The Grind

Good morning church! It’s so good to see you today. If you are new here, we are pumped to have you! We actually have a gift that we would like to give you. It’s waiting on you at Next Steps. Just grab that card and the pen from the back of the seat in front of you, fill it out, and drop it by Next Steps in the lobby and they will hook you up with a tshirt and some info about our church. We pray that you feel welcome today in our family!

TO those that call East home, those cards are also useful to let us know about decisions and prayer requests you have, so y’all can fill those out and drop them at next steps too!

Well, we are kicking off a new series this morning at all three campuses of Lindsay Lane called RHYTHMS: Spiritual Disciplines in Every Day Life.

(TITLE GRAPHIC)

The last few weeks we have been looking at the marks of a believer, what does it look like to BE a Disciple. This month, we are really looking at what does it look like to GROW as a Disciple. We will study biblical, tried and true RHYTHMS or HABITS that will cause consistent growth in your walk with God.

STORY about Habits

In the same way, we need habits in our spiritual life! We need things that are built into our day. Some of them will be chiseled out, others will be sprinkled throughout, but we need these things!

Today, we are simply setting up this idea by looking at 1 Timothy 4: 6-10. If you have a Bible, go on and turn there. Or use a Bible app to follow along.

Let’s read this, I’ll pray, and then we will focus on three keys to spiritual growth found here.

1 Timothy 4:6–10 CSB

If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed. But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness. For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

PRAY

A little backstory on this book...

1 Timothy was written by......... You might think Timothy, because usually if it’s a person’s name, they wrote the book, but this was actually a letter written by Paul. Paul wrote all the letters in our Bible from Romans to Philemon.

So if Timothy didn’t write the letter, I bet you can guess who Paul wrote the letter to...... TIMOTHY! That’s right!

Timothy was a young guy that Paul had met on one of his church planting journeys and he took him under his wing and discipled him. Timothy, as a young man, got to come alongside Paul as he traveled the known world teaching and preaching about Jesus and helping to establish churches! How cool would that be!?

In the book of Acts, we see that Paul would often times send his disciples ahead of him or sometimes leave them behind. And at the beginning of 1 Timothy, we see the story a little.

1 Timothy 1:1–3 CSB

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine

We don’t see this move in the book of Acts, but the book is not to be a play by play of every move Paul made. And as we look back at church history and the traditions that were held, we find that Timothy is believed to have gotten to Ephesus around 64 AD and stayed there to pastor the church as one of their elders.

So, Paul is writing, not to some young whippersnapper who has little experience. He is speaking to a young man who is pastoring a pretty significant group of believers in a pretty tough city to do ministry!

And Paul gives Timothy a ton of advice here about pastoring and leading people. But there are some principles he gives that I believe are for all of us, not just pastors and teachers. In chapter four, in particular, he gives three keys to spiritual growth...

1. Spiritual Growth is about Learning.

Look with me again at verse six...

1 Timothy 4:6 (CSB)

If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed.

Here Paul is telling Timothy of the importance of teaching God’s Word to the church! This is the task of Timothy as an elder in Ephesus! He is to take all the things Paul has been writing to him and teach those corrections to the church!

And when the word of God is taught, something great happens. The CSB calls it a “nourishment.” Which is a good way to think of this, right? How many times have you sat under the teaching of God’s Word and been nourished? Strengthened, encouraged, built up!?

But it’s not the most direct translation of this word. The word that the CSB translates “nourished,” literally means “to be trained in.”

The ESV, another really good translation, puts it this way...

1 Timothy 4:6 ESV

If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.

The reason I like that word choice better is that it puts some responsibility on us! I view nourishment as something someone does for me. It’s a passive action for me. However, TRAINING is very active!

Just because you sit under the teaching of God’s Word, doesn’t mean training occurs right? You don’t grow spiritually by HEARING God’s Word, you grow spiritually when you LEARN God’s Word. Learning is Training!

If you want to grow as a believer, get into God’s word personally, sit under the teaching of God’s Word AND LEARN!

We have made decisions here at East to help you do just that! TO simplify this process.

My whole life, I’ve been in churches that have a Sunday School class, then a morning worship service, then at 5 PM a discipleship Training class then an evening worship service. Then you come back on Wednesday for another bible study.

It’s my conviction that that is not as effective as we think it is. You wind up having 5 different messages swirling in your head all week. THe chances that you will internalize all that, is a longshot. Instead, here at East, we want to put MORE EMPHASIS on fewer things.

We have a Bible-packed service on Sundays designed to get you thinking about God’s Word. Each week I try to not just tell you what God’s Word says but also to teach in such a way that you learn how to read the Bible for yourself as well! That’s all intentional!

Then we do groups on Wednesdays. This is an opportunity for you to study God’s Word with other people. This is a unique learning environment that is foundational to your spiritual growth. YOU NEED A GROUP! Come out Wednesday night. Fresh start. New study.

So, we go from 5 Bible Studies per week down to 2.

But we are actually testing something right now… We have gone from 2 to 1. Our groups will be taking the sermon from Sunday and going deeper, making application, chasing rabbit trails and several other things. As we say, what’s better than learning a little bit from 2 Bible passages each week? Learning A LOT from 1 Bible passage each week!

This is a decision we have made to help you LEARN. Because sitting in on Bible Studies will not lead to growth. Learning from the Bible will lead to spiritual growth! AMEN?

GET IN A GROUP!

Studying the Bible incorrectly...

False Teaching

Historical/Novel

Idea: The spiritual life is informed by the facts of God’s Word. While this is not solely an intellectual exercise, the truth of scripture provide the framework through which we pursue Christ. If we are not diligent to learn the truth, then the rest of our effort could be in vain.

But Paul mentions another type of training here. He says...

2. Spiritual Growth is about Living

1 Timothy 4:7–8 CSB

But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness. For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Just as we must focus our attention on learning if we are to grow, we must also be intentional about LIVING. As our understanding of God’s Word increases, the natural outflow of that is that we begin to apply what we are reading to our lives.

A Paul drives this home to by Timothy here by a statement I love! “The training of the body has limited benefit.” Amen, Paul! Stop working out, that’s what Paul says!

Just kidding. That’s not what Paul says. Working out, taking care of ourselves is very important. But Paul is playing a comparison game here, right? His point is not that exercise isn’t important. It’s that living a godly life is SO much more important!

1 Timothy 4:8 CSB

For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Being healthy has a “limited” benefit, but training in godliness has an UNLIMITED BENEFIT! That’s Paul’s point.

How sad is it that Christians today spend so much time trying to extend their lives by getting fit, eating healthy, tracking points or calories, and running, while spending SO LITTLE TIME training themselves for godliness as Paul reminds Timothy here!?

I think Paul would speak into the lives of us and say, God’s will for your life is that you look like Jesus, not a fitness trainer. God’s will is for you to be trained in godliness. to grow day after day SPIRITUALLY. That’s got to become primary in our hearts! Take care of yourself. Go to the gym. But that must be secondary! Like not a close second!

But we need to think of training in godliness in the same we do about working out. In verse 7, the word TRAIN is the word gymnazo. Where we get our word gymnasium: the place we sweat to get better, right.

We know that it takes hard work and determination to be strengthened physically, but for some reason we think we should fall butt backwards into spiritual growth! Myself included! Why is that? Why are we so dumb!?

Maturity in Christ will require that we sweat a little. If we are to grow in Christ, it won’t happen over night, and won’t happen just cause you listen to your redneck preacher preach a message. It takes learning. And it takes LIVING!

That’s what this series this month is going to be about! Rhythms! How can we live our lives in such a way that we are consistently growing in Christ!?

But that’s not all...

Not just Learning and Living, but...

3. Spiritual Growth is about Looking

1 Timothy 4:9–10 CSB

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Training won’t come easy. No training does.

I peaked out in my sports career in high school. I have never played college ball. But I played for a coaching staff that was serious about training. Our Defensive coordinator was in charge of the weightroom. He was a marine who had just got back from a voluntary stent in Afghanistan after 9/11. So, he was a pretty intense dude. He worked us so hard in the weightroom. And then we got to the football field and our bodies were put through drills and running. I got home every night, unable to lift my arms or barely walk.

Every spring, we would have new guys come out for the team. Some would make and others wouldn’t. They didn’t get cut, they simply quit because they couldn’t handle the training.

There were times where I was shocked at who didn’t make it. They seemed in better shape than me. Tougher and meaner than me. But it wasn’t always about the physical What I know now is that looking back on those days, the hardest part of the training was the mental game. If your mind couldn’t handle the pressure, it didn’t matter how in shape you were.

And the key to a strong mental capacity is having a clear purpose. If you could put a WHY on the painful drills, on all the bruises, the late nights of practice, the yelling from the coaches, if you could see the purpose, you could always get through it. Your body can handle much more than you realize!

I believe this is what Paul is giving us here! Look back at the verse again...

1 Timothy 4:10 CSB

For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Why do we labor and strive? Why do we train? Why do we learn consistently from God’s word? Why do we strive to live godly lives?

Take note of that next word, BECAUSE!!!! When you are reading and you see this word make sure than you know what that word is pointing to!

Here, Paul says the reason we train for spiritual growth is BECAUSE our hope is in the living God, the savior of all people, especially those who believe!

Church we have to also look to Christ! There will be times in your life when spiritual growth will seem harder than others! During times of grief, distraction, pain, loss, health issues, family probs, etc. etc. In those times, it will be much easier to just come to church and not learn or not come at all. And it will be much easier to lower the bar for the way you interact with others.

During these times, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus! If we do, we can still grow even though life is hard and the distractions are many! As Pastor Alan from our North Campus wrote when we were talking about this series,

“The truth that informs our head and conforms our hands must first transform our hearts.” - Pastor Alan, North Campus

Keeping your eyes fixed on what Christ has accomplished for us is essential to your spiritual growth! The moment you and I take our eyes off of that, we either become drones who just cruise through life with no spiritual direction and no sense of growth at all. Or, arguably even worse, we strive to grow for the wrong reasons!

If you look at the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, they were a Jewish group of leaders who KNEW THE BIBLE! The Old Testament would have been second hand to them! They prayed multiple times per day. They studied the Scriptures. They fasted. If you were keeping a score sheet of spiritual disciplines, they would score an A. But Jesus called them snakes and white-washed tombs. Why?

They were striving for growth as the end. Checking their prayer box each day was the goal not opening up their hearts to the God who promised to hear their prayers. Knowing the Bible was their goal not knowing the God OF the Bible and the Savior he had sent into the world who was right before them! DO YOU SEE THIS CHURCH!?

May we not be guilty of growing for growing’s sake! So others will think we are something when we are not! The only healthy was to grow is to Learn from God’s Word as you read it for yourself and sit under the teaching of it, striving to live a godly life that resembles closely that of Christ, and to look to Jesus the whole time, doing all this not for ourselves but BECAUSE of what Christ has done for us!

Today, I don’t always know the many different ways God could use a sermon I preach. But I know that God will! If you need to lift up prayers to the Lord today of repentance because of your lack of learning, living, or looking, you can do so right where you are or even come before your church family to pray at this altar. Only difference between the two ways is that if you come forward, you will have your church’s prayers being lifted up for you as well. You can also bring any other need of your own or for someone else to this altar and know that others are praying with you!

And if you have never yet placed your faith in Jesus and begun to live for him, we want to help you with that too! There can be no growth until you are (what the Bible calls) born again! You need birth, before you can grow. Today we would love to show you how you can trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrected power to save you today too! You can come talk to me about that, or slide back to the back door where we have our decision counselors ready to go.

However God lays on your heart to respond, will you at least consider it with me? If you want to just sing your heart out in worship to God, that’s good too!

I am gonna pray, after I pray, you can stand with us and respond however you need to.