Passing The Test Series

Passing the Test - 1 Timothy 3 - 10/18/08

Join me in turning to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 3. Timothy is towards the end of the New Testament, in the second half of the Bible. We have been going through this book together.

This time of year can be a scary time for kids in school, because now after several weeks in school, they have received homework, that have had a number of quizzes, and now they start taking TESTS! You might shrug off the homework and quizzes, but the tests determine whether you pass or fail. Tests are important to show how we are doing. And we take tests all our life, not just in school.

I have a test for you today to take. If you have a pen or pencil and scrap of paper, get it out right now. I have a couple questions for you to consider. Everybody ready? Question #1.

1. How many outs are there in an inning of baseball?

2. Some months have 30 days, some have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?

3. In which US state is it against the law for a man to marry his widow’s sister?

4. If you walked into a dark room in the winter with a match, and the room had a kerosene lamp, an oil healter, and a wood-burning stove, which would you light first?

5. If you went to bed at 8 o’clock AM and set the alarm to get up at 9 oclock the next morning, how many hours would you sleep?

6. A farmer had 17 sheep; all but 9 died. How many does he have left?

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1. How many outs are there in an inning of baseball? Six, three for each team.

2. Some months have 30 days, some have 31 days. How many months have 28 days? 12 - all of them have 28 days!

3. In which US state is it against the law for a man to marry his widow’s sister? In every state it is illegal for a dead man to marry

4. If you walked into a dark room in the winter with a match, and the room had a kerosene lamp, an oil healter, and a wood-burning stove, which would you light first? The match

5. If you went to bed at 8 o’clock AM and set the alarm to get up at 9 oclock the next morning, how many hours would you sleep? 1 hour - the alarm will go off in 1 hour

6. A farmer had 17 sheep; all but 9 died. How many does he have left? Nine

Hopefully, you all passed the test. The reality is that all through life we face tests of various kinds. We are in an election season right now, and I hope you are putting the candidates to the test. Don’t just vote for whoever you think looks attractive or has a nice smile. Check them out to see what they believe in. How do their positions match God’s word? Even on a local level, don’t pick a candidate based on the number of yard signs you see. There are some candidates that are in my party that have a lot of signs that I am not planning on voting for. Put the candidates to the test.

And even in the church, we need to give people tests. I came across a cute reading I’d like to share with you.

PARABLES READING. This just goes to show that in the church, we need to test our leaders! That’s what we want to talk about today in 1 Timothy 3. We saw that this is a letter from the Apostle Paul to Timothy, his young protegé. Paul left Timothy at Ephesus to straighten out the problems in the church there. Ephesus was a city filled with idol worship, sexual immorality, and false teachings.

Timothy, though, is a young man and sometimes people in the church did not follow his leadership and give him the respect he deserved. Timothy was timid and shy. He sometimes was sickly, or at least was so troubled by the problems in the church that his stomach bothered him. The tension in the church had him to the point of giving up. But Paul gives him a letter to encourage him to keep on going.

We saw Paul give three commands to Timothy in chapter 1:

1. Teach Sound Doctrine 2. Preach the Gospel 3. Defend the Faith

We looked last week at chapter 2. What pleases God? We saw last week that God is pleased when men are PRAYING! And God is pleased when women are PROPER! Today, we go on to chapter 3 and see that God is pleased when leaders are PURE! And God gives us tests to evaluate our leaders by. Let’s read the chapter. Read chapter 3 & pray!