Speaker 1: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast, an audio resource dedicated to a generation of young people who are committed to total surrender to God and total dependence on His power to reach the world with the Gospel of Christ. This podcast is designed to strengthen and encourage through a series of Bible-based practical talks.

You know how much total surrender means to Thee Generation, but how much does it mean to God? Today, our evangelist Bobby Bosler opens up 1 Timothy chapter 6 to reveal God’s heart on your priorities. Join him in this podcast, True Godliness is Total Surrender.

Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and right now I am speaking to you in Warsaw, Indiana, where our team is doing the Cola Clash here, and boy, God has been working. Last time we were here three years ago, we had attendance in the 40s each night, which was a little bit low.

But this time, God has been blessing in a tremendous way. My team is doing a great job. They’re believing God. They’re yielded to Him. They’re willing to work independence upon God. And on Wednesday night, we had close to 60 young people. And actually, I’m sorry, I know it was 67 young people.

And last night, the second night, as of the time of my recording here, we had 85 teenagers here in this place. Just exciting things. God is working. We’ve seen, I think, 16 saved so far, and we’re thrilled with what God is doing. Please continue to pray for us.

But as far as the podcast here today, I’ve got something on my heart. I think most of you know this, my team and I, we are going through, working through expositionally books of the Bible. It’s kind of my way to disciple and work with the team and teach them.

And we’ve been going through the book of 1 Timothy as of late, and we actually just finished it yesterday morning. And in chapter 6, there’s something I’ve been thinking about. And as I studied through this, I thought, wow, this is something I’m going to have to share on the podcast.

So 1 Timothy chapter 6 in verse 3, here the scripture, Timothy is the one that this letter is to, and Timothy was delegated by Paul to deal with a kind of a big situation going on in Ephesus. There were people who were in the church, even leaders that weren’t living right.

And because of their lifestyle and because of their empty doctrine, really they were teaching crazy things they shouldn’t have been teaching. It was leading to a really honestly, a wicked lifestyle, and it was hurting the cause of Christ.

Jesus wants everybody to be saved, everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth, but because these people were not living right, it was destroying the mission of the church there. And so in verse 3, he shares with us a perspective that I trust if you get a hold of it can be a blessing.

And this is actually going to tie into some of the things we’ve heard recently on the podcast. Verse 3 says, if any man teach otherwise. Otherwise to what? Otherwise to what we’ve been talking about. And he actually clarifies what he means by otherwise here in the verse.

If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And according to the doctrine, which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself.

Now we’re going to cover some more verses than this, but briefly, I want you to see this. He says, all right, if somebody is disagreeing with what I’ve been talking to you about, what I’ve been telling you to teach and exhort, the end of verse two, that person’s proud.

Now, what is it specifically that they would be disagreeing with that is such a big deal? He says, if anyone teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, the idea of wholesome words is healthy teaching. If they’re disagreeing with healthy Christianity, what Jesus taught, and he gives one more qualification.

And if they disagree with the doctrine, which is according to godliness, that’s really what I want to focus on here. The doctrine, which is according to godliness. The commentary I’ve been working through, William Mount’s, the word biblical commentary, he says this, godliness is the technical term in the pastoral epistles for a life fully consecrated to God.

Did you get that? In other words, when you’re reading through 1st, 2nd Timothy and Titus, and you see the word godliness, here’s what Paul’s thinking of. He’s not thinking of somebody who’s conservative, though they will be.

He’s not thinking of somebody that wears certain kinds of clothing or doesn’t listen to certain kind of music, though they are going to be godly in the sense that we typically think about the word godliness. But what he’s really getting after is someone who is completely consecrated to God.

You say, what does it mean to be consecrated to God? It’s real simple. Something you’re really familiar with. It’s a synonym. Being consecrated is a synonym for surrender. In other words, somebody who’s fully consecrated to God is somebody who is totally surrendered to God.

So the problem with these opponents, these people that were proud and didn’t know what they were talking about and were majoring on disputing things instead of living the life. The problem was these people were teaching and living in a way that was contrary to total surrender.

He says, listen, healthy teaching is teaching that leads people to total surrender. The words of Jesus Christ, they were leading people to one thing, to total surrender.

And if you are not living according to total surrender, if you disagree with total surrender, if you think total surrender is just a little bit too extreme for you, a little bit too much for you, verse 4 says that person or you are proud and you really have no idea what you’re talking about.

You know, we’ve all met people. We probably have friends. I bet you in your pilgrimage and in your journey of total surrender to God, There have been people who’ve thought you were a little bit kooky. I bet there have been some people that think, you know what, I don’t know.

They’re getting a little extreme with that whole V generation thing. I don’t know. Guess what? They’re proud. They’re ignorant. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Now, these people, there were a whole lot of other issues other than this. But he’s kind of bringing it to the crux of the matter.

If you are not living according to total surrender and teaching others to do so yourself, you’re proud and you’re ignorant. Now he says at the end of verse 5 he says supposing that gain is godliness. These people they thought that real godliness was making it for themselves.

Really this is tied to financial things and in their hearts and in their minds these people that he’s talking to their vision of what it meant to be godly was that they would go out and make a bunch of money, whether that’s out of the business place or making a bunch of money from God’s people through what they were doing.

And he says, no, no, no. Godliness is not a means of a profit. Godliness is absolute surrender to Jesus Christ, whether money comes or not. God will take care of your needs. You need to be content with what God has given you. That’s what verse six is about.

You all know this verse, but godliness with contentment is great gain. Young person, life is not about making money. Life is not about getting a great job, though God may lead you to get a great job and God may lead you to get money, but that’s not what life is about.

That’s not what healthy teaching leads us to. That is not what the will of Jesus is for you and me. True godliness, true profit is being completely surrendered to the will of God.

He says in verse seven for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment let us be there with content and he says essentially hey listen you be content with the provision that God gives for you the bare necessities of life that’s what you need to make sure you have but beyond that honestly your role is to be completely surrendered to Jesus and in verse nine he hits on a perspective that I find many young people especially young people getting to the end of high school and just out of high school.

This is a mentality people fall into that is destructive. He says in verse nine, but they that will be rich. He’s not saying those people who are going to be rich, those people who, when it says will, it’s talking about your will.

In other words, those people that are going after their purpose, their desire, their drive is to be rich. Here’s what happens to them. They fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

In other words, young person, if the goal of your life is to make a bunch of money and to have a comfortable lifestyle, I’m telling you, there are going to be some unique temptations and there are going to be some unique snares that are going to present themselves to you.

Listen, it is a foolish and hurtful passion to live for the paycheck. And in fact, it will drown you. Listen, you may have a spark in your heart. You want to be surrendered to God. You want your life to make a difference.

But if in that heart you have this passion to make money, if that’s what drives you, if that’s what just motivates you in life, I’m telling you, it’s going to drown out your surrender to God. He says in verse 10, for the love of money is the root of all evil.

Young people, I want you to know there are many evils that your love of money will bring you into. I have seen it a thousand times. A young person shows promise in high school, then they get a nice job or a nice occupation. And I’m not against that.

Like pastor said last week in the podcast, God’s going to lead some of you to that. But as you are pursuing the will of God for your life, the point is it’s the will of God for your life.

The point is not to get dollar signs in your eyes like in the cartoons and, you know, cha-ching, run after these paychecks. The point is to live your life for Jesus, to depend upon him, to do whatever he wants you to do.

And if our love instead of Jesus is the almighty dollar, then we’re pursuing something that is not what God intended for us to pursue. He says, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. This is not the life that God intends for you, and it will pierce you.

It will hurt you. It will ruin your faith, and it’ll destroy, it’ll wreck, it’ll shred your heart. But verse 11, I think is so interesting. but thou, O man of God, flee these things.

You know, young people, however God has led you in your life, whether God’s called you to full-time ministry or not, whether God’s called you into evangelism or the pastorate or to be a missionary or whether the role that God wants for you is to be a faithful servant at your local church, regardless, God considers you a man of God and God wants you to run the other direction from a heart that is all about money.

And instead, he wants you to have a different set of pursuits. He says, instead, follow after righteousness. Listen, the heart of a man of God is one that wants to be right with God and man. He says, follow after godliness. God wants you to be absolutely surrendered to God. Follow after faith.

He wants you to be fully dependent upon his power to do his will. Follow after love. an outright concern for the good of others over and above your own good. Follow after patience. That’s being in it for the long game and meekness.

That is being able to be moved by God whenever and wherever he wants to move you. Follow after these things. Pursue these things. Don’t pursue money.

Run from the pursuit of wealth, but pursue being right with God, being surrendered to him, being dependent upon him, being all about the good of others, being in it for the long haul, and to be in it, to be redirected by God if he should so redirect you.

He says in verse 12, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called. And he says, listen, instead of just going with the flow of everyone else in your youth group, everyone else in your church of just pursuing money, you need to follow after God’s will and fight for God’s plan.

Grab hold of what God has, that God saved you to do. Again, there’s lots of other things that this ties into. This is the heart of Paul. And more importantly, young people, this is the heart of God for you. Young people, why is surrender so important? What’s at stake? Listen, young people, godliness, this total consecration to God.

If you don’t live for God, if you don’t surrender to him, I’m telling you, you’ll live for something else. And anything other than living for God will destroy you. Young people, God has a plan for your life. God has a will for you. And God loves you.

Young people, this passage, as I was studying, I was like, this is exactly what we’re all about at Thee Generation. So I trust you’ll be encouraged. Honestly, young people, don’t just listen to this. Go into 1 Timothy 6 sometime. Study through the verses for yourself. Imbibe these things and get it in your soul. My life is Jesus.

It’s for Jesus, and I’m going to do what he wants me to do. That’s our heartbeat. Total surrender to God. Total dependence on his power to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for listening.