Courageous Faith: Embracing Godliness in a Challenging World

Our reading this morning is 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 11 to 20.

1 Timothy 6:11–20

But you, men of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness,

godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you were made your

good confession in the presence of many witnesses, in the sight of God,

who gives life to everything,

and of Christ Jesus, who, while testifying before Pontius Pilate,

made the good confession,

I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing

of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time,

God the blessed and only ruler,

the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light,

whom no one has seen or can see.

To him be honour and might forever. Amen.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant,

nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,

but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and be willing to share.

In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for

the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.

Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge.

This is the word of the Lord.

I don't know whether you've had a text message string from me,

but generally it's truncated, which basically means I text something and then

a couple of seconds later, I think of something else that I want to text.

So then I'll text the next thing.

And then a couple of seconds later, I think I need to text the next thing.

And eventually if you've strung them all together and kind of,

you got what I actually wanted to say, because my mind's thinking all the time

going, oh, maybe I need to say that. Maybe I need to do it.

And it's been like this with the end of Paul's letter, because he's just about

to die. We know that from history.

He wrote another letter, which he probably didn't expect that he was going to

write in the first place, but he wrote this letter.

And he finishes off, at the end of the day, I'm going to tell you all about God and then amen.

Oh, and by the way, and then he goes on to the next part.

So it might seem a little truncated throughout, but it has a central message

and we'll see that as we get into it. So let's pray.

Dear Lord, we pray that as we open up your word, as we think about what you

have to say, that it would touch our hearts through your spirit.

We know that your word is powerful and effective on our life and able to cut

through all of our thoughts and get to the heart of the matter.

And we know that you do it through your spirit. So I pray, Lord,

that today you would speak through your spirit to your people.

And I pray this in your name. Amen.

150 years ago, some of the most well-known artists in the world really struggled.

I don't know whether you know this story or this part of history.

They argued intensely about what they were to do with their art because the

prevailing opinions of the day was that your art is only legitimate if it was shown in the Salon.

And the Salon was in France's culturally recognized recognised showcase for

all the would-be artists in Paris.

The Salon was not only where you got your reputation, it is the only place where

you could ever sell your art.

So if you weren't featured in the Salon, you were not going to sell your art

and you were not going to be recognised as an artist if you weren't approved by the Salon.

So the odds were really absolutely well and truly against this group of people

to continue to be artists or even to be recognized artists.

And they were under pressure. They were under intense pressure.

This group of people who were nonconformists, they were different.

They had a different style. They didn't fit into the norm.

They were rejected by the gatekeepers of the day.

There was a problem. They were a problem for the art world.

And they asked, what do we do with them? What do we do with these rejected artists

who are not part of the salon, not part of the recognized art union, so to speak?

Would they bend to the pressure? Would they step out in a new direction?

And in doing so, would they risk losing the approval of many?

Very famous story. going against the grain, against the art of the day,

the Impressionists started their own show in the city.

And according to art critics, in the history of art, there has never been a

more important exhibition than what was known as the Salon of the Rejected or

the Salon of the Refused.

And opening day changed the course of art history forever.

And today, the paintings of Monet and Renoir and others not only are hung in

major galleries throughout the world, together they're worth billions.

My point is this, that what was considered a problem in that time is now a masterpiece.

The Christian faith in Timothy's world was considered a problem.

And in many ways, in today's world, it is still considered a problem. them.

The Christian message has always been dangerous for the popular held beliefs of the day.

And in Timothy times and even today, the odds of the church actually surviving are slim.

Ephesus was deeply immersed into emperor worship and revered the goddess of

Artemis, who was the central figure of religious life.

The locals were so determined to protect the worship of Artemis that they expelled

any any teaching or lifestyle that threatened her beliefs.

The gospel of Jesus, which exposes false claims of power, authority and promise

and hope, declared that Jesus was the only true way.

Unsurprisingly, this message was rejected and Paul was expelled from Ephesus.

And we see that in Acts 20.

But it's not just in Paul's time.

The Christian faith has always been a problem for the status quo.

For the Christian gospel goes against the belief of selfish pleasure,

the quest for self-righteousness and worldly pride or making a name for yourself.

The Christian message is against that.

And Paul in chapter six, earlier than what was read, could not make it any clearer.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. Goes against the culture, goes against society.

Themselves with many grievances. For he says this, radical teaching back then

and radical teaching today.

We're in a world that strives for self achievement and self pride and promoting yourself.

You see the day that Jesus came out of the grave, just like the impressionists

had their art show that changed the history of the world.

The day that Jesus came out of the grave is the day that changed absolutely everything.

Everything and we're not talking about history of art here we're talking about

absolutely everything the good news is about restoration it is about freedom

it's about equality it's about power it's about hope and it's about the call

to live in the light of the resurrection,

eternal life right here right now that's the message that we proclaim at the heights church.

It's the call to live in the light of eternity, but it's not easy.

It's much easier to synchronize or segregate than it is to be in a world,

to be in the world, but not of the world.

Sadly, some people in churches have done that. They synchronize their life and

their worship to become exactly the same as everyone around them.

People in churches lose their distinction, or in Jesus' words,

they lose their saltiness.

So there's no distinction anymore and

there's no influence anymore and paul calls this

in chapter one of one timothy that they have

shipwrecked their faith and we see

that today but others don't synchronize they segregate themselves segregate

themselves from their culture from their world and in some ways they create

some kind of sectarian subculture safely removed where where they can easily

become critics of all people and not be loving to those around.

But our mission at the highest is to follow Jesus where we're called to be at

in our community, in our culture, and in our city.

Now, if we're to thrive, not just survive, but to thrive in this ever-changing

culture, what needs to happen is what Timothy needed in his culture, courage.

We need to have courage.

I wanted Heath, but we didn't get there in time to sing.

Take heart for the world is not that Jesus has overcome. In this world, we'll have trouble.

Our God will overcome. Look at Monet. Look at the Impressionist movement.

They went against the tide, even though it was against popular opinion.

Their courage changed history and the same is true for us. What we need is courage.

Courage to be who we are and courage to live the way we are to live in trusting in Jesus.

So Paul writes to Timothy and here to us at the Heights this morning.

Now, just a question out there. What would you say to Timothy?

What would you say to him living in that world? What kind of advice or counsel

or encouragement would you give him at the church of Ephesus?

And that's not to yell out. That's to think in your own mind.

First, Paul says this to Timothy, and it might be different than what you would

say, but this is what Paul says.

He doesn't go on about and rehash all the different scenarios that was happening within Ephesus.

He doesn't go and say, I just want to remind you all the things that I spoke

about from chapter one to five.

He says this. He says, first of all, Timothy, in this world where you're going

to have trouble, where it's going to push back against the culture,

this is what you need to remember.

You need to remember, firstly, who you are.

He says in verse 11, but for you, Timothy, O man of God.

Now that phrase, O man of God, is so common that we kind of forget its impact. We forget its meaning.

By using the phrase, O man of God, Paul is placing Timothy in the category of

the numerous Old Testament servants, those who knew the presence of God and

those who spoke the truth of God.

God however Paul is not setting Timothy apart

from other church leaders like if

he's if Timothy is the only man of God and

everyone else is not Paul is making a contrast between him and those who have

walked away as one commentator tells us he's not referring to Timothy's position

in the church he's addressing who he is in Christ he's a man of God and the

same phrase was used in second Timothy,

the other letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, and we have, applying generally

to everyone who studies God's word and seeks to be equipped by it, is a man or woman of God.

Now, at this point, we need to remember that Timothy wasn't some spiritual giant.

He was young, he was timid, he was physically weak, and he was in way over his head.

Paul basically says, is, yes, I know, Timothy, that you are seeing all the trends

that are around you. You see the culture that's around you.

And you might even be depressed in some ways of people growing hard and jaded

and cynical and people moving this way or that way with the false teaching that is going on.

And a lot of people may be even going in the opposite direction than what Paul's

message was for the gospel.

But as for you, Timothy, oh man of God.

You are God's servant. You are God's minister. And men and women today who seek

to know God and are concerned with the things of God could also rightly be called men and women of God.

You are a man or a woman of God in this church.

Now, while most people here this morning are not vocational ministers,

you are called to ministry as a Christian.

You're called to be a minister as a Christian.

Now, I don't know the way if you're on roster, what you see the roster to be like,

whether you see if you're standing at the door, whether you see that if you're on morning tea,

or if you see that if you're on projector, or if you see that if you're on sound,

if you see that if you're singing or whatever you're doing, or you're cleaning

during the week or doing grounds in the week, do you know that you are a minister of the gospel?

We're on about the heights being there so that we would present Christ to everyone

one and present everyone mature in Christ.

That's largely our mission. And you are part of that, no matter what you are doing.

You're a minister of the gospel. And Paul teaches that if you're a believer,

every one of you, if you're a believer, then you're a minister.

And in Baptist language, you're the priesthood of all believers.

We're all ministers. So that means if you're a man who has trusted in Jesus

and you're concerned with the things of God, you're a man of God.

And if you're a woman who has put your faith and trust in Jesus and you're concerned

with the things of God, you are a woman of God.

You are, full stop, you are who God says you are, a minister of God's word, minister of the gospel.

Not who Timothy is by his own strength. It's not like muster up everything you

have and all the talents you have and all the training that you have,

and that's who you're going to be.

No, he is who he is full stop outside of what he has done.

And so it is with us. As the heights moves on and moves forward in Christ,

we're not addressing stuff from our human strength, But we are in fact addressing

the power of God that is alive in you and at work in you and in us as a church.

So the first thing Paul says to Timothy and us, and what I wanted to remind

us of here this morning, is that remember, men and women of God, who you are in Jesus.

You're a child of God. You have been set free.

And when the pressures are upon you to live in this world, to live in this culture,

before any of the other instructions that Paul gives, before any of the other

encouragement or exhortations that he gives, before any of the wisdom that he

pours upon the church, God's people at the heights remember who you are.

You are a child of God.

You are a man and woman of God.

The gospel, the good news of Jesus is that you're a new creation in Christ your

past is gone and you may very well sit here and say, how can I possibly be a

man and woman of God? Look what I have done in the past.

Now, if you look to Paul, you don't get any worse than that.

We've talked about that in sermons in the past, but I'm talking about you.

You might sit there and go, how could I possibly be used of God?

How could I possibly be used of him to spread that message of salvation?

How could I possibly be used within the church so that I'm as valued as every

other person. I'm not a spiritual giant.

I'm just me. And Paul says to Timothy and says to us that everything that you

do flows out of who you are.

So he goes on and talks about what you are to do.

It's no accident in our mission statement that it starts with to know Christ,

to grow in Christ and to show Christ to each other in the world.

You need to know Christ. And I'm not talking about intellectually knowing Christ.

I'm talking about you need to know Christ in your heart and in your life.

You need to know who you are and you need to become who you are in Christ.

As one commentator said, Paul's instruction to Timothy is become who you are, Timothy, in Christ.

Embrace the antithesis that Christ's death and resurrection has introduced into your life.

That's what he's saying to him. Remember who you are. I'm a man of God.

And from there, Paul says, and here's what what I want you to do.

Here's how you're supposed to live.

You're to become who you are.

Question is also for us, isn't it? If I'm a man of God or if you're a woman

of God, how am I supposed to live in the light of my new identity in Jesus? What am I supposed to do?

And as I said before, you would expect that Paul would go through the whole

list of things that he's done before.

So what I want you to do is go in and do all of this stuff, but he doesn't do

that. He says something about his character and about his godliness.

Remember right back at the start, but maybe you haven't read that part,

but it says godliness with contentment is great gain.

He says that to Timothy, he's saying, look, Timothy, what I want you to do is

I want you to address your godliness.

I want you to be content with where you're at.

Now, where the pressure in this time will be that you go out and make money,

that you go out, your church becomes famous, that you go out and you spread

the word so that your name becomes great.

He's saying, no, godliness with contentment is great gain.

You will rest at peace knowing that God is at work in your character of your

life and you'll be content in knowing that God is doing what he is doing in the church.

Maybe you're saying this side of eternity that the false teachers will still

be there. People will still have all their differences.

There'll be all these people that will still have, you'll You'll have difficulty

fulfilling a roster for sure.

People will always argue over the brand of toilet paper that you use.

Maybe you're saying that.

I'm not sure. But Paul cuts right through all of this, and he starts with the command to do what?

He says, flee from evil.

First thing you need to do, Timothy, is flee from evil. He says that to him,

but he also says this to us, man and woman of God, flee these things.

So right here is a warning to Timothy. It's a word of caution there,

which we would do well to hear.

Flee from what? He's addressing all the things that he mentioned before,

earlier on the letter, like the bad doctrine, the endless arguments over doctrine,

the disunity in the church, flee from evil living.

And Paul's warning to Timothy is to flee from those things, run from it,

run from evil like you would run from danger.

I think most of us are accustomed to what it means to run from danger.

If all you got to do is look at the internet, look at YouTube,

search up there, run from danger, and you'll see pages and pages and pages of

videos of people who are running from danger, and most of them and not winning,

and everyone has a good laugh about it.

Paul's saying, hey, it's simple. You don't need to complicate it too much.

Run from evil. But however, as humans, we have a terrible tendency to run away

from what is good and run towards what is bad for us.

And Paul is saying, wake up. Don't just sit around and get entangled with arguments

and gossip and disputes and and effectively ruin the church.

Run from bad doctrine, run from destructiveness, run from divisiveness.

Don't linger or meander around evil, but run.

Get away from it. In chapter 5, which we didn't cover, Paul highlights what some are doing.

They're just meandering around and allowing all the problems,

all the evils to ruin their life.

In this case, as he's talking to Timothy, shipwrecked the church.

Let's not complicate it any more than what it is, flee.

We're going to bring some Greek into it, which is not normally what I do,

but bring some Greek into it. This is something we're to continually do,

we're to flee and to keep on fleeing.

It's the present tense, which means that we need to make it a habit in our life.

It's not something we just do once, something that we're always on guard for

before because Satan is always going to try to trap us and we need to be aware

of the things we need to run from and run away.

Now, when we feel as though we've got it all together, Paul slips in a little

something in one of his letters.

He says, those who stand, those who think that you've got it all together,

those who think that you don't need to flee anymore, take heed lest you fall.

Christian life, though, if I just finish like that, it's just negative,

isn't it? We're just running away from things, running away from things,

running away from things.

It's not all about avoiding some things. Some people are obsessed by that side of the equation.

They're so obsessed with avoiding evil, but they're not obsessed with the next

present tense, which is to pursue good.

That's the next command, the encouragement that Paul gives to this young Pastor

Timothy, and what we receive as a church is to flee from these things and pursue righteousness.

You can run away from something, but you can run straight into a hole, can't you?

I couldn't find a picture, which is really sad. There's a guy called Mike Farmworth,

who was at a place called Copse Coliseum.

And we all had a good laugh about it after we knew that he wasn't going to go

to hospital, that he wrote a bull called Tex.

Now, I don't know whether you You saw the news the other day,

but there was this big Texas longhorn that got out from somewhere and is running down the street.

And they all had a good laugh about it. We're talking about one side of the

horns is about from here to there and the other side is huge.

And there was a bull in this rodeo circle called Tex and Mike Farnworth,

who hadn't rode a whole lot of bulls before, but I convinced him to get on one.

And so he got onto the bull Tex in Copse Coliseum at Hamilton, Ontario. Terrier.

And so what happens is that this massive crowd that's everywhere,

I'm standing behind the chute helping him in his nerves and to get on.

And he got out in the arena and Tex threw him off within about two bucks right in front of him.

And he was so disorientated, he ran.

Right at Tex's head, straight there. He got in by one of these longhorns and

it was a bit like one of those roller coaster things that you have with matchbox cars.

It just went zip and he went flying up there and I guarantee you would have

went probably as high as the projector there and landed on the ground.

We all laughed and then I thought, strike, hope he's all right.

And eventually he was all right. Sometimes we can see the danger in front of

us and we can not run towards what's safe.

We can run towards what's dangerous for us.

And Paul says, you're not to be like that.

You're to run from evil and run and pursue righteousness and godliness and faith

and love and endurance and gentleness.

You're to pursue that as much as you would pursue success in your life, isn't it something?

It's a great thing to contemplate, isn't it?

As you would pursue success in your life, no matter what field you're in,

with great zeal, you pursue getting your mortgage down.

With great zeal, you pursue your job and your career and your vocation and your

education and whatever it might be.

For great zeal, did I I strive to be who I wanted to be within my world of athletics.

And he's saying with that same zeal, we are to pursue, that we long for success,

we are to pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and gentleness.

Now, we kind of get righteousness, I think, in some ways. We spoke about it a lot.

It's the love God and love others, justice and mercy and all the things that

come along with it. But godliness, we can be a bit vague on sometimes with godliness.

Andy highlighted last week, godliness is next to cleanliness.

So is that all I need to do is to make sure my car is clean?

I've kind of lost at that, by the way, if ever you've seen my car.

But what does godliness mean?

It simply means this, to live in an open and obedient relationship with God.

Open and obedient relationship with God, to be before him and say,

God, you see everything that's in me and I want it to be like you.

You know what I need and you know what needs to be corrected in my life.

You know how I need encouragement, so bring encouragement into my life.

So living openly before you, oh God, I desire to do what you say under the power that you give.

That's godliness we're to

pursue faith and trust in god and love

which is concern for others and in

that pursuit we are to be steadfast we

are to endure we're not just to go out it's once again it goes back to that

great word we're constantly putting on we're constantly pursuing we're not to

stop we're to be steadfast in our resolve which is another way of saying endurance

endurance, but it won't be easy.

So Paul says to Timothy, I want you to fight the good fight.

I want you not only to run, I want you to stand firm and fight the good fight of faith.

And in this context, the good fight of faith is against the false teachers that

Timothy was contending with and had wandered from the truth.

They had deviated from what the apostle taught, which we now have as the New Testament.

And Paul implored Timothy not to do the same, but guard the fight for the truth.

But we need to notice that it's the faith, that it is the truth that he's talking about.

In the original language, first and foremost, the truth is about sound doctrine.

God did not leave us in the dark.

He gave us his truth and it's been revealed in the scriptures and applied to

our hearts through the Holy Spirit. it.

And that's what gives us the backbone to live.

And he's saying, guard that, fight for that, make sure that that is part of

you, has immersed into your heart and you're living like that. Don't push it aside.

Involved in the fight, in the battle, but fight, whether it's in sport as in

fighting for against the opponent or in war, it carries the same sort of sense.

It's a focused discipline to resolve, to use all your energy against your opponent.

Everything that God has given us as a church against the opponent,

everything that God has given to you against the opponent.

There's a guy, Kenneth West, who's a renowned Greek word scholar,

put it like this when he's talking about the fight.

He says, this is how you to understand the quote from Paul.

The phrase fight, the good fight, refers to the beautiful display of his art,

which the Greek athlete presented to the thousands in the stadium,

and in Paul's sentence, to the beautiful technique inspired by the Holy Spirit,

which he used in gaining victory over sin and in the life of living a life pleasing to God.

We need the Holy Spirit so that we might function in a way that reflects the

truth of the Scripture, this beautiful and noble fight.

It means that when we talk about fighting, when we talk about contending for

the faith, it is not this arrogance, but it's gentle, humble approach towards other people.

When we're talking about truth, we're to live the life of faith in such a way

that reflects the beauty of Christ. Christ, but it takes work.

This is the fight, Paul says, and this is how it's going to feel.

It's going to feel like a fight.

He's describing how it's going to feel when you're wrestling with the challenges

of living in this world, but not of this world, both inside and out,

and it will feel like a fight.

Each turning away from sin and turning to righteousness is a mini victory,

he says, in a much larger battle.

Paul says, yeah, it's going to be a fight. That's going to be a good fight.

And every effort that you make in the fight will be rewarded at the end of time

where you'll see the great victory that we have in Jesus.

It's just like it's going to happen on Thursday when the Blues get victory over Queensland.

They wouldn't say, why have we worked so hard to beat them?

Would Monet and Renard look back and say, why did we ditch the salon?

Why didn't we just? No, it's the fight that was it that we're in.

I think all of this is a lifelong fight. It's a lifelong athletic season that

will result in the great underdog story.

And like all the odds are against you, you will stand victorious with Jesus in what you do.

But the battle begins in the heart.

I believe some of the greatest battles are fought in secret,

the affections and the inclinations of your heart and the wrestling of your soul.

And we see that in Jesus when he was in the garden.

He wanted to draw, which I think you do, and I think that's part of the confession

amongst many witnesses and the confession of your faith amongst people,

that together as a church,

we build each other up, we gain strength from each other, we gain encouragement

with each other, We may be even growing techniques from each other to overcome

the battles that we find within our life.

Maybe we have wisdom on how to deal with cultural issues in our work or our

school or whatever it might be.

But the battle will start in your heart.

As the battle went for Jesus, his friends weren't with him. They weren't with

him to support him. They weren't even with him to support him in prayer.

But he went and prayed because he knew the battle that was coming before him,

him the fight that he needed to fight and going to the cross.

And we need to learn from that.

It starts with our heart. It starts with prayer of you standing before God.

And as a church, as we go into battle, as we go in to fight the good fight,

as we go in to work out our salvation here at this church, it will start with prayer.

And we need to start it with prayer.

Last thing Paul says is that take hold of eternal life.

Paul has given Timothy ethical instruction to flee greed and pursue God's wholesome

character and doctrinal instruction and stand and fight for the truth.

And now this third one instruction relates to his experience.

See, take hold of eternal life, which you were called when you made the good

confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Is the emphasis on eternal life is not on the duration of how long he'll be

with Jesus, how long it's about the quality of eternal life,

about the abundant life.

Jesus said this about eternal life. Now, this is eternal life that you may know God.

Only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent.

We need to know him. We need to immerse ourselves in him.

We need to give our heart to him. So Paul speaks of eternal life as something

that we have now, but we also realize at the end of time in its fullness.

I think the emphasis that Paul is talking about is the here and now.

And it raises us the question, doesn't it? Why does Paul want to relate that

to Timothy, a Christian leader to take hold of it.

He had already received eternal life, I can imagine. He trusted in Jesus.

How can he take hold of what he already has? And the answer is,

I believe, that it's possible sometimes to possess something without really embracing it.

Paul is urging Timothy to embrace and make eternal life his own.

Eternal life is knowing God in your life as we choose to live under the Holy

Spirit, the life that God has enabled us to live.

Paul was calling Timothy to move from the knowing of theory to the knowing of

experience of living out eternal life that he will fully realize in his life.

At the end of it, if you want to summarize what Paul was saying,

it's this, know who you are. You're a man and woman of God.

And as a man and woman of God, live out who you are under the strength and the power that he gives.

Flee from wickedness and flee from evil.

Pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love with endurance.

Live under the eternity that you're eternal, that you're free,

you've been When equipped, you are children of God.

So do that with great strength and great power that he gives.

What a great way to finish our series. Let's pray.

Lord, I pray for those who may believe that they're a man and woman of God in

theory, but not step out and practice and understand that.