Let's pray together. Thank you, Father, for this
meaningful time of worshiping you and ministry
to your glory. Thank you for the opportunity
to minister to one another as we worship you.
And I pray that now as we look at your word,
your spirit will continue to be our teacher and
our hearts would be open and pliable to what
you want to say and do in our lives. In Jesus'
name, amen. Pity the person who doesn't realize
that life is a battlefield and not a rose garden.
The concept of battle is a familiar metaphor
that Paul uses in his writings in the New Testament.
I invite you to turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1,
where we see him using it yet again at the end
of this chapter in our study for today. This
command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son. in
accordance with the prophecies previously made
concerning you, that by them you might fight
the good fight, keeping faith in a good conscience
which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck
in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus
and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to
Satan so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.
Being a consistent Christian or being a Biblical
church is not an easy job in a world like we
live in. It involves a struggle. It involves
a battle. It is not automatic. The enemy of our
souls is always inventing schemes to sidetrack
us, to get us off course with regards to our
faith and our mission. But if we will pay attention
to what Paul says in these verses to Timothy,
we will all know better how to stay on course
with our personal lives and with advancing Christ's
Church and God's purpose in the world. And after
all, isn't that what life is all about really?
It isn't about all the things that we get involved
in so often. Life is truly about knowing the
will of God. serving Jesus Christ and His purpose
in the world. We've been talking about the importance
of staying on course and we have said in this
first chapter of 1st Timothy that we do that
by first knowing the route that God has laid
out for us on our navigational chart verses 1
through 11. Then we stay on course secondly,
verses 12 through 17, by trusting the captain.
Today we're going to learn that we stay on course
spiritually as long as we maintain our spiritual
instruments. There are four of these instruments
that God gives to us in our text today. Each
one of them has a related question that I've
identified with it to help us think through whether
we are using these instruments to stay on track
in our lives. Now Paul knew Timothy, of course,
to be on track and confidently entrusted to Timothy
an important responsibility. On the other hand,
Paul knew two men who had failed to stay on track.
Their names are Hymenaeus and Alexander. How
is it that Timothy stayed on track when there
were others who made shipwreck. We'd better pay
attention to this because in our world today
it is easier than ever before to wreck the ship
of our lives. How do we stay on course? By using
the four instruments that God exposes to us in
the text. The first instrument is that of relationships.
Here's the question. In the course of my life
As I am determining the direction that I will
take, the values I will hold, what do my godly
friends tell me? We do realize, don't we, that
having that kind of relationship with others
is not optional or peripheral, but that rather
it's crucial and central to our staying on course.
Paul had that kind of relationship with Timothy.
He addresses him as Timothy, my son. Do you see
the pathos there? Do you see the relationship
that is involved in those three words? I want
to present to you this morning the fact that
one of the things that kept Timothy on course
in his life was his relationship with the Apostle
Paul. In another place he says of Timothy, he
is my beloved son in the faith. Relationships
are one instrument that God uses to keep us on
track in life. We who have believed in Jesus
Christ and who are therefore the children of
God are made to be interdependent. on others.
God has made us to be members of the Church of
Jesus Christ. Not only in the universal sense
we're part of that church but he's made us to
be members of a local church. You look at any
analogy nearly that Paul uses of the church in
the New Testament you see interrelationships
as being understood as a part of it. A body,
we're members of the body. The temple of God
we are stones that are built together. as a holy
temple in the Lord. An army? We are soldiers
of Jesus Christ who serve a commanding officer.
You see, the whole idea of being interdependent
is built into the very concepts of who we are
in Jesus Christ. Now that runs counter to our
American thinking, doesn't it? Because in America
we value self -sufficiency and independence.
And yet God has called us to be an interdependent
people. As the trio sang a few moments ago. We
need others who will say to us and to whom we
will say, I want you to know I will be a friend
to see you through. I will walk the extra mile.
We need people like that in our lives. I do,
and you do. These relationships must be with
godly people though. Those who have a mindset
that is biblical. If we have counselors and friends
and relationships with unsafe people who are
giving us direction for our lives, that direction
will inevitably take us off course. Because those
who do not know Jesus Christ, who do not share
our values, who do not have the biblical worldview,
cannot give us direction. We must have relationships
with other believers who are godly people. What
is required in order to have this instrument
working in order in our lives? First of all,
the cultivation of these kinds of friends. That
takes time. That takes time. And that's a big
problem. Because most of us think we don't have
time for this. But I'll tell you what, we've
got time to make shipwreck. And once we've hit
the rocks, we'll have time then to have to deal
with the tragedies and the sorrows. We'll have
time then. How much better up front to make the
time in our lives to develop and cultivate godly
friends who can serve as one instrument in our
lives to help keep us on track. When we've cultivated
these friendships, we have to be willing to listen.
Our friends can't tell us necessarily God's will.
We have to weigh what they say in the light of
other factors, but we must never neglect their
input. Be willing to weigh it. before God and
then be willing to change when that's appropriate.
What do my godly friends tell me? That is an
important question to keep us on track. And when
our godly friends spot in us an area where we
are straying off course we have to be willing
to listen to what they're saying for our own
good. Frank Coke or Cook. K .O .C .H. wrote about
an experience of his in Proceedings, a magazine
of the Naval Institute. Perhaps you've heard
this before. He says, two battleships assigned
to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers
in heavy weather for several days. I was serving
on the lead battleship and was on watch on the
bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor
with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the
bridge. keeping an eye on all activities. Shortly
after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge
reported light bearing on the starboard bow.
The captain called out, is it a steady light
or is it moving a stern? The lookout replied,
steady captain, which meant that we were on a
dangerous collision course with another ship.
The captain then called to the signal man, signal
that ship. We are on a collision course. Advise
that you change course 20 degrees." Back came
the signal, advisable for you to change course
20 degrees. The captain said, send, I am a captain.
Change course 20 degrees. Back came the reply,
I am a seaman second class. You'd better change
course 20 degrees. By that time, the captain
was furious. He spat out, Send, I am a battleship.
Change course, 20 degrees. Back came the flashing
light, I am a lighthouse. We changed course.
We need those lighthouses. And we need to listen
when the lighthouse says, you're on a collision
course. Are you maintaining this instrument in
your life? Do you have godly friends? Do you
have somebody to call? You say, well, no one's
ever come to me and established that kind of
relationship. That isn't the question. The question
is, have you gone to somebody? Have you taken
the time? Have you initiated? We need relationships.
That's one of the crucial instruments. that God
gives us to stay on track. A second one is recollection.
What has God said in the past is the question.
Now in Timothy's case, there were some prophecies
that had been given regarding him. Whether these
were said of Timothy at his ordination or whether
they were received by Paul as he contemplated
asking Timothy to join his team, we don't know.
But this much we know. Timothy knew of these
prophecies. He knew what had been said about
him. And now Paul says to him, remember what
was said about you. Recall, recollect the past
leading of God. Someone has said, never doubt
the past leading of God. It's easy to second
guess, isn't it? It's easy to look back in your
life and say, but what if I had done this or
done that? When at that time we had made a decision
before God that we thought was right. When that's
the case, when we in the past have made a decision,
when we have sensed God's voice, when we have
seen God's leading in a certain direction, a
wise principle is never doubt God's past leading.
That helps keep us on track. The common problem
that all of us have though is that we're good
forgetters. Like somebody said, I never remember
a name but I always forget a face. It's kind
of how we are. We have to remember the people
of God in the Old Testament had blessing after
blessing upon them but as the psalm says in Psalm
106 verse 13, then they forgot. Then they forgot.
That's why some of the men of the Promise Keepers
at a meeting in August went over to the backyard
next door here and put a pile of stones together
to remember what God said to them. Peter says,
to us, stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,
which is a way of saying, hey, wake up. You've
forgotten something important. And Paul says
to Timothy, I remind you to stir afresh the gift
of God. We all need reminders. So when we examine
the course of our lives, we have to check the
instrument of recall. What has God said to me?
Or how has God led me in the past? That will
be a part of my staying on course in the present.
Are you maintaining a good recollection of how
God has led in the past? Or have you forgotten
God's voice, God's calling in your life? In 25
years of ministry, there's only been one time
when I've forgotten that God called me to ministry.
And I ask the question seriously, do I want to
remain in ministry or go into business? We have
to remember how God has led us and what His calling
is and allow that to be one instrument, not the
only one, but one instrument that will help us
determine whether or not we are on course. There's
a third instrument. I'm terming it reason. And
the question that goes with this is what does
my belief system argue? Paul says that Timothy
is to keep a hold of faith. Now faith here is
not the sense in which we sang, "'Tis so sweet
to trust in Jesus." Faith here refers to Timothy's
doctrine, that body of truth that he believed,
his system of belief. Paul says to Timothy, keep
a hold of what you believe about God, your faith.
What does your belief system argue as you think
about the course of your life? Someone has said
God gave us a brain to use not to play with Sam
Goldwyn said if I look confused, it's because
I'm thinking Have you ever felt that way? There
are two ways for us to slide through life easily
one is to believe everything and the other is
to doubt everything because both courses save
us from thinking. Underneath the skull in our
heads is a key organ that God has put into our
bodies. It's called the brain. God expects us
to use it. As we think about the course of our
lives, God wants us to bring to our minds what
we believe about God. what we believe about values,
what we believe about ourselves, what we believe
about others, what our priorities are. He wants
us to think and as we reason this through, as
we argue with ourselves about the right course,
as we hang on to what we believe, our belief
system, it will be one way that God directs us.
We need to keep running the course of our lives
through the grid of what we believe to be true.
And as we do that, that course will be altered.
It will be corrected. Let me give you an example
or two of this. One is in Psalm 56, where David
shares with us a difficult time in his life.
The course of his life was pretty tough. Because
he says in verse 1, Oh God, man has trampled
upon me. Have you ever felt that way? Like people
were walking all over your life? You're a doormat
for everybody? David was something like that.
He says fighting all day long oppresses me. He
lays before God here his concerns. And then,
as he does this, he knows that God is compassionate.
He says in verse 8, Thou hast taken account of
my wanderings. Put my tears in thy bottle. Are
they not all in thy book? Then my enemies will
turn back in the day when I call. And he says,
This I know, that God is for me. Now there's
his belief system. In the midst of this difficult
journey he is on, in the course of his life,
what helped David stay on track? It was his recall
of God's promise to be with him. He believed
that. That was part of his instrumentation. And
as he argued with himself about what was happening
in his life, he said, despite all of these things
happening to me, I know this. It's in my brain.
God is for me. He's not against me. That's good
to remember. It's true for you and me this morning
too. Turn over just quickly to another example
in Psalm 73. Here we have Asaph who is writing.
And he has a problem. He is looking around him
in his day and he saw that the people who had
everything were the ungodly. He could not understand
how they prospered and people who were righteous
had so little. He describes in poetic language
what they look like to him. How they bulge and
how they sit in pride and they... They mock and
they oppress. And down in verse 15 he says, if
I had said, I will speak thus, behold I should
have betrayed the children, the generation of
thy children. He said, this is so puzzling to
me. If I talked about it, I might cause others
to be confused. But he says in verse 16, when
I pondered to understand this, this perplexing
problem, It was troublesome in my sight until
I came into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived
their end. That is the destiny of the ungodly.
He was perplexed and confused. But when he thought
about what he believed about God, when he remembered
what God said, Then suddenly everything came
into focus. The fog cleared and he remained on
course. He didn't shipwreck because of this problem.
Is this instrument working in your life? Are
you running the course of your life through your
belief system? As you examine your course, let
your mind reason and analyze the facts of it
all through the grid of what you believe about
God. about the world, about values and priorities.
This instrument has to be in good working order
or we're in trouble. There's a final instrument
that is given to us that will keep us on track
and that is what I'm calling resonance. The question
is what does the voice of conscience say because
Paul says to Timothy you must also lay hold of
and keep your hands on a good conscience. Milton
called conscience the umpire of the soul. Conscience
is condensed character. It's what you believe
about the values of life, what's right and what's
wrong. All of us have a conscience. Part of the
fact that we're human is that we are self aware.
That's different than the animals of the world.
We are aware of ourselves and we can We can stand
outside of ourselves as it were and look at us.
We can argue with ourselves and conscience plays
a part in that. Conscience passes judgment on
our thoughts, actions, words, emotions, our state
of being. Romans 2 verses 14 and 15 says that
the conscience will either approve or condemn
us. But not all consciences are equal. There
is such a thing as a good conscience that knows
right and wrong. William Penn said, right is
right even if everyone is against it. Wrong is
wrong even if everyone is for it. There is right
and wrong and the conscience, a good conscience,
will expose that to us. But Paul warns in chapter
4 about what he calls a seared conscience. Verse
2, a conscience that has lost its sensitivity,
that has been cauterized as it were, so that
it cannot give right and wrong. What is it that
causes it to be cauterized like with a hot iron?
It is that the conscience has been overridden
so many times. Someone has said, harken to the
voice of conscience if you would not feel its
wounds. And yet it is possible not to listen
to the conscience and to override it and to pay
no heed to it and the result of that is that
after a while the conscience just gets seared
so that it doesn't do its work. Paul says, Timothy,
you have to keep a good conscience. You have
to keep your conscience in good working order.
How do we do that? By bringing our conscience
constantly before God. So that when it begins
to reverberate and echo a voice inside of us
and we hear this resonance What we hear is good.
It's accurate It's functioning without a glitz
in it Because it's been tested by God's standards
of right and wrong and it therefore reflects
to us what is true a good conscience So these
are the instruments that God tells us to maintain
relationships We believe in that so much as a
church that we've made that one of our key strategies.
We believe that if we're going to be a church,
we have to have good relationships, supporting
caring groups of people and selves. It's critical.
Recollection, remembering, recalling to our minds
how God has led in the past, what God has said
then. the instrument of reason as we argue with
what we believe about God and allow it to test
the direction. And then finally resonance of
a good conscience. If these are used the result
will be that like Timothy we will get spiritual
promotions. We will stay on track and God can
entrust more and more and more responsibility
to us. If we abandon these instruments, the result
will be shipwreck, like Hymenaeus and Alexander,
who were facing discipline from God at the hands
of Satan so that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Oh, the tragedy of shipwreck. The decision is
yours and it's mine as to whether we will use
and follow these instruments in our lives. Years
ago an ocean liner sank off the coast of Ireland.
Everyone was bewildered because the captain of
the ship was known as an excellent seaman. They
could not understand how he could stray off course
and hit the rocks. So divers were sent down to
the ship. They brought up pieces of it, including
the compass, to try to determine what had happened.
As they examined the compass and opened the box
in which it was located, they found inside the
box the broken off tip of a knife blade. What
they decided was that some seaman had been cleaning
that box and had inadvertently broken off his
knife so that the metal tip fell into the compass
causing the compass however slightly to be inaccurate.
the result was shipwrecked. And there are some
of you this morning that may be headed toward
the rocks. Will you please avoid that disaster?
Will you rescue yourself from discipline? Will
you listen to your instruments today and change
course and receive the blessing of God? in your
life. And know the joy of receiving from God
increasing responsibility for His work in the
world because your life has been on course. Let's
pray. Where's your life my friend? Are you on
a perilous course this morning? headed toward
the rocks. Are there instruments in your life
that are buzzing alarms, that are flashing lights,
that are saying watch out, watch out. And yet
to this point you've not altered the course.
Will you do that right now? Friends have tried
to tell you before God they have tried to tell
you that the direction you're heading is going
to lead to disaster. your conscience has been
afflicting you. You know what you believe about
God and what He says is right and wrong. What
are the important priorities in life? And yet
you persist in going the other direction. You
remember what God said in the past and yet now
you're going in another direction altogether
from how God has previously led. Will you say
in your heart right now, Lord Jesus Christ, I
see the instruments and I will yield to you.
You are the captain of my ship. I have taken
the stern, the wheel, and I have turned it where
I wanted it to go. Lord Jesus, you take the wheel.
You be my captain again Will you lift your hand
and say that is today my commitment I am off
course, but I'm giving the wheel to Jesus Christ
Will you lift your hand and say yes, God bless
you Yes, I see and God sees yes God knows God
knows the issues God knows the direction you
need to go in Anyone else? That's my commitment,
my decision today. I'm giving the wheel to the
captain. Father, before you these commitments
are made and all of us, all of us look at the
instruments in our lives. We can't avoid that,
we have to. And we want to pay heed to them.
And I pray for these who have acknowledged the
wrong course and who are giving you the right
to turn the ship. Do it now. And later today
and through this week I pray that as you make
those turns that these brothers and sisters will
keep their hands off the wheel and let you direct.
Thank you for the instruments that you give us.
Thank you for your direction in life. Thank you
that we may know your blessing and walk with
you and fight the good fight. May all of us do
that this week in the power of the Holy Spirit
in Jesus name Amen, would you stand please? It's
good to see Steve and Mary Lynette II over here
somewhere. There you are