WWUTT 648 Show Godliness to Your Household?

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Why is it so important that a church have multiple generations, a wide range of ages represented?

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Well, it's so we might show honor to one another and grow in godliness when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Timothy chapter 5, and today we'll knock off a section that goes from verse 1 through verse 16.

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The apostle Paul writes, Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

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Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

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Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

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She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

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But she who is self -indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.

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But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works, if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.

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But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.

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Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

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So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

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For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.

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Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.

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So we have Paul instructing Timothy and the church here, related to caring for one another in a multi -generational sense.

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You're going to have those oldest members of the congregation who have given so many years of service to the body and to the saints, and as they are advanced in years, and now even unable to care for themselves.

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So the church has the responsibility of caring for them. We have nothing in the

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Bible that tells us that there is a requirement for a church to be multi -ethnic or multi -cultural.

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That's really the in thing right now. That's what's being preached from many pulpits in the United States of America, that a church has to be multi -cultural or multi -ethnic.

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And you find many articles that are coming out saying, here is the content strategy that you need to adopt in order to become more multi -ethnic than you already are.

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But there's nothing in the Bible that requires you to have to be that way. Now whether or not a church thinks that it should be, that's up to them.

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They need to assess that and decide if, well, maybe we've been gearing toward a certain demographic and that demographic is primarily white or primarily black or primarily

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Latin American or Hispanic, Latino, that sort of a thing. Maybe that church is built to accommodate a certain language.

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Well, then you're going to have a certain demographic that's going to be showing up at that congregation and there's really nothing that you can do about that.

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So there is nothing in the Bible that says that it has to be this way. And if you don't see a multitude of colors in the faces of people that you're looking at from the pulpit on Sunday morning, well, you must be doing something wrong.

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No, that's not the case at all. Even though the body of Christ is indeed made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth.

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We see that clearly in the book of Revelation, that there's going to be people from every walk of life on the planet around the throne of God, praising

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God for all eternity. And we have Paul saying things like he does to the Galatians and to the Colossians, Colossians 3.

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11. Here there is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised barbarians get the enslaved free.

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But Christ is all and in all we certainly see statements made like that.

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But even that statement is not exclusively ethnic in its at its heart, at its core, because Paul says slave or free.

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Well, slaves could be any ethnicity in the Roman Empire. It wasn't a particular group of people and circumcised or uncircumcised.

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That applies to Greek and Jew, which he stated before. That was that that was going to be the greatest ethnic divide in the church at this particular time.

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It was going to be between the Greek and the Jew. And as Paul talks about in the book of Ephesians, the mystery of God has been more fully revealed to us how he was going to unite the

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Greek and the Jew to himself through Jesus Christ. That mystery, which was uncertain, unknown how

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God was going to do that prior to the cross, is now clearly understood in this age that is after the cross and the in the eschaton in which we exist right now.

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So once again, there's nothing in the Bible that says that your church must be multi -ethnic, although we do have some passages of scripture that push us thematically in that direction.

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However, there are instructions about dealing with multiple generations within the church.

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There seems to be a a more clear instruction that is being given that we must be multi -generational, though there is nothing that is saying that your church must be multi -ethnic.

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There should be the oldest generation down to the youngest generation represented in your congregation.

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And Paul even says right here in first Timothy five, why it should be that way. Why should there be decades of generations represented in a church congregation?

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Well, Paul gives the reason right here in verse three, so that we might honor them. First Timothy five, three honor widows who are truly widows.

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We're talking about women who whose husbands have passed away. She doesn't have a husband to care for her anymore, and maybe she doesn't have children who can care for her.

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Or perhaps the situation would be that she's the only Christian in her family and her kids don't care or the grandkids don't care about grandma.

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They're off doing their own thing. Well, here the church has that opportunity to show honor to this woman, honor widows who are truly widows.

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And all throughout the Bible, whether you're talking about the Old Testament or the New Testament, widows and orphans are used as the examples of those who are the most helpless.

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Consider James one twenty seven religion that God, our father, finds pure and faultless is this to care for orphans and widows in their time of need and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

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Even in the Old Testament, orphans and widows, they represent the most helpless in a society.

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An orphan, a child without parents cannot care for themselves. And a widow who is elderly, who no longer has the strength to provide for herself and who has no husband, no man, maybe no son or children to be able to care for her needs the care of somebody else and she can't provide for herself.

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And this is how the church can show honor to such members as these honor widows who are truly widows.

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But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and make some return to their parents.

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Why is that? Well, Paul gives the reason for that, too, in the next part of verse four, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

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So we have multiple generations that are represented in a congregation that we might be able to show them honor to those who have given the most and have done the most work, have grown the most in sanctification, have have contributed to the church the most in the years that they have given.

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And then we might be able to show them honor and show godliness. It's a way of growing in godliness, as Paul points out in verse four, that we would care for those who have given so much for so many years.

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But if if that woman does have children, let them have that opportunity first to be able to grow in in godliness in that way or show honor to the matriarch of their family.

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For this is pleasing in the sight of God, Paul says. Verse five, she who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

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This is Paul giving instructions to Timothy on how he can instruct a widow as to what she can do if she's so helpless now that she cannot provide for the church anymore.

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She can't wait tables. She can't hold hands or wash feet the way that she could do before.

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What is it that a woman can do for the church, though she is a widow, though she's being cared for?

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How does she give back? And Paul says right here, she has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

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She becomes a prayer warrior for the church. That's something that that a widow can do for that congregation.

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Let the church serve her, and then she serves the church through prayer.

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But she who is self -indulgent, Paul goes on to say in verse six, is dead even while she lives.

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Command these things as well so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone, verse eight, does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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That is a verse, by the way, that should strike fear in the heart of anybody who would consider divorce. If you divorce your spouse for any reason other than sexual immorality or adultery or unfaithfulness, as Jesus qualifies it in Matthew 19, then you have done something that is worse than an unbeliever, because even an unbeliever understands that you're supposed to remain faithful to your spouse.

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Even they know that. And yet we who understand that marriage is a gift that is given from God, and we know clearly from the scriptures what a marriage is supposed to look like, a man and a woman who are committed to one another until death parts them.

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And yet you would go against God's design for marriage and divorce your spouse over something selfish like, we're just not getting along, we just don't seem to agree,

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I want to hang out with this woman instead of my wife. And that would be the reason why you would decide to get divorced, which is, all divorce is the result of someone's selfishness.

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Even if there is one member of that marriage who is not guilty, has not done anything wrong, it is the other spouse who has betrayed them, it doesn't matter.

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Divorce still is the result of somebody's selfish action, and divorce brings violence upon a person.

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Malachi 2 .16, for the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the

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Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts.

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So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless.

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If we desire to honor God with our whole lives, that would include in our marriages, that would include the way that we raise our children, that would even include in the context of this, in 1

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Timothy 5 .8, the way that we care for our parents. So it is important that a person knows how to provide for his relatives, especially for members of his household.

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If he does not do that, he has denied the faith and has done something worse than an unbeliever.

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You can go into many different cultures in the world and see within that culture a tradition in which the family takes care of its oldest members, or even aunts and uncles, living all together under the same roof, providing for one another in the same house.

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So even unbelievers know what it means, traditionally, globally, culturally. They know what it means to care for one another in your own household.

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So if you can't do that as a Christian, you've denied something fundamental that God has instructed of his people to do, as Paul is instructing

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Timothy to instruct the church here to do. Now I mentioned when we were in 1 Timothy 3 and we went through the qualifications for elders or overseers, one of those qualifications is that an elder must be able to manage his own household well.

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For if he cannot manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? And I mentioned when we read that, that's something that doesn't just apply to the pastor.

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He is a model of Christian maturity, but that's something that should apply to any believer.

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And I mentioned 1 Timothy 5 .8 in that, because if even a person who's not a pastor can't care for members of his own household, well, he's done something even unbelievers know better than.

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They know they need to care for their own household. So shouldn't you, Christian, know how to do that?

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Now, as I have talked about these things, as we've gone over this in 1 Timothy 5 verses 1 through 16, and you've been cut to the heart, maybe you got a divorce for a reason that was other than sexual immorality because your partner was unfaithful to you.

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If you have not been caring for members of your own household, if you've been neglecting your kids, if you've been neglecting your parents who need care, then this is your opportunity to repent.

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That you would say to God now, forgive me for not caring for my family and give me a right heart that would love and consider those putting their needs ahead of my own.

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It's not too late, and you can be forgiven. And now do and follow the instruction that God has given you to do.

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Receive forgiveness in Christ Jesus, and then obey the commands of Christ. And what we have here in 1

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Timothy 5, 1 through 16, are instructions to the church related to how we care for one another across generations.

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The youngest generation caring for the oldest generation. And this is simply not the way that most churches in America are structured right now.

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Most churches are built to appeal to 40 -somethings and younger.

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You've got churches that are built like concert halls or concert arenas.

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The stage is real big. It's real bright. There's lights, lasers, there's projection, there is very loud sound.

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The stage is bright, but the audience is dim. It's built in like a concert kind of setting.

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The music is very upbeat. Sometimes it's real difficult to sing along with.

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The participation on the part of the audience is just putting their hands up in the air and swaying back and forth. Let the people that are on stage, let them carry all of the sound and carry all the tunes.

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Just look at me. Just pay attention to us. That's a young person's venue. That is not the kind of place that people who are older than 60, 70 years old go to.

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Now, as I say that, somebody out there is going to be attending a church that's like that. No, we've got people in our congregation that are 70 or 80 -something years old.

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Yeah, there's very few of them. I would be willing to say that it is not equal across the board in terms of ages.

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All ages are being represented there. It certainly could go the other way as well.

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I'm not just saying it's just the young people's fault. There are situations in which a church ages and they just refuse to consider the youngest generation.

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You can walk into some of those churches where you're seeing members that are 70, 80, 90 years old and they're dying off and they haven't really done anything to evangelize to or reach out to the youngest members of their community.

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It certainly goes both ways. I'm pointing this in the direction of the trend for church planting is more in that concert venue sort of a way that the demographic is like 40 and younger, and in which case we forget about the oldest members of our community.

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If we're not reaching out to them and accommodating them and welcoming them into our church and even structuring worship and services, that would be something that wouldn't assault their senses.

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We have people in our church congregation that just simply cannot do drums. They've said to us,

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I can't be in the sanctuary with drum beats. It bothers my hearing aids.

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The bass is up too loud. It hurts my chest, something like that. We're very accommodating in those things, and it is not necessary for us to have to have that pop style of music that appeals to a certain generation and furthermore is generally unpleasant to somebody who's older who cannot handle that kind of music.

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We have some give and take on that. So sometimes the older generation, they'll let that be.

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And then there are other times where the youngest generation knows, hey, we need to be as accommodating to everyone as we can be.

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I love what Phil Johnson has said. He's like, I wish that all genres of music could be represented in the church so that everyone can be equally offended.

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That's a great way to look at it, I think. Anyway, but we as churches, we need to be considering the oldest members especially.

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We are to show them honor for the years and work of service that they have provided to the church.

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We're not just relegating them to nursing homes and going and visiting them once a month or something like that, or just once a quarter.

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We have a kind of a church service that would accommodate the elderly, but we have a church that involves the oldest generations mentoring the youngest, the youngest generations serving the oldest, that we're all getting together and all getting along and all worshiping at the same table and lifting up our songs in chorus to our great

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God and King. As Tim Chalice has said, and I totally agree with this, the music in your church at least needs to be organized in such a way that everyone is singing along with it.

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It is congregational participating, not the band overpowering everybody else and putting on a show.

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That's not the purpose of worship. That's not the point of worship. But we are all supposed to be involved in this, lifting up our voices together.

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That's Colossians 3 .16, that's in Ephesians 5, that we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making music in our hearts to God.

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We as a congregation need to do this together. So you need to think about the music in your church and how we all can be participating in this together.

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And it cannot, as I say that, you can't be like, well, we've got the volume turned up and everybody, as they want to join in, well, that's up to them.

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No, again, this is all together. The person that is standing up there leading the music is just keeping everyone in sync.

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That's primarily their purpose. It's not to look the most talented in front of everybody else or to put on an entertaining show.

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It's to make sure that everybody is in unison together or maybe leading parts or something like that as we are singing these songs, lifting up our hearts with music unto the

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Lord, the people of God worshiping together as it shows us in Revelation that we will all be doing forever in eternity.

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So this is eternity practice that we're doing in the church when we're all singing together and lifting up our hearts unto the

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Lord. So we must strive to be multigenerational. And even when it comes to the music or the preaching or the style or these things, we need to approach this not as what is the most hip that's going to appeal to the young generation in our culture and get them excited, but rather what's going to be the most accommodating to everybody, because a church should be multigenerational.

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It warms my heart that in our church, we not only have a wide representation of ages from 80s all the way down to newborns.

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We just had a brand new baby in our church just this past Sunday who was born about a week and a half ago.

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And this was her first Sunday in the church. That's always cool. That's always a neat thing. So we not only have like nearly 100 years of ages that are represented in our churches, but we even have entire families with four generations that sit in our pews, a grandfather, his kids, his grandkids, and great grandkids.

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And I think we have at least one family in our church that's like that. And then we have a couple of other families where there's at least three generations that are represented.

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That's neat to see, too. Entire families that are coming up in the same church also warms my heart.

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But this is what we've been instructed to be in the church and to serve one another accordingly, putting others' needs ahead of our own.

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Is the very structure or style of your church organized that way, putting someone else's needs ahead of your own?

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Something you might need to think about. Lord, I thank you for your church that you have called us to be part of this ecclesia, a called out assembly.

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We've been called out from the world to become the children of God in your congregation that you have assembled by your ordination, by your election.

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And we praise you for the salvation that we've received through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. Though we might be a diverse culture and multiple ethnicities, we have the same blood that runs through our veins and even the same blood that covers us so that we might become the righteousness of God.

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And that is the blood of Jesus Christ. So let us treat one another with dignity and respect, not just if we're different ethnicities, but even if we're from different generations, that we would show respect to one another and care for each other as you have instructed us to do.

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And this grows us in godliness. We are able to grow in godliness because of this work that we do for each other.

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It is the command of Christ. And because we love Christ, we should obey his command.

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So give us a heart that is diligent to do that very thing. In Jesus name, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.