Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When Your Faith Feels Stagnant | New Testament | 1 Timothy 4

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

When you first became a Christian, you were excited, eager to learn, and always growing. Has that changed the longer you've been a Christian? Does your faith feel stale? In today's episode, Jensen looks to 1 Timothy 4 for encouragement and what to do when your faith feels flat. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Timothy 4

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I'm a member of the 90% finished club, which is just a nice way for me to say that I tend to give up on things when I get bored of them. When I take on projects, I work hard and fast, but towards the end, I get tired of what I'm doing, and I get sloppy, and I end up leaving the last couple of tasks undone. My kitchen trim around my cabinets is just leaning against the. the wall waiting to be nailed in. There's one small wall in my house that still has the paint color of the previous owner. If you look closely, you'll find many, many holes in my house that have been spackled, but not sanded or painted. And I have a blanket that I have been knitting for around

nine years now, and it may be time to admit that I will probably never finish it. You see, I get excited about projects and ideas and I dive headfirst into them. But slowly, along the way, I lose interest and I decide it's good enough as is. I lack the desire or the dedication to follow through on that last 10%. It's not a particularly appealing trait of mine, and I'm afraid that sometimes it translates into the deeper parts of my life as well. I was talking with a friend a while back about how I feel like as I've been a Christian longer and longer, I've slowly, over time, become apathetic to the gospel. There was a time in my life. life where I was overjoyed, dedicated, working, growing, studying, learning, and over time,

somehow I look back and it looks as though I've lost interest. I've let my faith fade into the background. It's become stagnant in my life. Now, I don't want that to be true, and I don't want to be okay with that fact, but if I'm honest with myself, I had seen that my faith had fallen prey to my 90% tendencies, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to fix it. And so as I read 1st Timothy 4, I couldn't help but think about this realization. You see, Paul uses chapter 4 to compare and contrast the false teachers with the life of Timothy. In the first five verses, he tells Timothy that there are those who will depart from the faith, devoting themselves to deceitful spirits living and believing and teaching things that are contrary to the gospel. They may say they believe,

but they do not speak truth and therefore have departed from the faith. But in verse six, Paul switches to address Timothy and he begins to encourage him in what it looks like to be a good servant of Jesus Christ. Let's read that now. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths, rather trained. yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we toil and strive because we have our hope

set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth. But set up to you. the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Emmerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. And as I read these verses, I can't help but

notice certain action phrases throughout. As Paul explains what it looks like to be a faithful servant, he encouraged Timothy to be trained, to toil and strive, to command and teach, to set an example, to devote himself, to practice, to immerse himself, to progress, and to persist. And the thing that all of these phrases have in common is that they require time, commitment, dedication, training, and growth both require practice and time. To command others and to teach others requires that you yourself already know what you're teaching well enough to teach it thoughtfully and clearly. When you give your devotion to something, you invest your time, your interests. You give your all to that thing. Paul calls Timothy to immerse himself, which evokes imagery of being

entirely devoted, going all in, completely covering yourself in the truth. He calls Timothy to persist, to not give up, to toil, and strive. You see, the language that Paul gives here tells Timothy that to faithfully follow Jesus as a good servant will not be easy. It will require time. It will require dedication. It will require all of his life. And in verse 10, Paul tells Timothy, that he is to do these things because his hope is set on a living God, his Savior. In verse 16, Timothy is told to persist because in persisting, he will save both himself and those who hear his words. You see, the truth of the gospel, the truth that God became man, walked this earth, lived a sinless life, died for wretched sinners like you and me,

and rose from the dead so that we could put our hope in him, so that we could know that one day we would conquer death just like he did through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us. That truth, that gospel truth, is what must compel Timothy to persist, to devote himself, to grow, to practice, to toil and strive, to be an example, to live a life that is immersed 100% in the goodness of God. You see, the men who fell away, the men who did not hold fast to the faith, they didn't have that truth. They did not hold that. fast to the gospel. Instead, they believed myths. They invented laws. They strayed from sound doctrine. And they were unable to remain faithful servants to Jesus because of it. Knowing my tendency to fall

short, to give in, to not finish the task, it makes me pause at this passage. See, I don't want my faith to be something I let sit untouched in my life. Always there, but never something I'm willing to give my time or effort or devotion to. Because you see, when I fall into that pattern, I expose what my heart is really believing. You see, when we hold fast truth, when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, when our hope is in Christ alone in our future resurrection, we can do nothing but persist. On my own, I know I will do this imperfectly. There will be days where I fail, where I grow weary, but on those days I want to let Paul's words to Timothy encourage me. I want the truth of my hope, that truth of Jesus's sacrifice,

to remind me of what deserves my devotion. I don't want my faith to fall by the wayside because I failed to recognize the truth. Maybe you're like me, and sometimes you struggle to allow the truth of the gospel to penetrate your heart and change your life. Maybe the busyness of life has pushed the gospel from the forefront of your vision. Maybe apathy has taken over and your desire to pursue the life of a faithful servant of Jesus is waning. If that's you today, as I read the words of Paul one more time, it's my prayer that you would be encouraged by them, that the truth of what Paul is saying would sink into your heart and that you would be ignited in your faith to live a life that is immersed in the truth of the gospel and persistent in your pursuit of the goodness of God.

1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6 if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourselves for godliness for while bodily training is of some value godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct,

in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come devote yourself to the public, reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. Lord Jesus, may it be so in me and my life and in every one. one of us. Amen.