1 Timothy 6:3–21

0:00 Good morning. So Tuesday, November 4th, 9.54 a.m., my friend and new neighbor, Ryan Robertson, texts me. I just booked two hotel rooms in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. So we'll begin with a multiple choice question. What do you think we were talking about? I'll give you three options. A, an upcoming reaching and teaching event we were going to do together.

0:34 B, a weekend getaway with our wives. Nothing says I love you like, you know, a trip to Alabama in December. C, we were scheming about where we thought the Louisville Cardinals might be playing in the first round of the college football playoffs. What do you think the answer is? It was actually B, Merry Christmas, honey. No, I'm kidding. It was C. November 4th, Louisville was 7-1. We were top 15. We controlled our own destiny. What a stupid phrase. We controlled our own destiny. It was a very reasonable conversation, and now here we are 25 days later, and let's just say, well, we're not going to be going to the college football playoff. I'm very glad I get to skip this paragraph that I would have read had we lost yesterday, so i'll just i'll just keep moving on uh anyway ryan and i we were wrong about the future and so we we spent some time doing some very stupid stuff very stupid stuff you know it's

1:39 been a joy sitting under the preaching of of our pastors as we've gone through first timothy i'm happy to be the closer and so this morning as we as we close our series through the letter from Paul to Timothy, we're going to talk about how knowing the future shapes our present. In other words, because we know what happens then, what happens next, it should change how we live now. Did you know, if you're a Christian and you believe the Bible, did you know that you know the future. Like, you really do. And you didn't figure it out through some vision or through some preacher on TV or through some tarot cards or through the stars in the sky. No, no, no. You know the future.

2:29 We know the future because God told us the future. In fact, every single thing that God wants you to know about the future, he's told you. Like, we have the answers. This is wonderful news. so here's here's what i want to try to convince you of this morning which i think is the burden of sort of paul's conclusion to his letter to his friend timothy so so it's very simple because we know the future we know what to flee and what to fight for because we know the future we know what to flee and what to fight for so this morning the sermon will have two points Very simple, following the sort of main idea or what I want to convince you of.

3:19 Point number one is what to flee. That's verses 2 to 11, at least half of 2, half of 11, and point 2 will be what to fight for. Because we know the future, my friends, we know what to flee and what to fight for. So open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. Again, in case you're new or, you know, you need to be refreshed, This is the Apostle Paul writing to his friend Timothy, who is a pastor of this church in Ephesus. And he's talked about all sorts of specific stuff that we have been, when covered.

3:50 And today he's sort of landing the plane and wrapping up his letter to his friend. Again, we're going to start 1 Timothy chapter 6, halfway through verse 2. And we're going to stop for now, at least, at verse 11. 1 Timothy chapter 6, beginning in verse 2. Halfway through. teach and urge these things, which I think is sort of primarily pointing backward to what we've covered. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he's puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy, for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

4:50 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world. We can take nothing out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we'll be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.

5:24 It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. So let's stop there for a second. If I could summarize, what are we to flee? What are we to flee? Well, Paul tells Timothy to flee false teachers who treat their ministry as a means to get rich in this life. To those whose ministries make it seem like this life is all there is.

5:55 such teachers, Paul says, will quite literally kill you. They'll ruin you for this life, and they'll bar the door for the life to come. I think in what we just read in those 10 verses, we see three marks of teachers worth fleeing. So let's talk about those for a moment. Three marks of teachers who are worth fleeing. Here's the first one. Flee teachers who crave controversy. because they know controversy sells.

6:29 Flea teachers who crave controversy because they know controversy sells. We should notice how Paul connects what these teachers are doing with how they're feeling, with their own greed. Again, he's talking about people who are teaching contrary to the life-giving doctrine of Jesus, contrary to the teaching that fits with godliness. And here's what he says. Look down with me. halfway through verse 4, halfway through verse 4, he, that is anyone who teaches such things contrary to the doctrine, halfway through verse 4, he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words. That's what they're doing. Now we'll talk for a second, in a second, about the fruit of what they're doing, but why are they doing this? Why do they care so much about controversies and quarrels about words? Verse 5, look with me, because they imagine, these false teachers imagine that godliness is a means of gain. Verse 9, let your eyes skip down

7:30 to verse 9, because they desire to be rich. Verse 10, because they love money. So again, just as these people, just as they crave controversy, these false teachers, whoever they are, they crave money. Now, as Paul, or as Paul, Greg, I almost called you Paul. I like you, not that much. As Greg taught us last week, these false teachers that that sort of Paul is warning Timothy about, they are they are flesh and blood people in Ephesus, right? It's possible we don't know all the sort of we can't reconstruct the background perfectly. It's possible that these that these false teachers are even leaders with Timothy in this church. Maybe they're they're pastors with Timothy. Maybe influential professing Christians in the area with their own ministries.

8:17 Again, we don't know for sure, but already, friends, I think if you're a member of this church, we can be thankful that whatever weaknesses Third Avenue Baptist Church has, it doesn't have false teachers on the payroll or in the pulpit. We're not dealing with the exact probable situation that our friend Timothy is dealing with. In fact, I would say, with the current practices at least that exist in this church, It would be nearly impossible for a false teacher to become a member of this church, much less a pastor of this church.

8:52 I mean, this is why we do membership classes, right? We teach the doctrine. We say, do you believe this doctrine? We do the church covenant. We believe this is how Christians live. This is why we do that. This is why we do membership interviews as pastors. We sit down with anyone who wants to be a member of this church. And we're not trying to, like, scrutinize them or catch them in a lie or a falsehood. We're honoring what the scriptures say about the importance of sound doctrine and sound living so that anyone who wants to join with us in following Jesus sort of believes the same gospel that we do.

9:25 And if you want to be an elder of this church, which, again, I hope it's good to aspire to be an elder. Men, I hope you aspire to that. You have an extremely long questionnaire. I don't know how many questions it is, 120-something questions, that sort of focus on doctrine. And then there's another questionnaire that's talking about your life, sort of 1 Timothy 3 stuff. Again, we're not trying to be picky. We're not trying to be cruel. We're trying to honor what the scriptures say about the importance of making sure that the men who lead the teaching ministry of a church must not be given in any way to false doctrine.

10:00 Now, in Timothy's day, of course, the Christians, right, the Christians there, as my grandma used to say, the pickings were few, right? I don't think that, like, your run-of-the-mill Ephesian Christian in the first century, like, is in the situation that we are in, which is that we can pick up our phones or get on the computer and have access to basically any teacher that exists, right so so we can broaden an app our application of this passage we can broaden it to think about like who are the teachers that we are interested in the teachers that we watch on youtube the teachers that we follow on social media the teachers whose articles we look forward to reading whose opinions we seek so just think about whoever those are in your life i suspect in this church. Most of you are like, yeah, I got a few people that I like. Let me ask the question.

10:56 Are they like this? Like these false teachers? Maybe think about how do these teachers that you enjoy watching or listening to, how do they market themselves? Are they constantly on the hunt for truth? Are they constantly trying to hold so-and-so accountable for something that they said about this thing? Now, I know, and I've spent 12 years of my life working in paraministry, so I know this a little bit better than probably I should.

11:33 It's been part of what the Lord's given me. You know, every, for the most part, for teachers like these, they sort of premise their ministries, their teaching on a concern for the health of the church. But after reading 1 Timothy 6, I kind of can't help but wonder how much of it is really just quarrels about words. You know, quarrels about words, you know, they're like a firework show. They're loud. They're impossible to ignore.

12:05 And people are kind of happy to pay just to sort of sit on the sideline and watch. Now, I need to be clear. Some clarifying comments. It is okay to make money from ministry, right? As we saw in 1 Timothy 5. It's okay, parachurch or otherwise, it's okay. I mean, I believe our direct deposit went through this month. Praise the Lord, right? 1 Timothy 5, the laborer deserves his wages. This, you know, don't muzzle the ox, right? That's a one, those are true passages that teach true things. But it is warped to be in the ministry for the money.

12:42 How do we tell the difference? I mean, always the Lord knows. Sometimes time will tell. I think it's even okay. There's another clarifying comment. I'm not trying to say that if you follow a teacher or appreciate the teaching of a teacher whose ministry kind of has an edge to it. Sometimes it critiques things. I'm not saying that that's wrong. It can be right to engage in some controversies and even to call out some specific people.

13:16 I mean, even this morning in the pastoral prayer, I thought long and hard, should I just sort of be, Lord, we pray against prosperity gospel teachers in general, or should I name specific ones that I believe sort of fit that category? I made the decision to name specific teachers who I believe fall in that category because it's really important that the men and women of this church, the members of this church, know who to avoid. We don't want you listening to all the people I named, and I could have named 50 more. So it's not wrong to have an edge to a ministry, but friends, commenting on a controversy, maybe that can be wise, but craving controversy, that's warped.

14:02 Again, how can you tell the difference? That's a great question. I think you could scroll through someone's website, scroll through their timeline, and just ask yourself, does this person seem to crave attention, crave controversy? Do they never take no for an answer? I think one mark of teachers who love quarrels about words is that they are impossible to satisfy. maybe ask a friend ask one of your pastors to hey i really like this guy what do you think i'd love to you know have coffee or lunch with that conversation we can talk about it maybe my discernment will be off but you should definitely bring people into that conversation all right second mark that's the first mark first mark of a teacher worth fleeing is that they just love controversy the second mark of a teacher worth fleeing is that their teaching produces this is a made-up word, anti-godliness, okay? Anti-godliness. Their teaching produces that which is anti-against

15:08 godliness. Look with me at the end of verse 4. End of verse 4. So this unsound teaching, which produces envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction. You know, you can't eat Thanksgiving lunch or dinner every day and stay in shape. Duh.

15:39 You can't consume rage and stay calm. You can't constantly observe constant quarrels and stay unprovoked. You can't listen to unsound teaching without it producing an unsound life.

16:13 Friends, false teachers water the fruit of the flesh. Their teaching makes the worst parts of us worse. Their teaching normalizes the sin that should be foreign. It makes peace with the sin and the instincts that should be fought against. I mean, this is why in 1 Timothy 4, verse 7, we're told to train for godliness. It doesn't just happen, right? It takes effort, both in what we do and what we listen to.

16:47 So we sort of focus for a moment about the content of false teachers, right? It's craving controversy, quarreling about words, you know, different things like that. Think for a moment now about the effect that that teaching might have in your life, in a church. I mean, again, Paul helpfully lists a few. Envy. Does listening to that person, that man or woman, does it make me envious of my fellow church members?

17:21 Maybe it makes me envious of their eloquence or their spiritual gifts or their strength or their money or their wardrobe. Does it cause dissension? In other words, does it set you at odds with certain Christians? I've really been listening to that guy. And all that person does, all their ministry is, is talking about the things that they're right about and 99.9% of the other Christians in the world are wrong about. That's like the best way to be at dissension with your church members.

17:56 So you're sort of known for what's unique about your relationship with Jesus. Evil suspicions. Did you know that something as seemingly small as being suspicious about another brother or sister in Christ could be correctly labeled evil? Slander.

18:33 That one's pretty straightforward. Constant friction. i think i think that list it's not exhaustive but you want to what does anti-godliness look like well it looks like that looks like someone who's like that they're at odds with everybody they're envious of everybody they say things that aren't true but they heard it you know that they're suspicious they saw something and they start connecting dots about something they don't really know. Friends, that's ungodly. Sound teaching should produce sound living. What's that look like? Well, we will see in verse 11 a kind of list of fruits, sort of that sort of pair with what we've read in a good way. But actually, I think we can just, let's read again verses six through eight. This is a concrete example of what, of how sound teaching should produce sound living. So look down with me. Verse 6. Paul writes, but, again contrasting to these people who

19:41 think godliness is for worldly gain, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we bought nothing into the world and we can't take anything out of the world. If we've got food and clothing with these we will be content i love this it is a perfect illustration of what we are talking about how teaching shapes our instincts and expectations how how doctrine that is true teaching about about the things of god doctrine shapes or determines you might even say our disposition. Doctrine determines our disposition. Every setback is a setup for a comeback.

20:36 That's Joel Osteen. It's a piece of doctrine that he's given. What kind of disposition do you think that creates. Poverty is from the devil, and God wants all Christians to be prosperous. That's Benny Hinn. That's a piece of doctrine that he's giving to the world. What kind of disposition does that create?

21:14 we came into this world with nothing. We can't take anything with us. That's a piece of doctrine, friends. That's not like a clever aphorism. I'd put that on a mug. It's a piece of doctrine. What kind of disposition does it create?

21:49 I've got enough. Whatever God's given me, I have enough. I was putting Zoe to bed last night. It's my five-year-old daughter. She said, Dad, will I get to take my stuffies to heaven? She's got like an army of stuffed animals. so that question is an opportunity to teach her some doctrine here's my answer i have no idea but but sweetheart if you're there i know that whatever your experience i wasn't this emotional that would have been weird i was like whatever you're experiencing it will be glorious doctrine determines our disposition my friends we're we're all teachers we don't all stand up

22:51 here we don't all get paid to do this that's okay but we all are teachers of doctrine we all determine by what we say about the things of god determine the dispositions of those who hear us. So whether you're a mom this morning and you think to yourself, well, this is a sermon about preachers. I got nothing. I got, you know, I can kind of, I'm not going to tune out. That would be disrespectful. But, you know, I'm going to sort of, all these things are going to glance off me. No, no, no. What a privilege you have to teach doctrine to your children.

23:31 To determine their disposition with every silly question that they ask that you don't have an answer for. I hope Zoe went to bed last night in whatever five-year-old way she could, and she thought to herself, man, I really love my stuffies, but God is better than my favorite stuff. There's a third mark of teachers that we should flee.

24:09 Third mark of teachers we should flee. It's that their teaching seems harmless, but it's actually the first step to hell. The teaching seems harmless, but it's actually the first step to hell. We can zoom out for a second on the passage. Hopefully you're looking down at your copy of God's Word or your phone. I don't know how small the text can get on your phone. But Greg always says, let your eyes glaze over the passage.

24:43 That's a good discipline. So let's let our eyes glaze over the passage together for a moment to kind of get our bearings. Verses 3 to 5, Paul's describing the kinds of teachers and the fruit of their teaching. So that anyone who teaches a different doctrine of verse 3 is the he of verse 4. In verses 6 through 8, which we just covered, Paul sort of, you know, he takes his gloves out. He starts to fight against some of the teaching that these folks are giving. He's injecting true doctrine into the conversation. And again, we covered that. Verses 9 and 10, Paul begins to broaden from sort of description and doctrine to a warning, right?

25:19 He broadens his teaching into a warning for a general audience. So look down with me at verses 9 and 10. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. Again, he's not just simply describing the false teachers. He's saying anyone who desires to be rich, certainly the teachers, yes, but also their audience. Anyone, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

25:51 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. In other words, people have killed because they love money. People have cheated on their spouses because they love money. They've lied because they love money. They've left the faith because they love money. They took a job because they're like, this is a better job for me. I know I've got to miss some Sundays. Five years later, they don't go to church anywhere. What animated that decision? Did they think, I'm going to take this job to leave the faith? They wanted more money. They loved money. It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

26:30 Again, it's very straightforward what he's saying. One day, you're kind of tipping your toe in the teachings of someone. It was kind of a harmless curiosity. You know, maybe you say to your friends, like, I know, like, he's way wrong about that. But I really like what he says about this. Fast forward a few years. You know, that little toe dip. You've wandered off the path. It's plunged you into ruin.

27:04 I don't know how many people are in this room, a couple hundred. It's impossible to sort of thread the perfect application that will catch all of your, you know, our various proclivities to different teachers with different things. So maybe when you go to lunch today, you know, if you're still hungry after Thanksgiving, you go to lunch today, you should just ask the people you're with. Do I love money in such a way that I'm opening myself to all kinds of evils? You know, knowing the future, believing what Jesus the Lord says about the future, it really does shape what we flee.

27:49 I mean, if we didn't believe Jesus was coming back and all the stuff we sang about and read about, why wouldn't you listen to a guy who said like here's how you get more stuff today that sounds pretty good but because we know that that future that they're sort of holding out to the world is false it's a fiction it's a paper tiger it doesn't stand up under any scrutiny well it determines like i should stay away from that thing i should flee that thing because because i know here's what i know about the future i don't know when jesus is coming back sorry But I know that when I die, I can't take anything with me.

28:30 Then what in the world would be the point of living now to get a bunch of stuff that sort of will evaporate in however long we live, whenever we die? It would be stupid. So we flee false teachers whose ministries are all about what we can get now. We know that those teachings are a snare. The second thing we should talk about, as Paul tells Timothy, he's given him what to flee.

29:01 Now he's going to tell him what to fight for. What to fight for. So point number two is what to fight for. Let's keep reading in verse 11, and we're going to, for now, we're going to stop at verse 16. We're going to stop at verse 16. But as for you, O man of God, that's him talking to Timothy directly. Flee these things, what we just talked about. Pursue righteousness. Remember I said there's like this list of godliness coming up?

29:33 This would be that list. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. That phrase has come up twice. What is he talking about? I think it is. What does Jesus say in front of Pontius Pilate? Well, he doesn't say much. In fact, he just basically says like, I'm the king of the Jews. So I think the good confession is basically believing that Jesus is who he says that he is. He's worth following so who made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our lord jesus christ which he will display at the proper time he who is blessed and only sovereign the king of kings and lord of lords who alone has immortality

30:37 who dwells in an approachable light whom no one has ever seen or can see to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Fight the good fight of faith. Paul tells Timothy, hold fast to the truth. What you've received, hold fast to it. Nothing is more important than that.

31:07 Live for Jesus. Then he just stacks up all these beautiful descriptors of who Jesus is. He's immortal and glorious and sovereign. he's worthy of all praise. Trust his promises because they are unshakable and certain, and he is coming again. I love this passage because he, it's like this preamble is so long. I mean, just look at, look again at verse 13. Just notice how he's like revving the engine, right? I charge you in the presence of God. You're like, all right, let's go. What did you charge me for? I'm going to talk about God for a second, who gives life to all things, and Christ Jesus. I'm going to talk about him for a second. Who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. And what is this charge?

31:48 What's the charge? Essentially, don't do anything weird. This thing that I gave you, this good deposit that I gave you, keep it unstained. Wait for me to come back. You're like, that's the charge, to don't mess with doctrine and chill out and wait?

32:20 Yes. And it is glorious. And it is a privilege. And there's so much temptation as we wait to kind of tinker with what we've got. Well, surely, surely, you know, if I say this about that, it'll, no, no, no. Keep the good confession unstained. Keep it unstained until Jesus comes back. That's our job as pastors.

32:52 Friends, that's your job as Christians. Keep it unstained and wait for Jesus. That's what it means to fight the good fight of faith. Just wait. Of course, we know that this doesn't happen effortlessly. right? We are, after all, humans. Paul does not tell Timothy, now that you've sort of uploaded a Christian operating system, I will download Christian doctrine and instincts and life into your life, and you should be good to go until I come back. That's not how it works. We still fight residual sin. You know, we hear static when God's Word gets opened. Like, oh, I'm not sure what's true. Or we see fog when we hear about the promises of God that are far off. And so we struggle. We struggle to believe them. So Paul says to Timothy in the midst of all that, and I say to you in the midst of all that, keep fighting. Tune your ear to the truth of God's Word.

33:53 Fight through the fog to believe the promises of Scripture. It's hard. That's why we need each other. That's why we need a church, to help us follow Jesus. So that when the static is sort of high in our lives and we're really not hearing things straight, someone can kind of come and like, I don't really know how radios work, but you know, the static goes away. They help us. Discipling is like removing static from each other's lives as we remind each other what is true about who God is.

34:29 Paul's landing the plane, so we should, we should too. You know, it's as if he starts to think, you know, you think that's the end, right? He says, amen, you expect the preacher to be done, you expect the guy writing the letter to be done. He's like, oh, I have a few more things to say. You know, maybe he thinks to himself, I've said all this pretty negative stuff about riches. And he knows, you know, the church in Ephesus, and he's like, there's some people in that church. They got some money. And so maybe they're going to read this and think to themselves, like, am I evil because I have lots of money?

35:01 Or maybe more likely, he's thinking about the poor people in the church of Ephesus. And they're like, are they going to think that all the rich people are evil because they've got money? So what do we do? So Paul gives us, he sort of starts to speak to the rich in the church at Ephesus. I think it compares, of course, applies to all of us to kind of help them think through maybe how they should live. Look with me down at verse 17. Verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but to set their hopes on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

36:00 These rich people, they're to do good. They're to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share. Thus, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Oh man, that's a glorious passage. Hey kids, if you're 12 and under, listen to me for a sec.

36:32 I've been listening to you the whole time. I know you have. You know what's going to make you happier than getting every single thing on your Christmas list? God. Hey, college students, for those who are still here, you know what's more certain? You know what's going to make you happier than graduating debt-free and getting that incredible job that's got like a salary and benefits and like this thing called a matching 401k?

37:11 I put it in quotes because I don't honestly know what it is. You know what's going to make you happier than that? God. His promises are more certain. All right, hey, middle-aged folks, I guess that's me. You know what's more certain? You know what's going to make you happier than, like, I love how Jeff prayed. You alley-ooped me, brother. Thank you. in your bank account to pay for all the stuff of your life that costs lots of money, like your kids and their college and whatever you're going to have to eventually pay for the ChatGPT subscription when they're in college, you know, and like their weddings if you have daughters.

37:57 You know what's going to make you happier. You know what's more certain than having all that covered? God is more certain than that. to the richest guy in the room, whoever you are. You know what's more certain than all of your riches times a thousand? God.

38:37 Do not set your hopes on the uncertainty of riches. That's a command for everybody in the room. The rich and the poor. The young and the old. The gray haired guy and the guy with the mullet. The mom, the guy working overtime.

39:14 Don't set your hopes on the uncertainty of riches. It's important that he says, in this present age. And life feels long. But compared to eternity, it's quite literally like nothing.

39:49 It's a vapor. And so being rich for a comparatively short amount of time is so much, if you don't know Jesus, is so much worse than enjoying God forever. we shouldn't put our hope in riches. What should we do? We give some investment advice.

40:21 Again, this is not just for the rich people, the money. He says, be generous, be ready to share all the stuff that you can't take with you. Invest it. Like, give it away. I'm not trying to say, like, give away everything you have. I'm not saying that. But you understand the tenor of what he's saying, right? It's look to the future and use your money now to invest in future treasure. Now, church, this is one of those times where we come across a passage or a command, and I just want to say, like, keep doing it.

40:57 Like, keep it up. You're doing a great job. Some of you are like, I ain't got enough money to give away. You're right. I get it. But you are so generous with your stuff, with your resources, with your time, with your expertise. Again, just, you know, the three ABC unofficial lists is just like, it's just perfect for application. Just this week, airport pickups have been met. Set up for a women's Christmas party has been met. Hang out with a Barroso's dog.

41:28 Has that been met? All right, there's a need. A range finder for Zeke Gaiman's potato gun has been abundantly met. The Gideons need a sleep sitter for Tuesday night and that's because they're going on a double date with us. So just make sure that that gets settled before the end of today. Y'all are a generous church. Eager to share. Eager to give. Keep it up. Now the last members meeting, Greg gave us the happy news that the debt we've been paying off for a few years for the recent renovation is sort of surprisingly almost met. It's almost paid up a few years early. And that means we'll have something like a few hundred thousand dollars every year sort of freed up to do whatever we want with it. What should we do with it? Bring back coffee. Okay, maybe. I noticed it was empty.

42:31 I think these principles in 1 Timothy 6, man, they're a wonderful guide. First of all, we should remember to be thankful to God for what we have. He's given us everything to enjoy. When we were paying off a couple hundred grand a year on that debt, we should have been thankful to God. And now we get to be thankful for God in different ways and for different things. We should seek to do good. We should be generous. We should be thinking about how the money that we have, that all of us have, can be used to invest not in sort of present-day monuments necessarily, but in future treasure.

43:11 We should train up more men for ministry, to lead churches, that's not going to be this church, faithfully for decades. Oh man, that's a good investment in the future, isn't it? So that a guy 30 years from now can say, you know what, I would not be the pastor I am if not for the investment of Third Avenue Baptist Church. They didn't pay me much, but they gave me so much stuff that I needed. We should think about planning churches in places that need churches.

43:43 We should think about spreading across campus, if that's a wise thing to do, so that college students around the country, even around the world, can be connected to a ministry that opens the Bible to them. explains to them the gospel, and immediately pushes them in and connects them to a church. Now, this is not a stump speech, right? So, like, pray for the elders as we think about what to do with this money. If you have counsel, wisdom for us, please let us have it. But, man, whatever we end up doing as a congregation, whatever we do, I pray that we would not put our hopes in more money, a more flexible budget, but that we would keep our hope on God who does this work.

44:32 You know, maybe you're here this morning because you're at the tail end of your Thanksgiving trip to see your family. You know, you don't normally go to church on Sundays and think about the somewhat uncomfortable connection between the God who exists and the money in your bank account. You just don't think about that. You don't think about, like, what this 2,000-year-old letter has to say to you. If that's you this morning, I wonder if you realize the life-altering power of what we have just spent time reading the last 40 minutes, what we've been talking about.

45:12 Like, it is quite literally impossible to overstate how important it is to realize that every single thing you have is from the Lord. It's from the God who is real. I'm not just up here sort of saying philosophical things. It's from the God who is real. He really exists, and He made you. And everything that you have, He's given you. And friends, how that realization, whatever you have, It's not the road to fear and insecurity, but to happiness and generosity.

45:54 In other words, I don't know what you think about your life and what the good life is, but what we've been talking about, what we've been talking about the last few minutes, that is truly life. Verse 12, what does he say? Look down. He tells Timothy, take hold of the eternal life. And he says a bunch of other stuff. Verse 19, store of treasure for the future that you might take hold of that which is truly life. Friends, the only true life is eternal life.

46:27 You might feel like you're living high on the hog right now because of all the stuff you've got. It will end. This present age is so, so short. If you're trusting in Christ this morning, guess what? Your future is certain. And it is safe. Praise God. If you're not trusting in Christ this morning, if you're being honest, you're kind of putting your hope in riches.

46:59 Maybe something else. Your future is also certain. But it is unsafe. So what do you do about that? One of God's kindnesses is that the most well-known verses are the clearest explications of the gospel. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life.

47:36 You should put your trust in Christ. You should start living not for this present age, but for the future. A few more verses to read and then we'll be done. And Paul's in prison. He's writing to his friend. And here's how he closes the letter. Verse 20. O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith.

48:11 Grace be with you. oh third avenue baptist church may may i mean we've we've already had 130 plus years of faithful witness praise god if the lord tarries may he give us 130 more may our leaders be those men who who are eager to entrust who to fight for the good deposit to receive what has been entrusted to them and the last thing we're going to do this morning is we're going to sing joy to the world, you know, even before the Christmas decorations are up, thus officially announcing the transition from, like, Thanksgiving to Christmas, from pumpkin spice to peppermint, all right? But as you do, as we sing this song, I go, here's the Christmas songs, pay attention to how, actually, what's being talked about here is much more like 1 Timothy 6 than it is Matthew 1 to 3, Luke 1 to 3.

49:08 It's actually about the second coming of Christ. When the earth will receive her king forever. When sin and sorrow will be gone. When the thorns that are cursing the ground will be wiped away. And where our faith, for those of us who are trusting in Christ, our faith will be made sight. And this future that we sort of see through the fog and hear promises about through the static of our life, where that future will be our eternal present.

49:44 That's what we're about to sing about. And it's amazing. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for 1 Timothy chapter 6. I pray that it would redirect all of our instincts and attention to the right things. God, we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.