in Scripture,
one of the most often terms
that Jesus uses for his people.
The church is a family,
and families function on the basis
of relationship, not rules.
And so what we've done today is significant
because it's how this family celebrates family.
We took a moment and celebrate the promotions
and graduations of our, you know, the younger generation.
That's what family does.
You celebrate that stuff.
When we honor Joey, it's what the family does.
Say thank you to those who've served well.
You know that one of the things that I didn't
mention about, about Zoe,
is the young lady who was standing next to her. Ali.
Ali took Zoe under her wing
and became a mentor for young Zoe.
Not just musically, but as a young woman of purity.
This is what I love about our church
is that we have young adults like Ali
and others in this church who are really, like, willingly give of their time
and their energy and the love of their heart to mentor young ones coming up.
If I had a young one coming up, I would get them here every week.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
We got these young adults who are willing to serve as mentors,
which is exactly the way the Bible says the church ought to function.
Older ones mentoring younger ones at every generation.
And so as we're doing that, I'm looking at Ali thinking, Ali, this is like
she's part of the testimony of your faith, part testimony of your life.
It's just beautiful.
We celebrate stuff.
And I see Jess back there.
There's Jess, Michael's wife, with your new little baby.
Right, Levi?
Yeah.
How how old is Levi?
Six weeks.
Right on, man.
And so we celebrate that stuff, I guess.
You got three boys at home?
Yeah. We're going to pray for you.
I come from a family.
My my wife and I, we have three sons and,
keep good insurance.
We celebrate stuff.
And so in looking at the
at the book of First Timothy,
Paul has gone through great lengths
to talk about the family called the church.
And this is our expectations.
Paul says this is what you're supposed to do.
Timothy is a young man.
Paul is an old man.
And this old man is telling this young man, I'm going to leave you in charge.
As the leader of this church in Ephesus.
And it was a tough gig for Timothy.
He was in this place called Ephesus, that in the hills above
Ephesus had this temple of Artemus or Diana, depending
on which time you want to give her same, same, same, religion.
And every evening, about a thousand prostitutes would infiltrate
Ephesus to get their grips on the young men of the city.
And so it was just a it was a vile place.
And this young man, Timothy,
who had never done a job like this before, is now out from under the mint.
Their direct mentorship of Paul.
And Paul says, look, as an old man, I've been around the block.
Here's how I want you to handle the family.
God, the family of God in your context.
And so that's what first Timothy and second Timothy is all about.
So just as a recap, chapter one, Paul talks
about the two important things of the church is to guard and to guide,
guard the gospel and good doctrine and guide people into it.
In chapter two, it's all about the order within the church,
and there are definitely designed roles of people in the church.
And in chapter three
he talks about those Christians in general, but really those in leadership.
The idea that it's character over skill set, like the character matters.
Chapter four.
He encourages us to train hard in your faith.
Like like Take This seriously uses a lot of athletic language.
And he says, push in, train hard, don't be lax.
Don't be lazy.
Like a pursue this thing like an athlete does being a world class athlete.
And then in chapter five that we'll look at today he's going to talk about honor.
That's do people and leaders in the church.
And in chapter six next week
he's going to round it out with his charge to fight the good fight.
Now it is a war and it's a battle.
And you got to do it well.
So that's kind of the book in a in a real brief snapshot.
We're going to look at chapter five, and chapter five
is going to bring up some things that I'm just like at the front end of this.
Some of you are going to argue that you're going to feel like,
why are we this has nothing to do with me and my life right now.
Like, what are we.
I'm going to I'm going to get there.
You just.
So just stay with or we'll get there when we get to the end of this.
In the beginning of chapter six. Okay.
But it's going to bring up some, some things that are maybe contrary
to the culture at large, and the culture's perception of the church is supposed to
do, and it's going to bring up some stuff about the honor.
Do people in the church and the pastors and the pastoral staff.
And so I'm just going to I'm going to read the Bible.
We're going to talk about what the Bible says.
You know, that I don't shy away from whatever's
in the Bible, like if if we got a problem, what's in the Bible?
You take it up with God, don't take it up with me like I didn't write it.
I'll take it up with the author.
And good luck with that.
But let me just jump in verses one and two.
Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.
Younger men as brothers.
Older women as mothers.
Younger women as sisters. In all purity.
So he's saying, look at him. Here's the deal, man.
You're going to be in this church.
And there's a lot of people, honest people you got to lead who are older than you.
Here's how this is good leadership stuff with the guys older than you.
Don't rebuke them. Encourage them.
That word rebuke means don't talk to them harshly in public.
Don't.
Don't unload both barrels on them in public. Why?
Because older men don't listen to younger guys, right, guys?
Right. I don't care how old you are.
There's someone younger than you, and you don't listen to them.
We don't.
They haven't been where we been, right?
They're not lived like we live.
They ain't been around a block like we have.
They haven't learned everything that we've learned.
And so young man comes an old man with some rebuke and correction.
That ain't going to go well.
So just as in a practical level,
you shouldn't look.
You're going
to have to lead people older than you.
It's going to be difficult.
And so encourage them.
Now here's the thing.
In our culture, elderly is not elevated.
Youth is venerated.
And so we've lost the importance
and the sacredness of growing old.
And our culture pushes against that.
And we resist that and we deny it.
And we try to not look at
biblically.
The instruction is to honor those
who are elderly, hold them at high esteem
to understand, to understand.
Okay, you younger people than me. You understand?
No, I.
Like there's some there's some honor, respect.
Like, we've been around the sun a lot more times than you have.
And so there's some there's an honor there.
It's the same thing in the home.
You children, you better non-real respect your parents
like you. Just.
And so he's saying, honor, I don't don't come out hard against you.
Honor them. Encourage them.
And he says the older women treat them as moms.
They're not to be old ladies.
You just kind of push aside and not like there's some incredible.
And regardless of the
of the generational age, it's the same thing with Ali and Zoe.
Like there's some honor.
You treat them with some holiness and some sacredness.
You older women in this church like you, ought to be honored by everybody
as as mom, as mature, godly examples of what it is
to grow up as a God, as the woman hood of of godly character.
And there should be
younger ones that you're mentoring in that godliness.
And then he says of Timothy, these younger guys, than you treat them as brothers.
Now that's a double edged sword oftentimes with brothers, right?
Like,
oh, saying is, you have to have the attitude
with each other that you have in a good, healthy family.
And for young women, Timothy, you're a man.
You got young women under you.
You, you you don't treat them as objects.
You treat them as sisters with all purity.
You don't have those lingering eyes
and little innuendos when you talk with young women.
We understand this just good stuff, right?
Right. Yeah.
And so I don't need to explain a lot about that.
You should just honor the.
And so then he gets into a little bit more practical stuff, and he's going
to address this issue of who the church is responsible to take care of.
Now let me just say on the front of this also
in our culture, much of the community thinks it's
the church responsibility to take care of the needs of the community.
The Bible doesn't necessarily say that.
The Bible says it's the church's job to take care of the spiritual needs,
but not the physical needs of the community.
There's a lot of churches.
There's a lot of social justice movement in this, and a lot to say.
We have to make sure that all the poor people in our community are taken care of.
Well, Jesus said, you're always going to have poor people.
You're never going to get away from them.
Make sure, Your Honor in me and so Paul sets out this
standard of care for what the church is responsible for, and it's going to push
back on the common thought of what the church's job really is.
Whenever there's a pushback from the culture
about what the job is of the church
and what it with what the the Bible says, the job of the church,
I'm going to go with what the Bible says, the job at the churches.
That makes sense.
So as long as you understand where I'm coming from, what the Bible says,
and draw conclusions.
Verse three honor widows who are truly widows.
But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn
to show godliness to their own household or to make some return
for it to their parents, for this is pleasing inside to God.
He says, honor the widows who are truly widows.
So there's obviously a distinguished
or some distinction between widows and true widows.
It doesn't have to do with a woman being without a husband.
There's some
criteria of what a true widow is, and according to Paul,
a true widow is a widow who is truly needy in the sense
that she has no other family members
in the area to help take care of her.
It's not just that she's lost a husband and she has.
She's she's over a certain age.
It has nobody else to help take care of her.
And so what it says here
is that family takes care of family
and then if you have a family,
it's your family's responsibility for your care.
It's not the church's responsibility.
And the way a younger generation takes care of their,
the way they honor God and please God is by taking care
of their aging parents and responsibility for them.
Look at verse five.
She who is truly widow, left all alone, has set her
hope on God and continues in supplication and prayers night and day.
So he says, the one who's a true widow, who has nobody else, no, no kids,
no relatives, no cousins, nephew.
And then like nobody, they are the true widow.
And her first response, the one who has nobody to take care of him.
Their first response is to spend night and day in prayer.
That means two things.
It means their first response is not on some other system to take care of them.
Their first response is real reliance upon God,
the provider who owns a cattle on a thousand hills to take care of her.
That's her first reliance.
And day and night she goes before the father, saying, you are my father.
You meet my needs.
The second thing that means is this
because there was no welfare system in this first century
and no social assistance
and governmental aid for those who were truly in need, i.e.
widows?
No, he doesn't talk about men widowers
because they go out and get a job and they should.
Well, he's talking about these women.
Women because women didn't most of them didn't have jobs back then.
They couldn't go to, you know, McDonald's and and and sling flop fries.
They just they didn't have.
And so he said because there's no social
assistance for them, they have no other family
when they come to the family that they're a part of at the church,
they go before God night and day for their own.
And then, in essence, they signed a contract with the church
to be on staff for the reasons for the assistance
they're receiving to be what we would call their prayer warriors for the church.
What he's saying
is you just don't give people money and send them on their way.
If they're worthy of it, you help them and then they owe the church
a contribution because they've received from the contributions of the church
and the way they contribute to the church,
because they've received from the contributions of the church,
is to contribute to the church and night and day on behalf of the church.
There's no free lunches or.
Understand?
You understand.
Paul will say later in Second Thessalonians,
that if you if you don't work, you don't eat.
That's a pretty good rule.
And he's saying, look, we're not saying that that these
these ladies have to have to do menial, but they have to
work for the church in prayer night.
And day if they're going to receive contribution from the church.
That's what he's saying.
Let me give you some some other understandings
of, of why?
Well, let me, let me I'm going to do six and seven.
Let me see.
I can get stuck.
I can go down rabbit holes. I don't want to do that right now.
But she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.
Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.
So he he he's saying
there there are some who who can get themselves into trouble
because they start taking advantage of the church.
He said, don't, don't permit that.
And when he says command these things, that's a military word.
And what he's telling Timothy is, look, Timothy, here's the deal.
You're going to start leading this way,
and you're going to draw some parameters around how people are going to push back,
because they're going to think that the it's the church's role
to meet all of the social needs of their community.
He says you command them as a commanding officer
because they're going to push back against it,
and they need to know that this is how we do things,
and you don't have the authority to push back against this.
This this is a this is a really strong term.
He's he's telling Timothy to lead with press into your leadership,
your Tim, and make sure you don't get push back from this.
At verse eight.
But if anyone
does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household,
he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. See?
And so, listen, it's not the church's job to take care of
all the needs of everybody, especially those outside the church.
But even with those inside,
if they have family members, family takes care of family.
Your family takes care of your family before you ask the church for anything.
That's what he's saying.
And he says,
for those who have family members in need, who refuse to help them and assist them.
It's like we have denied the faith.
And worse than an unbeliever hears how strong those words are.
An unbeliever, someone who just doesn't, isn't convinced yet
someone who's denied the faith and is worse than that,
is someone who has known the faith and chosen to reject it.
You saying that's how
strong this is for you as a family member, but not to take care of your family
and to just shove them off on a church.
And so he says,
let the widow be enrolled
if she is not less than 60 years of age,
having been the wife of one husband and having a reputation for good works.
If she has brought up children and has shown hospitality, has washed
the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted,
and has devoted herself to every good work you see.
And so there's there ought to be.
The church needs to help those in need,
but there's stipulations around and there's qualifications for it.
So what he's saying and he lists eight qualifications
of the women that the church is supposed to help in this passage.
And what he's saying is this we have to investigate
the life of anybody who is coming to the church asking for help.
And the first question of investigation is, are you a part of this flock?
Because this Imma tell you this,
as the pastor of this church, you are who I'm responsible for.
I'm not responsible.
This church is a responsible for people who aren't part of our church.
That's why it's so important to be a part of a church.
And so the first question that we ask when someone comes
and asks this church, are you a part of our fellowship?
This here's why.
Because a shepherd takes care of his flock,
and we take care of the flock that God has given us.
You understand that?
It's just not an open door for anybody who has a need.
And so there's there's quality, there's qualifications,
and you have to ask these things.
The other reason we have to ask
for these qualifications is because there's limited resources.
I mean, it's not like we're the government.
We just charge more taxes on people.
And, you know, we print our own money and go into debt and be okay with it.
Like, there's limited resources and we have to be wise with those resources.
And so what Paul is saying here is you contribute to those who have contributed.
It's what he's saying.
So all these qualifications are things that she has done
on behalf of the life of the church.
So those have been contributing to the life and health of the church.
That's who you are responsible for, to help aid
those who have not are
not responsible to help.
And so the second question that that I always ask with people,
they're asking for help, have they if they been a contributing part of our church.
If they just come and sit and leave
and not served and not helped and not given
and that like.
We're under no obligation.
And these, these these eight see these eight criteria
when he says make sure she's really old, because if she's not really old,
she can go out and, you know, get married again. Like that's okay.
Like you go like live your life and, and and just don't expect someone to
to do what's it called when you just continue enabling.
You don't just don't be an enabler.
People will just suck stuff out of the church
because.
Because
we all know once you give something
once, it's an open door to get asked twice, right?
I'm just being like, right.
And so we say, listen, there are some who need to be helped.
Help them.
But some people, all they want is just more free handouts.
And they're going to go live their life any way they want to.
And when you just enable ungodly
living by your assistance, so that's wandering from the face.
Don't do that as a church.
Don't do that as people.
Make sure that she's, you know, a wife or what.
Like she's been faithful at home.
Wife one has been a good reputation.
She's done good work. She's brought up children.
It doesn't necessarily mean that she's had her own kids, but she's invested
in this younger generation, and she's been a mentor to young ladies.
You saw in hospitality.
She's washed the feet of Saint. She's cared for the afflicted.
She's devote herself to every good work,
like there's some fruit in the wake of her life.
On behalf of the church.
Church owes that to them
when they have need to step in, when their family isn't around to help.
And he said, you just don't give to anybody
if they haven't been contributed first.
Here's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about compassion with criteria.
That's what he's saying.
Have compassion, but there's criteria around it.
We have to understand that.
Where am I?
I have no idea where I am.
Verse 11, but refused to enroll younger widows
for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry
and so incur condemnation for having abounded abandon their former faith.
Besides that, they learned to be idlers, going about from house to house
not only been idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying stuff
they shouldn't be talking about.
So I'd have younger widows.
Get me get married.
To live your life, manage your household, give the offspring no occasion
for slander.
What?
He's saying is,
if you just keep giving and enabling that, people take advantage of it.
They start talking, you know, smack and, like, living bad lives.
And you're just enabling all that it says.
And what you're doing
is you're giving the adversary the devil and occasion that word.
Occasion is another military term that means a home base of operation.
And when you just the church becomes a social organization,
it just has to meet all of the community's ills with no criteria for what we do.
He says all you're doing is for finding a home base of operation for the devil
to slander the name of God.
So just be wise about this stuff.
I mean, it's just making sense to us. Yes.
If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.
Let the church not be burdened.
So let me care for those who are truly widows.
So there's some true widows.
And you have to.
It's the idea that the compassion
without wisdom is chaos,
and wisdom without compassion is coldness.
Pull up that slide, Tom, would you please.
We have to understand that compassion without wisdom is just chaos.
And unfortunately, that's how a lot of churches function.
There's no criteria for what they do.
They just like all the needs of the community.
And it's just chaotic.
As far as leadership and finances are concerned.
It's just bad stewardship.
But wisdom without compassion is just coldness.
And so he said, let's have balance here.
This is a family. Let's have balance here.
And he says that those who have family take care of the family
so the church isn't burdened.
Years ago, years ago, we had this lady in our church and she was elderly,
but she had family.
She had a husband,
she had sons, she had grandsons.
They're all employed.
But she was always asking our church
for help financially.
And it was some really hard
conversations with her and with her sons
that were my age.
And I had said, look,
yes, we love your mother, but you're asking us
to do some things that aren't biblical for us to do as a church.
It's your responsibility for your mom.
I mean, that makes.
Some real hard conversations
because it's so much easier just to fluff
our needs of our loved ones off on somebody else or something else.
I think the church.
It was hard, man.
Leadership isn't fun most of the time.
Well, yeah.
And listen, some of you know what
this is like because you've done it so well.
You've had elderly family, parents,
grandparents that you've had to take care of
and you've done it so well because it is not easy.
Right?
It's a grueling.
And there are times when you just want to say,
could someone else just please take the lead?
Because I'm.
But what Paul is saying here
is when we sacrifice like this, it pleases God. Why?
Because God has stepped into our incapability
and sickness and illness and care for us.
And it wasn't easy for him.
And when we do that to our family,
for our family, God's like, right on, man.
You get it
as much as you can.
Be good with us so far. Yes.
Okay.
Now here's here's the here's the stuff that I
answer. This is tough.
This is tough to teach on.
But like I said, I'm not going to shy away from this in the Bible.
I need to know it.
I need to live it. I need to teach it.
You need to learn it.
It is what it is.
So watch this.
Verse 17.
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
For the Scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox,
treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.
This ain't a fun passage for a pastor to teach on, because it's about
the pastor
and how you take care of your pastors,
but how I'm shy away from anything else in First Timothy,
so I'm not going to shy away from this either.
He makes sure there's two different types of elders in the church,
the elders who do the administration of the church,
and the elders who do the teaching preaching of the church.
Sometimes they're the same elder.
They're really gifted.
They can both administrate and preach and teach.
And what he's saying here is
let those elders who do that will be considered worthy of double honor.
Now, when when that word honor is used in verse and verse three.
I think we have a slide for that somewhere.
Tom but that word, it it's not time.
That should be a capital. It's to me.
And that word to me literally means the financial.
You ascribe a financial value or monetary care.
And that's what Paul saying about these widows who are truly widows.
You just
decided financial value for their well-being
and their sustenance in the world.
You just you discern what a monetary value will be, a monetary care for them.
It's the same word here used for elders, especially those who preach and teach
and do it really well, worthy of double honor.
So a double portion of whatever you have deemed
is the financial value of the person doing that role.
Is that make sense?
So if that makes sense, then that's your question
is if they deserve double honor, the natural question is.
It's not natural to use natural.
I mean, what is double honor?
What does that mean?
So I don't know.
He doesn't tell us what it means.
He just says that the people who do this job well deserve double of it.
And if it meant monetary care for the widow,
it means double monetary care for the ones who do this role. Well,
here's
here, here's tonight, here's just think about here's what what is double honor?
Here's my suggestion
that the church is responsible to pay for its pastor and its staff
enough for they don't want to leave, but not so much.
They can't afford to leave.
And so what he's doing here is setting protections for the church and the staff.
The pastor be saying you need to pay them well enough.
They don't want to leave,
because if you drastically underpay them, they're going to do it
until they get a better gig and go somewhere else
and take care of their family because they're supposed to with biblically.
So it sense,
okay, but he's saying don't pay them so much they can't afford to leave.
Here's the problem.
There are some churches and these pastors have done a good job
and it's gotten so big that they're paid
so well with so many perks.
They've stopped listening to the voice of God.
They don't want to know if God would call them anywhere else,
because they don't want to leave the perks and the salary they're getting.
I don't want to leave the big campus.
I don't want to leave the coffee shop.
I don't want to leave the big fountain.
I don't want to leave my own parking space. I don't want I will.
You know how much I would lose if I went to another church?
So sometimes I have paid their pastors.
So will they can't afford to leave it in being paid.
So will they start listening to the voice of God?
They would dread it if God would ever call him anywhere else,
because they can't afford to move.
You understand?
Move their.
And so Paul's like
the don't get yourself or your pastor in a pickle.
Double honor whatever that may.
Look you're going to say what that means.
But if they don't want to leave but not so much, they can't afford
to leave like, but
pastor like everybody else think they've built the business.
They get all the perks for the business.
Why would ever leave a big old business?
I would be losing money if I were to leave you.
You understand? I'm saying.
Is it like.
So was double honor.
I don't know, I know what it's not.
I know it's unless the pastor has taking a vow of poverty.
He shouldn't use the church.
They shouldn't make their pastor be in poverty
unless God's told them to be in poverty.
Then you better be in poverty.
As of yet, God hadn't told me I had to do that.
I know what it's not.
I know it's not paying a pastor so much he can't ever afford to leave.
So he never wants to hear God say, go somewhere else.
It's certainly not that that's so unbiblical.
There's got to be a place in there somewhere.
So here's, here's here's the thing,
here's an idea.
You pay your pastor and your staff what it cost to
to replace them of a pastor or a staff of equal or better value.
That's what you do.
Double honor.
If I had to replace them, what is it going to cost?
I mean, that's just good business sense.
In the end, even you
or you consider the quality of the staff
and their education and their experience and you have those conversations.
What's double honor?
I mean, I've yet to sit in any financial discussion about this
with leaders of the church who say first, okay, first, pastor,
staff, whomever, this is my education, this is my expenses.
This is how good I am at my job, and this is how much I make. Now,
based on your
education, experience, how good you are, here's what you see.
What I'm saying?
Most people just don't mind talking about this, but
they don't ever want to reveal this first,
you follow this.
And so I don't have answers.
A double honor means I know what it doesn't mean.
And so Timothy is like Luke or Paul is like, look, Timothy,
just make sure that you're you're going about this the right way.
But then he says in verse 19, do not,
do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence
of 2 or 3 witnesses.
As for those who persistence and rebuke them in the presence of all, so
that the rest may stand in fear, saying, listen, leadership isn't easy and in fun,
and whoever is the tip of the spear is going to take the brunt of the battle.
Whoever's leading the charge is going to take the bullets.
So the bullets are going to fly.
For anybody in leadership. This isn't just pastors and teachers.
This is any leader in it's bullets are going to fly.
There's going to be accusations.
Don't consider just because
someone says something about a leader that is automatically true,
like it pushes back against the whole cancel culture stuff.
It pushes back against all this stuff and it says you gotta have witnesses,
2 or 3 eyewitnesses before you even entertain anything.
So here's what's going to happen.
There's going to be stuff said.
And these accusations Paul talks about here
are accusations, complaints, criminal stuff like it covers everything.
When you hear someone
gossip about another, especially a leader here, here's what I like to do
when you hear some gossip about some some accusations.
So I like to say this.
Look, hold on, just let me get a piece of paper on a pin,
and I'm going to write down everything you say, and you give me names.
I'm gonna write your name down in case someone asks me about it.
I can quote you directly.
The moment you do that, guess what happens to the gossip site?
It stops
completely.
So that's the first way we handle that. Now.
The second way, though, he says there will be leaders
who persist in sin and need to be rebuked.
And he says, for those who persistence and not those
who have messed up and repented, but those who persist
rejection of repentance, reject, shun
of admittance, they persist in sin.
They been corrected and refuse to repent of it.
For those he says, you rebuke them as publicly as
their offense has been made known.
You take it as big as it needs to be.
Don't over blow it, but don't undersell it
as big as it needs to be so that they'll fall
under condemnation feeling that way, and fall into repentance.
The goal in all of this is not to cause pain, shame, or destruction.
The goal is to be in a position for repentance.
Does that make sense?
Said for those who refuse to repent, who persistent sin?
Yeah, you call them out.
And in doing so you will show everybody else.
Here's the standard.
This is what we expect of everybody.
And if you're not living to that standard, you should be in fear.
It's just good leadership stuff in it.
It's real good leadership stuff.
And so.
In the presence
and the presence of God and of Christ and of the elect angels, I charge you
to keep these rules without, prejudging, do nothing from partiality.
Do not be patient. Lean on a hamster. Take part in the sins of others.
Keep yourselves pure.
Paul is. He's pressing and so hard.
And we miss.
How hard is pressing in is like.
Listen, Matt, listen.
In the presence of God, of Jesus, of the elect angels.
Like he's pulling out all the stops, you know, like you like the angels.
What are you talking about?
Probably is just the angels, like, wait, the beginning that didn't fall with Satan.
They're
the ones who who weren't prideful and arrogant and fallen.
Just angels.
But he's saying like.
And for the God and for the Jesus and all the angels.
You command these things because this is going to be hard
for the church, and you do these things without prejudging,
like nobody gets a free pass and nobody gets special,
you know, like treatment because of simply because of who they are.
Like you.
You treat them, don't do anything from partiality
and don't don't put people
in positions of leadership too soon either.
Make them prove themselves.
What are you saying?
Let's see the fruit of your life first.
Don't take part in the sins of others.
Keep yourselves pure.
He's talking to a young man and Paul knows the scriptures.
He know Psalm 199, which says, how does a young man, Timothy, keep their way pure?
By abiding by the Word of God?
So, Timothy, this is the standard.
You stay true to this, you keep yourself pure.
And then there's this little, this little parentheses here no longer
drink only water,
but use a little wine for the sake, your stomach and your frequent ailments.
This is so funny.
Like, it's like, look, Tim, I get it.
You're a sickly little kid.
Don't just drink water.
Put a little wine with it. Here's why.
Because in that
day, in that culture, the water was really contaminated.
And mixing half and half water and wine killed some of the contaminants
and says, look, you got bad gut health
and all that bad water is just going to make your gut health worth.
So take a little wine with it.
Make your stomach better.
You know what I love about that?
Not just the wine part, but the
how many times you go back through scripture, look at Paul's life.
How many times had Paul pray for healing and people were healed
a lot, a lot.
God work through him miracle healing.
What does he say to Timothy?
Because though
he said there's some medicinal things you need to pay attention to,
apparently I probably did, but we don't have proof
that he ever prayed for Timothy's healing.
This is encouraging to me
because Paul knows that the healing of God
is at God's discretion, not our demand.
And there are some sicknesses that will never be healed on this earth.
And we have to be able to get to the point in our mature
to say, God, I'm going to leave it to your sovereignty,
but you choose to do, you choose, do.
And your ways are higher than mine. And I don't understand.
And it's really difficult
for me to get to that point and still believe you're a loving God.
But I'm going to trust that,
and I'm going to ask for God's healing, and then you're going to apply
human wisdom and the wisdom he's given man for medicine
and take every step you can medically for your own healing.
So make sense.
In. The sense of some people are conspiracies
going before them to judgment.
The sins of others appear later.
So also the good works are conspicuous and even those that are not cannot
remain hidden. Here's where he's saying.
He's saying that, that, some people are living in
sin and it's going to be really, really, really apparent to everybody
is going to be obvious.
Everybody's going to see
and God's going to call them to the carpet on it publicly.
But he's saying there's others of God's kids in his family
that nobody's known know about their sin except for Jesus himself.
Nobody's going to know.
And we have to leave it to God for God
to discern how he wants to handle his kids.
We don't go looking for, you know, demons under every rock in people's lives.
Don't go looking for hidden sins
when they when God brings them to light, you deal with them.
But we leave it to God. If he doesn't,
they'll answer to God.
But here's the point of all of that.
The point is not exposed and hidden sin.
The point is repentance.
And God knows that some people will not repent
until it gets so painful and so obvious
that publicly they have to be broken.
And God knows that others.
There's enough internal conviction by the Holy Spirit
that they're broken inside, and they come before God
in great repentance and great remorse, because the goal is not pain and shame.
The goal is repentance and renewal that make you understand,
and we let God work that out.
Here's the point.
Don't be so.
Let's not be so stubborn and bullheaded
that God is forced to break us publicly before we come to repentance.
Repent.
And in repentance, allow God
to give all that his grace allows
so he doesn't have to break us.
And the good thing he says all your good works, those are all the parent.
So those are all good.
Now, I wanted to get through verse,
through, chapter six,
not through the chapters.
The first two verses.
I want to deal with this,
and the first two verses of chapter six,
let all her under a yoke of bonds
or as bond servants regard their own masters
as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching,
may not be reviled.
Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground
that they are brothers.
Rather, they must serve all the better, since those who, benefit
by their good service are believers and beloved.
Here's what he's talking about in most translations.
It doesn't use the word bondservant.
He uses the word slaves, and he uses the term slaves and masters.
And he says that all of you who are under the yoke of slavery
regard their masters as worthy of all honor.
So that's the name of God. And the teaching may not be reviled.
Sounds like a tough word.
Yeah.
Let me explain what's happening.
When in the New Testament
the writers talk about slaves and masters don't think
American slavery, that's not what they're talking about biblically.
American slavery that we practice in this nation is evil to its core is.
And as a demonic act of Satan by Satan himself.
Most of the trans-Atlantic slaves in the United States
were first slaves by their African brothers
in Africa and sold to Europeans slave traders for money.
And so the issue of slavery is global
across every continent and every culture and every race and every creed.
It is evil from the devil.
The issue is not just slavery.
The issue is there's no there's never been a good human master.
And so,
so what he's talking about slavery, as we know, in America
was, is never been condoned in Scripture, ever.
Slavery at this time was very common.
But in this context, Paul is writing to the people in Ephesus
in the Roman Empire, half is is estimated.
Half of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves.
Half.
And so it's likely the people Paul is instruct.
Some of them are slaves, and he's saying, respect your earthly masters
and serve them well.
Here's what slavery looked like in ancient times.
Some of it was brutal, no doubt,
but much of it was was debt slavery.
When I get myself into debt and can't pay my dead, I give myself to my creditor
and I work for them during the day, and I go home to my family at night.
But I work off my debt.
Okay?
It's much like lawyers, doctors or,
physical therapists who get their school paid for by a business and then owe
that business their life for the next ten years to pay off their debt.
You understand? Much the same.
There's also this, dowry debt
when the person couldn't afford to pay the dowry for their wedding.
And so with in debt themselves in a dowry debt
to pay off the right to be married.
You know what that teaches us?
Marriage is really expensive.
So consider it twice before you get into it.
But it's dowry.
There's also this, this, this slavery that I am.
I know that my family is taken care
of by you because you're a benevolent, good, godly master.
And I'm going to end debt as to you,
because you will take better care of us than I can take care of us.
It's a bond servant.
Will it so?
So there was a lot of different slavery words thrown off
and Paul is instructing those slaves on how they respond to their masters
in other places.
Paul will talk to masters in the book of Philemon and the Bible.
Philemon is a master and he has a slave named uneasiness.
Owner Decimus escapes.
Paul gets a hold of the Smiths and leans on pessimistic Christ,
and then Paul writes a letter to Philemon, the slave master, and says, listen,
uneasiness is now not your slave.
Now he's your brother, so I'm going to send him back to you as his master.
But now you treat him as a brother and an equal.
So Paul addresses slavery and addresses masters,
and what he does is he elevates and he lowers and he equals both.
Do you understand?
Some some
slaves in ancient times were more educated than their masters.
Doctors in ancient times were most often slaves, and wealthy,
benevolent people would hire their, would
hire their own private doctor, would be their slave.
Luke, the writer of Luke and Ax, was most likely
a slave as a doctor
in the church, slaves often held
positions of authority over their masters in their church and in the church.
Their masters were commanded to obey the spiritual authority of their slaves.
And so it's when he talks about this don't think trans-Atlantic American slavery.
It's different in our context.
The best way to understand this is in the employer employee relationship.
Now, regarding slavery, though, it was the church that laid the groundwork
for the abolition of slavery by demanding Christian biblical
and ethical treatment of humans, never condoning the brutality of slavery.
It was the church that set the ground
for the abolition of slavery around the world.
What the church did was it sought gospel transformation before social reformation.
We have to understand that, pull that up to complete
gospel transformation before social reformation.
Never is it God's plan to to
to reform social society without gospel transformation happen first.
It happens from the inside out, not the outside. In.
That's why Christian
is not a government agenda.
It's a gospel transformation.
It's only by the gospel transforming the inside can the outside be healed.
We get this so wrong in our culture.
We want this.
We want the government to solve the ills.
The ills are solved by the gospel.
Transformation of lives
that reform society.
Then so you understand this.
Now let me draw this in to a close here.
This context for us is the employee employer relationship.
Here's the truth.
Christ, hear me, please hear me.
Christian employees should be the hardest working employees on the payroll.
Period.
Christian employees should be the hardest working,
most reliable, best, most credible
workers on any payroll,
period.
When a Christian employee
has a Christian employer, that Christian employee should not think
because they're a Christian, they should go easy on me.
And I have the right to slack off on my job
because we're all Christians here and we love each other
and we just get along that is contrary to biblical standard and doctrine.
We ought to work harder, especially for Christian bosses.
We we.
Colossians 323 and 24.
Whatever you do,
work at it with all your heart, as though you're working for for Christ.
He's your real master.
He's the real master, your servant.
So whatever you as an employee do in your job,
you work at it with all your heart, with all your mind.
You be the best employee that boss has ever had.
I don't care if you like the job or not.
You owe it to the reputation of God to make society Christ.
Please give me more Christian workers.
That's how the society should look at us.
That's how the society should respond.
Please give me some Christians on my payroll.
They're the hardest workers, most diligent.
And then I waste time at the watercooler they're not taking.
They're not taking vacation days and calling them sick days.
There's none of that.
I can rely on them. They're the best we got.
That's what he's saying.
And he's saying
if we neglect our duty to our earthly boss, it
causes shame to the name of Christ and to the faith we profess.
If that's true,
how much more implication for those of us
who work for the boss
to be us the hardest workers
sweating, the most, bleeding the most
given, the most sacrifice in the most
because we are working for
a heavenly master.
Saying, work your tails off, man,
because God deserves it.
Now let's make this transit translation spiritually.
Jesus is our master.
We ought not slack off our earthly employers
because they are Christian and will give us grace.
How much more should we not slack off
on our duty to our Heavenly Master?
Just because he'll give us grace to
do you understand?
Yeah.
You know God will be.
You know, God's full of grace.
You know he'll go easy on me.
You might seem like I'm good with God regardless of what I do.
Because of grace.
So, you know, how dare we?
We are slaves of Christ,
and he is worthy of all honor.
To be a lax Christian makes the world reviled.
God reviled His word and reviled the name of Christ.
If that's what a Christian's like.
We must serve our master, all the better.
Here's the deal.
He is our master, and we work our hardest for him.
You understand? Yes.
There's a slide about that.
I know it's going to come up pretty soon.
He is our master and we work our hardest for him.
So. Full circle. Now
you need to understand what John 1515 says.
He says,
you, my dear kids,
I no longer call you servants.
Now I call you friends.
So Jesus makes this transition,
though I can demand from you duty
as your master.
Because of my life, death, and resurrection.
I no longer relate to you from master servant standpoint.
Though I could.
But now I've invited you into my family now as friends.
And what does the Bible tell us?
That greater love has no man for this?
Someone laid down his life for his free.
And so Jesus has said, listen, you owe me as your master.
You owe me as your mouth.
But I don't want to relate to you as a master servant.
I have given my life for you because I have.
There's, I haven't. I love you so much
that now I invite you into this relationship.
As my friend, I've laid down my life for you.
I could demanded of you, but I don't want to lay that on you.
I want to invite you
as my friend. Yeah.
Do you understand?
And because of that, no greater love.
We work our tails off
for the one who loved our souls so much
that he died for us.
You get it?
I get that much honor.
We owe it to him as a slave.
But we do it for him because we're loved.
That's the point.
We owe it to him because we're slave.
Slave of Christ.
But we do it for him
out of love.
Love beats duty every time. Oh,
every time.
You okay? And.
Oh, great father.
Thank you. Thank,
thank you for the opportunity you've given us
to open up your word.
Thank you
that by your word, you communicate to us how much you love us.
Your sacrifice for us.
And you call us,
to wrestle with our honor of you and what that looks like in real.
In real terms, in real time.
And I thank you, father, that even
in our failure, you don't cast us aside
and hold grudges that you've offered us complete and utter forgiveness.
That's just so beautiful,
father.
I pray that you would encourage us to give honor
to each other.
And to esteem
one another better than ourselves.
And I pray that you would call us into
a responsive life, not out of duty,
but out of love, because you loved us so much that you gave your son God, that
any of us who would believe in you would have eternal life.
You loved us
so much you proved your love on the cross.
Father, I just pray that those of us here would not ever respond
just simply out of duty and obligation as a slave to us.
Master,
but that we respond to you out of love because you first loved us.
Yeah,
friends, I want to invite you in this moment.
If you've never respond to the love of God,
if you've never respond to him out of love, you've been trying out a duty
and it's not worked and has drawn.
It's difficult
and it's just nothing but failure after failure after duty after duty.
I don't invite you in this moment
to enter into this relationship,
to respond to the love of of the father, sending his son to die for your sin.
Would you just simply
between you and this God who loves you
so. So, father, thank you that you love me.
Jesus, thank you that you died on the cross.
Thank you that you've offered me forgiveness.
I receive it today.
I'm. I'm to follow you as best I know how.
And today I give myself to you.
What?
God, I pray that people wouldn't leave this place
without responding.
Not out of duty, but respond to the love that you've given us in your son.
We love you.
Help us to love you more.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Listen, I want you to go home this week.
Read chapter five and read chapter six. Get ready for next week.
You do that?
Yeah.
Do that and we'll wrap up first Timothy next week.
Then we'll get into second Timothy.
Real practical stuff. Real good stuff.
I'm proud of you. You did well.
There's a lot today.
You did a good job. That's why we got comfortable. Chair.
So your tail end doesn't get too sore while we sit here.
Listen, we're going to
sing a little bit more song a little bit.
Let's sing.