This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We want to invite you to one of our weekend services. Visit us online at
saddleback. com for locations and service times in your area.

Please visit us this weekend. Hi, it's Pastor Tom, and I'm glad you're here for
Day 2 of our look through 1st Timothy Chapter 6. We're going to look at verses 6
to 10 today.

In fact, let me begin by reading those verses, 1st Timothy Chapter 6, verses 6
to 10. "But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing
into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and
clothing, we will be content with that.

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many
foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the
love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have
wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

" These verses, verses 6 to 10, they are the secrets of contentment. You heard
of refinancing your house. These are verses about refinancing your life,
refinancing your heart, looking at your finances in a different way, seeing them
in a new way.

They're verses about contentment. The financial counselor Larry Burkett has
said, "One of the greatest mysteries of Christianity is contentment. At least
one must presume it's a mystery because so few people have found it.

" What do these verses have to say about contentment in your life? Well, they
focus on the fact of your contentment level, but they also focus on your
temptation level. Two truths we want to focus on in these verses.

One, your contentment level is lower than you think. And number two, your
temptation to materialism is stronger than you think and more destructive than
you want to admit. First, your contentment level, these verses tell us, is lower
than you think.

Notice what it says, "Godliness with contentment, it's great gain. We brought
nothing into the world. We're not going to take anything out.

If we have food and clothing, you can be content with that. " What's the minimum
daily requirement for contentment? All we really need are food and shelter.

It reminds me of the words of Epicurus, "To whom little is not enough, nothing
is enough. " And this is the little that's enough, the minimum daily
requirement, food and clothing. If you define your needs for contentment as
anything better than that, greater than that, you're in dangerous peril.

Contentment is never a matter of more things because you can never get enough
things. It's a matter of applied faith. Contentment is not a matter of what I
have.

It's a matter of whose I am. Now let me just walk through this. I've talked to a
number of people about this verse who say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

It sounds like, I mean, just food and shelter, it sounds like I just sit back
and do nothing and I'm content that I shouldn't have any goals for my business
or for my finances or even to earn some money to serve the world or to make a
difference to my church. I just eat and I make sure I have clothes on my back
and that's all I need. " That's not what these verses say at all.

These verses are saying instead that your business goals, your financial goals
are not where your contentment is found. They're not saying not to have business
goals or financial goals. It's saying to realize that is not where your
contentment is found.

There are many people in life who are trying to get more in order to gain
contentment. They are seeking something, something more to gain contentment when
that's not where the contentment comes from. The contentment comes from what you
had in your relationship with Christ when all you had was food and clothing.

That's all you need to be content. And if I'm trying to get more in order to be
content, I'm chasing after something I should have had a long time ago in my
relationship with Christ. If I'm trying to get more in order to gain
contentment, I'm chasing after something I will never find in more because it's
not found there, it's found in him, it's not found in more.

When you live this way, realizing contentment is found in him and in the simple
things he's given. That's where it starts. That's my foundation.

Then anything I earn, anything I do beyond that is not to gain contentment, it's
to serve him. When you live in this way, you escape the trap of the desperate
search for more and you enter the exciting life. Whatever more you have can
simply be used for the glory of God.

That's contentment. Your contentment level is lower than you think. That's the
first truth here.

Second truth is your temptation level to materialism, it's higher than you think
and it's more destructive than you want to admit. When my life goals get out of
whack, it's like I'm building a freeway for temptation into my life and they'll
come rushing in. You'll fall to temptation when your purpose in life becomes
rest or riches or recognition.

If my purpose in life is just rest, it's just about me and rest and nice
pleasures in life, I'm going to fall to temptation. If my purpose in life is
riches, I'm going to fall to temptation. If my purpose in life is recognition,
what other people think of me, I'm going to fall to temptation.

Paul focuses on the middle one here, riches, money. He says it is the root of
all kinds of evil. Not just money, but notice he says the love of money is the
root of all kinds of evil.

Money in and of itself, it's a neutral, it can be used for good or used for bad.
But when I fall in love with money, that's the root of evil in my life, all
kinds. Not the only root of evil, but one.

How do I know? How do I know if I'm in love with money? Well, what do you think
about most?

What do you dream of? Where do you spend most of your time? You see, you can be
worried about money or you can be in love with money, both ways of focusing on
money.

You can be worried about money, that means I'm thinking I won't have enough. Or
you can be in love with money, that means you're thinking I have to have more.
And in both cases, the focus is on the money and not on God.

When Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount, you cannot serve both God and
money. You just can't do it. We all face temptations that revolve around things
and stuff.

When you're tempted by possessions, what do you do? God's way out of a
temptation to materialism is in two words, the word thanks and the word give.
Both of these words are part of fighting the temptation to materialism in our
lives.

And when it comes to materialism, you're going to be tempted. You live in the
United States, many of you are listening to this. And if not, you at least have
something you can listen to it on.

You own something. So there's a temptation to have something more. And many of
you in our own church, you're listening to this in South Orange County.

You are in the sweet spot, the bullseye of temptation for material things. No
doubt about it. How do you defeat that?

Two words, thanks and give. The temptation to live, to accumulate things, it is
seductive. And the Bible tells us it is a trap.

You want to get rich, you fall into the trap of many foolish and harmful
desires. That's just the way we're wired as human beings. It's a trap.

It looks like I'm gaining more. But eventually I realize that the more that I've
gained, even if it works, those things are controlling my life. That is the
trap.

What's the answer? Thanks and give. I want to focus on the thanks today and then
on the give in the verses we're going to look at towards the end of this
chapter.

I don't know of a simply more powerful way to break the grip of materialism in
your life than just to tell God, "Thank you. " Psalm 86 verse 12 says, "From the
bottom of my heart, I thank you, dear Lord. " When was the last time you did
that?

You just said to God, "From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. I thank you for
the things in my life. I thank you that they meet my needs, in fact more than
meet my needs.

I have an abundance you might be able to pray in order to be able to help to
meet other people's needs. Do that right now, right where you are. From the
bottom of my heart, I thank you.

" It loosens the grip of materialism. No doubt about it. It's an important part
of the way that we worship God.

When I'm tempted by possessions, "From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, God.
" Pray that prayer right now. "From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, God,"
for, and then you might just make a list.

It might be the home you live in, the clothes that you have, the food that
you're able to have day by day. Some new financial blessing God's put into your
life. "From the bottom of my heart," maybe it's God taking care of you through a
financially difficult time, but he's still been there.

Food has still been on the table. You didn't always know where it was going to
come from, but he's met the need. "God, I thank you for that.

God, thank you. Thank you for the material things in our lives, because they're
a sign of the fact that you love us and you care for us. Thank you in Jesus'
name, amen.

" See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. And see some pure faith motivation in
Paul's strong charge to Timothy.