I Timothy 1 (Continued)

Verses 12-17

This section of 1 Timothy is Paul talking about God’s grace

12

I used to have this idea that you had to go to school to be in ministry

That is so far from the truth

GOD WILL USE ANYONE

As long as you are willing to be used

Ministry also doesn’t have to be a pastor or youth pastor

Crossroads

You don’t even have to be a counselor

You can be that one person who listens to peoples issues and problems in life and sympothize with them

Get real moment here

I watched a video of a guy just the other week ready to commit suicide

He was standing on the edge of the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE ready to jump, when someone showed up… and LISTENED

That is his ministry, he has listened to people and stopped hundreds of people from jumping, just by listening

Don’t be the person who thinks they are “TOO COOL” to listen and care about others

Remember, God is always watching, what would he want you to do?

Paul is saying here that he thanks God that he enabled him to be in ministry

Paul was a rough guy right?

But God saw through the rough and knew that he was going to be a great addition to his ministry

Let this be a lesson in and of itself. No matter how rough we are, if we let God take over, he will use us to further his kingdom

Verse 13

Paul talks here about just how rough he was

Blasphemer

Persecutor

Insolent man

The key here is that he obtained mercy because he did it before he knew Christ 2 Corinthians 5:17

The New King James Version Chapter 5

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

When we get saved, there is supposed to be a change in us. Something should be different. 1 Peter 2:9

The New King James Version Chapter 2

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Paul here shows that he made the change when he came to Christ.

He changed his ways, and gave his all for the Lord. And look how that turned out for him!

Verse 14-15

The grace of our Lord is exceedingly abundant

I want you all to think of the absolute worst thing that you have done

Keep it to yourself

GOD STILL LOVES YOU

If you have asked for His forgiveness, he has forgiven you

Now I want you to flip this around

We are to be like Christ correct?

How do we do with this?

Are we as forgiving as Christ?

Next time your best friend does something to hurt you, remember Christ and his forgiveness for us. That is what we need to strive to be like.

Paul says here in 15 that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

We need to be careful not to get so high and mighty on ourselves that we think, Oh yeah, God is here to save sinners

We had better not forget that we were, and still are, there.

We are still the sinners that God forgives every single day

We are the ones that hurt him every day

DO NOT let yourselves get the holier than thou attitude.

Remember what God saved you from

Verse 16

I had to of read this verse 30 times to understand what Paul is saying here

I believe that Paul is saying Christ showed Paul such a longsuffering love, that even when he was literally murdering Christians, God was longsuffering with Paul because he is not willing that any should perish!

God wants all of us to come to him

Even the worst of the worst (In our eyes)

This verse tells us that God is showing a pattern here that he talks about in 2 Peter 3:9-10

The New King James Version Chapter 3

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Verse 17

This verse is pretty simple right?

Be thankful

Thank God every single day for being so awesome and so forgiving

He just as easily could have said forget these humans and started over right?

He loves us so much that he gave everything for us!

Let’s show our love for him huh?

Verses 18-20

Paul is making the final charge of this chapter here in the last 3 verses

Paul wants Timothy to wage a good warfare, fight against Satan and the powers of darkness well!

Fight so well that you can be proud of it, not regret what you didn’t do, or even worse, what you did do.

Have faith and a clean conscience

Trust God that he will sustain and take care of you

If we don’t and we fall to the wayside, we could end up like Hymenaeus and Alexander.

Who Paul says he delivered them to Satan

I don’t know about you guys, but I have no desire to be delivered to him. NO THANKS

Closing Thoughts

We are all sinners

Do we thank God every day for being so forgiving of us and not holding our sins over our heads

Do we think of others the way God thinks of us

Do we see the best in people, or the worst

Do we forgive and move on, or do we hold grudges

This week:

Lets strive to be more like our Christ how Paul talks about him here

Thank God every day for forgiving us, even though we don’t deserve it

Let’s strive to be more like Christ in our forgiveness to others, even though they may not deserve it