Why You Should Pursue Godliness Above Money

And, just, double checked with him. That was, Steve and Jenny McCullough that put that video together. So, We continue to receive benefit from, from their, their ministry, Well, let me, invite you guys this morning for a time of studying the word to turn in your Bibles to, First Timothy chapter. 61 Timothy chapter 6, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of 1 Timothy and as we continue in our study of this book this morning, we come to 1 Timothy chapter 6.

verse 6, and my goal this morning is to try to cover, verses 6 through 10, although I, I suspect, some of this will have to move fairly quickly through, but we'll definitely be able to come back and, and pick whatever up that we leave behind, today. But the title of the message, for this morning is why you should pursue godliness above money. Why you should pursue godliness above money. I'm pretty convinced that all of us in this room do a lot of thinking about money, right?

I've got two kids that are in, college right now, so I think about money. I think about it every day from that standpoint as well as from many other, standpoints, and, All of us, just the way that we go about living and every day we're doing something with, with money, either putting it in the bank or spending it, for one reason or another. So, money is a topic that, that shows up frequently in, in the text of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and it's also something that frequently comes up in First Timothy.

and the topic of godliness comes up a lot in 1 Timothy, and we're going to see something of the relationship between these two.

And Paul is going to be an advocate for godliness this morning in our text and encourage us very passionately, to be chasers after godliness, over, money. about a week and a half ago, I think it was May 8th, Ben, Bernanke, the Federal Reserve, chairman, gave a commencement address, to the University of South Carolina, student body, and And Ben Bernanke is like the face of money nowadays. Some would say he's the most powerful man in the world, more powerful than than our president.

Whenever he speaks, people parse.

They exey his words the way that we do the text of the Bible, and his words can move markets. And so for many who are chasing after the dream of money. He is the face of that pursuit, and yet in this commencement address, he cautioned the graduates about, about money and to not get too excited about money and one of the statements that he made in his speech. that money cannot buy happiness.

Money is useful. Money is, it's a good thing to have, but it cannot purchase happiness. And he encourages the graduates that, don't just go finding a job just because, it pays more money. you want to be very careful about that, he says, and he says this, having a larger income is exciting at first, but as you get used to your new standard of living, and as you associate with other people in your new income bracket, the thrill.

Quickly wears off, and he cites studies that have been done, including one study on lottery winners that went into the millions of dollars, and the studies show that 6 months after such individuals win millions of dollars in the lottery, they are about their level of happiness 6 months later. is about exactly what it was before they won the lottery. So money cannot buy happiness. And so here's this guy who in the minds of some is the face of the markets and of money, and he's he's being a little less passionate about money than one might expect.

Now I want, I want us to use that this morning. I want us to imagine the apostle Paul delivering a commencement address and his topic is the topic of godliness. And the apostle Paul is not like, what, godliness is good, but sometimes it's overrated and you want to be careful about this. No, Paul is extremely extremely passionate on the subject of godliness.

And in 1 Timothy alone, he uses the word godliness 9 times, meaning it's very much on his brain, and he makes statements like this, Godliness is great gain. We'll open that up this morning and see what he means by that. back in chapter 4, he says godliness is profitable for all things. It will enrich every area of your life.

And he also says that godliness holds promise for this life, and also for the life to come. Paul would say, pursue godliness, because if you attain godliness, it's one thing that you can take from this world into the next. Paul encourages the reader of First Timothy to be chasing after the godliness dream, to pursue godliness. We learned back in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, where Paul tells Timothy and he tells all of us to literally be continually exercising ourselves to Toward godliness.

So position your life in such a way that you are facing toward godliness and then exert yourself continuously toward godliness. This word exercise is the Greek word gymnoso that literally means to be naked. But we saw several months ago, what that means is strip yourself down of anything that would serve as an obstacle or that would slow down your pursuit of godliness, and go after it. Godliness is not going to come walking up to you, you must chase after this dream of godliness.

And chapter 4, verse 10, he says that into literally into this godliness, we ourselves are laboring and continuously striving. Godliness is something that you exert yourself towards, and that you strive and labor to get into. In chapter 6, we won't get this far this morning, but look at verse. 11 of 1 Timothy 6.

Paul says, but flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness. And what's the second thing? Godliness, go after godliness. It's not going to come walking up to you, you need to chase after godliness.

That's Paul's challenge to to Timothy and to all of us. And so Paul in our text this morning is going to be a very passionate advocate for godliness. In fact, let me just read verses 6 through 10 to you. Paul says in verse 6, but godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these, we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many.

griefs. What we're going to do this morning with the time that we have is we're going to listen to Paul as he gives to us 5 reasons, 5 reasons that we should pursue godliness above earthly riches, whatever your motive is and, and pursuing money, and it's totally legitimate. To pursue money, we need money to get by and to take care of the necessities of life. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but Paul's going to be telling us that we need to pursue godliness far more passionately over and above the pursuit of earthly wealth.

Before we get into those reasons, though, let me define for you what godliness is. And in doing this, we're reviewing a little bit from what we learned a few weeks ago. Godliness, as Paul uses this term, basically speaks of a God entrenched life, a God absorbed life. It is a life wherein one is orbiting around God.

God is at the center of one's life. He's not just a token part of a person's life. He's at the very center. And a person is orbiting his life around God.

And it is someone who is living from God. In other words, they're receiving from God, they realize I need salvation, and I can't save myself. No one else can save me. Only God can save me.

So I acknowledge my bankruptcy, and I received this salvation from God. And a godly person is also someone who lives through God in humble dependence upon Him. He lives according to God. In other words, a godly person is someone who listens to God's word.

He studies God's word to find out what God says about what to believe, and how to live. He's also someone who lives with God or in relationship with God. And he's someone who lives for God. Everything he does is an act of love and an act of worship for God.

In fact, anything that a godly person is thinking about doing, he, he asked himself, can I, can I do this with God? Can I do this for God? And if his answer is no, then he doesn't involve himself in those things. And also the godly person does everything he does.

He wants all of his life to be unto God. In other words, for the glory. of God. As we saw a few weeks ago, the heart cry, the anthem, the mantra, as it were, of the godly man is found in Romans 11:36, where Paul says, for from God and through God and to God are all things.

to Him be the glory forever. Amen. That is what godliness looks like. It's just a God entrenched life where someone's just revolving around God and their life is all about God from beginning, to, to end.

And guys, as you, as you get a visual of this, I don't, how do I say this? I, I want you to To think of God as you, as you visualize us orbiting around Him. I, I want you to envision the Trinity. It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And, and we need to appreciate the fact that, God the Son adores God the Father, and he adores God, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father adores his Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit adores and delights in the Father and the Son. And so there, there's this amazing relationship that's going on. of love and self-giving between the members of the Trinity. And, and a godly person is just someone who joins in on that, who joins Jesus, the Son, in honoring and loving the Father.

He joins The father and loving and adoring the son. He, he gets involved in that Trinitarian dance that has been going on throughout human history and before the creation of the world. Listen to what Timothy Keller says. by way of describing this dynamic.

He says the life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness, but by mutual, mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her. We center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, especially if there are 3 persons, each of whom moves around the other two.

He goes on to this, so it is. The Bible tells us, each of the divine persons of the Trinity centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them.

Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. This creates a dynamic pulsating dance of joy and love. What a beautiful picture. And a godly person observes that and says, I want to join.

And on that dance. I want to get involved in this love that's being shared amongst the members of the Trinity. I don't know if I should share this or not, but I'll just say recently I was at an event where I had confided to someone that I did not know how to dance. And that I couldn't bust a move to save my life, and And two individuals over the space of 10 minutes lectured me on how to dance to absolutely no avail.

I don't have a clue how to dance, but what? This dance, I think I can do that. This is a delightful dance to participate in, and a godly person is attracted to this Trinitarian love relationship as the members of the Trinity are loving, adoring, orbiting around one another, and he joins in on that. That's the lifestyle of a godly person.

And Paul says, I want you to pursue this, I want you to make this your dream. And I want you to pursue this above and beyond the pursuit of anything on earth. Above and beyond, especially the pursuit of money and the things that money can buy. 5 reasons we're going to look at this morning that we should pursue godliness above earthly riches.

And the first of these is found in verse 6. And this is actually where we're going to spend most of our time this morning. The other points will move more quickly through. And that is this.

Here's the first reason we should pursue godliness above money. And that is because true godliness. The godliness that includes contentment is a great gain. Paul says in verse 6.

He says in verse 6, but godliness actually is a means of gain when accompanied by contentment. What he's saying in a sense is godliness is a means of great gain. And then he's saying, the godliness I'm talking about is the godliness that's accompanied by contentment or it includes contentment. Paul knows that there's different brands of godliness out there.

In fact, if you look in verse 5, he speaks of men who are in constant friction. and of depraved mind and deprived of truth. And they suppose that godliness is a means of gain. That's a mercenary and a fake godliness that evil people will attach to themselves in order to use that to manipulate people to gain a hearing, to gain influence, and even to gain financial wealth from the people.

of God. And 2 Timothy, he speaks of individuals that are, they're totally lost, they're evil individuals, they're in rebellion against God, full of iniquity, and yet they are tenaciously holding to a form of godliness, though they have denied its power. So there's a form of godliness, there's fake godliness, mercenary godliness. Paul says the godliness that is the true godliness is a godliness that includes contentment.

Whatever contentment means, true godliness embodies this contentment. And he says this godliness that includes contentment is a great gain. It is a great acquisition. It's the single best thing you can lay hold of that you can chase after and lay hold of in your life.

Well, if contentment is such a crowning jewel, Of true godliness, then it merits some time to figure out what it is. And let's look for a few minutes at contentment. Basically, what the word means is, as one writer describes it, it is a condition of life in which nothing else is needed. A condition of life in which nothing else is needed.

Probably the single best translation, at least in my opinion, of the Greek word that is translated contentment in this passage is the word sufficiency, sufficiency. in fact, it's, it's translated exactly this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 8, where Paul says, God is able to make all grace abound towards us so that always having all sufficiency in every good work, we may abound. Or all sufficiency in all things, we may abound to every good work. And the word that is translated sufficiency there is the same word that is translated contentment here in verse 6.

oftentimes we think of contentment. As almost a, a negative thing. your kid is complaining like, how much longer is this going to be and how come we can't do this? How come we can't do that?

And you're like, what, just be quiet and be content. And then What do we expect them to do, just suddenly be content? Miraculously, thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad.

I, I have this wave of contentment that's waving over me because, because you told me to be content. And, and maybe, the attitude sometimes is I'll just suck it up and I won't complain and I'll just be content. That's actually not what contentment is biblically. It is in part the ability to do without Out, but mostly it is the state of already being full.

That's the meaning of contentment. It is the state of already being full so that you don't need anything else that other people seem to need in order to find happiness and contentment. In fact, let me say it this way, that contentment is more than simply saying, I will be satisfied with merely this, or I will be satisfied without that thing that I really want. I want it really badly.

I feel this ache in my heart for it, but I will, I will be satisfied without that. Contentment is more than that. It is saying, I'm already full and I therefore do not need this or that to make me happy. You see the difference?

Imagine. just, I can't think of a better illustration, but imagine that I walked into a room that was full of a bunch of like junk food and snacks and And there's a bunch of people, that are going after the snacks and clamoring to, to get everything that they can. And, and let's say I'm really hungry and I'm looking at all that stuff and some of it's my favorite junk foods and ice cream and stuff, and I'm like, man, I'd really love to have that. I feel really hungry right now.

And all the, all of it looks so appetizing, but I tell myself, what, right now I really shouldn't eat it. I'm going to practice contentment and I'm going to do without. Meanwhile, I'm just dying inside of hunger. OK, that's not biblical contentment.

But imagine another scenario. Imagine before I walked into that room, I walked into another room first. And I enjoyed an absolutely delicious full course meal, and I walked into that room and, and my, my favorite appetizer was given to me, and I enjoyed that appetizer very slowly. It awakened my taste buds, taste buds, and I drank in between each bite to cleanse my palate, and then a salad was given to me with just the right dressing.

on it and I enjoyed that sumptuous salad and then the main course was brought to me and I, I enjoyed that and, and I ate it slowly the way I often like to do when we go to a restaurant because I don't want to get full before I'm done with the meal. So, chewing slowly, eating slowly, giving my digestive system, Some time to just deal with everything that I'm sending down there and then I'm done with the main course and then the dessert is given to me and I enjoy that and I'm just about totally full and there's one more bite left and I'm like, what, this is so perfect.

This is really the last bite I want to take because I am this close to fullness, and I take that last bite. And I enjoy it.

And when I'm done, I have arrived at a perfect state of fullness. You ever been there? All right, so where I'm at here. All right.

Now, I'm totally satisfied and full. Then I get up from that room and I walk into that junk food room that I described earlier, and everyone's clamoring for food and what? I look around. And I am content to do without what everyone else is clamoring for because I have a secret, and the secret is I've already eaten a delicious meal, and I am full.

I am experiencing a fullness, a sufficiency, and therefore I'm more than happy to do without the junk food that everyone else seems to be clamoring for. That is the spirit of contentment. It is the state of already being full and satisfied. So that in that state of fullness there's no ache that's left to go to other things to try to satisfy or to take away that ache.

There's no thirst. There's no hunger that is left. It's already been satisfied, and that raises the practical question of, OK, man, that's a great state to be in. How in the world can I achieve this state of fullness so that I can then be content and let the world chase after whatever they want to chase after, and I'm OK without it.

Well, Jesus actually gives you the formula, all right? And he says, listen, you want to, you want to experience this fullness that produces this contentment? The answer is me, he says, me all the time, every day. Listen to what he says in John chapter 6, verse 35.

I am the bread of life. In that context, he's trying to get people to partake of him. Come and partake of me. He says, I am the bread of life.

He literally in the Greek text, he who continuously is coming to me will not hunger. And he who continuously is believing in me will never thirst. I used to read that without the continuous idea there, and I used to think, man, whoever comes to me will never hunger or thirst. Well, I've come to Jesus and I hunger and thirst.

But his point is whoever continuously is coming to me. And partaking of me and believing in me, that person, as long as he is doing that, will be content. He will never hunger or thirst for anything else. John Piper says what it means to believe in Jesus is not just to believe in him as Lord and as Savior.

It also means to experience him as the satisfaction of my soul's thirst and my heart's hunger. This morning, I would ask you not, do you believe in Jesus as Lord and as Savior, although those are totally important questions. I ask you, do you believe in Jesus as your greatest treasure? Do you believe in Jesus as your greatest heart's satisfaction?

That's the question that I would ask. And Jesus says, anyone who is coming to me continuously to partake of me, they will experience. fullness, and therefore they will not hunger or thirst. What he's saying there is simply they will be content to let the world chase after whatever they want to chase after.

They are content without what the world is pursuing. And so let's add this to our definition of godliness. Godliness is living from God, through God, according to God, with God, for God, unto God, to the point where one experiences a rich sufficiency in God. That is contentment.

That is contentment. In my own life, I've observed that, that to the degree that I'm partaking of Jesus and experiencing fullness, to that degree, the power of sin and temptation seems to wane. Sin begins to look unappealing when you have a full stomach in Jesus. Almost exactly 9 years ago, God was teaching me this very thing that we're talking about right now.

And I wrote this down in my journal, May 5th, 2001. I've noticed that my eyes simply don't rove when my heart is fat with the love of Jesus. Roving eyes are the product of a hungry heart that has not been feeding on Jesus. I found it changing my outlook, producing a spirit of contentment to where I was OK to not look.

I was OK to not have. Because my heart was already full and fat with the love of Jesus. That's what contentment is. Paul says, godliness, i.e.

the godliness that embodies this spirit of sufficiency in Christ is a tremendous gain, he says. Now, speaking of contentment, we've, we've seen what contentment looks like in terms of where we're getting our sufficiency from, but what does contentment look like in terms of our outlook towards the things of this world? Well, Paul explains this for us in verse 8. So let's look at it real quickly.

Here's, here is An affirmation from a contented person in Christ. Here's what a contented person says whose heart is fat with the love of Jesus. He says, or she says, if we have food and covering with these, we shall experience sufficiency. OK, if we have food, if we have covering, food, obviously that's what we eat, that's what nourishes our body.

It's a need. We have to have that to, to live on this earth. And then also the word covering definitely includes the idea of clothing, but some say it also includes the idea of shelter in terms of a A roof to live under. And so even if we included that, Paul is saying, here's what a contented person says.

If I have food to eat, and I have clothes to wear, and I have any shelter over my head with this, that's That's all I need of this world, in order for me to function and operate experiencing sufficiency in Jesus Christ, a contented person is OK with only having this. Now, guys, in our society today, every one of us in this room are, we are ridiculously wealthy, right? I was reading this week that half of the world's population, 3 billion people living on this planet. live on an income that is less than $2.50 a day.

$2.50 a day, maybe about $900 a year or less. That's, that's the average of half of the world's population. How much money do you live off every day? How much money do you make?

All of us who live in this country are just obscenely wealthy in the eyes of at least half of the world. population. And yet, if we are truly walking in that spirit of sufficiency in Jesus, our attitude is, while we may enjoy that wealth that God has given to us, we don't have to have it. Our attitude would be, if I had food, and I have clothing, and I have shelter, that's, that's all I need.

I would be OK with only that. Paul says, godliness, this godliness that embodies the spirit of fullness in Jesus, this contentment is a great acquisition. This is what to go after. This is what you need to chase after.

This is the dream you, you want to chase after obtaining this godliness that embodies. This spirit of sufficiency and fullness in Jesus. He says it's a great gain, literally in the Greek it's a mega gain. It's not just something you can say, Well, I'm glad I have that, not sure what to do with it, but it's nice to have.

No, this is, this is the ultimate gain. It's a mega gain. Paul is saying. And he elaborates on that if you go back to chapter 4, verse 8.

Paul explains what he means by gain. He says in verse 8, bodily discipline that speaks of bodily health, bodily exercise is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things. Talk about gain. He's saying, if you acquire this godliness and get into this godliness, it will be profitable in every single area of your life.

Your marriage is going to be impacted in a beneficial way. your home life is going to be tremendously impacted. in the workplace, you're going to experience God's blessing in your relationship with God in every single arena of life, every one of those arenas, every one of those categories are going to be enormously positively impacted by your pursuit and acquisition of this thing called godliness. It's profitable for all things.

And then he says, it holds promise for the present life, and also for the life to come. That's the thing, Paul would say, you can be greedy for godliness, and you can chase after it and acquire it and get into it and obtain as much of it as you, as you could possibly want. And the thing is, when you reach the end of your life, you're going to be able to take it with you into the next life. And So Paul, giving his commencement address, says, go after godliness.

Godliness is an amazing thing. And it's, it's the one thing that you can take with you from this world into the next. So pursue godliness, chase after godliness. Over money and the things that money can buy.

There's a 2nd reason he gives as to why we should pursue godliness above earthly riches, and that is because any earthly riches we acquire will be completely wiped out at death anyway. Any earthly riches that we acquire will be completely wiped out at death anyway. Look what he says in verse 7. For we have brought nothing into the world.

So, we cannot take anything out of it either. You came into this world naked. You're going to leave naked. You will leave absolutely everything behind.

we need to ponder that more. Just ponder those few seconds after you breathe your last. And the, the calamitous loss that you will experience in that moment. Everything you had.

will be lost. Your portfolio will crash down to zero. In that single instance. I don't know how many of you were paying attention to headlines last week.

But the Dow Jones in the space of about 15 or 20 minutes, well, throughout the length of the day and then at one really ugly point. The Dow Jones had dropped around 1000 points. It was the biggest intraday drop in the history of the stock market, and, I, I went online about half an hour after that not knowing anything, and I saw the headlines and it was, it was pretty freaky. But reading about it over the next few days, those who wrote about it used words like breathtaking, heart stopping, frightening, sickening, gut-wrenching, horrifying.

It was an emotional experience for anyone who cares about that, that stuff. Just watching. I think it was about $1 trillion in market value that was lost. In 15 minutes of time, fortunately it recovered a lot of that.

But imagine, guys, that picture, as horrifying as that might be to someone who really cares about, about money and about the market, as horrifying as that is, on the day that you breathe your last, all of your assets, everything in your portfolio, the report you will receive at that point, the headline is that there has been a crash. And there is absolutely nothing. The value of all that you possess at that point from an earthly standpoint is 0. That's an amazing thing.

in fact, listen to what Solomon says. Solomon describes that moment as a calamity. look at Ecclesiastes 5:13, he says, I've seen under the sun riches hoarded by their owner to his hurt, and then that, That rich man dies, and Solomon says, and as he came naked from his mother's womb, so he will return as he came, he will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. This is a grievous calamity.

Exactly as a man is born, thus he will die. So what was the advantage to him who toils for the wind? A man works and makes investments and generates income by the by the sweat of his brow, and he obtains wealth, he's able to maintain a hold on wealth, but then he dies, and he passes from this world into the to the next totally naked without anything of what he has obtained that he can carry in his hand. There is a complete and an utter loss.

And Paul is saying, listen, you got to pursue godliness because godliness holds promise for this life and the life to come. Whatever godliness you obtain in this life, you can take that with you. After you breathe your last, you can still have all of it. and bring it with you into eternity.

But if you spend your life laying aside the pursuit of godliness, and instead you're chasing after the American dream, and you're, you're chasing after wealth, and you're acquiring all these things, and, and then once you acquire your wealth, you're then protecting your wealth and, and, and hedging your wealth against whatever may happen in the, in the economy. And, and as your life goes on, you're building this wealth. If, if that's what you do, instead of pursuing godliness, Paul says, you have a day of calamity coming when your portfolio will go down to zero.

Zero.

And that amazing day, the day of your death, a day of calamitous loss. Paul's saying, I don't get it. I don't get why people ignore godliness. They don't chase after godliness, and instead they're chasing after all this stuff and acquiring all this stuff that they're not going to be able to keep.

They're going to lose it all anyway. You're going to totally lose it. Pursue godliness. Over money.

There's a 3rd reason Paul would challenge us to pursue godliness over material riches, and that is because there are grave dangers for those who crave earthly riches over godliness. Not only will they experience calamitous loss, On the day of their death, someone who doesn't know the Lord, they're chasing after, acquiring all this stuff, and then they die and their hands are empty. They go into eternity naked and They never pursued godliness, so their hands are totally empty.

And so Paul is saying not only do you want to chase godliness above these other things, because you'll lose these other things on the day of your death, but Paul says, from where I stand and what I've observed, Even before someone dies, I have seen many a temptation, many a snare, many a soul ensnared by the dangers and the traps that that are embodied in the pursuit and in the quest, the lustful quest for wealth.

I've seen people who are still physically alive, but they're ruined. They're ruined, ruined spiritually because of their lust for wealth over godliness. Look what he says in verse 9, but those who want to get rich. This is speaking of those who just have a settled disposition.

They, they have determined to get rich. That is their desire. They desire to get rich rather than to get godly. Those who are wanting to get rich, and that is their goal, they fall.

Where do they fall? They fall into temptation. They begin encountering temptations that some temptations they would have never encountered if they hadn't chosen that course of their life. And then once the temptations come, they fall into those temptations in the sense of yielding to them, doing things that they would have never otherwise done, and A they become entrapped by these sins and temptations to where it's not just you yield to the sin and then you walk away and say I'm glad that's over.

No, you yield, you're caught up in the temptations and then you get up to try to walk away and you realize you're trapped and you're hooked and you can't get away. And also they fall into many foolish foolish and harmful desires, strong cravings is the idea of this, which lay even greater hold of them, which then plunge men into ruin. And ultimately to spiritual destruction. There are grave dangers, guys.

Now all of us need, we need riches, we need, we need money. We need to put food on the table, and, and there are things that God wants us to be faithful with. And so acquiring money, saving that money. And using it wisely for his kingdom and also to provide for our family, all of that's important.

Paul is talking though about those who've laid aside the pursuit of godliness and what they're going after is the pursuit of wealth, and they're, they're not careful. Even those of us who would say, I want to be godly, Paul would say you need to be very careful about money. John Wesley said that whenever he got money, he says, I tried to give it away as quickly as I could before that money got into me. He felt OK having money, but he didn't want money to have him, and he noticed that if he held on to money for too long, that money started to just get a grip on him, and he didn't like the effect of that.

All of us need to be extremely careful. There are dangers. For those who crave earthly riches over godliness, Benjamin Franklin said money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants.

Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. That's what Paul is saying here, that, that those who want to get rich, that's their single goal. I just want to get rich. And yet in their pursuit of that one desire, they fall into many other desires that are created and awakened.

In their pursuit of wealth. John Piper says covetousness is a breeding ground for 1000 other sins and a 1000 other desires. Think about some of these sins, the sins of, of idolatry, valuing money and the things that money can buy, having greater affection for those things than we do God. You think of worry.

That gets a grip on people who even obtain great wealth, but now they worry about how to keep it and how to not lose it. to inflation or whatever other means, there's anxiety. There's more to worry about, the more wealth that a person possesses. There's pride.

There's the sin of pride. A person obtains wealth and maybe more wealth than somebody else, and he can take pride in his achievement. There are those who maybe Don't obtain as much wealth as someone else who's also chasing the dream, and they envy that person. They, they're, they're angry at that person because that person has something in the way of wealth that they themselves want.

And then there's coveting, and the pursuit of wealth, there's not contentment, but instead now there's this insatiable coveting which Paul says is idolatry. Greed is idolatry. Think about something else that comes as a result of wealth. Idleness And that's most of us in this room, most of us in America, because we have attained to the standard of living that we have attained, we have unprecedented amounts of idleness to where we live like kings, kings in ancient times, in their idle time, people would come in and they would be paid to entertain me, put on a play, make me laugh.

They would watch athletes perform that would perform for this monarch, and, and they had idle time to enjoy those entertainments and because of the wealth that we have attained, we now, we have so many brand new desires that 100 years ago no one would have ever even thought to have, what. and we sit in front of the television and 20 minutes out of every hour we're being told desire this and he desire this and yeah you bought this car, but there's now a new model that's come out of that that particular car, get this and look what other people will think of you if you do this.

And so with all of that idleness, we, there's, it's like a Desire factory where just brand new desires are being introduced and we, we're in the grip of all of these desires that people would have never even thought about 100 years ago, worldly entertainments because we have money, because we're living on more than $2.50 a day, we've got money for, for cable television and money to go to the video store and rent dramas that we can bring home and then, and then watch, we can, we can pay for an internet service fee that now puts the whole world at our fingertips, and anything we want to see we can see and much of What ends up coming in front of our eyes that we behold is stuff that is not fit for eyes that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in observing those things that we should not be looking upon, brand new desires are spawning as a result of those things.

One commentator says, speaks of those that have the money to waste. And by means of it, they want the satisfaction of the lust of their flesh and their eyes. When you think about all this, guys, who's better off? Us?

Or someone, someone living on $2 a day. It doesn't look so bad when you think about it in this way. Surveys indicate that Americans are no happier. Then people Who are living on far less.

The reason is is because we're gripped by brand new lusts and desires that have been created and awakened because of the wealth that we have attained. Paul says there's dangers and don't, don't say, well, that doesn't apply to me because I'm not rich. No, you're rich. You're rich.

If you're living on more than 250 a day, You are in the upper 50th percentile of the world's population. And you need to be careful. That you are chasing godliness rather than Wealth and the things that money can buy. this is another way of saying the same thing, but let's treat it separately.

The fourth reason we are to chase godliness rather than, Material riches is because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils for the very reasons and in the very ways that I just explained. This word that is translated love of money is literally the word love and the word silver. Silver is actually very popular nowadays, and gold, but silver is representative of, of any coinage, of any, of any currency. And please understand, and I know most of you all know this, Paul is not saying money is the root of all evil.

what he's saying is the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and you think about it, what is the love of money? All of us have to have some affection and appreciation for money, right? when you get your paycheck, God doesn't want you to just throw that in the trash can and say, I hate that. No, you're supposed to like it.

And put it in the bank and put it to use. But what is the love of money? Whatever it is, Paul, it's something inappropriate. And so let's define it this way.

It is valuing money more than Jesus Christ. It is valuing money. more than we value godliness. It is loving money more than we love God.

That's what it is. It's the sin of the rich young ruler who Jesus said, sell everything you have, give it all to the poor, and then come follow me. Get rid of all the wealth you have. And in exchange, you get me, you get to hang out with me, you get to follow me wherever I go.

So what do you want? Do you want your wealth or do you want me? And the rich young ruler walked away sadly. And said, I'll take my riches, thank you, instead of you.

Judas Iscariot. was a man who was in the grip of money and And sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He sold Jesus. He esteemed that currency of greater value than Jesus.

And what a heartbreaking moment it is to observe in the text of the Bible where Judas regretted that decision. But in that moment of decision, he looked at this currency, and he looked at Jesus, and he said, I will sell Jesus. In exchange for this currency. He loved money.

And Paul says, the love of money and the things that money can buy, loving money more than God, loving money more than Jesus, more than godliness, is the root that spawns all sorts of evils. And we look around in our prosperous nation. And we see much that is spawned from the love of money. Loving money, there's different things that we could say about it.

Someone in the grip of money love is someone who loves the money they already possess so much that they take pride in it, so much so that they're stingy with it, and they won't give away anything to help somebody else or give it to the Lord. Someone in the grip of the love of money is someone who loves the money they already possess so much that they fret about losing it. Having money doesn't give them peace. It gives them more to fret about.

They love the money they possess. Someone who is in the grip of the love of money is someone who loves the money they don't have, so much so that they're discontent without it, so much so that they're greedy for it. And they're willing to bend their ethics in order to get it to lie on their tax returns or to be engaged in shady business deals using deception or whatever other means in order to gain extra money that they do not now possess. Someone in the grip of the love of money is someone who loves the money they don't yet have so much that they grieve missed opportunities as if it were money lost.

It's someone who, finds out about an investment opportunity that they didn't know about and man, man, if I would have just invested here, I could have made x amount of money and, and they grieve over that as if that was actual money lost. Someone who's in the grip of the love of money is someone who loves the money that other people have so much so that they envy. Those people And so much so that they're willing to steal from those people. There's many different shades and hues of the love of money.

Maybe you find yourself in some of these, and I know there's various times where I, I see myself, I see this, this evil in me in some of these capacities. The love of money. how to guarantee you'll never be satisfied with money. Can I tell you a secret?

Here's a surefire way to know that you will never be satisfied with whatever money you make, even if it's multi-millions of dollars. Here's the secret love money. If you love money, guaranteed you'll never be satisfied with the money that you have. Solomon knows this.

He said he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. Anyone who is a lover of money will never, ever be content. Paul says, man, chase godliness. Don't be chasing after this.

Stuff. A 5th and final reason to chase after godliness rather than earthly riches is because the love of money can lead to a wandering from the faith, little by little, little by little, he says, for the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away. This has the idea of a just a slow, imperceptible moving away from the faith or from the gospel. And they've pierced themselves in the end.

They've impaled themselves literally with many, many piercing griefs. There are people I've been here at Cornerstone for over 18 years, and I've seen people that have been in the grip of the love of money and just little by little by little by little. They wander away from the faith. Because they love money and the things that money can buy, and they made that their passion rather than the pursuit of godliness.

Well, we're going to be learning more about this very topic in verse 11 and 12. Paul's coming right back to this, saying flee from these things, chase after these other things. And then in verse 17, Paul gives Timothy instructions to give to the rich, which when I read that, it's like, give these instructions to every single person at Cornerstone. So there's much that we're going to be learning in the way of money and what our perspective needs to be, but today Paul is exhorting us to make godliness our pursuit rather than the pursuit of earthly wealth.

Let me ask you to bow your heads. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to, To give But I, I would just love if if in my own life. And then all of our lives here at Cornerstone, if we just, We just made this our passion.

Just, we're going to be chasers after godliness. This is what we're going to prize and, We're going to strive and labor. We're going to, We're going to pursue, we're going to exert ourselves towards this. We're going to strip ourselves down as much as possible so that anything that's an obstacle, anything that slows us down, we'll, we'll, We'll be willing to do without that so that we could obtain this one thing that we can take with us into the next world.

Lord, I just, I pray for myself. I pray for. All of us here in this church family, we, we all have burdens. We all have things that we could worry about and obligations, financial obligations that maybe we're dealing with right now and even obligations that we anticipate and over the next few years and, and it's wise to be thinking about those things and to be preparing and, for them and, But Lord, help us never to sacrifice the pursuit of godliness.

In favor of these things? May we trust you that you are generous God. Say, if you seek me first, my kingdom, my righteousness, I, I will be the one who chases these things for you. You chase me and I'll chase these things for you and supply you with what you need.

I will take care of you. Help us to be a godly people. Whose lives are fully orbed around, You, Lord, And the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you and we ask Lord that you would receive these funds and do much with them.

And glorify your name through how these funds are used. We give ourselves to you also, Lord, in the name of Jesus.