Sermon Tone Analysis

I Timothy 4:9-16

!

I.     Introduction

            Some of you have taken courses on how to coach a team, either baseball or hockey or something else.

In such a scenario, there are three levels.

There is the person who teaches the coach, there is the coach and there are the players who are taught by the coach.

The important thing in all of this is that the players will do well.

This morning, we want to look at I Timothy 4:9-16.

We can look at this passages in a similar way.

Paul, who wrote this, is the coaches trainer who is teaching the coach.

Timothy is the coach who is responsible to help people play the game of being a Christian well.

The text is written to Timothy and is applicable to church leaders to help them know how to lead the people they are responsible for.

If I was speaking to a group of ministers, I would approach this text from that perspective.

The important thing, of course, is that believers live their Christian life well and that is the perspective from which I would like to look at this passage.

What is it that will help Christians live well?

A few weeks ago, we talked about training to be godly using the imagery of athletic training.

At that time, we thought about how important it is to begin by the knowledge that we are loved by God and to respond to that love by loving God as we love others.

This morning, we will examine a three other ideas, which are found in this text, which relate to training in godliness.

!

II.

I.

We Have Put Our Hope In The Living God Vs. 10

In verses 9,10, Paul tells Timothy that there is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance by all people and that is, in verse 10, that “we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.”

What a wonderful statement!

!! A.  The Living God

If you would come to the doctor’s office and the nurse brought you into the examining room and there was a wax figure of a person with doctor clothing on and a stethoscope around it’s neck.

What would you do if she would tell you to tell the “doctor” all of your problems.

You would walk out of that clinic so fast it would make her head spin.

You want a living doctor.

In Isaiah 44:15-17, Isaiah mocks the people of his day who cut down a tree and use part of it to cook their food and another part to make an idol, which they worship!

The wooden god cannot speak or hear or act, but people put their hope in it.

But are we much different?

We put our hope in pieces of paper we call money, but they are no more powerful or useful than dead gods.

We put our hope in things, like governments or doctors and to a certain level that is OK, but if they are our only hope, then we are in trouble.

It is our privilege to put our hope in the living God! God is living and He loves us and has all power.

Therefore, we put our hope in one who is worthy of that hope.

One writer says, "as himself living and the source of life, God can bestow life on others..."

!! B.  Putting Our Hope In God

What does it mean that we have put our hope in the living God?

There was a missionary who was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe, he discovered that they had no word for trust or faith.

One day a native who had been running hard came into the missionary's house, flopped himself in a large chair and said, "It's good to rest my whole weight on this chair."

"That's it," said the missionary.

"I'll translate faith as `resting one's whole weight on God.'"

That is what it means to put our hope in God.

The word “put your hope” is in the perfect tense, which means that it is something we have done and continue to do.

!! C.  Savior Of All Men

The reason we can put our hope in the living God is because He is the Savior of all men.

This is written to Christians and so in that sense we have put our hope in Him!

When we realized that we are sinners and we will die eternally and we trusted Christ for salvation, God became our Savior.

He forgave our sin and gave us eternal life.

In that sense, we have put our hope in the living God.

But do we continue to put our hope in the living God?

As Christians, when we recognize our sin and realize that we cannot win over our sin - God is our Savior who sends His Spirit to fill us and to help us overcome the power of sin in our lives.

Do we put our hope in the living God in this sense.

He is the one who wants to be our Savior from living in sin.

The other day I met a man who got married when he was very young.

The marriage did not go well and the mother of their child abandoned the family.

He was broken and ended up divorced.

Today, he is married to a beautiful Christian woman.

They have children and are doing very well.

God is the Savior of all men who can take the broken things in our life and bring blessing out of them.

Do we put our hope in Him as the one who can take our brokenness and restore it to something good?

A number of years ago, I knew a man who had been farming.

He had made a couple of bad decisions and the weather went against him and he saw that he was on the verge of losing the farm.

He sold before bankruptcy happened and went to school to be a nurses aid, or orderly.

For the past 15 years or so, he has been working in the health care system and enjoying it much more than he ever did farming.

Do we put our hope in God as the one who can take our losses and bring blessing out of them?

The phrase at the end of the verses is rather difficult and has suggested to some people that God will save all people.

Because of what we find in the rest of the Bible, I think we understand that that is not what is intended.

One writer suggests that a better and legitimate translation is that He is the “Saviour of all men, in other words, those who believe.”

That would fit with what we find in other parts of the Bible.

The intent is not to teach universalism, but rather to indicate that God's salvation is available to all men and is applied to those who believe.

As your coach, I want to encourage you to put your hope in the living God because He is the Savior of all men.

!

III.

Set An Example Vs. 12

The other day when I was at the conference in Grand Prairie, there was a young girl wearing a t-shirt and on the back of the t-shirt there was a verse.

I read it and realized it was I Timothy 4:12 and since I knew I was going to be preaching on that passage this Sunday, I asked her why she was wearing it.

She said that she was wearing it because it was free, but then she did say that there was meaning in it for her and that is that she was committed to living in an exemplary way even though she was young.

She wanted her life in Christ to be noticed and to count.

I asked her if I could quote her because it was inspiring to meet a young person who had such aspirations.

Paul, the coaching teacher, is dealing with his student Timothy.

At this time, it is possible that Timothy may have been in his 30's and so quite young in terms of being an “elder” in the church.

I Corinthians 16:10 may suggest that Timothy was not the boldest person around and so needed an encouragement to do God's work.

That is why Paul encourages him not to let people look down on him because he is young.

I think this is a good verse for all of us, not only for Timothy or ministers.

When I saw the words on the t-shirt which the girl was wearing, I was encouraged that it was right to say that all of us should be an example to each other.

We expect mature believers, leaders and older people to be an example, but I think it is quite in order that no matter what age we are or who we are, we should be an example to each other.

!! A.  Being An Example

The word “example” comes from a word that means “the mark of a stroke or blow."

We do not live in isolation from each other, we leave a mark on others by our lives and actions.

Each life leaves an impression on other lives.

That is why the Bible so frequently calls believers to be an example.

There are at least 8 or 9 verses in the New Testament that have a similar message.

One of them is I Corinthians 4:16 in which Paul says, “Therefore I urge you to imitate me.”

Paul wanted to be a model, an example to others and encouraged those he taught to also be such examples.

As we think about being examples to others, there may be some who think, “Don’t watch me because it is too much pressure to live in such a way as to be an example.”

That is simply self centered sin and worthy of rebuke.

There may be others who think, “Don’t watch me, although I want to live well, I am not good enough and I am afraid of being watched.”

That is pride and not a good reason to avoid being an example.

The right attitude would be to say, “Although I stumble, I am trying my best.

Don’t build your life on me, but I will try to live in an exemplary way.”

This is the attitude of humble godliness and the attitude which will allow us to live our lives in a way so that others can watch us and be encouraged to come to God.