Oct 1 2017 1 Timothy 1 - How Christians should Act

Lord, thank You – we come before You – thank You for the musicians who lead us into Your presence to worship in praise. We ask, as we open Your word, teach our hearts that we might better live for You as ambassadors of the kingdom. We have some city ambassadors here in the church – but all of us are Your ambassadors. Thank You for the blessing of the life of Josephine Vaughn – a devout prayer warrior.

Last week we finished a series on Priorities – Last week was on family priorities – I encourage you to go to our website and watch it. Not for what I said – but Henry and Suzanne led the time off about their marriage and the priority of marriage. I encourage you to listen to that.

This week, we are starting Paul’s letter to Timothy. It has been a while since we have done this.

The purpose of Paul’s letter to Timothy is found in 1 Tim. 3

14 Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, 15 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

This is the purpose. As we look at it – through the lens of Paul’s purpose in 3 ways – how we ought to conduct ourselves first – in the church, and towards the world. Our tendency – when we hear the word conduct – is to narrow that word down to moral behavior. Yes, that is part of it – but it is much more than that. There are two kinds of people – one is – those who have guilt issues. When I hear – how to conduct yourself – I focus on the specific areas I have failed in. My focus is on where I’ve failed – and I blow those up as the big things. The other kind of person – those who have judgmental issues. They tend to focus on the specific moral conduct of others. They zero in on the failures of others. Some of us are really messed up and have both going at the same time.

For Paul, this is more than moral code, but of character, decorum, manners – an entire way of life. This is so much more than behavior – he is talking about everything about us – everything we are.

Maybe a good way of looking at it – in church, we have a thing called liturgy. There are liturgical churches and non-liturgical churches – but every church has a liturgy – in that, it is what you do. For us – this is our liturgy: We sing 3 songs, then an offering, usually with a prayer at some point, then a message, and another prayer, and a closing song. That is our liturgy.

Countries and cultures have liturgies. People have liturgies. Years and years ago I was doing campus ministry – and we started an International student ministry at OSU. It grew like crazy – they got to know us and we became really good friends. As we got close, they gained the courage to share how they viewed Americans. It was always enlightening to find their view of Americans. Some things were positive, some were not. We are known throughout the world for being a certain way. As an OSU fan – around the country – people have a perception – especially because we say “THE” Ohio State University. It irritates people so much – so I always make sure to do it! Just like all these things, the church has this view of the church’s code of conduct – and if you talk to people who don’t go to church – and ask – what do you think of when you think of church – or the term – evangelical Christian – and listen to the response. What ought our liturgy to be?

Second way to look at Timothy – how we conduct ourselves in God’s household – to gain an understanding of the nature and structure of the church – how the church ought to work.

Third – 1 Tim. 2:3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all--

We will look at the Mission of God. This is kind of God’s mission statement – that all people would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. People brought back into relationship with God – this is God’s heart – not just something to be put on a plaque – but a mission statement that He demonstrated and lived out fully on the cross. This is His heart – so much so that He suffered dearly for us and for all humans. God loves us so much and desires us to be with Him that He became one of us that He might suffer on the cross to sacrifice Himself that we might live in relationship with Him.

This is what God is like. Giving up what He is to become low that we might be with Him.

Cindy had her foot surgery on Wednesday. We were the first ones there. She wanted to be first and get it over with. Then the next couple came in – the husband was sitting across from me and had an OSU hat on – so what else could I say – are you a Buckeye fan? Yep, my wife and I went there and met there. We got to talking about kids – 3 of our kids went there – they live in Medina – I grew up there, I asked if their kids go to Medina schools – their oldest is only 3. Why are you here at the surgery center? His wife miscarried… - everything was going well – typical checkup – and there was no heartbeat. We were devastated. I told him that I would pray for him. I had a Bible commentary with me, so it may have been obvious I was a pastor. He said – I don’t mean to do this to you, you’re probably not working now – to get free counsel – he started opening up. I’ve been angry with God, he said. When things like this happen – it makes it hard for me to believe, he said – is God in control? We spent the next 15 minutes talking about his view of God. He had heard so many wrong things about God – I tried to give him an understanding that God loves us. And it is okay to be angry in these times –and God comes to us in these times – and He is abundantly available to help us when we need Him the most. We had a good talk. I wanted him to see that God is not who he thought He was in this situation. This is what we do – as ambassadors of God.

Our motivation – why we want to exhibit proper conduct – is the mission of God – God loves people and He wants people to be with Him. Paul’s instructions on conduct are necessary if we wish to win people to a relationship with Christ. The world is watching. If this couple had heard – this stuff happens because God doesn’t like you or you’ve done something wrong- we need to combat that with our lives. Many people’s code of conduct is simply there to have a code of conduct. It lacks purpose. So religions say – DON’T HAVE SEX! Why? Because that is the rule! Why are rules made? Yell it out – to be broken! And that is what people do when there is no meaning behind the code of conduct.

I knew growing up that if you didn’t go to church you were in trouble! Every Monday after I didn’t go to church – I thought I was in trouble! Thus the guilt complex. Paul’s code of conduct is laid out with a superior purpose, it is not just there to be there – and it is superior to all other reasons: that people might come into relationship with God.

Jesus had a code of conduct – and it was demonstrated in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the pure, poor in spirit, do not judge, give generously. This is what it looks like to be a follower of Me. If you want to live in my Kingdom – if you want to be My follower – This is what it looks like. As you read the Sermon on the Mount – is that the way you act? When someone takes your coat, do you give them your shirt? This is what people should say about you! It is not just something we do – but something we become. It would be easier to follow the Ten Commandments – because they are rules. But they are easy to break. Do not judge! He did not say, maybe it would be good to not judge.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done – that is in the Sermon on the Mount – “making what’s up there come down here,” as John Ortberg says. I would say it is making the kingdom of God evident in the real world – so as you work with people – they taste the kingdom of God. They can look and say – wow! – that would be what it would be like… they wouldn’t use these words – they would say – that is attractive behavior.

I’ll give an example of this – NFL – big story – kneeling during the anthem. If Cindy were here, she would be thinking – where is he going?! I had two discussions this week with people my generation - old. I shared my understanding of why do we sing the National Anthem before sporting events. The first person – around my same age – said – I have never heard that before! I thought that was how everyone viewed it! Then I talked to another person, not as old, but close – two days later – and their opinion was more like mine – and they said they talked to their adult children about it – and their kids had never heard it that way. So Cindy looked it up on Google. And everything on Google is true, heh heh. There are SO many reasons why we sing the Anthem according to Google.

Here is how I view it – forget about the NFL – here is what I am going to say – there are very difficult things happening in our country and our responsibility as followers of Christ is to make what is up there – the kingdom – evident down here – in the real world. In Revelation John says that there will be people from every tribe, tongue, race and nation worshiping the Lamb. And our responsibility as Christians is to make THAT happen in the real world.

1 Tim. 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, 2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

So we have these three ways – Conduct, nature of the church, and the mission of God.

Paul is the veteran of the faith and is about to turn it all over to his young protégé. He uses language that goes beyond master and apprentice, but father and son – “my true son in the faith” language.

Most of our relationships in the church are peer relationships – that is good and normal and right – but let me say this – you are qualified and able – and can enjoy this kind of relationship that Paul has. If you are older, it is important to have younger Christians that you are passing on your faith to. You can do that. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar. You don’t have to be a minister or a group ministry leader. If you are a Christian and have been walking with the Lord for a period of time, you are qualified, you are able, you are responsible, I would say, but I don’t want to guilt you into it – to speak into a younger person’s life. I ask all of you to pray about this – ask God how you and I can pass on to those who are younger than us. It might be about children or teens or young adults – younger families – I think we will just stop there – I encourage you to pray – ask Go d- ask Him how and for an opportunity to do that. Young people are longing for experienced people to come alongside of them to help them. There is stuff to put up with – but I remember - I was younger once and yes, there was stuff to put up with with me. And it is healthy for you – so important. There is so much value to each of our lives to be engaged intergenerationally. That may be the technical term.

Since Cindy had her surgery, We have been watching Call the Midwife. We watched 5 seasons in the past weeks and I am so tired of babies being born every three minutes! It is about a late-50s, Post WWII community outside of London that is really poor. What is always amazing – all these people are interconnected, from the oldest to these babies. There is watching out for one another. We live in a world where we separate. And it is not just the family. We will look at the household of God – this term comes up over and over again. And a household in Ephesus, where Timothy was, is wholly unlike what we think about today – we think about a mom and dad and 2.4 children. It is so much more than just the immediate family – full of nonrelatives and all kinds of relatives. It was a community. And that is what the church is – a community of nonrelatives who are a family who are as close as any family.