Our text this morning will be in 1 Timothy chapter 1, again just starting into a series which we've called House Rules, in which we are considering God's standards for his family, for his people. 1 Timothy 1. Now, I like to work off of lists. I love to cross things off lists. I've been known to add something onto my list even after it's already done, just so I can cross it off. Of course, one of the downsides of that is that I often will focus on things that I can easily and quickly accomplish and quickly cross off my list. Sometimes there's bigger things on my list that I'm not sure how to tackle and they're kind of long range things and they're not easy to cross off my list. And those things tend to slip down my list. And I can focus on crossing off five relatively insignificant things and avoid the one big thing. So one of my challenges having to learn to prioritize my lists. Not enough to just cross things off, but I need to make sure I'm crossing the right things off, right? So, that's my challenge, my confession this morning. I need to prioritize things to stay on task. I don't know if you know of anyone in your circle that has trouble staying on task. It might be one of your children. It might be one of your coworkers. It might be you. Getting distracted is not simply a problem for those with ADD. We all have a way of getting sidetracked. And this was really Paul's concern for the church in Ephesus. He was concerned that they would perhaps do many things, perhaps many good things, but miss the main thing, miss the thing that they were really supposed to be doing. And so Paul took measures here in his letter to help encourage and urge the church on towards accomplishing what God had for them. How Paul was very interested in the church in Ephesus. Ephesus was a capital city of Asia Minor. Paul's first missionary journey, he spent most of his time there in that particular region. And when he went back on his second missionary journey, he kind of revisited those churches that had been established, and then he determined, or he desired, to go down into Asia again, presumably to Ephesus, to this capital city, and invest more of his time. And of course, God prevented that. The Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going there, instead directing him into Europe, ultimately to Rome. God had other plans, but Paul had a heart for this city. Another occasion, Paul was traveling. He knew he couldn't spare a lot of time, but he made arrangements, sent someone ahead to call for the elders of the church in Ephesus to come and meet him at another location. Because he had concerns, he was passionate about this particular church. And certainly we see that coming through here in his letter to Timothy. What I want us to focus on here is the word stewardship. It's translated a little bit differently in some of the different translations. The NIV says God's work. The ESV says stewardship, and I want to suggest to you it's kind of the hinge point in the few verses we're going to look at today. Paul wants to talk to them or talk to Timothy about what the church should be doing and what that looks like, but he's also going to talk to them about the distractions, the things that are going to keep them from focusing on that main task, on that stewardship, on that that management responsibility that they have been given. So he's going to unpack what that is, but he's also going to help them identify some of the things that are going to trip them up, some of the obstacles, some of the distractions that they're going to face. So stewardship, key word here in this text. Let's look, 1 Timothy 1, verse 3. Hear the word of the Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations, rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love. that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His word. Again, Paul puts forth a certain amount of seriousness. The text just sort of exudes something very important. Paul front-end loads this topic. He puts it at the very outset of his letter. He uses words like urge. I plead with you, Timothy, to help the church fulfill their calling to do what they're supposed to do. He uses language of command. He says there that he wants Timothy to remain in Ephesus so that he may charge certain persons. Some texts say instruct, but it's language of command. It is authoritative instruction. So Paul really thinks this is very, very important. He is concerned that the church in Ephesus could lose their way could become distracted by lesser things. Well what are some of the things that maybe Paul was concerned about? What were some of the things that might have distracted this church? I'll tell you at the outset that this probably is not the same list of things that might distract us. It might be But I think there's some unique things going on there. We have our own set of things as a church, as believers in our culture, in our time, that could easily distract us from the stewardship, the charge that we have been given. But let's think about it in the context of Paul and Timothy and the church in Ephesus. The first thing that is mentioned here is what might be called different doctrine. some level of false teaching. Presumably there were some influential persons in the church, probably some elders, some of the spiritual leaders that were to some degree leading the church astray in their teaching. So it was influential people that were teaching these different doctrines. We know that apostolic teaching was the standard. As a matter of fact, the early church, even as they discerned what was actually God's word, what was scripture, they were looking for apostolic connection. The apostles were the ones who had been eyewitnesses to the resurrection. They had been ones who had received their teaching directly from Jesus, not third-hand. Some passed along Translation, they had received the teaching directly from Christ, and so they wrote, as apostles, firsthand account and testimony, and that's what we have in the scriptures, in the New Testament scriptures, is the witness of the apostles. That is the standard, okay? So the goal, when we talk about theology and our beliefs, is not creativity. The goal is to believe what the church has always believed, to stay right on course, And so Paul's talking in this type of language that there were some things that were being taught that didn't fit in the box, that weren't part of the doctrine they had been given. And think about the challenge here for Timothy, a young man, Not a lot of ministry experience. We find in Paul's letter that Timothy seems to be a little more timid in terms of temperament, personality, and he's stepping into a situation in Ephesus, having to address and confront some of the main leaders in the church. So I think this is partly why Paul stresses his apostolic authority. He's writing to Timothy, he's charging Timothy, he's giving Timothy his authority to act on his behalf in undertaking this very significant task. So different doctrine, that was at least one of the things that was being addressed here. You know what blood moons are? There's a lot being written about blood moons in certain circles. Blood moon is a total lunar eclipse. And just in case you're wondering, I'm sure you're really wondering about this, there have been four of them very tightly clustered together in the last two years. The first being in April of last year. And the last one, the last of the four is coming at the end of September this year, September 28th. And this doesn't happen very often when you have these total lunar eclipses clustered together like this. And so there are some that are teaching that this is of great prophetic significance. That every time this has happened in the past Something significant has happened and so they are predicting you know World War three and a rise in earthquakes and the return of Christ and and I was at a funeral no kidding a funeral not too long ago a couple months ago And this individual knows that I'm a pastor that I am interested in the scriptures And so he says he's a casual acquaintance, but he says to me, so what do you I've been reading a lot about the blood moons What do you what are you thinking about the blood moons and I? The blood moons? Are you serious? Are we really talking about the blood moons? I think Paul would have blown his top, right? This is divergent stuff. He goes into then and talks about myths and endless genealogies. These were the other distractions. And I don't think Paul's introducing separate categories. I think he's talking about this divergent doctrine, and then he's going on to sort of explain this teaching that's made up of myths and endless genealogies and just kind of out there type of stuff. Myths are things that we know to be not true believe are likely not true. Paul uses the terminology later in his letter to talk about old wives' tales. Same language, same root words there. The idea almost of a person who's maybe a little bit senile. My Aunt Theda, you know, we'd go over to visitors. She's in her mid-90s. Her mind was not working right, and she was concerned about her rabbit, her stuffed rabbit, who was sick, was not eating well. You know? I mean, her mind just was not working right. And Paul almost uses this kind of terminology to describe, let's not get into this weird stuff, okay, blood moons or whatever it might happen to be. Let's focus on clear truth. Endless genealogies. The use of this language is often used to refer to ethnic origin. And as we read the letter, it's clear that some of the things that were going on, some of these false teachers, there were some ethnic dynamics, probably some Jewish influence. He talks about their use of the law, the law of Moses, and using that in inappropriate ways. And so perhaps some of these Jewish persons were sort of putting forward their own superiority as ethnically Jewish, calling others to become ethnically Jewish or to subscribe to the Jewish law. We don't know all the different things, but this was the focus of some of the teaching that was of concern to Paul. And Paul was concerned that it was distracting them, it was getting them off track from gospel ministry, from reaching people for Christ. And so we might be into a lot of different things, whether it's fantasy football, or restoring old cars, or health remedies, or free range chicken eggs, or whatever it might be, okay? And they might not be bad things, but we shouldn't be devoted to them. That's the word Paul uses here. People, they were devoted to these myths and endless genealogies. They were caught up in this stuff. And it threatened to derail them from gospel ministry in the local church. Notice the language here that Paul uses. Verse 3, I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. which promotes speculations rather than the stewardship from God. That was the problem, was that these things were not necessarily totally evil, but they were replacing and distracting them from God's stewardship, the management responsibilities that he had given to his family, to his church. And this was what really made them dangerous. One commentator says, Paul feared that the Ephesians might spend so much time in fruitless discussion of novel doctrines that they would not carry out God's plan of bringing people to a place of obedience and faith before Jesus. No petty project or cause should usurp the place of promoting the gospel as part of God's plan. And again, these things might seem rather weird to you, you know, these ethnic genealogy issues and myths and legends and things. You know, we're not superstitious. We're kind of in the modern age. Well, I'm just saying we have got our own whole list of things that could easily distract us from doing what God has called us to do. Okay, you'd be able to come up with your own list more effectively than I would. But our culture certainly creates certain blind spots for us, just as first century culture created blind spots for these believers. And we need to be thinking about, thinking very carefully about whether we are fully doing what God has called us to do or if we've settled for lesser things. Paul does get into what the main thing is. He unpacks what this stewardship is, what God's house rules are. And we see this coming through here in verse five. The aim of our charge is love. The aim of our charge is love. God's house rules call us to love. This is the mark of the genuine follower of Christ. It's the first rule, right? The first command that Christ gave to his disciples in the upper room as he was preparing to leave them. And he said, a new command I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. As I've washed your feet, so you are to wash one another's feet. And by your love, all men will know that you are my disciples. So this becomes the distinctive calling card. And it's interesting to trace the development of the church in Ephesus. When Paul first writes to this church, Ephesians 1 verse 15, he thanks God because he had heard time and time and time again that this church had great love for one another. They had gained a reputation for it. So much so that Paul had heard about it in his travels. And he was so thankful to God for what was happening there. And then we fast forward ahead and we see Jesus addressing the church in Ephesus there in Revelation chapter 2. And we're told that they left the love that they had at first. He lists all sorts of good things. They were sound on doctrine. They had identified they didn't tolerate false teachers. They had endured some measure of persecution for their faith. I mean, they were sound and committed, and they were serious about their faith, but they had missed the main thing. They lost sight of the love that they had at first that had so characterized their fellowship in the early days. So Paul identifies this main house rule of love. Now it's interesting the way that Paul brings this together here at the close of verse 5. He helps us to understand a little bit of the nature of love. What kind of love are we talking about? Of course, love has a lot of different meanings in our culture, doesn't it? It tends to refer to an emotion. It tends to refer to something that really makes me feel good, something that kind of comes naturally. I'm just moved to love. Whereas scripture often talks about love as a willful decision, a choice. It talks about what we might characterize as tough love, right? Loving in the midst of, of controversy, loving a person who we really don't like very much, a willful sort of love. And certainly Paul kind of qualifies love here in a very unique way. He says that love is not, doesn't just sort of spring forward naturally, but love is a byproduct Love is like a stream that flows out of a spring. Love is a house that is built upon a foundation. Love is a Wi-Fi signal. I'm not sure Paul would have said it quite this way, but love is a Wi-Fi signal that comes out of a router, right, that's sourced somewhere. And he lists three things that stand behind godly love. The first is a pure heart. The heart is the center of the person. When you peel away all the layers and you get down to what's really going on, that is the heart. And love flows out of a pure heart. Obviously, we could talk about our positional righteousness because of Christ. But I think the text leads us to think about a level of ongoing righteousness. A person who loves is a person who has an awareness of their own sin. I appreciated Phil and Susan's testimony this morning of growing and understanding the depth of their sin. When you and I begin to understand the depth of our sin, when we're given to personal confession, when we're preaching the gospel to ourselves and reminding ourselves of how much we've been forgiven, then we're going to be inclined to love. Do you remember the story that Jesus told of the parable of the account of Simon the Pharisee? And Jesus was there dining, and the woman comes in who has this horrible moral background, and she comes and washes Jesus' feet with her tears. and dries his feet with her hair. And Simon the Pharisee is looking on mortified at this scene, thinking if only Jesus knew who this woman was, right? He wouldn't be letting her get that close to Him. He wouldn't be associating with her. And Jesus gives this profound statement. He who loves little... No, I'm going to say it wrong now. He who's been forgiven little. loves little, and he's been forgiven much, loves much. See, when I come to wrestle with my own sin and my standing before God and how much I've been forgiven, that puts me in a position to have compassion on others. So a pure heart, love flows out of a pure heart, a heart that's serious about sin. A love also flows out of a good conscience. Conscience is the moral compass that God has hardwired into every person. It's an alert system. So it flags me when I do something wrong and it confirms me when I do something right. A good conscience is a conscience that is well-maintained and well-informed. You see, we can override our conscience. We can push it and twist the gears in such a way that it no longer works properly. But a good conscience is a conscience that is sensitized, a conscience that's continued to be informed and receiving the data from the word of God about right and wrong. And a person who has a good conscience understands the responsibilities that they have been given, understands not only that there are sins There are, in other words, sins that I do that are wrong, doing the wrong things, but there are also sins of omission. This whole category of sin that comes about based on what I don't do, things that I should be doing and I don't. And so a good conscience is critical if we are going to live a life of love. We need to be sensitized to God's heart and His commands and His standards. And then finally, a sincere faith. Faith is used in a variety of ways. Sometimes it refers to the content of what we believe, but here it's referring to my trust, my confidence in God. And it's a sincere faith. It's a wholehearted faith. I believe God. And if we don't believe God, then we're gonna have a hard time loving because love is really hard, isn't it? You commit yourself to serving someone, you sacrifice for someone else's good, and oftentimes you maybe get taken advantage of. Maybe that act of service is not appreciated. We look around and we sometimes think, oh, people that are wicked and doing their own thing, they seem to prosper, right? King David struggled with this. Why do the wicked prosper? Just on the surface, it doesn't necessarily appear as if love is the way to go. Jesus' disciples struggled with this one too. They were arguing about who was the greatest. Remember, James and John kind of verbalized it, but they were all thinking it. Which of us can achieve the greatest place of proximity to Jesus and His kingdom? It can be His right-hand man. And Jesus goes on to tell them, this is not how the kingdom works. But he says that the last will be first and the first will be last. Do you believe that? Do we believe that? That in the final analysis, love is the way to achieve victory and reward and blessing and satisfaction. Right now we think I'm just washing these dishes again and no one else is helping. And it seems like I'm getting the short end of the stick. But do you believe what God says, that that's really best and that it will bring about the life of blessing that we all desire? So love is rooted in these things. Love is rooted in these deeper disciplines. There's a substance to love that we are called to as Christ's people, as the children of God. So in conclusion, there are two possible outcomes described in this text. First, he describes the fruitless speculations, right? It starts off with divergent teaching and myths and endless genealogies, and this is really a path to nowhere, right? Endless speculations, confusion. And then the other result, of course, is love. And it's rooted in these commitments of conscience and faith. Of course, if we laid those out as the two choices and said, where do you want to end up? You'd all say, well, I would like to be a person that's characterized by love and grace. I'd like my life to count for something. I'd like my life to be purposeful. And no one says, yeah, I just would like to waste my life. So if love is the destination we want to arrive at, if we want to live as God's children, then we have to ask ourselves, am I on the path that leads there? Am I doing the things, I've adopted the disciplines, am I staying on track, am I working God's plan, am I traveling the right road to bring me to the right destination? And what are the things that are distracting me from doing what God has called me to do, from being what God has called me to be, from observing his house rules? I did some, over the last couple weeks, some tile work in our house, and I learned a lot about this type of work. I learned that you don't just start at one side of the room and sort of work your way across. That would have been the way I would have done it. Fortunately, there's this thing called YouTube, and I could learn how I'm supposed to do it, okay? But it's just too easy to get off track. Okay, just an eighth of an inch, if you kind of repeat that again and again and again, you end up with, you know, the yellow brick road winding through your house. So, what you do is you plot out a center point in the room and you snap a line, a chalk line, all the way across and then you do it the other way and you end up with a crosshairs and you work out from that center point and you work one quadrant at a time and you're always coming back to the chalk line. You're always coming back to the standard and it's always keeping you on track. I won't tell you about my mistakes, we'd be here a long time. But I did learn that it doesn't take much to get you off track. And so I ask you this morning as we think about Paul's concern for Timothy and his concern for the church in Ephesus, I ask you, how are you doing at staying on track? When you actually stop and look at the chalk line, when you look at sort of the immovable standard and pattern and charge that we have been given, how are you doing at staying on track? A lot of things, again, you might be consumed with, might be good things, beneficial things. Or is there some sense in which perhaps some of those things have kept you and maybe are keeping us from the main thing and the thing that God has really called us to? Distractions that were going on in Ephesus are very different than the distractions we face today. We'd have to come up with our own list, but we, like the church in Ephesus, need to keep coming back to the standard. You need to keep coming back to the chalk line.