You must possess an eternal perspective.

Dr. Tony Evans says a lifestyle reflecting the character of God yields everlasting rewards.

You and I must learn to think and live in light of the world to come, not only in the life of the world we live.

This is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative.

Some activities in life are of fleeting significance, while other pursuits can return benefits that go on and on.

Today, Dr Evans explains why practicing godliness falls into the latter perpetual rewards category.

Let's join him in 1st Timothy chapter 6 as he begins.

Godliness is a lifestyle that is consistent, both desirous and functionally reflecting the character of God.

But there's a problem. It's a big problem.

Because there is one thing above all other things that interrupts our desire and pursuit of godliness, one thing rains above all.

And Paul tells Timothy, both for himself and both for the congregation at Ephesus, to make this point

clear. Notice what he says, he says at the end of verse five, Godliness is a means of great gain. The word gain means

profit. A profit is the difference between your income and your expenses. It's that gap that gives us our profit margin. Not only a good profit, he says it's a great profit. So anybody who's interested in making a prophet,

and I'm sure everybody here is.

He says then you ought to be interested in godliness

because with it comes a zinger, a high profit margin, great gain.

But he says the thing that gets in the way

is when you use Godliness as a means of gain, the verse five, in the verse five.

He says, here it is, verse number six, but Godliness actually is a means of great gain, that's a

high profit margin, when accompanied by contentment.

If you want your life to be a high profit margin

and not a wasted limited profit margin,

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