Redeemer Live - January 19th, 2025 (Full Worship Gathering)

Call to Worship: Drawing Near to God Because He Has Drawn Near

Case, the scripture readings in there as well, and some notes to help you follow with the.

Message later on.

We open our services each week with a call to worship, where God, from his word, invites us into this sacred time and sacred space as we gather to worship together. And this morning, God calls us to worship from Psalm 75.

Psalm 75. It's a very simple call to worship, but there's a phrase in it I want to highlight for just a second. So Psalm 75, verse 1, the psalmist says to us, We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks to you for your name is near.

People tell about your wondrous works. Did you notice that the psalmist there says that we give thanks to you for or because your name is near? The only reason that we can draw near to God in worship is because he has first drawn.

Near to us.

And so as we come to worship, we come with hearts and we come with minds, hopefully, that are drawing near to God in full response to the fact that he has drawn near to us. And of course, the greatest way that he's drawn near to us is in the person of his son.

And so with that in mind, allow me to pray, commit our time to the Lord, and then we will.

Continue in worship.

Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to you for your every goodness to us. Thank you for the gift of the Lord's Day that we're able to hit pause on the activities, distractions of the week, and be able to start the week in worship and in fellowship and drawing near to you.

I pray that as we sing and hear your word read, and we respond to it in prayer, and we hear it taught, and see its promises in the table, and as we enjoy fellowship with one another, may the Spirit would use all of this to deepen our love for Christ, to make us more and more like him, and above all, may the Spirit would use it to glorify.

The Savior.

And so we ask all this in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Well, can I invite you to stand and let's engage in some singing together.

Engages our hearts, may Jesus Christ be known, wherever we are. We ask not for ourselves, but for your renown, the cross has saved us, so we pray. Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom, let your will be done, so that ever, let your soul, till you're on earth is done.

Let your kingdom come, give us your strength, O God, and courage to speak, to perform your wondrous deeds through those who are weak. Lord, use us as you want, whatever the test, by grace we'll preach your gospels till our dying breath.

Let your kingdom come, let your will be done, so that ever, let your soul, till you're on earth is done. Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, let your will be done, so that everyone might know your name.

Let your song be heard, your song on earth is done. Let your kingdom come. He is so good to us that he has brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his son. Let's worship this God as we proclaim God over all.

As a man humbled, you died a sinner's death. I want to sing of your past. As I now draw near, you'll forget that you have bombed me with your blood. I want to sing of your love. All I do feel great love be shining through.

I want to sing. Draw near in that day. You come back to claim your right. We'll bow down. Praise you forever at your throne. Yes, we will sing of your love. I'll draw near to glorify your name. I want to sing.

I'll draw near. I want to sing.

Public Reading of Psalm 68 and Prayer for God’s Power

We come to that part of our worship gathering each week where we give some time to the public reading of God's word. We've been working our way through the Psalms, a section at a time. And this morning, we come to Psalm 68.

Psalm 68.

Now, as we come to Psalm 68, it's one of the longer Psalms. Not the longest, but it's a pretty long one. And so, to make this a bit more manageable, we're not going to read the entirety of the Psalm like we normally do.

I'm just going to read the first 19 verses. The first 19 verses this morning. We will pick up the rest next week, Lord willing. But as we come to Psalm 68, we come to a Psalm that essentially gives voice to the fact that the God that we serve is all-powerful.

And since he's all-powerful, he is worthy of all worship. And so, I want you to bear that in mind as we come to this Psalm, that we are coming face-to-face with the God who has all-power and who is therefore worthy of all worship.

Psalm 68, if you grab one of the red Bibles that we give away, that's on page 504. Psalm 68 and reading verses 1 through the 19. Brothers and sisters, these are God's words to us. To the choir director, a Psalm of David, a song.

God arises. His enemies scatter and those who hate him flee from his presence. As smoke is blown away, so you blow them away. As wax melts before the fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God. But the righteous are glad.

They rejoice before God and celebrate with joy. Sing to God. Sing praises to his name. Exalt him who rides on the clouds. His name is Yahweh. And celebrate before him. God in his holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows.

God provides homes for those who are deserted. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a scorched land. When you went out before your people, when you marched through the desert, Selah, the earth trembled and the skies poured rain before God, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

You, God, showered abundant rain. You revived your inheritance when it languished. Your people settled in it. You, God, provided for the poor by your goodness. The Lord gave the command. A great company of women brought the news.

The kings of the armies flee. They flee. She who stays at home devised the spoil. While you lie among the sheep pens, the wings of a dove are covered with silver and its feathers with glistening gold.

When the Almighty scattered kings in the land, it snowed on Salmon. Mount Bashan is God's towering mountain. Mount Bashan is a mountain of many peaks. Why gaze with envy, you mountain peaks, at the mountain God desired for his abode?

Yahweh will dwell there forever.

God's chariots are tens of thousands, thousands and thousands. The Lord is among them in the sanctuary as he was at Sinai. You ascended to the heights, taking away captives. You received gifts from people, even from the rebellious.

So that Yahweh, God, might dwell there. Blessed be the Lord. Day after day he bears our burden. God is our salvation. Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding of it.

Let's come to the Lord in prayer.

Let's pray together.

Lord, as we have read these words, we are freshly reminded of the fact that you are the God who possesses all power in heaven and on earth. That you are the God for whom nothing happens to him. Yet you cause all things to happen.

And Father, while that should be a terrifying thought for those who don't know you, while that should be a thought that strikes fear in the hearts of those who reject you, for us who know you, that is a comforting thought.

For us who know you, that is a refuge in the storm. That is a shelter in the midst of the heat of this life. So Father, we thank you for your power. We thank you that you are ordering all things for the good of your people.

That even as we just read, your power enables you to be our salvation. Father, help us that we will always remember our need for you. That we would never presume to think that we have power in and of ourselves.

We have nothing that you have not graciously given to us. So Father, help us. Help us to embrace the need to be dependent on you. And more than that, help us to find joy in the fact that you are the God who gives us everything.

Be with us as we continue to worship and as we come to the ministry of your word in a few moments. We ask all this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Well can I invite you to stand and let's continue in our worship by singing.

Christ the true of God and Son of man, Pentecost, never yielding, never sinning. He who makes the many righteous, brings us back to life again. Cursed the person, rising, crushed the serpent's head. Christ the story, the true, humble son of sacrifice.

Who would climb there to offer up his life. Christ the story, he gets all the glory. Amen. Let his trail of shearing burn his face away. You are the chosen one to love.

Go ahead and take a seat. Well we come to the part of our service where we get to play the word of God. So we have a Bible and I hope you do. Take it and turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. I'll join you there in just a moment.

Before I do, a couple of bits of housekeeping so to speak. First things first, I bring you the greetings of our elders at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona. I was out there Friday and Saturday for their Be Ready Men's Conference.

We do that every couple of years. The theme this year was the war on men, taking a stand. It was a great time of fellowship.

People from all over the country literally came.

So good time there. I got to spend some time with our elders as well. They absolutely love you guys. They are praying for Redeemer here in the Rogue Valley and can't wait, Lord willing, to see us all soon.

So bringing their greetings. Like I said, we were there for a men's conference and it was interesting. Fellas, I want to speak to you for just a moment. Ladies, you get to eavesdrop. I'm speaking to the fellas for a moment.

It was interesting. So the theme of the conference was the war on men. Some might object to that language and say there isn't a war on men. That's just being melodramatic. I'd argue the point with you, but that's not really the point.

The reality is we live in a culture that, at best, wants to redefine what being a man is. And at worst, it wants to get rid of manhood altogether. And as I was reflecting on my way home yesterday, I had a lot of time to do that.

As I was reflecting on my way home, I was reminded of something that I heard years ago from a mentor of mine. And there was a version of this said at the conference, which was just great confirmation.

I remember being told as a younger man that our adversary has a number of devices. 2 Corinthians 2 .17 tells us that we should not be ignorant of the devices, the schemes, the strategies of the evil one.

We've got a lot of them. And actually three of them that he likes to use, that my late mentor used to say to me, was that first things first, he'll try to deceive you. He'll just try and tell you things that are not true.

If he can't get you there, he'll use the weapon of what my mentor used to call deviance. He'll get you in the realm of your behavior. If he can't get you with deception, if he can't get you in the realm of deception, and he can't get you in the realm of deviance, he goes for the weapon of distraction.

Distraction.

He makes you, my mentor used to put it like this, he'll make you too busy to tend to the garden of your own soul. As men, we are mission oriented. I think I even joked about this last week. You present to us a problem.

I'm not trying to hear 20 minutes about why this is a problem. I need 5 minutes, at best, for you to tell me the problem, and 15 minutes to go fix it. This is how God has made us. That's not a flaw, despite what culture tells us.

No, it's part of how God has made us. Here's the danger with that though. Our adversary knows, I mean, he's not, think about this. Our adversary doesn't have all knowledge like God does, the fancy theological term.

He's not omniscient. He doesn't know everything. But he's been around a little longer than you and I. Which means he's had a lot of time to observe humanity. And to know what works and what doesn't. And so if, as men, we are very much driven by tasks, missions, projects, and those sorts of things, what does he do?

He'll just introduce a bunch of them. Keep you busy so you can't do the things that are most important. Brothers, I want to encourage this. I was just incredibly, richly blessed by the ministry of the word and the fellowship and the conversations that happened.

And I thought of our body, and particularly the men of our body. And I want to encourage us. Life is busy. Things happen.

I get it.

But brothers, do not let our adversary use the weapon of distraction on you. Make time for your own soul. Make time for fellowship with God's people. Make time for the private use of the means of grace.

Reading God's word.

Praying.

Engaging in fellowship one-on-one with other believers. Don't allow yourself to get distracted. That's a weapon the adversary will use on you. And to be fair, this is true for women as well. So this is not a purely male problem.

But I do want to speak specifically to the fellows for a second. Brothers, fight against distraction. Paul says something in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. I remember years ago hearing my pastor preach through this.

1 Corinthians chapter 7, he's talking about marriage and relationships and all of those fun issues. And then he pauses and he says why he's writing. And he says, I'm not writing. I'm paraphrasing. I think it's 1 Corinthians chapter 7, I'm going to say verse 35, somewhere thereabouts.

He says, I'm not writing to you to put a burden on you. He says, I'm writing to secure your undivided devotion to Christ. Brothers, let me encourage you. Jesus is worthy of undivided. Let me just use the word I just used, undistracted devotion.

He's worthy of it. And here's the thing. You may think, okay, if you're saying that, but I've got so many things to do. I've got a family to lead. Here's the thing. If we rightly think of the Lord Jesus, if we have him front and center, we're going to talk about this in the message, actually.

If you have him front and center, he doesn't become a distraction, no pun intended, from the things that we need to take care of. He actually gives us the power to do those things well. It would be like I don't have an electric car and I don't really think much of electric cars.

That's a whole other conversation for another time. But it would be like me having an electric car, never plugging it in, and then wondering why my car doesn't go anywhere. Brothers, don't become so distracted that you are disconnected from the source of the power that will enable you to live in a way that glorifies God.

One of the ways that we seek to foster that is through our men's Bible study once a month. It's an opportunity for us to sit under the sound of God's word. It's very interactive. Try to encourage us to work our way through the text together.

And so that's going to be happening tomorrow night at 7. So if you are available, I encourage you, make the time. Even if you're tired, come. You can fall asleep. I'm not going to be mad at you. But just come.

Sit under the sound of God's word. It will be a blessing to you.

All right.

God's House Rules and the Church’s Motivation

1 Timothy, that's where we are. Continuing on in the sermon series that we have been in called God's House Rules, an exposition of 1 Timothy. And this morning, we come to 1 Timothy and chapter number 3.

1 Timothy, chapter 3. I'm short reading this morning, just three verses. Verses 14, 15, and 16. So 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 14 through to 16. If you grabbed one of the Bibles, we give away that on page 1052.

1 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 14 through to 16. If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me as we read this portion of God's word? We like to do this at this point to show our submission to the word of God.

In these moments, God is directly speaking to us as we read his word. So 1 Timothy, chapter 3, beginning in verse 14 and reading to verse 16. Brothers and sisters, once again, these are God's words to us this morning.

I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but that his words, these words would never pass away. Pray that they would find fertile soil in our hearts. Allow me to pray, ask for the Lord's help, and we will come to his word this morning.

Heavenly Father, we come to your word now, asking that you would speak to us. Yes, you have spoken in the pages of your word, but we pray that that which you have said would be spoken to us afresh again by the ministry of your spirit.

Help us to not just understand what these words say and what they mean, but help us to understand why they matter for us as your people. Fathers, usually I have it to pray for other area churches, but tomorrow our nation inaugurates its new president.

Father, we saw just how contentious this previous election cycle was. We saw firsthand just how dangerous it got at points. Father, we pray that as there is this official transition tomorrow, we pray that it will go well first and foremost.

Pray that there would be nothing that would cause danger to either the president or vice president who are coming in or any who are in attendance because of the weather. They've had to move it indoors, and that creates a whole other set of challenges.

Father, we pray for this nation. Again, we are so polarized, and no doubt the incoming of this new president may not help matters. Father, we must be honest and say that we are not always the most deserving of your mercies, but we would pray for the mercy of peace in this nation as this new administration begins.

That regardless of whether one is happy about the new administration or unhappy, your word tells us that we have to pray for those in government. It doesn't say anything about liking the person in government.

It says we have to pray for them. And so, Father, we pray for incoming President Trump. Pray for his vice president, J .D. Vance. Pray for the administration that's coming in and will have to hit the ground running on so many issues.

Father, we pray that you would give our leaders the wisdom they need to rule over us well. Father, may that even begin with their needed repentance. Because, Father, as a nation, we need to repent. But, Father, even in your common grace, you give leaders who don't repent wisdom to rule rightly.

I pray that you would give our leaders wisdom. I pray that you would bring advisors around them who think clearly, who see needs and want to meet needs. I pray that we, as citizens, would submit well to our leadership, even when they do things that we don't particularly appreciate.

Because, ultimately, your word tells us we are to submit to every human authority, not for their sake, but for the Lord's sake. So, Father, help us in that reality. Be with us as we come to your word now.

And we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Please be seated.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What gets you out of bed in the morning? For some of you, it's that socially acceptable addiction called drinking coffee. But, in all seriousness, seriously, what drives you to get out of bed on Monday morning and do what you do?

Really, I'm getting at the question of, here's the big word, motivation. What motivates you to do what you do? It's kind of an important question, ain't it? It's not enough to just do stuff. You should probably ask, why are we doing this?

If you aren't driven by some motivating principle, if there isn't some sense of importance to the work that you are doing, whatever that work is, let's just be honest, the chances are you're not going to do that work well.

Yes, the Bible does teach us that there is inherent value in hard work and excellence. Those are values that I think are important regardless of how you feel. But let's be honest, for most of us, excellence and the thrill of hard work just isn't enough.

So, again, I ask, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Maybe that's a little uncomfortable, so let me zoom out for just a moment. What should make the church get out of its metaphorical bed in the morning?

What should be the motivation of the church? Why should the church do what it does? Is it cultural relevance? Is it cultural acceptance? Should tradition be our guiding star? Will we do what we do because other people have done it before?

We've always done it this way. Are the felt needs and the emotional desires of our world, are they what should motivate us to action? Again, I ask, what should be the motivation of the church? Well, as we come to 1 Timothy 3 verses 14, 15, and 16, we're going to hear something of Paul's heart.

And since Paul is writing by the inspiration of the Spirit, we're going to hear something of God's heart, if you will, about what should guide the conduct and the mission of the church. We're going to get to the heart of this question of motivation, not so much on a personal level, though I think it's a good question to ask, especially at the beginning of a new year.

No, we're going to think about the church and what its motivation ought to be. Those of you who are new to our church, we have been working our way section by section through 1 Timothy. That's what we generally do here.

By and large, we take books of the Bible, and we work our way through them section by section, letting the point of the text be the point of the sermon, the shape of the sermon be informed by the shape of the text, and the central theme, as I like to say, big C, big T, the Lord Jesus, let him be the central theme of every message.

And so we've been doing that as we work our way through 1 Timothy. And for a moment, I want us to kind of review. For some of you, it will be a review. For some of you, this will be new. I want us to think about the big picture of 1 Timothy.

What is Paul doing? I had some interesting travel times yesterday. But one of the things I do enjoy about travel, especially when it's going the way it's supposed to, is I'm an aisle seat person. I don't like window seats.

There are many reasons I don't like window seats. But one thing I do like about window seats is when you start taking off and you have that moment where you look out the window and you can just see, whenever you're flying out of Medford Airport, you can basically see North Medford from like a 30 ,000-foot view.

And it's always fascinating. Wow, North Medford is a lot bigger than I think it is. I think it's good to do that with books of the Bible too. Sometimes it's good to just get the big picture of what's going on.

For a second, it's going to be important. Let's think about the big picture of 1 Timothy. Paul tells us, very helpfully, he tells us why he wrote this letter. So look back at chapter 1, verse 3 real quick.

So chapter 1, verse 3, Paul says, As I, Paul, urge you, Timothy, the younger man who's receiving this letter, as I urge you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine.

Paul sends Timothy to Ephesus, this church that he had started, because in between Paul starting this church and this moment, some people had crept in with some new ideas about who Jesus was and what the Bible taught.

And as they had crept in, they were introducing problems. And Paul sends Timothy one of his, I like to say, his special ops guys and says, All right, you need to parachute in here, and you need to take care of this problem.

Paul anticipates this to be a short thing, but in our text actually, look at verse 15, so 1 Timothy 3, 15, Paul says, If I should be delayed, I'll say more about that in a moment, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household.

This book is written with the express purpose of laying out what should be the conduct and the mission of God's people. And Paul uses a number of perspectives, a number of landing points to get at this, and I'll put them up on screen so we can follow them.

So in chapter 1, Paul basically starts by responding head on to the threat of false teaching. The whole of the first chapter is devoted to that issue, dealing with false teaching. And note that he deals with false teaching not by talking about the false teaching.

He kind of does, but that's not what his focus is. His focus is to remind them of the gospel message that they had heard. And so we learned from Paul all the way back in chapter 1 how it is that the church should respond to false teaching.

It responds to false teaching with a commitment to the gospel that it has already received. So it's responding to the threat of false teaching with the gospel. And then you get to chapter 2 from verse 1, right, through chapter 3, verse 13, and Paul starts to deal with restoring God's order to the church.

You see, we often think of false teaching as, okay, it's just bad belief. No, no, no, no. Belief and behavior are always connected. Where bad beliefs creep in, bad behavior will at some point follow. And so beginning in chapter 2, verse 1, and all the way through to 3, 13, Paul starts to reintroduce, starts to encourage Timothy, you need to restore God's order back to the church because apparently something had gone wrong.

And so we spent a lot of time there. I'm going to re-preach all of those messages. You can listen to those on our website. But Paul starts by responding to the threat of false teaching.

With the gospel.

He then seeks to encourage Timothy to get to the work of restoring God's order to the church. And this morning, we're beginning a section, section number 3, if you will, that's going to take us all the way from 3 .14 to 4 .16.

And in this section, Paul is going to remind God's people, he's going to remind Timothy, and by extension, you and I, of the centrality of, not the language I used, the gospel word. Reminding God's people of the centrality of the gospel word.

Over the next few messages, we are going to be reminded of the fact that for us, there is nothing more central than the word of God. And not just the word of God in a generic, amorphous kind of sense.

There's nothing more central than the word of God with the gospel at its center. And over these next few messages, not only are we going to learn that, we're also going to learn why we can't afford to allow any, here's that word I used again, distractions to creep in that would deviate us from this gospel.

I told you that the devil can't introduce deception, chapter 1, if he can't introduce deviance, chapters 2 to 3 .13, he'll start working on distraction. And that's what we're going to see in this section.

He will try and bring in distractions. We can't afford that. And thankfully, God knows we can't afford that. And so we're going to see God's answer to that in the next few messages as we work our way through this letter.

This morning, Paul is going to set the table for us in this theme of gospel centrality, of word centrality. He's going to set the table for us. He's going to, as it were, get down to brass tacks. Why does the church exist?

Again, I'll ask that question. I'll start it with what gets us out of bed in the morning? Well, he's going to thankfully answer that question for us. And actually, it's not Paul answering it for us ultimately, is it?

Ultimately, who's answering that question for us? God is answering that question. So what should drive the church in its pursuit of its mission? What should make Jesus' church, as it were, get out of bed in the morning?

I put it to you that the church can only fulfill its God-given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus. That's my big theme for this morning. That the church can only fulfill its God-given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus.

The church can only fulfill its God-given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus. Simple enough. Of course, there's going to be a lot for us to unpack as we think about this. The church can only fulfill its God-given purpose when it loves and focuses on Jesus.

For the rest of our time this morning, I want to look at Paul's two facets of gospel-shaped purpose. Two facets Paul's going to give us from this passage. Facets that if we think about them rightly, they'll help us to think appropriately about our place as God's house.

If we rightly understand what Paul is saying in these short verses, I think it will do a lot to help us think about our place as God's house. That's what Paul says about us in verse 15. We are God's household.

But what does it look like to be God's household? That's what we've called this series, God's House Rules. From this section right here. What does it look like to be God's people? Paul's going to give us two facets of gospel-shaped purpose that will help us to think rightly about our place as God's house.

The first facet I want you to see, do you see it there in verse 14 and 15? I want us to consider for a few moments, number one, the essence of the church's faith and life. The essence of the church's faith and life.

So verse 14, Paul says, I write these things to you hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

Like I said, a few moments ago, Paul told you up front why he wrote this letter. We don't have to try and figure it out. Some books of the Bible you have to kind of almost read in between the lines. Thankfully, 1 Timothy is not one of those.

He just tells you up front, why did I write it? These words here. But remember what I've said repeatedly for those of you who've been regular with us through this series, that while Paul is writing to Timothy, he's not just writing to Timothy.

If I can put it like this, he's writing through Timothy. Yes, he's writing to Timothy, but through Timothy, he's writing to all of God's people everywhere. Those of you here in our very first message, I said that sometimes people call this, the next book, 2 Timothy, and the next book, Titus, the pastoral epistles.

I think it's one of the saddest naming jobs in history. And I say that because for a lot of people, they hear that and think, great, doesn't apply to me. I'm not a pastor. I would much rather we call these the church epistles, the church letters, because actually they're speaking to all of God's people.

Yes, this has special importance for Timothy, but it has importance for all Christians. Like I said, Paul seems to write with the understanding that I'm going to come in person at some point. Like at some point, Timothy, I'm not just going to tell you things from a distance.

I'm going to be in Ephesus to kind of help you deal with some of this. But as happens in life, plans are made to go wrong sometimes. You know, things don't always go the way you'd like them to. And so Paul rightly acknowledges.

You see that there in verse 15 or 14? He says, I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed, and that if there is a genuine if, it's in the likelihood that I'm delayed.

If something happens and I can't make it. Know what he says in verse 15? He says, I have written so that you will know how people ought to, here's a good word, conduct themselves in God's household. The idea of conduct is pretty interesting when you start to dig under the surface.

This word here, it carries this idea of living in line with principles and ideas. It presupposes that there are some things you should know. And as a result, you're going to live in light of those things you should know.