A Good Servant: Part 2 (1 Timothy 4:6-16)

If you have everybody was hoping that you do, if

you'll turn with me the First Timothy, chapter four, This morning,

First tim Timothy, chapter four. I remember as a young boy,

we'd have summer break, and at times when we'd have

summer break, my mom would call and she'd say, now,

you and your sisters at home, I've got a job

for you to do. And the job was for me.

I have two older sisters, Mica and Judith. The job

for us was to clean the house. And you know, now,

that was the job. That's what we were supposed to

do as children for our mom, and she I think

she gave us the deadline by Friday, whatever it was,

and so that was our job. We were to clean

the house. Now here's the thing. We collectively were to

clean the house. But we all had a different task, right.

I think Judith dusted the house, Micah cleaned the kitchen,

and I was the designated taking out trash kid, and

so that we all had different jobs. Now, if you

think about that this morning, as we come to this

passage of scripture this morning, it's really no different as

my mom exciting us a task that day or a

job to do, and that was clean the house. We

have a job to do as we come on church

this morning, we have a job together collectively, together as

a body of Christ, we have a job to do,

and that is to worship the Lord. Now together we

come together. We all collectively want to worship the Lord,

but all of us have different tasks in accomplishing that task.

Like today, I have the job as we lead into

worship to deliver God's word. Devin had the task of

coming up to announcement. He's a little late. He got

it done, so thankful for that. Steven's up there, he's

running sound. He has the task of running sound. Tanner

has the task of leading us of worship and song.

Our greeters as you came in, had the task of

greeting you. Collectively, together we come to worship. But all

of us have different roles, all of us have different

responsibility in accomplishing the task of worship. As we come

to First Timothy, chapter four, this morning, Paul is talking

to Timothy, a pastor, and he's outlining what is Timothy's

role and what is the responsibility in leading the church.

And as we look this morning in this passage, last

week we were in Firs, Timothy chapter four and these

verses together six to sixteen, he talks to Timothy about

his role as a pastor. Last week we really looked

at as Paul outlined for Timothy. He was talking about

Timothy's personal responsibilities, his personal devotion, how important his personal

life mattered in his and his responsibility in leading the church.

You see, personally, your your walk with the Lord matters,

and how you accomplish the task here and what God's

called you do well. Today Paul is talking more focused

on what was his role, what was he to do?

What was his task in leading the church at Ephesus.

You know, in one of the things is we're going

to see this morning, he's only talks about him what

his task is, but he talks about his devotion to

that task. You know, I've noticed you if you remember

as we've been walking through first Timothy Timothy. One Timothy

is all about Paul writing a letter to Timothy, who's

has there's false teachers in Ephesus, and he's writing this

letter to Timothy to confront the false teaching. And just

a few weeks ago we looked at apostasy, and one

of the things that in that passage in the beginning

of verse chapter four, he talked about false teachers are devoted.

You know, false teachers have a task, and their task

is to deceive people. And what he talked about was

false teachers are devoted. Our you know me most many

of you are new here. If you don't know me,

our church body knows. One of the things that I

love is I love Sam's. I love Sam's Club. You

just can't beat the dollar fifty. You can get your

hot dog combo and you're full, right. So I love

going to Sam's and getting our weekly supplies and getting

my hot dog combo. And lately I've noticed as I've

gone to sam I'm not the only one who likes it.

You know who else likes Sam's The Mormons. And I

noticed over the last few weeks there's been like fifteen

or twenty like Mormon missionaries who come in. Now, if

you think about these these Mormons, they've got a task,

these more missionaries, you know, Mormons have they assigned their

young people they have to give, they have to give

eighteen year, eighteen months to twenty four months in going

sharing the gospel. You know, for these Mormons, they were

required they're required to wear certain things. They have stipulations

of what they are to wear. They don't have that,

but they have obligations there to start I think around

seven o'clock, six thirty in the morning, and they go

share the gospel door to door from six thirty seven

o'clock to eight thirty at night. They travel in groups.

Now you think about this, they are devoted to a

false teaching. We have prayer walk once a month and

we can't get people to come for one hour. And

they're doing and get from seven to eight o'clock at

night for eighteen to twenty four months. Here, I want

you to see they know they have a task, and

they're devoted to their task of sharing the gospel. This morning,

Paul is telling Timothy. Timothy, you've got a job, and

I want you to be devoted to your job. You're

devoted to your role. So I just ask you this

morning as we come you can tell we're gonna have

fun today. I'm already fired up and I ain't read

the passage. As we come to this passage this morning,

I just I ask you this morning, as we read

this passage together, what has God called you today to do?

What is your role in serving this body? God's given

you a task? What task has God given you? Do

you recognize today that that's the gift that God has

given you to care for this church? How are you

devoted to that task? How are you devoted to that gift?

And this morning are you growing in your gift to

serve the body of Christ. Let's read God's word together.

Let's do that. Let's stand first Timothy chapter four. We're

going to read the whole section together, verse six through sixteen.

We'll focus mainly on eleven through fifteen this morning. Let's

read it together. The Bible says, if you put these

things before the brothers, you'll be a good servative Christ

Jesus being trained in the words of faith and of

good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do

with irrelevant sillyness, but rather train yourself for godliness. For

while bodily training is some value, godliness is value in

every way. As this holds the promise for this present

life and also for the life to come. This saying

is trustworthy and deserving a full acceptance. For this end.

We toil and strife because we have our hope set

on the Living God, who is the savior of all people,

especially those who believe. Lookten to verse eleven, Paul saying

to Timothy. Timothy, command and teach these things. Let no

one despise you for your youth, but set the believers

an example and speech and conduct, and love and faith

and purity until I come. Devote yourself. Listen to that

word to vote, Devote yourself to public reading of scripture,

to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift that

you have, which is given to you by the prophecy.

When the Council of Elders lay their hands on you.

Practice these things. Immerse yourselves in them so that all

might see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourselves

and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so,

you will save both yourself and your hearers. Let's pray together, Lord,

we love you. We thank you Lord that we acknowledge

as we just read that Lord, this is your word. Lord,

these are not mine. So Lord, I pray that as

we sit under the teaching of your word, Lord, that

we would be moved by Lord your word. Lord, I

pray that you would give me the words that you

want your hearers to hear today, and Lord, I would

be faithful in preaching. I'd be faithful in teaching today,

and Lord that people would hear Lord, not me, they

would hear your spirit calling them, and Lord that they

would respond to the preaching and teaching of your word.

Love You. We thank your Lord for this body. We

thank you, Lord for the job that you've given us

to come worship you together today. Lord, I pray Lord

that we would accomplish Lord, what you've called us to. Lord,

lead us. Lord, fill me, Lord, pour me out today. Lord,

I ask Lord, I know today, Lord that I am

a broken man who's desperately need of you, and none

of my preparation is all. My preparation is void without

the power of your spirit. So may your spirit pour

out today in your name, we pray, Amen. He may

be seated. So here Timothy is. And as I've told

you last week, he's talking about Timothy. He's teaching Timothy

in verses six through sixteen on how to be a

good minister. And we looked at the first two and

that really the first part of for Timothy. In order

for him to be a good minister personally, his personal

walk with the Lord, there's some things that he must do.

He must personally and his personal walk with the Lord.

He must guard his own heart. He must guard himself

against false teaching. He must grow in truth. Secondly, he

must train. He must train in Godliness, and he must

training and not only knowing truth, but living out truth.

And we looked at those two things last week. And

then then the next part is in order for Timothy

to be a good minister, he's got to do what

God's called him to do. He's got to fulfill the

role and the responsibility he has in the church. And

that's where we come today. And as a good minister,

a good minister commands and teaches. That's the first thing

that Paul says in verse eleven. I want you to

understand that verse eleven through sixteen, there are ten imperatives.

If you're familiar with the English language, apparatives are commands.

These are things that he's commanding Timothy to do. This

is Paul, who's the apostle. Timothy's the leader of the

church in Ephesus, He's the pastor, he's the main elder there.

And these are commands Paul is telling Timothy you must

do as the pastor, as the leader of the church.

And the first thing he's to do. What Paul says

here is he says, command and listen to this and

teach these things. What are these things? The things that

Paul's telling Timothy was what we looked at last week. See,

Timothy is to be one who guards his heart, who

guards against false teaching, who knows teaching right, and he

also knows he to guard his own life. But he

is also to train in godliness. Now, Paul tells Timothy,

I want you to do this, and you're on walk

with the Lord. But no is it. It's not good

enough for you just to do this and you're as

a pastor, but you're to command you command your church

body to do the same things. You're to command your

church body to guard their own hearts against false teaching.

Your command your congregants to know only guard their hearts,

but guard against false teaching. You're to command your your

congregants to train themselves in godliness. That's what you're to command,

and all you to command those to your congregants, but

you also should teach them. You teach them how to

do it. You're explaining scripture. So for Paul to be

a good minister, he's to command he's to train. This

is the idea of asking them, calling them to respond.

And then so I want you to understand that for

Timothy be a good ministry, he's got to command, he's

got to teach. And as you go to verse we're

going to next week. We want to look at all

of verse twelve together. But in verse thirteen he kind

of expands this a little bit further. So drow with

me to verse thirteen. I when you see this, he

explains a little bit further. He kind of gives a

little bit more details in Timothy's task of teaching, this

task of commanding. He kind of outlines how Timothy is

to be to complete this task. And so these are

what I described this one in task of a good teacher.

These are tasks for Timothy as a good teacher to accomplish. Again,

what is this job? His job is leading the church

in worship, and one of his roles in doing that

is to be a teacher, to be a preacher. But

now he talks about the task to do to accomplish that.

Listen what he says in verse thirteen. He says, until

I come is this word devote yourselves. Do devote yourself.

This is something that you are to be devoted to.

I think it's important for you understand. For Timothy, and

he's to devote himself. He's to be committed to several

things in his teaching. And here he outlines what Timothy

is to be devoted to. I want you to remind you,

as I kind of started this morning. In chapter to

the beginning of chapter four, he talked about the false teachers.

False teachers were devoted just like I just described the Mormons.

They're devoted, They're devoted. What Paul says in first the

beginning of chapter four, they're devoted to deception. They're devoted

to the teaching of demons. That's what bad teachers are doing.

That's what false teachers are doing. Timothy, you're to be

a good teacher, and if you're going to be a

good teacher, there's things that you should be devoted to.

And here's what Paul says. Timothy is to be devoted

to as a good teacher. First, he must be devoted

to teaching. He must be devoted to teaching. Look at

verse thirteen. It says, until I come devote yourselves to

public reading of scripture, to teaching to or exhortation, and

there's three devotions in this just one sentence. He gives

three devotions of in Timothy's teaching of things he used

to be devoted to number one, he needs to be

or a I should say, he's devoted to scripture reading.

No look at the passage until I come. Devote yourself

to the public reading of scripture. It's interesting, is you

know you kind of think about you have ever look

back every wondered like, I wonder what church service was

like in the New Testament times. I wonder what I mean,

we have different elements when you come into worship. We

have a song, and we have announcements, and then we

you know, we have another song and we have worships.

Sometimes we have acchoires, different elements that are our service.

What was a New Testament service line? Well, I could

tell you what one of the things that they did

in the New Testament Church is they always had a

public reading of scripture. Now I've just read a portion

of scripture, but they would read great portion of scripture.

Actually in the Jewish Worship and Jewish Center Gods before

on the New Testament Church, they had a three year

reading plan that every cent every Saturday on the Sabbath,

they would read great portions of Scripture, and over a

three year period of time they would read all the

Torah and most of the Prophets, or all the prophets

in three years time. And so they had great times

where they would read great portions of scripture. The New

Testament church church later on they also would adapt that,

and they too, and every part of their service would

have great portions of where they would read chatters of

the time of the Bible, and they would read portions

of the Gospel or oral traditions of the Gospel. They

would read some of the letters of Paul, and they

would read some of the Old Testament. And they kept

up this same tradition that over a few years period

of time, the entire church would hear publicly the reading

of the Bible. That was part of them. And Paul

was saying to Timothy, Timothy, one of your roles is

to be a good teacher. And one of the things

that you're to be devoted to in order to accomplish

the task of being a teacher, as you are to

be he committed to the public reading of scripture. You know,

I'll just to be honest with you as I was

studying this week, I really think I'll just be frank

with you. I think we've lost to this a little

bit as a church, the ports of the public reading

of scripture. We we've gotten to a place where we've

done many different things and we've kind of lost this important.

But for the New Testament Church and the Old and

the Old Testament, this is a very important part. This

is important for Timothy. I remember one of my favorite

stories in the Bible is is the King Josiah. You

remember Josiah was eight years old when he became king.

And if you remember anything about Josiah, Josiah really had

a heart for the Lord, and early on he desired

to do some things for for for Israel. One of

the things was he was removed all the ungodliness in

the land of Israel. So he began removing all the foughts,

teaching the bells ashram and and so he pursed the

evil from among him. It's a lot like what Paul

was telling Timothy to do, is to what practice and

training godliness. Joe Saiya did that as a young age,

and it didn't stop there. For jo Siey Josiah has

not only wanted to purse the evil from among the land.

But he the temple was destroyed by attacks from the enemy,

and so he decided he was going to rebuild the temple.

I think it was like eighteen years old or sixteen

years old when he did that. And he had this

servant's name, Safe and Safe he sent in to rebuild

the temple. And they were rebuilding the temple, and he

had a priest there, and the priest was doing and

as they're rebuilding the temple, that came along something. You

know what it was. It was the Bible. It was

the Old Testament of the tor And so Safem came

in as Josiah, and Josiah says, hey, I want to

give you a report. Just want you to know what

we're doing with the building. I want you to know

we've done this, we cleaned up this, and I just

want you to know. By one we were cleaning up.

The priest was there and he found this book and

he pulls out the book and he began reading, and

he began reading publicly the Bible. And Joe Saiyah heard

the word of God. And when the Bible said, when

Josiah heard the word of God, he tore his close

he says, I can't handle it. He's broken before God.

And the only when he heard the word of God,

he was broken before he tore his clothes. He knew.

He says, we're trouble as a nation. And he called

all the nation, all the kings, all the leaders together,

and he opened up that same Bible, and he had

publicly declared to the whole nation the reading of God's word.

And listen. When the nation heard the public reading of

God's word, they were broken before God. Listen. It wasn't

a sermon that broke the heart of Josiah. It wasn't

a sermon that broke the heart of a nation. What

broke the heart of a nation was the hearing of

the word of God. And listen. There's times with us

as a church that we lose sight on the importance

of private and public reading of God's word. You one

of the greatest things that will change your life is

just hearing and reading the word of God. Can I

tell you when of the most important things that we've

done this morning was to read God's Word. But sometimes

we sit in our pews that we listen and we

just totally mentally pass over the reading of God's Word.

May we be people like Josiah. May we be people

like Timothy that says, you know what, God, I want

to be devoted, And there's some things I want to

be devoted to. And one thing I want to be

devoted to is the reading of God's Word. I know

it will change me. It might change our church, it

might change Bethesda, and it could change our world. I'm

thankful today that they're reading the Bible. In the two

hundred and fifty years, they're reading it for the next

few weeks, they're reading the Bible all the way through.

I pray it changes our nation. Would you pray that

as well? May we be people who are devoted. He's

to be devoted to reading in scripture. Secondly, here for Timothy,

he needs to be devoted to preaching the word. Here,

if you go to verse thirteen until I come to

vote yourself to public reading of scripture. And then he says,

to exhortation. It's this term exhortation is that the term

it's generically used. I'm using preaching here because it describes

part of this idea of urging or encouraging. It's the

idea of when you're when you're teaching something, You're asking

people to change according to what they learn. You're calling

people to respond. It's the word is used throughout the

New Testament. It's using Timothy chapter one. You remember Timothy

Chapter one. Paul tells Timothy. He says, this, I urge you,

when I was going to Macedonia to remain at Ephesus,

that you may charge persons not to teach a different doctrine.

That word urge there is the same word that Paul's

using here. He's urging. He's asking Timothy to stay to

command to confront the false teacher. And Ephesians one four

one he says, therefore, our prisoner of the Lord, urge

you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling

without which you're called. The idea is if Paul is

urging believers to live a life worthy of the Gospel

and Romans twelve to one, he says, I appeal to you, there,

for brothers, and by the mercy of God, to present

your bodies as a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship. That idea in Romans twelve

is Paul is appealing. He's urging them to offer themselves

as a living sacrifice. The idea is that Paul is

saying to Timothy, Timothy, your devote you to be devoted

as a pastor. Your role is to teach and to command,

and you're to be devoted in doing that. To scripture reading.

You also to be devoted as a pastor to preach.

That means to front, to command, to ask people who obey,

to urge people to obey God's word to respond. John

Wesley was a you've heard of probably Wesley. He was

a pastor and he would train up future pastors and

he would send them out to preach, and when they

would come back from preaching, Wesley would say he'd give

them two questions to see how they did. And one

question was had anyone been converted under your preaching when

you preach? Or did anyone get mad? If the answer

was no, by the pastors in training, he would tell

them that he didn't think God had called them to preach,

and he'd send them on by their business. And this

is what what Wesley says. When the Holy Ghost convicts

the sin, people are either converted or they don't like

it and get mad. You know, if you think about

this for a minute in Matthew chapter seven five through

seven is Jesus's the longest sermon five through seven. We

call it the Sermon on the Mount. You know what

at the very end of that sermon in Matthew seven

twenty four, you know what Jesus says. He says this,

everyone who hears these words of mine and does them

will be like a wise man who builds his house

on the rock. You see, Jesus understood something. Teaching the

word of God is not just an impart in knowledge.

It's just it's not just for you to think. Jesus

understood teaching is to lead people to respond. And a

pastor like Timothy and like me, I'm not only to

teach you the word of God, but I'm to call

you to respond to the word of God. I'm called

you to do what God has told you. I'm called

to do what James says in James Chapter one, be

doers of the word. Not here is only right. And

that is part of what Timothy is to be devoted to. To

call people to repent, call people to respond, to call

people to obey. That is something that Timothy was to

be devoted to. Some people are not going to like it.

It's not always comfortable, but it's what God calls a

pastor to, calls Timothy to. He's not only to be

devoted to scripture, reading, to teaching, I mean to preaching,

but he's also thirdly to be devoted to teaching. This

idea of teaching, it's the idea of expounding or explaining scripture.

It's explaining what scripture says. We call this expositional preaching

or teaching or exegetical teaching. It means to expound. John Stott,

who's a pastor, says it means to expound scripture, to

bring out the text what is there? Mark Dever says

it this way describes expositional preaching. This way, the main

point of biblical text becomes the main point of the sermon.

I think it's important that you understand that one of

the roles for Timothy was to publicly read God's word.

It was part of his role to proclaim and call

people to respond, but it was also a part of

his role to teach the word of God, to explain

what God's word says. I want you to think about something.

There's a great book called Expositional Preaching by David Helms

and it's a book that our elders read. And he

explained that preaching. There's kind of two types of preaching,

and there's one preaching where the preacher has you kind

of imagine this flash life. All the lights were out,

and I'll take this flashlight. I could take it and

I could point to what I wanted, what I wanted

to light up. You see that. There's some preach. There's

some preaching where the preacher decides what he wants the

people to hear and he uses God's word to point

to what he wants the people to hear. Right, then

there's another type of preaching, expositional preaching. And expositional preaching

is a lot like these lights these days, lights right

now are pointed on me. Right, I don't control the lights,

So the lights are above and the light illuminates down

and I stand underneath what the light is shining on.

Does that make sense? Expositional preaching says, you know what,

I'm not going to use the Bible to point to

what I want people to hear. God's Word is the light,

and the preacher is going to stand under the word

of God and says, God wants who's going to show

us today what He wants us to hear. Do you

see that? I want you to understand it's so important

as for a pastor to be devoted to not leading

you to hear what you want to hear. What he

wants you to hear is a port for the preacher

to stand under the word of God and says, let

me tell you what God wants you to hear. And

a Timothy is to be called to be a teacher

who teaches the word of God. You know, I was

thinking about this and you ever had that, You ever

had those people in your life. You have your way

of doing it, but they have their way of doing it,

and they just feel like they should tell you how

you ought to do it. I confess I'm one of them.

We'll be in the kitchen and Brandy will be cooking

and I'll kind of look over and she'll be cooking.

I'll say to her, you know, I really think you

should do this, and she'll be like, I'm fine by myself.

I got mine, and I said, but I really think

you should do it this way, you know. And I

think I have good motives by that and well meaning,

but what in the end, I'm trying to get her

to do what I want her to do and do

it my way well. In the same thing and ministry,

I've had good will and attention people and people in

the church throughout the years, and say, Preacher, I just

I just want to encourage you and just tell you

little things about your preaching. And you know your preaching

is good, your preacher is good, But have you ever

thought about preaching more on the current events, on what's

going on in our world? I know Timothy's good, but

there you know, there's some things a on our world

we need to talk about. Poor preacher, you know, you know, Preacher,

you do good, and you do good and all that stuff,

but you know, all this stuff about the background, the

history of the passage and what's going on to Timothy,

nobody really cares about that. I just want you to

tell me what we need to hear, what I want

to hear. And in the end they may have good intentions,

but listen, you don't need to hear what's going on

the news. You can you can turn it in the

news for that. You don't need a message where I

don't explain what the Bible is saying. What you need

today is what Timothy says and what Paul says to Timothy,

you need the light of God's Word. And I need

to be faithful to be devoted to giving you, not

what the world has given you, not what I want

to give you. I need to be faithful about giving

you the Word of God. And that's what being devoted

to teaching is all about. And I think pastors should

be devoted to teaching because what we need today is

what God wants the church to hear. And once you

see all his tasks as a good teachers to be

devoted to his teaching. But also for Paul, for Timothy,

he's to be devoted to his gift. Look at verse

fourteen with me, he says. In verse thirteen, devote yourself

to this. And verse thirteen he talks about Timothy's gift.

He says, don't neglect the gift that you have, which

was given to you by the prophecy when the Council

of Elders laid their hands on you. It's interesting that

Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, you're devoted to teaching. In your teaching,

you need to be devoted to scripture reading. You're devoted

to exhortations devoted to teaching. But also if you're going

to be a good minister that commands and teaches, you'd

be devoted to your gift. He says, Timothy, God gave

you a gift. He used his description that the elders

came and laid their hands on Timothy, and we would

perceive that as an ordination. Right. We had an ordination

service a Tanner last year, and the elders came through.

We did some examinations that we came through, and then

the elders came together and they laid hands on him.

When we say, what God's ordained you to be a pastor,

and that's what when we think of the laying of hands,

and that's what Paul's referencing is the ordination of the

laying of hands of Timothy. But what he says in

there that was given to you by prophecy, what does

he mean by that? What he means by that is

you see, the elders had been watching Timothy's life, and

as they watched Timothy's life, they recognized that Timothy had

a gift. And that gift was not given by a church,

or by a council, or by the Church of Ephesus

or a group of people. The gift was given by

the Holy Spirit, and a prophecy affirmed that gift by

the Holy Spirit. And when the pastors and the elders

came together and they laid their hands on Timothy, they

were not giving the gift to Timothy. They were affirming

that Timothy had the gift, and that they believe that

the gift of teaching that Timothy had was a gift

given by the Holy Spirit to Timothy. Paul reminds Timothy

of that, Timothy, God's given your role to teach and

to preach and command and you in order to be

a good minister, you are to be devoted to teaching.

But you're to be devoted because God's given you a gift.

Holy Spirit's given you a gift. Timothy. Don't neglect the

gift that God gave you as you think about that

this morning. I just I think it's interesting for Paul.

He's saying, what should motivate you, Timothy, is that God's

given you a gift. You think about that this morning.

Yesterday we had a car show and many of you

are here. Thank you so much for supporting that. And

it's just a great day. And most of you, you

may or may not know, my dad three years ago,

at the end of this month, had passed away, and

my dad gave me a gift. And it's the nineteen

sixty five Plymouth Fury, And that was a precious gift.

It was actually my grandpa's car. He bought it brand

new and then and when he passed, he gave it

to my dad. And when my dad passed, he gave

it to me. And I tell you this week, I've

got that old car out for the car show. And

I was driving down the road and I thought I

ain't changed the oil end up for a while, so

I needed and I started getting a little worried, Well,

maybe should I get somebody else to do it? Can

I do it myself? Or why kind of old I

put in it? What do I do with this? And

why was I so worried about that? Because listen, that

was a precious gift and I didn't want to ruin it.

Paul was saying, Timothy, do you recognize today that the

Holy Spirit has giving you a gift? And do you

cherish that gift? Now? Are you motivated and devoted to

use that gift? Because God gave it to you and

you should use it for His glory. You know what's

interesting is is we as you come to bethousand and

you come here and you're new to our church. You

know this if we go to a new members class

and our new members class, one of the things that

we really try to do is a staff and we're

still growing. We know we don't have all the kinks out,

but we really try to find out what there is

the giftedness of the members. You know, what are they

gifted at? And we really okay, what what does the

Holy Spirit gifted them? Not what we want them to have,

but what's the gifts that God's given them? And we

really want to call them to use their gifts? And

you know the do you know, like statistics tells us

that out as a Southern Baptist church this size, only

thirty five percent of the church are serving, only thirty

five percent are using their gifts. And that's strange because

we'll see that in new members will and I'll just

use an example because this is the easiest one that

comes in my mind. We'll come through the new members class,

we do a personal I mean it's spiritual gift tests

and then we ask a design sheet to kind of

see what things that they do, what they feel like

they gifted at, also things that they love. And I'm

just using aim example. Don't think I'm calling you out.

Okay if this is you, but we'll come and they'll

say someone says, well, I feel like God has given

me the gift of music. Okay, God's given you to

get some music. God give me. And we see that

they have a gift that they say, well, I love

to sing. God love to do that. I have the

gift and I love to sing. And so we'll come

out to the end and we'll say, you know what, good news.

We think you've got the gift of music. We say

that you love singing. Why won't you join the choir?

They won't join his choir. And it's like it doesn't

make sense. God's given your gift. You love the gift,

but you won't use the gift. And I want you

to see that. Paul is saying to Timothy, God's given

you a gift. You love it, don't sin on it,

use it for God. In Romans, Paul says this has

just read this this week. He says, listen. He says

for as in one body, you have many members, and

members do not have the same function. So though many

are one body in Christ, individually members of it one

another having gifts that differ according to the grace has

given them, let us use them. Ask you today, has

God given you? What gift has God given you? And

are you using it? Are you devoted to say? God,

You've given me a precious gift to use in the

function of this church in worship God, I don't want

to use them. I don't want to sit on it.

I don't want to love it, but not use it. God,

You've given me something. Lord, help me be faithful and

helping me to be devoted to using the gift that

you've given me. Third of when you see that he

he must be devoted to his teaching, he must have

be devoted to his gift. And lastly, it must be

devoted to practice. Look at the passage scripture. He says,

don't neglect the gift that you have, which is given

to you by the prophecy when the council of elders

laid their hands on you. Verse fifteen says practice these things,

immerse yourselves in them, since you may see you see

your progress it's so interesting. For this is really intriguing

for me, but for Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, to

devote yourself to your gift. God's given you something. You

should devote yourself to your teaching, scripture reading to preaching,

to teaching, devote yourself to those I devoted to that.

But you were devoted to the gift. See did God

give you a gift? But he didn't say it stops there,

he says, Timothy, Yeah, you got a gift, but you

got a practice. He says, practice these things. Practice your gift.

Practice scripture reading. Do you know the New Testament? At

times in early Greek societies that the practice of reading

a scripture was really important students as they were studying.

If they would read scripture and they would fumble over

a word, they would be criticized by their scholar. When

they read God's word, they were to do it and

proficiently their rightnice practice in scripture reading. For Timothy, he's

a practice in scripture reading. He was a practice in

exhorting scripture, how to apply it, how called people to respond.

He was not only practicing, he was practicing teaching and

expounding and explaining to you he was a practice these things.

I'm gonna be really honest with you. I really you

may not feel this way. But as for me, when

I came here almost nine years or eight years ago,

my preaching had gotten stagnant. And you say, no, no, no, preacher,

I don't know. I'm telling you. I know my preaching.

My preaching had gotten stagnant. I've gotten comfortable. I've gotten

a way that I knew how to do it, and

I had a system of how I did it, and

I thought it was okay, and I wasn't really working

diligently at practicing my gift. About three years ago or more,

I started the dmon program at Southeastern Southeastern and that

was one of the greatest things that challenged me. It says,

you've got to practice, Jonathan, and through that I have

over the last few years, I am practicing and how

I'm preaching. We do a sermon lab and our and

our staff every week where they where our staff comes

together and we work through my sermon together. We practice this,

we think through it, we do different things. And I'm

working diligently and practicing my gift of teaching. Why because

I know it's a gift and it's a skill that

I've got to work on. I've got to develop because

I've got a chair. Shit. I just wonder today, what

gift has God given you? You know? If you in

your life, If you you ladies, you cook a cake

and and you look at that cake and oven and

it's not rising, something's wrong. You those have a garden

and you planted your tomato plants, and that tomato plant

if it's not growing, something's wrong. Right. If you have

if you have some flowers in your yard that you've

planted the last few weeks and they're not blossoming, something's wrong.

If you have children and your children are not growing,

You're gonna take them to the pediatrician because something's wrong.

You know. Can I tell you if God's given you

a gift and your gift is not growing, something wrong.

Maybe it's your practice, Maybe you're not immersing yourself, and

how can I grow in my gift? Can I tell you?

For Paul, he tells Timothy, I want to see your

gifts grow practice, immerse yourselves in that. This morning, what

gift has God given you? How are you growing in

that gift? Heard the story as I closed this morning

of a great preacher. His name was Ali Wasender White.

He got to a place in the time of his

life he was getting too old to preach. He couldn't

get into the pulpit. But he decided that every morning

he couldn't get into the pool pit any longer and preach,

but every morning he would still prepare a sermon. So

in his house he would get and he would prepare

a sermon. He would never preach them, but he did

this every day until he died. He was convinced the

studying of God's word as a preacher was essential to

continue to use his gift. I was thinking about that,

was really just moved by that, And I was thinking

about that story of Alexander White, and reminded me of

a man that was in our church. There was a

man in our church a few years ago, probably seven

years ago or more, or six maybe six passed away.

His name was Bruce Little. Many of y'all know Bruce.

Bruce was a deacon in our church. He was a

gifted man. He was gifted by God, he really was.

One of his gifts that he had was evangelism, and

he was devoted to that gift. He was devoted to

be a deacon. He was devoted to his gifted evangelism.

He was gifted at sharing the gospel. He was devoted,

he devoted. Back then we had weekly visitation where the

teams would go out and go do order to words

here the gospel, and Bruce was always there. They said

Bruce was a terrible driver, so he scared half the

people who's in the car with him on the way

to visitation. They thought that they were headed to eternity.

But he was devoted. He was devoted to go consistently.

He was devoted to visiting every week. He was devoted

to the gift. He's devoted to practice through the years

here at but we had evangelism training like Evangelism Explosion

and other training evangelism called faith, and Bruce, although he

was proficient at sharing the gospel, he would take every

class we had ever offered on evangelism, and he not

only took it, but he became fluent in whatever that

strategy was. He was gifted, he was devoted to use

his gift, and he's devoted to practice. One of the

beautiful stories I love about Bruce is that Bruce never

stopped using his gift. When I came past her here.

Eight years ago. I would go visit Bruce, and Bruce

had to mention his mind was leaving him and I'll

never forget as long as I live. Bruce praying for me.

His mind was not clear, but the moment he prayed

for me, he prayed the most beautiful prayer over his pastor.

But Jerry, his wife, would tell me that Jerry was

saved by the way, but that Bruce, even in his

mind of dementia, would never stop using his gift. She

would tell us many times that Bruce would say, Jerry,

are you sure you're a Christian? And he began going

through one of those evangelism training tools, trying to lead

his dear sweet wife to the Lord again. He never

stopped using his gift. I wondered today, how are you

devoted to your role? What is your gift? For Timothy,

it was teaching what is yours? Are you devoted to that?

Do you recognize your gift is a gift from the Lord?

How are you practicing your gift this morning? I pray

today that we'd be like Bruce, we recognize us from

the Lord. We'd be like Timothy, we'd recognize as a

gift from the Lord, we'd immerse ourselves and practice it

our gifts, knowing God as it wants to use us

for his glory. Would you pray with me? Lord? We

thank you Lord for this morning. We thank you Lord

for this message that you've given us. Lord. We declare

Lord today that this is your word, not mine. Lord.

I pray that you would give us hearts to be

moved by your word, hearts that would be committed to prayer.

I mean committed to public reading of scripture, privately and publicly. Lord,

that we would Lord, cherish Lord, the reading of your word. Lord,

help us. Lord, consider ways that you want us to

apply your word to our life. Lord today, what you're

commanding us to do, and how you're commanding us to respond. Lord.

I believe that everyone in this room today who's a

believer or that you've given them a gift. Lord, I

pray that they wouldn't neglect the gift that God You've

given them. Lord, I pray that they would pursue it,

that they would train in it and immerse themselves in it,

they would practice it, Lord, for your glory. Lord. We

love you today. I pray Lord that you would lead

us to respond to your word. Today, Lord, I pray

for someone here today that doesn't know you as Lord

and Savior. Lord. What they've pursued and what they've been

devoted to is a life of sin apart from you God.

But today Lord, you call them to repentance. Lord, you

call them the faith. Lord, I pray today that'd be

those in the sound of my voice that would surrender

their life to you, Lord, who would confess their need

of forgiveness, and Lord, confess their need to put their

faith in You for salvation. Today. Say Lord, if there's

here someone here today doesn't know you, Lord, I pray

you'd call them to faith today. Lord, we love you,

lead us in this time of invitation. We pray your name.

We pray all to