The Good Life

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 118:1-9
• Hymn — Fairest Lord Jesus
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Apostles' Creed
• Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 15:1-9
• Pastoral Prayer
• Hymns
• Sermon
• Hymn
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Good Life

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:11-21

I. The Good Life Consists of a Good Fight

A. Paul addresses Timothy as a "man of God" — a minister of God's Word — called to flee sin and pursue virtue

1. He is to flee the ungodly characteristics of the false teachers: arrogance, controversy, unhealthy pursuit of gain (1 Timothy 6:3-10)
2. He is to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness

B. The Christian life is not flight to neutral territory but entry into a land where the good life must be actively pursued

1. Like immigrants fleeing persecution to pursue the good life in America, we flee sin to pursue life in Christ
2. We are justified in Christ's blood and freed to pursue these virtues

C. The call to the good life is a call to fight

1. 1 Timothy 6:12 — "Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called"
2. Contrast of Jesus and Peter in Mark 14:37: Jesus arms himself through prayer and is faithful; Peter sleeps and denies his Lord
3. "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" — every day is filled with internal and external warfare; we are called to stay awake, pray, pursue, and fight

II. The Good Life Consists of a Good Confession

A. Timothy's good confession (1 Timothy 6:12-13)

1. Paul emphasizes the testimony Timothy made at his conversion before the body of Christ
2. This confession is the pure gospel Paul has been defending throughout the letter against the false teachers

B. Christ's good confession before Pontius Pilate

1. Not a particular creed, but Christ holding fast to the promises of God in the face of death
2. Throughout his ministry Jesus clung to his Father's word — "I and the Father are one" — even when accused and mocked
3. He held fast all the way to Pilate and now sits in eternal glory — the good life

C. The doxology of 1 Timothy 6:15-16 grounds the good confession

1. In Ephesus, Emperor worship and the cult of Artemis were dominant — people bowed to temporal sovereigns
2. Paul declares the true Sovereign: the blessed and only sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light
3. Hold fast the good confession because the one who calls you holds immortality in his hands

D. Historical illustration: The Guanabara Confession (1558)

1. Five Huguenot missionaries returned to Brazil, were captured, and forced to write a confession of faith
2. Their confession declared Christ as the only mediator through whom, justified in his blood, they would have full victory over death
3. All five were executed the next day — they held fast to the good confession and to the God who alone holds immortality

III. The Good Life Consists of Good Stewardship

A. Paul addresses the wealthy in the congregation (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

1. This is not a call for the church to have no wealthy members, but a call for the wealthy to fix their eyes on God rather than on their riches
2. "Do not set your hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy"
3. Only with eyes fixed on God can the rich be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share

B. True life — eternal life — is found in God alone

1. The doxology just declared: God alone has immortality; if you want eternal life, you must go to God
2. God does not hoard his riches but lavishes them on poor, wretched sinners — he is the all-sufficient God

C. The proper understanding of treasure in heaven (Luke 12:33-34)

1. This passage is often misread as simply trading temporal stuff for eternal stuff
2. Scripture's concern is not eternal stuff but the eternal God who dwells in heaven
3. Psalm 84:10-11 — "A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God" — nearness to God, not material abundance, is the treasure
4. We give generously because our treasure in heaven is God himself — our sun and shield who withholds no good thing from those who love him
5. As Psalm 42:1-2 expresses: "As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God" — we give freely because we thirst for God himself

D. Summary: The good life consists of a good fight, a good confession, and good stewardship — all grounded in God himself, who alone holds immortality in his hands