Teaching, Living, and Leading by Example

I know we prayed but um this passage is a passage I uh have personally been encouraged by a number of times and share it often with others so I want to get it right tonight so if you don't mind if we could just pray one more time father Lord thank you for your word Lord it corrects it guides and it encourages and father I found that in this passage and I know many others have as well Lord did you um guide me as I speak would your spirit be upon me um and may uh we be encouraged looking at this passage of First Timothy in your heavenly name amen if you guys have your Bibles open up to uh 1 Timothy we're going to be looking at Chapter 4 verses 16- 11 I'm going to pick up where Pastor inner

left off in verses 11-6 of 1 Timothy chap 4 and I'll I'll go ahead and read that it says these things command and teach let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the Believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith and Purity until I come give attendance to the reading to exhortation to Doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the prperty meditate upon these things give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this Thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee you know in chapters 1 through3

Paul has told Timothy how to address the problems that are taking place uh there with the church in Ephesus he's commanded Timothy to put an end to the teaching of false doctrines he's commanded Timothy to bring the men into unity in prayer he's commanded Timothy to instruct the women to be modest and to not be teaching with the main congregation and he's taught Timothy on what kind of men he should put into leadership and it's clear from these directions that that that there has been a lot wrong with that church Timothy has his hands full he has his hands full with making these Corrections and we can imagine that as Timothy a young man goes to make these Corrections within the church he's

going to start uh getting some push back people are going to push back I think Paul envisions this because he reminds Timothy in um starting of chapter 4 that some are actually going to depart the church some false teachers will not turn from their eror and because of this or because of their false teaching they're also going to draw others away from the faith Paul says this with certainty and that the Holy Spirit confirms this reality it and so at this point in the letter we can imagine Timothy uh starting to feel like he wants to quit Timothy like any good pastor wants to see his congregation grow he wants to see them grow in love he wants to see them grow in spiritual maturity he wants to

see them grow in in numbers what he's been told so far and what he's supposed to address he's quite possibly becoming disheartened add to that that Timothy has health issues we we know from chapter 5: 23 that Timothy is struggling with his health and what he is then is a young man commanded to correct those that are more mature than he is who is struggling in his health trying to get it right he's in a tough spot he needs encouragement and the wonderful thing as we look at this passage tonight we're going to find out that the Holy Spirit doesn't disappoint Paul he's Guided by the Holy Spirit lays out one what what I think is one of the most encouraging passages for spiritual leaders because

it tells them how to minister in spite of anything else that is going on and it ends with a promise it ends with a promise that there'll be salvation if you continue in these things you know this passage is primarily for pastors and for those that are ministering in the church but but even then the the principles that are laid out here are applicable to to Really anyone who wants to live their life for Christ and the promises then out of this passage are not just to Ministers of God's word the promises are for anyone who will live this out and the promises are so fantastic because as I mentioned it is the promise of those coming to Salvation And so I hope as we go through this you look at

this and it and you're motivated as well as the rest of the Pastoral staff as we look at this to live out uh the commands here to the best of our ability that we may take hold of that promise that comes at the end now as Paul gets into to this passage he's going to give 10 commands and that seems like a lot when you think about it but the reality is these 10 commands break down into a basically two ideas and in verses 11 through 12 we're going to get both of those ideas and in first part of 11 and the first part of 12 we're going to get the first category of the commands that Paul lays out and in verse 11 he says these things command and teach and then he says let no man despise thy youth

the first thing that Paul commands Timothy to do is to command and teach the things that he has been taught these things points back to all that Timothy has learned so far and what is what Paul is saying is Timothy you are to be my mouthpiece you are to command what I have commanded you are to teach what I have taught and the things that Paul has been or Paul is commanding and his teaching are the things that the Holy Spirit has has commanded and taught Paul and so really what Paul is telling Timothy is to command and to teach the things of God this then is the overarching uh Ministry is the overarching duty for any man that is called into the ministry a pastor his duty is to command his

listeners to do what God commands to be done and he is to teach all the truths that God has given for believers to know this means a pastor must be immersed into God's word and he must be convicted by what he's immersed in a pastor Must Be A Man convicted of God's truth so that he can Proclaim it with boldness because not everything God commands is going to go over well not everyone is in agreement with what what God commands and some of God God's commands are not even popular within or with other believers at times for example in our culture not all believers want to accept that it is God's plan that God uh will only use or plans to only use men as pastors that cut Cuts against the way our

culture is going but that's nothing new because in Ephesus not everyone wanted to accept that it was God's plan to have young Timothy as their Pastor he was too young they thought and they looked down on his youth yet that is what God desired and so Timothy In this passage here was to not let that reproach keep him from commanding what God had commanded and that goes the same with preachers and Ministers of God's word they must fight back any desire to hold back when God's commands cut against what are the social norms of our congregation what are the social norms of our time so commanding what God commands in addition to that pastors must also teach you know commands give direction they

give they give a specific Direction but life is far too complicated to govern it simply by commands what we need is we need principles truths doctrines for which we can uh filter life through and it is the pastor's job to teach those truths and to remind us of those truths years ago I had this uh Pastor uh give me this imagery and it's it's always stuck with me and I appreciate so much and what he said was was you you collect biblical truths biblical doctrines and it creates a grid pattern in your thinking and then you filter life through that grid and and once you filtered life through that grid you know how to respond to the different issues of life God's word may not tell us exactly

through a command how we are to handle every issue but within God's word or the truths that give us the guidelines to handle every issue and so while scripture might not tell us exactly how to parent God's guideline for how to parent are there and it is the pastor's job to teach and remind us of those standards oh God's word may not tell us exactly how to behave and act in the workforce God God's word provides the guidelines for how we are to do and how to work well and the pastor's job is to command and to teach those truths as well you see God has given truths in his word that allow us to filter through all areas of life and know how to to live in our culture nowadays we get bombarded and

quickly fall prey to secular wisdom in different ways and I and I think part of the reason that we're so quick to run to that is our lack of knowledge of the truths that are in the scripture because within God's scripture are are directives and principles for every area of life for every difficulty for every struggle and so it is a pastor's job to to bring that out secondly is a pastor's job to set the spiritual example that we are to follow in the second part of verse uh 12 it reads but be thou an example of the Believers in word in conversation in charity inp excuse me that's what I get for teasing you in charity in spirit in faith and purity now the word here trans or the word here

translated as example can can or does actually get translated as a form or mold as well in scripture and and it has that idea here as well what what Paul is commanding Timothy to do and and be an example is to be a mold that then molds others by practicing uh what they preach pastors are are are able to mold the congregation and a pastor must practice what he teaches in his public life and his private life in his public life he is to practice what he preaches in word or how he speaks and his speech is to be gracious it's to be kind it's to be considerate and his public life and his conversation or his manner of life is what that means uh he is to practice what he preaches in charity or in

love we should see within the pastor his love for God and his love towards others his love for the church and his love for the Lost but the pastor and other Ministry leaders must also put into practice what they preach in their private lives as well too they put it into practice in the spirit and in faith in the spirit they are they are focused on Christ and they maintain their faith in Christ they are they are not Hypocrites they are not men who uh behave in public in one way and then where their pri in their private times and nobody can see them they they behave in a different way there's a novel that was written quite a few decades ago called Elmer Gantry and uh in that novel Elmer is a

man who treats the pastorate as a career path and he follows it as a career and and he uh uh looks great on the outside on Sundays when he's teaching and he gets a big Gathering and great big group of followers but in his private life he's totally different he's a complete hypocrite and that book made the best seller list when it came out and it did that probably because there war pastors were Hypocrites and people recognize that and they dug into that idea that's in that book but yet that is not how true pastors are to be what a pastor is to be on Sunday is what a pastor is Monday through Saturday with his PR with his family in private as well too and he's also pure he focus on Purity he is

free from the con contamination of immorality this private aspect of a pastor and really any person who wishes to follow after Christ and have an effect spiritually on others it must be practiced privately as well too you see what nobody sees God sees and and before I came up here I was praying that the Holy Spirit would would guide me I prayed before we started the Holy Spirit would guide me I know a couple people have prayed for me for the Holy Spirit would would guide me and really what we need is we need the power of the holy spirit in our actions to uh allow us to be effective in our Ministries but if we are hypocrites God sees and God will keep the pastor and leader from being

effective if his private life is compromised probably expose it as well too but this aspect of the pastor and the ministers being molds to mold the congregation also shows that what everything is listed here that I just went over is also pertinent to every believer because what the pastor is called to the rest of the congregation is called to follow and be that as well we are to be molded and then we real then the reality is after that we will wind up molding each other within the congregation I think sometimes as Believers we also often miss the importance of the impression our lives uh on others we don't see that and that's maybe why we we don't give it a whole lot of thought but it takes

place happened this week for me or this past week as you guys know Pastor Andy is uh I guess they call Grand danty uh passed away and uh went to her funeral this week and when Melissa gave the eulogy she talked about how important going to church was to their auntie and how that on Saturday night she would start to prepare what she was going to wear so that she could be ready for Sunday she wanted to be prepared so that she could worship and so she started that early and and what Melissa as she was sharing didn't know is that I had been thinking during the week about the importance of preparing myself for Sunday I was thinking about how I needed to go to bed on time to be a physically and

and spiritually prepared to worship on the Lord's day and and as I hear the the eulogy about Auntie doing this it had its effect on me and her life then molded mine and I was encouraged to go through with the things that I was thinking on you see anyone seeking to follow after Christ is going to wind up molding others and this is one of the primary reasons why we need to continue to gather with one another church is to be or Ministry I should say is to be done corporately we have an individual relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ but we have a corporate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ as well and we affect each other and often times we don't even understand or recognize when we do

that but we do so we must be men and women of character and so we have two categories now as we continue through our passage we have the the first category for spiritual leader is one who is to command and to teach all that is God's and then the second one is he is to be a man man of character that lives according to what he preaches in verse 13 uh it starts to build or Paul builds now on this idea of commanding and teaching and there he says until I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to Doctrine until Paul returned Timothy was to give attendance or attention um which could also be translated to devote oneself to these three different actions he was to uh give constant attention

um constant Devotion to these three actions and the first one being reading and reading in the uh this section here what what Paul's getting at it's a little hard to pull out in English but but what Paul's getting at here is a public reading of scripture within the congregation reading is to be within the congregation and and the idea that Paul's getting at here is that Timothy is not just to pick some passage and walk up to the front of his congregation and then and then read out a passage you know he's supposed to uh come up and read a passage that he has put thought and attention to that he has devoted his attention to it's a passage that he has meditated on and he understands and he

recognizes the application of it and he's convinced of what is in it you see the public reading of scripture within a church is an intentional act to bring the congregation into a mindset that is focused on Christ and that doesn't come from a man who hasn't been convicted of the word himself if a man should uh be assigned to uh read the word before the congregation before the service starts at the beginning of the service and he he looks on his phone and he Googles something that sounds really good and that becomes what he wants to come to read the reality is he has no power within that I sometimes wonder actually not sometimes but in studying this was wondering if that's maybe why public

scripture reading has fallen out of style with churches could it be that we haven't paid attention to it and we didn't give it the force that God expects us to give to it secondly the pastor is to give this kind of attention to exhortation now exhortation means to bring about the change in a person to encourage a change in a person and what it really is is is it's getting to the a person's conscience it's taking God's word and and and and and getting them convinced in their conscience that they need to change according to God's word there's many ways to do this but the primary way that it takes place within the church by the pastor is through preaching preaching and and it's different than

teaching I I used to lead you guys know this I used to lead that par Church organization and that that par Church organization was was focused to train people in God's word so they could go back to their churches and serve and and because of that the the focus there was on teaching which is which is Paul's third point I'll get to a minute but what I learned in coming from that background is there is a huge difference between teaching and preaching because preaching is shooting for the heart teaching is shooting for the head teaching I'm trying to give you knowledge to to to move forward with preaching I'm trying to get get the heart to change to get the heart to fall in love with the Lord

and want to turn and so a pastor must be consumed with God's God's truth so that he can Proclaim it he must be consumed for The Souls of his listeners so that he can aim uh to preach to them in that manner I love how the English preacher Martin Lloyd Jones defined preaching they asked him one time to give a definition and he responded by saying that preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire a man who is on fire with God's word and a man who is on fire with love for his congregation and so preaching and then there's teaching or doctrine in in our passage here it's called Doctrine Doctrine is is instruction and what this is is is it's the idea of teaching giving the uh

instructions on the doctrines of God on the truths of God and that's to be another aspect that that the pastors and Timothy here is to be focused on you see often times and you guys recognize this you're reading God's word and you're you're going through a passage and you're like I just don't get this I don't understand this I need help right and that's where that teaching aspect comes in as the pastors and other spiritual leaders there to coordinate the church in a manner so that there is teaching so that we understand the text so that as we read it we know how then to apply it right and we need that that teaching aspect I love that pastor Wayne has made that important here at Ohana and so

he he commits Wednesday the teaching in fact if you are not in a situation where teachings going on I encourage you to do that you can do that by coming on Wednesday night and listening to pastor Wayne or you can get involved in one of the Bible studies that are going on I didn't realize it until last week but I actually counted the number of Bible studies we had and I was kind of surprised how many we have at our church we actually have nine different Bible studies that meet during the week now five of those you got to know tagalag or ilano to go to praise God for our Filipinos they're leading the charge but then for us slow Learners or English guys we have four others as well too it's

within those group that this teaching is going on and men that are are setting aside time during their week to study the passage and to understand the passage come and then and then teach on the passage so that so that we can learn in that manner as well too and so if you aren't a part of Wednesday night or a part of one of the Bible studies I encourage you to do that you can find those online and then in verse 14 Paul now jumps back to the other category and he going to talk about the character of the minister in verse 14 he says neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy and with the laying on of the hands of the presbyter Timothy was a gifted Minister I think we

I think he would have been a neat guy just to just to kind of observe for a little bit it's clear he's gifted but it's not a talent that he developed over time it's a it's a ability that God had given him for Ministry it played out in his evangelism it played out in his teaching it pred out played out in his teaching and in his leadership but note from this verse that it was also something that that Timothy to could neglect if he wanted to if he wanted to and Ministry was hard maybe he did Ministry is difficult and so maybe he was thinking maybe maybe it is time to kind of step away from what I'm doing well Paul had already noted in verse 10 from last week that within Ministry it is a labor

and the one who ministers is going to suffer reproach as so there's no reason for Timothy to step back because it was just part of the job it came with the job description and if he would give up if for some reason he would decide to neglect and his his gifts and step away what he would be doing is he would be giving up in a specific area that God had gifted him and wanted him to be in and one of the things we can see from this verse is that just because of serving in Ministry serving in the church church is difficult there is no reason to quit and there is no reason to not start this command here not neglecting the gift would go for all of us because God has gifted every believer with a

gift all believers have been gifted to serve within the body of Christ but as pastor Wayne was noting this morning unfortunately not all of us will will do that many of us find reasons not to serve we think it's hard we say we don't have time we have other commitments we say it's a time for for another phase of our life it's it's we've we've missed the opportunity I don't find that in scripture anywhere and when you think about the idea of neglecting our spiritual gift it's probably one of the most illogical things we could do as Believers think about what a gift that gifting is right God equips you and me to serve and he equips us with some ability specific to us it is his desire that we

use that gift and is a desire that we should use that gift to serve others through the church and that gift has he has given you is a gift that actually fits a need within the church when you consider that God is Sovereign over all things he's Sovereign over your busy schedule he's Sovereign over your paycheck he's Sovereign over your boss and when you realize what he desires you to do with your with your giftedness is there any excuse we can offer to say that no I I cannot serve there is no acceptable excuse there is no acceptable reason to put off serving well maybe some of you would respond to me and say well John I I don't know what my gift is so I'm I'm kind of stuck I need to wait

until I can figure out what my gift is I have a really easy answer for that one and if if anybody should think that way I just tell you just go serve CU you're going to find your gift just just start serving just start somewhere Pearl and I when we started serving we went through a number of years we didn't serve and we started serving and we were kind of put in a position where to be honest we didn't have a lot of choice to get started so we had to get started and we started serving in the children's ministry and for years we served with the two and three-year-olds and to be honest that's where we just kind of figured we would be we didn't give a whole lot of thought we just kind of thought

this is where we'll serve and we'll continue to serve in the children's ministry for for you know as long as we live and this is where God's got us it wasn't where God had us he had other plans it wasn't it wasn't the area that he wanted to us to be in so what happened is over time things changed and we we were asked to do other things and we we moved out of that Ministry and went up moving into other Ministries thing is if you don't know what your gift is just start serving and the children's ministry is a wonderful place to start and you can just start serving and what happens is as you start serving if that's not your gifted area God will just move you to where you where you need to be

and if he changes it and wants to move you somewhere else he'll move you somewhere else but if you're not serving you're never going to know I appreciate as I look across the crowd I see a huge group of people that do serve so somewhat I feel like I preach it to the choir but but serve use our gift do not neglect the gift that God has given you but for the pastor when it comes to this using your gift for him it's a little different for him it's to be an allc consuming effort look at verse 15 meditate upon these things give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all take heed unto thyself and to and unto the doctrine continue in them the two aspects for a pastor the public

proclamation of God's word and the personal application of them he is to be immens in he's to be wholly committed to them with nothing nothing held back so much so that the the truths that are there are things that he P within his mind often all the time but in doing this what happens is the spiritual leaders then grow and they're profitting their spiritual growth becomes visible to the congregation and this personal growth then dries the rest of us to follow after that growth and I think this implies too In this passage that the the greater the growth of the pastor the greater the growth of the spiritual leaders the greater the growth of the congregation and so it speaks so much more so to

the pastors and and the deacons and the rest of the spiritual leaders to be wholly committed to God's word and wholly committed to living it in their life we need our pastors immersed in God's word and in its application I am thankful for Ohana I often stop by I work here at Ohana but I'm not paid so I can come and go as I like not really but I pop in on an unscheduled time frame and I often find pastor Wayne sitting in his office his computers up his Bible's out open and he's studying that's so encouraging that's where I want to be and I see that you guys see that I'm also encouraging our pastor and how he applies it in his life I see it in how he talks I've been talking with him where the

conversation starts to go a certain I'm going to embarrass you by the way starts conversation starts to go in a different direction and I see him turn it back to another way maybe it starts to go towards gossip and he turns it over I've seen that I've noticed that I've T taken note from that and it's had its effect on me I've seen his commitment to Purity I've seen his commitment to love I've seen his commitment to speech that edifies it has been an encouragement but that's what we need and we need we need that out of out of all the Pastoral staff and I believe that it is there within the Pastoral staff but but as it grows within them it grows within the rest of us and as it grows with us

within us it grows within each other and we build on each other but we need to have our pastors fully committed and because we need to have our pastors fully committed we need as a congregation to support them in a manner so that they can do that yes pastors to be fully committed have to be supported we have to support them financially and we have to support them in their needs we have to support them so that our senior pastor doesn't worry about retirement we have to support our pastors so they don't worry about their families we need to look to the areas that we can build them up so that they can be undistracted so that they can be focused on the word and as they're focused on the word and

they grow and they mature then they affect us and we grow and we mature it is only to our benefit to support them so that they can be fully in God's word we don't want them distracted and if we have pastors like this then there's a great promise that comes out of this passage and it comes in the last part of verse 16 as for is it says for in doing this Thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee salvation is of the Lord Paul notes that in verse 10 but but enduring in the faith is part of Salvation and for Timothy and any other Pastor uh if they will devote themselves to the ministry of God's word and applying it to themselves they will endure but not only that and and this is the

great encouragement that I love about this passage is that is that it will save Paul starts off by chapter 4 with some very depressing news that false teachers are going to depart from the faith and they're going to bring others with them but the opposite is also true that if we are faithful to God's word and proclaiming it and then living it the opposite happens and that is that those are saved that the listeners are saved and so we seek to have our leaders be fully committed and support them in that area so that we can grow and so that others can be saved now there's a General application I wanted to close with on this passage because everything I've listed while specifically for pastors

also applies to each and every one of us because we're supposed to follow their example right and you know sometimes I've had some folks come up to me and they're and they're and they're disappointed with the the church or somebody in the church and we have we have a good church and we have good people here but the reality is we're Sinners right we have we have our issues and they come up and they're they're disappointed and they tell me that they want to leave or they want to they want to pull back or they want to uh stop hanging around a group of certain group of Believers and I've been taking them to this passage it doesn't clear a lot but it's enough to to take notice and I take him to

this passage because as I look at this passage I never see God calling us to hold back on anything or stop ministering or or make a change when things get difficult or we get discouraged what I find is that God calls us to continue on that he tells us that he has gifted us and that he expects us to continue to use those gifts and apply them for if we do that and we are careful with the application of God's word to ourselves we too will grow in our spirituality and we too will show evidence to others to to see and it will cause them to change as well and it will even to the point of bringing people to Salvation as well and that is a promise from our Lord God In this passage