Impossible Jobs—Part 2

1 Timothy 6:1-10

I. The Rewards Are Worth the Effort

A. Christian contentment is actually incredibly valuable. “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6)

1. Physical exercise brings immediate and valuable benefits but they are not long term like spiritual benefits. “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

2. A Christian ought to let God decide what is best rather than attempt to out provide Heaven. “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11)

3. Jesus promised that those who look to God will get what they need from Him. “(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:32-33)

B. Learn to measure realistically. “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” (Psalm 37:16)

C. The treasures of this world are temporary. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” (1 Timothy 6:7)

D. Job understood life and blessed God. “And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

II. Only Faithfulness Is Essential

A. All believers really need from the world is enough resources to be faithful to God. “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” (1 Timothy 6:8)

B. Remember how God provided for Israel in the Wilderness. “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.” (Deuteronomy 8:3-4)

C. Pretty trinkets snare people just as lures catch fish; the trinkets are dangerous but not essential. “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” (Proverbs 30:8-9)

III. Do Not Clutch at Clouds

A. One wrong path leads to many more wrong paths; bad choices cultivate bad choices. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” (1 Timothy 6:9)

B. Lot chose what he could not keep while Abraham kept searching for the eternal city. “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.” (Genesis 13:10-13)

C. When self-interest becomes more important than faithfulness to God, only bad things follow. “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)