First Timothy lesson 6 cont.
1 Timothy · JD McCulley · May 26, 2024
1 Timothy, No. 15
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261935184941

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Let's start with the first question. We're going to review for a minute. What is the first thing Paul is thanking God for? We talked about gratitude last week. I had to zoom in. It's been a little bit of a wild couple weeks with my daughter graduating and getting those things in order. So we had to make a couple adjustments. We're looking in the book of 1 Timothy here, and Paul goes into an attitude of gratitude, is what I called it last week. What was the advantage we talked about last week with Paul's gratitude, and what does that mean to you?

He was, okay, we're going to go into strength in a minute, but having a constant attitude of gratitude, what value is there in what Paul is trying to communicate? Because he stops. It's kind of parenthetical, right? He just kind of stops and says, I have a constant and continual attitude of gratitude. I've been thinking a lot about that this week. I'm very thankful for the fact that my daughter is graduating. It's like, wow, I really did some great stuff. I got her through this step in life. I mean, we made it.

And then, that's not what this is talking about at all. What is this talking about? The Lord put him into service, and was he deserving of that at all? Not at all. So gratitude has with it a weight of, I know what I don't deserve. And it causes these, the words that he's using here are, they're heavy. They're heavy. And I was thinking about it for myself. It's like, Lord, I certainly don't deserve these things, what you've done for me. And maybe you feel something similar. Maybe you've got some of your own things that are going on. But he clothes him with a ministry and all that Paul can do after having been a really not great guy. He's grateful. His attitude is gratitude. And then he goes into strengthened. Yeah.

I would say that the sin nature thinks it's responsible for everything and needs to be congratulated for everything that happens in a person's life. Non-believers, they don't have it. I mean, there's some gratitude about certain things there, but not just for basic things, like if God calls you to minister, and by that calling I can include being a dad or a mom or whatever God has called you to do.

As you grow in that ministry, you begin to realize, wait a minute, the qualification process is all of Him. And you never stop learning from Him, and you become more and more and more dependent on Him. because you realize that you got this far because of Him. You're not going to go from here. You know, our society says, and there's nothing wrong with it, that we raise our kids, we train them, we send them to school, we educate them, and now you're on your own.

Oh, yeah. But that isn't the way it works in the Lord. No. Okay. Explain. The Lord trains us, grows us up to serve Him. And the more dependent you are, the greater servant you are. And you have to learn that dependence through the smallest things. And so the qualifications for ministry is dependence. It's really what it boils down to. Seminary 101. Yeah. I think you ought to do that. I think what you said kind of makes me think.

When you think about all the things you did and then thankfulness takes it off you and puts it on the Lord. When Paul is here, he's not grateful for all that he's done or whatever. He's thanking the Lord for what he has done through him. And I think that's the difference when you get to the thankfulness like is shown here. It's picking your eyes up what you've done and thanking him for what he's done through you.

And I think about that. I call it the Nebuchadnezzar syndrome. In business, I get this great job, great client, and I come out of a meeting and I'm like, man, that's awesome. I did it. I did it. And I sit there and I immediately think of Nebuchadnezzar, who looked down at all of his kingdoms and said, how great I am, and look at all I have. Immediately, he was eating with the cows. And his focus was on himself and what he did. And I think what's here is he's thanking the Lord for what he's doing through him, taking his eyes off himself. And I thank you for what you've done.

It's not, you know, I thank you for what a great man I am or great missionary, great teacher, great whatever. He's just thanking him for what he's done through him. The biggest thing is just the focus. When you get to a thankfulness, the focus is off you. Because you're thanking somebody else. You're thanking that person. Or when I thank you for doing something, I'm saying, thank you.

And now, in this case, he's thanking the Lord. I've got thoughts. Go ahead. I'm probably more carnal than the rest of you. By the fact, you know, he's saying how grateful he is that the Lord has counted him worthy to put him in the ministry. And you look at his life before Christ, I just mean walking around.

He walks away from high position that he was in the hierarchy. He gets a thorn in the flesh. I mean, he's All the things that happened to him physically, I mean, he suffered tremendously in the flesh, and yet he doesn't even consider that. He's, because it must have overshadowed him, what the Lord was to him in the midst of all that.

I think you're right. It's a place of humility. I think when we look at what he's talking about, he's thanking the Lord that he was strengthened. What does strengthened mean? Does it mean CrossFit? You used to laugh at me about doing CrossFit. I stopped, by the way. No, I mean, the strengthening that way is, one, the desire to do it.

Two is the time and the, you know, one of my favorite verses is, God works in you both to will and do of His good pleasure. He's got to do both of those things. I think what, kind of what one of the things that I took away from looking at this verse in preparation is the fact that It's the Lord's power that he's thankful for, not his own strength. He's thankful for what the Lord enabled him to do.

And there's four points that you mentioned here, Mike, and I have follow-up questions for each of them. You said, first of all, the strength enabled him to see his weakness as his asset. Like, who thinks that way? You go into a meeting and you're like, I'm so thankful for my weakness.

No, you're thinking about, I got to get in there, I got to assert myself and make sure that my direction is well known, because I'm the guy that has to do the thing. But having spent all of his life being a blasphemer and a hater of Christianity, now he finds his weakness as his asset. He finds his inability as being the Lord's capability. And it changes his mind completely.

We just don't think that way. You know? I mean, you get out of bed, you get going, and you're like, okay, I gotta do this, this, this, and I can do it. You give yourself a pep talk, right? That's the easy part. It doesn't work a lot of the time, but in 2 Corinthians 12, nine, can someone read that one for me? Like I said, I don't have all my proper plan notes, so I'm kinda working from, you have to read. 2nd Corinthians 12 9 Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distresses, with persecution, with difficulties, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. That doesn't make sense. Not to the natural man, it doesn't. No, it does not. But it's true. But that's why it's grace. That's right. And the flip side of grace is mercy. So we're going to talk about that in a minute, too. So first of all, he thanks the Lord that he strengthened him.

It wasn't of his own strength. It wasn't of Paul's capability. I mean, the guy was schooled in everything he needed to essentially break down anything that was Christian whatsoever. That was his job. And here, he's completely identifying with strength of the Lord, nothing of his own.

It's like Elon Musk saying, I started SpaceX, yet it is nothing compared to what God's doing with me now. That's maybe a weird analogy, but I mean, kind of maybe resonates. You got the strongest of minds, the most capable of minds, completely rendering himself to thankfulness.

It was like a Moses turned into a Paul. Yeah, I mean, even Moses had to go through this too, right? Moses had to do this too. It's what the Lord does with us. He turns each of us to Himself. And the response here, and I think it's very, very important, is thankfulness. And yes, He does strengthen you. He does give you capability to do the things that He's doing with you. But it comes out of an attitude of gratitude. Second, so first of all, he saw his weakness in his asset.

Second, well, let me ask the question, what's your weakness? Don't answer the question, but mentally process. No, I don't want to do that. Oh yeah, I don't want to do that. I think that's an easy question. The flesh, your flesh. It's the same as mine. Biggest weakness. It does the same thing. It tells you, oh, yeah, you got this. You're capable. Courtney, you're good. You're good. Just run in and let it go.

Well, let's read Philippians 4.13. We talked about weakness. And we talked about weakness as a place of actual strength, which is completely contradictory to our flesh.

What about Philippians 4.13? What's it say? I can do all things through him who strengthens me. All right. How do you adjust to circumstances like Paul had to adjust to circumstances? Well, there's gratitude. There's strength provided. You can do all things. Is that true? Sure doesn't feel like it. Ah, okay. He said he's racist. When you're weak, I'm strong. Yeah.

I think that the whole doctrine of identification is right there in that one verse. Because from an understanding viewpoint, until you recognize or until you learn from God's Word that you were crucified, buried, and resurrected in Him, it's still about you. Up until that time, He's the one that forgave you your sins, but it's still about you. And then you get to Romans 6, and it stops being about you, and it starts being about Him, because you were crucified.

Yeah. On Monday night, we were talking about the foundation of spiritual growth. These are all things that you believe, not that you do. You're not doing anything. You've been born again. Let's see if I can recall them. You've been born again. You've been accepted. Right. And you're eternally secured. And you've been placed in Him. You didn't do any of that. That's just foundational.

Now, you get to learn about, I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me. And then you get to spiritual growth. But not before you understand that you've been born again. You're on the other side of the cross. accepted, eternally secure, and placed in union with Him, now the learning starts to happen. It's, well, and you know that you're a new creation.

Paul knew this, and, I mean, he spent three years having to figure it out. or more, but at this particular point, he has a constant and continual gratitude for what is true about him. And then he moves on to the fact that I've been strengthened. And he even says he considered me faithful.

I mean, here's a guy that persecuted everyone, Paul's pride was on the toppest level. That's a way of, incorrect way of saying it, the most high. I mean, this guy was very prideful in himself. He had accomplished much. He had everything to lose in this case, but he lost it for Christ's gain. So, the question now is, the fact that ... well, let me reverse here a little bit. So first of all, it enabled him to see his weakness as his greatest asset. That was the first thing.

The second thing, it enabled him to adjust to all circumstances properly, and that was Philippians 4.13.

Next, let's look at 2 Timothy 4.17. So he sees his weakness. He's able to adjust to circumstances because of his weakness. because he understands who he is in Christ.

And then third, 2 Timothy 4.17 says what?

But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the lion's mouth. There wasn't anyone standing with him, but who was? All mankind had abandoned him at this point, but who was standing with him? The Lord. He was able to stand firm because the Lord was able to stand him firm. Again, this has to do with his weakness. He's constantly pointing to his own weakness. The question for you is, is your weakness your greatest asset as a Christian?

It really is. It's kind of weird, right? We don't think about that. We're always raising our kids, you've got to be strong, you've got to get out there, you've got to do the thing. I'm writing them thick of graduation. Everybody wants to know, what are you going to do with your life? They don't have a clue. Well, it feels weird as a parent, right?

It's like, well, we don't know yet. The Lord hasn't revealed those things to us yet, but you know what we're doing? We're leaning. It's a weakness. We don't know. And people are like, well, you gotta have a plan. Patty has to have a plan. Well, the plan is, she's going to stick really close with the Lord, and we're going to see exactly what he does.

And if this is true, out of 1 Timothy, that your weakness is your greatest asset, well, we don't know. But we know who. and we know where to focus our faith, that's all we got right now. Well, what about college? Oh, she's 17, she's graduating year early, all that kind of stuff.

As a dad, it's kind of like, you should have had a better plan, guy. Did you have a good plan? How did those plans work out for you? Yeah, we did that. Well, why do you think God was able to stand Paul firm? Because Paul believed in what the Lord had for his ministry. He was doing something that, it didn't make sense to anyone else, but it made sense to Paul. And yet I was shown mercy.

Because I acted ignorantly and unbelief. We have to talk about that one. Yeah. Is that your problem? Because I feel like that's my problem sometimes. I'm like, did I act ignorantly or was it just stubborn? Paul did actually act ignorantly. We're going to have to talk about that.

But before we do that, 1 Timothy 1.12. Let's read it one more time. This is the verse we're looking at.

I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful." I mean, if you're Paul, or if you're you, you're thinking, I'm far, I'm the furthest thing from faithful, in the sense that I have to have mercy. There's no other way for me to accomplish this consideration from the Lord, but yet he considers him faithful.

You think that's bragging? You think Paul's bragging? I know we do, or I do sometimes. What do you mean? Well, like it's on my side, but it's because I'm on the Shulman side. Yeah, that's really right. I keep bragging, because when you deconstruct that, because he considered me faithful. It's from the Lord's perspective, not his. He considered me faithful. It's not I considered myself faithful. He, the Lord, considered me faithful. Why did the Lord consider him faithful? We could use another word, trustworthy. Why would he find Paul trustworthy?

In my daily reading, I'm going through Acts right now, where Paul is being converted, and he tells him, I'm going to use you. So he considered him from day one. And I think it's because, also when you look at one of those other verses, when everybody abandoned him. us to round him up, and then suddenly he's converted. Nobody believes him on either side at that point. Christians are like, you're trying to lure me into the trap. Jews are going, what are you doing? So everybody left him at that point.

But I think it stems from the first minute, because, you know, why are you pushing Q to him? But then he says, you know, I'm going to use you. I think when he tells Ananias, he says, I'm going to use him. And that's the purpose. And I think, you know, I think he considered me faithful. I'm going to use him. And he knows what the outcome is going to be. But he considered him faithful.

He considered, you know, who Paul was. you know, this road to Damascus conversion was going to change him. But again, back to it, I think it's not him boasting, it's he considered me. I wasn't on the road to Damascus to become a believer. I was on the road to strangle a few more Christians. So I think it's, again, the perspective that he considered me. I'm not boasting.

Yeah. Mike, you know, along those that, uh, Courtney's talking about at acts nine 15, but the Lord said to him, go for, he is a chosen vessel of mine. I chose, I chose him. I chose Paul. He didn't choose me. I chose him. And I chose him to bear my name before Gentiles, Kings, and the children of Israel for, I will show him the many things he must suffer for my namesake. You know, I chose him.

And I can say every single believer that I've ever known, God chose them specifically for something or something. I mean, it might be as we think it's mundane to be a mom. I chose you to be a mom. Oh, okay. You know? And with choosing comes entrusting. Yeah. So you're a mom. You've been entrusted with that. Did you go to mom school? No. No, I chose you.

2 Timothy 2.1, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The thing which you have heard, verse 2, from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's being a mom, absolutely. You're entrusting them with the truth of God's word, and you're right there in a place of, to your point Mike, mercy.

You didn't deserve it. You've got these beautiful children, or you have these men or women in your life that you've been entrusted with. And the Lord is looking at you and being like, you're so worthy of this, I'm going to let these people be a part of your ministry. No. It's by grace. I'm giving you something that you're completely incapable of doing, because your weakness is your greatest asset.

You know? So, what about this counted me faithful? What makes, how does that relate to us? How would the Lord say, I've counted you faithful? Is it because of all the good things you did this week? God considered. Considered and faithful. Why though? Why does he consider you faithful, Mike? Well, he had to show me mercy. That's it. And you're a recipient, just like Paul. Now, Paul had a role in the church. And I'm going to wrap up here. We're at time. But Paul had a specific role.

But don't you, too? Don't you have one? Isn't he showing you that same mercy and isn't weakness your greatest asset, too? Yeah, I'm still a nobody. And that's OK. That's better. Because to the Lord, you're useful. Because you're dependent. And I think that's the word that you mentioned when we first started the class today, Mike, was dependence. And your weakness, he's strong. He gets to do his thing. You're just in the way when you think you got it. Sam Dalton, just an incredible evangelist. greatest I've ever known.

He would carry, well, first he carried around a straw, and it was... A straw? Just a straw, like a traditional straw. Just, that's all I am. Then he, I think he changed it to later, like a little tube. Straw's too rigid. So he went to, and that's all he is. He's just passing what the Lord has through him. He's a nothing. He's just a vessel. He's a conduit. This is the greatest evangelist I've known. He could strike up a conversation anywhere with anybody and talk about the Lord. But he was humble. He would say, all I am is a tomb. That's all I am.

Let's pray. Father, how we thank you that our weakness is our greatest asset, because your strength and your consideration of our life, our ministry, whether it be the day-to-day, whatever the case, Lord, your working, through us to produce your life.

And so we just pray that as vessels, as the conduit, that you would even consider us to do those things. We're thankful for that. We're very grateful for that. And most importantly, we're dependent upon how you produce that fruit in our life. And so we thank you that that is the way, that that is Christianity, that that is our faith, is to completely depend upon you for all things. And we're so thankful for your love and your grace and how you handle each and every aspect of our lives. And it's your name we pray. Amen.