Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• It is so easy to get off focus in life isn’t it?

• There are times where it can get easy to forget why we do what we do in life.

• Things such as a job. Our jobs which are supposed to help us to provide a living for the family can at some point become our life to the point where we forget our family.

• Possessions can go from something we have to something that has us.

• The person we married and wanted to spend the rest of our lives with becomes just a roommate. We allow little things to tear the relationship apart.

• The same thing can happen with our faith.

• If we are not careful we can forget why we do what we do. Our faith can turn into something that it was never intended to be.

• In the passage we are going to examine together this morning, Paul is writing to the young evangelist Timothy. There were folks who were trying to promote false teachings within the church.

• SLIDE #2

• For context let us look at 1 Timothy 1:3-4

• 1 Timothy 1:3-4(ESV) 3As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship£ from God that is by faith.

• There were people trying to get people to take their focus off what is really important in the life of a Christian. These teachers were coming in trying to get the folks hung up on stuff that was not important.

• In the verse we will examine together this morning, Paul will share with us what is really important along with the boundaries from where it should all flow.

• SLIDE #3

• 1 Timothy 1:5(ESV) 5The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

• Let us begin by exploring…

• SLIDE #4

SERMON

I. What is the main thing?

• As Paul contrasts the teachings of the false teachers verses that of the real ones, Paul explains that the AIM or GOAL of God’s teachings is LOVE!

• I want us to go back to verse 4 from the Message paraphrase; it really encapsulates what is meant by Paul in the original.

• SLIDE #5

• Apparently some people have been introducing fantasy stories and fanciful family trees that digress into silliness instead of pulling the people back into the center, deepening faith and obedience. 1 Timothy 1:4 (TMSG)

• When the passage speaks of the AIM or goal of our instruction (speaking of what Paul taught) he is explaining this issue of love is the proper and expected lifestyle of one who calls themselves a Christian. The AIM, GOAL or END result of the teaching is to help one to get to this end.

• Contrast that to what the false teachers were doing, they were literally trying to drag people off that goal to get them to aim at stuff that was of no importance.

• Real love is doing what is spiritually best for others. By the way, this kind of love is NOT dependant on the object of the love; it is fully dependant on the lover.

• In other words this kind of love is a matter of the will; we can make it happen with the help of the God that we love and who loves us!

• If we think we have the right doctrinal stand of things yet we cannot love those around us, there is something wrong.

• God loved us while we were sinners, Jesus died for us while we were sinners.

• SLIDE #6

• Romans 5:8(ESV) 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• That love He gives to us, we can give to others.

• SLIDE #7

• 1 John 4:7-8(ESV) 7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

• The main thing is love! It is love for God and love for people.

• This love that is to be a result of the teachings must flow from three areas in our lives for it to be real.

• SLIDE #8

Keeping the main thing the main thing requires our love to flow from…

II. A pure heart.

• Those who were trying to introduce false teaching into the mix were trying to get folks to focus on the external or ceremonial purity instead of what was important.