GRINDIT podcast

Paul leaves Timothy behind in Ephesus to help a struggling church get back on track. One of the many issues is widows. Who is supposed to be taking care of the widows and what constitutes a widow that can be helped? Are their stipulations? What does Paul have to say about the younger widows? What about the widow who decides she isn’t going to be devoted to God and just wants to liver her life the way she sees fit? We dive into all of this and more in this podcast!

In today’s podcast, we start to cover 1 Timothy 5 where Paul is writing Timothy to give him instructions for the church in Ephesus. In chapter 5, Paul deals with widows and how they are to be taken care of. Is it the church’s responsibility to take care of widows? We go back to the Old Testament and see what God had to say about widows back then and the laws He gave to the people through Moses and some examples of how God used widows to usher in the Messiah!

I was taught spiritual gifts could only be passed to others by the apostles and when the apostles died, so did the spiritual gifts. This is clearly false because Paul tells Timothy to use the spiritual gift that was given him when the elders at the church in Ephesus laid their hands on him! He will tell him again in his second letter to Timothy to fan into flames the spiritual gift given to him when Paul laid his hands on Timothy. This tells me Timothy was not using his spiritual gifts as he should. Why not? What was his problem? Fear...in particular, fear of man. Because Timothy was so young, the older believers, even false teachers, would intimidate him by perhaps challenging his teaching and he would clam up instead of being bold. It is not time to be timid, but bold for Jesus and the truth! God, stir the gifts within us so people will see you working in us!

The early church didn’t have multiple copies of the bible to pick up and read but they did have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as Jesus said in John 14, leads to all truth. In other words, the Holy Spirit comes from God, who is truth, and therefore will lead us in truth. Jesus said he is the truth in John 14:6. Some people in the church at Ephesus were following truth but at some point, they quit and started following demons. Paul is writing to Timothy, a young man, to stay in Ephesus and fight the enemy that is teaching false doctrine that comes from demons and is leading people away from the truth, away from Jesus. He tells Timothy that of he teaches the church the truth, he will be nourished by his faith and his teaching, which is all about Jesus. Who do you receive your nourishment from? The truth? Or false doctrines taught by demons? Does what you learn and teach line up with the truth of God’s word? If not, you’re being fed lies by demons and it is leading you away from Jesus!

We are on vacation/ mission trip to Spain so here is Mary's sermon we presented at Authentic Church as a part of pastor James' series about Hope from the book of Philippians. We will return to 1 Timothy next week. Muchisimas Gracias!

We are on a mission trip to Spain this week so we are giving you the sermon Mary and I preached a few weeks ago at Authentic Church from Philippians 4. We will be back to 1 Timothy next week! Good bless...

Paul says these false teachers have seared their conscience with a hot iron. This practice goes way back to the Egyptians who would take something, stick it in a fire, get it super-hot, then stick that hot object to a wound which would seal it up, kill infection, and it would heal faster. It is the same idea today of branding an animal. These false teachers have sealed themselves from the truth of God and are teaching false doctrine that Paul says comes from demons and they are leading people astray from Jesus! He sends Timothy in the heat of the battle and tells him to cling to his faith and keep his conscience clear!

Paul makes a strong statement in chapter 4 saying that some people have quit following truth and started following these false teachers whose teachings come from demons! Yikes! This means there were men and women who had given their life to Jesus, they were filled with the Holy Spirit who leads people into all truth, they were operating in the gifts of the Spirit, yet, after giving time and attention to these false teachers, they deliberately turned from Jesus to follow demons. It is easy for us to say we would never do such a thing but...watch out! You may already be doing it! If you are following someone who teaches false doctrine that doesn’t line up with the word of God, then you may have a seared conscience and following a demon!

Paul gives Timothy instructions to choose church leaders, in particular elders and deacons, for the church in Ephesus. We breakdown the qualifications for both in today's podcast and discuss how the American church doesn't follow these instructions very well. We tend to choose people who have money or who is from a prominent family in the she congregation and forget the qualifications...AND the Bible is clear these positions are plural, not singular! There should never be one, what we call "pastor" with a bunch of deacons under him, these positions were always plural in every church!

Since we have covered a lot of things just in chapters 1 and 2, we decided to review those two chapters...Actually Randy got long winded and took too long with the review so we made two separate podcasts for chapter 3. This is part 1 and awe will cover church leaders--elders and deacons, in the next podcast. Thanks for listening and sharing the GRINDIT Podcast! God bless you!!!