Chapel August 31, 2018 Jackie Hill-Perry

she's good at it, yeah, I should make her do that all the time. I am happy to be with you. They have some coffee in their system. Sorry if they are over caffeine. My apologies. I think there is a lot. I'm I'm I'm messing up notes again all I have is Christ I don't want to I don't want to ruin there's so much stuff I think I don't even think I know what's going on in our culture today we have a lot of really cool things we have seven albums of songs one thing i wish would stop we have chick-fil-a even though it's closed on sundays and i really feel like i want chick-fil-a most after church and i really don't understand what's going on there we have memes we have a lot we also have some really terrible things we have babies ripped from their parents in and out of the womb we have social injustice inside and outside the church we have crazy taxes we have crazy people we have crazy everything but beyond that I think one thing that worries me the most is whether Christians know what to do in the midst of all this there is a real threat to the soul that exists in our culture from all angles involving good things, people who once professed to be Christians are now straying or have strayed from the faith , how is it then possible to engage with the culture and at the same time ensure that you are not swallowed whole?

First, I think Timothy has some wise counsel for us in all of this. Paul is talking to his son in the faith, Timothy, among many things, but he takes the time to exhort him on how to be a good servant of Christ to people who stray from the path. faith with false teachings and teachers with all kinds of silly myths spread everywhere. Paul knows that what will help his son remain anchored in a fickle culture is simple: he must simply be a good servant of Jesus Christ and that God has called him and equipped him to be that, let us pray, Lord, teach us from your word, Show us your truth, help us believe it in the name of Jesus.

Amen, you can turn or click first Timothy 4, say Amen, when you have it, we have a person. you get a sticker for being so fast first Timothy 4 verse 6 I will start reading it says if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of faith and good doctrine that you have followed does not have nothing to do with a bow, silly myths, rather, train yourself for piety, because while bodily training has some value, piety is a value in every sense, since it holds a promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Come on, the saying is trustworthy and deserves total acceptance because in this we work and strive because we have our hopes placed in the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe that the apostle Paul until this moment has been loading. his son in the faith Timothy to confront and challenge false doctrine has urged him to pray for all people. He has laid out how men and women should function within his local church and how the men who lead these churches should live, then he tells Timothy. that the Church of the Living God is a pillar and buttress of truth.

If you've ever seen a very old cathedral or a photo of it up close, you'll notice that around the building there are these very long pillars coming out of the ground and they're usually integrated into the structure of the building in some way, that's what it is. a buttress and what it does is it supports the building, it makes sure that the building itself is protected from destruction and interesting. is that this is the image that Paul is trying to convey when it comes to the body of Christ and its relationship with the truth because he is telling us that the Church of the Living God is to be a pillar and a bulwark of the truth, that means that they They are the ones who are supposed to uphold the truth, they are the ones who are supposed to support and protect against anything that seeks to destroy the truth and when you think about the world as we know it, then you see how that's how the heart really is. the world only likes the truth when it is true for them all truth is relative since they say that there is not one truth but many truths this reminds me actually I have a brief conversation that I had a couple of weeks ago with a young woman in a conference I was speaking at and I was talking about the topic of sexuality, one of the most controversial topics of our day, and I was drawing from Scripture how we should think about it, how we should formulate our ideas and our worldviews. about the scriptures being the final authority and she came to me and told me about a friend of hers who was living a sexually immoral life and her response was that she believed he was godly even though the scriptures say he was not. it is.

What was intriguing is that she did not see that God's Word was not the final authority on how she understood the truth, but that she gained her understanding of the truth from her experience with her friend. That's why Paul tells Timothy that there is a time coming when people who are in the church will stop or stop believing the truths that the truth teaches and clearly this falling away is all around us after all of this, you would think that Paul would give Timothy more doctrine to believe that is typical of Us, when people try to help people learn how to live in the culture or how to be a better Christian, we turn to more teaching, which is great, we give them more things to learn.

Paul did it in this book if you look at chapter one. In both chapters 3, he has been explaining to Timothy what Timothy is to believe and therefore teach, but now Paul takes a short break, so to speak, and instead now lays out not only what Timothy must believe, but also what belief must affect and through Timothy as much as God through Paul wants Timothy to have a solid ministry in Ephesus he also wants Timothy to be a solid minister in Ephesus he says in verse 6 if you put These things before the brothers you will be a good circuit Paul gives an exhortation of identity that has a condition for it to be obtained, he says that if you put these things, these doctrines or these teachings that I have just presented to you, but before presenting them before the church, then you can call yourself a good servant. of Jesus Christ while we talk about it, what does the doctrine mean?

Anyway, some people will say you don't need it dr. Doctrine is a belief system that must be taught and I have often heard people say, well, we don't need doctrine, we just need Jesus. The crazy thing about that is that it's a doctrine. You just gave me a belief system that you think should be taught. be believed and taught, but the crazy thing about this is also that it is false, we need doctrine, we live and breathe doctrine all day long, whether it's Twitter, Facebook or CNN, we are surrounded by people making confident claims about the things they believe. . hopes that we would believe along with them and the scary thing is that most false doctrines seem true if you look in your Bibles at verse 4.

I'm going to read it to you, it says now, the spirit expressly says that in later times some Will Will some depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons? That is truly terrifying because of the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and demand abstinence from the foods that God created to be welcomed with Thanksgiving by those who believe. and know the truth first because it says that many will leave the faith devoting themselves to the teachings of demons. I've never seen a demon. I definitely don't want to believe what they have to teach, but at first glance one would think that the teachings.

One of the demons would be not watching certain shows or not listening to certain music or cutting six-sixes on your arms or getting tattoos. I have 18 of them, so I guess a demon told me to do that, but you would think I would do it. Think that these are the behaviors that the demons would tell you to do, that these would be the ones that the demons teach us through people, but the interesting thing is that what Paul says that these false teachers were teaching, he says that they only told him people to abstain from certain foods and not get married, the part about not getting married definitely sounds demonic to me, but you gave it to the people of the Church of Ephesus, even though they might have been listening to these teachings and perceived it as wise advice. .

They might have taken abstinence from food as a practice to resist the temptation to be a glutton or they might have been taking the advice to remain single as a way to show control, they might have assumed that these teachings of demons were actually holy. when in fact Paul says that this kind of teaching is what has led people away from the faith and what kind of teaching it is, which is the kind of teaching that makes people believe that doing a lot of seemingly spiritual things is the right thing to do. that will make them right with God, then you grew up in the church like me, if you're familiar with this.

I was told that playing cards was demonic, that dancing was demonic, that wearing dresses on your knees was the most holy and godly thing you can do and that the KJV My Version of the Bible was the only legitimate living version and as I was growing up, Do you know what that did to me, made me believe that not doing what was prescribed as evil and doing what they said was godly were the things that would really help me? make me right before God so that my works in some way save me from the wrath to come, but now knowing the gospel I know that it is not the works that have saved me, but it is grace and from this salvation good word will surely flow, but the Good works are not what secured my salvation, it has been and never will be what I have done, but what Christ has done for us and that is why what the false teachers said about abstaining from certain foods and not getting married It was demonic because Only Satan wants to make people think that they can somehow save themselves if they do not glorify God and the good things that he has actually given us to enjoy.

God didn't give us cupcakes, cold beer, fried chicken, kale for the vegans, and music. and movies and fashion and games for nothing he has given us many good things so that we can remember that he is a good God the culture needs to see that Christianity is not just about what we say no to but also who we say yes to and who By saying yes to Jesus, we are also given the opportunity to say yes to many good things that we can fully enjoy with Thanksgiving to God. God through Paul wants Timothy and us to be good servants wherever we are and participate in doing a part of doing. that is to make sure that we are not teaching false doctrine but good and true doctrine because if we want to be good, not decent, not mediocre, but good servants, then we have to understand that teaching good doctrine is part of that identity Paul basically tells Timothy a brother, I want you to teach what is true to the people you are serving and I read verse 6 again if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, did you know that? the word Minister is in this verse, you might think that all I can see is good, serve well, you just read it, being a good servant of Christ Jesus is the same as saying being a good minister of Christ Jesus in Greek, this en What ministry really is is being a servant of the people.

I know we have many ministers in the church today. We have shepherds. We have poets. We have elderly people. We have faster wives. We have deacons. We have Sunday school teachers, but we really have a youth group. leaders we have missionaries we have Christian bloggers we have authors we have musicians if any of these praise God these titles are great but they mean nothing if you forget what they are supposed to mean in light of the Scriptures we must be servants servants who do not hesitate to teach the truth wherever you go and I think there will be some of you who probably already take pride in teaching the doctrine, whether on social media and in small groups among friends, so I share Paul's exhortation or charge.

To Timothy you are really patting yourself on the back and glorying in what you think makes him a good servant, but I want to ask you this in your teaching, who are you doing it for? Do you find joy and teaching doctrine in how it helps people? see God or how he helped people see you, isn't it interesting how quickly our love of theology can turn into idolatry? Well, we have stopped digging into God's Word to learn about him, but instead, we dig into God's Word so we can be known by everyone else but him, but there is another group that also comes to mind. mind, the group that has refused to teach doctrine at all, those who have become comfortable with the title of Christian and not with the duty of a Christian Christian, those who know that They are called to make disciples and teach them everything that God has commanded, but you know that some of these commandments are really offensive.

They know that these commandments could cause them to lose friends or followers, so the only doctrines they are interested in teaching are the ones they are not. They don'tIf it cost any of you in this room anything that fits these descriptions it is because you have forgotten what you call being a servant. Notice that the end of verse 6 does not say that if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant. of pride or if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of fear it does not say if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ he is the main motivation of our love and work towards people around us it is not neither our pride nor our timidity remember that after the resurrection of Jesus he gathered the disciples and told them go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have sent you.

Some of us are so gifted that we have stopped making disciples of Jesus and we only make disciples of ourselves if you make disciples even when you don't try, there are people around you who constantly learn from you, we really have the ability to teach without know it when someone discovers that you follow Jesus. Whether you know it or not, they will follow you and in many ways glean from your life who they believe Christ is. We do not want to disciple people into another Christ and I promise I completely understand the temptation to do so, but we must remember that our commitment to the culture and people around us should never be self-centered, we cannot change anyone, we can go out into the world to To make disciples of Christ, we must teach them all that he has commanded and resist the temptation to let fear rule as we do at the end of verse 6.

Paul comments on how Timothy has been and is being trained in the words of faith and how he has followed good doctrine in other words Timothy practices what he preaches good servants not only teach what is true but they also live what is true so the question I would ask you then, if you thought, stop for a minute, would you say that you are a good server now? If when I ask that question, you only consider what you knew and omit how you live. I encourage you to re-evaluate if we have a second. Can we turn to 1 Timothy 1?

You only know a chapter or so of 1 Timothy 1 verse 8 and I want you to pay attention. something here says verse 8 now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully understanding this that the law is not established for the righteous rather than for the wicked and disobedient for the wicked and sinners for the wicked and profane for those who strike their fathers and mothers mothers by murderers sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality in slavers liars perjurers and anything else that is contrary to sound doctrine think about this Paul lists a lot of behaviors like murder and sexual immorality and says it is contrary to sound doctrine one would think he would contrast false doctrine with sound doctrine, not sinful behavior with good teaching.

Here we can conclude that even if you know a solid option if you do not allow it to transform your way of living and you are still very opposed to it. your knowledge should guide you to faith and what God has said in the scriptures and faith through the power of the Holy Spirit will produce truth in your life in which your doctrine and your life will be united through Timothy, although Timothy has been nurtured in the words of faith and who followed good doctrine Paul still warns him not to have anything to do with foolish and irreverent myths, but rather trained for piety, if what you believe governs how you behave, that is how it is and wherever you If a good servant must refuse to have anything to do with doctrines and ideas that are opposed to the truth found in the Word of God, we would be deceived if we did not think that we have some modern myths floating around in our day that I believe The Lord would say they are fools like that.

Who will tell you that we should not fight for the rights of the marginalized and oppressed as if the gospel did not demand love in action because of the myth that our sexuality is open to interpretation or the myth that God won? Don't judge the sin or the myth that American at Comerica has the power to redefine marriage or the myth that gender roles within marriage don't matter or the myth that the gospel isn't all that true or all that relevant or all that real. or as powerful as the day that was the day that Jesus came out that serious servant of God refused to have anything to do with that which is not in accordance with sound doctrine, but rather expend his energy on what he trains himself to mercy why because knowing God makes everything better, the truth is this world this life is hard we are surrounded by people who are being lynched on camera we have death in our families we have frustrations in our home we have infertility in our marriage we have divorces in our homes we have abuse in our pulpits we have broken relationships We have inconsistent friendships, not to mention our petty daily external struggles all day long and there are some of us who will leave this Chapel today and return home in a situation that makes you want to distrust the gospel, but guess what, even in all this turmoil.

God knows you and you know him being the one who created it all he being the one who has control of everything he being the one who will sustain you he being the one who is sanctifying you he being the one who maintains you being the one who was convincing you, he being the one comforting you, he's the one we're talking about, this guy will take you through everything. Have we forgotten that godliness comes through intimacy with Ciscoe and that godliness doesn't just transform the way you live? but it transforms the way you see the lights, that's why it's valuable, because at the end of the day, what does it matter if we knew a bunch of things about God and never met him?

Paul lets us know that piety is a value in every way in which it is promising for the present right now, today in this Chapel, life and, God willing, for your tomorrow and also life, your life to come. , when you think about culture, do you ever think about that? Well, should I say that he is how can you avoid it? to be absorbed into the lives of this world as you watch it love it desire it be satisfied in it I know it's tempting to really believe that the things the world is trying to tell you are true or that if you just go back to what you used to do that you will be happy but somewhat creative He will never give you what God can give you there is nothing on earth that God has created that is actually better than him there is nothing in this world that God has made that is better than God himself, you must fight to see God and, As you do, the immediate culture around you will change because they will now see God in you.

Paul wants Timothy to know that what he has just said should be trusted, that it is deserved and deserves acceptance, he says in verse 10, because for this end we work and strive because we have our hope in the living God, why What Timothy should you be a good servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because someday we will see God, remember. In verse 8, Paul says that godliness has promises not only for this life but also for the life to come. Paul has eternity in his mind teaching and believing one and living the truth is not a game to him, it is not mean in any case if you just read at a glance.

In the New Testament you see that his commitment to the Scriptures made his life even more difficult and you can expect the same to happen to you, but Paul wants Timothy to know that he will remain faithful because his hope is not in something dead. , his hope is not there. in an idol or people or fame or pride your hope is in the living God do you remember when you were dead in trespasses and sins when you live as if God cannot see you when you speak as if God cannot hear you when when you threaten God as if he cannot move but he loved you anyway and having loved him, the living God died if he were just a man, as some people in our culture would say, he could not have died for your sins. because he would have needed someone to die for his people or if he were just a prophet as others would say he would have simply remained dead or if he were not the Son of God as other lives would say he would not have had power over death but seeing that he is a prophet and priest and son of God through God and fully man completely perfect therefore the only sacrifice that God would accept on our behalf because it was this and more in his resurrection to life he was and is capable of giving you life with him in this god, we said our hope that the devil would be pleased if he could take that thing away from you while you're at school or at your church or with your friends, even while you're at it. you're trying to make disciples and just love people and love God, if he could sneak in and not just take your hope but just put it in some Mel, it would mean the world to the devil, don't let him do that to you. hope and the Living God because one day you will see them and until then until we see his face until we obtain the promise of eternal life that awaits us we must continue preaching the truth live what is right and trained for what matters because at the end of the day, wherever we There are good servants, that is exactly what good servants do, let us pray for God, your word tells you, that you are able to prevent us from falling and present ourselves without blemish with joy.

I ask God to keep us. In this room I am not ignorant of the machinations of the devil or of our own flesh, there are some of us who are struggling to believe that there is something, but some of us simply do not want to do this anymore, but I pray to God that they do . They would believe that they would believe that you are alive and that they would believe that you are real and that they would believe that you are stronger than sin that your Holy Spirit is able to do excessively and abundantly everything that we can ask or think even the simple things that keep us from the temptation.

I pray to God that we leave this room trusting you more. I pray to God that we are surrounded by a community of believers who can tell us the truth and when we don't. Even if we want it ourselves, I ask God that our prayer life becomes more constant and more urgent. I pray to God that even as we study the Scriptures, the Scriptures do not become boring to us, that the Scriptures do not become a mere text. book but the Scriptures would still be the sword that it is. I pray that You will help us to love You and I am grateful that You love us anyway in Jesus name.

Amen. There is so much to do and so little time. I'm too busy to see it open. the blinds I'm too dizzy to balance my spine they let me back a SAP is on my mind because I'm stressed but it's good now with help by the way these are the best recipes when I let him have them because I'm doing too much I'm doing too much I'm doing too much I'm doing too much