Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 2, 2016 | Route 66 - 1 Timothy

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October 2, 2016 | Route 66 - 1 Timothy · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that was awesome.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: The worship did that.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The worship was awesome.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Got you all pumped up.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: So grab a Bible or tune your cell phone into your favorite Bible app and go to 1 Timothy.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's the book we're in.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're in Route 66.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is a journey through the Bible if you're visiting this morning or road trip through the Bible.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we're 83% of the way through or whatever.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we have gotten to the first book of what's oftentimes called the Pastoral Epistles.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're often taught at seminaries in the pastoral and preaching department, though they're uh really should be probably titled Paul's Letters to His Co-workers.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: These are his buddies, guys.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's mentored Tim and Titus, Timothy and Titus, and we've gotten to the first and longest of them, six chapters, the book of 1 Timothy.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we ask as we dive into this book that we know a lot of people think it's uh, think the pastoral epistles are mundane or boring, and we find that they are as uh meaty and life-changing as the rest of your word.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for that in Jesus' name.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm entitling uh this book, House Rules.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know what house rules are.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you grew up with house rules, uh, like uh one of the better lists that I've seen for school with uh for for kids in elementary age, kids that are elementary age, uh the house rules number one, speak nicely, no yelling, whining, or demanding.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: There goes 80% of the conversation in some houses.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, no hitting, biting, kicking, or throwing things.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: That would cut down on a lot of the activity, wouldn't it?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, pick up your own toys, shoes, and dirty clothes.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Four, no interrupting adults when they're speaking, unless it's an emergency.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I thought those were pretty good.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even better, I like the uh junior high high school uh kids' rules, the house rules posted uh when kids are a little older.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you sleep on it, make it up.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you spill it, wipe it up.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you drop it, pick it up.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you open it, close it.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you turn it on, turn it off.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you wear it, hang it up.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: If it whines, feed it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: If it cries, love it.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: House rules.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are rules wherever you go today.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: There are rules in your school.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: There were rules yesterday on my flights from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Philly and Philly to Kansas City, you know, like rules before you get on the plane, where you stand, and when you can get on, and when you sit, you've got to fasten your seatbelt.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: I always forget that one, honestly.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you can't smoke in the bathroom, that is such a burden.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just bothered by that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there are rules wherever you go or whatever you do, any club that you're a part of, even a golf club has rules about what you wear.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when you get to Timothy, you find that he drops his theme verse, his why I'm writing this verse into the very middle of the book, chapter 3, verse 15.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I write, he says, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That means house rules, how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those places in the New Testament where it is clear he's not talking about the universal church.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: That means everybody who has trusted Christ as their savior.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: But here he's talking about the church in the city of Ephesus, his primary, his main church.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is where Timothy is.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is where he's writing, and he's talking about how to conduct yourself in the house of God.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, house rules.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Most commentators, most all commentaries, will say this is about the rules of the church.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: But as I was studying it this week, and I've taught it that way before too, but I thought, you know, there's just not very many house rules.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm looking for house rules for how to run Topeka Bible church or how to set it up, I mean, sure, there's there's the requirements for how to qualify to be an elder and how to qualify to be a deacon and how to qualify to be on the benevolent list for a widow.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's stuff like that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, Ephesus already had elders.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Paul had appointed them years before.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just no rules that you'd want, like how do you worship, or, you know, how do you there's a lot of stuff about prayer, but nothing about, you know, how should you pray or how should you organize.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it struck me after a while that there's not really a lot of help for Topeka Bible Church here as far as how to organize.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a church organization manual, though, 1 Timothy is oftentimes treated that way.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, as I read this, I realized it's more of a church repair, a service and repair manual, a fix-it manual.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: That this was a church that used to be healthy but had become sick.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that one of, as you read through this, you find that again and again you find Paul talking about sound teaching.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And by sound, he means healthy.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: The word sound in Greek is the word from which we get hygiene, hygienic teaching.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, listen to my healthy teaching.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: You need to become sound or healthy.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says in chapter 4, verse 6, Tim, he says, and if you point out these things to the brothers there in Ephesus, you'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith, and of the sound doctrine, the healthy teaching which you have been following.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So by the way, just as a little side trail for a moment, I was thinking, okay, Ephesus is Paul's signature church.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he started it in 57 A.D., stayed there a year and a half, he started a Bible school in association with it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: It had house churches all around.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aquila and Priscilla, we know, led one house church.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is a great church.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's Paul's, you know, the best church he ever founded, really.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then I thought, but now we've come to a place where it's gotten a little sick.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, as I thought about Ephesus, the church at Ephesus, it strikes me that there are really three stages of church life to the church at Ephesus.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: As you read the New Testament, first it was hot and healthy.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: By hot, I mean it was on fire for God.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was fervent.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You see this in the book of Acts in 57 A.D.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: when the church was founded, when Paul was there.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of opposition, but I mean this church was a going concern even in 60 A.D., three years later, when Paul writes the book of Ephesus, the Ephesians to them from Corinth.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell this is a strong church, and he gives them, he writes them a meaty letter, meaty as Romans, just shorter.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's five years later, it's 62 A.D., and he's writing the letter of 1 Timothy, and all of a sudden he's telling them that there's a virus or that they're a disease, that the church is sickly, and it's a sickness that comes from inside.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like teachers from the outside are visiting.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's like some of the elders of these house churches are gotten squirrely in their teaching, and it's gotten sickly.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's not a good thing.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's great that they were still fervent for Christ, but it's not good that they had become unhealthy.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, 30 years later, you read the book of Revelation, chapter 2, 1 through 7, you find John compliments them 30 years later, this same church, for having cleared up the controversies.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're right on, there's no heresy.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: The teaching is fine, but the problem is, he said, I have this against you.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have lost your first love.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, now they're no longer, they're healthy, but they're no longer warm or fervent for Christ.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this seems to me to be the greater sin, wouldn't you?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I would much rather, frankly, have a hot and sickly church than a cold and healthy one, than a dead church.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But and it caused me to wonder this weekend, you know, think about the history, the 77-year history of Topeka Bible Church.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, I've only been around for about half that history, but from what I can tell, the church was hot and healthy for the first 30 years of its existence, 1939 to 1969, when the pastor suddenly died.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: He was in his 40s and he suddenly died.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think he'd smoked a lot when he was younger, got lung cancer, and just was gone just like that.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then the church kind of, wow, kind of fell apart.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And from what I read and what I heard when I came in the mid-70s, I mean, they would pastors would come in for a year and chewed up and spit out, and it was just, and when I came, I mean, the annual church business meetings, the place was packed.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it was noisy, and there was, it was action-packed.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was, it was fun, and I was hiding underneath the pew when I could.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but the church just, I would say it was it was sick.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was a lot of fighting and so forth from 1969 to 79, and seven, starting about 1980, these are all proximate.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Since then, I would say that it's gotten healthy.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're an amazingly healthy church, and I hope we're still hot.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I stand in back during the worship, and I love it when I see people really, I think, concentrating on the words, lifting their hands or getting into the worship and bellowing it out.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's, you know, that's I think really important.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I hope, I hope that our church is hot and healthy.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Ephesus, I'm talking about the church at Ephesus, was at this time that Paul's writing.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was not healthy anymore.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul starts off saying, uh, Tim, as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, northern Greece, remain in Ephesus so that you can instruct certain people not to teach different doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: These promote empty speculations rather than God's plan, which operates by faith.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a stuff going on in the house churches.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: People are, you know, caught up with, you know, stuff they shouldn't be.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so the point of this book, as I wrote on the back of your study sheet, is the simple point is I want you to grip what's good and burn what's bad.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hold tightly to what is good there at Ephesus at your local church, and I want you to sort of trash the stuff that's bad in two categories, in the teaching category and in the behavior category.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So let me take you through these two categories.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think when it comes to teaching in this book, Paul's really fervent about this idea that you ought to grip, you ought to hang on to the word of God, to the revealed scriptures, and to unto some other things, because these are really precious assets that you have, and you ought to hold on to them tightly and not let go.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the things he says to hold on to tightly in this book are the revealed scriptures, are the hold on to the grateful use of things, he says.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some people, this doesn't happen in America much, but back in Ephesus in those days, the hot spiritual people were always saying, you need to, you can't, you know, you need to prove that you're spiritual by not having sex for the next three months or a month or something like that, and not eating at all for a while, and then just eating bread and water for a month, and you need to give up this and give up that, and you need to, you know, and and Paul said, hold it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: God's given us all these things and we need to use them wisely, but but but and be grateful for them, but use them.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, and then he says, love of people.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, I want I want to see a simple love of people among you.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that, and fourth, pursuit of godliness.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, as you go through the pastoral epistles, especially 1 Timothy, Paul is always presenting a certain mindset that you and I maybe have forgotten, that we have a precious thing to protect, a treasure to guard, a fortune that we need to cling to.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have a teaching to hold tightly, we have instructions to keep.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a good thing we need to grip.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the pastorals, that is 1, 2 Timothy and Titus, are not the only place Paul says this.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: We don't use this language much, but Paul uses it in most of his books, just at least once.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: In Romans, he says, hold fast to what is good.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: In Philippians, he says, hold firmly to the word of life.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: In Thessalonians, he says, test all things, but hold fast to that which is good.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in 1 Timothy, over and over, he says stuff like deacons and elders need to keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to grip the good teaching and you need to burn the bad, because there are people out there who don't grip the revealed scriptures.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they love creative speculations.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Grip the grateful use of things versus those people that are always urging pious abstinence.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Grip the simple love of people versus the love of controversy, grip the pursuit of godliness rather than the pursuit of money.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let me share with you a couple of ways he says this.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says in 1 Timothy 4, the Spirit clearly says that in the last days some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Such teachings come through liars, etc., etc.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, you know, creative speculations.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let me let me just can I share with you a couple of stories about a couple of these categories so you can see if they apply to us.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me talk to you about where I see creative speculation.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: It seems to me that even in the church today, and I'm talking about the genuine evangelical church of Jesus Christ people who believe the gospel, we often have an unhealthy love of what is brand new, what nobody has ever said before, what is speculative, what, and so forth.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example or two.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um a few years ago, uh somebody uh called himself Jewish, gave himself a new name, and so forth, wrote a book, and he wrote a book in which he he selected a very sort of a verse that nobody had ever seen in Isaiah, and he proves from that verse that we were sinning as a country and rebuilding at ground zero, at 9-11.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: That that, even though I never mentioned George Bush in the book, well, you know, he criticized the Senate and so forth for talking about rebuilding at ground zero and proved from the book of Isaiah that that should never be done, that we should leave the ruins there to constantly remind us of God's judgment on our country, basically, you know, at 9-11.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, nobody was saying that before or since, and he threw angels into each chapter as well, and so the book marketed to the top of the bestseller list, and and he's become famous because of it, written another book recently, and so forth.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you'd think that the fact that he's the only one who ever said that and nobody ever agreed with him would make a difference, but it doesn't because it's creative and it's new and it's different and it's exciting.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and we had some folks at our church that used that book, and I didn't stand in their way.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is fun stuff, but that happens regularly.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, I was asked to teach a course on spirituality to public servants, to the people who constantly need to re-up their certification, to police and firefighters, and therapists, and counselors, and so forth.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was asked to do that because the woman told me uh when she called, she said, last year I put on these courses and I asked people at the end, write down what you'd like to hear taught more than anything else.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And by far the most common thing people wanted to hear about was spirituality.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna be the title, spirituality.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you've been a pastor here at Speaker Bible for years, you could do a good job.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, I said, well, I'm not sure they're gonna like what I'm gonna say, but I'll be glad to.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I taught this.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was an all-day seminar here in Topeka, and then it was there was one up in Kansas City, and one down in Wichita, and it was a lot of fun, a lot of fun to rub shoulders, you know, with people I normally wouldn't, you know, police and firefighters and teachers and therapists and so forth.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but and and you can imagine where I got my material on spirituality.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the New Testament.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew it was gonna happen.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had great response, and it was really fun, and so forth.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: But both in the QA and then between sessions, you know, I would, I would, and I knew I was gonna hear it.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some people were extremely dissatisfied.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: They'd heard this stuff before.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is boring meat and potatoes, and they're looking for sushi.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with sushi, though I like mine deep fat fried.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so but I mean, they're looking for something special, they're looking for something creative, they're looking for something nobody else has said before that maybe involves a little bit of Eastern mysticism, involves maybe a little mention of Buddha once in a while, or something, you know, that's really, really esoteric.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And a number of these people were what we would call traditional Christians.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's just something about all of us that likes something that's brand new.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul doesn't really care for that.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, you know what, how firm a foundation as the saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's a meat and potatoes guy, as I am.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not that Paul didn't like sushi.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just just so that would be like creative speculation.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Watch out for that stuff, watch out for that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, let me mention, uh, I could talk about each of these.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Love of controversy, love of controversy.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people, there are people who are always wanting to.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I used to have a guy who never could see me without wanting to fight with me to try to prove to me that tongues had ceased, you know, from a verse in the Bible.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he wanted to always get into that argument.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to argue.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't uh, you know, I'd already stayed my position.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to argue with him.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or somebody else, I couldn't ever get near this guy without him.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Always wanted to argue about the age of the earth.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was positive the earth was X billion years old and so forth.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we talked about it once, which is enough for me.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't care for that.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh I'm reminded of the I didn't tell this in first service because I knew you wouldn't laugh, but I'm gonna tell it anyway because it's the only thing I can think of right now, the story about the Pentecostal.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you've ever been like me, uh I was assembly of God Pentecostal, whatever for a while.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Sunday nights are really what I loved about it is it's really open.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can talk back and forth.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: He can even talk to the preacher.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, the story goes of this Pentecostal preacher's talking about end times and so forth, and talking about how because of, you know, they they they follow the whole Bible, they were gonna be first into heaven.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you know what?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be first and heaven, we're gonna be first in heaven.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: A visiting woman raised her hand and said, No, no, no, I'm I'm just visiting tonight, but I'm Presbyterian.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been told that we're gonna be first in heaven.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he stood there and he looked at her.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, you know, woman, you may be right.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: It does say the dead in Christ shall rise first, you know.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Shazam.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: But um, that would be controversy.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: That would be loving controversy.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: One time I was over here at Stormont Vale, it was a very sad afternoon.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: There was a man I loved who was close to death, and he didn't die, praise God.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: But his son wouldn't let me alone.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: His son had come in from out of town, his son was uh, you know, really, really had gotten hooked into a certain theology and so forth.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and he he did not want to talk about his dad, he didn't want to talk about anything else.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: He just knew, since he had spent some years and his growing up years at this church, he knew that I believed that Christ died for the whole world, for every person, and he firmly believed Christ had, like Fred Phelps does, had only died for a certain number, only died for the elect.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he would not let that go.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and finally, I just simply had to leave because he wanted to argue that and wanted to prove to me I was wrong.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something about loving controversies.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a place for that, maybe in seminary or Bible college or whatever, where you can yell at each other and throw things, but somehow when you're out in the real world, Paul doesn't care for that.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care for the creative speculations, always new stuff, and he doesn't care for people who are always into loving controversy.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, in fact, that in the latter days some will abandon the faith and follow all kinds of different spirits and things taught by demons.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, grip the good, grip the scriptures and this other stuff, pursue godless, and don't pursue the money thing.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, and this is Paul's point, the people who get all carried away by new stuff, you know, uh that you hear on the radio or on TV, they're after money.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: These arguers, he says in 1 Timothy 6, their minds warped, don't know how to tell the truth to them, the good news is just a means of making money keep away from them.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So he says it, I didn't, but I'll summarize the first half of what I'm saying by saying Paul's point that we ought to always remember is that we should grip something, we should cling tightly to something, to our faith in Christ and to a clear conscience.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And some have rejected these, and their faith has been shipwrecked.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're beautiful on the outside, but they they cling to other stuff, not the word of God and not to faith.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's brand new, it's creative stuff, but but but they shipwreck.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then the other thing he talks about is not so much the teaching, but the behavior.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I use the word management on the back of your sheet.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Behavior, I've decided, is a better word.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Grip the good in your behavior.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and burn the bad behavior.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so he contrasts in this book, on one hand, praying men and quiet women with.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: What that was going on there in Ephesus, which were angry men and loud women, both of whom were going from house to house, driving people crazy.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: He contrasts praying for people with those who are gossiping about people.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: He contrasts exemplary leaders with guilty church leaders.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: He contrasts honoring people who are really worthy of honor with the honoring of unworthy people simply because they're prominent personalities or wealthy.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I think the prayer thing is really big.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: The first two points are about prayer.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was studying this passage this week, this verse I hear all the time, and it's really famous.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you may have thought about it this last week during the presidential debate.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for kings.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is 1 Timothy 2, 2.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for kings and all those who are in authority.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have heard this verse?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard this verse?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that verse, that's a great verse.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I used that verse, but all of a sudden this week I noticed something that maybe I never noticed so clearly before, and that is that praying for kings is not, is not, hear me, it's not his main point here at all.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: His main point is that we ought to pray for everybody.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the only time in the Bible where you're gonna hear this said, but he says it really strongly here in the verse right before verse 2.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I urge then first of all that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all men, or everyone, for kings and others.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then and the reason I know this is the main point is that in the verses that follow, he says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and everyone, mankind, the man Jesus, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for whom?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: For all people.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So his point is to pray for everyone.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to stop there for a second, just not because it's the most important point in the book at all, but just because of how it's affected me, just thinking about it this week, because you won't find another place in the Bible that says it quite like this.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think this could transform to some extent how you wait in line.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: That if you go, you know what?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not doing anything else.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Forgot my cell phone in the car.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Might as well pray for everybody in line.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: It might change how you listen to a boring sermon like this one.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: You just sort of look straight ahead, pretend like you're looking at me, but just without moving your head, pray for everyone who your eyes can pick out, you know.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: This last week.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on four flights, and I met four people that I've I've never met anything.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've been flying how many thousand thousand times in my life, and yet on each plane there was something I've never experienced before.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: A first flight was uh Melody Knife, Philadelphia, or it was uh Kansas City up to Philadelphia.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and I and I and I hear this tune in my head, and then I realize it's not in my head.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Someone is humming this tune.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And over all the announcement and everything else, I keep hearing this tune.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's driving me crazy.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking around.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, nobody's going, mm-mm, nobody's moving, you know, I can't tell.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, I I figure, I think it's the flight attendant.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm at the back of the plant.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the flight attendant.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the man who's standing up behind me.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I go, sir, excuse me, are you actually humming the chorus to I come to the garden alone?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, uh, yeah, I am.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's really cool.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first flight.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is all this all has a point.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Second flight is the opera singer.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we're stuck in the tarmac in Philadelphia for an hour because they say they need to balance off the luggage underneath.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: They put too much of any of the suitcases on one side.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now explain that why it takes an hour to move suit.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so we're there, and the flight attendant at the front of the plane, apparently, she believes that we are really bored.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, all of a sudden, she breaks out an opera.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: She's sitting there.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody else jump.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I always forget my seatbelt, so I hit the top right there by the line.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else, you know, got caught by their seatbelt.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: She she goes into this four-minute opera thing.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody claps.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, I'm Brunhild.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one who wears the wears the horns, you know, in the opera.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wait about a minute.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: She breaks out into this other four minutes.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And she keeps doing this for for like for the last half hour.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but a little opera for me goes a long way.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere there underneath country music down there about hip-hop, you know, or something.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And but I mean it's, it's, it's, it's, and there she is.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, and then the third flight, uh, as I'm coming back, I'm the first one on the three of us are the first ones on the plane.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean we're in first class.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those bullet planes, we're sitting in row 24 out of 26.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Turns out all three of us row 24 out of 26.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the moment we pass row 10, the woman in front of me starts berating her husband that we're sitting so far back.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we get into the seat, she squeezes herself into the middle seat.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't pay attention to me at all because she is now into the third time of berating her husband that this is the second flight in a row that they've had a set sitting in the back part of the plane.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is just absolutely, doesn't he have any sensitivity in so later?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's only 26 rows on the plane, lady.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, what do you want?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: But she makes such a big deal out of it and just gets louder and louder and so forth.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this poor, you know, man is just, yes, ma'am, I'm sorry.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I won't do that, you know, and so forth.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, the flight attendant actually moves both of them up to the exit row.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: He switches everybody around, not thinking, that's all it takes.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: You just go, you know, but but anyway, so that was unique.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the fourth flight coming back, I meet a woman who's a Bible study leader in Kansas City, whose husband and brother run Crossworld and Avant Ministries, you know, and then phenomenal woman.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: So those four women, why do I mention that?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mention that because that became for me, having read these verses, an opportunity to pray for all four of those very different people.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to pray for all of you on a Sunday morning, as I've done.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to pray for people in groups.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: But how about when you're stuck in traffic or in a line?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is all extra.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: It just strikes me.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this should be something that men especially do.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I desire, he says, that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way the Jews did in the Old Testament.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And even in New Testament days, guys lift their hands without wrath and doubting.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer, a spirit of prayer.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, something else I noticed, I'll hurry on this.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Honor and shame is big in this book.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about we should honor God, the King of ages.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then he said we ought to honor two groups of people that are really worthy.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: We ought to honor people.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: There were two disenfranchised groups in those days, widows and young people.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Young people then meant 30 and under.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Tim, don't let anybody think less of you because you're young.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Be an example by the way you live, your love, your faith, your purity.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And honor widows who are truly widows.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: These were groups that were ignored, that were not respected, that were part of the shame society in those days.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this book makes a that's why I love the fact that this morning we're talking about helping out widows, helping out women who need their cars worked on.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I love Chorcor, because this is so biblical and so few people do it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the honor-shame thing.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's actually a spirit of godliness.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the two spirits in this book, the behavior, it's a spirit of prayer and a spirit of godliness, he keeps talking about.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Godliness, he says, has value for all things.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than physical trading.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Godliness with contentment is great gain.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Stay away from those who aren't godly who just want money, because the love of money is really dangerous.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, he said, man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness and godliness and fight the good fight of the faith.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is the end of the book.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, I got a word for you.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: The man of God is known by what he flees from.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Knows by what he's known by what he follows after.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's known by what he fights for, and he's known by what he's faithful to.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: He flees the love of money and all these controversies and all this kind of stuff.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: He follows after godliness.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, make me a righteous man, a godly man.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: He fights for faith and the word of God.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he's faithful to eternal life and the things that matter, in case you wanted to write those down, that's where they are.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: He flees, he follows, he fights, he's faithful.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how Paul says listen, this is how you ought to conduct yourself.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is a service and repair manual for the local church.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's how you ought to conduct yourself in the local church, which is the house of God, the church of the living God.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Years ago, the mogul Shah Jahan lost his favorite wife, beautiful wife.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: She died, and he decided that in her memory, as he was grieving, he would erect a temple for her and around her, and so he brought her casket and placed it on a large area of ground and ordered the construction of a magnificent temple around her.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as the weeks became months and as the months became years, the Shah's grief lessened and his passion for the project increased.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: No longer was he mourning his wife.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Construction now consumed him.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one day, as he was crossing that uh large expanse of ground that would turn into the Taj Mahal there at Agra, India, his leg bumped into a wooden box and motioned over a workman, get rid of this, he said.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how, according to legend, the workman got rid of a grime-covered dust enveloped in a time forgotten casket that contained the remains of his bride.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is that true?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Could that happen?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: That you could actually build a temple and forget why?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: That you could erect a palace and forget the king, that you could build a church and forget that it's the house of the living God?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: People do it all the time.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I want a church, I want to be part of a church that doesn't forget the reason why, that remembers that it's all about God, that remains hot and healthy, that doesn't get involved in needless creative speculations or controversies, but clings firmly, grips the word of God and faith.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of church I want that never forgets that Topeka Bible Church is the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for what you've done for us, and we thank you for the church and how much you love it.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Bless us as we join you around the table now, the Lord's table, in Jesus' name.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.