Cultivate and Model Godliness 1 Timothy 4:6-16 Justin Deeter June 12, 2016 Introduction Kaitlyn and I decided to start this year a small vegetable garden at our house. I know many of you do the same, but growing things takes work and time! There is soil to till, seeds to plant, and weeds to pull. Above all, growing vegetables takes time! When it comes to our own Christian lives, it s a bit like growing a vegetable garden. You get your hands dirty, you sweat a lot, and requires consistency and patience. Today as we look at 1 Timothy 4:6-16, we are going to see Paul instruct Timothy on how he is to cultivate godliness within his own life, but also how he is to model it to his church as a young pastor. I pray this morning that God s word would move you to a disciplined pursuit of godliness in your own life and that by the grace of God he would help you cultivate and model godliness in your own life. 1. Cultivate Godliness (4:6-10) We must cultivate godliness within our lives. As Christians, redeemed by the blood of Christ, God has called us into a life lived in holiness. Our faith in Christ embarks us on a journey of holiness as we strive to be more like the savior who purchased us as his own. Yet, the pursuit of godliness can be grueling. It requires intentional training. Nobody drifts into godliness. Instead, with the power of the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body. We must train ourselves for godliness. This is by no means easy work. As we cultivate godliness in our lives it can be a grueling, grit-your-teeth process. Paul challenges Timothy to cultivate godliness within his own personal life and within the life of his congregation. He uses the word train to describe the process of growing in godliness at the end of verse 7. The verb here in the original language is γυµνάζω (gymnazō), where we get 1
our word for gymnasium. It s a word that describe rigorous athletic training, undergoing the strictest regimens and disciplines. Here Paul applies this athletic term to our spiritual growth in godliness. We are to train hit the spiritual gym like an athlete for the task before us. As any Olympic athlete can tell you, to perform at that caliber requires incredible discipline. If you are a swimmer, you get up at 4:30am and swim a few miles. If you are a marathon runner, you run hundreds of miles over the course of your training before the big race. But, being an athlete requires more than just hitting the gym and practice, it requires a careful regimented diet and sleep schedule. Their entire lives revolve around their training in preparation for the big day. If we want to excel at anything in life, we know it takes sweat and hard work. If you want to become a master at tickling the ivories, you must daily rehearse practicing hours a day. If you want to become a expert in your field, you must spend the time reading and learning daily about trends and innovations in your field. If you want to be the greatest basketball player of all time, you ll spend hours just rehearsing the mechanics of the free throw. To be excellent at anything requires diligent, hard training. Yet for some reason, when it comes to spiritual maturity and godliness we don t seem to care all that much. We don t want to put in the hard work of growing in Christ. So Paul coaches Timothy and gives him a training plan for spiritual growth. Using athletic imagery, he gives Timothy a diet plan, an exercise plan, and motivation for continuing in his work. Timothy is to implement this not only in his own life, but to put these things before the brothers. Paul words are needed for us. I pray you want to know more of Christ in your life, to grow in grace, to become more like the savior who saved you. If so, let s heed together Paul s training program so that we can cultivate godliness in our own lives. Diet (6-7) A Christian in training must continually consume sound doctrine. We are to be trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine. This means it s essential for a Christian to continually, daily read the Scriptures and learn sound doctrine. We must fill our minds with the truths of God s word. If we ve learned anything in 1 Timothy, we ve seen that a diet of sound doctrine is essential not only for the church, but for our individual Christian lives. Yet, most of us struggle to steadily intake a diet of word and doctrine. We know we should be doing it but there two problems that prevent us from a steady diet of the Word; either we legitimately don t know how to do it or we are just simply lazy. Many of us struggle with our actual diets, eating foods that are 2
too sweet, too greasy, and too unhealthy. We don t have the self-discipline to watch what we put in our stomachs, and that same lack of discipline trickles down our spiritual lives. So let me give you a few practical tips on how you can develop a consistent diet of the word. First, get rid of the junk food. We fill our minds with all sort of rubbish that can be spiritually unhealthy. If you buy a bag of potato chips at the store, you re going to end up eating it. We must be mindful of the type of entertainment we purchase and consume, a steady diet of junk can clog our spiritual arteries. Notice that Paul tells Timothy to have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. He has in view particularly the lunacy of the false teachers in the church, but in the same way we are to avoid the silly myths and distortions of the Gospel that we encounter on a daily basis. Second, daily read the Scriptures. This takes discipline, but if we hope to train ourselves in godliness we must devote ourselves to saturating our heart and mind in the word of God. Find a great Bible reading plan, read through a book of the Bible, and fill your mind with truth. Third, utilize the many great Christian resources available to you. Listen to sermons on a podcast. Pick up and read a good Christian living book. Audit an online course at a seminary. Start a Bible study with your friends. Subscribe to some Christian bloggers. Pick up a devotional book. We have more resources than ever to replace the junk food with food that will help us train for godliness. Use it! Fourth, prioritize church attendance. One of the main purposes of the church is to equip the saints. That s why our mission as FHBC is to treasure Christ, equip believers, and send disciples for the glory of God. We want to equip you with the word of God. Prioritize attending a Sunday school class. Come ready to here and soak up the word of God preached in our worship service. The church is a gift from God to you, so that you be taught to Scriptures and grow in them! Exercise (8-9) As we take in a steady diet of godliness, it requires diligent training and discipline as we put the truth of God into practice and serve others and proclaim Christ. We must be active in our pursuit of Christ. Again, no one drifts into godliness. We must partner with the Holy Spirit who does this work in us through our grace-driven efforts. Yet, few of us have the discipline to spiritually exercise. 3
We work hard at climbing our corporate later or perfecting our golf swing, but for some reason we have no passion for training for godliness. But, notice what Paul says. If you hit the gym, lift the weights, and run on the treadmill, that sort of bodily training provides benefit. It s a good thing to want to be physically fit. Yet, even if you develop the muscle mass of Arnold Schwarzenegger, you can t take your deltoids and biceps to the grave. Any physical training we do in this life is but temporary in the span of eternity. Yet, the spiritual training in godliness is of eternal value. It provides benefit not only in the present, but in the life to come. Look at what Paul writes in verse 8, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The point is pretty clear: The gym of godliness is far more fruitful than the YMCA. Though we should steward our bodies well, exercise, and eat right the benefits of such activities only span our lifetimes. Training in godliness continues into eternity. So do not neglect that which is of eternal significance! May we devote most of our energy not to growing in our hobbies but to godliness! Don t waste your life with by pursuing temporary treasures, but set your focus on the treasure of Christ! Motivation (10) Now we can diet and exercise all we want, but if we are going to persevere in the task, we must have the right motivation. We have to have a vision to get through the moments of our training when we just want to throw in the towel. Anything worthwhile is difficult, and a time will come when we just want to give up. Paul gives us a goal, a motivation for what we do. He says in verse 10, For this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Our attention is set on God himself. We train to know him, because he is the savior of those who believe in Christ Jesus. The reason we train to know Christ, because he is our all-consuming joy and desire. He is our treasure and our purpose. He is our hope and our life! Just as Paul said in Philippians 3:7ff, But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7 14, ESV) 4
Paul gives us the motivation for pressing on in our regimented discipline of godliness to know Christ, both in his sufferings and death, but also in his glorious resurrection. We are not perfect yet, but we press on to make it our own. Like a runner in a marathon we keep our eyes on the finish line, the goal who is Christ himself. I m concerned that one of the reasons we don t pursue Christ with such intensity in our training is due to the fact that we don t seem to care about knowing Christ. Lesser treasures, possessions, and hobbies captivate our attention and hopes more than Jesus himself! Yet, may God so give us a vision of the beauty and glories of Christ that we can t help but beat our bodies and make them slaves (1 Cor 9:17) for the goal of the prize who is Christ! Live your life with such a singular focus and motivation for the glory of God! Cultivate godliness within your life so that you can know Christ! 2. Model Godliness (4:11-16) In addition to cultivating godliness in his life, Timothy is also charged to model godliness for his congregation. Timothy is charged to command and teach these truths to the church, but Paul knows that his young age presents challenge. Timothy was somewhere in his late twenties or mid-thirties at the time of the writing of this letter. Timothy, who was already prone to timidity, must now shepherd a divided church, wrestle the false teachers, protect the Gospel, and shepherd the people under his care. More than that, Timothy might not even be wanted there. Timothy was appointed by the apostle Paul as the pastor of the church. The church didn t vote to receive him as their pastor he was appointed by apostolic authority. Imagine what it must have been like for a young Timothy to pastor people much older than him in a hostile situation at the church. I m sure Timothy simply wanted to pack his bags and run away! Yet, Paul charges him to remain firm, to exercise his duties, to shepherd the church and to let no one despise him simply because he is young. Now I can t teach this passage without giving a bit of personal testimony, because this passage has been a fount of encouragement I ve lived in for the last ten years. I first started serving on staff at a church when I was 18 years old. Forest Hills called me to be your student pastor at the age of 23. You called me to be your Senior Pastor at 25. I say that not to draw attention to my age, but to share a continual struggle I ve experienced the last decade in my ministry not being despised for my youth. This passage is well worn in my Bible, as I ve referenced it frequently in the tumultuous year of pastoral transition. 5
In preparation for my sermon, I went back through my personal journal and found an entry dated on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. It was written the day of my interview with the senior pastor search committee here at Forest Hills. Here is what I wrote: I'm sure the most critical question they will ask me about is my age. Is my age a factor when it comes to my competency as a pastor? I would say in large part no. The authority of a pastor is not derived from his age, wisdom, education, or experience but it is derived from the word of God. This is why the teaching of the Scriptures is so crucial for any pastor. The authority to lead and the confidence of leadership derives from the convictions of the Gospel. It is interesting in 1 Timothy, Paul encourages people to not despise Timothy for his youth, but rather he is to set an example. However, Paul goes on to continue to ask Timothy to keep a close watch on his teaching. So how is a young pastor not despised for his youthfulness? Well it is through Christ-like character and the faithful teaching of the Word of God. I find this passage to be of incredible encouragement to me as a young pastor, and it is a passage I've tried to put into practice in my pastoral ministry this past year. Live out the Gospel and teach the Gospel faithfully. Spiritual maturity is not determined by age or education, but comes from a deep awareness of God and the Spirit's work in the life of the individual. I finished the journal with a short prayer before the meeting, Jesus, I am your servant. I am in your need. In my weakness and in my frailty I am feeble. Yet in the power of your resurrected life I am made strong and my hope is sealed. Your poured out blood pulsates through my veins and my muscles are made strong, my mind is operating clearly, and my heart is filled with the love for you. I am humbled God that you have brought me to this point. I am but 25 years old, but Lord you've done greater with younger men than I. If FHBC is where you will have me, then make it so and I will be obedient despite all the obstacles and all the possible hardships. I am yours God, may your will be done. So although this passage in 1 Timothy is primarily addressed to a young pastor, Paul s instructions provide valuable guidance to any young believer and ultimately for any Christian to model godliness to others. We are to aim to live our lives as an example to one another. This is important particularly for young people, because despite what 6
you may believe you don t deserve respect, you earn it. As a young man or woman in Christ, if you want to aspire to leadership in the church, you better start cultivating godliness in your life and modeling it as Paul instructs. Over time and by the grace of God, the older saints will grow in their respect for you as they see your maturity in Christ. So whether you are young or old, how do we model godliness as leaders to those around us? Paul gives us four ways. First, we model godliness in our character. We are to set an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. This means that the godliness we cultivate in our life is put on display in our relationships with others. If you hope to garner the respect of the congregation, the grace of God should be evident in your life. If you re a gossip or if you are a hot-headed, immoral, unreliable person, you are not going to gain the respect of anyone. We are all called to set an example to one another, particularly for those in leadership in the church. Second, we model godliness in our teaching. This applies particularly to young pastors. Paul instructs Timothy to devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. He tells Timothy not to neglect the gift you have, that gift being teaching. The authority of the pastoral office is not derived from age or experience, but from the authority of God s word. The Bible is the rod in the hand of God s shepherd. If a young pastor hopes to garner the respect of older saints, he must display a mastery of the Scripture but also demonstrate that he s been mastered by it. He must use his gifting of teaching to faithfully build up the church. This for me (as shown in the journal quote earlier) became the great truth I ve clung to as a young pastor. When anyone seeks to despise me from my youth, not only have a sought to model godly character, but I ve sought to faithfully teach the word. I ve sought to faithfully proclaim the word of God in season and out of season, and though I may be young I pray that for many of you I have garnered your respect and trust as a result. Third, we model godliness in our growth. Paul tells Timothy to Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see you progress. As a young Christian, we are far away from arriving. Indeed, all of us, young or old have a long way to go in our pursuit of Christ. Yet, if you hope to gain the respect of older saints, we must display a pattern of growth, saturating ourselves in the truth. All should be able to observe your progress, your growth, and your maturity. As I think back over the last decade, I think of so many failures and sins in my life! I thank God I m not the man I was at 18! I thank God that I m not the man I was last year! I think of how much I ve grown as a husband and father, pastor and preacher and I still have such 7
long ways to go! Again, no body hits perfection in this life, but over the course of our Christian journey those closest to us should be able to see our steady plodding and growth in godliness. Fourth, we model godliness in our endurance. Our faithfulness to Christ must stand the test of time. Paul cautions Timothy to keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Watch your life and your doctrine closely! He goes on to instruct Timothy: Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. By enduing in the work of ministry over time, persisting in cultivating and modeling godliness, God will work. By continuing to faithfully shepherded the congregation, even as a young pastor, not only will Timothy s own life be saved, but so too will the church. We must persist and preserve in Christ until the end, and a faithful shepherd who watches his life and teaching well not only has the gracious reward of heaven, but has the joy of knowing he helped his church to cross the finish line of faith. Final Thoughts God in Christ has saved us from our sins. By faith, we are made righteous before God and set apart on a lifelong pursuit of Christ. We must cultivate holiness in our live and model it as an example to others. We must train ourselves for godliness, but that can be hard work! Thanks be to God that he not only justifies us, but sanctifies us. He not only redeems us; he keeps us redeemed. He not only declares us righteous; he makes us righteous! As we give praise to the God for the grace of Jesus, may we seek after him becoming ever like the savior of our souls. 8