Bible Study - 1 Timothy 1 - 12/7/2021

Theme: The Need For Godliness And Order In The Leader And In The Assembly

Intro: Paul is the grisled veteran of many a gospel war writing to young Timothy, a man Paul had assigned to be a pastor of the church in Ephesus.

The letter is a practical straight forward teaching on how to live, how to lead, what to flee from, and what to follow after.

The love that Paul has for his young son in the faith is apparent.

From the outset, in V2 He calls Timothy “My own son in the faith...”

The direction, then from the apostle Paul, is much easier to receive, because we know it comes from a heart of love!

Wanted: LEADERS!

Not just those telling others what to do, but those modeling right living to the next generation of saints.

Timothy had a believing mother and grandmother, but seems as though his father did not believe. He was in Lystra when Paul first comes through, and the second time Paul passes through, He joins the caravan.

In the Book of Philippians, if you remember this, He said, concerning Timothy, “for I have no one likeminded who will naturally care for your state”. like-minded, isopsuchos is a one Greek word, equal souled, equal souled.

Many times people can be picky when it comes to churches. They have a gourmet spirit that says give me a little of this and a little of that. A good question to ask is this: If everyone in the church were just like you, what kind of church would it be?

In this book, we will see what a man of God should:

Flee from

Follow after

Fight for

There was an experiment that took place almost thirty years ago at the National Institute of Mental Health, funded by your tax dollars if you had a job 30 years ago. The experiment took place in a nine-foot-square cage designed to hold 160 mice. Over a two and a half year time frame the colony of mice grew from eight to 2,200. As the population grew, the researchers, led by Dr. John Calhoun began to observe changes in the mice’s behavior. The summary was this:

Adults formed in cliques of about a dozen mice per group.

The males who normally protected their territory withdrew from leadership and became uncharacteristically passive.

The females became unusually aggressive and forced out the young.

The whole “mouse society” became disrupted. After five years all the mice had died even though there was an abundance of food, water, and resources, and an absence of disease.

While we aren’t mice, there are some similarities in the way that the males in the mouse society and the human society are related. As men there is a tendency to want to “check out”and let the world pass on by.(Adapted from Charles Swindoll,Improving Your Serve.)-George Barna has identified some troubling statistics for the church at large in America:

Women are twice as likely to be involved in discipleship in the church as men are.

They are 57% more likely to attend Sunday School.

They are 56% more likely to hold a leadership position.

They are 54% more likely to participate in a small group.-A godly man is measured by what he fights for! We cannot become disconnected and isolated from the house of God. We have to take the fight to the devil!

***One nail, hung the carcasse of a dead dog on the nail, after a while it became unlivable and the family was forced to sell it to the owner of the nail.

If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it.!!!

Are there any nails hanging over the front door of your life?

When Paul was writing these words to Timothy, he uses a Greek word, PHEUGO (pronounced foogay). We get the English word, fugitive, from this root word. Literally meaning to seek safety by flight. You are to flee from something because it is abhorrent to your soul. Extra-biblical literature often used this word in relation to fleeing from a snake or a dragon.-A man of God is measured by what he flees from. In some other places Paul told us that we are to flee from some things

1 Corinthians 6:18—Flee from fornication.

1 Corinthians 10:14—Flee from Idolatry.

1 Timothy 6:11—Flee from covetousness and the love of money.

2 Timothy 2:22—Flee from youthful lusts

The message of the church

The members of the church

The ministers of the church

The ministry of the church