The Book of 1 Timothy - Step Up!, Part 1

Do you remember that one really good coach you had growing up? I mean, who inspired you, challenged you, gave you confidence, helped you get really better at what you wanted to be? Can you imagine having that kind of coach spiritually, someone who encourages you, helps you?

I mean, to be the kind of Christian that you long to be? Well, stay with me. We're going to get that today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Drouin. Thanks for joining us as we begin a brand new series called The Book of First Timothy, Life Coaching from the Apostle Paul. For the next several programs, Chip's going to focus on the vital pieces of Godly wisdom Paul passed on to Timothy, and how you and I can apply these truths to our Christian walks. Also, keep listening at the end of each program for some additional thoughts from Chip. You're not going to want to miss what he's going to share. Okay, let's kick off this series with Chip's message, Step Up.

If you have a Bible, open it now to First Timothy chapter one. My father was a great athlete. In fact, such a great athlete. When World War II broke out, he joined the Marines, Guam, Iwo Jima, Purple Heart,.50 caliber machine gunner. He only opened up twice that I can remember. He goes, I would set up the machine gun.

It would be like mowing grass and killing people. And he said, in the midst of that, my buddy, his name was Ralph, but he went by Reb. My buddy said, Reb, you're hit. And they carried me out. And he said, I'm sure that was the good part, except no one of the guys with me made it out. So he lived with the guilt of a survivor.

And when you're 17, 18 years old, in fact, even if you get older, I do quite a bit of work with military people here. And looking back, now that I've been with men without arms or a leg or head trauma from Iraq and Afghanistan, I will apologize to my father. Because the level of father that he was after what he's been through was rarest among men.

And we have no idea. And so he was a good provider. He was a functioning alcoholic. But I grew up in a home where I had a dad that couldn't communicate love.

I never heard him say he loved me. I know he did. And so because my dad was a great athlete, when you're a kid, you want to be like your dad. And so unfortunately, I didn't have his size or his strength, but I was pretty quick. And I was pretty passionate and pretty driven. And coaches filled that gap. And I'll never forget a coach named Neil Lance. I mean, all through junior high, three years, at noontime, he would play one on one with me.

And taught me, I mean, jab step and look at your belly button and get your elbow in off your fingertips. And I was a gym rat junkie. And so it was the same when I played in college.

It's same when I played overseas. And it was that drive, those coaches that were there for me, my dad wasn't. Well, there was a young guy named Timothy who had a big assignment. And his life coach was the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul, in the words of Will Durant, he wrote a history of civilization, about 26 volumes, expert. He said the greatest intellect of the first century was the apostle Paul.

So what he says, whether you believe in God or not, is extraordinarily insightful. And what we're gonna learn is Timothy's life and his job and his role in his city is a lot like what's happened in the world today. And so what we're gonna get is Paul coaching him. And I look back at that time when Coach Lance helped me, and then it was my high school coach, and then it was my college coach. And those coaches became people who I learned to become a man because of that coach. I learned how to treat women because of that coach. I learned what an arrogant jerk I was from that coach, and he made it very clear. And so what I wanna do with you is to walk through life coaching, and the process will be, we'll hear, what did the apostle Paul say to this young pastor who was in over his head?

And then we're gonna flip it and say, what's in this for us? Here's tip number one. Write it.

It's in your notes. Tip number one is everyone needs a coach. You need a coach in relationships. You need a coach in life.

You need a coach in your finances. You need a coach for your marriage. You need a coach to be a dad. You need a coach to be a single man. I mean, everybody needs a coach. Coaches do two or three great things.

Number one, they're older and have lived longer, and they care about you. Secondly, they kinda know what's coming, and they're an objective lens that you're good at this, you're not so good at this, and good coaches do a couple things. They put their arm around you and encourage you, and you can do it, and they inspire you, and they do a little bit of this. They kick you right in the, you can figure out what that word would be, to help you get where you need to be. The hardest things I've ever heard from any human beings on the planet have been through coaches speaking about one inch from my face, and they were as loud as they could possibly be, and I got the point, and I needed to hear it. We all need people that will tell us the truth.

We all need people that will love us when we don't deserve it, and we need people to give us skills and help us to understand where we're at in our season to take the next steps. So, here's the context, the historical perspective. It's from the Apostle Paul. He's going to tell this young pastor that he's left in Ephesus, that there's some false teaching going on, and you need to address this false teaching, and it's in about 62 to 64 AD. The situation, there's an emperor named Nero, and Nero is a very perverted man. He likes to wrap Christians in wild animal skins and then turn wild dogs loose on them in the Colosseum and laugh and watch them die and get shredded apart. On other times, he likes to impale them and put tar around them, and for his cocktail parties, they would be burning and be burning to death. He's an evil, evil man. I want you to keep in mind, so Ephesus is this super metropolitan city known for sects of every kind, temple of Diana, very secular, very powerful.

It's a port where people are coming in from all over the world. Christianity is just getting birthed, and Paul has left Timothy there, and there's some people with some false teaching, and here is what he's going to say to, and notice the tender spirit. Good coaches understand you got to win their heart first. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God, our savior, and of Christ Jesus, and you might underline this in your Bible, who is our hope. Timothy was living in a world like some of you are. It doesn't feel like there's much hope, so he reminds of first and foremost, Jesus, what he's done and who he is, is our hope. To Timothy, and notice the heart, my true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now he's going to turn his tender tone to a little bit of a strong reminder, like we talked about this before, and I'm going to remind you. Just as I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, which is Philippi area, I urge you, when I left you in Ephesus, so that you would instruct certain people not to teach strange doctrines, nor pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to useless speculation, rather than advance the plan of God, which is, and you might put a box around this little phrase, it's going to come out all throughout the book, which is by faith. So I urge you now. So basically what he says is, Timothy, you know how much I care about you. Remember, when I left, I said, remember to do this. I'm now urging you, you have to address this. In a word, you've got to step up. And we know from his background, he's a little timid.

We know his mother and grandmother were believers, and it didn't seem like his father was. So kind of grew up in sort of a woman-y household. And Paul's inspiring him to say, hey, you're the pastor now. You've been with me.

You need to address these issues. And then notice the contrast. He says, you know, they've got all this stuff going on, this false teaching, but the goal of our instruction is threefold. Love from a pure heart. That means you care about people, and you extend compassion, and you love them for where they're at for the right motive. And then secondly, from a good conscience. In other words, your internal meter that tells you what's right and wrong, how you're living and what's going on inside are telling the same story.

You're not faking it. And finally, he says, from a sincere faith. And the word sincere means tested by sunlight. And so what he's saying is, there's a bunch of junk going on, but the goal of our teaching about Christ is that men and women's lives will be changed, and they would love even their enemies from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. And now he addresses, he's going to do a little teaching. He's going to say, let's do a little brief teaching about what's going on and where you're at.

Look at verse six. Some people have strayed from these things. I mean, at one point in time, they were on track with this. Notice they turned aside to fruitless discussion. They just got talking about all kind of stuff.

Then he begins to develop, well, what were they talking about? Wanting to be teachers of the law, ego, pride, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make such confident assertions. But we know that the law is good if it's used lawfully.

Realizing the fact that the law was not made for a righteous person but for those who are lawless and rebellious. And then he kind of gives us sort of laundry list of various examples of unrighteousness. He says for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy, for the worldly, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.

According to the glorious gospel of our blessed God, which I have been trusted. And so basically, as you study the scriptures, and this happens in other books, there was a group of people that would kind of follow the apostle Paul. And for the first, gosh, 15, 20 years, it wasn't like Judaism and Christianity. It was Jews who believed the Messiah actually came. So they were just good Jews following the Messiah, Jesus. Well, they get alienated from that. And so they were called Judaizers.

These Jews would come along and say, you know, Jesus is okay, right? I believe that's true. But you also have to keep the law. And they started trying to pull people back away from salvation that is by the grace of God and the work of Christ till you need to be circumcised and don't eat this and don't eat that. And they also had some, they mixed it with other stuff like you shouldn't marry and you shouldn't eat this and you can't do that and you can't drink this. And there were all these kind of roles and rules that gave a lot of control. The apostle Paul basically saying is, Timothy, you've got to address this. And you've got to think about what it's like.

I mean, imagine you've been an assistant coach, maybe at a good program, and then you get a job at a pretty significant school and you're young. And you realize, man, you've got issues on this team. And you've got issues with the boosters. And you've got issues over here. And guess what? You've got to step up and make some really hard decisions.

That's the environment. That's what he's dealing with. So notice next he's going to give a little personal testimony.

Don't coaches do that a lot? But the apostle Paul is going to remind Timothy that I've been there. I've not always been this confident, driven apostle who gets beaten up and gets back up and God does miracles through me. Verse 12, he says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into his service, even though previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.

How's that for, I got some issues of my own, Timothy. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the, put a little box around it again, the faith and the love which are found in Christ Jesus. Basically saying, Timothy, don't look at me and think that I've always had it all together.

I want to remind you where I came from. And God was gracious to me. In fact, notice he now is going to sort of squeak in a little theology. He says it is a trustworthy statement.

This happens three different times throughout the book. And basically by this time, the church is about 30 years old. Now they have codified some of the doctrines, some of the most clarion things that everyone needs to know. This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance, and you might underline this in your Bible, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I grew up in a church where everyone pretended to have it together.

I grew up where they said one thing and lived another way. I grew up thinking, by the time I was 14 or 15, it was like, this bunch of hypocrites, I don't need this at all. I don't need religion. I don't need God. I don't need Jesus. He didn't come to make nice people a little bit better.

This is a trustworthy statement. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, people who've blown it, people that have addictions, people that log on to porn, people that lie, people that have stolen, people that have murdered. Notice he goes, among whom I am foremost.

Did you get the tense of the verb? Did you hear what the apostle Paul said? He didn't say, among whom I was. He said, man, you don't understand.

I killed a lot of people. This is what gave my dad hope. I still remember I came home, I trusted Christ at that Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp, and I didn't know anything. But I will tell you what, I had never opened this book in my life.

I had rejected Christianity and never opened this book in my life. And they gave me a pretty easy to read, I think it was Good News for Modern Man or Living Bible, and I turned from my sin and I prayed to receive Christ, and I don't think I really even knew exactly what it was all about. All I knew was, in morning and night, I hid that under my pillow. I didn't want my parents to think I had freaked out, but I couldn't put it down. I read it, I read it, I read it, and I thought someone had a tape recorder under my bed.

How could anyone know these things that go on inside of me? How lustful I was, and what an actor I was, and how I posed so much, and how I was this guy, and the all-American boy over here, and sweet talkin' to girls over here, and it was just like, it wasn't, being a follower of Jesus wasn't trying to be this good person, it was actually receiving forgiveness, that's why he came for me. And then notice the reason, yet for this reason I found mercy, purpose clause, so that in me, as the foremost sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life.

He just said, you know what, hey Timothy, I know it's hard, I know there's a lot of pressure, I know I'm asking you to step up, I know you're a little timid, I know you're struggling, but here's what you gotta understand, here's what's at risk. You can't let that stuff go on, because this is why Jesus came, and these guys are trying to feed this garbage religion, do this, don't do that. I actually grew up where the theology that I got out of my very social non-diblical church was, if it was any fun, God was against it. You know, my image of God was like, he had like this gigantic ruler, and if a thought came to your mind that might be halfway fun, he was just ready to blap you, and you were always just guilt, you were always messed up, you never measured up, it's like, I don't need that, because the people that were telling me they were doing the things they said I wasn't supposed to do. And he's straightening him out, he says, Jesus was a God of love and a God of grace, he didn't minimize things, but he came to rescue us. And then, you know, Paul does this, I think he just went off. I think there's times where he remembers, this is where I was, and as he was rehearsing it for Timothy, he just paused, and notice what he says, now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever, amen. I think when he realized afresh, this is what happened to me, and he understood who God really is, he just broke out into praise. I don't think this was in Paul's notes.

I think the spirit just, and then notice he ends with a charge. Okay, Timothy, I remind you what you need to do. We address what the problem is. I've told you I love you and I'm for you, I've talked about where I've messed up in the past and what God's done for me.

Now get this, this is the fourth quarter timeout speech, when you're down two, and all the guys are looking at you like, Coach, I'm really tired. This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight. Well how? Keeping, you might put a box around this again, faith and a good conscience. Now notice the bookends, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

Among these are Hymenanias and Alexander, whom I've handed over to Satan so they'll be taught not to blaspheme. You know, I was with a, he's a good buddy now, I didn't know him all that well, and he was having some marriage problems and he and I were out playing golf and he played in the arena league, played as a tight end and just wasn't quite good enough for the NFL. He was playing in the arena league and came to Christ and was growing and so we're playing golf and now he's got a couple kids and, you know, one's like 11 or 12 at the time and little daughter like seven, eight or nine and he ends up like marrying this beautiful cheerleader for the 49ers and got a great job, he's making a lot of money and we happen to be playing at his country club so he must be doing okay. And you know, he's like 35, 34 at the time and we're walking along and he just says, well Chip, you know, I just, it's so hard.

I mean, gosh, I mean, just when I start working at my marriage and then that's really hard and then being a dad is really hard and the mornings I work out I don't read my Bible, when I read my Bible then I don't work out and it's just so hard, it's just so hard, I just don't think I can do it. And being the soft, tender, loving pastor that I am, I said, do you remember two days? Yeah. You remember, you know, those quick slant routes? Yeah. And the safety newt was coming, yeah. And you catch the ball right here and you bring it in, yeah, and you see his helmet coming through your helmet right here?

That was in the old days when you could do that. He said, yeah. He said, did it hurt? He said, dude, are you kidding me? I said, well, why'd you do it?

I said, you're telling me that you would go to two a days, you'd lift weights three days a week minimum, you would eat a special diet put up with unbelievable pain to catch a football and be a little bit famous. But it's really too hard to be a man of God. Oh gosh, I feel so sore. And you know what happened? He kind of went like, oh, dude, you kind of challenged my manhood here a little bit.

Well, you know what? Some of us, one of the reasons I rejected following Christ was everybody in the church house were women. I thought following Jesus was for women and children. And it was going to a fellowship with Christian Athletes Camp, it was the first time I saw grown men who were masculine, who could love one another in masculine, non-sexual ways that drew me to explore this book. And so what Paul's actually coaching Timothy to do is the very thing that God wants to coach us to do.

Chip will be back in just a minute with his application. You've been listening to the first part of his message, Step Up, from his series, The Book of First Timothy, Life Coaching from the Apostle Paul. Through this new study, Chip identifies six pieces of Godly wisdom Paul passed on to his protégé, Timothy, and how these truths apply to you and me.

Hear why characteristics like humility, dedication, integrity, and respect are still critical to our relationships with others and God. I hope you'll listen to every part of this series, either through the Chip Ingram app or livingontheedge.org. I really think you're going to learn a lot.

Well, Chip's with me in studio now. Chip, I'm eager for our listeners to hear this brand new series you taught recently from First Timothy. And from what you've told me, this book of the Bible has a special place in your heart.

So if you wouldn't mind, why not take a minute right now and share why and a little bit about what our listeners are going to learn from this series. I'd love to Dave, you know, as a young man, even before I got married, I was often very, very lonely and I was also broke. And like once every like three weeks, I'd have enough money to go one of those really cheap little steak houses where you get the burger steak and a little salad. And I would find a corner and I just so longed, you know, I didn't have a dad that was a Christian. I just so longed for what do I do now with my life and was leading a little discipleship ministry. And I would go there and I would eat my little steak and then I would read First Timothy over and over and over. And I would pretend like the Apostle Paul was just talking to me. And then of course later, I had the privilege of marrying Teresa and becoming a pastor. And, you know, I've learned and taught so much out of all the epistles, but I never had a chance to teach right through the book of First Timothy. This coach, this mentor that, I mean, for the last 40 years has had his arm around me by the power of the Holy Spirit and the written word. I wanted to share this with the Living on the Edge family. It's made such a difference in my life. And I think Dave, you know, we're living in a world where everyone knows you need a great coach.

And whether that's a life coach, a business coach, athletic coach, musical coach, and I'm just thrilled that we're going to get the coaching of the Apostle Paul about how to be a Christian that really lives like a Christian. Great setup, Chip. Thanks. Well, I hope you'll join us for each part of this series.

But if you do have to miss a program, you can catch up anytime. Remember through the Chip Ingram app. Chip, you ended this message with a familiar phrase that has a powerful call to action, fight the good fight. If you would, unpack for us how we can apply this instruction from the Apostle Paul to our everyday lives. Well, Dave, the key here is to know the context. Paul is writing this within about a year, maybe two max, of when Nero blamed the Christians for burning Rome.

And so it is very, very unpopular. Paul is going to be executed in the very near future. He's writing to this young timid pastor who he spent all these years with and he loves, but he knows, you know, even as we've kind of taught through this first chapter, he goes, you know, you're timid, you struggle with some things and woven all the way through it is, you know, don't be ashamed, don't give up. He gives his own example of how he fought the fight, he persevered, he wouldn't give in. And then he gave a couple of examples of people that flaked out in their following of Jesus. And so fight the good fight is really about Timothy. It's really, really hard to be a Christian in the first century, to be public and bold and strong when the entire culture, the government, everything is against you.

There's few things less popular. And I don't know about everyone else, but there's a little bit of that that's kind of today, Dave. We're living in a world where it's really hard to be a follower of Jesus who's honest and bold and kind and winsome. And so this is a word where I would say to those people that are struggling with being faithful to the Lord.

I talked about Step Up as the name of this message, because we have to step up right now. And it's hard. You need God's word.

You can't do it alone. You have to persevere. This is on a journey together where we need comrades, sisters teaming up with sisters and brothers teaming up with brothers and saying, no matter what, we're going to fight the good fight. We're going to persevere. We are going to be followers of Jesus no matter what. And that's what we're going to talk about.

And I think it's going to be a great time together. Thanks Chip. Before we go, I want to thank those of you who regularly give to the ministry of Living on the Edge. You're making a big difference in helping Christians live like Christians. Now, if you're enjoying the benefits of Living on the Edge, but aren't yet on the team, would you do that today? You can set up a recurring donation by visiting us at LivingOnTheEdge.org or by texting the word donate to 74141.

It's that easy. Text the word donate to 74141 or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners tap donate. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. We'll join us next time as Chip continues his newest series in the book of 1 Timothy. Until then, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.