1 Timothy 6:7-21 | Episode # 1208

June 3, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Timothy 6:7-21

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama, on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes, where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. For we brought nothing into the world, and it's certain we can carry nothing out. Now, that's a great principle. You ain't brought anything in and you ain't carrying nothing out. You following me? In fact, if they're burying you, you ain't even wearing pants. Just letting y' all know, Okay? Y' all know that, huh? Y' all didn't know that, did you? Most of the folks that's in the coffin, you know, because they bear them up to here. They. They're not bearing you with pants and shoes. You do know that, right? You didn't, okay? And if you, if you, if you, if you get in cremated, they're not cremating you. Your. Your three piece suit, okay? You going into the fire butt naked, okay? That's the way it goes. It's a great principle. You didn't bring anything in, you ain't taking nothing out. We built all kinds of things for people to take stuff with them to the next world, and they don't. Y' all gets left here for somebody to dig up and take. Take for themselves. Okay? You're trying to leave. I have people leave stuff in the coffin, and that's fine if it's personal, but don't leave somebody's Bible in the coffin. I mean, I, I've. I've had to talk to folks. Hold on. That's his Bible. You gonna want that Bible. I mean, what. But, man, he loved his. I know he did, but he don't need it now. You need his notes. You know what I'm Saying, take it with you. Okay, Take the rings off. All right? I got my granddaddy's ring. I mean, I. He didn't need it. He. He won't need it till he. Till he's resurrecting. He won't need it then. So it's gonna be good. I got it. All right. Some of this stuff, if you think about it, you. You just learn. You learn how to. You learn how to lead, and you learn how to do life. That's what it's for. He says, and having food and clothing with these, we shall be content if you. If you got what you need, a roof up, roof to live under and clothes and. And food, be content with that. Paul said, I've known what it is to live in plenty, and I've known what it is to live in. Want I. Kathleen and I have too. I had somebody one time say, well, your mom and daddy got a lot of money. You. You didn't have to work very hard for it. Yeah, my parents took me to Princeton, put $100 in my bank. If I put one pizza on the credit card. They had a fit about it. Okay? I didn't. I didn't. I had. When Kathleen and I got married, and her folks didn't have pot pee in. Now, okay, they worked hard and had a bunch of kids, and they. They didn't have anything. And we went to the grocery store every Friday night. We had $25 for groceries and $10 to eat out once a week. And we either got Tiger Pizza or from Hoagie haven. We had $25 to buy groceries. I counted up in my head and added up the. Got $25. If we had to have something else, we had to pick something to get rid of. We did that for two years. We moved to Montgomery. My parents didn't pay for my college. They didn't pay for my seminary. They didn't pay for my. My law degree. And you know what? I'm not complaining one bit. It was good for me. I'm glad it didn't. Now. I wish they had when I was having to pay for it. But now that I'm on this side of it, I don't have to. I help my children. I do. But you know what? It's great gang to work for it. You know, Some of these principles are things that church used to know. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, which means. Now, is he saying if you're rich, you're bad? No. He says, if you just. If that's all you care about. Well, it's going to be a problem. It's going to cause a snare for you. He says. He says into me, in. Into many foolish and harmful lust. You start. What do you start being world. Start desiring the world. And then he says this. He says this. Men. He says lust which drown men in destruction and perdition. Which means all of a sudden you're chasing after that and you're chasing after the world and you're ******* after the world and you just start acting like the world. And perditions. Hell, by the way, the road to perdition. The Antichrist and Judas are called the sons of perdition. Okay? He says if you're chasing. If that's the focus of your life, then it's going to cause you problems, okay? And people need to hear that. The church needs to hear that. Now, does that mean if you're wealthy, that you're. That something's wrong with you? No, because he's going to deal with that. But. But if that's the focus of your life, then your life is focused on something that's not of God. He says, for the love of money is the root of all evil. Now, I know that you read kinds of, but if you got mine, it's. It's in italics. All right? The reason they put kinds of is because it would not be. It would not be logical. It would not be logical to say that the love of money is the root of all evil. When I say logical, it's not in line with Scripture because Satan didn't fall because he loved money. So the root of his evil was not the love of money, it was pride. Does that make sense? So if I'm going to translate this, I got to either translate it by saying it's the root of all evil, which I know it's not, or I can translate it the way most texts do translate it. It's the root of all kinds of evil, which means if you have the love of money, there's all kinds of avenues you can go down to get messed up. Make sense? Now you see how we take the word to even translate the word, Just like when we were dealing with husbands, wives, and men and women, we take the context, we read the rest of Scripture and we say, okay, is this what that's saying? It can say A, B or C. Well, he can't be right because that falls out of line with the teachings of this, that, and the other B. All right, that's good. C. I'm not sure that you Know, that's kind of getting on the edge of this passage and that passage. Let's go with B. And that's how you translate. Okay? That's how a good translator translates. All right, so when he translates this, can it be that the love of money is the root of all evil? No. So it's got to be all kinds of evil. Makes sense, right? And that is a proper translation of it, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So what is that? Cause. What does the love of money cause you? To be pierced with sorrows? Because your focus is not on God. You don't have any joy with God. You don't have peace with God. You don't have any purpose with God. Makes sense, right? Then he says, for the. He says, verse 11. But you, O man of God, that's always good. You know that, huh? When I read that, it's inspiring. Paul's. Paul's telling Timothy, he says, you're a man of God. We're going to get to it pretty soon In. In Judges. But I love. I love the story of Gideon in Judges. Y' all know that story. Gideon is threshing the wheat in the wine press, okay? And for those of y' all don't know the story, the wine press is at the bottom of the hill because grapes are heavy, okay? And so you don't want to pick the grapes and carry them uphill. You want to pick the grapes and carry them, what, downhill? And it's fine to do it because you're going to be, you know, y', all. I Love Lucy, y'. All. Y' all know, some of y' all remember, Remember the. Check it out on YouTube. You never seen it. The I Love Lucy, where she's. She's pressing the grapes. Well, what they do is they take it and it'd be a. It'd be a. An area. Not cement as you think of cement, but it'd be an area. And you put the grapes in there and they press it and there'd be an area for the juice to run out, and they'd fill it up, and then they'd make wine from it, okay? Not grape juice. They'd make wine from it. Now, the. The wheat threshing floor had to be up on a hill because the way you thresh wheat is you pick it and then you've got the. The. You've got the seed or. Or the kernel, and then you've got the husk around it. And the only way to back then to separate it was you take it up to the top of the hill where the wind blew over the hill. And when it was a windy day, you'd go out there and thresh the wheat. You throw the wheat up in the air and the wind would catch the husk and blow the husk away and the, the kernels would fall to the ground. Well, really cool story. Gideon is in the wine, is in the wine press because he's afraid of the Midianites threshing wheat. Well, he's just throwing the wheat up in the air and the husk and the, and the kernel is just falling on him. I mean, he's getting dirty and he ain't even doing the job. The Bible says the angel of the Lord came and sat at the tree next to him. And when he realized he was there, the angel of the Lord, that's Jesus by the way. He says, thou mighty man of God. Well, he ain't no mighty man. He's a coward. He's threshing the wheat in the winepress because he's afraid of the Midianites. God does not see you in your sin and in your death. God sees you as he has made you to be and he requires that of you. So he is going to act like you are what he made you to be. And that explains why you should take 15 and 16 year olds and expect them to be adults. Are they going to act like adults all the time? No. Are we going to give them the penalties that adults get for doing non doing stupid things? No. But should we treat them as adults? Yes, we should. Yes, we should. Because biblically speaking, they are over 13. You're an adult, all right? God treats you as you are. And Paul's doing the same thing. He says, but you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness. Remember, righteousness comes by faith. Being right with God comes by faith. He says, pursue righteousness, godliness. So righteousness is me trusting God. Godliness is me acting as he reveals himself to me to be. Love, faith. Pursue faith. Pursue trusting who he is. Love. That's agape, that's charity. Pursue doing right by people. Love them beyond yourself. Patience. I could preach a whole sermon on this verse. Okay, all right. Patience, meaning allow God to do his work in you and allow God to do his work in others. Give him time. Gentleness, meaning, you know, don't get angry, don't get upset. Be meek, okay? That does not mean be weak. In fact, meekness, the picture of meekness is a bridle On a horse, powerful animal. But he's so sensitive to the master that he does what the master asks him do with just a little jerk from the reins. Okay, does that make make the. The servant weak? It doesn't make the servant weak at all. In fact, the servant's very powerful, but it makes him gentle and knowing. When the master's at work, he says, fight the good fight of faith, which means keep going, don't quit if you messed up. Beside, look, that's one of the best parts about being a pastor. When you pastor, like Paul told Timothy, there are some things I ain't going to deal with. But. But look, we all going to not do it right? So as long as you fighting, I'm good with you. Okay? It's when you give in and quit, that's when the problem is don't give up. Don't give up. Never give up. Keep on wrestling with it. And that's the cool thing about folks who struggle with passages of scripture too. Keep on wrestling with it. I can tell you this. I've been on both sides and the other side, my own side, and a different side of several biblical issues. Sometimes I don't even know what side I'm on today. Okay? You can see that in my preaching, right? He says, fight the good fight. Lay hold of eternal life, which means grab hold of the life that's given us through Christ, that eternal life that's born of the resurrection, that power that comes from it. Grab hold of eternal life to which you were called, and confess the good confession and the presence of many witnesses. What he's saying is he's calling him to live up to the promises he's made. The confession he's made, live up to it. Does that mean you don't mess it up? No. Means you keep on fighting to live it up. 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, notice that's that confession of agape self sacrifice. He's urging him in the sight of God that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing. He's saying, do what I told you to do here. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Keep those things. Those are. Those. Those things are. There's no. There's no scripture against those things which we will manifest, which he will manifest in his own time. Meaning, look, you keep working it, you'll eventually do it. Let me tell you. For those of you who don't know. And you worried about. I don't know if I can do this. I don't know anything. Use this gift. You know the best, best thing you can do? Jump in, start swimming. Just jump in, start swimming. Don't, don't, don't worry about it. I'm gonna use this phrase, but it's not quite this phrase. It's. You know, you ever heard fake it till you make it? Okay, well, look, you've already made it because he made you to be it. But you don't know how to do it, okay? So you just need to jump in and act like you do until you figure it out, because you do have it. If God's made it for you, you do have it. But you better get out there and learn how to swim it, work it. And one of the. Boy. One of the great principles of my life and my ministry and the things that God has taught me to do, the way I learned how to do it is just go do it. You know, Holy Spirit will kick in. Word of God will kick in. All of a sudden, you know, we're moving. All of a sudden, you riding that bike, you know, just keep going. That's what Paul's telling him to do. Just keep. Listen, I. I left you there, young man in charge of that whole church. Get after it. He says. It'll manifest itself in its own time. He who is blessed and only. He who is the blessed and only potentate and king of kings and Lord of Lords. Now, I want you to listen to me. This is a little, little thing when they deal with. He's the only potentate and he's the only pontus. Okay, Just a little side note. There is only one high priest and there's only one potentate. You go, pastor. I don't know what a potentate is. Potentate is the key. Is the. Is the chief prince or the chief ruler. You following me? There is somebody who is in a line of bunch of people who says he's the potentate and the pontiff. And the reason we don't follow him is because there's only one potentate and there's only one pontiff. There's only one spiritual leader who has access to God, and there's only one king of kings and lord of lords. Now, generally speaking, people of my persuasion tend to be ugly about those who grew up being taught to follow the potentate and the pontiff. Okay, I'm not that way. That being said, he ain't the potentate and he ain't the pontiff. There's only one high priest who is ascended to the Father, and there's only one potentate, and he is Lord. Everybody else is just a man. Find it interesting, he just throws that in there, don't you? He says, he who is blessed and the only potentate, the King of kings and the 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. You answer to one and one only. And that's what Paul's telling Timothy. You don't answer to anybody else. You answer to God. You answer to God. And by the way, you'll do a good job if you're leading people to teach them to deal with God. Deal with God. Deal with God. Deal with God. Because I ain't a potentate, okay? I mean, you can't even be from Alabama and be a potentate, okay? Just letting you know. All right? And you can't be a pontiff either, okay? I'm not. I'm just one of the priests, okay? We all priest. We're a kingdom of priests, okay? Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty. Well, can you command somebody to do Christian stuff and be biblical if they're not bi Christians and biblical. Are y' all listening to me? A lot of people want to teach. If you're rich, you're. You're not. You're going to hell. That's not what he said. He said, command those. Can you command somebody that's rich to do godly stuff if they're not godly? No. Command those who are rich in the present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches. But in the living God, teach them not to trust in their wealth. He says. He says, who. Who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Meaning the reason you're rich is you got it from God. You better act like it. Right? Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share. I'm going to tell you, one of my gifts is given. It's just one of my gifts. I love it. I love it. I be done gave everything away if I didn't marry an accountant. All right. Yeah. She, she. She said that's job security. She does have it. Okay. All right. But, but, but you know, if you are rich, you oughta. You ought to give. You should. He says, storming up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal Life, which means there's great, great reward from it. I, I, there is. There really is. There really is. I, I believe God blessed me with, with what he's blessed me so I could give it away. And I'm gonna give it away. Give some to my family, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it away, you know, every time I give it away, he gives me more to give away, not to hold on to. He says, oh, Timothy, guard what is committed to your trust. That's very personal, he says. He says you've been trusted with a lot of things. Guarded, avoiding the profane. What's the profane? You know, off color, joking, you know. You know, just doing the things that you shouldn't. Y' all know what I'm talking about. He says. He says idle babbling and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. Don't get into all the mess. That's what he's telling him, you know, good soldier doesn't get into civilian things. Don't get into it. Don't get all caught up in it, you know, and that's been very, very helpful to me, as just if I wasn't even a pastor. It's been very helpful to me. I don't get into all the arguing and fighting that goes on in the politics of the county, you know what I'm talking about? I don't get into that. There's several people running against each other now. I like them all. If I can help one of them, all of them, I'll help them all. You know, I always, when, when I run into somebody, I figure out something to like them, like about them, you know, figure out how to. Don't, don't get into civilian affairs. Don't get all caught up into that. You know, you keep grabbing hold of the eternal life and you pass it out and that's going to be good stuff for you. That's what Paul's telling Timothy. Don't get into all this mess. And that's why I don't get into it. He says by professing it, some have, have strayed concerning the faith, all right? Meaning they got all into it and now they've strayed off in the mess. We need to be about the business of God, you know, I don't go on crusades. You with me? We don't go on crusades. We're going to be kingdom of light. We're going to be God's children. We're going to be, we're going to be that light that was shown in the darkness not going to get into all that. He says, grace be with you. Amen. And that's the way it ought to be. Just, you know, let God's grace be in charge. He says. He says, I'm going to just say to you, may God's grace be with you. What a. What a great. What a great message, wasn't it? I mean, good stuff. And you read Timothy and you. You think that little. That little boy, you know, and he was. He's in his 20s, young pastor, new church, got Gentiles and Jews, got all these widows and orphans and rich folks in his church. And, you know, he's. He's trying to manage all the stuff. And he just gives him some very practical advice, is particular to where he's at, some very important advice that's universal for all leaders. And he writes such a good book, he says, I think I'll write another one, you know. And he does, and it's just as good as the other one. And it deals with all kinds of other stuff. I mean, it's just really fun stuff. 2. Timothy's just. I mean, just as rich as first Timothy is. And Titus is also just rich, you know, this is just how you do it, son. That's how you do it. Can't wait to meet old Timothy. Powerful pastor. Powerful pastor. Quite sure he did it poorly a lot. Quite sure he did it just the way God expected and quite sure he. He's receiving the full reward. By the way, we're part of that reward. We're part of that reward. Me reading this got a special place, you know, if we do that ourselves, just jump in the water and swim, the reward's great. It should be sought after. It's well worth it. Amen. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.