Dynamics That Effect Christian Service-3

DYNAMICS That EFFECT CHRISTIAN SERVICE-III—1Timothy 1:18-20

Attention:

Jan. 13, 2012—Francesco Schettino, the captain of the Italian cruise ship Concordia, fled his sinking cruise liner before all the passengers were off. His negligence led to the deaths of 32 of the 4200 passengers & crew & earned him the name, Captain Coward.

Italian cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino began his new job as a bus driver yesterday...Describe picture of leaning school bus being towed out of a flooded street!



The school board should have been aware of the Dynamics that Effected Schettino’s work ethic.

Likewise there are Dynamics that Effect our Christian Service.

Need:

Dynamics effecting Christian service

Paul warned Timothy of the dynamics required to fulfill his charge.

Believers must be aware of the dynamics surrounding the fulfillment of their Christian service.

What are some dynamics effecting/pertinent to/ Christian service?

7 dynamics vital/pertinent to Christian service.

We learned previously that Christian service must embrace the...

1. TRAINING Dynamic(:18a)

2. DECLARATIVE Dynamic(18b)

3. WAR(RING) Dynamic(:18c)

4. FAITH Dynamic(:19a)

5—Christian service must embrace the...

CONSCIENCE Dynamic(:19b)

Explanation: (:19b)

:19—“having faith & a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,”

In order to sustain a spiritual “warfare” which is proper in the eyes of God, it must also be supplied & maintained thru one’s “good conscience.” This of course is in opposition to a bad conscience, so again(:18) the actual quality of the conscience is what is vital to God’s honor.

A conscience is that which God has granted to every person(believer & unbeliever). Everyone has a conscience! It is our ‘early-warning-system.’ It is what initially causes us to recognize that we are approaching a boundary God has established.

“The Holy Spirit helps us interpret the signals the conscience sends us.”—Charles F. Stanley

We either voluntarily or involuntarily(unknowingly/unwittingly) ‘train’ or ‘program’ our conscience.

It is much like a surveillance computer which is used to monitor & recognize, let’s say, an intruder on your property. You may program it to use sophisticated facial recognition technology or merely to detect motion.

Thus on the one hand, the conscience can be an unreliable source of warning(depending on what we put into it—its training). However, on the other, it can become a great ally of personal righteousness in my service to God(depending on what I put into it—its training). A reliable conscience does not make you righteous before God, but it AIDS that process by making you aware of right vs. wrong in God’s eyes.

A lost person does not openly accept God’s determinations of right & wrong. Their conscience is subjectively trained to recognize ‘what works for them’ personally(to the exclusion of what might work for others). Its training is limited to recognize & learn from civil behaviors only...so that its warning only warns that there may be consequences from actions directly related to their physical world & the outward social relationships within it....& NOT from a desire to honor God.

A “good conscience” is honed & sharpened, by obedience to the Holy Spirit, thruout one’s Christian life time. A ‘dis-honorable’ conscience can be made “good” thru continually adaptive personal measures making one’s flesh submissive to God’s will. Thereby the conscience becomes trained & exercised in godly righteousness.

The “good” of the “good conscience” means that its constitution is such that it has become of honorably excellent use to God & His infallible design.

“Good”(See :18 kalov)—agayov—Adj.—1)Of good constitution or nature; 2) Useful, salutary; 3) Good, pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy; 4) Excellent, distinguished; 5) Upright, honorable. Strong—"Good" (in any sense, often as noun).

“Conscience”—suneidhsiv—N. f.—1)The consciousness of anything; 2) The soul as distinguishing between what is morally good & bad, prompting to do the former & shun the latter, commending one, condemning the other. Strong—Co-perception, i.e. Moral consciousness.

From—suneidw—V.—To see completely or To know in one's mind or with one's self, to be conscience of.

Argumentation:

Heb. 9:13-14—“For if the blood of bulls & goats & the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

1Cor. 8:4-13—“Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat[sacrificial flesh], lest I make my brother stumble.”