1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 1 Timothy chapter 2 will be our text today. I invite you to open your Bibles there. 2 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:20,080 The Boy Scouts, Rotary, the Lions Club, the League of Women Voters, the Minnesota Historical 3 00:00:20,080 --> 00:00:27,080 Society, PTA, the Democratic and Republican Parties, the Lodge, the VFW, the Supreme Court, 4 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:42,920 and the United Nations. What do all of those things have in common? The answer is that 5 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:49,920 they are human institutions. I want to talk this morning about an institution that is 6 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:58,000 not human, but divine, and that is the Church of Jesus Christ. Its reality transcends time, 7 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:06,200 space, government, and generations. For the Church is of heavenly origin. It involves 8 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:13,200 a heavenly calling and anticipates a heavenly destiny. Therefore, it submits to one authority, 9 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:21,760 a heavenly one. That authority is Jesus Christ, the Church's Head and Risen Lord. Christ 10 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:33,120 speaks to His Church through His Word. He tells us in the Bible how we are to conduct 11 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:40,120 ourselves. He lays down orders that He expects for us to follow. He lays down principles 12 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:47,520 that we must learn to apply. He tells us what He wants done. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, He 13 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:56,520 establishes three priorities for us to follow. It was Gertha who said, Things which matter 14 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:03,520 most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. The things that matter 15 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:11,120 most are those things that Jesus Christ has established as priorities for us. 16 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:18,120 The first priority is that of prayer. Prayer is not a time filler. It is not an option 17 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:27,120 for us. It is an absolute necessity and priority. The second priority is found in our text today, 18 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:36,120 beginning in verse 5. It is the priority of mission. He has left work for us to accomplish. 19 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:44,120 For there is one God and one Mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 20 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:51,120 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time. For this 21 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:58,120 I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. As 22 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:05,120 a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Stephen Covey wrote a book a year or so ago 23 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:12,120 called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It is not a Christian book. In fact 24 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:18,120 his Mormon theology seeps through here and there. A lot of the principles that he lays 25 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:23,120 down in the book can be found in the Bible. I quote from his chapter entitled, Putting 26 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:30,120 First Things First. He says, I am going to teach you how to do it. I am going to teach 27 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:37,120 you how to do it. Effective management, writes Covey, is putting first things first. While 28 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:48,120 leadership decides what first things are, it is management that puts them first, day 29 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:56,120 by day, moment by moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out. One of my favorite essays 30 00:03:56,120 --> 00:04:02,120 is The Common Denominator of Success, written by E.M. Gray. He spent his life searching 31 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:07,120 for the one denominator that all successful people share. He found it was not hard work, 32 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:13,120 good luck, or astute human relations, though those were all important. The one factor that 33 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:20,120 seemed to transcend all the rest embodies the essence of Habit Three, putting first 34 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:27,120 things first. As Covey said, and others have said as well, the main thing is to keep the 35 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:35,120 main thing the main thing. For us who are a part of the Church of Jesus Christ, the 36 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:41,120 main thing is priority of mission. Understanding and committing ourselves to the Lord's 37 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:48,120 Church is the priority of life. The mission that He has given us is making known the one 38 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:56,120 and only true God, and then calling people to be reconciled to Him. The mission is to 39 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:05,120 make people know that He is the one and only true God. The mission is to make people know 40 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:12,120 that He is the one and only true God, and then calling people to be reconciled to Him. 41 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:20,120 The exclusiveness of this message was an affront to the polytheism of ancient Rome with its 42 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:27,120 Greek religious roots. For the people in the New Testament day worshiped many gods, and 43 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:34,120 for any religion to claim to have the one true God was offensive. Many Christians paid 44 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:45,120 for that with their lives. We are living in a day when it is also offensive to claim to 45 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:54,120 have the truth about the one true God. We live in a day of multiculturalism. We live 46 00:05:54,120 --> 00:06:04,120 in a society that is controlled by the notion of relativism. The idea is today in our world 47 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:11,120 that everything is truth. The fallacy of that is that if everything is truth, then nothing 48 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:19,120 is truth. In a day like ours it is offensive to have the message that there is one God 49 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:25,120 in the world. He is not one God called by many different names and different religions. 50 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:32,120 He is the one God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible, His holy Word. 51 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:38,120 Thank you. 52 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:50,120 Our mission remains. It is this that we must make known the one true God. That mission, 53 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:59,120 ladies and gentlemen, is worthy of our commitment. We are not alone, however, with a mission 54 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:08,120 from God. In the text we see that God had a mission for Christ Jesus. His mission was 55 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:18,120 to reveal God to mankind and then to make reconciliation for the sins of man. The language 56 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:26,120 here identifies for us the situation that we were all in, all of the human race. The 57 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:35,120 situation is that mankind was estranged from God by sin. We might summarize that idea in 58 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:43,120 one word, and that is the word death. Death entered the human race because of man's sin. 59 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:51,120 Turn back with me to the book of Isaiah for a moment and notice these words to ancient 60 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:58,120 Israel that echo so strongly in a world like ours today. Isaiah 59 verse 1, 61 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:08,120 Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save, neither is His ear so 62 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:17,120 dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your 63 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:24,120 God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands 64 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:32,120 are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken falsehood. 65 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:42,120 Your tongue mutters wickedness. And this was 2700 years before political advertisements. 66 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:52,120 No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak 67 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:58,120 lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adder's eggs and weave 68 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:06,120 the spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies. And from that which is crushed a snake 69 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:12,120 breaks forth. Their webs will not become clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their 70 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:19,120 works. Their works are works of iniquity, and an act of violence is in their hands. 71 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:27,120 Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts 72 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:33,120 of iniquity. Devastation and destruction are in their highways. They do not know the way 73 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:40,120 of peace. And there is no justice in their tracks. They have made their paths crooked. 74 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:46,120 Whoever treads on them does not know peace. Are there any words in all of scripture that 75 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:54,120 more describe today's world than that? That more adequately portray the condition of the 76 00:09:55,120 --> 00:10:01,120 human race as being in death and estranged from God? All of these wicked things that 77 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:08,120 he points out fall from that truth that says your sins have separated you from God. Mankind 78 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:18,120 was not only estranged from God, mankind was enslaved to sin. We might summarize that in 79 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:29,120 the one word depravity. If we are going to talk about the human race, we can summarize 80 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:36,120 it in these two words, death and depravity. Depravity is a word used to describe the effect 81 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:43,120 of sin upon us, that every part of us is affected by it. And there is nothing in us therefore 82 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:51,120 to commend us to God. This is not a message that preaches well in today's world. But a 83 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:58,120 man of God a couple of centuries ago got it well when he prayed this way, Oh God, may 84 00:10:58,120 --> 00:11:05,120 thy spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee. I have no merit. Let the merit of Jesus 85 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:13,120 stand for me. I am undeserving, but I look to thy tender mercy. I am full of iniquities 86 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:20,120 once and sin. Thou art full of grace. I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my willful sin. All 87 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:31,120 my powers of body and soul are defiled. A fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. 88 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:40,120 There are chambers of foul images within my being. I have gone from one Ode to another 89 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:47,120 walked in a no man's land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature. 90 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:55,120 I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself. There is a man who understands depravity. 91 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:04,120 The Bible says that we are all under sin. We are all under sin. We are all under sin. 92 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:11,120 That is the situation. Therefore, God sent his Son on a mission. The mission was to bring 93 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:19,120 salvation to the world. To do that, Jesus Christ came to be the mediator. The cry of 94 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:27,120 Job was, if only there were no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, 95 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:34,120 no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins, no sins. The cry of Job 96 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:42,120 was, if only there were someone to arbitrate between me and God to lay his hand upon us 97 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:52,120 both. Is that not the cry of the depraved human race? Or at least it needs to be? If 98 00:12:52,120 --> 00:13:01,200 someone to mediate between me and God. The good news is that there is. God sent His Son 99 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:07,640 to do that. In order to do it, however, He had to be qualified. He had to be acceptable 100 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:17,340 to man as well as to God. Jesus Christ is the man. Christ Jesus. Do you notice He says 101 00:13:17,340 --> 00:13:26,240 that in 1 Timothy? He is the man, Christ Jesus. He is fully man. There is nothing about our 102 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:34,640 humanity that is not found in Jesus Christ save our sinfulness. Fully man, at the same 103 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:43,560 time He is Christ Jesus. He is God. Therefore, He is uniquely positioned to put His hand 104 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:52,680 on humanity and His hand on God and mediate between the two because He is the man, Christ 105 00:13:52,680 --> 00:14:02,440 Jesus. He came to be the mediator, but He also came to pay the ransom. This word ransom 106 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:11,400 is found only here in all of the New Testament. It means that which is given in exchange for 107 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:24,160 another as the price of His freedom. Jesus Christ gave Himself His life's blood as the 108 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:34,440 ransom price that we might be freed. He did this on behalf of all at God's appointed time. 109 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:40,600 Jesus Christ understood His mission and He was faithful to it. It was the priority of 110 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:45,600 His life and even in the Garden of Gethsemane as that mission was about to be achieved. 111 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:55,080 He said, not my will, but yours be done. He was committed to His mission. So we see in 112 00:14:55,080 --> 00:15:02,880 the text that Jesus Christ had a mission from God, but so did the Apostle Paul. Paul's mission 113 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:10,600 was to reveal God to the Gentiles and to call people, Gentile and Jew, to be reconciled 114 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:18,120 to God. God gave to Paul a particular role. He was a preacher. The word means a herald, 115 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:25,560 someone who proclaims the news. If we were to bring this into our understanding today, 116 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:32,720 we would say He was a newscaster. He is someone who tells the story without interjecting His 117 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:39,200 own opinions. Without elaborating upon it, He simply passes on to us what has been given 118 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:46,160 to Him. Paul says, I am a preacher, a proclaimer. I am an Apostle. He means that in a technical 119 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:54,560 sense, but the idea in an Apostle is a missionary. He says, I am a missionary and I am a teacher. 120 00:15:54,560 --> 00:16:01,800 So God gave to Paul these roles and He gave him a special relationship. God said, Paul, 121 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:07,520 I want you to open the door of faith to the Gentiles so that he became the Apostle to 122 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:17,320 the Gentiles. Non-Jewish ethnic groups heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ from Paul. 123 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:24,840 That was his target audience. God gave him some results. His work of preaching and teaching 124 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:31,540 resulted in people coming into the realm of faith and truth through the gospel that he 125 00:16:31,540 --> 00:16:37,240 proclaimed. God had a mission for the Lord Jesus Christ. God had a mission for the Apostle 126 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:43,840 Paul. And God has a mission today for the Church, and that includes you, if you are 127 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:53,120 a believer in Jesus Christ. That mission for us is to continue the mission of making God 128 00:16:53,120 --> 00:17:02,360 known in our generation. That is our mission. In doing so, we have a role. Like Paul, we 129 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:11,940 too are heralds. We are missionaries. We are teachers of the truth about God. God gives 130 00:17:11,940 --> 00:17:18,600 us all that we need to carry out what He wants us to do. We aren't all alike in this Church, 131 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:26,040 but by working together, using the gifts that He's given us, we together forge forward 132 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:37,160 in accomplishing the mission. And we have a relationship. We are who we are, and we 133 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:44,780 are where we are by God's sovereign appointment. We have a realm of influence that God has 134 00:17:44,780 --> 00:17:55,520 given to us. My point is that we too have a mission. Isn't it neat to think that God 135 00:17:55,520 --> 00:18:05,240 has chosen you to be His missionary in the world? Isn't it humbling, and yet at the 136 00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:10,800 same time encouraging to know that even though you may feel like you're a nobody, that God 137 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:19,960 counts you as somebody? And that God has uniquely fitted you personally to be a part of the 138 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:27,880 Church in accomplishing the mission. God doesn't waste anything or anyone. There's no one who 139 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:37,160 is superfluous to what He wants to do in the world. God has a mission for the Church. The 140 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:47,120 prayer of my heart and the prayer of your heart should be this. God, show me what you 141 00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:56,200 are doing in the world and where I fit into that. You know if we'll make that our prayer 142 00:18:56,200 --> 00:19:03,960 every day, it'll make a difference in our lives. I'm trying to pray that every day. 143 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:08,680 God always says exactly the same words, but every day those thoughts. Lord, show me today 144 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:14,680 what you're doing in the world and how I fit into it. You know what? It just takes the 145 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:21,360 pressure off of you. It allows you to enter the day seeing each day as an adventure with 146 00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:28,400 God. And you don't have to push and coerce and try hard. You simply let God show you 147 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:34,880 what He's doing and wait for His voice to say, now there's something I want you to do. 148 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:41,920 Here's someone I want you to speak to. This person needs to know this which you know. 149 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:48,680 And you simply respond to God. That's how we accomplish the mission. By saying, God, 150 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:56,760 what are you doing and where do I fit in? The main thing is to keep the main thing the 151 00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:07,240 main thing. In his book, Covey suggests an exercise for a particular purpose that can 152 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:14,280 be utilized biblically. He says, in your mind's eye, see yourself going to the funeral of 153 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:21,360 a loved one. Picture yourself driving up to the chapel and parking your car, getting out 154 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:28,440 and going in. As you walk inside the building, you see the flowers that are gathered around. 155 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:34,480 You hear the soft organ music. You look at those gathered there and you see faces of 156 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:44,820 your friends and family as you pass along. And you feel the sense of sorrow that is there. 157 00:20:44,820 --> 00:20:51,280 You feel the sense of joy of having known that person who's been lost. And as you walk 158 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:58,040 down the aisle of the room, you come to the casket and you look inside and suddenly you 159 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:09,320 come face to face with yourself. For this is your funeral three years from today. And 160 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:14,560 all of these people who are gathered there have come to honor you, to express their feelings 161 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:21,880 of love and appreciation for your life. At this funeral there are four speakers. One 162 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:29,320 is from your family, from the immediate family and also representing the extended family 163 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:35,960 of brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces and aunts and uncles and so on. Another one 164 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:45,720 is one of your friends who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker 165 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:53,960 is from your office, from your profession. And the final speaker is from your church 166 00:21:53,960 --> 00:22:02,960 where you've been involved. Now Colby says, think deeply about this. What would you like 167 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:13,000 each one of those speakers to say about you and your life? What kind of a husband, a wife, 168 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:26,000 a father, a mother, what kind of a daughter, a cousin or a son were you? What kind of a 169 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:34,560 friend is going to be described? How will you be described as a working associate by 170 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:41,360 that one from your office? What is the character that you would like them to see in you? What 171 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:50,440 contributions or achievements would you want them to remember at your memorial service? 172 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:58,960 Look at the faces of those around you and ask yourself the question, what difference 173 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:09,360 would you like to make in their lives? You know it is good for us to think in those terms 174 00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:16,440 that it's not macabre to do that I think. It is good for us to go to the end and look 175 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:26,120 backward and say when I get to that point here's what I want people to remember. Because 176 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:34,160 if we do that we will begin making the important things the priorities in our lives now. The 177 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:41,800 main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And I want to say to you that the main 178 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:46,920 thing for the believer who is a part of the church of Jesus Christ is the mission that 179 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:54,880 he has given us. To proclaim and tell the truth of Jesus that men might know God and 180 00:23:54,880 --> 00:24:03,560 be reconciled to him through the work of the cross. May that be our goal tomorrow as we 181 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:11,560 get up to say Lord what are you doing in the world and where do I fit in so that at my 182 00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:23,200 funeral three years or thirty years from now my life will have made a difference to somebody. 183 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:36,080 Let's pray. Father my prayer in the name of Jesus is that all of us will reflect soberly 184 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:46,160 on our reason for being in the world. We are not here to live a carefree life of ease. 185 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:56,960 We are not here to become rich and to retire early. We are not here just to make friends 186 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:07,280 and be a people pleaser. We are here for a purpose that you have given us. And my prayer 187 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:16,280 is that every day we will ask that question of you in our morning prayer. And we know 188 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:23,480 Father that as we do that you are going to be pleased to show us and answer that prayer 189 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:31,240 to help us to know where we fit in and where our lives will make a difference. Amen.