1 Timothy 1:2

Why does it talk more about the local church? Because that’s the church that is really part of your life, that is tangible and meaningful and impactful. So the command BEAR WITH ONE ANOTHER – isn’t Be “Bear With”y – Bear w/ Joe

“Christians who want to be independent of the local church are declaring that they are sufficient to themselves”

Mistake 2: Wherever Christians are together, even 2-3, is Church.

The church is something beyond that, the local church is designed to be little embassies of our foreign land (UP)…

Hebrews 10:25 1 Timothy 3:14-15

BOOK LARGELY ABOUT THE LOCAL CHURCH

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1:1-2 (Last week verse 1-I promise I don’t plan to go through this book one verse at a time . . . significant themes)

Spiritual Kinship To Timothy, my true child in the faith (1 Tim 1:2, 1:18, Phil 2:22, 1 Cor 4:15)

Paul is writing this book to a young minister (debate on how old he is), that he considers a spiritual son, about how to…

Paul regularly refers to Timothy as his child in the faith. One of the key reasons the church is important is for these type of relationships that develop here, of spiritual brothers and sisters and also of spiritual fathers and mothers and children.

This church is a very relational church, you can tell by how long people stick around and talk after Sundays and Wednesdays, one of the things that I get told often by visitors is that they are amazed at the cross-generational interaction. That matters to people here, we know the value of spiritual kinship – which IS friendship but it is more than that, it’s the sort of commitment that comes with blood – in this case, blood that is far more valuable..

To be a part of Ohatchee here, to be a member of this church and any church, calls you to more than just coming and singing and listening to a sermon, it calls you to relationships with these siblings and parents and children of yours. It calls you to at times inconvenience yourself in order to build relationships with these people, so that you may encourage and admonish them and so that they may do the same for you. You NEED Christians who are walking with you and leading you spiritually, AND there are Christians here that NEED YOU to walk with …

SN - I’m not saying reorient your life to make time for 1 on 1 meetings every week with people…

“Discipleship” – the church’s call to help each other to grow - Matthew 28:18-19 – Converts – teach obey

Some of the things Paul does as the “Father” to Timothy in this Letter

Teach –

People today are “taught” more information than any other people in history…

Who is going to teach them if it isn’t us?

Encourage –

World-renowned Psychologist Jordan Peterson – says often in tears everytime he says it – it is one of the greatest tragedies how many young men and women are dying (metaphorically and literally) for the lack of an encouraging word

Being told what they need that they don’t have or what they should be that they aren’t more than any generation before them. They need to hear from older men and women about what they ARE and can be

Paul talks to Timothy in the second letter about fanning to flame his giftedness . . . – Encourage!

Legendary Coach John Wooden was asked once how he got his players to play so hard for them, and he famously answered I watch them and when I catch them doing something right, I point it out.

Admonish –

They need to hear that they can do better than they are doing, they need to see that someone who loves them takes their sin seriously and that they should too, they need to be held accountable, AND SO DO YOU.

1 Cor 5:13 – You ARE TO JUDGE those inside the church – FOR THEIR GOOD!

Chiefly shows his great Love for Timothy

Anything you do for a spiritual child will fall on deaf ears if they don’t know you love them. Wayne “They wont care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love . . .

You don’t have to have all the answers …you just have to be willing to love them, and then go find the answers…

Maybe best Summed up in this – We need Examples to Follow

1 Cor 11:1 – Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ…

1 Tim 4:12 – Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”…

It is a profoundly Christian thing to say – Let me show you how to do it.

“Well I could never say imitate me,” WHY NOT? Because you sin and have to repent?? Yeah showing them how to do that won’t be of ANY help to them. I’m not saying walk around after the service and literally say “Follow me, follow me,” but you should be looking for young people that you can guide in that way, and you should be looking for older people to follow. Younger or Older not necessarily in age. Paul still sinned, Timothy wasn’t perfect, Titus made lots of mistakes, and yet they were GOOD examples for other Christians. So too are you. Listening to how to do something is great, being shown how is better.

I remember when my dad taught me how to water ski for the first time when I was 10 or 11 …

Dad wasn’t the perfect skier, but he was better than I was and knew how to do it, and could show me how.

I taught a lesson a few months ago - husbands loving sacrificially and wives submitting, and I said that when it comes to…

We all, especially the younger, need examples to follow in the particulars.

“I know I’m called to submit to my husband, but what about this situation?” – Go talk to Mrs Kay/Rosemary

“I know I’m called to lead my home, but what do I do about this?” – Go talk to James Bowers or Keith Crossley

“I know I’m called to care for my elderly parents, but what about this issue?” – Go talk to Mike and Sheila Dunn

God doesn’t give you the answer to every single question about situations in your life in the Bible, HE GAVE YOU THE CHURCH FOR THAT!

The oldest of us here at Ohatchee should be looking for people to lead, the youngest of us should be looking for people to follow, MOST of us should be constantly looking in both directions. If you aren’t, the church is weaker than it could be.

Titus 2 Ministry – KayLynn and Aubrey

Grace, Mercy and Peace From God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (v2)

If you’ve been here for much time at all, you’ve heard me emphasize that this is how Paul starts…

Highest values of God

We aren’t comfortable with grace/capable of grace and so Paul DRIVES IT AND DRIVES IT AND DRIVES IT

Christianity is not, yeah God gives grace and then if I do my part I’ll be saved. God did 99% grace now I got to do my 1% and I’ll get in. And then you get up to heaven and you hold up your 1% and God takes it like a ticket and lets you through

Rom 4:4-5 Rom 11:6 Gal 5:3-4 – once you add works, even 1% works, it isn’t grace anymore – NO MIXTURE ALLOWED

Here’s your 2 options for judgment day – stand in front of God ENTIRELY ENTIRELY ENTIRELY LEANING ON HIS GRACE or stand in front of God leaning entirely upon your merits.

Grace means you bring nothing to the table – we don’t like that – down deep we want to stand in front of God and be counted worthy for our own efforts – that isn’t an option

Someone takes us out to lunch and we can’t just take the grace, we say well let me get the tip, or I’ll get the next one, or we rationalize it away because they have more money than us anyway. NOT JUST GRACE

We get a gift at Christmas and we give them a gift back at Christmas. They get us a gift at our birthday and we get them a gift for their birthday. And in each case we pray that the gifts were about equal value. How about when your wife gets you a gift and you didn’t get her anything . . . NO! NOT GRACE! We need to BALANCE THE SCALES!

It seems to me that about as close as we can get to grace really is having an infant.

That kid bringing nothing to you but bad things . . . repugnant things. . . heartache and headache, filled diapers, sleepless nights, testing your patience to not shake it at 3 am when you haven’t made it to bed yet. (I’ve never shaken a baby but I have rocked pretty aggressively)

That’s probably the best practical picture of grace that most of us will get in our lifetimes. That little infant bringing NOTHING TO THE TABLE, cant feed himself so we will do it, cant take care of himself so we will do it, cant bathe himself so we will do it, cant keep himself alive so we will do it, OFFERING NOTHING TO US, and yet we will love him and give endlessly.

When it comes to being right with God and at peace with God and knowing God, you are LESS capable than an infant, you are ENTIRELY dependent upon God’s grace. YOU CAN’T DO THE RIGHT THING ENOUGH! You are invited in no other capacity than entirely dependent upon God’s grace. You are not invited to the family as one who earns his way, you are invited as one who is in total need of the grace of the Father. As the prodigal son runs home to his dad and says let me pay you back let me pay you back and the Father will have nothing of it, so too it is with you. If you try to pay it back you will no longer be welcome as you are devaluing what it is the Father has done.

He really did do it all for you. Yes even you. Stop trying to leave the tip.

When you stand before God, and He asks why He should let you in, you have but one hope, the Grace of God that you clung to when you were first saved. The Bible says at that hour every mouth will be shut . . . no more justifying yourself, no more explaining why you really are a good person, your only hope is Christ, that He will stand and say He is mine. And the only way to become his is to lean on Him entirely as savior and bow to him as Lord.

And perhaps most amazing of all, do you know what we will feel as we labor to do all of those things for the infant that cant do them for himself, besides exhaustion, we will feel DELIGHT to Grace that baby!

Just as Mason talked so beautifully about last week, Jesus doesn’t roll his eyes at you, doesn’t shake you though you be a spiritual infant, HE DELIGHTS THAT YOU ARE HIS, YOU BRING HIM GREAT JOY

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