In verse number one, the Bible reads,
Let as many servants as are under the yoke
count their own masters worthy of all honor,
that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
You see, when we go out in the world,
according to the Bible here,
and do not behave ourselves properly on the job, for example,
we are giving a bad name to Jesus Christ.
You see right here,
that we are to count our own masters worthy of all honor.
Why?
That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
Which tells me that if we are disrespectful
to the boss at work,
if we mouth off at work,
if we have a poor work ethic,
we're sleeping on the job,
we're sitting down on the job,
it tells me that people are going to blaspheme God's name
and say, this is a Christian,
this is a member of a sole-winning Baptist church,
you know, this is someone who is a dedicated,
sold-out Christian,
and they are the most disrespectful,
slovenly, worst worker on the job.
You know, that could cause people to get a bad taste
in their mouth about Christianity.
So we ought to be very careful
when we're out in the world
to maintain a good rapport,
good demeanor,
good testimony,
so that we are good ambassadors of Jesus Christ,
which is what the Bible calls us in the book of 1 Corinthians.
And so we're to be a representative or ambassador of Jesus Christ.
It says in verse 2,
And they that have believing masters,
let them not despise them because they are brethren,
but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved,
partakers of the benefit these things teach and exalt.
There's a tendency,
and you can see it in this verse,
that if someone works out in the world for another Christian,
for another believer,
or even another church member,
the tendency could be to have, you know,
basically disgust for them,
like, oh man,
you know, this person's telling me what to do,
or what, you know,
we're both brothers in Christ here,
we both go to the same church.
And basically,
people might expect special treatment on the job,
because hey, I'm a Christian, you're a Christian.
Now, this happens on the job.
It also happens sometimes
when people in the church might hire you to do something,
you know,
and I think we should stay away from, you know,
doing business in church and so forth.
I try to just do business is business,
you know what I mean?
But sometimes you end up, you know,
doing business with people in church, right?
And here's the problem.
Whenever you do business,
and I learned this a long time ago,
I learned this over 10 years ago.
You do business with people in church.
Let's say, for example, my trade,
which I'm an electrician.
Okay, let's say there's somebody in the church
who needs electrical work.
Well, guess what they're thinking?
I'm going to get a discount because of the fact that,
you know, this guy's from church.
That's what people are thinking.
But then the guy who's doing the work thinks,
I'm going to get a tip.
I'm going to get treated well.
And so sometimes that can cause a problem.
So I decided a long time ago that if I was going to do work
for somebody in church, electrical work,
I would do it for free,
or I wouldn't do it at all.
Because if it was someone that I felt like was a good soul,
any Christian, my friend,
somebody that I wanted to do something for,
you know, I would basically say,
you know what, I'll do that for free.
I'll just show them some love here and do this.
And if it was someone that I didn't feel
like doing it for free, I just didn't do it
because I didn't want to create a bad attitude in myself
or them, bad blood.
Let me give you an example.
One time I was asked to put in some ceiling fans.
Now, as an electrician, you know,
when you're doing ceiling fans,
we're not talking about just taking down one
and putting up another or taking down a life and a book.
I'm talking about running new wires,
running new lines of power, mounting a back box,
the whole thing from scratch, wiring to a switch, whatever.
I did multiple ceiling fans in someone's house
and also ran the new wiring.
Well, I grew up working for my dad's electrical business.
I think at that time we were charging $135 or $150 depending
to do one of these.
We called it an un-existing ceiling fan.
Like there was nothing there
and we were going to go in and put it in
and assemble the fan and so forth, get it rolling for them.
Well, I had a guy call me out to do,
you know, it was either two or three
and I can't remember, probably two.
Oh, it was three?
My wife just remembered it was three.
I went out and did three ceiling.
I mean, it's a big, big job.
I mean, my dad would have charged, you know,
you do the math, right?
Four bucks, approximately.
And so I went out and did it and I said,
hey, I'll do it for free.
Do it for free, okay?
You don't have to pay me, you know?
Because I'm like, you know, you're my,
this was a friend.
I'm like, I'll do this for you.
No, no, no, no.
He's like, oh, I'm going to pay you.
And he's like, and I pay good, you know?
Okay.
So I went out and put in these three ceiling bands.
He literally, when I was done, handed me a $20 bill.
I mean, we're talking about like five hours of work
in an attic and everything.
He handed me 20 bucks.
And it was just unbelievable, you know, 20 bucks.
Which to me, I would have rather just done it for free.
It was an insult.
And I've actually used that story out solely a ton of times.
I'll use that as an illustration.
People, God's trying to give them the gift of salvation,
eternal life, a home in heaven, all your sins forgiven,
living in a perfect place.
And you're like, no, no, no, I'll pay for it, God.
You know, I go to church, you know, three times a week.
I've been baptized.
I quit drinking.
And it's like, that's what you're doing.
You know, you're holding up like a $10 bill to God or something.
Oh, you know, this is what I did, you know?
And it's sinning.
But do you see how that, even though my attitude was right,
going in, I was like, I'll do it for free.
But, you know, my attitude wasn't right after that,
because that offended me.
I mean, that hurt my feelings.
I walked away like, does this guy just think
that that's what I'm worth?
I mean, I go to my job every day and make a lot more than that.
I mean, come on, you know, for five hours of backbreaking work
that we would charge $400 for.
And he tells me, I'm paying you good.
Here's $20.
You know, and a glass of water or whatever.
It's like, I don't know why.
So be careful, is what I'm saying,
that you respect people in the business world.
And don't just think, oh, he's a believer.
He owes me something, you know what I mean?
Because I'm a believer, he should just do it for free.
Don't just demand people do stuff for free in this church.
You know, there are all kinds of people in our church
that have different trades and everything.
Now, if somebody wants to do something for free
and they can help you out, you know, receive that gift.
I mean, you shouldn't be the type
where you won't let anybody do anything for you.
But appreciate it.
Love it.
You know, look at it for what it is.
And if you do do business with somebody,
be sure that you're honest and above board.
And if you work for a born again child of God Christian
as your boss, you got to thank God
that your boss is a Christian.
You know, because he's not going to be asking you
to do all kinds of immoral things.
Look, I've been in the business world.
You get asked to do stuff that's dishonest or immoral
at almost every job you work at.
I mean, literally.
And being in an environment, one time I worked at a job
that I can think of.
Well, I did a couple little tiny jobs I did here and there.
But one major job that I had after I was married
and everything, where I worked, where the boss was a Christian.
And I liked working for a Christian.
I thought that was great, you know.
And he treated me well, and I treated him well.
And I liked that.
And so, you know, that's a good verse right here.
He said, these things teach and exhort.
If any man teach otherwise, you know,
somebody's telling you that this is not the way things are.
He said, and consent not to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the doctrine which is according to God,
he's proud, knowing nothing.
Have you ever noticed that those two things
sometimes go hand in hand?
You know what I mean?
Like pride and knowing nothing,
because I'd be found in the same person.
He's proud, knowing nothing,
but don'ting about questions and strikes of words,
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil demise.
Now let's back up here if you want to get all this here.
First of all, we ought to consent to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me just say it this way.
Anything that's in this book
should not be censored or prohibited.
Did you hear me?
He said, if anyone doesn't consent
to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ here,
and you say, Pastor, I said nobody would ever,
wait a minute, wait a minute.
I know of a guy, I was talking to a guy just a week ago,
who stood in the city council meeting,
and he was given three minutes to speak,
you know, the public comment section
where you can say whatever you want,
and he was given three minutes to speak,
about they were bringing in all this homosexuality
into this town.
They were trying to do a campaign paid for by tax dollars
to bring homos into this town,
to make it like a homo-friendly town.
And they were going to call the town so-and-so town,
no place for hate was going to be attacked.
And they were trying to attract homos,
and they put rainbows on the street signs,
literally on certain districts of this town of Pennsylvania.
So this gentleman stood in this meeting,
and he had three minutes, the public comment session,
to use his freedom of speech
to basically express himself on this legislation.
And in a city council meeting, he got up,
and he basically just wanted to read
Romans chapter one about homosexuality.
And he was really mild-mannered.
He wasn't anything like me or anything.
He was a guy who was just really a gentle guy,
and he just got up, and he just said,
look, you know, I just want to read,
a little passage from scripture here.
They shut him down and said, no, you will not read that.
And then he was arrested,
and literally taken away in handcuffs.
He was not by, didn't raise his voice, didn't yell.
I mean, he was literally just soft,
just, you know, wherefore, God also did it,
and he was dragged away,
and charged with a few different misdemeanors.
I mean, you want to talk about not consenting
to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's our government today, in many cases.
They're a place in this world, Canada is one of them.
It's not that far away, folks,
where you can't even publicly read portions of scripture
about homosexuality,
or even portions of scripture from the book of Acts,
where they talk about how the Jews killed Jesus.
You can't read that publicly, or you're a hate speech,
hate speaker.
These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but not only that, I've sat in a Baptist church,
and heard God's word censored from the pulpit.
Who do you think you are?
And something's wrong when you have a cleaner mouth
than God does.
You know, somebody got up and said,
they came to the place where the Bible said,
bastard, and they said illegitimate child.
In the context that they used,
I'm not going to go into it,
I already have,
but it actually changed the meaning of the passage,
because the bastard actually has a couple of meanings.
They changed the meaning, but you know what?
I don't care whether they changed the meaning,
they changed God's word.
And they get up, and they don't want to offend someone.
I wonder what else they're trimming out,
because they don't want to offend.
Another friend of mine was sitting in church,
and the pastor was preaching through the Bible,
verse by verse.
I mean, he preached every word verse,
that's what I'm doing tonight in verse 76.
And he's preaching every verse.
He came to the verse where he said
that he was going to destroy Jeroboam,
him that pissed against the wall,
and him that shut up and left in Israel.
And he said, we're not going to read that verse.
You know, and let me tell you something.
I believe, I literally believe this,
and disagree with me if you like,
but I believe that Satan's campaign
is to turn words in the Bible into so-called cuss words.
Seriously.
I've been in a church and heard someone say the word hell,
and saw a girl go,
because she thought, she's always been taught,
that's censored, that's bleeped out of TV,
that's a curse word, you're cursing, this and that.
But hold on a second.
Every word of God appeared.
Something's wrong when hell becomes a cuss word.
And you know why the devil wants hell to be a cuss word?
Because he wants everybody to go there.
So he wants that word to drop out of the else vocabulary.
He wants to talk about Hades and Sheol and Gehenna,
and all these dumb words that don't mean anything.
Because that word hell is God's word.
It's his word to describe a place of torment
and everlasting punishment, burning, fire, brimstone.
People don't like that word.
And so Tipper Gore tells us it's a cuss word.
You know what, Tipper?
You should have been dealing with your adulterous husband,
Tipper, instead of worrying about what I say
when I'm speaking God's word.
Because damn is not a cuss word.
I know it's been removed from the New King James.
I know bastard's been removed.
I know piss has been removed.
I know hell has been removed half the time.
That's God's word, quick, tempering way.
Who are you to stand up and decide
which part of this book is acceptable
to be preached by the pulpit?
Who do you think you are?
I was just told to preach the whole thing
whenever I read the Bible.
I just said preach the word.
Said the whole counsel of God.
I'm not going to sit there and pick and choose
and say, well, the TV bleeps it.
You know what's on TV?
I mean, the worst garbage.
Look what they allow on there.
But oh, oh, oh, if you say the word faggot.
And that's not one of God's words.
That's one of Stephen L. Anderson's words.
You can decide whether you like that word.
Because that's not God's word.
But that's one of my words.
Flows free out of my mouth.
But anyway, God's word is pure.
Don't sit there and pick and choose
and pick it apart and say, oh, man, don't say that.
You know, it's God's word.
It's not a cuss word.
Show me in the Bible where a word that God uses
is some kind of a cuss word.
It's unbelievable.
But consent to wholesome words.
And if you don't, you say, well, I don't agree with you.
I think those are bad words.
Well, then if you're proud and you don't know anything
in that whole list because it said,
if any man teaches otherwise,
then consent not to wholesome words.
Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Words that Jesus used.
You know, you're proud.
You don't know anything.
OK?
And so he says, but doting about questions and stripes
of words.
We need to quit worrying so much about things
that are questionable and start getting worried about things
that we know for sure.
You know, there's so much in the Bible that there's no question.
I mean, it's just so clear cut.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved.
But by grace are you saved through faith.
Not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man show up.
That's pretty clear.
There are a lot of things in the Bible that are very clear.
It's clear that salvation is by faith alone.
It's clear that you can't lose your salvation.
It's clear that it's the words that matter,
not just the thoughts or the ideas,
but that every word of God is pure and preserved and inspired
and inherent in a thought.
That's clear.
And you want to worry about these other things of,
did Adam have a belly button?
And can God make a rock so big that you can't pick it up?
You know what?
Those are foolish questions.
And you want to avoid those things, the Bible says.
But you don't about questions and then going on and on and on
about these hypotheticals and what if and everything.
Look, we need to read the Bible more.
And then just take all of it.
And if you don't understand, here's what I always tell people.
If you're reading the Bible, and first of all,
if you're a newer believer, and I'm not just saying
a new believer, because all the way up to the newest believer
to me, like you've been saying for, let's see, 24 years.
I've been soul winning every week for the last 12 years.
You know, read the Bible five times cover to cover
before I even said I do to my wife when I was 19 years old.
And I read it five times within the year and a half
before I got married.
And everywhere in between.
You don't need to study the Bible.
But if you're a new believer, you really
don't need to study the Bible.
Because this is what happens when you get a study Bible.
You start reading, and you get something you don't quite
understand, and you start getting the notes,
and then they send you somewhere else.
Like, turn to the A, turn over there.
I always tell people, and I love what my pastor told me
in Sacramento, Pastor Nichols, whenever
I was in Orangevale as a young person.
He said, before you even think about studying the Bible,
read it five times cover to cover.
Get the big picture.
Don't sit there and dissect it.
Read it five times, and then talk to me about same-up.
I read it five times, and I was like,
I'm going to read it five more before I even
think about studying it.
And less than a year and a half later, I read it five more.
And I just read it, and read it, and read it, and read it,
and read it, rather than doting about questions.
And let me tell you what I always tell people
that I'm discipling, and I'm leading,
and I'm trying to work with on reading the Bible.
I always tell them, if you come to something
you don't understand, just keep reading.
Everybody even knows, even when you take a text.
Like when I take contractor's license,
if you come to a question on a test you don't understand,
you come back to it.
But guess what?
Somewhere else on the test, sometimes you'll
find the answer to that question.
Like in what they give you, they'll
give you the answer to that question.
And if you get hung up on it, and I've taken a lot of tests,
because I've got a contractor's license
in eight different states.
And I have to take two tests for each statement basis.
And I've been to these tests, and I've taken all kinds
of other fire alarm certifications.
I've literally, just in the fire alarm field,
I've probably taken approximately 20 tests.
There were high pressure, you paid a bunch of money
to be there, you've flown out, you're there,
you've got to pass.
And here's my system.
First I go through and answer everything I know.
Off the top of my head, the quick stuff, just know it.
The second time through, I answer all the ones
that I can figure out pretty quick.
And then the third time through, I
go through and just plow through the tough ones.
And you know what, that's a winning strategy
for Bible reading.
Worry about what you know, not what you don't know.
Look, if you learn one thing from tonight's sermon,
put it into practice.
And God will reveal you the next thing that you need to learn.
But you don't need to know everything today.
He'll teach you and guide you as you go.
You might be a teenager today, and you may not
know everything about marriage, but you don't really
need to know everything about marriage or childbirth.
You need to focus on being the child that you need to be,
not on being a parent.
Now, as you're reading, learn how to be a parent.
Learn how to be a husband someday, guys, girls.
Learn how to be a wife someday.
But focus on the things that you understand and do them.
And if you'll do what you know, I mean,
you know what's right in many areas.
You say, I don't know what.
Do what you know.
God will show you more.
Line upon line, precept upon precept.
But when we say we worry about questionable things, no.
Get it with the basics.
Everybody wants to be eating the meat.
But some people need to go back to the milk, you know,
and learn and grow and not try to just jump forward.
You know, like, I don't understand everything today.
You understand later.
Right now, read, read, read, and do what you know.
Do what you understand.
And don't become, exercise yourself and think
they're too lofty for you.
You know what I mean?
Just learn and grow naturally.
OK.
But let's hurry up here.
I don't want to get too hung up on that.
We'll get back to that a little bit later in the message here.
But he says, perverse disputings,
verse number five, of men of corrupt minds and destitute
of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness,
from such withdraw thyself.
That is your prosperity creature right there.
Supposing that gain is godliness, thinking that if you
have money, you're godly.
Thinking if the church grows, we must be doing something
right if the church is growing.
You know, if we're looking at growing.
If we're gaining in numbers or gaining financially
or gaining in popularity, that's not necessarily godliness.
Now he says here, but godliness with contentment
is great gain.
So is godliness gain?
What does it say?
Look down in your Bible there.
Verse six.
Is godliness gain?
Absolutely.
But is gain godliness?
No.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
But is gain godliness?
Absolutely.
No.
I was looking this up in the New King James.
You know, this is where they dug up King James' body
and sign it with his dead hand.
OK.
The New King James, you know, a little easier to understand.
Listen to what it says in verse five.
It's so much easier to understand, guys.
Look at verse five here.
This is the New King James.
Useless wrangolings.
Now that was a lot easier, disputing or wrangling.
Now I thought that wrangling was something that a cowboy does.
Isn't that right?
You know, yee-haw!
Now disputing, I know what disputing is,
but wrangler was a pair of jeans that I told my mom
I would refuse to wear, you know, because I, you know,
I don't want to wear jeans that tight,
you know what I mean, when I was a kid.
I said no to wrangler jeans, OK.
I'm not trying to offend anybody who's
in a pair of wrangolings or anything.
But anyway, the point is, you know, useless wrangolings
of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth,
who suppose that godliness is a means of gain
from some withdrawal by self.
Now, hold on a second.
These are two different things.
This one here says supposing that gain is godliness.
Like, if I get money, if I gain financially,
because he talks about money throughout the rest of the chapter,
then I'm godly.
I'm my name's Joel Oski, you know.
My name's Rick Warren or whatever.
TDJ's.
But here he says supposing that godliness is a means of gain.
Now, godliness with contentment is great gain.
Sounds like godliness is a means of gain.
And you say, well, I was just talking about godliness
as a means to make money.
Didn't he just say in the last chapter
that a person who preaches the gospel
could live of the gospel and basically be paid,
like he said, don't muzzle the ox,
who treads out the corn, stuff like that.
See what this, see what I mean?
And this is just one example.
I mean, this thing's a piece of garbage.
You know, I used to be writing down Bible verses.
I just do, almost every week I pull one of these out,
just to keep it in your mind,
because you can't hear it enough,
you know, to see what Satan is doing with these new Bibles.
You can't see it too much.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into this world,
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and arraignment let us be there with content.
So that's setting the bar pretty low, isn't it?
Food and clothing.
He didn't even say a house.
He didn't even say a car.
I mean, food and arraignment.
So God expects us to be content in any situation.
He promises in Matthew 6 to feed us and clothe us.
So we don't have to worry about that.
But he says in verse nine,
but they that will be rich,
that means want to be rich, will be rich,
willing to be rich, they want to be rich.
It's an older use of the word will.
They that will be rich fall.
And let me tell you something, that's every time.
People who desire to be rich fall.
They fall into temptation and a snare,
and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.
The word lust is synonymous in the Bible with the word covet,
because God uses those words interchangeably in a few places.
Covet, desire, lust.
He says the covetous man, the man who wants to be rich,
who wishes that he had what he doesn't have,
and he's not content, he wants to be rich, will fall.
Why?
Verse 10 says,
the love of money is the root of all evil.
Not like the other,
I just threw away my pony by a weird,
but it says a form of many types of evil,
no, it's the root of all evil.
Now you say,
I know a lot of things that are not motivated by men,
but when I say it's the root of all evil.
People who do other wicked things in their life,
they start out with covetousness.
That's where it all starts.
That's where sin starts.
When lust hath conceived to bringeth forth sin,
and sin is born, it starts with covetousness,
it starts with lust.
And one of the first things that people lust after is money,
even as children.
Even children who have not discovered
yet the opposite gender is attractive.
Lust for money.
Covet money, covet toys,
covet the things in the checkout,
covet food, covet candy.
Covetousness is universal, my friend.
I mean, greed.
And it is the root.
It is the start of the downward spiral in your life.
Covetousness.
And you know what, there's a religion out there
that promotes covetousness.
It's not a business, it's a religion.
It's called Amway.
It's a religion.
My dad labeled it that when I was a child.
And thank you, dad, for teaching me that.
He said, going to an Amway meeting
is going to church service to the God of money.
That's what he said.
Because he went to one.
His friends, God can go to this good, this good.
He got there, they sang praise and worship of money.
They sang songs, literally.
They literally congregationally sang about money.
And they got up and preached.
Would you rather have your friend,
you know, you're going to lose some friends.
But would you rather have your friends,
or would you rather have this car,
you know, this Lamborghini, this, you know.
And it's all a scam.
It's all a lie.
I've seen Amway destroy lives.
I could name for you people's lives
that were financially destroyed, friendships ruined,
churches split over Amway.
Because Amway, and I'm not against business.
I'm not against going into business.
I'm against Amway because Amway teaches
and preaches the love of money.
And that money is the supreme goal.
And that you use your friends for financial gain.
And if you lose friends, so be it.
But it's all about money, money, money.
It's wicked, you know.
And we ought to stay away from that.
This is how you ought to make money.
Go out and you work hard by the sweat of your face.
This is how you make money.
I've made a lot of money in my life.
I mean, I can tell you about time in my life
when I made a lot of money.
Huge amounts of money, massive amounts of money.
But you know, I did it by the sweat of my face.
And anybody who was there with me would know
that, you know, first of all,
money's not being given away for free.
There's two ways to get money in this world.
Work hard or steal.
Those are the only two ways.
And you know what?
The bank, bankers and stock, they're stealing.
Thieves.
Okay, they are stealing.
You know, the Donald Trumps and the Kiyosaki,
whatever his name is, these guys are stealing.
Oh, they made it legit.
They made it all legit, honest.
No, you know, that's a whole other summer.
But I could go on to explain to you why
what they're doing is stealing.
The usury, the voodoo money game.
Why do you think we're in a recession right now?
Because people tinkered around with money and stole money.
They stole money.
They moved numbers around on paper
to make everybody's retirement go, you know,
and everybody's money deflated in value
to where our dollar is worth, you know,
half of it is worth just literally in my lifetime.
You know what I mean?
It's stealing.
It's what it is.
It's savory.
It's the only way to make money besides
by the sweat of your face.
So just decide right now, young man,
how are you going to make money in this life?
You're going to go out and sweat and work hard and labor
and save, you know, and follow a pattern of work,
earn, spend, instead of, you know,
all the other models out there spending money you don't have.
And so, you know, you're going to work hard.
You're going to get up early and stay up late and work all day.
Or you can be a thief and get into a dishonest business
where people are giving away free money.
There's no such thing that's legitimate.
Don't call that 900 number.
You know, don't call that sign by the side of the road.
It tells you how much you can make from home.
They'll have you selling porno before the week's over, OK?
So I don't want to dwell on that.
But I'm telling you guys, there's no shortcut.
And everybody, oh, I was going to college.
And then I had to get some easy cush job and sit around.
Just work, man.
Just get out there and work.
You know, everybody wants a cush, easy job.
I don't.
I want to work.
I like work.
If you don't like work, then just, you know,
are you manly?
Check your gender check.
Men are supposed to like work, OK?
They've coveted after money.
They love money.
It's the root of all evil, which while some come after,
they've heard from the faith and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows.
But thou, oh man of God, flee these things.
It was creamy in that direction.
And follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou had also called
and has professed a good profession
before many witnesses.
Let me give you one more thought on being rich.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 30,
two things have I required of thee.
Deny me them not before I die.
Remove far from me poverty and riches, lest I be rich
and deny thee and say, who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God and be.
He said, just give me what I need.
Feed me with food convenient for me.
Don't make me poor.
Don't make me rich.
I don't want to drive a fancy car
or live in a mansion ever in my life.
I'm never going to.
I don't want to.
That's not what I want out of life.
I don't want to be in poverty either.
And I want to basically just be provided by God.
That's all.
That's all we should want out of life.
We should have other goals in life than just money.
That should be our focus.
He says, fight the good fight of faith.
Notice that word fight.
Not share the good share.
Fight.
And by the way, it's a fight of faith.
It's always a fight.
Everywhere you turn, it's a fight.
You've got to fight the flesh.
You've got to fight other people.
You've got to fight the devil.
I mean, you've got to fight through this life,
especially if you're going to be a preacher.
And he says, nobody likes fighting, you know?
But you've got to learn to like fighting.
But anyway, he said, fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life.
We're under that also called,
and has professed a good profession
before many witnesses.
I give thee charge in the sight of God
and quickeneth all things.
Quickeneth all things means brings to life all things.
And before Christ Jesus,
who before Pontius Pilate,
witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot,
unrebucable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, first of all, he says,
God quickens all things.
God is the one who saves.
He's also the one who brings things to life physically.
Science, falsely so called,
will tell you the things spontaneously came to life
billions of years ago.
Really, God is the one who can create life.
And life cannot be created in a laboratory.
You don't lie to you about cloning and everything.
Nobody's created life in a laboratory.
Life only exists for God.
You don't know science if you don't realize that.
That life cannot be created or destroyed.
I mean, it can be destroyed,
but it can't be created in a laboratory
no matter what chemicals are there.
But he says there,
that thou keep this commandment without spot,
unrebucable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look, that tells me
that we're going to be here on this earth
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now does anybody know what appearing means?
Let me ask you,
what if somebody's peering through a window?
What are they doing?
Looking.
Kind of like where the Bible says,
looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ.
And you say, well, the blessed hope and the glorious appearing.
Well, kind of like what he says right after,
God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, you need to learn that the word and in the Bible
can mean the same thing restated or two different things.
And I can show you 10 examples where it says
God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
and God and the Father of all, whatever.
Basically, we will be on this earth
until the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And let me tell you something,
the appearing means you're going to see Him.
Because if something appears,
then that means we see it, right?
Now, if something's invisible, can we see it?
Did it appear?
And you say, why are you doing that?
Because people don't believe this.
Appear, you can see it.
Jesus Christ will come in the clouds,
the tropical sound, and the Bible says,
every eye shall see Him.
And they also which pierced Him
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him,
Kirk Cameron, even so.
You know, Kirk Cameron doesn't use the King James Bible.
You know that?
And did you know that he does not believe
that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?
He says you have to turn from your sins
and he believes in lordship salvation
and repent of your sins and repent from drinking
and repent according to Jesus.
Works!
And he's not using King James.
He's not preaching the gospel of salvation
through Jesus Christ.
Growing Pains was a stupid TV show.
I mean, what does the Bible say?
And so, you know, Kirk Cameron's movie on Left Behind
should not even be something that we go to.
This book is what we ought to go to.
Show me where is everybody in this book.
People will know what's going on.
That's right.
They'll see him.
They'll wail.
Some will be wailing.
Some will be praising God.
And he's going to come in the clouds
and they'll all see him
and then we'll be caught together with them in the air
to meet the Lord in the air.
You know, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
But let me tell you something.
We're not getting raptured before the glory is appearing.
You know, a secret rapture is what this is known as.
You know, the secret.
Shh.
I don't even know.
I shouldn't be talking about it.
The secret rapture.
You know, all of a sudden, just out of nowhere,
you're going to be driving your SUV home from your church.
You know, and basically you're just going to be driving.
You're never going to be persecuted.
You know, you're never going to go through any trouble
in your life.
You know, because gain is godliness, you know.
So you're going to be going through life.
And then all of a sudden, you're going to be gone.
All these cars are going to crash.
And nobody's going to know what's going to happen.
And it's aliens.
No.
It's not true.
It's a lie.
The same day that Lot was taken out of Sodom and Gomorrah,
it rained fire and brimstone.
Even so shall it be in the days that come against some man.
The same day Noah entered into the ark,
it rained on the earth for 40 days and 49 days.
You know, God, a half hour after the rapture,
according to the Bible, will pour out fire and brimstone
from heaven.
I think people will know what's going on.
That's right.
They'll notice.
They won't say, why is the car a man?
And isn't it funny, whenever you have these,
they're going to be ducking for karaoke care.
But you know, it's funny, whenever
they have these movies and things
that the rapture, these little Christian films,
isn't it funny how there's way too many people disappearing?
Yeah.
Of what's actually saved.
You know what I mean?
Like, planes are going down everywhere.
And it's like, folks, there aren't
that many people who are saved.
I mean, I know that there are a lot of people who are saved.
I know there are hundreds and thousands and millions
of people who are saved.
But I don't think that it's like 30% of the population, folks.
Have you ever been soul winning?
Yeah.
Why don't you go knock some doors with me in Tempe
and we'll tell you what percentage is saved.
We ran into people that are saved from time to time.
Pretty often.
I mean, every week, for sure.
You know, if I do a lot of soul winning, obviously,
I'm going to run into a ton of people.
If I go a long day, I'll usually run into somebody
almost every day who's saved.
But you know what?
The vast majority is on the road that leads to destruction.
Many there be would ruin their end.
But let's move on from that.
Which in his times, verse 15, he shall show who is the blessed
and only potent tape, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
And by the way, that's Jesus Christ.
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light
which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen
nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting.
Amen.
You say, wait a minute, people have seen Jesus Christ.
No.
Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
whom no man has seen nor can see, to be honor and power
everlasting.
No one has ever seen the light that no man can approach unto.
Nobody has actually seen the face of God the Father
and lived.
You remember how Moses wanted to see God?
And he told him, he said, no man can see my face and live.
And he basically just showed him the hinder parts of God.
He showed Moses the blue face.
And you remember how Moses came down from the mountain,
his face was shining and bright, and then put a veil
over his face just to not scare the people
when he got back down?
And so the Bible's clear here.
The Bible says in John 1, for example,
no man has seen God at any time.
He only begotten Son, which is the wisdom of the Father.
He had to turn.
Yes, Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.
God was incarnate.
But God the Father, dwelling in the light,
which no man can approach unto, that light
would be so blinding that you cannot see God's face
and live.
OK.
That's what's being taught here.
To be honor and power everlasting.
Amen.
Verse 17, charge them that are rich in this world,
that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches.
And riches are uncertain.
The Bible says, moth and rust doth corrupt,
and things break through and steal.
He says, who giveth us, but with the living God,
who giveth us richly all things to enjoy,
that they do good, that they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute, to be generous,
you know, distributing the wealth.
We're not talking about a forced government
of wealth through redistribution.
We're talking about rich people voluntarily distributing.
I mean, how many times did Jesus go to some really wealthy
people and just say, you know, just get rid of this.
Like, this stuff's holding you back.
Just sell what you have and give it to the poor.
When Zacchaeus got saved, he sold half of everything he had.
Just gave it to the poor.
He just had it too much.
He just wanted to distribute.
He just wanted to be generous.
He just wanted to help.
He said, laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come,
that they may lay hold on eternal life.
He's saying, look, don't set up the foundation of,
you know, well, I've got this safety net and insurance
and portfolio and stocks and bonds and money.
That's, you know, for the rainy day.
That's for when things get really bad.
I've got gold, silver, nickels, whatever.
I'm storing it up.
That was for you, brother.
You know, I've got all this stuff stored up.
He's saying, look, and I'm not saying it's wrong
to have money or whatever, throw a few gold, silver coins
and, you know, roll up some nickels and whatever.
But what I'm saying is, what I am saying is that really,
if you want to be safe and you really want to have
a safety net, it's God.
And if you really want to lay up and store treasure,
it's going to be spent in the eternity, eternal life
is where you're going to use that money.
Because you're laying up not just upon the earth,
but treasures in heaven.
But even when the hard times come,
he promised to feed in clothing.
That's better than any promise from a financial advisor.
It says in verse 20, oh Timothy, keep that
which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane
and vain babblings, and oppositions of science
falsely so-called, which some professing of earth
concerning the faith grace be with thee, amen.
Now, this is something that I think we need to take to heart
here because sometimes we can get too into the wrong things,
you know, when it comes to spiritual things,
like basically oppositions of science falsely so-called.
Somebody give me some examples of science falsely so-called.
There's really more than one answer for the name evolution.
Somebody else name a science that's falsely so-called.
Something that's called science, but it's not really science.
It's a lie.
What's that?
Global warming.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, I believe in global warming whenever he scorches men
with great heat and they're all blaspheming God
because they're getting sores all over their body
because it's so hot outside.
I believe in that part, Revelation chapter 8.
But anyway, and Revelation 16.
But anybody else can think of anything that's false science?
Psychiatry.
You know, is a good example.
The psychobabble.
Carbon dating.
Yeah, it kind of falls under evolution a little bit,
even though it has nothing to do with evolution.
Like the water.
Yeah.
Conserving water.
I'm sick of it.
You know, there's plenty of water.
But anyway, science falsely so-called,
you know, like basically teaching that, you know,
a baby's not alive.
You know, we got all kinds of science for that or whatever.
But I think probably the best examples
would be like psychiatry, psychology, evolution,
global warming.
But really, you know, there's probably a lot more
that we're not thinking of.
A lot of bad science, a lot of bad medicine.
And I'm not just saying like, you know,
I think that builds bad medicine like a Native American
would say.
I mean, like bad medicine, you know.
But anyway, I'm saying, you know,
there's a lot of bad medicine, a lot of lying doctors,
and a lot of lying scientists and professors.
And I always say to people, why do you think that every professor
and every scientist wants to do what's right?
If they're atheists, why would they want to,
wouldn't they just rather do what puts more money
in their pocket?
So I'm going to think about this.
What motivates the unbelievers you know?
Just think about unbelievers.
And I know you don't hang around with scientists and doctors.
You know, I don't either.
But the people you run with at work that aren't saved,
are they just motivated by, I always have to be honest.
I always have to do the right thing at all costs.
So why do you think that the scientists and professors
and doctors who are avowed atheists
are just always going to tell the truth
and they wouldn't lie about it.
They wouldn't lie and twist the data.
You know what I mean?
It's garbage.
It's ridiculous.
You're naive.
But he says, you know what?
Avoid oppositions of science falses.
Did he say that we have to, we're going to do the research.
We're going to prove them wrong, buddy.
Is that what it says?
He said avoid oppositions of science falses, so-called.
He didn't say it would feud it.
We've got to fight it.
We've got to stop it.
Hey, people were going to hell long before evolution
was ever invented and the majority
was still going to hell.
When nobody even thought of evolution.
And so fighting evolution is not the final end.
Hey, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
I was given the gospel to an atheist.
Was it yesterday?
It might have been yesterday.
I was given the gospel to an atheist.
And I gave it, and you know, they usually
want to get into all this science and history.
I just said, well, I said, you know.
I said, I don't want to talk about that.
I said, because I can't, I'm not going to try and prove
you that the Bible is true.
I said, in fact, I can't.
I can't prove it to you.
I said, let me give you the evidence
that the Bible is true, OK?
You know, I said, faith is the evidence of things hoped for,
the substance of things not seen.
I said, that's what you have to believe right there.
God's word.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
That's all I can tell you, if you're an atheist.
All I can tell you, if you believe in evolution,
is that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And it's funny, because you say, oh, that's not going to work.
You know what?
It worked for, you know, worked for 696 people
in the last seven months.
You know what I mean?
And then let me ask you something.
Put up your hand if you had a part in that 696.
If you had some part in that, put up your hand.
OK?
Let me ask you something.
Who brought out a fossil or a seminar?
Anybody?
Me neither.
What did you use?
And what was your problem?
That's it.
Do I need to say anything else?
You know, but we get caught up in it.
We ought to avoid it.
Stay away from it.
It's a waste of time.
Contensions.
He says they're unprofitable in vain.
Striding, contentions, babbling.
It's babbling.
These atheists, these agnostics, blah, blah, blah.
I don't want to listen to them.
When I knock on the door to me, she wants to talk my ear out,
I just say, all right, yeah, yeah.
Come on, see us sometime.
See you later.
Wait, I wasn't done.
Bye.
You know, I want to sit and listen to somebody babble.
You know, I just don't want to fill my mind with it.
And so just avoid it.
You know what I mean?
Just don't even get caught up with it.
Just tell people.
I just tell people this.
And let me give you a good soul-wanting tip.
And I'll close on this.
Here's a good soul-wanting tip.
I run into somebody.
And they're an atheist, right?
Here's what I tell them.
I've won atheists to Christ this way.
This is how I did it.
I said to them, because let's pretend that you're an atheist.
And I say to you, can I show you from the Bible
how you can know for sure if you're a guy,
you can go to heaven.
And the atheist tells me, I'm an atheist.
I don't even believe the Bible.
So I don't believe in God.
I don't even believe God's will.
So whether I go to heaven is irrelevant.
This is what I say to these people.
And I'm one of the Christ.
This is a successful method.
I said, well, how about this?
I said, why don't you just pretend
that the Bible's true for a minute?
And give me 10 minutes to show you what the Bible says.
And then you can decide whether you believe it or not.
You know, why don't you just hear what it says.
Just pretend for a minute that it's true.
And just give me 10 minutes.
I'll show you what it says.
And then I want you to decide whether you believe it or not.
And sometimes they'll say, OK.
And then you'll go through the whole thing with them.
And sometimes they'll believe on Jesus Christ,
if you say, from the power of the gospel.
The power of God's, not the PowerPoint, with all the time.
You know, don't get confused.
Not Microsoft PowerPoint, with all the fossils and charges.
No, the power of God's word.
The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth.
And gets baptized and goes to church and goes to heaven.
No, it's just to everyone that believeth.
To do first and also to grieve.
So I do that.
And sometimes I'll start to get into it, though.
And I'll say, hold on a second.
Remember?
You're pretending that you believe the Bible?
You're ruining the experiment here.
Pretend.
And then they're like, oh yeah.
Sometimes I've even said to them,
did you ever pretend when you were a kid,
like if you played cowboys in India,
did you ever pretend you were an Indian?
That's what we're going to do.
You're going to pretend for a minute
that you believe the Bible.
And I'm telling you, I've won them to Christ that way.
That works.
You know why?
Because you know why it works?
Because it gives you a chance to just shut them up
and just show them what it says.
Without them fighting you every step of the way and arguing,
well, I don't believe in hell.
I don't believe Jesus before I'm born.
I don't believe.
Jesus got a priestly gospel to him.
That's what you need to do.
Hopefully you learned something here
from the book of 1 Timothy.
That's the last chapter.
Oh boy, young man, memorize this book.
Learn it.
Preachers.
Wanna be a preacher.
Learn it.
This is the advice to the young man.
Kind of like Proverbs is in the Old Testament.
1 Timothy is kind of the New Testament of Proverbs
if you think about it.
Because it gives a lot of good advice for young men.
And so let's bow our heads in that word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for our church dear God
and for those who are here.
And we just pray that you bless our church dear God
and help us to grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Help us also to grow numerically dear God
as we win more people to Christ
and reach out to people and train them up.
Help us to go to the next level dear God
in our own personal life and as a church.
And we love you.
And in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.