Basic Necessities and Ever Urgent Needs

Dave Baxter, Speaker

1 Timothy 4:6-16 | October 27, 2024 - Sunday Evening,

Sunday Evening,
October 27, 2024
Basic Necessities and Ever Urgent Needs | 1 Timothy 4:6-16
Dave Baxter, Speaker

Father, thank You.  As we have just prayed, so we ask again for Your blessing on the preaching of Your Word tonight, Lord, that Your voice would be heard in our hearts and in our minds, that You would shape us and mold us, that You would draw our attention to Yourself, that You would equip us for every good work.  Father, help us now, both in preaching and in hearing.  For Your honor we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.   

Oh, it’s a must-have.  I wonder if you’ve heard that phrase or that statement recently.  I imagine if not with the holiday season quickly approaching you probably will hear that from somewhere, or maybe someone very close to you, if not somewhere else.  It’s actually in the dictionary.  I looked it up and I don’t know how long “must-have” has been a word in our dictionary, but I did Google it and found it in Merriam’s.  It’s a word there, must-have, and so if you’re already taking notes, you might want to note it’s a hyphenated word, “must-have.” 

But Merriam’s defines it this way as an adjective and it means something that is essential to have or obtain.

I thought about that and I’m like I don’t know if that’s actually a legitimate definition or not because it sounds more like a restatement to me and I really feel like when I was younger that I was taught you could not use the word itself in the definition of a word.  I don’t know if there’s some English teachers out here who can help me with that later, but must-have is something essential to have.  That’s the definition.

Apparently we need this word now because there are so many things that we must have.  Again, I got curious and googled this.  Several articles came up, different types of must-have lists, different kinds of things that, categories, things you must have associated with those.  In fact, actually if you go onto Amazon, and don’t do this right now, but if you go onto Amazon and you type in to the search bar “must-have,” you will get a list of products that you must have.  I don’t know who’s getting the privilege of determining what those must-have, what qualifies as a must-have, but there are over 200,000 of them, so may need to be a little more discerning.

I find that actually quite overwhelming.  Even if I just hit the “buy now” button over and over and over again, it would take quite some time to procure everything that I must have.

Well, tonight we are looking at a different kind of must-have list.  You’ll be pleased to know that it’s a much shorter list, only a couple of things, and certainly more significant than maybe what we’ll see on Amazon.  But as we look at this passage tonight, we’ll see some must-haves, some basic necessities, as it were, for faithful pastoral ministry as Paul is now turning in his letter and speaking to Timothy directly with instructions related to his pastoral ministry.

But we’ll also see, I think, in the same way that Paul highlights for us some ever-urgent needs for us, all of us, as believers because he’s writing to a pastor but of course he’s writing to a pastor with a church in mind.  That is with a church and its health and its holiness in mind.  That’s what Timothy’s ministry is ultimately for.

So if you’re not one of the pastors here tonight, don’t tune out.  Whether you’re one of the pastors here or not, we will hopefully all see some must-have, some urgent needs, for all of us as believers, even as we see some things that are essential for pastoral ministry.  Specifically, we’ll see that we must have godliness.  We must have godliness, training in godliness. 

We also must have God’s word secondly, and finally we’ll see that we must have growth.  So godliness, God’s Word, growth.  That’s our outline tonight.

So look with me now at the passage 1 Timothy chapter 4 and we’ll consider then first the call to pursue godliness.  1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6. 

Paul says to Timothy:  “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.  Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.  Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.  The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.  For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”

“Command and teach these things.  Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.  Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.  Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.  Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.  Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.  Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Verse 6 Paul says if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.  Most likely these things that he’s referring to what he’s just written about, maybe specifically verses 4 and 5 or that general context.  Paul’s referencing the kind of solid biblical teaching that would counter what the false teachers were saying.  Joel did a great job of expounding and applying that for us last week.

He continues.  Being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.  So you notice then right off the bat here this need for Timothy and his ongoing diet of Scripture.  That is that Timothy can’t continue to put before the brothers what he’s not first putting into himself. 

Paul’s concerned here then not only with Timothy’s output as a pastor but also with his input, which highlights a second thing to notice here, that this word “trained” can also be translated as “nourished.”  It really points back to an ongoing reality then, something Timothy needs to keep doing, not just something he learned when he was back in seminary.  This is about regular feeding, good ongoing, regular nourishment from God’s Word.

He goes on, verse 7, because there are things that Timothy is to keep on doing, keep receiving, keep feeding on, but also things that he is supposed to avoid:  Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.  Again a reference to false teaching, unbiblical speculations that have been so prevalent as a concern in this letter from Paul to Timothy.  We covered that again in prior weeks.  Rather, he says train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Now I bet that a number of folks here this evening have probably memorized that verse, if not word for word then maybe at least in the general sense, because it is one of those very proverbial-sounding verses, which makes it a really good one to memorize.  It’s one of the reasons why a majority of commentators, and I would agree with them, think that the verse 9 here about the trustworthy statement actually refers back to this verse 8 rather than ahead to verse 10, because it sounds like something that could have been more of a common statement used regularly in the life and ministry of the Church.

But you can see here a clear reminder that godliness requires effort on our part.  That is, there is no coasting into godliness.  It requires effort.  The word that Paul uses for training here is the root from which we get our word “gymnasium.”  And of course it brings to mind rigorous training, the kind of strenuous discipline, even self-denial, that serious athletes embrace in order to pursue some kind of elite athletic prize.

We just had the Olympics this summer.  No doubt many of you watched, and if you did you probably saw story after story, example after example, of all that’s required to become that kind of elite athlete.  It takes effort.  It requires discipline, setting some things aside.  Serious strenuous commitments.  And it’s not different, Paul says, for those who pursue godliness.

It’s a good reminder for us tonight then that when it comes to our growth in Christ, when it comes to our pursuit of godliness, that grace and effort are not at odds with one another.  Grace and self-reliance are at odds with another but grace and effort are not.  Paul himself said but by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them though it was not I but the grace of God at work within me.  1 Corinthians 15:10.

But godliness is something that we must train for, and while Paul doesn’t really go into a lot of specifics of what the training regimen involves here, I think we can get a real sense of what the central essence of that is he has in mind there in reference to Timothy embedded in the context.

Look one more time there at verse 7, specifically look at the word right in the middle there, “rather.”  Rather.  It’s a contrast.  The training for godliness is contrasted with getting engrossed with irreverent silly myths, again unbiblical teachings and practices that come from those.  How do we avoid that?  Again, verse 6, being trained in the words of the faith.

And though the words there are not actually the same, the two “trainings” here in the Greek, they’re translated the same, but training in godliness seems to run along the same lines as being trained or nourished in the words of biblical faith and of good doctrine.

So we see then again that godliness flows out of healthy doctrine and God’s Word.  We’ll come back to God’s Word in a moment, but again two things to notice. 

First.  It’s certainly not the only thing that we need for training in godliness, but we can see here that it’s an essential part of the training program, that is that you cannot get godliness apart from God’s Word.  You cannot get godliness without God’s Word.

Second, and conversely, you haven’t really gotten God’s Word unless you are also getting growth in godliness.  That’s what makes the training actually so desirable.  Because what is gained is so incredibly valuable.

Look how Paul contrasts the value of bodily training and training in godliness.  Notice first that he does not completely disparage the value of bodily training.  He says it has some value.

This year, at the beginning of the year, one of my resolutions, which I often do not do very great at keeping, but one of my resolutions was to be more consistent with trying to run again more regularly.  I’m glad to have been able to keep that for the most part, thankful I’ve seen some benefits from that, not just losing a little bit of weight but really even in my mental well-being, in my mindset, because bodily training has some value.  We shouldn’t overlook that.  It has some value but it is a limited value.

The word “some” there actually translates a phrase in the Greek, pros oligos.  It’s not a common phrase, but as one scholar notes, you’ll find it in James chapter 4, verse 14, again a verse probably many of you are familiar with:  Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  James says, for you are a mist that appears for a little time, pros oligos, and then it vanishes. 

A little time.  Some value, not none, but just for a little time, like a mist.  And yet how much will we invest in bodily training?  How much are we willing to spend?  How much, how hard are we willing to work on it?  Again, it’s not of no value, but is something ultimately with limited returns.  That is that all we might gain from it will ultimately literally be buried.  It is a mist.

Which is, of course, honestly, it’s a word that’s needed in our generation today no less than it was back in Paul’s day, not to despite physical training, bodily training, but not to deify it either.  There’s a balanced way, there’s a balanced way to think and approach the training of the body.  You could preach a whole sermon on that, I’m sure, but the focus of this statement is on the comparatively greater value of training in godliness, which Paul says is of value in every way, has value in every direction, value forever.  That is that you cannot outlive the value of godliness.

Training in godliness has value in this life.  It may not win you applause, it may not win you a promotion, it may not win you a spouse, it may not win you health, it may now win you a worry-free retirement, though it’s not impossible that godliness could contribute to some of those things in your life.  But godliness will bring you nearness with God.  It’ll bring you the blessings of a clean conscience.  It’ll be the means by which you are a blessing to others, whether or not they perceive it that way.  It’ll be the means by which we please God in this life.

That’s a great promise, and yet the promise of godliness does not end here.  Listen to how Kent Hughes says it:  When godly lives move into the new climate, and he’s speaking about heaven there, when they move into the new climate, their godliness will bloom like an ever unfolding flower for all eternity.  Godliness will continue its occupation here on earth, that of serving God to His glory, and who knows what reward the fruits of godliness, spoken metaphorically by Paul as gold, silver, and costly stones will receive from God there.

If you want to be better prepared for heaven, if you want a kind of growth and improvement that translates into eternity, that can’t be withered by age or snuffed out by the grave, then invest in godliness.  Don’t let the enemy convince you when he whispers what difference will it make to fight that sin today.  What difference will it make to say no to that temptation one more time, to leave behind that source of ungodly influence or finally take that step to eliminate a source of temptation?  What difference will it make?

Friends, he’s been a liar from the beginning.  That is his nature to lie and to murder.  The thief does not come to show you the way to the abundant life.  He comes to steal and kill and to destroy.  Jesus Christ came that we might have life and have it abundantly now in this life and even more so in the one to come.

As John Piper, I’m sure many have said, but many times we must fight the false promises, the false enticements, and there are enticements with sin but we must fight the false promises and enticements with sin, with the true promises of God, and here the promise of godliness.

Look how it motivates the ministry of Paul and Timothy.  Look again at verse 10 – for to this end we toil and strive, or this why we are engaged in this ministry, he says to Timothy, because we set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Just let me address that last phrase briefly, because this does not suggest that Paul believed in universal salvation.  That would be inconsistent with everything else he writes, be inconsistent with the rest of Scripture as a whole, not to mention it would make that second phrase sort of nonsensical, but there are of course several suggestions with how this verse can be understood consistently with what is clearly Paul’s teaching elsewhere and the rest of the Bible, the clear biblical doctrine that salvation comes through faith in Christ alone.

It’s possible that the word “Savior” is used here not for atonement from sins, as we often tend to think of it now, but rather of God’s continued general sustaining protection, preserving of the whole world.  There are other biblical uses and extra-biblical uses of the word in this way that would suggest that possibility, and in that case it would be especially true of those who are believers and therefore also have God for their eternal provider, protector, preserver, their eternal Savior on into glory from sin and all of its consequences.

Or possibly, possibly the second phrase simply clarifies the first, that it is those who believe all of those who are saved, that is, are those who believe.

It seems that some commentators suggest that Paul’s emphasis is on the sureness of salvation, that those who put their trust, that those who put their hopes in God, that those who trust, believe in the promise of godliness and live not merely for this life but for the one to come, that they will surely, certainly not be disappointed.

Because you see the ministry for Timothy and for Paul was a ministry that was characterized by toil and by striving.  It requires straining, going against the grain.  That’s what Gospel ministry, all Gospel ministry does in fact, and all really all godly Christian life focused on pursuing godliness will be characterized to some degree in this way.  It’s where we see that the end is also the engine because this is a ministry and it’s a life that’s empowered by hope.  This kind of striving runs on hope, the hope that godliness matters because of the life to come that God will deliver us.  Therefore our striving matters and that eternal joy in the presence of God is just ahead.

So for that kind of ministry, for this kind of life, we must have godliness.  We must have godliness and we must have God’s Word.

Look at verse 11.  Paul says, “Command and teach these things.”  Now we see again here that this admonition for training in godliness Paul’s not intended just for Timothy himself because he’s now commanding Timothy, “You teach that to the church.”  Timothy was to teach it, even to command it, and yet first along with teaching and commanding it, he’s also to model it.  It’s got to be the truest use of this phrase that Timothy was to practice what he preaches.

Paul says in verse 12:  Don’t let anyone look down on you because your youth, but set the believers an example of a godly life.   

Now Timothy was, I mean, probably actually maybe in his 30s or so, maybe he was a little bit younger, but he was not just out of college, and in the convention of that time, the desire would have been for an older leader for the sake of more accrued wisdom.  Not a bad thing.

We see here that Timothy is not to be intimidated by his relative youth or to let that sideline him from faithful use of his gifting and calling.  One of the ways he is to help this congregation or those in it who might struggle with having a younger pastor is to set for them the example of a godly life.  He is to live an exemplary life.

Yet notice that while it is to be an exemplary life, it’s not necessarily an exceptional one.  As in it’s not a life that’s somehow beyond the reach of any Christian, or beyond the calling of any Christian to live.  Look again at what he is to model:  Speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.  These things he was to model are really just core areas where every Christian should be striving for holiness and godly living.  That’s why he was to be an example.  He was to be an example not of a perfect life but of a sanctified one where speech, where conduct, where love, where faith, where purity are all modeled.

Of course, this is good for us.  We should be able to rely on our pastors to provide a godly example, to provide that kind of model of faithful living.  I just want to say tonight I am thankful that as one who lives and works along with the rest of the pastoral team here to be able to say tonight as I work with these men, serve alongside them, see them in all kinds of contexts, not just when they’re up front but in different circumstances, times, and seasons, to be able to say that these other pastors, to a man, that they are godly men.  Not perfect men, but men whose lives are exemplary.  Thankful to be able to say there’s not one of them of whom I would hesitate to say to my own children, “Look at him.  Look at his life.  Watch him.  Seek to live as he is living.  Learn from his life.”

And yet I’m also thankful as one who has now been in this church for a number of years, for a while, to say that it’s been my experience here, how many other models that I could point to of that very same thing within this congregation, even as I look around the room tonight.  So many who embody faithful living in these areas:  Speech, conduct, faith, love, purity.  Thankful to be raising my children among such a great cloud of living witnesses, as it were, and I hope that you see that as well.

I hope you find that an encouragement and a great blessing that we have so much to be thankful to God for in that area here, but that’s what Timothy was to be.

You see it here:  For the sake of respecting the office of pastor, but he was to be an example of a godly life.  The importance of his personal life.

Look at verse 13.  Paul says until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Actually three words in the Greek and then an article for reach – the reading, the exhortation, the teaching.

There’s the importance of Timothy’s personal life but here Paul’s coming to the necessity of his public ministry.  Take those in reverse, because you see there Timothy is to teach, take the Scriptures.  Teach them.  Teaching the doctrines of our faith, applying them, confronting false teaching, training, promoting good biblical doctrine.  Timothy is to teach.

And he is to preach.  He is to exhort.  Speaking forth the Word of God, not just to instruct but in a declarative way, to call for response of faith, of conviction, of repentance, of thanksgiving, of worship, of encouragement, of comfort.  He’s to preach.

And he’s to publicly read the Word.  Of course, this was an age when personal copies of God’s Word were not so readily available, so for many the way that they would read the Scriptures then was to hear it read for them in the context of public worship.  So you can see how important it was for that to be the case, for the public reading of God’s Word.

Of course, we have so many different ways that we can read God’s Word today, but I still remember this being emphasized for me in seminary – don’t overlook the public reading of God’s Word in worship.  There is power just in the reading of God’s Word for God’s people.  So treat it with reverence, give attention to it.

Hopefully you see again tonight why we have, as we did just earlier tonight, Scripture readings, even separate Scripture readings from the text of the sermon in our worship services and why we take the reading of God’s Word seriously and reverently in that case.

Timothy, until I come, don’t neglect the public ministry of the Word.

It’s a basic necessity for pastoral ministry, and yet don’t overlook the converse implication here, the implication for the Church as a whole.  Because of course Timothy wasn’t to do this just for himself, he’s not doing this off in the woods somewhere or just up in his room, not likely.  Paul instructs Timothy to attend to the public ministry of the Word because he anticipates that the church will be attending to the public ministry of the Word, that there will be hearers like he refers to in verse 16. 

It reminds us again of the centrality of the Word of God for the people of God.  And not just in private consumption but in public worship, that when we assemble, we gather around the Word.

We’re not a first century church, so again there’s so many ways today to read the Word, to hear it, to receive it, even the preaching of the Word, and many good ways to do that, but if podcasts and if streamed sermons and articles and blogs, as good as those things are and God-honoring in their right place and their right time, but if those were to lead you to neglect, the regular ministry of the Word here locally or in your own church perhaps if you’re visiting with us tonight, then that’s not a healthy practice.

Of course I know this is a Sunday evening crowd, and I said the same things a couple of weeks ago, I think, honestly, I know most of you are here tonight and pretty much every Sunday morning and Sunday evening because you do so highly prize the reading and the preaching and the teaching of God’s Word.  So maybe for many of us tonight this is less about being instruction and more of an encouragement for us.

But I want to read just briefly a statement from the Second Helvetic Confession.  It’s an old 16th century Swiss Reformed confession.  It is Reformation Sunday and so it’s good to work in there somewhere some kind of reference to an old Reformed confession.  I don’t know if I get extra credit for that or not.  But I’m going to do it regardless.

This is from the section titled “Of the Holy Scripture Being the True Word of God.”  You may have heard this before, but listen to what it says:  The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.  Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the Church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed and received by the faithful.

That’s quite a remarkable statement, that the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God and that when it’s preached faithfully in the Church by lawfully called preachers, the very Word of God is proclaimed and received.  Received by the faithful.

That, of course, does not mean that every sermon’s going to feel like Moses coming down off the mountaintop.  I can assure you that your pastors often don’t feel like Moses coming down off the mountain, we descend the platform at the end of the service.  Often in the ministry the Word feels very ordinary, and yet how many of us, how many of you, can think of times, you know places and times where you’ve sat and felt a warming, a burning, a sense of God’s Spirit, of God’s power, that God is actually speaking directly to you in the public ministry of His Word, maybe even quite apart from what the pastor thought you might be receiving in that message.

But isn’t it remarkable, and again it’s so incredibly humbling, that when we gather around the Word of God, this is no dead or rote or routine exercise, but God is speaking.

Verse 10 – He is the living God and a living God speaks.  Even through such incredibly humble and broken means, which is actually all the more incredible then, but God speaks, and among a myriad of ways that He speaks to us, He speaks to us centrally as we gather around the public ministry of the Word.

So we must have God’s Word.

Godliness, God’s Word, and growth lastly and most briefly, we must have growth.

Look at verses 14 through 16.  As we come to these last verses, again remember this is a pastoral epistle.  It’s a letter to a pastor and so here as much as anywhere Paul’s speaking in a way that applies to Timothy and by implication to pastors very particularly.  Verse 14 references what’s most likely, an ordination service of sorts for Timothy, and a specific gifting that he was given by the Holy Spirit to equip him particularly for his ministry as a pastor.

Maybe not in exactly the same way, but similarly our pastors are identified through as possessing certain gifts for ministry given by God, cultivated through training and experience and exercise.  A sense of calling then that has been affirmed by the Church.

Paul exhorts Timothy here, wherever that’s the case, don’t neglect that gift.  Don’t presume upon it.  Don’t fail to put it to use.  Rather he is to practice these things, immerse himself in them so that all could see his progress.

I was thinking about that and I couldn’t help but think here of the privilege it is to have so many wonderful pastoral interns with us here in our church, to have a seminary like RTS so close, and God continues to bless us with the great privilege of helping be a part of the training and preparation of young men for pastoral ministry.  Honestly, we have enjoyed some really wonderful blessings in the form of ministry from our interns.  We’ve enjoyed fine sermons from our interns.  They serve with excellence, teaching our Sunday school classes, leading small groups, serving in our youth ministry, and many other ways.  We’re blessed to be on the receiving end of the ministry of our interns as they prepare for ministry.

It’s also a privilege, it’s a great opportunity, that when we come to a worship service where an intern has the opportunity to preach or you find yourself at a Sunday school where an intern’s teaching, or any other number of places where an intern is getting the opportunity to train and even practice as they seek to developed God’s gifts, I hope that you will also rejoice at the opportunity to be part of that, the opportunity our church has to continue to pray for them and give good support and encouragement, maybe even helpful feedback from time to time as they minister among us.  It’s a great privilege.

Yet it’s also good to remember, it’s a good reminder for pastors among us, it’s a basic necessity, we’re to continue to practice these things, not let them fall into disuse.  In fact, that last phrase, “immerse yourself in them,” actually translates literally as “be in them.”  I think it’s actually a great way to say it.  I don’t know why they don’t just leave it that way, be in them.  Immerse yourself.

Again we might go back to the beginning, be constantly nourished by the words of the faith.  Just as there is no coasting into godliness at any point in the Christian life, so there is no coasting into excellence and effectiveness in ministry at any point. 

You can see Paul draws those together as he comes to that last verse 16 – “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.  Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Again, he’s not saying “save” here in the sense that Timothy will actually atone for his own sins or that of the congregation, not that Timothy will be the savior, but that Timothy’s ministry will be part of the means by which God works salvation in the hearers in the congregation through the faithful ministry of the Gospel, that Timothy’s own perseverance and holiness and steadfastness and faithfulness to the truth will be the fruit and the means by which God is working out his own perseverance and faith until glory.

We never outgrow this.  Again, Timothy maybe his late 20s, maybe his 30s.  Our eldest pastor, our eldest statesman here, Bruce, Pastor Bruce, just up here, just joined the septuagenarians this past couple months ago, in August.  He just wrote a very poignant, sweet letter to the seniors’ community highlighting some things he was reflecting on and thinking about as he enters his eighth decade of living.  I asked him if I could just pull one of them to share with you tonight, things he’s thinking about as he enters his 70s.

Here’s one thing he said:  I need to keep close watch on my heart and on my doctrine.  Though the end is in sight, I am still in the race.  The devil who in his cunning subtlety was able to get a sinless person to sin, Eve, is just as cunning and subtle to get a redeemed sinner to fall and ruin his ministry. 

I hope that kind of sober awareness, that kind of writing and speaking actually encourages you, church, tonight, to hear one of your pastors speaking like that.  No coasting, keeping first and foremost praying, “Lord, Lord, keep me faithful.”  And then putting effort, accountability, transparency, and fight to exercise all the means by which God will answer that kind of prayer.

Of course, that’s the most direct application of these verses to pastors, but again as we move towards the close, I think there’s a general principle here for all believers, as we must all pay attention to our lives.  We must all pay attention to our lives. 

Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, just one example:  Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day as long as it called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  We must pay attention to our lives.

And every one of us, if you’re a member of God’s body of believers in Christ, every one of us are stewards of God’s grace in the form of gifts that He has given to us for the sake of this common good.

Romans 12, again just one example:  For as in one body we have many members, and the members don’t all have the same function, so we though many are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.  Having gifts then that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

Friends, what gifts has God given you?  Maybe for some of our younger folks, you’re still learning that.  Or maybe you’re newer in Christ, you’re still learning.  But as we learn and discover God’s gifts, don’t neglect to use what He has given, or find ways to encourage one another in the use and stewardship of our gifts for the sake of the common good. 

So pay attention to your life, steward your gifts, and be faithful.

We must have growth, we must have God’s Word, and we must have training in godliness, which of course means most urgently that we must have God.  We must have His grace.  It’s not really a complicated list and it’s not a long one, either.  And yet without God, apart from God’s grace, it is surely impossible.

Paul said to Timothy, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.  Which of course is what every good pastor hopes to be, but really isn’t that what every Christian hopes to be?  Isn’t that what you hope to be tonight?  A good servant of Christ Jesus, called by His grace, sanctified by His grace, serving by grace, saved by grace, even finishing by grace, and looking to hear some day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Master.”

I trust that it is, so church, again, let’s hope again tonight on Him.  Let’s put our hope on Him again tonight.  Keep striving with all of His grace to be the pastor, to be the people, to be the Church that God has called us to be, and may He continue to receive all the glory.  Let’s take a moment and pray.                   

Father, we thank You again for Your Word to us tonight.  Help us to be that kind of people.  Help us to be that kind of church.  Father, You are worthy of all of this and we know greatly and deeply how much is our need, so we pray that in all of these things You would help us, O Lord, for our good and Your glory.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.