Title: Are You Living The Good Life?
Bible Book: 1 Timothy 6 : 6-19
Author: Franklin L. Kirksey
Subject: Christian Living
Objective:
Introduction
Are you living the good life? The good life means different things to different people. If you ask 100 people to define or to describe the good life, you will likely receive 100 different answers. Recently, I found a copy of a book by Max Anders titled The Good Life: Living With Meaning in A ‘Never-Enough’ World. From the back cover we read, “You were created to live the Good Life. Just don’t be fooled by imitations. Wealth. . . Purpose . . . Love . . . Power . . . There’s nothing wrong with desiring these things. In fact, God fully intends for us to have them. The problem is that we too often settle for cheap substitutes. Instead of wealth, we take money. Instead of purpose, we pursue ambition. Instead of love, we accept sex. Instead of power, we want clout. Striving for the world’s definition of success only leads to a frustrating, unfulfilled grind. We think we’ll find satisfaction with our next acquisition or accomplishment. Yet no matter how much we have or do, it’s not enough. Happiness seems almost within our grasp, but always out of our reach.”
Allow me to pose three questions from our text.
I. Are you living in liberty through your focus? (1 Timothy 6:6-10)
Christian liberty makes us free to be what God wants us to be. There is the danger of misusing our liberty as an occasion for the flesh. Paul the Apostle warns in Galatians 5:1, 13, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. . . . For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Jesus said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:38). Paul the Apostle writes in 1 Timothy 6:6-10, “Now 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 clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
It is easy to get out of focus in our daily life. Paul shares the great conviction that brings life into proper focus, when he writes, “godliness with contentment is great gain.” Paul also writes, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Paul was freed from greed in the focus of his life. Here Paul offers the cure for covetousness. Since it is prohibited in one of the Ten Commandments we know there are serious consequences for its practice. Paul writes in Colossians 3:5 that covetousness equals idolatry. We read in Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” In Matthew 6:19-24, 33-34 we read, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! ‘No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
From 1 John 2:15-17 we read, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
II. Are you living in line with your faith? (1 Timothy 6:11-16)
Dr. E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) explains, “Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God. Aligned to God’s redemptive will, anything, everything can happen in character, conduct, and creativeness. The whole person is heightened by that prayer contact. In that contact I find health for my body, illumination for my mind, and moral and spiritual reinforcement for my soul. ‘Prayer is a time exposure to God,’ so I expose myself to God for an hour and a half to two hours a day, asking less and less for things and more and more for Himself. For having Him, I have everything. He gives me what I need for character, conduct, and creativeness, so I’m rich with His riches, strong in His strength, pure in His purity, and able in His ability.”[1]
Paul the Apostle writes in 1 Timothy 6:11-16, “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”
Regrettably, many believers live misaligned lives. Christian individuals and organizations need an occasional realignment with biblical faith. Paul shares the importance of making “the good confession” which is more than words; it means that our walk and our talk are consistent with God’s Word. The Irish missionary to India, Amy Wilson Carmichael (1867-1951) warns, “Beware of what you set your heart upon, for it surely shall be yours.”
III. Are you living in light of your future? (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958) quipped, “We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.” Solomon affirms in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “[God] has put eternity in their hearts.” From 1 Timothy 6:17-19 we read, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
The decisions we make each day have eternal consequences. Here we think about the glorious conclusion of a life well-lived. A well-lived life involves seizing opportunities to serve the Lord by generously giving as He leads. When we read in Hebrews 11:24-26, “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Moses lived in light of his future. Moses made a choice to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Paul advises Timothy and all believers to live in this light. In the use of time, talent and treasure we must ask, “Will the thing I plan to do glorify God and matter in eternity?”
Everything we do should be in light of eternity. Paul exhorts in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, “But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away.” We read in 2 Peter 3:10-13, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) once prayed, “May we live here like strangers and make the world not a house, but an inn, in which we sup and lodge, expecting to be on our journey tomorrow.”
Conclusion
Are you living in liberty through your focus?
Are you living in line with your faith?
Are you living in light of your future?
Are you living the good life?
[1]E. Stanley Jones, A Song of Ascents (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1968), 383
NOTE: This message is adapted from a message by Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey that first appeared in Preaching magazine, Vol. 29, No. 1, July-August, 2013, Salem Publishing, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 43, Used by Permission.
By Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort 30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527
Author of Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice Available on Amazon.com and WORDsearchbible.com
http://www.wordsearchbible.com/products/Sound_Biblical_Preaching_1476.html
http://www.webspawner.com/users/franklinlkirksey / [email protected] / (251) 626-6210
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