Paul and Timothy

Transcript

um and this was one of them he's going to use the synagogues as his base of operation now we have some background as far as timothy is concerned so paul does not meet timothy on his first missionary journey doesn't meet him but paul does incredible miracles in leicester at this time and additionally if we look at this 14th chapter um in verse 21 he's going to be stoned by the way almost to death right

in verse 21 and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many they returned unto leicester and to iconium into antioch confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of god and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the lord on whom they believed so what this chapter is telling us here brothers and sisters is that not only were miracles done in these places but it actual clears were set up in this area and one of these one of the ecclesias it seems seems to be was set up right in leicester and derby that area very close to where timothy lived and it may have been well we know that timothy had a background as a jew his mother and his grandmother were uh were jews

but his mother had married a greek

now to you know a lot of the jews that was you know you're marrying outside of your religion and uh you know a lot of jews would would frown upon that um

but he was not circumcised and that's interesting because um you know this this was really one of the great stumbling blocks of the greeks and the romans when it came to the jewish religion and the ritual you know circumcision was the big one right no one was going to be mutilating their flesh anytime soon certainly not an adult and then number two were the dietary laws and so once these things were uh removed you see a lot more of the roman in the uh greeks embracing early christianity now for whatever reason probably from for the influence of his greek father um timothy was not circumcised but he knew the scriptures and we could just take a look at that in um

in first uh corinthians

verse 16 uh chapter 16. yeah in verse 10. um

actually let's let's uh yeah verse eight now i will tarry at ephesus onto pentecost for a great door and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries just keep that verse in mind brothers and sisters as we go on here the idea that he that paul is tarrying at ephesus because there's a great door of opportunity to preach the gospel there all right verse 10. now if timmy timothy is come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the lord as i also do so that's you know that's that's that's some pretty good words and so he had that background and paul's gonna pick up on this as well and if we turn to second timothy um

yeah let's see second timothy the first chapter we get a little more insight into this into into timothy's background

and what he knew and what he didn't know seems like he knew a lot uh verse five we're gonna look at another section of this first first chapter of second timothy in a little bit as we go further in our class um so just just hold on to that but verse five when i call to remembrance

the unfeigned faith that is in me which dwelt first in my grandmother lois

and thy mother eunice and i am persuaded that in me also wherefore i put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of god which is in me by the putting on of my hand so you know timothy is given uh the holy spirit here by um

by paul but timothy already has a background in the righteousness of god he already really has a foundation for the gospel message he was taught

the truth he was taught the jewish the jewish religion by uh the women in his life particularly his grandmother and his mother and so even though they were in this situation right there outside of jerusalem they're living in a foreign place um eunice had married a greek

despite all of these obstacles

uh both lois and eunice who had just mentioned incur you know just kind of a cursor of a remark but think about the influence that these two women had

on uh on young timothy you know think think about think about what they taught uh him think about the lessons that they passed on and this is this is one of the things you don't want to think about it one of the blessings that we have when we have generations

uh of christadelphians kind of uh you know living together passing on that information passing on the gospel to the next generation and so louis uh uh lois and eunice i'm gonna mess i'm gonna mess these up so you know that's coming uh they they are going to teach timothy passing on this wonderful message of hope um now think about this for a second well let's let's look into the the uncircumcised accent timothy was uncircumcised he's probably his father probably said yeah no chance you're doing this to my son

but timothy's greek father seems to have allowed timothy to pursue

aspects of the jewish religion he most likely went to the synagogue he most likely came in contact with paul in his first ministry and certainly he's going to come in contact with paul in his second ministry but timothy is not going to kind of travel with paul until the second ministry he most likely knew of paul

maybe he heard him speak

but it wasn't the time for paul and timothy um

you know to kind of get together to preach the gospel but in acts 15 if we want to go back to acts 15 um this is just context right about this whole uncircumcised thing we're not going to read it in detail but chapter 15 talks about um

excuse me

early jewish brethren

that couldn't let go of the wall

um particularly priests that had embraced christianity at this time

um

let's see in verse five now there were rose up verse five of the fifteenth chapter of acts now there rose up certain of the sect of the pharisees which believes saying that it was needful to circumcise them to commend them to keep the law of moses

uh so they you know they were saying hey you have to be circumcised you have to keep the law you you can't be saved those things haven't been uh done away with by christ you had to keep them and we know uh that paul is adamantly opposed to this all right and so in galatians

galatians the second chapter um well we're gonna turn to it but uh you know he he calls um the jewish you know the jewish influence on the galatian ecclesia those that were pushing this idea of circumcision for salvation they were called mutilators of the flesh paul says right and he refused

uh the pressure or resisted the pressure to have this one individual called titus which he mentions in the galatians who was a greek

uh to be circumcised there were jewish brethren probably that were trying to force

titus who was a greek to be circumcised and paul said absolutely not it's done away with you don't need to do that but it is interesting brothers and sisters that timothy because he was a jew

he did um he did have him circumcised and he did this i believe um

for you know political reasons having to do with the spreading of the gospel i know when we say the word political you know it's got negative connotations as it should but in this case it was a tactical decision

by

uh paul to try to quash an upheaval that was going to prevent the spreading of the gospel to jewish believers but more importantly the gentile believers as well and so timothy really was like he was the perfect guy to use in this world he he knew he had the great um he had the jewish background the religious background he knew all about the rituals he spoke uh aramaic most likely he could he knew how the synagogue work he knew all the intricacies

of uh jewish culture

additionally he also had um

he all he also had great connections when it came to the greeks because of his father it has been suggested that timothy's father was a man of some influence in lystra um you know maybe a traitor or something like that but that you know timothy was was in a great position because he could keep kind of both feet in both different worlds the greek world

and the jewish world okay now

in acts 15 in verse 36 again we're not going to read everything i'm going to give you the gist of it and i think we know this story in acts 15 paul and barnabas who were so close and who had done so much for the spreading of the gospel and paul's first missionary journey they're going to split they're going to have this in this really big uh argument over who to take you know paul um

barnabas verse 37 wanted to take mark and paul said no no he's not committed to it you know he left us which was true

and so they had this big fight and paul is going to go go with several ways barnabas is going to go his way several ways and paul is going to end up going with silas

and barnabas is going to go with mock now why do i mention this well this is the beginning of the second ministry of paul he's going on a ministry but he's not going with bonhams he's going with silas and so it's almost as if you know a position

had opened up with paul

and barnabas splitting up right now paul who's paul gonna lean on now certainly silas was a brother that he was with but paul i think was looking for a brother that had good leadership qualities understood the world that he was living in could talk to people both in the jewish world and in the greek world as well and so even though the paul and bona the split was it's really you know a sad situation you know they did it does seem that later on they did kind of you know um

you know men fences uh because paul does speak uh highly of mark later on but anyways it's almost like a door was open for timothy to kind of walk in into this small group of brethren or he's going to join this small group of brethren in this relationship between paul and timothy almost like a father and son and paul's going to use those words um in speaking to him um and so paul is going to meet him on his second missionary journey and let's because he's going to well let's go on in this next slide okay so so paul's second missionary journey um you can see up there in asia minor in galatia

um

well let's see right here timothy joins paul and silas right here so they're going to leave from caesarea go all the way over here they were at antioch hey how's everything going they're checking on the euclesia there they go to tarsus right with what paul was from derby we know that there was a an athleisure set up there we know that there was one at lister as well and this is where timothy and paul are going to meet you know really like for the first time most likely um and um you know the he's paul is going to have great words to say about him so let's take a look at what luke tells us in acts the 16th chapter

um

then came he to derby into lystra and behold a certain disciple okay so we're told that already he's a disciple uh so paul's first preaching

in his first ministry has already borne fruit we have timothy embracing the gospel message of hope through christ he is a disciple okay he's not just a jew he is a disciple of christ now um so a certain disciple was there named timothy the son of a certain woman which was a jewish and believed okay so the mom now uh eunice is also a christian she has now taken on the saving name of christ as well through baptism um but his father was a greek which was well reported of by the brethren that were at lister and iconium him would paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the jews which were in those quarters for they knew all that his father was a greek um

so again that kind of goes back he gives an explanation as to why

he consented to timothy being being circumcised it was because of really the pushback

uh by the jews you know having this you know they look they looked at uncircumcised timothy yeah a disciple of christ but you know he was a great he was uncircumcised he wasn't a jew and so paul was still actively trying to convert

his jewish brethren and so this would be a stumbling block for them you know they're still they're still holding on to the law which i completely empathize with right you know imagine someone comes along and says uh yeah guys all that gospel of christ yeah you don't have to follow any of it anymore be like what are you crazy and that's really what the jews would do we're doing as well it's like listen we've been given the oracles of god here uh you know god gave them to moses we're holding on to them just as we have uh been told to do so anyways interesting dynamic that is going on here with paul and with um with timothy okay and we can see that paul is already kind of bearing fruit from his first preaching effort in asia minor one last thing with this map

we can see how further advanced paul is going to go to the west all right he's kind of slowly inching his way to get to italy right first the first he was just kind of hanging out in lister and derby and iconium that area now he's moving west he moves to uh asia minor but it's interesting that the spirit right the holy spirit forbade paul from preaching in asia so he bypasses asia and goes up to macedonia philippi thessalonika these areas berea they're going to receive the word um and through this whole thing he's facing

a major pushback from members of the jewish community because remember paul is starting to preach the gospel in the synagogues and he's getting major pushback from the jewish community as he preaches uh christianity here and then this is kind of the last the third missionary journey right this is when um you know we'll get into some of these things too what do we got for time okay all right all right all right uh before we go on questions comments from me

i just uh put in a shout out for timothy in that decision as well

sit in that what in that decision so yeah it's a big decision for paul i'm sure it was a big decision for timothy as well yeah thank you jim you're absolutely right you know because he he kind of left everything there and went um

went and traveled with paul over you know all over the greek world at that time he gave up i'm sure you know most likely a life of some some luxury anyway so yeah good point

all right anything else any other questions comments i would say he also agreed to be circumcised when really he didn't have to be it was as a consent for other people not for the gospel itself absolutely jim yeah and it's you know he consented even though you know he was a grown man and there was really no reason for it but he put he put the gospel the spreading of the gospel before his own you know health and safety yeah

yeah so yeah good point thank you jim

okay if there's no other comments let's uh we'll move on here

okay so uh as we've mentioned um

paul and silas are gonna start this second second missionary journey you know they have some really incredible um incredible adventures right uh they're going to be in jail there's going to be an earthquake he's going to go to all kinds of different cities but timothy is going to be with um with them during this there's going to be a handful of brethren brothers and sisters that if you kind of look through

uh the the letters of paul there's gonna be a handful of brothers uh that and sisters by the way because if you look at i think romans 16 there's a uh there's about 30 plus people

that paul is going to mention to give giving them thanks for helping helping him spread the gospel and helping him to you know to fortify him during his travels um so it wasn't just paul there was a lot of people both named and unnamed that helped spread the gospel message um and so timothy was part of this as brother jim pointed out you know he made that determination to leave everything and to follow after paul you know a lot like um

you know the disciples they left everything as well and followed after christ when they were called um and so there's you know we have a calling as well

and you know we have to examine our own selves you know where where are we in relationship to that calling

are we leaving everything in this world now for christ or are we distracted by it i'm distracted by it i think we all are to a certain level i can't i'm distracted by a lot of stuff that goes on but anyways that's that's a topic for another time um

paul had an incredible close relationship with timothy one of father and son and so i think this is uh let's let's take a look at philippians philippians is a good um

good chapter here

a good letter to kind of uh delve into how paul looked at timothy so philippians 2 verse 19 um

verse 19 but i trust in the lord jesus to send timothy shortly unto you that i also may be of good comfort when i know your state

for i have no man

like-minded who will naturally care for your state

for all seek their own

not the things which are of jesus christ but ye know the proof of him that as a father with the son

he hath served me served with me in the gospel uh yeah great words

those i think everybody would be happy to have those words said about him but uh father and son right i don't have anybody like timothy he's like he became really paul's right-hand man in fact he helped paul uh write several several of his letters he was a scribe for paul as he wrote several of his different letters to the different ecclesias now um

i wondered about this you know uh you know that paul and timothy you know did they collaborate or what does collaborate even mean in the in the part in in kind of the overall picture of inspiration you know you have timothy who has the holy spirit scribing yeah paul who has the holy spirit speaking

um

and they you know they've got they've got these wonderful uh epistles um that they're both working on you know uh you know maybe you know paul says something and then tim timothy writes it down and goes ah do you mean you know do you want to say that maybe say it this way i don't know what the collaboration was i just find it fascinating that you know think about the closeness of that relationship um so all right so paul in his own words what does he say well we already know uh we know what he said about timothy in the philippians does he say some other things well yes he does let's take a look at first corinthians 4. so first corinthians 4 verse 17 for this cause

have i sent unto you timothy who is my beloved son

and faithful in the lord who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in christ as i teach everywhere in every every epilegia so um great words right he's a beloved son and he's faithful in the lord this is what paul's saying about timothy you know timothy was a great brother and then lastly in philemon

see if i can find this quick

let's see right before he bros boom

all right um

so philemon that doesn't make any sense at all 2 22. i think it's verse 22. lehman

maybe

uh

i think i meant to say philippians which we already read so uh if somebody figures out what i was trying to uh to get at let me know anyways let's move on um in hebrews the 13th chapter

um in verse 23 it says this

um verse 22 i i beseech you brother and suffer the word of excitation for i have written a letter unto you in few words know ye that our brother timothy is set at liberty with whom if he comes shortly i will see you so it seems from this from this recording here in hebrews that the writer of the hebrews is telling us that timothy for whatever reason had been imprisoned most likely for preaching the gospel he was out now but if you notice in these in corinthians and in philippians

um it tells us that

paul would routinely send timothy to these different ecclesias

you know with letters uh with instructions he trusted timothy that much and he obviously as we've said saw that timothy had some you know great leadership ability and so he sends them he he sends timothy to these different ecclesiastes to find out what's going on fix any problems that that type of thing so right hand man you know he's the fixer go in there timothy i've been hearing i don't know what's going on in ephesus uh what what's happening at the current in the corinthian collegiate whoo if i got a story for you um and so we'll get into this a little bit more but you know this was a tough job he was a young guy he's going into these different uh you know th these athleisures that are just made up now you know he has no idea who he's dealing with his internal pressures his external pressures but yet he's traveling all over the greek greek world at this time to spread the gospel to support the gospel to make sure that these these barely born ecclesias will survive and grow into something that can glorify god um hey rich yes jim i think i think what you meant earlier was um first thessalonians 2 verse 22 yeah you're probably right did you have it handy you want to read it yeah sure it's actually 3 verse 2 but there's 20 verses in chapter two so it adds up to two verses listen it was a total mess up he said wherefore when we could no longer forebear we thought it good to be left at athens alone and sent to motheus our brother and minister of god and fellow laborer in the gospel of christ to establish you and to comfort you with concerning your faith so we also send them to the thessalonians as well yes awesome that's great that yeah that's what i was looking for thank you jim um so he you know paul's sending them to the to the uh clear up in thessalonia as well these were not easy journeys brothers and sisters this wasn't you know hopping into your car and driving a few miles and checking in on you know meridian or you know checking checking in on worcester it's you know you're going hundreds and hundreds of miles either by ship or by land and it's dangerous it's not easy but you can see the determination of uh of timothy and so um if we look if we go to second timothy right um

this speaks again to paul and timothy's relationship it was one of closeness it was one of love and paul is generally concerned about timothy and how he's going to do when once paul's gone and so in um in second timothy

you know we know these words in um

let's see

yeah he has in um in

in second timothy he is going to say to to uh to um timothy verse 13 hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in christ jesus um so he's talking about holding on to the things that paul had given to um

to timothy and to the other brethren i'm gonna be gone you need to hold on to these things this it's your um

it's your responsibility verse 8 be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of uh of our lord nor of me his prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of god

and so these are very powerful words

and he's telling timothy to hold on to the faith hold on to this wonderful gospel message of hope that had that christ has given me and i'm giving to you into the world and it's very similar brothers and sisters to what joshua uh was told by moses if we go to um deuteronomy the 31st chapter

i found this pretty interesting

you know he's given he's giving words of advice to timothy and moses is going to do the same thing to joshua kind of passing the baton of leadership

from from one generation to the other right so in verse 31 uh chapter sorry chapter 31 in verse seven and we're not going to read the whole thing but this first verse here verse 7 and moses called unto joshua and said unto him in the sight of all israel

be strong and of a good courage for thou must go with this people unto the land which the lord has sworn unto their fathers to give it them and thou shalt cause them to inherit it in the lord he it is that doeth doth go before thee he will be with ye he will not feel thee nor forsake me fear not neither be dismayed and so here's moses kind of passing on encouragement

uh to joshua just like paul in his letters in the first letter and in the second letter he's passing on encouragement he's trying to give give timothy a little bit of his own strength

passing this on uh to the next generation

um

emily what's your what reference

what what reference are you referring to em

okay got it got it all right very good okay any other questions or comments before we go on

he wants to know what jim suggested was the correct verse instead of philemon oh it was uh was it second thessalonians or first thessalonians jimbo

it's uh first second thessalonians uh three verse two three verse two yeah there's 20 in verse chapter two so if you add two that becomes thessalonians 2 verse 22. yeah don't try to figure out my mind

moving on

um backspace

no all right uh so the letters to timothy these two letters to timothy along with titus the letter to titus are called pastoral letters they're encouragement letters they're letters of advice there's letters of of strength and commitment that paul is giving to timothy and to titus we're obviously just looking at timothy but

you know the things in titus um

a lot of things in timothy are covered in uh the letters to titus as well so anyways all right uh let's take a look at ephesus now why is ephesus going to be uh you know a major deal uh in the life of timothy well as we're going to find out paul is going to put him in charge

of uh the athleisure at ephesus and so

you know he's already been he you know he's kind of you know taking letters to different places checking in on these different athleisures and now he's going to have his own athleisure that he's going to be uh the bishop over right he's going to be the overseer

of this uh of this new collegiate and so what was the environment that timothy is going to be put into in ephesus well ephesus as we know from the acts had a massive temple to diana as uh i think acts 16 tells us um the greeks called diana artemis but this temple at ephesus which no longer exists was one of the seven wonders of the world and we know from the acts as well that there was a massive economy associated with the worship of diana at this temple

people would come all over the world to uh to go and worship here and people were making

tons and tons of money off of these trinkets right these you know the silver the silversmiths and so on and so you can imagine a whole city being dedicated their economy being dedicated to the worship of this god

of this goddess and all of a sudden you got these christians showing up and saying you know all this is all nonsense they're talking about jesus and you can understand why there is going to be this confrontation that's going to happen some of the worst confrontations that paul is going to deal with outside of being stoned are going to happen in ephesus it was a city that was hostile to christianity

the jews that were living there and also the gentiles as well and we'll look at that in a little bit but very quickly let's see all right i gotta move um it was a major trading city in asia minor there was a major library there where 12 000 scrolls were housed there were two agoras okay on marketplaces one for trade and the other for state business um it was it had one of the most advanced aqua decks in the ancient world had hundreds and hundreds of baths it had the largest largest theater in the world that could house 25 000 people and most likely had a population over a hundred thousand so that was a good size city was a major city in asia minor and this is where timothy is going to be put right he had a lot in his plate you know he needed faith he needed prayer he needed the encouragement of paul and paul's not going to put him into this situation if he doesn't think he can handle it and he knew timothy could handle it he already had a track record of service in the gospel right

okay just again some rumors of ephesus you can see the uh the massive theater that's there it's interesting that at one time uh ephesus was on the sea

but because the river silted up so much that it really created land and now ephesus is not near the sea it was destroyed by the goss and then rebuilt and um but you can go and see the the um

the ruins today it's one of i think it's on the world uh world

heritage site list or something like that so uh pretty interesting uh ruins

okay uh so timothy is gonna be made bishop of the uh ephesus ecclesia ephesus church you can see a picture right here of uh diana of ephesus

uh she was a fertility god and uh you can understand that from her uh from her idol there um so he is timothy is given a major responsibility to build up this ecclesia um so and he and he had a lot of responsibility in this regard he had to fight against outside pressures you know just think about all those outside pressures you know jews they're antagonistic towards the christians the greeks are antagonistic toward the sorts of christians as well and we're not going to look at it in detail but at your leisure take a look at acts 19 and 20. it lists all of the different things that paul and timothy had to deal with while while they were there um well let's just look at it real quick i just want to give you a flavor of the situation that um that timothy is going to be put in as as it relates to trying to build an athleisure in this situation it was really tough um so in verse 19 they're in ephesus um verse eight he went into the synagogue paul did um you know for three months they wanted nothing to do with it and so he separated themselves and he and he's going to preach preach now the um the gospel to the uh to the greeks and a lot of miracles gonna happen the seven sons of skiva are there uh demetrius the silversmith is there uh they're gonna be punched and kicked you know all this kind of stuff is going to happen um right here in ephesus not a great place not a welcoming place for christianity um but you know here you go this is this is the environment that timothy that young timothy has put into how is he going to do it it's a difficult situation and so with this in mind first and second timothy are written by paul to give encouragement to timothy you can do this you know believe in christ believe in yourself um remain faithful to the gospel remember remember uh the gospel messages found in the old testament that you learned as a child these are the things that paul is uh you know encouraging timothy on this was this was not a walk in the pocket this was very difficult you know there was a real chance that this athleisure would not survive because of the pressure and i think that's one of the reasons why uh timothy was sent to ephesus because paul

uh knew that it was a special city you know where ephesus was located

you could really get to a lot of other cities very easily within asia minor so it was really like having a foothold

in asia minor to begin to kind of spread the gospel

ephesus is also mentioned in revelations right as one of the ecclesiastic that are mentioned there um

so

all right so we come to our last uh uh our last thing you know what are the lessons for us that we can learn well let's let's look at encouragement first you know encouragement is one of these things that we should be doing

uh on a daily basis in our kind of circle of of relationships right in our families of course with our brothers and sisters with with people at work you know being being known as somebody that gives you an encouraging word

and so this is what paul's gonna do so let's take a look at first timothy right in the first chapter we already read one aspect of this um as far as timothy's background is concerned verse 2 of the first uh chapter of first timothy unto timothy paul writes my own son in the faith

grace mercy and peace from god our father in jesus christ our lord as i besought thee to abide still at ephesus when i went into macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine well what do we have here brothers and sisters well we've got a major issue there was a false doctrine being being taught at ephesus and paul's going to get into it we won't get into it but you know paul's going to get into some of these things that are uh being taught already at ephesus immediately right

um

first uh chapter six we won't look at but let's look at the first chapter of uh ii timothy right how does how does paul address timothy here well these are this is this is great right

paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god according to the promise of life which is in christ jesus to timothy my dearly beloved son grace mercy and peace from god the father in christ jesus our lord

i thank god whom i serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing

i have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day greatly desiring deceiving being mindful of thy tears

that i may be filled with joy oh man that's an introduction right that is a great introduction um

the uh my daily beloved son is those words again right i remember thee in my prayers night and day

you know i think paul understood the situation that timothy was in and he was praying fervently

that timothy would be successful as bishop as overseer of this ecclesia he understood the difficulty that he was in and so he's praying night and day um being mindful of the ideas you wonder why was timothy upset well probably because paul uh you know paul was leading uh to his death he you know this this was the last letter that paul is going to write to anybody he's going to die and they wanted to see each other one more time um he obviously saw leadership characteristics right leadership characteristics in timothy but if we look at second timothy the third chapter um

actually uh that's first timothy three sorry

it talks about um

this is a true saying you know what what are bishops to be like

well they were to be of good behavior given to hospitality

apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy or filthy looker but patient not a brawler not covetous so these are the things that um you know paul was looking for that god actually was looking for what are the characteristics of a leader in a clear

well

he lays him out pretty clearly here he also lays them out in uh in titus as well

you know chapter five is interesting um

because it talks there's a lot of different things in here he talks about uh you know

elderly women widows younger men he talks about fathers he talks about how you know how are we to interact as brothers of christ

how are we supposed to take care of the vulnerable members of our of our ecclesia what do you know if a widow had nothing

how was you know what types of widows were to be taken care of by the church or what type of widows you know families should be taken care of but he has some powerful words about this paul does anyways in verse 8. he's talking about widows now um but

you know just in general right it's a general teaching but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house

he have denied the faith

and is worse than an infidel you know those are some pretty powerful words and what paul is saying here if there is a family a brother and sister uh who have the ability to take care of somebody a widow that's in their own family and doesn't do it you're worse than an unbeliever you're worse than an infidel paul says you're denying the faith the very essence of the faith which is to help the poor the afflicted the widow the fatherless the orphan right that's a tenant in the old testament it's a tenant in the new testament as well so we're not going to get into every every little detail here but there were a lot of things that you know timothy had to had to deal with particularly at ephesus and then

um we'll we'll end here with timothy in second timothy the fourth chapter

um

you know some some words are some really words of advice right verse 1 i charge thee therefore before god in the lord jesus christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom what should you do

timothy paul says preach the word be instant in season out of season repu reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering

in doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lush shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears

and so then paul says this in verse six for i am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand i have fought a good fight i have finished my course i have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness when the lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not only to me

but unto all them also that love

is appearing and so those were the words those were the words that were um that paul paul gave to timothy right before he died he was killed uh most likely by nero in in rome um

so yeah in you know verse 22 of the the second chapter of second timothy two you know flee also youthful lusts and follow righteousness faith charity peace and them that call on the lord out of a pure heart verse 24 and the servant of the lord must not always strive or fight

but be gentle

until all men

have to teach

patient

in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves

if god per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth so um

you know these are these are powerful words that were written almost 2 000 years ago

and and they applied to timothy timothy had a great work in front of them he had a great responsibility but these are words that are written to us they're written for our learning

and so how are we applying these things

you know what's our faith level where are we as far as our relationship with our brothers and sisters are we encouraging each other in the faith

are we supporting each other are we raising up the hands

that hang down

um you know what's what's a culture of our occlusions like all of these things were things that timothy was worried about that paul was worried about and we should be concerned about it as well the well-being of our brothers and sisters the well-being uh you know of our children as well just like paul was praying night and day for people that he loved particularly uh timothy we need to do the same we need to pray without ceasing for our loved ones but paul doesn't stop there brothers and sisters and we shouldn't either because he says in first timothy that to pray for for all men particularly those in um in authority um

yeah where is it yeah in verse verse one of the second chapter of first timothy i exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks may be made for all men for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet

and peaceable life

in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of god our savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth

and so those are the types of people we should be brothers and sisters we should be praying always

uh you know for the people in authority to make the right decisions it's not a lot of that going on these days uh it's a chaotic world that we live in it was a chaotic world

that timothy lived in as well and paul's words to timothy are the same are the words that he's saying to us as well be strong in the faith look for that prize that christ is bringing at judgment fight the good fight of faith