Grace Community Church Ramona Podcast

When Paul wrote of the "last days", he was referring to the time period between the resurrection of Jesus and his imminent return in glory as King. For Paul and the other Apostles, there was an expectation that Jesus could return at any point, but until he did, the situation in the world, including within the churches, would grow steadily more difficult, oppressive, and godless.

In our study today, Paul gives Timothy instructions so that the leaders in the church will be holy, useful, and ready to serve the Lord.

In our previous study of 2 Timothy 2:1-13, we discovered that the Roman persecution against Christianity created a shortage of trained Bible teachers because of the many who abandoned the Faith. Paul assigned Timothy the task of training up a new cadre of Bible teachers (2 Timothy 2:2). In 2 Timothy 2:14-19 Paul emphasized to Timothy the need to train his students to avoid the practices of false teachers, and to work hard to teach God’s Word correctly.

By the time the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to Timothy in 67 A.D., persecution had broken out against Christians instigated by Nero’s lie that Christians had set fire to the city of Rome. Paul, abandoned and lonely, wrote his beloved partner from a Roman dungeon where he awaited what he assumed would be the trial that would lead to his execution.

Paul was lonely, having been abandoned by many on account of the persecution. Only Dr. Luke and a man named Onesiphorus were with Paul in Rome. Paul recognized death was near. He longed to see Timothy and asked him to come to Rome. In this, his final letter, Paul sought to fortify and inspire Timothy to persevere in faith and service in the midst of persecution.

Paul was encouraging Timothy and reminding him of some of the most important truths for Timothy to make the foundation of his life, both as a man of God, and a shepherd of God’s church. Paul reminds Timothy, and would teach us, that the eternal and rewarding way to live is not up to our imagination and desires, but is instituted and directed by God.

Elder Commissioning of Nick Lowther and Eric Benson The purpose of this commissioning service is to emphasize the spiritual importance of Eldership. Eldership is the sacred privilege and responsibility to lead the church family to love God, to love others and to make disciples of Jesus at home and abroad. By the laying on of hands, the Elders convey upon Eric and Nick the spiritual authority to lead, provide, protect and love the Grace Church family to accomplish its mission.

Youth Sunday / Why Praise God? Sometimes, as Christians we can narrow down the gospel to just one or two things that happen to us the moment we put our faith in Him. Usually, we tell others, "Jesus died on the cross for my sins so I can go to heaven when I die." While that is a part of the gospel, it is only two of the many blessings that God has given us in Christ. Paul, the author of the Ephesians understood that there are so many blessings that we have in Christ and made sure his readers know what those blessings are.

Money. We all have to deal with money. It's a dangerous thing. In our study today we’re going to learn the Christian way to earn money and the Christian way to relate to money.

In chapter five, the Apostle Paul instructs Timothy in three ways love is to be lived out practically in the life of the church starting with Timothy himself.

Easter Sunday 2023 - "Easter, What’s the Big Deal?"

In our study this morning the Apostle Paul acknowledges that some Christians will be deceived and will abandon the faith. His instructions in 1 Timothy 4 teach us how to respond to this problem. The main idea of 1 Timothy 4 is this: Believers are best protected from deception and apostasy when their church leaders stay focused on teaching and modeling the Scriptures.

As we look at our passage today, we will see that Paul directly contrasts the Christian church in Ephesus with the temple of Artemis. He wants his brothers and sisters to know just how important the revealed truths about Jesus are, as well as the important role they play in establishing and sharing that truth with the world. He used the backdrop of the magnificent temple of Artemis as he wrote of the true glory of the family of God and the importance of that family to each other and the world. His main point?

There are only two official positions in the New Testament, the office of elder and the office of deacon. In our last study, we looked at the role of the elder, and in this study, we will see how important the role of the deacon is as they take care of the physical needs of the local church, and how it complements the role of the elders.

As we have seen so far in our study of Paul’s letter to Timothy, there were a number of serious issues in their local churches that needed addressing. There was false teaching, arguments, useless debates, a lack of love for one another, misunderstanding of the gospel,  lack of prayer, men being angry toward one another, and women using the gathering as a chance to show off their attire rather than show their good works, women teaching and exercising authority over the men, and men failing in their God-given leadership role within the church, and maybe worst of all, there were current elders there who were proving to be wolves amidst the flock!

Some people would say I'm about to do something really dumb today in teaching 1 Timothy 2. But here at Grace, we believe every word in the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word for us today. So buckle up and please open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 2 through which  the Holy Spirit teaches us that: In our church family gatherings, we should pray both generally, and then, more specifically for the spread of the Gospel and we should serve according to our God-ordained roles as men and women.

Timothy had a tough assignment charged as he was by the Apostle Paul to stop the false teachers and to restore biblical teaching in the Ephesian church. In our passage this week, Paul encourages Timothy to be grateful he has been appointed to serve and to serve with confidence knowing he’s been equipped to accomplish his ministry.

The Apostle Paul sent Timothy to the Church of Ephesus to stop the false teachers and restore order. In verses 3-4 identifies one of several ways the false teachers were mishandling Scripture. They devoted themselves to “myths and endless genealogies”, in other words, they were allegorizing Scripture. Their allegorizing of Scripture was hurting the church in two ways:  1) it promoted "speculations" which refers to arguments and division, and 2) it was leading them away from focusing on God’s plan for this dispensation which is centered in Jesus the Messiah. Paul charged Timothy to stop these false teachers.

The false teachers were devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies. To put it into contemporary terms, the false teachers were allegorizing the Old Testament Scriptures. What does it mean to allegorize?

The question to ask yourself is this - "Am I rich toward God in what I give financially to the work of His Kingdom?" Only you can answer that question and it's not in comparison to others. You must answer that question in the context of your personal finances. Some of us live close to the bone; our income barely covers our needs. The widow was rich towards God when she gave her two mites. On the other end of the spectrum, some of us have barns that are overflowing. Most of us are in the middle. Regardless, if we are committed to obeying and serving Jesus, we need to take seriously what He teaches here: be rich toward God.