Next week will be our last public worship service; but, no matter where we all end up, we must stay faithful to Jesus Christ for He is faithful to us forever! I will repeat it again next week my final message to you: Stay faithful to Jesus Christ as He is faithful to us forever and we will be friends forever!
Let us continue this morning to worship our Lord and Only Savior Jesus Christ. Open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4…. We will conclude today our study of First Timothy and although the passage we will read was directed to Church Leader Timothy, it is full of spiritual treasures for all Christians, especially as we look for a new church to join in the future! Read along with me 1 Timothy 4:12-16….
It is pretty straight forward what Timothy, the church leader, was told to do! Let us summarize the list. What is the first thing we can note? What is God trying to say to young Timothy and the church?
1. Age of a minister is not as important as spiritual maturity!
How can we note the spiritual maturity of a leader? The list for Timothy continues and are instructions for spiritual maturity….
2. Be an example for other Christians in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Timothy was to be an example to many people!
A church leader must be a discipler, an example for others to follow! A disciple is one who learns from and imitates a discipler! A church leader must be a discipler!
3. Devote self to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
i.e. The Bible was to be the priority for ministry and spiritual maturity!
And we note, Timothy was told not to neglect the spiritual gift given to him. Now, it doesn’t tell us what the gift was exactly, but likely to be a church leader. The point is that Timothy was not to neglect the spiritual gift; Timothy could have chosen to be a salesman of VHS tapes! I’m being facetious here of course, but the point is, Timothy was to.. 4. Know and exercise spiritual gifts given!
And what does v15 indicate? Read that again with me…
Timothy as a church leader was to be diligent in all the spiritual work he was called to do; in other words, Timothy was not to be casual about his Christianity so that people can notice Jesus Christ working in his life.
5. Living the Christian life must be evident to the public, not just a casual belief!
And finally in v16, what does it mean to watch your life and doctrine closely and persevere in them? It is so easy to just talk about Scriptures but doing them is another issue; I know, I’ve been talking about the Bible for over 25 years now! Have I done everything the Bible states? My wife can answer that question in the blink of an eye!
As sinners, this is the hardest thing to meet, to completely obey James 1:22 which states to all Christians, “ Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!” All Christians are in a constant battle with the sins of the flesh, the sins of the world, and the sins brought on by the devil! Timothy was told…
6. Church leaders are not only to know and talk Scriptures, they must live it out!
How can we apply these treasures of truths to our lives today? In a couple of weeks, we will all be looking for a new church to join; do these truths help? These truths are very important in looking for a church and evaluating church leaders! And so….
1. Evaluate Church Leaders using 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and 1 Timothy 4:12-16!
Now, some of you have been in this church with me for over 16-1/2 years, and you have experienced how I met all these qualifications from God! Oh, I forgot were outside, lightning might just strike now; of course again I’m being facetious here!
Here’s the truth and I hope you have heard me say it multiple times
“I Paul Clemente, called to be a church leader, am a sinner, like everyone else, in need of the Savior Jesus Christ!” Let me say that again….
What am I trying to say here? God gave us these qualifications for Church Leaders to evaluate leaders, but, we must never forget that we, including church leaders, are all sinners in need of Grace! And so, you will not find a perfect Pastor nor a perfect church for we are all sinners. However….
What we do need to look for is, The Church we are to be part of and the Church Leaders are to be fully committed to these truths from 1 Timothy and that they are diligently preaching and working on obeying these truths!
Now, we noted that our passage today was directly for Timothy the church leader; but, can any of it apply to a regular church attender?
I noted already that James 1:22 applies to all Christians; we are not just to read the Word of God but do it! We also noted that no matter the age…
2. All Christians are to grow spiritually! Ephesians 4:22-24 applies to all Christians… Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Timothy was given instructions on how to mature spiritually. All of us who profess to be Followers of Jesus Christ must also be committed to the instructions in 1 Timothy 4:12-16!
And so, take a moment to quietly ponder about these things, pray for your commitment to imitating Jesus Christ and pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same….
Benediction: Ephesians 4: 25-32
