5 Steps to Getting Along with Others

0 (0s): Let's all stand and we're going to worship together. Lord, we just want to invite you in our hearts Lord, to be preeminent in our hearts. Lord, thank you. That it is your idea that we would gather together as believers. And we just simply want to enter into that amazing place, that wonderful place of worship. So Lord, we just invite them not only your presence, but that indwelling part of Horsham. So then as we sing these songs, it's not just songs we're singing, but we're literally lifting up our heart, our mind, our soul, all that we are to you, the living God. 0 (42s): So Lord, we just delight in you with thank you so much for the privilege of drawing near to you today, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Sing together. There was a moment was the dog . 0 (13m 7s): I need some miracles this morning. Maybe you have pain in your body. Your heart is broken in your fighting anxiety, whatever it is, do some miracles it's reaching out to you for a miracle is desperate all over this campus and everywhere every house you might even want to reach, reach out to you, your loving presence and your healing, your spirit on your sons and daughters. 0 (14m 19s): Remind us of your faithfulness and your goodness, your new for state . 1 (18m 47s): And I pray that we would be able to internalize that truth. God, that you will never let us down. You are good. You are faithful. We can put the full weight of our trust in you believing you wholeheartedly without reservation, without holding anything back. Lord God, we just want to believe that and know that that is true. So I pray God, God, for just a blessing upon those who are struggling with that revelation, God, that you would help them to reflect on their past when you have been so faithful Lord, it's hard to hard to believe sometime for the future, the press or excuse me, the president, or even the future, but we can reflect on the past and then we can look at the scripture, no of your faithfulness, Lord, you never let people down. 1 (19m 35s): So help us to internalize that truth. Today we pray be glorified as we do so in Jesus name, amen. Amen. You can be seated. And if you are in fifth grade or above, you are dismissed to your class fifth grade or above, you can go ahead and go to your class. You're what you're in fifth. You are. If you are a fifth grade through 12th grade, you can be dismissed. If you're above 12th grade, you have to stay in church. Should've made that more clear. 1 (20m 16s): I absolutely should have made that more clear we're in first Timothy chapter five today, or get through the whole chapter today. I was, as I was kind of thinking about the message this morning and praying about, you know, kind of wanting to get God's heart for the message. I decided to go out into the garden and just do some praying. We've we've got this garden in front of our house. It's kind of like the secret garden it's been in the making for decades now. And it's just really beautiful. And that's how I was walking around the secret garden and just the beauty, the flowers, and all of the hard work that my wife and mother-in-law put into it. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I saw this little yellow thing in the garden and it was an Easter egg that was left behind from the Easter egg hunt in our family. 1 (21m 5s): The little kids get an Easter egg hunt and then the next generation of kids, which would be my kids. If you're, you know, the 20 to 30 year olds, they get an Easter egg hunt, but in their Easter egg hunt, there's money inside the eggs. And so it's, you know, it's a lot of incentive for our kids, our 20 and 30 year olds to go and find eggs. Well, it just so happened that they missed an egg, but I got to it and had already been opened up probably by my dog by by Jolene's dog. I'll say Jolene's dog is more a dog and my dog. And then the kid cat that was inside, that was all taken out as well. And the rapper I saw the rapper nearby. And so I'm trying to pray, but now I'm thinking Easter eggs, right? 1 (21m 46s): I'm thinking there's probably more Easter eggs where there's one, there's more. And I know that if it's, if I find something, I might find some money. So I look it around trying to, trying to pray, but distracted, right? So I find another Easter egg and I crack it open and it's got a $2 bill in it, some pretty good deal. So I keep looking, keep looking. I found another Easter egg, but this one had a $20 bill in it. Then I keep looking and I find another Easter egg. And it's also got a $20 bill in it. 1 (22m 26s): So now I'm $42 richer. And you know what I'll be doing after church looking for more Easter eggs, right? So in reality, this money does not belong to me because it really belongs to the kids who were supposed to find it. So Jolene, I want you to come and get this and then take it to Steven back there. Cause he's my son. And he's my, he's the one that probably should have found it. And so there you go see, even you get the 42 bucks. My first thought was this is going to buy me around a golf, you know, but then I, you know, decided to give it to my kid. 1 (23m 9s): So as I was looking at all the free for the Easter eggs and praying about it and thinking about the message I noticed, there's like hundreds of snails out there as well as early morning. And there's just snails everywhere. And I thought, I thought we were talking today about getting along with others out of first into the chapter five. And I thought, you know, if we look hard enough, we can find beauty in every person. We can find beauty and every person beauty that will help us to love people and get along with them Mo betta, or we can kind of keep our eyes on the snails. You were kind of eating things up in the garden 2 (23m 46s): And things that we don't like. We can get distracted by the snails. Maybe, maybe we say the wards that people have or the blemishes that people have or the problems that people have. But I think God wants us to focus on the positive things that God would have us to focus on within our relationships. And so we're going to actually ask, answer the question. What are the five steps to getting along with others? As we look at the scripture as we look and what I like about a text like this is because as we look at Jesus' life, Jesus got along with everybody except for the religious leaders who were leading people astray. He loved everybody, whether they were stuck in sin, dealing with all kinds of stuff or whatever, he attracted people who were broken, who were in desperate need any ministry to them. 2 (24m 34s): And he loved on them and he cared for them. And so he has asked us to do the same thing within the context of our relationships. If we took a poll, we could probably come up with all kinds of differences, whether it be religious differences, theological differences, political differences, whatever, but the Copely, the common denominator for us as Jesus. And hopefully the common denominator helps us to love people the way that Jesus loves people. So that's the challenge for us today. Steps to getting along with others first, Timothy chapter five. This is Paul speaking to Timothy, who pastors a church in the town of emphasis. 2 (25m 16s): And so Paul, a seasoned veteran in the ministry is speaking to Timothy, who is newer to the ministry. And he's telling him, Hey, this is how you deal with people. This is how you react and respond to people. This is how you love people as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He said in the verse, one never speak harshly to an older man. The word there is it's elder. But in this context, Paul is not speaking about the office of elder. He will be later on, but he's right now speaking about justice, older men never see speak harshly to an older man, but appealed to him respectfully, as you would to your own father, maybe you're here today. 2 (26m 0s): You've got to run relationship with your father. So this isn't helping you. I had a rough relationship with my father for years. My dad hit the road when I was about two years old and he never really looked back and never paid child support really never was involved in our lives much. And so I had as an adults to make the decision, to find the good in my father and rekindle that relationship. And we've done that. And now we speak on the phone about once or twice a week weekend. There's, there's something beautiful about the decision to find the good in the people that are hard to find the good and, and the more I talk with my dad and meet with, you know, him, the more I find that there's good in him got a rough start, but there's good in him. 2 (26m 49s): And that's the attitude that God wants us to have that Paul is speaking to Timothy about. He says, never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Maybe. So maybe there's a couple of things going on here. Maybe God wants to do something in your heart regarding your relationship with your father, whether your father is still alive or passed, God can do a healing in your heart, restoring a health to your heart concerning your father. And then maybe you've got older people in your life. And you're having a hard time speaking to and dealing with respectfully just because they're difficult. People. Everything that God asks us to do in his scripture requires that we are filled with this power that we're filled with the grace face of God, the Holy spirit, the power of God, so that we can do what he's asked us to do. 2 (27m 38s): So everything that God asks us to do requires strength from God to accomplish. So I never speak harshly to an older man, but appealed to him respectfully, as you wish your own father, maybe you've got a difficult Persia and you're saying, man, I'm having a hard time. I'm speaking respectfully with this person, Lord, would you help me? And so you go into the conversation and you say, Lord, I'm going to speak to this person with grace and respect, and you're going to give me the grace to do it. And I'm grateful for that. And then you just move forward. The verse continues, talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers thought about my relationship with my full blood brother. I've got, I got a full-blooded brother. I got two stepbrothers and I got a half brother. So there's got a lot of brothers. 2 (28m 18s): And I think, you know, I've for 52 years, my brother and I've been connected and there's there, there's something that happens over 52 years. There's a connection, a depth of relationship, a respect, and a love that we share for one another. And this is kind of the example that Paul uses as he writes Timothy talk to younger men as you would your own brothers. And so talk to younger men there, we've got lots of young men around this church, right? I just went backpacking with a group of them a couple of weeks ago. And I tell you, there's a, it's a stellar group of young men that we have in this church. 2 (28m 58s): And Keegan's one of them. Keegan is a young guy, senior in high school. He's in the loft right now. I'm running the soundboard in there and then you'll often see them running cameras back there where my son Steven is. And then you'll often often see them up here on the platform playing music. He's just serving everywhere. He's just a stellar example of, of a young man. And so as I think about younger men and talking to them as you would to your own brother, it's easy to talk with a guy like Keegan or the stellar young men of our church with respect and with love. But then there's the young people in your life who aren't so stellar. And that's again difficult, right? Because there's, you know, as young men were often your heart stuff and struggles, and it's hard to, hard, to hard to relate 1 (29m 42s): To those 2 (29m 43s): Young men. But again, by God's grace, as 1 (29m 45s): We address the young people 2 (29m 48s): In our lives with respect, with love and with kindness, 1 (29m 52s): And at times with a challenge to change or to grow up, 2 (29m 56s): Then we can do it with the right heart. And with the right mind, that's all in verse one, verse two says, treat older women as you would your mother. My mom goes to church here. She's right here on the second row. And my mom, after my parents divorced, worked hard, very hard, very, very hard to make sure we had a roof over our head and clothes and food and all that sort of thing. And think about the history and the past and all the stuff that she went through. And as I think about other women, older women in the church, I think people have a story. And I, I just, I think what I wonder what that person's story is. 2 (30m 38s): And then I think about my mom and I think I, I'm going to honor that person and love that person to the best of my ability. And it says, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. 1 (30m 49s): So palsy, young guy, or a palsy old guy talking to a young guy and a Timothy is at pastoring, this church. And he, so he's got this challenge to address the Gallus his age 2 (31m 3s): With 1 (31m 4s): All purity as he would his own sister. And what a, what a great model 2 (31m 9s): For a young people who are dating for guys in the way that they're supposed to treat women in their lives, it's supposed to treat them with all purity as you would your own sister. So with that perspective, purity is, is the utmost important to see in a relationship. And we have this responsibility as young people, young people have this responsibility to treat the women in their lives as their own sisters with purity and with dignity, five steps to getting along with others. Number one, treat all people with respect, treat all people with respect, fathers, brothers, mothers, and sisters, treat everybody with respect. 2 (31m 50s): Number one, number two, take 1 (31m 52s): Care of those truly in 2 (31m 55s): Need. I just thought about a joke as that was thinking about the Easter eggs. I thought about a joke. And so I thought I'd share a joke with you. How do you catch a unique bunny rabbit unique up on it? How do you catch a tame? One same way. I was supposed to say that earlier in the message, then I forgot about it. 1 (32m 25s): So I'm saying it now because it's kind of a heavy 2 (32m 28s): Message. And so I wanted to throw in a joke. There sounds good. 1 (32m 32s): Number two, take care of those in need. You really need to take care of 2 (32m 37s): Or honor. Any widow has no one else to take care of LSD care for her. 1 (32m 44s): But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. 2 (32m 51s): This is something that pleases God. So we actually have a spirit 1 (32m 56s): Well responsibility as people in the Lord, people of the Lord today 2 (33m 0s): Take care of our parents and grandparents. We, we are, 1 (33m 6s): We have a responsibility, especially with widows, but if she has children or grandchildren, their first response 2 (33m 11s): Abilities to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases the Lord, the fifth commandment, what's the fifth commandment honor, your father and your mother. And this is the only command with a promise that your life, that you may have many days in the land, the Lord is giving you the fifth commander honor, father and mother. So we have this profound responsibility and privilege to take care of those who have taken care of us. And it's really not just an option. It's actually a responsibility. So what's a true widow though. Verse five says, now it's true. 1 (33m 47s): Oh, a woman who is truly alone in this world has 2 (33m 50s): Placed her hope in God. She prays night and day asking God for his help. When I think about a true widow, I'm thinking about the prophetess Anna in Luke chapter two, when Jesus, I think it was when Jesus was being presented at the temple and this woman, Anna was there. And 1 (34m 8s): It says that she had been married to her husband 2 (34m 10s): For seven years. And I 1 (34m 12s): Even in the text, it says she was 84 years old. And she spent all of her time 2 (34m 16s): In the temple, praying and fasting and worshiping 1 (34m 21s): The Lord. She spent all of her time doing this. This is how she spent her widowed years. She spent all of her time working, 2 (34m 28s): Shipping, fasting, and praying night and day. I think about another widow who was a part of our church for a lot of years. Her name was freedom. Maroney she's passed. Now you guys remember freedom. We, we called her granny. We called her granny. And when granny was still alive, I'd go visit her and she'd see. Yeah. 1 (34m 47s): Ask the question. Why am I still here? Why won't the Lord take me home? I said, I don't know, granny. I don't have any idea, but I 2 (34m 54s): Know that you 1 (34m 57s): Have purpose as long as you're here in the earth. I said, so use this time to pray for your kids, for your grandkids, your great grandkids 2 (35m 4s): Kids. Cause she was, I think she had, she was close to a hundred. She had, she, she was very old and had a lot of grandkids. And so I said, use this time to pray for your kids and grandkids and see what the Lord will do. And so she would agree and I'd go back to visit her again. And she'd say, why am I still here 1 (35m 23s): As a grantee? Because you got some prayer work to do. So make sure that you're praying for your, 2 (35m 28s): Your kids and your grandkids. And so when we got the call that she had passed away, we weren't surprised at all. But we were able to rejoice that the Lord was glorified in life. A true widow, a woman who's truly alone in this world has placed her hope in God. She prays night and day asking God for his help. We got a bunch of widows in our church. What do they call the sunflower girls? Sunflower group. Yeah, wonderful. As a group of gals and they gather, and they spend time together and they enjoy fellowship together. And they're using their lives to honor and glorify the Lord verse six says, but the widow who lives only for pleasure spiritually dead, even while she lives, give these instructions to the church so that no one will be open to criticism. 2 (36m 16s): So saying a widow who's living only for pleasure is actually spiritually dead. 1 (36m 20s): And I would say anybody who lives only for pleasure 2 (36m 22s): Is actually spiritually dead. 1 (36m 24s): Because as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we're actually called to purpose in this life. Now 2 (36m 30s): I encourage you to have a good time. We live here on the central coast of California and there's great hiking and surfing and biking and golf 1 (36m 37s): Everywhere. There's all kinds of stuff to enjoy. So enjoy 2 (36m 40s): It, enjoy it. In fact, I played golf on Friday, you got a call from a buddy of mine and he's like, Hey, do you want to golf this afternoon? Another pastor in the area. I'm like, what time? He said three. I said, how about three 30? And I was like, ready to go because I'd been up since four o'clock that morning working on stuff. And so I was ready for some reprieve. So I get out there and we play golf together and we had a great time played nine holes out of black Lake. And I, I beat him by 11 strokes. 1 (37m 8s): I got, I never beat anybody 2 (37m 9s): 30 by 11 strokes. I'm always the guy getting beat by 11 strokes, but I beat this guy by 11 strokes. So anyway, yeah. Brag on myself a little bit. Sorry about that, 1 (37m 19s): Jordan. You'll be me next time by 11 strokes, but that's all right. So enjoy life, but blended together with the purpose of God 2 (37m 29s): For your life. Enjoy what you do. I'm going to go backpacking with my two boys on, on Saturday next week, we're going to go backpacking and spend some time together, enjoy life, but don't forget the purpose that God has called you to anyone who's living only for pleasure of spiritually dead, even while she lives or he lives verse eight says, but those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household have denied the true faith. 1 (37m 56s): Such people are worse than unbelievers. And so again, we've got this spiritual responsibility to care for our loved ones. And so if you've got young kids and people in your life, you've got a family, it's your spiritual responsibility to take 2 (38m 11s): Care of them. My dad was, and he watches the service every week. So Hey dad, 1 (38m 18s): But he never paid child support. 2 (38m 20s): And we'll talk about it. He'll say, Hey, I want your service did it. He probably didn't want me watching it today. Did you? But we've got an open relationship. But, and 1 (38m 28s): Then I know other people, younger people who just 2 (38m 31s): Refuse to support their family and it just strikes a chord to me because it's our spiritual 1 (38m 36s): First and foremost, this is how we disciple the next generation by being responsible people as fathers in his mothers. It's, it's how we disciple and point the way for the future. Next generations we explain. But then we live our lives in front of the next generation. So they might know how to follow Jesus and how to trust Jesus and how to live their lives in a way that honors him and his word. And so if we're saying that we're Christians, but we're not doing what the Bible says, there's a conflict in the, in the hearts and souls of our young people. And we don't want to create that 2 (39m 10s): Conflict. And so we have this responsibility, a spiritual responsibility to care for our loved ones. 1 (39m 17s): It says, if you don't do it, you're actually worse than an unbeliever. There's something there that we need to be paying attention to you and aligning our lives with verse nine, a widow who has put on the list for support must be a woman who's at least 60 years old. I appreciate it. It's very practical because it helps the church understand how we support widows in our midst and how to decide about how, and 2 (39m 40s): If we support a widow intermit. So 1 (39m 43s): A widow must be who wants to be put on the list, must be a woman who's at least 60 years old. And it was faithful to her husband. So we get to kind of examine and evaluate someone's life. And no, one's perfect, but there's some parameters here that we can use to help us 2 (39m 57s): Make wise choices. 60 years old, faithful to her husband, 1 (40m 2s): Verse 10, she must be well respected by everyone because of the 2 (40m 6s): Good she has done. Has she brought up her children? Well, has she been kind to strangers and served other believers humbly? Has she helped those who are 1 (40m 17s): In trouble? Has she always been ready to do good? And so you can examine that kind of lists and decide, does this person meet the qualifications for it 2 (40m 27s): Beyond the, the list of those that we help as, as widows. And then we make those decisions. 1 (40m 33s): And then he says, in verse 11, the younger widows should not be on the list. So anybody under 60 should not be on them. 2 (40m 41s): It's kind of nice that if you're under 60 or considered a younger widow, that's kind of a good deal, right? So if you're under, that's a positive thing. If you got no, all right, I think you're still young at 60, but whatever, here we go. Okay. 1 (40m 55s): The younger widow should not be on the list because their physical desires will overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And so apparently the pledge was, Hey, if you're on the list receiving support from the church, then you're devoting yourself to the church, to the work of the church, to the Lord, to the work of the Lord, to what he would have you to do. And you're not going to remarry because you're on the list of receiving support. And so a younger widow might be tempted to remarry, might have the urge and the desire to 2 (41m 27s): Re Mary. And so that's why they're not supposed to be on the list. Their physical desires 1 (41m 31s): Overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy, younger widows. They will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house meddling in other people's business and talk. So that's true. Struck a chord with somebody Pedaling and other people's business and talking about things they shouldn't. So I advise these younger widows to marry again, have children and take care of their own homes. Then the enemy will not be able to say anything against them. So the wisdom from Paul to Timothy says, if you're a younger widow, get remarried, go, go, enjoy your life. 1 (42m 18s): Have a family take care of your, your, your, your, your family. Don't, don't try to get on the list of support from the church. You've got better things to do. Verse 15 says from afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Satan. Isn't that? I'd say that's a strong statement. Some have gone astray, and now they follow Satan. So there's two, there's two paths in the earth. There's the narrow path that leads to life. And then there's the broad path that leads to death to destruction. So you're either on one or the other 2 (42m 52s): Path. 1 (42m 53s): There's not many paths. There's essentially two passes, only two paths. You've got the way to Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me. And so if you're not following Jesus in his path, you're actually following Satan 2 (43m 9s): This path. Isn't that interesting. So there's no wiggle room there. Paul said 1 (43m 17s): Afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Sagan. So they're, they're either following Jesus where we're either following Jesus in our lives or we've gone astray. And now we're following Satan. We're being influenced by the enemy. It's a strong statement and it should wake us up to the reality that in this life, we, we, we, we have a decision to make, who am I going to follow when all of this, all of the arenas of my life, 2 (43m 46s): If 1 (43m 47s): I'm following Jesus and all the, all of the arenas of my life, that I'm reflecting his word in my decisions and my words and my thoughts and my deeds, everything is lining up. And when I get out of the line, I'm quickly to confess quick, to confess, quick to repent, and I'm getting right back in line following Jesus, because he's my Lord and my leader. And so I want to follow my Lord and my leader. And apart from that, I'm on this different path where I'm just kind of going haywire and following whatever my flesh or the enemy compels me to follow. You can't have both verse 16. If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widows, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. 1 (44m 29s): If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widow, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. And then the church can care for the widows who are truly alone. So you've got this powerful responsibility to take care of those who are truly in need. Number two. And number three, we have this responsibility to honor our leaders. And it's easy for me to talk about this at harvest church, because you guys do that. I really feel like you honor us. And in the way that the scripture says, and honestly, it, it makes it fun to work here. It's fulfilling to work here for all of the leaders and all of the staff. It says here, elders should do their work. 1 (45m 9s): Well, elders press Buderus. Now we're Spock talking about the, those who carry the office of elder elders, who do their work well, should be respected and paid well. And thankfully from the beginning, I've been on staff here for 17 years going on 18 years. And from the beginning, this board has always taken care of my family with just decent pay, with good pay and with how many know this is an expensive place to live, right? And honestly, we don't want it. We don't want to call people to our team and pay them at a poverty level and expect them to serve with joy and serve with gratitude. And you know, when they've got mortgages, they've got, they've got kids in private school, they got all kinds of responsibilities. 1 (45m 55s): So we do our best by God's grace to pay people well, because that's what the scripture says we're supposed to do. Especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching for the scripture says, you must not muzzle at ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain and in another place, those who work deserve their pay. So essentially Paul is telling Timothy, take good care, financial care of your elders, especially those who labor in the word. So kudos to harvest church and to the elders of harvest church, the board of harvest church, thank you for what you do. We are honored as leaders and then 19, this is another way to honor our leaders. It says, do not listen to an accusation. 1 (46m 38s): So there's going to be times when you hear an accusation against an elder, dismiss it, unless you hear it two or three times, then there might be something to it. And then at that point, maybe you come to the elder or you come to the board and you talk about it. But you out of the gate, though, it says, do not listen to an accusation against an elder, unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. So it just kind of helps to honor the leadership when there's a bit, the benefit of the doubt, and that doesn't happen around here. That's never happened around here, but that's, that's just what the scripture says. Those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. This is kind of harsh, right? Cause we're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the fall, short of the glory of God. 1 (47m 19s): But I think probably talking about leaders here and honestly, thanks to social media and the world that we live in everybody's mistakes has put out on media and the worldwide 2 (47m 30s): Web. And so anything that a leader does that is, 1 (47m 35s): Or cause you know, we're a leader. 2 (47m 38s): Sure. And it's plastered all over, all over social media anyway. So we don't even need to bring it before the whole church necessarily because Oh, everybody knows about it already. And so we need to be careful the way that we live as leaders, those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. They will serve as a strong warning to others. And so maybe there's a time to bring up the leader who has failed. It's listen. When I hear about other leaders who have failed, it sends like ice water through my veins. It is a warning. It's a strong warning. To me, it's a strong warning to our team. And we talk about it. 2 (48m 19s): We say, man, we don't want to be in trouble like this. Person's in trouble. God bless them. We love him, but we don't want to be in that kind of trouble. So we need to live our lives above reproach to the best of our ability by God's grace, we need to live above reproach so that we don't get ourselves into trouble. And so we talk about it. It's a strong warning, just strong warning. Verse 21. I saw him the command you in the presence of God. I mean, this is a command. I command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest 1 (48m 52s): Angels to obey these instructions without 2 (48m 55s): Taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone. Paul was giving clear, 1 (48m 59s): Clear command, a clear command to Timothy, Hey, this is how I'm asking you to lead. This is how I'm declaring that you must lead as a pastor within the church. That's why it says never be in a hurry about 2 (49m 13s): And appointing a church leader do not share on the sins of others, keep yourself pure. So when we, 1 (49m 18s): We are looking for church leadership, we have to be careful and take it slowly. 2 (49m 23s): Other other Bibles say, don't lay your hands quickly on somebody else. That means don't appoint a leader prematurely. And so we have to be careful. And sometimes that takes years before we have the chance to really feel confident. And it puts somebody in a place of leadership. You're not sharing the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Paul's telling 1 (49m 44s): Timothy man, your, your life is to be above 2 (49m 46s): Reproach. And the Lord 1 (49m 49s): That you have leading with you, their lives are to be above 2 (49m 52s): Reproach. I shared 1 (49m 54s): Last week that pastors, teachers of the Bible, we're going to cure a greater judgment from God. And so we actually have to think through our lives, what we teach and how we live. 2 (50m 4s): I live and thank God for his grace because none of us do it perfectly. But man, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna be that. I don't wanna be that guy. I don't want to be a guy. So we're, we talk about it openly as a staff and as pastors and we hold each other accountable and I meet with other pastors and we do the same thing there. So hopefully we'll by God's, we'll get through to the end of our ministries without shadows hanging over without problems. And we'll hear when we stand before the Lord, well done. Good and faithful servant. That's what I want to hear. 2 (50m 45s): Number four, take care of yourself. Not about others now were bought. Paul's kind of focusing on Timothy here a little bit. And he said, take care of yourself. Don't drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you're sick so often. So apparently Timothy was a frail physically. He had some stomach issues. And so Paul told him to drink a little wine for his stomach. So we look at wine in the scripture and we can say wine is good and bad or good or bad, or we can say all kinds of stuff. But wine obviously has an additional purposes. Wine has got, is used within worship. You know, people take communion with wine and bread. Jews definitely did some Protestant churches. 2 (51m 28s): Like here, we use grapes use because we don't want to sort of wine and cause somebody to stumble. So we use grapes use as a symbol there of the Lord's blood and, and Bible. And biblical times water was often scare. So wine became a necessity rather than a luxury is equated with life wine. Along with the grain and oil represents God's covenant blessings promised to Israel for obedience, and we also see God withholding those necessities for disobedience. And so wine can be given as a gift, as a blessing for obedience or withheld for disobedience. Additionally wine represents joy celebration and festivity expressing the abundant blessing given to us by God. We also know that Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine. 2 (52m 13s): So if you're going to enjoy some wine, God bless you in that, but don't get drunk and don't cause somebody to stumble. And then you're within the parameters of scripture. Amen. Lots of really practical things here in first, Timothy chapter five, Paul told Timothy, he take care of yourself. Are you taking care of yourself? Are you taking care of yourself? Part of the way we take care of ourselves is we, we honor the Lord in his word. So we, we can, we take a day off every week. I know plenty of people who work seven days a week. They own their own companies and their own businesses. And they work seven days a week or people in the ministry. They work seven days a week and God's made it very clear that we're to observe the Sabbath day to take a day of rest. 2 (52m 55s): God, God modeled that in the creation account, he worked six days creating the heavens in the earth and then he arrested. Why? Because he was worn out from all of that work. No, God doesn't ever get worn out. But as a model to us creation, he said, take a day off, do something on that day. That's not connected to your regular work and just take a deep breath and relax and enjoy life a little bit, relax and enjoy life. I tell the guys who were working seven days a week. I said, dude, you will get so much more accomplished if you'll take a day off every week. Yeah. 1 (53m 28s): It's it's like tithing. It's like you give 10% and God takes the 90% and does way more with that 90% than you could ever do with the a hundred percent. It's just a principle that God says, honor me with the way that you live your life. And I will bless it. It's a, it's an act of worship to take a day off because we're saying, God, I trust you that everything's going to get done. 2 (53m 51s): As 1 (53m 51s): I re as I obey your commands, I trust you that you're going to take care of everything. Tithing is an act of worship. We're saying, God, I, I trust you with my income. And so I know that you will do more with 90% than I could ever do with a hundred percent. It's just there. There's, there's something that honors God. It's an act of worship. When we do what he asks 2 (54m 11s): Us to do, take care of yourself, where do you need to take care of yourself? What do you need to do? Maybe you need to do a little less. Maybe you need to refocus your priorities. Take care of yourself, have hobbies. I love to ride my mountain bike. Don't do it as often as I should. I love to run. I've started running again. Yeah, good and run. My knees were jacked up then I got prayer. I'm telling you God's done a work in my knees. I was able to run yesterday. Again, no problems. 2 (54m 52s): God's a healing. God, he's restoring God. He's a faithful God. So all of us just need to exercise and walk a little more faith with the Lord with the way that we're living our lives. We hold on to everything. Cause we don't have any faith that God will take care of us. We work every day, work every moment because we're afraid that God's not going to take care of us. Were we a threat fret and worry about every relationship and every decision because we don't believe that God's speaking to us or can speak to us or will speak to us and will direct us and real will guide us and help us and protect us. We're just off full of fret and worry anxiety. And we're thrash because of it. 2 (55m 33s): God's given us life that we might he's coming, that we might have life abundantly. Like, like it's, it's not a life of fear and fret. It's a life of joy. Somebody asked me earlier today, how are you doing? I said, I'm, I'm doing so good if I were doing any better, be illegal. Right. And it's all because of God's grace. Not because I'm some superstar, I'm just, I just love Jesus. And he loves me. And I figured out, man, that serving him with my whole heart, his words had that's it. Right? Right. It's just, it's just where it's at. And then when I mess up, cause my wife will tell me, he messes up from time to time, probably every day, multiple times throughout the day, multiple times throughout the hour, a minute, whatever. 2 (56m 16s): But there's grace for that as well. And just don't beat yourself up, but you'd be, be constantly consecrate. Your luck, hots, consecrate your life. Sanctify your life in Jesus will never have greater joy wrapping up. Number five, don't judge a book by its cover. Five steps to getting along with others. Don't judge a book by its cover says in verse 24, remember the sins of some people are obvious leading them to certain judgments, but there are others who sins will not be revealed until later some are obvious. They're like, Oh, he's a murderer or a thief. Whatever the case may be. And then there's others who sin is kind of hidden below the surface. 2 (56m 59s): And so we're not to judge a book by its cover. There are others who sins will not be revealed until later when we stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for our lives in the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious. And the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. We've got a gal in our church who a secretly, her husband doesn't even know this. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Ah, whatever. Nobody knows who I'm talking about. This gal shops every week for our food bank, our food pantry, she goes out and finds really good deals every week. And she'll show up midweek when nobody's around. 2 (57m 40s): Occasionally I'll see her. Cause I'm here all the time feels like, but she'll bring in all these groceries. She'll bring all these groceries in and just drop them off. The good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. I'd never, I'd never tell you who she is because I don't want her blessing. I don't want her. I don't want to blow her cover, but she is one of those people you wouldn't suspect necessarily. She's a wonderful person, but no one knows what she's doing behind the scenes. Others seem all religious, but they're doing crazy stuff behind the scenes. Crazy bad stuff. 2 (58m 22s): Don't judge a book by its cover. We need discernment as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ to figure people out. We need to exercise discernment and be prayerful. Five steps to getting along with others, treat all people with respect, take care of those truly in need. Honor. Your leaders take care of yourself and don't judge a book by its cover. With that. I'd like to invite the prayer team up. We're going to worship some more and then I'm also want to invite the prayer team. So the worship team come forward. And then during worship, if you'd like to receive prayer for anything, the protein will be up here as well. I'm up here, my wife's up here. Others are up here available to pray for you. 2 (59m 4s): We talked about a lot today. God's first Timothy fives, full of stuff and good stuff. And so if you've been touched or convicted or challenged or encouraged and you want some prayer, come on forward with that. Let's go and stand up and learn. We'll be careful to give you praise and honor and glory for everything. Jesus, for the good in our lives, Lord God. We say thank you for the hard things. Lord, we say that you're faithful and, and we can trust you, Lord. Thank you for the challenges Lord, they, they, they always turn our attention to you. If our hearts in the right place, Lord, I pray that our challenges would always turn our hearts to you. Lord God, that we would always go running to you, our father, our friend, and the alpha and the Omega God that we would run to you with parts that are pure and desiring you or God, and that we would love you all the days of our lives and that we will allow you to love us all the days of our lives. 2 (59m 58s): Lord, God work a miracle in our lives today. Encourage us, build us up in our most Holy faith. Speak to us, continue to move powerfully. We pray. We love you. Jesus. Thank you for your abundant grace. Say thank you to the Lord about maybe speak that out, 0 (1h 0m 24s): Speak it 2 (1h 0m 24s): Out. I want to be able to hear you say it out loud. 0 (1h 0m 37s): What else? What do you think before healing? Yeah. Hey man. Hey man. Thank you for EEG and Lord. Thank you for that. Yes. Yes. 0 (1h 1m 24s): Thank you. Jesus. 2 (1h 1m 33s): We have so much to be thankful for. We love you, Lord. We thank you for your very kindness, 0 (1h 1m 40s): Patience, faithfulness. I'm thankful for my wife, thankful for my kids, my parents for my life. God help us to worship in spirit and in truth we pray. Thank you Lord. Amen. 0 (1h 2m 18s): thank you so much. 0 (1h 12m 15s): Got it. We don't have to walk with fear that we can stand firm and your love for us and the presence of our enemies and hardship and trials that you carry us through. And so we thank you for your presence here with us today. Thank you for all the work that you've done in our hearts. We pray that you would just see a lit upon our hearts. God, that we would walk into this week, different change because we've been in your presence. Thank you for this. Remember we love you. We give you all the glory, all the praise, all balloons, Jesus in your precious name. Amen.