Note from Pastor Mike: I want to encourage our church family to look deeper into what God speaks to us through the Message. Here at First United Methodist Church of Saint Cloud we believe that God speaks to us through the Message. One way for all of us to hear from God more clearly is to read the Scripture verses and the Message again during the week. I would really like to hear your comments and how God is challenging you through the worship service and the Message. It would be great to hear your discussion ideas. Please feel free to send me your discussion points.

Your friend on the journey,

Pastor Mike

(NIV) 1 Timothy 4.6-16 – 6 If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. 10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.

1 Timothy 4.6-16

The River of GraceStewardship 2015

You Are a River

11.15.2015St. Cloud

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11 Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Introduction: You Are a River Guide1. This is our last in the message series about God's River of Grace.

We have used this image of a flowing, often raging, river to focus on God's grace that flows into our lives. God's grace: God’s freely given love, forgiveness, power and food, shelter and income. This morning our conversation will be about leaving a lasting legacy for those who follow after us here in our church - for new believers, for younger believers, for our children and all those who will continue to look to this church as a means to experience Jesus and grow in their faith. a. Our conversation also applies to our own individual live. Your

faith in Jesus leaves a legacy for many of the people in your life: spouses, children, grandchildren, neighbors, coworkers and friends.

2. One more river story. This past summer you all gave me the opportunity to go to Camp Rainey Mountain in North Georgia with our Boy Scout Troop 192 as the Troop Chaplain. As part of our week at camp, the youth and adults went white water rafting on the Nantahala River. When we arrived they gave us the normal safety procedure speech. We were told how to "swim," or more specifically, get carried along by the river if we fell overboard. Then they divided out troop into groups of six. They then told us, we would only have trained guides in half of our rafts. That would mean some of our adults would have to guide their own rafts down the river. So, I get told, I mean volunteered, "You are now a river guide." So off I go to guide my raft onward down the river. NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE.

3. As we set off down the Nantahala River, I tried to remember anything I have seen the guides do on the many trips I had been on. Then, I tried to emulate as best I could how the trained guide ran

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their rafts onward down the river. A few times, one of the real guides (as opposed to me, the "terrified guide") would point out how to correctly maneuver the raft in the rapids. Now, we did a lot of unintentional three-sixties. At one point, I almost fell out of the raft as we went over a rock (which we, well, I successfully failed to go around). I put my hand out trying to steady myself on the side of the raft, instead I missed the side, placing my hand on the rock and promptly got my hand stuck between the boat and the rock. Ouch!

4. As we came to the rapids, I realized how significant a responsibility I had for the safety of these scouts, one of whom was my own son. This heightened the importance of working hard to guide this raft as best as I could onward down the river. As Christians, you and I have this same responsibility to do the hard work to successfully guide the next generation of believers and the future of our church family Onward Down the River of God's Grace.

The “Big Idea” – God is constantly challenging us to guide the next generation of believers onward down the river of God's grace; to leave a lasting legacy in their lives and in our church.

A. Help Believers What we see in 1 Timothy 4.6-16 is the early church setting up definite, though not too detailed, borders that will help believers speak and act in ways that will lead them to become more and more like Jesus.1. In 1 Timothy 4.6-16, we find Paul, one of the pivotal leaders in the

first generation of the Church, speaking to Timothy, a church leader of the next generation. What we are reading is an older church leader speaking to the next generation about what is of lasting importance in the life of the church – Paul is seeking to leave a lasting legacy. Paul (older generation) begins by reminding Timothy (younger generation) of the way he was 1 Timothy 4.6b – 6 ....nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Certainly, Timothy was taught by listening to older Christians tell about how to live the Christian life and by watching them actually live out their Christian lives. One generation deliberately sets out with their words and their actual living to help believers of the next to be Christ-like or to act like Jesus - this is discipleship.

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2. Moving on with this idea of discipleship or learning to do what Jesus would do in your own life, Paul takes up this image of being an athlete in training for a physically challenging event. We read in 1 Timothy 4.7-8a – 7 ....train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things.... Learning to be "godly" or learning to act like Jesus requires strict discipline: time, energy and practice. Then he separates physical training from discipleship training to remind us that there is more to life than what we now experience. In fact, training to be a disciple is 1 Timothy 4.8b – 8 ....holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Following after Jesus brings us into the saving life-of-God both in this present life and in the life after Jesus returns to make all things new.

3. So, our text sets out to encourage each new generation of believers to learn what it is to live the Christian life. Then to help believers in the next generation practice it so as to get better and better at doing what Jesus would do in your own lives. Our text ends by explaining the reason for this which, though for our own good, is also for the good of other believers. Timothy 4.15-16 – 15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. You will lead people onward down the river.

B. Self-Absorption and Stagnation Our Christian faith becomes self-absorbed and stagnates if we do not pass it on to others and to the next generation of believer in our church family.1. Erik Erikson (June 15, 1902 – May 12, 1994) offers us some

important insight here, Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. The development of identity seems to have been one of Erikson's greatest concerns in his own life as well as in his theory. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. One of these identity crisis comes in Middle Adulthood (35 to 55 or 65): Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation. The significant task is transmitting the values of one's culture and working to establish a stable environment for the future. Strength comes through care of others

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and production of something that contributes to the betterment of society, which Erikson calls Generativity. One of the best ways to successfully navigate through this crisis is to fully engage in establishing and guiding the next generation

2. If we don't get through this stage successfully, we can become self-absorbed and stagnate. Believers and church families face a similar crisis. We come to a point in our individual lives or in the life of a church family where we realize that the world is changing around us. Even for those of us who have known God’s faithfulness for years, to be confronted with the possibility of having to move into uncomfortable new experiences can be frightening. We have the opportunity, though, to embrace this move into the unfamiliar as a call from God for us to develop a deeper faith and greater capacity to work with Jesus in our world. For our discussion, to leave a lasting legacy for the future by leading the next generation here at First United Methodist Church onward down the river of God's grace.

3. When you and I forget that others depend on our faith for their own faith then when we do not Timothy 4.6 – 6 If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters...., and younger generation and younger Christians and even our peers in the faith are not ....nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. We do this when we gossip about others, practice racism, do not study the Scriptures or pray, speak harmful words about others, do not worship wholeheartedly, spend our money unwisely, see worship as optional, we are more concerned about politics than people and more......

C. Our Hope This idea of generativity, leaving a lasting legacy, begins in reading the Bible which opens our lives to our hope we have in the living God our savior.1. Paul tells Timothy, one generation of Christians tells the next,

parents tell their children, mature believers tell new believers, 1 Timothy 4.10 – 10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. This is the Jewish idea of hope as assurance and not merely tentative aspiration or a wish. This hope, this assurance is in a God who is living and thus acting on our lives. Just as we are to Philippians 2.12-13 – 12 ....continue to work out your salvation with fear

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and trembling, we can be confident that God the Holy Spirit 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

READ ALOUD - Philippians 2.12-13 – 12 Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.2. God is working through our lives to bring about or fulfill God's good

purposes. Primarily God's good purposes are salvation of the world from sin and evil. Though we labor and strive to participate with Jesus in these works of God, we can only do so because we have God's presence in our body, mind and soul through God the Holy Spirit, guiding and empower our lives to be more and more like Jesus. Here we experience Colossians 1.27b − the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We share in the life-of-God through Jesus the Christ!

3. God offers us this continual transformation in our lives in large part through the Scriptures. Recall that we have said recently that we would do well to read the Bible with the assumptions that what occurs on its pages might just as well occur in our own lives. These qualities (virtues) that make up a Christ-like character must be learned and practiced so that God can integrate them into our lives. Through the Bible, God builds into our minds and character the resources to creatively respond to various and often-unanticipated difficulties and struggles in life. This occurs best when you and I read the Bible alone, study it in small groups and listen to sermons. Then through the power of the Holy Spirit the story of God told by the Bible becomes our story.

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4. When we truly dwell (live with, think about, practice) these words in the Bible by putting them into practice (even if only imperfectly at first) we are driven again and again to a new dependency on God. This arises out of the fresh inadequacies (our failings, incompetency, defects) that we discover in our lives as we see our life story in light of the story of life reveled by God through the Bible. "My prayer is this, that the beauty and strength of Jesus the Christ will be personally revealed to those of us who will simply make the effort to do what his word [God speaking to us from the Bible] indicates (Willard, 296).”

D. Be River Guides Finally, Paul offers us some practical places in our own lives where we can begin to be river guides, leaving a lasting legacy by lead others onward down the river of God's grace.1. Paul gives some particular, though not a "straightjacket," direction

for living a Christian life that will be adequate to lead others onward down the river of God's grace. To begin with we read in 1 Timothy 4.12a – 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young.... The general principal here is to be bold in living out your faith even if other believers seem to look down on you because you are young or old, female, a new believer or not a long time member of the church, from a different culture or "not from around these parts" and so on. Leading others onward down the river of God's grace begins with what we “say and do” or in how we 1 Timothy 4.12b – 12 ....set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct.... I think we begin searching our hearts here because our words are so powerful, reflecting what is inside of our hearts. Then, if what we say is of such importance, then what we “do” or our “conduct” reveals our integrity. Do our actions match our words? Our life-style and actions in large part are how we leave a legacy in the lives of others.

2. Love - Love in the Scriptures has little to do with the emotional feelings that we often associate with the idea of “love”. Our love for God is reveled in our obedience to what God speaks to us through the Scriptures. (NRSV) 1 John 2.3-6 –4Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him’, but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; 5but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are

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in him: 6whoever says, ‘I abide in him’, ought to walk just as he walked. How devoted is your heart toward God this week. How about the love you show towards family, friends, and people you know? What are some of the ways you showed the love Jesus has for those who have yet to believe? What acts of service did you perform to reveal your love for your neighbor?

3. Faith - Faith reveals that we believe that God is reliable and trustworthy. There are numerous spheres in your life where we evidence faith as an element of our Christ-like character. The Archbishop of Constantinople from 349–407, John Chrysostom cautions us, "They [those who have yet to believe] see our lives [Christian's lives] are open to reproach, our souls worldly. We admire wealth equally with them, even more. We have the same horror of death, the same dread of poverty, the same impatience with disease, we are equally fond of glory and rule....How can they believe?"

4. Finally, Purity - This is not a word we use very much today except when we speak about say maybe gold. Part of a Christ-like character is conforming to God’s standard of sexual behavior. The Bible maintains that we keep sex within a marriage. It goes even beyond this. Jesus said that even our thoughts need to be “pure”. (NRSV) Matthew 5.27-30 – 27‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart Jesus is underscoring the significance of holding the wonder and beauty of sex in the highest regard. In the right place, sex is the greatest gift. Yet, misused, even with someone we love, sex can lead to untold pain and suffering.

5. Remember, you are or you will be someday leading other believers onward down the river of God's grace. Like guiding the raft this summer (only way more important and with eternal significance), you are responsible in a great part for leaving a Jesus-focused legacy in the lives of others, especially the next generation of believer in the church. Be a river guide leading other believers onward down the river of God's grace.

“Action Point” – Be a river guide - s et an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.