Reading: I Timothy chapter 6
Text: I Timothy 6:6-12

“The Pursuit of happiness…”

As I read through Paul’s writings I can’t help but to be amazed at how insightful and thorough he was in speaking to every area that the church would have struggles. Once again I will say that apparently the struggles in the church haven’t changed much the last couple thousand years. He seems to have found it necessary to address issues that he could quite easily have to address today.
I am hoping and praying that for the most part the church as a whole is seeing the doctrinal inaccuracy of the whole ‘prosperity’ doctrine and I pray that we are turning form the one sided half-truth that serving God means you’re going to be rich and that’s that.
We are people who pursue. Human beings are created to pursue. Americans like to feel like they have every right to pursue fulfillment. We are sold this belief every day in many different ways. It’s even in the founding statement of our country, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” When you try to take away our right to pursue pleasure we get angry, feel threatened and prepare for war. Unfortunately the bible makes it very clear to the believer what their effort should be put into pursuing. I Timothy 6:11 says, “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness…” Proverbs 15:9 says, “He (the Lord) loves those who purse righteousness…” Our pursuit should be a place of right standing and holiness before God. Pursuit means we should be laboring and struggling toward it, making it the number one goal and seeking after it with all of our effort and will. That is what pursuit means. In case you might be thinking to yourself, “Can I pursue righteousness and still work toward being someone of financial wealth?” Look at what the bible stays about it. I Timothy 6:9 says “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.” It goes on to say in verse 10, “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” I think the text is very clear. The bible is not saying that God doesn’t want us to be financially prosperous. But I think there is a world of difference between allowing God to prosper us and us prospering ourselves. That is what this is talking about. So many people who should be laboring toward getting freedom over sin and bondage in their lives and pursuing deeper intimacy with God have exchanged this for a mediocre, lukewarm Christianity so that they can spend their real time and efforts pursuing financial security and the acquisition of stuff, yet they still feel like their doing it for God. We need to repent of the false teaching of prosperity doctrine that oversimplifies all God’s promises of prosperity to a “steps to financial success” formula devoid of any real intimacy with God.
So what you’re saying then is God doesn’t want us to prosper? Heavens no! He says in Malachi 3:10 that he wants to pour out so much blessing that we will not be able to contain it. So there’s something here, a connection that needs to be made in our hearts, a difference between pursuing blessing and allowing God t give us blessing. He wants us to pursue righteousness and He wants to pour out blessing. He knows that as long as our pursuit is financial riches then that is our idol, our false God. We will always serve the riches ad never make Him the Lord of our lives. If we pursue righteousness and make that the most important thing, then He knows that we can be trusted with financial wealth and we won’t care if we ever get it or not.
In verse 6 Paul say, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” If we can learn this. I believe this is the most important statement of all of Paul’s writings. In Philippians 4:12 Paul says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation…” This is the real key to success. This is the real key to having absolute contentment in any and every situation. Pursue Christ. Learn to find your contentment in Him and Him alone. The reason that this is the only place you will find contentment is because this is the reason for which you were created. Everything that is created is created with an intended use. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” When we pursue the intended purpose for which we were created then and only then will we find true contentment. Amen.

How to pray this scripture:
Father in the name of Jesus, I pray that I would surrender all my desires to you. I pray that I would learn to find contentment in you and you alone. Lord I pray that you would give me the strength and the resolve to pursue righteousness above all else, to pursue you Lord. I pray that I would forsake the pursuit of material gain or see after riches but labor for riches of eternal value. Thank you Jesus for your love and mercy, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Other Scriptures to Read:
I Timothy 6:11
Proverbs 16:9
Malachi 3:10
Philippians 4:12