1st Timothy 1 | Guard & Guide: Steadfast Faith

we're going to start a new series today, going through first and second Timothy.

But before we get into that, let me just add my,

Happy Mother's Day sentiment,

to you moms and grandmas.

And while we celebrate

this day and celebrate moms and grandmas,

we also I want to pastor us through this moment

because for some, it's a, it's a very fun

and joyous and and affirming day,

and you get to be with your kids and, and kids good to be with their moms.

And, but that's not true for everybody.

And, I want us to steward this time.

Well, and steward each other well and our relationships

and for some, Mother's Day

is another reminder of what is missing.

And so I would like to just pray over us,

in Thanksgiving

for the love and the faithfulness and the sacrifice that we've seen in moms

and and grandma's, but to also acknowledge

that there are some families going through this day without mom

and without grandma.

And there are some women

going through this day without kids

who have one who've never known that experience

or who have known it

and now are going through this day

in absence of it.

And so I want to steward this time with each other.

Well,

thank God, and ask for his continued presence

and feeling that both in celebration and in not.

So let's pray.

Father, we do thank you,

for the many examples that you've given us in our world

and in our life of reflections, of your love, of your steadfastness,

of your faithfulness, of your acceptance of your presence.

Today, we remember that in the knowledge that in the context of moms

and grandmas who have

constantly love and and been faithful and prayed,

and I thank you for the picture of you that that gives us.

And father, also pray over us.

For those of us who are experience

experiencing this time.

When what we feel is absence.

And I thank you for the reminder that even in this times

that we feel absence, we're reminded of your presence.

And so by the authority of your name, Jesus

and Holy Spirit, because of who you are.

Draw close to us in this moment, both in celebration,

and in absence.

And in loss.

Draw close to us.

Remind us of your presence.

Remind us of your goodness.

Draw our hearts and minds heavenward.

And not just attached to the things and relationships of this earth.

Draw our minds and hearts heavenward.

Remind us of you and I pray.

An extra measure of your grace and of your peace

and of your comfort over us, your people.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

I love you.

Happy Mother's Day.

First Timothy.

We're going to study in the next ten weeks together.

First and second Timothy.

These are important letters.

There, there.

There are two letters that Paul wrote to a man named Timothy.

We refer to them as first Timothy and second Timothy.

Not real creative.

But very plain is what they are.

They're letters written to a young man from an old man.

And what we're going to do is look through this in all the scripture.

We're going to go through.

I want you to bring a Bible

or look on your smartphone or your little device.

Some of you, this is a great,

excuse for you to look at your phone, because a lot of

you were looking at your phones when I had the verses up there.

Anyway.

And so now

you look like you're participating with us while you're on your phone.

It'll make me feel better.

As I look at heads down.

But just just follow along.

If you don't have either of those, look on your neighbor.

Get close to somebody.

Look on theirs.

But there's there's a lot of things in first and second Timothy

that are going to be affirming and challenging as we go through this.

But let me say right up front, the overarching kind of umbrella

over these two letters that we'll look at over the next,

I think about ten weeks or so, is this idea

that what a Jesus community believes

will directly shape how that community lives.

We have to understand this.

What a Jesus community believes will directly shape how that community lives.

This is true for every one of us.

What one believes will determine how one lives,

what we're talking about, what we

believe is called doctrine.

Who doctrine is that thing,

that set of beliefs, that set of values that determine how we live.

And every person is driven by doctrine, whether you can read,

whether you verbalize it like that or not, whether you acknowledge that or not.

Every one of us is driven by doctrine,

what we believe and what we believe

directly shapes how we live.

And for those who claim Jesus, our doctrine,

what we believe should be driven

by clear Scripture.

If if one doesn't claim to be an apprentice of Jesus

or doesn't ground themselves in Scripture,

their doctrine is just going to be made up of whatever they happen

to kind of glean from around them and, and kind of put together themselves.

So, so we need to understand that as we look through this, our doctrine

is going to be driven by what we believe God's word.

Okay.

Let me just pause for a minute.

We good. John.

All right, man, I appreciate you, buddy.

You have got skills that surpass anything I could do.

All right.

It's good to see you this morning, man.

So our doctrine is driven by scripture.

Okay.

And here's what we have to understand about Scripture

is that,

is that we rest under the text.

We don't stand over it.

Okay.

With this.

This drives this determines our doctrine.

What we believe determines how we shapes how we live.

And we stand.

We rest under the Scripture.

We don't stand over it.

Okay.

You follow.

We got we got it.

We got to get this right about about this.

And the reason why that's so important,

to stand to rest under this.

Rather than just try to stand over it,

is because confusion in the culture should not create confusion in the church.

Well, okay.

Confusion of the culture should not create confusion in the church.

And the only way the church doesn't get confused

is to rest under clear doctrine.

Okay.

Any time we try to stand over this,

it gets confusing because the culture drives

what we think and how we live it.

So this is really important.

Repeat after me.

Doctrine is important.

These two letters.

First and second Timothy.

Paul's focus on this is that Timothy understand

and teach clear doctrine,

because he's it's going to drive the people that he's leading.

Now, the apostle Paul that we just we just got done

looking through the whole book of Romans written by the apostle Paul.

He's at the end of his life now when he writes this letter to Timothy,

he's going to write two letters to Timothy and one letter to a guy named Titus.

Right at the end of his life is going to be beheaded by,

the Roman emperor Nero.

And right before he's beheaded, he pins these letters because he's

setting people up to continue the ministry that he's had in leading churches.

Paul met Timothy's

mom and grandma in a place called Lystra.

During his first missionary journey.

Paul took three missionary journeys, and during the first one

he was in this place called Lystra, and he met Tim's mom and grandma

later during his second missionary journey.

Paul met this, this,

this, this guy named Timothy.

And and and he saw in Timothy

the fact that God was calling Timothy into the ministry

like God was doing a work in his life.

And because he knew his mom and grandma, he got to know this young man, Timothy,

and eventually invited Timothy to travel with him

in his missionary work.

And so Timothy at this point is probably in

his is is mid 20s or so.

Paul is in his later 50s.

And so you have this old man writing to this young man

and setting this young man up to lead.

And his

his message to Timothy is going to be you remain faithful.

You just you just stay.

He's going to give him some advice about that.

Timothy will begin to train under Paul,

and Timothy wants to emulate Paul,

and Paul knowing he's he's going to be a

he is arrested and he knows he's headed towards death.

And he sets Timothy up to be the leader of the church in Ephesus.

So that's kind of the background of all this.

Okay.

So this is an old man's words to a young man setting them up for leadership.

And it's the perfect chapter to go through on Mother's Day.

I'll get there in a minute. Follow with me.

Just just trust me, okay?

So so let let let's let's open let's look at this.

I'm just going to go slowly through this.

Chapter one, verse one

Paul,

an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God

our Savior and of Christ Jesus, our hope.

Let me just unpack verse one.

There's a lot going on here.

Paul's introducing himself and he's writing this letter to Timothy.

So Timothy will have like credentials as he leads.

Well, in terms of like, look, I'm not coming up with this on my own.

I'm not making this stuff up.

This comes from the apostle Paul that we all know is called of God has authority.

This is from him.

Paul says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the command of God.

When Paul uses that word apostle, it's used in this sense

and in bassador on special assignment from the highest of authorities.

That's what he's saying.

He said, I am on special assignment as the ambassador

of the highest of authorities, and I am an apostle.

He says by the command of God.

In every other letter, Paul writes

about his own apostleship and ambassador of God.

He says, I'm an apostle by the will of God.

Here it's different.

Here he says, not by the will of God.

Now I'm by the command of God. And here's why.

Most of us would

say, yeah, I know what God's will is.

He wants me to dot, dot, dot.

Right.

We know we want.

Right? Right.

There's a difference between saying,

this is what God wants and this is what he commands.

Because if all I do is think God wants this.

Yeah, but I don't really want that.

Somebody mounting.

But if I stand there with the knowledge God doesn't just want this.

God has commanded this.

Now, if I don't

now, I'm just outright

obstinate, disobedient,

arrogant, and full of pride.

There's a difference, right? Yes.

And so Paul is like, look, God doesn't just want me to do this.

This is his command of me.

And I dare not say no to God's command.

Some of us in this place need to make the transition in our life

from the want of God

to the command of God.

Do you understand?

By the command of God

our Savior and Christ Jesus, our hope.

Paul is so.

He's so intelligent, but he's so sneaky and crafty, too.

They're one of the reasons he writes by the command of God, our Savior and Christ.

I think he's he kind of writing this a little bit,

like the pen presses down a little bit our savior.

Here's why.

Because Caesar Nero commanded that everybody in the nation

would call him Caesar.

Nero the Savior.

And so Paul's like, yeah, take this Nero.

He knows he's going to be bad.

He knows he going to be killed by Nero.

And he is still as unwavering and bold.

It's like I me for a better country.

Heaven. Not this. You're not the savior.

There's one. His name is Jesus.

I just love that about Paul

of Christ Jesus.

Our hope.

Look at verse two to Timothy, my two child in the faith,

grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is why this is the perfect chapter to talk about on Mother's Day,

because Paul says to Timothy

that packs a lot of information.

Timothy

and Paul's second letter to Timothy.

We get an understanding of who this Timothy is

and and his heritage.

And in second Timothy one five it says, I am reminded of your sincere faith

and faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois.

And your mother Eunice.

And now I am sure, dwells in you as well.

This guy Timothy

was the one who would apprentice under Paul,

who would take up Paul's mantle of leadership.

One of the first leaders of the church in the first century.

A man of faith, a man of leadership, a strong,

a man who started out timid, who became an oak tree.

And he

became that because of the faith and the prayers

and the faithfulness of his mother and his grandmother.

Notice who's not listed.

His dad.

Timothy's parents. Mom and dad.

Mom was a Jew.

A woman of the faith.

His father was a Greek, so his home was of mixed

race and mixed faith.

And it was his mother.

Her faithfulness, her prayers,

her witness, her testimony,

her trust in God

and his grandmother's faith that set this foundation for him,

that put him in a position to respond to God's call on his life

and respond to Paul's invitation to follow him in ministry.

What incredible woman women Timothy had raising him.

Yeah.

Listen,

moms,

grandmas.

There is so much power in your prayers

and your trust in God

and your surrender to your Savior,

in your faithfulness in your witness.

There's so much power in your life,

in those that are watching you and those that are coming up

after you, in your kids and grandkids.

Your faithfulness is vitally

and crucially important.

I know you know that.

I don't know if you feel that

sometimes

parenting in general, especially moms,

it gets exhausting, doesn't it?

Doesn't it?

So it's so interesting the difference in moms and dads.

Moms raise their children to nurture

and to guide and to protect.

That's a mom's heart.

It's a nurturing heart.

A dad raises his kids to conquer.

Right.

And so when the time comes

for the children to leave,

if they leave, well, the dad's like, well, yeah, go get it.

The moms like.

But now I

know I'm losing.

Right.

Well, there's a sense of of pride.

There's also a great sense of loss.

And so so so moms,

your prayers, your faithfulness,

your commitment, your witness are so powerful, so profound.

Don't back off.

Don't slow down.

This man Timothy.

This is what honestly, every Christian

mom and grandma desires for their kids.

Like you're following the Lord.

You're loving the Lord.

You're being faithful, right?

It was because of her prayers

and her faithfulness

and her steadfastness.

My wife is like Lois and Eunice.

When I got married,

I didn't want to marry a capacitor.

I wanted to marry a godly woman

whose primary ministry would be Joe and Caleb and Wyatt,

and whose primary ministry was our kids in our home.

And the

reason our sons are walking with the Lord.

Aside from the grace and mercy of God.

But the reason our three sons are walking with the Lord

is because of Shelby's ministry in our home.

Moms press in

and keep pressing in,

though others may never hear your prayers,

and others may never see your faithfulness behind the doors of your home.

God does, and he is faithful.

Do you understand?

And because of these two women,

this young man God raised up

in Hebrews, it's just a beautiful, beautiful picture

of what was going on behind the scenes

that created this young man and who he was.

And Paul says, Timothy

may grace, mercy and peace from God our father be yours.

Whenever Paul writes to churches, he starts the same way.

Grace and peace be upon you.

When he writes to Timothy and Titus, first Timothy second to ministries,

he adds an element there he has to grace and peace.

What mercy is like. Look.

People

need not just not grace and peace.

People. Individuals need what

we need a lot of mercy.

May the mercy of God be on you.

Right.

And so he includes that in Timothy and in Titus.

And so, so he kind of set the stage for Timothy

to remember who you are, remember your heritage.

Remember your charge.

And now, he said, now he gets into it.

And there are six things that Paul tells Timothy about.

Remaining is huge for for Timothy in this in verse three,

as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus.

So so the idea of remaining is huge for Timothy.

Timothy, when he started, was pretty timid, had a lot of doubt.

He was a little bit sickly and and so Timothy was fine

as long as he was under the umbrella of Paul, because Paul was the strong one.

Timothy was wired a little bit different.

Timothy was a little bit like, I don't know if I got what it takes.

I felt that way.

Like, I don't know if I'm really like what you've asked me to do, right?

And so Paul is going to press in and say, look, Timothy, here's to go.

Just remain. Just stay.

God hasn't called you to anywhere but here.

Just.

And so we're going to see six times in this first chapter

where Paul's pressing and saying, remain, remain and reign.

Remain because you got a job to do that

God has equipped you for, though you may feel inadequate.

God has equipped you. Here's the deal.

Whatever God has called you to, he's equipped you for.

Mom's here. That.

Here that.

We're God guides.

God provides.

So let me just say this.

I feel like I gotta say this.

Even if you are a mom by surprise.

It was an accident, and God wasn't surprised.

So wherever God has guided you, he's also equipped you.

Just.

Just press into this

that Timothy says.

Or Paul says to Timothy, as I urge you, when I was going to Macedonia

to remain in Ephesus, so that you may charge certain persons

not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths.

And in this genealogies what promote speculations rather than the stewardship

from God, that is, by faith.

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying one reason you have to remain

is is because hard places need hard truth.

Ephesus was a hard place.

Ephesus was was a place where in Ephesus,

in the mountains above the city was the temple of Diana.

And at the temple of Diana they had a thousand temple prostitutes.

Diana was this, this, this goddess of of sensuality and fertility.

And these prostitutes from the temple of Diana

in the evening would come down in the city of Ephesus

and propositioned the men.

They were mixing sex and spirituality

and and they convinced the culture that if the men had sexual relations

with the prostitutes, the goddess Diana would bless them

fertility and increase and abundance and all that stuff.

So it was a really it was a spiritual.

It was a really dark place.

But also what was going on in this place.

At the base of the temple of Diana, the women in the church.

I got say this in a way that I don't get myself in trouble, and it's hard for me.

These next couple weeks are going to be tough.

So the like, don't think of the temple prostitutes like pole dancers.

They didn't look like that.

Not that any of us would know what a pole dancer looks like,

but I'm just saying, maybe we've seen a movie just like they did.

They were just ornately.

They were just dressed ornately,

uncovered heads and faces and stuff.

And so the women of the church,

dressed ornately, also.

And so it's hard to tell the difference between culturally

and the women of the church and the women of the culture.

They just look like the women out in the world.

Not only

that, the men of the church were a bunch of weak

kneed, limp wristed, passive men that just kind of sit back

and let the women do whatever they wanted to do, like whatever.

Just how familiar

to any culture.

So Tim's in a tough spot.

And and and so there was internal pressure.

There was external pressure that he just wanted to leave.

It was.

It was too tough.

He's a young man. He's in a tough spot.

Did you know that currently

this is regarding pastors?

65% of pastors feel as though they live

in complete isolation.

It's tough.

Everybody gets a piece of us.

It's.

And so Paul's pressing.

He says, look, look, I urged you, when you're in Ephesus,

you have to stay so that you can charge certain persons

not to teach different doctrine or to devote themselves to genealogy.

When he says, Timothy, I'm charging you with this.

That's a military term from a commanding officer over a subordinate.

I'm charging that you cannot get out of this.

I'm charging to stay there and to make sure that you're teaching the like.

You're making sure these people don't teach different doctrine.

This is a doctoral issue.

Make sure that they know what their their doctrines sound.

Because doctrine is.

I ask you to repeat

this earlier, and you did it like you knew what

your word is important.

So he's saying, teach these guys strong doctrine

because doctrine is doctrines important.

He said, don't, don't, don't.

I'm charging us. Come here.

Don't let these young idiots start chasing down rabbit trails

because it leads unto endless debates and and fights with each other.

And they get away from the doctrine of God,

which is the grace of God, which is salvation.

Quit messing around with all this other stuff that's out there

that you're going to absorb your time with, and chase and Rabbit Trail

after, Rabbit trail after Rabbit Trail about all this useless stuff.

You understand?

Hard places need hard truth.

So protect the doctrine.

Because what you believe is going to shape how you live.

And some of your people, Timothy, are living useless lives

and wasting time and energy because they got bad doctrine.

Listen, truth starved people

need truth fed leaders.

You stay put.

The aim of our charge, verse five,

is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussions,

desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what

they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

They say, look,

some of these guys are just

vain discussions.

Have you ever realized that youth was wasted

minutes and hours and days

chasing down rabbit trails and conspiracy theories

and podcasts and swipes

and stupid discussions about stupid stuff that makes no difference

whatsoever?

As far as the gospel and faith and salvation is concerned, you ever been there?

Saying, look, Timothy, you're in a tough spot.

It needs hard truth.

Just stay put and do what needs to be done.

Your role is to teach good doctrine because that's the important thing.

Don't get caught up in vain discussions

and arguments about

non-essential stuff.

Look at what he says.

Verse eight.

Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

I'm gonna talk about unjust mean. Just hang with me.

Let's read understanding this that the law is not laid down for the judge,

but for the lawless and disobedient,

for the ungodly incentives for the unholy and profane.

And then he lists a bunch of stuff for those who strike their father and mothers.

I can't,

I kids.

Strike their father.

Look, my daddy.

Former marine and sergeant in Vietnam.

There's no way

I would have crossed my father

to understand.

And there's no way I will cross my mama.

Because that would mean I'd have to with my papa.

You understand? Yeah.

And he's saying you got people there, these young ones

who are so insolent and so arrogant

as to disregard

their mothers and their fathers.

Are you kidding me?

Does that sound familiar?

When a child is not afraid

to disrespect his mother because there's no fear of his father.

Paul's like Timothy.

You got a tough job,

and you better lay into some good doctrine

for these folk.

For murders.

For the sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality

and slavers, liars, purges and whatever else.

That's everything else that is contrary to sound doctrine

in accordance with the gospel, the glory of the blessed God

with which I've been entrusted. Here's what he's saying.

Hard places need hard truth and

you remain because hard places need you.

They're not going to get the truth from anywhere else.

God's placed you there to give it.

God's placed you there to show it.

God's placed you there to live it.

And he's saying

part of that thing that you need to press into

and they need you to do it is this whole thing on law.

Here's what they thought.

They thought that God gave us his law so we would obey his law.

Because if we obeyed his law, we would be right with him.

And Paul's like, that's so wrong.

God gave us his law so we would realize how perfect his law is

and how imperfect we are, which is such a safe place to be.

Because if I realize that God's law is perfect and I am imperfect,

what God's law has showed me is that I need someone to make me perfect.

Does that make sense?

And so what he's saying here is

these people are getting so confused about how to live rightly.

And they they're hard hearted people

who have rejected Christ and rejected his mercy and rejected his grace.

And they need you, Timothy, to be that person

in their lives to with truth and love.

Show them that though this points out their inadequacy,

it also points to the one who makes up for their inadequacy.

Jesus.

That's their job.

Moms,

your job is not to convince your kids

that they're perfect.

It's to point out you are not perfect.

And I love you, and you sin and mess up and God loves you.

And I'm going to live that out before you.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Remain because hard places need you.

You don't get it back out of this.

It's such a safe place to admit I'm a sinner.

Because Paul will say later, Jesus came to save sinners.

So the only people that get saved are sinners.

So when I try to convince myself I'm not a sinner, I'm taking myself

out of the possibility of being saved.

That's a hard truth for some people to hear

right?

Stay there

because our places need you.

And then it goes on.

He'll. Oh, here's.

Let me tell you.

Let me tell you this.

Here's here's our understand we understand this out here in the

in the valley turf fields.

And you tell farmers

you understand?

Yeah.

Some of you need to hear this about your home.

Some of you are in a home.

That's a pretty tough field right now.

It doesn't mean you tap out.

It means that turf field

needs some tough farmers.

He says, Timothy,

you stay because hard pieces need hard truth.

And you stay.

You remain.

Because hard places need you.

And then he says, you remain

because God uses unworthy people.

Just look at what he says here.

Verses 12 and following.

I thank him, God, who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord,

because he judge me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.

But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly

in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me

with the faith and love that Christ Jesus came.

Oh, that are in Christ Jesus.

The Saint is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance

that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

There it is of whom I am the foremost.

But I received

mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost of sinners,

Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example

to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Here's what he's saying.

You remain because though you feel

unworthy, God uses unworthy people.

How many of us? Some of them.

So some of the people feel the most unworthy.

Are parents

because we know.

How many parents

have this feel like, man, if I could go back

and do that part differently.

I mean, how many of us you want to raise your hand as parents grandparents?

I absolutely

like like there's this overwhelming feeling of if I just

I got so much wrong,

if I could just.

And then Paul's telling to me,

look to me, don't get discouraged by remain there

because us unworthy people are the exact ones God uses.

Like what he says, I used to be.

And these just.

But the grace of God.

Every one of us has an I used to be, but I used to.

But the grace of God.

But I used to. But the mercy of God.

But I used to.

But Jesus, now every one of us has an I used to be.

Not every one of us has, but the grace of God.

Every one of us has. And I used to be.

But not every one of us has a but the mercy of God.

Every one of us has an I used to be, but not every one of us has a better.

Now. Jesus has.

And so if you haven't, I used to be.

Paul says, understand there is a God who will give you the grace of God

now in the mercy of God now and the Jesus now, just stay put.

Don't tap out because you think you're not able to.

Don't tap out because you think you're not worthy.

There's the grace of God that is sufficient.

There's the mercy of God that is profound.

There's the Jesus who is in your present right now.

Just stay.

God is in the beautiful work of using unworthy people.

And he's.

And Paul says, I was the worst of them.

Listen,

he says, God counter the proof that God kind of means faithful.

It takes no talent to be faithful.

It takes no gifting to be faithful.

You just have to be

faithful.

I tell my football boys all the time.

The most important things about a football player

are the stuff that takes no talent.

Hustle.

Work hard.

Do your damndest.

Be a great teammate.

That's the most important stuff in football

and has nothing to do with talent.

That's what Paul's saying.

I don't care if you feel them where they just be faithful.

Let God make up the lack.

And I love as he goes to this.

I used to be formula. I was but the grace of God now.

And as you, as you look at Paul, he says, I am the foremost of all sin.

I'm the chief of all sinners.

It's such growth in Paul, because when Paul first started talking

about himself after he came to faith in Jesus in acts 23, he talks about himself.

He says, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

That was the top echelon of the religious leaders for the Jews.

He said, that's what I was a Pharisee, the Pharisees of the best of the religious

Jews. I was top notch.

And then, as he goes on in the book of First Corinthians

15, he stops talking about being the chief of all the Pharisees.

He says, I was the least of the apostles.

So he stepping down a little bit.

Do you understand

now? He's still saying, now I'm still an apostle. So.

But I was the least of them.

And now, at the end of his life, he says, I'm

the worst of all sinners

see maturity

is when you realize how far from God you are,

not when you play as though

you are nearly God.

And here's why

he said himself of the chiefest of all sinners,

because he

talked aloud, tortured, set up

the torture of Christ followers to renounce

Jesus as Lord.

And he's like, that's

really bad.

And if God.

Can do a transformed work in me.

His grace overflow.

And he did it so you wouldn't have an excuse.

Thinking you to a foregone.

He says, I'm a I'm a trophy of God's grace, man.

And God looks really good.

When you look at how bad I've been.

He says, you can do that for me.

He says, so push you into this.

I'm glad you feel unworthy.

That's right where you should be and you should feel,

because there's nothing to do with your worthiness.

Let me just keep going real quick.

Look at verse 17.

To the King of the ages,

immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever.

He's saying, just remain.

Stay.

Don't tap out and push into this because you serve a great God.

It's not about your past.

It's not about your failure.

It's not about your unworthiness.

It's about the greatness of God.

He just burst out into praise

to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor,

glory forever and ever. Amen. It's as if he's going to look.

It might have been this way in the past, but my God is so good.

He's so powerful. He's so strong.

Can't be praised.

He just burst out into praise like he can't help himself.

God is so good. And here's what I know.

If it's difficult for you and me to praise God, it's because we don't know him

very well.

Stay.

Push in.

Don't tap out because you serve a great God.

Who is so much more capable than you are.

Moms, you serve a great God

who is so much more capable

and faithful to your kids than even you are.

Lead well.

Dads.

You serve a great God.

Though we have failure we would never dare mention in polite company.

We serve a great God

whose grace is sufficient.

Press in and remain.

He says

Timothy, hard places need hard truth.

Hard places need you.

God who stay because God uses unworthy people.

You remain because you serve a great God.

Don't ever let it be difficult

for you to praise God.

Know him well enough.

Like it's on the tip of my tongue.

Every like he is so good.

Remain.

Timothy, because a big God deserves

big faithfulness and a big God deserves big praise.

Remain.

The fifth thing he says remain.

Because it's a battle that you must not surrender.

This is too important.

It's too important.

This charge

I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies

previous made about you, that by them you may wage a good warfare,

holding faith and a good conscience.

By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.

He said, look, I'm charging you.

You're in this battle

and it's too important.

It must never be surrendered.

And I love the fact that he says, in accordance with the prophecies

that were prophesied about you.

In my mind, I think he's talking about his mom and his grandma

who spoke over him a prophecy of God's call on his life.

He says he got they made that prophecy over you. You.

This was a war you're fighting.

And it's too important to tap out.

You never surrender from this battle.

Battles and wars are made to be difficult.

They're not made to be easy. And it's going to be hard.

But stay in it because it's too important.

Don't walk out.

Don't back off.

Don't let up. Don't relent. You understand?

Yes. Moms, you get this.

The battle for your children is too important to be surrendered.

I know it gets tired.

It's okay to be tired in it.

Just don't get tired of it.

Dads, I know the battle for

our families is too important to surrender.

We don't get to be passive.

We don't get to back off

young people.

It's too important.

The battle for faith is too important.

That rests on the shoulders of the younger generation.

It's too important to be surrendered.

You don't get to give in to the whims and and currents of culture.

You get to stand in defiance of the current.

The battle we're in is too important to be surrendered.

He's giving it to you.

He's giving you the battle.

You hold to that faith and a good conscience.

It says you remain.

The battle isn't over, and neither are you.

You understand that?

Don't you dare tap out.

You remain

because some don't remain.

You remain

because some have tapped out.

You remain

and you fight with strong doctrine.

And you fight with knowledge. And you fight with faith.

And you stay in it.

And you fight day and night

by the grace of God, not by your ability, but by your faithfulness.

Because some have tapped out,

too many have remained two ignorant,

and too many have gotten too fearful, and too many have tapped out.

We have seen too many walk away.

We've seen too many moms cash out.

We've seen too many dads tap out.

We've seen too many churches fold.

We've seen too many pastors walk away.

We've seen too many.

And because we've seen so

many, don't be one of them.

We've seen too many families fall apart.

Remain.

Not because you're able.

Because he's able, though.

You got a pastor.

You got grace, though.

You got a pass. You got mercy.

God is able to make up and he's calling us

to remain.

To guard the truth.

To guard doctrine and guide people into it

often.

Because, remember, doctrine is.

Live.

And because some have rejected it, they've made a shipwreck of their faith,

among whom are Harmonies and Alexander, whom I've handed over to Satan, that

they may learn not to blaspheme.

Apparently, Paul never got the memo that it's impolite

to name names.

It's like, look, I'm calling them out.

Let's just be honest.

They got bad doctrine and they shipwrecked their faith.

Now they've given over that to the destruction of their own ways.

That they may learn.

What Paul saying is that they may learn and come back.

Not that they're gone forever.

It's too important to walk away is too important to tap out.

Some have.

Don't to understand.

Don't

listen.

Quitting and abdication

aren't part of God's plan.

Quitting

abdication are not part of God's plan.

Mom's

quitting and abdication are not part of God's plan.

Dad's.

Guess what?

Quitting and abdication and passivity

are not part of God's plan.

Husbands, wives,

quitting and abdication are not

part of God's plan.

Church

quitting and abdication

are not part of God's plan.

We don't tap out.

We don't back off.

We don't light, and we don't slow down.

It may be tough.

Fields may be rough. We may be inadequate.

We serve a great God, the immortal, invisible God.

To him be praised.

We press in.

Do you understand?

We guard doctrine.

We guide people to it.

And we ask for the grace of God.

That's first Timothy one.

And Paul is going to press into some stuff

that when I teach it,

some of you are going to get really upset at me

and I don't care.

And it's going to push us men and women.

Because Paul says doctrine is important

and it will shape how we live.

And so before we go

any further, we're going to ask God,

give us your overwhelming grace.

And we're going to say, God, I will remain.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for your word.

Father,

we sit here not as people who've got it right.

Not as people who

are never in error.

We sit here as people who are needy.

And God, we need your overwhelming grace.

The same grace you gave Paul.

The same grace you gave Timothy the same grace that you showed

through Lois and Eunice, Timothy's mom and grandma.

We need your grace.

God, give us strength when we're weak.

Give us faith when we're fearful.

Give us courage in the storm.

And give us a trust in you

that will enable us to remain.

Give us a trust in you.

That will push us into faith.

A trust in you that will push us.

That we would trust your sovereignty and your providence.

That we would trust your grace that is greater.

Your grace that is sufficient.

Give us a trust in you

that becomes unwavering,

that becomes unabated,

that is strong.

A trust in you that is fearless.

That we trust in you.

We love you.

Jesus.

In your name I pray. Amen.

Listen, go this week and read chapter one

with some fresh eyes.

And read chapter two.

Thank you.

Get ready to maybe be offended next week.

You'll be all right.

I'll be all right.

Remember what we're going to do.

We're going to remain. Yeah. No.

That's good Charlotte.

That's fine. You can do that. Yeah,

but we're going to stand under it right?

And not over it.

You understand that?

Okay, so here's what I want.

We're going to sing a song, and I want you to use song as your prayer.

That, God, I'm gonna trust in you.

I'm gonna stand under your word.

I'm gonna rest on your word.

Because I trust you.

Use this song. Is that prayer? Yeah.

Let's sing.