Amen. First Timothy chapter four. First Timothy chapter four. First Timothy four, and we're going to begin reading we'll start reading in verse 12 where we were last week, and we'll finish the chapter. So, first Timothy chapter four and beginning in verse 12.

Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all.

Take heed unto thyself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself in them that hear thee. Let's pray again. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word this evening. Thank you Lord for the instructions and encouragement, rebuke, challenge that we find therein.

May we respond in faith and with understanding that we might grow to be more like our savior in all that we do. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. So, in chapters four through six, we see some instructions to Timothy concerning his ministry. The Paul is wrote this entire letter largely to encourage and to instruct Timothy on the ministry of pastoring the church in Ephesus, the responsibilities that that entailed, choosing leadership to help him in his church and in others.

And we get to chapter four and he continues this instruction more focused on Timothy himself. In the ministry, you have to learn that you can't control everybody else. But you can, by God's grace, control who? Yourself. And the ministry starts with you, with your growth, with your walk with the Lord, with your understanding of scripture, with the gifts and talents that God has given you.

You use those to the glory of God and God takes it from there. We're not responsible for the results. We're responsible to do our part, to be the messengers that God has called us to be, to minister in the sphere of influence that God has given to us, and to trust God to do the rest. But it is vitally important that we don't get so caught up in the problems of others that we forget about who? Ourselves.

When I was a youth pastor, I always had a couple of youth in my youth group that were really burdened for other people. And they wanted to help this person and that person. And oftentimes, they were drawn to people that were troubled kids. And they were going to help them, but sometimes they really weren't in a position to help them. It was great that they were burdened.

That was wonderful. But before you can help somebody else, you first have to help who? You have to help yourself. You have to examine your own relationship with the Lord. You have to deal with your own issues, not every last one of them because, well, you know, new issues crop up and old issues don't go away quickly.

But but you need to be growing in the Lord. You need to have a relationship with the Lord that is that is progressing and that is making a difference in your life and in your heart and then that in turn will God will use that to make a difference in the lives of others. And so this was important for Timothy to understand in his ministry. We looked last week at verse 12, let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example to believers in word and conversation and charity and spirit, in faith, and purity. The apostle Paul is directing Timothy to look inwardly particularly at his character and his integrity.

That his character was one that reflected the character of who? Of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that others would respect him as a servant leader in the church, not because of his booming voice, not because of his charismatic smile, not because of his eloquent wording of things, but because he was a good, what, example that they could follow and that they could look up to. Not just as in his preaching, but in the things that he did and the attitude that he demonstrated towards others and towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, we get to verse 13 and he addresses particularly his preaching and his teaching.

K? He has to be careful to continue to grow in his in these areas we see in verse 12, but also he needs to give attention attendance or attention to his preaching and teaching ministry because that is an important part of the ministry. If you are going to minister as a pastor or as an elder or a teacher to others, you have to give attendance to that. You need to pay attention to that. You need to make sure that you are doing your best to clearly communicate the word of God in a manner which is pleasing and honoring to the Lord and in a way that encourages others to follow the Lord and to take it to heart.

Preaching is not just giving out the facts. Now, giving out the facts is part of preaching. Okay? So this is what this says. This is what that says.

This is what this means. That is what that means. But preaching is not just imparting the facts. Preaching is encouraging and seeking to persuade others by the grace of God and the help of the holy spirit through God's word to follow the Lord and to change. You can't do that without the Lord and that is an important part of preaching.

He divides it into three categories here in verse 13. Okay? First is reading. He said, till I come, give attendance to reading. K?

Reading what? Well, he's pretty clear what he's talking about reading. K? And that is the word of God. K?

Study. He is to study the word. He is to rightly divide the word of truth, to rightly interpret. But it begins with reading, public reading and exposition of the word of God. Like we began by reading several verses out of first Timothy chapter four and sometimes when I'm reading those verses and then later on in my sermon, I'll say this word means this or you understand this is saying that and that is also I think understood as part of the reading part of this command here.

Attend to reading, to reading God's word. People need to hear the word of God. Stories are nice. Jokes are fun are nice but you're not here to hear good stories and jokes and and be entertained. I hope you're here to worship the Lord and to learn more about him and while there is a place for stories and every now and then a joke which I rarely tell because I'm a terrible joke teller.

You would just laugh at me trying to tell the jokes. So, I try to avoid those generally. But faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the what? By the word of God. So, the first thing is reading.

Pay attention to it. Make sure you are reading to your congregation the word of God whether it be the books of the Old Testament that they had in that day or some of the letters that were being passed around that eventually became our New Testament scriptures. They needed to be reading to their congregations the word of God and then secondly, exhortation. Exhortation. What does that mean?

Well, that's that's the part of preaching where you are exhorting and encouraging and trying to challenge and motivate people to take what they've heard and do something about it. God knowledge knowledge is important and God wants us to grow in knowledge. But he wants us to grow in knowledge that makes a difference because the word of God can make a difference in what we think, how we think, and then in what we do in our service to the Lord, in our worship of the Lord, in our ministry to others, in our our integrity, in our attitude that he talked about with Timothy in verse 12. God wants the preaching of the word to make a difference in our lives. Too many Christians come and sit and they sit in a service and then they go home after the service on Sunday morning and they go, well, I did my duty for the week.

And sadly, they they missed really the purpose for being there because doing your duty for the week is not really what this is about. It's about, first of all, worshiping and exalting who? Jesus Christ. I'm not here for me. I'm here for him.

He he deserves it. He is worthy of my time and my praise. But second of all, for him to make a difference in my life through the preaching of his word. For me to leave the service just a little different and maybe sometimes a lot different than how I came because the word of God did not return void. It made a difference in my life.

And part of preaching is encouraging that from the pulpit. Read it. Encourage people to do something about what they hear, to put it to practice, to exercise it in their lives, to draw closer to the Lord. And then c, doctrine. Doctrine is the systematic instruction on the fundamental doctrines of the faith.

We might also call this discipleship. We Paul is encouraging Timothy, you make sure that you're teaching doctrine, that people understand. Sometimes you need to take time particularly to address the attributes of God, to address who Jesus Christ is, and and what he came and what he when he came and what he did and what he will do. The doctrine of the church, the doctrine of heaven and hell. I we covered that on two of the last Sundays in the past month.

Those doctrines are important. They need to be taught. People need to understand what salvation and the gospel in particular are. Those are vital doctrines. I I was talking to brother Proctor.

He's a voice that he might want to join. And so before people join, I hand them a little booklet, and that's called The Constitution of Missouri Avenue Baptist Church. And and what's in that that that pamphlet of several pages I hand out? Well, primarily a statement of faith. What is laid out in there are the doctrines that we teach and believe in our church because it's important that we be on the same page, that we be of the same mind, that we mind the same faith.

And if you don't teach doctrine, then that doesn't happen a lot of times. And you have a lot of people believing different things going different directions, and then you end up with a church that's more or less just a social club because they're they don't have a clear direction to go in in regards to their faith and their service to the Lord. So, Timothy, pay attention, reading, exhortation, systematic instruction, doctrine, discipleship. Let's see. This is I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Second Timothy four two, in the second letter, Paul wrote Timothy says this, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. That doctrine is the what? The the foundation. Okay? If you don't get the doctrine right, then what you build on top of that's not going to not going to look too good.

You start with the foundation and you build up. So, Timothy preached the word, be ready, reprove, rebuke, exhort, that's has to do with the exhortation part with all long suffering. One thing you have to learn in the ministry, you must have what? Patience. Yeah.

You must have patience. Whether you're ministering in the church, to congregation, or whether you're ministering to your children. Or a group of kids at school or you must have patience because people learn slowly. And it takes patience, for God to change their mind and their heart and for them to apply those things to their life. And sometimes, you preach and teach on I did this as a youth pastor.

I would I would preach and teach on things before the youth group again and again, a particular part of the gospel or another doctrine or something and they would go to camp and they would go to camp and some guy at camp would preach on the same subject that I preached on like, you know, every year I hit this, you know, every couple time, three times, four times a year. They'd come back from camp and they would stand up front and they would give testimonies about what God did in their life. And they would stand up front and they said, for the first time, I heard this and it changed my life. And I'm thinking, I've been saying that every month for ten years. Alright.

And just now but see, that's the way we are. That's the way we are. All of a sudden, the Lord and the Holy Spirit open our eyes and we see something that we didn't see before and we hear something that we didn't really hear before. And so be patient. Be patient with your children.

As pastors, be patient with your congregation. If you're a teacher, be patient with your class. But make sure as we preach and teach in the church, we attend to reading the word of God, encouraging others to follow and practice it, and to build that foundation of doctrine in their life. Timothy, you really need to do this. Paul is saying to him here.

And then, so be a godly example. Give much attention to preaching and teaching. Number three, exercise your spiritual gift and calling. We see that in verse 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery.

So exercise your spiritual gift. In Romans, in Ephesians, in first Corinthians 12, we are told that the Holy Spirit imparts to God's children something called spiritual gifts. When we are saved and maybe at times at at junctures in our life after we're saved, God gives us certain spiritual gifts that are to be used in his service. There's a list of them in Romans chapter 12. Let me look at that list real quick.

Verse five of Romans 12, so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. So, we're all part of this one body, this church in Christ, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry, let us wait on our ministering or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.

So, just lists a few of the spiritual gifts there that different people in the church I'm going to take this coat off, if you don't mind, because I'm I am, for some reason, really hot up here. So, is anybody else hot or is it just me? Nobody's going to speak up. Well, I'll assume it's just me. Okay.

You're not running around up here talking. So, alright. But God God gives us with different abilities to be used. Spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit in his service in the congregation of the church and outside the church as well. Not everybody is given the the gift of administration or ruling.

Not everybody is given the gift of teaching. Not everyone is given the gift of mercy. Not everyone is given the gift of exhortation or giving. We have different gifts. There is not a particular test I can give you that is going to declare your your spiritual gift.

I I took those when I was a teenager. I gave them when I was a youth pastor. Had these nice tests you could take out. It's like, mark these things down and oh, look, there's your spiritual gift. I don't know that that works exactly that well.

I'd finish one of those things and go, okay, well, I must have five spiritual gifts. Or maybe I don't know if I have any of these. I don't know. But I think we do need to ask the Lord to show us the gifts that he has given us to be used in his service and then find areas to use those gifts. And sometimes it's a bit of trial and error.

You might try teaching and find out, well, guess what? My spiritual gift isn't teaching. My spiritual gift is mercy or giving. But we need to be using our spiritual gifts. We need to be following the Lord's calling in our life.

And the Lord had called Timothy to be a preacher. He had given him gifts that aligned with that calling. And it was important that Timothy exercised and nourished that particular gift to be used in service to the Lord. When when you find what the Lord has burdened you with and enabled you to do and you don't do it, what does the saying go? If you don't use it, you what?

Lose it. Okay? Now that isn't a biblical saying. Okay? I didn't get that out of the Bible.

But it's generally true. And that if you use what God has given you, you'll you'll get better. You'll grow in that, and and you will make a difference, and you'll feel like you're a part and you're fulfilling your ministry. But if you don't use that, if you become complacent and don't use those gifts, then you tend to tend to get weaker and wonder and think what is my gift and and I don't know and so I just don't do anything and sad to say that's where a lot of Christians are today because they have neglected their what? Their spiritual gift.

Hey, it's the pastor has all the gifts. No. The pastor doesn't have all the gifts. Pastor probably just has a couple and you have yours and I have mine and so we're all supposed to what? Work together like different members of the our physical body.

The eyes do one thing, the ears do another, the feet do another, the kidneys do another. They're all important. But but we must not neglect the spiritual gift that God has given to us to us. Now, in in Timothy's case, that gift was revealed given to him by prophecy. It was revealed to him very clearly.

Our gifts are probably not revealed to us clearly through a prophet. Okay? But nonetheless, if you seek the Lord's will in knowing what your gift is and how to use it, I believe God will help you to see that. And he may use others to help you to see that. I am I was in high school and I had two things that I really enjoyed.

I I enjoyed the Bible. I enjoyed helping other people. I also loved science. I I really like science. I had a physics teacher that I really enjoyed and and I I really got into science.

I had two different science magazines that I had coming to the house. I even went off to, Bob Jones University as a physics major for my first two years before I changed to to Bible. But I had a Bible teacher in high school and he told me several times, he thinks so I think you have the gift of pastor teacher. And I kinda went, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Whatever. You know. I I wanna be a I I wanna run a nuclear accelerator and, you know, but now I think you have the gift. And and so I kinda, you know, it kind of ignored it but yet it kinda it stuck with me.

And the Lord used him and and other things in my life to reveal I think, God's gift and certainly his calling to go into the ministry. It certainly wasn't my grand desire to be up in front of people speaking. It was the Lord's desire for me. And what God calls you to do, he he equips you to do. And so Paul encourages Timothy here to use that gift that God had given to him and to use it till it's what?

To its fullest. To use it to its fullest. First Peter four ten eleven, as every man hath received the gift, every even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom he praise and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. Use your gift. Don't neglect it and do your very what? And do your very best. Do your very best with it.

Don't settle for mediocre. Be excellent. Do it as unto who? As unto the Lord and not to men. And use that gift, Timothy.

Don't don't let it don't let it get weak. Don't set it aside. Don't say, well, you know, I've done good enough. And he moves on in verse 15. Meditate.

Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. So number four, stay focused and wholehearted in the ministry. Paul tells Timothy to remain focused and diligent. The word meditate can be translated attend to.

Attend upon these things. Meditate. Focus. Be diligent in your performance, in your following the Lord in the service, in the ministry that he has given to you. Do it wholeheartedly.

Don't do it halfheartedly. Don't hold back anything. So that Timothy's personal profiting, and you might think there the word progress, that thy progress may appear to to all. Focus on it. Be diligent.

Give yourself wholeheartedly, not halfheartedly, to the ministry that God has called you to so that others will see your progress in the ministry and that it will also rub off on on them. Yeah. But it first must start Timothy, it first must start with who? It must start with you. If you don't start with you, if you don't keep your heart pure, if you don't endeavor to be a good example in word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity, if if you do not attend to reading an exhortation doctrine, if you let any of those go by the wayside, If you do not if you neglect the gift that God has given to you, if you do not attend, meditate upon these things, and give yourself wholly to them, then others won't see the progress in your faith and ministry that would be manifest otherwise.

But if you do, they will see that and they'll give glory to who? They'll give glory to God. At least that's where the glory should be going. Chances are if the God if the glory is going to yourself, then that's not a problem with them. That's probably still a problem with who?

With you. Because if you are preaching and teaching and and ministering such a way that other people exalt you rather than Jesus, then you're doing something what? You're doing something wrong. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and do what? Glorify thy father which is in heaven.

Not yourself, but your father which is in heaven. And of course, if we will continue to point people to Jesus, indeed, that is what we will see. Take heed. Verse 16, take heed unto who? Thyself and to thy doctrine.

Pay careful attention, Timothy, as he concludes this this paragraph here. Pay careful attention to your own spiritual condition and to your preaching and teaching of the word of God, That it be pure, that it be right, and that you be right because it takes both. It takes you being right and you taking the time to learn and accurately communicate the word of God. Take heed unto thyself and unto thy doctrine. And then, obviously, that's true of ministers and that's true of teachers in the church, but it's also true of parents and it's also true of other Christians in general.

We have to take heed to ourselves and then to the words that come out of our what? Our mouth. That they communicate that which edify and builds up, ministers grace unto the hearer. For in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. In taking heed to yourself and what you say, that will not only affect you, but it's going to affect who?

It's gonna have a profound effect on others. The the gospel that saves your soul is the same gospel that'll do what? That'll save their soul. But you can't you can't be a soul winner until you're a soul that belongs to who? That belongs to savior.

You're not going to be a very good gospel witness if you yourself has not accepted the gospel. You're not going to be very good at at steering people away from false teaching and apostasy if you yourself have not contended for the faith and are steadfast in what you believe. At the beginning of chapter four, it we see this. Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. So Paul starts this this paragraph here, this chapter if you would in this letter by saying these false prophets are going to come and they're going to deceive people.

Make sure that you're not one of them who is what? And then make sure that you help others to know the truth that they won't be. They won't be deceived. As a minister, there's two parts here, but as the minister of whatever ministry God has given to you, it needs to start with who? It needs to start with you.

It needs to start with you. Your your faith must be genuine. Your salvation and your doctrine, you must take heed to it. You must make sure that your convictions are in line with the word of God that you can then impart it with others and save them from sin and hell, but also save them from the confusion of the false teachers that will rob them of their joy and make them powerless in their ministry as it could also do to yours. He's not telling Timothy here that he is justified, thus saved or justified before the Lord by the works of the ministry.

He's telling one who has claimed to be born again and called to the ministry that he needs to progress, that he needs to minister wholeheartedly, that he means not to neglect the gift that God has given him, that he needs to be an obedient servant of the Lord so that he might grow in the faith and that others around him might be saved and that they might grow in the faith as well. If we want to help others, we must attend to our own to our own spiritual condition or we will never see the change in the life of others and the growth that we seek in them if we are not first examining ourselves. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the privilege, Lord, to know you, to be called in the ministry, to be empowered and enabled by the Holy Spirit, to have the word of God right here in our very hands that we might read it, that we might exhort others to follow it, that we might lay it out in doctrine and the foundation, that we might take up the gift and the calling that you have given to us, that we might stay focused and wholehearted and not just satisfied with the status quo.

Lord, that we may not only see the Lord at work in our lives, but that we might see him at work in the lives of others, yes, even through us. Though unworthy we may be, greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.