Healthy Churches follow the Intructions
Foundations of a Healthy Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Healthy Churches Follow the Instructions
Main Idea: Prescription Medicine can save lives. Depending on the medication it can also kill you if you do not follow the instructions correctly.
Paul is giving very clear instructions to Timothy on how to get his church healthy and how to avoid getting infected in the future.
The Book of 1 Timothy is all about the importance of Sound Doctrine and Obedience to that Doctrine for a healthy life.
Need: You only see the benefits of Sound Doctrine when we bring your life in submission to it. God has prescribed His Doctrines in Love, with a Pure Heart, Good Conscience. It is of little value to know Doctrine. However when you place your faith in them and follow them as God has prescribed you realize the eternal value of Sound teaching from God’s Word.
Illustration: My neighbor Evan, is a hospital pharmacist. We all walked down to the Friday Food Truck together. He knows a lot about medicine. That knowledge alone does not mean he has all those medicines in his system. He’d have to take hold of the medicine and ingest them to see them work.
Knoweldege of the Bible is of little to no effect unless you take hold of it and trust that It will do what God says it will.
Paul prescribes sound doctrine to Timothy and His church so that they can find eternal healing, joy, hope and assurance. We can have the same opportunity when we choose to obey God’s Word.
1 Timothy 6:11–21 (HCSB)
Instructions For Timothy (11-14)
But you, man of God, run from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Fight the good fight for the faith; take hold of eternal life that you were called to and have made a good confession about in the presence of many witnesses.
In the presence of God, who gives life to all, and of Christ Jesus, who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you
to keep the command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Explanation:
Man of God used of a few OT figures like Moses, Elijah and Elisha All were given God sized tasks which they felt incapable of.
Paul leads with this. Timothy, leading the church is a God sized task which will require faith in God to do His part.
Paul often says No then Yes to things. Here he says no to “these thing.”
he is conceited, understanding nothing, but has a sick interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions,
and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
Run Timothy, Run! Instead, say yes to righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Illustration:
Dual-Purpose bikes.
Be sure your running in the right race.
Explanation:
Fight the Good Fight for the Faith/ Take Hold of Eternal Life.
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
not from works, so that no one can boast.
For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.
Paul is not telling Timothy to manufacture faith but to dwell on what God has established for us to believe in.
Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth.
but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Timothy made a “good confession” of this during his ordination,
2. Paul used Jesus’ trail with Pilate to illustrate the same point. Jesus made a “good confession” about being the Messiah whose kingdom is not of this world.
3. We also must fight the good fight of the faith by confessing God’s plan for your life.
Argumentation:
I don’t know God’s plans for my life.
Uncle Tim: He knows where he’s going.
Faith can still be fought for and exercised in times of uncertainty.
Transition: Our faith is able to be exercised when we trust God’s eternal plans.
Illustration:
COVID Vaccines.
Factors like human error, approval timelines, government over reach led to questions about what was in the vaccines and is it really good for me
Paul knows that he is instructing them to take a pill that is hard to swallow.
[14: “keep the command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.]
1. Actively pursue your own growth and maturity.
2. Defend what you believe in the face of a hostile culture.
3. Dare to be different and set a part from the world.
4. Live with certainty that Jesus is coming again.
My guess is that Paul knew Timothy well enough to know that he would be feeling a little overwhelmed at reading this strong instruction.
Paul almost anticipates Timothy’s questions
How could I possible convince people to turn back to what is right?
What if the city begins to persecute us?
How can I trust that it will be worth it?
Maybe you can relate to this as well.
1. Following God’s ways are not easy.
2. It is hard to obey God’s sound teaching when my heart is set on…
3. Sometimes the appetite for my will to be done is greater than the appetite to obey God.
4. Being a Christian is hard today when society is constantly criticizing and challenging our beliefs.
5. More and more people are coming to church each week who have allowed the woke culture to shape what we believe about the Bible rather than letting the Bible shape our culture.
And we have to ask, Is this three step process: justification, sanctification and glorification known as Christianity, really able to deliver as promised or will I find myself embarrassed for having believed in a magic pill that cannot deliver?
Paul brings Timothy and us to the source of this great faith. He explains what’s in it or what’s behind it.
Can we stand as we close with this last few passages?
[to keep the command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.]
The Source of Our Hope (15-17)
God will bring this about in His own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords,
the only One who has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; no one has seen or can see Him, to Him be honor and eternal might. Amen.
Application:
God is trustworthy because He is able to control all outcomes.
He has full authority over any leader or kingdoms.
He can bring us to Christ because He brought Christ to Himself.
But we fight to guard our faith in the truth of God’s sound teaching which leads to eternal life when we believe.
Continue the Care Until Bottle is Empty (18-19)
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.
Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share,
storing up for themselves a good reserve for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real.
(20-21)
Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding irreverent, empty speech and contradictions from the “knowledge” that falsely bears that name.
By professing it, some people have deviated from the faith. Grace be with all of you.
