:13,080 then really isn't worth it. All the things that we have and we're not content with what 244 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:17,240 we have. So we want a little more. We want a little nicer car. We want a little bigger 245 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:22,240 TV. I'm just talking about myself. I ain't talking about y'all. And we want nicer clothes 246 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:29,680 or we want these things. And, and on some level it's not bad to, to want some things, 247 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:35,420 but the problem is sometimes we're not content because we always want just a little more 248 00:22:35,420 --> 00:22:42,080 than what we got. But what a beautiful verse here that it says, but godliness with contentment 249 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:49,680 is great gain. Now I believe it's probably, and I hope I get there one day, Lord willing 250 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:55,800 more so now than I am in this life to come to a, to a spot where I'm content, where I'm 251 00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:59,680 content. And what a, what a beautiful place that may be. And some of you may be there 252 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:04,160 tonight. Maybe all of you are there tonight. I hope you are those listening online that 253 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:09,200 godliness with contentment is great gain. That is to say, it's not about how much money 254 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:13,800 is in your pocket. That's, that's, that's not godliness. That's not going to make you 255 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:19,360 happy. That's not going to make you content. Godliness is going to make you content. And 256 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:23,960 when you are content with the things of God, you'll find that you are richer than you have 257 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:28,400 ever been. That when you are content with God and you say, you know what, there's good 258 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:32,600 things in this world and maybe I'll get some of them or maybe I won't, but if I don't, 259 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:39,160 it's okay. But too many times we're not content. We want that other thing. We get angry when 260 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,320 we don't get that other thing. We say, it's not fair that I don't get that other thing. 261 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:48,040 And that discontentment breeds trouble in our hearts. It does. It breeds trouble in 262 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:52,920 our heart. And that's why I think this verse is such a powerful verse for Christians to 263 00:23:52,920 --> 00:24:01,000 look at and to consider, but godliness with contentment is great gain. Next verse, verse 264 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:06,920 seven, for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out, but if we have 265 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:13,080 food and clothing, we will be content with these. What a beautiful thing. Paul recognizes 266 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,960 the truth here. You're not taking anything when you leave this world. You didn't bring 267 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:23,320 anything into this world. So some people might want to work and save up and have all this 268 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:29,960 money and for what purpose? For what purpose? You're not taking anything with you. So what's 269 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:34,640 the point of working and working and building all these things up that are in the end probably 270 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,840 going to make you unhappy because you're going to be discontent and because you're going 271 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,800 to want more and you're going to have to work harder. And it's the cycle that we get ourselves 272 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:50,040 in and part of that is our culture. The American way is you deserve to have this and you deserve 273 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:55,320 to have that and you can have whatever you want. And that's part of our culture. And 274 00:24:55,320 --> 00:25:00,200 I was reading these verses today. I was, I don't know if our culture has got it right 275 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:06,560 on that. Maybe we don't have it right on that. And Paul says here, but if we have food and 276 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:11,680 clothing, we will be content with these. Well, that's good. I believe Paul probably was in 277 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:18,360 the right spot there, but many times perhaps we have food and clothing, but we're not happy 278 00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:24,600 with the food and clothing we have. We have ham sandwich. We want a pizza. We have a pizza. 279 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:29,360 We want a steak. We have a steak. We want lobster, whatever it is. We want the next 280 00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:36,280 thing, but we should be content with whatever we have. Maybe it's a turkey sandwich. If 281 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,560 you're not content with your turkey sandwich, let me tell you how you can be more content 282 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:43,040 with it. You take your bread, you put it on a pan, you put it in the oven, you get it 283 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:48,140 nice and toasty. You take it out, you put your little mayo on there. You put your turkey 284 00:25:48,140 --> 00:25:51,760 on there. You put your cheese on there. You put it back in the oven and you get that thing 285 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:56,520 nice and toasty and it'll change your life. If you're not content with your turkey sandwich, 286 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:00,960 it might just be that you're not making it right. So we need to learn how to be content 287 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:05,520 even with the little things and to be grateful that we have a turkey sandwich, even a cold 288 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,320 one. If we had to have a cold one, even a cold one, we should be content with these 289 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:14,200 things and the clothes that we have. We should learn to be content in these areas and many 290 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:19,400 more. Verse nine, but those who want to be rich 291 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:27,320 fall into temptation, a trap and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into 292 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:35,240 ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and by craving 293 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:42,640 it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. Now 294 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,920 this passage we're probably familiar with. Now in the context here, it's talking about 295 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,120 those teachers who are wanting that material gain and they're not content and so they want 296 00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:55,800 more and more and more, but they need to seek godliness and learn contentment with what 297 00:26:55,800 --> 00:27:01,480 we have, whether a little or whether a lot. And then he goes on to give this strong warning. 298 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:06,320 Now even out of the context here, I think this is true, not just of teachers, but of 299 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:12,800 all of us, but those who want to be rich fall into temptation. Now I suspect that if we 300 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:17,680 were to poll many people that we were seeing, especially Christians and say, do you want 301 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:22,320 to be rich? We might would say no, but now you'd have some that say, I want to be rich, 302 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:25,720 but we'd probably say, Oh no, I don't want to be rich. And maybe partly because of this 303 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:29,800 passage. So I don't want to be rich because Hey, the love of money is the root of all 304 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:34,960 kinds of evil. That's a passage that many people are familiar with. And so we may say 305 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:40,180 we don't want to be rich and that we don't have a love of money, but in some way we may 306 00:27:40,180 --> 00:27:46,600 be deceiving ourselves because it says here that those who want to be rich and fall into 307 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:54,600 temptation, a trap and many foolish and harmful desires, which plund people into ruin and 308 00:27:54,600 --> 00:28:01,720 destruction. And so we may say, we, we may not say that we desire to be rich, but we 309 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:07,280 may have a list of desires. We may have the list of a lot of desires of homes, of cars, 310 00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:13,480 of toys, of, of, of whatever it may be, all of those things, which take a lot of money. 311 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:19,880 And so we desire those things. Then the money has to come to, to, to get those things. And 312 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:25,280 so we find ourselves falling into this trap. We want more and more and more because we're 313 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:33,160 not content and it ensnares us. It traps us into this. We've got to get more money because 314 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:39,440 we've got to get more stuff. And so we fall into that trap of maybe, maybe desiring to 315 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,920 be rich and want money more than we realize. We say, well, I want some things, but that's 316 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:49,520 not the same as wanting to be rich. But then oftentimes it takes some wealth to be able 317 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:55,760 to obtain the things that we want. And so that's a trap. It's a trap that maybe sometimes 318 00:28:55,760 --> 00:29:00,360 we fall into. And then he gives that warning for the root of, excuse me, for the love of 319 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:08,820 money is a root of all kinds of evil. And so when we begin desire things, it takes money. 320 00:29:08,820 --> 00:29:13,960 And so we have to get money. And so what do we do to get that money? Well, some people 321 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:18,400 will do a lot of things to get money. People will kill to get money. People take out a 322 00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:21,840 big life insurance on their spouse and then they'll have them killed. People do it all 323 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:26,640 the time. You can watch Dateline or any of these shows. You see it. It's crazy. People 324 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,560 will do a lot of stuff for money. Why? It's not that they just want to get that money 325 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:35,760 so they can just go bathe in it like Scrooge McDuck. He jumps into his vault and swims 326 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:39,320 around in his gold coins. No, people don't want to just sit there and look at a stack 327 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,600 of money. They want the money because they want the thing. They want the house. They 328 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:50,640 want the party life. They want whatever it is. And so our desires call for us to get 329 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:54,120 more money. How are we going to get more money? We're going to work ourself to death and feel 330 00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:58,360 stressed and then not be happy because we work all the time. And so, so it's a trap 331 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:03,480 in that way. And maybe we don't realize that it's a trap and maybe that's not what this 332 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:09,280 scripture means, but then again, maybe it is. And so we have to be careful that we don't 333 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:16,120 get caught in the trap. It says by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith 334 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:21,620 and pierced themselves with many pains. Well, it does bring a lot of pain. Wealth brings 335 00:30:21,620 --> 00:30:25,720 a lot of pain. You take that wealth and you buy a new car and it brings a lot of pain. 336 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:31,240 Now I used to have this little Jeep that was cheap and it was a piece of junk. And if it 337 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,560 got scratched up or denting, I didn't care. Now some of y'all probably got a car like 338 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,240 this. You don't care if it's dented up or rusted or whatever. You just beat and bang 339 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:43,720 and go against bushes and limbs. Ah, it don't matter. But then when you get your Sunday, 340 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:49,000 go to meet and car, well it's clean and it's shiny and you got to be careful. You park 341 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,960 it at the end of the lot at Walmart. You park your junky car up front. It don't matter if 342 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,760 it gets hit, hits by a buggy, but you get your good car. You park it at the end of the 343 00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:01,120 thing. You don't want it to get hit by a buggy because that's your nice car. And so what 344 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:06,080 that nice car does is it puts a burden on you. Now your old junker that you're content 345 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,920 with, it don't matter. You don't pay no attention to, but when we begin to have these nicer 346 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:15,480 things, they come with a little bit of pain in a sense. They come with a little bit of 347 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:21,720 a burden in a sense, almost that it's not a joy to own them. It's more of a burden and 348 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,960 a joy. There's some days that I think, well, I wish I still had that Jeep because I didn't 349 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:30,040 care if it was dirty. I didn't care nothing. Somebody keyed it one day. I come out there 350 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:33,080 and they had a big old X they keyed on the side. I don't know why they did it. Didn't 351 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:38,660 matter. I didn't care. There's no pain in that. There's no pain in the contentment of 352 00:31:38,660 --> 00:31:43,440 even the simple things, but sometimes there is pain in the better things and the more 353 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:49,160 expensive things. And more importantly, it says those who turn to these desires for money 354 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:55,400 and wealth and things, they wander from the faith. That is sometimes the money and the 355 00:31:55,400 --> 00:32:01,640 things become God. And that's scary. That's a scary, scary thing. And maybe sometimes 356 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:07,280 we get closer to that, that we won't admit. Maybe we're closer to it now that our things 357 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:13,960 and our desires and our money have kind of caused us to wander from the faith. One more 358 00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:22,120 verse here, verse 11, but you, man of God, run from these things and pursue righteousness, 359 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:29,320 godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Okay. So if we look at this last passage and 360 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:34,400 it's scary to us and we begin to test ourselves and we begin to say, I'm not doing good in 361 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:39,120 this area. Maybe I'm kind of falling into some of these traps for those who are preachers 362 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:43,560 and teachers. You look at this and you say, all right, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm some of these 363 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:48,760 things that it says these false teachers are doing. I'm doing these things are some of 364 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:53,720 these things about money and about the love of money and desire for things. Maybe I fall 365 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:58,480 into that trap. So what do we do? Well, praise the Lord. He gives us instruction here in 366 00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:05,560 this verse, but you man or woman of God run from these things. So if we see these things 367 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:12,000 in our life, we must run from them, uh, resist the devil and he will flee from you. So repent 368 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:17,520 means to turn. So if we see we're turned and we're walking toward these things and giving 369 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:23,760 into these things, then the solution to our problem tonight is to repent and say, God, 370 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:30,080 I have, I'm guilty in this way. God, I repent of this sin and I'm going to turn away from 371 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:36,720 that. And when we do that, we are doing what the scripture says here, that we are running 372 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:42,160 from these things. Okay. So when we see that there's sin in our life, we, we want to run 373 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:49,040 from that sin, but it's not just a running from something, but it's a running to something. 374 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:54,760 So what are we going to run to? What are we going to replace that with those all sinful 375 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:58,800 desires? What are we going to replace that with? And well, if we just turn from them 376 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:03,040 and we don't replace that with something wholesome, then pretty soon, guess what? We're going 377 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:08,480 to begin to replace sin back in that spot again, back in that void. But we want to turn 378 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:13,120 from that sin and we're starting with a fresh slate. Okay, God, I've turned from that. What 379 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:17,780 are we turning to? Well, we want to run to something better. And what does he say? Run 380 00:34:17,780 --> 00:34:23,680 from those things and pursue. And then he gives a list of things here, pursue righteousness. 381 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:28,320 Okay. So we want to seek to be righteous. We want to seek to do what is right. Now we're 382 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:32,680 not righteous based on our acts. Jesus is righteous and we're made righteous through 383 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:39,320 Jesus, but that's what we should desire. We should desire to live like Jesus and be made 384 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:46,640 right and to do the right thing. It says to pursue godliness. Okay. We want to pursue 385 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:52,640 those things that are godly. We want to live a godly way and do the things that God commands 386 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:58,560 us to in scripture. Pursue our faith that we seek God to be strengthened in our faith. 387 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:03,480 And when we begin to waver and we begin to question and we begin to kind of doubt, we 388 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,480 want to say, no, God, I'm going to come back to your word and I'm going to trust you that 389 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,080 you're going to provide for me. And that if I'm content, dear Lord, that there's going 390 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:17,120 to be great gain in that. So help me not to give into these, excuse me, sinful desires 391 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:24,360 again of the world. He tells us to pursue love. We should love God. We should love one 392 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:28,080 another. Maybe that's lacking in our life. Maybe our relationship with God hadn't been 393 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:33,320 too good. Maybe we just need to pray and say, God, I love you. God, I thank you. God, I 394 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:37,600 praise you. I come to you and I seek you. And God helped me to love others. If you have 395 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:43,480 loved me and we need to pursue love in our life, maybe we're not doing too good in that 396 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:49,520 area. We need to pursue endurance. Okay. So life is hard. Life is tough. This battle against 397 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:54,960 sin is unbelievably hard. Sin is hard. You beat sin the next day it's coming back and 398 00:35:54,960 --> 00:36:00,000 it's a battle and we endure life and what it throws at us. So we want to pursue that 399 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:08,000 endurance that we'd be able to stand strong in the Lord and finally pursue gentleness. 400 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,240 That we want to be those who are gentle. That we want to be those who are harsh. Now, excuse 401 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:17,840 me, not be those who are harsh. That we want to be those who are compassionate. And so 402 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:22,760 what better example do we see of these things that it calls us to than what we see in Jesus 403 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:29,480 Christ? If we want to be those who are righteous and who are godly and who have a strong faith 404 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:35,800 and who have endurance and love and gentleness, then Jesus embodies those things in a perfect 405 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:41,560 way. And so that's where our help comes from. When we look at these verses before and say, 406 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:46,480 man, these are some serious things that sometimes we may fall into and sins that we may fall 407 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:52,500 into. What do we do? Will we pursue these things that we see in Christ so that these 408 00:36:52,500 --> 00:36:57,400 things in Christ will be part of our life? That we come to the one who is atoned for 409 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:04,360 us, who is interceding for us, as we talked about Sunday in Hebrews, to Jesus Christ, 410 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,280 who is the one who will make us righteous, the one who can show us what love is, what 411 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:12,480 greater love is there that a man shows for his brothers than to lay down his life for 412 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:19,940 them. That's what Jesus shows us. He shows us what it means to be gentle, to be compassionate. 413 00:37:19,940 --> 00:37:25,960 And so we come tonight to seek Jesus. We come to seek Jesus so that he can make us into 414 00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:29,760 the men or women he wants us to be, because he's the only one that can do it. He's the 415 00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:34,760 one who gave his life on the cross so that we could be forgiven and that the Holy Spirit 416 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:39,960 could live in us and work in us. So we need to check these things on this list and make 417 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,840 sure that we're not guilty of these things, whether we're a teacher or preacher or whether 418 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:48,080 we're just a follower of Christ. And maybe we don't have a title, so to speak, but we 419 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:51,760 need to check and make sure we're living right and make sure we're living like Jesus. Let's 420 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:52,760 pray. 421 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:56,400 Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word, and I pray that you bless 422 00:37:56,400 --> 00:38:01,360 it. I pray that you would work on our hearts, dear Lord, help us to see the areas tonight, 423 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:07,000 maybe where we are discontent, where we have failed, where we have sinned in those ways, 424 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,040 that you would help us to be content with you, dear Lord, that you would help us to 425 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:16,440 seek you, that you would help us not to be involved with disputes about words and different 426 00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:22,200 views and opinions, dear Lord, that those things would not consume us, but that we would 427 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:26,360 be consumed with the gospel of Jesus Christ and His teachings and His example and who 428 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,840 He is, dear Lord. I pray that if there are any that do not know Jesus Christ tonight 429 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:35,080 that they would repent, put their faith in Him. God, maybe there are some here tonight 430 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:39,640 and maybe there are some things in this passage that kind of pricked us a little bit. Let 431 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:44,080 us repent, dear Lord, and turn to you to seek to do what's right and to grow in you and 432 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:49,540 to run from the sinful things and to run to you, dear Lord. And I ask these things in 433 00:38:49,540 --> 00:38:56,540 Jesus' name, amen.