The Man Of God In The Church Of God (part 2) - [1 Timothy 4:11-16]

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Shame On The Church (part 3) - [1 Timothy 5:19-22]

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Well, I would encourage you and invite you to open your Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 4
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Continuing to preach through the book of 1st Timothy you know If you were to take your car if your car broke down the engine stopped running
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You had to get the car towed into the mechanic shop. I think we've had that happen to us a few times
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And the mechanic looked at it Came back to you and he said you know what? I could fix it, but I'm not going to you.
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I'll tell you what though. I will wash your car Wonder how excited you'd be if you went to the doctor you said look
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You know I've been struggling with this illness for weeks now And I was just wondering if you could see me and maybe we could figure this out together
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And he said well, you know I'm willing to talk to you, but what I'd really like to do is wash your clothes I Don't think you'd go to that doctor again
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The same thing would be true of a dentist who wouldn't treat your teeth or a Police officer showed up at your home after a burglary, and he said you know what
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I'm really sorry that your stuff was taken How about if I just straighten up the mess, and I'll just be on my way
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And you see but I know who took it and he said well, that's great, but you know I'm really just kind of a cleanup guy
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Not so much do that law enforcement thing you would be mortified and in every single situation
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I've just outlined you'd say the expert the one who is supposed to handle that isn't doing it Initially you'd be a little bit like you're kidding right
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I Mean you are gonna fix my car you are gonna talk to me about my health You are gonna fix my teeth you are gonna take that report and go arrest that guy aren't you then when they continually said no
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Our puzzlement would turn to Anger would be upset
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My doctor is a quack That cop is a fraud we'd go on and on and on So why is it?
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That so many churches Have pastors who refuse to carry out the pastoral mandate so clear in first Timothy Why did they fail to preach the word?
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Why do so many Christians gloss over this and ignore it? Why are not such men shunned?
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Why are not such churches shuttered closed? Sold I went to a local church's website a church.
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It's much bigger than ours How to look at it. It's very technically impressive Theologically not so much
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No mention of sin No mention of repentance No mention of the resurrection
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Really nothing resembling the gospel Seems like a good thing for a church website to have somewhere
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Precious little to indicate that they're serious about the Bible. In fact, the one verse on their statement of faith page
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Was drawn from a paraphrased version of the Bible not even a good translation However, they did feature this
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This is a quote in the Northeast more than 20 % of families earn less than half the poverty level
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With homeless homelessness on the rise and abuse addictions and hunger growing at an alarming rate
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We are establishing the beginning of what is and what will become one of the most revolutionary approaches to social services in New England now with a substantial volunteer base as its strength
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We have begun to make the kind of difference that will resonate for years to come. I don't know about you I'm gonna finish this in a minute, but when
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I see a substantial volunteer base as its strength I hope that the strength of this church is the
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Spirit of God It goes on it says our dream is to serve those outside the walls of the church
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We are committed to bringing the community together to make this dream a reality through New England We welcome you to partner with us to make this possible.
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Let this be your dream Well, I have a question for you. What's your dream? Let me tell you what my dream is it's not so much
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I'm not against ending homelessness I'm not against raising people out by out of poverty. I'm not against Reaching outside the walls of this church the community that surrounds us
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But my dream would be for New England to be so enraptured with Christ That our churches would be packed
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My dream would be for every church in New England to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ That he might be exalted and worshipped as he should be
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I went and I listened to a message on their site against my better judgment a lot of psychology a lot of communication some
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Bible but no preaching when the pastor of a church diverts from his
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God -given mission The church will follow and inevitably lose her way and ultimately become a social club a
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Place where people get together and they're concerned about this cause or that cause or the other cause But where Christ is not
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Exalted and the word is not preached as we know first Timothy was written to Timothy by Paul to instruct him on how to run the church at Ephesus Give him specific instructions on things.
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He needed to stop from happening the leaders. He needed to pick the roles of men and women in the church all manner of issues and the last time
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I taught was just two verses in first Timothy chapter 4 and verses 11 and 12 and We had three
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Pastoral mandates first of all a pastor must command the church That probably ruffles some feathers, but it says that right in our verse
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In verse 11, it says command and teach these things He has to command these things the truths of Scripture No more and no less
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We talked about the extent of his authority when someone gets up here and they say thus saith the Lord They better have a verse to go with it
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This is no place for our own imaginings It's not the man in the pulpit who has the authority
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It is the Word of God being taught by the man of God in the pulpit that has the authority
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Secondly a pastor must teach the church The man of God must command obedience to the
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Word and then explain how to do it. That's what teaching is we talked about how that even rolls into discipleship and Thirdly a pastor must set the example for the church
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Paul warned Timothy that the church at Ephesus there were
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Probably a number of older folks. They're not necessarily more mature in the faith Just older and their tendency would be to look down at him
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The text is literally look down their noses at him because he was relatively young in that culture.
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He was in the is mid -30s And Paul set up the contrast
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He said you know what instead of even giving them an opportunity to look down at you because of your youth
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You need to be an exemplary Christian. You need to live it so that no one ever questions you on this
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And so this morning we come to our text. I'm going to hook go ahead and read chapter 4 verses 11 to 16 command and teach these things
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Let no one despise you for your youth But set the believers an example in speech in conduct in love in faith in purity
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Until I come devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture to exhortation to teaching
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Do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the
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Council of Elders laid their hands on you Practice these things Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress
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Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching persist in this
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For by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers a lot of imperatives a lot of do this
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Timothy And this morning I want to draw your attention to three additional mandates of ministry so that you will rightly evaluate what goes on in this pulpit and Even how it applies in your own lives
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Three principles for pastors that will keep a church on track and are indispensable for the lives of the people of God In fact,
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I will encourage you to consider each of these foundational truths in your own walk with Christ our first ministerial mandate a pastor must make
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Scripture the focal point of church services a Pastor must make
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Scripture the focal point of church services as We've noted before it was Paul's intention to come to Ephesus however, until he got there he had a mission for Timothy had things for Timothy to accomplish and Every church service
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Paul tells Timothy Had to have three elements
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First Scripture must be read aloud look at verse 13 Until I come he intended to come
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Until I come devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture to exhortation
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To teaching and those are the three elements every church service has to have here now
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We could get into praying but he's already covered that in 1st Timothy chapter 2 we could get into singing and music
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But he does that elsewhere But here he's focused on these things devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture to exhortation to teaching
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What Paul didn't say here is what so many churches do today. They worry about attracting crowds packing them in But Paul didn't say devote yourself to church growth
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Make sure that you have a message that will appeal to people Timothy was to zero in he was to focus in on these three elements reading exhorting and teaching the word
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Now what would you call a church service where Scripture is not read by what by the way, this is a public reading of Scripture That's the the meaning of the word
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What would you call that? Here's what you should not call it a worship service
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There can be no worship of the Living God without a reading of his word That's important To consider the world that Paul was addressing
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The setting in which he wrote this letter We need to keep in mind that there was no printing press.
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No MacArthur study Bibles none of those niceties that we enjoy and Few Christians would have even more than just a little bit of the
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Bible in their home because there was no mass production because paper itself
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Was so expensive because there weren't Publishing houses and there was a real scarcity of it so when the people of God gathered together, they would read the
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Word of God and The church as was the Jewish tradition in the
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Old Testament would read the Old Testament and then as time went on they read The parts of the
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New Testament that we would now real read as it was written and revealed They would read them and Paul stressed this even in his letters to other churches for example in first Thessalonians When he wrote to the church of Thessalonica first Thessalonians 5 20 70 says this
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Imagine this to the church. I put you under oath Some translations say
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I adjure you it's the same word I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers in other words this letter
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I'm sending you it is to be read publicly as if It's the Word of God because it is
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Colossians 4 verses 15 and 16 Paul and his concluding notes to the church at Colossae says this give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house and When this letter has been read among you church at Colossae Have it also read in the church of the
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Laodiceans and See that you also read the letter from Laodicea look these letters
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I'm sending you are vital When the people of God gather together the
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Word of God must be a central focus It must be the central focus We glorify God by extolling him by reading his word by talking and telling of the great deeds that he has done and those are contained in Scripture Scripture Second element of any worship service the congregation must be exhorted
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From Scripture there has to be reading then there has to be exhortation Imagine if I just got up here
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Read a text and then just went off and talked about whatever I wanted If I just use
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Scripture in other words as a launching point My talk would not have to be particularly attached to any text
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I could just talk about whatever I wanted Be easy for me I Wouldn't have to study
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I could get inspiration from whatever struck me whatever I ran into during the week
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I could just get up and talk about it. Just kind of read a verse to spiritualize it and then I'm on my way I Actually saw a talk in a church like this once and I call it a talk and not a sermon because it was not a sermon
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The man made his points Then he would read a verse afterwards not make any comment about the verse of the context or anything else
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He'd just make a point read a verse and move on as if you know, he was somehow
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Almost baptizing it Making it okay But anything that falls short of the biblical mandate
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Placed on the pastor to exhort is just wrong The pastor is to challenge the church to live up to the
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Word of God It's what he's to do if you believe this
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You will not settle for anything less If you think
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I want to come to church and I want to be challenged with the Word of God. I remember in seminary
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One of the guys got up during his preaching lab and he preached a sermon and he kind of he was he was a little bit timid
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After he sat down the professor said, you know what? I I noticed a certain reluctance
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You know in you to really kind of be bold in your proclamation. What was going on?
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Like I said, well, you know what? I I knew this was a passage where we all pretty much knew it and You know,
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I just didn't really think that it would be right to kind of push it on everybody. The professor said look
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We're all sinners here We need to be smacked by the Word of God. So bring it don't hold back.
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Let us have it and That's what you guys need to be thinking smack us give us the word
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Some might leave here on Sunday mornings thinking, you know The pastor just wanted to beat us up if I may just give you a little insight of what's that what this is like typically
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Your typical pastor will put 20 or more hours in pastor Mike basically doesn't sleep
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So he gives you 168 hours on his messages. I Nudge him while he's well, it looks like he's sleeping, you know, he could probably give you the outline while he's doing that Well, what is the
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Word of God doing to the man of God while he's studying it all week long? It's a beatdown
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It's shaping him. It's convicting him. It's driving to him to his knees. It's reminding him of his frailties his weaknesses
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The places that he falls short it's calling him to repent and In the 45 minutes that he has with you on Sunday morning, he wants to share some of that with you
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Give you just a little bit of it. Why not because misery loves company, but because it's the right thing to do.
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It's the mandate Now there are gonna be plenty occasions where we're gonna gather together and you're gonna go, you know
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I really felt good about that sermon. I really appreciated the message. It really encouraged me and emboldened me
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It's still an exhortation. There are places in the Word of God that are just encouraging When we think of all the blessings we have in Christ that is an encouragement
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So it's not that the pastor's job is to make you feel small It's the pastor's job to preach the word and the word either encourages you or convicts you as you have need
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That's what the word does the text
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Preached should have exactly the impact on you that the Holy Spirit intended when he inspired a man to write it so if our first element of Scripture being the focal point of worship.
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This is still the first point. So follow this here Scripture must be the focal point of worship first element was the man of God was to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture Second was to he must exhort from Scripture and thirdly
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The congregation must be taught from Scripture Again, you cannot teach what you do not know.
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So if Timothy or any pastor is to teach from Scripture He must study Scripture in addition to exhorting to either encouraging or to Convicting you with the word a pastor must teach.
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He has to tell you what the scripture means and how to Live it out How to practically apply it to your life this very word though teaching
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Then he must be that he must Devote himself to Teaching Implies something else altogether.
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That is that there is an intellectual content to Christianity It is not merely a feeling it is not a decision.
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It is not a leap of logic There is an intellectual content.
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It is an intellectual faith There are truths that one must accept to be a
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Christian There are religions in the world that say, you know, what just say this three times and you convert to our religion
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That's not Christianity You can say that you're a Christian and many do Who then go on to deny the virgin birth of Christ who go on to deny his substitutionary death?
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Who go on to deny his physical resurrection who go on to deny his?
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Deity or as human nature who go on to deny the inspiration or the inerrancy of Scripture What you believe?
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matters Calling yourself a Christian and yet not believing an essential element of the faith
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Would leave you no more saved than a person who never made a profession of faith
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That's not to say that you have to know everything about Christianity But if there's something about that's an essential of the
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Christian faith where you just go Well, you know what? I believe all this other stuff, but that I don't go for you're not saved
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That's one of these essential you cannot say I'm a Christian again, you can't say that and say well
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I I believe in Christ and I want salvation and I am saved from the wrath of God, but I don't believe that Jesus Christ was fully
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God. You're not a Christian a pastor must teach and Teach again these essential doctrines both to reinforce their centrality to those who already know them
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Because we forget first Peter talks about that But also to confront those who do not yet believe them
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That's why the work is so relentless. It's non -stop. It's constantly focused on exhorting and teaching the word
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Puritan writer Flavel said this he said it is not with us as with other laborers in other words in other occupations
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They find their work as they leave it in other words If you're a carpenter and you're working on a table and you go home for the day and you come back
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That tables pretty much exactly as you left it. He says they leave their work as they find it, but we talking about pastors don't
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Sin and Satan unravel almost all we do The impressions we make on people's souls in one sermon
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Vanish before the next in fact, I would say often they're gone before we're even done the number of people who could remember a single illustration is amazing, but do they actually remember what the message was a worship service that focuses on music on drama on anything to the needs of seekers on Anything other than the
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Word of God read Exhorted and taught is a worship service only in someone's mind
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Our first mandate of ministry was a pastor must make Scripture the focal point of of our church services secondly our second mandate a
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Pastor must exercise his giftedness look at verse 14 Do not neglect the gift you have
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Timothy had been given a spiritual gift a charismatis From which word charismatic comes that's spiritual gift
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Which Paul commands him not to ignore not to neglect not to set aside, but to exercise
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I? Don't have time to teach on spiritual gifts pastor Michael get there in about three or four years in first Timothy Lord willing
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Some of you don't even believe three or four years when he gets the first Corinthians 12 to 14
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However every believer has a spiritual gift It's given to us by the
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Holy Spirit and may I say that it is no less sinful For you to fail to exercise your gift whatever it is
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Then it would be for Timothy or any pastor to fail to exercise his gift If you have a gift, and you're not serving this is gonna shock you you're probably in sin
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You need to be serving the body I Mean imagine if pastor Mike just you know got up, and he came in one
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Sunday morning He said you know what I'm not gonna preach. I'm pretty much done with preaching I Think we'd be shocked
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So why is it that we're not shocked when we think you know what I I don't have to serve Somebody else will pick up the slack.
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I Don't know what my gift is and I don't really care to figure it out. I'll just kind of show up Everyone here has a gift
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Needs to exercise it but Timothy Specifically was commanded for the good of the church at Ephesus to constantly exercise his giftedness not to neglect it
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Now he had a unique gift most of us don't have this kind of experience Look at verse 14, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders lay their hands on it
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Paul is emphasizing the source which was God And recalling the moment when
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Timothy was ordained to full -time ministry for what purpose why would he do that? Because Paul knew he'd experienced in his own life.
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He was gonna experience it more Paul knew what the ministry was like Paul knew there were going to be times of difficulty times of discouragement
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Times where Timothy was just gonna want to pack it in to go home. I think
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I said this last Sunday night This is pretty much every Monday morning for a preacher Timothy was gonna have to deal with false teachers
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How much fun do you think that was and those that he thought that thought he was too young to fulfill his calling?
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And these were people inside the church. These were supposed to be his friends and when he felt like quitting
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When the calling seemed too daunting too difficult when the opposition seemed too strong Whatever the discouragement he had two reasons to stay in the ministry to stay in the fight
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God's calling for him as evidenced by the affirmation of the elders and This special gift that he had been given by God He had to persevere
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He had to keep going on to quit to stop ministering. The Word of God would be to neglect this divinely given gift
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And there was another reason Timothy had to continue to exercise his giftedness It would encourage other believers look at verse 15 practice these things
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Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress all that Paul had instructed him about his role as a
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Pastor as a teacher as a leader and as an example to the church all this was to be these things
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Were to be the focus of his life The dominant force of his life and I think the
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Greek is fascinating here I expected to find something when I was looking at the Greek Expected to say something like you know practice these things and then the
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Greek word for baptized or something where it says immerse yourself in them I thought it was gonna be something like that Says immerse yourself give the
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King James says give thyself. Holy be absorbed Etc. Etc. Etc. But it's interesting because The word is simply the command form of the verb to be
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He just says what be these things And so the translators come up with all different kind of ways to explain that immerses.
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It's fine He's just saying just be the essence of these things. This should be your entire makeup.
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That's the nature of the ministry It's not 24 7 is 25 7 is 25 8. It's non -stop.
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It never lets up and if a pastor lets up a Disaster is surely waiting
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The reason that Timothy must be so intense is given it in verse 15 You have to be immersed in this you have to become these things why verse 15?
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Later on in it so that all may see your progress all
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Believers and unbelievers alike in Ephesus. We're going to watch Timothy over time. They were gonna see his life
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They were gonna see that he was immersed in these things. They were gonna see that he was totally Dedicated to becoming the man of God that the
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Lord had called him to be And they were gonna be struck by the changes they saw in him
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They would see this young man who they so wanted to boss around. They so wanted to ignore they so wanted to look down upon And they were going to see him grown
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By the grace and knowledge of God into a formidable weapon in the hands of an almighty
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God Our two pastoral mandates so far the pastor must make
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Scripture the focal point of church services Secondly a pastor must exercise his giftedness has to do that Thirdly a pastor must be focused on his life and his doctrine verse 16
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Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching
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Timothy was to keenly observe to closely scrutinize as It were to just take a super -powered microscope and examine what?
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two things his life and his teaching Kissed marker said this.
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He said holy living and Sound teaching must go together if a pastor is to be a blessing
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I mean, where do we think the you know, the old saying he practices what he preaches.
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Where do we think that comes from? If a man's life and his sermons don't add up if they don't match up then what
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We reject him You say he's a hypocrite. He doesn't practice what he preaches.
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I think I mentioned this last Sunday night It's not a critical issue for every Christian for every single person
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Have you ever known someone? Who said that they're a Christian and you just kind of wanted to pull them aside and say look.
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Hey, yeah I really appreciate the fact that you know, you'd like to call yourself a Christian and that you'd
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You feel that way, but would you just not tell anybody you imagine that?
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How much more than for a pastor? Hey pastor, I understand that, you know, you like the business cards and everything, but I'm just not telling anybody you're a pastor
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You couldn't have a pastor like that. He can't do something in public completely contrary to his teaching
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It's difficult in his own private life when he struggles with knowing listen, here are the two things
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I have to do I have to love the Lord my God with all my heart soul mind and strength and I have to love my neighbor as myself I can't even do that It's often said that pastors and their families are scrutinized
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That they live life in the fishbowl Well, it's true now and it was true then
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Really? The only thing that's changed is kind of the means of doing things, you know now you can start a Facebook page
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We hate pastor Steve, you know, everybody 12 ,000 members or whatever, you know as long as I get to post
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I guess it's okay How hard is it to establish credibility?
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We'll think about the situation that Timothy was going into He's young by their standards
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He had a lot of things going against him There were probably people smarter than he was
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People have been around longer Hard to establish credibility How easy would it be for him to lose it?
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Pretty easy. So he has to look after his life closely
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And at the same time he has to watch his teaching. He had to keep his doctrine pure It's fascinating today,
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I mean all you have to do is pick up an issue of Christianity astray Christianity today, whatever it's called
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There's always something new. I mean just thinking over the last I Was gonna say 30 years, but it's really 50 years.
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I'm just getting older all the time the charismatic movements the seeker sensitive movements the emergent church
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The new perspective on Paul, you know, we think all these things are new
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That they're just freshly out of the wrapper, but all sorts of heresies were floating around in Timothy's day that's why he had to battle against false teachers and All that's happened over time is they've multiplied and been repackaged over and over and over again and then sadly they are endorsed by Very smart men
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Men who have written great things and then endorsed them Get involved in these movements
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Timothy had to watch his teaching his doctrine carefully Paul's message in Timothy could not have been more straightforward.
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You teach what I taught you Why because that's what the
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Lord taught me 2nd
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Timothy 2 chapter 2 you don't have to turn there. I'll read it this is his second letter to Timothy and he says this and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and Trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also
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This is the work of the ministry You Take what you have learned and you pass it on to others so that they can do what pass it on to others
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It's discipleship, but sometimes discipleship takes place not just in pastor Mike's office But from the pulpit and then it takes place within the church and then it takes place outside the walls of the church
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I'm just glad I'm not smart enough to invent some new way of doing old things
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All I've got is the old old story just the Word of God Paul gives the purpose for his command to Timothy to keep a close watch on his life and his teaching look again at verse 16 persist in this
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For by so doing you will save both yourself and your hair's and right now you're just going.
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Well, that's I Don't get that How's it possible?
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How's Timothy going to save those? Who are listening to him, but how's he gonna save himself?
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How would living a life consistent with his teaching and Proclaiming truths consistent with sound doctrine.
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How would that save him? It's Paul teaching salvation by works The answer of course is not at all if I were to ask you this morning
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How do believers give evidence that they're saved? How do they do that, how do you know that you're saved it's because you live a life not perfectly
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But you live a life that advances slowly, but surely in the direction of Christ likeness
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In that same way. How does a pastor give evidence of his salvation?
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By obedience by unswerving devotion to a godly life and preaching the truth by not moving with some new wind of doctrine and Faithfully does that and as he does so some people are going to be saved is it because of his efforts is
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It because of what Timothy taught that people were going to get saved or because he taught period
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I mean all we have to do is look at the Old Testament What did God tell Isaiah he gave him the word?
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He gave him direct revelation. He said go out there and preach to people and guess what's gonna happen. They're gonna be hardened
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Jeremiah go out there and preach who's gonna be saved. It's not the man.
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It's the message Through his effort through the pastor's effort to faithfully preach and teach the
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Word of God Which is sharper than any two -edged sword able to discern the intent of the heart able to convict of sin
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It's that word That always accomplishes the purpose for which God sent it.
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That is the word that will save It is that teaching to which Timothy And every pastor after him
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Was commanded to be faithful to the pastor can't save anyone However, a faithful pastor preaches the very words of eternal life that the
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Lord Jesus Taught to Peter and the disciples at the end of chapter 6 of John all the followers of Jesus left
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Jesus says well to Peter. He says well, do you want to go to what does
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Peter say to whom would we go? You have the words of life
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Those words of life that we preach that we proclaim Timothy and every pastor has a sacred charge a
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God -given duty to carry out to proclaim The revealed
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Word of God to all who will listen that God himself might use that word to transform those who hear it three
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Ministerial mandates a pastor must make scripture the focal point of church services Secondly a pastor must exercise his giftedness
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Third a pastor must be focused on his life and his doctrine Pastor as I said earlier is just a man he sins he struggles
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Sometimes he fails. I think our expectations sometimes and I don't say this because I want sympathy.
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I certainly don't But I think our expectations Are a little bit too high everybody thinks they can be
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You know the pastor's best friend well, I guess he probably liked that but he can't have 300 best friends or 400 or however many people
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We have here What you want out of your pastor is faithfulness a faithfulness to this calling
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One who stays between the lines that God has laid out as I said in the opening
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You'd never go to a doctor who failed to practice medicine who wouldn't tell you what was wrong You'd never go to a mechanic who said fastly refused to fix your car.
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You would never go to a restaurant That just dumped the ingredients on your plate and said make it yourself
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Why would you go to a church that says listen? We're not gonna preach the word We're gonna give you a
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Bible and leave you to yourself to figure it out We want people to study the Bible, but we're here to read it
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To exhort you in it and to teach it Why would you attend a church?
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Wherein the man of God is not fulfilling his God -given mandates to preach the truth of God's Word Let's pray our
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Father in heaven We come before you this morning not With pride that somehow we've arrived because we know we haven't
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Father our prayer is rather for Your spirit to be here that we might continually press forward
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To continually seek to Hew to the line that you have set for us
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To walk the path that you have so clearly spelled out for Timothy here to be a people to be a church
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That wants nothing more Than to hear your word read To hear it exhorted to hear its truth claims pressed upon us
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To hear it taught father we weep
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We're sorrowful For the many churches who will not hold the standard for the infection
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That exists in the Church of Christ the so -called Church today
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Father we would pray that you would cut it out like a cancer like the cancer it is We would pray for the restoration of many pulpits
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Even here in New England Where the Word of God once shown so brightly was preached so boldly from the pulpit
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Would you give us the next generation of Jonathan Edwards?
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Great men who would preach great messages of our great God Father would you make us a people who rejoice?
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When we hear your word taught Who rejoice When men faithfully carry out their
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God -given task Would you make us a people who would never settle for anything less than that in?