MCC Podcasts
Working It Out - Final Thoughts On Being The Example
I'd love for you to have you turn with me in the scriptures to First Timothy. We're in First Timothy chapter 4, and we're going to talk some more about being an example. We're not going to have it up there the whole time, so it does help if you have the scriptures in your lap and want to look at it or on your phone, your smart device. We've been talking about example, and here's the word of the Lord, friends. First Timothy chapter 4. We're going to go back a couple verses to where we were and then go forward to the end of the chapter, starting in verse 11. Here's the word of the Lord. Paul says to Timothy, "Command and teach these things. Don't let anyone look down on you because you were young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity until I come devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters, give yourself holy to them so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and your doctrine closely, persevere in them because if you do, you will save not only yourself, but also your hearers." That's the word of the Lord. And you say when I say that, thanks be to God. In fact, I preached in a Presbyterian church yesterday. They have their big kickoff, and I was so excited as I got to the end, they had their big fall kickoff, big church festival, fair all day long deal, and they asked me to be their speaker. And so I came and I did, and as I was reading the text that I preached on yesterday for them, as I got near the end of it, I knew I was going to say, this is the word of the Lord, and that they were going to know what to do because they're Presbyterians. And I did. I got to the end, and I said, this is the word of the Lord, and I looked out, and they all said, thanks be to God, and I went pitter-patter. It was awesome. My church doesn't know that because they weren't presbyes, something they were brought up in. Man, I love God's word, and I love this section of God's word. I love this idea of being an example. Where we were in the last couple of sermons is our third sermon on this idea of being an example, we're kind of getting into some final thoughts, some final challenges on this idea of living as an example. Paul tells Timothy, you have to say to your church, to your people, to your friends, to your world, to your community, watch me, and you're going to be good with the God thing. Watch how I do it, and that's been the challenge for us for the last couple of weeks. Anybody had that sort of pop back in you in the last couple of weeks? Anybody like me realize what a lousy example I am? Have you felt that in the last couple of weeks? It's come to mind. Thank you, Dobkins, for being in the front row and giving me an amen. Yeah? This idea of example is huge, and it's awesome. And Paul has essentially said, first, be an example, and then he said, and we looked at those five things that he listened to in verse 12. He said after that, he said, and do it in these areas. And now in these last few verses, I'm going to start sort of his final thoughts on it. He's going to say, and here's how. Here's how you're going to be able to do it. Here's how you're going to be able to be an example. Because maybe like me, you were somebody that heard those first couple ones, yes, I want to be an example. I want to be able to say to the world, look at me, and you'll be great with God. Watch how I live for God. I want to be able to say to my kids and your kids and the people in the PUNX to me, watch me and how I do it, and you'll live a life pleasing to God. I want to do that, and that fires me up. And then you were there the second week with me where you said, yes, in my speech, and in my life, and in my conduct, and in my purity, and in my faith, yes, I want to be an example in those ways. But then maybe you're like me where you have to say at the end, but man, I'm not always that example. How can I become that example? And so today in our time left over friends, I'm letting this text just sort of become the outline for me for our sermon, and we're going to look at one thing for the next four verses. And here it is, here's the idea, this is the secrets that he gives as to how to get to that place in life where you're the example. Secrets for how to do it. They're not really secrets, but it sounded cool like maybe the title of a book. Secrets for how we can become this people who live this life of example. So here are the secrets. Let's jump into them, and let's look at verse 13 first. Number one, devote yourself to being in the Word. Look at verse 13 in your text, devote yourself to being in the Word. The phrase there is be devoted to the public reading and to the preaching and to the teaching. In other words, get where the Word is read and preached and taught, preaching is proclaiming the truth. Teaching is stirring among ourselves about how to actually live it out. Reading is hearing the story and be reminded of the good news of God and his salvation and the whole big picture. Get where the Word is read and preached and taught and chewed on and be devoted to that. He goes, that's the number one secret about how you're going to be able to live this life of example, be devoted to being in the Word. And because today's the beginning of NFL, I thought some of you might already be looking at the morning games on your phone, and I wanted to keep your attention. So here's a coach analogy, okay? Devote yourself to being in the Word. Here it is. Todd, ready? Know the playbook. You're going to know the playbook if you're going to run this offense. You're going to know the playbook if you're going to be in this deal and accomplish something as a team. You have to know how it is we live this thing out. Who's the number one draft pick last year in the NFL? Andrew Luck, he's a quarterback and he's from Stanford. The best quarterbacks are the smarty pants boys. Have you noticed that? Are you Stanford grad? There you go. The best quarterbacks are the smarty boys and the reason is they have to get their head in this playbook. Have you seen the pictures of the dudes with the big binder and they're like, oh, big athletes. But they're studying all these plays and all these schemes and all of these contingencies because the quarterback has to, when the ball is snapped, he has to look and see what the defense does and he has to, in that moment, make an audible, make a change, run a play, know the routes where his guys are going to be, scream something that they all understand. He's got to be a smart guy and know all that's in the playbook so that he can live it out. It's a perfect example of this idea. If we're going to be people of examples, we're going to know what's in the book. We've got to be devoted to the word because friends, what's in the word is these specifics, dudes and don'ts for sure. These principles, things about sacrifice and obedience and salvation and the idea of who this whole God thing is about. And then the bigger story, which is that God started all this and that God's been in the story of salvation, that God is meeting us daily and that there is a hope, all of those things are in the word. And so we read it and we preach it and we talk about it and we instruct one another. We get in the book so we know how to live this deal out. The point is none of us can live a life of example without being devoted to being in the word. We've got to know the playbook. We've got to be able to go, "Oh, here's how you live. Here's what I understand about God, so it's going to infer how I should live. Here's what I understand about the big story, so it's going to wake me up to that big story every day so I know how to live." You with me on that? Knowing, preaching and just because you're not a preacher, you've got to be involved in the preaching task. You've got to get with people who proclaim that truth. You've got to listen and watch things that help you understand the truth. You've got to, and just because you're not a teacher, you've got to get with people where together you teach one another about these things of God and how they're living it out. We devote ourselves to being in the word, if we're going to be examples. And man, he actually uses that word to vote, which is a pretty intense word, to vote ourselves to it, be devoted to these things. In other words, we're making the effort about it. Are you devoted to being in God's Word? Would that describe you? That's the challenge here. I want to be a life of an example of how to live for God. Are you devoted to being in the word? I've heard these words come out of my mouth on several occasions in the last couple years. Would you be described as a man of God's Word? A woman of God's Word. Are you devoted to knowing, reading, understanding, proclaiming, instructing so that you know the playbook, you know how to live for God. It's the foundation of how we know how to live for God. Go like this and I'll move on, otherwise we'll just stick with it. With me on that? Are you devoted to it? What does devotion to it look like for you? Are you a man or a woman of God's Word? I told you a couple of weeks ago that I was on a plane and the guy at the window was sharing with the guy that was in the middle seat about the Lord. Did I tell you that story? You just didn't hear it. And it was awesome to watch because here I was over in my little seat like watching this guy and he was sharing the Lord with the dude in the middle. And he did a great job. I'll give him like a B. He did like a B. He didn't do a perfect job. Who does? I mean, but he was sharing the Lord with him, but here's the power in the experience. The guy in the center had some philosophical background and some philosophical training and some teaching and some university setting with philosophy religions. And so he was super educated and they had great questions and he would say, "Well, don't you think that God, yada yada, the guy in the center would say that?" And the guy on the aisle would say, "Well, I totally get, and this is an A thing to do." He goes, "I totally get that thinking. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I totally." But he goes, "But," he goes, "I have found that God's Word says and then he would quote God's Word." And I was like, "Oh, impressive." You know? And I'm like, "That's just like the Lord. He memorized one verse in the last year and God gave him an opportunity to spit it right out. I mean, that is awesome." And then the next point, the guy's talking, he's like, "Yeah, except that in the Old Testament, the way that God interacted with people was, because doesn't it say in Exodus, "Bruh, and he busted out with Exodus." And then the prophets. And then Jesus' words, and he had Scripture coming out of him one after the other, and I thought, "That is a man devoted to being in the Word of God." If we're going to be examples, Paul says to Timothy, "Devote yourself to being in the Word, and devote," is a pretty good Word, it's a pretty intense Word. Number one, devote yourself to being in the Word. Number two, do your job. Verse 14. Do not neglect your gift. What's your gift? What God gave you to do? Do not neglect what God gave you to do. Now wait a minute, before I move into this point, I've got four points, I'm going to zoom through them. Maybe that first point was all you needed to hear, and you're free to go, actually, if that is. You just go, "Man, how do I not know God's Word? How am I not devoted to God's Word? How come I'm not in God's Word? That's it. I'm in. I'm reading the Scripture. Maybe today you carry that one. I'm going to ask you to carry one of these away from today, okay? One, be devoted to God's Word. Two, do your job. Don't neglect your gift, it says in the text. What's your gift? It's what God has given you, both a spiritual gift. Maybe a role. In Timothy's case, it was not just his spiritual gifts, but it was his role, his pastor in this church. That gift was given to him by the laying on of hands when there was prophecy over him. The point Paul is making is, "You know God said, here's your gift, here's your calling, here's your role." So, this doesn't mean I have the gift of exhortation, it means I have the gift of preaching and teaching and exhortation at this church, at this time to be used this way as an associate pastor. You with me? That's your goal. I mean, that's your gift and where you are and who's in your life and how many kids you have and do not have and who you're in relationship with and what your job is and that you're in this town and this time and in this church. All of that is part of do not neglect what God has given you. You're going to live that for the Lord because it's all for a reason. With me? To be an example, we have to go, "Okay, well here's what I got, spiritual gifts, circumstances in life, people that I'm with, opportunities, roles I'm in, let me live that out. Do not neglect it," he says. God gave it, so I got to be faithful to it. Now, if your coach speak, it's about playing your position. This is the position that God gave you to be in. This is the job that God's given you to do. You've got to play that position and this is what I love about teamwork. I'm not a huge football fan, but I am a huge fan of the fact that when you look at a football game, there's 22 players on the field and that has a lot of people. Could they simplify that a little bit? No, because the beauty of it is, everybody has their place and they're all significant. Isn't that not true? When you look down the line, when you see a game and you see it being played, you hardly ever sort of look at this, these dudes that are out on the trenches, right? You usually look at pretty boy and then fancy boy who catches and does the dance in the end zone. Those are the people who get all the attention, but these dudes in the center of the deal are playing a role and if you're dumb like me and you don't know a lot about football, you look and you just go, there's just a lot of big sweaty men bumping into each other. It just looks like chaos. That's actually not true. When you get to the NFL, these are highly tuned and highly trained professional athletes. By the way, doing that all day long is unbelievable, they can do that physically, but they play their role. If you look at a chart of what all these guys are doing, when that pretty boy gets behind the quarterback, gets behind the center and goes to take the snap, he's got these offensive linemen next to him. You know what they're doing, right? Protecting the quarterback, making a hole for the running back. They got jobs to do. In fact, you know that the most important, by all accounts now, they're saying the most important job on offense is not the quarterback. It is the tackles. Do you know that? The highest paid lineman now are the left tackles. Do you know why? In other words, all these guys have jobs to do. The center hikes the ball, pretty boy takes it. These other guys have these things. Over here on the left side, there's one of the guys called a left tackle. What he does is when the quarterback goes back to pass the ball, there is a defensive lineman who weighs 350 pounds and he's running at him faster than you can run. You ever seen a 350 pound man run faster than you can run? He comes at him at his blind side. You've seen the movie. You know Michael Orr? You know Michael Orr is? Look at him. That is a left tackle. That left tackle protects the quarterback from getting blindsided because as he drops back like this, he can't see 350 pound freight train coming down on him. Drafted in the first round, one of the highest paid football players in the NFL. But he's one of those dudes that's just all lined up in the middle there with all those other guys, just crash, bang, smash them, smelly men. But his job is incredibly important. I love that metaphor. When Paul says to Timothy, you want to be an example? You devote yourself to being in the Word and you do your job because that job has been given to you to do. Nobody else has your job. Nobody has your mixture of gifts with your roles that he's put you in, with your circle relationships that you have with this time and in this place right now. Nobody but you. And you've been given the opportunity to live that out. Do not neglect it. It says, do not neglect it and neglect means to be careless in the Greek. Don't be careless with the job you've been given. How often are we careless with the things that he's put us in? When we go and we just go, it's just a job. No friends, it's never just a job. You've been given this gift, this role, this place. No, it's just my neighbor, it's just the people in my neighborhood, no, never. It's the place that God has put you. How often can we be careless with the gift, the place that he's given us to be? Do you know your job? Do you look at where you are and who God's made you to be and what gifts you have and where there's fruit when you live faithfully for the Lord? Do you know what that all looks like so that when you get up during the day in the morning and you know to live that day that you are serving the King of Kings? Do you know your job? Do you know how that looks? Do you know the things that you need to be careful about not neglecting so that you live for him? That's the fulfillment of you being an example. We do our jobs and then that example gets shown to the world. Do your job. Do you have a mission statement? Do you have a mission statement about you and you're serving God? I totally recommend this and maybe this is the all sermon you need today and I don't know what I'm doing in life. I'm just raising a family and going to work. You're never just raising a family and going to work and you're never just coming to church. We're living out this calling on our lives from God. Do you have a mission statement? I would challenge you to write down and figure out for right now God has called me to love and to serve in this way or in that way with these people and in this manner so that you go that's it. That's right. I got to do my job because the freight train is coming in on the quarterback and I got to play my part. Do your job. I've shared this story with you before that on our final consecration service of my seminary career when I got done with my MDiv we sat in the church and they passed through the African-American pastor from the south side of Chicago came to preach at it and we were all there in our robes and all the white people and all the Swedes and all the covenant new pastors fresh faced. We were about to be sent off after we graduated from seminary to go be ministers for the Lord and this dude comes up to give the sermon and all he said for 20 minutes was do your job. Do your job. Do your job. Do your job. Ten minutes into it we realized he's got a point to make. Do your job with all the things that we could have as pastors gotten distracted being leaders in the community being respected having people like us being successful growing numbers all that junk with all the things we could be distracted about. He was saying your ministers of the word of God do your job and he kept going do your job do your job do your job until the very end of the sermon after 20 minutes of it he's pounding on the pulpit and screaming do your job do your job in his last words for Christ's sake do your job and we went off into the world is that not awesome. How are we going to live lives of examples how are we going to be that we're devoted to the word of God so we know how to live we do our job we play our part that God's given us to do and then we just become the example because we're living out the fullness of who we are number three give yourself holy to it now that's not what I that's not my point what I say give it your all the text in verse 15 says be diligent and give yourself holy to it the coach would say and I love it I saw it on a girls volleyball shirt go hard or go home. Love that they could say that coaches could say that pastors can't say that but the truth is and I put on my profit hat the truth is Christianity is never a halfway thing friends where do we get that idea it's about going all the way we give it our all that's why he was an awful coach but did you not love just a few games worth of Mike Singletary did you not just love that and I was always screaming at people who's always screaming at players because he in his competitive he could not figure out how you have been given the gift to be that kind of an athlete and given the opportunity to be on a professional football team that you were not a hundred and ninety nine percent like he couldn't conceive of it and that's why he did that for like the whole year before we fired him that that's the from Paul goes you want to be an example you have to be all in you'd be diligent the text says about these things that word diligent is the opposite of the word neglect neglect means careless diligent means be careful be careful with these things do not let them just slip be all about them think it through it says if you have a King James Bible you might see that it says meditate on these things it's not a bad translation because the word has this emphasis of think it all the way through if you're careful and diligent you've thought it through you go wait wait a minute God is God and he has saved me and I'm supposed to live for him dang I should probably be taking this seriously today again pretty seriously think it all the way through it also has the sense of practice cultivate take great pains with it says persevere I think in the text itself toward the end of the verse all of that is part of it it means you go all the way you become sort of the expert you become the outlier have you read Malcolm Gladwell's book outliers his principle in that is you know it separates the people that are pretty good to the people that are experts in almost everything you can imagine it's people who have given ten thousand hours to it that's ten years of three hours a day becoming all in an expert in it if you practice the violin for three hours a day for ten years you will be outstanding are we that way with the Lord I give myself all the way to it he goes if you're going to be an example you can't be part way in you be diligent you be careful you think it through you give yourself fully to it he goes be diligent and give yourself holy to it that literally means be in it the new American standard Bible some of you may have that says be absorbed by it is God things this living for God all the way in and we're all the way in because when we're all the way in and it says it right it says so everybody may see your progress you see that in your text be diligent about these matters give yourself holy to it so that people may see your progress what why would we do that so we can show off look how good I'm becoming no you give yourself holy to it because when people see you transformed by the power of God they will hunger and thirst for that God in their life and then you're the example that our world is dying to see and friends that is never going to be a halfway in kind of life ever and we have to stop and look at our lives and be honest and go why am I not all in why am I not going for it why am I not holy immersed why because we do we wake up when we go I'm kind of live in part way in this deal you know if you're like me go yeah I want to be an example but I don't live it all the way every day why not well I think we just lack a couple of basic things if that's where we find ourselves one we may just lack belief that this whole thing is true that God's actually going to come through that it's going to be worth it to live for God that Jesus said you do things my way you're gonna have life at its fullest we may just sort of lack that basic belief yeah I get that we may lack understanding we believe that there's God in salvation and we can't deny that but we may lack an understanding of how glorious this God thing is and how awesome he is and what would Linda say when she was leading she was talking about God in his infinite love his infinite patience his infinite justice his infinite grace his infinite like when we start getting our head around that it changes things but we may lack that understanding and so we've been distant enough from all these truths where we just it's hard to give yourself to something that you just don't get it that well or get that and it may be thirdly that we just lack self-discipline hello anyone we just go I know what's right I just kind of feel like doing what's easy or lazy or wrong or all the above and we lack self-discipline so we lack belief or we lack understanding or we lack discipline can I give you a little secret within the secret note the solution is to all three of those things it's the first two secrets in our outline be devoted to being in the word and do your job because when we're devoted to being in the word and we're rehearsing that story and we're proclaiming that story and we're chewing on that story and we're helping each other with that story it builds our faith and God meets us in it and strengthens us whether we have a lack of faith or a lack of understanding or lack of self-discipline we get into God's word and we think that is awesome and that God I love and that's how I want to live and then we do our job because when we get out there and say I think this is who God made me to be and we step out and live for him as an example and love and serve people in the world God always shows up and meets us in that and confirms his blessing in his way always when you go through a spiritually like man I don't know I'm not really feeling it for God and I'm not really believing it I'm not really when you go through that time friends often the best thing you can do in terms of a health spiritual health check is to recognize whether or not you're actually stepping out for God or not because people who step out for God and get off the planet plane in India or decide they're going to go love their neighbors till their neighbors cannot believe how much they're loved by you when those people step out for God like that those people are never spiritually dry God shows up and meets them in that so man this we're not undo your job we're on get we're on give it your all on give it your all this and we don't feel like it then we do the first two oh that's why you put the first two thank you Curtis then we we get devoted to the word and we do our jobs and God shows up and meets us in it but that's how we're going to be an example be devoted to the word do your job give it your all is that then sermon you need to hear today is it time for you to ask honestly the question am I all in for God my whole life's lived for him every aspect of my life I draw the diagram of all the bubbles of the things that I'm involved with my thought life and my finances my relationships and my purity and my my all of that submitted to Jesus Christ daily if not why not and how can God and His grace meet you in that honesty call you to step out to get into the word so that you can say now I'm going to go I want to be that example I'm all in devote yourself to being in the word do your job give it your all forth pay attention what's the word in the scriptures verse 16 watch your life and your doctrine closely watch it pay attention stay in the game the coach would say get your head in the game I know this is painful and we're out of time so I won't do it I just want to show you the one picture of Kyle Williams having the ball knocked out of his hands and overtime of the NFC championship game last year any nine or fans in here right now just crying weeping a little tear listen when you are in overtime and the ball is kicked to you you have one thing to do you don't have a lot of stuff to do you don't have to keep a lot of things in your head there's nothing in the playbook that's going to help you when you catch the ball you do not let somebody knock it out of your arms that's it one thing and it's like the coach probably got into him and said you get the ball and do not fumble all he had to do and then he fumbled for the second time in the game and then we didn't go to the Super Bowl because of that if he came back to the sidelines and I was a coach I would say you had one thing to think about one thing and that rookie New York Giants came along and just punched underneath it and knocked the ball right out of his arms and our season was over come on man Paul says to Timothy listen you do all these things and you stay in the game you persevere you keep you focus on this stuff you watch your life and you watch your doctrine carefully and you stay with it you do not let the one idea that I'm God's person get out of your head you watch it closely and you stay with it so friends we are so notorious for our short attention spans spiritually man I'm all fired up for God and Monday we need to build tools in our lives to keep ringing our bell so that when we run out on the field the coach is going one thing today don't drop the ball man watch your life watch your doctrine you're in the game keep your head in the game pay attention what are those tools that are in your life this is an awesome one do you not feel out after every Sunday and you not feel the spiritual pressure on Saturday be like we should just take the day off and then on Sunday morning when it's hard to pull it together and you're like you know brunch sounds awesome or I'm really not in a very good mood and all those people are all smiling and pretty there and they're all doing good and I'm the only one that's having an awful week right or an awful life baloney you feel that spiritual pressure but then you come here and you leave and you go one thing heads back in the game what other tools do you need because it needs to be more than one thing a week where you just sit facing one direction in a smaller group you've got people in your lives you've got conversations with the words happening and challenges happening and simulations happening you're getting that kind of support encouragement what are the tools in your life so you could keep your head in the game you've got to build them in maybe that's your sermon today man we want to be examples for the lord we want to be examples in all those things he listed speech love life faith purity want to be examples and all that how do we do it well here's four more tips friends that you want which one has God grabbed you with be devoted to being in the word is that where you need to take next week we're having a special Sunday we're going to kick off our school year together where we going as a church together who are we going to be as God's people live in for him next year we're all three of us are going to pre meet been in and are all going to preach that's like ninety minutes of preaching you don't want to miss that it's been awesome morning but as you prepare for it do you need leaving here today and into next week and coming for next Sunday do you need to be thinking is one of these things something I need to carry into this year as we live out being God's people as a church together be devoted to being in the word of God do my job give it my all what's the third fourth one pay attention and with that example stand let me give you this blessing (laughing)