Vessels of Honor
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House Rules
House Rules
WE live to know Him and Make Him known
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15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Foundation of truth
the Pillars of society
Uphold truth above all else
1st and 2nd Timothy Paul is writing to to a young Pastor and telling Him the do’s and don’ts of the ministry
He’s telling a young Pastor what his responsibilities are
What elders and bishops should look like
How they should conduct themselves
Really giving Timothy his list of rules for the church to be successful
Have you ever played a game that when you play with certain people they have different rules?
Poker
Agreed upon standards in the game
But in some places for different games they have what we would call
House Rules-
House Rules Series
I want to take the next few months and talk about our Core values as a Church
Our Leadership Standards
Walk you through our beliefs
There are many churches and they all have the same commission
But how we accomplish that as this church might look different
So I want you to be informed just what standards we value here
I want to ask you a couple questions this morning
What are the standards or Core values of your family?
If your single what are the core values of you life?
This is a two fold sermon for this year
I want you to not only know the Heart of this church
I want you to come up with your own culture for your family
What are you core values for your family?
I’m going to give you homework for this year
Come up with core values for your family and your own life
Culture may not seem important in your household but either you define it or it defines you
Creating Culture:
• Creating culture is so important in the church, your personal relationship with God, your family, your ministry, or business
Culture essentially comes down to your standards
What do you believe in
What do you expect
What do you tolerate
What do you celebrate
“You Don't Rise to the Occasion; You Default to Your Level of Training” -unknown
Married People
Single people
You’re core values need to be talked about early and often
How we implement our Culture here
Culture has the same language
You might be able to tell that someone isn’t from America by the way they dress
But when they open their mouth and you hear them speak
It places them pretty much right off the bat
5 The Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived. And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 6 then they would say to him, “Then say, ‘Shibboleth’!” And he would say, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.
Communication is important:
Language is the most important way you implement Culture
6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
• Tower of Babel
• He confused their language and the worked stopped.
• God Himself communicates that when we are “one people” and we have “one language” then we are unstoppable.
If your people are confused or unproductive check your language and your culture
What are people saying
My kids talking and I’m not really paying attention
Then I hear a word that is not in our culture
Stupid or idiot
The word jostles my attention because it’s foreign to our culture
Then the correction comes in
Again it’s what you tolerate and what you celebrate
Once Culture is built it easier to Identify who gets it and who doesn’t
• Also easy to see where corrections need to be made
• Attitude adjustments
When you establish what you value as important
There’s no longer ambiguity of what your singing up for
I didn’t know is no longer and excuse
Miscommunications can be costly:
ON June 25th 1876
Colonel Georg Custer lead men of the Us armies 7th Calvary unit into a battle they thought they were prepared for
Bad intelligence and miscommunications lead Custer to believe that Sitting bull’s fighting force was 800 men
They also believed they had limited access to modern weapons
To Custer’s surprise some 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors took part in the battle.
Many of them were armed with superior repeating rifles, and all of them were quick to defend their families.
268 men including Custer lost His life
“Custer’s Last Stand”—but in truth, Custer and his men never stood a fighting chance.
When bad information and communication breakdowns occur in the home, the church the workplace , unnecessary loss can take place
Have you ever in your head had a meeting with a leader confronting them on a rebellious issue when it was simply a miss communication
Maybe with your spouse
If you would’ve communicated or explained yourself better
YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!
They don’t do the things I want
Have you communicated it properly
Have you showed them how you want it done?
Have you told them how you want it said?
Jesus purpose as a leader was to show the disciples how to see things differently
How to react and think
How to speak!
WE want to make the vision and language as clear as possible!
• Void of this clarity of vision and language, your church, business or family will be chasing multiple targets
How many times have you done this in your life?
• Your leaders will not have clarity on how to lead themselves
• Or Who they should look when empowering the next level of leaders.
• Without a culture you have no standard to hold yourself accountable to:
Here is an example of correction to culture Paul uses:
14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.
Ephesus-
was a melting pot of trades and people due to shipping routes
It had all sorts of backgrounds and people
Paul realizes this and sees the importance of creating a culture within the church of Ephesus
To a young Pastor Timothy trying to keep order and culture within the church was a daunting task
A lot of the Greek philosophies and culture elements were bleeding into the church
Don’t strive about words
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God
A Worker!
A Person of the Word
Shun profane things
Live a life of godliness and holiness
Here’s people I have identified that aren’t about our core values
One of Paul’s BIG Core values was Jesus’s crucifixion death and resurrection from the dead
Hymenaeus and Philetus
1. belief that circling at this time in history about the resurrection occured at baptism and not after death, basically saying that there is no afterlife as the Sadducees believed
That resurrection was here and now only
2. Another belief was that the resurrection to the greeks was your spirit lived on through your children and you
These guys were basically telling people what they wanted to hear according to their culture and their beliefs
Rather than preaching the truth of the Gospel
So Paul is straightening them out according to the Core Values he’s creating
Approved Workers:
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
Our core values are going to give you better clarity on what being vessels of honor, Sanctified, useful for the Master, Prepared
The vessels of gold and silver that are honorable are comparable to sincere believers who glorify the Lord.
The vessels of earth and wood that bring dishonor are unbelievers who masquerade as Christians.
He was saying there are both of these in the church just as every house has these different types of vessels.
Do you want to be a vessel of Honor or Diss-honor?
Vessels of Honor are purified by fire
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
One of the Core values we should all have is That Jesus is Lord of our lives
Where is your spiritual life at this morning?
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Sinners Prayer:
Father God, I give you my life
I give you my heart, I give you my all
I repent today for my past
I thank you my sins are forgiven
I believe in Jesus and that he died on the cross and rose again
I make you the Lord and Savior of my life
I love you God
In Jesus name amen
