Calling & Encouragement (1 Timothy 4:11-5:2)

First Timothy chapter four verse eleven through five two.

Command and teach these things.

Don't let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity, until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.

Don't neglect the gift that is in you.

It was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the counsel of elders.

Practice these things, be committed to them, so that your progress may be evident to all.

Pay close attention to your life and your teaching.

Persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters with all purity.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

God, we pray that as we open your word here today, as we read it, as we understand it, as we apply it, that you would do all of those things in us.

Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would you take each and everything that you want to teach each and every one of us?

And would you show us?

Would you point it out?

Would it be like a flashing light when it's read or when it's said here this morning?

And that we'd be able to apply whatever it is that you want us to learn as individuals and as a church, and that we would be able to take those things and allow you to make those changes, Lord, so we can become more and more like Christ, having the character of Christ, we pray.

Lord, I pray this morning against distraction.

Lord, this as Amy was praying, there's just so much going on around the world and in our lives, and we probably walked in here with uh a lot of distractions.

Lord, I pray that we wouldn't leave them at the door and then pick them up as we leave, but we would lay them at the foot of the cross.

That we would allow you to take these things from us.

Your yoke is easy and your burden is light.

So, Lord, whatever we're carrying right now that you don't want us to, we lay that down at the foot of the cross and say, Here, Jesus, take this.

Help me, show me how to deal with all of the different things that are going on in my life.

Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So calling in ministry is so important.

That's what we're gonna be looking at here today with Timothy.

You know, knowing that you're doing what God has called you to do, knowing that you're doing what God has gifted you to do and wants you to continue to do, that is so important in a Christian life.

You know, sometimes we need reminders.

We need to go back to that calling, whatever that calling is, especially when things get hard.

We need to remind ourselves that no, this is hard, but I'm not gonna quit because this is what God wants me doing right now for his kingdom.

You know, today we really see Paul reminding Timothy of this.

We're kind of in that section, the whole book really, but really in that section of Paul reminding Timothy of his calling, reminding him of how he got there.

And we're also gonna see some reminders of what he really should be putting his hands to as he is shepherding this church and the way that he needs to be behaving, and the example that he needs to provide for this church.

You know, this is just me guessing, but looking at everything that we see Paul telling Timothy in both 1st and 2 Timothy, I think Timothy really struggled with doubt.

You know, probably a lot of us in here that struggle with that as well.

I think he probably was somebody that was easily defeated.

You know, he's he's doing what God's called him to, but as soon as something like pushes up against him, it sounds like he's somebody that's easily defeated.

That's just like, oh man, maybe I should quit.

And I think we can deduce also that he probably struggled with worry.

You know, I think these are all things that all of us can probably relate to in one way or another.

But today we're gonna see Paul encourage him to do what God has called him to do and to do it with confidence.

I mean, look at the first phrase alone in our verses here this morning.

He says, command and teach these things.

That's some really strong language, isn't it?

You know, this is giving Timothy permission to exercise the authority that God has given him in this church in Ephesus.

He says, Command these things.

This really is not gentle pastoring here.

He's saying to command them, to make them happen.

You know, this word command, it actually means to give orders from a place of authority.

You know, and that's really regarding everything that Paul has said to this point in 1 Timothy.

You know, as a refresher, I thought it'd be good for us, we've been in 1 Timothy for a while now, to kind of go through and remind ourselves, okay, what has Paul told Timothy to this point?

Well, if you remember in chapter one, he told Timothy to come up against these false teachers.

To stand up against these people and to not allow them to continue to teach this false doctrine.

And he told them to stand up against the people that don't know anything, but they wanted to be teachers.

And they were insisting that they knew things, but they actually didn't know what they were talking about.

He wrote about Jesus being the mediator that gave himself as a ransom for all.

You know, he's written about the role of men and women in the church, qualifications, if you remember, for elders and deacons.

And then last week, when Pete was teaching, we saw that he was telling them, do not pay attention to demonic teachings.

He talked to them also last week about really legalism, trying to be more spiritual by making up additional rules and thinking that that's going to make us more approved by God in some way.

And he told them to pay attention instead to the nourishing words of the faith and the good teaching that comes from God's word.

He told them to train in godliness.

Really, I think I like the idea of being a gym rat for godliness, to train in godliness.

And he talked about how it's beneficial not only for this life, but also for eternity if we were to train in godliness.

So it's keeping all of that in mind, of everything that he's really been writing to Timothy and the church in Ephesus.

It's keeping all of that in mind that we see verse 11, he says, command and teach these things.

Really, I think it's Paul's fatherly heart saying, Timothy, don't be timid.

You need to be strong.

You need to fight the good fight.

He's actually going to tell them that.

He says, Command and teach these things.

Really, this sentence structure that we're looking at here in verse 1, it means do it and don't stop.

Continually do these things, Timothy.

You know, if you remember, as we're kind of introducing this book, Timothy knew the Old Testament.

His mom and his grandma, they had been teaching him New Testament doctrine since he was a kid.

And then think about all the time that he spent with Paul as well.

Think about all of the New Testament doctrine, the doctrine of Jesus Christ that he got to hear.

And that as Paul's writing these letters, he was sitting alongside of him.

He knew Old Testament doctrine backwards and forwards, he knew New Testament doctrine backwards and forwards.

So Paul's encouraging Timothy, you know this stuff.

Don't be timid.

He says, I command you, the Lord commands you for you to command the church.

So be confident in that calling.

You know, I think part of this is like I was saying, Paul's fatherly heart that he has towards Timothy.

He calls him his son in the faith.

But he's saying, I think, don't let these church issues that have boiled up in Ephesus, don't let these argumentative people, don't let them defeat you.

Don't let them beat you down.

Because you need to stand in your calling.

You need to stand with conviction and strength and don't doubt that you know the truth.

He probably knows the truth between the Old Testament and the New Testament better than anybody in Ephesus.

But he's allowing all of this opposition to come up against him and to discourage him.

And verse 12, it has some of the same encouragement and admonishment.

Look at verse 12.

Don't let anyone despise your youth.

You know, Timothy's a young guy that's shepherding this church.

And this word youth in the Greek, it was used in a military sense, meaning old enough to be a soldier but younger than 40.

So most people guess that Timothy was probably between about 30 and 35 when Paul's writing him this letter.

Paul's probably around 70 or so at the time of writing this letter.

You know, I could just see for Timothy how it would be hard if, like, an uh an older guy in the faith with way more life experience came up and challenged him.

You know, maybe it was an older Jewish man who's been studying the whole Old Testament, you know, for 60, 70 years, comes up against Timothy and intimidates him.

Or maybe even comes with an eloquent argument about how Timothy's theology is wrong.

I can see how that would be intimidating for a younger guy.

You know, if you remember, I shared with you when I started, when we started this book and we introduced it, about my experience in vocational ministry, where I went from being a painting contractor to being a full-time employee at a church, and how I was leading worship at that time in the first couple years of ministry in this church with many different ethnicities, many different generations, pretty equally distributed.

It wasn't like, well, this church is this, and you know, it was just very diverse church.

And I got some of this that we're talking about, about the despising of youth.

People coming up and being like, What do you know?

I was about 20 at the time, well, mid-20s at the time.

And I've got I got the arguments of I've been helping lead worship since before you were born.

And you're gonna tell me what to do?

And so I kind of got to experience a little bit of this.

There was some of that in the worship team.

There was some of that from the church that we were, you know, leading in worship.

And the truth is they were right about some of it, but they were also very wrong about some of it as well.

But I drew so much comfort from this verse.

1 Timothy and 2 Timothy as a whole, but specifically this verse about not letting people despise your youth.

You know, this is really instruction on what to do when you're a young guy, and you know you're called to a position, and you're leading all kinds of people of all kinds of ages, and it's instruction, okay, Timothy, here's what you can do.

So don't let them despise your youth, but look at the next part of verse 12.

But set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Even if somebody despises Timothy's youth, this is something Timothy can still do, regardless of what people are thinking about him.

Really, to remain above reproach, to be an exemplary example of Christ.

If you remember from a couple of weeks ago, be a greasy watermelon.

If you remember that illustration, don't be something that people can grab onto.

Don't have a handle in which people can grab onto you.

You know, if somebody comes up against you and they want to attack you and they want to attack your character, don't give them anything credible that they can actually hold on to and bring against you.

You know, all these things mentioned at the end of verse 12, if you remember, they're very similar to the qualifications of an elder.

To be an example in the way that you talk and in the things that you say, in the way that you conduct yourself at church gatherings or every other day of the week.

And how you love God and how you love others, you know, in what you believe, how your faith is lived out, you know, in your purity, Timothy.

Be a pure young man, be an example of purity within the church.

Like I said, these are all things Timothy can do.

These are things that he can control through the strength of the Holy Spirit.

Obviously, he can't do it by white-knuckling it.

You know, he may not be able to control what people are saying about him, or people despising how young he is in comparison to them.

But these are the things he can't control.

Not only so he'll be above reproach, but he can be an example within the community and he can be an example within the church.

You know, verse 13 is some further instruction.

So look at that with me.

Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.

You know, this is a huge part of being an elder slash pastor, whichever term you want to use.

Reading, exhorting, and teaching God's word.

Really, we're talking about feeding the sheep.

You know, the reason that deacons were appointed in Acts 6, as we covered a couple weeks ago, was so that the elders could focus on the teaching of God's word and on prayer.

You know, if I can get a little personal here.

After my brain surgery years ago, feed my sheep was something that just kept coming back and God kept speaking to me.

I, you know, after surgery, I knew I was gonna be limited to what I could do, not just after that, but long term.

I was concerned about my family, what that looks like as a husband and father.

I was really concerned about you guys too.

Not that you didn't have other good people that could step in, but it was just like, God, you called me to plant this church with this team, and you called me to all these things, and I'm gonna be limited now.

What can I what can I do in this?

And I just felt like the Lord kept confirming over and over and over, feed my sheep.

Through different people, things I was hearing, things I was reading, feed my sheep.

I just kept thinking of Jesus and Peter on the shore after Jesus' resurrection.

He just kept telling Peter, Peter, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.

And this is I I took so much comfort in that.

I was like, Lord, I can't do much, but I I'm gonna do this as long as I can, and I'm gonna do this for our church, and that's my commitment.

Might not be able to do a lot of the other things I used to be able to do, but I'm just gonna continue as much as I can to feed my sheep because really that is one of the biggest roles of shepherding is feeding the sheep.

And I think this is what Paul is reminding Timothy of.

Hey, there's all this other stuff going on, but just continue to feed my sheep.

And here's another encouragement and admonishment.

Look at verse 14.

Don't neglect the gift that is in you.

It was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the counsel of elders.

If you remember, the one part of being an elder that was gift-related, hospitality is iffy, but the one that's for sure is specifically gift-related and not character-related, was teaching.

You have to be able to not only know God's word, but you have to be able to disseminate it.

You have to be able to teach it so that others can apply it to their life.

That's a huge part of what discipleship is.

You know, Timothy had this gift, and what's the point of God giving us a gifting if we're not gonna use it for his kingdom?

That's why he gives us the gifts and the talents that we have.

He gives us the spiritual gifts for the edification of his church.

You know, we're gonna see here in a little bit in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, it says, All scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good word.

2 Timothy 3:16

That's what God's word does right there.

And so Paul is telling Timothy, teach it.

Just get it out there, whatever way that it looks like, if it's through the reading or the admonishment or the teaching on your services or whatever it is, just get the word out there and let God's word, it's powerful.

Let God's word do the work within the people.

So he's just saying, Timothy, just get back to the basics.

Just teach God's word.

You know it.

Now just go teach it.

You know, and apparently Timothy actually should have had some extra confidence in his gifting and his calling to teach, because look at the end of verse 14.

It says, It was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the counsel of elders.

You know, we don't have details really on how this all went down and how this happened, but this is something that is a confirmation of his calling to be a teacher, to be a shepherd here in Ephesus.

And Timothy really should be drawing confidence that he's doing what he's supposed to be doing, and he was called by God specifically to do this.

He goes on, look at verse 15.

Practice these things, be committed to them, so that your progress may be evident to all.

You know, some of your translations right here might say, meditate on these things.

And the reason those two things are so different is because it really means both.

To dwell on and to put these things into practice.

Don't just think about it, don't just do it, but dwell on these things and put them into practice.

Really, like last week, be a spiritual gym rat.

Practice these things, stay in spiritual shape by doing these things, Timothy, and doing these things often.

You know, you when we think of practice, we should think of exercise.

You know, as you're as you're going through these things, both spiritually and physically, we can really compare these things.

But the interesting thing is, he says, so that the church can see it.

Timothy, he does these things in a way that the church can actually see, like, wow, he's really growing in his shepherding.

He's really growing in his teaching and his reading and his exhorting and his teaching of God's word.

You know, regardless of the person, regardless of the gifting, this should be something that we're all committed to.

Every single one of us that's a follower of Christ here is to exercising the gifts that God has given us.

Progress in our gifting that is noticeable to others.

Not for show, not for pride or anything like that, but if we're truly growing, the people that know us best are gonna see it.

And they're gonna say, oh wow, I can see the growth in this person, whether it's in their faith or whether it's in their gifting.

You know, it should scare us, I think, if we come to a place in our relationship with Christ where we're like, I'm good.

You know, I've I've gotten to where I want to be in my in my growth.

And I'm just gonna plateau and level out, and I'm gonna be good.

You know, I'm saved.

My sin is no longer as bad as it used to be.

It's actually better than the person I'm sitting next to.

You know, I'm comfortable.

I don't think I really need to grow anymore.

You know, I'm content with where I am.

Why do I need to dig into this further?

Be careful, because that is such a dangerous place of complacency to be.

You know, I believe there is no such thing as a plateau in our relationship with Jesus Christ or in our gifting that God has given us.

You're either working out or you're not.

You're either going to the gym or you're not going to the gym.

You know, you can't go to the gym and work out and maybe meet your weight goals, whether that's losing weight, you know, or maybe gaining muscle or whatever it might be.

You can't go to the gym and meet those weight goals.

You can't meet those health goals with your diet and get to that clothing size that you've always wanted to be.

You can't do that and have all those things and be like, sweet, I reached my goals.

I don't have to go to the gym anymore.

I'm just, you know, I'm just gonna plateau here.

This is everything I've ever wanted, health-wise and weight-wise, and all those things.

So I'm good.

I made it.

That's ridiculous because we all know that that's not how that works.

Because as soon as you stop going to the gym, your strength goes away, your weight comes back, your clothes get tighter, all those kind of things.

It's the same in our faith, it's the same in our giftings.

It has to be exercised like a muscle.

You can't stay, or you can't say, you know, I'm happy with where I am as a Christian.

And then so I'm gonna, you know, I know enough about the Bible, so I'm gonna stop reading it.

And, you know, I've I've prayed a lot in my life.

I've reached my goal, so I'm gonna stop praying.

I'm gonna stop exercising my giftings.

I mean, I'll I'll still use it as needed, but I'm not gonna grow in my giftings.

You're either moving forward when you're exercising or you're getting out of shape.

And it's the same thing spiritually.

We're either moving forward or we're going backwards.

I don't think there's a plateau in our faith.

So Paul encourages Timothy practice these things to the point where the church can see.

Your growth.

Not for show, not for pride, but when we're growing, it will be noticeable.

You know, in regards to Christian leaders, like the young Timothy that we're reading as male right now, I just want to encourage you, let's have grace for young leaders as they are following Christ, as they're developing their gifting, as they're stepping into their calling.

You know, nobody steps into Christian leadership or eldership or whatever it might be without taking some lumps, without having some moments of growing.

Every church that I've served at has shown so much grace.

You know, and I look back at different moments and I think, man, what was wrong with me?

Why did I do that?

You know, with the regret of how I handled certain situations and things that were just immaturity coming out.

There's moments of like, why didn't they fire me for incompetence?

You know, like how come they showed so much grace?

But I'm so thankful for that, for the opportunity to grow, the opportunity to make mistakes and then fix them and then grow from them.

And every time I had one of those moments, I it really was an opportunity for me to become more humble.

I was just like, oh yeah, I don't know what I'm doing.

Oh yeah, I need to handle that very differently next time, whatever it might be.

So I just want to encourage us, let's have grace with the younger people, especially within our church.

Let's have uh give them room for failure sometimes to try something new, and maybe it doesn't work out, but it's a step of growing for them.

Yeah, I really believe if we're not failing, then we're not trying.

And then we're not learning as well.

And then the last admonishment in this chapter, at least from Paul, he says, verse 16, pay close attention to your life and your teaching.

So two things a shepherd needs to really keep a focus on how they're living and how they're teaching.

You know, this is for Timothy regarding pastoring specifically, but we can all apply this to our lives in some capacity.

We can all receive this instruction to pay close attention to our life and what we're teaching people both through our mouth, what we're saying, and our example.

We can all apply that to our life.

The enduring word commentary puts it like this without giving heed to his life, Timothy might suffer shipwreck.

Without giving heed to his doctrine, Timothy might lead others astray or leave them short of God's salvation.

And that's why.

That's why a pastor, a shepherd specifically needs to focus on these things.

But we all need to focus on those things as well.

What's coming out of our mouth and what the things that we're doing.

Which leads right into the second half of verse 16.

Persevere in these things, in his life and teaching, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.

What?

What did that just say?

It almost makes it sound like salvation isn't by grace.

You know, it's almost like saying that if we try hard enough, then we'll be saved, doesn't it?

At first reading, at least.

But what am I gonna say?

We need to look at the context, right?

Timothy is a pastor that Paul is encouraging to boldly teach the word and to call out the false teachers and all these people that want to argue but they don't know what they're talking about.

So I want you to go up to verse one of chapter four here.

Look at verse one with me.

Just to let's grab all the context here.

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.

Now go down to verse six.

If you point these things out in his teaching to the brothers and sisters, you'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed.

Halfway through verse eight, look at that.

Says, Godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Look down at verse 10.

For this reason we labor and strive because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe.

That's our context of this verse.

To call out the false doctrine, to not let your brothers and sisters go down that road, whatever road it might be, to practice godliness for their own benefit and for eternity, and then to be an example, Timothy, to be an example to them and to teach them in that way.

And in so doing, all of those things within that context, you will not only be saved, but your example and your teaching as you do all of these things will save your congregation from being led astray as well.

You know, when we look at it in context, it's like, oh yeah, that makes sense.

It's when we zoom in on it and we look at it just all by itself that it's like, oh my gosh, salvation is not by grace.

No, it's 100% by grace.

But these are the things that Timothy can be doing in this capacity to not only help himself but help his congregation as well.

Now, that's the end of that chapter, but in chapter five here, we're going to talk about how Timothy is to handle the different relationships as a leader within the church.

And what I want to point out before we even start going through this, the overarching theme here is respect.

In every relationship, we can draw it back to respect.

So look at chapter 5, verse 1.

Don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father.

You know, being in a leadership position over someone that is older than you can have its challenges.

It really can have its challenges.

Being the older person in that relationship of having somebody younger than you leading you, it has its own set of challenges as well.

Because taking spiritual direction from somebody that doesn't have nearly the life experience that you do, that can be really hard.

So this relationship has to be treated delicately and with a lot of respect, really on both ends of that relationship.

There's an unmistakable theme in scripture, and I hope you've seen it well, of respecting your parents, honoring your parents.

And Paul says here, you need to treat these older guys in your congregation.

You need to treat them as you would your own father, with honor and with respect and lots of it.

You know, something I'm afraid of are in our culture that we do a terrible job at.

Not just older men as fathers, but as we're going to see, older women as mothers.

But in our culture, we do such a terrible job at respecting and honoring the older generation.

You know, gray hair should really be a crown of glory.

That's what scripture tells us.

It really should be revered and respected.

It should be seen as built in wisdom.

It should be seen as proof of life experience.

You know, but most in our culture want to hide their gray hair, don't they?

This is not a sermon against hair dye by any means.

If you dye your hair, this is not what it's about.

It's about how we don't value age in our culture anymore.

Instead, we're all trying to hide it in some way, it seems like.

We need to value life experience.

We need to value wisdom.

We need to value a life that's been lived.

But our culture instead wants to worship youth, don't we?

We worship staying young and looking young, trying to feel young.

We allow the youth in our culture to set trends and decide what's ris and what's cringe, right?

I said that just to be cringe, by the way.

They call the older generation boomers as an insult.

Like they're out of touch and they're tone deaf because they think they've got it all figured out and they just have to deal with these people for now.

Can we please be different?

As a church, can we please be different than the world in that way?

When you see somebody with gray hair or somebody that should have gray hair, start asking them questions.

You know, we have so much to learn from our senior saints, from any generation that's older than us.

I'm afraid that we're not taking advantage of that.

Not just in society, but within church as a whole.

We should be going to these people, asking them for marriage advice, asking them for parenting advice, financial advice, addiction advice, maybe, spiritual guidance or decision making in our own lives.

Just saying, like, here's what I'm going through.

Have you ever experienced this?

Have you ever been through this?

What did you do?

We need to start asking more questions.

They may be able to share some really hard life lessons that they learn from experience in a way that we might not have to go through that same experience to learn it for ourselves.

To the younger generation, every one of you that is in a younger generation, and there's somebody here that is an older generation, start asking questions.

It's really the heart of discipleship.

The older generation teaching the younger generation.

And we really need that within the church, to think that a younger generation has it all figured out and can just do it way better than the previous generations.

We're just lying to ourselves.

Start asking questions.

This is how that's one way that we can respect the older people in our congregation, both the men and the women.

Paul goes on, next part of verse one, and he said, younger men as brothers.

You know, for men that are younger than you, maybe for men that are about the same age as you, just the younger men in general, love them and teach them as you would your own brother.

Well, a brother that you like, maybe.

I like my brother, by the way.

Yeah, we have a good relationship.

But treat them like a brother, one that you're rooting for, one that you want to see succeed.

Help them to grow to be the man that God created them to be as a family, because we're all part of the family of God.

So once again, respect, right?

Now look at verse 2.

Older women as mothers.

Treat older women like you would your own mom with love and with respect and with honor and with admiration.

I mean, these are the women that changed your diapers for you.

You should have a lot of respect and honor for them.

Respect their life experience, respect their wisdom, and be gentle with them as well.

Be patient with them as well.

Never lord your authority over them in any way.

And then the next part of verse 2, and the younger women as sisters with all purity.

I think we should all think of maybe like a little sister.

You know, one that you'd be very protective over.

You would want men to treat your little sister with respect and good intentions and not as objects, not as something to be abused.

And then he says, with all purity.

I think that's what Paul's getting at.

You know, there's nothing in the Bible that tells us whether Timothy was married or not.

But regardless, Timothy needs to treat all of these younger women in the church as little sisters in the faith.

You know, it's so disheartening to see when a pastor falls into some sort of sexual sin.

You know, and I think this is a warning.

This is why I think Paul adds purity to this one direction here.

Stay pure in every way with your sisters, I think is what he's telling Timothy here.

In every relationship, in every interaction, stay pure in that, Timothy.

You know, I saw a quote recently, and I can't remember the author, you know, but it said in the Old Testament scriptures, the strongest man, the wisest man, and the godliest man all fell into sexual sin.

Strongest man, Samson, sexual sin.

Wisest man, Solomon, all kinds of sexual sin.

Most spiritual man, David.

He fell into sexual sin in multiple different ways, the worst of which was with Bathsheba.

But the strongest man, the wisest man, and the godliest man all fell into sexual sin.

Think about that.

That's crazy when you think about that.

So Paul says, respect them with all purity, like you would your own sister.

You know, everything that we cover today, it is specifically instruction for Timothy in Ephesus and the Church of Ephesus, but this can be applied to every follower of Christ, one way or another.

To stand in your calling.

And you may say, you know, I don't know my calling.

I want to encourage you, wherever God has you right now, simply be faithful.

Maybe you find yourself in a place where maybe God hasn't called you, maybe you pulled a Jonah or you just weren't listening.

I just want to encourage you, if that is you right now, pray and pray and pray that God will lead you into that specific calling that He has on your life.

But in the meantime, be faithful where you are until He moves you.

You know, a lot of you are probably right in the middle of your calling right now, and you don't even know it.

Because you've just simply been faithful to follow the Lord and to step by step just do what he's telling you and to go where he's leading you.

Perfect.

Stay there and be faithful until he moves you into something else.

Now, the second thing that we can get from this passage that we can all apply, use the gifts God has given you for his kingdom.

However, God has naturally gifted you, grow in those giftings.

In ways that the people around you can notice.

Again, not because you're showing off or being proud, but because you're growing, and people are like, wow, like I can see the Lord moving in and through that person.

However, he's naturally gifted you, just use that for his kingdom.

You know, it might be the gift of hospitality, might be the gift of teaching, like we just saw with Timothy, might be the gift of wisdom or encouragement or the gift of helps or whatever it might be.

Exercise those gifts like a muscle.

Grow in them.

Keep going to the spiritual gym and use all of that for God's kingdom.

Then the third thing we can all apply, treat everyone within the church with respect.

It really should be everybody, but specifically in our relationships, our family relationships that we have in God's kingdom.

Treat everybody with respect.

Older people as parents, younger people as siblings, because we're all in the family of God together.

So we really need to love one another with honor and respect in that way.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for how rich it is and just all of the different things that you've had for us here today.

Lord, help us to apply these things.

Help us to not just hear these words and walk out those doors and not remember anything till next week.

But Lord, what it whatever way that you've pricked our heart this morning, whatever way that you've challenged us, um, I pray, God, that we would be able to meditate on those things and to think about those things and to allow you to change us.

And whatever ways you've encouraged us this morning to maybe step up or step out.

Lord, help us to be faithful, to follow through in those things.

But Lord, help us to become more and more like Christ on a daily basis, we pray.

God, you are so good and you love us so much, and you desire us to become more like Jesus, not for no reason at all, but because you know that's what's best for us.

So help us to to do these things, Lord, for your glory, for your honor, for your kingdom.

Because we love you in return.

Not because we feel obligated, but just simply because we love you and we know that you want what's best for us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.