Treating the Church Like Family - Part 2 (1 Timothy 5:3-16)

Well, it's so good to be with you this morning.

If you have your bibles turned with me the First

Timothy chapter five, First Timothy Chapter five. We'll start verse

three in just a moment. You know, I like to

pick on Tanner, but there's one thing that I've always

admired about Tanner is Tanner has a boldness, a boldness that,

quite frankly, that that I don't that don't have, and

so he is. He has that, and I've always admired

that about him, his boldness and his preaching and his teaching.

One way that I saw his boldness was this year,

my nephew called me and he had tickets to the

UNC game, and so he invited me and he invited Tanner. Well,

if you know, if you don't know, Tanner is not

a North Carolina fan. He doesn't like Carolina at all.

He's an NC State fan. And so whoa yeah. So

we went to we went to the Dean Dome and

he went with us, and he did what I would

not have done going to the Dean Dome. He wore

an NC State hat to the Dan Dome. And I thought,

this is not a good idea, but he was not

ashamed at all to you know, display to everybody his

love for the wolf Pack. You know, there is a

time for us. There's a temptation, right we can we

can be a fan or something. We can be a

Christian and sometimes we could hide it, like we cannot

display it. Right, We could maybe be godly and we

could decide that we don't really want to display our godliness.

This week, or I think it was this week or

last week, I got an email from North Carolina Quick

Pass and I had signed up online to be part

of the quick Pass and they sent me this little

thing that I'm to put on my car, and they

told me, you have not displayed this on your car yet.

They somehow, because we've driven the toes recognized although we've

become a member signed up, we're not displaying it. And

so they've basically demanded me to display that I am

a member of the Quick past or whatever it is.

Can I tell you as we come to first Timothy

Paul is basically telling the church you are to display

your godliness. You can't hide it. You shouldn't hide it.

You are a believer, you are called to be godly,

and you are to display that godliness. And this morning

as we come to First Timothy, chapter five, he's actually

talking to the church of one of the ways they

are to display their godliness. So I just challenge you

this morning, as we come to this passage, let's consider,

let's think about our Am I displaying my godliness? Am

I putting on show before all the world that I

am a follower of Christ? And I'm not ashamed to

live a godly life for the Lord. As we return

to First Timothy, Paul has been telling Timothy about how

to be serving the Lord, how to be a good

pastor what it means personally, what it also means professionally.

He's now going in chapter five. He's now talking to

Timothy of how he's took care for particular different groups

in the church and how, as we looked last week,

how he is to treat them like family. As he

continues this morning, I think supporting there's several groups he's

focused on. He last week we looked at how he's

a treat the church like family, and how we treat

the church like family. We must give proper respect to

all members, and he walked through how we treat older

men as fathers, we older women as mothers, younger women

as sisters and younger men as brothers. We treat all

members with respect as we would treat our own family. Secondly,

we looked at how we must maintain proper purity in

all our relationships. When all we care for each other

like family, will be pure in our relationships with one

another in the church. Now Paul turns attention to the

next two groups. Today we're only going to focus on

the next one. And these two groups this Sunday and

the next Sunday are really two groups that really are

causing a little trouble in the church. The first group

is widows, and Paul is instructing Timothy how to treat

the widows like family, as he's to instruct last week

of how we are to treat church members like family.

So I just wondered this morning and as he instructs

Timothy and how he cares widows, and in this he

explains how family members should also care for other family members.

And this morning, I want you to understand for Paul,

how Timothy and the church cares for widows and cares

for their family members is one of the ways they

display their godliness. So just think about that this morning.

God calls you to display your godliness. And one of

the way you put on display to the world that

you are godly as how you care for your family

and how you care for your church family. So this morning,

do you recognize God's God calling on you to display

your godliness? Do you recognize this morning how you care

for your personal family and your church family displays your godliness.

Let's pray together, Lord, we love you. We thank your

Lord for this morning. We thank your Lord for your

call for us to display our godliness. Lord, to show

the world how we love you, how we live for you. Lord.

May we consider that individually, how we are displaying to

others around us, at our workplaces, our schools, in our neighborhoods. Lord,

may we not be ashamed. But Lord, may we display

Lord our godliness. Lord, may we display and how we

care for our family, provide for them, love them. Lord,

help us display our godliness through our care for our family,

but also our church family. May we be a church

that is not so focused on what we get instead

of what we can give and caring for one another.

So Lord, help us today display Lord our godliness. Lord,

for your glory you know we pray. Amen, You stand

with me. Let's read God's word together One Timothy chapter five.

We start verse three, and we read through sixteen. This morning,

let's read together honor widows who are truly widows. Every

widow has children or grandchildren. Let them first learn to

show Godliness to their own household and to make some

return for their parents. For this is pleasing in the

sight of God. She who is truly a widow left

all alone, has set her hope on God and continues

in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who

is self indulgent, is dead even while she lives. Command

these things as well, so they may be without reproach.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially

for members of his household, he has denied the faith,

and it's worse, worse than an unbeliever. Let a widow

be enrolled if she's not less than sixty years of age,

having been the wife of one husband, and have a

reputation of good works. Is she has brought up children,

has shown hospitality and washed her feet of the saints,

has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to

every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for

when their passions straw them were away from Christ, they

desire to marry and so incur condemnation for abandoning their

former faith. Besides that, they've learned to be idlers, going

about house to house, and not only idlers, but gossips

and busybodies saying what they should not. And so would

have you have younger widows, married, bare children, manage their households,

and give that adversary no occasion for slander, for some

have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has

relatives who are widows, let her or care for them.

Let the church not be burdened so that it may

care for those who are truly widows. You may be

seated as you go into this passage. I think it's

really really important to understand a few things, just to

kind of have a backdrop, because this is kind of

very different in our day than it was in the

New Testament Church. Several things that you I think it

is important for you understand. Number one, in the early

Church there was a ministry of benevolence ministry to widows.

We saw this in Acts chapter six and Acts Chapter six,

Verse one talked about lard Church as it was starting,

and it says, now in these days, when the disciples

were increasing in numbers, a complaint by the Helliness rose

because the Hebrews against the Hebrews because their widows were

being neglected in the daily distribution, and the twelve summoned

the full numbers of the disciples, says, it's not right that

we should give up the preaching of the Word of

God to serve tables. So in Acts chapter six we

see that the early Church had this manevolent ministry, and

one of the ministries that had was caring for the

widows in the church. And we understand the word distribution

there is deacon. I is where we get the word deacon.

It actually is associated with distributing few food, clothing, and

probably some money. So the early Church had this system,

this benevolent system where if there was a widow in

the church who did not have family to care for her,

the church would help provide for her physical needs, supply

her food, supply her clothes, maybe even some money to

help her survive. So that was one of the ministries

in the early Church. I think support for you understand,

as we come to this passage Paul is addressing this

ministry that's still very active in the church and fhesis

this ministry to care for the widows that were within

the church. The second things really important to understand that

Paul in this pastor scripture uses terms. He uses this

idea true widows and false widows. True widows here, for Paul,

I think it support for you understand, true are widows

who've lost their spouse and have no family left and

are in need. This is not when he says true widows,

he doesn't mean that widows who've lost their husband and

he's discounting. He's describing true widows are those who are

in need. He's not diminishing them as widows the others

who have family to take care of them. He's only

saying that Here he's describing true widows as those who've

lost and are in reference to their true need. He

also describes false widows here. False widows are in reference

not to whether they're truly have lost their spouse, but

in regards to whether they are in need of assistance

from the church. So throughout this passage he does something.

He compares true widows those are truly in need, and

false widows of widows who are not truly need. He

compares and contrasts them all throughout this passage this morning,

it's the same thing if you follow as we've walked

through Timothy, it's the same thing Paul's done with true

teachers and false teachers, true teaching and false teaching. He

compares them aside side by side throughout this and so

he's doing that this morning. So understand this. As he

mentioned widows and true widows, he's in no way trying

to diminish other widows who who have family or are

being taken care of. He's just truly talking about those

are in need. Lastly, I think it's important to understand

that many of these false widows are followers of false teachers.

We see this in verse twelve, thirteen, and fifteen. In twelve,

he describes these false widows as abandoning their faith. He

also describes in verse thirteen that many of them are

saying what they ought not to say. Since believed that

many of these have abandoned their faith and they're following

false teachers and only following false teachers, that they're going

house to house and spreading the teaching of the false

teachers and then verse fifteen, it's described that these widows,

these false widows, have strayed away after Satan. So this

is again as Paul addressing these widows. One of the

reasons he's addressing them is because they become some of

these false widows become a real problem within the church,

a spreading false teaching and living like they should not live.

So Paul is addressing these things. So as it comes

to this passive scripture, I think is very important. As

he's talking to Timothy, Timothy's got it as he's the

pastor of this church. He's trying to figure out how

he cares for the widows in his church, and Paul's

instructing him to treat them like he would treat family.

So first he's instructing, we must give proper support to

members in need. Paul really believes it is important for

the church. Although there's some false teachers or faults who

are leading some widows austray, and there's some false widows

who are doing some things that they shouldn't do, They're

saying some things they shouldn't say, they are straying after Satan,

it doesn't diminish that there are real people in need

and the Church should care for those in need. So

Paul begins by describing how important it is he cares

for the true witness. Listen what he says in verse three.

Let's remind that again. Verse three he says, honor widows

who are truly widows. Again he kind of gives a

threefold description of true widows. And then later on the

end of sermon, we're going to see a threefold description

of false widows. How it describes widows. Here he described

true widows or true widows are truly alone. They're truly alone.

Look at the passage here he says, here, honor widows

who are truly widows. You know, as important as I

mentioned for the early Church, this is an important ministry.

It really found its foundation in the Old Testament. The

Old Testament talked much about how important it was as

Jews to care for the widows, and Deuteronomy it gave

provisions for the Jews to care for the widows in

the community by leaving part of the field open for

them to glean. We see that picture in the story

of Ruth as Hannah is able to glean from bo

as his field. There's provisions to care for the widows.

We see it Exodus twenty two, you shall not mistreat

any widows. In Deuteronomy twenty fours nineteen through twenty one

is where we see the provision of leaving some places

in the field to provide for the widows. And saw

On sixty eight five says the Father, the fatherless, protect

the widows. Is God, is God in his holy habitation

is important for the Jews, and that they created a

system to care for the widows. In Judaism and the

New Testament, Church took that upon themselves as they began,

as we saw in the early stages of Acts chapter six,

as they also provided the ministry where they were also

caring for the widows. This daily distribution as we looked

at well. Also seeing in James Chapter one, verse twenty seven,

James talks about pure religion. What's a pure example of

pure religion? And religion is pure? He says, religion that

is pure and undefiled before God, the Father. Is this

the visit the orphans, the widows in their affliction, and

to keep oneself unstained for the world. It's important for

Jude's Jews to care for the widows. Is important for

the Church to care for the widows. But I want

you to know this. In chapter four, Paul says, it's

important for someone else. Look look who this is. This

is what it says. He says in verse three, honor

widows who are true widows. That's instruction for Timothy and

for the church, the whole church. You are instructed as

a church to honor widows. Right look at verse four.

But if a widow, he kind of switches gears. He

does this back and forth a lot throughout this verse.

He switches gears to the family here. But if a

widow has children or grandchildren, let them the one that them.

There is referring to children and grandchildren. Let them first

learn to show godliness to their own households and to

make some return to their parents. He's saying that for

the church, it's important for you to honor widows. But

for those in the church who have widows who are

their parents or their grandparents, it's important for them as

children and as grandchildren to care for the widows in

their life. And Paul says in this passage, listening to

letting them learn to show godliness. This is the way

children and grandchildren show godliness, display their godliness they do

that by caring for the widows in their life. It's

important for the Old Testamy, it's important for the Jews,

it's important for the church, and it's important for families

individuals in the church to display their godliness by caring

for widows. But in verse five, look, he switches back

to the widow. Here, she who is truly widows left

all alone? See for Paul, the true widows or true

widows or are truly alone. They don't have any family.

There's no grandchildren or no children left. Her spouse is left.

She is all alone, and therefore she is in need

because there's no children or grandchildren to care for her.

She doesn't have any family left. She is truly left

all alone. It's true widows are true truly in need.

Third here or see true widows are truly godly knows

what Paul says here verse five, She who is truly

a widow who's left all alone. She has set her

hope on God and continues in supplications night and day.

She is all alone. Just thinking about this widow here

in the church. She can imagine the church in emphasis,

there was a lady there maybe who her husband passed.

She had no children left. The only thing she has

is the church. I'll tell you it's one of the

things that I've seen in ministry. I'm so thankful for

our Primetime ministry and how they care so well for

those in our church and those in our need. And

in particular I've said this Miss Audrey and mister Jerry before,

how they care for widows. I can think of throughout

my ministry and serving in churches, small churches where we

didn't have a senior adult ministry like prime Time to

care for the widows, and seeing those widows suffer loneliness.

Here he's commanding the church. She's all long. The church

is all she's got and support for the church to

care for her because she's truly in need. But look

at where hope is. Her hope is not in the

family that she has left, because she has no family left.

Her hope is not only in the church. Her hope

is in who. Her hope is in God. And how

do we know that her hope is in God? Because

her actions dictate or show us that her hope is

in God. Why what does she do? She prays? The

scripture says here she continues in supplications and prayers night

and day. The term night in day is a term

that she's using in the Old Testament and also in

the New Testament. It's a term too to talk about

it kind of gives this picture of all day long.

Give her said that yesterday I worked on my truck,

and I got up early in the morning, like eight o'clock,

and I worked on it till nine o'clock. And I

would say I worked on an all day long. It

means like a long period of time, right, And we

would use that. That's the same way that the Old

Testament would use night and day. What does that mean?

I worked on from eight o'clock to nine o'clock. That

means continuously. What is saying she continuously all through the day.

She's praying all day long. Who is she putting her

hope in? Who she's seeking? What is she seeking? When

she has for her hope, she seeks the Lord. She's godly,

Her hope is in the Lord. We think about the

picture of Anna. You remember Anna and Luke Chapter two.

There was a prophet is named Anna, the daughter of Panila,

the tribe of ash Sure. She was advanced in years,

having lived with her husband seventy years from when she

was a virgin at thirty seven and verse thirty seven says,

and then as a widow until she was eighty four,

she did not depart from the temple, worshiping and fasting

prayer night and day. She committed her life to prayer, fasting,

night and day. She sought the Lord. When she lost

her husband and lost it all at eighty four years old,

she's our hope is in the Lord. He is in

the Lord. You know, it's important to understand that for widows,

loneliness is a real issue. American Counsel of Life and

Insurance reported that some of the loneliest people in the

world today are America today. They list several college students,

divorced people, warfare recipients, single moms, students, housewives, and elderly.

To demonstrate this, Trucks went doll he's a pastor in Texas,

found that in Kansas there was a newspaper and in

that newspaper it had an ad and the ad read,

I will listen to you talk for thirty minutes without

comment for five dollars. It's a true ad. This person

was so lonely they're willing to pay someone five dollars

just to call them for thirty minutes, just to hear

them talk to them. This individual not long, We'll received

ten to twenty calls a day. The pain of loneliness

was so sharp. They're willing to do anything to have

half an hour of companionship. I wonder today, Church, we

are to honor widows. We are to care for the

true widows in need, the godly, the ones that are

truly alone. We must give proper support to those in need.

I wonder today, who in your family is in need?

Who's the widow in your family? Children? Grandchildren? How are

you caring for them? How are you calling for them?

I can tell you throughout my ministry how many times

I've visited homebound widows who says the only time I

hear from our grandchildren is when it they want something,

or my children when they want something, they don't come

by and visit any longer, they're too busy. I think

it's important for us as a family, children, grandchildren, church

family to care for those who are need around us

and display our godliness through that. I think it's important

as you see this passage of Paul's instructing Timothy the Church,

how important it is that we give support to those

in need. But think it's important, as we said from

the very beginning, we must demonstrate our godliness by providing

for our family. Look at this passage, he says. Here

verse five he talks about the true widow. But look

at verse seven. He says, command these things well, so

that they may be without reproach. Verse seven he talks about.

Verse six, he talks about the true woods. He also

talks about the falsehood, as we're gonna look at in

a minute. Then he switched back in verse seven to

talk about the family. That the children, the grandchildren. He says,

command these things so that they may be without reproach.

What is he saying. He's saying that they are to

display godliness. He's referring back to verse four. But if

it would have has children and grandchild, letting them first

learn to show godliness, their show godliness in their own

household and makes the return to their parents. He says,

there to do that and struct that to them, that

they are display their godliness, why so that they might

be above reproach. This word above reproach is the word blameless.

It means to be free from accusation. The accusation is

that people might to them to say, accuse them of

not caring for their family, and it would hurt their testimony.

It would hurt their testimony of being godly. You see,

for Paul, it's very important. The way we display godliness

is how we care for our family, how we care

for our widows, how we care for our children, how

we care for others in our family, how we care

for God's family. That's one of the ways that we

display godliness. And when we neglect to do that, listen,

it dishonors God's name, and it dishonors your testimony. And

so for Paul, command these things so they may be

blameless and above approach in their godliness. I was a

sixteen year old high school student and one day after

school I went to visit our grandparents and suddenly that

day I released had severe stomach pain, and not long

after that come to find out I'd had appendicitis. Was

rushed to the hospital. I had my appendix removed, and

the next day my mom comes into the hospital room.

I had to spend a few days there in the hospital,

and I remember she was really down. At the time.

My parents were separated, My mom was a single mom.

It was me and my sister living in the house

there at the time, and Mom was doing everything she

could to provide for me and my sister. And she

came into that room that day and I could tell

she was really discouraged. And I said, what's your awn, Mom,

And she said, I lost my job today. And I

said what happened? And she said, my boss told me

that I had no more days left and that I

could not be with I couldn't stay with you anymore

at the hospital. So she said, today it was my

last day. And I remember the next few days seeing

my mom struggle, but she knew the most important thing

for her was to care for me. In the next

few weeks, my mom would start working three jobs in

order to provide for my family, provide for me and

my sister. You know, looking back at it now, that

was one of the most memorable moments from my childhood

that my mom that day demonstrated that she cared for

me and that she was going to provide for me

no matter what it took, no matter if it took

working three jobs, she was going to provide for her

son and for her daughter. And in that moment, It

was one of the greatest displays of my mom's godliness.

I wonder today how God's called you to care. You know,

I love this passage because he calls us to do this,

and he says display godliness. But notice what he says, noting,

are we display godliness when we care for our family?

But look at what else he says in this passage scripture.

I think this is really powerful. Hold if widows have

children and grandchildren at their first learn to show godliness

to their own household and to make some return to

their parents, listen to this. For this it's pleasing in

the sight of God. You know, as a teenage boy,

it was pleasing in my sight to see what my

mom did to provide for me, But it was pleasing

in the eyes of God. Do you recognize that today

that when you display your godliness and caring for your

family and caring for your children, caring for your grandchildren,

caring for the widows in your life, that you're displaying

your Godliness. Do you recognize to day that that's one

of the ways you please God? You please God by

doing that. I think it is importing that you see.

Paul was so masterful in this passage about comparing and contrasting,

and here he contrasts for those who please God and

those who do not please God, which you see what

happens in verse seven and eight. He commands these things

so they may be without repro say do this display

your godliness. He pleases God that you and also you

will be above reproach. But then he just contrasts in

verse eight to those who don't provide for their families.

He says, but everyone did not provide for his relatives,

especially for members of his old household. He's denied the

faith and is worse than an unbeliever. You see, caring

for families pleases God. Neglecting family displeases God. Paul in

this passage, in verse eight, he pronounces judgment on anyone

who does not provide for his family. It's possible to

suggests that maybe in this passage that Paul is thinking

about someone in the church in Ephesus who has a

widow and they refuse to provide for that individual and

in turn or expecting the church to do what they

will not do. And Paul says to that individual, he

describes one they've denied the faith. They say their believer

by their actions are contrary to a believer. They've denied

the faith. He also says secondly here that they're worse

than an unbeliever. What does he mean by that? He

means that unbelievers take care of their family. So this

individual is worse than an unbeliever, because unbelievers actually care

for their own widows. You see, for Paul, it pleases

God for us to care for our family. A neglecting

family dishonors God displeases God. I wondered her this morning.

Who's God giving you responsible ability to care for? Is

a husband? Is it a wife? It's a child? Is

the mother? Father? Is it a widow? How are you

displaying your godliness in providing for them? How are you

pleasing God by providing for them? Which you see? Lastly,

as we finish up this morning, we must guard against

false widows. Lastly, Paul would instruct us he in this again.

In this passage, he's comparing a contrast in the two.

In verse five, he describes a true widow. Her hope

is in God. She prays night and day. In verse six,

he describes a false widow, But she, who is self indulgent,

is dead even while she lives. We must guard against

false widows, false widows. He gives a kind of a

threefold description of false widows. False widows are truly self indulgent.

What is the word indulgent? Self indulgent? If we indulge

in something, we indulge something for our pleasure. I went

to Sam's this week. Normally just get like a pizza

combo or a cat do allcambo or one or the other.

I'm really hungry that day, so I went for pizza

and a hot dog. So I indulged in a hot

dog and a pizza pizza. And then I left there

and went to Here's Teter to pick up something. And

as I was walking by, there's this stand, the Little

Debbie stand, and there was a cosmic brownie that called

my name. And I indulged and I ate the cosmic

brownie too, And in that moment, I didn't do what

was best for my health, right, I did what pleased me. Right.

That's the imagery of this passage that hear. This false widow.

She's not doing what pleases God, she's doing what pleases herself.

She's self indulgent. It's the same imagery that James uses

in James five, is you have lived on earth in

luxury and self indulgent. You fattened your heart with a

day of slaughter. It's indulging in pleasing yourself. A false

widow is self indulgent. False willow is truly spiritually dead.

Talk and act like she's a Christian. She may say

she's spiritually alive, but spiritually she's dead. You know, Jesus says,

I've come to that they may have life and having abundantly.

She doesn't have the abundant life. She is spiritually dead. See,

false widows are truly spiritually and morally unstable. In verse

eleven through thirteen, verse nine, he gives really some kind

of administrative instructive for the church and how they're to

kind of structure their ministry to widows. He's so, let's

read that together. Let a widow be enrolled. And she's

not less than sixty years of age, having been the

wife of one husband, have your reputation of good work.

She's brought up children and shown hospitality, has watched the

feats of the saints, care for afflicted, and has devoted

herself to every good work. First sa Verse nine, He's

instructed who should be truly enrolled and received care from

the church. Verse eleven, he confronts these false widows. He

gives the third description of them, but refuse to general

younger women, for when their passions draw them away from Christ,

they desire to marry. So they incurred come to nation

by having abandoned their See, there's the imagery to described

or have been abandoned their former faith. Besides that they've

learned to be idlers, going about from house to house.

Not only idlers, but gossips, busy bodies saying what they

should not. So I would have younger widows married, very children,

manage their household, and give the adversary no occasion for

slander for some. That's the way, he says here. For

some have already strayed after Satan. There's some false widows

there are truly spiritually and morally unstable. He calls us

to guard against false widows followers who are following false

teaching and are living for their own passions and their

own pleasures. I wonder today, as we finish, we must

give proper support to members and need. We must care

for the widows in our life, in our church and

our family. We must care this morning for those in

our family. We must demonstrate our godliness providing for our family,

and we must guard against false widows. I wonder today,

how are you displaying godliness? I call you today family,

church family must display our godliness and providing for those

and our family and our church family. Will you pray

with me? Lord? I love you, I thank you for

this morning. Thank you Lord for a difficult passage. But Lord,

I thank you Lord that or do you call us

to display our godliness and how we care for one another,

how we care for our family, how we care for

our church family and God? We recognize this morning that

this pleases you. So Lord, I pray that we would

be men, women, children, grandchildren, that would be faithful to

provide care for those in need in our life, that

would be faithful church to recognize those who are in

need in our church family, and that we would be

faithful to provide to care. Lord, help us or this

is please to you to provide help us be faithful. Lord.

We love you. We thank you Lord for this morning.

In your name we pray Jesus, pain and all to

Him